The fox may be poisoned but it was still in Stiles. It would be wounded and need time to heal but it had found the perfect spot to do so. The fox knew that no one would dare hurt Stiles, not with all the wolves protecting him. Especially the large powerful one, he would give his life for this boy. The fox knew the only thing that could harm him whilst in this vessel, and really that was no worry, in fact it was part of the reason he'd chosen this boy in the first place.
The wolves had been taking it in turn to visit Isaac. He was still in hospital and didn't seem to be recovering from the shock he'd had. The wolves were offering as much pain relief as they could but Derek hadn't finished healing himself, Scott was worn out from helping casualties of the explosion and the twins were busy helping Lydia.
Stiles, or rather Not-Stiles, was locked in the back room of the vets. Deaton had done as much as he could to ward the place but all the Supernatural force they could spare (namely Peter) were put into guarding him.
Everyone else had moved to the Argent's place to see if they could find anything in the families' large collection of supernatural info that might possibly help Stiles. A lot of the texts were in little known languages, leaving most of the work to Lydia. At some point Allison and Aiden had drifted off, heads resting on books and piles of paper. Lydia had been going through texts at an alarming rate, managing to dismiss whole piles of books as useless.
Derek was pacing back and forth puzzling over a piece of text he'd just read. He was supposed to be resting to speed up the healing but Derek couldn't just sit around whilst Stiles was. Actually they didn't know what was happening to Stiles, only his body, and somehow that made it a thousand times worse for Derek. So instead of going home for a cat, well wolf, nap he'd gone over to the Stilinski house hold, climbed in through Stiles' window and began looking through all the information he'd managed to find on the Nogitsune before it had... Well Derek preferred not to think about that.
Derek had been reading for hours, he'd nearly completely healed and his eyes were heavy. He was having trouble keeping them open when he noticed something. The text was confusing and hard to decipher what it meant, but just maybe...
Derek burst into the Argent's house. "Lydia! Lydia!" He called moving from room to room looking for the teen.
His shouting had woken Aiden and Allison. Ethan moved to the door just as Derek burst in. "I-I think I've found something. I've been looking through Stiles' notes and.." He shoved the now slightly crumpled pages in Lydia's face, "just read these."
Allison wiped the sleep out of her eyes. "What? Derek I thought you were at home resting."
Derek shrugged it off, not wanting to admit that he couldn't get Stiles out of his head long enough to blink let alone sleep. He had his attention focussed on Lydia who's eyes were darting quickly across the page.
Everyone waited keeping quite as Lydia read. Finally she broke the silence. "This seems to say that if you give the Nogitsune the opposite of that which it most desires it will be forced to leave it's host for fear of becoming... well I can't make out what it would become but that's not the important part."
"So it means we can save Stile's, right?" Hope crept into Derek's eyes as he spoke. "I mean all we have to do is give it the opposite of what it wants."
"Yeah." Ethan chimed in. "And Scott said that when Stiles was stabbing him he wanted to take all the pain he'd accumulated."
"And the opposite of pain is" everyone, even Allison, was getting excited now. "love, right everyone knows that."
Allison had called Deaton on their way to the clinic to tell him what they'd found. He'd sounded dubious but said it was "worth a shot because they had nothing else to go on."
So that was how Lydia found herself stood at the open door to the vet's back room. She took a deep breath and stepped in. Turning back to face the group she smiled a half nervous half apologetic smile and shut the door.
Everyone had fallen asleep, only Derek was awake pacing back and forth full of nervous energy. He couldn't hear any noise from the back room and he didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing. The wolf was itching to find out what was happening but Deaton had warned them not to disturb whatever magic might be going on.
His head snapped round at the door opening, the first noise other than his steps and deep breathing he'd heard for hours. Lydia stood at the door and Derek thought he glimpsed Stiles layed out on the floor behind her before she shut the door.
Lydia didn't say anything just shook her head and Derek could read everything in her eyes that he needed to know.
Derek was now running through the woods completely wolfed out and ready to rip the head off anything that annoyed him. He wasn't quite sure what had happened only that he'd gotten annoyed and just wanted to be by himself. His wolf had taken over and he'd ended up in the forest. Here he had a chance to think.
Everyone knew that Stiles loves Lydia, even if the obsession was completely one sided. So why hadn't it worked. He thought back to what he'd been told about Scott's encounter with the Nogitsune. It had taken the pain from Scott, was it because Lydia had been willing, nothing was forcibly taken from her. Or maybe…
Derek stopped so suddenly he skidded and nearly hit a tree. Maybe it was because Stiles already had love for Lydia, she had nothing to give. If someone who loved Stiles was willing to offer up that love…God he hoped he was right.
Derek had been waiting in the shadows of the foliage surrounding the vets waiting for everyone to leave, as surely they would to go do more research. He didn't want to tell the others his idea, partly because he wasn't sure it would work, but mostly because he didn't want them interfering with who should be the one to do it.
He hadn't been waiting long when he saw everyone, even Deaton leave. They got into cars and drove off not having noticed Derek. He was grateful for that. He wasn't well hidden and the wolves could have easily smelt him or heard his racing heart beat if they'd been concentrating.
He listened for a while checking that it was only Peter inside. He emerged from his hiding spot and went in.
"You can go now." Derek said to his uncle. "I just saw everyone in the parking lot and thy agreed that you might want some rest. I'll take guard duty for a while."
Peter looked dubious but shrugged. "Alright I'll come back in a few hours."
Derek nodded. He was sure Peter could smell the mixed emotions coming off him. He hoped the older man wouldn't question it and sighed in relief when he collected his jacket and left.
Derek waited till he was out of his large hearing range then opened the door to the back room.
"Stiles." He whispered. The boy as curled up in the fetal position eyes shut and shivering. The boy didn't respond when he entered the room or when he took his slim pale hands in his larger ones so he had no way of knowing who was currently controlling his body.
"Stiles, if you're in there I hope you can hear me. I…I well I guess I've known for a while now. You know how could I not. You may be a sarcastic little shit half the time but you're really funny and smart. I don't think even you realise how smart you are. Though I'd never really tell you that because I'd just make your ego bigger. Your smiles are amazing, thy literally light up your face, and they're infectious. Well maybe not the smiles themselves but the happiness and warmth that comes with them is. Look Stiles I know I'm really bad at expressing things and you tell me to use my words, but I'm trying Stiles. Well what I really mean is" Derek breathed in deeply to prepare himself. "well Stiles I love you. I do I really do, like sometimes it even hurts because I know that it's as one sided as you and Lydia but I can't help it Stiles I love you."
He felt his hands grow warm. He looked down to see his veins had gone black, like they did when he was taking someone's pain. Except this didn't hurt and the flow seemed to be going the other way. Derek didn't know what to do so he just sat there hoping for the best and directing his love at Stiles.
After a while he felt the boy stir. He tried to pull away from Derek and when he found he couldn't he turned on the werewolf.
"Let me go!" Hissed the Nogitsune in Stiles' voice. Derek held on tighter convinced he was nearly there. He Kept hold of one of Stiles' hands as he writhed back and forth with more strength then Derek would have though the boy would have. Derek managed to pin him under himself, he continued to struggle for another ten minutes before going limp, as if someone had deflated him.
Derek moved Stiles from under him and sat the teen in his lap. Stiles stirred. "Derek? Is-is it you."
"Ssssh Stiles. Sleep now." Stiles snuggled in close to Derek's shoulder when he heard his voice.
Stiles yawned then said sleepily, "I love you too Derek." The wolf froze not sure if he'd heard right. He looked down at the boy curled in his arms and tightened them protectively around him.
Derek leaned down hesitantly placing his lips to Stiles' forehead. They were both exhausted, Stiles from having the Nogitsune in him and Derek from getting it out. They fell asleep like that, slumped against the wall on the floor though they were.