{"id":10818,"date":"2014-05-02T04:34:49","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T04:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2014\/05\/02\/skinnydefenselessheroism-iamthefirechild-45\/"},"modified":"2014-05-02T04:34:49","modified_gmt":"2014-05-02T04:34:49","slug":"skinnydefenselessheroism-iamthefirechild-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2014\/05\/02\/skinnydefenselessheroism-iamthefirechild-45\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

skinnydefenselessheroism<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

iamthefirechild<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Beth shrugs in a \u2018just trying to help\u2019 kind of way and takes her turn, scoring a strike. Summer comes back and perches on the edge of the seat, just as careful as Stiles not to touch, although she\u2019s casual and easy with the other two. She does nudge him conspiratorially, though, this time, and points to the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

“You can change people\u2019s names on the board here,” she whispers, and does just that, changing everyone\u2019s but hers. She just makes Stiles\u2019 his last name, but puts something goofy for the other two, some kind of inside joke obviously known only to the three of them. It\u2019s pretty clear they\u2019re very close, but Summer somehow still seems a little on the outside.<\/p>\n

“I thought you were going to bring some of your friends?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Stiles can sympathize with feeling a little on the\u00a0outside<\/em> of people. He watches Summer\u2019s face for a second before his mouth quirks up, and he leans forward to change his name on the board from \u2018Stilinski\u2019 to \u2018Batman\u2019. That gets a decisive nod before he looks back at the girl sitting next to him. His expression is soft and contemplative. \u201cYeah, well\u2014you didn\u2019t really seem like you wanted me to bring anyone, and since I was kind of crashing your party already\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

His shoulders lift, then drop, hands folded between his knees. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to make you uncomfortable. Besides I don\u2019t really have\u00a0friends<\/em>, I\u2019ve basically got\u2014Scott. And that\u2019s more or less it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course that\u2019s\u00a0more or less<\/em> not\u00a0true<\/em>, but Stiles\u2019 vision has always been a little clouded when looking at himself, as much now as ever, with his shoulders bearing the weight of the\u00a0nogitsune\u2019s<\/em> actions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Summer pinches her lips together before she speaks, looking at him in a way that’s much more direct than any other time. “You can’t crash a party I invited you to. That’s not how it works. You might be new, but you aren’t unwelcome, and you don’t make me uncomfortable.”<\/p>\n

Which is a blatant lie, but also absolute truth: he doesn’t make her uncomfortable the way he means it — bringing his friends wouldn’t have made her uncomfortable, or any of them; he makes her uncomfortable by existing, with his unconscious defense of her problematic social virtue and general geekiness and long-limbed attractiveness. She hates that she can’t \/not\/ see that, now.<\/p>\n

She looks back at the keypad, and says, very quietly, “Did you \/want\/ this to be a date? With someone you’d only just met?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

skinnydefenselessheroism: iamthefirechild: Beth shrugs in a \u2018just trying to help\u2019 kind of way and takes her turn, scoring a strike. Summer comes back and perches on the edge of the seat, just as careful as Stiles not to touch, although she\u2019s casual and easy with the other two. She does nudge him conspiratorially, though, this … Continue reading <\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,867,21],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}