And there is nothing more in this great world
than thou and I, and the blue dome of dusk.
(82)
Derica tries to remain human, and most of the time she succeeds, but still there is something fierce beneath her skin, some wildness that hums through her veins, and sometimes on the nights before and after the full moon she stops what she's doing, stands on the porch and stares at the sky, breathing in the smell of the woods and being, still.
Stiles used to make fun of these moments, used to pass them off with a joke and a smile as if to hide the reminder that the woman she loves is not wholly human, but age and experience have changed her. This night she stands beside her, slips her hand into Derica's and huddles close by her side, a chill from the wind that rises even in summer running through her. Derica is naturally warmer than her and it seems only logical to press a little closer, to steal some of that heat.
Sometimes, she remembers that once she would have been scared to be even in the same house as her, would have been terrified to be alone with her and would have had a heart attack at this sort of proximity. But adulthood happened, and she fell in love and Derica became more accommodating once she understood why sometimes Stiles empathised with her more strongly than anyone else could.
(Loss is not her possession alone, and every day Stiles wills that it would have been – but so far no time travellers have appeared.)
Sometimes, when Derica gets a little too aggressive, Stiles backs into a wall and suddenly she is several years in the past and being stared down by a stressed and aggressive werewolf and her heartbeat racks up several notches, a drop of panic spreads into her veins and Derica backs off again and lets her be until she can breathe again.
Sometimes, when Stiles gets a little too stressed and begins to shake in her seat, moving her hands twitchily and biting her cheek to stop panicked words bubbling up, Derica uses her Voice that shuts the rest of the pack up and Stiles is being attacked by a newly turned wolf and Derica is the hero in a leather jacket and Isaac is curled up on the wall opposite her and Stiles is terrified, for a second.
Sometimes, often, they are okay – Derica treats her like part of her pack when she needs to, like her mate when she has to and her girlfriend when she can. Stiles learns the difference between when she is Derica's pack, her subordinate, and her girlfriend. Sometimes it is terror and dark and danger that lives all around them, and sometimes it is dusk and it is peaceful.
It is summer, and Derica is standing on the rebuilt porch of the rebuilt family home that some of the pack live in and some of them visit, watching the skies, feeling the breeze and listening to the evening's silence. Grace has never been Stiles' forte, but she manages not to trip over anything as she leaves the food she was preparing on the sideboard and walks out to join her, holding her hand and pressing herself close.
'The world is quiet here,' she whispers and Derica smiles, just a little, and breathes in deeply.
'And there is nothing more in this great world, than thou and I, and the blue dome of dusk,' she mutters, and Stiles looks at her sideways.
'Do you always have to one-up me?' she says, accusingly and looks away, affronted. 'Yes, I do,' Derica replies, but she reaches around to pull her closer anyway, and Stiles assents, leaning against her and watching the woods.
'It's a good line,' she says softly and Derica hums her agreement, before taking a final deep breath and then turning around to go inside. Stiles follows her, and closes to the door, but she doesn't miss the way Derica's eyes flicker first to the moon, just visible above the trees and then the calendar on the door.
Their lives are dictated by the changing of the months, by the rise and fall of the distant moon and the constant danger that comes with loving a wild thing, but that is what you get when you're a girl who runs with wolves, and for now Stiles is content with dusk and Derica beside her.
First Sterek fic ever hhhh gosh I ship these two so much (out of the context of the show woops I just like the fic really) and fem!Sterek is basically the light of my life so.
I'm sorry, I promise I do have non-genderswapped fics coming soon.