Stiles never thought apocalypse would actually happen, like yeah there were millions of books and tv shows about it but how could he predict it would actually happen? And now he was hiding behind one of the old supermarket that has seen better days before everything went to shit. Stiles doesn't know how much time he has spent hiding but he can't risk going out when there is a bulky guy — who looks more like a model and less like an apocalypse survivor — hunting for supplies who could strangle Stiles with ease if his muscled arms are any indicator of his strength.
So Stiles waits and waits and when he realises the guy's not moving he decides it's time to move into action. He grabs his trustworthy bat with bloody patches from previous victories against rebels and assholes trying to rob him of his supplies, he sets in motion his last-minute plan and creeps behind the man ready to blow his brains out if necessary as the man turns around holding his bat just out of his hands and out of reach.
"What do you think you are doing?" The man says, voice tired and worn, from all this chaos is what Stiles presumes
"Give me that!" He tries, he's scared shitless of the obvious bigger and stronger man in front of him, who could kill with his terrifying eyebrows if he so desired.
"Why would I give you it back?" The big guy questions, scary eyebrows is what Stiles calls him in his mind.
"Because!" Stiles says and for a moment he feels like a child, he remembers his mother as she tries to get him to confess why he pushed that Whittemore guy when they were children, 'He's mean' he remembers answering, his mother so patient with his childish antics. "I need it, it's the best weapon I have." He confesses after Scary Eyebrows uses his eyebrows to coax out of him a better answer.
Stiles is almost going to start begging because while not his favourite thing to do, he knows when he's in disadvantage and right now Scary Eyebrows could choke him to day with only a hand.
His answers seems to work given that the big guy eventually pulls down the arm holding the bat and moves it to give it to Stiles before, "I need to know you will not try to hit me again"
Stiles is surprised, he's not the subtlest person but he thought he at least was stealthy. "I wasn't- I won't-"
"You can't think I'm so stupid to not see your obvious attack." Ouch, that hurt to his self-esteem.
"I won't hurt you with my bat or anything else I have." Scary Eyebrows didn't seem convinced. "I promise it, okay?"
His precious bat came back to his arms and he tugged it back where it was just as the muscled guy is turning back to his activities.
"So…" Stiles can't help it, he hasn't seen another human being who hasn't tried to kill him on sight. "What are you doing here?" Subtlety is definitely not his forte.
"The same thing you're doing here," Eyebrows says pointing out their surrounding. "trying to survive."
"Why didn't you kill me?" He couldn't help it, Eyebrows is the first human who didn't just attack him even after Stiles almost ambushed him with a bat. "I almost hit you with a bat, and they wound real good, y'know?"
"You couldn't hurt me with that even if you tried to kill me." Eyebrows huffed, Stiles thinks arrogance isn't a good look on that guy.
"Yeah? And why's that?" He is not affected, not at all.
"You couldn't even sneak-attack me." This time, Eyebrows turns to look at him, they're almost the same height with Eyebrows being just a few centimeters taller. His muscles look bigger too in direct comparison to Stiles' skinny but not quite skeletal body. "I'm Derek."
"Stiles," He says after shaking his hand. Eyeb- Derek looks at him funny and before he can say what Stiles knows he's going to say he clarifies, "it's a nickname, the name's hard to pronounce." Derek seems a bit satisfied.
.
They start to walk together after that, deciding it was better if they stuck along combining Derek's brute force and Stiles' self-proclaimed intelligence against whatever crossed their path. They left the decaying supermarket behind their steps as they move towards any safe place they can find.
Kicking rocks and debris out of his way, Stiles rants to Derek about everything and anything he can. Since the broke out apocalypse Stiles has been alone so he rants to this stranger because he needs to let everything out. The pain, the loss, the fear he didn't know he would feel because this wasn't a zombie apocalypse, there weren't any zombies! Only people killing each other for a chance at surviving and he's not the most philanthropic person ever but watching a couple try to dismember a lone man just for resisting being mugged and act as if Stiles was a shooting target screaming obscenities and curses has fucked him up. Stiles is wary of this guy who could effortlessly mug him and leave him to die in a pool of his own blood, but if he, Derek, wanted to do that he could have done that already, right? He just wanted someone to trust, someone who he could lean on in this situation.
.
They had been walking for some time, the wind accompanying them as they gathered more food. Chatter has died some time ago and Stiles is not feeling like enlightening Derek with his knowledge of the history of male circumcision. They walk until they find some ruins, a place that probably perished after time without maintenance, it wasn't the best place to stay but time is ticking and sunset is more prominent now.
The place is dusty and Stiles feels his lungs hurt with each breath he takes, Derek seems unfazed and it angers Stiles how weak he feels besides him. After inspecting the area for threats they settle down, Derek and Stiles sit beside each other while they prep to make a small fire, enough to warm their bodies but not too much to warn enemies.
"So," Derek initiates, "how have you survived this long alone?" He looks at Stiles after he finishes settling the little fire.
"Funny." he chuckles but Derek doesn't find it funny. "I was going to ask you the same."
Derek seems surprised for the first time. "I am more capable of surviving than you out there, I am strong and can easily get rid of threats." He puffs, looking like a macho man trying to impress.
"Yeah? Well you didn't seem so capable exposing yourself to threats willy-nilly with your back exposed to whoever stumbled upon you" Stiles is close to seething, this asshole is acting as if Stiles couldn't survive without even through he was being reckless.
"That's because-" he pauses, "that's because I have good hearing and good situational awareness. Besides, I can kill anyone who tries to hurt me." Stiles raises his head at that.
"Why didn't you kill me?" Stiles says, a drop of insecurity dipping his voice.
"You, uh, didn't seem like a threat."
"I didn't seem like a threat, I was going to blow your brains out with my bat!" Stiles is astonished.
"I, um, I-" Derek seems embarrassed and Stiles can't keep having his ego hurt. "You put this 'I'm not scared of you, fuck you' front but you challenged me, nobody has challenged me since the apocalypse happened, people just give in and flees." Derek sees Stiles and it's Stiles' turn to be embarrassed. "You picked my interest."
That's not flirting, no. Stiles thinks to himself. No no, no romance in this apocalypse, romance is not allowed in post-apocalypse settings. And he is not even interested in this big guy and his big muscles, his beautiful sparkly eyes and handsome everything. Nope, zero romance here.
"Oh," Stiles says because he's so eloquent in these kind of moments and when Derek seems disappointed he can't stop his mouth. "You're interesting too. I mean, I'm shocked because I'm just a skinny weird guy besides-"
The air and the rant that was just forming in Stiles' brain gets cut off when his lips are touching others, Derek's. Derek kissed him, warm lips touching his as Stiles kisses back immediately, hesitating just a little before kissing kinder. Stiles is too immersed in the kiss that he doesn't notice the hands approaching his sides until they were touching him as if Stiles would break with too much pressure. Stiles knows he shouldn't be kissing strange bulky guys he meets while looting stores but he needs human contact from someone who's not trying to cut his head off, he needs warmth and to feign there's some love so he won't die from lack of socialisation.
Derek keeps moving his hands and it's doing wonders in Stiles brain making him feel something he thought he wouldn't feel in a long time.
"We shouldn't fuck," Stiles gains some sanity, "not that I'm against that." He should shut up.
"You're right, it could be detrimental to our survival." Derek says between kisses. "But we can do other things." He moves his hands quickly and with dexterity pulling both of their pants down.
Stiles gets carried away with the several touches and feelings, Derek's hands and mouth doing wonders to Stiles' body. They keep exploring the other until everything is too much and both groan and they settle down shortly forgetting for the night to do the their nightly watch.
.
They keep walking even after they feet hurt, following the plan Stiles proposed to Derek after they woke up. There is a sanctuary, Stiles heard on the radio, that provides shelter to survivors who manage to reach it, a safe haven amidst hell.
So they walk and walk, and Derek is relating some shit he read somewhere when trouble appears and Stiles considers himself pretty alert of his surroundings and yet they're surrounded, a group of people who are obvious rebels and they are usually not very nice.
They are surrounded, Stiles mentally repeats, there has to be a way out, right?
He sees Derek move in front of him and Stiles just wants to scream at him for being an idiot and putting himself in front of danger. Stiles thinks maybe he could get them out of this, he can talk to them, negotiate an exchange however three of the four people go towards Derek with intent to kill while the fourth one lunges for Stiles so he knows talking won't work.
Stiles gets out his bat and charges at the man, barely missing the attacks and if Derek's grunts are to go by, Derek is not going so smoothly. Stiles hates how they were played, it is not a coincidence they were found by these guys, three people attack Derek, the bigger threat and leave one for hi, the seemingly weak guy. But they're wrong because what Stiles lacks in muscle he has it in intelligence. He knows if he can disable this guy then he can help Derek with the other three.
A growl rips through the air and Stiles barely misses the stab burning his side with a small cut. He swats the bat, he misses and he bats again evading the attacks he can until a loud thud signals a small victory. Stiles turns in time to see a large gash in Derek's arm, and then, it isn't, there.
"What the hell?" Stiles is freaking out and that's not good in this moment he just saw Derek get a freaking part of his arm cut open and a moment later it just isn't freaking there as if nothing happened.
"I will explain later okay?" Derek punches back, "Just be useful and don't let them kill us."
And Stiles is so stunned he doesn't even protests the wording. "Okay."
Derek and he manage to take the other three down not without taking some damage.
.
"Wait, werewolves?" Stiles thinks his brain is going explode from the info overload.
They are sitting in front of the campfire, settling down in a forgotten and decaying bunker they found in their journey, it seemed safe enough after an inspection and choosing to settle down to rest.
"Yes, werewolves have always existed, even before the apocalypse broke out," Derek sighs "we have been hidden from humans to protect them and ourselves. That's why I've been able to survive this long, it's why I was surprised you survived this long as a human."
Derek waits for Stiles to process everything and it doesn't take much time.
"So you're- you mean that- there are-" Stiles seems to be having a short circuit.
"Finish your sentences, Stiles." Derek huffs trying to supress the smile of his face.
"You are a werewolf." Stiles states more than ask.
"Yeah."
"And you have super healing?" It started as a sentence to end as a question.
Derek nods. "And more abilities." Stiles arches his eyebrow asking for more input. "I have super hearing, smelling and can smell emotions."
"You can smell emotions? How?" Stiles swears he's been taking contaminated water and finally succumbed to Death's arms.
"We pick up on people's chemosignals. We can smell sadness, happiness and any other emotion the human may be feeling." Stiles pinches his arm to find this a not afterlife vision. "Stiles what are you doing?"
"Nothing." Derek doesn't seem convinced. "I swear, I just think I stopped living some time ago and I'm just having weird afterlife visions because, how else do you explain freaking werewolves?" He's no freaking out, he's totally cool and collected.
"Stiles, sit down. This is a long story." Stiles does as he's told and listens.
. . .
"I still can't believe I never figured it out." They are laying down in makeshift beds facing each other. "I mean, in hindsight it's probably obvious and I'm an idiot."
"Even if you figured it out before you would still be an idiot." Derek smiles and they laugh.
The ambient changes and Stiles is nervous all of a sudden. "Derek?"
"Hm?"
"Will you stay with me and go with me to the sanctuary?" Stiles' voice is small and insecure and Derek wonders why Stiles is suddenly unsure.
"Of course, We'll go there together."
"What you do think will happen after we get there?"
Derek thinks and he doesn't have an answer because their future is uncertain. "Don't worry about that, we'll see when we get there." He tries to be reassuring and knows he succeeded when Stiles relax.
"Hey Derek" Stiles turns around Derek doing the same.
"Yeah?" Derek hears Stiles move before settling down.
"Goodnight, Sourwolf." Stiles chuckles.
"You're not calling me that." Stiles laughs harder at Derek's grunts.
"Oh I am so doing that."
"Goodnight, Stiles." Derek says and promptly hears Stiles' breathing evening out. He feels fatigue burn through his body as he relaxes, they have to rest, tomorrow's a new day.
Hello, this is my first Teen Wolf fanfic, I just joined the fandom and I want to write more about them. Also, I'm looking for a beta reader for any future stories so if you want to just pm me! Anyway, hope you enjoy it, you can read it at AO3 in ao3 org / works / 12544840 :)