True North

30

Stiles, Hayden and Lena carried an injured Liam into a classroom. Lena studied the wounds covering his chest and stomach as she bit her lip nervously. They were deep and ragged.

He wobbled and Hayden and Stiles laid him down. Liam grunted. "I'm okay. I'm fine."

"What?" Hayden asked. "Is it bad?"

"No," Liam replied.

Stiles looked between the younger teens. "Very."

Hayden and Lena gave a slow nod. "Okay. Okay."

Liam coughed and asked, "What do you guys usually do when this happens?"

Stiles lifted a hand. "Oh, I usually pass out. And I still think I might do that."

"Stiles!" Lena said, glancing at him. "Sit and don't be annoying."

He glanced at her. "I'm okay. Okay. Scott did this with pain. He could trigger it."

"Pain makes you human," Lena stated.

Hayden frowned. "He's already in pain."

"Yeah. I can see that."

Stiles nodded. "Right, okay, but maybe adding a little more could help take away the pain."

Liam groaned and Stiles gave Lena a reassuring nod. "Take away his pain."

Lena's eyes widened. "I've never kissed anyone!"

"Then congratulations. This will be your first. But no dating."

Lena let out a shaky breath and kissed Liam and the black lines appeared as his pain disappeared.

Liam chased after Scott, worried about his alpha's injuries. Scott ignored his pain.

They found out that Mason was the Beast and Lena sighed. It was always the nice kids one had to watch out for.

She ran after Liam and said, "Look. That kiss meant nothing."

Liam frowned. "Are you sure? Because your cheeks are red and you look, I don't know, nervous maybe."

"My cheeks are red because I was running."

"Right."

"It's the truth!"

"Lena, you can believe what you want. You don't need to try to justify it me. But maybe you do need to explain it yourself."

"You're really annoying."

"So are you."

Lena's eyes narrowed. "Me?"

"Yes you. But isn't that how all great romances start?"

Lena pointed between the two of them. "Hey, no. There is no great romance here. Never has been, never will be."

Liam grinned. "Yeah, we'll see. Thank you for saving my life."

Lena nodded. "Yeah. You're welcome. But I don't plan on doing anything like that ever again."

"Yeah, okay."

"Liam?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you're okay. Really."

"Thanks. If it hadn't been for you, I might be dead. So thanks for saving me."

"Anytime. You're my friend. I'll always try to save you."

"Hey Lena? Maybe we could watch your favorite show sometime."

Lena grinned. "That'd be so much fun! But I can quote a lot, so I'm sorry."

"I appreciate the warning, but you don't need to be sorry that you can quote something you love."

"You're really something, Liam Dunbar. You know that?"

"So are you, Lena Stilinski. I'm glad we're friends."

"I'm glad we're friends too."

The two friends shared a smile that lasted a little too long to be just friends and began walking away.