This is my first Sterek story, so give me some feedback.
Stiles saw him first, he didn't know why he looked up, maybe Derek growled, or grunted, but none of the other super powered people around him heard it. Derek stumbled through the door, crashing to the floor.
"Derek!" Stiles jumped up, running to his side. He didn't know what he thought he could do for him, he was pretty sure he couldn't even lift Derek on his own.
"What's wrong with him?" Scott was seconds behind him, checking Derek's pulse. Stiles cupped Derek's face in both hands to get a look at his clamy skin, his head lolled to the side, limp. Stiles opened his eyes forcefully, they were yellow, and bloodshot.
"I don't know, I've never seen anything like this before, we need to get him to Deaton." Stiles worked his arm under Derek's shoulders, lifting him partially, Scott took his other arm, and easily got him off the ground. They got him in the back of the Jeep, and Stiles kept shooting glances at his rear view mirror as he sped towards the animal clinic.
"Scott." Derek's voice croaked as he dug his claws into Stiles Jeep, Scott whipped around, giving Derek his undivided attention.
"I'm here Derek, it's okay." Scott, Derek gave him a look, like he was an idiot.
"Okay, so he's not blind. Derek you need to tell us what happened man." Stiles hit the breaks a little hard as the spun into the parking lot. Derek's hand shot out, digging his claws into the back of Stiles' seat.
"Witch doctor." It was all he could manage in way of an explanation through his grit teeth, however he pulled his shirt up, revealing sickly red striations radiating away from his heart.
"Dude, try not to break my Jeep!" Stiles gestured to his seats before getting out to help Derek inside. Derek gave him a look of disbelief as he tucked under his arm. Derek spent an unsettlingly large amount of time leaning on these two since he met them.
"What? Come on it's my Jeep! That thing has saved your ass more than once, the least you could do is be nice to her." Stiles said, earning a pained little chuckle from Derek, just like he knew he would.
"You don't look so good, do we know what happened to him?" Deaton said, helping the boys get him up on the table.
"We're thinking voodoo, he said it was a witch doctor. Do you think there's like a voodoo doll of him somewhere?" Stiles was rambling, but he did that a lot when his friends were hurt. Derek grabbed Stiles arm painfully hard, giving him a look like he was stupid.
"Voodoo dolls don't work Stiles, the myth comes from a practice of representational magic, trust me that's not what this is. Help me take his shirt off." Deaton said what Derek had obviously wanted to say. They lifted him up, peeling his shirt off, the striations had spread all the way to his waist line.
"That can't be good can it?" Scott looked him over in worry, Deaton frowned, turning his head to get a better look at his eyes.
"I know what's wrong with him, but I don't know if I can save him. This is a blood stone vengeance spell. Unless we know who cast it I can't reverse it." Deaton said, Derek's grip on Stiles arm slackened.
"How long do we have to figure this out before…" Scott said, Deaton felt Derek's pulse, his frown deepening.
"Not long, a few hours at best, likely less. This spell is progressing quickly." Stiles put his hand on Derek's shoulder.
"I'll stay here, get everyone else and try and track this guy down. We'll try and slow this down." Stiles said with an urgent look, Scott gave one curt nod, rushing out of the clinic. Deaton met Stiles gaze, shaking his head.
"There's not a lot we can do here Stiles." Deaton said, Stiles shook his head, he couldn't lose another friend, not even Derek.
"There has to be something we can do?" Deaton looked back at the darkening lines on Derek's chest.
"There might be something, but I don't think either of you will like it." Deaton said, Stiles couldn't imagine something they would like less than Derek dieing.
"What is it?" Stiles would try anything, that's what they did, they risked their lives for their friends.
"It's called a twin soul. It's a type of bond used in some packs to share both the strength and weaknesses of it's members, but it's rare, because it would mean if one of you dies so would the other."
"No!" Derek coughed when he tried to talk, Stiles scowled down at him.
"Will it help him?" Stiles ignored Derek's protests.
"Most definitely, it will slow the spell, it may even sever the link, and cure him, however once the bind is made it can't be broken." Deaton said, sounding more hesitant now that Derek had said he didn't want this.
"Than sign me up, let's do this." Stiles peeled his over shirt off, tossing it aside for a ritual he had no idea how to do.
"No!" Derek's words were more of a snarl than anything else.
"What? Why not, come on I'm not that fragile Derek, I know you all think I am, but trust me I'm not going to get you killed, at least not any faster than this spell." Stiles hated that Derek would rather die than be linked to him.
"No, Stiles you idiot! I… I'm dieing dumbass. It could kill you." Derek dug his claws into Stiles skin while he struggled to get the words out.
"You think I care about that? Come on man, we've done way more dangerous stuff for people we like way less. Scott's gonna fix this, and we're going to give him the time he needs to do that. So stop being such a sour wolf, and let's do this." Stiles gestured wildly, and insistently.
"Stiles…" Derek tightened his grip, blood welling from Stiles skin, he cringed, but he didn't pull away.
"I'm doing this, what do we need to do?" Stiles turned back to Deaton, he held out a length of red twine that smelled of some kind of herbs.
"You bind your hands together, and share the bite. Fortunately Derek's no longer an alpha, however I can't condone this if he doesn't consent. This is permanent." Deaton pulled the twine away from Stiles. Stiles looked down at Derek, pleading with his eyes, Derek relaxed his hold on Stiles arm.
"Fine." Derek let go of Stiles, holding his bloodied hand out to Stiles, he took his hand, and Deaton wrapped the twine around them.
"Now the bites." Deaton said pointing to Derek's collar, Stiles leaned over, biting him hard to break the skin with his blunt human teeth. Derek snarled, snapping forward and sinking his teeth into Stiles neck, just above his shoulder.
"Okay ow!" Stiles snarly comment turned into an actual outcry of pain as the red twine started to glow red hot, burning to ash, and scaring their skin. His heart beat loud in his ears, and Stiles fell to the floor, his skin flush and hot like Derek's. Deaton hurried to get him off the floor and onto a table.
"Great, now you can die with me you idiot." Derek sounded better, but the pain in Stiles' chest was enough to make his eyes water.
"Don't worry about thanking me or anything, just trying to save your life over here." Stiles had gone white as a sheet.
"You're still an idiot." Deaton did his best to make them comfortable, he had really hoped the connection would interrupt the spell. Two hours went by without any word from Scott, Stiles chest was getting tight, his head was swimming, his vision was blurry, and he was struggling to breath.
"You feeling that too?" Stiles whispered, Derek reached over, finding his hand to take his pain.
"Yeah." Derek grit his teeth, he could handle more pain than Stiles. Scott stumbled in, bleeding and clutching a small, dark skined, black haired woman covered in intricate silver, hudu tattoos.
"This is her, she is the one who cast the spell. She's trying to use his death to siphon power from the nemeton. She's really strong." Scott was flanked by Liam, and Malia, bother of whom look to be in great shape.
"Bring her over here, I need her blood to make the counter spell." Deaton said, waving them over, and picking up a syringe.
"Wait, what happened to Stiles?" Malia went to his side, noticing his hand still clasped with Derek's. Malia put her hand over both of theirs, the pain radiating through her from them.
"He's sharing the burden, it's likely the only reason Derek is still alive." Deaton did so much as pause as he explained it. He mixed up the counter spell quickly, painting a binding symbol over their chests. He placed his open palm over the symbols, reciting something under his breath. They rose off the table in unison, the red burn marks on their arms hissed, glowing brightly.
They dropped back down to the tables, their hands fall free of each other, and they sucked in a gasping breath. The room fell silent as they all watched the red marks disappear. Derek sat up first, rubbing his arm where the burns weren't healing.
"Okay, that royaly sucked." Stiles clutched his arm to his chest, sitting up slowly. Derek reached over and smacked Stiles in the back of the head.
"You almost died you idiot." Derek slid off the table while Stiles gave him a look of indignation, rubbing the back of his head.
"You know for a guy who just had his life saved you're not exactly grateful, and really, how many times are you gonna call me an idiot?" Stiles said, turning away from Derek, and back towards Deaton.
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Derek said in a flat deadpan.
"Whatever, what do we need to know about this stupid soul twin thing? Why isn't Derek's arm healing?" Stiles was used to Derek's snark, and he had bigger things to worry about right now.
"It won't heal, you'll both bear the scar. In this case it will be something like a brother's bond. It builds trust, you'll always know when the other is lying, you'll feel each other's pain, and want to be near by one another, Stiles you may experience some increased senses when you're with Derek, and Derek you may tap into the teluric currents for extra reserves of power. If you hone the senses you could even see through the other's eyes, or communicate without words, so far as I'm aware that's all that will happen in a brother's bond, however I've never seen one with a human, so I'm not entirely sure." Deaton said, Derek eyed him for a moment. There was more that Deaton wasn't telling them.
"That doesn't sound so bad, it could be cool, like what Ethan and Aiden had." Stiles looked at Derek as if he would agree with him.
"No, it sounds invasive. Now what are we doing about her?" Derek jerked his head towards the witch doctor.
"The druids have a way of dealing with these things, I'm just surprised she could summon this kind of power on her own. Go home, I'll keep her under with kanima venom, see if I can get anything else from her." They nodded, and the four of them filed out without question. Derek stayed behind, fixing Deaton with a hard stare.
"What are you not telling us?" Derek crossed his arms.
"The twin soul bond is sometimes called the soulmate bond, but unless Stiles and yourself have been harbouring an unknown affection for one another for the last five years that should be irrelevant." Deaton went about taking the kanima venom out for the witch doctor.
"And… what if it's not?" Derek's voice was quiet, almost hesitant. Deaton turned a quizzical eye on him.
"Do you have feelings for Stiles?" Deaton was curious enough to stop preparing the injection while he watched Derek's reaction. Derek scowled, turning to put his shirt back on.
"I didn't say that, now stop being cryptic and answer the question." Derek wouldn't even admit his feelings to himself, much less Deaton. He had only ever been with a guy once, and he had been young. The way his sister had looked at him… he hadn't let himself feel that way again.
"If, and only if, the both of you have feelings for each other, not just one of you, the bond will amplify those feelings. It doesn't create feelings. I want to be very clear that it will not cause you, or Stiles to act against your will. It will be quite a bit stronger as a soulmate bond however. You won't be able to deny it for long. If you're worried about him feeling your, well, feelings you should practice a mantra similar to the one they use to train betas to clear your mind. I'm afraid that's all the help I can give you." Deaton said, offering Derek a sympathetic smile before turning back to his work.
"I won't need it." He had meant it to mean that he wouldn't need to worry about controlling his thoughts because he didn't have them, but in truth he was just well practice in hiding his own feelings. Derek made it back to his loft, it had been too long since he had been able to go home. It should have felt good, but somehow it just felt empty.
Stiles shifted in his bed, he just couldn't get comfortable. His hand went to the red, raw burns on his arm. He brushed his fingers over them, and it sent a shiver through him. He closed his eyes, and for a moment he didn't feel so alone. This bond thing might be worse than he thought.
He drifted off, and a vision of a young Derek Hale, not long after the fire, sitting with a lanky boy about his age. Stiles cocked his brow at them. What the hell was this?
"You shouldn't be here." Derek, the Derek Stiles was used to seeing, stood next to him with his arms crossed.
"What is this?" Stiles moved closer to the scene before him, where a moody young Derek was leaning closer to the kid he was with.
"A memory. Tell me you aren't actually here, and this is just my subconscious worrying about you seeing this." Derek kept pace with him, if he was worried he didn't show it. Stiles watched as Derek let the smaller man kiss him, answering kiss in kind. In fact he burried his hands in the boy's hair, using his tongue vigorously.
"D-Derek, I thought you were into women!" Stiles had to look away from the shocking, and somewhat arousing scene.
"I am, mostly. Just watch!" Derek quieted him just as a blonde girl came through the doors behind them.
"Derek! What the hell is wrong with you!" Whoever she was she was absolutely livid. She grabbed the smaller boy, throwing him off the table they had been sitting on.
"Who is that?" Stiles stepped between them almost instinctively, Derek pulled him back out of the way.
"My sister, Laura Hale. We were the last of our pack, she was a bit overprotective of our bloodline. That was the first and last time I ever let that happen. If you bring this up while we're awake I will rip your throat out with my teeth." Derek reverted to his usual threats, Stiles just laughed.
"You should see my first kiss, I was jumped at a party, then the girl got kidnapped for ritual sacrifice. Never kissed a guy though." Stiles tried to joke awaythe awkward tension between them.
"But you like boys too?" Stiles voice echoed around them, the scene swirling to the one at Danny's rave.
"Yeah, do you?" Derek heard Stiles' heart rate spike in the silence that hung heavy in the air after her question. He sat up, gasping in a breath. Derek looked around, not sure if it had just been a dream, or something more. He really hoped it was just a dream.
Stiles just sat there trying to process what he'd seen, had that been real? Was his dream some byproduct of the bond, or was this just his long buried feelings cropping up. He had always been a bit bisexual, he had almost taken Danny up on his offer to take his virginity before he had revealed it as a joke. He had always had a little crush on Derek, something about the way he ordered him around, and his wolf just made Stiles hot under the collar.