Preface
Yellow, Blue, Red, WhiskeyPosted originally on the Archive of Our Own at /works/3116960.
Rating:
Not Rated
Archive Warning:
Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category:
M/M
Fandom:
Teen Wolf (TV)
Relationship:
Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Character:
Stiles Stilinski, Claudia Stilinski, Scott McCall, Derek Hale, Peter Hale, Sheriff Stilinski
Additional Tags:
Alternate Universe - Soulmates
Series:
Part 32 of Sterek One Shots
Stats:
Published: 2015-01-04 Words: 3169
Yellow, Blue, Red, Whiskey
by Angelwithwingsoffire
Summary
In a world where everyone is born with two eye colors, Stiles is different. His right eye, his own eye color, is a perfectly normal whiskey brown that he got from his mother. His left eye, the eye that is supposed to be the exact color of his soulmate's right eye, is a bright, piercing yellow. And that isn't normal. The doctor's think it means he doesn't have a soulmate, but Claudia Stlinski was always determined that it didn't mean anything, that her baby boy had a soulmate out there who he would find someday and fall in love with. And what can you say, a mother is always right.
Notes
Based on this tumblr post x
Yellow, Blue, Red, Whiskey
Stiles was close to tears as he plodded into his house. "Mommy?" He called.
Claudia Stilinski popped her head out of the kitchen at the sound of tears in her son's voice. And him calling her Mommy. He only does that when he's upset. "Baby what's wrong?" She asks, hurrying to his side, drying her hands quickly before throwing the towel onto her shoulder and kneeling down in front of her son.
"Why is my eye different?" He asked, looking up at his mother.
Claudia had seen dozens of people startle when Stiles looks at him. But he was her baby and it was her whiskey color looking up at her from her son's right eye and she loved him more than anything. The bright yellow of his left eye, his soulmate's eye, was nothing she hadn't seen and loved for seven years and her heart broke as he asked his question. She'd always known it would come someday. That someday somebody was going to tell her little boy his yellow eye wasn't normal but to hell with them and all the doctor's opinions. Her son had a soulmate and he was going to find him someday and she would never let him feel bad about his eye.
"Oh baby it's not. Everyone has different colored eyes."
"I know that Mommy." Stiles whined. "But everyone else has normal eyes. Scott has his brown and green ones. Ms. Melina at the station has green and blue. Everyone has different colors but their's are normal colors. Why's mine yellow?"
"Oh baby." Claudia sighed, wiping the tears off her son's face. "Your eyes are beautiful. There's nothing wrong with them."
"They're wrong."
"Who told you that?" Claudia demanded. She didn't like thinking about anyone hurting her baby boy.
"Jackson." Stiles told her. "He said I don't have a soulmate because nobody one earth has yellow eyes. He said I'm broken."
"Well he's wrong." Claudia said firmly. "You hear me? That nasty little boy is wrong. Because everyone has a soulmate. And maybe your soulmate just has something different about them and they have yellow eyes. No one can ever tell you they aren't out there just waiting for you because nobody has seen everyone in the world's eyes. Especially not nasty little Jackson. Okay?"
Stiles giggled at his mother calling Jackson nasty but he nodded. "Okay Momma."
"Good." Claudia smiled. "Now why don't you go do your homework and then you can come help me with dinner?"
Stiles nodded, smiling now as he scampered off.
Claudia sighed as she got to her feet. Tonight she'd have to talk to John about what had happened and she'd have to stop him from going after the Whittemore boy. They can't afford any sort of incidence.
Stiles was curled up in the corner of his room, crying. His dad was gone on one of the dozens of extra night shifts he'd been taking to avoid going to bed in his now empty bed and everyone else was asleep as it was two in the morning and Stiles should be asleep as well. But Stiles couldn't go back to sleep. He'd had a dream about his mother and when he'd gotten up to go to the bathroom and wash his face off, he'd been confronted by his left eye. Over the years he'd gotten used to the taunts and the insults about his bright yellow eye. He'd gotten used to the idea that he might not have a soulmate because no one had ever been born with a yellow soulmate eye. No one was born with yellow eyes at all, and yet Stiles was. The doctor's said the unusual color was possibly, and most probably, do to him being born without a soulmate and so his body had tried to compensate, resulting in the yellow eye. His mom had always told him it was okay, that there might still be someone out there with whiskey and yellow to match his and that he'd find them someday and everything would be okay. But his mom wasn't there to tell him that anymore and he had no idea how she'd explain this away. His left eye wasn't yellow anymore. It was bright, neon, glowing blue.
He'd spent over two hours on the computer before giving up. There were no records anywhere about someone's eye color changing. And with that, he'd resigned himself to his fate. He'd moved himself to the corner and he'd collapsed into tears for the first time since his mother had died. He'd refused to let himself break down and cry for her like he wanted to, insisting to himself that he had to stay strong for his dad, but now he was facing the loss of his mom and the loss of any hope he'd ever kept that his mom might be right. He didn't have a soulmate. And now he didn't even have his mother to tell him that was alright.
When his dad had come home that morning he'd found Stiles sitting at the kitchen table with a hot, unhealthy breakfast and a blue eye looking back at him. He'd stopped and stared for only a moment before taking off his gear and sitting at the table. He knew this was going to be a hard conversation. It was.
Stiles told his dad that he wanted the contacts. When Stiles had started middle school the doctors had offered him brown contacts to put in his left eye. It would make his eye a brown color that was different enough from his own to look like a soulmate's eye color that was just a different shade of brown from his whiskey eyes and allow him to fit in at school better. He'd decided not to get them because he knew his mom didn't want him to and he was a Momma's boy through and through. And he held the same hope she did that he had a soulmate out there and he didn't want to hide his soulmate's eye from the world. But now, with the color change, he wanted the contacts. He knew there would be teasing, particularly from Jackson, but he was willing to face that in the hope that someday everyone would forget he had a yellow eye and he could be normal.
John Stilinski didn't like it. He knew his wife had always been adamant that Stiles's eye was completely normal and that their son had soulmate out there waiting for him, but he could see the same stubbornness he'd always loved Claudia for staring out at him from Stiles's and he'd never been able to say no to the whiskey eyes. So he agreed and by Monday his son had brown contacts for his left eye.
Stiles nearly had a heart attack when he looked up and saw the other man standing in the forest. Shit! He thought. He grabbed Scott and tried to act natural and not like a good target in case this was the killer his dad and the rest of the department were looking for.
"What are you doing here?" The man demanded walking over. "This is private property."
Shit. Stiles thought again. But this time it was not because he looked like a killer in his leather jacket. This time it was because his left was brown. Whiskey brown. The same whiskey brown Stiles saw in the mirror every day. His heart jumped when he saw it but then it sank like a rock. The man's other eye wasn't a weird color. It wasn't yellow and it wasn't blue. Instead it was the most beautiful human green he's ever seen. This wasn't Stiles's soulmate, as much he kinda hoped it was because face it, the serial killer vibe was working for him and he was hot as fuck. But he could see the green as clear as day and it didn't matter what he hoped. This guy had a soulmate out there. A normal one with normal eyes and probably a normal life. So Stiles just shut down any spark of hope he had and locked it away. This could be a serial killer for fuck's sake. And he definitely wasn't Stiles's soulmate.
As it turns out, the man wasn't a serial killer. His name was Derek Hale. His uncle, Peter Hale, was the serial killer. And both of them were werewolves. And because it was Peter, not a coyote, that bit Scott, Scott was also a werewolf and Stiles was thrown head first into the supernatural world with none of the special powers Scott got thrown in with. He didn't even have a chance when Peter came for him. Scott managed to call ahead and warn him that the psychotic killer werewolf was coming for him, but it wasn't ten seconds after Stiles flailed, hung up, and ran for the bathroom to try and barricade himself in safety that Peter came crashing through his bedroom window. He didn't have a chance to even try to fight before Peter was knocking him unconscious and carrying him out the shattered window.
He wakes up in a broken down train station surrounded by broken glass to Scott standing over him and the sounds of Derek and Peter fighting.
"Stiles are you alright?" Scott asks, worrying madly as he scrambled to untie Stiles from the pole Peter had chained him to.
Stiles managed to nod and his head swam. "Concussion." He muttered. "Fuck."
Scott smirked. "You'll be okay."
"Shouldn't you be helping?" Stiles asked, nodding at Derek and Peter's fight. He couldn't tell you had the upper hand.
"Derek said he'd get it." Scott shook his head. "I'm just supposed to get you out of here."
"Too late for that." Stiles whispered as he watched Derek tear his uncle's throat out.
Derek stood up, panting hard and covered in blood, and roared. Scott's eyes glowed gold and his facial features shifted as he called back to Derek. And Stiles just as stared as Derek turned to them.
"I'm the alpha now." Derek growled.
And Stiles was in shock. Because in the broken glass around him, he could see his reflection broken up and scattered everywhere but two things he could see for certain. One: he had a massive bruise on his jaw, probably from where Peter punched him out, and two: his left eye had changed color again. And this time, it was glowing bright red.
And Stiles looked up at Derek, eyes wide, as he stared at the whiskey and red that stared back at him. Derek. It really was Derek. His soulmate was a motherfucking werewolf. That's why his eye was inhuman. So was Derek. His soulmate. He couldn't believe it.
"Stiles." Scott whispered.
"It's him." Stiles nodded, hearing the question in his friend's gasp.
"It's you." Derek spoke softly, his right eye still glowing.
Stiles forced himself to his feet and lunged forward, trusting Derek to help him stand. Derek did.
Derek caught him and the two of them just stared.
Stiles reached up and poked Derek's face just below his whiskey colored left eye. "You have my eye."
Derek cracked a smile. "And you have mine."
"Want it back?"
"Do you want yours?" Derek asked, sounding nervous. He wasn't just asking about the eyes anymore and Stiles knew it. He could hear the fear and the nerves in Derek's voice. Derek was scared Stiles wouldn't want a werewolf as a soulmate. But Stiles couldn't care less.
Stiles nodded. "I want it even when I thought you were a serial killer."
Derek laughed. "It's yours to take."
Stiles smiled. "Thank you." Stiles didn't give Derek the time to respond, just leaned forward and pressed their lips together. Their eyes slipped closed and when they parted seconds later, Stiles grinned.
"There." He declared.
Derek smiled back, the red fading from his now matching eyes to the beautiful human green that had sank Stiles's heart all that short time ago in the forest and now made him smile. His soulmate was beautiful.
"There." Derek agreed. He couldn't stop staring at the whiskey eyes in front of him. He'd stared at that color for years, wondering who's eye he had and when he'd meet them. Before the fire he'd even dreamed of it, planned out what he was going to say, everything. Afterwards, he'd avoided thinking about it. He felt guilty that someday someone was going to get stuck with his broken heart. But now, staring at the pair of eyes in front of him and the man they belonged to, he has happy. Stiles was happy with him, Stiles knew what he was and he was okay with it. He already knew what had happened and he was still happy to be Derek's.
"Let me see." Scott declared, startling them both as they'd forgotten he was there.
Stiles grinned as he turned in Derek's arms to look back at his best friend. "My eyes finally match!"
Scott grinned. "Your dad's gonna be thrilled."
"And mom's totally smug right now. She was right all along." Stiles remembered something then and looked back at Derek. "Wait, if that was your wolf's eyes, why'd they change color a few years back?"
Derek stiffened. He'd forgetten about that. And he hadn't even realized that Stiles probably didn't always have the blue eyes. He had the yellow ones Derek was born with. And it had changed after Paige. "I'll tell you later. Promise." Derek whispred.
Stiles could tell it was a hard subject for Derek so he just nodded and grinned. "God Dad is gonna flip. Not only do I have a soulmate but he's a motherfucking werewolf. He better not be cheating on his diet or his heart might actually fail."
The Sheriff wasn't cheating on his diet. Or he was but his heart was fine. It had nearly stopped when he walked into the house to find Stiles sitting at the table with a hand over his left eye, with Scott with a worried grin on his face and the man he'd recently arrested and then released sitting on either side of him, but he was okay after he sat down. And the whole story came out. Everything was laid on the table, the existence of werewolves, what had really happened to Derek's family, Scott being bit, Peter taking Stiles, Derek killing Peter, Stiles and Derek realizing they were soulmates and swapping eyes, everything. The Sheriff was nearly silent through it all, only asking the occasional question to help him understand something, and then he was completely silent once they were done.
"Dad?" Stiles asked, worried. "You okay?"
John nodded. "I don't get just one thing."
Stiles nodded for him to go ahead.
"What happened to change your eye when you were in middle school?"
Derek gulped and Stiles and Scott looked at him.
"Dad I don't know if–" Stiles started.
"It's fine." Derek cut him off. "You deserve to know." And so Derek told them all in a quiet voice about the girl he fell in love with when he was in high school. He told them about how their eyes didn't match but they were both still willing to try. And when Derek told her about what he was and she didn't run, he decided she was the one and wanted to give her the bite. She as willing to take it but Talia wasn't willing to give it. So Derek turned to the visiting alphas in town for help and then ended up killing Paige out of mercy and love when the bite didn't take.
Stiles held Derek's hand the entire time, squeezing it when Derek's voice broke.
When Derek was done, they all stared at John in worried silence.
John sighed. "Well, it looks Claudia is right even after being gone. We have one special boy."
Stiles grinned. "So you're okay with it?"
"Okay with it? No." John said. "Okay with attempting to become okay with it? Yes."
And deal with it he did. It was hard at first, dealing with the fact that his son's soulmate, one he doubted even existed for the longest time, was not only real but also a werewolf. But after a while and he saw how much his son loved Derek and how much Derek loved his son in return, he was okay with it. He was even more okay with it when Stiles convinced Derek to join the force and Derek joined the squad of deputies that helped him sneak donuts without Stiles knowing about it. (Stiles totally knew and he allowed it most of the time as long as his dad was keeping to the diet everywhere else.) And when Scott found out his soulmate was the daughter of a werewolf hunter, he helped the pack deal with it. When Derek had to bite three other teenagers after they were attacked and nearly died, he helped them cover it up. And when he watched his son graduate high school with his son's soulmate at his side grinning just as wide, he was okay with losing his best deputy for four years while Stiles was at college and Derek went along because he knew that Stiles was going to be one of the safest college freshmen at Berkley with Derek there to keep him safe. And nearly five years later when they were back in town, Stiles was a teacher and Derek was once again on the force, he was perfectly okay with walking his son down the aisle with tears in both of their eyes. Because after Claudia died, he thought he'd never again see a pair of whiskey eyes with that much love in them looking down the aisle of the little church in town to a man at the end with tears in his eyes and just as much love. His son was born with a right eye of whiskey like his mother and a left eye of gold. His left eye turned blue in middle school and he accepted that his son might not have a soulmate. And then his son found his soulmate, a werewolf with a gold, blue, and then red eye paired a whiskey eye to match his son and he watched his son fall in love. And he was more than okay with it all. He was ecstatic. And he could hear his wife's voice in his head, whispering I told you so with that same smirk he'd seen on her lips for years. And he had to agree, because she did. Their beautiful baby boy had a soulmate all his own to love just as much as they loved each other. And it was perfect. His son's left eye has been yellow, blue, and red and now it's finally finished changing and parked itself at whiskey. And today it's filled with tears, along with its pair, as John Stilinski walked his son down the aisle to a hazel-eyed werewolf that loves him almost as much as John does.
Afterword
Please drop by the archive and comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!