threeisapattern | starter for threeterparker

starter for threeterparker

When he moved to NYC, Stiles figured that things would be - well, not less weird exactly, he's seen the news reports about the giant lizards stuff and the guy made of electricity and the whole Spider-Man thing, but less weird around him specifically. Because here, he's just a guy going into Criminal Justice (and also somehow kind of dating a very cute nerd photographer, can't forget that), not one of the few people who knows what a magnet Beacon Hills is for the supernatural and how insanely close they keep coming to destruction.

Apparently, that was too much to hope for because here Stiles is, sitting in class and taking notes like the good student he'd like to convince his GPA he is, when the entire room gets an alert that everyone needs to evacuate right the fuck now because there's a giant lizard in the building. Which Stiles is absolutely, totally, 100% planning to do except someone shows him blurry photos of the giant lizard and there's reports of people in the creature's path struck down with paralysis and, well. Yeah. It really is like high school all over again.

So instead of running out of the building like it's on fire like a good, sensible average human, Stiles finds himself shouldering his backpack with the emergency stash of mountain ash he's kept in it for the past several years and heading towards the screaming without much plan except the knowledge that he's probably the only person who knows what this thing is and how to contain it.

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What... the hell... is happening? Why does Stiles know about giant paralytic lizards? Peter has so many questions, but he also is becoming increasingly aware of the fact that he doesn't have much time for any of those questions.

More like, absolutely no time at all. The hairs on the back of Peter's neck stand up suddenly, and he knows he's in danger. No, wait. Stiles is in danger. Because he's suddenly in the path of a very large, very angry lizard that is charging towards the pair of them.

Thinking quickly, Peter launches a web at the wall just past Stiles' shoulder, yanking on it to launch himself towards the kanima, feet first, and sends it reeling with a hardy kick to the face before landing squarely between it and Stiles. As long as his boyfriend is behind him, Peter feels slightly more comfortable with him being here.

"The venom's in it's claws, right?" He asks over his shoulder, then quickly shoots webbing at both of the kanima's hands as it stumbles back to its feet.

"Claws, fangs, secretions!" he yells out. "You can absorb it through your skin!" Well, Spider-Man doesn't exactly have a lot of skin showing, so he's got that going for him, but Stiles doesn't know for sure that it couldn't make it through the cloth. Whatever it's made of. Sidebar, watching Spider-Man in action is making him really realize why Peter has such a crush on the guy.

Focus, Stiles. His emergency stash of mountain ash won't cover too much area, and the kanima is already breaking free of the webbing Spider-Man sent at it. "I need to set something up in a perimeter around it, so either you keep it one area long enough for me to get around it in a circle or I can set it up somewhere else and complete it when you lure the kanima into it."

Peter can see that the kanima is breaking loose from the first round of webs, so he knows he needs to think quickly. This section of hallway is not very defensible, and besides, the longer that Stiles is within threat range of this thing, the more distracted Peter's going to be.

"Go find somewhere to get it set up. Shout for me when you're ready." Then, turning to the kanima, Peter starts running forward, shooting another bout of webbing to turn it and drag it away from Stiles, down the hallway in the opposite direction.

"C'mere, big guy. You and I are going to have a little chat."

Spider-Man is going to need space to maneuver and Stiles is going to need space to be in the room without being right next to the kanima, so he picks out the nearest lecture hall and sets up an ash circle near the front of the room with a little bit of extra mountain ash on hand to complete the circle. This could still go, uh, bad, so he takes a moment to just take a deep breath before running out the door and calling out to Spider-Man. "Uh, I've got it over here! It's ready!"

Once Spider-Man's close enough to shout further instructions, he adds, "Don't smudge the line, and you might not want to be inside it when I activate it! I don't know what your deal is, but you might not get trapped with the kanima!" Just to be on the safe side. Spider-Man doesn't match any supernatural entity he's aware of (and yeah, he's looked), but that's no guarantee he's not bound by some magic rules.

Once Stiles is out of harm's way, Peter focuses on wrapping the kanima up in as much webbing as he can, careful to go extra heavy on its mouth and claws, just in case. He flips and slides around it to catch it from every angle, always moving just a little bit too quick to get caught.

Finally, he hears Stiles calling for him, and he steps in to heft the web-cocooned lizard up over his head. "C'mon, big guy. You're coming with me."

The kanima doesn't make it easy, but Peter manages to half drag, half carry it into the lecture hall, and then tosses it into the circle Stiles has made. It's a good thing he did, too, because it's beginning to break free from the webs.

"Okay, now what? Now what do we do?

Now we believe really hard that a handful of dust is going to prevent this thing from killing us would be accurate but also the least confidence-building answer Stiles could give, so instead he darts forward long enough to complete the mountain ash circle and then shuts his eyes for a few seconds while he does the whole Imagination is the most powerful whatever step. It kind of sucks that there isn't an incantation or something to make him look cool for this part, but the important part is that it works, probably just in time because the kanima breaks free of the webbing enough to swipe a claw at Stiles that would definitely have caught him in the chest except that it runs into the invisible wall created by the mountain ash.

Stiles doesn't flinch back because, well. Absolute belief and all that shit. He lets out a breath, though, before turning his head and throwing a smirk in Spider-Man's direction. "We got it." Of course, there's shit they need to figure out now that they have it, but let him have a moment of triumph, please.

Stiles may not flinch, but Peter reaches out on instinct to put an arm between Stiles and the kanima, only to be reassured when the circle of ash stops it from getting through. He breathes a sigh of relief, stalking in a circle around the trapped lizard creature, watching it lash out against the invisible barrier.

"Okay. Great first step. Very proud of us." He's still reeling from the fact that Stiles even knows anything about this venomous giant lizard monster. What else does Stiles know that he's not telling Peter? He circles around again to put a hand on Stiles shoulder, trying to look him in the eye through the mask.

"I'm going to need you to tell me everything you know about this thing, and how we can get it out of here without hurting anyone else."

"Yeah, okay, this is where shit gets weird." Because venomous lizard monster wasn't already weird enough. Fighting it with Spider-Man is pretty cool, though. Maybe he'll be able to tell Peter about this at some point and feel very heroic and shit.

"So, uh, a kanima happens when an alpha werewolf or like - I guess it doesn't have to be a wolf, a were-something - bites a human but the human is too messed up in the head to transform right. It's like, a corruption, and - I don't know if any of this is going to make sense to you? I totally tried to look up whether it's possible you're a werespider or something but there's no lore on anything like that existing? Like, do I need to start with supernatural shapeshifters 101?"

The knowledge that this is a supernaturally caused event, and not some failed science experiment, throws Peter off kilter a bit, and he shakes his head, not quite believing what he's hearing.

"Definitely not a werespider." Let's just get that cleared up and out of the way right off the bat.

"Assume this is my first time learning that werewolves— that were-anything is even a real thing. Please explain to me how a bite from a supernatural wolf person turns someone into a supernatural lizard person, because from a scientific standpoint? That makes no sense whatsoever."

"Okay, so the first thing you need to understand is that from a scientific standpoint, this is not gonna make sense because we're dealing with the supernatural and magic, and there's rules to it but they don't all make sense." He stops and points at the kanima, which is still angrily pushing at the barrier surrounding it. "I just trapped that thing with mountain ash and the very strong belief that it would work. So it's not just a matter of what you're bitten by, it's also kind of a matter of what you are on the inside. If you're bitten and you have some kind of unresolved bullshit that doesn't let you accept the change fully, you get a kanima."

Beat.

"Also, there might be a rogue alpha biting people? Crap, I'm gonna need to put out feelers on that."

Peter nods, though he isn't fully grasping everything that Stiles is saying. He still has so many questions.

"Okay. Okay... So this kanima was just some regular person, until they got bitten by an... alpha werewolf? Or, were-something that we're not sure of."

He looks at the kanima, still thrashing against the mountain ash barrier, and he feels kind of bad for it.

"What do we do? Can we change them back?"

"It'll transform back to human form eventually. It'll still be kind of a ticking time bomb, but at least then we'll know who it is and be able to talk to it."

And with any luck, no one's controlling it and adding another layer of complication to this whole thing. And there won't be an unknown, possibly rogue alpha showing up to claim its mess. "The good news is that unresolved bullshit can be resolved, and then it should... settle, kinda. It's kinda hard to explain because even a werewolf transformation that works out fine is rough."

"So we just... wait?" He wants to ask how long is 'eventually' going to take, but he knows Stiles wouldn't use the word 'eventually' if he had any idea how long it would be.

He settles into a crouch, kneeling at a safe distance away from the captured kanima, mind still racing with so many questions about what kind of life his boyfriend has been living that he knows all this stuff about werewolves and kanimas and supernatural goings-on.

Stiles, meanwhile, has already begun texting up a storm. There aren't nearly as many werewolf packs in NYC as you'd think, given how many people live here, but there are a few, and he'd kind of had to negotiate with them when he moved. Not that anyone saw him as much of a threat, but he's still in a pack and his alpha is a True Alpha and that's a Big Deal and shit, so yeah, he still has contacts. And right now he's blowing them up looking for a rogue alpha, an alpha who's actively recruiting, or whatever werewolf pack considers rogue kanimas their jurisdiction to deal with. While he's at it, he sends a text to Peter to check that he's okay and safely evacuated the building.

A phone that is not his goes ding around the same time he texts Peter, but he doesn't really register it until he's getting nervous about the fact that he's not getting answers and tries again. And again. And hello there, the dinging is lining up.

No. Way. His last text is a resounding ???, just to make sure he's not hallucinating this from the high pressure situation of hanging out with Spider-Man, but no, yeah, that's definitely happening. And Stiles is staring at Spider-Man (Peter???) wide-eyed. " - Dude, are you serious?"

The first time his phone dings, Peter winces, wondering if it's May texting him because she saw that his school was on the news. But then it dings again, and he realizes it must be Stiles, trying to text him to see if he's alright. He reaches into the waist band of his suit to pull out his phone, and... yeah. The dings just keep coming, and Peter can't help but look at Stiles, feeling the weight of guilt dropping in his stomach.

After the ??? Peter just pulls off his mask, feeling entirely caught out.

"Don't freak out."

The freaking out part is very much happening right now, mostly because Stiles is trying very hard to shift his understanding of his own life from dating very hot, very nerdy scientist-slash-photographer to has been dating freaking Spider-Man, on top of everything he was trying to juggle already about figuring out what to do with the kanima. "I thought you kept bringing up Spider-Man because you had a crush on him, not because you were - "

Okay. Okay. This is fine, and it means Peter's okay for now. Putting himself in danger on a regular basis, sure, but not currently lying somewhere paralyzed and scared. So that's good. And he's not mad or anything because he gets why Peter wouldn't tell him, he wasn't exactly telling Peter everything about his past either, but still. Still! He needs a minute.

Or he needs to kiss Peter, in all his be-Spider-Manned glory, and kiss him because maybe sometimes the best way to process your feelings is kissing your hot nerdy (Spider-Man!!!) boyfriend. Thank god kanimas don't typically retain memories of what happens when they're all lizard-y.

The absolute last thing Peter expects Stiles to do when faced with the sudden realization that his boyfriend has been lying to him and leading a double life is to... kiss him...? But hey, better this reaction than outright anger!

He returns the kiss, sort of allowing all his own nerves that have been building since he first ran into Stiles in the hallway with those paralyzed people to flow out of himself as he lets himself relax for just a minute while no one is actively in any danger.

Finally, the kiss breaks so they can both come up for air, and Peter looks Stiles in the eye, feeling somewhat frantic.

"You're handling this alright, I think?"

Maybe this was a weird way to cope, but he was starting to feel kind of frantic and didn't want it to turn into a panic attack, and from experience he can say that kissing can definitely help derail something like that. Also, kissing his hot, nerdy (Spider-Man!!!!!) boyfriend is a pretty great pastime, absolutely does a good job of killing a minute while they wait for the kanima to change back.

"Oh, dude, I'm definitely still freaking out but I figure I can't be that mad cause it's not like I was telling you 100% the truth. Not that I've been running around in a mask or anything, just the supernatural stuff that you kind of know about now? Which I was going to bring up eventually, kinda had to if we ever wanted to - " Nope no nah, not getting into that right now. He somehow manages to get his mouth to stop talking unchecked by his brain. "Uh, anyway, if that thing does not get human-shaped soon we might have to figure out a way to move it cause I figure there's only so long we're gonna have privacy here?"

"You're freaking out?" His voice is bordering on high pitched, just because he still hasn't quite gotten over the fact that there's all this supernatural stuff Stiles has been hiding from him. "I'm the one who just learned werewolves and kanimas and who knows what else are real!"

He places a hand on Stiles' chest and leans back, eyeing him suspiciously. "You're not a were-whatever, are you? God, when was the last full moon, even...? Is that a thing I have to worry about now?"

Okay, so he knows this is serious and everything but Peter's kind of cute when he's panicking that Stiles might be a werewolf? It also strikes Stiles as kind of funny, given his status as Token Human, although he guesses it's not an unreasonable conclusion to come to. "Uh, no, still human. I mean, I am part of a werewolf pack but that's just because my best friend is a werewolf and it's his pack. I would be way less clumsy and way more supernaturally hot if I was. Also, the mountain ash thing doesn't work if you're a were yourself."

"Your best friend. Is a werewolf. And you're in his pack." Peter's just repeating things at this point, but that's just because he keeps hoping if he repeats what he's hearing, some of it might start to make logical sense.

No...? No dice.

Okay, moving on.

"This is your best friend from back home?" Peter would like to think he's Stiles' best friend here in New York, or at least that he would have noticed something off if Stiles was hanging out with a pack of supernaturally hot and coordinated people whenever they weren't together.

A movement out of the corner of his eye catches Peter's attention and he turns, noticing that the bulking shape of the kanima is starting to shrink somewhat within the circle of ash.

"Okay, wait. Freak out later. I think he's turning back."

"From Beacon Hills, yeah. You're gonna want to put your mask back on now, he's going to start remembering what's happening soon." One of the helpful things about a mountain ash barrier is that it works no matter what form the shapeshifter is in, so they don't have to worry about the kanima bolting once it's in human form. The human form, incidentally, Stiles vaguely recognizes from having seen around the halls. He doesn't think they have any classes together.

His phone rings, and he's about to ignore the call when he realizes that it's coming from one of the packs he'd been trying to contact. "I gotta take this," he says. After a minute of conversation, he approaches the now largely-human and mostly-conscious guy in the circle and offers out his phone. "Look, uh, Cameron? Your alpha wants to talk to you. Do not get any leftover venom on my phone, I swear to god, I did not help trap your ass just to get paralyzed at the last minute by accident."

Which is probably not the most empathetic thing he could say, but it's been an unpleasant time.

Peter glances at the person trapped in the ash circle, and nods, quickly pulling his mask back on. He lets Stiles take the lead for now, given that he has a better handle on the situation at hand.

He hears a sound coming from outside, though, of sirens approaching. Once the former kanima— Cameron, was it?— is done on Stiles' phone, Peter approaches again.

"Look, the police are here and they're going to have questions. We can play it off like you were a victim, and that the thing that did this got away. Just, ah. Don't do this again, okay?"

Stiles visibly winces at Peter's phrasing because okay, he gets that this isn't the kind of thing Spider-Man actually knows about and he's doing his best, but that was kind of, uh, insensitive. "What he means is, sorry you drew the short end of the stick on this whole thing, and we totally hope you work out whatever unresolved deal you have going on. For what it's worth, I know a kanima who went through this and fixed things and now he's kind of a better person than he was before, he was kind of a dick before. You know, work with your alpha and also probably a therapist? Maybe not Ms. Morrell if she comes up, though, she's kind of a brutal pragmatist - " shut up shut up shut up - "Anyway, I'll probably be in touch to, you know, keep an eye on things, give advice, since I've seen this before."

He gives Cameron and awkward thumbs up before grabbing his phone back and using his shoe to smudge the mountain ash circle and release Cameron. Then he steps back closer to Peter and says, quietly, "Hey, next time I start to ramble like that, can you just do me a favor and web my mouth shut. Maybe not seriously but also - "

Peter just nods, cutting Stiles off before he can ramble any further. "I've got you. Just... Get Cameron out of here. We can meet up after."

He wants to kiss Stiles again. After everything that's happened in the last few minutes, he really feels like both he and Stiles could use a kiss. But it'd be kind of awkward with Cameron right there, so instead he settles for surreptitiously reaching out to grab Stiles' hand and squeeze it.

Before he turns to go intercept the police and buy Stiles and Cameron some time to slip away, he does turn to Stiles and issue one last request. "On your way out, can you stop by the first floor guy's restroom? I stashed my stuff under the sink in there."

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SORRY THIS IS SO LATE...

no worries!

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