One thing that could not be said about Stiles is that he stood by and watched as everyone else did the hard work.
Nope. Because while he may be a scrawny human, he was still the scrawny human who had saved werewolf ass on multiple occasions.
Which is why he never understood why Derek tried to force him to stay home when the other went out in search of whatever monster they encountered.
But it didn't really matter why to Stiles. What mattered was that it was fucking annoying.
Just because he didn't have the claws and fangs and the whole werewolf factor going on does not mean that he was going to stand by like a fainting maiden of old times.
'Dear friends, how I love you and only wish to help. But Alas! It can not be, I am but a lowly human in need of recusing and protection'
Yeah, Stiles couldn't picture himself like that either.
Especially when it was usually the werewolves needing saving anyway. (Come on, one line of wolfs-bane and no human in sight and then bam! You're as good as dead.)
Said werewolves are why Stiles was in the situation he was in.
You know that whole fae thing that's was going on?
Yeah, well apparently werewolves don't know how to leave stuff alone.
Common sense would tell you that until you find away to get rid of fairies -which Stiles would like to point out have magic- that you would steer clear of them.
So what does Alpha McBrood do?
Hunts them down.
Apparently becoming a werewolf makes you lose you're common sense. Like how rain suddenly makes everyone bad drivers.
Stiles thanks the Gods everyday that he didn't take the bite from Peter.
So Derek has his pups hunt down the fairies.
And doesn't tell Stiles. Because humans are fragile or whatever.
So how does Stiles know about what they did, you ask?
Because Scott, Scott with his wonderful puppy dog eyes and charming smile, pocket dialed him.
The human hadn't even known that could happen with a smart phone on lock but apparently anything's possible with enough werewolf logic.
So Stiles gets a call a little after five in the afternoon, on the other side of the line he hears Scott growling at Derek, complaining about what a bad idea it was, though he went along with said bad idea in the first place.
Idiot.
Hearing enough Stiles piles himself in his car and drives over to the loft to wait for the amazing wolf pack to get back so he can chew them out for being complete idiots.
But see the thing about fairies is that they are vicious. Nothing like Tinkerbell.
No.
If you have wronged them they will not stop at anything to get back at you. Which, by the way, is the first thing any book said about them. Which is what Stiles told Derek, but oh no the big bad alpha knows best and just had to go after them.
And so that's how Stiles found himself kidnapped right out of his car going the down the road.
Seriously, one minutes he's focused on the road thinking about how he's going to phrase the fantastic rant he has going in his head, and the next he's waking up with a splitting headache and the beginning of rope burn.
The ground under him is wet and the world around him is blurry for a few second before blinks and everything comes into focus.
This only makes the pain in his head hurt worse.
"Ow, there are other ways to kidnap people that don't involve hitting them over the head." He whined under his breath.
"Silence human,"Came a voice from his right, causing him to jerk up right, or at least try to, but it was a little hard with your hands tied behind you.
"Woah dude no need to bring the human card into play. Do not press that red button." His mouth was saying before his brain could think better of it. (But really thinking about it he probably would have said that anyway because really? Silence human? That's what the guy was going with?
When Stiles was finally able to wiggle himself into a somewhat better position to see he realized the man had take him to the outskirts of the preserve.
And when Stiles is finally say man he means man. Like the guy is taller than he is, but he's also obviously a fairy because last time he check grown men especially ones who kidnap do not have transparent and glittering wings poking out of their backs.
He was also obviously the fairy king, if the crown thingy he was wearing was anything to go on.
"Dude why are you so tall? Aren't fairies supposed to be like the size of a thumb?" Stiles blurted.
"Silence!" The fairy king shouted, leaning in towards Stiles face.
"Your alpha made the same mistake. You'd think for a werewolf he would know more about other supernatural cultures. Instead he laughed in my face. The highest level of disrespect. A strike against not only my honor but his own! And then he had the nerve to try to hunt my people down when we tried to claim the land he forfeited when he made that error. So I-"
"So he just insulted your size?" Stiles interrupted before the king could get to the revenge part of his monologue, because honestly once you've heard one you've heard them all.
"Are you sure your talking about the right guy? Because I was certain that he did the whole 'Rawr I'm the alpha, Fear me, for I actually have no clue what I'm doing' speech."
This gave the king pause.
"Is this alpha not a born wolf?" He asked, borrows furrowed.
"No the guy's definitely a born wolf, however he is kind of a fail wolf when it comes to everything supernatural. I mean the guy bit four teenager for Christ sake. Not exactly the smartest move." Stiles snorted, heart pounding as the other man's stance relaxed slightly.
"I was under the impression that the territory was ruled by a strong alpha who knew much of the different cultures. Alpha Hale."
"How long ago did you hear that?" Stiles had to ask, because that sounded nothing like Derek.
Sure he was a horrible alpha, but he was just going own instinct.
"Many years ago. I was told that this was a place to seek refuge if needed. That the alpha ruled strict but fair."
Seeing an opportunity to turn this in their favor Stiles gave an honest reply.
"You're thinking of Talia Hale, the new alpha's mother. She died nearly ten years ago with most of her family in a fire, set by a hunter. The only members left are Derek- this alpha- and his uncle. Derek only became alpha a couple of months ago and because his sister was supposed to be the alpha he never got any of the training to go with it. I think the only time the family interacted with other uh cultures was when one entered their territory. Fae must have never come through or Derek would have known how to act." Stiles told him hoping that it might sway his view.
He felt a little bad about throwing out Derek's past like that but he didn't think the alpha would mind too much if it got Stiles out of maybe being killed.
It looked like it was working too, but the fairy looked suspicious.
"If his family died ages ago then why is he just now becoming alpha. And why has his uncle not given him guidance on how to interact with other cultures?" The king asked, thinking he had caught the human in a lie.
But Stiles wasn't having any of it and snorted.
"As if anyone could get Peter to do anything to help. You know the guy has been killed already and just came back from the dead? No, Derek, his sister and Peter are the only ones who survived the fire. Well Laura becomes alpha and she and Derek head off to New York leaving crazy uncle Pedo to go even crazier. Then suddenly the killings start-"
Stiles spends all afternoon explaining to the king, whose name he learns is Lysander -and don't think Stiles didn't have to fight himself not to ask if he meant puck because it's important not to piss off the fairy king who he might be convincing to let go of the grudge against Derek.
By the time Stiles had finished telling the king how bad Derek had had it and wasn't it just awful how uncultured he was and by association the whole pack-what?! It's for the good of the pack, they could deal with the fae community thinking they were ignorant if it got them out of a war like Stiles was hoping.
"Oh that poor uncultured fool." The fae said despair evident in his voice.
"So you see how we could make a horrible mistake, in fact I had no clue fae existed until Derek showed up stuck in beta form." Stiles said playing it up.
"Of course, such tragedy and to even be betrayed by family. Truly awful," the king shook his head, face grim. "That would have never happened if they were fae. We are very protective of our family. Vicious even."
"As you should be. As everyone should be." Stiles said waving his now free hands in the air for emphasizes.
The king smiled at the gesture.
"I like you, human Stiles. Even without you being cultured, I find myself fond of you. You have so much potential." The king waved a hand.
"And after our talk, I have determined you to be genuine, if not a little exaggerated," he gave Stiles a smug look here-nothing getting passed a fairy king then-and continued. "I find your care for your pack to be near that of a fae and that is a hard feat to accomplish. Because of all this I have decided to spare your and your packs lives." Lysander declared.
Seeing Stiles eyes widen in glee he carried on.
"However nothing comes without its price, young Stiles."
The human held his breath and hoped to god that he wouldn't have to marry anyone because that's usually how things like this played out and he's to young to be a husband, he had so much he wanted to do, confess to Derek who he may or may not be in love with, maybe have crazy money sex with said person(a guy can dream) and he really really wanted curly fries again and he's like 80% sure fairies don't have curly fries and he would by extension not have curly fries. And oh think of his dad, oh god what would his dad say? Stiles was too busy working himself into a panic to notice that King Lysander was wearing an amused smile, knowing exactly what the human was thinking.
Such an amusing human he had come across, the fae was glad he had decided to spare him. Great fun he would have teasing his new friend.
"As I was saying , there will be a price." The king paused for dramatic effect before exhaling disappointed.
"You must educate those uncultured swing about the fae people. Not all will be as kind and forgiving as I." The king snapped his fingers and a large tome landed in the shocked and relieved humans lap.
"This is a book on out history, do take care of it, it is a gift. It's been enchanted so the reader can read it in their native tongue. In a year's time I and my people will be back to migrate north and you will be tested. I trust you will take this seriously."
The human nodded quickly mumbling out a yes, not believing his luck. No one would believe his luck.
The king grinned.
"It was nice to meet you Stiles I am glad I met you, I'll see you in a year."
With that the king snapped his fingers again and Stiles found himself back in his car with the heavy tome in the seat next to him.
His car was parked exactly where he last remembered before the kidnapping and he let out a nervous laugh which soon became hysterical laughter.
As the adrenaline from the past few hours left his body he allowed himself a small melt down. Because as nice as the fairy king was to let him go and even count him as a friend Stiles was seconds away from death and that wears on the nerves.
After having a reasonably long panic attack-read ten minutes of uncontrollable ugly crying and a call to his dad that probably confused the man- Stiles finally calmed down and started the car.
Thank God for deserted roads.
Knowing that the pack must be worried he headed toward the loft.
When he got their he saw that not only was the pack's cars parked out front so was the Argent's which surprised him.
Cautiously he climbed the stairs, lugging the book with him and pulled open the ridiculous door to Derek's loft.
He hadn't stepped one foot into the room before he found himself man handled around and his back up against the wall. Derek's furious/concerned- is there really a difference?- face came into view as the man knocked the book out of Stiles' hands.
"Dude!" the human protested, "I just got the king of the fairies to declare peace, it's not a good idea to go around throwing a peace offering on the floor." Stiles whined waving a hand at the book.
He wouldn't put it passed the king to put a sensor of whatever on it and Stiles would never forgive Derek if he just undid all his hard work.
The alpha growled back before leaning down and running his nose across Stiles neck. Which under different circumstances would be a total turn on but as Stiles looked over Derek's shoulder and saw the pack, plus the Argents in front of a map of the forest and then realized that nope he and Derek weren't actually together, he realized that he should say something.
"Woah, buddy I know I smell nice but Stiles is not a chew toy, bad Fido!" He cried bopping Derek lightly on the head because apparently he hadn't had enough near death experiences for today.
The werewolf growled at the dog joke but let it go before pulling back.
"You smell like magic." He said before he suddenly started groping Stiles' pulse points.
A throat clear behind Derek and Stiles turned his head to see the pack looking at him expectant.
Lydia was the one to speak up.
"Stiles," She said, tone expectant, "Where the hell have you been? We just spent hours looking for you, and you just come in here and start in on the dog jokes?." She crossed her arms and glared at him.
"Uh, I think we should sit down for this," Stiles slipped around Derek before picking up the tome and heading for the couch.
Derek was a step behind him the whole time and practically sat on top of him when they sat down.
With a deep breath Stiles explained how he had some how gotten the fae king to offer peace.
At the part where he told the king about Derek's family he looked at the wolf.
He looked sad but he didn't look up from where he was focusing on scent marking Stiles' shoulder and he didn't look open to apologies.
By the end of the talk the pack sat with various looks of disbielf and there wasn't a visible piece of skin that Derek hadn't touched-if it wasn't for his talk with Scott he would be concerned about the guy but having a pack member spend hours with someone you had declared war with was stressful and scent marking must get rid of the smell, Stiles decided.
For a long time the pack said nothing.
Finally Jackson broke the silence with huffed out chuckle.
The pack turned to him in shock.
Raising an eyebrow, apologetically he explained.
"Come on, only Stilinski could talk himself out of not only his own death but war."