Turning Year

Chapter 12: The Ceremony

John had only been watching the game for ten minutes when Stiles woke up again. Derek looked down towards Stiles, and saw that he was awake, though his eyes were closed, and he was gripping the sheets so hard his knuckles were white.

"Stiles." Derek spoke softly, unsure of what to do.

Stiles snapped his eyes open, twisted around towards Derek, and pinned him down. Derek was lying down on his back, with Stiles straddling him. Derek stayed completely still, not sure what to do.

Stiles furrowed his brows, then jumped off of Derek quickly, running downstairs without another glance towards Derek. Derek chased Stiles downstairs, and John soon joined.

Stiles ran to the fridge, ripping it open, searching for only a few seconds before he grabbed raw meat. He ripped open the package and shoved handfuls of the meat in his mouth.

Derek frantically looked to John, but John was relatively calm. John did say that Stiles would eat a lot of food, but raw meat? Derek thought that was only something he did.

"Do we. . . do we do anything?" Derek asked.

"No, if we try to stop him from doing anything, he'll try to hurt us, and then feel like shit about it later."

"Is he still going to be like this when you have to take him to the ceremony?"

"Probably, we'll just drug him." Derek made a face.

"Don't look at me like that, the drugs are safe, they're only used to sedate him to get him there."

They both looked at Stiles again, who was still eating.

"Man. I was going to eat that for breakfast." John said with a sigh, before he smiled.

"What?" Derek asked.

"Well, he's eating raw meat, which means he'll be a carnivore."

Derek nodded. "Which means he won't be a toad."

John made a face. "Oh he told you about his fear of being a toad?" 

They both laughed, making Stiles look at them both.

Stiles looked down at himself, noticing his appearance.

"Oops." He said. Both John and Derek looked at each other, then laughed.

Stiles cracked a smile as well, then headed upstairs. John grabbed Derek shoulder, and spoke to him softly, as if to make sure Stiles didn't hear.

"If you're going to stay here, I need you to help out. He won't let me hover, he'll think I'm babysitting."

"Okay. No problem." Derek said, nodding his head. He went upstairs, following Stiles.

He heard the boy in the bathroom, and followed him, leaning on the door frame.

"Hey kid." Derek said, smiling.

Stiles didn't say anything, but acknowledged him with a smile.

Stiles started scrubbing at his face, though it didn't really do much. "This is useless." Stiles sighed. He then stripped off his shirt, turning on the shower.

The boy was skinny, but still had slight muscle definition. He skin was pale, dotted with moles and freckles.

"So um. . . I'm going to shower."

"Sorry, um, I'll just. . . Go." Derek said, feeling awkward.

Stiles frowned, grabbing at his chest.

"What? What is it?" Derek asked.

"Nothing." Stiles groaned out. "I'm fine."

"Well you don't sound very convincing."