t h r e e
t a t t o o
STILES AND AMELIA WERE INSIDE STILES'S JEEP AS THE GUY BEGAN TO DIAL HIS BEST FRIEND.
"We got a serious problem at the school," told Stiles to Scott over the phone. "Ms. Blake's class..."
"Hey, can you tell me about it later?"
Amelia raised her eyebrows before grabbing the phone herself. "Uhm, well no, doggie, pretty sure this qualifies for immediate discussion."
Stiles chuckled. She had forgotten the nicknames Amelia had for Scott and for him, and that sometimes, when she was upset, she would call them by those names, making the two roll their eyes.
He had missed her so much.
"Alright then, meet me at Derek's," they heard him say, confusing the two.
"Derek's house?" Questioned Stiles. "What? What the hell are you doing—"
"Just meet us here, okay?"
Scott hung up the phone, leaving the two with their mouths opened.
"Did he just hang up on has?" Amelia questioned and he nodded.
Stiles turned the key and started the engine of the car before getting out of the parking lot, driving towards Derek's house.
Amelia looked over to Stiles before sighing. It was gonna take a while and they both wanted to talk to each other, so she figured it was the right time.
"I'm sorry," was the thing she said, surprising Stiles. "Up there in Scotland, I kinda ignored you a bit."
"A bit?" He snapped quickly. "I'm not even sure if we're still together anymore."
"Let me finish," she insisted. "Yes, I ignored you for months, but I had a reason." She exhaled. "I was embarrassed."
Stiles looked at her confused.
"I didn't find anything!" She admitted. "I had these hopes that I would come home with a pack of seekers that would help me finally defeat my cowards father but the only thing I did was disappoint Lizzie and Dahlia." She closed her eyes. "Dahlia didn't come back because she never gave up, she continued looking for more seekers, and I could hear in her voice how wrecked she was and I was so embarrassed of it, of my failure, that I didn't want to talk to you."
The silence filled the car before Stiles spoke, surprising her.
"You would never disappoint me, Ames..."
"That's because you don't have any idea what happened over there, Stiles."
Amelia breathed in before starting to tell the story, the thing that had been haunting her lately.
"We spent days locked up in the library, trying to figure out why there weren't any more seekers even though we weren't extinct, and why did Scott bleed when I was the one that got shot. And we found that... mirror wounds only occur when the protector is about to die or is in the cliff of death." She tried to found the words quickly. "The wound will appear on the creature it protects, killing them too."
"Which means..."
"There's a reason why Seekers started killing the supernatural, Stiles! Seekers would risk their lives to protect their creatures and the only outcome will be death for the two. It was dying in vain," she explained. "It gets you speed and fast reflexes but... if I die, Scott, Isaac and Derek die too."
Stiles stared at her in disbelief, trying to analyze what she was saying. So now, he would not only lose Amelia, but Scott too?
"That's why you couldn't tell me? That's why you couldn't talk to me?"
"How could I tell my boyfriend that not only my family was trying to kill me, but also it will kill Scott too."
Stiles dry swallowed, looking up to the road as she parked in front of Derek's house. He placed his hands on the steering wheel for a bit, trying not to look at her.
"Are you gonna tell him?"
"No," she admitted quickly. "He needs to think I will risk my life for him, that I will not step away even... if he knew that I would only be doing it to not kill him, he wouldn't trust me with his life anymore."
"So you are saying you are gonna keep protecting Scott, Derek and Isaac, even though they are always in danger, knowing that if you die they die?"
"I have to..." she whispered before opening the door of the jeep, exhaling. "And about us..."
"We'll talk about it later," he interrupted, making her look at him. "I don't know, I have to process all of this, I just..."
"I'm sorry I ignored you Stiles," she mumbled. "I really am."
She walked towards the house, Stiles having no idea that she had just lied.
Because the truth would be too painful for him to hear.
• • •
Derek was staring at Scott's bicep with his Alpha eyes. Amelia wanted to ask so badly, but preferred to remain silent while she watched what was going on.
"Yeah, I see it," admitted Derek as his eyes turned back to normal. "It's two bands, right?"
"He got a tattoo?" Whispered Amelia to Stiles and he nodded.
"Yeah, it healed. It was horrible," he mumbled back, making Scott and Derek stare at him. "Sorry..."
Derek looked back again to Scott while Amelia and Stiles watched the scene. Amelia wasn't sure what Scott wanted Derek for this, and then she remembered the tattoo on the guy's back. Maybe that was it.
"What does it mean?" Derek asked Scott as Amelia started biting her nails.
She had this thing where she would bit her nails every time she was nervous or anxious, and Stiles, every time he caught her in the act, would pull her hand away, and he did it this time too.
He was tired of hearing her ask herself why the manicure didn't last long.
"I don't know," admitted Scott.
God, Scott, is there something you do know," asked Amelia to herself in her mind before looking at the werewolf.
He started drawing on the dust at the wood table, Amelia staring at his fingers as he made two circles.
"It's just something I traced with my fingers," he told Derek and Amelia looked at the drawing.
It wasn't that good, she gave that one to Stiles. Yet, Scott seemed to like it, and if Scott liked it, it was fine for her.
"Why is this so important to you?" Questioned the Alpha and Amelia looked at Scott, curious about the answer too.
Scott stayed in silence for a few seconds before asking. "Do you know what the word 'tattoo' means?"
"To mark something," Stiles told Derek proudly before looking at Amelia with his eyebrows raised, making her smile.
She missed looking at him so happy. She missed him.
"Well, that's in Tahitian," started to correct him Scott, making Amelia held her laughter as Stiles's smile faded away. "In Samoan, it means 'open wound'," explained Scott, looking to the floor. That made Amelia look at him seriously, curious about what he was gonna say. "I knew I wanted to get a tattoo when I turned 18. I always wanted one. I just decided to get it now, to make it kind of a reward."
"For what?" Amelia doubted, making Scott looked towards one of the windows, not making eye contact with any of the people around him at the moment.
He thought about his answer for a few seconds before he looked down to his fingers, sighing. "For not calling or texting Allison all summer." Amelia smiled a bit, nodding softly. "Even when I really wanted to, even when it was so hard not to sometimes. I was trying to give her the space she wants."
She felt Stiles staring at her, but she equally decided not to look at him. He knew what he was thinking, probably like 'I went through the same', yet she still not looked towards him. She didn't want to few more terrible than she already did. Amelia didn't want to see the pain in the guy's eyes, thinking she was the one who caused it.
Scott sighed. "Going four months later, it still hurts," he said. "It feels like a..."
"Like an open wound," talked Stiles and the girl finally looked at him. He was crossing his arms, trying to not glance towards her.
Amelia looked back at Derek. "Can you do it?"
The Alpha nodded before grabbing something from the toolbox. "The pain's gonna be worse than anything you've ever felt," he told him and Scott nodded.
"Ah," exclaimed Stiles in a whisper, "that's great."
"Do it," told him Scott.
Derek proceeded to light a gigantic lighter, from where a blue flame the size of Amelia's arm came out, making the three jump.
"Oh, wow," said Stiles. "That's a lot for me. So I'm gonna take that as my cue. I'm just gonna wait outside."
But Derek stopped him by placing a hand on the guy's chest, making Stiles turn around.
"You can help hold him down," told him Derek as Stiles groaned.
"Oh, don't worry," Amelia said as they watched her eyes turn purple. "I'll do it."
Amelia placed herself behind Scott, holding him by the shoulders and nodding.
"Oh my God," said Stiles in a whisper as he watched the flame getting closer to Scott's skin.
The flame started burning Scott's arm and the werewolf started yelling in pain, not being able to move due to the fact that Amelia was holding on to him tightly, making it impossible to leave the chair.
"That looks like it hurts," mentioned Amelia as she tried to keep Scott still, the guy fighting with all his strength to get out.
"Hold him!" Insisted Derek as he continued, watching as Scott's eyes turned yellow.
Well, that looks like fun...
After a few seconds, he had passed out on the chair.
When Scott woke up, he started gasping as she tried to catch his breath before noticing how Amelia, Stiles and Derek were staring at him.
The guy looked back to his new tattoo before looking up to the three.
"It worked," he said excitedly and Amelia nodded while Stiles stared down at the guy.
• • •
"Well, it looks damn permanent now," commented Stiles after Scott had put on his shirt, the three walking towards the door.
Amelia still had some questions to ask Scott about what happened that Melissa had called him out of school, and why did she have the feeling Isaac was involved.
And where even was Isaac.
"I kind of needed something permanent," mentioned Scott as the girl placed her hands inside her back pockets, following the two.
"What? 'Cause being in constant panic isn't enough?" Questioned the girl, making Scott chuckled before continuing to talk.
"Everything that's happened to us," he said, "everything just changes so fast. Everything's so... Ephemeral."
Amelia looked at Stiles and the guy gave her a tiny smile before they looked back again at the werewolf.
"Studying for the PSATs?" Asked Stiles.
"Yeah."
"Nice," said the girl.
Scott stared at the two for a few seconds. "Can I ask what's going between you two?"
They both stared at each other for a few seconds and the girl gave Stiles a head nod, letting him reply with whatever he felt comfortable.
"We're... taking a break," Stiles said and the girl looked down. "Don't ask."
Scott nodded slowly before opening the door.
Amelia was about to stand outside when she noticed that Scott was staring at the red door for too long. So long that it began to be weird.
"You painted the door," noticed Scott and Amelia looked towards Derek, who looked up towards him. "Why'd you paint the door?"
Amelia looked at him strangely. "Am I the only one that do not see a problem?"
"Go home, Scott," Derek insisted to him, making Amelia raise her eyebrows.
So there was secrets behind the red paint, who would have thought?
"And why only one side?" Scott questioned again before he took his claws out.
They saw as Scott started to rip out the red paint off the door, making Amelia raise an arm before dropping it.
"Seriously? It looks like he just painted that," she complained but he kept going before stopping when the paint was fully taken out. "You ruined the door, man."
They saw a drawing on top of the door previously covered with red paint. It was shaped like the spiral Derek had on his back yet, it was more straight-shaped, with straight lines.
"The birds at school," Scott started, "and the deer last night, just like the night I got trampled by the deer... when I got bit by the Alpha."
Amelia raised her eyebrows before looking at Derek. It meant some new Alpha was in town because Derek couldn't even scare a fly away.
"How many are there?" Scott asked and Derek sighed.
"A pack of them," he said. "An Alpha pack."
Amelia opened her eyes before looking towards Scott and Stiles.
An Alpha pack? They couldn't even handle one a few months ago and now there was a pack of them? What kind of plot twist/bad karma thing was going on?
"All of them?" Doubted Stiles. "How does that even work?"
"I hear there's some kind of leader," Derek started explaining. "He's called Deucalion." Amelia looked down, exhaling before glancing at Derek again. "We know they have Boyd and Erica. Peter, Isaac, and I have been looking for them for the last four months."
They saw as Scott stepped forward, making Amelia and Stiles stare at him. "Let's say you find them. How do you deal with an Alpha pack?"
"With all the help I can get." Derek turned around to look at Amelia. "All of it."
Stiles was quick to look at her, and she knew what he was thinking. He knew that if she died or got seriously injured, they will get injured too. At least that was what Amelia told him.
Amelia nodded. When she was about to say something, she got interrupted by another voice.
The four looked towards the living room where Isaac was. She had no idea he even was there, she didn't see him when she got in and now, he was sitting there, with no shirt on, looking at them.
"Where is she?" He kept asking. "Where's the girl?"
They looked at Derek waiting for him to have an answer, but he didn't.
"What girl?"