"... Na-na-ra-na-na, I don't want her, girl, I want you, yeah! Kissing on your neck, leave a tattoo, ah! Oh you got bad moves? You don't gotta ask, I'm that dude ..."
"When you said you wanted to take me out as a thank you, I thought the movies or maybe a pizza... not a gay club."
"It's not a gay club."
Violeta stared at the boy in front of her. Luis was a boy whom she had scant real interaction until he got shot. Up until that fateful night, it had just been occasionally saying hello when she saw him around the shop. Which was rare since he didn't really care much for cars. Instead, much of the time she saw him was actually when she went shopping for new clothes.
She knew.
And she knew that being gay wasn't something most in the community had fully accepted.
"Well that is a shame since that guy there who looks like Chris Hemsworth was definitely checking you out." Luis' head whipped so fast that Violeta couldn't help but begin laughing. "And he says he is straight."
"Look, I, uh, this place is—" she stopped him when she placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him.
"It's okay Luis. It's okay." She shrugged her shoulders as she looked around. "I haven't been to club in a while and this is nice because I know no one will try to dry hump me or spike my drink."
"People actually try that?"
"Well, they usually do until they realise who I am." Violeta admitted. Luis laughed. "Come on, it's your first night out of hospital and I'm honoured you want to spend it with me. I'll buy you a drink!" She pulled him to the bar and chewed on her lip when the bartender smiled and called Luis by name, asking how he was.
"I, uh," Luis stammered when Violeta leaned agains the bar-top with a very amused look.
"Uh, huh." She said. She turned to the bartender after Luis ordered two cocktails and asked him to make them virgin. "What?" Luis asked, making it sound like what she had just asked was an outrage.
"You got out of hospital yesterday." She said with a pointed look.
"You said you were going to buy me a drink!"
"Non-alcoholic. You're underage."
"I know the bartender." Luis said. "Besides now I feel bad for you!"
"Don't." She said. "I don't drink." It wasn't that she was underage - family gatherings didn't really pay much attention to the drinking age limits. She could have a drink if she wanted to, just like everyone else. It was that Violeta had seen too much negative side effects of the drink to ever try it. When she explained that to Luis, the mood quickly turned sombre.
"But you know, I do want to try one of those coffee cocktails!" She said, sounding enthusiastic and hoping to lift Luis spirits and the mood once more. He threw a hand in the air and yelled out, "Woooooo!" To which Violeta began giggling at.
"By the way, I would like to say I chose very well." Luis said, looking Violeta up and down. When Violeta said she didn't have anything for a club, Tomei said she could borrow something of hers. Violeta didn't look that excited but Luis was very, very, excited at the prospect of dress up.
And he said he wasn't gay.
Surprisingly, Tomei and Luis had managed to get Violeta into a dress. Well it was more of a tight shirt that was slightly long at the bottom that it earned 'dress' status. When they mentioned heels, Violeta gave them both one her most 'murder-y looking' death glares. In the end, there was compromise of a pair of those Fenty platform sneakers that Luis got all excited about and began singing Rihanna as Violeta slipped them on.
Once again, he claimed he wasn't gay.
Luis.
The same guy who had taken charge of her hair and make-up after Tomei admitted she didn't know much besides the basics - and was now sitting on a barstool, drinking some colourful, fruity drink with a straw and eyeing the men on the dance-floor. Violeta followed his line of sight and found him eyeing up one particular man who had a cowboy hat on and was actually rolling his hips impressively to the Spanish song.
"Go." Violeta said. "Dance with him."
"Oh, uh no." Luis said. "I, uh. He's really pretty."
"And you're gorgeous." Violeta said. "Come on, for me. You deserve to have fun." She smiled brightly as she sipped from her own drink. Luis chewed on his lip and then shook his head. Violeta sighed. "Fine, maybe this will help." She signalled the bartender over and asked for a shot of tequila.
As the bartender poured the transparent liquid in a shot glass in front of Luis, Violeta kept giving him words of encouragement. "You got this. Go!"
Luis downed it and then moved towards the dance-floor. She laughed and turned around, facing the bar and stirring her drink with her straw. As she did, she looked down at the tattoo of the sword on her right arm.
Her grandma appeared to only wake up for a few hours in the dead of the night in which she would wake up, compose poetry and then go back to sleep and continue to sleep through the rest of the day. So, Violeta hadn't spoken to her grandma in over three days. It was frustrating and it was terrifying. Not only in the sense that she couldn't tell her grandma about what was happening with the kanima and everything of the like - but also it all meant her grandma was getting closer and closer to death.
More than this, in not seeing her grandma, Violeta found herself feeling lonely. And in herself feeling lonely, she found herself gravitating to a certain someone. In the three days since she hadn't spoken to her grandmother, she hadn't left Stiles' side. This meant she had been going to school for three days straight. It was odd, especially since she would find every excuse in the book to spend time with the boy. Just today she found herself contemplating asking Coach if she could join the team so she'd have more time with him.
Sighing, Violeta wanted to punch herself in the face for sounding like some fucked up stalker who believed they were 'in love.' Which she wasn't— she definitely knew she wasn't in love with Stiles. There was no way she could be.
Even if she wanted to love him that way.
Dragging her finger across the sword, she saw the shape changed and morph back into the letters. Despite how her grandma hadn't been around, it didn't stop Violeta's own research. She had finally figured out exactly what it was that her grandma had done.
And she had been angry. She had thrown her book across the room and began swearing in every language she knew. She punched a hole in the wall. How dare she do that? Without my permission? Just spring it on me like that?! But after calming down, after letting her emotions play out and run out, she couldn't deny it. She couldn't deny that this was something done in the final stages. In the final stages of one's life, it must be done to prepare the protegida in training to ascend into duty. It was the final part; to find them so they can you keep you grounded while you served.
Violeta looked down at the letters that had been marked into her arm. The ten letters which made up a complicated name of the one her soul had been created in conjunction with. The letters morphed back into the sword and Violeta continued to stir her drink.
Stiles was six letters.
She needed four more.
"Dude! Everyone in here's a dude!" Violeta heard a disturbingly familiar voice call out. "I think we're in a gay club."
"Man, nothing gets past those keen werewolf senses huh, Scott?"
Violeta's head snapped up as she saw the boy she'd been thinking about amidst a few drag queens who were stroking his face and lovingly petting him. Unable to resist herself, she picked up her drink and came to stand next to Scott who was staring at Stiles.
"Violeta!" Stiles exclaimed when the girl came into view. At first, he had thought it was some random girl who had seen a hot looking straight male (he was talking about Scott) and wanted to take her chances. Instead, he saw the green eyes and realised with shock just who the beautiful girl in the little black dress was.
He felt his breath rush out of him as the cut outs of her dress displayed patches of smooth olive skin. Her curls were done in some elaborate up do that still had some of her hair coming down and laying on her bare shoulder. Her cherry red lips were coated in lipstick that accentuated them as she sucked on a straw to drink from whatever coloured thing was in her hands.
He gulped.
"Woah!" Scott said, surprised when he too realised it was Violeta. "You look pretty!"
"Well I am in a gay bar, so of course I'm going to dress up to impress guys." Scott threw his head back in laughter and she smiled at him. She looked at Stiles who managed to escape the drag queens and come to stand closer to them.
"A friend of mine wanted to go out." Violeta explained. "I'm assuming this was his coming out." She turned to see Luis now gyrating against the cowboy. She laughed and shook her head.
"Isn't that Carlos' son?" Stiles asked.
"Uh," her smile dropped when she realised that if Carlos found out that Luis had come here, that he had often come here, that he was actually in fact... "how about you two keep this on the down low since no one knows about Luis and I think he should tell everyone when he feels comfortable."
"He told you." Stiles said.
"I'm not most people." She replied. She then needed something to change the subject and looked down at the drink in her hands. "Are you guys thirsty?" Stiles' face lit up and Scott tore his eyes away from something and let Stiles push him to the bar. Stiles asked what Violeta was drinking and she handed him her drink. Seeing Scott's distracted state, she gave a nervous laugh and poked Scott.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're into girls?"
"Yeah?" Scott asked the same time as Stiles spat out her drink. He came up close to the pair and immediately asked, "W-W-Why do you ask?" She gave Stiles a funny look and shook her head.
"Because your best friend here appears distracted by some of the men on the dance floor." She explained. "Why else would I be asking—" she stopped and realised how nervously asking if Scott was into girls may have been taken. "Oh, uh. Wow. No. I, uh. I apologise Scott, you're very kind and decent looking but, um, no. I'm sorry. No way."
Scott laughed and Stiles let out a big phew of relief that, when Violeta threw him a questioning look, he turned away and noisily sipped from her drink. Scott then explained to her that they had come here following the kanima and saw Danny enter in.
"Danny?"
"From school." Scott replied. She looked at Stiles who had finished her drink and asked the bartender for two beers.
The bartender stopped, seized them up, laughed and then asked for ID. The boys both hastily pulled out their driver's licenses and she winced, knowing this wouldn't end well.
"How about two cokes?" The bartender then asked with a laugh.
"Rum and cokes? Sure!" Stiles asked and he bounced his heat to the beat of the song. The bartender stared at him for a short, silent moment. "Coke's fine. I'm driving anyway!" Stiles said, continuing to bob his head and maintain some dignity. Violeta patted his back and gave him an apologetic look.
"I don't get how you got a drink thought."
"It was virgin." Stiles stared at her, horrified. "It means non-alcoholic, Stiles. I don't drink alcohol."
"You don't... drink?" He asked, clearly surprised. She tried to not be offended by that. Once again, she muttered what she told Luis and Stiles promptly shut up about that.
"Anything for you sweetheart?" The bartender asked, smiling at her. Violeta was about to order one of those coffee cocktails she'd heard Tomei tell her about before they left when Stiles wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
"She's, uh, actually has a boyfriend." Stiles said, apparently coming to her rescue. The bartender stared at Stiles once more and shook his head, looking at Violeta. She ordered a virgin espresso cocktail and turned to Stiles, chewing on her lip to keep from laughing even more.
"You do realise he was gay, huh?"
"What? The bartender?" Stiles asked. "Oh, right. Sorry. I thought he was, like, you know... trying to put a move." He said and did some weird hand movements with the last part.
"Which I couldn't defend myself from?" Violeta asked, crossing her knees and tilting her head. She gave Stiles an expectant look to which he began blinking and his mouth moved but said no coherent words, doing that thing he does when he's been caught out and is thinking of an adequate lie.
"I, uh, just, was... uh, we're in a club and he called you sweetheart which is a very derogatory sounding pet name that shady guys in clubs always use and you're in a this very..." he once again made some elaborate hand gestures, "... sort of dress and I thought to just, you know, like—"
"Try to defend my honour because you're a gentleman?" She offered.
"Yeah, I should've just said that."
"You really should've."
"This one's paid for."
Stiles frowned when the bartender came with two Cokes and the one placed in front of Scott prompted a guy from the other side of the bar to wiggle his eyebrows and wave his hand at Scott. The werewolf giggled—actually giggled and Stiles told Scott to shut up.
"I didn't say anything."
"You well your face did." Stiles said, rounding on his best friend. Violeta rolled her eyes and placed a twenty dollar bill when the bartender placed her drink of her. She gestured to the annoyed Stiles beside her and he nodded.
"This one's paid for also." The bartender said, placing Stiles' Coke in front of him. Stiles paused and a smug grin came on his face as he adjusted his hoodie and started bobbing his head to the music. The bartender once again stared at the freckled boy who asked him who he had to thank.
The bartender just pointed to Violeta who innocently sipped on her cocktail.
"Really? You paid for my drink?" Stiles said, taking it quite upset. "And here I thought someone found me cute but oh no it's just..." Stiles began muttering to himself when Violeta sighed and said something that was probably a mistake.
"I never said you weren't cute."
"... a pity drink she got me a pity drink— wait, what?"
"I said I never said you weren't cute." Violeta faced the bar but turned her head to face Stiles. "Besides, you did just loudly proclaim you were my boyfriend so no one was going to buy you a drink."
"Oh." Was all he could say. Violeta smiled when she saw the red creep up his neck. "Well, um, thanks for the drink." He said, holding up his cup. Violeta bumped it with his. The boy turned around to lean backwards on the bar, nodding his head again to the dance music. He looked over at Violeta and asked, "So is there any boyfriend? Like in the picture? Any guys you're interested in?"
She froze and looked down at her bare arm. She looked up at him and tried to remain calm. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, just, you know..." Stiles waved his hand around, "Don't want some guy to get all jealous cause I, uh, pretended back there to be, uh, your um—"
"My boyfriend?" She supplied when she realised he had begun awkwardly stuttering again.
"Yeah." He said. "That."
"Hey guys I found Danny!" Scott called out, looking at the dance floor and grabbing Stiles' arm.
"Would you just-" Stiles let it go and sighed, following his friend. He took a few steps then paused when he realised Violeta hadn't followed. "You coming?"
"I'm here with a friend." She said, scouting for Luis... whom she found holding a the cowboy's hand and walking out the exit. "Hold up," she said, pulling out her phone from her bra. This prompted Stiles to become all flabbergasted and look away when she saw a message from Luis.
i'm sorry for ditching but he has to go pick up his niece from gymnastics and asked me to come! we're going for icecream! wish me luck!
Violeta looked down at her phone and sighed.
"Did you just get ditched?" Stiles asked. She nodded and got up to follow him. They made the way into the dance floor and Violeta began to realise just how close everyone was together. Whilst she could make her way with her senses, she wasn't sure how Stiles could cope. Before she could lose him, she grabbed his hand in a tight grip. He looked back at her and she didn't bother saying anything because he wouldn't hear it. Instead, he just took the lead and made the way through the mosh together.
When she heard the sounds of the kanima, she pushed forward to try and tell Stiles but someone pushed her flush against Stiles' body. They both were surprised at how they ended like this but Violeta decided to just wrap her hand around his neck. Awkwardly, Stiles' settled somewhere above her hips.
"The kanima is here!" She yelled going close to his ear so he could properly hear what she's saying. Stiles' eyes grew. It was then that the guy next to them fell to the ground, limp and unable to move. Violeta jumped back and instantly grabbed Stiles' hand again. She wasn't sure where Scott and when she tried to find him, she realised there was another werewolf here.
"Derek's here." She once again yelled into Stiles' ear. She heard growling and shrieking and moved Stiles away from the direction of the sounds. "Come on." He followed her.
Following their trail, one in every so often, a body would fall limp and paralysed. She felt that they were being baited— that she was being baited.
The kanima knew she had a weakness and it was toying with her.
They ran outside and found Scott crouching besides the blue Jeep, a bloody and naked Jackson laying there. "What do we do with him?"
It was Violeta that took action. "Pick him up and put him in Stiles' trunk. We were seen and if we leave now it'll look suspicious." When Scott did that, Stiles made a comment about him being naked which she gave a pointed glare about. She came around and inspected his face, leaning down to hear his heart-rate. "He's out cold," she said, "he won't go anywhere while we wait for the cops to show up."
"Cops?" Stiles
"How many people fell to the ground paralysed?" She asked. "Someone would have called 9/11." She saw the defeated slump in his shoulders and she took a step forward and squeezed his arm. "It sucks, I know." Stiles didn't say anything, so Violeta moved her arm and wrapped it around his middle. "You'll be okay." She said, hugging him.
"I'm gonna go check on Danny." Scott said, once he was done moving Jackson to the Jeep.
"No, no. You know what? Screw it. I'm done. We're gonna leave." Stiles said. "No one's seen me and I can't lie to him again not again." He said shaking his head. Violeta saw his eyes well up and she nodded.
"Okay, okay." She said, letting him go and moving back to the Jeep. "We'll leave now. Just calm down. Everything will be okay. Okay?"
"Okay." Stiles agreed, letting her words reassure him a little bit. "I'm gonna text Scott." As he pulled out his phone, he tossed Violeta the keys and she was surprised that he wanted her to drive. Not thinking now was a good time to question Stiles, she wordlessly got into the driver's seat and and stared the engine. Stiles came around and got into the passenger seat.
"He's on his way." He turned to Violeta. "Police are starting to show up so if any deputy sees me say my car was getting fixed and you took it out." She blinked, thinking how smart that was and nodded. As they waited for Scott, Stiles began to tap. The tapping got a lot quicker and more erratic. Trying to diffuse the situation, Violeta spoke.
"You know, you're a lot smarter than I look."
He paused and looked at her. He opened his mouth to say something but Scott got into the back, saying that he got nothing out of Danny. Violeta changed gears and was ready to go until a certain police cruiser promptly parked right in front of the Jeep.
"Oh my god! Oh my God! Could this get any worse?" Stiles asked. Behind the three of them, Jackson groaned, signalling him slowly waking up. "That was rhetorical!" He snapped at the naked boy.
"Stiles, relax." Violeta said and spun in her seat and snapped her fingers. Jackson's head lolled to the side and he began snoring again. She got out of the car, looking back at a freaking out Stiles. She cupped her hands and yelled out, "MILK AND COOKIES!"
The teenager blinked, recognising the famous comedic skit of one Bernie Mac. Stiles felt the air rush out of him as relief came. Sometimes, he wondered how far Scott and him had come without Violeta. He turned to Scott and then climbed out of the Jeep after her.
Stiles walked up to his father, who had his arms crossed and looking very confused at Violeta. When he entered the scene however, his confusion turned to anger. "What are you doing here?
"What do you mean what am I doing here?" Stiles asked, turning up the wit. "It's a club. We were clubbing. Y'know... at the club." Violeta resisted the urge to sigh at Stiles' efforts. The sheriff turned to Violeta who shrugged and gave a 'what can you do?' sort of look to Noah. He in turn looked back at the establishment then back at the two teenagers in front of him.
"Not exactly your type of club." Noah commented.
Stiles stared at the sign, JUNGLE, then looked at Violeta. "Ahh..." He began as Violeta chewed on her lip, knowing that this came down to him since she was a girl and this was all-male gay sort of club. Stiles took a small breath and adjusted himself to look at his dad, not believing he was about to do this— and in front of Violeta as well. "Well, dad, there's a conversation we need—"
"—you're not gay." Noah interrupted. His eyes glanced at Violeta who had turned her face away as a vain attempt to prevent them from seeing the laughter she was dying to hold in.
"What? I could be!" Stiles replied, sounding offended.
"Not dressed like that." The sheriff said. He also made a gesture with his eyes at his son towards the girl stood beside them and Stiles' mouth dropped open and shook his head.
"I don't understand." Stiles mumbled, looking down at his clothes. "What's— okay, okay, uh, dad," he stopped, coming around to stop his dad from walking towards the Jeep. "The truth is—"
"—we were on a date."
Both Stilinski men turned in shock to look at the girl hugging herself in the cold. She stepped forward and looked Stiles in the eye for a moment before turning to the sheriff. "We were on a date." She repeated. "We've actually been dating for a while now but no one knows. That's why we came to a gay bar because no one who would know would go there and bother us." She said, the lie slipping so easily from her mouth. "We were leaving as soon as we saw Danny from school."
Noah looked at Stiles who didn't know what to say. Violeta took charge as she came and wrapped an arm around his middle. She snuggled in close to him, not trying to dwell on her comfortable that actually was. She felt Stiles bring his arm up and wrap around her shoulders.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"That was my fault." Violeta jumped in once more. "I wasn't sure how you'd take it since you know my record and who I am and it was your son." She said, not realising how true that would if they were to ever have actually dated in real life. Violeta bit down hard on her lip, willing those thoughts away as she focused on trying to make her friend's life a little easer.
"Oh!" Noah said with a laugh. "You two would be happy to know I've been rooting for you two. I sorta wished to introduce you guys but didn't know how. Then when I saw you that night, I thought maybe." Noah stared at the pair with a happy smile. "You two do make a cute couple."
Violeta looked at Stiles who looked at Violeta. They both gave a nervous smile at each other then looked at the sheriff. "Well, then. I'll let you guys finish your date. I'm sorry it had to end this way... and that you thought you couldn't tell me."
"It's, uh, it's okay dad." Stiles said. Violeta nodded at the sheriff and said goodbye as Noah told Stiles he'd see him at home later tonight.
They walked back to the Jeep, arms around each other. "You should drive." Violeta said as they went to the passenger side. He blinked and opened the door for her. "Oh, right, sorry."
"It's okay, thanks for getting me out of it."
"It's okay, sorry for it being something... like that."
"It's okay."
"Okay."
"Okay."
Violeta climbed into the car and rubbed her hands together. Scott frowned at her and stared at his friend who climbed into the driver's seat without his hoodie. He passed it over to Violeta who accepted it with a stuttered thank you and Scott heard it.
Her heart skipped a beat.