Chapter 7:

School went the same as it had the day before, except Stiles actually managed to get Erica to acknowledge his existence in class, along with Isaac. Scott was still actively avoiding him, but Stiles was starting to get used to it. During practice, he talked a bit more to Isaac, learning more about him and actually starting to like him. Derek wasn't waiting after practice like he had the day before, so Stiles just drove home. He wasn't surprised to see the Camaro parked at the end of the street, nor was he particularly shocked to find the Alpha sitting on his bed with his legs propped up and a book held in front of his face. Stiles ignored how natural it felt to see Derek there.

"Full moon planning, right?" Stiles said, dropping his bag by his desk chair as he fell into it. Derek looked up from his book. "What kind of planning are we doing?"

"Guess," Derek muttered, closing his book.

"Well, counting me, there are three people who have been bitten since the last full moon. Lydia isn't a werewolf. She's healing too slowly, but she's also still alive, so I have no idea what she is. Then there's Jackson and me, two betas going through our first full moon. When Scott first turned, you had to drag him out to the woods to keep him from accidentally killing someone. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that isn't how you normally deal with newly turned wolves on their first full moon." Stiles tilted his head a bit.

"Bitten wolves are different from born."

"I know that."

"Shut up and let me talk," Derek growled. Stiles rolled his eyes and mimed for Derek to go on. "My mom used to lock new wolves in the basement and chain them to the wall during the full moon until they got control."

"Kinky," Stiles smirked. Derek glared at him. "No basement, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you still have the chains. So you just need a place to chain us down."

"Just you."

"What about Jackson?" Stiles frowned.

"His body's rejecting the bite."

"So he's dying?" Derek didn't answer, but his eyebrows were knit together in what Stiles thought was confusion. "You don't think so. So, if he's rejecting the bite but not dying, does that put him in the same boat as Lydia or a new boat altogether?" Derek shrugged. "That is about as useful as an ice cube in a snowstorm."

"Stiles."

"Just saying. I mean, if we knew more, I'd be a little less concerned about the whole thing, but as it stands, we have two people who were bitten and aren't turned. One is showing absolutely nothing except a slow healing scar while the other is actively rejecting the bite and we don't even know where to start to figure it out." Stiles fully intended to continue ranting about the lacking sources for real information on the supernatural online, but he stopped, catching Derek's wide-eyed look. "What?" There was a slamming sound from around the room and Stiles turned to see the books that had been neatly stacked on his desk scattered around haphazardly. "What?" Stiles repeated, unsure of what exactly had just happened. He looked back at Derek. "What?" It was too much. He couldn't think past that word. He could feel his heart pounding, and suddenly it was hard to take a breath. All he could hear was a buzzing sound. Before it could go much further than that, firm hands were on his shoulders, forcing him to look at two glowing red eyes. Stiles focused on them, somewhere along the way recognizing that they belonged to Derek. As did the hands grounding him. He could see the 'wolf talking, but the words weren't making sounds. Whatever he had been trying to say was abandoned when Derek took one of Stiles' hands in his own and pressed it against his chest. Stiles could feel the steady rise and fall and the even beat of his heart. Having a demonstration helped him take his own deep breath in who knows how long. They stayed there, connected, until the buzzing was gone and Stiles was breathing regularly.

"Better?" Derek said quietly. Stiles nodded, and Derek released him, eyes still red as he stepped out of the beta's space. Stiles glanced back at his messy desk and scattered books.

"Did-did I do that?" Stiles' voice was a rasp in the suddenly quiet room. "Wha-what was that?"

"It looked like magic."

"Magic?" Stiles whimpered.

"Stuff like that used to happen around my cousin Jonah. Peter said he got it from his mother." Derek was looking at Stiles like he was a puzzle. Stiles really wanted to get back on the familiar ground of supernatural creatures rather than answer the new questions that were starting to swirl around his head.

"Was your cousin also a werewolf?"

Derek didn't answer him. Instead, he asked, "Have things like this happened before?"

"I think I would have noticed that, and I probably wouldn't have had a panic attack about it if that were the case, Derek," Stiles snapped. Derek didn't rise to the bait. His skin felt like it was crawling with ants, and he needed to move. So, he got up and started pacing, running his hands over his hair periodically trying to get a hold on exactly what had happened.

"Stiles, magic doesn't just appear." Derek was being careful to keep his voice even and calm.

"I don't know. I mean, I can't remember having magic before now, but to be perfectly honest, if this kind of thing was happening when I was a kid, I have been actively trying not to remember anything from before my mom died so, I don't know." Stiles was still feeling a bit frantic but talking was helping. The words just rolled off his tongue with no filter or consideration. Derek seemed to have picked up on that.

"Then think about it now," he said.

"Mom was always talking about the world like it was full of magic. When I was really little, and we were playing in the garden, she'd always yell at me like it was my fault that things were getting dirty. She'd call me Mischief and tell me to stop making things fly. But not when Dad was around. Only when it was just the two of us. Or sometimes there was another kid, but I don't know. I mean, I purposefully forgot details from before. After, I know it wasn't happening. Once I was diagnosed with ADHD and started with the Adderall, there was definitely no magic."

Derek had an odd look on his face when he said, "Mischief?" Like it was the key to something that he was scared to unlock.

"I couldn't say my name when I was little. I mean, most people can't say my name, so it wasn't that big a deal. When I tried to say it, I said Mischief instead and mom and dad thought it was fitting. It was better than Mieczyslaw, but after, I didn't want to think about any of that, so I chose Stiles instead." Stiles was calm enough by now to realize that Derek was looking at him strangely. He forced himself to stop pacing, meeting the still glowing gaze. Eventually, Derek blinked the red out of his eyes and cleared his throat.

"Your mom's name was Claudia, wasn't it?" He waited for Stiles' curious nod before looking away. "There was a woman who used to visit with Peter every week. While they visited, Laura would watch her son and Cora. Sometimes I'd stay, but as I got older, I didn't as much. I was there the first time she came by. I think I was five or six. Peter was supposed to be watching me, and she came to the door asking to meet Mom. I wasn't supposed to listen to the meeting, but Peter was always breaking the 'no listening rule'. He told me that she was there making a deal for her son. She agreed to help tutor Peter in magic theory and supernaturals in exchange for status as pack-adjacent for her and a place in the pack for her son. When the meeting was over, Mom told me to introduce her son to Cora and Laura. She told me that he'd be pack someday." As he spoke, Derek kept glancing over at Stiles before fixing his eyes on the floor. "He asked us to call him Mischief."

The world was spinning again, but Stiles must have been too tired to slip into another panic attack because he was still able to get words out. "Derek, are you trying to say that my mom organized a place for me in your mom's pack?" Derek didn't meet his eyes as he nodded. "And that Peter knew that. Peter knew my mother." Stiles felt himself snap together as the realization dawned on him. "Peter knew." Derek's head shot up. "Oh my God. He knew about the magic. He had to. That's why he ignored me when I said no. He knew that this would happen." Stiles collapsed into his desk chair. "That bastard wanted this." Neither of them said anything for a while. It had been a week full of big reveals and loaded conversations between them. The air felt heavy with every breath. Unsurprisingly, Stiles was the first one to break. "Okay. So, figuring out the magic has to wait until after the full moon. We have enough to worry about. It just means somebody has to be watching me for magic and feral behavior. And at some point tomorrow night, you should at least check on Jackson to make sure that whatever's happening with him doesn't come back to bite