All these little strings holding us together.

"Yes I’m real. You could poke me, and I bleed. and I pee, and I poop.”

"Oh, how lovely. I'm so glad you chose to share those intimate details with me. Comforting. You can poop even after death."

     ”Well..——” Magnolia chuckled, gently shouldering into Stiles playfully, “if your roommate from hell is being quite a cockhead, you’re more than welcome to come hang out in my room.” After all, they had quite a lot to catch up on, no? However, at the mention of a PS4, Nola giggled again cerulean orbs falling to her box of belongings. “Ew— what a shitty roommate. Well when he’s entertaining his girlfriend, like I said, my door’ll be always open. We can play PS4 and Xbox One in there. Without needing to block out sex noises with headphones.”

He was probably exaggerating just how bad his roommate was. Y'know, for effect. But it was troublesome when Stiles was attempting to study, to be constantly disturbed and interrupted. As a consequence, he spent a lot of time in the library, taking advantage of the peace and tranquility to power through his course work. The library was where he had been heading to when he bumped into Magnolia and as much as he knew he should probably still go there, the temptation of hanging out with an old friend was great. There would be time later. As long as he got there before it was closed for the day. Nodding, he gave her a wide smile. "Sure! Why not?" Besides, if she had consoles, then it was definitely worthwhile forging a friendship. "I'd love to!"

"You seem nervous, but if you say so." She didn’t comment any further as she climbed into the car, pulling her seat belt on. "Things have been… Alright, I guess. A few money issues, Rafael getting on my nerves, the usual." She shrugged, making a face. "Make sure to put your seat belt on." She added as she started the car. 

"He's still hanging around?" Stiles could pull his seatbelt over, but when he tried to clip it in and changed the position of his hand to do so, it snapped back again. A second attempt was no more successful and on the third, he jarred his injured wrist and let out a yelp. "Uh, sorry to be a pain, Ms McCall, but do you think you could help me out here?" Couldn't even get his seatbelt on. How pathetic was that?

"It’s not always about smooth talking. Some try too hard— I guess I just don’t get that vibe from you." She remarks thoughtfully, pursing her lips and running an idle hand through her hair. It’s a habit she’s picked up, to quench her need to just touch things. Most often, it’s directed at people, but she knows not everyone craves the intimacy like she does. And that’s very much the reason she frequents these venues, searching for some kind of closeness without getting too close. “I’ll be sure to tip nicely.”

“Right, well it just seems like you two had, you know, a special bond.” She smirked at his blush, chuckling. “Calm down Stiles, it was just a joke.”

The saying that things only got worse before they got better was true here. Stiles' blush deepened even further when she started laughing.

 ”In the most endearing way possible, yeah I am.”

"Endearing, sure. We'll go with that."

Kyle had slipped into the hall at the same time he always did, with the same hopes it would be empty. It wasn’t, of course, but the only indications to that was the sound of what had to be a someone doing something back stage. 

Stiles didn't know a whole lot about music, but he knew what he liked and he really enjoyed Kyle's playing. Working in the theatre, he was picking up on a few things, but he wouldn't be able to name any of the pieces Kyle played. How long he stood there watching, he didn't know, and if he was caught lollygagging, he'd be in trouble. But that didn't stop him, because even though he had plenty of work to be getting on with, the lure of standing there, listening, was more of a draw.

"Oh really?" He asked. "Listen if you’ve something to say, say it. If you want leave, then leave! You’ve the choice I’ll not force you to do something. "

"I don't have anything to say. Nothing at all. But since my presence here is so clearly disturbing to you..."

Malia could feel the electricity between them - hell she was pretty sure they were fueling the entire of Beacon County with it. Stiles made her skin buzz with tiny sparks of warmth wherever he dragged the cloth over and she found herself getting equally as worked up. If there was one way to chase away a night terror, it was definitely to have the boy you loved take care of you like this. 

Washing was overrated anyway. Stiles would much rather have Malia pressed up against his body than anything else, so the washcloth was quickly ditched, dropped to the floor of the shower where it landed with a soft plop. There were better things to do with his hands, like run them up Malia's back and tug her that little big nearer. 

"I was dead, Stiles. Spirits can’t return to their bodies. It doesn’t work that way. There’s brain damage and other stuff."

"The body decomposes pretty quickly, so I guess it would be kinda gross to return to it."

She feels the tightness in her stomach recede, embarrassment leaving her in a relieved exhale. The end comes out as a laugh and she grins. She typically didn’t care much about embarrassing herself, outwardly. Ever the expert at putting on an air of apathy and conceit, while deep down, insecurity simmers.

There are times when Stiles wasn't the brightest guy in the world. A lot of things passed him by, simply because he didn't notice them. And it wasn't out of thoughtlessness or anything as seflish as that. He just had his head in the clouds. A daydream on his mind and his head in the clouds. So the fact that the woman hadn't really looked at him didn't register. Not straight away, anyway. 

Well, Hannah was close enough — except her best friend was murdered by one. She’d dated a werewolf though, if that counted. Chaos was no stranger to her and it was a wonder she was still alive, for a while she could have convinced herself that she was a cat but she was pretty certain she’d had a fair few more than nine lives.

Probably best not to compare dating history notes, then, although they'd probably have some interesting stories to share. Wolves and coyotes made for the strangest sort of dates, in Stiles' experience. You were altogether safer with a human lover, or so he presumed. It was a little hard to tell these things when he didn't have much of a basis for comparison.

Derek tuned Stiles out as he kept giving more rhyming phrases. He didn’t really care if Stiles had meant it or not, His mind was somewhere else, particularly a memory where he was chained up by Kaye, torturing him and calling him sweetie with a smug smirk on her face. Derek wanted to meet whoever said the phrase: words can’t hurt you, and punch them in the face.

Was it any wonder that Stiles' old fear of Derek resurrected itself when the man could go from cordial to snarling in a matter of seconds? Had Stiles deliberately said something to rile up Derek, the display of anger could be understood and even accepted as his own fault. But when he had to watch what he said, something which didn't come particularly easily or naturally to him, then the fact that he was intimidated really shouldn't come as any sort of surprise. 

"Well…I’m scarce around the office." Chris mused with a sly grin. The explanation for both this and his budding farewell to come when they were utterly alone - not his car. Years of instincts had taught him not a place could be trusted. If anything, a public restroom was safer than his own place of work… "But…I guess before I get back we can manage a talk. And since you asked so nicely, I could spare some details." But with this he chuckled, removing their hands from one another’s slowly. When at last his body returned to normalcy, he turned and trod off, bringing the younger with him.

"Really? Because that'd be great. I'm genuinely interested. I mean, it's not a career move I could ever see myself making because I already know what I want to do, but it's good to hear about other walks of life, if you know what I mean?" Stiles had actually considered a career in law enforcement before finally making the decision to go to veterinary school. Follow in his father's footsteps.