22. A monster, a monster, I've turned into a monster

[voluntaryapnea]

Who: Stiles Stilinski, bad dreams and YOU.
Where: Stiles' mind and then...Scott's room, the kitchen, and Scott's room again.
When: Throughout the "Less Than Thou Showest" flood, January 25th - 29th.
What: Stiles' mind is a scary place. It gets scarier when the nightmares aren't even his.
Warnings: Blood, death, violence, attempted suicide, drowning.
Note: Open to anyone, planned or not!

He hasn't had nightmares like this in awhile. But now he can't seem to shut them off. It's not like it was once, where everytime he woke up he's screaming. But it's not pleasant, and it's not his idea of a good time, and by the time he convinces himself to leave Scott's comatized body and go to the kitchen for caffeine, he feels like a zombie.

He makes it back to Scott's cabin in record time, drinking down the hot beverage so fast that it burns his mouth and then his throat.

He mumbles some curses and waits impatiently for the beverage to cool down before taking another long drink. Frankly he wishes it was something stronger.

A lot stronger.

Comments

[whatthefoxsay]

Kira has spent many winters in New York City, and yet nothing has prepared her for this kind of cold.

But in her dreams, she is Stiles, and Stiles is her, and while she has been fortunate not to have lost either of her parents, the desparation to save him! is as potent for her as it is to the boy she's sharing a death with.

The metal bites into her palm, more an irritant than pain, and she finds it comforting. The hands on her shoulders serving as the harbinger of her willing death are also comforting. Kira could never have imagined that an act to end a life could be filled with care, and something inside her also whispers this is love. Gazing at Scott's face briefly, and comfort is combined with confidence. Stiles' faith, her faith in Scott has never been unfounded, and in this moment, she understands what it means to love like a brother.

And then she's under. Cold, so cold. She can't breathe. Is there supposed to be a light at the end of this tunnel? Her grip on the badge tightens.

[voluntaryapnea]

He wakes up suddenly, a cold sweat drenching his forehead as he gasps for breath. As if he's just now sitting up and emerging from the icy waters of a metal tub. He isn't, of course, just waking up from the sacrifices. They aren't about to try and deal with all the problems the nemeton's about to bring them. They aren't about to go their separate ways with Stiles and Allison going to get their captive parents and Scott heading off to deal with Deucalion and Jennifer Blake.

He's on the Barge and this time he's passed out at Scott's desk, head resting on an open book. He blinks a couple of times, drawing in a breath and letting it out slowly as he looks around but sees nothing out of place. The room is silent, and Scott's still in a coma. He's not sure what brought that particular dream about today, but he's going to try and not focus on it so hard that he causes himself more nightmares later.

[whatthefoxsay]

The soft knock at the door may have a familiar rhythm to it, but since it opens right after that, the answer to the mystery is clear: here's Kira. Her eyes are are huge, like she's Seen Something; filled with something more traumatic than those big eyed kids in the velvet paintings. She's clutching something in her hands, and for ones her eyes don't drift toward Scott's prone body, but rather she makes a beeline for Stiles.

Once she makes it to within a few feet, she tightens her grip on the item in her hand; a dented metal sheriff's star.

"I miss my dad." Kira says, perhaps not quite apropos of nothing. To her credit, she does not cry, but her eyes do shine.

[voluntaryapnea]

Stiles glances to the door as soon as he hears the quiet knock, and his eyebrows furrow a little at the sight of Kira and it dawns on him with the way that her eyes glisten with unshed tears and her comment about missing her dad.

"You had my dream." It isn't really a question. He knows it's been happening all over the barge, and he's glad, in a way, that it's Kira who shared the experience and not someone he barely knows. He lets out a breath, reasoning that she's seen him at his absolute worst before, already.

He rises to his feet, nodding. "I miss my dad, too." His voice is quiet and he hesitates a second before hugging her.

[whatthefoxsay]

Kira is grateful for the hug. "It's the Flood, isn't it." she guesses. Stiles may find there's a small damp patch where her face pressed briefly against his shirt, but when she steps away, there aren't any tear tracks. Instead, she holds the star out in offering. "This is yours." she says firmly.

[voluntaryapnea]

"Yeah," he confirms. "Been hearing about it over the network." He lets go of her when she pulls back and holds something up in her hand. His eyebrows furrow and he stares for a moment at the object.

His dad's sheriff's badge. He blinks a couple of times, surprised and hesitantly picks it up, turns it over in his own hands, eyes wider than before as he looks back at her. "...okay that's -- not something I've heard about." Maybe he hasn't been paying as much attention to the network since Scott coma'd and Dean landed himself in Zero.

[whatthefoxsay]

"It's definitely not normal, but it felt really important. I guess so much so that it sort of came with me." Kira says, her hands dropping to her sides. "Did you try to fix it? It looks like someone tried to work the dents out."

[voluntaryapnea]

Unexpectedly, tears fill his eyes and he blinks rapidly, staring down at it. He gives Kira a jerky nod, swallows hard. "Yeah. Yeah, I tried to. The uh -- the darach. Jennifer Blake. Or Julia or whoever she really was -- the one who woke up the Nemeton. She crushed it." He looks up at her and tries to smile. "Before she kidnapped him."

[whatthefoxsay]

With certainty, "You got him back, though. You and Scott and Allison got him back. Isaac, too. You all told me."

Her brow furrows as she sees the shine in Stiles' eyes, and she reaches out to touch his arm.

[voluntaryapnea]

"Yeah. Yeah, I did. We did." He lets out a breath, swiping at his eyes with his shirt sleeve. He manages a faint smile when she lays her hand on his arm, though.

"I just -- I miss him. And awhile back, before you got here, this thing happened and we could talk to people who weren't on the Barge." He swallows hard. "He'd been shot. He and Parrish both told me. I mean, I'm pretty sure he was okay, but..."