𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨 ── 𝘚.𝘚𝘛𝘐𝘓𝘐𝘕𝘚𝘒𝘐

♡ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗬-𝗢𝗡𝗘 ♡

"Everything has always been just me and Dallie, Derek." The words were pained, spoken through heaps of heartache. "She's me, you see? We're a packaged pair."

"Jim-"

"And when everything falls apart, which it will, it's just me and her again. I won't let her lose something else because I wanted it too." 

James leaned his elbows against his knees and slouched forward as the words piled out. "There's nothing there, Derek because it can't be."

Derek chewed on the inner sides of his cheeks and stiffened up his face hard enough to ache the bones. "Right." He nodded coldly while looking everywhere but his eyes. "You're right, it's nothing. You'd have to have a heart for that."

James felt a pain slice into his chest, snug between the gaps of ribcage and muscle, and spread an infectious melancholy into his bloodstream like poison. There was no point arguing with that, Jim had a heart, just hidden deep within his chest and heavily guarded until cobwebs covered the casing.

His heart stopped being used the moment it stopped beating.

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

Dallas walked between Scott and Stiles, taking turns narrowing her eyes at her alpha and her boyfriend with displeasure. "Either of you tells anyone, I won't eat you. My aunts will."

Stiles was the first to speak. "So you're just gonna pretend like it never happened?"

"What happened? I took a pill, I was sick, and I feel fine. There's nothing to overthink." 

Scott butted in. "Yeah, but it was a cure. It kind of -- you know, -- cures."

Dallas Garcia was an endless wave of denial. A river, perhaps. Tainted by delusion and discontent with her current situation. Taking a cure didn't make you cured -- just like taking an antibiotic didn't make you miraculously better -- or how a painkiller wouldn't heal the injury. 

Surely she'd feel.. different. There was no difference in her bones, bulk, and body. The Siren was there, maybe, swimming beneath the surface in what felt like punishment.

Pulling her by the arm, Stiles nodded to Scott to walk on until out of earshot. He was more gentle with her skin as he pulled at it; fingers softer than how she usually liked them. "Dallie, what if you are? Do you realize how many people hate you? Who'd love to hurt you? I do, I can't stop thinking about it."

"Then don't. I love avoiding my problems that way." 

He faked a laugh before cutting off into a blank, deadpanned look. It made the butterflies in her stomach swarm a little. "Are you going to take this seriously or not?"

"Coming from the guy who compares me to Aquaman?"

Another deadpanned look. Dallas eyed him suspiciously before quirking a brow. "Fine, if I do will you stop scolding me?" She rolled them playfully. "I'm not your precious little princess, Stiles."

He drank up her silhouette with his eyes. 

"Aren't you?" he asked, his voice low and husky. He took another step closer to her, cutting the distance between them.