FOR WHATEVER REASON Stiles was ignoring both my calls and my messages. I was confused, I was annoyed — somewhat — and I just wanted to know what the hell was going on. My dad had been up to my room and threatened me with a full lockdown if I left the house tonight and I didn't understand why until the moon rose.

Tonight was the full moon and I because I'd spent the last few days wrapped up under the watchful eye of my dad I hadn't even realised.

It was Scott's second full moon and his hostility towards me earlier on made sense now. He wasn't in control and I just wanted to find Stiles because where he was Scott would be. I didn't want Stiles to get himself hurt trying to help Scott. He couldn't help him, not while he was fully transitioned anyways. When Scott didn't have a handle on his anger Stiles was as good as toast in his line of fire and that made me nervous.

So after my dad had left the house, locking every door but the garage I snuck out and I headed straight for Stiles house. I tried calling Derek but with every call I made I was met with his voicemail. I had heard my dad talking on the phone over the few days I had to spend with him and I knew they knew he was alive somewhere. He had disappeared after the Alpha had impaled him, his car too and that gave me hope that he was still alive. I wanted to get his help — not like he'd probably offer it to Scott after he threw his name out as a murderer — to help him with tonight as opposed to Stiles. It was a safer plan, a better option.

When I got to Stiles' house his dad answered the door and told me he'd gone over to Scott's house for the night. He had no idea why I wasn't with Stiles, quite shocked actually — especially when I told him that he hadn't told me he was heading to Scott's. It was just another factor adding to the list I was making that was proving Stiles was ignoring me. We had been perfectly fine this morning — in fact we were better than fine. I was going to come over and we were going to hang out, I was planning on telling Stiles that I had feelings for him. I'd been psyching myself up for it all day and now he was ignoring all my calls and texts? It just didn't add up to me and the worst part about it all was that I had no genuine idea what I had done wrong.

Scott's front door was open when I arrived and I saw Stiles' blue Jeep parked on the pavement just by the drive confirming my suspicions that he was going to be helping Scott tonight. I closed the front door behind me, hearing the two yelling and I rushed up the stairs quickly but I didn't expect to see Stiles sitting on the landing next to Scott's open bedroom door.

"Stiles? What the hell is going on." I asked him, furrowing my brows.

"Oh, great." Stiles scoffed, rolling his eyes as he got up to his feet. He met my gaze and I immediately I felt something hitting my gut. He looked a mixture of sad and angry and the combination tugged at my heart painfully. I wanted to fix that but I found the anger he was subjected to was aimed at me, "What are you doing here?"

I didn't answer him, instead I asked him my own question, "Why are you ignoring me?"

His eyes narrowed somewhat, "What?"

"You heard me." I replied, "Why are you ignoring me?"

"I don't have anything to say." He told me matter-of-factly.

"Why? I-I don't understand, Stiles. You were fine with me this morning."

"Yeah, well that was before you kissed Scott." He snapped.

I recoiled away and furrowed my brows together tightly, "I what?"

He nodded firmly, "You kissed Scott."

"I—I didn't—" I shook my head, speechless, "Why would I kiss Scott?"

"I saw the lipgloss smudge on his face on the field." Stiles told me angrily, gesturing to Scott's open bedroom door.

"Stiles, what? I don't even wear lipgloss. You know me all right? I don't wear makeup for school. Did I have lipgloss on this morning?" I asked him, raising my voice.

Yeah, I was angry right now. Stiles was adamant that I'd kissed Scott but why would I even dream of doing that? I didn't understand it or his logic.

Stiles shook his head in defiance and he didn't answer my question, "I asked Scott to talk to you in the locker room, all right, and then he comes out on the field afterwards with a lipgloss smudge on his chin. That is not a coincidence."

I shook my head, "No. Scott came to talk to Lydia, not me."

"Wha—?" He exasperated, "I-I said you. I wanted him to talk to you."

"Well did you specify that to him?" I asked curiously, "Because whatever he had to ask Lydia he didn't want me to know."

He paused for a moment, refraining from bursting again. I watched as he tried to calm down before he asked, "What?"

"Yeah, he told me he had to talk to her. He was pretty snappy actually and I walked away, I left them to it and I went home."

"So.. so Scott didn't talk to you?" He asked me with a frown.

I shook my head, "No."

He stepped passed me and stood in the doorframe of Scott's bedroom and I turned to peer in. I saw Scott sitting on the floor by the radiator, his hand cuffed to the pipe while he tried to pull at the metal.

"I asked you to speak to Alex, not Lydia." Stiles said to him.

"What? No. You said Lydia." Scott argued angrily.

"Uh, no. I don't think I did." Stiles replied in a 'duh' tone, "Why would I ask you to talk to Lydia?"

"Because you like her!" Scott snapped at him, pulling at the handcuff locked around his wrist.

"No, I don't." Stiles told him, shaking his head. He turned back to me fleetingly before looking back to Scott and rubbing his hand over his buzz cut, "So you kissed Lydia?" He asked, "Even when you thought I liked her?"

I had to admit, that was wrong.

If Scott thought his best friend had a crush on a girl why would he kiss said girl? That wasn't nice, in fact that was like me kissing Scott knowing fine well Allison had feelings for him.

"You kissed Lydia?!" I exasperated, "What about Allison?"

"I don't know what came over me!" He told us both, his voice twisting into one of pleading, "You guys it's the full moon, I swear. I don't have control."

"So if you had known I wanted you to talk to Alex would you of kissed her?" Stiles asked him, narrowing his eyes.

"I wouldn't of let him kiss me." I replied before Scott even had the chance.

"Lydia made the move on me." Scott told us, "Not the other way around."

I ran my hands over my face as my brain struggled to keep up with the overload. Lydia had cheated on Jackson and kissed her best friends ex-boyfriend and I was shocked. I didn't have her down as that type of person. In fact, she seemed to be trying to live up to the person she perceived herself to be in front of everyone lately, not the Lydia I know — or the one I thought I knew.

And then my brain reminded me of why we were having this discussion in the first place. Scott thought Stiles wanted him to talk to Lydia but what about? What was Scott supposed to talk to me about?

I turned to Stiles, "What did you even want him to talk to me about in the first place?"

Stiles froze and I noticed his eyes widen as he turned slowly to me, "I—"

"—I told him I could smell jealously." Scott interrupted him, "He wanted me to see if I could smell sexual desire on Lydia aimed at him."

Wait..

No.

That couldn't mean—?

"What?" I found myself asking slowly.

I knew the colour had drained from my face because I had felt it go. My stomach was kicking up a storm right now as I looked to Stiles. If I had decoded that properly Stiles wanted to know if I was portraying any signs of sexual interest towards him. I just wanted an answer at this point, a solid yes or no to either let me down or give me hope. Stiles looked shocked however — exactly how I was feeling — and he couldn't take his eyes off Scott.

I swallowed the thick lump in my throat apprehensively and dared to speak again, "Stiles..?"

He seemed to snap out of whatever trance he'd entered and he pressed his lips together before looking to me, "Can we talk? Over there?"

"Y-yeah." I stuttered, "Sure."

And then he took my hand and my heart skipped a beat. I was so in far in my feelings right now I was practically gone. I was running with them, trying to catch up as they consumed me. It made everything much more surreal and it was a lot to handle right now. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest and it made me dizzy.

Stiles remained silent as he pulled me into the bathroom and closed the door for privacy although I wasn't sure why because I knew if he wanted to Scott would still be able to hear us.

The McCall bathroom wasn't small but it definitely wasn't big either. There wasn't even a metre between Stiles and I as I leaned against the skin and he leaned against the door. The air between us in the room was intoxicating and it made me dizzy. I wanted him to say something, anything, just to put an end to this silence that had seeped between us but he looked lost for words.

Stiles had his eyes closed and by the heavy rise and fall of his shoulders I saw he was trying to take deep and controlled breaths, perhaps to calm himself. His head was resting against the white painted door and I wanted to give him all the time he needed but I was dying from the anticipation he was bestowing upon me.

"Stiles—"

He held his finger up asking for one more minute and I clasped my hands together nervously, putting them under my chin and resting on them.

He opened his eyes, meeting mine and I took a deep and controlled breath. I was starting to break a sweat across the brow of my forehead from the nerves I was subjected to. I felt as if I was standing on the edge of a cliff right now, balancing and waiting to see which way I would fall — back or off the edge.

"Please say something." I urged.

"I—" He exhaled, shaking his head wordlessly and I knew I couldn't take much more of this.

I exhaled heavily, dragging my hands through my hair and clasping the back of my neck. I was seconds away from saying something else but he beat me to it.

"I asked Scott to talk to you today." He nodded, "I didn't actually say your name because he beat me to it. He thought I meant Lydia but I didn't.. I meant you."

"Do you think.. maybe it was because Scott knew you used to have a crush on Lydia?" I asked him.

He nodded before running his hand over his short hair, "Yeah."

"So.." I paused, running my tongue across my bottom lip nervously, "You wanted Scott to what? See if I showed any interest towards you?"

He nodded again in response but it didn't look like he was going to say anything else.

"Stiles you're killing me right now." I told him, "And if you're not going to say it I will."

His lips parted and I noticed as his chest halted in rising and falling, "Say what?"

I took the leap of faith — stepping off the cliff if you will and beginning the free fall, "That I like you and I didn't even realise it until Wednesday night—"

"—I knew.." He interrupted me, "That first night you stopped at my house after Lydia's mom brought you to the station. I woke up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water and you were lying on my chest, sound asleep. You looked so peaceful. That's when I knew I liked you— that I was developing feelings for you."

I swallowed in shock, "You.."

He nodded while capturing me in his hazel eyes, "I knew. I woke up that morning and you had moved, I— I was afraid you freaked out or something which is why I didn't say anything about it but it happened again and then another time after that." A half smile claimed his lips, meeting his eyes brightly and it caused me to smile.

"I thought you were going to freak out." I told him, "That's why I moved."

He took a small step towards me, "Well I didn't.. and the night at the video store when I went to the hospital with you, holding you the entire time. That night at the school, the reason I said you didn't have to come was because I didn't want you there, yeah. I knew what Scott was planning to do and I didn't want you to get hurt if the Alpha showed up." He said and then he chuckled softly as he smiled, "When I called you when I was drunk, I said I wasn't alone because I had you. I do, I have you."

My heart was expanding, growing in size with every little thing he said to me, "Stiles—"

"—I like you, Alex." He said to me. He took another step towards me and reached for my hand, taking it lightly and squeezing it, "I really do."

I found myself smiling in relief, "Thank god."

He laughed shortly under his breath but furrowed his brows, "What?"

"Yeah." I released a long breath, "Because I have these feelings for you and I didn't know if you would even like me back."

"Well I do." He nodded.

I smiled, "I'm glad."

Stiles and I held each other's gaze for another minute or so before he slowly started to lean in. I felt my heart pick up it's pace, a heard of butterflies erupting in my stomach and I closed my eyes. The both of us continued to lean in slowly and moments before we were about to share our first kiss Scott started yelling loudly in pain.

Our eyes widened as we met each other's gaze again and Stiles scrambled for the door handle quickly, pulling it open. We dashed across the landing as Scott continued to scream and all of a sudden it went silent just before we reached the doorframe.

Stiles held his arm out as we stood next to the doorway, stopping me from running into the room and he met my eyes cautiously. Neither of us said anything as we strained to listen for any sign of Scott, scared incase he'd broken out of the cuff Stiles had put around his wrist.

We didn't hear anything and I nodded at Stiles, the both of us cautiously peering around the wall and looking into his room. We were faced with nothing though and Scott was gone, the cuffs broken and smudges of blood staining the radiator and window frame. He'd jumped out of the open window and disappeared into the night.

Stiles exhaled heavily, "Oh, crap."

________________

Stiles and I had to push everything aside to search for Scott and neither of us wanted to do it. It sounded selfish of us, I know, but we'd just found out we had feelings for each other. We had been seconds away from sharing our first kiss when Scott started yelling and there was a big part of me that just wished Scott hadn't interrupted us.

We didn't even know how long we would be searching for, we didn't know where to start or where to look. We knew we had to be careful in whatever we did because not only would Scott be out under the influence of the full moon but the Alpha would be too. I didn't even want to venture out of Stiles' Jeep and neither did he so we stuck to driving around, looking for any signs of our friend but we weren't having very much luck.

Neither of us had said much since we'd been interrupted by Scott. I was too busy thinking about what would've happened if he hadn't interrupted us — imagining it and what it would've been like. I was trying to compensate for missing out while hoping that we would be able to share our first kiss soon. I wasn't sure what was going on in Stiles' head but I wasn't worried by it.

For a while I thought he was overthinking everything that had been said between us as we drove around in this thick silence but he took me by surprise as he took my hand. He held it and didn't let go, giving it an occasional squeeze for reassurance as we drove. It had settled my nerves instantly because I knew he wouldn't of done that if he was overthinking.

We had been driving around for some time now and it wasn't looking like we were going to get anywhere. We had no idea where Scott was and the chances of us finding him were exceptionally slim. I just hoped that whatever had happened he was all right and that he hadn't lost control and killed someone.

Across from me Stiles cleared his throat and I glanced over at him as he drove, "Hey, so, after we get to the bottom of this whole murderous Alpha werewolf thing do you wanna go on a date with me?"

"What?" I replied instinctively. I had heard what he'd said, he'd just taken me by surprise by asking and I quickly shook my head before fixing my response, "Yeah, I'd love to go on a date with you."

He glanced over at me fleetingly and his eyes were wide, "Really?"

"Of course." I nodded softly, rubbing my thumb over the back of his hand, "What do you have in mind?"

He glanced at me and smiled, "It's a surprise."

I nodded and looked out of the window, putting my knees up against his glove compartment, "I should probably tell you I hate surprises."

"Oh, no. I remember." He said to me, "You've always hated them. You told me when we were seven."

"Wow." I mumbled in awe, "You remembered that?"

"Of course I did." He nodded, "I tried to remember everything you told me, everything about you because you disappeared and it was all I would have of you. I was scared I was going to forget you."

I felt my heart sink slowly into my chest at his words. He was scared he would forget me and the memories we shared together and the hardest part was, I had forgotten most of the memories we had shared together. I hadn't forgotten him and I was truly thankful for that but the fire had taken a large portion of the time Scott, Stiles and I shared away from me.

I pulled my lip between my teeth, "You might have to remind me of some things then." I told him quietly, "Because there's some things I can't remember."

He smiled sadly at me and as I looked to him I saw a blue hue flash over his face. My brows furrowed and I looked out of the window to see a police car with it's lights flashing. It was parked up in the preserve parking lot and in front of it was an ambulance, it's back doors open.

"No, no, no." Stiles muttered and he turned, pulling off into the parking lot and stopping the car quickly.

"Oh my god." I mumbled, reaching for my seatbelt quickly as Stiles put the handbreak on. I noticed the EMT's pushing a gurney towards the back of the ambulance, a sheet covering whoever was resting on top of it.

It only meant one thing, whoever it was had died.

A second police car passed Stiles' Jeep and pulled into the lot as the both of us scrambled to get out quickly. I ran round the Jeep to get to Stiles as he called out for his dad. He passed me quickly, an anxious expression on his face and I knew what he was thinking.

"Dad?" He asked, putting his hand on the shoulder of an officer whose back was turned to us.

He turned around but it wasn't Sheriff Stilinski and I felt my nerves bubbling in my stomach at the thought that the person under that sheet was him.

"Dad!" Stiles called out, panic rising in his voice, "Has anyone seen my dad?" A second officer placed his hand on Stiles' shoulder but he didn't say anything and Stiles was quick to brush passed him.

He walked slowly over to the gurney and I followed him, standing behind him as I peered over his shoulder. I saw a hand as it hung off the gurney and it was scarred in the same way Peter Hale's face was — burns. I took Stiles hand in fear as he slowly reached out to the sheet but at the last second someone called out to him.

"Stiles?"

The both of us turned quickly to see the Sheriff standing in front of us and I exhaled heavily in relief. My shoulders dropped as Stiles dropped my hand.

"What are you doing here?"

He hugged his dad tightly and I met Sheriff Stilinski's confused gaze as his son held on to him for dear life. I tried to give him a reassuring smile but I wasn't sure it had met my eyes. I was still overcoming the panic I'd felt only seconds ago facing the notion of him being dead. I hadn't seen the Sheriff since Wednesday night either when he had tried to fight for me in front of my dad.

The Sheriff wrapped one arm around Stiles tightly, never taking his eyes from me and with his other hand he gestured me forwards. I pressed my lips together and nodded once, walking to them and joining their embrace. Stiles opened his arm to let me in and he pulled me into his side as Sheriff Stilinski wrapped his arm around the both of us.

We stood there in silence for some time, just standing in the embrace of each other and I hadn't felt this at peace in a while. It was odd for me, hugging Sheriff Stilinski, considering I couldn't remember the last time I had embraced my dad but it was nice.

When the three of us pulled away Sheriff Stilinski's confused expression hadn't eased up and his brows furrowed, "What are you both doing here?"

"Well, y'know, we were just driving around and we saw the ambulance. I just panicked." Stiles said to his dad.

He nodded before putting his hand out on Stiles' shoulder comfortingly and looking to me, "Alex, I thought you were grounded?"

"Yeah, Melissa helped me out of that one." I said to him with a smile.

"That's good." He nodded.

"Hey, dad. Can Alex stop over tonight?" Stiles asked then.

I felt his gaze on me and turned to meet his eyes. He was asking me silently if I wanted to stop at his tonight and I responded by nodding my head slightly. The both of us looked back to Sheriff Stilinski to see him glancing between us. He nodded before saying, "I thought that was a given seeing so she was with you.. just as long as you sleep on the spare mattress Stiles. I'm willing to overlook the closed door thing because I know you can't sleep with it open but I don't really want to walk on the both of you sharing a bed again."

I felt the heat rush to my cheeks and I averted my eyes to the floor, clearing my throat awkwardly in embarrassment.

Next to me I heard Stiles clear his throat, "Y-yeah, of course."

The Sheriff nodded before saying, "I'll meet you guys at home, okay? I've just got to finish up here."

I nodded before looking back to Stiles, "We'll see you there." He said to his dad before meeting my eyes. The both of us turned to walk back to his Jeep and he put his arm lightly around my back, guiding me along, "Do you need anything from your place?"

"Probably." I nodded, "I'll just run in before me dad comes back and tries to ground me again."

He nodded before a small smile fell on his lips, "Okay."

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A/N; it took 22 chapters but we're finally at the end of the slow burn!! My aim is to have the first season done by the end of chapter 30 but the chapter length is going to start increasing otherwise this is going to end up in three books or something. Anyways, the next chapter will hopefully be posted by the end of the week!