Hi :)! Here I am again with a new story :D! This is sort of a pseudo-sequel to my first story, Rise Above the Ashes. But you don't have to read that story to read this one (though feel free to if you want to :D!); this story goes along with the bonus chapter from that one. Essentially after figuring out Parrish's identity, Scott spends the night at Stiles's place, since both of them were pretty terrified at the prospect of fighting a new creepy villain and didn't want to spend the night alone. And both actually slept really well that night! But the next morning, Stiles discovered that somehow, his eyes had turned red, which means that somehow, Stiles has become an alpha! Dun dun DUNNN! So now in this story, the two brothers have to figure out what exactly is going on and how exactly they're going to deal with it.

Btw, yes, the title is based off of the Taylor Swift/Ed Sheeran song. Whatever; I'm such a huge music nerd, so things like this just pop into my head naturally :P. Anyway, hope you enjoy this story :)! This time I'm probably going to only update once a week at the latest; I'm posting while writing now instead of posting a whole already-written story like last time :P. And since this is more of a concept story, it takes a little longer to flesh out, so bear with me. Also, I've realized while writing this that the Scotlinski scenes are quite bromantic! No, there's no romantic tension or interest between the two of them at all (I'm trying to keep this canon for the most part, and I love their friendship too much), and there isn't going to be. But, my style right now is to portray this friendship through romanticism (as in the artistic movement, sort of :P), since we are dealing with a force of magic :). Hope it works out well, and please let me know your thoughts on it :)!

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf, or this beautiful friendship :).

Chapter 1: Everything Has Changed

The sky glowed a brilliant blue, and the sun shone brightly on another normal day at Beacon Hills High School. Of course, times were anything but normal right now; new powers had risen, new villains had arrived, and the theoretical framework of the supernatural world seemed to unravel into abstract ambiguity. Along with that, a confounding discovery had recently been made, one that could alter the dynamic not just of those who made it, but the entire pack. Nevertheless, it was still another day of school, and right now Scott McCall's thoughts were occupied with getting the right textbooks out of his locker for his next class.

"Good morning, Scott!" Kira Yukimura greeted, giving the boy a side hug and a quick peck on the cheek.

Scott returned a soft smile. "Morning, Kira! You seem cheerful today."

Kira sighed and let her expression fade a little. "It's taking a lot of effort to be. It's the only way I can maintain my energy after everything that's happened so far."

Scott nodded sadly, remembering their encounter with Peter Hale and the mutated wolves last night and how taxing it was for the pack, especially Jordan Parrish, who literally sacrificed his life to save his best friend. Though the battle was won and everyone was safe, the fight brought them back to a state of tension. Now they were anxiously anticipating another attack by the evil doctors, or Peter, or both. "I totally get that. Gosh, it's so difficult to keep moving forward. So many things have changed, I don't even know which direction we're supposed to be moving in. I- I feel lost," he admitted shamefully.

Kira held his arm in comfort. "We all feel lost right now, Scott. We just found out that the rules of our world aren't what we thought at all, and there are new forces now that we don't understand. But we'll figure it out soon. Our pack is stronger than ever, namely our True Alpha." She gave Scott an encouraging smile. He returned the smile in agreement but shook his head, still unable to fully comprehend the whole situation. "It's all so different…" he remarked as his eyes traveled to the other end of the hallway, noticing Stiles Stilinski as he turned the corner.

That moment oddly seemed like one out of a movie; nothing was in slow motion, yet it still seemed like the world had stopped and the two people staring at each other were the only two people there. The two boys made eye contact that said everything and nothing all at the same time. But within the next second, Stiles broke it with a friendly but curt nod, heading directly to his locker without saying a word. Scott released a sigh in frustration; things really were so different now, and he really hoped that the pack was ready to deal with it, including him.

Upon noticing Stiles, Kira took it upon herself to approach him, Scott following behind her. "Hey, Stiles! How are you?"

"Hey Kira!" Stiles replied, "I'm doing all right. You?"

"Oh, as all right as I can be right now." She paused for a moment, looking at Stiles curiously. "Something seems different about you."

Stiles suddenly got very defensive. "What? Nothing's different! Why would anything be different? We've done stuff like this before, multiple times!" Scott gave him a stern look, but Stiles ignored it.

"Stiles! Relax! I was just commenting that you seem different today; I was thinking you actually had a good night's sleep for once."

Stiles became meek at that statement, his defensive tone disappearing. "Oh, yeah. Right. I did sleep pretty well last night. Sorry, I've just been really-"

"-on edge. I know. We all have been. We just gotta keep ourselves going. And look on the bright side; it'll be easier to fight now with Jordan on our side." She shook her head in amusement. "I still can hardly believe that Deputy Parrish is actually a phoenix!"

Stiles chuckled at that, just as Malia Hale and Lydia Martin approached the teens. Upon noticing them, Stiles immediately melted into a relaxed state and moved to hug his girlfriend. "Hey you!" he exclaimed. Malia was surprised by the sudden affection but welcomed it all the same. "Hey yourself!" she responded, returning the hug. After they broke apart, Stiles sincerely inquired, "How are you? Everything all right?"

Malia took a breath before answering, "Yeah, at least it will be. I'm just…still not sure how to handle all of this. Ugh, stupid emotions; see, THIS is why I'd rather be a coyote."

Stiles patted her arm sympathetically. "I'm sure you'll be able to work things out. And besides, if you weren't also a human, you wouldn't have met me!" Malia laughed good-naturedly, and Stiles was pleased that he could cheer the girl up.

"Exactly!" Lydia agreed, "Plus, there's still the prospect of finding your mom. The Desert Wolf is out there somewhere, and I'm positive that with all of our talents put together, we can definitely find her."

Malia smiled fondly at the friends surrounding her. "Thanks, guys," she said warmly. Suddenly the bell rang, signaling the start of another class, and the teens hurried to get to their classes on time. Before walking through the door though, Scott grabbed Stiles's arm to stop him.

"Stiles, are we going to talk about what happened this morning?"

"This morning? Nothing happened this morning. We woke up, got ready, and came to school. Nothing special about that; it's not like you haven't slept over before-"

"You know what I mean."

Stiles opened his mouth in protest, but Scott cut him off. "No, we're not gonna just forget about this. Look, I don't know what's happened, but whatever has is BIG." He lowered his voice to a whisper so that no one else could hear. "Stiles, your eyes turning red can mean only one thing; you're an alpha-"

"NO I'M NOT!" Stiles cried. A pause of silence followed, and Scott could sense the stares of all the students on the other side of the door. Stiles shook his head and recomposed himself. "I'm not-" he tried to explain, "I need…to go to class." And with that, he freed himself from Scott's grip and walked inside the classroom, leaving the werewolf even more frustrated. He sighed and thought back to the morning in question. The night was calm for the most part; both boys slept extremely well and woke up with no memory of nightmares whatsoever. But then Scott saw Stiles's eyes transform into a luminescent red, and everything was a mystery after that. After a firm argument by Stiles, Scott was assured that his best friend wasn't secretly a supernatural creature all this time. But there was no doubting that there was something supernatural about him now. And the strangest thing was that the thought of Stiles being an alpha didn't surprise Scott at all, and that was a surprise in itself. Whatever was going on, it was crucial for the both of them to talk through this and work this out, together. Because something told Scott that this was much bigger than anything they had faced before.

"""

Lunch time arrived, and everyone excitedly rushed to the cafeteria at the prospect of food. Scott joined the crowd, eager to grab some chicken and potatoes. However, he was so consumed in wonderful thoughts of food that he didn't keep track of where exactly his feet were taking him. He got a sudden whiff of books and carpet and realized that instead of being in the cafeteria, he had walked into the library. He looked around, confused, not having any recollection of wanting or needing to go to the library. But he had a sense that someone was here who he needed to see, or who needed to see him. In a moment, it struck him who exactly would skip lunch to go to the library.

He scanned the bookshelves and soon found Stiles on the floor slouched against one, rapidly flipping through a book. He quickly walked up to him and crouched down, eyeing the titles scattered across the floor, some of medical reference books and some of various mythologies. "Stiles," he started.

"Not now, Scott. I'm reading up on variations of pink eye."

But Scott knew that Stiles wasn't reading to find answers, he was reading to avoid answers. "Stiles, please," he started again in desperation, "I'm your best friend. Please, just talk to me."

Stiles started ruffling through the pages even faster, and Scott reached out and placed a hand on top of his, stopping the ruffling and gently closing the book. Stiles breathed slowly, upset at the situation and guilty that he had distanced himself from his best friend. He gave up and broke down. "I- I don't want this," he whispered shamefully.

Scott sat by his friend and instinctively wrapped an arm around his shoulder. He didn't say that Stiles will want it or that something like this is a gift, because he knew Stiles, and he knew what made him great in the first place. So he simply said, "I know." After a moment, he continued, "But the fact is it's happened. Nothing can change that, so we need to figure this out, together. Things have changed, whether we want them to or not. And we need to learn how to handle change."

Stiles was still upset, but he nodded in agreement. He asked the most prominent question on his mind, "Scott, how could this have happened?"

Scott pondered for a moment. "You sure you weren't-"

"No I wasn't bitten or anything. I haven't come into contact with any supernatural creature except for Jordan." Scott raised an eyebrow in amusement, and Stiles sighed, "Yeah yeah I know, but you guys are my friends; it's not like any of you did anything to me." He stopped for a minute, which caught his werewolf friend's attention. "What is it?" Scott inquired, quick to notice a change in his friend's heart rate, but Stiles kept quiet, afraid to express the real uneasiness that was on his mind. For some odd reason, Scott had a hunch of what that was, and he removed his arm from Stiles's shoulders. "Stiles, are you thinking I did something? Last night? Do- do you think I attacked you? Be- because I don't remember anything violent happening, and surely I'd remember something if it did-"

"Dude, no, I don't mean that! You didn't do anything like that!" Stiles exclaimed desperately; one could tell how distressed he was by all this and how anxious he was to not upset his best friend. "I know you wouldn't hurt me like that…"

"…But?"

Stiles released a shaky sigh. "I- I don't know what happened, or how it happened, but for some reason…I can't seem to shake this feeling that it- it has something to do with you," he finally admitted.

Scott looked up at the teen, not sure of what to think now. Something clicked with that statement; something made sense. But he didn't know exactly what made sense. "Stiles, I'm sorry," he apologized lamely.

Stiles frowned; he didn't want Scott to feel guilty about this. The man was guilty enough about way too many things. "Don't apologize. I don't know why I feel like this has to do with you, but…I dunno man; I'm just really confused right now." His voice started shaking, and he could feel the ghost of tears hiding in his eyes. He turned to look at his best friend. "Scott, I am not an alpha. I know what you said; I know I had the same eyes. But it just…it just doesn't make sense! It doesn't make sense…" And finally, those tears started trickling down his face, and Scott replaced his arm around his shoulders. In response, Stiles leaned his head against him, completely surrendering to emotion. It wasn't something they did often, though it did happen, but this time it was instant, instinctual. And mentally that startled the two boys. Scott didn't want to admit it out loud, but he knew that whatever happened wasn't just changing Stiles, it was changing them. Somehow, their dynamic was different, and neither teen could explain how. But Scott decided to put that aside for now and just focus on comforting his best friend. "We'll figure out what's going on, soon," he assured, "You and me, we always have a plan, don't we?"

Stiles smiled softly against his shoulder. "And a plan B," he added.

Scott smiled in return, and the two stayed in the library for the rest of lunch time. They didn't eat, but for some reason, neither boy minded at all.