See Chapter 1 for warnings


Stiles Stella Stilinski (Or Finding Out Who You Really Are)

28

Raw.

Exposed.

Hunted.

Snapping my eyes open I look around Derek's room and try to breathe past the emotions I'm convinced I'm getting from him. He's wrapped around me, he's spooning me, and I feel like one of those comfort toys you give kids and then they hug them to death.

Hot breath whispers on my neck and I struggle not to fidget and just let Derek sleep. He's a bit twitchy and for some reason all three of the werewolves living here have been sleeping badly, they've all been having nightmares, and they all have some fantastic material from their lives to really haunt them when they sleep.

I've been researching supernatural nightmare inducing creatures and Peter has given me full access to his laptop. In the spirit of the recent events we've also told my dad, Mrs McCall, and even Mr Argent. So far all of us are coming up with nothing.

Peter hasn't stopped coming to my room to sleep, but it's hard to get enough sleep when he's almost afraid to close his eyes, he says I help to keep the worst of the dreams at bay, but he still whimpers and I know he's reliving the house burning down.

Behind me Derek whines in pain and I pat his hand uselessly and try to hold onto the fun and laughter we had running through the woods. It really was a good run today. The weather held off long enough for me not to get wet and as we pulled away in our jeep the sight of four miserable, soaking wet, werewolves made me smile.

Along with the werewolves not sleeping the rest of my life is up and down depending on the day. Mrs McCall has had her stiches out and I think had a talk with my dad, it's clear she wants more from this relationship than hand holding and I don't think my dad's sure how to handle it, mom was his one and only, Mrs McCall is being incredibly patient with him and they're taking it slowly. At school my grades are holding or going up, Lacrosse is awesome we have yet to lose a game since I re-joined, Jackson was getting better but for the last few day has back slide to the point that Danny blew up at him and never ever wants to talk to him ever again. I have no idea what Jackson said to him to make Danny walk out on him like that.

I'm also struggling to learn to call Mrs McCall 'Mel' like she asked me to.

Sighing I do my best not to move but Derek snuffles and whimpers anyway and then he jolts awake. He's done this a few times, he always covers me like he's putting his body between me and whatever he thinks is going to hurt us. He's also kind of heavy, I don't heave him off of me because he retreats to the other side of the bed and won't cuddle then.

"Sorry," he grunts and slides back off of me.

"'S'okay," I tell him and stretch out, "Though I should tell you that I am now wide awake, I won't be able to lay here much longer," I roll over and I'm all Stella now. "I hope you were able to get some sleep today."

"It's fine," He won't look at me and keeps his eyes away from me. "We should probably get ready, I still have dinner to make."

"Yes Derek," I even have a little bit of grace when I get up, glancing back I find him staring at me and he flushes before he looks away.

Shrugging at the strangeness of werewolves, because Peter has been a complete hug monster recently, I go to Peter's room and internally do a happy dance at the beautiful blue dress he left out for me. Hurrying to the shower I luxuriate in washing and getting ready to wear my beautiful clothes. In no time at all I'm walking out of his bedroom and watching the bottom of the dress flair at every step.

Derek's standing in the kitchen opening cans of something. There's more than one reason why Isaac is the best cook in this household. In the background there's music playing softly and it reminds me of those orchestral things we used to be inflicted with during music lessons. The only thing different to those lessons is the fact that I get to see Derek do a few dance steps as he empties the tins of food into a microwavable dish.

The spin to the microwave should be completely unnecessary but it does look good and I stand there staring.

Stopping and staring at me Derek tilts his head and one of his eyebrows might lift higher than the other one. "You dance?" I blurt out.

"Ballroom yes, I'm not as good at the other ones," He admits and I have no idea how to process that information. "Would you like to dance Stiles Stella?" And Derek Hale, Alpha of the Hale pack holds his left hand out to me.

"I don't know how to," I really want to though. As Stiles I'm not that interested in watching people dance, as Stella I love to see the dresses and the way the women always look so damn graceful and elegant, like swans drifting effortless over the water, when in reality you know they're peddling like crazy under the water.

"I'll show you," he offers and I decide to tempt fate by holding out my hand to take his. He reels me in gently and then we begin.

Derek starts with what he calls one of the basic steps of the waltz, everything builds from there. In reality it involves us dancing in a square box way, neither of us touching as Derek coaches me through picking the correct leading foot each time, "Your other left," or "Your other right," is said a lot before I can do it without thinking.

Once I can do that he ramps it up by doing the hold. And I'm disappointed that it involves no waist touching, his right hand sit on my left shoulder blade instead. My left hand does get to sit on his muscly upper arm, and if this were anyone else but Derek I could have happily stored up that memory.

We do the same basic box but this time Derek sort of twists us as the same time so we somehow end up going around in a circle at the same time. It's a simple rinse and repeat motion, "Good, that's really good Stiles Stella, you're getting the hang of this really quickly."

To finish off the lesson we have to bend our knees at one point and then straighten up, it gives that up and down flow bit, I thought that was achieved by going on your tip toes and Derek tells me there is a move like that too, but this one is done by the knees.

Having managed to not kill either one of us in this impromptu lesson I'm in a ridiculously good mood when Derek's ears all but perk up and he looks over to the door with a smile, the others must be home now. We don't stop dancing and I'm in the middle of showing off my dance moves when Derek sort of detaches from me and swings me so I'm facing them. My dress flairs out dramatically and I can't hold in my laughter.

When I see them I attempt to give a little curtsey, "Did you know that Derek can dance? And not only dance, he can waltz."

"He took lessons as a child," Peter says and then dismisses us with, "I need to shower, will dinner be ready soon or were you too busy playing?"

Any relaxation Derek has is gone and he's back to being just Derek, "I'll microwave it when you're all ready to eat." Moving away Derek goes to grab cutlery and I stand a bit awkwardly as Peter stalks off and his bedroom door slams so hard the doorframe reverberates. Isaac flinches and scurries off to his room. Boyd and Erika do rock, paper, scissors to determine who gets Derek's room first.

Ignoring them all I go and sit as quietly as I can on the couch. Sitting cross-legged I amuse myself by spreading my dress out over the cushions and then reading a magazine. Someone here likes to read factual stuff and I try to immerse myself in National Geographic and the stunning pictures they always do so well.

When the couch dips next to me I don't look up but I know Peter's lounging there, he's got a very nice blue dress shirt on and he's back to smiling at me. "Anything interesting in there?" He's pointing to the magazine and then he slides in close to me, crowding into me, and his arm slides around me so our sides press against each other.

Annoyed at him I try to shift away but his hand on my other side tightens slightly, huffing I put the magazine down and glare at him, "Yes thank you Mr Hale, there are several things that are interesting in here, things I doubt even you would think are frivolous wastes of time." Closing the magazine with a snap I slap it down in his lap, "Do enjoy your reading time," and I storm off to grab some glasses out of the cupboard.

Filling the glasses I go to carry them to the table but Peter's standing right behind me, only his werewolf reflexes save the glasses and the juice, "Stella, please don't be angry with me, let me make it up to you by helping."

I don't get any choice in the matter as he uses a tray to load all of the glasses in one go and glides off to put them on the table. Rolling my eyes at his back I help Derek by putting bowls out so he can fill them with soup, then I hack some bread into what could be loosely called slices.

Peter has to interfere with the soup ladling and to stop him I load up his tray with some of the already full bowls of soup and smile at him, he gets the hint and shuffles off to put the soup on the table, by the time he comes back the rest are ready for him. Derek carries the bread and I just head for my seat at the table, the other teens are already there before me.

Dinner is beyond awkward, Peter is vicious to everyone except me, this is the closest I've ever seen to being insane since he was resurrected. After a particularly venomous snark at Erika, which I can see almost has her in tears, and she's put up with shitty nasty teenagers for years, Derek tries to get him to apologise but Peter simply verbally swipes at him.

I have no idea why Peter's acting like this but he's not being the same mild mannered fashion orientated werewolf that I've started to get to know. He's almost back sliding to how he was when he was insane, power hungry, and living only for revenge.

Putting down my spoon I clear my throat, "Thank you so much for the meal Derek, though I'm sorry I seem to have lost my appetite," I'm not used to this level of tension here, I've started to get used to it as being my safe space again. "I've found I dislike high levels of hostility when I'm eating." Carefully sliding out of my seat I motion to the couch, "If it's not too much trouble I'd like to sit quietly to see if my stomach will settle," Because right now its tying itself up in knots.

Nodding Derek lets me go and I walk over to the couch, I refuse to look back, I don't think I can take Peter glaring at me the way he was Derek earlier. Going back to sitting cross-legged I arrange my shirt again and pat the soft material, then I lift the magazine back up and fake reading. I've wrapped an arm around my middle to hold myself together and I don't know why I'm so upset at Peter, but I am.

Behind me no one is talking, I can only hear the occasional clink of cutlery on bowls. Resolutely tuning it out I flip through some pages and try to get sucked into colonies of leaf cutter ants, but it doesn't hold my interest and I start feeling worse and worse. My stomach is knotted up even further, my head is starting to pound, I really want to throw up, and I shiver as it begins to get cold in here.

Standing up I turn around to find five miserable werewolves all sitting at the table staring at their empty bowls. Between all the shit I'm dealing with at home and school I just can cope with them right now. I know I should be doing something but I need some space, the walls are starting to close in on me, "I'm not feeling that well, I think I'll go home."

"Stella," Peter stands up too and I just hurry to his room so I close the door in his face. He knocks on the door, he doesn't just barge in, "Stella?"

"I'm changing," snatching my other clothes I got to his bathroom and lock the door. I really do change and I'm so upset and off balance, I don't understand it, why do I feel so bad? I can't think of anyone at school I've come into contact with recently that's been sick, I don't where I could have caught anything from.

Putting all my beautiful clothes away in Peter's room, a room that is conspicuously free of Peter, I bumble out into the main room and straight into his body. He was waiting just outside his door, "Urgh," I startle and flail at him.

"Stiles?" In seconds his arms are around me and I'm pulled into a hug, "You smell upset and in pain." His hand soothes my back and I lean into him for a few seconds but then my stomach rolls and I gag.

"Yeah, not feeling so good right now Peter, I'm going to go home and sleep it off, in my bed, alone," for some reason I don't want him near me. In fact I don't want any of them with me.

"Stiles, at least let me drive you home," He pulls me closer to him and I recoil as I start to vomit. Luckily I don't actually throw up on him, it does serve to get him to me go and I stagger over to the doorframe to cling to it. "This has come on very suddenly Stiles, did you have any symptoms earlier today?"

"None," I croak out and then Erika's beside me and her arm steadies me where I'm leaning . "I just want to go home," and for the room to stop spinning.

"Boyd can drive you home, we'll phone your dad to let him know you're not feeling well," Derek is suddenly there and my head spins faster.

"Come on Stiles," Erika keeps me more or less upright and I'm only vaguely aware of them getting me downstairs and into my jeep, at least I think it's my jeep.

The vibrations of the engine make me feel worse, and then like a switch I start to feel better. At least better enough to groan into Erika's shoulder, she's sitting in the back with me. "I feel horrible," I whine.

"Well that's something I do not miss," She rests her cheek against my head, "I used to get flu every other year, and I hated it, it would wipe me out for a month trying to get over that."

"Werewolf healing for the win," I feebly fist pump and she chuckles at me.

I'm not aware of much at home either. I know dad helps me up the stairs, I know Mrs McCall checks me over, I know I get tucked into bed and I know I fall asleep.

What I don't know is why I'm dreaming Lydia is straddling me on the bed and shaking me by my shoulders yelling my name, "Stiles, Stiles, Stiles, wake up, you wake up right now, and you tell me how you fixed Scott."

"Wha?" Flailing at her I don't dislodge her at all and then I can hear my dad and Mrs McCall and how do I end up with weird dreams like this? "Lydia?"

"Ha, you're awake," and she goes back to shaking me as my dad and Mrs McCall try and drag her off of me. "No, I've been speaking to Allison, I know Scott was poisoned, I need to know how to save Jackson!"

Oh my god I think I'm awake now and I think this might not be a dream. Dazed I stare up at the beautiful red haired genius and I have no idea what the hell is going on.


A/N: Sorry for any and all mistakes, I've tried to catch those I could, but I'm only human.