The murder was one that didn't immediately alert Stiles. Yes the days had been slumbering by slowly, time seemingly in slow motion. However, when he read the article in the news paper his brain took a lot longer than usual to notice the peculiarity of this particular murder.
The article began with; Woman found dead, coroner says with missing heart and lungs.
So the summer continued on. Stiles working part time jobs that he picked up to take up time and then spending his nights gaming or manically researching things that did not matter.
His brain finally picked up on the murders ghosting Beacon Hills as another woman was found with the same cause of death. Obviously this was now being blamed as an animal attack, but as Stiles read with his brain switched on, he knew this was not a matter of animal attacks. But rather of something far worse.
Stiles wasn't sure what was the cause of this, but through the past three years of helping Scott and the pack he had picked up on the extra sense of sniffing out the supernatural.
Stiles sat on his bed with the newspaper beside him. His hand itched to call Scott and get him to come help just like old times. But this year both had vowed to be different, to try and be normal again. Derek returned to Beacon Hills and Scott felt that he could trust Derek to keep Beacon Hills safe. Safe enough for him to leave and go to a community college just a few towns away, but away enough to be somewhat normal.
Stiles remained. He felt like something wasn't finished in Beacon Hills and this feeling was strong enough to convince him to stay one more year until he would eventually have to leave for college too.
With not being able to contact Scott and the rest of the pack too scattered for him to even bother trying to contact, that left him with one person left.
Derek.
Stiles groaned. Yes he had grown more fond of the brooding and very aggressive man, but that did not also mean he found his presence suddenly welcoming. But still Scott had made him promise to go to Derek if he ever thought something was wrong, and Stiles wasn't yet in the habit of breaking promises.
So he picked up his phone, scrolled through the contacts till he came to the name "Sour Wolf" and pressed the call button. The phone dialed and rang, Stiles became prepared to hang up when a gruff and croaky voice said, "Stiles what is it?"
Stiles heart did a little stutter, he paused and shook his head. That didn't mean anything.
"Stiles?" Derek asked again, this time seeming more alert.
Stiles realised that he hadn't said anything yet and quickly scrambled for words.
"Umm hi Derek." Stiles wanted to hit himself for such a lame greeting.
"Yes hi Stiles, what do you want?" Derek asked again. Stiles could hear some shuffling and then quickly realised that Derek must've been sleeping.
Stiles didn't know how to start, but this was Derek and you couldn't beat around the bush with him.
"Have you seen the newspapers this past month?" Stiles asked, his heart now coming back to its normal beat.
"Stiles." Derek paused. The moment felt like forever. "It's one am."
"What?" Stiles said, the word leaving his mouth without thought.
"Look I know what you're talking about but it's one am, let's meet tomorrow and talk about it okay?" Derek said, his voice soft and tired again.
"Okay yeah sorry for waking you up, I didn't notice the time." Stiles awkwardly chuckled. Sometimes he was such an idiot.
"Go to bed Stilinski" Stiles could imagine a very small smirk on Derek's face right now, which for some reason made his heart skip again.
"Yeah whatever Mr Sour Wolf." Stiles really had no comeback to him whatsoever.
All he heard was a small exhale of air come from Dereks end before the call ended.
Had the forever brooding werewolf just chuckled? Stiles wasn't sure but decided to take Dereks advice and sleep, before his mind wouldn't shut up.
The coffee shop welcomed Stiles with the smell of coffee and homemade muffins. Stiles wasn't exactly sure why Derek had told him to meet here of all places, but he definitely much preferred this place over Dereks cold and dark apartment.
Stiles' eyes wandered across the small coffee shop until they landed on a leather clad, unfortunately handsome Werewolf. Derek, seeming to have either heard or smelt Stiles enter, looked up and nodded a greeting, Stiles nodded back whilst he made his way to the little table in the corner of the shop Derek was seated at.
"Hey." Stiles said as he sat down. The air quickly turning uncomfortable and awkward.
"Hey." Derek said looking up from stirring his coffee.
Stiles had to admit, Derek looked a lot healthier and much more rested than the last time Stiles had seen him. He no longer possessed the deep bags under his eyes, or the pale complexion of someone who hadn't slept enough in months. His skin now back to its normal healthy shade of light olive and his face free of any baggage.
Derek cleared his throat and Stiles realised he had been staring. He quickly looked away and willed the blush slowly creeping up his neck to calm down.
"So what do you know so far?" Derek finally began. Stiles looked away from the window and back to Derek, now that was a good question.
What did he know so far?
"Well what I know so far is that two young women have died, with only their hearts and lungs gone and no other injuries apparent."
Derek nodded along and Stiles paused. He hated to admit that he didn't know anything further but this is what he had contacted Derek for, to know what this thing was.
"Is that it?" Derek asked, a playful tone in his words, Stiles knew he was trying to rouse him up and Stiles happily took the bait.
"Well I'm sorry that the All Knowing Stiles has come up short on the ways of an obviously supernatural creature that only eats the hearts and lungs of the poor mistresses of this town."
Stiles began, quickly getting comfortable in the routine of the back and forth banter that he and Derek shared.
Derek didn't say anything, however a small sparkle of humour shined in his hazel eyes.
"Well what do you know? I'm sure you brooding around town would have helped to pick up some clues."
Derek relaxed back into his chair and crossed his arms, "look all I know is that this isn't a human doing this and that's about it." He said, shrugging his shoulders.
Stiles soon deflated and sagged into his chair. "Have you seen the bodies?"
Derek picked up his cup and took a sip. "I've seen the second one, and no before you ask, there was no scent of anything supernatural on her."
Stiles' brain worked overtime, but every theory he tried to think of came to a dead end. "Well we go see Deaton then." Stiles made to get up, but Derek stopped him.
"Deatons out of town for the week."
Stiles huffed and sat down back into his chair, he groaned and banged his forehead on the table in defeat. "What are we going to do then? We can't just wait for another innocent to die." He mumbled into the table, he knew Derek would have heard him perfectly clear.
"We might just have to." Derek sighed, but Stiles shot up determination flaring in his eyes.
"No Derek we don't have to, we will try our goddamn hardest to stop another girl from dying."
Derek raised an eyebrow, but soon his face hardened in seriousness. "Stiles we'll try, but we have no trail so far, or any clues as to what pattern this thing has, so don't get upset if we can't stop another death from happening."
Stiles knew that Derek was saying all this for his own good, but Stiles couldn't help but feel like there was something that he could do to stop another death from happening. His hero complex never really properly went away even after all the months sitting stale and not doing anything.
Stiles huffed and let the anger simmer just below his skin, yes he was aware he was behaving just like a sixteen year old, but when it came to Derek, angering him wasn't always the best course of action.
Derek continued to drink his coffee and Stiles just stared. His brain stuck on watching Derek for no reason that he could think of. Eventually his mind wandered as the silence continued. Stiles tried thinking of anything, anything that could help with this apparent mystery. But he came short with any possible lead. This creature only ate hearts and lungs, with Stiles researching creatures that did just that came up with a lot of creatures, a lot. It was impossible to think if it was any of them without more hard evidence. Another lead is this, Thing, seemed to just go for females, perhaps if he could find out if they were virgins would help narrow down the search. Even if it wasn't by a whole lot.
It was something to work towards so Stiles voiced this idea.
"What if we asked and found out if they were virgins?" Stiles asked.
Derek's eyebrow raised again, but he seemed to contemplate the idea. "And how do you suppose we go about doing that?" He asked, taking in the last mouthful of his coffee.
"By asking their friends, I've had to do it before, didn't necessarily go down well but it helped." Stiles shrugged, remembering the slap he received from Ashley, Kyle's ex-girlfriend who was a victim of Jennifers, making his cheek tingle.
Derek didn't question further and Stiles was glad he wouldn't have to bring up Jennifer, he wasn't sure if his past lover was still a sore spot for him. Seeing as Derek had finished his drink, and the conversation pretty much over Stiles got up, he couldn't stand sitting there any longer, he needed to find more information and fast.
Derek noticing Stiles impatience got up too, "Alright Stilinski what's the plan?" Derek asked, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets and noticeable uncomfortable with leaving the plan up to Stiles. Stiles too was surprised, Derek rarely left things up to Stiles, he much preferred to leave him out of any plan or just barely dealt with having Stiles along.
"Umm, I suppose finding out whether our lovely dead people got nasty between the sheets?" Stiles said this like a question, and Derek just sighed at Stiles poor use of humour. They both awkwardly left the cafe, Derek keeping the door open and Stiles consciously trying not to blush, jeez why was he so weird and awkward around Derek all of a sudden?
"So you said you knew who the second victim was?" Stiles asked. Derek nodded, his hands still in his jacket pockets, and his eyes focused up ahead. As usual his face was brooding and slightly terrifying.
"I know the names of both."
"Good then, we can start with the first victim and try to look for anyone that was close to them."
"Okay… well the first was Eliza Wood and the second was Emily Brown."
They both stopped at Derek's car, something about Emily's name seemed familiar to Stiles, but he wasn't sure how.
"Okay i'll try and figure who these people are and i'll text you with an update." Stiles decided, facebook about to become his best friend.
Derek nodded and seemed to like this idea. Stiles turned but before he could walk away Derek grabbed at his arm.
"Uhh whats up?" Stiles looked down to his hand and Derek quickly released him.
Derek seemed to fight with himself for a moment before looking at Stiles, like really looking at him. "Just don't go rushing into anything okay, call me first."
Derek's face firm and serious, his eyes seemed to be searching for something on Stiles face, suddenly making him very self conscious.
"Yeah alright don't worry I will." Stiles smiled, but his heart raced with a feeling Stiles wouldn't ever be ready to confront.
"Promise." Derek said, his face still very serious.
Stiles heart raced even faster, but he forced himself to take a deep breath and calm down, slowing his heart and directly looking at Derek.
"I promise."
Derek seemed happy with his reply and turned to get into his car, he was gone so quickly that Stiles was still standing there after, in total confusion about what had just happened. Stiles realising he probably looked like a total idiot standing there, quickly rushed into his new second hand ten year old Ford Explorer. He had managed to nab it for cheap at a thousand bucks after his Jeep had seriously shat itself to no return.
He rushed home and immediately jumped onto his laptop. He searched the names of the two victims and upon seeing the face of Emily it clicked. She was a freshman that was in his Chemistry class, that means this year would've been the year that she would've graduated, and upon looking at Eliza's profile, she too would have graduated this year. Both from Beacon Hills High.
Stiles heart pounded and his brain raced, one thing was clear, the victims seemed to be coming from Beacon Hills High which also meant it was possible the killer was connected to them. Stiles searched deeper, making note of any mutual friends they had on facebook which was a lot, but only making notes of those that were going to school with them. With his list compiled he cyber stalked each one of them, trying to see if any one person looked like a creature of the supernatural, a creature that could kill.
He narrowed down his list to five people that seemed suspicious to him and sent the names of those to Derek, asking him to also see if these people made his skin crawl like they did to him.
Derek didn't reply back for another hour and his reply vague but game changing.
"I know that Joseph White."
Stiles stumbled with his phone, instead of wasting time texting he just called Derek instead.
Upon Derek picking up Stiles just about yelled, "how do you know him?!"
Derek hissed into the phone like in pain, and Stiles realised that probably didn't feel too good to the Werewolfs sensitive hearing.
"When I was monitoring the school a few months back-" Stiles couldn't help but cut in.
"You mean brooding and stalking people at the school."
Derek didn't say anything but sigh lightly and continued. "When I was MONITORING the school, Joseph's name came up alot with the girl seniors, he was known as a total creep who wouldn't leave them alone."
"Okay okay, so he was a creep, kept getting mad at their rejections, somehow became a supernatural creature and killed them in revenge."
"Possibly." Derek replied with.
"Well let's go make a visit to Joseph."
"Not now." Derek replied with, his tone firm.
Stiles nearly whined. "Why not?"
"Because Mr Human, it's almost night time and we don't know what we are going up against yet."
Stiles huffed, "I may be human, but you know better than most that I am more than capable with supernatural creatures."
"I know but just wait until the morning, remember your promise." Derek then ended the call, leaving Stiles restless and fidgety.
Why did he keep making promises that were so hard to keep?
Thankyou for reading if you have, this is my first Sterek so im a bit excited but nervous. I have to admit i havent yet watched past Season 4 of the show yet, so if things dont make sense in future updates that would be why, but this story is mainly just Derek and Stiles with OCs and a few cameos from Scotts pack. Hope you guys enjoyed this first chapter! next one will be up either tomorrow or the next few days :)