Cross Your Mind , Stiles Stilinski ¹ ✓

[ 53 ] before we were a mess

BEFORE WE WERE A MESS

"BLOODY HELL, Stiles!" Aspen exclaimed in shock horror as the blue jeep crashed into the abandoned warehouse.

As he took his foot off the gas, the pair exchanged stunned looks as Aspen realised they had just ran Jackson, in his Kanima form, right over.

"Did I get him?!" Stiles yelled to Scott, his hands still on the wheel as the Carter girl was unbuckling her seatbelt already.

They thought they had knocked him down, but less than a second later the Kanima was back on it's feet, charging towards the jeep and punching on the windscreen.

Aspen and Stiles jumped out of the jeep, piling out of the passenger's side.

Aspen turned to him and tried to give him one final reassuring look, before turning back to Jackson.

"Jackson!" Aspen yelled, stopping the Kanima in it's tracks.

Jackson stilled at the sound of her yelling his names, but then Aspen wasn't sure what to do next.

She didn't think this through, none of them did.

Aspen stood directly in front of Jackson in his shape-shifted form, not showing any fear.

Ever since her first encounter with the Kanima, she'd never feared it, and now she understood why.

"Uhh... guys?" Aspen said unsurely to Scott, Stiles, Derek... basically everyone who was there. "You didn't specify the, uhh- details of this genius plan..."

"Just, uhh... say something." Scott suggested vaguely, not making anyone feel any more confident in the situation.

"Like what?!" Aspen shrieked as the Kanima slowly cocked his head to the side, it's reptilian eyes glaring into hers.

"Something... uhh- something meaningful?!" Scott panicked, now cursing himself for not planning this whole thing through.

Peter just told him that Jackson would need a connection to his human side, and left it pretty vague after that.

"Great advice!" Aspen yelled sarcastically, not taking her emerald eyes off of the reptilian ones right in front of her.

Then, Jackson slowly took one of his scaled arms and held it up almost threateningly.

Stiles, from beside Scott, instantly tried to run over out of pure instinct, the idea of Aspen getting hurt making him feel sick to his stomach.

"Jackson." Aspen said firmly with confidence in her voice, making Scott hold an arm out to stop Stiles from running over.

At the sound of her voice, yet again, Jackson froze in his spot, looking at her through his cold blooded eyes, waiting for her to continue.

"I..." she started, pursing her lips together as everyone around her seemed to be awaiting her next words, wondering what she had come up with to connect with the human side of him.

"Do you remember... do you remember that time, back in freshman year, when you got in that fight— with your parents, and I came over and we just binged all those weird sports movies together, which I always hated, to make you feel better?" she forced a weak smile as she tried to connect with Jackson's human side by reminiscing their old friendship.

"Or, that time when you, Danny and I got detention with Harris and we spent the whole time making fun of Danny for his new guy? You know, that one with the weird mohawk haircut?" Aspen let out weak laughs as she tried her best to recall moments where her and Jackson were in a good place.