Follow My Lead, Little Brother

Chapter 9

Scott's POV

Derek and I went to Stiles' house, leaving the girls to come up with some alternatives in case this didn't work, but since that result in losing another friend of mine, I focused on the task at hand, and when we got there and came in, his dad was quiet, just telling us he was upstairs. But, I didn't blame him. If this was my son, I probably wouldn't want to talk about it either.

We came into his room, the door already open, and his room was in extreme disarray.

There were papers scattering the floor, as well as different jackets, flannel shirts and sweaters, and Stiles was sitting on the bed, one hand in his hair, the other writing something down quickly, mashing the pencil into the paper as his leg bounced rapidly.

"Stiles? Did you forget your Adderal?" I asked softly as Derek closed the door behind him, and he shook his head, muttering something about how it was anxiety, not his ADHD, and then Derek asked him.

"What are you writing?"

He was silent for a minute, before letting out a aggravated cry, throwing the paper beside his wastebasket, and grabbed another one, starting over with more force on the pencil as he responded.

"Does it matter?" He stopped, reaching his fingers that were red with how hard he was pressing on the paper to scratch his neck before continuing, writing the whole time. "I'll just go back to being a murderer in a few days."

"Or not." That was enough to make Stiles snap his gaze toward us. "We think a temporary bite can kill the Nogitsune."

"What's the catch?"

"What?" I asked, watching him put down the paper before explaining.

"Everything supernatural I've ever been involved in has a catch. If you protect your werewolf friend, you'll end up in his girlfriend's grandfather's basement almost beaten to death, if you tell your dad that someone is a murderer, you end up held captive with your best friend, his mom and your dad in his workplace, if you sacrifice yourself to the Nematon, you end up with a nogistune controlling your every move. What's the catch?"

"It could go wrong and you become the Nogitsune forever." Derek said plainly, no emotion in his voice, but I was able to tell he was hiding it from Stiles, despite not being to tell if it was anger or sadness.

"Things look like they are heading that way anyway..." Stiles trailed off, looking back at the paper, then down at his hands, watching as they shook slightly.

"What do you wanna do?" I asked quietly, resisting the urge to touch his shoulder and calm him down, mainly cause I wasn't calm myself.

"I don't know. How long will I have powers? Which powers? Who would be biting me?"

"I don't know what powers you'll have or for how long. But, I can tell you who is biting you." Derek told him, before gesturing to me with his hands, which lead me to add.

"It has to be a wolf the person is close to, so we crossed Peter off the list." I joked, but when I didn't see Stiles crack a slight smile, I went serious again as I asked. "What do you want to do, Sti? We need the real you to answer before he takes over again."

"I'll do it." Stiles nodded as he stood up, but he didn't stop there. "But if it doesn't work...you can't let me kill anyone else. Use whatever force possible. Even if you have to ki-"

"Absolutely not, I refuse to do that." I cut him off, not wanting to go back to thinking about losing him again, a thought I had been having for several days.

"If it's the only way to save you guys, and if this doesn't work, you have to. You have to promise me you will. I mean it, Scott." He growled a little at the end, clearly wanting me to agree to kill him, but there was no way in hell.