Chapter Text
When Stiles wakes up, he doesn’t scream. He’s crying, he remembers what he was dreaming about, but he feels like he’s happy. He feels relieved and rested. He’s never felt this good in years. It’s weird, he knows it’s weird. But this is Stiles’ life now. Weird feelings and supernatural beings.
He opens his eyes and sees that he’s in Derek’s room. He sees the dark grey sheets, the old, oak desk under the wide window, the pile of books stacked near the bed, the pair of jeans thrown in front of the dresser, the three empty cups of coffee on the windowsill, the Beatles – Here comes the sun poster.
Stiles smiles and gets out of bed, realizing he isn’t wearing any clothes except for his boxers. He shuffles around Derek’s dresser and manages to find a pair of shorts that don’t fall completely off his hips and a t-shirt.
He goes downstairs, and the whole pack is in the living room, even Deaton. They all stare, but nobody says anything. Cora jumps off the couch and hurries towards him, but she stops 3 feet from him, with her hands in front of her, like she wants to hug him, but she’s scared. Stiles smiles and takes the last steps towards her, bringing her close to his chest. Her hands wrap around his waist and she grips on the back of his t-shirt.
Stiles laughs, but doesn’t let go. ‘You know, all my life I hated the fact that I remembered all my dreams when I woke up.’
‘You had another dream?’, Scott asks.
Stiles nods and lets go of Cora, but he takes her hand and guides her to the couch, sitting next to Derek. He looks at Deaton and winks.
‘Figured it out yet, doc?’
Deaton blinks. ‘No. Have you?’
‘Oh yeah. It’s a wild one.’
Jackson leans forward from his spot on a chair in front of Stiles. ‘Are you ok?’, he sounds pissed.
‘Yeah, how long was I out?’
‘Two hours. You were out for two hours after you controlled lighting and rain and wolfsbane and fire and killed three powerful alpha werewolves.’, Jackson ends up shouting. ‘How did you do that? Why did you do that? Can you do it again?’
Stiles chuckles. He looks at Laura. ‘I should apologize.’
‘No, you shouldn’t.’, she shakes her head.
‘I should, I really should. But I’m not going to. I’m not sorry for disrespecting your authority in the pack and I am not sorry for what I did. I could have handled it better, yes, but I can’t be sorry for the blood on my hands. Because if I wouldn’t have done it, it would have been your blood. All our blood on their claws.’
Laura’s eyes flash red, but it’s not in anger. ‘Stiles, by now, I’m pretty sure we owe you our lives. However, you better fucking start talking, because if I don’t get some answers soon, I’m going to go and kill me a Bambi.’
‘Don’t kill Bambi!’, Scott waves his hands around.
Stiles laughs and takes a deep breath. ‘Ok. I’ll start with last night.’
‘What happened last night?’, Cora asks, taking hold of his hand.
Stiles talked slowly and evenly, but he couldn’t look at them. He bowed his head and looked at his fingers, intertwined with Cora’s.
‘It was a dream, but it was different than before. It’s wasn’t… concrete, detailed. I just saw them, the Alphas. I saw them in front of the house, but that’s it. I didn’t see why they were here, or what was about to happen. I just knew they were going to be here. And I knew ...’, he takes a big breath. ‘I felt that it wasn’t going to end well. I felt scared, but I also felt powerful. I didn’t understand it. I woke up screaming, but when I… when Derek stopped me, I… that power came back again. I knew I had to do something, I knew I could do something. But I didn’t know what.’
‘That’s not a bad omen’, Deaton frowns.
Several people ask for explanations.
‘Stiles called me asking if good and bad omens are real. This… this wasn’t an omen. It was a premonition’, Deaton says it like he’s just figuring it out now.
‘Yeah’, Stiles nods. ‘Let’s go with premonition, why not?’
‘That doesn’t explain your powers’, Lydia frowns.
Stiles looks at her, surprised. ‘Huh’, he says. ‘Powers. I never thought about that.’
‘Stilinski’, Jackson rolls his eyes. ‘You controlled lightning! You have powers coming out your ass. What is up with you, did your brain stop working?’
Stiles narrowed his eyes. ‘I’m trying to explain how I have magic, could you stop being an ass for like 5 minutes?’
Jackson’s jaw drops. ‘Magic?’
Stiles shrugs. ‘It appears so.’
‘It’s clearly magic.’, Deaton nods and everybody turns towards him. ‘What I’m curios to find out is what sort of magic.’
Stiles bites his lip. ‘I’m not 100% sure, only about 80%, but judging by… what I felt, it is something connected to… uhm…’
‘Elements?’, Deaton narrows his eyes.
‘Yeah, I guess that’s the easiest way to explain it.’
‘Easiest?’, Scott asks. ‘How is that the easiest? It makes no sense.’
Stiles smiles at his best friend. ‘Think about it. What I did… rain, and lighting. Wolfsbane and fire.’
‘Air, Earth, Fire and Water.’, Derek says in a voice Stiles recognizes as his thinking out loud voice. ‘The four elements.’
Deaton nods. ‘Classical elements. Philosophers believe that they are the simplest essential parts of which anything consists of. They say the fundamental powers of everything are based on them.’
‘What about the fifth element?’, Lydia asks, absently.
‘That’s a movie.’, Derek frowns.
‘A bad one’, Jackson mumbles.
‘A good movie.’, Derek correct.
‘Lydia is right’, Deaton smiles. ‘Later on, aether is defined as the fifth element, the essence of all. The first four are corruptible, whereas aether is incapable of change.’
‘I don’t follow. How does any of this explain to us that Stiles is magic?’, Lydia frowns.
‘It’s easy to say that druids work with the elements, controlling them for their purpose. Yeah, at the base of it all stand the oak and the mistletoe for them, but as the times changed, the druids adapted themselves. Right?’, Stiles turns towards Deaton.
‘That is fairly accurate, yes.’
‘So you’re a druid.’, Laura says, slowly.
‘Yup.’, Stiles blinks. ‘Ish.’
Everybody is silent for a few beats.
‘Can you be an emissary?’, Derek asks.
Stiles can’t help but smile. ‘If needed.’
Deaton leans in his seat and frowns. ‘Stiles, I’m sorry to tell you this, but I don’t-‘
‘You don’t believe me, I know.’
‘It’s not that I don’t believe you. I just don’t see how… we’re different, Stiles. Our… powers are different.’
‘I know’, Stiles smiles.
‘Why do you think you’re a druid, then?’, Laura asks, frustrated.
‘Not a druid, exactly.’
Laura throws her hands in the air, as Jackson throws a pillow at his head. Stiles laughs.
‘Stiles, you’ve lost me.’, Deaton frowns.
‘Sorry.’, he laughs. ‘I’m still getting my head around this and it’s a bit confusing.’
‘Stop babbling and start talking.’, Allison says, exasperated.
Stiles nods and takes a deep breath. ‘I have magic by controlling the elements, that much is clear. That still doesn’t explain the dreams, the premonitions, or the bond I have with this pack or why every supernatural creature in a 20 miles radius acknowledges my existence.’
He sits up straighter and squeezes Cora’s hand. ‘I was out for two hours and I had another dream. It was different, though. It started with...’, he frowns. ‘Nothing happened. There was no… plot. I just… It made me understand what I am.’
He chuckles. ‘The word witch kept popping up, and that sounds ridiculous, because I’m an English teacher, born and raised in California, for fucks sake. But, putting that aside… In European folklore it is believed that some witches called certain… supernatural entities to assist them in practice.’
Deaton’s eyes widen in understanding. ‘Familiars?’, he whispers.
‘Familiars’, Stiles nods.
‘What’s a familiar?’, Isaac asks.
‘Mom used to tell us stories about familiars.’, Laura frowns. ‘When we were little.’
‘They were fairytales.’ Derek shakes his head. ‘Even for us.’
‘You were our fairytales, Allison smiles. ‘It’s only fair your bed time stories become real too.’
‘What’s a familiar?’, Isaac asks again.
‘The lore pictured them as being evil spirits, appearance varying in different sources.’, Stiles explains. ‘Witches used them to get more power, when in need. Of course, it’s folklore, so it’s not precise. Some of it describes familiars as evil things, some as good spirits. Their form varies from source to source, either being an animal, a human, a ghost, a demon, just a ray of colors, a doppelgänger.’
‘Alter ego, personal totem, companion spirit.’, Deaton said, and Stiles could see he was struggling to remember details.
‘Yes’, Stiles smiles. ‘Companion spirit.’
‘So, a witch has only one familiar?’, Lydia asks.
‘At a certain point, yes. But the witch can have more than one familiar in his lifetime.’, Stiles nods.
‘And how do you figure out who your familiar is?’, Laura frowns.
‘You don’t figure it out. There seems to be different ways of meeting your familiar, or so the lore says. There’s three possibilities: the spirit spontaneously appears in front of the witch, someone gifts it to you or…’, Stiles smiles. ‘Or the witch was having trouble before the appearance of the familiar, who offers to help him.’
‘That is your case?’, Deaton asks.
‘It seems like it.’
Everybody is silent for a few moments, and it’s Danny who breaks the silence, with a smile on his face.
‘Is Derek your familiar?’
Stiles frowns.
‘Why would you ask that?’, Derek shakes his head.
Danny’s smile falls. ‘I… Uhm. Teen Wolf?’, he frowns.
But before Derek has a chance to answer, Stiles smiles.
‘No, it’s not Derek. Cora’s my familiar.’, he smiles.
‘I am?’, she whispers.
‘You are, sweetie. You said it yourself, you felt something for me the moment you saw me. You couldn’t explain it. And me… I loved you since the second you walked into my classroom. Hell, I loved you even before that.’
‘What about us?’, Derek asks in a small voice, after a beat. His brows are furrowed and Stiles can see he is sad.
Stiles smiles at him. ‘My connection with Cora is strong. And so is yours, being pack at all. I think it extended, at some level, to you too.’
‘But’, Laura frowns. ‘We felt it even before Cora met you, we felt it in New York.’
‘Yeah. I dreamt Teen Wolf when I was 18. Cora was 8 at the time. Your parents died then.’
‘But, Stiles’, Deaton argues. ‘A familiar is there to help the witch. Not the other way around. You’re saying that this happened because of Cora’s distress? That’s not right.’
‘Yeah, no. You’re right, the familiar goes to the witch’s help. And I needed help then. I was terrified.’, Stiles laughs.
‘You were?’, Scott asks, in a sad voice.
Stiles smiles at his best friend. ‘Yeah, dude, I was completely terrified. I was scared of leaving home, leaving you, all of you. My dad. I… I was going to go to college and step completely out of my comfort zone, knowing that I am addicted to you and that you guys were the only thing that made me function properly for years.’
‘So, yeah, Deaton, to answer your question. Cora came to me, not the other way around. In theory. Truth is, we both needed each other, but yeah, she was the one who started helping me. Kinda. Because of her, I dreamt what I did. And yeah, it took me a while to write Teen Wolf, and that helped me a lot, those years I wasn’t home. It also took her a while to move to Beacon Hills and cope with… everything. It took us a while. But… it happened, we found our way to each other.’
Cora wraps his arms around his waist and puts her face on his shoulder. She’s smiling. And so is everyone else, but Stiles doesn’t see them.
‘That’s why you needed my help? With the alphas? That’s why I was screaming?’, she looks up at him.
‘Yeah. I couldn’t have done that without you, without the power you gave me.’
‘But why?’, Laura shakes her head. ‘Why is Cora your familiar? You kept saying they’re spirits. She’s not a spirit.’
‘No, she’s a werewolf. A shapeshifter. Half human, half wolf. As I said, witches adapted.’
‘So you’re a witch.’, Scott says slowly, looking into Stiles’ eyes.
‘A bit, yeah.’
‘You have magic.’, Isaac adds.
‘I can access it, yeah.’
‘Cora increases your powers.’, Lydia nods.
‘Obviously.’
‘And because she’s your familiar, you bonded with my pack too.’, Laura nods.
‘It seems so.’
‘And it extended to the rest of your friends because….?’, she narrows his eyes.
‘Because’, Deaton says, pointedly. ‘They’ve been connected for ten years and you can’t have one without the others.’
They all stare.
‘Don’t look at me like that, you know it’s true. Stiles, you’ve said it yourselves. You’re all addicted to each other, even though you’re an impossible match. You already had a profound bond, even before adding werewolves, magic and familiars to the equation.’
‘And that’s not about to change’, Stiles smiles. ‘I’ve seen something else, too. It was short, and I won’t say too much about it, because I’m not sure I should be giving out spoilers, but we’re still going to come here, watch tv and get drunk.’
‘What about me?’, Peter asks, surprising everyone.
‘What about you?’, Stiles raises an eyebrow. He shrugs. ‘You’re pack, I feel you the same way I feel Laura and Derek and Cora. You said that you felt it too, towards me and everyone else.’
‘No, I mean… I’m here because of you, aren’t I? I wouldn’t have found them if it weren’t for you.’
Stiles smiles. ‘It’s not exactly like that. I think you made your way here because my relationship with Cora developed and that …’ he bites his lip. ‘That releases a sort of power into the world? Ugh, that sounds like some serious hippy shit, but it’s true. I’m connected to Cora and I’m connected to the elements. Witches having familiars isn’t something you come across very often. Not anymore. And us… happening. It’s a powerful thing. It drew all those creatures close, close to me. Banshees, vampires, unicorns, fairies. It also drew you closer. The pull was stronger than with the others, and it happened faster because you’re family.’
‘Should I thank you?’, Peter frowns after a few seconds.
Stiles narrows his eyes. ‘We both know the day you thank me will be the day Hell freezes over.’
They glare at each other for a few seconds, then they burst out laughing.
Erica, who has been uncharacteristically silent throughout the discussion, gets off her chair and moves towards Stiles, lifting him off the couch and giving him a bone crushing hug.
‘Yer a wizard, Harry’, she deadpans.
Derek groans. Everybody starts laughing.
⃝
Everybody stayed at the Hale house late that night. But when they were all gone, Cora didn’t let Stiles leave. He didn’t mind. So he went to bed in her room, cuddling with Laura and Derek too. He felt warm and loved, so he giggled and whispered ‘puppy pile’. The girls laughed, while Derek glared. Stiles fell asleep feeling safe.
He didn’t dream anything.
When Stiles wakes up, he’s on his stomach, on the side of the bed that’s near the wall. There’s also something heavy on top is him. It takes him a while, but he realizes Derek is sprawled on top of his back. He’s snoring lightly, and his stubble is tickling the back of Stiles’ neck.
Stiles slowly turns his head around, and sees that Laura is awake on the other side of the bed, and is watching him with an amused expression. Cora’s also awake, but she isn’t in bed anymore, she’s sitting on the floor next to it, straightening her hair. When she catches Stiles’ eye, she winks.
‘Derek’, Stiles whispers.
No response.
‘Derek’, he says louder.
No response.
‘Derek, Derek, Derek, Derek.’
The werewolf grunts, but doesn’t get off. He does move his head until his nose is buried in Stiles’ neck.
‘Derek, get off.’
No response.
‘Derek, Derek, Derek, come on, get off, Derek, Derek, Derek, babe, get off, Dereeeeeeeek.’
Laura falls off the bed with a loud thump.
Derek mumbles and groans, but he does get off Stiles and takes Laura’s place on the bed.
‘Why are you on the floor?’, he asks, but his eyes are still closed.
‘He called you babe!’, Laura says a bit louder than normal, eyes wide.
She looks at Stiles. ‘You called him babe!’
‘No I didn’t.’, he frowns.
‘Yes you did!’, Laura waves her hands around.
‘You totally did’, Cora adds.
‘Uhm…’, Stiles feels himself blush.
‘S’okay’, Derek slurs. He yawns and rubs at his eyes. ‘You’ve been doing it for months.’
‘Have not!’, Stiles puffs.
‘Yeah you have.’ Derek gets off the bed and goes towards the door. ‘You just don’t realize you’re doing it.’
Stiles watches him leave the room with a frown on his face. When his brain starts working again, he turns towards the girls. Cora’s still straightening her hair, but she’s looking at him with a smirk on her face. Laura, on the other hand, who is still on the floor, is staring at him with wide eyes and her jaw dropped.
Stiles groans and buries his head under a pillow.
⃝
Oddly enough, things go back to normal after that. Well, as normal as it can be in a werewolf pack.
They all get together at the Hale house, watch movies, eat, drink and have fun. People are still dating and close friends are still hanging out on their own. They all went back to work, except Stiles, who still has a few weeks of summer left. Random supernatural being still announce their presence, one way or another, but they aren’t threatening the pack anymore.
And Stiles’ life has changed. Drastically. Yes, he still has dinner with his father once a week. Yes, he still goes running with Derek in the morning, or trains with him when he has the time. Yes, he still spends his free time reading and sleeping, until school starts. Yes, he’s still in love with Derek. Yes, he’s still struggling with the curriculum for the next year.
But his connection with Cora has never felt this strong. Not only do they feel what the other feels if they concentrate, but they can anticipate what the other is thinking. It’s just small things, like Stiles knowing Cora is going to get thirsty, or Cora knowing what movie Stiles wants to watch. It feels incredibly weird to Stiles, but he considers it the best thing that ever happened is his life.
Derek doesn’t sleep over every night. In fact, they hardly ever sleep in the same house anymore. Stiles pretends it doesn’t matter, that he doesn’t miss Derek’s sleepy cuddles or morning face. Stiles pretends it doesn’t hurt.
Deaton becomes Stiles’ mentor. He’s only staying in town till the start of school, so they meet as often as possible. He doesn’t exactly teach Stiles how to use his powers. They never practice anything. Deaton gives him books that explain what he has to do, what he should be thinking and concentrating on. He explains things like meditation, outer body experiences and a whole lot of other stuff. Stiles jokes and calls them ‘hippy shit’, but the truth is, they help. He doesn’t seem to need anything to do magic. No spells, no herbs, no runes. Stiles just needs the elements, his imagination and the belief that he can do it. But he can’t control the dreams, the premonition. He tried to make himself dream, but with no success. He still has dreams sometimes, but nothing big. Small glimpses, him and Scott shopping for a baby crib, Cora’s graduation, Lydia’s 30th birthday. Nothing major, but he makes sure not to tell the pack about them, just to be safe.
Stiles is strong with his magic, he realizes that. It should scare him, but it doesn’t. He’s confident in his powers, but not enough to get cocky. He studies and trains by himself, and he gets better. The pack’s proximity helps. Not even just the wolves, Stiles will be more powerful around the human members, too. But when Cora is around, he feels it spike up. And so does she. Cora learned how to control herself, she doesn’t scream anymore when Stiles uses the power she gives him. Also, they don’t need to touch anymore.
Stiles’ magic is strong, but Stiles is powerful when Cora’s there. They’re quite the force together. The first time he showed the pack what he can do, he managed to fight off Laura, Derek and Peter easily, to everyone’s surprise. Deaton looked proud, and Stiles couldn’t help but feel proud too.
He doesn’t feel useless anymore. He’s not scared. He knows that whatever is thrown at him, he can strike back. Stiles is happy knowing he can take care of himself, and that he can take care of his pack. Laura seemed to understand him perfectly, considering how she would randomly say ‘thank you’ to him. Stiles just shakes his head and hugs her.
⃝
‘Stiles, are you happy?’, Laura asks one day. It’s just the two of them, sitting on the porch of the Hale house, on the steps. Derek’s driving Cora into town for a date with Drew, and Stiles is waiting for him to get back so they can go for a run.
‘I am. Surprisingly so. Are you happy?’
‘Yes, but I don’t want to talk about me.’ She lays down and puts her head in Stiles’ lap.
‘Well, I am happy.’, Stiles runs her fingers through her hair, without even noticing it. ‘Why shouldn’t I be?’
‘Don’t you feel that something’s missing?’
Stiles frowns. ‘Not really? I feel like I have everything I need in my life.’
‘But do you have everything you want?’
‘Laura, what is this about? Is this about the pack? Or-‘
‘No, this is about you.’, she says softly. ‘You’re happy, I know you are, I can feel it. But I know you could be happier. And you deserve it, Stiles.’
‘I don’t really know what you’re talking about.’
Laura sighs. ‘When was the last time you went on a date?’
Stiles blinks a couple of times. ‘Granted, it’s been a while, but I don’t… It doesn’t matter.’
‘It does matter.’
‘Not right now, it doesn’t.’, Stiles shrugs.
‘Can I cut the bullshit and be frank with you?’, Laura stands up and rolls her eyes.
‘Please’, Stiles chuckles.
‘I want to make sure you know that it doesn’t matter who you date. I… we… We don’t care if you date someone out of the pack. We don’t care if he doesn’t know our secret. And your secret. We don’t care if you date a stranger. I’m sure that when you find someone, in time you’ll tell him everything and we’ll all be ok with it. As your friends, and me, as your Alpha.’
Stiles stares at her, jaw dropped. ‘Laura, I swear to god… The thought you not approving my dates didn’t even cross my mind.’, he shakes his head. ‘I know.’
‘Good’, she smiles. ‘Now, that being said, do you think you will ever man up and do something about Derek?’
Stiles swallows. ‘What about Derek?’
She narrows her eyes. ‘About the fact that you’re in love with him.’
Somehow, Stiles knew this was coming. He knew someone would figure it out, sooner or later. He just expected it to be Cora. He doesn’t say anything; he can’t say anything, because Laura will know he’s lying. So he shrugs, gets off the stairs, and lies on the grass at the bottom of them, looking at the sky.
Laura sighs. ‘Stiles.’
‘No.’
‘I think you should-‘
‘No.’
‘I know you-‘
‘No.’
‘Stiles’, she whispers.
‘No.’
‘Stiles.’, she growls. He wasn’t even looking at her, but he knows her eyes flashed red.
‘Laura, you know I love you. And I know you love your brother. But this isn’t any of your business.’
She smiles. ‘Yeah, you’re right. It’s your business. Which you’re ignoring. The both of you.’
Stiles looks at her then. ‘Both of us?’, he thinks. But he doesn’t want to think about it, he doesn’t want hope, the blind hope that there’s a chance for him and Derek to be together.
Stiles hears Derek’s car getting closer on the drive way so he smiles at Laura. ‘Not any of your business.’
A minute later, when Derek gets out of the car and starts stretching, like he does before every run, he smiles at Stiles.
‘What’s not Laura’s business?’
‘My sex life.’, Stiles deadpans. Derek stills, body bent forward and hands behind his back. He’s staring at the ground.
‘Or, you know, lack thereof’, Stiles chuckles.
Derek looks up at him then, body still in the same position. He’s frowning slightly, and the tips of his ears are red. ‘Do I want to know?’, he fake whispers.
Stiles winks. ‘Maybe when you’re a bit older.’
Laura laughs, but it sounds a bit strained. Derek shoots her a questioning look, but she shakes her head.
‘No, you know what, no, I regret everything, I never want to know about Stiles’ sex life, or about your sex life, for that matter.’
Derek blinks. ‘Ok? I don’t want to know about your sex life… either?’, he looks utterly confused, so it comes out as a question.
Laura nods and gets back into the house, wishing them a good run.
‘What was that about?’, Derek glares at Stiles, who has been silently laughing for some time now.
‘She had an idea. It was a bad idea. I convinced her to forget about the bad idea.’, Stiles explains, moving his hands around.
Derek sighs. ‘She tried to set you up with someone, didn’t she?’
‘Something like that.’, Stiles nods. ‘Does she do that often?’
‘She tries to’, Derek mumbles.
‘Oh man’, Stiles beams. ‘I bet you went on a lot of bad blind dates for her sake, didn’t you?’
Derek nods, resigned. ‘Never again.’
‘Were they bad guys?’
‘They weren’t bad. They just weren’t for me.’, Derek shrugs, then narrows his eyes at him. ‘You’re thinking about taking her up on her offer?’
Stiles thinks a bit, about how to phrase the answer so Derek doesn’t pick up a lie. ‘No, I’m not going to go on blind dates that Laura sets.’
Derek chuckles. ‘You know, you’re really fucking smart.’
‘Thank you?’
‘I hate it.’
‘What? Why?’, Stiles frowns.
‘I know what you’re doing. Carefully phrasing your answers so that I don’t catch you lying.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’, Stiles grins, after a beat.
‘I’ve never actually met a human able to do that. Not without someone explaining it to him, anyway.’, Derek’s still smiling.
‘Good thing I’m not completely human, then.’, Stiles shrugs. ‘And on that note, catch me, Big Bad Wolf’.
He starts running towards their favorite trail, but he knows how hard Derek’s rolling his eyes.
⃝
When Stiles went to bed that night, he felt exhausted. His head hurt, his heart ached, his muscles were sore. But he couldn’t fall asleep.
He kept thinking about Derek. Stiles tried to find reasons to tell him the truth, to tell him how he felt, but he couldn’t find any. Nothing he thought of felt strong enough to make him take the step towards Derek. He wanted to, he wanted to badly.
He wanted to kiss Derek, and hug him. He wanted to watch tv with him, and cook for him. He wanted to come home after a long day at work and have a hot shower with Derek. He wanted to kiss every part of his body, he wanted to trace the triskele tattoo with his tongue, his scars with his fingertips. He wanted to make Derek moan and he wanted to make him smile. He wanted to take Derek to dinner with his father. He wanted to hold his hand while they go grocery shopping. He wanted to buy him cheesy presents for Valentine’s day, he wanted to wear his clothes to bed and bring him coffee in the morning.
Stiles wanted to do everything with Derek. Stiles wanted to do anything with Derek, anything he could have. So he couldn’t risk what we had with Derek now. He wasn’t strong enough to risk losing him. ‘I’ll take what I can’, Stiles thought. ‘I want him, in any way possible.’
He couldn’t sleep. In the end, after a few hours of tossing and turning, he quickly drank two glasses of whisky and fell asleep.
⃝
Stiles was sitting at the bar, in the Hale house kitchen. He had his laptop opened and a cup of hot coffee to his right. He was writing the ending to his next novel, the last in a series of 5 books.
It was still early in the morning, and the light in the room was diffuse, making everything glow a bit. Stiles always liked writing in the mornings. Even if he hated waking up early, it seemed that his best chapters were written before anyone else in the house woke up. The kitchen was chilly, it always was in a house where werewolves lived, so Stiles had to wear one of Derek’s hoodies and pair of fluffy socks.
He figured he had another 2-3 hours of silence, before Derek woke up. Cora was sure to sleep more, considering she was at a party the night before, and Laura was sleeping at Isaac’s.
Stiles took a sip of his coffee and went over his last paragraph. It was good, Stiles liked it, he was pleased with these books. He liked them more than Teen Wolf, and that said a lot, considering where Teen Wolf brought him, in a big house surrounded by friends, love, and magic. These new books were an instant hit with the readers, but even if they still revolved around the supernatural life, with werewolves in the center of it all, they were completely different than Teen Wolf. They were pure fiction, nothing Stiles dreamt, nothing that will happen. Just his imagination.
He was surprised to hear footsteps down the stairs, and he didn’t need to turn around to see it was Derek. The pack bond he had with him was stronger now, almost as strong as the one he had with Cora. He smiled as Derek put his hands around his waist and buried his nose behind Stiles’ ear.
‘I hate waking up with you not there.’, Derek mumbled.
‘I have to finish this, babe. And you know mornings are the best for me.’
Stiles turned his head around to kiss Derek, raising his hand around the back of Derek’s neck. After a few seconds, Derek stopped kissing him, but didn’t move. As he talked, his lips were brushing against Stiles’, and he hugged him tighter.
‘You better give me a good ending to the book then, if I have to put up with our bed being half empty.’
‘Yes, Master. Good ending, roger that. Will do.’
‘Nobody dies.’
‘Let’s not get hasty.’, Stiles chuckled.
Derek sighed and moved his head, placing it between Stiles’ neck and shoulder.
‘Just make it good.’
‘Don’t I always?’, Stiles smiled and ruffled Derek’s hair.
Derek let go of him and made his way towards the coffee maker, pouring himself a cup. He took a seat at the bar, across from Stiles.
He starts writing again, but only with his right hand. Stiles stretches his left one towards Derek, who grips it tightly, without saying anything.
They stand like that in silence for a few minutes, Stiles typing away, and Derek enjoying his coffee.
‘I love you.’, Stiles says.
Derek smiles, but doesn’t look at him. ‘More than coffee?’
‘More than coffee.’
‘More than pizza?’
‘More than pizza.’
‘More than sex?’
‘More than sex with anyone else but you.’
‘More than Cora?’
‘Differently than Cora.’
‘More than magic?’
‘More than magic.’
‘More than Star Wars?’
‘More than the new Star Wars.’
‘I hate you.’, Derek chuckles.
‘I know.’
‘Can we get married?’
Stiles laughs. ‘Not without your sisters having a meltdown about bridesmaids dresses. Groomsmaids? Can we have that if it’s two men?’
‘I’m serious.’
Stiles looks up and his eyes widen when he sees the determined expression on Derek’s face.
‘Really?’
‘Yes.’, Derek nods. ‘Marry me.’
Stiles closes his laptop and stares at Derek.
‘I love you more than I thought it was possible.’, Stiles says, gripping Derek’s hand tighter.
‘I love you enough to spend the rest of my life in cheesy declarations and stupid gifts.’
Stiles smiles and his heart is beating fast, and he can’t move or say anything.
‘You didn’t give me an answer.’, Derek smiles, after a while.
‘No.’
‘No?’, Derek frowns.
‘I can’t marry you.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t think my heart could take it.’, Stiles laughs. ‘I’d have a heart attack.’
Derek laughs too. ‘Take a chance?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Yes’, Stiles smiles and lifts himself over the bar, grabbing at Derek’s t-shirt.
They kiss, enthusiastically and frantically, with the bar between them, coffee cups long forgotten. They kiss like they always kiss, like it’s the first time, like it’s the last time, like they can’t survive without it. They kiss putting all their emotions into it, love and safety, frustration and curiosity. Anticipation and arousal. Warmth and trust.
They both feel Cora coming into the kitchen, but they don’t stop. They both feel Laura and Isaac coming in the house, but they don’t stop kissing.
‘What’s going on?’, Laura asks after a few seconds of staring at them.
Cora grins. ‘I woke up to my big brother proposing to my best friend.’
‘Proposing what?’, Isaac asks slowly, after a beat.
‘Marriage’, Cora laughs.
Isaac and Laura both let out high pitch noises, and Stiles has to pull back so he can laugh. Derek’s laughing too. Next thing he knows, Laura’s hugging him and Isaac is squeezing his shoulder with a big smile on his face. He grins in his Alpha’s hair and winks at her boyfriend.
After he’s released from the embrace, he turns around and sees that Cora is practically in Derek’s lap, kissing his cheeks over and over again.
Laura starts laughing, pointing a finger at Stiles. ‘Scott’s gonna kill you!’
‘Why?’, Stiles raises an eyebrow.
‘Cause we found out before he did!’
Stiles’ smiles fails. ‘Oh shit.’
⃝
Stiles wakes up with a gasp. His heart is racing and he can feel it in his throat. He pulls at the covers he tangled himself in and stares at the ceiling, counting his breaths.
‘That wasn’t just a dream’, he says out loud, hoping it will make more sense if he hears it. ‘That was real, that’s going to be real.’
Before he realizes what he’s doing, he’s outside in his car, driving towards the Hale house. He gets there in record time, but his heart is still hectic, he’s still panting. He looks down and sees he’s wearing Batman pajama pants and one of Derek’s old t-shirts. He doesn’t care.
As soon as he gets out of his car, Derek is outside, on the porch, and he’s pale and sweating, and he’s panting too. His eyes look desperate and he seems afraid. Derek looks like Stiles feels.
They move towards each other, but stop when there are a few steps between them.
Stiles is crying, but he doesn’t care. He can’t take his eyes off Derek. He can’t move, he can’t say anything, he can’t breathe properly.
They stand like that for a few minutes, just looking at each other. Stiles is the one to catch his breath first.
‘I had a dream’, he says, eyes not leaving Derek’s.
‘Me too.’, Derek’s voice sounds so rough, Stiles has never heard him like this. It scares him.
‘What?’
‘I had a dream too.’
‘About what?’
Derek shakes his head and Stiles can see that he’s crying too. And he knows, Stiles knows deep in his gut that they’ve dreamt the same thing. He’s shaking and he’s scared. He doesn’t know what he’s scared of. Rejection? Acknowledgment? Everything.
‘What did you dream about?’, he tries again, and his voice sounds sick, broken.
Derek looks up and lets out a shaking breath. ‘It wasn’t a dream.’
Stiles closes his eyes. ‘What do you mean?’
‘It felt real. Like… like it’s going to be real.’
‘I know’, Stiles says, absently, head left back, staring at the sky. There are clouds forming above them. ‘What did you dream about?’
‘Us’, Derek laughs. It sounds broken.
‘Was it that bad?’, Stiles tries to joke. It doesn’t come out right.
‘No. God no. It was…’ Derek slowly lets himself to the floor, and gets on his knees, standing on his heels. ‘It was good’, he laughs. ‘So good. It can’t be real.’
‘Why?’
Derek shakes his head and licks his lips. ‘Too good to be true.’
They look at each other again. Stiles can’t seem to find his words.
After a few blinks, Derek nods. ‘What about you?’
‘What about me?’
‘What did you dream about?’
‘Us.’, Stiles closes his eyes.
‘What about us?’
‘Perfect.’, is all he manages to say.
After a beat, Derek asks, and it sounds so lonely and sad, it break’s Stiles’ heart. ‘Too good to be true?’
‘Yeah.’
After a few more seconds, Stiles opens his eyes. Derek’s is looking straight as his chest. He’s counting Stiles’ heartbeats, like he always does when he needs to calm down. Stiles hangs onto that.
‘Too good to be real?’, Derek whispers.
Stiles shakes his head. ‘It hurts cause it could be real.’
They’re both crying, Derek is still on the ground, Stiles is shaking. They can’t move and this conversation feels impossible. Stiles feels like he’s going insane. It’s stupid, he knows, it’s not the first time he dreamt something impossible. But those came true, somehow. He doesn’t think this one can. And sharing a dream with Derek shouldn’t surprise him, if werewolves are real, anything could be. But Stiles feels like he’s going to break, like he’s going to lose Derek and everything will fall apart around him.
He’s scared, he’s terrified. He’s shaking and his heart has been beating too fast for what seems like hours. But he can’t move, he can’t do anything. Stiles feels useless again.
‘More than…’, Derek whispers and Stiles looks into his eyes. Derek nods and bites his lip.
‘More than Star Wars?’
Stiles blinks. He lets out a sob, and it surprises him.
‘More than the new Star Wars.’
Derek closes his eyes for a few seconds, but when he opens them and looks at Stiles, there’s no more pain between the two of them. No anxiety, no confusion, no questions. The air feels lighter and Stiles can feel Derek’s hope through the bond. He can feel his love for Derek, and he can feel Derek’s love for him.
‘This is impossible.’, Stiles says, louder than he should.
‘It’s been impossible since the first moment I fucking saw you.’, Derek says, and it sounds like a plead.
Stiles smiles and bites his lip. He’s not afraid anymore. He quickly takes the few steps towards Derek, and kneels in front of him.
His lips are on Derek’s before his knees hit the ground. Stiles stops breathing and Derek does the same. He feels Derek’s heartbeat under his fingers, where his hands are curled in the wolf’s t-shirt. It matches his, frantic and loud, so loud.
One of Derek’s hand is on his lower back, and when the other makes his way in Stiles’ hair, he starts breathing again. He pulls Derek closer and he moves his lips against his. They’re both crying, and Stiles is in his pajama and his brain cannot work enough for him to realize that this is happening.
It starts raining. Stiles thinks he might be the one doing it, but he can’t be sure, because Derek runs a finger along his jaw and he can’t think of anything. All he can do is kiss Derek, kiss Derek back, make him understand he means it, how much it means.
And Derek gets it, of course he gets it. He’s holding Stiles tight, like he doesn’t want to let him go, his heart is still beating fast under Stiles’ finger. A minute ago, they were both crying and panting. Now, they’re kissing softly, kneeling on the ground, keeping each other close, in the middle of a summer rain.
When they break apart, Stiles can’t open his eyes, not yet. He curls his hands around Derek’s neck and presses his nose against Derek’s pulse point. The wolf holds him tighter.
They stay like that for a while, Stiles can’t really say how much time passes till Derek whispers in a soft tone.
‘It’s raining.’
‘I think I’m doing that.’
Derek chuckles. ‘Make it stop.’
‘Okay.’, Stiles kisses Derek again, just a quick peck, and the rain instantly stops.
They’re both smiling, and Stiles couldn’t really stop even if he tried. Derek gets up and lifts Stiles up as well. As they walk towards the house, they don’t let go of each other’s hand.
When they get in, Derek’s sisters are standing in the middle of the living room, clearly they haven’t woken up a long time ago, judging by the state of their clothes and hair.
They’re both staring at them, and it’s understandable, considering Stiles and Derek are soaking wet, with mud on their knees, holding hands, faces flushed and smiling like they’re insane.
‘What the fuck just happened?’, Cora asks.
Derek and Stiles look at each other for a beat. Then, they start laughing.
‘What the fuck just happened?’, Cora turns and asks Laura.
‘I’m not sure’, the Alpha frowns. ‘But I’m sure I would have wanted pictures of it.’
Derek squeezes Stiles’ hand. ‘Shower?’, he asks, lifting an eyebrow.
Stiles stops laughing and raises both his eyebrows. ‘Shower?’, he whimpers.
‘Yes.’, Derek nods, leaving no room for discussion. ‘You’re soaking wet, you might catch a cold.’
‘Oh.’
Derek smirks. ‘It might relax us a bit too.’
Stiles blushes, but he practically drags Derek up the stairs towards his bathroom, ignoring Cora’s giggles, and Laura’s distress noises.
⃝
From that point on, Stiles’ life fallows a normal path. He dates Derek, and they make each other happy. Even though they fight, and it’s always way too strong and way too hurtful, they compensate by making sure their sex is always way too loud and way to energetic.
Stiles still teaches English at Beacon Hills High School, and it looks like he’ll be here till he retires. He’s happy with it, the kids keep liking him, Harris keeps hating him, and he sometimes goes out for beer with Coach. He starts writing again, series of books, werewolf centered action thrillers. They’re not like Teen Wolf, he doesn’t dream anything, they’re just his imagination, and the readers love them. And, well, if some of the stories are inspired by real-life events, nobody but their pack has to know.
Because there are events. Every once in a while, something dangerous will pass by Beacon Hills and will try to take down the Hale pack. None of them succeeded. There’s been blood and broken bones, scratches, burns, kidnappings, torture, anything you can think of, they’ve been there. They’ve defeated other packs of wolves, covens of witches, vampires, trolls, wendigos, even a dragon. Now, every supernatural creature around knows that Beacon Hills is protected by the Hale pack, by its werewolves and its human and its witch. Things have calmed down, because all the Big Bads seem to be afraid of the Hales. Rightly so.
Stiles still has dinner with his father every week. But now, Derek joins them most of the times.
One year before Cora’s graduation, Stiles sold his apartment and moved in with Derek, in his big bedroom in the Hale house. It worked for a while, it was good, but when Cora went off to college, even if she was only one hour away from Beacon Hills, she decided to dorm. When she leaves, Stiles starts writing again. So, when Isaac moved in with Laura, in her bedroom, Stiles and Derek made the impulsive decision of buying a house. It’s just at the end of the city, near the Preserve, it had 4 bedrooms and a set of swings in the garden.
Derek and Stiles were together at Lydia and Jackson’s wedding. And at Cora’s graduation, and when Allison and Scott had their first baby. They were together when Isaac proposed to Laura and when Stiles’ father retired. They were together when Stiles became an author with world-wide best-seller books, and when he went on a world tour.
But, as life would have it, Stiles was wrong. His dream, his premonition, the one that pushed them towards each other, was wrong. Derek didn’t propose in the kitchen of the Hale house. Stiles did, on the roof of their house, one morning after they watched the sunset together. Months later, when they got married, they melted their mother’s old wedding rings and made new rings out of them, who fitted them perfectly. Nobody knew Stiles got them both engraved on the inside, ‘find your way by moonlight’ written in both of them. Well, nobody except Derek knew.