Chapter six
Stories & feelings
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Everything was wrong.
A female surgeon got taken, Deaton got taken as well (but then Scott found him in a bank vault where Boyd and Cora were held by the Alphas), Lydia kept drawing trees, the gang found out that the sacrifices were happening at something called 'telluric currents' and Boyd died during a fight with the Alphas.
It was a mess.
Flora hated everything about the last few weeks. She never saw Derek so heartbroken, the image of him kneeling in front of Boyd's lifeless body was in her head for days now.
Isaac Lahey was now the only living member of Derek's pack. And that was terrifying.
The former blonde still couldn't believe how their lives went from normal to a supernatural mess.
"Because over the last few weeks, my best friend and someone I care about very much tried to kill themselves, Scott's boss nearly got ritually sacrificed, a girl that I've known since I saw three was ritually sacrificed. Boyd was killed by Alphas. You want me to keep going?"
The girl snapped out of her thoughts as Stiles started ranting about why he wanted to know where Derek was. The two of them were currently at Derek's loft, trying to find out where the men went.
"You think Derek can do anything about that?" Cora asked and took a step closer towards the boy, ignoring Flora's sigh from the couch.
"Well, since he's the one everyone seems to be after, it's more like he should do something about it." The teenage boy snapped and crossed his arms, frustrated that Cora wasn't helping.
"I don't know. There's something different about him now." Cora whispered, acknowledging that her brother was acting differently than the last time she saw him. "He wasn't like this when I knew him." She added louder.
"What was he like?" Stiles asked and sat next to Flora.
"A lot like Scott, actually."
Flora groaned when she saw Peter Hale on the top of the staircase.
"What did I ever do to you?" Peter raised his eyebrows when he noticed Flora's annoyed expression.
The brunette grimaced. "You're joking right?" She recalled all her memories of Peter and how her life turned into shit when he appeared.
Peter clicked his tongue at the young girl. "Maybe you'll thank me one day." He smirked and walked down.
Flora was about to jump from her seat, angry that the man had the nerve to talk back but a soft grip on her thigh made her sit back. Stiles patted her leg, showing that they needed to hear what he had to say, even if she didn't like it.
"If I can continue..." Peter rolled his eyes and leaned over the desk that was probably the only decent furniture in the creepy loft. "...A lot like most teenagers. Unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic, tolerable really only to the other teenagers." He ranted, not giving them a solid answer.
Flora eyed the man. "So what changed him?" She questioned and dragged Stiles towards the big table, where the Hale family stood.
Peter stared at the kids in front of them. "The same thing that changes a lot of young men." He smirked at Stiles. "A girl."
Flora felt her cheeks getting red when she saw how Peter watched her and Stiles.
"You're telling me some girl broke his little heart?" Stiles roared, not realizing that Peter was sending small hints at him and Flora.
Peter ignored the teenage boy and turned his attention towards his niece. "Do you remember how Derek had blue eyes before he was an Alpha?" He questioned, not even bothering waiting for an answer before he looked at Stiles again. "Do you know why some wolves have blue eyes?"
Flora scrunched her eyebrows. "Isn't it like a genetic thing?"
This question started a story about Derek's first love and his first heartbreak.
"Okay, so if Derek was a sophomore back then, how old was he? How old were you? How old are you now?" Stiles interrupted Peter's storytelling, confused by the timeline of the whole situation.
Flora honestly didn't care, she was excited about finding more about Derek and his first girl, Paige.
"Not as young as we could have been, but not as old you might think," Peter answered, enjoying that the teenage boy was frustrated by the lack of information.
Stiles groaned. "What happened to Derek and the cello girl?" He asked, too annoyed by Peter.
Peter sat up straight, enjoying the empty couch. "What do you think happened? They're teenagers, they went from 'I hate you' to making out in dark corners."
Flora gulped and awkwardly shifted in her seat, her sexual frustrations were growing lately and the fact that Stiles checked her out during Peter's 'making out in dark corners' speech made it even harder to focus back on the story.
"Just continue." Flora motioned her hand at the male, showing him to keep talking.
Peter continued with the story, talking about how they loved sneaking into some abandoned building outside of Beacon Hills.
"Okay hold up." Stiles stopped the werewolf again. "How do you know all this?"
Flora tilted her head, realizing that Stiles made a good point, how could Peter know that Derek's and Paige's secret make-out place was an abandoned distillery?
"Back then, I wasn't just Derek's uncle. I was his best friend. His closest confidante. That's how I know." Peter snapped, showing how irrelevant that question was.
Flora snickered. "And look how that turned out for him."
Peter rolled his eyes at the teenage girl but continued with the story.
Flora listened to the story while trying to hold her breath, she was afraid that her breathing would somehow interrupt the male in front of them. The brunette was always a romantic person, even though she was good at hiding it, but the story of Derek and Paige showed off her soft side.
"Derek has it tattoed on his back." Flora acknowledged the mark for vendetta that Peter drew on the foggy window after telling them about a werewolf that was murdered in cold blood.
"Man, you guys really take that revenge thing to a whole new level don't you?" Stiles teased the man.
Flora snorted and hid her face in Stiles' flannel, not wanting to anger the werewolf even more.
"It's not just revenge," Cora spoke up for the first time in a while. "Losing a member of your pack isn't like losing family. It's like you lose a limb." She educated them angrily.
"They wouldn't even let him see the body." Peter sighed, continuing to tell them how Ennis' revenge for losing a member of his pack led to Derek's blue eyes.
The two girls groaned. "I don't get it, what does it have to do with Derek?" Cora asked her uncle, chuckling a little when she saw the same confused expression on Flora's face.
Peter finally turned towards the trio. "Everything. It's never just a single moment." He walked away from the window and started explaining the connection. "It's a confluence of events. Personally, I looked at Ennis' circumstances, I saw a profound loss. Derek saw something different."
Flora cleared her throat. "He saw opportunity didn't he?" She whispered, slowly catching where this was going.
A look of puzzlement crossed Stiles' face when he heard Flora. "An opportunity for what?"
Peter looked from Flora to Stiles. "To always be with her." He answered and continued with the story. "He had this constant fear. He was obsessing over it."
The story was good, very good for Flora's liking. She really wanted to trust Peter but something about him still made her unsure. The girl liked to blame it on the fact that he almost killed her.
The male was telling the teens that he tried to stop Derek from turning Page but Flora couldn't bring herself to trust him. He wasn't that type of a guy who would do something nice for others, even if it was his own nephew.
The story went on and suddenly the reason why Derek had blue eyes was so clear.
Ennis needed a new member for his pack so he bit Paige and he almost turned her.
"Most of the time, the bite takes," Peter mumbled, hesitant about how to continue with the story.
Stiles looked up from his lap. "When you offered it to me, you said 'If it doesn't kill you.."
Flora knitted her eyebrows at the boy next to her, she never knew that Peter offered the bite to Stiles. She was pleased that the boy refused to accept the 'gift'. Flora liked him as a human.
"If." Peter nodded and continued with the story.
Flora's eyes watered as she listened to how Paige have tried to fight for her life, how she tried to resist the negative effect of the bite, how Derek tried to take Paige's pain away but it wasn't enough for her to live.
Derek Hale was fifteen when he killed Paige so she didn't have to suffer anymore.
"I remember taking her body from his arms, to the woods, to a place where I knew it would be found. Another in a long line of Beacon Hills animal attacks."
Flora sniffed and instantly wiped away the tear that fell out of her brown eye. "What about Derek?" She asked with a quiet voice. This story changed her opinion on Derek completely, Flora suddenly understood his behavior better.
Peter sighed and continued playing with his fingers. "Taking an innocent life takes something from you as well. Bit of your soul. Darkening it." He flashed his steel blue werewolf eyes at the three of them, showing that he was telling the truth.
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Flora stayed silent the whole ride home and that made Stiles uncomfortable.
"Are you okay?" He looked at the girl and took his right hand off the steering wheel, ready to squeeze her hand.
"I think we only saw Peter's perspective and it makes me feel weird," Flora admitted and ran her hand through her brunette locks, not noticing Stiles' hand reaching for hers.
Stiles hummed and rapidly put his hand back on the steering wheel, too embarrassed to grab her hand now.
The two of them stayed silent, both of them thinking about each other. Stiles was thinking about how awkward it would be if Flora noticed that he wanted to grab her hand and Flora was replaying a certain quote in her head.
"if you love someone, you tell them. Even if you're scared that it's not the right thing. Even if you're scared that it'll cause problems. Even if you're scared that it will burn your life to the ground, you say it, and you say it loud and you go from there"
That quote from Grey's Anatomy kept replaying in her brain ever since they left the loft. The story of Derek's first love got into her heart and made her realize how short life really was, especially in their situation.
The teens went through an introduction to the supernatural world, psycho Alpha Peter, the school jock being a murder lizard, then human sacrifices and an Alpha pack.
Flora shivered when she remembered how many times she or the others haven't almost made it. She was done with postponing things or waiting for other people to do the first step.
"Stiles, stop the car." She demanded, ignoring how her stomach started to feel bubbly.
Stiles whipped his head towards the girl. "Are you feeling sick Flora? Please don't vomit inside Roscoe." He begged and slammed his foot against the breaks. The two of them were lucky that the road was clear.
Flora chuckled slightly at the fact that Stiles named his jeep Roscoe but when she saw the worried look on his face she pressed her lips into a thin line. Her eyes bore into his and Flora moved her head closer to him. He sat frozen, not knowing what was going on.
Flora leaned in and closed the gap between the two of them. Stiles' eyes widened when he felt Flora's soft lips on his. The kiss came out of nowhere but both of them needed it, the only kiss they shared was when they defeated the Kanima and that wasn't enough for them, especially since it occurred almost five months ago.
It took a couple of seconds for Stiles to realize what was happening but the moment he realized that Flora was kissing him, he grabbed her head with his hands and deepened the kiss, not hesitating to slide his tongue inside her mouth. Flora's lips tasted like mint, thanks to her lip balm, and Stiles's lips tasted like the Sprite he was drinking earlier.
The two of them started enjoying the kiss a little too much, completely ignoring that they were on the side of a road. Flora was running her right hand through Stiles' hair while she pushed herself off the passengers seat, using her left hand. Stiles didn't stop kissing her lips even when she ended up sitting in his lap, he waited for this moment for too long.
After a hot makeout session, the two finally separated with shaky breaths and messy hair. Flora leaned in, so her forehead rested against Stiles'.
She closed her eyes for a couple of seconds before speaking up. "I like you a lot Stiles, and I think you like me too," Flora confessed, out of breath from making out. "I won't pretend that I didn't hurt you, because I did, and I know that it was wrong." She swallowed and hugged herself slightly. "But I think that we would make a really good pair and life is too short."
A huge grin appeared on Stiles' face as he kissed Flora again. "Of course I l-"
Stiles was cut off by two different ringtones. Flora groaned and slowly sat back into her seat, hoping that she would find her phone in the mess she kept in her purse.
"It's Scott," Stiles explained and picked up the call, leaving only one phone ringing.
Flora unlocked her phone when the ringing stopped, the missed call from Lydia was the first thing she saw, Isaac's text 'Yo, your dad is cooking, please bring me takeout' was the second thing she saw.
"We'll be right there." Stiles nodded and started the jeep. "Lydia found another body." He announced when he noticed how confused Flora looked.
Flora silently nodded and put on a seatbelt, ready to see another dead body, it was their new normal after all. "Let's go then." She sighed and tried to fix her messy hair.
Stiles gulped and closed his eyes for a second before starting the car. He was disappointed that his moment with Flora was destroyed by Scott and the psycho Darach, but he knew that it wasn't their last moment either.
Flora's gaze followed the houses they drove by as the blue jeep stopped at the school's parking lot. The girl let out a shaky breath and stepped out of the vehicle, her legs shaking. "What?" She whispered to the girls when they raised their eyebrows.
Allison put a hand over her mouth when she saw the pair's appearance. "Your hair and your lipstick." The girl whispered and slowly touched Flora's messy hair.
Lydia looked at Stiles, who had the same mess on his head as Flora. "We can talk about you two making out later, we need to find the dead body." She ordered.
Scott looked away from Flora and Stiles as he smelled the sexual tension from them. "What do you mean? You told us that you found a dead body." He scrunched his eyebrows at Lydia.
"I can feel it but you're finding the dead bodies from now on." Lydia pointed at the pack nervously.
Stiles sighed. "Lydia that's kind of your job."
"I found the dead body," Scott announced suddenly, ignoring the bickering teens behind him.
Flora looked up from her arguing friends and saw the body of a female deputy on the 'Beacon Hills High School' sign. The girl recognized the woman immediately, Tara was the first woman who helped her with girl stuff after her mother died.
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"I can't even mention your make-out session with Stiles without feeling guilty about the dead deputy." Lydia sighed and dragged her friend towards Mrs. Blake's class.
Flora sighed. "Don't even remind me, I feel guilty enough." She mumbled and took off her grey blazer, the nerves making her sweat. "But I think we moved somewhere with our situation." She grinned and pulled out her English textbook.
Lydia playfully rolled her eyes but squeezed Flora's hand, happy that the two stubborn teenagers eventually made up. "Well, it was about time."
Flora hummed as her cheeks started to get pink. She hoped that after the Recital that was happening that night, she would be able to talk to Stiles about the previous evening.
"Idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes, all tools the writer uses to tell their story." Jennifer Blake started lecturing the class but stopped when she saw the drawing in Lydia's textbook. "Lydia, I wasn't aware you had so many hidden talents." She complimented the girl with a smile.
Lydia looked up. "You and every guy I've ever dated." She sassed the woman, which made her frown.
Flora snorted, quickly hiding with a cough so Jennifer Blake wouldn't give her one of those famous stares.
"Well, that was an idiom, by the way." Blake awkwardly stated and started walking again. "Idioms are something of a secret to the people who know the language or the culture."
Flora raised her eyebrows and scratched her cheek in confusion when Blake stopped in front of Scott and Stiles, giving them a known look.
"They're phrases that only make sense if you know key words." Jennifer Blake turned away from the boys to the whole class. "Saying 'Jump the gun' is meaningful only if you know about the starting gun in a race or a phrase like 'seeing the whole board'."
"Like chess," Stiles whispered.
Blake nodded. "That's right, Stiles. Do you play?" She questioned with a surprised grin.
"No. My father does."
Jennifer Blake nodded with a smile before walking away, continuing her lesson which made the two boys talk.
"What now?" Lydia asked when the two boys turned at her with a pleading look and silly smiles.
Their plan was cool but stupid - as always. Lydia was making out with Aiden in Finstock's while Scott, Stiles, and Flora were talking to Ethan, who was known as the calmer twin.
"Why are you even talking to me? I helped kill your friend." Ethan pointed out to the three of them.
Flora hummed a silent 'good point' and stepped closer to Stiles as her high heels didn't give her much stability, she decided to hold on to him.
"How do you know I'm not gonna kill another one?" The Alpha threatened, gazing at the female beside Stiles.
Stiles straightened up, noticing how the werewolf stared at Flora. "Is he looking at Flora? Are you threatening her?" He raised his eyebrows and took a step closer, ignoring that Flora grabbed his hand to tug him back. "You know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to break off an extra-large branch of Mountain Ash, wrap it in wolfsbane, roll it in mistletoe, and show it up to your freakin-"
Scott and Flora pulled Stiles back, stopping him from threatening Ethan. Scott looked serious, while Flora tried to hold in a smirk, Stiles was hot.
"Stiles, we get it." Scott chuckled nervously and patted his chest with an awkward smile. "We're talking to you because I know that you didn't want to kill Boyd." He explained.
"And we think that if something like that happened now, you wouldn't do it again." Flora continued. The girl knew that Ethan wasn't evil, he was just under a bad influence.
Ethan's eyes softened for a moment when he heard the girl. "You don't know what we owe them, especially Deucalion." He admitted, earning confused stares from Flora and Stiles.
"So tell us." Flora crossed her arms and showed him that she wanted to hear the whole story.
Ethan sighed but nodded. "We weren't like Kali and Ennis when we met him. We weren't Alphas. We were Omegas." The werewolf admitted quietly as if he was ashamed of it.
"In actual wolf packs, Omegas are the scapegoat, the last to eat, the one who has to take the abuse from the rest of the pack." He explained.
"So you and your brother were, like, the bitches of the pack?" Stiles mocked, which earned him a small slap on the arm from Flora.
"Something like that." Ethan hissed. "They were killers. People talk about us as monsters. Well, they were the ones who gave us a reputation. And our Alpha was the worst of them." The boy shivered by the memory of his former Alpha.
"Why didn't you guys just fight back?" Stiles asked, confused how was this relevant.
"We couldn't, we didn't know how to control it back then," Ethan growled at the boy, angry that he kept asking stupid questions.
"Deucalion taught you." Scott acknowledged.
Ethan nodded slowly. "And then, we fought. We took down the whole pack, one-by-one. And by the time we got to our Alpha, he was begging for his life. And we tore him apart!" He snapped, making Flora jump a little. It was weird as if she could actually see the red color of anger around him.
Suddenly Ethan started gasping in pain and touched his chest.
The trio looked at the guy in shock. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Scott asked, not stepping closer.
Ethan shook his head. "Not me. My brother." He answered with heavy breathing.
All of them knew where the fight could be, so the four teenagers rushed towards the lockers room where Aiden was fighting a pretty beaten-up Cora.
Flora didn't hesitate and rushed towards Lydia, who was kneeling next to Cora while the guys pushed Aiden aside, stopping him from hurting her even more.
"Aiden, you can't do this!" Ethan yelled at his twin brother angrily.
"She came at me!" Aiden spat, not breaking his gaze from the girl at the ground.
Flora stopped listening when she noticed blood pouring out of a wound on Cora's head. She instantly grabbed the pack of tissues she kept in her purse and started dabbing one of them in Cora's injury. "Are you okay?" She looked at Lydia and squeezed her forearm, her eyes looking for any bruises or injures on her body.
Lydia nodded quietly but kept her focus on the Hale girl in front of them.
The two Alphas left the room without as much concern for Cora, leaving the pack alone.
"She doesn't look okay," Lydia stated when they watched Flora cleaning up Cora's forehead.
The long-haired girl groaned. "I'll heal." Her hand gently slapped Flora's arm away as she stood up from the bench.
"Yeah sure." Flora mocked when Cora almost fell to the ground, being dizzy from the hit.
"I said I'm fine." She darkly snapped, not wanting any help from the teenagers.
"Do you realize how suicidally crazy that was?" Stiles stepped in, not understanding why the girl would do something like that. "What were you thinking, going after them?"
"I did it for Boyd!" She yelled. "None of you were doing anything," Cora added with a calmer voice that was full of disappointment.
"We're trying." Scott sighed.
"And you're failing. You're just a bunch of stupid teenagers running around, thinking that you can stop people from getting killed. But all you do is show up late." Cora laughed sarcastically and looked at every single member of the pack. "All you really do is find the bodies. God, the only working person here is Scott, Flora doesn't even a thing about her powers." She snapped before storming out of the room.
Flora sharply sucked in a deep breath and stared at the spot where Cora was standing. She hated to admit it but the girl was right, they haven't done anything helping the situation.
"Well, she's definitely a Hale." Stiles joked, trying to lighten the mood. "Flora and I will make sure she gets home." He announced when he noticed that everyone stayed silent.
"Bye," Flora whispered and left the room with Stiles.