Stiles🌓

it doesn't take a genius to see that something's off with stiles. especially not for scott; he knows all his tells, what he sounds like when he's exhausted, what he looks like when his mind is focused everywhere else. faltering in the middle of his sentence (not that stiles seems to notice), scott spends another few seconds watching him before he reaches out, fingers pinching stiles' straw to get him to stop stirring his drink. "hey. you're not even listening." he searches his best friend's face, eyebrows furrowing. "are you okay?"

stiles blinked slowly, disassociating a little as he tried to gather his thoughts. he could feel the darkness swirling within him, clouding his mind and making it difficult to focus on anything else. the nightmares tugged at the folds of his mind, the sinister voice in his head clawing it's way through, tearing through what little was left of his sanity. "huh? oh, yeah, scott, i'm fine." he replied with a forced smile, the words coming out hollow.. detached. his mind was elsewhere, and he struggled to connect with reality. "just tired, you know? long day, long week.. long few years." he added, hoping to brush off any further concern from his friend. though, even stiles knew that he wouldn't be able to keep this secret from scott for much longer.

"seriously?" a scoff followed her question, hand lowering where she'd been clicking her fingers to catch stile's full attention. "you haven't been listening to a word i've said, have you?" either that, or he thought getting drawings of herself from an original hybrid was the funniest thing since coach finstock had to sub in for sex ed.

stiles blinked, trying to refocus his attention on caroline's words. "oh, no, i totally heard you." he replied with a forced smile, though his mind was still drifting in a haze of exhaustion. "you were... talking about... uh.. hybrid drawings? yeah, got it." he murmured, hoping he hadn't missed anything crucial. his thoughts felt like a tangled mess, and he was struggling to keep up. but, he didn't want to worry caroline. so, he put on a brave face and locked himself back into the conversation. "what kind of drawings are we talking about?" an eyebrow arched suggestively.