On the Other Side • Sciles

Mint-Mojito

The next morning was awful. The pounding in his head was dreadful, his bones ached, and his chest felt like it had shrunken two sizes over the course of the night. He groaned, rolling over to check his phone and his heart dropped. Scott had texted him to let him know that he was okay and vaguely mentioning something about being attacked and bitten by what he assumed was a wolf.

Stiles' already broken heart skipped a beat and he let out a quiet sound of defeat.

...

The school day passed by in a giant blur and then so did the rest of the evening. Practice ended with a pissed off Jackson, a conceited Scott, and a worried Stiles. Scott had shown some less than normal activity on the field and now Stiles was sure he was going to be left in the dust. He had always depended on Scott to be his bench-buddy, but now he was sure that he'd be warming it by himself all season long.

"It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball. And that's not the only weird thing. I can hear stuff that I shouldn't be able to hear and smell things that I shouldn't be able to smell," Scott rambled on as they made their way through the Beacon Hills Preserve. Earlier that day, Stiles had made him promise to show him where the body was and hopefully retrieve Scott's inhaler.

"Smell things? Like what?"

"Like the mint-mojito gum in your pocket."

"I don't even have any mint-mojito..." Stiles trailed off as he scrambled through his pocket and his fingers grasped around an old piece of gum he hadn't even realized was there. "So all this started with a bite."

"What if it's like an infection, like, my body's flooding with adrenaline before I go into shock or something?"

"You know what? I actually think I've heard of this. It's a specific kind of infection." Stiles stifled a laugh. "Yeah. Yeah, I think it's called, 'Lycanthropy'."

"What's that? Is that bad?" Scott's eyes widened as he stared at his friend.

"Oh, yeah, it's the worst. But only once a month."

"Once a month?" Scott furrowed his brows in confusion.

"Mm - hmm. On the night of the full moon." Stiles howled at the sky, earning him a punch in the arm.

They finally reached the area where Scott claimed he saw the body, but there was nothing there except the vast expanse of trees and leaves. Stiles sighed because to be truthful he didn't really care about the body anymore, he just wanted to find Scott's inhaler before something bad happened. A stray piece of dust could cause an asthma attack at any second and Stiles did not want to take any more chances.

"Maybe the killer moved the body," Stiles offered.

"If he did, I hope he left my inhaler. Those things are like 80 bucks."

Crack. Stiles' ears perked up at the sound of a small limb snapping and he instinctively moved toward Scott. He might only be 140 pounds, but he would be a 140 pound human cannon if something came at Scott again. He mentally braced himself for whatever might coming whether it was a killer or a wolf. This time he wouldn't run or leave him behind.

This time he would be ready to protect Scott at all costs.