Still ▸ Teen Wolf [Book Two]

fifty nine ; the cruelty of love

SONG OF THE CHAPTER: Hello by Adele

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FIFTY NINE;

THE CRUELTY OF LOVE

        "Hey, Dad."

         Stiles Stilinski stood in front of his father, the two of them lapsing in silence only moments after they made eye contact. It was odd, indifferent, to be directly in front of a person that had meant so much to him and felt so little for him. He wondered how the others had done it; he wondered how Sage and Scott had done it. He wondered how the two of them had pushed through the sight of someone they loved being twisted and turned into the unmaking reflection of a stranger. The boy standing in front of him was inexplicably more than just a case that he was sent in on. He was so much more than just another victim to a senseless crime. This was his son. This was the little boy that he had watched grow up, make mistakes, fall in love. This was not a monster -not a murderer. It was not a creation of destruction. This was Stiles.

        Yet, as the man watched the lack of movement in the boy in front of him, Sheriff Stilinski couldn't help but feel as though he was looking at a nameless face. While a father stood in front of his son, four people waited outside of the loft, refraining from interrupting the conversation between the two the moment that Sheriff Stilinski opted on a few moments to try and get through to Stiles. The pair immediately displeased with the idea happened to be Sage and Chris, the two most hardheaded of humans making sure that they pressed their lips tightly together to keep themselves from protesting the plan. Sage didn't want to send the sheriff into a situation she didn't believe he could handle with how haphazard his emotions were, and Chris didn't trust the actions of the Nogitsune enough to leave him unarmed in front of someone less than his son.

        Thirty seconds after the sheriff walked through the doors to the loft, Sage was taking a step forward to go inside as well. Her mind had been racing with possibilities of what the Nogitsune could do the man and knew very well that she wouldn't forgive herself if she let anything happen to him. That didn't even begin to touch the amount of guilt that Stiles would face if, when, they saved him. She could see it in his eyes at Eichen House, and she could see it in the way his jaw clenched any time they made contact with each other. There was a part of Stiles, a minuscule part of the teenage boy, that was overwhelmed in the fear of hurting someone he loved again. Not because of the pain it caused him to be the one doing it, but because of the pleasure he felt as he gripped the heartbeat away from the people that mattered most.

        Before she could even manage turning around the corner, a hand had firmly grabbed her upper arm, keeping her in place as her boots skidded on the cement floor. Immediately, the blonde shot her head back to narrow her eyes on whoever decided to stop her and found that her glare was being directed towards Derek. The man's jaw was set firmly, his grip tightening to let her know that he wasn't playing around when it came to her entering. There was an exchange between the two of them that hadn't gone unnoticed by Chris or Allison, the Argents' brows furrowing slightly at the silent conversation that the two seemed to be having; it was almost as though Sage and Derek had developed their own language in the tranquility of being still. To be that close to someone, and to know their actions before they even stepped up to do them, had Chris Argent questioning just how much Derek had looked away from in the past year involving the girl he considered a sister.

        Everyone knew just how little conversation there had been between Derek and Sage. They could place the blame on a multitude of things, from broken trust all the way to the manipulation of false emotions, but it was clear that the two former best friends knew where they stood in terms of their connection. Something had been shattered a year ago between them, and the friendship that they had when they drove through the borders of Beacon Hills was rippled to a bitter extent. It could have been because Derek had become so blindsided by creating his own pack that he forgot he had his truest beta at his side ever since he was eight. It could have been because Sage grew up, and every protective instinct that the man had inside of him that screamed to protect her lessened the older she became. Maybe it was because Stiles had filled the hole that Derek had spent years trying to patch up. Maybe it was just that Beacon Hills always managed to burn the Hale and the Connelly into the fragmentation of black ash.