Mr Summers tapped the notebook on his desk. He’d confiscated it earlier during class, after Stiles dropped it, upon noticing the doodles of his name. No, not his name, Stiles’ name with Scott’s last name. “Mr Stilinski, do you care to explain why you are considering taking my last name?” He paged slowly through the pages, seeing the evidence of the boy’s crush over and over.

“Scotty!”

Scott barely has time to get up from the couch before Stiles barrels through their front door and right into him. Laughing, Scott “oof”s and lets himself be engulfed.

“Stiles! You're here!” Scott squeezes his best friend a bit more tightly.

“I am. So are you. We're in the same damn city, Scott.” Stiles sounds so enthused by the prospect that Scott can't help but laugh. But it's not like he can blame Stiles – he'd missed him more than words could possibly say, in the past six months. Virginia is awfully far away.

“We are. You been home to say hi to your dad yet?”

Stiles nods against Scott's shoulder. He almost feels like he's vibrating with excitement. Scott lets his hands glide from his shoulders to his lower back, to hold him a little more securely – if they're gonna be hugging for a while longer, they might as well do it right.

“He says hi. But I'm sure you've seen him around. He says you have.” Stiles pauses, then pinches the skin on Scott's neck for no good reason at all. “But that doesn't matter. I've got to tell you something.”

Immediately, Scott tries to push away from Stiles' hold so he can look him in the eyes. Stiles, however, has different ideas. He shakes his head and doesn't ease his hold at all.

“No, like this,” he says. “It's easier.”

That was how Stiles saw it at least. He’d hated it from the day he was tested and registered as one at the tender age of thirteen years old. Everything seemed to change then, he was expected to suddenly shift personalities and be completely different. Use titles like ‘Yes Sir’, ‘Yes Miss’ and adopt some kind of timid and withdrawn personality. If anything it just made Stiles more defiant, more determined to speak his mind regardless what anyone had to say about it. It meant Stiles found himself in trouble more and more, often even looking for it just to make a point. He often got taunted by some of the other students, mostly asshole Dominants who seemed to want nothing more than to put down Stiles for not behaving how they felt he should - so all in all, being a Submissive? It sucked. Not everyone was an ass about it, his Dad had always treated him the same, he had a good few solid friends and above all else he had Scott.

Scott had been his best friend since they were kids, they’d done everything together and he hadn’t even batted an eye when Stiles was branded as a Submissive. To Scott he was still Stiles, even though Scott himself had been labeled as a Dominant. He’d also taken to the role incredibly well, becoming something of a ‘role model’ for the status and he had plenty of people who were itching for his claim. Something that had always irritated Stiles, girls and even a few guys who were practically slobbering over Scott and reeked of desperation - sure maybe part of him had been jealous, but that was mostly just because once Scott got a claim who was to say he’d ever have time for him?

Scott had dated Submissives before, Kira had been pretty cool and Allison had been one of those rare Switches and Scott had been smitten with but Allison but neither of those two had panned out. But even when he’d been dating them Scott had always made time for Stiles, keeping the asshole Dominants away from him and keeping him out of trouble. He even helped Stiles through his submissive drops, usually just by hugging him and running hand through his hair and saying gentle, reassuring things until he felt better. He’d done all that and Stiles knew he relied on Scott, but one day he’d find a claim and it would all be over and thinking about that sucked.

“Look, Scott. You don’t have to do this. I’m fine” Stiles snapped, scowling and tightening his jaw as he nudged himself free of his touch, arms crossed and looking away. He knew he was being bratty and disrespectful and he had no right to be, but he was in a mood. It had been another month of their Senior Year, which meant more and more people getting claimed and being overly happy and showing off to the point of making Stiles want to barf. It wasn’t like he was expecting to be claimed or that he particularly wanted to be, after all he would be leaving the town for college and wouldn’t have to deal with these assholes again. So yeah, he didn’t care about being claimed. Not even a little bit. Or at least he told himself that. 

Okay, so maybe he sometimes thought about it and maybe he made a big stink about not wanting to play meek or change himself to please others but he still had urges, he still had Submissive needs and having every Dominant basically treat him like he was trash because he just wanted to be himself wasn’t exactly a great feeling. “Would you stop looking at me like that? Seriously dude, don’t you have your fans to dote on or something?” He snipped, rolling his eyes and looking away. “I’m fine, just peachy.”

“What about this one?” Scott had a wide smile on his face as he showed stiles a rubber pig mask. With holes made out for eyes and bristly hairs atop the head, it definitely worked for scaring. But the costume party the boys were attending probably wouldn’t be the likes of Howl-O-Scream. Scott himself still didn’t know if he was gonna get a costume or just wolf out for the party. Helping Stiles look was enough for right now. “What about this? They got some cool stuff in here.” The werewolf started to pull out something else from the pile where he’d gotten the animal mask, but paused when a woman appeared before them.

In full witch-attire, the lady presented herself as the owner of the new costume shop in Beacon Hills. “Do either of you two need help looking for anything?” She looked from Scott to Stiles. “You boys going trick-r-treating this year?”