Chapter Twenty-One:
Stiles hadn't seen Derek for hours. He assumed the Alpha was nearby and listening though, considering a pain attack could come around at any moment.
Jesus- he could never truly be alone anymore could he?
Stiles was kind of grateful that Derek had taken it upon himself to avoid him though, because everything he was feeling in that moment was basically; awkward, awkward and more awkward.
His blush still hadn't fully dissipated!
Admittedly, waking up snuggling Derek wasn't at all a bad thing, but the look on the Alpha's face… it wasn't even annoyance- it was just plain embarrassment. Like getting cuddle attacked by Stiles was some horrible crime. And the dude had spent, like, AGES in the shower after that! What was he doing anyway? Trying to wash the stink of teenager off? Stiles got that he wasn't the most ideal snuggle-partner, but come on! He'd gotten hit on heaps by girls that past year- especially since he'd grown his hair out and beefed up a bit.
People, not Derek Hale people, were dying to get a chance to snuggle with the Stiles!
Whatever, it was still pretty embarrassing, and totally horrible.
On fear of running into Derek- Stiles refused to leave the comforting confines of the bed. Not that his energy levels were necessarily up to leaving it anyway- but , say, if Stiles did want to go to the kitchen and make himself a sandwich or some shit- he wouldn't, because Derek could be hiding there…and Stiles really, really couldn't face him- at least until he got his blush down.
Stiles, being bored and trapped- quickly found something to do in the confines of Derek's bed; he changed the bandages on his thigh- the place he'd gotten bit.
It was the one thing he'd been steadily capable of doing since he got bitten by the Ghoul. The toxin, and the pain it caused, always took a lot out of him- and most days he just slept, passed out from the pain he'd been feeling. When he was awake, he was way too tired to leave the bed- especially in the last few days. But he'd always had at least enough energy to look after his wound.
At the start his leg had looked weird. There were lines and gashes that were obviously tooth marks- sewn up with stitches, and around those cuts there were the outlines of veins and arteries that you could clearly see were filled with weird black gunk. It basically made all the flesh surrounding his injury appear black and veiny and gross looking, like some weird magical infection.
Stiles had refused to let anyone else see it, mostly out of privacy issues…and also because he felt a bit embarrassed that his leg looked to gross.
Today though, his thigh, which was still well on its way to being fully healed… looked way better than it had in previous days.
The scary black veins had gone down- looking like a normal pale blue and clouded over by dark, angry, purple bruises, caused by the harshness the Ghoul had used when it tore into Stiles' leg. The actual puncture-marks even looked less red and angry- fading down to slight irritated pink.
Stiles didn't waste much time looking at the wound…since it kind of creeped him out a bit, and covered it in fresh disinfectant, ointment, gauze and bandages- wrapping it tightly like Melissa had taught him.
It throbbed a bit after being exposed to the air, and Stiles winced as he moved it around the bed.
He'd neglected to even ask Melissa for pain killers- since most of his pain was being consistently taken away by werewolves…and he was also asleep most of the time, but now he was kind of regretting that decision.
Oh well- too late now.
After the bandaging was over and done…he needed to find something else to occupy his time and get his mind off of the horrifically embarrassing events of that morning.
So, Stiles called his dad- had a long and guilt-inducing conversation about when Stiles was getting better, when he'd be home, how he was doing- if he was eating well and basically he had to reassure his father of what exactly was going on. In the end the phone call lasted quite a while, and caused Stiles to feel that familiar tightness and heavy crushing weight of guilt, deep in his chest. Stiles knew it wasn't entirely his fault- but ever since Scott got bit and the town went crazy…or really ever since his mum died, his dad hadn't really been fully himself- and Stiles had no idea how to fix it.
Boy did he want to fix it.
There was really only so many things you could to whilst being trapped inside a grumpy man's bed- and one of them was to call your best friend Scott McCall, something Stiles had been a bit apprehensive about since Scott had been so shaken over his condition.
"OH MY GOD STILES, HOW ARE YOU!?" were the first words that came screaming out of the phone- causing Stiles to pull his head back at the shrillness of the speakers.
"Whoa, Scotty calm down! I didn't interrupt during class did I?" Stiles asked, although he knew he didn't- he had a clock on his phone.
"Nah, we've all been let out for lunch. How've you been?" Scott sounded apprehensive, but Stiles was used to it after the few days he'd already endured of being treated as a fragile little poisoned human.
Still, he knew he needed to talk to Scott, and he wanted to talk to Scott- he missed him.
"Good- Derek and Peter say that my body's showing signs that the toxin is dissipating." Stiles supplied and heard muted voices calling out and rustling in the speaker.
"Sorry, everyone wants to talk. I'll put you on speaker- just a second." Stiles head Scott say- and then the static-y rush of sound that indicated the phone had been turned to speaker mode.
He was suddenly bombarded with the sounds of his friends calling out.
"Stiles!" that one was Cora- who Derek had exiled from the house, sending her to go and stay with Boyd. Apparently seeing him would have just as bad as affect as it did on Scott? Whatever- it was Derek logic.
"How are you?" Lydia- she sounded worried.
"It's been hard in chem without you man! No-one to cheat off of!" That was Isaac, of course.
"It's been quiet." Boyd sounded wistful- the ass.
"We missed you!" Allison's voice barely got through over the shouts of the others.
"Hi" Aiden was so intricate wasn't he?
"Hope you feel better!" Stiles thought he heard Ethan hum in agreement after Danny said that.
But, after that it was hard to distinguish all the voices- they were overlapping and shouting over the top of one another and his phone speaker wasn't designed to handle a bunch of shouting teenagers.
"Oh my God guys, one at a time!" Stiles sighed- but he was chuckling. It felt good to talk to them, get his head out of the lazy, painful place it had been in recently.
Then, as it always goes- everyone rushed to be the first one to talk, and the commotion got, if possible, louder than it had been before.
"OKAY!" Stiles shouted gruffly, and heard it echo around the loft- reminding him that Derek was probably listening in on the conversation.
"I'll go first- and you guys can just listen, deal?" Stiles heard a few muttered complaints from the phone (mostly from Scott and Isaac), but they all seemed to agree with him, settling down and just listening.
Stiles took a deep breath, and curled up- placing his head on his knees, looking out through the loft's windows and out at the alleyways of down-town Beacon Hills.
Then, he spoke.
"So- update…things the past few days, they haven't been going that well."
His friends roused again- shouts, whispers, questions- but he immediately silenced them.
"No. Listen. I- you all know the venom- that it causes a lot of pain…and so far I've had a few too many attacks for comfort…well, I guess one is really too many for anyone- but moving forward! " he cut himself off before he could start rambling- he didn't really need anything diverting him from what was trying to say.
Stiles took a deep breath, and continued to speak to his silent friends.
"I know Lydia is probably freaking herself out- and you guys too, by reading up on Ghoul bites on the internet. Probably coming up with some weird shit too. So I'm just gonna come out and tell you what it's been like, okay? But I need anyone who can't handle that to leave now- because what I'm gonna say isn't pleasant." Stiles paused, waiting for his answer- and heard an affirmation from each that they were all staying.
"Okay…so- I'll just start at the start then…" Stiles shook his head, clearing his running thoughts.
"The first time it happened…it felt like fire, and I know it only took a moment for Derek to start sapping my pain…but to me it felt like minutes." The people on the other end were silent, probably processing his words. And Stiles realised, since Derek was probably listening in – that this was also the first time he'd actually heard Stiles describe what the pain felt like.
Stiles didn't know if that made it better, or far, far worse.
"Yeah." He coughed, "it felt…it wasn't just like, being in fire- or even somewhere really, really hot- it was like someone was personally aiming for every single inch of my skin with thousands of blowtorches…and I felt it on the inside as well- in my head, my toes, my stomach, my heart- it hurts the most where I got bit on my leg."
Stiles took another shaky breath, knowing his friends were listening from their own heavy breathing on the other end. He really didn't like remembering- but he needed them to know exactly what was happening.
"Afterwards…after Derek took my pain- or even the times Scott and Peter did- It…it feels like I have to get close to the thing taking the pain away. Even if the pain is already gone! I just…it's like instinct or some shit…" Stiles breathed.
For the first time since he started, someone on the other end spoke.
"Is that why you turned into such a big cuddle-monster when I was over the other day?" Scott asked- he sounded wrong, like he was trying to sound humorous and light- but he came off chocked and emotional instead.
"Yeah- but it was easy with you, because you're my friend- my honorary cuddle-bud. Yesterday with Peter it was like…It was supposed to be uncomfortable- and the notion of it was uncomfortable in my head- but at that point it was like I didn't care, you know? I just needed to have physical contact. I'm totally not gonna live down snuggling up to Peter Hale - it's going to haunt my nightmares guys. Eww."
The mood immediately lifted, like Stiles had said some magic words- and the sounds of his friends' laughter filled the air.
"Wait…does that mean you had to snuggle up to Derek too?" Lydia asked, sounding extremely amused and slightly…not so slightly, teasing.
You see! This is why Lydia Martin was known to be evil! THIS!
"Ugh, yeah- embarrassing story to tell about that." Stiles groaned into the phone- and would've felt like suffocating himself with the pillow- if not for feeling so happy to be talking to his friends again.
"Oh- do tell!" Lydia urged, and although Stiles was annoyed with her- he still felt that burn of affection at her general…Lydia- ness.
"Wait, isn't he listening in? He has to watch you right?" That was Boyd, sounding slightly confused- but interested.
"Yeah- but he was there, so it's not like retelling the story is gonna matter to him." Stiles said…but his cheeks were burning bright with embarrassment.
Oh well! Derek could suck it up! This was an embarrassing story to tell, that was gonna lift the mood and make his friends feel better and no-one, especially some emotionally-constipated werewolf- was gonna stop him from telling it!
"So? Embarrassing story involving Derek and cuddling?" Allison urged, and he heard the others hum in agreement.
Stiles rolled his eyes and lay back on the bed, getting comfortable. Ready for the awakening onslaught of dirty jokes…mostly told by Cora and Isaac. Peter had been teaching those two bad habits.
"Okay- so…I woke up this morning, a slight bit delirious- but Derek and Peter said that was something that was gonna happen- a symptom or whatever." Stiles breathed, knowing in the back of his mind that Derek was listening- and that if he embarrassed the Wolf, Stiles might just end up getting his throat torn out.
"And, well, you see, I thought that I was lying on this really weird shaped pillow."
"Oh my God!" Lydia breathed- but the others hadn't seemed to draw the picture yet, just pleasantly listening and waiting.
"And I started, like hugging the pillow…what I thought was a pillow- because it was warm, right?"
Lydia was cracking up- and Boyd must have gotten it too- because Stiles heard the deep, grainy chuckles the boy was emitting.
"And I was, like, rubbing my face all over it-" Lydia howled with laughter, " because it was warm…and I was kinda loopy…and then I hit this scratchy spot, right? And I thought to myself- 'what an odd pillow'- but then I kind of just kept moving on, you know- rubbing my face everywhere I – uh…pleased." Stiles choked off embarrassed.
Danny, Cora and Isaac seemed to have stuck gold by the sound of the giggles, but Scott, Allison and the twins were still yet to figure it out.
"And then I reached this soft spot, and I was all like 'ooh soft!' and started freaking petting it." Stiles blushed, knowing Derek was listening in.
Allison, the twins, and Scott- had finally caught on- and joined the others in giggling.
"So- there I was petting the weird pillow- when I heard this voice that sounded like Derek."
Isaac was wheezing, and Stiles faintly head the sound of someone being helpfully clapped on the back.
"Anyway- it was telling me to wake up…and I was all like 'no! I'm snuggling with the warm pillow'…but then, yeah, I woke up."
Laughter- all he could hear was laughter.
Horrible, mocking laughter!...but at least it wasn't the sad, awkward silence they'd endured just moments before- and that was the entire reason Stiles was subjecting himself to this humiliation in the first place.
"And as you guys have obviously figured out- the pillow turned out to be Derek, so yeah- do with that what you will- and I hate you all." Stiles finished lamely, and listened as his friends tried to control their breathing.
They failed expertly- cracking up…controlling themselves once more- then someone went about making some horribly adult rated joke- consequently causing them all to divulge into hysterics again.
"Oh-oh my God! Can I please get to be the one to tell Peter!?" He hears Cora ask loudly over the dwindling giggles.
Derek was going to kill him. Slow and painfully.
His tombstone would read:
Couldn't find the whole body- it was shredded over the county.
He was so skrewed.