Ember

Breakthrough

A/N: I want to make it very clear that I had a whole other plan for this chapter and how this scene, in particular, was going to go. Then Stiles went and said "nope" to my plans and this happened. Why did he have to ruin my timeline? God knows. Am I going along with it anyway? Bet.

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September 19th, 2009

Stiles' Saturday starts with an obnoxious ringtone that is not, surprisingly, his alarm. He reaches blindly at his bedside table until his hand closes around his phone and brings it up to his face that's still smushed against the pillow. He twists and turns with a groan into a better position to check who's calling, eyes squinting at the light of the screen, at least until he sees 'Baby Gilbert' written on it - which is how he saved Jeremy's contact after a couple of exchanged messages - and immediately picks up the call.

"Sup?" he greets in the sleepy voice of someone that was just rudely woken up.

"Stiles? Did I wake you up?" Jeremy at least had the decency to sound somewhat apologetic.

"Yeah, 's fine," he assures, "mornin'."

"Barely," the kid chuckles and Stiles holds the phone away from his ear for a moment to check on the time only to realize it's nearly noon, "so, about teaching me how to punch..."

"Hm?" it takes him a few seconds to remember his offer to Jeremy the other night, but he nods to himself once he does, "Sure, I'm down, just let me grab a bite and I can pick you up."

"Really? I mean- cool." Stiles chuckles at the surprised tone but doesn't take any offense, he's not nearly awake enough for it to matter.

"See ya in like... an hour," he warns before hearing Jeremy's confirmation and hanging up.

After a quick shower and changing into something comfortable to exercise in, he stops by the kitchen for some scrambled eggs on a bagel and forgoing the apple crumble tea they'd started taking in the mornings and having some juice instead before quickly putting together a gym bag and rushing out the door. Aunt Liz was already gone, probably off to work, and Caroline had yet to wake up so he leaves a post-it on the fridge saying he was out with baby Gilbert before mounting his Jeep and driving off to Elena's. It takes a little longer than the path to the school, but it's still a small city so he ends up parking in front of the correct house soon enough, pulling out his phone to let Jeremy know he's there.

Stiles(12:44p.m.): here.

Baby Gilbert(12:46p.m.): aunt blocking door.

Stiles(12:46p.m.): omw.

Stiles turns off the engine and walks up to the door of the house, ringing the doorbell. It barely takes a second for it to spring open, revealing Jeremy's aunt looking very surprised to see him on the other side of it.

"Told you," Jeremy quips from behind her.

"You're not going off to get high, are you?" Jenna narrows her eyes at him and Stiles can only balk at the question, "he has schoolwork."

"Aunt Jenna!" Jeremy protests, pushing his way past her and to Stiles' side.

Stiles hasn't seen much of Jenna in the past few years, the last time was the Gilbert funeral, and the time before that was over three years earlier, so it's not a complete surprise that she isn't completely sure what to make of him, but drugs are one assumption he hadn't quite expected.