---

"You smell"

"Hey Scott yeah I had a good day thanks, how about you?" Stiles replied to his best friends strange greeting "Are you in one of your grumpy wolf moods again? Because if you are I'm not inviting you to the diner later to meet the new guy at school"

"There's a new guy?"

"No I just said that as a conversation starter - His name's Jaiden and he seems like a decent guy which you would've known if you'd bothered to come to school today"

"I didn't finish training with Derek until late and I overslept" Scott said defending his missing school "What time are you meeting him?"

"Seven"

"I'll come as soon as I've finished work but Stiles if you want to make a good impression with this guy I suggest you put some spray on or something"

"I don't smell" Stiles replied sniffing his clothes. Scott came up to him and smelt him again, there was something there but he couldn't figure out what it was. Stiles pushed him to the bed and jumped on Scott and they started to wrestle "Well if I smell so do you now McCall" Scott pushed him off and got up.

"I'm going to be late for work" Scott said getting his coat.

---

It didn't take Jaiden long to get home, every time he had to limit himself in sport he liked to make up for it later so he ran home as fast as he could. When he walked in his dad was stood there waiting for him.

"I got a call from your principal"

"Okay but before you go any further I want you to know that the guy is a dick" Jaiden replied, his fathers face didn't change from the stern look.

"You got detention on your first day"

"Well it's worth it, he was being a right jackass to another guy"

"So you made friends then? So much for your isolation plan" Jaiden smiled, the day hadn't gone anything like he had wanted it to but it was still a good day "The principal said that the other guy hit you a couple of times, you still have the cut on your lip"

"I haven't had the chance to turn yet" Jaiden said feeling his lip, now his dad had mentioned it he felt some bruising forming on his stomach.

"Jaiden you should be able to instantly heal from something small like that even in human form - When did you last eat?"

"I had a sandwich at lunch" Jaiden saw the look of concern on his dads face and knew now wasn't the time to be messing around "It's been a few days now, I ran out of blood"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew you'd feel bad for not starting work yet"

"You should have told me Jaiden" His dad replied and Jaiden was right he was feeling bad "I start tomorrow so I'll be able to bring you some back but would you at least feed tonight? I know you're only part vampire but you still need to feed often, especially as it's not fresh"

"I'm meeting a friend at the diner later so I'll leave early and go catch a deer or something"

"Human blood is best"

"I know but I don't like to feed on humans and no there is no way I'm going to feed on my new friends"

---

Jaiden had left an hour early to give him self time to hunt and feed and to make sure he wasn't late meeting Stiles. He had been walking through the woods for nearly 20 minutes and hadn't came across a deer yet, there had been numerous rabbits about which would suffice but he would almost certainly drain them before he finished and he didn't want to kill anything. He continued walking around for another 10 minutes and decided that he had better leave - His dad would have him some blood tomorrow so he could hold out until then.

As Jaiden was nearing the edge of the woods he heard something running towards him, he shifted into vampire form so he could see what it was. A young deer was running all over the place, he stood still and when it closer he pounced on it and pinned it down, it tried to break free from his hold but he was too strong for it - He was about to sink his fangs down into it's neck but paused just inches away. It was here on it's own so Jaiden assumed it was lost, if he drank from it then it would be unconscious for a while and it was already vulnerable enough, he let go of it and it ran away.

He started to make his way to meet Stiles at the diner, he was starting to feel frustrated with himself for not feeding on the deer, he had always had difficulties when it came to feeding on living things. He could count on his hands the amount of times he had fed on a human and the first time his mom had taken him hunting he had refused to feed. That was what had started the lead up to his mom leaving, his older half sister was a full vampire and used to pick on him for his lack of vampire traits - His mom hadn't wanted to leave but she had to take his sister away from him. She used to write to him frequently and then the letters stopped, his dad had tried to track her down but couldn't find her and then one day he received a letter from his sister to say that she had been killed.

Jaiden got to the diner and Stiles wasn't there, he took his phone out to see if he had a text, there was no text but he saw that he was ten minutes late. He wondered if Stiles had decided to leave so sent him a text to say he had just got there - Moments later he had a reply from Stiles saying that he'd lost track of time and would be five minutes. He looked through the window and saw Jackson, Danny and a girl sat a table and Danny looked bored out of his mind.

He looked through his contacts and checked to see if Danny had entered his number, after finding it he wrote a text 'Cheer up Dan!' he saw Danny look around the diner and then he started to write 'Wherever you are Jai get your ass here now and save me'.

Danny looked at the entrance and saw Jaiden walking in, he was thankful that there was someone else there. Jackson and Lydia were doing the usual couple in love act and for some reason it was getting to him tonight.

"I'm going to go sit with Jaiden for a while if that's okay with you guys?"

"Yeah sure" Lydia replied.

Jackson made some half arsed attempt of saying okay and Danny got up and walked over to Jaiden.

"Are you okay buddy?" Jaiden asked.

"Yeah I'm cool, two's a company is all" They went and found a table and sat down "So what you up to?"

"I'm meeting Stiles"

"Cool I'll go back to Jackson and Lydia when he gets here"

"You don't have to buddy, Stiles won't mind"

"Thank you" Danny replied, he found himself once again being drawn to Jaiden's eyes and he was getting frustrated with himself. Jaiden was very good looking but he didn't want to have those kind of thoughts about him. As he looked away his eyes fell on Jaiden's lips, he was bleeding earlier but there was no sign of it "Jaiden, the cut on your lips has gone"

"There was nothing much there, I bleed really easily" Jaiden replied his heart sinking a little, he'd only just met Danny and already he was having to lie to him. It took him years to gather the courage to tell Lara he's a vampire but he wanted to tell Danny right now, he didn't want to have to lie to him.

"Hey guys" Jaiden was so caught up in his thoughts he hadn't noticed Stiles come in "Sorry I'm late"

"No problem" Jaiden replied as Stiles sat down next to him

"Scott will be here soon, he just got off work" Jaiden noticed a funny smell, he sniffed and found that it was coming from Stiles "Don't you dare say it Darby, I've already had issues with Scott - Danny do I smell?"

"What?"

"Do I smell? Scott said I did and it looks like this one was about to say the same - I do not smell"

"No I can't smell anything odd" Danny replied a little confused

"You don't smell as such" Jaiden started "There's just something different, are you wearing a different cologne or something?"

"No and can we change the subject please?" Jaiden continued to look at Stiles, there was something different about him but he couldn't figure out what. He noticed Stiles trying to discreetly smell himself, he didn't want to offend Stiles or make him paranoid so he flashed him a smile.

"Ignore him Stiles, you don't smell"

"Can I come sit next to you?" Stiles asked, Danny nodded and shifted across the seat to make room. He sat down and looked at Jaiden "I don't like you"

"Yeah you do" Jaiden replied

"Oh Scott's here" Stiles said looking at the door, he motioned over to Scott who took the only available seat which was now next to Jaiden "Hey buddy, this is Jaiden"

"Nice to meet you" Scott said shaking Jaiden's hand. He noticed that it was rather cold and pulled away quicker than maybe he should have done, he quickly recovered from it "Have I missed anything?"

"Nah we only just got here" Jaiden replied "Well except Danny, he's been enjoying Lydia and Jackson's company - How long have you been here?"

"Too long, it may just be me but they seem even more loved up tonight than usual"

"Can I get you boys anything?" The waitress asked

"Are we eating?" Stiles asked "I'm hungry"

"You're always hungry" Scott replied "But yeah I skipped dinner so I'm game" Jaiden and Danny both agreed that they would eat too "Er burger and fries please"

"Same here"

"Me too"

"Yeah make mine the same" Jaiden replied although after shifting to vampire form earlier he had started to realise how hungry he was and wanted to order an extremely rare steak but he couldn't shift now and in human form his body wouldn't process what little blood there would be.

The waitress left and the other boys started to talk about lacrosse, Jaiden enjoyed sports but his heightened abilities meant that he couldn't easily partake in many activities so he just listened to them talking. He found himself looking at Stiles' neck and imagining his fangs piercing the skin, he quickly diverted his gaze but found himself looking at Scott and having the same thoughts.

He stopped looking at Scott's neck and turned to look out of the window, his hunger was worse than he first thought, he hardly ever had the desire to drink from any human let alone his friends. He tried to think of something else to take his mind off of feeding, he closed his eyes and started to tap a beat on the table, soon after he was humming a tune to match the beat. He wasn't sure how long he'd been doing it but when he opened his eyes he was met with the other boys looking at him and smiling.

"Sorry I have a really small attention span"

"Was that pumped up kicks?" Scott asked, Jaiden confirmed with a nod feeling embarrassed "Great song, at least you have a good taste in music"

"Here you go darlings" The waitress said serving their food and drinks. Scott looked up and saw Jackson and Lydia coming over to them.

"We're now off" Jackson said "See you tomorrow" Scott noticed Jackson glaring at Jaiden.

"Bye guys" Lydia added, the others said their farewells and started to eat their meals. Scott waited to make sure that there was no way Jackson could hear him.

"Wow someone pissed Jackson off" He said looking at Jaiden, Stiles and Danny both laughed.

"He didn't appreciate being knocked off his feet with a football or forced to the ground during sprint" Danny replied, Jackson is his best friend but he deserved what Jaiden done.

"He annoyed me" Jaiden replied casually, Scott was now laughing too and wished he hadn't missed school today.

A few minutes later Danny's phone went off indicating a text, he took it out of his pocket and read the text from Jackson 'Stilinski and McCall is one thing but him?' He had expected something like this but not so soon 'Just because you don't like him doesn't mean I can't' It seemed like he had only just sent the message when he got a reply 'And in what way do you like him?' Danny put his phone down on the table not wanting to answer that question, he noticed that Jaiden was looking at him with a concerned face and just smiled at him although he knew that it was an unconvincing smile. His phone went off again and although he didn't want to, he couldn't stop himself from reading the new message 'I'm sorry buddy I didn't mean that. It's just hard to see your best friend hanging out with the guy who made you look like an idiot at school' Danny knew that he didn't mean that but he always acted without thinking 'I know but he is a nice guy Jackson and if you hadn't been an ass to Stiles he wouldn't have done that' 'I'm not going to promise anything' Danny was happy with the reply, that was the nearest Jackson would get to admitting that he was wrong and Danny knew that he would at least try.

---

They had finished their meals and stayed at the diner for a while idly chatting to each other before calling it a night and heading home. Jaiden was laying in bed and found himself thinking about Danny, the text he received had bothered him a lot but he didn't say anything about it. Jaiden decided to ask him, he reached for his phone from the table beside his bed 'Are you okay?' He immediately got a text through and was surprised how quickly Danny had replied, when he opened it he saw it was from an unknown number 'Hey it's Scott, hope you don't mind I got your number from Stiles. Thanks for tonight' Jaiden had paid the bill for their meals, the others had argues at first but he said it was an apology to Stiles and a thank you for Danny, when Scott had questioned about him Jaiden told him that they'd figure out a reason later 'No problem it was a good night, are you at school tomorrow?' 'Yeah my mom will kill me if I miss another day, see you then mate and thanks again'

Jaiden saved Scott's number in his phone and put it back on charge. He settled down for the night, the day hadn't gone anything like he wanted it to but he was still pleased, he'd made three decent friends and he was looking forward to hanging with them again.

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