Cross Your Mind , Stiles Stilinski ¹ ✓

[ 42 ] home doesn't have to be a place

Stiles didn't know what to say. He felt for the girl, he really did. Family was one of the thing she valued the most, and hers was turning into one big painful mess.

She sighed again as her tears finally seemed to come to a hault.

She fiddled with one of the rings on her finger out of a nervous habit. It was a plain silver one on her index finger, one her brother bought her for her birthday a few years ago.

"You know how I knew about Erica yesterday?" she asked, finally able to meet his eyes. He nodded silently. "And last night, when I cut my hand with that blade, it healed?"

Stiles nodded again.

"I don't think I'm normal, Stiles." she whispered. "I've been suspecting so for a few days now."

"Asp..." Stiles found himself only being able to say her name in some comforting way. No other words could be formed.

"I have this idea that my parents are hiding something from me." she continued. "It was from the weird vision I had of my brother that night at the school? Telling me not to trust them? So the other night, when my father accused me of keeping secrets, I snapped, telling him that they were the ones keeping the biggest one of all."

Stiles found himself taking her hand again, circling her palms with his thumb.

"Then... I'm not sure why I did this, I wasn't even suspicious of it at the time, but I asked if it was something supernatural, because Ace knew about it."

"Wait, wait...." Stiles finally spoke, trying to comprehend everything she was saying. "Ace knew? How do you know that?"

Aspen sighed.

"Derek told me." she confessed, only making his eyebrows furrow even more. "He knew Ace, apparently they were super close until a girl came between them or something."

"That implies Derek has a caring bone in his body." Stiles couldn't help but joke about the werewolf who only ever wore a frown. "Anyway, carry on..."

"Well long story short my dad accused me of being insane and threatened to send me to Eichen House." she said, fiddling with the ring on her finger, the hand that was still intertwined with his.

She decided to leave out the part where he said 'I'm sure they'd love nothing more than to have you back'.

She didn't even want to begin to unpack that.

"He was just... really aggressive. He slammed his hands on the table so hard it made me flinch. I know he wouldn't ever physically hurt me, but I don't know... I'm still scared, I guess. He's never been like that before."

"You don't have to go back there, you know." Stiles murmured. After hearing all of that, he didn't want her going home.

He wanted her to come back to his house where he knew she was safe.

"I do." she whispered, adjusting her position to lean her head on his shoulder, their intertwined hands in front of them. "Even if it's just to pack a bag, I have to go home."

"That building of bricks and cement isn't your home, Asp." Stiles whispered with her head on his shoulder. "Home is somewhere you feel safe, home is where the people you love are. Home is somewhere you want to be."

Aspen felt a fluttery feeling in her stomach, one she was very familiar with after all these years.

Stiles felt it too.

"Home doesn't even have to be a place..." Stiles added in an even quieter whisper, his thumb grazing her knuckles.

"It can be a person." she finished her sentence for him. The butterflies in her stomach seemed to multiply as their hand movements suddenly stopped.