[A/N] [Disclaimer: Nothing, but the plot of this fic belongs to me; all rights to their rightful owners]
Hello everyone!
Now that the formalities are outta the way I'm really happy that you decided to pick up my first fic on this website. I hope it'll be a great experience for both me, the author, and you, the reader!
In this work of fiction Derek and Stiles are similar in age, Laura didn't die in the Hale fire, werewolves are just some hairy dudes made popular by Twilight and Lydia as well as Jackson will both have a slightly different past which led to slightly different personalities, but you'll all find out soon enough.
Now onto the good part!
(Don't forget to leaves reviews if you like the story!)
Prologue [Prayer #0]
In a country probably not far from your own, in a city - possibly just like yours - there once were two kids, maybe not unlike those you would see running down the busy streets on a late afternoon spreading laughter and innocent glee across the dim packed-to-the-brim avenues filled with adults all tending to their own businesses.
While it does not necessarily have to have happened in your vicinity, country or even in your time, it is nevertheless a story worth telling.
As I lie dying, the last faint pencil strokes of my waning life fill the crisp brown paper clinging to my cold hands. I am not writing this as a last act of vengeance to the all-powerful death accompanying my every motion and thought. Rather than that I pride myself with having lived a fulfilling life and leave this world in the hands of the generations to come.
As I draw my shuddering last breath, I remember the beauty of life that passes before my mortal eyes and my lips form their last worldly smile reminiscent of the fading earth's fairlec. After which there will be nothing. Nothing but all-encompassing, all-embracing darkness and warmth, light and a never ending yawning void that is death itself.
I believe that everything and everyone, no matter who or what, in this world has a story of their own to tell even if it is never composed into man-made words. A story - no matter how small - that has its own world to play out in, to grow out in beautifully. Tales that are nurtured by sentiment rather than the mind itself. However, today is not the day that those will come to shine - do not fret, their turn may come as soon as the next page of the universe.
This last page of my existence will be the mirror that reflects the simple story of one soul which, as in many tales of love and togetherness, has been forced to reside in two bodies eternally striving to reunite with its other half but never being granted that privilege.
[~From the memorials of a certain individual from unknown time and place]
[A/N: the mushiness of this fic will end here, just wanted to try it out, tell me if you've liked it, I might write more if people are interested (ゝ。∂)]
A small outcry of distress made Stiles snap up his head from where he was searching for a four-leafed clover amidst a particularly dense green patch of grass a mall distance off the riverbank.
He strained his ears to try to pinpoint the location of the sound, even going as far as to cup his small hands around his slightly uneven and crooked ears. The short-haired boy stilled his movements as to not miss the moment it happened again.
.
..
...
There!
Now the sound he heard earlier seemed to have stilled into a soft sobbing that came from somewhere to his right. Slowly he rose on his sneakered feet and stepped around the lone vibrant blotch of green. Now standing he cast a last quick glance over his shoulder as if to communicate the command for the clovers to stay put while he went to investigate.
Then he ran off to find the source of the sound that had struck his momentary fancy.
It seemed to have risen in volume again.
After a few bends of the glittering sandy river promenade he reached a small playground that laid lazily in the warm afternoon sun. He realized that dawn was fast approaching and he'd worry his dad again if he stayed out too long again. With a small, almost inaudible, long-suffering sigh he turned to go, resolved to forget about what had attracted him to the small park.
A fierce burst in volume shocked him into stopping in his tracks. Slowly he retraced his steps, mindful of his surroundings, with his last attempts to pet a particularly vicious raccoon fresh in his mind.
Searching the park with several quick swoops of his eyes he concluded that there was a ghost some ten feet to his left side possessing a very much hideous piece of architecture that was meant to resemble an elephant.
Did nature even make them in that color, he wondered out loud unwittingly and jumped at the abrupt halt in sniffles, as which he had finally identified the odd sounds, which emanated faintly from the rusted through slide.
"Who-who's there?"
A small high-pitched voice asked between sniffles from behind the chute and Stiles let go of the breath he didn't even know he was holding in. No ghost out there for him today either. Again.
"Uh-Uhm I heard something so I wanted to... Come and see? Yeah, that's it. Not looking for ghosts, nuh-uh, not me. Totally."
Pleased with his magnificent eloquence Stiles grinned attempt the small and slightly pudgy boy who was inching out cautiously behind the cover of the dull slide with its polka pattern of rusted in screws and old metallic pink paint that had already flaked off in some patches of the structure.
"Ghosts?"
The boy had now stepped completely out of the elephant's semi-shadow and was now contemplating Stiles curiously, albeit timidly, with a shy twinkle in his hazel eyes.
"There are... Ghosts?"
Stiles smiled to himself, happy to find somebody to talk to who wasn't part of the big smiling faceless mass offering empty hugs and blank words of co
mfort.
"You bet there are!"
He enthusiastically punched the air and walked closer to the small crouched form in front of him who, he noticed now, was shivering despite his banana yellow far-too-big jacket covering him from shoulders to just above his knees.
"What are they-, they like?"
The boy replied while wiping stubbornly at his tear and snot smeared face. A wet, slightly greenish spot had already formed on the hem of his virulent jacket. Sparkling hazel eyes gazed into his soul waiting for his answer, hanging onto every word his lips formed. Shaking himself out of his trance he focused on wrapping his uncooperative, heavy tongue around the sounds it should have been making turning slightly red in the process.
"What are you doing?"
Now that the boy had crept closer to him he could see that he was about the same age as him, maybe a bit younger and smaller in height, and that he had been crying for a while now as was evident by the smooth sheen of his eyelashes and the flushed redness of his cheeks.
Looking downwards he saw the edges of the boy's eyes crinkling before his eyelashes fanned out on his cheeks when he began laughing hysterically, tears forgotten. Hearty chuckles rang from his wide open mouth like bells on Christmas.
The dying sun's rays caught on the small beads of moistures still caught between his long lashes and Stiles noticed just how pretty this kid standing before him, still clutching his stomach from laughter, was.
Promise me to always help those in need, okay Stiles? When-, when Mommy goes to that far away place beyond the sky and stars, promise me that you will be a strong boy and that you will always look around you when stepping forward. Mommy will be watching you, silently protecting you even if you can't see me up there, alright?
Stiles blinked away the familiar stab of wetness and pain and batted at the still laughing brat in front of him.
"Hey, why are you laughing. No laughing at me!"
He stuck out his foot and struck an indignant pose crossing his arms over his small chest. The kid opposite him stopped his laughing fit abruptly for a moment to direct his gaze skywards and the happy aura that had surrounded him seconds ago vanished into thin air as quickly as it had come into being.
Stiles didn't know what to do and flailed his thin arms around while trying not to trip over air in his attempts to hurriedly pat the brunette's head in wordless comfort. A few heartbeats passed and he deemed it safe to speak up loud again.
"Hey, hey little guy, what's up? I didn't actually mean that before. You're welcome to laugh as much as you want. I like your laugh."
To accentuate his statement Stiles pulled a few weird faces he had made for his Mom too when she was down. A while ago.
Nipping the toxic thought in its bud Stiles took another step towards the boy while lowering his head and reached out to press the boy's head to his collarbone softly stroking the nape of his neck while murmuring comforting nothings into his ears.
"Do you think that they're really up there?"
"Who? That who is where?"
"In heaven I mean. Laura told me they went there after they..- and I..."
Stiles saw a single tear running down the boy's porcelain cheeks after delicately slipping from the corner of his eye. One tear which he knew from experience had been one of many. Far too many, but still without an end in sight.
He sighed, but continued in his endeavor of comforting the smaller boy with warm little gestures.
"My Mum. She's up there too, ya'know? Dad says she's watching over me from up there..."
Stiles turned his head upwards to search for his mother's face somewhere among the multitude of clouds that were tinted red and gold by the now ending day.
"My-, my parents, Mommy and Dad. They went there too."
"They did? I bet they've met my Mom there. She's really cool, I bet she's made them her special cookies."
"You think so?"
"Yup, it's far better to have cookies and hot chocolate on the clouds than being some ghost on earth here. I wouldn't wanna clean those clouds though. I wonder how they feel like..."
Little Stiles twisted his mouth to one side and stuck his tongue out thinking about the weird things that were clouds, oblivious to his surroundings. All of a sudden the little boy he still held buried between his arms and the fabric of his dark coat started sniggering again.
"You're funny"
The brunette said reaching up to pet the back of Stile's neck awkwardly due to their noticeable height difference. Stiles used his coat sleeves to dry the fresh tears off the boy's face and opened his mouth to respond when a loud shout cut through his muddled thoughts.
"-k, where are you?!"
A female voice called frantically and the correspondent figure slowly entered Stiles' field of vision. When her eyes landed on them still tangled together Stiles blushed to the tip of his ears and sprung away from the brunette that seemed at a bit of a loss at what to do or say. The woman let out a huge breath and she visibly sunk into herself when she approached them.
"Finally! Oh God, why did you-, you could have gotten hurt! Promise me not to run off like this again, okay? Promise me..."
The woman knelt down beside them to take the kid into her arms pressing her head to the side of his face with closed eyes. Low sobs escaped her shivering form while she buried her face among the many folds of his jacket.
"You really scared me, you know? I can't lose you too..."
After a few heavy seconds the woman who had the same vibrant features as the little boy opened her strikingly green eyes and seemed to have only just noticed Stiles. Baffled her mouth opened and closed a few times while she gesticulated with her hands before finally decided upon a simple question.
"Who... are you?"
"Oh, uhm me? I am just, I mean I was here because I am...-"
"A friend", the smaller brunette answered, "He's a friend I just made, Laura."
"Oh, okay then.", the woman who was apparently called Laura replied with a hesitant, yet still radiant and friendly smile, "Thanks for taking care of our little guy here."
She smiled warmly before standing back up and holding her hand out for the boy to take. That family had nice smiles, Stiles couldn't help but think.
"I think it's time for us to go home, don't you think? Say goodbye to your little friend, won't you?"
"O-okay"
The brunette turned to a surprised Stiles and promptly gave him another hug with a low whispered bye. Before he could grasp Laura's hand Stiles kept him back with a hand on an edge of the boy's jacket.
"Uhm, m-my name is Stiles, wh-what's yours?"
He half-shouted half-stuttered into the small space separating them and then looked expectantly at his opposite who had a slightly dumbstruck expression on his small, now much more happy face. Laura smiled gently before nudging him into Stiles direction with some encouraging gestures.
"I-I'm D-Derek and uhm- let's meet here again tomorrow, Stiles!"
Derek quickly turned and grasped Laura's hand before dragging her off the small space of the now empty park. The old clock ticked its merry rhythm towards seven o'clock. Dawn had already fallen and passed. The night sky was already lightened up by thousands of twinkling and glittering stars. The cold breeze swept past Stiles' flushed rosy cheeks.
His curfew had come and gone already, Stiles realized.
He was in for a world of pain when he finally went home. Of that he was sure.
Man.
[A/N] And that marks the end of the prologue! There will be a part two to come, but I want to see if there are any people wanting to read more before I continue to write. If I get a lot of feedback I'm gonna update asap!
Don't forget to give reviews! The more I get the sooner I get motivated to continue writing (/^o^)/
Wavyscribe out.