Chapter Text
Stiles met Scott McCall in Fourth Grade.
He'd been the new kid, having recently moved to Beacon Hill's with mom, who was going to be a new nurse at the local hospital.
He was small and shy and some of the bigger boys (mainly Jackson) teased him because he had asthma, and couldn't play sports very well because of it.
Stiles had given Jacksom a black eye that day.
Scott liked to say they were best friends, but Stiles knew he'd only ever had two of those.
One was dead. And the other?
The other was his careful secret.
Stiles sat frozen on the edge of his mother's garden, listening as the soft fumbling footsteps came closer, and closer.
He didn't know why, but for some reason he knew that whatever it was, it wouldn't hurt him.
And as soon as the little thing came stumbling out of a clump of over-thick bushes, he could hardly contain a gasp.
It was a little baby horse!
Stiles had no idea that someone in their small town had horses! They must be looking for the little thing.
With all his initial fear gone, he stood and moved slowly toward the long legged creature in the hopes that he might be able to herd it closer to the house so his dad could take it back home. But as the eight year old got closer, he began to realize that this was definitely not just a plane old horse.
At first it's coat looked like a deep black that reflected what little moonlight shone through the trees; but as he got closer he saw that it was really just a deep navy blue, with patches of a lighter shade around it's muzzle and underbelly. the fuzzy looking beginnings of it's main were almost black, but still held more blue than anything.
But what really gave the little thing away, was the little tiny nub of a beautiful black horn that could be seen under the fluff that was just barely beginning to hang down over forehead.
Stiles didn't even have to guess at what it could be.
It was a Wild Thing; just like Cora and Derek and Peter.
And he was King Max. He had promised Cora that he would always take care of his Wild Things.
He'd never told his dad about what happened that night.
As far as the Sheriff knew, he'd gone strait to bed like he'd asked, and he'd never once thought of telling Scott.
He'd learned very quickly that Scott was not very good at keeping secrets, so he'd always made sure that anything he told the younger boy was something he didn't mind others knowing. (He'd been suspicious about Scotts trustworthiness from the start, so he'd tested his theory by telling him that he had a crush on Lydia Martin. The whole school knew by the end of the week)
Like the fact that he was a year older than their peers, seeing as his teachers had held him back a year. His parents had taken him to a child specialist right after, and he'd walked away with his ADHD diagnosis. The Adderal only helped so much. All Scott knew was that he had ADHD.
He also never told him the real reason why he never wanted to hang out on Mondays after school. For some reason he didn't like the idea of Scott being in the same room as Peter....
Everything seemed to be going fine up until their Freshman year.
Stiles had heard that his dad was looking for a body in the woods...
A woods where the murderer could still be hiding.
A murderer that could kill his dad.
He hadn't wanted to go alone though, so he'd convinced Scott to come along.
He hadn't meant for Scott to be attacked though.
Or anything that came after....