♐ ♐ ♐ ♐ ♐ ♐ ♐ ♐ ♐ ♐ ♐ ♐

CHAPTER FOURTEEN; 14

Sage ran her hands through her blonde hair as she paced around the room. Stiles had just forced her to send a message to Danny since, apparently, the teenage boy hated Stiles, and now she was just anxiously waiting for him to get here. She was more afraid of how Danny would react when he found out they weren't exactly going to be doing their lab assignment and that she wasn't really nervous about being home alone with Stiles.

Which, by the way, is what she used as an excuse to get him to come over. Derek was just brooding in the corner of Stiles' room, impatiently grumbling like always. That was all that he could do, especially since Sage would give him a glare any time he made a move to expand the amount of space he was occupying.

Sage quickly tied her hair up into a ponytail, getting tired of pushing it out of her face every five seconds. In that time, the white shirt that she had chosen to wear today was finally brought to the attention of the brooding wolf, and he frowned at her.

With raised eyebrows, Derek asked, "What happened to your shirt?"

"Huh?" she wondered, confused as she put her hands back down at her sides, completely having forgotten about the small moment of similarity between herself and the infamous strawberry-blonde.

"Your shirt. There are stains on it," Derek explained, pointing at her white shirt.

She looked down to see that the man was correct; Lydia had created a work of art with her makeup, from concealer to lip gloss, her whole shirt was coated in MAC products that probably costed more than the blonde's entire wardrobe. That was when Sage sighed and tried to rub out the smudges, only making an even bigger mess than before.

"Were you crying?"

The blonde looked up from her cleaning and snorted. Derek's question made Stiles turn around in his swivel chair, nearly tipping the whole thing over in the process all from curiosity of what Derek had uttered from his mouth. Anything involving Sage interested him, though, if he were being completely honest.

Sage crossed her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes on Derek as she felt the need to joke about the subject. "The cheerleaders cut me from the team."

"Do we even have a cheerleading team?" Stiles wondered, making both of them turn in his direction. He ducked his head, scratching his neck and not meeting their eyes.

Sage smiled lightly at the boy's awkwardness, then remembered she had yet to answer Derek. "To answer your question, no. I wasn't crying. Lydia was; and before you ask why, I don't think it's my place to say— the whole girl code thing."

Sage also didn't want Stiles to know that the girl of his dreams was finally single and ready to be snatched up, leaving Sage with an even bigger opinion on why love sucked ass. She knew that she shouldn't be so concerned about the relationship, or rather non-relationship, between Stiles and Lydia, but she couldn't help it. There would always be something there that was a threat to anything the blonde and the boy could ever be.

Trying to change the subject, Sage scratched her arm. "Stiles, do you have a hoodie? Or a different shirt? I'm not going to have a chance to change before the game."

Stiles eyes widened and he nodded excessively, jumping out of his seat, tripping on the bottom of the chair. Sage saw Derek smirk, but she refused to acknowledge him. She already knew that Derek had assumptions and accusations floating around in his head. Most of them involved the hyperactive sixteen year old in front of her. He had a piece of clothing in his hands, a grey hoodie that was obviously going to be too large on her. She took it none-the-less, slipping it on over her damaged shirt.

"Thanks." Sage smiled, looking up as she rolled the sleeves up until they stopped at her wrists. Stiles stared at her for a few seconds, his eyes dazing off as a look of uncertainty flashed across his face. Just as soon as it was there, it disappeared and Stiles was clearing his throat.

"No problem," Stiles muttered going back to his place in his chair.

Sage shrugged in the hoodie, falling down on Stiles' bed as she waited for Danny to walk through the doo. She knew that it wasn't going to take long at all, especially since Danny didn't live that far away from the Stilinski's. From the time of the phone call, he could be at the house in less than ten minutes.

She had been right, too, because ten minutes after she called the teenage boy, there was the opening of a door and that had been him entering the Stilinski household, coming here intending to work on school-related things. She felt bad lying to him, only because she was barely aware of what Stiles' plan was involving Danny herself.

The brunette boy walked into Stiles' room after Sage called for him to come up, his backpack hung over his shoulder as he glanced between the two. Derek was yet to be discovered, hidden behind the door and out of sight like he wanted to be. Much like Sheriff Stilinski and Derek's eyes, Danny's held a look of accusation as he slowly smirked.

Sage rolled her eyes. Seriously? Did everyone in Beacon Hills think they were having sex?

The blonde finally slapped her thighs with a huff, standing up to stand next to Stiles. "Alright, Danny. You know how much I love and respect you, and would be the first to kill anyone that broke your heart?"

Danny let out a sigh. "What do you want?"

"We need you to trace a text," Stiles deadpanned, getting straight to the point while Sage clenched her jaw.

They really should have eased into it more. Although, Sage was pretty sure Stiles wasn't familiar with the term 'ease unless it was with confessing feelings. That's something he definitely eased into, unlike this current situation where she watched as Danny's expression went from amusement to utter bafflement.

His eyebrows shot up rather high. "You need me to do what?"

"We need to you trace a text for us," Sage repeated, trying hard not to wince considering she knew what this was sounding like and all of the risks the three of them would be taking by just simply asking Danny to do this.

"I came here to do lab work. That's what lab partners do, Sage," Danny deadpanned, his stare hard as he looked at her disapprovingly.

Sage subtly hit Stiles on the shoulder, trying to get him to take over the situation which ony made Stiles glare up at her but give Danny a huge, false smile. "And you will. We all will. After you trace the text."

"And how do you think I know how?" Danny interrogated, grabbing a hold of his backpack strap.

Sage sucked in air, narrowing her eyes at Stiles. She didn't know Danny could do any of it, Stiles just said, "believe in me," and she willingly did. There was still hesitation, but she didn't have any better ideas. Besides, Danny didn't exactly look like someone that could trace a text.

Stiles cringed. "I—uh...I looked up your arrest report."

"I was thirteen! They dropped the charges." Stiles held up his hands when Danny grew defensive about the topic of the charges that were pressed against him when he was younger. "So no, we're doing lab work."

Sage gave a jab in Stiles' side, making sure he knew just how pissed she was that the whole plan didn't work. Danny grabbed the chair that was sitting near Stiles' dresser, pulling it up to his desk. The three sat in silence for a few seconds before Danny's curiosity got the best of him when he looked back and saw Derek sitting behind them, reading.

"Uh, who's he again?" Danny asked with uncertainty.

Sage looked over at him in surprise. Almost everyone was aware of who Derek was because he's either tried to kill them, they've heard that he's apparently tried to kill someone, or they remember him as her guardian. It was an actual surprise that Danny didn't know who Derek was.

"Uh," Stiles started, glancing over at Sage for help. They couldn't just out that he was Derek Hale. Danny would call the police in a split second, and that would just end badly for everyone. "My cousin, Miguel."

Sage snorted, choking on air as she tried to regain her control of oxygen while Derek looked up from the book he was reading. Danny kept his eyes on Derek, apprehensive about one particular thing about him. "Is that blood on his shirt?"

"Uh, nose bleeds. Horrible ones. It's like Niagara Falls," Sage quickly lied, giving Danny a fake grin as she walked over to sit on Stiles' bed so that she didn't look completely suspicious just standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.

Derek was still reading his book, completely ignoring all of them. That seemed to annoy the spastic boy that slept in this room, knowing very well that Danny was uncomfortable about the fact that there was blood on Derek's shirt and nose bleeds definitely weren't the cause of it.

"Hey, Miguel," Stiles hissed. "I thought I said you could use one of my shirts."

Derek looked up from the book he was so engrossed in, throwing in on the bed near Sage's waist. He, then, restlessly got up, his shirt coming off and being carelessly thrown to the floor while he started to dig through Stiles' clothes in an attempt to find anything that would suffice for his body.

Meanwhile, Stiles continued to push Danny into helping him with the text. "So, you know you have the skills to, um, to trace that text—"

"Stiles?" Derek interrupted, his lips turning down into a glower as he realized there was a deep-rooted problem within the dresser of Stiles Stilinski's clothes.

Stiles turned around, annoyance evident on his face. "What?"

"This—" he held up a striped polo, stretching it out to emphasize the issue. "—no fit."

Sage pursed her lips, biting down hard on her tongue to keep from cracking up laughing. Just imagining Derek in that shirt would have had her bursting out if Danny hadn't been in the room. The fact that Miguel believed that the polo was even an option continued to prove to her that there was obviously no taste in both Stiles' mind as well as the werewolf's.

"Then try something else on!" Stiles opted, glaring at Derek from across the room.

Derek narrowed his eyes to slits before he dug through the shirts again, trying to find something that would work. It wasn't working out for him, though, and his biggest issue was that the teenage boy across the room from him was the size of a stick.

Turning towards Danny, Stiles went to apologize when he saw that the boy's attention wasn't on him, but the shirtless wolf; and that was when his eyes widened in realization, and he grinned. "Hey, that one looks pretty good, huh! What do you think, Danny?"

"Huh?" Danny asked, trying to divert his eyes anywhere but Derek's chest.

Sage sat up when she noticed what Stiles was doing, finding herself choking up even more. She wasn't even able to help Stiles out considering she was on the verge of having a heart attack due to the amount of pressure she was keeping in as she tried not the splutter with laughter.

Derek had on yet another striped shirt, which made no sense because the only thing Stiles wore was plaid; the shirt seemed to be Stiles' best motive for getting Danny to cooperate right now. "The shirt?"

Danny cleared his throat to try and clear his hormones. "It's—it's not really his color."

"You swing for a different team but you still play ball, don't you, Danny boy?" Stiles grinned, meeting Sage's eyes and giving her a subtle smirk.

She returned it with a smile, looking back over at Derek who was still having trouble finding a shirt that would both fit him and not make him look like he was Shaggy from Scooby Doo or Freddie Krueger. A furred look was upon his face, the man in deep concentration as he seemed honestly attentive on trying to find something that woul appropriately work for his figure.

"You're a horrible person," Danny muttered out, his eyes still shying away from the muscular man that was shirtless and in the same room as him.

Stiles shrugged as if the idea barely bothered him. "I know, it keeps me awake at night. Anyway, about that text—"

"Stiles! None of these fit!" Derek snapped, clearly annoyed as he grew restless just trying on and taking off shirts that were never going to fit him properly.

Sage sighed when she realized she was the only option in helping him before rolling off the bed, wincing when she felt her ribs connect with the hardback book that Derek had been previously reading before going to find a shirt.

"I've got it. I've got it. Have you ever just considered leaving it off?" Sage asked while she rummaged through some of Stiles' shirts, honestly wondering if the thought ever crossed the man's mind.

She wouldn't have minded, growing used to the man's shirtless torso considering the amount of times it has been flashed her way ever since she was younger, but she didn't know how well Danny and Stiles would react. This only resulted in a grunt from Derek and she snickered, holding up a red shirt to his chest before seeing that there was no way it would even fit Stiles appropriately.

"I'm going to need an ISP, the phone number, and the exact time of the text," Danny decided, swallowing the lump forming in his throat as he tried to keep his voice from raising an octave due to the muscles peaking out through the shirt Derek had on.

Sage saw Stiles do a silent victory cheer from the corner of her eye, and a hint of a smile showed up on her face while she continued to dig through the drawers until she came across a dark grey shirt that looked large enough to fit Derek's huge build. She balled it up in her hands, shoving it into Derek's chest when she finally stared up at him.

"Don't say it," Sage whispered, frowning at him before glancing over to make sure that the two boys on the other side of the room were more occupied on finding out who the text was sent from rather than her conversation with Derek.

She knew that he was just waiting for the chance to yell at her. When they got here, she vowed that she wouldn't get involved with anyone in fear that the supernatural world would interfere and get someone extremely hurt, or even killed.

But all of that was ignored now.

She was trying to train a new werewolf, she had feelings for the werewolf's best friend, she was somewhat friends with her former enemy, one of her friends just so happened to be the daughter of werewolf hunters, and another one of her fr--okay, they weren't exactly friends, more like inevitable acquaintances, had found out about werewolves. And on top of all that, she still didn't know what the hell was wrong with her abilities.

"I was just going to say be careful. I don't want to see a repeat of A—" Derek went to speak but was quickly cut off by the immediate scowl that darkened the blonde's face.

"Don't."

Derek sighed. "I just wish you would have picked someone better."

"Got it!" Danny shouted to everyone. Sage and Derek exchanged a look, knowing that they would eventually have to return to the conversation. Walking over to Stiles' laptop, they watched as Danny clicked a new link, leaning back in his chair for all of them to inspect. "There. The text was sent from a computer. This one."

Sage's eyes widened when she saw an all too familiar name."Registered to that name?"

"No, no, no. That can't be right," Stiles disagreed, shaking his head as the name practically glared at them in the face; if this was correct, and if she was actually the one behind all of this, which Sage and Stiles were absolutely sure she wasn't, then Melissa McCall was keeping important secrets from them.

From all of them.

♐ ♐ ♐ ♐ ♐ ♐

"Did you get the picture?"

"Yeah, I did, and it looks just like the drawing."

Derek grabbed a hold of the cell, keeping a tight grip of Stiles' wrist. Sage winced, knowing that the hold was probably a whole lot tighter than she imagined. "Hey, is there something on the back of it? There's got to be something, an inscription, an opening, something!"

"No, no. The thing's flat. There's nothing in it, on it, around it, nothing. And where are you? You're supposed to be here! You're first line!" Scott exclaimed from the other end of the phone. "Man, you're not going to play if you're not here to start."

"I know! Look, if you just... if you see my dad, tell him— tell him I'll be there, I'll just be a little bit late, okay? Alright, thanks." Stiles hung up his phone, staring at it for a few moments as if he were wishing it would magically give him the ability to be in two places at once.

Sage closed her eyes, feeling an overwhelming sense of defeat for Stiles. She knew that he was looking forward to his more than anything. After he told her that he made first line today, it was all he talked about. To know that he wasn't going to get to play crushed her, and no doubt crushed him.

"You're not going to make it," Derek spoke impassively. Sage's eyes snapped open and she hit the back of his head, scowling at the man's insensitivity while he returned the favor. The werewolf didn't know when to shut his mouth about particular subjects and that annoyed the hell out of her.

Stiles immediately answered Derek. "I know."

"And, you didn't tell him about his mom either."

Another slap to the back of his head.

"Not till we find out the truth," Stiles stated, shaking his head as he refused to believe that Scott's mother had anything to do with the text message that initially got Allison and all of the others to the school the night they were attacked by Peter.

"By the way, one more thing," Derek announced, turning to look between the two.

Stiles blinked, neck craning to glance over. "Yeah?"

Without any warning, Stiles' head was slammed hard against his steering wheel. Sage jerked out of her seat, leaning forward to check on Stiles as he held his forehead all while there was a familiar stinging pain in the center of her own head. The only thing it was going to leave was an agonizing headache, something that was going to leave her questioning how much Ibuprofen she could take before dying.

"God, what the hell was that for?" Stiles cried out, hissing in pain when Sage touched the injury.

"You know what that was for!" Derek harshly replied, pointing an accusing finger at Stiles. Grabbing hold of Sage's arm, his hold much more gentle than it had been with Stiles, he urged her to climb over the seat. "Both of you, go. Go!"