I haven't written any Teen Wolf for a long time, but I revisited this in my quarantine. I hope you like it.
"Seven years ago, I met you, Derek Hale in the woods on your land, trying to prove that you killed your sister. I have never been so wrong about someone in my entire life. I was scared of you, and then I hated you, and then we became friends, and in all of that there were a thousand little moments.
"The way you protected me, the way you called me on my bull shit, and even though I was the most fragile person in the group you always trusted me, not that you'd admit it. It took me a long time to grow up, and embrace who I was, and the fact that I played for, you know, both sides, obviously you know, but the point is it took me way too long, and way too much tequila to make a move.
"The morning I woke up in your arms was the best thing that ever happened to me, despite the raging hangover. You took my pain, and made me breakfast. I knew that day that you would be stuck with me forever, I love you, and I promise I will do everything I can to not get dead, or annoy you to death anytime soon." Stiles said while he stood in front of Deaten in a crisp black tuxedo, and slid the etched platinum band onto his lover's left hand. Derek smiled, and squeezed his hands in his.
"You know I don't ramble like you do, but I know that I love you, and all your incessant insanity. You are my polar opposite, and everything I'm missing. I vow to keep you safe, accept everything about you, and never leave again." Derek brushed his thumbs over the back of Stiles hands, Stiles laughed once, and looked up to keep himself from crying. Derek slid the ring onto Stiles' finger, and reached up to cup his chin, and bring Stiles' eyes back to meet his own.
Stiles couldn't help it, the tears spilled down to his ridiculous grin while Deaten finished the ceremony. Derek's smile matched his, and it was all he could do to wait for Deaten to say the words, you may now kiss the groom. Derek wrapped him in his arms, and kissed him with everything he had.
Derek didn't cling, and fawn the way Stiles sometimes did, but he kept his hand on Stiles the entire evening, a gentle reminder of his presence. Scott stood up, as Derek's best man, they had fought for days over who would ask him.
"The day Stiles told me he slept with Derek I kind of freaked out. Derek of course said nothing about anything, but they both freaked out. Derek disappeared for three days, and Stiles... I think I talked him out of four panic attacks before he calmed down, and called Derek. The weeks until they started actually dating were torture for all of us. Once they did though... they were so ridiculously happy, even though they bicker constantly. I have never seen Derek smile the way he does when he looks at Stiles, and what more could any of us ask for." Scott's toast made the whole room cheer, and clank their glasses. Derek happily took the excuse to kiss Stiles.
"Alright, calm down." Lydia stood up as Stiles... maid of honor, they had never quite nailed that down.
"Stiles used to have a crazy crush on me, yes I knew you dope, duh. He was obsessed with me, but he never made a move, because he respected me, and deep down he knew that I'm not the person he made up in his head. Stiles could never have been with someone he pined over for years. None of us could match his imagination, but Derek... He came out of left field. Stiles once compared him to some super hero guy, that I'll be honest, I don't remember, because I'm not a nerd." Lydia teased, Derek raised a brow at him in question.
"Frank Castle." Stiles whispered.
"You think I'm like the punisher?" Derek made a faced, Stiles laughed.
"You know who Frank Castle is?" He leaned on his shoulder with a dopey grin.
"Of course I do, you're made me watch the movie like six times." Derek put his arm around him. Lydia cleared her throat.
"Hello, giving a toast over here! Anyway, he said Derek was like a super hero, a dark brooding, super hot guy with a dark past, and super powers. He was so far out of his league, Stiles didn't even imagine he could have him, but Derek is smarter than he looks. He sees how amazing Stiles really is, and if anyone can handle him it's his Superman." This time Stiles had to get up, and hug Lydia for such an amazing toast before he went back to steal another kiss from his new husband.
The reception went by in a blur, Stiles had never had so many pictures of himself taken. They had moved into Derek's apartment months ago, but going back now felt different.
"So, do I carry you, or are you carrying me across the threshold. How does this work, because I mean we aren't exactly the typical newlyweds, but I feel like if anybody's needs to follow superstitions it's us. I mean who knows which one's are real, or..." Stiles fidgeted at the door, Derek laughed.
"Stiles! Shut up you idiot." He said with a grin, and picked Stiles up. He held him close, and kissed him, just a tender caress of his lips while he walked through the door. Stiles laid his head on Derek's shoulder.
"I am surprisingly okay with being the chick in this situation." Stiles kissed his neck, and Derek walked him over to the bed to lay with him as his husband for the first time.
Stiles woke up in his studio apartment in Virginia for his last year of Quantico. By this time next year he would be in the FBI, and have everything he ever wanted, except something else was missing. He felt it in the hollow spot in his soul that he woke up with every morning. The blue eyes of a man from a dream he could never quite remember haunted him.
"Did you have another nightmare?" Alexis rubbed his shoulders, he shook his head, he wished there was someway he could explain why the dream he had every night hurt him so much despite not remembering it.
"No, I just can't sleep, I hate this stupid pillow." Stiles fluffed the plain white pillow, there was nothing wrong with it, it just felt wrong.
"We can return it, and get you a different one for the... what eighth time in two weeks." She laughed, he shook his head, and leaned over to meet her kiss.
"No, that poor sales lady doesn't need me ruining her day again, just because I'm some kind of pod person." He got up and pulled a shirt on, he made it two steps, and collapsed.
"Stiles!?" She jumped up to check on him.
"Stiles! I'm here." Derek squeezed his hand from his bedside, while the machine to his right monitored his heart rate.
"Derek?" Stiles looked over at him, still groggy.
"Hey, I'm here." He got up, and leaned over him to press a kiss to his lips.
"Derek?" He woke in a hospital bed, but the hand in his was not the large calloused hand of the blue eyed man in his dream.
"Who's Derek, Stiles it's me, you're okay, you're in the hospital. This is the second time you've collapsed, I'm worried about you!" Stiles nodded, but he kept his mind on the dream, he needed to remember Derek, whoever he was. She leaned over and kissed him, he smiled against her lips.
"I'm sorry, I should have come in for testing sooner." Stiles sat up when the doctor came in, he smiled at Stiles.
"Good to see you awake Mr. Stilinski, I'd like to run a few tests, and see what's been causing your blackouts, Miss. Mirrosie told me this was not the first time." Stiles held his hand up to stop him.
"I need you to test for frontal temporal dementia, it runs in my family." The doctor gave a serious nod.
"We can test for that first, of course. Let's schedule a scan as soon as possible." Stiles tuned out, looking around for a sheet of paper, anything to write down the name, Der... Darrin, Devin, Dorian, shit! He didn't get home until after dark, he felt like a guinea pig with all the poking and prodding he'd been through.
"I am exhausted." Alexis wrapped her arms around his waist, he looked over to the smart board he worked through all his problems on.
"I think I'm going to stay up, play something mindless, so I can unwind. You could stay up and watch me pilot a star fighter, but you'd probably have more fun sleeping." Stiles kissed the top of her head, and went over towards the couch. She rolled her eyes, and headed for the bathroom. He didn't want to worry her, that's why he didn't talk about the mystery man in his dreams, or at least that's what he told himself.
He turned on his game and played it for a while, until she fell asleep. He left the game on when he got up to turn on his smart board. It loaded up his assignment from Quantico, he swiped it aside, and pulled up the file from his dreams. There were more questions than answers, but he had to get it out of his head.
The name started with a D, he remembered that much, so he pulled up a baby names list, and scrolled through it, writing down any possibilities. Derek! He almost yelled it out loud, he had to cover his mouth. Finally he had a name! He wrote it over the outline of a man with a smile.
"Derek." He whispered. What did he know? His name is Derek, he had blue eyes, and dark hair, black, or maybe brown. He meant something to him. Frank Castle, he didn't know why that had anything to do with Derek, but it did. He closed his eyes to try and summon up anything else about him, anything that could help him locate this man who haunted him.
"Derek... weather, why did that pop into his head, rain, snow, sleet, hail... hail." He wrote it down, even though he didn't know what it meant. He stared at it until his eyes hurt.
"You aren't going to figure this out staring at a glorified white board you idiot." Stiles spun around, and the man haunting his dreams was standing right behind him.
"Hoah! No! No, I'm dreaming, I must have fallen asleep on the couch." He stumbled back, Derek laughed, and went over to the board.
"Maybe, or maybe you have what your mother had, and are losing your mind, either way you need me." Derek wrote it on the board, Stiles snatched the pen away from him.
"No, nope, not going to start talking to my delusions. Unless... I mean dreams, and delusions are often presented by your subconscious as a way to help your brain resolve an issue it's facing. Maybe you being here means I know more than I think I do, and my subconscious is trying to give me that information." Stiles turned away while he rambled.
"Sure, you spelled this wrong." Derek said, Stiles waved him off, and spun around.
"What color is your hair?" He walked into Derek's space, Derek raised a brow at him.
"Black you idiot, you have eyes." Derek tilted his head down to showcase his thick hair, Stiles reached up, and ran his fingers through his hair. Derek moaned softly, and leaned into his touch. He felt so real.
"How do I find you?" Stiles whispered, Derek looked up through his lashes at Stiles.
"That's not the right question." He said, with a patient look of expectance, as if he had every faith that Stiles would know what to say.
"Okay, but could you answer it anyway, because I really need to find you." Derek raised a brow. "Okay, so if that's not the question what is? Who are you, no that is really just a derivative of how do I find you, so what is more important than that..." Stiles looked up at him, his thumb brushed over his rough stubble.
"How could I forget you?" He whispered, Derek pulled him closer, his gaze darted over to where Alexis slept before he kissed him gently.
"Exactly." Stiles woke up with a thud when he fell off the arm of the couch. If Derek was real, than why couldn't he remember him, he didn't have any blanks in his memory, just this feeling in his gut that something was missing, that Derek was missing. On the other hand Derek may be a result of his condition, and the repressed fluid nature in his sexuality. When in doubt the simplest explanation is often true, so why did he know in his heart, and soul that it wasn't?
He added what he knew to the board, the words how could I forget scrawled across the top with two question marks. He closed the program, and went to bed. Alexis rolled towards him, and he wrapped his arms around her. He loved Alexis, he had been the one to ask her to move in, but something was definitely off, either with him, or with his life.
Derek slammed his fist into the wall cracking the cement, and breaking the bones in his hand, not for the first time. He let out a primal snarl, that made even Scott uncomfortable.
"He's been missing for two weeks now, how can we know nothing?" Derek moved to strike something else, anything else, he felt so helpless.
"We don't know nothing, we know he went to work at the sheriff's office, and never made it there, but his car disappeared with him, so wherever he is, the jeep is there too. The sheriff has an apb out on Stiles, and the jeep, we couldn't track him in a car, but nothing supernatural seems to have happened Derek. You did say you had a fight, are you sure he didn't just leave?" Scott had to say what they were all afraid to, Derek turned around with ice blue eyes, and a glare that could stop the hearts of lesser men.
"If he was leaving me he wouldn't have just disappeared, you, and his father would know about it, and know where he was. He would still have his phone, and he would answer when his father called him at the very least. I am not some over sensitive child Scott, when has Stiles going missing not been supernatural?" Derek said with a deathly calm.
"Alright, I just had to ask, I was supposed to ask over a week ago, but we're all kind of scared of you right now." Derek collapsed onto his couch, and hung his head in his hands. Scott put his hand on his shoulder, but Derek pushed it away. He couldn't be in here, everything was Stiles, even the tv in front of him had been something Stiles had made him buy, but even though his essence was in everything, his scent was all but gone.
"I'm doing the spell!" He shot up, and stormed out of the house.
"Derek, it's dangerous, don't rush this." Scott held his hands up. "I know, okay it's been two weeks, and you're going to do it, I just want to make sure we do this right." Scott said, Derek nodded, they would go to Deaten, and do it right.
"I don't care how dangerous it is, we need to find Stiles." Derek looked back at him, his brows drawn together, and his voice tight to keep the tears from falling.
"We will, we'll start getting the supplies ready, but it will take a few days, so don't rush, because Stiles will kill me if you get hurt finding him." Scott forced a smile, Derek dropped his head with a weak nod.
"Derek?" Stiles woke to the smell of something burning. He jumped out of his bed, ready to put out a fire, or flee, but then he saw Alexis cussing at a pan.
"Oh my God, I didn't mean to wake you, I was trying to make you breakfast in bed." She turned the stove off, he looked over at the clock.
"Why didn't you wake me up earlier, I'm going to be late for my class." Stiles grabbed his clothes, and started to rush towards the bathroom. Alexis ran over, and put herself between him, and the door with a hand on his chest.
"I called them already, you don't have class today anymore. You should sit down." She said, he frowned, and took a step back.
"My test results came back didn't they?" He reached out blindly for the bed, and sat back onto it before he fell.
"Yes, they say we caught it early, they can take steps to stop it's progression." She said, he scoffed.
"I watched my mother die a slow death from this disease, I know there's no cure. I... I think I'm going to take that shower anyway." Stiles got up, and pushed past her without really looking at her.
"Okay, take your time, I'll order in, since I obviously shouldn't be cooking." She forced a smile, and walked towards the kitchen.
"I bet you're dying for one of my omelets with her around destroying everything." Derek leaned in the door frame with a cocky smirk.
"You! You're not even real!" Stiles whispered, Derek raised a brow in disbelief.
"What sweetie?" She looked back at him, he shuffled frantically for the bathroom.
"Nothing, it just doesn't seem real, I wish I could talk to Dad about it." His panic turned sullen at the thought of his father.
"I know, I'm sorry, we'll figure this out together." She looked so sad, but Derek scoffed.
"Why can't you call Sheriff Stilinski?" Derek followed him into the bathroom, Stiles locked the door, and turned on the fan.
"My Dad is dead, even as a figment you should know that. I mean it's possible you're a representation of a part of my brain that's in denial of his death, but still..." Derek got up in his face with a serious expression.
"Do you remember his funeral, or meeting Alexis, or moving here? Why is there a tan line lingering on your left hand ring finger even though you don't own a ring? I am as real as you, she's the one who's all lies." Derek grabbed his arm, and pulled it up to his face. Stiles looked at the faint tan line. He had noticed it before, but he had never thought about it. How could he have just ignored it?
"Alexis has never lied to me." He whispered, but even he didn't feel the conviction in the words.
"No, no! This is all because of the dementia, get out of my head!" He pulled his shirt off and tossed it at him, Derek caught it, and folded it before he set it on the lid of the toilet.
"It feels familiar doesn't it." He leaned against the sink in Stiles' space.
"I... no." He turned away to fiddle with the waistband of his sweats.
"You can't lie to me Stiles, I'm your hallucination." He crossed his arms, Stiles sighed.
"Fine, yes, but that doesn't change anything, go away." He waved at the door.
"Not my call, of course last time you thought you had frontal temporal dementia it turned out to be a Notsume possession, but that's probably not what's going on here." Derek reached out and pulled Stiles towards him with a hand on his hips.
"What?" Stiles managed when Derek buried his face in the nape of Stiles' neck, his rough stubble sent a chill through him.
"Have you ever researched doppelganger?" He whispered before he ran his tongue along the shell of Stiles' ear.
"Dopple- what, that... wait stop, get off me, you're not even real!" Stiles practically fell away from him, Derek scoffed.
"Wrong." He crossed his arms again.
"Those are the ones that steal your life by stealing your face right?" Stiles ignored his comment, Derek raised a brow.
"Sure, and every myth is portrayed with a hundred percent accuracy, just don't let her kiss you." He held up his left hand and pointed to the silver ring. Stiles frowned, and shifted his waistband uncomfortably.
"Could you at least turn around, so I can actually take a shower." Stiles looked back at the door, Derek pushed off of the sink to invade his space again.
"I'm your husband Stiles, I've seen it." Derek cupped him through his sweats, and Stiles responded immediately, his cock jumping to attention.
"Hey, are you okay, the food is here." Alexis called through the door, Stiles jumped, and Derek was gone.
"Yeah, sorry, I'll be out in a sec." He flipped on the water, and got in, but Derek's words echoed in his head. He came out in fresh clothes, and forced a smile.
"Smells good." He smiled, she leaned in to kiss him, but he picked up an egg roll, stuffing it in his mouth with a grin.