Stiles once told Derek that sarcasm was his best defense. He hadn’t been lying. Problem was, that sarcasm wasn’t a really good defense against people (hunters) willing to torture ‘human traitors’, aka Gerard Argent. All his life, Stiles had been told to ‘shut up’. To be quiet. That he was noisy and annoying. All his life. It was why Scott was his only friend. Even Scott, though, got fed up once in a while....
Stiles is a virgin. Everyone knows this. Everyone knows because he whines about it at any given opportunity. He thinks it’s especially unfair given that he has a smoking hot werewolf boyfriend. So far, though, Derek refuses to sleep with him. Stiles would think it was about his age, except they kill people/creatures on a semi-regular basis. Fucking his hot twenty-two-year-old boyfriend when he’s seventeen just doesn’t seem all that bad in comparison....
All Derek wants is this one small thing. (Wants it, but knows he can never have it.) Of course, the thing about Stiles… (There are so many ’things’ about Stiles.) The thing about Stiles is that he takes up so much space. 147lbs. Pale skin. Fragile bones. (Flailing arms. Loud voice always talking. His scent…) And Derek has so many empty spaces in his life. (Mother. Father. Brother. Sister.) He was hollowed out and cracked open by the fire....
Stiles stares at the letter. It’s the result of his application to be a summer intern at the FBI. His dad has always been his hero. He’d set his sights on the FBI because, well, why not? He could be a hero. Just like his dad. Especially after surviving high school. He feels crushed. Like the last bit of optimism he had about the future just snuffed out. Long nights finishing his homework....
When Stiles came awake he was pissed. He almost wished he had a moment of disorientation instead of being perfectly aware of where he was and what had happened. Some asshole vampire had turned him. He was not going to let her get away with it. He looked around and several pieces of wood would work quite nicely as an emergency stake. Christ, but he was thirsty. Because he needed to drink blood....
Not long after Scott got bitten, fell in love, became a lacrosse superstar, and gained popularity, Stiles called him the ‘hot girl’. It had been a joke. It isn’t funny anymore. See… Everyone likes to think of themselves as the protagonists of their own story. If your life is a book then you’re the main character, right? Right? Stiles thinks that this should be true. Even if your life is mundane and boring, you’re still the main character....
Chapter 1 “I need to get out of this town. I need a break,” Stiles said. He was weary. Tired to his fucking bones. He figured if anyone understood this, it would be Derek. Derek just grunted. They were just sort of crashed out on Derek’s couch after yet another cluster fuck. Just them. Everyone else had gone home to do their thing (with each other or alone). Stiles’ dad was working a night shift and he didn’t want to be alone....
1 His chest is heaving and he feels panic clawing at his control. Everything inside of him is screaming at him to keep running. Derek hasn’t seen Kate since the day before the fire. Well, in person at least. He’s seen her in his nightmares often enough. That scene back in the burnt-out shell of his house could’ve been taken straight out of his nightmares. He can’t help but shudder at the things she’d said…...
Stiles was holding Derek’s hand as the walked to the nemeton. In the years since high school life in Beacon Hills had calmed down a lot. Part of it was a sudden shift in the nemeton’s… disposition? Stiles wasn’t quite sure how to characterise it but something had changed. Stiles’ own magic had become more refined and controlled as he’d learned and with the tattoos he now sported all over his body....
Stiles didn’t think he’d ever actually reach the tender age of eighty. Had been pretty convinced, at times, that he wouldn’t live until he graduated high school. Here he was, though, in his death bed. And, wow, that sounded so dramatic. But… he was dying. And in a bed. So… Derek was sitting off to the side and wasn’t that a surprise. He’d thought he and Scott would be the bromance of the ages....