It's when Peter offers him the bite that he wonders it. What would happen to his "soul mate" if Stiles was a werewolf, or got turned into one? Would the other person just feel the pain of a bite, or would they turn too?

Nevertheless, Stiles rips his arm out of Peter's grasp before he could bite him, stares him down as Peter tells him what he already knows. No, Stiles doesn't want the bite. He wants to be equal.

Stiles stands there as Peter drives away, and looks down at his bent keys. He sighs, and slips them into his pocket.

Lydia.

Stiles can't stop Peter right now. He's just a human. He needs Scott. Who's probably at the hospital with Lydia. Who's in a coma and possibly dying.

He starts running.

The sight of the wolfed-out Alpha doesn't scare him. Scott lying on the ground does (even if it was only for a second, it still sent Stiles' heart racing). He throws the bottle at Peter, and the asshole caught it. Scott yells, then Peter's entire arm engulfs in flames when Allison shoots the bottle with an arrow. Jackson throws the second, and Peter's entire body is burning.

Stiles wants to celebrate, but the smell makes him gag. And then Derek's walking out of the house, towards Peter's still alive (and twitching) body. Stiles only watches as Derek looms over him.

A glance at Scott, and Stiles knows how this will end (and not in Scott's favor).

Derek lifts up his arm, claws extended, and swipes it down.

It finally ends.

("I'm the Alpha now," Derek growls in a weird, two-tone voice. Stiles has a weird feeling, as he stares at his newly red eyes, that it isn't the end.)

Funny enough (and oddly too soon), Stiles ends up crashing into Derek on the street a week after Derek turned into an Alpha, and only two days after Stiles broke his arm. (His own fault. He tripped going down the stairs. On his untied shoelace.)

"Hey, Derek," Stiles says warily.

Derek narrows his eyes. "Stiles." He glances at Stiles' arm. "What happened?"

Stiles lifts it up, glaring at it like it was his arm's fault he tripped. "This? I, uh..." Stiles quickly thinks of something to say. "Scott and I were having a strongman contest."

He raises an eyebrow. "Strongman."

"Yeah. Scott punched a hole in his wall, I knocked down a tree," Stiles says, smiling proudly, as if he actually committed the feat.

Derek doesn't even smile. "Funny. Too bad I was busy pushing over houses. I would've joined you."

It takes a moment to realize Derek made a joke. Then Stiles laughs. "Hey, look at you. Making jokes."

Derek rolls his eyes, but Stiles can see the corners of his lips turned up. Stiles just smiles wider. "Are you going to tell me how it happened?"

"Never."

Derek nods like he expected it, and Stiles hits his shoulder with his cast. His arm throbs and pain shoots it's way up Stiles' arm, but he gets to see Derek stumble, so it's definitely worth it.

Of course, it takes even longer until Stiles sees the werewolf again. Honestly, Stiles wants to say he hated him as much as Scott, but Derek has some humor under all that gruff (even if it's a bit dry).

Stiles feels... all Stiles wants to do is take Derek apart, examine his memories, feel what he felt when Derek was told his entire family burned to death in a fire besides his uncle (who had been in a coma with burns covering half of his body) and his sister.

It's probably horrible of him to feel that, but Stiles is interested. It probably has to do with the fact that he has a "soul mate" who can hurt Stiles, and Stiles feels like part of his life is being controlled, so he wants to take control of someone else's, for some reason. Scott still refuses to say his name or even talk about Derek. It makes Stiles laugh sometimes, and he knows Scott doesn't understand. Maybe one day.

Speaking of, Scott and Allison are now seeing each other in secret. On one hand, Stiles hates seeing them give each other heart-eyes all day, but the other is genuinely happy to see Scott so happy. It's not like Stiles will ever find his "soul mate."

Which he hasn't. And he totally feels nothing. (It sucks. Stiles wants to just cut this bond if he's never going to meet the goddamn person. It's a waste of his time.)

Stiles doesn't want the knowledge that someone out there is "meant" to be with him. It makes wanting to date other people really difficult, even when Stiles knows he can do it if he wanted to. It's like something nagging on the back of his head whenever someone cute smiles at him.

No no no no, it says. Not right. Not right for you. Check. Test. Not yours. Not for you.

Stiles wants to beat his brain into submission on good days. He endures it, though. Even as he and the Sheriff grow farther apart. Stiles knows what caused it (lying, sneaking around, shutting him out), and he wants it to stop.

He just doesn't know how.

He hates the plan for many reasons. It's not safe for civilians, Isaac might try and kill them (him), and the fact that Derek's silent in the seat next to him as they drive to the police station. While he respects the fact that Derek wants to stay quiet, Stiles is jittery, rerunning every possible thing that could go wrong in his head.

It's almost too much. Stiles can feel the beginnings of a headache form behind his eyes. He suffers through it, blinking more times in a minute than he should, and hopes Derek will continue the cold shoulder treatment.

Sadly, he doesn't.

"What are you doing?" Derek asks, while still looking out the window.

Stiles sighs, and fidgets in his seat, gripping the steering wheel just a little bit tighter. His cast digs into his hand and pain blooms from the pressure. "What are you talking about? I'm not doing anything but driving."

Derek gives him a look. Stiles doesn't like the look. In fact, he tosses one right back at him. Derek says, "You're heart's beating pretty fast for someone who's 'just driving'."

Stiles doesn't have an answer. He wants to stay quiet for the rest of the ride, but then something happens that pushes him right off the edge.

He gets a paper cut.

"ARE YOU ACTUALLY KIDDING ME? CAN YOU GO ONE DAY WITHOUT GETTING HURT, YOU ASSHOLE?! LIKE SERIOUSLY IS YOUR HOUSE FULL OF PIECES OF PAPER FLYING AROUND THAT SLICE YOUR HANDS UP EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN DAY?!"

Stiles had pulled over immediately when it happened, and would be satisfied by Derek's head hitting the window. Stiles gets out of the car, and paces for a bit, good hand running through his hair. He bits at the side of his finger that doesn't have a scab on it, and actually forgets there is someone else in the car and they have to be somewhere.

"Stiles?" Derek asks from the other side of the hood.

He looks at him, and Stiles just stares back. The nagging in his head is there, but more stubborn, like, he's not the one you know. Just saying. Shouldn't go for it. Not the one. Very quiet for some reason, and Stiles takes deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Drive," Stiles says as he walks past Derek and into the passenger seat. Derek doesn't pause, and just puts the car in drive and they reach the police station.

By that time, Stiles built his wall again, and everything was(n't) going to be fine.

(If the sight of Derek roaring at Isaac, and subsequently Isaac backing down, makes Stiles' heart race for a completely different reason besides anger, well only he has to know.)