It's Just a Pull

XXXVI

There's a moment where you all stand around and look at each other, useless. Then, the boys gather around the exam table.

You stay closer to the door, feeling the electricity come off the metal blocking it in waves. It's kind of exhilarating, even though you never bothered to learn the incantation for lightning. You'd never needed it at home, and you really hadn't had the time to learn anything new while in Beacon Hills. Deaton was explaining something about energy and conservation of mass, but you're not really listening. Something about the whole thing is just slightly off, and you don't know what it is. But the electricity isn't only coming from the metal in front of you. There's a spark in the air that promises a charge of something, and you don't know how to process it yet.

"(Y/n)?" Stiles asks, and you turn to face him. "You okay?"

"It's still electrified," Deaton adds, and you turn back to see that your hand has crept up to reach out toward the metal in front of you.

"Oh," you breathe, snapping your arm back to your side and taking two quick steps back. "I'm sorry. What were we talking about?"

"Lydia can turn Mason back into Mason," Liam says, vibrating with both hope and fear in equal measure.

There's a tug on the red string connecting Stiles to Lydia, and you watch it pull taut, then loosen again.

"Yeah," you say, eyes widening and heart sinking. "That might be a problem."

---

You're sitting on the floor of the hallway in front of Lydia's hospital room as Stiles and Scott go in to talk to her.

"You okay?" Liam asks, and you pull your knees up to your chest in order to rest your forehead on them.

"Not really."

"Is it... you know. The soulmate thing? Are you getting sick again?"

"It's a lot of things." You try to dodge his question, but he fixes you with a look he seems to have inherited from Scott.

"(Y/n), seriously. I don't want to have to worry about you too."

"I'm not getting sick again. Yet."

"Yet? But I thought you and Stiles figured out a way for you to get better."

"Liam," you sigh, peeking out from beneath your hair at him. "Where is Stiles right now?"

"He's with Lydia."

"Yeah. And how does he feel about Lydia?"

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"You're gonna get sick again, aren't you?"

"I'm gonna get Mason back before I do, but yeah. Probably."

Liam looks torn. "What if we found you a new soulmate? Someone who likes you?"

"Ouch," you say, deadpan.

"I didn't mean it like that."

"I know you didn't. But I think you might need to get comfortable with the idea of losing me. You'll be okay," you promise. "You'll still have Scott."

"But Scott doesn't care the same way you do. You're the one who convinced him to start talking to me again!"

"And you have my permission to beat him over the head with my death anytime he starts to forget that his martyr complex is getting others hurt."

Scott comes out of Lydia's room, and you and Liam both look up.

"Is she okay?" you ask, because despite the fact that you're competing with her for Stiles's affection, she's still one of your best friends in Beacon Hills.