The sunset shines in a thousand colors on the pink sky, but one of them emerges from others. And that is Derek's favorite color: orange.
The sand is still wet after the tidal wave this morning. Lydia might be right, the plan could work. The only thing we have to do is escape the place after the tidal wave but before the lightning strikes. It's kind of easy in theory but we'll see what's going to happen after we wrap the wire around the lightning tree.
But what if getting rid of me and Derek is also a part of the big plan? What if Theo and Kate are not the only ones they want to see getting roasted by the electricity but we're on their list as well? The alliance of those three is kind of unbreakable. They were friends for years. Lydia, Scott and Allison shared their sorrow for years after surviving the Games. They cried and laughed together. It's impossible that they will ever attempt to kill each other, but what about us? They have only known us for about one or two weeks and the two days we were in the arena with them.
The two of us are alone… together. We can only trust each other, and after all of this… After everything we've been through I trust Derek more than anyone.
I look up to the sky. The sun gets lower and lower with every minute passing by, indicating that we don't have enough time to think about things calmly. We have to act now or our final opportunity for survival slips out of our hands.
"We have to go", I say.
He looks at me uncomprehendingly. "How come you still cannot trust them, Stiles? Didn't they gain your trust after saving our lives so many times in these two days? It's like… I don't know, I have a strange feeling that their only purpose in life is to keep us alive."
"I don't care." My voice is tired, I've had just enough stuff to deal with nowadays. I just want him to be safe, even if he's the one who's physically stronger. "I don't trust anyone but you." This may seem like an exaggeration but I'm just telling the truth. Yes, I trust my brother, Liam too, but he's fortunately not here with us. It's just the two of us.
"Do you think they won't slice our throat at the earliest opportunity?" I let out the breath I didn't notice I was holding back. "There could be only one Victor. The Capitol won't repeat the same mistake. Them…" I point at the three people who call themselves our allies. "They are survivors. Their instinct to survive grew. It's them or us, someone has to die." This is the cold truth. It's not enough if we run off.
"You forgot about something, Stiles." Derek says, I raise my eyebrows. What did I forget? I was thinking about the same scenario for hours now, it's kind of impossible that something just slipped my mind without me noticing it. "We're survivors too."
Oh… yeah. That, I forgot.
I don't know how to answer so I just sit in silence, staring at the reflection of my face in the water. Is this really me? Am I really considering to kill off three people just because I think they want to kill me? How did I get here?
The Hunger Games really do change people. What happened to the old me?
"Hey, Stiles…" Derek gently pulls me closer to himself. "They won't do anything, okay? I don't know why, but I have a feeling that tells me they won't. And if they wanted to, they would've killed us already while we were asleep, wouldn't they?"
Well, this is true. Scott could've killed me the day before yesterday after I fell asleep.
I can't kill them. They didn't want to kill me before, so why would I? "Let's get out of here. We should go into the jungle and watch the scenario play out from a safe place."
"We should wait until midnight with leaving the group", Derek suggests. "If the plan succeeds Kate and Theo will be dead, meaning that we won't have to deal with them. But if we won't leave after that and they won't attack us that means they really want to save us, not just each other."
"Oh really, Derek?" I ask, my voice full of sarcasm. "You think we're gonna hold each other's hands and walk out of here while we're singing a catchy song?"
"That wasn't exactly what I was thinking about..." He looks down at the ground. "But maybe…"
"There's no maybe, Derek!" I raise my voice. Lydia looks at me, I have to be more careful. We don't want them to be suspicious. "The Capitol will never let that happen."
"Then we stick to what you said and we're going to run off after midnight. Okay?" He answers. "No matter what their intentions are with us, we leave."
His voice is definite, rough. That's the Derek who saved my life in the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games.
"Okay", I say.
"But if something goes wrong, don't think for a second that anything will hold me back from saving your life." He looks into my eyes, his left hand is on his gold medallion. After a few seconds his mouth opens again, then he closes it, then he opens it again. He wants to say something but he struggles with it.
"Stiles…" He sighs deeply. "If I die and you live…"
"No!" I interrupt him. "Don't even think about something like that, okay? Whatever is in that pretty head of yours… stop thinking about it, right now."
Most of the time I wasn't even thinking about the things I was saying out loud: there could only be one person getting out of here. The ultimate Victor.
"The people you love are waiting for you back in Twelve." He leans forward, puts both of his hands on his neck and takes off the necklace.
He opens up the medallion, there are three sides of it. There is a picture in each one, I can't see who are on them.
Derek puts it in my hand slowly. The picture in the middle is of me. It was taken after an interview I think.
The left side of the medallion consists of a picture of my father, on the right one is Liam, my little brother.
"They love you, Stiles." He looks at the ground again. "Me? Well… There's no one who's waiting for me back there. You are the only one in my life who cares about me."
There is nothing in his voice that craves attention. He just tells me the facts, however I can see that he's hurt. I'm fighting back my tears with a big breath. "My only purpose is to see that you're safe, Stiles. You have to live, your family needs you. There's no one who needs me."
I put my fingers under his chin gently, he looks in my eyes again. Oh damn, I didn't realize until now how much I love those perfectly green eyes.
"That's not true" I say without thinking "because I do."
After all this time this is the moment I realize my love for him has become deeper than ever. "I need you."
I don't let myself think about anything else right now besides Derek. I listen to my heart and my instincts this time.
My lips part from each other slowly as I lean in to kiss him. He isn't expecting it, it is a surprise for him.
This is not some ordinary kiss; it's not greedy, not controlled by lust. It is a kiss full of my emotions.
It's nothing else but an innocent, slow, soft and prolonged emotional expression in which I finally accept it:
Yes. I'm deeply in love with Derek Hale.