Stiles knew. He had pieced together that Derek had taken Scott's phone because he knew Stiles would figure it out. Stiles was, and still is, Derek's only hope of rescue. He plans on keeping this to himself and finds he doesn't even feel bad this time. He has a list of people he needs to protect, and the only one higher than Scott on the list is his dad. Stiles knows Scott will run in blindly attempting to be the hero that saves Derek, even when there's no chance of success or even survival. Stiles isn't going to risk everything to save some guy he was considering killing anyway. No, life would be much simpler once Derek Hale was out of the picture.

On prom night, he lets out one of his older personalities a little; the one he used to use most frequently, anyhow. He remembers using the voice when he bedded a woman in the eighteenth century. He'd convinced her that she loved him, and then enlisted her to help him murder her husband so she could run off with him. He did this only to tell her she was worthless to him the night of their get away, just so he could see her heart break before he ripped it out of her chest. He had loved seeing the realization dawn across her face, the moment where she finally put together the pieces.

He finds his assertive voice rusty when he tries to use it on Lydia. It's shaky, and doesn't have the same seductive undertone. He wonders if this body can even do a seductive voice. He also realises that he doesn't like the way the word love sounds anymore. Once it was one of his favourites. He used to delight in the way the lie could slide off his tongue, hooking whatever pathetic human he had targeted. He had relished in how easy it was to fool them - how easily they fooled each other - into believing that there was love involved in their petty relationships. Now, though, he finds the word tastes sour. He avoids using it then, and a rant tumbles out of his mouth. He discards this as another one of the ridiculous reactions he's been getting since he first started wearing his meat suit. Along with his reaction to the word, he also tries to bury the ache in his chest that bears down on him when Lydia runs off to find Jackson.

He panics when he sees her broken and bloodied body lying on the field, and Stiles' heart feels like it's going to rip itself out of his chest because goddammit this is not how things were supposed to go. He stumbles over his words; tries to lie, but the little fucker can smell it on him. Usually he can mask it, but his reason is clouded by the pattering of his heart and his running thoughts. Finally he blurts out the wanted information to bargain for Lydia's life.

When he finds himself as Peter's captive, it's his own self-preservation skills he's rolling his eyes at. And yet, he can't find a speck of remorse for his actions. Stiles wishes, not for the first time, that he'd never ended up with this dumbass defective meat suit.

Plan A to defeat the alpha flops, and Stiles really hadn't had time to make a Plan B. It's all he can do to stand in shock as Scott comes up with a plan. He stores that little tidbit away before, once again, Derek helps save their asses and then proceeds to be a gigantic dick wad.

Stiles knows that Derek was lying about the cure, but he'd continued letting Scott believe it because he knew he needed both Scott and Derek working together to take down the alpha if he were to avoid using his mojo. Stiles rubs his temples and concludes once again that life would be so much more simple once Derek was dead. Newly equipped with his new alpha powers, however, Stiles scraps all his previous plans to kill Derek and starts from scratch.

Scott and Stiles finally get the chance to do normal teenaged boy things after the Creepy Uncle Peter Incident. They're playing video games – sweet, sweet, violent video games – when he hears Scott's sniffer going. He waits for the inevitable question.

"Hey Stiles?"

"What," he grinds out, shoving his shoulder into Scott's side in an attempt to flip his car off the virtual road. Scott shoves back.

"I know I've asked this before but it's just so weird. Have you always smelled like this, man? I mean, no wonder you can't get a girlfriend."

Stiles knows there's a smirk on Scott's face without having to look over.

"Yeah, well, you don't exactly smell like daisies yourself, fur ball." He bashes his shoulder into Scott again, this time to push him off the bed.

"Hey!" Scott laughs from his new spot on the floor. Stiles feels a grin creeping across his face despite himself. "No, seriously man, do you not bathe? Or do you just eat rotten eggs and the smell seeps out of your pores?"

Stiles wiggles his eyebrows, "Maybe it's just all part of my manly aroma."

Scott wrinkles his nose at him, "Dude, ew. What the hell does that even mean?"

Stiles grins, "Exactly."

Scott rolls his eyes and categorizes it as another Weird Stiles Thing as Stiles resolves to buy stronger scented shampoo and body wash.

His longing for simplicity turns into a burning hatred and need to kill Derek. It seems like everywhere he goes, he smells a new supernatural being. Lydia, Jackson, Isaac, Erica, Boyd. All of them, as far as Stiles is concerned, are Derek's fault and if something more powerful shows up, he's giving it Derek's address and a stalk of wolfs bane to speed the process. Not to mention the little stunt where he beats the shit out of Scott and has Erica throw him in a dumpster. He had to pretend to be out cold for a full two hours while she lugged him around. He was fuming even before he found out about Scott.

Not to mention Jackson. He's pissed about Jackson. Werewolves are one thing, but he doesn't even know what to call Jackson now. He smells reptilian, and he smells strong.

Later, Scott talks him down from breaking and entering into the Argent's house to steal something incredibly lethal against werewolves. Scott brings up the Hale Fire, and the complicated relationship between Derek's uncle and sister, and of course Kate Argent. He admits sulkily to Scott that Derek had had a pretty rough go in life, not that that made him trust him any more, nor did it give him the right to fuck around with other people's lives or to expect them to respect and fear him on principle. Even though Stiles does fear him, though he keeps that thought to himself.

He fears how close Derek was getting to them, he fears how many times Stiles had intervened to save his life, how many times Derek had saved Scott and Stiles. He hates that he needs Derek.

He also really hates how much Erica is growing on him. She was like a leech, awful and not entirely wanted, but still not without some benefits. That is, if you could get past how much you wanted it gone and despised it's existence. He squeezes his eyes shuts and dispels the awful analogy.

Okay, Stiles thinks to himself, watching Isaac cower in submission, that's kind of really hot.

"I'm the alpha," Derek explains, though Stiles would more classify the tone as bragging. Stiles feels a familiar flutter in his stomach. He thinks bitterly that at least he can actually classify this reaction. He stares distastefully down at his crotch, and chastises it on it's poor taste in subject.

The worst part was, that this hadn't been - and wouldn't be - the only instance that his meat suit had decided that Derek is the perfect subject for its attention. Inopportune moments such as this were becoming more and more frequent, and Stiles was going insane. Add a couple late night replays to that, and Stiles had a big problem. Trust his meat suit to want to bang the biggest annoyance to ever own such a fine ass.

Nothing ever goes the way Stiles wants it to in this town.

A/N: Big slobbery kisses to ShinobiTwin05, Tariono4ka, Silvermoon of Forestclan, Kkez2y5, Keiko Sheena, Du'Varg, chacra, PuppetMaster55, casanovakk, AnAbominableSnowman, and the mysterious guest who was unable to sign in for the reviews that keep me going! Y'all are beyond awesome.

I had to stick to thanking just those who reviewed by name because there were too many people who favourited and followed! I am still overwhelmingly appreciative to you guys, I just wanted to give a shout out to those who took the time to review.

I really really really REALLY hate this chapter, and I'm really sorry about it's crappiness, and I encourage you to at least read the next chapter before dropping it completely. Next chapter isn't going to be as choppy and GASP THE WINCHESTERS MAKE THEIR DEBUT!