Liam Dunbar x Bestfriend!Reader
Y/N Y/L/N had barely managed to snag her winter jacket from the coat hook at the front door before she escaped the house into the cold outdoors. Trudging out into California’s January snow was definitely a dumb idea, but it was better than sitting through another of her stepdad’s temper tantrums. Her mother could deal with that psycho alone, for all Y/N cared. She was sick and tired of having to stay inside.
Y/N pulled the gloves out of the pocket she’d stuffed them into after the last time she escaped, when they first moved from Alaska. That was in New Jersey. Now they were in California. Y/N trapsed into the picturesque woods bordering Beacon Hills. Her hand reached into her pocket, snatching the small lighter between her fingers and spinning it around. She brought it out and flicked it on, breathing in the warm smoke that drifted from the flame. Y/N walked until she came across the perfect resting spot: a small patch of slightly-damp, but not snow covered, grass under the tallest pine tree she had ever seen. Sitting cross-legged on the grass, stripping small bits of bark from the tree at her back to make a small fire, Y/N wondered what or who she might meet sneaking out of her house every once in a while. SD/N was a hunter, someone who believed in the supernatural enough to want them extinct, and psychotically controlling. Y/N had not been allowed out of her house since she was 10, six years ago. She had no friends, no one outside her mom and SD/N, and no escape.
The airborne embers floating off the fire broke Y/N out of her thoughts.
A sound like laboured, pant-like breathing found its way into Y/N’s ears. It was not human, whatever it was, and it was getting closer by the minute. But, having grown up constantly in the proximity of her vile stepdad, Y/N could hardly believe anything was worse than his temper tantrums.
She had learned, over time, to fight back. First it was dirty, fist-in-face brawling that left them both worse for wear. Then came knife fighting and guns and chemicals. The older she got, the more Y/N fought back. As her stepdad’s thirst for blood grew, so did her arsenal of weaponry and combat experience.
The panting sound came closer ever-so-slowly. As it did, a shape began to appear in her view. It was a small-ish wolf, almost as tall as she was sitting, hunched and shaking with the cold. There were no wolves in Beacon Hills, none in the state of California as a whole, but somehow there one was mere metres from her. It saw her, not just with its nose, but finally its eyes. The wolf trembled. Somewhere in her, she knew he felt cold. An extreme, freezing cold.
Gently, Y/N held out her thickly gloved hands to the wolf. The wolf growled but still came closer, intrigued.
“It’s ok,” Y/N cooed, “I’m not gonna hurt you.”
She thought for a moment, then added, “Well, I won’t if you won’t, ok?”
The wolf padded nearer, clearly fascinated by her gloved hands but wary of the fire. Noticing his apprehension, Y/N quickly doused the fire in snow, putting it out completely.
“There, all gone. No fire, see? Nothing to be afraid of,” she said softly.
After a moment he was within touching range. Y/N studied him. His eyes were a dazzling yellow. His fur a soft grey blue. Y/N couldn’t resist anymore. She reached out, hand brushing his fur. He didn’t move away, didn’t flinch, just watched her warily.
“You’re cold, aren’t you?” Y/N asked softly, “Very cold, very very cold. I can help with that, if you’ll let me.”
She stripped more bark off the tree, built up the fire, and set it alight. The wolf seemed to like the warmth of the fire. He came closer than before, snuggling up beside her. She rubbed his fur this way and that, trying to use friction to warm him. Slowly he relaxed into her. But then he started changing. His limbs spread out, stretching and morphing into human limbs. Luckily, he was fully clothed. The hair receded into his skin and in the split second he realised he wasn’t a wolf any longer, he jumped to his feet from where his head had been rested lightly on her thigh and hightailed into the woods without a backward glance. Y/N watched him go. Then she thought to herself, walking back in the direction of her house. She wanted to see him again, the werewolf. She wanted to meet his pack, if he had one, and warn them about her stepdad. Most of all, she wanted to go to school and meet people, to have friends for once.
Days full of constant arguing and foot-stomping and threats passed, and finally Y/N was allowed to attend school. SD/N had taken a lot of convincing, which meant M/N giving reason after reason just for him to shut it down instantly, until he cracked and agreed.
“She can go to school IF she agrees to come straight home every day without exception,” he barked, ignoring the fact Y/N was in the room.
“Fine~” Y/N relented, huffing in a way she knew would drive him up the wall, and marching down the hall to what her mom called her ‘torture chamber’ of a room.
Tomorrow she would be getting a phone, books and pens for school purposes only. It was enough to make her hope for a breath of freedom.
Y/N slept easy that night, the sound of her stepdad’s angers drowned out by her sense of calm.
The next morning, she woke up in her own time, completely unaffected by the world around her. It was Tuesday already, but it didn’t matter to Y/N. Every day was just another day, since she’d finished every lesson from elementary to high school in just over 3 years after beginning homeschooling. She breezed through the morning, excited to go shopping and buy herself independence.
Luckily, her mom wanted to go with her, so the two of them set out midmorning to get supplies. The local mall was packed with people of all kinds, new people for Y/N to meet. She walked into the electronics and film store, where her mom checked out phones they could track, and straight to the printer half of the store. Y/N browsed the shelves, going up and down aisles absent-mindedly, her thoughts on the wolf from a week ago. Whispers from some kids around her age an aisle over caught her attention.
“Yeah, but you should’ve seen Liam, Stiles, he was terrified of her!” said a soft-ish male voice.
“He said she didn’t even react when he shifted! That means she’s used to supernatural things,” replied another voice, probably ‘Stiles’, “And she’s new. Which could be a good thing.”
“Or she could be a murderous rampant, or a hunter, or…”
Y/N rounded the corner and found two brunette boys huddled over professional cameras, staring embarrassedly at her.
“Hey, I’m new here,” she said, smiling brightly, “Y/N Y/L/N. And you are?”
She held out a hand to shake. The taller of the two took it almost immediately, shaking profusely.
“Stiles Stilinski. This idiot here is my best friend, Scott McCall.”
“Hi, I’m Scott,” said the other, deciding to smile and wave instead of shake hands.
Just then, her mom found them standing awkwardly in the middle of the aisle. She came rushing over, throwing the phone into a plastic bag over her shoulder, and smiled widely at the boys.
“Making friends , are we?” she asked, wrapping Y/N in a side hug that said, ‘we’ve really gotta move c’mon’.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you two, but this little demon and I’ve gotta rush off. Big first day at school tomorrow and everything.”
“Oh, what year are you in, Y/N?” Scott asked, tilting his head.
“Freshman,” she replied, shrugging.
Her mom tugged her towards the exit, so the three new acquaintances said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Before she was fully out of earshot, however, Y/N heard the two friends whisper-shout “dude that’s her!” to each other. Y/N grinned.
The next day Y/N was marched into the school by her mom and stepdad. He was all business, ready to get her off his hands as quickly as possible. They checked timetabling and classes, choosing to forego a school tour in favour of getting her to her first lesson ASAP.
Chemistry was a breeze. It was her forte, her favourite subject of all time and quite easy compared to the complex smoke bomb formulas she was used to devising for defence against SD/N. Then came History and Economics before lunch.
Lunch was the trickiest part of the whole school experience. She knew, from prior instances and dinner table regales by her mom, that finding a seat as the ‘new girl’ was going to be tough. She walked around, clutching her home-packed lunch to her chest like a lifeline. It occurred to her how different the many tables were from one another. There were jocks and pretty girls sitting together, nerdy kids at another table, loud pop-culture kids, and … Stiles, waving her enthusiastically over to his group. She rushed over, grateful for the escape from public ridicule. Not that many people had noticed her.
At the table were kids from varying grades, freshmen and sophomores from different classes and backgrounds. Stiles introduced her around the table, going down the list one-by-one. One kid looked familiar, but Y/N couldn’t tell where she’d seen him before until Stiles presented him as ‘Liam’. The werewolf. From the woods. It had to be him; the one Scott and Stiles had been talking about when she first met them. The way he glanced up then immediately looked away again made her even more certain it was. She sat directly across from him, pulling things out of her paper bag that made him and the kid next to him, Mason, grimace.
“What. Is. That?” Mason asked, pointing with a rather disgusted look on his face at her chilli sandwich.
He and Liam shared a brief conversation of glances, then Mason tugged Y/N to her feet and marched her back into the school cafeteria into the lunch line. Liam trailed after them like an attention-starved puppy. There was a guy in the line one in front of them who looked about their age to Y/N. He smiled at her when they caught eyes, but she couldn’t tell if it was a kind smile or the kind of smile that terrified people. Maybe a bit of both.
“You’re the new kid, aren’t you?” he asked, holding out a hand, “Theo Raeken, a pleasure.”
‘Y/N,” she replied, reaching to shake.
Liam did what Mason moved to do – knock her hand away. She turned to glare at him in shock and made a face of contempt, which surprisingly caused a reaction in Liam. He looked away and stepped back, turning and walking back to the table outside. Mason positioned himself in between Y/N and Theo.
“You’ve gotta try the fries, girl,” he said, trying and succeeding in drawing her attention back to himself.
“Everything else is disgusting; but the fries? Chef’s kiss. And the pizza on Fridays. Only on Fridays though, any other day is veggie pizza.”
“Oh wow, ok,” Y/N said, scooping fries onto her platter with the ladle-like spoon, “Good to know. Don’t bring lunch on Fridays.”
“Uh, more like don’t bring lunch. Ever,” he shot back, smiling coyly, “Tuna and mustard with what? Rocket leaves? Double ew.”
Y/N chuckled, picking a juice box off the 3-layer stack and planting it on her tray and shrugged.
“It’s my mom’s family recipe,” she mused, “Apparently. Though she didn’t start using it until SD/N moved in.”
Mason hurried to catch up, grinning like he’d just won the lottery.
“The mystery girl finally spills,” he sighed, sliding in beside Liam before Y/N could, putting a gap between them, “He your stepdad or something? Mom’s boyfriend?”
“Legally, my stepdad. He’s more of a step-monster, though. Not a nice guy,” she revealed.
“Oof, so no groupie sleep overs then, huh?” Stiles chimed from the other end of the table, “Tough luck, Liam.”
“Yeah no,” Y/N replied, taking a bite of the fries, “Mine is not a… person-friendly household.”
She watched the flaming red blush fade slowly from Liam’s cheeks. Suddenly his head snapped up from his food, and he caught her eye. His stare said, ‘I know what you’re hiding’. She turned away.
That afternoon was the only time she went home straight after school.
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