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Title<\/b>: TBD<\/span><\/p>\n Author: <\/b>Sibyl Moon<\/span><\/p>\n Fandom<\/b>: Teen Wolf<\/span><\/p>\n Relationship<\/b>: Stiles\/Derek<\/span><\/p>\n Word Count:<\/b> 2037<\/span><\/p>\n Warnings\/Rating<\/b>: Canon-Typical-Violence, references to love potions<\/span><\/p>\n Summary<\/b>: A Magical Bookshop AU<\/span><\/p>\n Author Note:<\/b> My experiment with magical realism<\/p>\n ~\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Leaning back against the counter, Stiles watched his latest customer leave in a flurry of acidic anger. Shaking his head, he followed her trail of destruction with a calculating gaze and wondered if it was worth writing up a bill and sending it to her.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSome people just can\u2019t take disappointment very well,\u201d He said, pushing off the repurposed apothecary counter and walking forward to lock up so he could begin to clean up the mess.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Binx was waiting by the door; he looked up from where he\u2019d been grooming himself and blinked at Stiles before glancing at the door. His black fur was still ruffled from the passage of their moody client.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI know!\u201d Stiles waved back at the counter. \u201cIt says right on the sign that we don\u2019t do love spells.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Binx blinked back at him and stretched, obviously done with the drama for the morning. He sauntered away, probably searching for a dozing Marie to curl up with.<\/span><\/p>\n Stiles sighed, flicking the lock and turning the sign from open to closed. He returned to the items that Connie Walker had managed to dump off the shelves in her dramatic exit when Stiles denied her the love potion she\u2019d wanted.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cJust a little one. It\u2019s not a big deal,\u201d Stiles mocked in falsetto as he began to gather up the crystals and gemstones into the baskets. He was glad there hadn\u2019t been anything too expensive in her path.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He grimaced at the display of oils that had shattered. The scent of incense and other herbs filled the shop more than usual, and he knew he was going to have to prop the door open for a bit once things were cleaned up. \u201cLove spells might not be our thing, but I\u2019m not against a little misfortune sent Ms. Walker\u2019s way,\u201d he grumbled, setting the basket of gems back on the shelf and heading to the back room to get the cleaning supplies. Getting the oil up from the hardwood was going to be fun.<\/span><\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDid she really?\u201d Kira fell sideways, giggling. \u201cWas she wearing that awful fake fur coat?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what did most of the damage,\u201d Stiles huffed, taking a drink of his brightly colored cocktail. He wasn\u2019t sure what was in it, but Kira assured him that it would make him feel better. \u201cShe kept flinging it around as she stomped out of the shop. Now I have to spend all of tomorrow morning remaking those oils, and another batch of balms as well. She took out an entire shelf of candles, but those seemed to have come out with only minimal damage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll that for a love spell?\u201d Kira shook her head. \u201cIsn\u2019t she married?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShe wants me to match her son and a girl from an appropriate family,\u201d Stiles said, raising his brow at Kira. \u201cIt\u2019s so gross I almost cursed her on her way out before she\u2019d even knocked anything over.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSounds like she might have deserved something,\u201d Kira said, sipping at her bright blue drink. She sat back in the booth, her eyes twinkling in the bar’s dim lights. \u201cThen again, she seems like the kind of person who will end up attracting negative energy all on her own.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind helping it along,\u201d Stiles replied, rolling his head as he tried to loosen the tension in his shoulders. \u201cIt should be fine. I\u2019m keeping an eye on the situation now to make sure that she doesn\u2019t branch out somewhere else. No shop nearby will sell her what she\u2019s looking for, but that doesn\u2019t mean she won\u2019t find some backwoods asshole or, worse, order from some shady dealer online and poison her son.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re worried you should tell the Hales,\u201d Kira said, slurping up the last of the slush in her glass. \u201cYou know that they can help keep an eye out if she goes looking for other sources.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNope, nope, not going to do it,\u201d Stiles said, shaking his head as he sliced his hand through the air in front of him. \u201cThis is magical territory, which makes it mine. I don\u2019t need them poking their noses into it and then getting all judgy about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAre you still mad about that thing with Derek?\u201d Kira frowned at him. She set her glass down and laid her hand on his arm. \u201cDon\u2019t you think it\u2019s time that the two of you learned how to work together?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u201d Stiles avoided meeting Kira\u2019s gaze and finished his own drink. \u201cThis is delicious, what was it called again?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTequila Sunrise, you\u2019ve had it before. Stop deflecting, the two of you act like toddlers,\u201d She sat up and looked around the bar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not my fault that Derek Hale is an asshole,\u201d Stiles said, frowning at her. He held up his hands in surrender when she opened her mouth. \u201cI need more to drink if we\u2019re going to talk about Derek Hale, and his expressive eyebrows, and his attractive everything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI never said he was attractive,\u201d Kira muttered behind him as he stood up and headed towards the bar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Stiles weaved his way through the crowd. The place had been nearly empty when he and Kira had arrived an hour ago, but it was filling up fast now. He managed to get the bartender\u2019s attention and put his order in for a couple of fresh drinks before turning to survey the bar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He knew it had opened up a couple of months ago but hadn\u2019t had a chance to stop in before tonight, and he was only here at Kira\u2019s insistence that they weren\u2019t going to drink a bottle of wine with his cats when there was a perfectly good bar open in town now.<\/span><\/p>\n It was a nice place as far as bars went. It was clean and didn\u2019t have much negative energy hanging over it, either. Stiles didn\u2019t think that was just because it was new either; he could see the touches of spellwork that spoke of supernatural security as well as the mundane. He poked at the wards to see if he could tell who had placed them; there was something about some of the work that niggled at him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAh fuck.\u201d Marilyn French, of course, it was. He hoped the owners didn\u2019t regret their choice of witch. Marilyn was known to cut corners and do some shoddy work in the recent past. He weighed the advisability of looking up the owners and warning them when the bartender reappeared with his drinks.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDid you know mediocre Marilyn is the one who did the wards for this place,\u201d Stiles said, sliding into the booth next to Kira, his voice hushed as he passed her a drink. \u201cI\u2019m thinking about warning them about her reputation. The last place she warded was Donnelly\u2019s over on 6th street.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIsn\u2019t that the place that has the pipes backing up constantly and the pixie problem?\u201d Kira frowned, glancing around as if speaking about the pixies would spark them into being. \u201cThat place is warded? We haven\u2019t been able to go there for months. I think it got closed down by mundane authorities for a rodent infestation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYep, Marilyn slapped up some half-assed wards on the place and called it a day. Her repellent wards were reversed. They were worried that something else was wrong. So they called me in to look over her work\u2014\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs they should,\u201d Kira said smugly. \u201cBecause you\u2019re the best, despite what those jerks at city hall think.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Stiles grinned into his drink. Kira might have moved to Beacon Hills late in high school, but she\u2019d realized how the town\u2019s authorities had dismissed Stiles\u2019 abilities pretty quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYeah, they still like to operate under the belief that I\u2019m little more than a hedge witch with barely a speck of talent. Especially since I turned down the gracious offer of apprenticeship under the <\/span>great<\/span><\/i> druid Alan Deaton.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPtoo, Ptoo,\u201d Kira said, making the sign of the evil eye before screwing her face up in a frown. \u201cWait, isn\u2019t Marilyn his student\u2014or was his student?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYep,\u201d Stiles said, popping the word obnoxiously before taking another drink and settling back in the booth. \u201cWhich is why when I reported the general incompetence, outright negligence, and her complete dereliction of duty in reporting the fact that the place was sitting on a mini nexus and therefore needed special handling\u2014well, you can imagine how that went.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDid she get censured at all?\u201d Kira sighed, stirring her drink with the straw and listening to the ice clink.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA slap on the wrist and sent back to Deaton for further training. Since he failed so badly the first time, I don\u2019t know how it\u2019s supposed to help now.\u201d He waved the frustration of that away and looked around the bar again. It was a nice place, and he had no idea why they\u2019d gone with Marilyn to ward it; a dozen highly qualified magic users in the area could have done better work. There were others with better resumes; he’d written over half of them himself.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDeaton is a dickhead,\u201d Kira said, sipping at her drink. She straightened up so fast she startled Stiles. \u201cWait, you said that Marilyn did this place too? Stiles, you have to tell them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I was debating,\u201d Stiles said. \u201cAfter what happened at Donnelly\u2019s I made sure word got around. When the owners of this place went looking for someone to ward they should have heard about Marilyn\u2019s less than stellar abilities and while she hadn\u2019t been sanctioned by city hall, she has been pretty much blacklisted by the town\u2019s circle despite Deaton\u2019s influence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDeaton, ptoo, ptoo,\u201d Kira said. She grinned when Stiles laughed. \u201cHe really is a dickhead; how does he retain such a high position in town?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPolitics.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUgh, gross.\u201d Kira wrinkled her nose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWord,\u201d Stiles said, tilting his glass in her direction with a wry grin. \u201cDeaton has his position because he knows how to play the game, and I don\u2019t play\u2014not with them\u2014but he doesn\u2019t lead our community the way they think, though and that\u2019s what matters in the end. Marilyn shouldn\u2019t have managed to get this job, which means that Deaton was poking his nose into things that weren\u2019t his business. He chose his place years ago when he attached himself to city hall and stepped back from his position as Hale emissary.\u201d Stiles grimaced. As much as he disliked most of the Hales and their attitudes towards his kind, he\u2019d felt angry and betrayed on their behalf when Deaton had basically severed ties with the pack a decade ago, claiming he was needed to keep the balance and couldn\u2019t do that as their emissary.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhy did he want you as an apprentice anyway?\u201d Kira frowned into her drink, rattling the ice one last time before setting it back on the table. \u201cNot that you aren\u2019t awesome, but it never made sense to me. You definitely don\u2019t fit into my vision of a druid or Deaton\u2019s version of balance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI walk my own line; that\u2019s true,\u201d Stiles said, rolling his shoulders. \u201cHe was never clear about why he chose me. I always got the impression that he wanted to tether me rather than train me. He was worried I would turn out exactly as I have. You know how much he hates me\u2014but that could be due to the time I punched him in the balls.\u201d He grinned as Kira giggled; he\u2019d told her the story years before.<\/span><\/p>\n He didn\u2019t often think about Deaton\u2019s offer. The man had preyed on him when he\u2019d been young and grieving\u2014his magic wild and sparking under his skin. Deaton had appeared at the house with the incense from Claudia\u2019s death rites still heavy in the air. For the audacity\u2014the disrespect\u2014his mom would have punched the smug fucker in the face before he\u2019d even opened his mouth. Deaton had commented about the balance working hand in hand with death so that he could train Stiles now that his mom was dead. Stiles hadn\u2019t been tall enough to hit him in the face, so he\u2019d punched him in the balls. He\u2019d followed up with another one to the nose when Deaton had curled over before his dad had pulled him back.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Title: TBD Author: Sibyl Moon Fandom: Teen Wolf Relationship: Stiles\/Derek Word Count: 2037 Warnings\/Rating: Canon-Typical-Violence, references to love potions Summary: A Magical Bookshop AU Author Note: My experiment with magical realism ~\u00a0 Chapter One Leaning back against the counter, Stiles watched his latest customer leave in a flurry of acidic… Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,42,9],"tags":[11,60,18,81,24,46],"class_list":["post-740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ead","category-sterek","category-teen-wolf","tag-au","tag-canon-typical-violence","tag-evil-author-day","tag-kira-yukimura","tag-magic-stiles","tag-sterek"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sibylmoon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sibylmoon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sibylmoon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sibylmoon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sibylmoon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sibylmoon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sibylmoon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sibylmoon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sibylmoon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Chapter One<\/span><\/h1>\n