Stiles fingers brushed against Derek's coarse fur, the Wolf side eyed him cautiously but otherwise didn't move.
"Shhh, its okay, I'm not going to hurt you Derek..." he petted him gently, then moved his hand so he could examine his other side, reaching over the top of him in a very ill advised, though unintentional show of dominance. As Stiles pressed his fingers over Derek's right side, Derek growled. Stiles jerked away as in a flash of movement that belied his pain Derek whipped around to grab Stiles by the leg. Snapping his jaws shut over it and barely piercing the skin.
"Shit Derek NO!" he yelped struggling sideways and falling on his ass. This was it, this was really going to be how he went out. With Derek's teeth fastened around his leg bleeding out onto the forest floor. Oh god, what if Derek ate him? What if this had been the last straw, the last shred of Derek's humanity gone. Lost on bloody Bambi.
Stiles cringed against the ground, too frightened to move. He'd faced hunters and wild animals, all kinds of supernatural critters, he'd survived them all just to get killed by a friend. If this really is it for his humanity, he thought, At least Derek wont know he's done it. Small blessings and all that... No. Derek deserves better. Acting on instinct alone Stiles raised his eyes to the wolf's and slowly, carefully, deliberately raised his head, bearing his neck. His golden eyes flickered as his jaw relaxed minutely.
"Derek, you need to let go, do you hear me? you need to let go of my leg." His eyes clouded with confusion before snapping down to where his mouth was clamped over Stiles' leg, for a moment he just stood there, frozen and then tentatively removed his fangs from the flesh and set the appendage on the ground, backing away a little.
"Derek" the wolf shrunk further away "Derek, stop. Come here, It's alright. You didnt know" Derek whined pitifully dropping his head and refusing to meet Stiles gaze
"Its okay, I f-forgive you" Stiles voice broke a little he was shaking with adrenalin and felt on the point of collapse "come here" he motioned towards himself and finally like a dam had broken Derek practically fell onto the dirt beside him, curled in a tight little ball against his side.
"Thank God" Stiles let his head thunk back onto the dirt and leaves "Bloody Hell Derek. I thought I'd lost you there." He flung a hand to the side and petted Derek's fur. It had been an age since he'd been able to do that. After what Stiles guessed had been about three months away from the pack Derek began drifting a little when shifted, losing focus, getting distracted. After that it had been a downwards spiral into an almost complete disconnect between human Derek and wolf Derek. Without any resources to actually research the cause and little more than mildly educated guesswork to go on Stiles had had to become extremely good at judging appropriate courses of action. He was mostly informed by trial and error, but he had learnt that in almost all circumstances a show of trust or submission would not only please the wolf but seemed to break through to Derek's human consciousness, mostly but not always. Last moon was a perfect example of a time when any attempts to bring back human Derek were entirely futile. Although Stiles wondered whether this was caused by the thunder; even though it had saved Stiles from a deeply aggravated wolf attack it had also seemed to distress Derek to the point of complete breakdown. It'd been very difficult for Stiles to remain on the other side of the cave when Derek's fear had left the air with a palpable rancor.
Derek whined softly, poked Stiles' shoulder with his nose. Stiles often wondered if the Wolves had a sixth sense, whether they could pick up on emotions.
"I was really worried you know and not just for my leg. We..." He swallowed " We need to find a way to keep you here, keep you with me. I don't think I could manage if you went... wild." Derek huffed into Stiles shirt sleeve and Stiles fell silent for a while. The blood on his leg tickled his skin as it oozed and he twitched slightly trying to blott it on his pants. The bites weren't deep, certainly not deep enough to be a real problem. He'd probably have to put some stitches in his pants where Derek had punctured them though. He had long ago realized that focusing on the mundane was monumentally preferable to allowing himself to freak out over their whole, fucked up situation. The last thing Derek needed right now was for Stiles to panic.
Dusk was starting to draw in, heralded by a change in the forests tone, it went from mostly still and quiet to busy and alive, little birds twittered in the shrubs and the woods themselves seemed to move as hundreds of little critters began to scamper about, the diurnal creatures retuning to their burrows and nests and the nocturnal ones just starting to stir ready for the night. Derek got up heaving to his feet and shaking himself Stiles startled and reached to grab onto him, but Derek just rolled his eyes and pushed Stiles back onto the ground with a paw before padding quietly away. A few tense minutes later, that Stiles spent mostly waiting to hear the shrieks of dying animals, Derek returned. He appeared butt first tail wagging as he dragged his rucksack. Somehow he had managed to pile his neglected clothes on top of it and it was such a ridiculous, human thing to do that Stiles let out a surprised bark of laughter. Derek dropped the rucksack to give him a disgusted look. Stiles own rucksack was back in the clearing where he had first spotted Derek having brought it with him on their failed ambush. Derek dragged that over too and then settled down next to him again, his heat seeping through Stiles jacket and warming his side.
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This was how they'd slept early on, curled around each other on a mattress of leaves and moulder. They'd had to move up market to tents and sleeping bags in Winter, but it was late Spring now and the weather was just warm enough to go without.
