Stiles had always been reckless. But when he came back from a hunt looking pale, shaking, and mumbling about a curse that had settled in his blood, you knew this time it wasn’t just teen drama.
“I’m fine,” he said, grinning weakly. “It’s just a little… minor magical poisoning. Totally under control.”
You narrowed your eyes. “Minor? You’re about to keel over, and you’re grinning like a maniac? That’s not fine.”
He waved a hand. “I’m fine, really.”
But you weren’t having it. Not this time. “Nope. You’re coming with me. Road trip. Across the country. We’re finding this cure, and you’re not arguing.”
Stiles’s eyes widened. “Road trip? Across the—wait, I get to pick the playlist, right?”
You rolled your eyes. “Fine. But only if you survive.”
And so it began: you two crammed into a battered SUV, sleeping in cheap motels with peeling wallpaper, eating gas-station snacks, and arguing about directions while also laughing until your sides hurt.
By the second night, you found yourselves lying in sleeping bags under a sky so clear it looked painted, talking quietly while Stiles’s hand brushed against yours.
“You think we’ll actually find it?” he asked softly.
You shrugged, staring at the stars. “I don’t know. But I do know I’m not letting you die before we try.”
He turned toward you, a faint smile on his lips despite the pain in his eyes. “You’d do this for me… just like that?”
“Just like that,” you said. “Because someone has to.”
And maybe it was the exhaustion, the fear, or the quiet honesty of the stars, but your hands found each other, fingers lacing together almost naturally.
“You know,” he murmured, “I think… I’ve liked you for a long time. And seeing you here, like this… I don’t want to waste it.”
Your heart skipped. “Stiles…”
“I mean it,” he said, brushing a strand of hair from your face. “I don’t care about curses, monsters, or road trips. I just… I want you.”
Under the Milky Way, with the hum of the engine in the background and the faint glow of your motel lights behind you, it happened. A first kiss, slow, tentative, but full of everything you’d been holding back.
The next days were a blur of motels, maps, and close calls with supernatural creatures—but it didn’t matter.