[ enjoy and let me know what you think about the void - willow arc that i'm doing. i'm not changing the arc and already have it planned out for the rest of the season, but still. a lot of people asked for void willow and while it's not void willow, we're gonna have some fun in the coming chapters. ]
☽︎
whose goddamn handprint is on your ass?
[ 3.16 ]
Willow was squished in between Scott and Stiles on the couch in Noah's office, feeling rather uncomfortable as Agent McCall questioned them as well as Kira and Lydia. Because the power was out countywide, only a lantern illuminated the office.
"So when did you get there?" Agent McCall asked, trying to narrow down details.
"At the same time," Stiles answered immediately.
"The same time as who?"
"At the same time as me," Scott told him.
"By coincidence?" he asked.
"What do you mean coincidence?" Stiles questioned. Willow bit the inside of her cheek, knowing that he and Scott were about to get on Agent McCall's nerves.
"That's what I'm asking you," he said. "The three of you arrived at the same time. Was that coincidence?"
"Are you asking me?" Scott asked.
"I think he's asking me," Stiles muttered. "Or are you asking Will?"
Willow sighed when they brought her into it. Lydia rolled her eyes. "I think he's asking all three of you."
"Okay, let me answer the questions," McCall said. Then he shut his eyes, realizing he fumbled his words. "Let me ask the questions."
Stiles winked and pointed at him once he fixed his mistake, much to McCall's annoyance.
"Just so I have this absolutely clear," McCall said, reading the notes in his book. "Barrow was hiding in the chemistry closet at the school. Someone left him a coded message on the blackboard telling him to kill Kira. Then Barrow took Kira to a power substation and tied her up with the intent of electrocuting her, which blacked out the entire town."
"Sounds about right," Stiles said, nodding.
"How did you know he'd take her to a power station?" he asked.
"Well, 'cause he was an electrical engineer," Stiles said, shrugging. "So where else would he take her?"
"That's one hell of a deduction there, Stiles," he said skeptically.
"Stiles is very bright and intuitive when it comes to things like this," Willow chimed in, a charming smile on her lips.
Stiles grinned and threw an arm over Willow's shoulder. "Yeah, what can I say? I take after my pops. He's in law enforcement."
Noah coughed to cover up a snort, earning an unimpressed look from McCall. "Stiles, just, uh, just answer the man," Noah instructed.
"We made a good guess," Stiles said, sighing.
Agent McCall clearly didn't believe it, but he moved on to Scott and Kira. "What were the two of you doing?"
"Eating pizza," Scott said at the exact same time Kira replied with, "Eating sushi."
Scott and Kira shared a nervous look.
"Eating sushi."
"Eating pizza."
The third time was the charm as they slowly replied in sync. "Eating sushi and pizza."
Willow leaned forward so that she could see both of them. "Is that, like, code for you were hooking up?" she asked in a whisper that everyone heard. Both their eyes went wide, and Kira blushed while Scott cleared his throat.
Growing increasingly annoyed, Agent McCall looked back at Noah. "You believe this?"
"To be honest, I haven't believed a word Stiles has said since he learned how to speak," Noah admitted. "But I think these kids found themselves in the right place at the right time and that girl sitting there is very lucky for it."
"Kira, is that how you remember it?" McCall asked her.
Kira grew stiff when Scott, Stiles, Willow, and Lydia all looked at her, willing her to go along with the story they fed Scott's father.
"Yes," Kira said, nodding in agreement.
Agent McCall soon gave up on getting the truth and finished taking his statement. Once they were free to go, Stiles dragged Willow and Lydia away before his father had a chance to yell at him.
☽︎
Though everywhere was still out of power, that didn't stop school from going on. The blinds of every window were open to let in as much sunlight as possible. Teachers were also carrying around lanterns and flashlights.
Willow was grabbing her things out of her locker while Stiles pointed a flashlight inside so that she could see everything. As she was stuffing everything in her backpack, Coach came down the hallway, using his megaphone to make announcements.
"Class starts in five minutes. Just because there's no power don't expect there to be no school!" he shouted. Willow almost flinched from how loud it was as he passed them.
"That was a triple-negative. Very impressive, Coach," Stiles told him.
"Copy that!" Coach said, walking off.
"He's gonna have so much fun with that today," Willow said, chuckling. Then she glanced at Stiles. "Are you sure you're okay? No weird side effects from being electrocuted last night?"
"I promise I'm fine," he assured her. "I'm just glad you weren't the one knocked out for a little bit."
"But I heal," she reminded him, closing her locker. "Slower than Scott but still faster than you. I just worry about you."
"And I worry about you, so we're even," he said as he and Willow walked to his locker. While fiddling with the lock, he dropped his keychain, which Willow quickly picked up and handed back to him. Stiles eyed an unfamiliar key on the keyring, holding it up. "Hello. Where did you come from?"
"You don't know where it's to?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Stiles simply shook his head. "That's what happens when you make so many unauthorized copies of people's keys. You'll remember eventually."
Stiles nodded and put the keys in his pocket before spotting Scott, who just entered the school. The wolf was staring at Kira on the other side of the hallway and was walking toward her with purpose.
"No. No," Stiles said, grabbing Scott before he could get past them. "Stop. Stop."
"What?" Scott asked, still looking at Kira. "I need to talk to her."
"No, you need to remember someone left a coded message telling Barrow to kill her," he reminded him.
"Which is why I need to talk to her," he insisted.
"Scott, no way," Stiles said, shaking his head. "Until we figure out if she's just another psychotic monster that's going to start murdering everybody, I vote against any and all interaction."
"Does Willow get a vote?" he asked, looking to the blonde.
"No, because she's naturally trusting and too forgiving."
Willow smiled apologetically at Scott, both knowing that Stiles was right. Scott sighed as Kira left the lockers to go to class. "What if she's like me?"
"That girl walked through 1.21 jigawatts of electricity," Stiles muttered. The Back to the Future reference made Willow laugh. "She's not like you."
☽︎
Willow sat in biology next to Isaac at their lab table. Like with Mr. Yukimura, who replaced the sacrificed history teacher, Ms. Martin replaced the sacrificed Mr. Harris. Since it was Natalie's first official day, she was walking by everyone and setting her syllabus in front of them.
"Sweetheart," Willow heard Natalie say. She was talking to Lydia, who sat at the table behind her. "Since this is my first class and I haven't taught in five years, I just want to remind you of one thing. Try not to embarrass me."
"You should've thought about that before wearing those shoes," Lydia said teasingly, making Natalie look down at her heels. "Love you."
Natalie rolled her eyes playfully. "Love you, too."
"You're gonna do great," Willow told Natalie as she reached them.
"Thank you, Sweetie," she said, smiling softly.
Natalie handed a syllabus to both Isaac and Willow. As her hand passed, Willow noticed the engagement ring on Natalie's right hand, making her chest ache.
Isaac, who also spotted the ring, knew exactly where Willow's thought had gone as she spaced out. He nudged Willow's shoulder and smiled.
"So, you coming to Danny's blacklight party, or do you have Halloween plans with Derek?"
"He might come over after a while, but there's a few important things he's gotta get done," Willow told him. In fact, she was going to ask Derek to go to Danny's party with her but figured the lack of electricity would put a stop to it. "And I thought the party was canceled because of the blackout?"
"I heard Danny's looking for other venues," Isaac told her. "I'm sure he'll text you if it's back on. I hope he can — a party sounds great after everything we've had to deal with."
Willow sighed and looked down at the syllabus. "Don't I know it."
☽︎
Stiles did not take himself and Willow directly home after school. Scott came up with a plan to steal Kira's phone from the police station, which was being held as evidence for the Barrow case.
Though Kira didn't know they knew why, Scott told them all about how she glowed when a picture was taken of her. It wasn't like werewolves where their eyes just flashed. Evidently, there was a huge, orange aura surrounding her. And Barrow took pictures of Kira with her phone before trying to kill her.
They definitely couldn't risk Scott's dad seeing those.
Kira and Scott walked up to the jeep window, where Stiles began handing them keycards. "Okay, this one will get you into all of the perimeter doors, this one into the evidence room, and this one's for my father's office."
"You didn't steal these, did you?" Scott asked skeptically, looking down at them.
"No. I cloned them using the RFID emulator," Stiles informed them.
Scott raised an eyebrow. "Is that worse than stealing?"
Stiles hesitated, knowing that it was worse. "It's smarter."
"Scott, can I ask you something?" Kira asked, who looked a little nervous.
"Okay," Stiles muttered as Kira pulled Scott to the side. "We'll just... wait."
"So, Aiden texted me the location that Danny's party was moved to," Willow said, still looking at her phone.
"Somewhere had a generator?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Where's it at?"
Willow bit her lip. "Let's just say Derek's not going to be happy if he comes back early."
Stiles laughed in disbelief, realizing exactly where the party was at. "You're shitting me."
"I'm not," she said, giggling. "But if it's still going on when he gets back, I'll keep him from tearing the twins apart for offering the loft up."
"Or don't stop him. I'd love to see that," Stiles muttered. Then Kira and Scott came back over. "Okay. So, now almost everybody's out dealing with the blackout. But there's always somebody at the front desk. There's Dispatch and usually a night shifter or two. You guys are gonna use the service door entrance by the dumpster. All right? Nobody uses it. Now, I'll text you if anyone comes out. But, Scott, if you get caught, I can't help you. My dad's under investigation for an impeachment because of your dad, so, if anything happens I will run and leave you both for dead."
"Got it," Scott said, nodding at the lengthy instructions. "Thanks. Seriously, dude."
"I'd ask my dad, but you know," he mumbled.
"No, I know. I get it."
"All right, just, uh, hurry up," Stiles said, knowing they had to be quick.
As Stiles and Kira snuck inside, Willow leaned against Stiles' shoulder. "You know, you could be a pretty good spy," she said, making him laugh. "I'm serious. That was such a good and detailed plan."
"Spies are supposed to be dark and mysterious, not dorky and awkward," he muttered, shaking his head.
Willow rolled her eyes playfully. "You're not awkward — most of the time. And you're certainly not dorky."
"You're the only one that thinks so," Stiles murmured.
As they waited, he nervously toyed with his key ring. Once again, he ended up focusing on the plain silver key that he couldn't remember getting.
"Still no clue where it goes?" Willow questioned.
"Nah—"
Stiles cut himself off when headlights moved past the jeep. They both looked out the window to see that Agent McCall had pulled into the parking lot, no doubt there to look through the evidence one more time.
"Ah, hell," Stiles cursed. He quickly pulled out his phone to message Scott as McCall got out of his car and headed inside. "Come on, Scott. Okay, I'm so going to regret this."
In spite of his promise to not help in the event of something like this happening, Stiles did so anyway. He rushed out of the jeep and after Agent McCall, and Willow quickly followed. The duo ran inside, managing to slide in between McCall and the door to Noah's office just before he could go in and catch Scott and Kira redhanded.
"Wow! Thank God you are here. Oh, boy! Thank the lord," Stiles exclaimed, laughing nervously.
Agent McCall eyed them warily, not understanding why Stiles had appeared so suddenly. "What do you want, Stiles?"
"Oh, jeez! I was just - I was thinking on the case. I was thinking I should clue you in on my thinking. Here's my thinking," Stiles rambled. Willow lightly elbowed his side to get him to focus. "I was thinking this — I was thinking that Barrow, right - I was thinking that Barrow received the information about who to kill at the school, right, you know that? So I was thinking maybe the person who gave him that information, check this out, might actually be someone at the school. And that's, uh, my thinking."
Agent McCall nodded along, surprisingly not yelling or telling Stiles to shut up halfway through. "You're right."
"I am?" Stiles asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yep. We started looking for links between Barrow, faculty, and students last night," he stated.
"So you already, then, know that stuff?" he asked, still trying to stall. "You already thought of that."
"Your dad did," McCall reluctantly admitted. "His one useful suggestion."
McCall tried to move past Stiles, but he got in the way, annoyed at the last comment. "You know, this attitude that you have toward my dad? You can dress it up to all the professional disapproval that you want. But I know the real reason why you don't like him."
Agent McCall let out an unamused chuckle. "Is that so?"
"Yeah," Stiles said, his voice low. He had been holding Willow's hand and squeezed it tightly. "Because he knows something that you don't want him to know. And guess what. I know it, too."
With the way Stiles' eyes had darkened and he clenched his fist while talking in such a low tone, the words dark and mysterious came to Willow's mind. For a moment, he looked almost dangerous, armed with whatever knowledge had Agent McCall looking so shaken.
"Go home, Stiles, Willow," Agent McCall said slowly. "There's a - there's a curfew."
Stiles didn't move as McCall brushed past them. Then he stormed out of the station, bringing Willow with him. She didn't dare ask him about the semi-threat he made.
The two stayed quiet as they waited for Scott and Kira to come out, Stiles glaring at the ground. When they did come out, Scott and Kira seemed to be excited, which didn't fit the dark mood surrounding Stiles.
"We did it. All the pics deleted," Scott told them happily.
"That was awesome!" Kira exclaimed. "I mean, terrifying. Completely terrifying... But kind of awesome. I've never done anything like that before. Have you?"
Stiles, Scott, and Willow all shared a nervous look.
"Yeah, once or twice," Stiles said casually. Then he glanced at Willow. "Ready?"
"I guess I should take you home," Scott said, leading Kira to his bike as Stiles and Willow got in the jeep.
Though Willow couldn't hear from inside the car, she could see the looks on Scott and Kira's faces.
"Scott," she whispered, knowing his ears would pick up on it. "For the love of God, invite her to the party."
Based on the grin on Kira's face, Willow correctly assumed that Scott took her advice. Then she looked at Stiles with a smile, who was already watching her.
"How does a party sound?" Stiles asked. "I need a date."
☽︎
As soon as Willow stepped into the crowded loft, she knew Derek would lose his mind once he found out. The music was so loud you could hardly talk over it, and bodies were grinding up against each other, all scantily clad and covered in paint that glowed under the blacklight.
Though Derek would have hated it, Willow loved it. She squealed excitedly and pushed through the crowd to find Danny and let him know she was there. Stiles stuck with Scott and Kira, telling him all about the weird key that he found.
"It just showed up there on my keyring this morning. I asked my dad if he put it there but he said he didn't know anything about it," Stiles explained over the music.
"It's just a key, right?" Scott asked. He was holding Kira's hand to make sure she didn't get lost in the crowd.
"Yeah, but it's not mine," he said. "And I don't know how it got there or what it's for."
"You want to leave so we can figure it out?" Scott offered.
But then Willow ran back over to them, a wide grin on her face. Her white skirt was glowing under the blacklight, as was the thin white bra that she was in — there was no telling where she'd stashed her black sweater. Black didn't glow, and so Willow decided to go without it.
"Sti, can you help me find one of the people with paint?" she asked, raising her voice to be heard.
Stiles spared a look back at Scott, referencing their previous conversation. "It can wait. It can wait."
Scott watched with a slightly concerned look as Stiles pulled Willow through the crowd. Something about how close they had been lately wasn't adding up. He was just hoping it didn't end with Stiles getting his feelings hurt — or Derek.
Eventually, Stiles and Willow found one of the stations with paintbrushes and glow-in-the-dark paint. The artist looked at Willow expectantly.
"Face or body?" she asked her. Then she glanced at Stiles. "Or does he wanna do it?"
"He can do it," Willow assured her.
The artist moved on to the next person while Willow looked at all the colors. She sneakily applied some green paint to her fingers before spinning around and pressing them to Stiles' neck, giggling as he flinched from how cold it was.
"Now you're glowing too!" she said happily since none of Stiles' clothes reacted to the blacklight.
Stiles' eyes looked up and down Willow's body, a dark look overtaking them. He reached for the bottle of pink paint and squirted some on his palm. Then he rubbed his two hands together, spreading the color.
"You get a handprint too," he said, stepping closer.
With all the lights and dancing and glowing bodies, no one gave Stiles a second look when his eyes began to glow a soft pink color.
Stiles placed one hand on Willow's ribcage, his thumb resting just under the band of her bra. She didn't even flinch at such an intimate touch, only staring into his glowing eyes, lost to the world around her. The other hand found its way to the back of Willow's skirt, placing a handprint right on her butt. He pulled her closer, scrunching up the fabric as he did, his fingers slipping under the hem.
Then Stiles leaned down and brushed his lips against her ear. "You're gonna be good for me and not tell anyone you ever saw that key, won't you?"
Willow nodded slowly, her own eyes glowing pink — except the glow wasn't her doing. She wouldn't say a word about the key, not if he didn't want her to.
"Good," Stiles said, a twisted smirk on his face. He moved the hand on her ribs to cup the side of her face and neck, leaving traces of paint there as well. "Now run along. I've got work to do."
☽︎
The party went on into the night, not dying down even as morning began to approach. Though Willow had long since lost track of everyone in the pack, she didn't let it stop her from having fun. She found a few girls that were on the cheerleading squad with her and danced with them, forgetting all about Barrow and Stiles' key and whatever was going on with Kira.
It was nearing sunrise when the owner of the loft finally came home — he had been helplessly lying in a parking lot after an attack from some creatures that moved through shadows.
And Derek was less than thrilled when he entered his home and found it crammed full of loud, sweaty, glowing bodies. He glared at everyone he shoved past, having no idea where everyone came from. But he did know he was pissed.
In fact, when he spotted Willow in the crowd, he was more than pissed. He was seething.
Derek watched as some friend twirled her under her arm, laughing. His eyes were immediately drawn to the revealing outfit she wore, but more so the paint. The pink handprints that glowed so brightly, showing exactly how intimately someone had touched her.
Someone that wasn't him.
Derek stormed toward the man in a mask who was working the music, ready to send everyone running. However, a bouncer of sorts put a hand on his chest, stopping him from getting any closer.
"Bro, sorry, The Bloody Beetroot doesn't take requests," the guy said. Derek rolled his eyes and kept pushing forward. "Bro, seriously. I said the DJ doesn't take—"
"He'll take mine," Derek snapped.
After shoving the guy back, Derek flipped the DJ table, immediately cutting off the music. Everyone froze and looked at him, wondering what put a stop to the party.
"Get! Out!" Derek shouted, his thundering voice reaching every corner of the loft.
The trespassing teenagers wasted no time in running away, clearing out impossibly fast. Derek didn't spare them a second glance as he stalked over to Willow. Even with the party crashed, she still had a blissful smile on her face.
"Happy Halloween!" she greeted once he was close enough, giggling as she did. "This was totally the twins' idea—"
Willow cut herself off when Derek grabbed her arm, pulling her into his chest. Her eyes were wide, seeing how furious he looked. His chest was heaving, and she caught the sound of a possessive growl leaving his mouth.
"Whose goddamn handprint is on your ass?" Derek demanded.
Willow's mouth felt painfully dry in that moment. "Lydia," she lied. Why did she lie? "We just - we just thought it'd be funny."
She had lied about Stiles grabbing her in all those places, but Willow was a bad liar. And Derek was listening to her heartbeat.
But before Derek could question why she was lying — who she was lying about — they realized they were surrounded by the same things that had attacked him in the parking lot. They had also succeeded in attacking Isaac, Lydia, and Ethan as well. Just like the other times, they appeared from the shadows.
And all of them were staring at Aiden.
"Guys," Aiden said nervously. "They're all looking at me. Why are they all looking at me? Guys?"
Derek acted first, letting out a snarl as he lunged for one. Scott followed suit, joining the fight against the shadow warriors. Derek swiftly snapped the neck of one of them before turning to find another to fight. Except, its head snapped right back into place.
Just as Derek looked back at the thing in disbelief, it threw him across the loft and into a brick wall like he weighed nothing. Though Scott was an alpha, they took him down just as easily. He landed near Willow, who helped him slowly stand as he recovered.
The attackers turned to Aiden once more, and Isaac, the only wolf left standing, stepped forward, claws at the ready.
However, one of the warriors turned to face him. It then pulled a long katana out of its chest before spinning it expertly. With the sword pointing at him, Isaac took a hesitant step back, knowing he couldn't beat a ninja.
The shadow warriors all surrounded Aiden, who struggled helplessly as they grabbed him.
"Somebody do something," Allison called. She couldn't join the fight as she was weaponless and holding up Ethan, who was still weak from being attacked by them earlier while outside.
But Willow didn't do anything. She was almost positive that her abilities wouldn't work on whatever they were — they certainly didn't seem human. She stayed pressed up against the wall, watching with wide eyes as one of them grabbed the side of Aiden's head. After only a second, they let Aiden's body drop, who curled in on himself and began shivering.
Instead of leaving, the shadow warriors then turned to face Willow and Scott. Making sure that Willow was behind him, Scott growled lowly at their attackers, his eyes glowing red.
But then the sun began to shine through the large window, rays of light illuminating the loft. As soon as the light touched them, the shadow warriors faded away, as if they weren't allowed to exist in the daylight.
"What the hell were those things?" Scott asked after they disappeared.
Isaac looked at Allison, both knowing they had to tell her father about this, especially after he'd asked them to keep Isaac's attack quiet. "Your dad's twenty-four hours are up."
As the others checked on Aiden, Willow ran to Derek's side, putting his head in her lap as he was still healing from the fight. She softly brushed the hair back off his forehead.
He reached up and gently cupped her face, his hand covering the pink handprint left behind by Stiles. A handprint that Willow hardly remembered receiving all of the sudden.
All thoughts of jealousy and potential fights and Stiles disappeared as she stared down at him with so much love and affection, thankful that he was alive.
☽︎
[ you don't understand how much i, as an individual, thrive off of angry, jealousy plot lines. and there hasn't really been any up until now. and it's about to get so much worse. and every time i think about what i have planned, i foam at the mouth. sorry if you don't care for it, but also, i'm not changing my mind. they're not gonna break up or anything though. don't worry ]