Derek was moving hurriedly towards the lacrosse field, when someone dragged him by the arm and banged him against the locker doors.
"STILES! What the fuck…" The teen wolf exclaimed, his eyes glowing yellow, his wolf alert.
It was after school hours and the entire hallway was deserted aside from the two BHHS freshmen. Derek was already late for lacrosse practice by fifteen minutes and he was sure that Coach would kill him this time.
He gazed into his best friend's amber eyes, which were staring back at him unfocused. 'What is he even doing here?' he thought. Stiles was supposed to be in the library doing Math homework so Derek could copy it later. Well, that's what Derek was hoping.
Stiles' hold was tight on Derek's biceps, digging his long fingers into Derek's skin, drawing blood with his nails. Derek retracted his claws and tried to shrug out of the death grip, but his wolf-strength somehow didn't affect the lanky kid in front of him. Stiles didn't even blink.
"What? Let go…I'm going to be late for -" Derek stopped mid-sentence, his expression changing in sudden realization. His gaze quickly moved to the circular tattoo on Stiles' left shoulder which had been exposed by the tug of war going on between them. He gawked at the black mark. It slowly started changing color to…greenish. He had never seen Stiles entering into his 'psychic mode' before, but had heard enough to realize that's what it was ; it was happening now…with him.
He stood there dumbfounded and watched Stiles going stiff in front of him, eyes still unfocused, like a possessed demon. Derek never could have imagined in his wildest dreams that his skinny, defenseless friend could look so…ghostly.
"You will dim your first love," Stiles muttered softly.
"Dim?" Derek repeated. 'What does that even mean?' he thought, furrowing his eyebrows at Stiles.
Derek knew the meaning now. He'd learned it in a horrifying way.
The week after Stiles' infamous prophecy, Paige died.
Ennis, the rogue alpha, had attacked her in the school at night and she had rejected the bite. When Derek had reached the school and embraced her, she'd shivered in his arms with pain, begging for him to end it.
Memory of that moment was etched on his soul for a lifetime -her smell, her blood, her tears, her voice…her plea.
Derek's mother, Talia, said 'He has offered her a mercy killing, to end the suffering', but Derek knew, he had practically killed her.
In Stiles' words – 'Dimmed his first love.'
Things were never the same between Derek and Stiles, after that day. They were still most-definitely friends, but they had been like Siamese-twins-attached-at-the-hip before the unfortunate incident. If anyone noticed the change, no one commented and Derek was relieved.
Derek was scared. He was terrified of Stiles -of his psychic power. He never wanted to watch Stiles' mark turn green again as he predicted something, and then slowly fade back to black, after it fulfills the destiny of the intended object.
Derek had been there. He had been the object once. Derek felt stupid, thinking that the mark had a life of its own, that it was evil.
What if Stiles went into psychic mode and felt the urge to predict some terrifying, chilling truth about his life again? It was like - in human terms - knowing that you were suffering from the last stages of cancer and nobody could do shit about it.
But wait!
Derek was not ready to spend every single second of every single day just thinking that he would die soon. Not when he was still waking up every other night from nightmares of Paige's cold, lifeless body in his arms.
He tried to keep his distance from Stiles, starting with doing his homework on his own, changing his lunch time at school, avoiding any social gatherings which Stiles might attend…not that Derek was much of a social person, but still. He even willingly volunteered new friendships with other classmates like Boyd, Isaac, and Erica…just to share his time, which had been fully occupied by Stiles before. These were small ways in which Derek thought he could get rid of Stiles.
He thought it was working when he observed a budding friendship between Stiles and Scott.
If Derek was being true to his feelings, that hurt a bit (a lot... it nearly killed him, actually), but this was what he had planned, right?
The friendship between Stiles and Scott had started growing after Stiles' prediction for Scott -
"Go to Talia Hale"
One evening, a week after Stiles' prediction, Mrs McCall came running to Derek's house, half carrying, half dragging Scott. He was breathing heavily from a severe asthma attack, almost unconscious. She was a well experienced nurse and knew that he was breathing the last few breaths of his life. She pleaded with Talia for her son's life. She trusted Stiles enough to think that Talia would save Scott.
That was the first time the bite had been offered outside of the Hale pack, and it had ended quite well...a happy ending, in comparison, to what had happened with Derek six months back.
It had been six months since Stiles' prophecy about Scott, and things were looking pretty settled.
Not that Derek's initial plan of getting rid of Stiles was working.
It started when Stiles began to send Scott, to join Derek, whenever and wherever Derek was.
One day, Derek was sitting alone in the bus for their field trip, enjoying the silence, and the next moment Scott was beside him, leaving Stiles to sit alone. Scott actually stuck with him throughout the entire trip.
On another day, Derek was busy finishing his Econ assignment in the library, when Scott offered to help. Derek needed to return to lacrosse practice an hour later, so he reluctantly took the generous offer.
Scott literally just sat there with Derek for an hour, turning pages of various books or staring at Derek or at Stiles, who was sitting four tables across from them.
Later, Derek found out that Scott never had scored more than a 'D' in Econ and Coach (who was also their Econ teacher) was seriously considering suspending him from the team.
Scott was there at his lunch table easily interacting with Isaac (or Boyd or even Erica). He joined Derek's school-magazine group. He was already part of the lacrosse team. Scott was everywhere Derek turned and so was Stiles, taking his place there again, moving in slowly and steadily, before Derek even realized.
If it looked suspicious, Derek just ignored it, because all their friends fit perfectly together like two pieces of the same pack.
Recently a new member joined their group, -Allison.
She was from the Argent Family, who had moved to Beacon Hills the week before. Derek had heard his parents mention them quite a few times at home, but he was not sure in what context.
Allison was introduced to the group by Scott, who was truly, madly and deeply in love with her. She was easily absorbed into the group. She was a very sweet and genuine person.
One Saturday evening, they all gathered for a bowling game and Allison brought along her Aunt Kate.
Kate must be in her mid-twenties at least, but she looked quite young and gorgeous, Derek thought.
She was a friendly person, who loved Erica's red lipstick, pulled Scott's leg commenting on Allison, adored Boyd's sturdy muscles, pet Isaac's cheeks, admired Stiles' Bambi eyes and smacked Derek's ass, 'platonically?', Derek thought.
He was struggling to keep the pink flush off of his ears when he glanced at Stiles. Stiles had a matching blush on his cheeks, but quite a stoic expression on his face, which was unusual.
Kate was on Derek's team when they divided the group for a quick, friendly bowling match. She was a good player too. Derek shouted delightedly when she knocked down a single pin remaining in the frame, taking their team into the lead, and then Derek watched Stiles knocking down the entire frame of ten pins, scoring a clear 'Strike', twice.
Derek just gaped at him. Stiles had never ever scored a single strike in the entire history of their friendship. Stiles had always been the clumsy one…except that day, of course.
Derek got a chance to meet Kate again, the next Friday. BHHS had a lacrosse game with a neighboring high school, Devenford.
Derek was nervous, and had just finished listening to the 'Independence day' speech from the coach, which made his stomach turn like he was about to throw up, when Kate came to visit him…them, in the changing room.
She wished Scott and Derek luck, and surprised Derek with a peck on the cheek, before turning and almost colliding with Stiles, who came running towards them and skidded to a halt.
"Hey Style…" She greeted him.
"The name is… Stiles," he corrected her, bluntly.
They glared at each other, before Kate decided to continue back to the ground.
"I think, I hate her, even more than I hate my real name," Stiles said, as if speaking to himself.
"You can't just hate her, Stiles," Derek spoke, making a funny confused dance with his eyebrows. "You hardly know her -"
"Exactly," Stiles snapped, "But you seemed quite comfortable with her, Derek, huh?"
"Stiles, not now. We have a game to play," Scott said, before Derek could open his mouth to reply.
"Never mind, do well… make me proud." Derek just watched Stiles' retreating back, before Scott rubbed the lipstick mark off of Derek's cheek.
Derek scored three goals, by the time the game had reached half time. He was at his best and was sure to get elected as a captain of the team, by the next semester. Scott scored one more goal for BHHS. The Devenford team looked helpless against their werewolf strength. Derek actually felt sorry for them…but not much.
He slowly cleared the filter - kept to suppress his werewolf hearing - and adjusted to the surrounding noise. He heard the host team's crowd going crazy with the excitement of a sure win. He distinctly heard loud cheers of his name, from two separate corners of the stand. He turned his head to look at one side and noticed Kate who was madly cheering for him, standing on the bench, with Allison at her side, who was doing the same thing, for Scott. Derek shook his head in amusement.
Derek tried to concentrate again on the game for a while, before returning his attention to the other corner of the Stand. He recognized Stiles' loud voice, even before he looked at him. He was shouting crazily for Derek, totally matching the volume from Kate. It sounded like some cheering battle between them, both of them twisting his name, in all weird possible ways. Ewww….
When his gaze found Stiles, Derek's heart skipped a beat at the sight of a big white banner in his hands, well supported by Boyd and Isaac, completely hiding him behind it.
Derek made the mistake of actually focusing and reading those bold, black words on Stiles' Banner –
'Hey Devenfords, just pack your bags…if you can, Derek Hale…is MY man'
'My man!'' Derek turned red from his toes to his hairline, blushing hard, and just couldn't concentrate on the game anymore.
Life was looking good for Derek, after such a long time…seriously!
He'd got good grades at school, was captain of the lacrosse team, was learning to control his shift with Uncle Peter and he had almost stopped waking up at night from horrible nightmares.
He was always surrounded by his gang of wacky, enthusiastic teenagers and had learned to smile at Stiles' stupid jokes again. He loved to watch that amused daze on Stiles' face, whenever Derek laughed.
Kate always participated in the weekend outings with the pack, and every time, Derek felt drowned by the intensity of the attention he received from her. Derek was confused about his relationship with her. She was not quite a friend, not-definitely a girlfriend. Well, she was pretty attractive and he could become infatuated with her, but they were never alone enough to get to know her. They were always with the pack, where there was always someone available to accompany them.
One day, they almost got the chance to be alone, when everybody cancelled their movie plans for different reasons. Derek and Kate stood outside the theatre, for half an hour, to wait for the others to join them, but nobody turned up.
Derek was buying popcorn at the start of the movie, when Stiles came jogging up behind him. Derek was surprised to see him, as he was certain that Stiles had texted him to cancel his plans. Kate greeted Stiles with the usual irritated disinterest, and Derek was sure that the feeling was mutual. He never understood, exactly when and what had gone wrong between them.
Stiles almost pushed past them, in haste to grab the seat between Derek and Kate.
"I've still got this horrible strain in my neck and can't rotate it to the right angle to watch a movie from that position" he had explained, when the other two gave him accusing looks.
Later, Derek found out that, Stiles' dad had grounded him, since Stiles went to watch the movie while the sheriff was at work, and he was suffering from a fever.
Other than that…his life was good.
Well, it was Derek's life and 'Tragedy' was its middle name….
All the Hales were out attending some wedding, and Derek was playing video games with Scott and Stiles, in the living room of the Hale house, when Fate hit him hard…again.
He was busy elbowing Scott in the arm, to make him lose his remote control, when Stiles suddenly approached him, with that same ghostly look on his face.
'no no no no no….' Derek's heart cried in fear. He dropped the remote in his hands and tried to push Stiles away from him.
"No...Derek, hold still," Scott yelled, behind him.
Derek then froze on the spot and gawked at Stiles, wide-eyed, as if waiting for some kind of declaration of the death penalty.
"You are the Alpha HALE…" Stiles whispered.
It was Stiles, who came to his senses first.
"Hey…hey, Derek, are you alright? " he quickly loosened his grip on the Derek's arms, and lightly shook him, as if to wake him up from some dreadful dream.
Derek winced back to reality, watched Stiles with blank eyes and suddenly jerked away from him, "Don't touch me."
Stiles immediately took a step back, "Okay…okay, I am taking my hands off," He raised his arms up, in surrender.
Derek struggled to get to his feet, shaking heavily, and ran towards his room.
Derek bolted the door behind him, and slid down lifelessly against it. The words that had come out of Stiles' mouth were still sinking in. He pulled his knees up to his chest and sat there in a daze, heartbeats drumming loudly in his ears.
"Open the door, Derek, we need to talk…" Stiles banged the door from the outside.
"LEAVE ME. ALONE," Derek bellowed, tears starting to roll down his burning cheeks.
"Please Derek, Jesus Christ…just open the goddamn door," Stiles sounded desperate and completely broken with concern.
"Derek, you can't just run away from the prophecy. We need to discuss it," Scott tried to convince him.
"There is nothing to discuss. It's just…we can't…" Derek couldn't force words out from his tight throat. He'd just wait for them to go away.
"Scott! Break the door down," Stiles commanded.
"WHAT? No. He'll kill me," Scott sounded petrified.
"If you don't break this door down RIGHT NOW…then I'm gonna break off an extra-large branch of Mountain Ash, wrap it in Wolfsbane, roll it in Mistletoe and shove it up your freakin-"
"Yeah, on it." Derek heard Scott say, moving back, taking position ready to charge and Derek had no other option but to unlock the door.
Derek opened the door and Stiles tumbled inside, almost hitting the floor.
"Hey," he said, not knowing how to proceed for the first time in his life.
They just stared at each other for a few moments, before Stiles cautiously took a step forward, towards Derek. He moved in further, when Derek did not make any attempt to back away, standing right in front of Derek, but not quite in his space.
Stiles raised a hand to reach out, but stopped in the midair, hesitantly.
Derek's heart clenched in his chest, seeing the uncertainty on Stiles' face he just barged towards Stiles, wrapping his arms around his neck, crying heavily.
Stiles froze for a moment, before hugging Derek back tightly, and knocking the air of Derek's lungs.
Derek was still trembling into Stiles' embrace and Stiles tried to calm him down by lightly patting his back.
"Am I going to kill my mom?" Derek muffled into Stiles' shoulder.
"What? No Derek. No," Stiles pulled him in further , as if that would stop the flow of Derek's unpleasant thoughts.
"Mom's Alpha Hale, and then Laura, if anything happens to -" Derek buried his face in Stiles' neck. He couldn't continue.
Stiles pulled back a bit to look into Derek's face. "I don't know, Derek. Don't know yet, but we are going to find out," he swallowed hard, before continuing, "So here's the first step…you are gonna be strong and help me to figure this out. Can you do that?"
Derek nodded silently, feeling dizzy with the emotional outbreak, eyes still blurry with tears.
"Second step - you are going to call your mom and let her know everything and I'm going to visit Dr. Deaton to find out a few things…more. It's going to be fine, Derek, I promise."
And then they both got crushed into a giant hug by Scott.
"It's going to be fine," He repeated.
The Hale family immediately returned from the wedding after Talia received the call from Derek. They all discussed it and argued and cried, but nothing constructive came out of it. Derek thought, everyone was just as clueless as he was and as terrified as he was.
They had seven days in hand to somehow dig out the hidden meaning of the prophecy and act to change it's course.
Within a pack, alpha power could be transferred in two ways. First, genetically, where the ruling alpha died and the power would transfer to their immediate successor. The second way was the usual power game, where it would transfer to whoever killed the current Alpha.
The brief meaning of Stiles' prophecy was - there would be a threat to Talia's life and maybe Laura's…from someone…from Derek?
But it was a PROPHECY, which Derek was destined to meet, regardless. Derek was sure there was no fucking possible way to alter it, and even if there was…it would be so bizarre and twisted, that it would be easier to surrender to it, than fight against it.
Derek's mind was going crazy, and he was finding it tough to meet his mother's eyes , or his sister's, or any other members of his family.
He left the house to get some air and drove his car towards Deaton's clinic. Stiles caught up with him halfway. It was almost ten at night, and Derek thought he should drop Stiles home.
The ride to the Stiles' house was silent. Derek's mind was saturated with all the chaos, and Stiles was oddly quiet.
"Deaton told me that the prophecy can be changed." Stiles whispered the moment Derek parked the car in the driveway of Stiles' house.
Derek looked at him in confusion, in anticipation. Stiles was subconsciously playing with his fingers, thinking hard. They were still sitting in the car.
"He said…if both the involved parties willingly find some kind of escape route, then its original path can be altered."
Derek stared at Stiles, raising his eyebrows questioningly, "Those are Deaton's words, right? What does that even mean?"
"Well, in this case, I'm one of the involved parties…source or origin of the prophecy and you are the other one...destination of the prophecy. So we two need to find the escape route…willingly."
"Okay?" Derek still felt disoriented.
"He has hinted a few ways for me -" Stiles hesitated and paused.
"Like what?" Derek encouraged him to continue, suddenly feeling a foolish spark of hope.
Stiles' hand subconsciously moved to his neck, then to his shoulder. Derek heard Stiles' heart skip a beat, before he spoke, "He said that…that I could sacrifice my tattoo…my mark."
"WHAT?" Derek shouted in shock. He just gaped at Stiles, open mouthed. Then he recovered, slowly letting the actual meaning of Stiles' suggestion sink in, "But…but…It's not just a mark. It's your power. Without it, you will be just a human. It's your…your…identity. And you won't ever be truly willing to sacrifice it, Stiles." Derek stated matter-of-factly, looking irritated with the idea.
"Try me…" Stiles replied.
Derek watched him clumsily unbuckle his seatbelt. Stiles almost dropped off the passenger seat, before barging forward and fiercely banging his lips against Derek's. He held Derek, one hand cupping the back of his neck and the other fisted into his shirt, pulling Derek closer, and just devoured Derek's open mouth for few moments, but which felt like an eternity.
Derek went completely still under his grip, stunned. Stiles then froze. With a jerk he pulled back.
"I..uh…I'm so sorry. Oh God! This is not happening…I can't help it, I just watched you so upset and so helpless…and I can't..."
Stiles' rambling gave Derek enough time to recover, to react, "It's…it's Okay, Stiles -"
"No it's not!" Stiles interrupted him in mid-sentence and stared right back into Derek's eyes. "It's been more than a year, Derek…a whole... fucking... Year." Derek was not sure, what Stiles was talking about, anymore. He just blinked at him.
"We were best friends. We were inseparable…and one fine day… I predict something about you, and you start avoiding me like, I…our friendship, meant nothing to you. NO, let me finish –" Stiles held up his palm towards Derek, who looked ready to retaliate. "I know Derek, I know. You were scared, confused…and it just hurt me to watch you hurt because of me…because of my damn prophecy. But let me tell you one thing, it's not happening again…No. I AM JUST NOT READY TO LOSE YOU AGAIN. Do you get it…I love you, damn it."
Before Derek could even move a muscle, Stiles was out of the car, running towards the house….crying.
Derek was still in his car in the driveway of Stiles' house, when his phone beeped, fifteen minutes later.
It was a text from Stiles and Derek hastily read it –
'I am sorry for running away from you like that. We have life n death matters to discuss. Let's just pretend that that last conversation never happened and meet me at the cafe at 8:30am tomorrow"
Then there was another one, before he could finish the first one -
'Please come, Will you?'
'Yes sure' Derek texted him back, feeling too numb to say more than that.
Derek entered the cafe at eight in the morning, when the owner opened the shop. He'd been awake the entire night, thinking about…Stiles.
He grabbed his coffee mug, sitting at a table, and got lost in a dream of his memories…of Stiles.
He remembered the day he had noticed Stiles for the first time, when all the other kids were laughing at him, when Derek had peed in his pants. (He was three, okay!). Stiles sat next to him and when Derek growled at him Stiles had shared his sandwich with him.
He remembered the day when in the first grade's drawing competition, douchebag Jackson had spilled water on his drawing paper, and Stiles spent the remaining time helping Derek to clean up the mess, leaving his own drawing incomplete.
He remembered the day when the sheriff had brought Stiles to his house, at two in the morning, after Stiles' mother was admitted to the hospital. The entire night, Stiles slept on the chair, clenching onto Derek with both hands, sobbing hard in his sleep.
He remembered the day in the seventh grade when they were running in adjacent lanes of the running race, as competitors, and Stiles started cheering for him, right in the middle of the race.
He remembered the day when Stiles had made a prediction for the first time, and came running two miles from the supermarket, because he wanted Derek to be the first person to share the news.
They were fourteen then...not that long before Stiles had made his first prediction about Derek, and things had started to change. Derek was so used to the non-seer Stiles, that it had freaked him out pretty badly, but...but he'd recovered. He understood that getting rid of Stiles was not an option meant for Derek, because if Derek was the 'Body', Stiles was his 'Soul'...and you just couldn't live without your soul.
He remembered yesterday, Stiles trusting him, when he did not trust himself.
He remembered...Stiles' strong hug, his soft voice, his soothing heartbeat, his gentle touch, his big amber eyes, his smooth mole-dotted skin, his slender fingers, his silky brown hair, his...his long neck, his pink bow-like, perfect lips, his...kiss...oh god…the kiss...
He got up suddenly like lightning had struck him, wanting to see Stiles desperately, right at that moment. He couldn't wait any longer.
"Hey Derek," he froze at the sight of Kate, wearing a tank top and track pants, approaching him slowly, with that smug smile on her face. "Aren't you going to keep me company?"
Derek lost the track of his thoughts and blinked at her blankly. He struggled for words to reply, before the door dinged open behind her, and he saw Stiles entering the cafe. Stiles' expression suddenly became furious, at the sight of Kate and he turned around to leave.
"Wait…Stiles," Derek ran for him, before Kate grabbed a hold of his hand.
Derek sighed heavily, slowly turned towards her and said - "Kate, I think, I am…gay." He winced at the sound of the words coming from his mouth.
"Whoa..." Kate let out a strange strangled noise, releasing Derek's hand like it had burnt her skin. Derek noticed her facial muscles twitching in weird ways, fighting some internal turmoil. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, without saying a word. She just gaped at him stupidly.
'Is she alright?' Derek tilted his head raising one of his eyebrows, concerned.
"Oh, great, you…I…this is…cool. I support homo…GAY…I do…I…uh…I think I got to go now," she literally fled the cafe, without a single glance back at Derek.
'WHAT was that?' Derek just gawked in the direction she'd left.
"What did you do to her, Derek? Have you seen her face? oh God... this is the best day of my life!" Stiles shouted delightedly, beaming at Derek with a smile that spread from ear to ear, while entering the cafe…again.
Derek was relieved to see Stiles. He stood there looking at Stiles' face amused and dazed, like seeing him for the first time.
"So, your…uh..gay?" Stiles asked hesitantly.
"You heard? I thought you left -" Derek muttered softly.
"Well, I'm not going to leave you alone so easily, Derek. You are stuck with me for life." He paused and waited for Derek. "Just say something, will you?" Stiles' entire body was shaking with anticipation.
"I was with…with Paige, before," Derek whispered. Stiles could literally feel the pain oozing out from Derek's heart, but Derek recovered quickly and continued, "…but I have never felt with anyone else the way I feel about you… with you…my whole life…my existence…" Derek felt his throat going tight with emotion. He did not know how to explain to Stiles what he meant to him, suddenly feeling lost for words, "I think I am gay for you," he quickly blurted out.
"That works for me," Stiles responded immediately and Derek ducked his head, smiling softly.
After a long time, he'd begun to feel calm, relaxed, as if all the grief had been drained out of his soul. He was feeling happy. He slowly moved his gaze up, but as a reflex action, jerked his neck towards Stiles' shoulder. He grabbed the collar of Stiles' t-shirt and pulled it down.
"Hey, hey…big guy. Not in here, just hold it, okay? You don't want us to get arrested for a display of public indecency, do you?" Stiles blurted out, blushing hard.
"Stiles," Derek rolled his eyes and continued scanning Stiles' exposed left shoulder. "Your mark... it's gone"
"What?" Stiles twisted his neck, dragging his t-shirt further down, in an attempt to have a good look at his mark. "Oh…it has gone," he repeated in a daze.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…IT WORKED!" Stiles squealed so loudly, that Derek had to cover his ears. "This…us…Derek, we have found the Escape Route," he gaped at Derek, wide-eyed, open mouthed…
…and Derek just launched himself at Stiles, kissing the shit out of him, right there in the middle of the cafe.