Choice

by: tmjohn72

Derek tries to fight his feelings for Stiles which leaves Scott's Robin heartbroken. It's a short one compared to my others but I felt like I had to write it once the idea washeady head. I hope you like it.

"Please?" Stiles gave the Alpha his best sad face.

"No," Derek said, his gaze still focused out the window.

"Why not?"

"We agreed it wouldn't happen again."

"More like you agreed and I was expected to fall in line."

Derek turned to face him and Stiles could see the look of confusion in his eyes. His heart and brain were telling him two very different things. Finally he looked back out the window. "It's for the best. We both know that."

Stiles sighed and fell onto his bed. "Just because some idiotic werewolf considers me a threat to her rightful place doesn't mean we can't make out a little."

Derek turned back to him. "Erica wants to kill you because she thinks you're the reason I haven't asked her to be my mate."

"Is she right?", Stiles asked hopefully. His heart was beating faster with each second Derek didn't answer him.

"I'm not into Erica," he said, avoiding the question.

"So why does she want to kill me? I didn't do anything to her." Derek rolls his eyes. Stiles can see that he is getting tense. His questions always seem to get Derek annoyed.

"She's a female werewolf which means she is incredibly territorial."

"Yeah, and she smelled you on me after the last time we...you know."

"I kissed you to throw off the hunters that were looking for me. It didn't mean anything."
Stiles sighed. He felt like his heart had been swallowed by a black hole and all of his feelings were suddenly pushed down into a tiny box inside himself, unable to be felt again. "Right. Okay."

The truth was that Stiles thought the kiss meant a lot. Sure, it was a spur of the moment thing to throw off the hunters, but they both felt something when it happened and for almost a week after it was all Stiles could think about. His face fell as he wondered about the possibility of Derek having not felt anything like he did. Derek let out a growl and he walked over to Stiles.

"Stop it."

"What am I doing now?"

"You're...breaking. Stop."

"What in the hell are you talking about?" Stiles sat up, expecting an answer, but Derek seemed to be lost in more confusion.

"I'm an Alpha. That means I can sense stuff, like when you're shutting down and protecting yourself from the world. You can't live like that."

"It seems to work well for you. Aside for biting random teenagers and transforming them into members of your pack you're the biggest closed off loner that I know."

Derek shrugged and he sat down on the bed. "It's easier to be alone but I'm learning that a pack has its benefits."

"People to laugh at your jokes, minions to hit people over the head with car parts..."

Derek smirked. Stiles smirked. The way he did it made it catching. "You only do that around me."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"When you're around other people you're always in complete control of your emotions. You hold back the best parts of you. They don't get to see what I see."

"So you're the expert on all things Derek Hale?"

"Yeah, I am. Kiss me." Stiles was begging for it now, craving it. He didn't think he could survive another rejection, let alone another kiss. But the choice was made. He wanted Derek and he wasn't going to let Erica or Derek's pack, or even the fucking full moon, stand in his way.

"Stiles..."

Stiles crawled the few inches over to Derek and his hand turned his face toward him. There was a small amount of stubble as his hand rested on Derek's cheek. Stiles leaned in and mashed their lips together. Their lips immediately fit like two pieces of a puzzle.

Stiles held his breath, refusing to end this moment for something stupid, like needing oxygen. When he opened his mouth and began to lick Derek's lips the Alpha pulled away.
"What? You don't like me taking control?"

Stiles followed Derek's glance to Erica. She was standing in the doorway and her eyes were a bright amber. "You let him come between our pack? I'm supposed to be your mate, Derek."

"That's not true. You were created to be a member of my pack. An ally, nothing more."

She let out a growl as she took a step into the room, her claws already extended. Her fangs were growing too, Stiles noticed, as Derek stood from the bed and moved closer to her.

"I'm going to kill him," she proclaimed, figuring out the best way to get past Derek and to Stiles' vulnerable throat.

"You won't touch him," Derek promised, his own fangs and claws extending. Stiles figured his eyes were probably glowing red right about now but all he could see was Derek's back. They both let out a series of growls and then they met in the middle, their hands clawing at each other.

Derek shoved Erica into the wall and he held her there, growling ferociously as his instinct began to take over. She fought back, kicking and trying to move, but he had her pinned. "Enough," he yelled, and she stopped.

"You're suppose to want me. Not him." Tears were falling down her face.

"You're a member of my pack, Erica. You're important to me. But you're not my mate."

Erica looked past him to Stiles. "Is he?"

Derek let go of her and she remained still, her claws and fangs retreating along with Derek's. "No, he isn't."

Stiles didn't like that answer. To him the answer was simple and he didn't need to be reminded that his being human made things a little more difficult for the two of them. Derek's eyes turned to worry when he realized his words had stung Stiles. The teenager glared at the Alpha, cursing him for having the ability to sense his emotions.

"Stiles?"

"I think you should both go," Stiles said, and he meant it. Derek opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. Stiles was silent. He stood up and opened the window, moving out of the way so that they could go out quickly. Erica smirked at him as she leapt through, the situation a win in her mind. Derek paused, wanting to say something, but he followed her a few seconds later.

Stiles closed the window and locked it, pulling the curtains closed as he crumpled on his bed, feeling like a piece of discarded paper rolled into a ball by Derek's fist. His emotions were no longer buried. Now they were tearing through him as tears began falling from his eyes. Every emotion burned, eating away at a part of him and he wondered if he would ever get over Derek's rejection.

Scott was chewing on a pencil in Study Hall when he turned to Stiles. "Dude, why do you smell like Derek?"

"Go to hell," Stiles said, grabbing his backpack and heading for the door. The teacher glared at Scott as though he had done something wrong. Scott was dumbfounded at Stiles' silence throughout the day and his strange behavior at the mention of Derek's name.

Stiles walked outside and sat on the bleachers on the field. It was raining, drops covering his clothing and the metal all around him. When his tears began to fall over Derek a second time he was thankful for the rain because it would help conceal what he was doing.

"It isn't smart to be sitting on a metal conductor during a storm."

Stiles recognized Lydia's voice immediately. He tensed up and kept his eyes on the center of the field. "Go away, Lydia."

She was sitting beside him now, stretched out on the bleachers as though she were on a vacation on a beach. "I'm not going anywhere."

"What do you want?"

"Nothing," she promised. She was quiet after that, just laying there close to him as his heart ached for the one person that he knew would never love him back. He had felt the same way about Lydia once. "Why do I fall for people I can't have?"

"I don't know. I probably could have loved you eventually."

Her announcement didn't faze Stiles because he had moved on. She was no longer the person lurking in his thoughts and dreams. Now Derek had taken over that role and he knew in that minute that he wasn't going to be able to get over him like he had Lydia. She was just a schoolboy crush. Derek was for real.

"I just want him to love me back. Why the hell is that so difficult?"

This announcement surprised Lydia. She sat up and stared at him for a moment but her humanity quickly took over when she realized that he wasn't just sad. Stiles was actually crying right in front of her. "I don't know. You don't mean Scott?"

"No, of course not," he said. He thought about telling her but the idea of speaking his name stung from somewhere deep inside. She didn't really know him all that well anyway and there was still a part of him that figured this conversation would find it's way around the school before the day was over.

"Good, I was worried for a second. Danny?"

Stiles shook his head. Lydia thought for a moment.
"It's not Jackson. Right?" There was a hint of worry in her voice.

"Definitely not," he said, not needing his mind to go there. Jackson was a jackass like Derek, but unlike Jackson, the Alpha wasn't the same around him as he was with everyone else. Derek had a heart. Stiles knew because he could feel it. He knew it sounded crazy to think about Derek and his heart but he figured since his own was breaking it was a natural place to go.

"Derek Hale?" Her eyes were wide and his silence spoke volumes. Stiles didn't realize that the only reason she had said his name was because he was staring at them from the edge of the bleachers. "Seriously? You fell for that guy?"

Stiles refused to say anything. He just nodded. Lydia could tell by Derek's expression that he needed to talk to Stiles. He needed to deal with this and her being there wasn't going to be conductive to that. She reached for her bag and wrapped an arm around Stiles before descending the bleachers. Stiles watched her go and it was when she got near where Derek was standing that he saw he had been listening to their conversation.

"What do you want?," Stiles asked, the rain falling harder now. Derek walked up the bleachers and sat in front of him.

"You."

Stiles sighed. He knew he was just getting set up for another rise and fall on the pathetic roller coaster he had hitched a ride on, but just hearing him say that word gave him hope. His tears stopped falling as he tried to figure out what he meant.

"Excuse me?"

"I want you. I love you, Stiles."

"You said I wasn't your mate."

"I'm an idiot. After I left being with you was the only thing I wanted. I tried to resist it but I couldn't. Even Erica could see that me saying those words had killed something inside of me."
"Erica told you to come here?"

"No. She'll be pissed when she finds out I came here to see you."

"Why did you come? To tell me you love me but that we can't be together?"

Derek turned his head to the side. "Don't be an idiot. I came here for you."

"Are you sure? We can't do the back and forth thing. I won't survive it."

"No back and forth," he said, moving closer to Stiles. He wrapped his arms around the teenager and his body heat immediately began to warm Stiles. Derek's nose settled at the nape of Stiles' neck and he began to inhale his mate's scent.

"Are you marking me or something?"

"You already smell like me. I'm just smelling you."

"Does this mean I'm your mate now?"

Derek smirked. "I don't scent Scott like this."

"You better not."

"Kiss me?"

"Okay." Stiles turned his head and his lips matched with Derek's. His tongue moved over the Alpha's lips and he could tell that he was getting a little too excited in a public place. When he broke off the kiss he grabbed Stiles' left wrist and held it close.

"Are you sure about this? You have to be completely sure."

"Absolutely. I love you too."

Derek's fangs extended and he bit Stiles on the wrist, marking him. To the werewolf community it meant that he was the mate of an Alpha, someone to be protected and a person that deserved their respect. To Stiles it was confirmation about how he and Derek felt about each other. It wasn't the kind of bite that would transform him into a werewolf because he had learned the different types of bites in his research.

"I have to go back to class," Stiles finally said.

"Okay. I'll pick you up after school."

"What about Erica? She's going to be pissed."

"She'll be okay with it in a few weeks."

"I could get a lot of concussions in a few weeks."

"You're right. I'll talk to her," Derek said.

Stiles kissed Derek on the lips again before collecting his backpack. He left the Alpha sitting on the bleachers and went back inside his classroom. He sat next to Scott who could sense that something had changed about him. Not only did he smell more like Derek than before, he also seemed to have an energy about him that wasn't there before.

"Now you reek of Derek. What's going on?"

Stiles slid his jacket sleeve up for Scott to see the bite mark on his wrist. Even Scott knew what that bite meant. "You and Derek?," he asked, a little too loudly. Stiles just smiled.