I saw a gifset on tumblr and this was born. The most recent episode was fudging TERRIFYING but I did notice how bloody perceptive Derek is getting, so...
Disclaimer: I don't teen wolf, and sometimes I'm glad because it's getting bloody scary
Sometime Derek thinks that people appreciate how beyond smart Stiles is. He thinks that people listen to his ideas and take them into account and use them, because they make sense. But then he sees the way Scott just dismisses his theories, or Isaac and Allison charge in without listening to him, and the way his teachers ignore his genius ideas on random topics, pass it off as an unbearable nuisance from a hyper-active child, and he can't help but think that if Stiles were a werewolf, they would all listen more.
And Stiles isn't, he's a squishy human, but he isn't just a squishy human, not ever, and especially not now, when he has a Nogitsune nesting inside him and stealing his body for its own dark agenda.
Derek isn't scared of Stiles, he is scared for him, because he is nowhere near as easy to fix, or defend as the wolves and Allison are.
But he isn't about to give up on Stiles, even if he is only one of two who sees how clever the mouthy boy is.
So he tries to be smart, like Stiles, and follow the impossible routes the teenager's brain traces, to find the answer without putting Stiles in danger from his parasitic hitch hiker, and he enlists Kira, and pushes for information on all the odd topics he thinks Stiles would have come up with, and eventually he stumbles on partial answers, and sometimes he gets enough partial answers to give mostly full ones, and pairing these with his own knowledge, the things he learned growing up, he figures some things out.
But because the pack still doesn't trust him completely, and he can't go to Stiles, he goes to the newcomer, who just so happens to be part of the puzzle herself, and they discover a little bit more of the mystery.
He makes Kira tell him everything she knows about Kitsune, and foxfire, and Nogitsune, and he pieces things together and uses his natural talents, and manages to teach Scott a little something about his new skills along the way.
And he doesn't go to Lydia for help, because even though she knows that Stiles is clever, almost as clever as her, she doesn't quite realise his potential yet, and is too preoccupied with her bad boy twin werewolf.
When he has enough answers, and Scott's father has filled in the final pieces and found the teenager, he paces in front of the hospital, not sure if he will be welcomed, and instead he fixes Stiles' Jeep.
When he gets well again, he will need it, he thinks to himself, and doesn't delve too deeply into why he is doing this.
And he defends the boy to the wonder twin, and wonders when he let Stiles' mannerisms creep into his brain, and he paces, and worries.
And then the hospital goes dark.
