Beacon ⌲ Stiles Stilinski [1] EDITING

thirty five

The Sheriff had been wary when we came down the stairs and immediately told him we were heading out, but his frown twitched into a grin when he noticed the two of us holding hands.

"Come on, Stiles. Grab a jacket," Sheriff had beckoned the boy away from my side to hand him a thick hoodie from their coat closet. I pretended not to notice when he clapped Stiles' shoulder proudly and his son had to glare at him to shut him up. "Don't be out too late!"

After grabbing a pair of short daggers from my own car's glove compartment and strapping them to my ankles for precautionary measures, I jumped into the passenger seat of Stiles' Jeep and watched him turn the keys into ignition; looking at the wheel with embarrassment.

"My dad thinks we're on a date," he mumbled sheepishly. 

"Better that than knowing what we're actually doing, I guess."

"I know. But it makes me wish we were," Stiles shrugged, murmuring the rest of his sentence quietly. "Although, I can't say this is how I'd envisioned it."

I smirked. "No? How had you envisioned it?" 

"Well for starters you hopefully wouldn't be wearing knives hidden under your pants."

I laughed. "Really? I thought that was a good first date outfit idea."

"Not exactly. I mean you could do whatever you want but I'd pictured more of a nice dress like the one you wore to Lydia's party with the straps and the um..." He attempted to motion something with one hand down his body.

I raised my eyebrows at him and he blushed.

"Nevermind, I've said too much already," he grinned before making a final left turn down Lydia's street.

"Just focus on the task at hand, Stilinski," I said, just as the Jeep rolled to a complete stop on Lydia's familiar driveway.

Jumping out, I didn't wait for the boy to join me before I set off on the path. However, halfway up a wave of recognition overwhelmed me and the lurching feeling in my stomach made me freeze in my steps.

"Eleanor?" Stiles face hardened with worry as he hurried up to my side, swinging an arm around my back to support me. "Is everything alright? What happened?"

"This is where I felt it," I whispered, staring at nothing in particular. "My mom's death. I guess I didn't realize how hard it would be to come back."

He exhaled and paused with me for a few moments.

Guiding me, he used his already supportive arm and rotated us so that my head pressed into his chest and under his chin. I felt his other arm wrap around my other side to engulf me in his embrace.

"You don't have to go in if you don't want," he mumbled into my hair. "You could wait in the Jeep."

Taking a deep breath, I lifted my face away from Stiles' shirt to look him in the eyes and scan my gaze down to his lips. Without thinking too hard about it, I propped myself up on the tips of my toes and kissed him softly for a fleeting second.

It hit me for a moment how far we had come to get to this moment. How far we had come together. I wasn't sure if it was that fact, or the feeling of his arms around me that made my shoulders roll back in sudden confidence.

"Thank you," I hushed. "But I think I can do this."

"Remember, I'm right here, alright?" he mumbled against the thin layer of hair covering my ear, causing a current of electricity to wash down my body.

"I know."

Stiles stepped back and smiled, taking my hand in his. Inhaling deeply, I assured myself with each step I made towards the front door. When we knocked, Lydia's mom answered the door and because she recognized us from earlier in the year, she immediately directed us upstairs to our friend's bedroom.