creatures of the night
Where the hell are they? Kinsey Argent asked as she packed back and forth through the library, a string of students passing her, staring at the flailing girl who was on the edge of a panic attack. It had all been planned out. The whole group would meet here early, claiming the perfect spot for their names, claiming themselves as seniors. She had spent months planning it, working around Kira's flight back into town, around the full moon, around someone needing to pick Malia up. All of it had been planned out to the smallest details, then, a storm hit them, screwing up her plans to make sure that this was the perfect night for everyone.
Rather than being happy that she had made it to her senior year, she was stressed out, ready for Stiles to walk through those doors so she could strangle him. He was an hour late. Not only that, but he was ignoring her calls, declining them so that she had to listen to that annoying voicemail that made it sound like he had answered her calls.
Lydia sat back and watched her flailing friend, filing her nails as she occasionally peered back to the door that the pack should be walking through any moment now. She was a little worried, the four of them were an hour late, even a storm wasn't capable of that, but for the sake of her Angel best friend, she kept it to herself, choosing to act as though her freaking out was unjustified. The last thing Kinsey needed was an actual reason to be paranoid.
The dark-haired girl took a seat, trying to calm herself down as her heeled boots clicked rapidly on the tiled floor as her leg bounced up and down, her long fingernails tapping on the table, she was unbearable when she was stressed. She couldn't rest. She had been talking about this night since she had found out what senior scribe was, so many things had already changed about how she wanted this night to go, when she had solidified the plans months ago, she expected that all of it would pan out exactly how she anticipated. This wasn't what she envisioned.
"I still don't understand why you're so insistent on making tonight perfect," Lydia admitted, with a scowl, the brunette questioned if she was serious, it was something she had explained at least a million times. "I know, I know, it's a celebration that we're still alive, that our lives have taken a turn for the better, whatever other bullshit you want to tell yourself to convince yourself that you aren't happy with your life." The Banshee spoke truthfully.
"I am happy with my life," Kinsey argued with her. "I had a great summer. Stiles and I are as great as ever. I visited Cora. We haven't had anything deadly and supernatural happen in months-"
"And you hate it." Lydia interrupted her. "You know you do. You miss the thrill of being in danger. You've spent an entire summer as a normal teenager and it bored you. You aren't made to be the normal Beacon Hills teen, and we all know it. I mean, come on, Kinsey, the red hair? Moving back in with me after you said you were going to stay with Stiles? Even inviting Isaac tonight. You have spent the past four months trying to get back last summer."
"I have not." The huntress spat out, offended. "I'm happy, Lyds. As happy as I've ever been."
"You can try and lie to yourself all you want but you and I both know the truth. I saw the look on your face when Isaac said he couldn't come, you're bored. You want some spark back in your life and a human boyfriend isn't cutting it for you. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Hey," Kinsey slammed on the table. "I love Stiles."
The redhead hummed, she knew that, she didn't doubt that for a moment. Kinsey had loved him since the moment the two of them had met, but things change, people, feelings. Neither she nor Stiles were the people they had been when they met, and she didn't expect them to be. The two of them had been through a lot. It would be unnatural if that hadn't affected their relationship, if she was as happy as she told herself she was, she wouldn't be trying to rebecome her old self, all of this was just Kinsey's way of denying the truth.
For a while, the two sat in awkward silence, the Banshee focusing on her manicure while the girl sitting opposite her finally stopped tip-tapping, sunk down in her seat as she sulked, replaying a harsh truth from her best friend, one of the people who knew her best, who knew her every little emotion, because as much as she loathed it sometimes, the two of them were connected. They shared a bond like no other. Lydia knew that, and she wasn't afraid to use it against her, even at a time when it was the last thing she wanted to hear.
"Humor me," Lydia spoke up again, raising the Angel's head. "If you didn't invite Isaac to try and relive your past, why did you invite him?"
"He deserves to be a part of this. He was a big part of my life. All of our lives." Kinsey shrugged, a crack in her voice that told the redhead everything that she needed to know about what she had just said. That it was a lie. A cover-up story in case Stiles asked the same question, at least if he'd failed to ask already. "Why do you have to be so cryptic about everything I do?"
"Because I know you and I know what you had with Isaac. I held you when you cried because he left and you didn't have a chance to mourn your relationship before you were already with Stiles and pretending that it didn't hurt you. You never had a chance to think about it because we were so wrapped up in the dead pool and Kate. So this summer when nothing happened, it finally hit you. And you invited him here to see if you still felt anything for him or if you really did move on."
Kinsey swallowed back the tears in her eyes, ridding herself of the lump that grew in her throat, she stood up, insisting that she was going to go and find the group, anything to avoid hearing all of Lydia's home truths and opinions on how she had been acting the past four months. Could a girl not die her hair back to the color she once had it when her life was a much different time? Or could a girl not invite her ex-boyfriend to senior scribe after they had spent months talking over the phone? And could she not miss a little danger in her life? The most danger she'd had during the summer was leaving her hair straighteners on for a few hours.
With a sigh, the redhead packed up her things, chasing after the brunette who stormed through the halls, shoving past each and every senior who was even remotely in her way, it was clear she was trying to escape her more than she was trying to get out of the school to find the pack. The Angel had never liked the cold hard truth as much as she didn't like being lied to, it was a kind of lose, lose situation.
Thunder rumbled, lightning striking, illuminating the busy corridors as Lydia called for the girl, trying to catch up with her as she picked up the pace. An entire summer out of track didn't make the brunette lose her speed, she was still as fast as ever, perhaps it was because she had spent a whole four months running from her own emotions. That was all the exercise she'd needed.
As Kinsey turned the last corner of the hallways, she found the pack standing at the other end of the corridor, their hairs dripping wet from the rain, yet all of them had bright smiles across their faces, enjoying tonight, even if it hadn't gone the way that it was supposed to go. Stiles had been the first to notice his girlfriend approaching them, welcoming her with open eyes, apologizing at least ten times as he pulled her in, egging on Malia to tell her and Lydia the good news. After her hard work through summer school, she had passed, she was officially becoming a senior, Kinsey had forgotten all about the negative mood as she wrapped Malia up in a hug, squealing down all of their ears, bouncing up and down in excitement.
Now, she wasn't so angry for whatever had made the four of them so late. This was good news, it was officially a reason to celebrate. Lydia coughed, discreetly, asking if they were actually gonna do this or not, she hadn't listened to the Argent complain for the last hour and a half just so they could throw it out of the window.
Nodding in agreement, four of them began following the redhead back to the library, but one of them remained still as he looked at the double doors he had come through just minutes ago as though he was waiting for someone. Kinsey turned back to the boy who pulled out his phone, a furrowed brow across his face. The Argent questioned if he was coming or not, the boy nodded, giving up as he rushed toward her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
They had taken only a few steps before a voice shouted down the hall for Stiles, stopping each of them in their tracks as they turned toward the familiar voice with a raised brow. It couldn't be. It was impossible, they told themselves.
Rushing through the crowd came a wet-haired Isaac, raising a hand for them to wait for him. For most of the group, their faces lit up, for some, this seemed like an accident waiting to happen, it was a happy accident, for now at least, but it wouldn't be. That they knew for sure. Kinsey's face dropped as she turned to Stiles who had a proud smile that couldn't be wiped off, he made sure that she knew he was responsible for this, that he was the one who had gotten Isaac here for her big image of the perfect senior scribe.
Another squeal escaped the girl's mouth as she rushed down the hall toward the werewolf, she'd jumped into his arms, wrapping her arms and legs around the wolf as they both giggled happily, a long-awaited reunion between two former flames who almost forgot what the other's face was like out of the small screen on their phones.
Lydia and Scott looked at one another, both weary of what was happening in front of them, how Stiles, the overprotective, jealous boyfriend was fine with this, how he had invited Isaac without even a hint toward them that could have stopped him from making what was going to be a huge mistake. They loved Isaac, they did. Whether he was in France or not he was a distant part of the pack, but this, this was a recipe for disaster. Lydia knew what it meant, she had told Kinsey what it meant just a few minutes ago, and Scott knew too. Out of everyone, they were two people who saw the relationship between Kinsey and Isaac closely, who knew every little emotion they once shared. And the ones that were shared even now as Scott smelt that familiar smell. One that had brought him back to the beginning of their junior year.
"I can't believe you're here." Kinsey beamed as the wolf put her back on her feet. "I thought you said you couldn't make it, that Argent had you booked and busy?"
Isaac shrugged. "Stiles offered to bring me out here and I couldn't turn it down twice. You might have to back me up with Argent, though."
The brunette girl turned back to Stiles, questioning if he had really did this, the boy nodded, he'd seen how gutted she had been when she found out that Isaac couldn't come tonight, he couldn't have tonight go that way, so he made it his life mission to make sure that everyone was here. He was more successful than he thought he would be. It was worth it, to see that smile on her face it was worth a million plane tickets from France to California.
"Now, Lydia looks like she's about to kill me, so I think we should probably go," Isaac suggested as the redhead eased the angry scowl across her face, playing it off as she smiled, as far as Isaac was concerned, she was just the stressed one who had been pacing the library waiting for them all to arrive, not the one who was trying to talking down Kinsey when she was doing that, asking herself if there were any possible feelings between them.
For a second time, the seven of them headed toward the library arm in arm, laughing and joking like seven, or at least six and a half, seniors should do. It didn't need to be made known yet that fighting some beast-like creature was what had held up the four teenagers, or that Kinsey was in the arms of the person who she'd thought about daily for months. Or that this, this might be the last night that everything seemed fine. Because after tonight, the death and destruction that all of them had waited around for all summer, had finally arrived.
The pack lined up at the shelf, waiting for their chance to scribble their initials on a shelf in their library, marking that they were here in ways that a yearbook and memories simply couldn't, this was how they would be remembered. In the year's time when the pack had children, when they had all grown up, this was what they would look at to know of the time their parents had spent here, and the different journeys they had had.
Stiles Stilinski was the first to scribe his initials. The human of the group. A frantic and sarcastic teenager who reminded them all that they all still had a piece of humanity inside of them. Lydia Martin was next. The Banshee. The brains. The one who kept them all in check, fixing problems that sometimes they didn't even know they had. Kira Yukimura was next, asking before she had already gone too far that this wasn't vandalism. The Kitsune a little wearier than the rest, it was only a matter of time before she became like the rest of them, vandals, people who broke a little more of the law than they should have. But she was a vital part, nonetheless. Isaac Lahey was up next. The Beta. The scarf-wearer. The person Stiles Stilinski argued with if nobody else was there to be argued with. The Braun beside the Alpha, the werewolf who fought willingly for anyone in the pack, whether he liked them or not.
Malia. Tate or Hale? She hesitated as she wrote the first initial of her name, questioning how she wanted to be remembered when looking back. Was she the werecoyote who killed her family on her first full moon? The werecoyote saved by a group of teenagers in the woods against her own father? Or was she a Hale? A lycanthrope in a long line of power lycanthropes? The daughter of a sociopath, a killer. She looked for guidance in her sister, the one she had gained through being a Hale. Her sister nodded, she knew what she wanted, who she really was. T. The coyote scribed, it was who she was. Malia Tate. The werecoyote. The loose-canon. The girl who would always have a little bit of Hale instinct inside of her.
Kinsey had the same question to ask herself. Would she abandon the lineage of hunters that she came from? Abandoning the title of the last Argent, the only one who could continue that name? Would she become a Hale, the youngest of that line too? Part of her was an Argent, the huntress, the part of her that thought with logic, the part that made her paranoid, the entire reason she'd found this group of friends in the first place. The other part of her was a Hale, the werewolf that was beneath the surface, yet to make itself entirely known, no longer subsideable. The part that made her impulsive and dangerous, where her attitude stemmed from, the need for justice. She was equal parts of both Argent and Hale. But she was an Angel too. The person who rose to that title because she was that equal parts, because of who she was no matter what name she chose.
K.A. She wrote on the shelf. She was an Argent. She was born an Argent. But that wasn't why she had chosen to remain one, letting everyone know that she was one. It was because it was Argent that she had always shared with Allison. She wanted them to be remembered together. As a pair who were inseparable, who embodied the meaning of family.
Scott McCall. The true Alpha. The leader of the pack. The optimistic. The core of a pack of teens who carried all kinds of talents with them, the person who had forged them together with some help along the way. For the first time in a long time, he felt confident within himself as a leader, together they had made it to senior year, remembering those who hadn't. Before his huntress of a friend could walk away, joining Stiles and Isaac, he pulled her back to the shelf as he wrote the second set of initials beneath his own.
A.A. Allison Argent. The huntress who deserved to be here. But instead, made a sacrifice for all of them, so that even if she couldn't, the rest of them could stand here and say they did it. So every one of them could find the right path in the future.
"She would have been here with us," Stiles reassured the two as they rejoined the group, taking in those eight initials on the shelf. That, they were all in agreement with.
"She still is." Kinsey nodded, holding onto the Banshee who could feel it too. Allison had always and would always be with them, watching over them, waiting for the moment that she saw them all again when she could tell them herself how proud she was of their life achievements. Each of them would have lived the full, long lives she wanted them to live, they would be fulfilled, ready to go, old and haggard while she remained youthful and able to joke about their wrinkles. "Can we go somewhere?"
·❥·
In the middle of the night, way past the times that they told their parents they would be home, a group of seven seniors sat around lookout point with their umbrellas shielding their heads from the rain and storm, and enough food sheltered in their cars for them to stay here until the senior year was over. Naturally, the group had separated, standing around lookout point, laughing and joking, reminiscing even. Kira and Scott were catching up on the summer she had spent with her parents in New York, which wasn't as amazing as people sounded, at least not when she wanted to get home to him, the boy who told her to have fun, giving off a message he never intended to.
Malia sat telling Stiles all of the things she had planned to do now that she was officially going to be a senior, at the top of her list, was learning how to drive. Maybe then they could avoid Kinsey being angry when she was late because she had had to wait for a ride or take the bus, she could use some of the freedom that came with driving. Of course, Stiles offered to help teach her, just not in his Jeep, if anything, they would use Kinsey's car, it was used to being crashed against the curbs of Beacon Hills and overall, being driven poorly. Having Kinsey as a driver couldn't be a lot different from having someone learning how to drive.
Lydia stood on the edge of the cliff, looking out over the sea of lights that her best friend had told her about a million times. She had never thought to come up here herself, to see what everyone was talking about when they said that the lights were enchanting, or when Kinsey told her that it was the place she felt most connected to Allison. She could see and feel it all, being here, it was a strange feeling. As though she wasn't even in Beacon Hills anymore, wherever this place felt like, it was somewhere she wanted to remain.
"How long are you back for?' Kinsey asked the wolf she stood beside, for a while, the two stood in silence, simply enjoying the feeling of being back in the same town after so long of him being gone. It didn't feel strange, or out of place, it felt like he had never left. Like he had been on this long summer trip like Kira had.
Isaac looked at the time on his phone. "A few more hours." He told her with a nod. Soon, they'd return to what the past nine months had been like, talking over the phone, rarely able to have a real conversation before one of them was swept off by something going on in their lives. Kinsey nodded, she couldn't argue and tell him that she wished he was here longer, she knew that the wolf had things to do back in France, a business to run on behalf of her uncle, not only that, but it would be wrong to. She was with Stiles. A boy she looked at and still felt the warm shimmer of love that she had always felt when she looked at him, the feeling of being at home, comfortable. "Are you happy?" The wolf asked as he followed her gaze to the boy she watched with her sister.
Kinsey looked at the wolf, unsure what to say. She had hesitated, thinking about all of the things that Lydia had said to her, that harsh truth about her being bored, wanting more excitement that being with a human didn't give her, someone who her uncle approved of immediately, who she never had to sneak around with and worry of the consequences. Like she had with Isaac. When it was a rush to see each other because they knew it shouldn't have been happening. That, on top of a calm summer, when nothing had really happened in this town, she was bored. Kinsey chose to tell herself that was all it was. A moment of boredom. It would get better, with school starting in a few hours, things would happen again, and she would be occupied again. Perhaps she was just trying to rehash the past by inviting Isaac back to town.
"I'm happy." She nodded with a smile, her mind telling her that she meant what she said, it was what she had been telling herself all summer. Her heart disagreed, begging for her to recognize what it felt inside when she looked at him, how it felt like she had burst when she saw him in the school hallways earlier, and how it felt to be held by him again. But she ignored it.
How was she supposed to know that that question determined everything? That Isaac had bags in the back of his car, prepared to stay the moment she said that she wasn't happy with Stiles? It was all he wanted to hear, all he needed to hear, but the silence was deafening. He had pushed a girl he loved into someone else's arms and it would remain his biggest regret.
"Are you happy?" Kinsey questioned him.
"I'm happy if you're happy." He agreed, lying through his teeth. The two of them had agreed that they were happily unhappy, willing to live in a facade until the truth had finally hit hard enough for them to do something about it. And who knew what kind of things it would take for either of them to finally see what was right in front of them? Perhaps this was something they would take to the grave, a realization that would come with their dying breath. "Liam and Jordan are okay, right? We haven't really spoken since, you know, finding out about my dad."
"They're good," Kinsey reassured him. "I see them almost every day, they always ask about you. I guess it's just hard to know what to say to a brother you didn't know you ever had."
"You seem to be doing okay with it." He told her as he nodded toward Malia, the coyote felt that a stare was on her back as she turned to the two of them, waving to the werewolf she had met a handful of times when he was here last year. "You two made it look easy. I thought that it would be like that with Liam and Jordan but-"
"Maybe it would be different if I wasn't Malia's anchor. Maybe we would struggle too. Just give it time, things will work themselves out and soon enough you won't remember what it was like to not be a brother. Trust me, I can hardly remember the days when I didn't have Malia climbing in through my window to talk to me in the middle of the night."
"She still does that?" Isaac questioned with a laugh.
"Mm-hmm." The huntress nodded. "I'm used to it now, I leave the window open for her. She has a key, I gave it to her months ago, but she still uses the window. I can try and arrange for Liam or Jordan to climb through your window while you're asleep. See if works for you?" She suggested jokingly, the wolf chose to pass, there had been enough window climbing in his life, he spent an entire summer climbing through windows to see her, even after then it had been his way to visit her while Chris was still unbeknownst to what was going on.
Scott called over Isaac, wanting to snatch him from the girl he had been with all night, the Angel nodded, encouraging him to go, she would be fine on her own for a while, she was sure that she wouldn't be left alone long. Stiles would see her alone and come over, or Malia would steal some of the curly fries out of her hand, or maybe even a lecture from Lydia was in her future. With the group of friends she surrounded herself with she could never be sure what awaited her.
Eventually, Stiles had joined her, leaning against the car, stealing some of her curly fries before a hungry coyote could come over and do it instead. He wrapped an arm around the girl, asking if it was the night she wanted, whether she was happy despite a few mishaps. Like someone making them all late because they tried killing Scott when he arrived at the school, or Theo, someone he knew from his childhood returning, asking to be part of the pack, or because of the storm and all of the traffic it had caused, keeping Kira on the 115 until Scott rescued her.
Despite how they had gotten to this point, Kinsey was satisfied with how tonight had turned out, she was surrounded by six people who meant the world to her, she was officially a senior in high school, and she was standing in the last place she had seen Allison, making it feel as though they were doing this together. She couldn't be happier with how tonight turned out, even if there was going to be a few more questions about that beast-like creature in store for him tomorrow.
She thanked the boy, for getting Isaac here, for understanding how important this was to her. He understood why it was so important for her, it was important for him too. He admitted that Malia caught him earlier, that she made him confess why he reeked of anxiety, though he was lucky for Kinsey not to be able to do that yet, he still had her sister to look out for, because she caught him out, she always did. The Argent furrowed a brow, unsure what he had to be anxious about, out of everyone, he was the one who had always looked forward to this year the most, senior year was one of the first things he had ever talked about with her, telling her about this night, it was Stiles' fault that she had become so passionate about it.
"I asked my dad the other day about his high school friends. Guess how many he still talks to?" Stiles asked rhetorically. "None. Not a single one. You know, these were his best friends and he just lost touch with them, you know. So I started thinking about things, like I always do."
"Obsessively." Kinsey chimed in.
"Yeah, and so I'm thinking, what if... What if Scott's my best friend now, you know, but he's not a best friend for life?" Stiles rambled frantically. Kinsey questioned if that was just what happened sometimes, her eyes glancing over to Isaac, they had all drifted from him when he moved, it was just how things worked. Perhaps they were all talking now, but who was to say it would be like it after tonight? Sometimes the people they thought would be in their lives forever aren't, they die or they move away, talking less and less until it's impossible to remember the last conversation. "Yeah, only because we let it happen," Stiles told the girl. "You know, that's what I'm saying. How come when we graduate we're just expected to go our separate ways? If I've already found the best people in my life, why aren't I not trying to stay with them, you know?"
"I thought that was the plan. The dream." She questioned, a plan he had told her about eighteen months ago when she hardly knew him, how he had this big plan to be friends with Scott as long as possible, to share a dorm room with him, eventually, more people being added to it.
"The vision." Stiles corrected. "Don't mock the vision."
"I like the vision," Kinsey reassured him, she had liked the vision since he first told her, it was one she knew she wanted to be part of. She wanted them all to stay together, to know that they were all around the corner from each other, a part of the big moments of their lives, even after they all graduated. And then she realized, this night wasn't so important to her because it was a plan she had made for the future, it was Stiles' vision, it always was. "That's why you were so into helping me plan tonight. Because you don't want to lose your friends after senior year."
"I just thought that if we were all here tonight we would remember what it used to be like, then we will all want to keep that and, you know, stick together." He shrugged. "It just feels like things are changing and I can't stop it."
Kinsey nodded. She knew how that felt. Things were changing. Sooner than they thought.
a/n: this is quite a short chapter because it was pretty much all about senior scribe but it was heavy on the kisaac so i hope that makes up for it lol.