Autistic Character Month: Day 26 - Because He Worries
@autistic-character-month prompt: Assistive Tools + First Date
Teen Wolf | Autistic Stiles | Season 1
Stiles gets roped into Scott & Allison's double date at the bowling alley.
Along with Danny.
Because Scott said he could bowl.
He cannot.
Stiles' dad worries though.
This is the first time he's been out with friends beyond Scott.
He's a cop. He totally can spy on his kid without getting caught.
Right?
Scott, who had been claiming since the parking lot that he was very good at bowling, released the ball at an angle and it skittered hard right, vanishing into the gutter before it reached the pins.
Jackson laughed.
Stiles raised his phone.
The app said, in its flat, pleasant voice: "You missed."
"I know I missed," Scott said.
"You missed by a lot."
"I know how much I missed."
"Why did you say you were good at this."
"Stiles—"
"You are terrible at this."
"Okay, we don't have to—"
Lydia, seated on the orange molded bench with her score sheet, uncapped her pen without looking up. "He has a point."
He watched Scott gutter his second attempt before he came back and flopped into the seat on Stiles' other side. "Try using the bumpers next time," the app offered helpfully, and Stiles did not look up from the screen while Scott made a complicated betrayed face at him.
Read on AO3
[operating in AuDHD burnout. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]
Elliott was talking to Kaia and TIffani but then Tiffani went to relax and Allegra and Jayme took their conversation over to Kaia and Elliott went to help Jessica with her castle.
Thank you for another birthday prompt from @johnlockedatbakerst!
Prompt: First group outing/gathering after drarry are out as a couple to the group?
...
It’s just lunch, Draco reminded himself, as Harry had been doing for the last hour.
“Look Draco,” said Harry, straightening out Draco’s collar. “Our friends will get along fine. Please don't be so nervous, okay?”
“Harry,” Draco sighed, setting his hands on his chest. “I know they’ve gotten over their problems. I know that all of them are fine with this.” He gestured between himself and Harry. “But common sense can’t cure anxiety.”
Harry nodded and squeezed Draco’s shoulders. “I’ll be by your side the whole time, okay?”
Draco smiled in response and reached out for Harry’s hand to Apparate away.
The restaurant was sunny and happy, well decorated and bright. Everything about it should have calmed Draco down, but his stomach still churned and his breath was short. Harry slipped his fingers into Draco’s after talking to the host, and Draco pressed his fingers to the inside of his wrist to check his pulse. It was much too fast, but Draco took a deep breath and held tighter onto Harry’s hand.
“Draco!” A light voice behind him exclaimed. He whirled to see Pansy grinning at him.
“Pans!” Draco said, letting go of Harry for a moment to reach out and hug her. “It’s been too long.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Pansy said, kissing Draco on both cheeks. “And Harry,” Pansy said, extending her arms out to him. “Draco never stops talking about you.”
“Pansy!” Draco slapped her arm.
Draco was infinitely glad that his best friend had been the first one to arrive to this lunch date. Something about Pansy and her familiarity calmed him in ways that no one else could.
“Good to see you, Pansy,” Harry said, hugging her back with a smile.
Pansy had been the first to know about Harry and Draco, and Harry had become well acquainted with Pansy. Surprisingly, the two got along famously.
“Let’s come and sit down,” Draco said, rolling his eyes and dragging Harry behind him by the hand. Pansy followed after quickly, a wide grin spread across her face.
“Oi, Harry!” someone called out from the front door of the restaurant.
Ron stood by the door, holding Hermione’s hand tightly, and beginning to weave his way through the tables to get to the small group beginning to sit down.
“Ron, Hermione,” Harry smiled, wrapping them both in hugs when they reached the table.
“Hullo Draco, Pansy,” Hermione said warmly, hugging Draco and shaking Pansy’s hand.
“No hug for me, Granger?” Pansy quipped, pouring herself a glass of water from the jug in the middle of the table. Draco’s heart spiked with anxiety.
“Always, Pansy,” Hermione said. Rolling her eyes, she reached over to give Pansy a hug.
“Didn’t mean it, Granger,” Pansy squeaked, swatting Hermione away.
Harry pulled Draco down to sit between him and Pansy.
“Didn’t you say Blaise and Theo were coming, Draco?” Pansy asked. She sniffed. “I’m feeling overwhelmed by Gryffindors.”
“Oh please, Parkinson,” Ron snorted. “We’re three years out of Hogwarts.”
Pansy looked him up and down. “Fine then, I’ll just invite all of Slytherin house and see how you feel, hm?”
Hermione choked, a water glass up to her face. Ron huffed in response.
“Alright, everyone, calm down,” Harry said, his hand coming ro rest on Draco’s thigh, which was tapping incessantly with nervousness.
“Ah, and here they are!” A rich voice bellowed behind Harry, making him jump and spill water into his lap.
“Marvelous, Blaise,” another voice said. “Really a good one. Potter looks like he’s wet himself now.”
The sound of a high five clapped behind Harry and he turned to glare at Blaise and Theo.
“Really?” Draco snapped before Harry could even say anything. “Immature, both of you.”
“Says you,” Blaise said, pulling out a seat beside Ron, and letting Theo sit between him and Harry. “Weren’t you the one two weeks ago who popped a balloon right next to my ear and fell over laughing when I jumped and hit Theo in the face?”
Draco grumbled.
“Thought so,” Blaise smirked.
“I want wine,” Pansy interjected. “Please someone, get me wine.”
“It’s one in the afternoon,” Hermione said, looking over at her.
“Precisely,” Pansy nodded. “It’s one in the afternoon. I want wine.”
“Turning into a heavy drinker, Pans?” Theo looked across the table.
“Yes, Theodore, I am a raging drunk,” Pansy snipped, waving over the waitress.
“On second thought,” Ron said. “I’ll take a drink as well.”
“You most certainly will not,” Hermione slapped his hand.
“Might as well make it a party,” Pansy winked.
“Okay everyone stop,” Harry said over the rising din of voices. “This is a shot at a new chance. For all of us.”
“Alright, mate,” Ron said after a second. “We’ll be civil about it. Won’t we, Pansy?”
Pansy shot Ron an obnoxiously fake smile. “Of course, Ronald.”
Blaise laughed and leaned across the table to extend a hand to Hermione. “I’ll be civil. Potter’s right. We should try and make this work. Even if it’s only for the two lovebirds over here.” He gestured between Draco and Harry.
Her first wrong choice had been going along with the boys to a Gentleman’s Club in the first place, and her second had been thinking that she could stomach a topless stripper throwing herself at Kurel. Three thousand- was it four now? Some odd years and she still had to actively control herself. It wasn’t just the shameless woman-- it was the way he brushed off the tension that hung around her like it was worthless.
If Raylen thought for a moment he was still right- he was more stupid that she thought. For months now, she had reminded herself of a single moment in time when Kurel’s forehead first touched to hers.
Actions- not words.
And she had taken that, and reminded herself every single time he’d said something or not said it- ‘Actions not words’, like it was a holy mantra set down from the Loa themselves.
‘You should at least come home tonight,’ she told him
‘Where the fuck else would I go?’
She could have read it as a sign- though Eilithe was never a particularly optimistic woman. No, instead she looked at the grin on his face when he mentioned the girl- or the way he reminded the group the girl still owed him. And the way he’d refused to acknowledge her half-assed confession. Those were the moments that she replayed, sitting on the sands of Dead Sun.
It was a quick lesson, that she could not, or maybe would not break down in front of him. And so when it was too much she secluded herself on the beach’s edge and let herself go for only an hour or two.
Duskbringer ‘Manor’ was quiet when she came back- children and caretaker’s sleeping. Only the pseudo-’man of the house’ was awake, or he likely to be. His scars for eyes made keeping her red and swollen eyes an easy secret. Kurel could not see- and his emotional perception of zero made it easy for her to do as she always did.
