ROLES REVERSED
"SO..." Scott said hesitantly, as he and Stiles took their seats for E-con class, "Did you and Aspen find anything last night?"
Stiles dumped his bag on the ground by his seat, his face suddenly contorting to confusion at Scott's question. He turned his head to the side to look at Scott, the clear confusion written all over his face in capital letters.
"What are you talking about?" said Stiles at a low volume.
"Last night," Scott reiterated, "Did you end up finding anything to help her? You know, after you.... let her go back to yours— oh please don't tell me you had sex again!"
"What?!" Stiles whispered, but closer to a shriek, "Aspen was never at my place last night, what the hell are you saying?"
"Umm..." Scott said, his turn to grow confused, "Yes... she was... are you messing with me right now?"
"No... are you messing with me?"
"Stiles—" said Scott, "She was at your place last night."
"Scott—" Stiles mimicked, "No, she was not." he added, full belief in the words he was saying.
The two boys hadn't even stopped to notice Aspen's absense from school today as they bickered over who was right and who was wrong. Their dispute was soon called to a halt though as Coach Finstock grabbed the classes attention.
"Mischief Night!" Coach yelled in annoyance, "Devil's Night! I don't care what you call it— you little punks are evil!"
As if their previous conversation hadn't just happened, Stiles broke out in a chuckle of amusement, assuming Finstock had witnessed his clever prank he had come up with last night. Scott, though— was far from laughing.
His eyebrows remained in a confused yet worried frown as his eyes narrowed at the Stilinski boy, wondering how the hell he could just forget such a simple fact.
"You think it's funny, every Halloween my house gets egged?" Finstock confused his rant of annoyance, "A man's house is supposed to be his castle! Mine's a frickin' omelette!"
Coach then looked down at his desk, finding a small gift box wrapped up neatly with a little bow on the top of it. He scoffed, assuming this would just be another Devil's night prank, and held it up to the class.
"Oh, this? We're gonna do this again?" He scoffed, "I don't think so!"
And then he dropped the gift, expecting something usless or junk-like to come out of it, and came to a surprise t see he had just smashed a perfectly gift-like mug.
"...Happy birthday, love Greenberg." Coach muttered as he read the writing on the smashed cup.
The class and the laughter died down after a few moments, and everyone's attention refocussed to whatever work it was they were supposed to be doing.
That was, everyone except the strawberry blonde sitting near the back, next to Danny Maehlani.
Lydia was waving her hand around in the air sporadically, and Danny seemed to be the only one that noticed the weird behaviour.
The Maehlani boy tapped Lydia on her shoulder, making her head snap towards him with a 'what?' expression.
"What are you doing?" Danny whispered in a concerned tone.
"There's a fly!" Lydia answered him like it was the most obvious thing in the world, not noticing how Danny's brows furrowed at her justification.
Because there was no fly.
***
Aspen had decided to give school a miss today. Sure— she got out of last night's situation unscathed, with the whole making Stiles forget the entire night thing, but she figured twenty four hours of space would be best, just to make sure.
Today, she decided it was time to take matters into her own hands. She was feeling... more herself than she had other times. That's not to say her old heart was back, no— it was nowhere within a fifty mile radius. But that part of her that feared whatever was following her and whatever they wanted with her— that part was back.
She got out of bed late morning, and quickly got dressed— throwing on her loose black ripped jeans, a baggy AC/DC band-tee, and topped it off with her usual leather jacket. She tossed her hair up into a high pony, and applied a hint of a dark red lipstick, and some smoky shadow around her eye lids.
Feeling ready for answers, she swung open the door to her motel room, making sure to lock it behind her as she descended the stairs and made her way out of the building, with a sense of purpose in her strides.
She looked down at her phone which was buzzing, finding multiple texts all from the same number. Her brows furrowed as she unlocked her cell phone, swiping on the messages that read:
FROM: UNKNOWN NUMBER
Your brother paid me a visit yesterday, figured I should give you a heads up.
[11:09]
As in— he knows you're in Beacon Hills.
[11:09]
Good luck, with everything. [11:09]
It was the final text at the end of the string of messages that finally made Aspen realise what was going on.
Btw, this is Theo, incase you never saved my number. [11:10]
"Shit," Aspen whispered to herself as she walked out into the parking lot with her head down and her eyes on her phone screen.
Her mind was so engrossed in the message in front of her that she didn't think to look up, meaning she missed the presence of the familiar man in front of her.
So when he finally did speak up, it caught her off guard enough to jump.
"So this is the shit-hole you've been staying in?"
Aspen's head immediately snapped up, her eyes meeting a pair that she wasn't so keen to be seeing again.
"I mean, you had an apartment with the best view of all of New Orleans at your door step, but you chose to come here?"Ace scoffed with judgement, his eyes rolling into the back of his head when he saw the enraged expression on his sister's face.
"What are you doing here, Ace," Aspen muttered under her breath, very unamused as she continued to walk across the parking lot, straight past him.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Ace yelled at a loud volume as she made a strong effort to get far away from him.
"For once in your life can you answer a question without deflecting, or being cryptic, or hell— both!" Aspen shouted back with a scoff.
"Why wouldn't I be here, huh?" Ace said firmly, catching up with her and planting a strong hold on her shoulder, forcing her to stop in her tracks, "You think I wouldn't notice when my little sister leaves me high and dry, alone with the shittiest parent in the world?"
"Doesn't feel so good, does it?" Aspen replied, her voice suddenly a lot softer as she spoke the words with intention to get to him.
After all, that was the exact same thing Ace had done to her all those years ago. Except, he even went as far to fake his death.
Even though she had said those words purposely to get under his skin, and perhaps she even wanted to inflict some guilt on him, she never expected it would work.
But it seems the roles between the Carter siblings were reversing. Perhaps Ace wasn't the heartless one anymore, and Aspen was no longer the one with the heart of gold.
So it took her by surprise to hear the next two words that came out of her brother's mouth.
"I'm sorry."
For a few seconds, Aspen stood there with confusion plastered all over her face, which soon turned into a state of disbelief. Her cold eyes might've even softened just a tiny bit as she saw the look all over his face— that look that told her he was being genuine. In those few seconds, she also listened to his heartbeat, her speechlessness remaining when she heard the sound of a steady, beating heart.
But then those few seconds were up.
Aspen scoffed at him, rolling her eyes as she continued to walk away, only for Ace to continue chasing after her desperately.
"And why are you sorry, brother?" Aspen asked without bothering to look at him as she walked, "What specific traumatic event in my life that you are responsible for, do you regret?"
Ace matched her strides next to her as she made no effort to stop again, and he ran a hand through his thick hair. Truth be told— he was never really good at apologies. Though—he'd never really tried.
So when he failed to speak, Aspen continued.
"Are you sorry for the pretending you were dead for all those years? For making your twelve year old sister mourn you when you were perfectly alive and healthy? Oh— or is it for killing the only parents I've ever known? Or trying to replace them with a man who quite literally calls himself the demon-wolf?"
Ace seemed to have his voice trapped in his throat, unable to utter more words of his attempted apology, so Aspen carried on with her list that was making guilt tear up at him.
"No! Let me guess—is it for stripping me of all my god-damn free will and threatening the boy I loved at the time to do it? Oh, and the cherry on top—are you sorry for trying to literally kill me just so you could claim pathetic alpha status?"
When Aspen finally stopped, she took in a deep breath and sighed, only now truly realising how many awful things in her old life were at the hands of her brother. Now making her resent him even more when she thought of it all at once, it helped that today was one of those days where she felt more herself, less like she was being controlled.
The two siblings finally stopped in their tracks when they approached Aspen's motor cycle, neither one of them breaking the lingering silence.
If you had told the Aspen and Ace from six years ago that this would be their future relationship, they would've laughed in your face and told you you were a fool who didn't know what they were talking about.
It was weird for both of them to think they used to have a healthy sibling bond. Or the fact that their biggest problems were their high school crushes not liking them back.
Here they are today— their biggest problem being something they didn't even know about yet.
Ace let out a defeated sigh, rubbing his face with his hand as it pained him to hear all of the things he was responsible for. He didn't really know when it happened, what changed or what snapped inside of him, but now he can't bring himself to be the heartless man with the black soul he had been for the past five years.
He cared now— and he wasn't sure if he liked it or hated it.
"I'm sorry for all of it." Ace finally said.
Aspen wasn't sure what she was supposed to say to that, what reaction would be expected of her in this situation. She would be skeptical of his sincerity if it weren't for the chemo signals radiating off of him. Seriously—the guy reeked of regret.
Aspen didn't say anything immediately, as she leant one arm on the handlebars of her bike, looking up at her brother with narrowed eyes.
"Really?" she finally said, "You are?"
"Yes," Ace sighed with honesty, "I'm not good with apologies, Aspen, I've never really done them before. But what I do know— is that you deserved a better brother all this time."
Aspen somehow found humour in that last sentence, as she let out a bitter chuckle, making Ace's face contort in confusion at what could possibly be so humorous.
"You know what's funny?" said Aspen, "About that last part?"
Ace shook his head, but didn't say anything.
"A couple months ago, I did have a brother, one better than you." Aspen told him, her tone laced with spite and humour at the same time,
"Scott McCall was a better brother than you ever could be, but hey— I don't have him anymore, so you're welcome to try and fill the shoes."
Ace didn't know what to say to that, but he wasn't even given a chance to think of a response before Aspen continued.
"But you know who else was a better brother figure than you?" she pressed further, preparing to really jab the knife in further.
Ace stayed quiet, his expression simply telling her to continue. He probably deserved what was coming anyway.
"Derek Hale," Aspen finally said, the sound of his name making Ace's blood run cold—
and Aspen could see it all over his face,
"Sure, me and him didn't hit it off great at first, in fact he sort of hated me by association with you." she continued, "But when it came down to it, he protected me the way a brother is supposed to protect his sister. He did what you failed to do."
"God— I said I was sorry!" Ace snapped with a yell, her words hurting him more than she probably realised, "I'm so, so, so sorry, Asp!"
"And what are you hoping to get out of this?" Aspen asked, completely keeping her calm unlike him, "My forgiveness? Are you looking for me to forgive you for ruining everything good I ever had?"
Ace's face dropped as he looked into his sister's eyes. He didn't see what he was hoping to.
"I hate to break it to you, brother," Aspen spoke, climbing on to her motor cycle, revving the engine and getting ready to leave him in the dust,
"Apologies need to be as loud as the crime. And they only work if the person you're apologising to still cares."