Friendly Fire
Chapter Twelve: Igniting the Unknown
"So am I still waiting for this world to stop hating?"
-Still Waiting, Sum 41
Apparently all it took was an escaped convict paired with a bomb threat to get Stiles to talk to Arlo again.
"You know that he will listen to you before he listens to me, Arlo!"
But that didn't mean that Arlo was going to talk to Stiles.
"Noah!" Arlo called catching up with the Sheriff, shifting uncomfortably when he noticed that his own father was there as well.
"Yeah, buddy? What's up?" Noah stopped in his tracks, turning to face his son and Arlo. Arlo, who Noah was starting to consider his son as well.
"I don't think you guys should be leaving yet." Arlo supplied, stepping to the side when Stiles tried to place his hand on Arlo's shoulder. Noah's eyebrowed raise at both Arlo's words and actions.
"We've got an eyewitness that puts Barrow by the train station..." Noah trailed off, turning to leave. Pressured by the gravity of the situation.
"Let's go, Stilinski!" Rafael yelled. "Arlo, we've got to go."
"Whoa, whoa, Dad! Please, just, Lydia said that he's still here." Stiles interjected, tapping Arlo's shoulder and pointing at Rafael to indicate that he wanted Arlo to go and distract his father.
Arlo walked off without a word, brushing off his shoulder. Almost like he was trying to physically get rid of the way Stiles's actions were making him feel. Arlo wasn't even sure if Rafael would give him enough time for Stiles to convince Noah to stay at the school. It was rather clear that Rafael was almost entirely focused on saving his relationship with Scott and Melissa. Putting Arlo on the back burner.
"We have to go, Arlo. Nothing you say can make me stay here."
"I figured that out when I was nine, Rafael. My mom still hasn't figured that out though."
Rafael stilled at Arlo's response, the meaning of what he just said rushing back to him.
"Arlo, I-"
"Just let Stiles say what he needs to say."
Arlo and Rafael stood there in silence as Lydia watched on, her heart hurting for her friend. When Noah and Rafael finally left, Stiles went to thank Arlo but the younger boy walked past him without a word to go and catch up with Isaac and Scott.
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Arlo had planted himself in between Isaac and Scott, making sure that the twins stayed next to Scott. Arlo did not have the patience to stop a fight between Isaac and the twins in the middle of a search for a mass murderer. Their search was proving to be fruitless.
"I'm not getting anything." Isaac complained, looking over to Arlo for a possible explanation.
"Can you smell any humans at all, guys?" Arlo asked, running through the description of Willam Barrow that had been given to him.
"Yeah, but there's a strong chemical smell cutting through everything." Aiden educated Arlo, trusting the younger boy's intellect.
"Wait." Arlo stilled, his spine straightening as goosebumps graced his arms. "Barrow is a bomb maker. He could be using the chemicals to hide his scent from the kids with glowing eyes."
"We need to get everyone out of here, now." Scott commanded, everyone else turning to head back upstairs. But soon hands flew over his ears as the fire alarm went off, Arlo holding his hands over his brother's ears. Scott smiled at the action, holding his brother's hand instead as they all made their way upstairs and out of the building.
"We didn't find anything." Aiden informed as they met back up with Stiles and Lydia.
"Not even a scent." Scott started. "But Arlo has a theory about that."
"It's three o'clock, so school's over. If there was a bomb, wouldn't he have set it off by now?" Stiles asked, wanting to make sure that they kept everyone else safe. But he was confused that his train of thought wasn't as fast as it usually is. He was startled once again when he looked over at Arlo to see a shadow of a person standing behind the younger boy.
"Arlo." He whispered, pointing a shaking finger at the space behind Arlo.
Arlo didn't hear him, his ears being filled by Isaac's voice as they discussed Barrow's possible whereabouts.
The shadow figure didn't have a face but it raised a finger to the place where its mouth would be to shush Stiles.
"Arlo!" Stiles yelled, catching the attention of the entire pack.
Arlo turned his attention to Stiles, the remark he was going to make never getting the chance to fall from his lips. The shadow figure behind him disappeared with a bow, but not before it caressed Arlo's face with the same hand that shushed Stiles.
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Arlo let out a snort at the two frantic texts he received from his two best friends. He graced all corners of his room, pacing while trying to figure out what Barrow's next moves could be. His thumbs flew across his phone screen responding to Isaac's text, asking him if he felt crispy after the curly haired boy texted him to let him know that Allison had electrified her windows. Isaac found out when he tried to sneak into her room.
Arlo took a moment to sing along to the bridge of Dear John as Taylor Swift's Speak Now album played on his record player. His fingers still flying across his phone screen telling Kira to be confident during her dinner with Scott as she cursed him for not accepting her father's invitation to his 'Thank You For Saving My Daughter From Becoming A Coyote Dinner ' dinner. Arlo declined the invitation to allow Scott and Kira to get to know each other a little better.
Lydia's eyes flew around Stiles's room, trying to take in everything that she was seeing. His walls were covered with pictures and clippings from newspapers, all being connected with red string.
"What do the different colored strings mean?" She asked when she saw the collection of string on Stiles's desk.
"Oh, just different stages of the investigation. So, green is 'solved,' yellow is 'to be determined,'" Stiles informed, sighing with a sad smile when he got to the blue string. "And Arlo thought that the blue was pretty."
"What does red mean?" Lydia continued, as red was the only color on his walls.
"Unsolved."
"You only have red on the board."
"Yes, I'm aware, thank you."
Lydia pursed her lips at Stiles's attitude. She tilted her head as she heard Arlo's singing through the wall, smiling to herself at his song choice. "Did you get detention for pulling the whole alarm?"
"Yep, every day this week." Stiles answered. Thankful that Lydia didn't bring up Arlo despite hearing him in the next room. "It's okay, though. We were onto something."
"Even though we couldn't find any proof of Barrow being there?"
"Hey, Lydia, you've been right every time something like this has happened, okay? So, don't start doubting yourself now." Stiles comforted to the best of his ability. "Arlo believed you too, I trust his gut and your instincts."
"No scent? No bomb? And I got you in trouble..."
"Okay, look-- Barrow was there, all right? You knew it. You felt it. Okay? And look, if you wanted to, I'd go back to that school right now and search all night just to prove it." Stiles continued, going back over everything he knew about Barrow and what Arlo had suggested earlier. That's when it hit him. "Get up. Get up now. We're going to the school."
Arlo jumped when Stiles opened his door unexpectedly. Arlo's shirt was halfway off, due to him getting changed for the night. Stiles flushed immediately, but he couldn't get himself to turn around. His eyes trailed down Arlo's torso, noting that Arlo had a dimple at the base of his spine.
"What?" Arlo asked simply. Not wanting to talk to Stiles much, not only because of his poor decorum but the older boy's alienating actions were cutting Arlo deeper than he wished to admit.
"You have another dimple." Stiles muttered, Lydia face-palming behind his back. "I mean we need to get back to the school, I think your theory about Barrow's scent might be right."
All they found was a pool of blood in the chemistry closet paired with a coded message on the blackboard. But as Stiles pulled out his phone to warn Scott that Barrow was going after Kira, Arlo choked down a sob because recognized the writing on the blackboard as Stiles's.