Don't even ask, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Just… I really like Lemon, ok? And I totally think Stiles and Lemon being cousins should be a thing. That's it.

Plus, I really want to write Wade being jealous because Derek's hotter than him.

Wolf of Dixie

Stiles & Bluebell

"You can't just do this to me!" the boy shouts, anger and betrayal bleeding through his voice, "You can't just ship me off to the middle of nowhere, to the other side of the country, and expect me to be okay with this! I'm not a damsel in distress; you're not an 18th century father concerned about his daughter's misbehavings! You can't do this to me!"

"Stiles, lower your voice. We're guests here" the man's voice is tired, as if this request has been done before – and it has, about fifteen times.

"I'm not a guest, I'm a prisoner. I'm not staying, you can't make me!"

"Yes, I can, and yes, you will. You're staying here, at your uncle's house, and you will follow his rules, and do as you're told, or so help me god!"

"What are you going to do? Ship me off to some place I hate and take me away from everyone I love? Oh, wait, you HAVE DONE THAT already!"

Father and son stare each other as if they're mortal enemies, and finally the older man has had enough.

"You are going to stay here because I have a restraining order against that man, and if you come near him again, I'm going to have him arrested."

He sounds like he means it, and the boy stares at his father, open mouthed and eyes wide.

"You know I…"

"I know you're seventeen. I know that man has been hanging around you and Scott for almost two years. I know that you once accused him of murder, and I know that, with what you told me about him and his… condition, I'm not letting him near you for as long as I can help it."

Stiles truly howls with frustration, grabbing at his hair.

"And the second I turn eighteen I'll be back in Beacon Hills so fast you'll get whiplash!"

"Well, let's see if Derek Hale's attention will still be on you after a whole year of waiting" the man says, almost cruelly, but Stiles doesn't back down, looking at his father from across the frilly room.

"He'll wait for me. The only thing you're doing by dragging me away is making me resent you. I'm his, and he's mine, and you can't do a thing about it."

With that the boy leaves the room to go downstairs, shutting the door with a bang behind him.

John Stilinski, the Sherriff of Beacon Hills, sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose.

He wishes it hadn't come to this. He may even be able to deal with the fact that his son was seeing an older man, but a werewolf?

Not a chance in hell he'd let Stiles get more caught up with that crap than he already was.

Not a chance in hell.

The thing is that his whole plan to send Stiles away isn't exactly as successful as he had been hoping. He wasn't blind, he knew Derek Hale cared about his son, and he had been betting on that to keep Stiles safe. He had thought that, when he appealed to Hale to help him get Stiles to stay in Bluebell, the man would back him up, arguing that there he'd be safe.

Only Hale had actually growled at him, and told him that Stiles would only be safe by his side. That he could protect Stiles, had been doing so for years, and he would keep his son safe and happy in Beacon Hills. John had been expecting support, guilt, a break up between the two of them, but that hadn't come true – just as Stiles had said, Hale promised to wait for him, and try to find ways to bring him back, to their pack, as if that was normal behavior.

And now his son hated him, and he had to appeal to Sarah's brother, someone they had never had been in much contact with – maybe a call on Christmas and Thanksgiving, a small trip to spend Easter together when Stiles had been a baby, and nothing more.

Brick's wife had left him when his youngest was just a year old, and when Stiles was six Sarah had passed away – things had fallen apart in both families, and that had made them grow apart. But now that Stiles's safety was on the line, John didn't mind asking for help, as long as Stiles was away from werewolves.

He sighs and goes downstairs. Brick's family would be having lunch with them, and then John would leave.

Leaving Stiles behind.

It would be the hardest thing he had ever done.

When he gets downstairs, everyone is already at the table – Brick is sitting at the head, with Lemon to his right, and Magnolia on his left. Both girls are pretty – bright blond hair, impeccable clothing and amazing manners. Stiles is sitting by Lemon's side, and his plaid shirt and flailing behavior stick out like a sore thumb among the other occupants of the table.

John sits down with a small smile, and they start eating.

"Thank you again, Brick, for helping us" John says in the middle of the meal, when the silence had stretched for far too long.

"He's not helping us, dad, he's helping you. I don't need any help" Stiles replies, putting food in his mouth and chewing while smiling fake at him.

"Stiles, please, we've been through this" he pleads, but Stiles doesn't answer – he glares and keeps eating.

"Don't worry, John. Stiles won't even notice he has left home he'll be so happy here. Just give it a few weeks" Brick answers with his strong accent and a smile.

"I hope so. As long as he doesn't get into trouble" John tries to joke and Brick laughs a little.

"Oh, I'm sure he can't get into too much trouble here" the other man says, and Stiles snorts.

"You mean I can't manage to find a hot guy who's six years older than me to date me, so that dad can issue a restraining order against him? I'm sure I can try."

"Stiles!" John says, scandalized, while Lemon stares at the kid with her eyes wide, and Magnolia looks like she's trying to contain her laughter.

"What? I'm just giving them the cold, hard facts. If they're taking me in, they should know what they're getting themselves into. I'm gay, also I have a thing for older guys, my boyfriend is twenty-three, and by the time I'm legal, he'll be twenty-four. I am trouble. Jailbait. I also have no sense of self-preservation whatsoever, and to make things even peachier my ADHD hasn't gotten any better. You don't want me here – I'm way too much trouble, uncle Brick" he says with a sweet smile, and John sighs, putting his fork and knife down. He is about to say something, when Brick beats him to it.

"Stiles, your dad had already told me all of that, in other terms, sure, but I knew it. Son, you are family, and so is your dad. You are my sister's kid, and I loved her with all my heart, and therefore, I love you too. And because of that, there's nothing you can say that will make me not take you in. You're family, son, and you're staying" Brick smiles, but it's firm and certain, just like his voice, "Get used to it" the doctor finishes.

John smiles at the man gratefully. Stiles takes a deep breath, and continues eating, not looking at anyone.

John hopes things will be fine.

They finish eating with the girls doing most of the talking, and way too soon John is going into his car. He hugs Stiles, but the boy is tense in his arms.

"I'm doing this because I love you" he whispers as they pull apart, and Stiles shakes his head.

"I know that, dad, but you're wrong this time" the boy answers. He gives John a small wave and gets into the house without looking back.

Brick gives him a pat on the shoulder, and says reassuring things. John smiles in response and drives away.

Now all he has to do is hope that Derek Hale actually forgets his son in the year Stiles has before becoming a legal adult.

That small hope is all he has left.

X

Stiles sits in his room – it's frilly and girly, but so is all of the house.

Damn, so is the rest of the town, as far as he can gather. This place is so weird.

He's on the floor, knees raised and his head on his hands. He's not going to cry, but it's a close thing. He misses Derek. He misses Scott. He even misses Jackson, for Christ sake, and that's just not done, no one misses Jackson, not even Lydia misses Jackson and she loves him enough to cure him from his skin condition a whole year ago. His phone starts buzzing and he picks it up – Scott is flashing on his screen and he sighs a little, a small smile on his face.

"Hey, dude!"

"Your dad's gone yet?"

That's not Scott's voice, that's so not Scott's voice.

"Derek?"

"Yeah. Your dad gone yet?"

"Yeah, he just left. Why are you calling me from Scott's phone?"

"Because then if people check your phone they won't see my number on it, calling you, seeing as your dad can actually arrest me for harassment of a minor" is the gruffy response, and Stiles laughs quietly.

"Good thinking" he says softly, and then there's silence.

"The pack left a few minutes ago. They miss you" Derek finally says, a few minutes later.

Stiles breath catches in his throat and he sniffs a little before speaking.

"I miss them too. I…" he starts, but he can't go on, because damn the tears and his soft side and damn everything, "I mi…" he can't finish because the tears start to fall, and he has to take a deep breath, "I…" but he doesn't say anything else, and he can hear Derek's distress over the line, a growl, almost a whine, as if he's half shifted.

"I know. We all miss you. But it's… It's just one year, okay? Just… take care. I'll talk to you every day" he promises, and that startles a laugh out of Stiles.

"You'll talk? Don't you mean you'll growl while I babble? That's how I remember things. Or was it just one day enough for things to change?" he tries to joke, but his fear is clear in his voice.

He's afraid things will change during this year. He's afraid Derek will realize what a mess Stiles is and try to find someone better as his second, as his right arm. That the pack will see they don't really need any other humans apart from Allison and Lydia.

He's afraid he'll lose the place he's fought so hard to have, because there, with the pack, he feels safe, and wanted, and needed, and necessary. He's theirs, and they're his, and they have each other's back, always. They're family in a way his dad and him haven't been ever since his mother died. His dad is great and all, but working all day – sometimes all night – drinking himself into oblivion a few nights a week until Stiles got old enough to hide the bottle from him, which didn't really work out as planned, but it did show his dad he knew that wasn't right, and that's why he stopped, never talking about things: that wasn't healthy, wasn't really family.

His dad tried to keep them together, but really, what he had done was pushing him away more and more. And this was… he got it that his dad was afraid of him getting hurt, of losing him, but nothing had happened in the two years he had been kept in the dark – and it wasn't like John hadn't caught wind of things being wrong with Stiles. He just chose to ignore it for as long as he could, hoping it'd go away on its own.

Yeah, Stiles hadn't invented that technique. He'd just perfected it.

And now he is here, alone in the middle of nowhere.

"Nothing's going to change. Nobody wants anything to change. We just have to… wait. Ok? We'll wait" Derek's voice is firm and growly again, as if he can order things not to change and they'll obey him – maybe they will.

This is Derek Hale's pack, they can do anything.

"Ok, I believe you" he is silent for a moment, and then he sighs softly, "Derek?" he calls.

"Yeah?"

"I… I love you, ok?"

His heart skips a bit while he waits for Derek's response – it's not like they haven't said it before, but it's one thing to say it when you think your human boyfriend is going to die, when you think your werewolf boyfriend is going to fall to pieces again, and another thing entirely to say it on the phone.

"I love you too" it's almost a whisper, but it does make him smile even if Derek hangs up on him after that. He laughs lowly, and then there's a knock on his door. When he calls out that whoever it is can come in, he's a bit surprised it's Lemon.

"Can we talk?" she asks sweetly, but under that sugar there's something of steel.

Oh, boy, this is where they tell him they're secretly a coven of witches, isn't it?

X

Lemon knows she shouldn't do it, but it's almost like the boy is asking for it. She had watched as he had gone into his room after his dad left, and she could see he was distressed. Magnolia wanted to go and talk to him, but that could only go wrong, because as far as Lemon could see it, Magnolia only thought Stiles was entertaining – a gay cousin she could show off to her friends as a trophy. That's not what that boy needed.

Her dad wasn't a good choice either, because he was just as upset as the boy, even if he didn't show it. He didn't like the way her uncle had handled things, but then again, Brick was a great father, if a bit too permissive. The sheriff, as far as she could see it, wasn't.

She said she'd go talk to him, and then… well, and then he was talking when she got there, and she was, yes, listening through the door. Maybe she could gather some information with which she could work to make their lives easier. They didn't need a moody teenager in the house on top of her dad's girlfriend living ten hours away, and her wedding – and her life – going to hell because of Zoe Hart.

But what she heard, the soft whispered words, the small laugh at the end – that was… heartbreaking.

If her intuition was right, and it was rarely wrong, they weren't talking about something that would go away on its own, a little crush on an older guy who was looking to take advantage of her cousin.

This wasn't as simple as John had made it out to be.

"Can we talk?" she asks, smiling, and she sees the boy go a little pale, "Don't worry, it's nothing bad, Stiles" she continues, smiling again, and sitting gracefully on the edge of the bed, leaving the door open.

"Sure" the boy says, shrugging, and she eyes his clothes a bit disgusted.

One mystery she'd like to solve is how the boy got an older boyfriend wearing those clothes, but that could wait.

She tilts her head to the side to start speaking, but the kid beats her to it.

"Only, first, I… I want to apologize. I'll apologize to your dad too, and your sister. About before, during lunch. I was… I was just trying to get dad not to leave me here, I have nothing against any of you, and you all seem pretty awesome. I'm sure I'd have loved coming here when I was younger, or even now, but he's taking everything away from me, not just Derek, you know? So, I'm really sorry, and I promise not to be that obnoxious again. Unless it's to someone who deserves it, and you guys sure don't."

Lemon laughs a little, and inclines her head.

"Thank you, Stiles. We appreciate it. You don't really have to apologize, though; we can see this is hard for you. That's what I was trying to say when I came here to talk to you – I want the truth, Stiles. Your dad told us his side, but I'd like to hear yours, too. You are, of course, staying, but maybe things won't be so bad, if we can make sure this boyfriend of yours isn't… dangerous to be around."

"Derek's not a pedophile!" he exclaims vehemently, and Lemon raises an eyebrow at his exuberance, "I mean, he's dating me God knows why, I think I may have inflicted some sort of Stockholm Syndrome on him by being so annoying he couldn't let me go anymore, but he'd never look at a kid or anything. Plus, well, he's got PTSD, and I frankly believe his emotional development is stunted, and that if we could measure that, I'd be older than him by now, because I deal with things, even if badly, but he doesn't. Didn't. He's dealing with things now, because I… he says I help him do it" the boy suddenly looks close to tears, and looks down, "He needs me, Lemon."

He sounds so broken Lemon wants nothing more than to hold him, but she's not sure they can do that yet, so she focuses on the one thing that stands out in the whole babbling thing her cousin seems prone to do.

"PTSD?" she says, and Stiles sighs deeply.

"Yeah. A really crappy, bad case of it, because he's so quiet and introvert naturally it's hard to tell. Also, he's kind of… strong. For everyone else. He doesn't accept he needs help sometimes. I'm… I'm the one who gets it through with him. He lets me in."

"What happened?" she asks again, because this… this is so not what her uncle made it out to be.

"His whole family died in a fire on his house eight years ago. He, his sister and their uncle were the only survivors, but his uncle got stuck in a vegetative state until he recovered, two years ago. He and his sister went away, but then she came back to our town, and she was murdered. He's got no one but us, you know, me and my friends. We're his family."

Lemon stares at the boy sitting on the floor, and she can't quite match the obnoxious teenager from this morning to this mature young adult talking about his boyfriend's past – it sounds way too much for a kid to handle.

Suddenly he looks at her with a small smirk.

"You can check all of that on the internet, you know. It's all true, I'm not making this up so you'll pity me and help me or anything" he says, and Lemon decides that, yes, she likes her cousin.

Sharp as knife and fast as a whip.

She likes him.

"Well, Stiles, I'm sure we'll get along well" she says at him with a small smirk of her own, "We can't send you back, and I honestly think that if we did, your dad would find an even worse solution for this situation, but maybe we can work something out. Plus, a year goes by so fast you won't even feel it" she finishes, getting up and leaving.

She feels Stiles admiring look all the way out of his room.

Well, that's one way of making a good impression on the kid.

She, however, is on a warpath.

"Daddy!" she says, getting into her father's office and closing the door behind her, her voice set at the precise tone that meant business and she has her father's attention at once, "We need to help Stiles."

Brick looks confused for a second.

"We are, Lemon. I told John we'd take him in and…"

"Well, did uncle John tell you that Stiles's older boyfriend suffers from severe lack of emotional development because of PTSD? Or that Stiles is the only one helping him? Or that his whole family died in a fire, and he has no one? He didn't, did he?"

Her father is clearly stumped by this revelation, but he looks at her for a bit, considering things.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, daddy, I am. I wouldn't be here talking to you if I wasn't. I heard him talking to this boyfriend of his on the phone – they sound… serious, daddy. Really serious. I don't think uncle John really understands what he's putting Stiles through."

"But it's not our decision to make" Brick ends up telling her, his voice soft, "We send Stiles back, John will find someplace else for him, and maybe they won't be as accepting as we are. Very few families would agree to take in a boy with the story John is telling" he points out, and Lemon sighs, annoyed.

"What can we do, then?"

"We help him get through this year. And then we help him get back to his boyfriend" he says shrugging.

Lemon sighs, but leaves her dad's office, unsatisfied.

Maybe that's all her dad can do, but she can do more.

Maybe she will.

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