june elsewhere // teen wolf

[spacegrandma]

This is tentatively, nebulously set sometime after the Nogitsune but before the Wild Hunt. Here, a thing in which I use fairies-are-trying-to-steal-June's-magic as a plot device!

:)

3894 words

June jerks awake all at once. She’s disoriented, which sets off tinny alarm bells in her head, and her hands are handcuffed behind her back. She struggles for a moment, grateful for the chair she’s apparently tied to before her hands snap up and she stares down the man across the room from her.

 

He wears cop uniform and stinks of sulfur.

 

She pants for a moment, catches her breath, and asks, “Did the fairy follow me?”

 

The man just looks confused. June takes it as a good sign. It’s better than the alternative.

 

June cocks her head at the man and asks, “What are the chances of you letting me out of these?”

 

She shakes her hands and rattles the cuffs to make her point.

 

“Not great,” he says.

 

Okay, that’s fine. Considering her previous engagement had her running away from a fairy who was trying to steal her magic from her, this is possibly an improvement.

 

It’s possible that she shouldn’t have stepped through the first slightly open door she had come across in her goal of escaping said fairy, but whatever. So her magic hadn’t taken her back to Hexham like she assumed it would, big deal. June’s magic always goes a little wonky when she’s been in Fairy Land too long.

 

She glances around the room and notices for the first time that they’re not in a police station. There are bags of dog food stacked in one corner. A shiny examination table sits in the middle of the room. “If you’re arresting me,” June says carefully, “why are we in a veterinary office?”

 

Actually, if she’s being arrested, why is she tied to a chair with rope? She’s not picking up on things as quickly as she normally would, which makes her uncomfortable, but she figures it has something to do with the magic that brought her here. Wherever here is, of course.

 

The cop looks embarrassed for half a second and then makes his face go stern. “You’re not being arrested.”

 

June narrows her eyes. “So we’re looking at what here? Unlawful restraint? Oh, but I don’t know where I am, so maybe this reeks of kidnapping.”

 

“You’re awfully familiar with the law, aren’t you?”

 

June smiles widely, a closed mouth smile that crooks awkwardly to one side. It’s not her nice smile.

 

“You tell me, Officer Parrish.”

 

He’s startled for approximately half a second before he remembers his name tag. June gives him the benefit of the doubt; he’s probably a very good cop when he isn’t too busy restraining people in the local vet’s office.

 

There’s a barely present thrumming in the foundation of the building they’re in. June tracks the pulse through the building, eyes ghosting over the entire perimeter of the building. Parrish watches her do it.

 

She inhales very deliberately, tasting the magic on the back of her tongue. She smells notes of a smoldering fire, but those seem to come from Parrish himself. She rolls her head back on her neck. “If you won’t be so kind as to let me out, I think I’ll let myself out. Hope you don’t mind too much.”

 

He shrugs, like he doesn’t think she’ll be able to do it. June closes her eyes, feels each point on her body where she’s restrained, and pictures herself free. This isn’t enough to actually set her free, but she digs in deep where her magic lies and crosses the threshold between captive and loose.

 

The handcuffs unlock. The rope slithers off her body and down into a messy pile on the floor beneath the chair. June shakes out her hands before bringing them around to the front of her body, so she can massage some feeling back into them. She remains sitting.

 

“That’s remarkable,” a new voice says.

 

June snaps her head around to look at the newest addition to the room. He’s middle-aged, dark skinned, and bald headed. He stinks of a different magic than she’s used to. June doesn’t like him immediately.

 

“How did you do that?” The man asks.

 

“Magic,” June says sarcastically. “I would have thought that was the obvious answer here.”

 

“Indeed,” he says and offers nothing else.

 

June shakes her head incredulously. “That’s it? Not going to offer me any information as to why I woke up tied to a chair?”

 

He shrugs. “We felt the situation called for it. You did, after all, appear out of thin air for apparently no reason.”

 

“Oh, there was a big reason, alright. That doesn’t mean you can just snatch people off the streets and restrain them in your weird little vet clinic.”

 

“Deaton,” Parrish interrupts. “When are the others getting here?”

 

June is spared whatever bullshit response the man -- Deaton -- would have given her.

 

“They should be here momentarily.”

 

“Why?” June drawls to Parrish. “Got big plans?”

 

“Just this,” Parrish says, sweeping his arms out.

 

“I’m flattered,” June purrs, “but you’re really not my type.”

 

“And what is your type?” He asks, going along with her.

 

“I like ‘em a little less hot,” June says, snapping her teeth at him. “I have to say, I haven’t come across a black dog in quite a while.”

 

Parrish huffs out a laugh. “Can’t say I’ve heard that name before. Hellhound, though.”

 

A door clatters open at the front of the clinic and the sound of heavy footsteps is punctuated by the clack of high heels. A petite redhead comes into view first, followed by two boys.

 

Teenagers, of course. June rolls her eyes. When will she ever be free of teenagers?

 

“Whose brilliant idea was it to free the hostage?” The taller boy asks. He’s a bit gaunt in the fact with incredible bags under his eyes. He’s wearing a truly hideous blue plaid shirt.

 

June raises her hand and wriggles her fingers. “Mine,” she says. “Yeah, hi. Hey, you know what would be really awesome? If you all told me your names so I’m not hideously confused.”

 

The boy shrugs and looks at the other one. He shrugs too.

 

“Look,” June says, rolling her eyes. “I’ll go first. I’m June. That one,” she points to Parrish and then runs her finger back and forth where a name tag would sit on her chest and says, “He’s Parrish. And that creepy guy in the corner who probably has a weird sex dungeon in is house is Deaton.”

 

Plaid laughs out loud. The second boy says, “I’m Scott,” and waves. He actually waves at her. It’s truly bizarre. “That’s Stiles.”

 

Stiles does not wave, June notes. The redhead steps up and clears her throat. “Lydia,” she says with a little click from the back of her throat.

 

All of June’s focus zeros in on Lydia. She leans forward in the chair and gets a good look at her: her hair is long, past her shoulder blades and pinned back from her face; she dresses smart in a short patterned dress; her heels are tall and put her at an equal level with Scott.

 

Also, she has the distinct scent of fairy magic. It’s not overt, like the fairy who had been chasing June had stunk, but it’s there and all June knows is that it’s going to call out like a beacon to whatever June doesn’t want to find her.

 

“What are you?” She asks, point blank.

 

“Annoyed,” Lydia says, “and a little bored, to be honest.”

June stands up and towers over Lydia. She cocks her head at the girl and then looks at Parrish. Her eyes dart between the two for a moment. If he’s a hellhound, and she reeks of fairy magic - “Fuck this,” June swears, “I’m not staying here with a banshee when I don’t know where the fairy fucker chasing me is. You’re going to draw him right to me.”

 

June walks to the edge of the circle she hadn’t realized she was in the middle of. She squints at it; it’s some sort of black powder that forms a perfect circle around the chair she sat in. It’s some sort of warding, then. She reaches out with her hands and the air ripples all the way around. It wants to keep her in.

 

“It’s mountain ash,” Scott offers. “You’re not going to be able to get out.”

 

Stiles’ mouth goes thin at the edges. “Historically, that’s not super true, bro. I mean, you can get out of it.”

 

“Yeah, but she’s not a True Alpha, Stiles,” Scott widens his eyes a bit and cocks an eyebrow.

 

Oh, well, that’s practically Werewolf Jesus, June thinks, rolling her eyes yet again. “A witch wakes up in a vet clinic,” she says, pacing the perimeter of the circle, “and there’s a hellhound, a banshee, a werewolf, and whatever the hell you are.”

 

She waves a hand at Stiles.

 

“A human,” he says. “Definitely a human.”

 

“We’ll see,” June replies. “Your witch isn’t very good at what he does.”

 

She traces a sigil in the air in front of the mountain ash ward. Deaton takes half a step forward just as June reaches up and then breaks the ward by shoving her elbow against it, like she’s trying to break into a house. The barrier shatters. The line of mountain ash lays disrupted at her feet. She looks down at it and then up at the group.

 

“Historically,” June says, mirroring Stiles’ earlier phrasing, “I don’t do well with cages.”

 

The entire group stands now, looking like they’re gearing for a fight. June, though -- June is tired and doesn’t particularly want to fight against what looks like high schoolers. She throws her hands up in the air.

 

“Look,” she growls, “I don’t want to fight you. I just want to go home.”

 

Scott, the most relaxed looking of the group, asks, “Where is home? Maybe we can help you get there?”

 

The others start to relax as soon as he speaks.

 

“I don’t even know where I am,” she says plainly.

 

“That’s easy,” Stiles says. There’s a nervous jitter to him, like his body wants to be moving more than it is. “We’re in Beacon Hills, California.”

 

California? She wonders if this is like Virginia. “The state?”

 

She hates how uncertain her voice sounds. She hates that she’s ended up in the same situation as Cabeswater. Now that she’s looking for it, June can feel the steady thrum of a ley line underneath her feet.

 

“Yeah, the state,” Stiles says, scrutinizing her. “Where else could you be?”

 

“Another world,” June states. “I should be in an entirely different world. Not this one!”

 

She pulls at her hair in frustration and starts pacing again, her entire plan of escaping forgotten.

 

“Are you saying there are multiple worlds out there?” Lydia asks.

 

“Uh, yes? And I, once again, am in the wrong one. This is what I get!” She shrills, voice taking on a frantic tone. “This is what I get for going into fucking Fairy Land for a stupid job. Never again! I don’t care how nice the paycheck is. All I want is to be back in Hexham, in Hawthorne, in fucking Calyptura! Not here!”

 

Stiles smirks a little, and asks, “What’s the big deal with fairies?”

 

Clearly, aside from their fairy-touched banshee, they’ve never had to deal with the enormous annoyance that are fairies as a whole. That’s lucky.

 

June switches tack in her pacing and shoulders into his space. “They want to strip the magic from my body and decorate their Court with my bones,” she hisses into his ear.

 

She pulls out of his space before he can push her away. She’s all manic energy now. She wracks her brain, trying to think of a way to get out of the world she’s in. There’s not going to be a Bart to get her this time; he doesn’t even know anything’s wrong because she took this stupid job.

 

“This is the last time I step through doors when I don’t know where they lead,” she snarls. It’s a blatant lie, but they don’t know that. She’s always going to step through doors.

 

Stiles goes white. Scott puts a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Touchy subject?” June simpers. “Where’s your greatest source of magic? If I’m going to get home, that’s going to be my best bet.”

 

The three teenagers share an uneasy look.

 

Well, that totally bodes well for June. “Well,” she says, “giddy-up.”

 

 

 

Yet another person meets them at the huge old stump in the middle of the forest. Stiles makes a beeline for him, mutters the name Derek under his breath, and Derek wraps a big hand around the back of his neck. Stiles resolutely does not look at the big, dead stump.

 

The thing about dead stumps is, however, that they’re usually not actually dead. Trees are community creatures and tend to pick up the slack for others when they can’t use their leaves to soak up the sun. June would bet a lot of money that the root system underneath Beacon Hills is massive. She would bet that all the trees are feeding into this one stump. It’s the only way to explain how alive it feels.

 

What’s also interesting is the ley lines that converge all on this one point. They’re deafening, honestly. June wonders how anyone ever gets anything done around here.

 

Scott keeps shooting concerned looks at Stiles; it’s the first time June’s seen him look anything close to nervous. “This is, uh, this is the Nemeton,” he tells June. “It’s one of the spots where the Telluric currents converge.”

 

“The ley lines?” June stalks the perimeter of the stump.

 

June can hear the eye roll in Lydia’s voice when she says, “Yes, the ley lines.”

 

June kind of likes her, even if she thinks the banshee could bring the fairy bastard after her here.

 

There’s something sickly about the magic here. June waves her hands near the stump, testing what magic emanates off of it, and it tries to cling to her, gunky black and angry. She shakes her hands like that could help her get it off of her.

 

June takes a few stumbling steps backward, unused to the terrain.

 

“There’s something wrong here,” June says.

 

“Yeah, no kidding,” Stiles says thickly.

 

He doesn’t quite have his back to the Nemeton, but he still doesn’t try and face it. There’s shared history there and June wonders if it has something to do with what’s imprisoned, screaming, beneath the Nemeton. She says as much out loud.

 

Derek’s eyes flash. “How do you know that?”

 

June grins humorlessly. “It’s really loud,” she says. “I’d say I’m surprised you can’t hear it, but it’s more of a magic thing.”

 

She holds her hand up and pulses it, mirroring the noise the thing’s making. She turns to Stiles. “It really doesn’t like you.”

 

Stiles flinches. “Well, the feeling’s mutual.”

 

“I can’t use this,” June says firmly. “I don’t know what’s going on with it, but I don’t want it getting tangled in my magic. I’m not sure if you guys get this, but I’m really strong.”

 

“Wouldn’t you have to be to cross universes?” Lydia asks. “It’s not like we get a huge amount of people from other worlds. You also said that the fairy after you wanted to strip you of your magic. You, specifically.”

 

June nods. “Ding ding ding. Most everyone back home has magic,” she says, “but not everyone has the fairy bastards trying to take it from them.”

 

“What’s so special about you?” Lydia asks, blunt as ever.

 

“That’s the million dollar question,” June says honestly. Her smile lifts the corner of her mouth. “Why me? If you can figure it, I’d love to know the answer.”

 

Lydia smiles at her superficially. “I’m more interested in proving multiple universes exist.”

 

June shrugs. “Whatever suits you.”

 

She turns to Stiles. “If whatever’s down there messed you up so badly, you who is ‘definitely a human,’” she says gently, “I’d rather not use it.”

 

“That’s the first smart thing you’ve said,” he says. “Now, can we get out of here? This place gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

 

“I’m not going back to that vet’s office. He’s on your side, right? Like, he’s not going to kidnap one of you and do weird things to you? You can tell, like, an adult.”

 

Stiles muffles a laugh into Derek’s shoulder. “Maybe you should meet my dad.”

 

 

 

Lydia begs off going back to Stiles’ house, which June is grateful for. As much as she likes what she’s seen of the girl, June doesn’t want the fairy to use Lydia to track her. Before she goes, June spirits a necklace out of thin air. “I’m not sure what will happen to this once I leave, but here.”

 

Lydia takes the necklace from her. It’s a simple silver chain dotted with various sized quartz on one side. She moves it from side to side in the glow of the headlights and it sparkles. She raises an eyebrow.

 

June nods at the stones. “The stones are from Allium. Dug ‘em out of the ground myself.”

 

If the stones help Lydia prove the existence of other worlds, great. Lydia murmurs her thanks and fastens the necklace around her neck. She smiles genuinely for the first time all night. “If you ever accidentally find yourself in Beacon Hills again, we’ll chat.”

 

June laughs. “If you ever find yourself in Hexham,” she says slyly, “look me up. June Larue.”

 

“Deal,” Lydia smirks.

 

June piles herself into the back of the blue jeep next to Scott. He’s really smiley. It’s kind of freaking June out. “There’s a werewolf back home,” she says, “you would get along really well with. He teaches kindergarten. Maybe you should explore that career in the future.”

 

Scott laughs at her, but not meanly.

 

Derek takes the driver’s seat, even though June is pretty sure that this is Stiles’ vehicle. Stiles shakes minutely in the passenger’s seat. Their drive away from the Nemeton is much calmer than their drive to it.

 

Stiles turns around in his seat to look at her. “Has anything really bad ever happened to you?”

 

June laughs. “Yeah, uh, you could say that.”

 

Stiles bites at his lip and his hands flutter around him. “That thing - what’s buried under the Nemeton, it’s a nogitsune.”

 

That’s not something that June is familiar with. It must show on her face, because he says, “It’s a trickster fox demon. It, um, it possessed me for a while there. It was pretty bad.”

 

June winces. Possession, now she’s familiar with that. She gets the feeling that ‘pretty bad’ is a gross understatement.

 

“That’s kind of what I do back home,” she starts. “Pull things out of people. It can get… messy.”

 

Stiles nods. “Yeah, it can.”

 

June watches carefully as Derek sneaks a look over at Stiles.

 

“My doppelganger tried to disembowel me,” she offers him. She gestures at her stomach. “That was pretty bad too.”

 

Stiles stares at her. June gets the feeling that he’s usually not this quiet. She thinks maybe there’s no harm in telling these people - people she will never see again if she’s lucky - more. She gets the feeling that they have seen their own share of tragedy.

 

“When I first got my magic,” June says, “I was really young and I couldn’t control it. My familial line of magic has always been finding things, you know? You’re missing important papers, they can find it. You’re missing a person, they’ll know where to look. That sort of thing. My magic is not that. So I was little and I couldn’t control my magic and I invited something nasty into my house on accident. Imagine being young and dumb and realizing that you let the boogie man walk right in the front door to your house.”

 

Derek sucks in a breath and his hand tightens on the steering wheel. Looks like maybe that isn’t something he has to imagine. June almost regrets bringing it up.

 

Stiles nods, silently asking her to go on.

 

“I got rid of it eventually, but it left… scars. It left things I’m still dealing with.”

 

“How do you deal with it?”

 

June huffs a laugh, but hears the question underneath it: How do I deal with the thing that ruined me? “I’m not great at it,” she says honestly. “I drink too much and I don’t know if you can tell this, but I’m not that nice of a person. But I-”

 

She thinks of what she wants to say here to this kid who is asking her seriously how to deal with this terrible thing that has happened to him. “I try to do good things. Eventually, all the good things start to outnumber the bad ones. The good things attract other good things and suddenly you have good people around you. The good people,” she pauses and looks at Scott. “The good people make it easier to deal with.”

 

Scott’s eyes flash red and he nods. Stiles settles back into his seat as they pull into the driveway of a modest looking house. There’s a cop car in the driveway.

“Please say the black dog isn’t here too,” June huffs. “Parrish or whatever.”

 

Stiles laughs. “Nah, just my old man.”

 

“Your dad’s a cop?” June snickers. “That sucks.”

 

Stiles shrugs. “It’s pretty okay, actually.”

 

They all tumble out of the jeep and follow Stiles into the house. “Dad? Hey, I brought some people over.”

 

Stiles’ dad pokes his head out of the kitchen, “Hey, Scott. Derek. Who’s this?”

 

“This is June,” Stiles says.

 

June sidles closer and sticks out her hand, “Hello, officer.”

 

He laughs and shakes her hand good-naturedly.

 

“Gross, don’t flirt with my dad.” Stiles groans.

 

“Look, I can’t help it if your dad’s attractive,” June snickers. “If the officers in my town looked like this, maybe I’d be more willing to let them catch me.”

 

His dad frowns.

 

“Don’t worry,” June purrs. “I’m already accounted for. I even kind of have a kid? Apprentice, technically, but I’m not looking to add any more to the collection right now.”

 

“She’s magic and she’s from a different universe,” Scott adds in helpfully. “She broke through a mountain ash barrier! It was pretty badass.”

 

June preens. She peers over Derek’s shoulder into the rest of the house. There’s a long hallway and June thinks it may be calling her.

 

“Would you look at that?” She says, catching the others’ attention. “I think my ride’s here.”

 

“Already?” Stiles asks. “I wanted to grill you for information.”

“You’re spunky,” June says. “I like it. Here’s the important stuff: you’ve got a lot of good things around you.”

 

She gestures at his dad, Scott, and Derek.

 

“If Lydia ever figures out how to work the necklace, you should come with her. I live above the bookstore in Hexham proper. Beware of fairies. Aside from a few I can count on one hand, they’re the worst. You’ve got a little something in there,” she gestures at his chest. “A spark, if you will. It’s still there, even after everything you went through.”

 

June pushes past the group and stands at the mouth of the hall. The hallway thrums with potential. “My cat’s a dragon,” she imparts as her last gift, grinning. She steps through the threshold and blinks back into existence where she’s meant to be.

Comments

[madsabouthugh]

OKAY #1: I fucking love this, even if I'm not too familiar with CMRN canon and I'm p sure I haven't gotten that far in TW either, BUT:

* I need June & Lydia to be BFF's forever, okay?
* “Gross, don’t flirt with my dad.” Stiles groans. & “She’s magic and she’s from a different universe,” Scott adds in helpfully. “She broke through a mountain ash barrier! It was pretty badass.” -- I was rolling on the fucking floor lmao.

This was delightful! Can't wait to see more June Elsewhere, if there's any more planned. <3

[spacegrandma]

Here, have this thing that I started and never finished:

Surprisingly, Griffin finds them first. It’s not like June gave them really awesome directions or anything - oh wait, she totally did. Hexham is small enough that the directive, ‘“live above a bookstore in Hexham proper” should be direction enough.

Griffin and June are familiar enough to each other now that they’ve exchanged phone numbers - not that they usually call one another. Theirs is a friendship based on time and proximity, not to mention that he’s married to her best bro, Garrett.

“Hello,” June answers her phone “Didn’t imagine I’d be getting to hear your dulcet tones today.”

“I’ve found some people,” Griffin says instead of greeting her, “who say they are looking for you.”

“For me? Whatever for?” June purrs.

“I don’t think they are from around here.”

This piques her interest. “Oh? Do tell.”

“I’m just going to hand the phone over, I think.”

Oh, and does June know this voice or what.

“You could have made finding you a little easier, you know. We ended up in Allium because of your stupid rocks.

“Lydia,” June cackles. “That took you less time than I imagined.”

“I live to exceed expectations,” she says primly. “Five years, though - you clearly misplaced that bar.”