"You're sure you aren't mad at me?" Katherine asked hesitantly as she pulled her skirt down at the back before following Liam up to the club door. "Because I don't want you to—"

"—I'm not mad at you, Kat," Liam chuckled lightly, turning his body slightly to face her more. He was staring at her and smiling, nothing different than the way he usually looked at her, but Katherine noticed it now. Really noticed it. And it made her blush. Just a little bit. "If you want to go out with Brett you can, it's fine."

"But I wasn't going out with him like that," she protested immediately, not wanting him to get that idea in his head. "He was trying to help me figure some stuff out, and I needed an unbiased opinion to do that because Isaac wasn't as unbiased as I thought he would be." That was partially a lie, but she didn't want him to think she was going to Brett for advice now instead of him.

"Katherine," he laughed as he turned to face her. His palms landed flat on her shoulders and moulded immediately to the shape, and she did her best to pretend that there wasn't a swarm of butterflies losing it in her stomach. "It's okay, really."

"Are you sure sure?" She asked nervously. "Because you seemed kind of mad about it when I told you yesterday, and you were still cranky about it this morning and now you're acting like it's totally fine, so I'm just a little concerned about your mood swings."

"Kat, I pinky promise you it's fine, okay?" He grinned slightly. "I was talking to Mason at lunch and he made he realise how crappy of a best friend I was being to you, and that isn't fair. So like I said, it's fine."

"Okay," she mumbled quietly.

Somehow, they managed to get into Sinema without any issues surrounding the fact that they were both underage, and Katherine kept a tight on Liam's elbow. He'd promised that he just wanted to pay her back, then they'd be able to hang out at the club (he'd keep an eye on her if she felt like drinking) or they could go somewhere else and get food before dropping her back off at home.

It didn't take them long to find Hayden, since she was one of the few people in the room who didn't reek of alcohol. He stopped abruptly so they didn't run into her, but Katherine walked right into his back while trying to avoid being beaned on the head with a flying glowstick. Immediately he reached behind him and steadied her, knowing that even though she'd taken self defense classes with Isaac all summer she was still unbelievably clutzy. She was just able to twist before it went down the front of her shirt.

Katherine glared in the mans direction, rolling her eyes an scoffing when he just smirked at her. Disgusting, she thought to herself. You're literally thirty years old, dude, that's just under double my age, piss off.

"Forty three dollars," Liam stated, holding the money out to Hayden.

"And since the glowstick are $5 each, here's fifteen bucks for three so I can go and shove them all directly up that guys—"

"—Katherine," Liam interrupted her awkwardly, knowing just how capable she was of doing exactly what she wanted to do in that moment.

"I said I don't want your money," Hayden snapped irritably, clearly not having a good night and not wanting to deal with the conversation any longer.

Liam grabbed Katherines wrist and held on to it when she moved to go and punch the man, earning himself a huff, but he didn't take his eyes off Hayden. "You said I owe you 200," he countered.

"Liam," Hayden breathed out, her tone giving way of just how much patience she was using to refrain from smacking him. "Just forget it, please."

The power flickered of and Hayden groaned in frustration. Then she closed her eyes and pulled her composure together before opening them again. "Perfect." Without another word to either of them, she stalked off beyond the curtain of string beads to bring the power back on.

"Hayden," Liam huffed. "Hayden! Come on..."

"I've got to be honest, Liam," Hayden all but snarled. "If you're trying to be a good guy, I really don't care."

"I'm just trying to make up for the sixth grade, okay?" Liam sighed, and Katherine gave his hand a light and comforting squeeze.

The power box Hayden was fiddling with clanged lightly as she twisted to face him. "Nothing will make up for the sixth grade." She flipped the breaker through brought up the lighting, but the lever for the buildings main power was stuck. "Come on," she huffed to herself, and Katherine silently raised a brow.

Liam pursed his lips and placed his right hand over hers and pushed the lever up with ease. Ignoring the horrible feeling that enveloped her for a moment at the sight, Katherine turned her head just slightly to avoid having to see them have their moment.

"You want to keep hating me, go for it," Liam spoke in a leveled tone as he removed his hand and returned it back to Katherines. "But you said I owe you 200, so here's 43 more." He dropped the cash in her hand and walked away without another word, Katherine close behind him.

They pushed their way to the back door and he tugged her in front of him, half a foot of distance between them. He raised his brows without saying a word, knowing she wouldn't be able to hear him. "I'm kind of craving some ice cream right now," she shrugged, and he just nodded.

Katherine leaned her back against the release lever and the door opened, sending a short burst of cool wind over her legs and arms but she adjusted to the temperature quickly, and they wandered down the road towards down town Beacon Hills, where Katherines' favourite local ice cream shop was.

They each ordered what they wanted after five minutes of decision making — Katherine a strawberry sundae with lots of sprinkles and gummy bears, and Liam a chocolate dipped vanilla cone with some sprinkles because she forced him to get them — then wandered out of the building and onto the sidewalk outside. She checked her phone for a call or text from Stiles, sighing quietly in relief when there wasn't one, then put it away and hooked her arm through Liams.

Most people were at home, afraid because of all the new and strange holes dug up in the lacrosse field at the school, so the atmosphere was quiet and relaxing.

"Hey Kat," Liam spoke up, breaking the silence for the first time in nearly ten minutes. "Are you ever afraid that someone is going to go after you, like, to get to Scott or...or me?"

She pursed her lips, her grip on the paper ice cream bowl briefly tightening before she shrugged her shoulders. "Sometimes, but then I remember that I can annoy them into giving me back so I try not to think about it much," she answered jokingly, though she knew he was being serious. "But it has crossed my mind once or twice, yeah. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know, sometimes I just get lost in my head and my train of thought takes a pretty dark turn. But please don't worry about that," he mumbled. Liam pulled her arm from his and forced her to look him dead in the eye. "Because...okay. I need you to know that no matter happens, I'm with you, okay?"

"What do you mean?" Katherine frowned, dropping her spoon into the half empty bowl of ice cream.

"I mean that—" he cut himself off and raked a hand through his hair. "I just feel like I have to say this, okay? I mean, that even if you start dating someone, or I do, you're always going to be one if the most important people in my life, because in the last eight months you turned out to be so much more then a best friend for me, you have your own category that I haven't named yet and...and I'm always going to believe you, and I'm always going to be there for you, okay?" He spoke without blinking, slightly leaned towards her with one of her hands in his. There was so much sincerity in his eyes she there was no way she could possibly doubt that he meant every word he said.

"Okay," she whispered back, flushed with the intensity of the moment. She was praying to whatever god was out there that he couldn't hear her heartbeat, though she knew the likelihood of that being true was unbelievably slim. "Um, thank you."

"You're welcome."

They stood in an awkward silence for a moment, before Liam let out an awkward laugh and she joined him. "Dude, what brought that on?"

"I honestly have no idea," he chuckled, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly still. "It's just a bunch of stuff that I've been thinking about, with everything going on and everything that's happened around here all the time. I just felt like I had to say it. But it's true, you know? If someone went after you, I'd probably kill them. It scares me a bit, but you're my...you're Katherine and, like, girlfriends and stuff, most of the time they're just temporary and they come and go because that's how life is and stuff, but if I lost you or Mason? I'm pretty sure i'd lose it."

"Nah," Katherine murmured, looping her arm back through his. "Scott wouldn't let you go all Peter Hale for either of us."

"Still," Liam huffed somewhat dramatically. "The idea of it..."

"Well don't worry about it," she grinned. "We've got ice cream, and things haven't gone to shit yet so enjoy it because got only knows how long it'll be before we have a town curfew again."

"Again?"

Katherine looked up at him blankly. "You know I said go all Peter Hale for a reason, right? He went batshit crazy and killed a bunch of people when I was in eighth grade...tried to kill me too, now that I think about it...asshole."

"And he's...Derek's uncle?" Liam asked with a small frown, still confused about everything that had happened and how it was all connected.

"Yeah."

"Oh, that actually kind of makes sense."

"Liam."

A/N: so I'd like everyone to take a moment out of their day to google Cody Saintgnue in Criminal Minds because wtf is this man's haircut

Also sorry I didn't realize it's been a month since I updated, I was in a mood again and lost track of time 😕