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Aspen sidestepped a few seniors that were gathered outside the front doors of the school. Lydia had rushed to her counselor's appointment while Allison stayed outside on the picnic tables to finish some leftover homework. Aspen quickly twirled her hair into a low bun while Lydia's green hair stick was pressed between her lips. The pretty redhead insisted it would bring her outfit together, and Aspen knew it would have been stupid to deny her insistent request.
Seeing as her hands were occupied, Aspen's eyes slightly brightened upon seeing the glass door held open by a group of girls. She hastened her pace, her leather backpack bouncing against her hip.
"Wai wai!" Aspen murmured loudly around the hair stick that she kept in her mouth. But the group ignored her plea, and Aspen skidded to a stop once the door practically slammed in her face. She glared at the girls disdainfully through the glass and huffed through her nose. Her reflection showed strands of her hair were already slipping from place, and she cursed herself for not fixing it earlier.
"Damsel in distress?"
Aspen didn't have to look back to familiarize the voice with that of Stiles. The boy appeared by her side with a cheeky grin, gripping his backpack as he looked down at the girl.
"I love you," Aspen said as she finally stabbed the stick in her hair and dropped her hands to her side.
"I know," he sang confidently, swinging the door open and waited till Aspen stepped inside to fall in step with her down the loud, bustling hallway. Stiles glanced down at Aspen before doing a double-take and slightly leaning forward to get a better look.
Aspen raised a brow at his staring but offered a crooked smile as she adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder. "What?" she asked.
"Is that Lydia lip gloss?" he asked, nodding toward the dark red gloss that painted her full lips.
Aspen laughed softly and tilted her head toward Stiles. "How'd you know it was hers?" she inquired and grinned when Stiles began to gape with red-tinted cheeks.
"I'm--I'm intuitive," he said defensively with a quirk of his shoulder, letting his eyes wander the hall in search of Scott.
Aspen hummed quizzically with her lips pressed together and slightly squinted her eyes. "I think you're just Lydia-intuitive," she contradicted.
"That's not even a thing."
Aspen shrugged, "Whatever. I mean, she did wear it last Tuesday, so maybe that's why you recognize it."
Stiles barked a sharp laugh, bringing Aspen to furrow her brows at the boy, "She wore it on Thursday, not T--"
Aspen gave Stiles a teasing, pointed look, satisfied that she didn't have to press her point any farther. Stiles groaned and shoved his shoulder into her, nearly knocking her into the lockers. She revolted with pushing him back, and the boy broke into a smile as he adjusted his flannel.
"Alright, truce. I gotta fill you in on stuff before you go concussing me." Stiles explained.
Aspen noticed his voice dropping an octave and assumed it was something serious. "What happened?" she asked.
Stiles looked around for prying ears and settled on pulling Aspen by her forearm toward a set of steps. They sat down, and Aspen waited with worry lines creased on her forehead. Stiles huffed quietly and placed his elbows on his knee before folding his hands. From the anxious shake of his legs and his paranoid stricken eyes darting about, she gathered that something happened to him that he was reluctant to speak of.
"Last night, I was at the repair shop for my jeep." he started, briefly making eye contact with her before continuing. "then that thing showed up."
Aspen felt an ache in her chest at the thought of something happening to Stiles, and she unknowingly scooted closer to him, shoving a loose strand from her face. "Are you okay? Did it hurt you?"
From the slight tremor in her tone, Stiles turned to and shook his head. "No, I'm okay. It left some kind of slimy substance on the door, and it paralyzed me for a while." Stiles scrunched his face just talking about it.
"What did it look like?" Aspen asked, wrinkling her nose.
"I don't know--it was pretty slick looking. Um, skin was dark, kind of patterned. Uh, I think I actually saw scales."
Aspen's lips parted slightly as she stared ahead, trying to draw an image in her head. "So...so sorta like a snake? Mini Godzilla?"
"Huh..." Stiles puckered his bottom lip and nodded with a small smile gracing his lips," You know I didn't think of that. But perfect depiction though, nicely done." Stiles curled his fist loosely, encouraging her to follow suit, and Aspen softly tapped her knuckles against his. "But you know a weird thing about the eyes; they were slitted and--and yellowish. Lots of teeth--oh, and it's gotta tale."
Aspen rested her cheek against her fist and raised a brow toward Stiles. "So it's a giant lizard," she stated.
"I wouldn't say giant lizard." he differed with a tilt of his head.
"Stiles, it walks on all fours, has scales and a tale. Definitely a lizard." Stiles pondered for a while before accepting the term given to the new supernatural in town.
A moment passed since they had allowed a comfortable silence to engulf them. Aspen remained biting on her lip as Stiles' leg had yet to cease its unrelenting, anxious shaking. "What else?" she asked, meeting his soft chocolate orbs.
"What do you mean?" he quirked a brow, but his eyes quickly fell upon Aspen's hand as it came to rest on his leg, applying pressure to stop the bouncing.
"At the repair shop, when the thing showed up. What happened then?"
It was clear Stiles was avoiding his main point, and he kept his gaze upon the silver ring looped around her middle finger. "It's not like Scott," he mumbled lowly, "I mean its eyes were almost like reptilian. But there was something about 'em."
"What do you mean?"
"You know when you see, like, a friend in a Halloween mask, but all you can actually see are their eyes, and you feel like you know them, but you just can't figure out who it is?"
Aspen shifted on the uncomfortable, cold step and dipped her head slightly to catch Stiles' focus. "Are you saying you know who it is?"
"No," Stiles sighed before finally meeting her eyes. From the fright hidden in the hazel of his iris, Aspen couldn't help but widen her own. "but I think it knew me."
Aspen didn't trust her own voice to speak up and merely stared at Stiles. The boy was known to have acute paranoia for nearly everything that involved mystery. But if what he said was true, the walking reptile was amongst them at that very moment, which scared Aspen more than she expected.
The scattering of frantic footfalls against the tile of the hallway brought Aspen and Stiles to look up. Scott didn't bother excusing himself as he wedged his way between the two and sat on the step with a silent thud. Aspen broke a smile at the boy's giddy demeanor while Stiles mumbled an 'oh my god' as he roughly scooted away from Scott.
"Goodmorning," Scott smiled, grabbing Aspen by the nape of her neck and planting a firm kiss on her cheek.
Aspen gasped a sharp laugh when he separated from her and stared at the werewolf in awe. "Good morning to you too, loverboy." she giggled, her face reddening while Stiles looked over Scott's shoulder with disgust. "What's got you all excited?"
"I don't know why I'm not getting a good morning greeting seeing as I'm the one relaying messages between you and Allison," Stiles complained, jabbing a finger to Scott's side.
"Why can't you just text her, Scott?"
Scott's smile wanes slightly as he places his bag between his legs. "Because Allison's mom and dad check her phone now to see if I text her. We can't risk it so, Stiles is our messenger owl now." Both Aspen and Scott faced Stiles with teasing grins as the boy merely wore a flat expression.
"Aw, do you at least give him treats?" Aspen teased, bringing Scott to chuckle.
"Haha," Stiles narrowed his eyes, feigning a mocking laugh before reaching behind Scott and slapping the back of Aspen's head. She went to retaliate, but Stiles jerked away in fear at the Elementalist's new strength, and Scott outstretched his hands to hinder any possible injuries. Evidently, Aspen would be doing the most damage.
"Alright, alright. Stiles, just tell me what she said." Scott pleaded.
Stiles rolled his eyes with a low groan before complying with Scott's desperate request. He faced Scott with sincerity in his eyes, calming his tone to resemble Allison's sweetness. "I'm so sorry about the other day. I'm trying," Aspen had to stifle her laughter with the back of her hands as Stiles quite literally got into character, adding hand gestures to emphasize what Allison was probably feeling. "We'll get through this. I know, because I love you. I love you more than-oh my god! I--I can't-- you and Allison just have to find a better way to communicate."
"Come on! You're the only one that we can trust, and Argent is already suspecting Aspen, so it can't be her. Is Allison coming to the game tonight?"
"Yes, okay? Message complete." Stiles snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose before he lightly backhands Scott's chest upon remembering something, "All right, tell me about your boss."
Though Aspen was there when they discovered Deaton was more than a veterinarian, Scott lifted himself from the step momentary to sit upon the one above so he could have better access to speak to the both of them. He gazed around before hunching forward to speak in a hushed tone. "Uh, he thinks Allison's family keeps some kind of, uh, records of all the things that they've hunted. Like a book."
Stiles bunched his lips in thought before he clapped abruptly and pointed to Scott. "He probably means a bestiary," he suggested.
Scott cocked his head back slightly with knitted brows. "What?"
"A bestiary,"
Scott suddenly began to chuckle to himself with bright eyes, "I think you mean bestiality."
Stiles wasn't the slightest bit amused as to where Scott's mind went and stared at him with little concern for his stupidity. "Nope, pretty sure I don't."
"It's like an encyclopedia of mythical creatures," Aspen voiced with a shrug of her shoulders, catching on quite quickly. Stiles nodded in thanks that she knew what he was talking about, hoping that gave Scott a better idea.
The werewolf gaped slightly with an almost hurt expression. "How am I the only one that doesn't seem to know anything about this stuff?" he asked incredulously.
Stiles breathed through his nose and shifted in his spot, beginning to feel his leg fall asleep from the position he was in. "Okay, you know, Aspen and I are your best friends; you're a creature of the night. It's kind of like a priority of ours."
Scott nodded, "Okay, if we can find it, and it can tell us what this thing is--"
"And who," Aspen added, bringing Scott's shoulder to deflate.
"We need that book." Scott looked down at his hands for a while before his eyes caught a glance of white gauze peeking from under the sage sleeve of Aspen's sweater. "How's the wrist? Has it healed yet?"
Seeing that the frayed material was exposed, Aspen quickly tucked it back under her sleeve, but not before Stiles was gently grabbing her arm and pulling the cotton material down. She knew how much Stiles thought he could balance stuff for his friends, but this was too much of a mystery to unravel. She hasn't even dared to bring up her dreams and hallucinations, knowing they would drop everything to figure it out. With the giant lizard wandering the town and killing people for sport, there was no time to waste, especially for her.
"The hell happened, June?" Stiles asked, seeing the grey veins decorating her wrist that was now spread like branches on her arm. The boy's face was washed with concern, any sign of playfulness drained away.
Aspen pulled away from his grasp, slipped her sleeve down, and tucked it around her middle, suddenly feeling exposed.
"It was Erica," she mumbled with a shrug, hoping to come off as nonchalant. But the beating eyes of both her best friends weren't helping her usually easy lying. "She scratched me on my wrist while I was in my Elementalist state. Now it hurts even to try and use it."
"Will you be okay?" Scott asked.
"I don't know, honestly. But I'm going to Deaton sometime this week to get answers. He said he knew about Charlie and me, so hopefully, he can show me how to fix this soon."
"Speaking of your cousin," Scott sighed, folding his hands. Aspen knew the discussion would have to be brought to light eventually, and she turned her body to face Scott. Stiles wasn't comfortable with the sudden subject change and stared at Aspen with uncertainty. She gave him an assuring smile and mouthed, 'I'm fine.' Stiles nodded, but he wasn't about to let go that easily. Not when it came to Aspen. "She and her mom were with Gerard and Argent that night."
"Why is she suddenly getting involved?" Stiles asked.
"I think she was from the start," Aspen stated with a shake of her head, "Mina and Charlie got here around the exact time when Gerard did. The day of Kate's funeral. It can't be a coincidence."
"But Mina isn't a werewolf hunter. So why get involved?"
"Maybe she has something to gain from all this," Scott said," but...but Charlie was at the meeting too. She could be spying for her mom."
Aspen was quick to shake her head. "I think Charlie is involved but not voluntarily. She wouldn't have helped us at the ice pick if she didn't have to, and they have nothing to gain from Derek recruiting for his pack. I think she's just one of her mom's pieces to whatever the hell she's planning."
Stiles scratched his head, trying to tie in both Aspen's family with the current supernatural situation, but he only came up with a blank canvas. But his next words came out stringently, not willing to trust anyone until they knew exactly what was going on. "Well, we can't let her off that easily. She helps willingly, okay, but it doesn't mean we can't keep an eye on her. She still works for her mom, voluntarily or not."