After the incident in the bowling alley, multiple weeks flew by. In his past, Derek's first weeks of school were usually slow and boring, but things seemed to move very quickly in Beacon Hills. Ha and Stiles hadn't talked very much; ever since the parking lot, Stiles seemed to be awkward-more than usual-and Derek was concerned. He specifically remembered Lydia and Allison warning him about Stiles becoming too attached, and he was afraid that as a precaution, Stiles chose to push him away instead.
And of course even though he understood, he didn't want it to end that way. When he thought about that first week, how quickly everything had gone, he almost wanted to smack himself in the face. If anything was ever going to happen between the two of them, it needed to be gradual and not rushed, and most importantly REAL. Derek tried to text Stiles every so often, usually getting a reply of 'sorry, busy' or 'got to go, have lots to do'. He would just sigh and continue with whatever he was doing, knowing that trying to pull someone towards you while they're pushing away is like trying to drown a fish.
His mom was slightly sympathetic, but honestly she didn't think it was going to work out. She actually thought that it was ridiculous, and now that the rush of those first few days was past, Derek agreed with her. When it came down to it, he hardly even knew Stiles. He didn't talk to him in person very much; though they had classes together they only sat near each other in Chemistry and lunch, and it was obvious that Stiles was avoiding him.
He had started talking to Allison and Lydia more, expressing his concern about the situation. Their simple advice was just to give it some time; Derek would have to wait until Stiles was comfortable enough, then the two of them could essentially start over. He figured that he could be patient; though he didn't know how long it would take Stiles, he was willing to wait as long as he had to. School, as usual, wasn't difficult for him, so he had plenty of time to think about other things.
He found himself studying a lot, even though it was unnecessary and a waste of time. He just didn't know what to do with himself; school had usually been what had kept him occupied. Usually he could paint or write, but he never felt in the mood. He felt as if he needed something to inspire him, not necessarily a person, but an event, or a place, or a dream, or anything!
Every so often, he would wake up in the middle of the night, gasping and covered in sweat, two red eyes briefly burned into his vision. He would cram his eyes shut, trying to force the burning spheres away, but for some reason they always managed to breach his mental block and enter his thoughts, always on the back of his mind, nagging him, terrifying him. Since the bowling alley, there had been at least two more reports on the news that sounded completely out of the ordinary; neither mentioning red eyes, but both involving some large creature that was terrorizing citizens. It had been deemed a mountain lion, and it was rumored that there were more than one, but Derek knew that couldn't be true because mountain lions were highly territorial and lived in solitary. It had to be the same one, or possibly something else.
He always tried to tell himself that the lights could have been anything; the power had gone haywire and there were so many lights in that bowling alley. It could have been anything... But then he would remember how they seemed to fixate on him and come closer, his breath catching every time he relived the memory. He also remember his saving grace every time, Stiles. It was a circulatory pattern of thinking and it was starting to get annoying and even seemingly unhealthy.
It was late October when things started to change, both the leaves and everything about Beacon Hills. Every so often, a new strange report would come in involving some kind of creature, leaving people baffled and nervous. Derek was starting to get worse and worse, sitting in his room and staring into space for hours, the same thought cycle repeating until he eventually fell asleep. He wasn't eating very much, in class he was almost non-responsive when he used to have his hand in the air to answer every question, and people were starting to get concerned about him. His mom would try to talk to him, but he would just nod and zone her out. Stiles and Scott had moved to a different table at lunch, but Lydia and Allison were obviously concerned about him as well.
He was poking at a salad with wilted lettuce, thinking about texting Stiles after school, trying to devise a strategy. There had to be something he could say, something he could do to bring things back to normal. Lydia snapped in front of his face, saying "Derek, you ok?" He squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head. "Yeah, sorry... I'm fine, don't worry!" He tried to smile so they really didn't worry, but by their responses he could tell the smile wasn't anywhere close to convincing. Allison sighed, "Look, we're just a little bit worried about you." Derek rolled his eyes a bit, sighing. "I know things seem kinda bleak right now, but I'm just trying to focus on school work."
"But that's exactly our point. You don't really have much else to think about do you?I mean, except for-" but she was stopped by Lydia, who gently kicked her. "How about, this Friday, just the three of us go out? We could hang out at the mall and go guy hunting, maybe give you something to think about?" Derek grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I guess that would be alright... So I have a question, how are you and Scott doing?" Lydia winced and shook her head and Derek immediately regret asking the question. Allison smiled and took a deep breath.
"Actually, things aren't looking too good! It's kinda complicated, but when it comes down to it... We're pretty sure Scott's gay." Derek raised his eyebrows, then brought them down into a frown. "But weren't you two together-" she nodded and cut him off saying, "I'm just gonna let him do whatever he needs to do. Of course I'm devastated, but it's not like he was cheating on me with another guy or anything..." She trailed off as she looked at Lydia, who was looking away and biting her bottom lip.
Allison sighed, "Lydia, is there something you aren't telling me?" Lydia whipped back around, shaking her head. "What? No, nothing at all! Everything is absolutely ok!" Allison glared at her and Lydia sighed. "Fine. Do you know someone named Isaac?" She looked shocked as she sputtered out, "I-Isaac Lahey? Curly hair, nice eyes?" Lydia nodded. "Yeah, well he and Scott..." She didn't even finish the sentence. Allison closed her eyes, a solitary tear escaping and running don her face, dripping off of her chin and onto the table. Derek wasn't quite sure what to do, so he just grabbed her hand, which she squeezed graciously. "Maybe tonight would be better for the mall?" he asked, directing the question towards Lydia. She nodded and whispered "Yeah, good idea... Besides, it IS Halloween, and we're not planning on doing anything!" Derek forced another smile, though this one did have a little bit of genuineness behind it. "Well I'll see you two later then, I gotta get to class!" Lydia nodded then turned back to Allison, whose head was in her arms, her chest heaving in and out could tell she was trying to hold herself together, but it didn't seem to be going very well. Lydia just rubbed her back and shushed her; it seemed like the two of them were always there for each other and Derek was happy to be included into such an exclusive friendship.
So after school, the three of them headed to the mall. Derek texted his mom to let her know he wouldn't be home until later, which she was fine with, happy even! He hadn't been getting out much so she wasn't going to stop him. Once there, they didn't do very much; they just walked around from store to store, talking and not really looking at the merchandise. Allison wasn't her usual self; Derek assumed she was still upset from earlier, but he didn't want to ask and make things worse.
As girls do, Allison and Lydia went into the bathroom together, leaving Derek awkwardly leaning against the corner of a wall. He pulled out his phone so he had something to occupy him, but there weren't any texts or missed calls. He decided he would try to text Stiles again, knowing that there would most likely be no reply. He took a deep breath and started to type, but someone rounded the corner and bumped into him, sending his phone flying and knocking him onto his butt. He winced as his assaulter offered him a hand to help him up, and his breath caught when he was brought to eye level with Stiles.
Stiles quickly jogged to the spot where Derek's phone had landed, luckily still all in one piece and in working condition. He handed it to Derek, who pocketed it quickly and cleared his throat. "Sorry about that! Your phone ok?" Derek nodded as Scott came around the corner, almost bumping into Stiles and smiling at Derek. "Hey! What are you doing here?" Derek shrugged, feeling even more awkward then before. Where the hell were they?
Scott and Stiles both frowned as Scott asked, "Are you here alone?" Derek shook his head and was about to reply when Allison and Lydia finally emerged from the bathroom. He winced slightly, already feeling a potentially upsetting confrontation. Allison and Lydia walked towards the group, stopping next to Derek. Allison's face dropped when she saw Scott and she looked away; the five of them stood in silence for a moment. The awkwardness emanating from Derek and Stiles combined with Allison and Scott's situation left them all a bit speechless, until Derek finally spoke up.
"Well, this has been fun and all, but we're gonna get going!" Lydia nodded in agreement and the trio all turned away, but Stiles grabbed Derek's shoulder. Derek turned back around, his eyebrows raised. "Yes?" he asked cautiously. "Can we... Can we talk? Alone?" Derek sighed and nodded, exiting the group and following Stiles out into the middle of the mall, which had a circular central plaza and four different stretches of shops. There was a large fountain in the middle of the plaza with benches surrounding it, and the ceiling was a large glass dome that was letting in the late afternoon sunlight; Stiles was avoiding direct eye contact with Derek and looking up, watching birds fly past and clouds drift by lazily.
They both sat on one of the benches and Derek looked over at Stiles, who was looking at the ground. "Look, if you're not ready to do this-" Stiles' head whipped up to face Derek. "No, I'm fine, I can do this... I guess my question is, are you fine?" Derek nodded, but after giving more thought to the situation he shook his head and stood up so he was facing Stiles directly. "You know what? I'm actually NOT fine! Ever since that time we went bowling, you've completely ignored me! Do you know how painful that was Stiles? I understand that you needed a little time to work things out, but a month and a half? That's completely ridiculous! Do you know what I did for the last 2 months of my life? Nothing! I didn't do anything! Because of you, all of my energy just drained away and I felt like I had nothing to live for!"
Stiles was looking around in horror. "Derek, people are-" but Derek cut him off. "So let them stare! I don't even care right now, I'm too angry and we need to get this figured out right now! So you need to make a decision: we can either start over, as friends, or you can get the hell out of my life!" Before Stiles could reply, the glass dome above them shattered, sending shards of glass raining down upon unsuspecting shopper. Derek crouched down and covered himself, but he felt his hands and the back of his neck stinging as the glass hit him. Something dropped from the ceiling, landing in the fountain and smashing it, sending water flying everywhere. The plumbing went haywire, shooting jets of water in multiple directions. Derek looked towards the fountain and saw something large and hairy, breathing heavily and growling.
Stiles had dropped to the ground when the glass broke, and Derek could see he had cuts all over his hands and face. People were screaming and running and the mall was in an absolute state of chaos. Derek looked around, trying to find Scott, Lydia and Allison, but they were already gone. "Stiles, we have to get out of here!" Derek screamed over the roaring of the water and the terrified chorus of other people. The beast turned quickly, looking right at Derek. And he froze. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he couldn't breathe, because two red burning eyes pierced right through him. The creature roared and Derek's mind froze; Stiles grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away as the monster stepped out of the fountain.
With a forceful yank, Stiles managed to snap Derek back to reality, and they both started running. After the sudden mind block, so many thoughts and ideas and memories rushed back to Derek, and he suddenly recognized the creature; it was a lycan, otherwise known as a werewolf. Though he felt like his lungs were going to explode, the adrenaline running through him kept him running, just mere feet behind Stiles. However, he started feeling fatigued and when he looked back, it was still chasing after them. He saw that there was a bathroom and he ran into it, pushing a trashcan in front of the door quickly and locking himself in a stall, raising his feet so it wouldn't see him. He wasn't even sure if Stiles knew that he was gone.
The werewolf pounded on the door and it flew open; Derek held his breath but his lungs were screaming at him, his heart beat rapid and panicked. He could hear the wolf, right outside the stalls, sniffing and letting out low growls, and the only thought that came to him was Oh God I don't want to die, not like this. There was a shattering noise and the werewolf growled, rushing out of the bathroom. He heard a scream and a struggle, then just the sound of water rushing in the distance and alarms blaring everywhere.
He quickly exited the stall and peered carefully out of the door of the bathroom, noticing someone's body lying at the top of the stairs that led down in the courtyard, where water was starting to cover the floor. There was no sign of the wolf, so he cautiously crossed over to the body, and as he got closer he saw that it was Stiles. He broke into a run, noticing blood running down the stairs and dissipating into the water. He started to cry as he knelt down beside Stiles, who was only barely breathing. There was a large bite mark on his left shoulder and Derek shook his right, trying to get him to wake up.
For minutes that seemed like hours, Derek tried and failed to get Stiles to wake up, shaking him and screaming his name until he was hoarse. Suddenly, the bite on his shoulder started to warp, to... heal? Soon, there was just smooth skin, with not even a trace of a scar. Stiles' eyes fluttered open, and for a split second they seem to be bright yellow, but Derek just shook his head and helped Stiles up, dumbfounded by what had just happened. "Did you... did you throw a flower pot at a giant monster to save me?" Stiles laughed and nodded and Derek wiped tears out of his eyes. He hugged Stiles, who at first seemed reluctant but eventually returned the hug. Before they separated, Derek whispered "Thank you."
