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The school year had finally ended, and Scott was more relieved to done with school than he ever had been before. He’d had nearly three months of freedom and the only thing on his to do list (other than work and whatever chores his mum asked him to do) was spending time with Stiles.
So that’s what he was doing – heading over to Stiles’ house to, most likely, wake his best friend up. For Stiles, summer meant sleeping in and doing absolutely nothing when he didn’t have to, which is exactly what he’d spent at least sixty percent of his summer doing. And since he knew Stiles wasn’t ‘helping out’ at the station today (also known as monitoring his dad’s eating habits up close, filing reports and trying to sneak looks at case files) chances were he would still be in bed even though it was nearly noon.
After knocking and getting no answer, Scott let himself in with the key Stiles had had made for him (he’d thought it only fair since he had one for the McCall house). Heading up the stairs, Scott made his way to Stiles’ bedroom, opening the door and walking right in.
‘Stiles. Stiles, dude. Wake up.’ Stiles stirred once, then stopped, still deep in sleep. Scott looked at him considering, then kicked off his shoes and pounced.
He landed right on Stiles, who shot up, eyes opening wide.
‘What – Scott? What the hell? Dude, what was that for? I was sleeping!’ Stiles asked, still looking around wildly, as if expecting an attack. When he found none, he flopped backwards, throwing an arm over his face. His face which was half-covered in lines from where it had been pressed into his pillow in his sleep.
‘Stiles, dude it’s already noon. We only have like two weeks left of summer, so come on, get up.’ Scott grabbed Stiles’ arm and dragged it off his face, giving him a little shove.
‘Do I have to?’ Stiles whined, and Scott laughed.
‘Yep. Unless you’d prefer… ’ Scott trailed off but lifted his hand to move his fingers against Stiles’ side, making him squirm.
‘No.’ Stiles protested, moving away.
‘Well those are you options – get up, and please shower, or I do it again.’ He wiggled his fingers threateningly, and Stiles lifted his head to glare at him.
‘I hate you.’ He said, sitting up again, keeping his eyes on Scott’s hand. He was the only person besides his dad who knew Stiles was ticklish, and unfortunately he wasn’t afraid to exploit that knowledge when he wanted to get his way.
‘You know you love me.’ Scott said, laughing and Scott thought he saw Stiles blush before he turned his head away, climbing over Scott and out of his bed.
‘Whatever. Give me ten minutes to shower.’ Scott watched Stiles head out of his room for the bathroom, and relaxed back on Stiles’ bed to wait. While he waited, he thought about Stiles reaction to his words. Why would Stiles blush from Scott telling saying Stiles loved him?
He tried to think of a reason, but while he thought, all that came to mind was a conversation with Stiles a few months ago. ‘This new-found heroism is making me very attracted to you.’ Then another conversation before that. ‘Am I not attractive to gay guys?’
He was deep in thought when Stiles came back in to his room, towel sitting low on his hips as he moved to his closet to find some clean clothes. The movement caught Scott’s attention and he propped himself up on his elbows, and found himself staring at Stiles’ back as Stiles’ words kept echoing in his mind.
‘Scott? Yo, Scotty!’ Stiles turned to look at him, letting the towel drop to the floor as he’d pulled a clean pair of boxers on underneath it, and was even now stepping into some clean sweats. Suddenly Stiles was clicking his fingers in Scott’s face and Scott blinked, leaning back.
‘What?’ He asked, blinking at Stiles who rolled his eyes.
‘Where’d you go man? I was asking you what you want to do today? Movie? Video games? More lacrosse practice?’
‘Oh, uh, I don’t know. Whatever you want.’ Stiles pulled a t-shirt over his head, narrowing his eyes at Scott as his head popped through. ‘What?’
‘Ok, what’s going on? First you were came in here, woke me up, all raring to go do something and now you’re spacing out on me and don’t care what we do? Seriously, what’s up?’
‘Do you like guys?’ Scott blurted out, then snapped his mouth shut, his eyes widening in surprise at his own words, wishing he could take them back. Stiles just stared at him, frozen in place. For nearly a minute, neither of them moved, processing the question that had just come out of Scott.
‘Um – ’
‘Oh my god, dude, forget I asked that. That was so not cool. I don’t even know – ’
‘Yes.’ Scott stopped his rambling apology, looking up at Stiles who was still standing in front of him.
‘Yes?’ Scott asked, and Stiles looked away, took a deep breath and then turned back, nodding.
‘Yes, I like guys. I mean, I still like girls, I wasn’t lying about that or anything, but… I like guys too.’ Stiles told Scott, his voice soft.
‘Wow.’ Scott could kick himself for only being able to come up with that, but his brain was apparently a little slow on the uptake in this conversation.
‘Yeah. Wow. Um… what made you ask that?’ Stiles asked, and Scott looked at him.
‘First – I’m so sorry I just like, asked you that like that, that really wasn’t cool of me. I was just… you blushed, earlier, when I said you know you love me and then that made me think, about why that would make you blush and then I remembered when you were asking me if you’re attractive to gay guys and then saying that my new heroism or whatever was making you attracted to me and we should make out and I was starting to think that maybe you weren’t joking and then I just… blurted the question out.’
Scott placed his hands in his lap, watching Stiles for a reaction as he explained his train of thought. Stiles stared at him for a moment, then sighed, running his hand through his newly grown out hair. Then he moved, sitting on the end of his bed, facing Scott.
‘It’s ok Scotty. I’m not upset you asked, I know you weren’t trying to be like… it just caught me off guard I guess. I wasn’t expecting it.’ Scott nodded, and was thankful his best friend wasn’t angry at him.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ He asked, his voice soft, and Stiles looked at him and shrugged.
‘I don’t know. It was never really like a plan to not tell you, I just… I was waiting for the right time and then, everything went crazy and I just… didn’t.’ Stiles told him, and Scott nodded even though he wished Stiles had felt he could tell him.
‘You know it doesn’t change anything, right? I mean, like, I don’t care one way or another.’ Scott tried to explain himself, trying to convey that he didn’t care who Stiles liked, they were still best friends, and Stiles just laughed.
‘I never thought it would, Scott. I know you, you’re like, the best person I know, you’d never care if I liked guys.’ Stiles told him, and Scott smiled, but there was still something nagging at him.
‘Do you… do you like me?’ Scott asked, then bit his lip when Stiles’ head shot up to look at him, eyes wide, mouth open in surprise.
‘I – I mean – of course I like you, dude, best friend forever, right?’ Stiles said, trying to bluff his way out of an answer by pretending to misunderstand the question and Scott knew.
‘I mean do you like me, Stiles.’ He repeated, changing his emphasis, moving a hand to Stiles’ wrist to keep him from standing and moving away. Stiles blinked once, twice, then looked down at Scott’s hand. When he looked back up, Scott’s heart hurt when he saw sadness in Stiles’ eyes.
‘Yes.’ Stiles breathed out. ‘I’m sorry, Scott, I – ’
Scott cut Stiles off by leaning forward and pressing his lips to Stiles’. Stiles let out a sound of surprise, but when Scott brought a hand up to cup the back of his head, tilted his own head to change the angle and make it easier, Stiles let his eyes shut and let himself sink into the kiss and enjoy it.
When Scott pulled back slowly, he let his hand slip down to settle at the base of Stiles’ neck, his thumb moving gently back and forth over Stiles’ skin just about his t-shirt.
‘Why did you do that?’ Stiles asked in a whisper. Scott took a moment before he answered, not wanting to say the wrong thing. He wasn’t completely sure why he’d done that – he couldn’t lie and say he’d wanted to do it for a while, it hadn’t occurred to him to try before today. But as soon as he’d thought about it, it was all he could think about.
‘Because I love you. And I have to be honest, I don’t know if I feel about you exactly how you feel about me, and I haven’t really thought about it before but I thought about kissing you and I just – I couldn’t not do it.’ Scott said, hoping Stiles could make sense of his words. When Stiles didn’t say anything, he started to panic, thinking he’d just ruined things.
‘What about Allison?’ Scott was shocked that that was Stiles said next, but then he realised it made sense. This was completely out of the blue, and the last time they’d spoken about anything Scott had told him he was going to wait for her then get her back.
‘Honestly? When she broke up with me, it hurt, a lot. And I wanted to speak to her every day, try to change her mind, especially for the first few weeks. But recently?’ Scott paused, shrugged as he tried to explain it. ‘It still sucks, but now it more about how it all ended then the fact that it ended. Thinking about her, it doesn’t really hurt now, and I don’t think about her that much, not like I did right after we broke up or at the start of summer. I haven’t wanted to call her in weeks.’
Stiles was watching him closely, as if trying to pick out any lies. Scott just sat patiently, waiting for Stiles to react.
‘And what about me? I mean, you know I like you, I’m pretty sure I love you, and you just kissed me. Was it, like, a test?’
‘No, Stiles. I wouldn’t do that, especially not to you. I meant what I said, when I started thinking about it, it was like I had to do it. And… I’m really glad I did. It was amazing. It felt like… it felt right.’
‘So you think you like guys too?’ Stiles questioned, and Scott shrugged.
‘I don’t know. It’s not really about you being a guy, it’s more about you being Stiles. Does that make sense?’ Stiles gave a small nod.
‘Kind of, I guess.’ Scott could tell Stiles didn’t really get it.
‘I mean, I know we’ve talked about girls we find attractive before, but I don’t… it usually takes me a while to really be attracted to someone. Usually, I really have to know and like someone before I feel like I want to do anything… physical. I think that’s why the idea of kissing you took so easily. Like, I know you’re an attractive person, but I never really thought about you or us in that way before, but then when I did…’ He tried to explain, knowing he sounded awkward. He’d never tried to put it into words before.
‘But what about Allison? You were like, zero to sixty with her.’ Stiles said, and Scott nodded his understanding. That had been a big surprise to him, and he’d been thinking about it a lot since they broke up.
‘I think that had more to do with the wolf. It was really weird because like, I’ve never had that instant attraction to anyone before so I didn’t recognise it at first, and then at first I thought it was cause I’d never met the right person. But I kept having these feelings like I was fighting with myself – there were times where all I wanted to do was touch her and kiss her but then I’d stop and think well, let’s just get to know her first. And obviously, then I did get to know her, and… but I think those first few weeks was not all me.’
Stiles looked at him, cocked his head.
‘So you’re saying the wolf had the hots for Allison first?’ He asked, and Scott rolled his eyes but nodded. ‘Ok. Ok, that sort of makes sense. It’s a little weird, but then, what isn’t in our lives nowadays?’
Scott laughed in agreement, and Stiles smiled.
‘What does this mean then? For us?’ Stiles asked, and Scott smiled.
‘It means… I think, I want to try this. If you do.’ Scott told him, and he could hear the hope in his voice.
‘What if it doesn’t work?’ Stiles asked, and Scott heard, and understood, the fear.
‘What if it does?’ Scott countered, and Stiles smiled fondly at the typical optimism. ‘I think we need to promise each other, if we decide to do this, that our friendship comes first. If anything goes wrong or it just doesn’t work, we can take some time, but we’re always friends.’
‘Do you think that can work?’ Stiles asked.
‘I think we’re Scott and Stiles – ask anyone, if we decide we want to do something, we’ll do it no matter how many people tell us not to, or that we can’t.’ Stiles rolled his eyes at the reminder of the many, many times they’d been told their ideas were crazy or impossible or just plain not allowed (or illegal). But it was true – anything that they’d really want to do, they’d found a way and they’d done it. And then when necessary (at least fifty percent of the time) they’d found a way back out of whatever situation they ended up in.
‘Ok.’ Stiles said, nodding. ‘Ok. We promise that no matter what happens, we’re friends first and always.’ He held out his hand, fingers curled except his pinky. Scott looked down at it, then up at Stiles and smiled.
The first time they’d made a promise to one another, Scott had held out his pinky to a very confused Stiles. When he explained what he knew about pinky swears and how they couldn’t be broken, Stiles had nodded enthusiastically and stuck his own out to complete the process. Since then, every important promise they’d made had been sealed with a pinky promise.
Scott moved his hand off Stiles’ wrist and looped his pinky around Stiles’.
‘I, Scott McCall, pinky promise that no matter what happens between Stiles Stilinski and I in our romantic relationship we will be friends first and always.’ Stiles smiled at the words romantic relationship.
‘I, Stiles Stilinski, pinky promise that no matter what happens between Scott McCall and I in our romantic relationship we will be friends first and always.’ They grinned at each other, and then Scott used the hand still on the back of Stiles’ neck to reel him in for another kiss.