Friends with a fox

Reborn

Stiles stood in his bedroom, clutching his bleeding arm. It had been a long drive from the preserve and he needed to stop the bleeding.

Stiles wrapped the bite the best he could with gauze after he had sterilized it. He collapsed on his bed, exhausted from the eventful night.

Stiles caught a glimpse of his clock, 4:40, great. 

Stiles lay on his bed, his mind drifting back to before the fox had bitten him.

"Before I bite you, I think you deserve to know that the running exercise I just put you through was to raise the chance that the bite would take as well as to see if you are compatible before offering." The fox explained. "Your mind is almost a perfect host, but there is still a chance you might die."

"I accept the risk" Stiles pledged. 

With that the fox had fallen on him, with no gentleness, grabbing Stiles' arm between the teeth painfully, biting down hard. Afterwords, when Stiles had opened his eyes, the fox was gone.

Stiles hadn't realized he had fallen asleep until he woke up in cold sweat. A dim, grey light shone through his half closed blinds. He looked at his alarm clock right as it started to beep, at exactly 7:00, perfect timing!

Stiles slowly got up and went over to the bathroom. When he looked at the mess of blood covered tissues, Stiles remembered last night. He looked down at the bandages and there was dried up blood crusting the edges.

Stiles carefully peeled the gauze off, wincing as it came off the wound, to find that no scab had started to form. Besides the absence of blood, the bite looked exactly the same as last night. Hopefully that was a good thing?

Stiles re-wrapped the bite and dressed himself in a hoodie so no one could see his makeshift bandage and become curious. If this did work, he wanted it to be his secret. 

Stiles made himself a coffee with double shots of espresso and headed to school. Nothing out of the ordinary happened but Stiles had a slight headache, nothing much to worry about. Probably a side effect of loosing so much blood... or the small amount of sleep he was getting.

Today, Stiles felt a bit more energetic than normal, adding a spring in his step. When he passed Scott in the halls, Scott ran up to his side and walked to Stiles' locker with him. Their first class was Science and they were the only pack members in the pack in that class.

When they walked into the classroom, Stiles was hit in the nostrils with a vile stench. It smelt like someone crapped their pants. 

Grimacing, Stiles looked around. There were only three people in the class. Two were working, as if nothing had happened, unaware of this deathly scent hanging in the air. The third was Greenburg, looking around nervously, probably to see if anyone had noticed him fart, Stiles realized.

Stiles looked over to Scott so they could laugh together at Greenburg, But Scott was unfazed. Even with his heightened senses, he hadn't noticed the stench. Maybe Stiles mind was playing tricks on him. It wouldn't be the first time.

They passed Greenburg on their way to their assigned desks. When Scott was right beside Greenburg, he stopped, looking disgusted.

"Chipotle? Seriously Greenburg. Get a grip man. That's disgusting." With that, Scott walked away and sat in his desk, leaving a reddening Greenburg. 

Stiles slid into his desk beside Scott's. Scott turned to him and told Stiles all about what he had just experienced, joking around. Stiles pretended he hadn't experienced it as well and laughed along with him.

The bell rang and class started. Stiles tried to concentrate but he couldn't when his arm under the gauze was tingling and itching. Stiles resisted the urge to scratch it, but the discomfort only grew. 

"Stop squirming so much and pay attention Stiles" Scott whispered to him.

Stiles tried, but the tingling turned to pierces of pain, kind of like dozens of needles stabbing into his arm, and the itching turned into a burning sensation. At this point, Stiles was shaking so hard he could barely write anything.

Before Scott could say anything, a shrill ringing emanated into Stiles' ears, shaking every bone in his body, and rattling his teeth. People started to pack up and the clock read 9:45. That must have been the bell.

Stiles shot up and lost Scott in the crowd of people in the hall. 

Stiles made his way to the bathroom and dropped his bags on the ground. He ran over to the sink and ripped off his sweater to reveal the gauze bandage. Surprisingly, there was nothing wrong with it. It was as fresh and white as it was when Stiles had applied it.

The pain grew and Stiles could no longer resist. He ripped off the bandage and watched, mesmerized, as his bite slowly knit its way together, leaving a bare patch of skin with no scar.

When it closed completely, the pain immediately disappeared. The strange absence of pain caused Stiles to shiver.

It had worked. If what the Nogitsune had said was true, Stiles was a Werefox! He had no idea how to shift but he only hoped it wouldn't come randomly in the middle of class. 

Stiles took his hoodie off of the ground and put it back on. He grabbed his bag and went to his next class. Coach Finstock was late so Stiles snuck in, undetected by any of the students who were all taking advantage of coach's absence and talked in groups. 

Stiles sat beside Scott.

'What was that? You were shaking like a leaf and ran off when the bell rang" Scott asked with a look of concern on his face.

Stiles had set up a valid lie that worked every time.

"I guess I wasn't paying attention to the amount of Adderall I took this morning," Stiles said with a nervous laugh. Scott seemed to have bought it and didn't dig any deeper.

During the day, every bell had the same effect as the first one on Stiles, but after the second one, he could brace himself so he wouldn't jump out of his seat.

When it was finally time to go home, Stiles was silently grateful and left without speaking to anyone.

When he arrived home he took a long shower to wash away all of that day.

Stiles got out and dried off with a towel. He looked up into the mirror and gasped in surprise at what he saw.

Stiles' eyes were glowing a metallic, silvery-white.