fixing things (shouldn't be this complicated) [Teen Wolf]

Fourth Step, Or, Something Wicked This Way Comes [1]

A/n: Not that I've had any regular sort of posting schedule (oops), but I'm going on vacation to visit friends next week, so part two won't be coming until mid-August. Eek! *dodges a rotten tomato* Oi, this is my good clothes, stop that! *dodges more tomatoes* Hey, look at it this way, you can enjoy the goodness that is this part one of chapter four more fully before the second part comes up! No? EEEEEK *runs from the cacophony of rotten tomatoes* UNCLE, UNCLE I SAY! UNCLEEEE--

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Two days pass with no sign of Kate Argent. Stiles would doubt that she was here if not for the scents of gunmetal and wolfsbane all over town and in the woods driving everyone insane. Mr. Hale has started cursing up a storm whenever Stiles sees him, Mrs. Hale is actually looking frazzled, and Deaton is smiling less and frowning more. Stiles almost misses that cryptic smile, if only because seeing it again would mean Deaton had some idea of what was going on.

The hunter issue aside, Stiles is frustrated too. His research into magical healing herbs and potions is getting him absolutely nowhere. He's already had to broaden his search parameters from "permanent cure" to "temporary cure," and it's looking like he'll have to look further afield than even that. Magic is tricky at best, Stiles knows, but it looks like no one has successfully come up with something for cancer magically, only stop gaps, much like modern medicine. On top of that, what he can find is all mixed in with wishy-washy stuff like Make Your Own Love Potion! kits and magical porn, which makes everything a billion times more difficult.

(Oh God, he has never sifted through so much scarring porn in his life as he has for the past year. Like seriously scarring. Tentacles and knots and alpha-beta-omega dynamics scarring. On the one hand, yeah, Stiles's porn folders have never housed so extensive a collection, so thanks for that Google. On the other hand, mind bleach.)

Let's not forget that because of Stiles's lack of better judgment (or at least better decision making skills), the Internet is six years younger than Stiles is used to, which means that Wikipedia has way less information and fewer articles, Facebook is only just up and coming, and the graphic quality for World of Warcraft is so much more subpar Stiles can't believe this shit is considered cutting-edge. (Not to mention Revenge of the Lich King hasn't even come out yet and oh my God, not cool.)

Frustrating is not even remotely close to the word Stiles wants to use to describe the situation right now.

"So...this is fun."

Oh, yeah, and there's the last piece of this melodrama. Stiles looks over at the guy next to him, hands in his pockets, who's scuffing at the floor. Derek meets his gaze with eyes that are disconcertingly easy to read, offers a shrug.

Rolling his eyes, Stiles returns to his library books, all on mundane properties of herbs. Hey, even if he can't find a cure right now, he can still find something to make his mom feel better in the short term. "You don't have to follow me around, you know."

Derek shrugs again. "Dad told me to."

"And do you always do what your dad tells you to do?" Stiles snaps before he thinks about it. Wincing, he braces himself for retaliation.

"Yeah? He's my dad." Derek looks baffled, like why wouldn't he do what his dad said.

Stiles looks at Derek for a second, then turns back to his research. There's a bitter taste in his throat at Derek's easy acceptance of fatherly authority. There was a time when Stiles had that same faith, that same simplicity in his relationship with his dad, when he could as easily have said "I tell my dad everything" and have it be true. Then Peter came along and bit Scott, and well...nothing was the same since then.