Chapter 6

There were 37 awkward seconds of silence when everyone finally realized that this might actually be important. 37, Stiles knew, because he counted. Having a mouth that never stopped moving, Stiles wasn't really sure what to do with 37 seconds of silence, but thankfully Scott broke it for him.

"So," Scott said, scratching the back of his neck like he often did when he was uncomfortable. Stiles saw Allison's eyes go soft at the gesture, and- Christ. The Scott/Allison star-crossed lovers bit would never end. "What do we do about it?"

Stiles automatically opened his mouth to talk, except then he realized that he didn't actually have anything to say to that, so he closed it. But no one else looked ready to step forward (not even Derek Alpha werewolf Hale), and Stiles wasn't about to wait another agonizing 37 seconds, so he opened it again and prayed that something useful would fall out. Nothing happened.

"Really?" Jackson sneered. "This is the one time your mouth chooses to stay shut?"

Stiles was about to rudely point out that his mouth wasn't shut (although, thinking about it, that wasn't really any defense), but Scott was once stepped up in his stead. "We could try talking to him?"

Oh, Scott, Stiles thought forlornly. Well, at least he was trying.

"No, I'm serious! I feel like half our problems could've been solved with proper communication. Maybe if we confront him, he'll just leave."

Stiles had actually been following Scott's logic. Honestly, "talk about our feelings and resolve things peacefully" was just so Scott. But, then again, so was "defeat the evil monster with the power of love," and Stiles had never thought he'd see the day when that one would save their sorry asses. "Scott might have a point."

Scott looked torn between commenting on the "might" and beaming like a small child given a gold star. The latter was definitely winning. "I mean, I'll admit that I was all this-fairy-is-probably-evil the other day, and, let's face it, this fairy is probably evil, but I also don't really know how fairy politics work. Maybe that note he left was just his version of a, 'Howdy, neighbor' fruitcake. Maybe we'll have a nice barbecue. But then again all these sentences have far too many 'maybe's, so we might want to have a Plan B.-"

"Stiles," Boyd said forcefully, and Stiles was glad someone finally cut him off. "You mentioned another fairy - Dain?" Stiles nodded, struck dumb by the power of Boyd's serious face. Stiles was pretty sure Boyd was the only one in their group capable of pulling that off (Derek's serious faces never counted, 'cause they were too angst-y). "When will you next be in contact with him?"

Technically, Stiles wasn't due to see Dain for almost a month, but Stiles could actually talk to Dain whenever he wanted. This was a feature Stiles had frequently ignored because he had spent most of his life seeing as little of Dain as possible. The day Dain had suggested switching their weekly meet-and-greets to monthly had been the happiest day of Stiles's life. Even mystical fairies sent out by grand fairy councils had cell phones, though.

"Stiles." Stiles wasn't fooled by the lack of exclamation point, Dain was flabbergasted. "Did you burn down Beacon Hills?"

Stiles wanted to be offended (he really did), but if he was in Dain's shoes, he'd probably have assumed worse. "No. I was just curious about something."

"Oh, god, no," Dain said, and he hadn't sounded so horrified since Stiles considered auditioning for his school play in elementary school. His exact words to Stiles' mom were, "I would sooner gouge out my eyes". "Stiles, before you do something unredeemable, just remember that my reputation is on the line. What am I saying? That won't mean anything to you. Remember that your wings are on the line.-"

"Dain! I haven't done anything.-" blatant lie "- I just realized the other day that I've never really met any other fairies, and I was wondering why that is and what I would do if I ever ran across one on the street-"

"Stiles." Stiles knew Dain's eyes were narrowing. "Is there another fairy in Beacon Hills?"

Stiles was tempted to just tell Dain the truth. Maybe the council had protocol for this. Maybe Dain would come in, deal with the fairy, and leave without any hassle. Maybe he wouldn't even find out about the werewolf infestation Beacon Hills was suffering from. And maybe the rainbow tasted like gumdrops and sprinkled sunshine on unicorns. "No, Dain. Beacon Hills is just as uneventful as ever. I was just wondering, for curiosity's sake. Plus, I come of age in a few years-" Stiles pretended not to hear the "Not soon enough" Dain so helpfully supplied "-and I thought I might eventually need to know."

Dain was sizing him up. Stiles could feel it. Eventually, he sighed and said, "Well, you'd know if you ever paid attention to anything that I said, but of course that would be asking too much. Underage fairies aren't just allowed to roam the world at their fancy, but once they come of-age-"

"21 years old because The Council has a thing for 3s and 7s and 21 is 3 times 7. I do pay attention sometimes."

"-we really stop keeping track of them unless they give us a reason to stay on our radar. You've never met another fairy, though, Stiles, because we try to keep roaming fairies away from you children. Nomadic fairies are usually trouble makers, and you children are headache enough without more bad influences. There's a registry with the locations of underage fairies that any fairies can reference- Not names, mind you, just glowing dots to illustrate presence. It's not forbidden, per se, to involve oneself with an underage fairy without familial bonds-"

"But The Council's never had to forbid something to keep people from doing it."

"And since Beacon Hills isn't exactly LA or New York, you won't have to worry about what to do if you run into a fairy in the street for four years. Even then, I would suggest you avoid the incidence whenever possible. Fairies just don't- Well, in my experience, they don't play well with others."

The line was silent for a moment, and Stiles's stomach twisted a little. So, out-of-towner leaving Stiles, a definitively underage fairy, teasing notes? Not boding well for him. "Th-Thanks, Dain. That's pretty much what I wanted to know."

"Good, then. Stiles, I fear we should also discuss your poor attendance record-"

"Oh, would you look at the time? Gotta split. Thanks for everything. I'll see you next month!"

"Stiles, wait-!"

But Stiles hung up before Dain could get him talking about his "poor attendance record."

"So, that's it then? He couldn't just be goofing around?" Scott's voice was kind of muffled, since his head was currently stuck inside his locker. He was taking an exorbitant amount of time to fish all his stuff out of his locker, and Stiles was starting to wonder if his locker housed some pocket dimension - or maybe Scott had become a wizard overnight and was doing the thing like Hermione's bad in the last book.

Stiles was relaying the conversation he'd had with Dain, and he would have to do it all over again with the others thanks to Scott's knew share-and-care-alike philosophy, but he wanted to think things through with Scott first. Some of the others were growing on him, but he still didn't trust anyone 100%. He didn't trust most of them 50%.

Stiles released a harsh breath of air. "It's pretty safe to assume that whatever he's up to is not on the down-low, and not just in a typical, fairies-like-chaos kind of way. I mean-" Stiles swallowed a little, because this was really what he'd been mulling over "-that kid didn't look 21. He didn't look any older than us. I didn't think about it before because, unlike some people, I don't have The Rules memorized, but Dain brought it up and- Fairies are all kind of probationary until we turn 21. Once that happens, presto, we're set free to roam the earth as we please, but until then The Council keeps a sharp eye on us. Like, seriously sharp."

Scott had confused eyebrows going on, but he had finally finished his death match with his locker, so they started to amble down the empty halls. Stiles estimated they were roughly 10 minutes late to class already. "Then how-?

"-Is he here causing a ruckus in my life before I even properly meet him? Your guess is as good as mine, dude, but I doubt it's 'cause he got off early for good behavior."

Scott bit back a groan. "It can never be easy, can it? Well, at least now we know how he knew you were here."

"Yeah," Stiles said, though it didn't feel like a very big victory. "But we still don't-"

And that was when Stiles turned the corner and literally ran into - who else? - the new kid.

Shit.