#lhaw18

LAURA HALE & ALLISON ARGENT 

Laura Hale Appreciation Week Aesthetics: Day 6 - Complete AU Stephanie Plum AU

“Maybe the killer moved the body,” Stiles said. From what he’d overheard, the police had found plenty of blood and some scraps of clothing, but nobody had seen the dead girl besides those two joggers and Scott. Scott. It was so unfair. It was hard to imagine a murderer creeping around in the weak winter sun, but it sent a shivery feeling up Stiles’s spine to the hair on the back of his neck.

“If he did, I hope he left my inhaler,” Scott grumbled. “Those things are like eighty bucks.”

Stiles scoffed. Of course Scott would be more concerned with his mom being pissed than an actual, literal murder mystery. He glanced around as the shivery feeling intensified.

Two dark figures stood not twenty feet away.

Stiles slapped Scott’s shoulder to get his attention and stepped back, nervously fiddling with the neckline of his hoodie. It was a boy and a girl—a man and a woman, he corrected himself—black leather jackets and dark jeans stark against the muted brown of the woods. Biker gang, was his first thought, but no, wait. How are they even hotter than I remember, was the second. Behind his stubble and her eyeliner, he knew them.

“Hey kids! Did either of you lose an inhaler?” Laura fucking Hale’s cheery voice rang out through the trees and she started ambling toward them, her brother trailing like a leashed raincloud.

“Oh, my god,” Stiles whispered.

Scott wasn’t any help. His face was an adorable scrunch of confusion as he looked back and forth between Stiles and the Hales. “Um. Yes? I did? Have you—”

Derek radiated annoyance as he casually tossed Scott something from his pocket. Scott stared at his inhaler in shock, after catching it easily, which Stiles thought might be more surprising. Leaves crunched right in front of him and Laura was suddenly right there, looking him up and down appraisingly.

“Ho-ly cow, is that you, baby Stilinski? Shit, you got tall. Good thing you’re still rocking the buzz, or I wouldn’t have recognized you.” She reached up to scrub a hand through his hair—she had to reach up—and he tilted his head toward her in a daze, eyes itchy, throat tight as he swallowed.

“Laura,” Derek huffed, voice a little deeper, but still soft like Stiles remembered.

“I’m just saying hi,” she reproached. Stiles had to close his eyes as Laura rubbed his hair the wrong way and smoothed it back down, an echo from another life.

“Hey, Laura,” Stiles croaked. “What—” He didn’t know how to finish the question. It felt like all the things he could say were getting tangled in a knot between his lungs and his mouth.

Luckily, she didn’t press. With one last reassuring pat, she turned to Scott. “Hey there, you must be new! I’m Laura, and this is my brother Derek.” She stuck out her hand in greeting.

Scott accepted it suspiciously. “I’m Scott,” he said. “Stiles never mentioned—”

“Oh, I’m sure; all the stories would be embarrassing. I’ve known Stiles since he was in diapers,” she said breezily. She leaned in conspiratorially, keeping hold of Scott’s hand. “Well, since he was supposed to be in diapers. Let me tell you, as a toddler, he—”

“Laura,” Stiles finally strangled out.

“Okay, okay!” She laughed and stepped back. “Hey, let’s go grab a burger, catch up a little. Does that sound good? There’s no way you guys are supposed to be out here; Stiles, your dad would flip.”

Oh, god. “Don’t tell him! Seriously, Laura, I’m already in trouble.”

“For being out here last night?”

Scott and Stiles tried to protest.

“How—”

“We weren’t—”

Laura cut them off with a significant look at Scott’s inhaler.

“Damn it, Laura,” Stiles groaned.

“I won’t say a word,” she promised, “If you catch me up on all the goss. Starting with everything you saw last night.”

Dearest Lydia, You taste like meadowsweet and sunshine, press the flowers I braid into your fiery hair between the pages of your books to remember me by.

Dearest Lydia, Your intellect is summ'ry, divine, an ancient Goddess with a volcanic flare, and lips like a shattered glass of wine. Oh, lover, how you enchant me so clearly, how I hope your petals never tear.

Also on AO3.

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The Camaro was one of the only things Laura had left of her family.  She remembered so well the day her parents had taken her to get a new car as a combination graduation present and good job with alpha training present.  She’d still had far to go at that point.

Even though she was currently the alpha, she still had so far to go.

Laura Hale Appreciation Week Aesthetics: Day 6 - Complete AU