Hero (Sterek)

Chapter one

(This is not my story all the credit goes to J-Fire 1 from Fanfiction.net) :)

For some reason Isaac Lahey started hanging around a lot more. Maybe it was the loss of half his pack that made him lonely, or maybe it was the fact that he and Scott had some sort of weird wolf connection going on. Scott, too, seemed to revel in his new friend since Allison broke up with him—again. They were awfully chummy for two people who had barely interacted before becoming werewolves.

And it left Stiles in a weird position. He didn't exactly dislike Isaac, but he didn't exactly like him either. The guy was mentally unstable on his best days, for Christ's sake. Stiles honestly did not know why Scott took such a liking to him. Moreover, Stiles honestly did not know how their relationship reached such heights in so short a time that it ended up pushing Stiles right into the shadow's of Scott's life.

And it had happened before Stiles even realized it was happening. One second they were practicing lacrosse on the field, all smiles and "stop using your wolfy powers because it's not fair" expletives and the next Stiles was on the sidelines watching as Scott and Isaac high-five on the field, congratulating each other, and not even bothering to glance his way.

Some part of Stiles knew that it was because Scott shared something with Isaac that he couldn't with Stiles. They were both teenagers living a troubled life with a troubling secret and both trying to manage without killing someone. No matter how much Stiles wanted to be there for Scott, he couldn't match Isaac in actual experience. But these simple truths didn't soften the bitter aftertaste of third wheel. Nor did they cushion him from being sidelined.

Worse yet, it wasn't like Stiles could do something about it. His best friend was happy—who was he to spoil that? Even if he did feel like he was losing his best friend, he didn't have the right to ruin things. But it's not like Stiles didn't want to. It's not like he didn't want to march up and tell that blue-eyed puppy to beat it. He wanted to. But that's not what friends do. And Isaac doesn't deserve that. It might send him down some wolf-psychotic spiral, and Stiles didn't really want to be within clawing range of that mess.

Stiles thought about these things whenever there was a spare minute in his brain between homework, school, practice, and in all the dull moments. Dark feelings of sadness and frustration crept up and pinned him down making him remember all the good times he and Scott had growing up, how they had become like brothers, and how they had always stayed friends no matter what. Stiles wondered if this was the time that everyone always warns about. Eventually people grow apart. Things change.

Well, he didn't want things to change. He wanted them to stay firmly in place. Even when Scott spent all his time with Allison, Stiles always knew that Scott was still his best friend. But why was it different this time? It's not like he was dating Isaac—he was still in love with Allison. Scott was just making a new friend. So why why why was this happening?

Whatever force was behind this, Stiles didn't know. And he ended up spending as much time as possible keeping himself occupied so those dark thoughts didn't creep in and threaten to suck him down. He worked extra long on his homework, checked out piles of books from the library, reread old books, watched all six seasons of Doctor Who on Netflix, caught up on Game of Thrones, beat Skyward Sword, started a blog detailing his pop culture adventures, did a massive Buffy rewatch, and pretty much spent every other second trying not to think too hard about reality. But at night, when he tried to sleep, Stiles felt the loneliness in full force. A deep ache in the center of his chest. He should have tried to make friends other than Scott these past years of his life.

This was probably the reason why Stiles found himself sitting by himself at home on the first day of the winter holidays. Normally, he and Scott would spend the day playing video games in their underwear, but not this day. He hadn't even thought about Scott until the sun went down. And that was when Stiles realized he wasn't just lonely—he was very much alone.