Chapter Text
Stiles is 13 when his mother dies.
It's just after Thanksgiving and she only made it that far through pure bullheadedness. The school tells him to take as much time as he needs and stay at home with his dad. He's not sure why, his dad started drinking sometime between the viewing and the funeral and hasn't stopped yet.
He goes back to school after the 1st because even with his new stay-still-pills, he can sit on the stairs and watch his dad passed out on the couch for so long. Scott, being Scott, is mostly confused about how he managed to miss so much school and just wants to talk about how his Dad has disappeared again, maybe this time for good. Stiles doesn't choke up, just nods and says Mrs. McCall will be better off without him. He comes home and does his homework and then does some more research about random things because he can actually concentrate for 10 minutes in a row now. He starts with cancer and goes from there because maybe, just maybe, if he knew more he could have caught it a little earlier, done something, anything, and his Mom. . .
He eats takeout or reheated casseroles at the kitchen table every night and washes his dishes afterwards and sometimes his Dad will stumble in and eat a bite or two before making his way back into the bottle. When he gets tired of such high class cuisine, he takes his father's wallet and directions from the Internet and teaches himself how to make all the things in his mother's cookbook. It's not the same, but it's a start.
When Deputy Bryant stops by the house to see when the Sheriff was thinking about coming back to work, Stiles just pours out all the bottles and bundles his Dad out the door with one of the healthy lunches his doctor said he should eat. And when his dad works through Mothers' Day (spent at his Mom's grave) and Fathers' Day (spent listening to Scott bitch about his sperm donor), and right around through Thanksgiving and Christmas, he doesn't say anything; he just substitutes a turkey burger and box stuffing for the normal five-course feast.
And it works. Not well, and it's probably not healthy, but they're surviving and his dad drinks less when he has to work the next day and Stiles has so much free time he even signed up for a couple of classes at Beacon Hills Community College and life goes on.
So when Stiles pulls Scott out into the forest looking for (half of!) a dead body and Scott manages to get bitten by a werewolf (a werewolf of all things), Stiles knows how to adapt and keep on moving. He researched werewolves and myths and wolves (which was actually the most helpful) and then sets to work teach Scott how to survive as well.And when Derek Hale shows up at his window wanting his help and a pack and maybe, maybe something more . . . and Stiles?
Stiles starts living.