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CHAPTER TWELVE; 12

Stiles and Sage came bursting through the door to the McCall house, muttering and pushing each other as they both tried to fit through the frame. For the past few hours, they had chosen to ignore each other up until the very moment they realized that they couldn't, both of them having committed their lives to making sure Scott McCall didn't eat anyone.

All of the commotion alerted Melissa, who called out her son's name but only got the surprise of two spastic, sexually frustrated teenagers that claimed to have no feelings for each other what-so-ever. Sage gaped over at Melissa, her eyes growing the size of saucers considering she hadn't intended for the mother to be home, while Stiles just nonchalantly closed the door.

The teenage boy turned around, moving to correct Melissa's calls to her son. "Stiles."

Sage winced before raising her hand in a wave. "Sage."

"Key!" Melissa exclaimed, pointing towards the key that Stiles was grasping in his hand.

Sage already complained to him that duplicating other people's house keys was not polite, and he just shouted at her that making out with his best friend on a desk was not sanitary. This all happened in their venture on their way to the house, it being an intense ten minutes of brooding stares and complicated snarks.

"Yeah, I had one made. So..." Stiles paused, leaving the sentence open-ended.

"That doesn't surprise me."

Sage snorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Does anything Stiles does surprise you?"

"No. It scares me, it doesn't surprise me. Nice to see you outside of the hospital, Sage," Melissa greeted, raising her eyebrows.

Sage grinned sheepishly, realizing that the only real time the two talk is when she's questioning Sage, taking Sage's blood pressure, or making sure Sage isn't dying. Stiles decided to drop the black duffle bag on the floor, and the contents inside made a loud bang echo through the house.

Melissa's eyebrows raised at the boy. "What is that?"

"Uh, school project," Stiles rushed, wrapping an arm around Sage, scoffing and grinning to try and pull of his act; the blonde seemed to tighten her shoulders had his touch, still uncomfortable being around him after what she had done today.

Melissa frowned, meeting eyes with Sage who just gave a hopeless stare back. Feeling concerned for the well-being of her son, Melissa found herself asking two of Scott's closest, and only, friends. "He's okay right?"

"Who? Scott?" Stiles wondered, confused at first only to begin nodding. "Yeah! Totally."

"He just doesn't talk to me. Not much anymore... not like he used to," Melissa explained, her lips tugging ever farther as she grew nostalgic back to the days Scott used to tell her everything, no secrets hidden between them.

"He's just having a bit of a rough week," Stiles reassured.

Sage frowned and stretched her hand out, grabbing hold of Melissa's and squeezing it. The mother looked over and smiled lightly at Sage, nodding her head. Stiles noticed the gesture and narrowed his eyes a bit, trying to figure out what to tell Melissa next. It was weird to think that Melissa McCall had become a mother figure to both Stiles and Sage, both having lost their own around the same time.

"Yeah. I get it. Okay, uh, be careful tonight," Melissa warned, pulling her purse straps farther up her shoulder as she released Sage's hand and went towards the door. "It's a full moon."

"Wait, what?" Stiles and Sage practically exclaimed in her face, completely in sync with one another as if it was planned out.

"There's a full moon tonight. You should see how the ER gets. It brings out all the nutjobs."

Sage exhaled in relief. She heard Stiles do the same from beside her, relieved that the secret they were hiding was still, indeed, a secret. "Right."

"You know, it's actually where they came up with the word 'lunatic'."

After that, Melissa left the two alone to stand in the foyer of the home. Sage went to speak but no words came out seeing as she was completely stunned. If only Melissa knew just how spot on she was about how it brings out the nutjobs.

She glanced over to see that Stiles was already staring, waiting for her to collect herself so that they could set up for tonight. She nodded, trying to ease the tension between them, and they both raced up the McCall household, once again fighting to get through the door first when they got to Scott's room.

Sage flicked on the light and turned around while Stiles set down the duffle bag. She let out a yelp when she saw Scott sitting in the chair situated beside his bed, looking as if he were an angry dad that just caught his daughter sneaking in.

Sage held her hand to her heart, trying to catch her breath. "Oh, my god. Don't do that. I— oh, my god. You scared the hell out of me."

"Your mom said you weren't home yet," Stiles added, walking forward to stand in front of Scott while Sage took a seat on the end of the werewolf's bed.

"I came in through the window," Scott explained, his voice deeper and all the more creepy when he was sitting the way he was.

Sage had seen Derek go through this stage before so she wasn't as traumitized as she should have been, unlike Stiles, who seemed overly hesitant to be anywhere near the werewolf on a full moon.

"Okay, let's get this set up," Stiles cheered, clapping his hands together as he bent down to help Sage sort through the bag. "Wait until you see what I bought."

What came out of Scott's mouth surprised both of them seeing as it was completely opposite from what he said in the locker room this morning. "I'm fine. I'm just going to lock the door and go to bed early tonight."

"You sure about that? Cause you've got this serial-killer-type-look going on in your eyes and I'm hoping it's the full moon taking effect because it's really starting to freak me out," Stiles admitted, his feet taking a few steps away from the teenage boy.

Scott kept his eyes on the two, no emotion shining on his face. "I'm fine. You two should leave."

"Alright." Sage looked at Stiles with wide eyes. Was he being serious? "Would you just look in the bag and see what I bought you? Maybe you use it, maybe you don't. Sound good?"

No, it doesn't sound good. Not to Sage, at least, who had seen firsthand what happens to people that stand in the crossfire of a werewolf, and because Scott is going to be ripping heads off as soon as Sage and Stiles leave the room.

Scott cautiously slid out of the chair, making his way over to the two. When he was crouching down to grab the bag, he got dangerously close to Sage, their arms rubbing up against each other in such a provocative way that the skin seemed to burn.

However, this time, instead of being manipulated by the marks on her neck, she was aware of what was happening and leaned away from him, her back up against Stiles' legs to create as much distance as she could. Scott's eyes flickered between the two before he looked down at the bag, digging his fingers in to grab a hold of the metal inside.

He didn't show any emotion as he scoffed. "You think I'm going to let you chain me up like a dog?"

"Actually no," Stiles denied, and in one swift movement, Scott was chained to the radiator, unable to escape.

Sage got up with hesitation, her shoulder bumping up against Stiles' arms as they took a few steps away. Neither one of them wanted to be too close to Scott when he was like this, much less actually stay in a room with him as his emotions were raging a war outside of his body.

"What are you doing?" Scott screamed, venom spilling through his words as he glared at the two of them.

"Making sure you don't hurt yourself— and giving you some payback." Stiles refused to look at Sage, trying to ignore her as he mustered up the courage to actually say this in front of her. He was following his father's advice. He needed to take his chance. "For making out with Sage."

Sage flinched instinctively, watching as Stiles left the room. Rather than staying with the homicidal werewolf, she followed after him, stopping outside of the bedroom while Stiles kept walking towards the kitchen. She wasted no time falling to the floor and wrapping her arms around her knees. Stiles came back about thirty seconds later with water in his hands, dismissing her existence as he strided past her.

"I brought you some water," Stiles sneered, and Sage saw him raise a dog bowl, pouring the water into it. She cracked a smile while Stiles set down the dog bowl, going to leave when liquid started to drip all on his back.

"I'm going to kill you!" Scott snarled.

Stiles and Sage watched each other for a few seconds before Stiles turned back around, feeling an immense amount of energy fizzing inside of him.

"You kissed her, Scott. You kissed her. You know Sage is the— she's the one girl that I— and you know for the past three hours I've been thinking it's probably just the full moon, you know? He doesn't even know what he's doing and tomorrow he'll be totally back to normal. He probably won't even remember how much of a complete dumbass he's been. A piece of shit, a freaking unbelievable crap best friend."

"She kissed me."

Sage closed her eyes, hissing out as she banged her head on the wall behind her. She knew that was bound to come up. She just knew; there was no way that it was going to stay a secret, and she couldn't exactly tell Stiles that she felt compelled to kiss Scott the second that her neck began to sting in pain.

"What?" Stiles asked, his mouth falling open in hurt.

Scott smirked. "I didn't kiss her. She kissed me. She would have done a whole lot more too." Stiles stared for a few seconds before he couldn't take seeing Scott's face, rushing out of the room and sliding down on the wall opposite of Sage. "She would have done anything for me. She would have done anything I wanted. Anything!"

Sage snapped her eyes open, looking across at Stiles. He had his head in his hands, and she felt everything slowly crumbling to the ground. She couldn't lie and say she hadn't been the one to enforce the kiss because she had been the one. Everything Scott said was true and that disgusted her to no end because she would have done anything for him. All because she was delusional after receiving the same wound Jackson has on his neck. It was the cause of all of this. Not her hormones. Not 'being a teenager girl'.

It was all her abilities.

"Stiles, please let me out. It's the full moon, I swear. You know I wouldn't do any of this on purpose. Sage, please help. Please, Stiles, let me out. It's starting to hurt. It's not like the first time. It's the full moon. It's Allison breaking up with me. I know that it's not just taking a break. She broke up with me, and I just needed someone and Sage was there. It's killing me. Just, please, let me out."

Sage stared at Stiles, who had yet to meet her eyes. She knew that what Scott was doing was all an act. She just didn't know if Stiles knew that. The blonde was growing concerned that he would actually let Scott out of the handcuffs rather than hold out for the night.

"I can't," Stiles murmured under his breath, only loud enough for Sage to hear.

The two were forced to sit through Scott's agonizing screams, it getting so bad that they had to cover their ears to try and block the sound. Sage ended up grabbing a hold of Stiles' hand halfway through, surprised that he didn't immediately flinch away from her touch or yank away their hands. He didn't hold it back, he just allowed her to apply pressure when Scott screamed or begged for them to release him.

And as bad as it was to hear Scott bellow, it was worse when he didn't and the whole house went completely quiet.

Stiles lifted his head up, and the two finally looked at each other in confusion. "Scott, are you okay?"

"Scott?" Sage called out, and the two of them got up, opening the door. They found something much worse than a loose werewolf seeking revenge. They found no werewolf at all. Neither of them wasted any time running out of his room and to Stiles' jeep.

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Sage kept a guarded stance the whole time in the car with Stiles. She was just waiting for him to blow up on her. She was worried that he would just shove what he said about her aside like he did the text message and they would never bring it up again. She was also worried that Scott might be out maiming an innocent person. Her nerves were on a high and she was incessantly tapping on the frame of the jeep to keep from clawing her eyes out at the silence.

Stiles continued to glance over at her, furiously tapping on the steering wheel to try and occupy himself when finally he broke. "Why?"

"Why?" Sage repeated, balling her hands into fists as she turned to look at him. His attention went back to the road as soon as she glanced over, and she felt like they were just tossing aside the subject.

"Why did you kiss him? That's all I want to know."

"I don't think I did."

Stiles jerked his head over, eyes wide with utter confusion. "What? Unless Invasion of the Body Snatchers decided to make a sequel—"

"Not what I meant," Sage said, sighing heavily. "I meant I don't think I had control over kissing him. Obviously I was kissing him. I just didn't want to. Do you remember the cuts that were on Jackson's neck—"

Stiles rubbed at his face with a single hand in exhaustion. "The ones on your neck too, yeah."

"I think they're messing with us. Not just me, I think Jackson is being affected too," Sage tried to explain. "And I don't know why. So go ahead and be pissed about me kissing Scott but I swear it meant nothing to either of us. He's most definitely not someone I would want to kiss."

Stiles shrugged it off, stopping at the red light. "But you did."

"Why do you do this?" Sage wondered, growing more irritated than she was to begin with. "Why do you get so mad when I do something with another guy? First, with Jackson, now Scott? I don't get jealous and defensive when you talk about Lydia, do I? Can't you just let it go? Besides, you're the one that said we're—"

"Nothing. Right. I'm just trying to look out for you," Stiles muttered.

"You're not my boyfriend, Stiles."

Sage was yanked forward, her seat belt catching her before she went soaring out the windshield. She may not have went airborne but she's pretty sure that she had a heart attack. With one hand held at her heart, she turned to glare at Stiles who had slammed hard on the break right in the middle of the abandoned street.

"I'm tired of this, Sage. You're flopping from guy to guy and I don't have a chance. I have no remote chance against two huge, lacrosse playing, team captains— one that's a werewolf by the way. So, I need to know where exactly we stand because I don't want to be nothing and I'm not good at showing my feelings because I know this conversation is just going to lead to my heart being broken and utterly crushing disappointment but—"

Sage shut Stiles up by crushing her lips onto his, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt. It wasn't the most comfortable scene, with her seatbelt crushing her abdomen and half of her body leaning on the gear shift. Stiles had taken a deep intake of air, clearly not as experienced as she was when it came to kissing. He caught on eventually though, and he was tangling his hands in her blonde hair. It was different from when Scott kissed her.

This time, it felt real.

She knew that she needed to pull back soon so they could breathe, but she didn't want to stop. Slowly, she removed her lips from Stiles' and grinned, kissing them once more before sitting back down in her seat, looking down at her nails as she tried to deem as casual as possible, plently away of the fact that the spastic boy was struggling to speak like a fish out of water.

"Wh— Did you just... we just—" his eyes widened. "Oh, my god."

Sage snorted and looked over at him. "Stilinski, you really need to start driving before your best friend makes a meal out of someone like Greenberg."

"Is that really such a bad thing?"

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