Okay, but I really love the idea of this werewolf biker gang who only trusts a former hunter to fix their bikes. I don’t know how they come to this arrangement, but I fucking love it.
I say Chris split from the family, but he still struggles with it. There’s still that lingering prejudice in there that Allison doesn’t have, so she did a full, clean break. Packed up, left the state, made her way to California, and started picking up odd shifts at mom and pop garages. The kind of places that if you ask for a job, they’ll tell you to check out whatever car they’ve got in the shop at the moment, and if you fix it, you’re hired.
She wanders up towards northern California, using references and referrals to get jobs, and eventually lands in Beacon Hills. Obviously here, either the jeep or Scott’s bike breaks down. Probably the jeep, but I love the idea of Allison driving late at night in the rain, seeing some poor schmuck on the side of the road trying to get his bike started, and pulling over to help him out. Also obviously, Scott falls madly in love with his hero in all of .5 seconds.
I also love the idea of Stiles absolutely refusing to take the jeep to her garage because he’ll figure it out himself, he can do this. And sometimes she’ll wander over to his place when she knows he’s working on it, lean daintily against the open hood, and watch him struggle. She’ll offer to help, or ask pointedly if he’s planning to use that tool or that part, but she’s not going to push. She knows this jeep is his baby, very few others get to touch it, but she knows that someday it will be in her garage and she will go to town on it.
That damn thing is going to purr like a kitten by the time she’s finished with it.
But the Hales.
Obviously they come through Beacon Hills and stop by her garage, but how.
Maybe Allison has already been fixing their bikes for a while, in other towns they’ve been to, and they come to Beacon Hills specifically to see her. They’d been going to her for a while before they found out about her family, but she’s always taken such good care of them that they have no reason to not trust her. She knows exactly how they like their bikes, what brand of parts they prefer, and it’s a fucking pain to find a new mechanic who can match her attention to detail. They know, they tried once, and they ended up right back at Allison’s garage (and she gave Derek a knowing, slightly mocking smile, but didn’t actually comment on the subpar tuneup he’d been riding, so he let it go and never strayed again).
Or maybe it’s more of a desperation kind of situation. They’re flying through Beacon Hills with hunters on their tail, and they’ve been riding too long and their bikes are starting to show the strain. Finally admitting that they can’t keep going, they find the nearest mechanic, and it isn’t until they see the Argent family crest pinned up on a corkboard that they realize. They get quiet just as Allison is coming back into the office, wiping her greasy hands on a rag, and she stops at the sudden shift in the atmosphere.
“I’m not like my family,” she tells them, and Derek doesn’t buy that for a second, but he knows the Argents’ reputation and he knows better than to try to attack one head on.
It’s a bit of an awkward standoff until Scott rolls in to bring her lunch and kisses her on the cheek, and his eyes flare yellow at the presence of other wolves. Then Derek knows that she’s really being truthful and only then does he even remotely begin to relax.
It takes a while; the Hale pack leaves and returns a few times before they really get settled in Beacon Hills, but Allison has a way with their bikes. She’s like a god or something, it’s not natural.
Every time they ride through town, they find themselves staying just a little bit longer. Making connections. Making friends with Scott and Stiles. Finding it a little harder to leave each time until eventually, they don’t.
The hotels they usually stay in are getting old, so Derek buys an apartment for them to stay in while they’re in town. He’s got the money and he isn’t spending it on anything other than their bikes, so they might as well be comfortable and have a place to crash that doesn’t smell like strangers.
Then Isaac starts staying a little longer than the rest, skipping a ride every now and again, and he gets his own place. Derek’s paying for the apartment, not him, so he shouldn’t get to stay in it longer than the rest.
Next it’s Erica and Boyd, looking to maybe settle down. They’re talking about marriage, hesitantly discussing kids in a way that’s a joke for now but there’s an undercurrent of want to their cynical laughs. It makes sense that they would start checking out homes around town, they don’t want to end up across the country from Isaac, and they couldn’t possibly find a better mechanic.
Derek’s the holdout, as per usual. It takes a little more convincing for him to admit that he’s found a home after so many years on the road.
“I could use some help around the garage,” Allison mentions offhandedly, making sure to emphasize that she doesn’t like hiring people she doesn’t know. And if Stiles is going to bring his jeep in, he needs to know that there won’t be total strangers working on his baby, and he really needs to bring that thing in because it started smoking from the hood the week before.
So maybe Derek starts spending longer stretches in his apartment—the apartment. That only he uses anymore. And maybe the day that the jeep finally gets towed to the shop, he picks up a clean rag and steps up beside Allison at the open hood. Scott’s comforting Stiles in the office, watching it all through the big window like a parent watching their child go through lifesaving surgery, but Allison doesn’t let them distract her. She just smiles at Derek and hands him a wrench.
I just finished babysitting my friend’s children, and she has most definitely mastered the no spanking/alternative discipline route. I always talk about taking it because I don’t believe in abusing children, but I’ve never personally seen it in action by a Black parent. Her children are 2 and 5 and they are the kindest, nicest toddlers I’ve ever met. They listen to her because she’s their mom and they automatically recognize she’s important and she gives them what they want (love and affection and rewards). In return they like to clean for her and give her artwork and cuddles all of the time.
To get them to listen to her, she makes sure to listen to them and what they’ve got to say instead of telling them to shut up all the time. The 5 year old asked her a few months ago why you can’t eat food that was on the floor after picking up food on the floor, and she explained it calmly and clearly. He asked 4 other questions after that and she answered all of them. He was satisfied and happy with the answers, and ever since he hasn’t done those things. She lets them gush and gush about Hot Wheels or Team Umizoomi and engages with them and counts with them and everything, so they never feel alone or neglected enough to not want to obey.
My friend lets them make mistakes by themselves on the rare chance they don’t listen so they can learn from them and let that be punishment enough. For example, the younger one we’ve been telling not to go near the dog cage because he doesn’t like dogs. He went near it a while ago, got his hand licked, freaked out, and hasn’t been anywhere near it since. The board on the wall that she uses has a column for each boy horizontally, and vertically are all the traits she wants them to have, like being nice, listening to her and their teachers, eating their food, cleaning up, having manners, etc. They get a sticker whenever they do it for the day, and they lose all their stickers when they break a habit. That’s enough punishment for them, so they don’t break it.
When they wake up, it’s cleanup time, or bedtime, she plays what she calls “musical habits”. She puts on a playlist of their favorite songs (it’s like 20-25 minutes) that make them feel motivated, and they should be finished getting ready or cleaning by the time the last song is over. If they’re not, they get a toy from their toy bin taken away or an Oreo from their snack bag taken out (aka eaten by her). But she hasn’t ever gotten to that because they always finish. They don’t even like hearing the consequences lol. And I just wanted to say I really enjoyed seeing good parenting by a Black woman that wasn’t abusive or harmful to the child’s development, it gave me inspiration and hope. Just had to talk about it somewhere.
THIS IS GOOD WHOLESOME PARENTING
This gives me hope. I’m gonna try to emulate this if I have kids
He has been happy. That should’ve been his warning. Derek has been achingly happy. Waking up to Stiles next to him, bumping into each other as they make breakfast, singing and laughing, planning a grocery list instead of an attack strategy, gripping onto each other in the shower– he should’ve known. It’s because he doesn’t get to have nice things, he doesn’t deserve to have good people in his life– so they’re taken away from him. It’s all his fault. He’s a walking curse, an actual living nightmare. He doesn’t know what he’ll do if Stiles is taken away from him, can’t even bring himself to think about it. All he can do is wait, all he can do is watch as another life slips through his fingers like dust– like ash.
the human life is a strained and tense one. i envy the life of a smooth rock resting on the beach… warmed by the sun… unaware of the trials and tribulations of sentient life…
theproblemwithstardust 