Wow, this chapter was sooo long to write... I kept getting frustrated for some reason. Anyway, I'm rather happy with it, so enjoy!

Chapter 2

The first time Stiles woke up on earth, his head was resting on Derek's chest. He kept his eyes closed, pretending to still be asleep to enjoy the moment. His crush on the man had reached epic proportions in the last few months before he was sent to confinement, Stiles had been too scared of rejection to do anything about it though. Then he was sent to the sky box and he spent those few weeks regretting his cowardice. He had been certain he would be floated on his 18th birthday, he thought he had lost his chance. But now he was on earth and so was Derek, if there was a small chance he felt the same, Stiles would take it… somehow.

"Stiles, I know you're awake." Derek deadpanned. Stiles almost jumped away but instead, he buried his face in the crook of Derek's neck and answered sleepily "No 'm not." before sighing in contentment.

Derek huffed in annoyance and suddenly he wrapped his arms around the teenager and pushed with his hip so that Stiles ended up flat on his back with Derek on top of him. He had just a second to appreciate the Derek's weight on him before the guard got up.

"I take it you're feeling better…" Stiles observed as he sat up.

"I'm still a bit dizzy but I just need to eat something. Speaking of which, where's my bag?" Derek said after looking around the room.

"Oh! I hid it in the crate, I didn't want anyone to steal it." Stiles answered while getting up and walking to the crate. It had been emptied pretty fast when night had fallen and everyone got cold after it stopped raining. He got the bag out and gave it to Derek. "What's in there anyway?"

"Food, not much but it will have to do for today, and some water."

"Wells managed to collect a bit of the rain from last night."

"That's good, but we can't rely on rain, it's too unpredictable. Here." Derek gave a small bag of dry oatmeal and a bottle of water to Stiles before starting to eat his own ration.

"What about the others?" Stiles ask worriedly.

"What about them?"

"There's 98 of us still alive, plus you and Bellamy. Clark's group isn't back from Mont Weather yet. How are we supposed to feed that many people?"

"It's not our problem Stiles." Derek said.

"But-" Stiles started to protest when they heard a girl screaming outside. They put the rest of the food back in the bag and Derek threw it on his shoulder as they walked out of the dropship.

Outside the dropship, Derek took a second to look around and admire earth for the first time before following Stiles towards the crowd forming not far from them. Everyone gathered around as Murphy was holding a girl over a fire.

"We want the Ark to think that the ground is killing us, right?" Murphy said smugly to Bellamy. "Figure it'll look better if we suffer a little bit first."

Wells appeared out of nowhere, shouting "Let her go!" as he pushed Murphy to the ground before turning around to talk to Bellamy.

"You can stop this."

"Stop this?" Bellamy asked with a smirk. "I'm just getting started."

Suddenly, Murphy jumped on Wells from behind and they started to fight as people around them cheered. Murphy lost the advantage quickly, once again, Wells left him on the ground and turned back to Bellamy.

"Don't you see you can't control this?" He asked, but Bellamy didn't even bother answering. Instead he looked behind Wells as Murphy pulled out his knife and got back on his feet.

"You're dead." Murphy said, preparing to attack, but Bellamy stopped him with a "Wait." and a hand in front of Murphy's chest. For a second Derek believed Bellamy would stopped the fight and act as the adult he was supposed to be, but instead he said "Fair fight." and dropped another knife at Wells' feet. The Chancellor's son hesitated for a moment before taking it and facing Murphy.

It didn't last long. Murphy managed to cut Wells' arm but when he charged proclaiming "This is for my father!", Wells dodged, spun him around, grabbed him from behind and put his knife to Murphy's throat. He urged Murphy to drop his weapon but before the other teenager could react, Clarke's voice called out Wells' name.

"Let him go!" She said as she appeared through the trees. Wells threw the other teenager away and Bellamy stopped Murphy from charging again before walking to his sister who seemed to be injured. Once he'd made sure that Octavia was okay, even though she was limping, he faced Clarke.

"Where's the food?" He asked.

"We didn't make it to Mount Weather." Finn said as Clarke looked like she didn't know where to start.

"What the hell happened out there?"

"We were attacked." Clarke finally said.

"Attacked? By what?" Wells asked.

"Not what. Who." Finn corrected him. "It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn't the last grounder."

"It's true." Clarke said. "Everything we thought we knew about the ground is wrong. There are people here, survivors. The good news is, that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us."

"Yeah? The bad news is the grounders will." Finn added with a grim voice.

Everyone stood in silence as they processed the news. Derek felt a hand grab his own, he looked next to him and saw Stiles almost trembling with fear. He intertwined their fingers and squeezed Stiles hand, hoping to give him some comfort, but the truth was, he was just as frightened. Earth had been scary enough without a bunch of people trying to kill them.

"Where's the kid with the goggles?" Wells finally asks after looking around.

"Jasper was hit. They took him." Clarke said, as she looked down. She frowned and grabbed Wells wrist. "Where is your wristband?"

"Ask him." Wells answered with anger, nodding toward Bellamy.

Clarke seemed to understand what was going on and immediately asked "How many?"

"24 and counting." Murphy said smugly.

"You idiots." Clarke said. "Life support on the Ark is failing." She continued, and once again Derek felt Stiles squeeze his hand. "That's why they brought us down here. They need to know the ground is survivable again, and we need their help against whoever is out there. If you take off your wristbands, you're not just killing them. You're killing us!"

Once again Clarke's news were met with silence as people started to questioned taking off their wristbands. Derek hadn't known much, he had barely managed to stay awake for a few minutes the night before as Stiles told him what had happened, but he knew Stiles was thinking of his Dad and Scott. If this wristbands were keeping them alive, then Derek would make sure no one tried to take Stiles' off.

"We're stronger than you think." Bellamy started, and Derek had a bad feeling about what he was about to do. "Don't listen to her. She's one of the privileged. If they come down, she'll have it good. How many of you can say the same? We can take care of ourselves. That wristband on your arm? It makes you a prisoner. We are not prisoners anymore! They say they'll forgive your crimes. I say you're not criminals! You're fighters, survivors! The grounders should worry about us!"

Everyone around them cheered and Derek shook his head as he fought the urged to get involved. They were idiots if they believed they could fight grounders, whoever they were. They had been on earth for almost a day and they still weren't even trying to find food or build shelters. They weren't survivors, just lost kids following a moron with a Messiah complex.

Fifteen minutes later, as Derek was filling one of his bottles with some of the rain water Wells had collected, Clarke and Wells came to him.

"Hey, Derek right?" Clarke asked. Derek nodded and waited for her to talk. "Listen, we're going to look for Jasper, I need you to come with us."

Derek stayed silent again as he raised his eyebrows at her, Stiles, who was standing next to him, decided to answer for him.

"Sure, we'll go with you."

"No we won't." Derek said immediately after.

"What?" Stiles said.

"Why not?" Clarke asked at the same time. "I know you have a gun, I saw it when I checked your wounds. If the grounders attack us again, we need you."

"I'm sorry, I got better things to do." Derek deadpanned, getting irritated by the second.

"Better than saving Jasper?" She asked, exasperated.

"As a matter of fact yes. In case you haven't notice, we have no food, barely two litters of water left and we're surrounded by idiots who don't know shit about surviving! So I'm sorry, but I'm not going to use what little energy I have left to look after some kid who's probably dead by now."

Derek started to walk away, grabbing Stiles' arm to make sure he followed. Before leaving though, he turned his head to look back at Clarke.

"If you really need a gun, I'm pretty sure that kid Bellamy is hiding one underneath his clothes." He said before storming off, dragging Stiles behind him.

He walked until he was certain they were out of earshot, ignoring Stiles' vehement protests. Then he stopped and faced Stiles, who had wriggled out of his grasp and shoved him away.

"What the hell Derek? We need to help them!"

"No, we don't. We're going to explore the forest to find food, that's what we need to do." Derek insisted.

"Well, you do whatever the hell you want, I'm going with them!" Stiles said, storming off. He didn't go very far before Derek grabbed his arm and started dragging him in the opposite direction. "Hey! Let me go you fucking asshole!"

"Shut up Stiles, you're not going with them and that's final."

"You can't stop me!" Stiles yelled, shoving Derek away from him. Without a word, Derek grabbed Stiles, putting him on his shoulder in a fireman's carry and walked towards the forest. Stiles struggled and screamed in protest while people around them chuckled as they passed.

Derek had let Stiles down once they were far enough away but stayed close to him in case the teenager decided to make a run for it. Then Stiles realized it and started to walk faster until he was a few feet in front of Derek.

"Stiles! Slow down!" Derek called out as he tried to catch up, his head wound still making him feel dizzy. "I'm sorry okay!" He said when he didn't get any answer. Stiles stopped and turned around to face him.

"You're sorry? Then why did you stop me? I get that you didn't want to go with them, and you're right, we need food, but I'm not your responsibility Derek!" Stiles shouted in frustration. Derek stayed silent, staring at the ground. When Stiles got tired to wait for an answer he turned his back at Derek and started to leave.

"I can't lose you …" Derek whispered and Stiles froze mid-step. "Not again…"

"You never lost me." Stiles said softly after finally turning back around. Derek snapped his head up and stared at him with anger.

"You were going to be floated! I thought I was never going to see you again…"

"I'm sorry… Derek… I didn't mea-"

"Whatever. You're here now, so I'm not letting you out of my sight and I'm certainly NOT letting you go on a suicide mission." Derek said with determination burning in his eyes. He didn't wait for an answer and made his way past Stiles and into the forest. He listened carefully until he heard the sound of Stiles steps following him.

"There isn't any food around here." Stiles whined for the fourth time in 39 minutes as he followed Derek in the forest.

"Would you stop complaining? We'll find something, you just need to be patient."

"When have you ever known me to be patient?"

While Derek thought Stiles had a point, he refused to say it and kept walking.

"What kind of food do you expect to find in a forest anyway? It's just pine trees after pine trees…"

"Didn't pay much attention to earth skills class, did you?" Derek said with a smirk.

"No, I was too busy staring at Mr. Argent's perfect a-" Stiles answered while looking up and smiling in reminiscence, which is why he didn't see Derek stopping abruptly and bumped into his back. "What is it?" He whispered as he leaned on Derek's shoulder. "Is it a rabbit?"

"No, idiot, it's an apple." Derek deadpanned as he bent over to pick the fruit. "It looks fresh… You want it?"

Stiles took the apple Derek had practically shoved in his hand and looked at it with wonder, before taking a huge bite out of it. He had juice running down his lips as he moaned in ecstasy.

"Oh man… I think I just came in my pants."

Derek rolled his eyes while pretending that he had not been aroused by the obscene display.

"I'm serious Derek! Here, taste it." This time, Stiles shoved the apple directly at Derek's face who hesitated before taking a bite without moving to take the apple from Stiles. He tried his best to prevent the moan threatening to come out of his mouth.

"Fuck, that's good.."

Stiles stared at Derek, his hand still holding the apple between them. They looked in each other's eyes for an awkward long moment before they both snapped out of it. They moved away from each other, Stiles taking a another bite just to make sure he wouldn't say anything stupid, and Derek clearing his throat as he looked around.

"Look! It must have come from there."

They were at the edge of a small clearing, in the corner of which were three tall apple trees.

"I wonder how they got here, there shouldn't be any apple trees in a forest like this." Derek said while looking up at the trees.

Suddenly, as he was eating, Stiles coughed and started choking on a small piece of fruit.

"Stiles? Are you okay ? What is it?" Derek panicked as the teenager pointed at the other side of the clearing. He coughed a few time before he managed to breathe correctly.

"It's a house!"

It took a few seconds for Derek to see it. The house was half buried in the ground, the walls were covered in vines and moss and there seemed to be no roof left. But it was still there, 97 years after the nuclear apocalypse. The trees must have been part of the backyard.

"Let's check it out!" Stiles said enthusiastically as he dashed forward.

"What? No. Stiles! It could be dangerous!"

"It looks safe to me!" Stiles said as he looked through the broken window before jumping in.

"Stiles!" Derek called out in panic, running to the window.

"Wow, it's dusty in here."

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Derek snarled after following Stiles in what looked like an old bedroom, at least he thought the big lump in the middle of the room used to be a bed but he could be wrong.

"Relax, I'm just looking around! Where's your sense of adventure?"

"I used it all up when I willingly boarded a 100-year-old ship to go to earth."

Stiles snorted and kept walking around, he left the bedroom for a hallway, pushing an half rotten door away. Derek followed him closely. They found another bedroom slightly less rotten away since part of the roof was still standing in the back of the house but Stiles past it quickly since anything of interest would have been completely decomposed years ago. Finally, at the end of the hallway, they found a room that still had all of its roof, it was still extremely dusty and smelt heavily of mold but Stiles couldn't care less because it was an office, with a bookcase. There was just a dozen books or so, and they were so dirty he couldn't read anything on the covers, but he walked toward it and stared in wonder. Finally, he reached for one, clutching the cover between his fingers. But as soon as he lifted it, the pages fell off in a cloud of dust.

"Stiles. We should go… There's nothing for us here." Derek said gently.

"You're right." Stiles said, looking dejectedly at what was left of the books before storming off. "Let's go."

He was almost back in the first room they had come in when he heard a loud crack and the floor of the hallway literally fell under him. He screamed as he fell, grabbing a piece of the old wooden floor that was still attached to the wall at the last second. He heard Derek screaming his name to his left and looked up. Derek was knelt at the edge of the hole, his arm extended as he tried to reach him. He was close, but not enough to grab Stiles.

"Stiles, hold on! I'll find something!"

Stiles whimpered as he tried to haul himself up but the piece of floor he was holding onto cracked and started to detach from the wall.

"Derek!"

"Stiles! Grab my hand!"

"No no… I can't it's too far!"

"You don't have a choice! Come on! You can do it!" Derek screamed in encouragement. He tried to lean further towards Stiles but failed.

Stiles looked back and forth at Derek's hand, reaching for him, and his own hands, clutching that tiny piece of floor. He took a deep breath, then another before throwing himself towards Derek, pushing up so hard it broke his only support. He wasn't sure if he had successfully grabbed Derek's hand or if Derek had caught him on his way down, but a moment later he was back on solid ground, laying on what was left of the hallway next to Derek. They were both staring at the sky and breathing heavily as their hearts were pounding in their chests.

"Let's get out of here." Derek finally said with a sigh.

"Yeah…" Stiles sighed back as Derek was already sitting up. "Wait!" He said suddenly, sitting up next to him. "I need to do this first." He said quickly as he leaned forward and joined their lips in a passionate kiss.

After the incident, they decided to explore around the house after a quick lunch of leftover dry oatmeal and several delicious apples. There was enough on the trees and the floor to bring back to camp for the others but they needed to find a way to carry them. Stiles suggested they used Derek's shirt which earned him a slap upside the head and a peck on the lips. Neither of them could believe they had finally stopped pretending they weren't attracted to each other, but they got used to the kissing pretty fast.

They found other houses, some more decrepit than others, but only dared stepping into an old shed. They found some tools Derek could fix or transform into weapons, some nails they could use to build a shelter and a plastic sheet the used to carry the apples.

When they got back to camp, it was already nightfall and everyone was rejoicing around the fire where some meat was cooking. They found Finn outside the dropship, looking at the crowd around the fire.

"Finn! Did you find Jasper?" Stiles asked.

"He's inside, Clarke is checking his wound." As he said that, Clarke came out from the ship and stood next to them.

"He's stable for now, but without medicine…" She said with a sigh. Then she frowned at the crowed. "They're taking off their wristband for food?" And as Stiles looked around he realized that Bellamy's goons were only giving food to the people who had they wristband off, there was even a line of people in front of the guy in charge of breaking them off their wrist. "No way. I… I won't do it."

"We found some-" Stiles started to say before Derek cut him off with a "Shh…"

"What?"

"Not now, not here." Derek had kept the apples hidden in the plastic sheet behind him and after seeing what Bellamy was doing, he wasn't too happy to share anymore.

"I got this." Finn finally said as he strolled toward the fire and grab two pieces of meat that had been skewered on wooden sticks. Murphy put himself in front of him before he could leave.

"What, you think you play by different rules?"

"I thought there were no rules." Finn deadpanned before leaving with the food.

Derek had seized the opportunity, following Finn closely, after asking Stiles to watch over their "bag", to grab meat for the two off them. After them, another guy tried to take food without taking off his wristband but was punched by Bellamy before he could reach it. Derek wanted to kick that idiot's ass but Bellamy had too much follower, there was no way he could win. Not now anyway.

Instead he grab Stiles' hand and they went back to the drop ship. They ate in silence, sitting closely, then they laid back down on the floor, Derek using his jacket uniform as a pillow as Stiles laid his head on his shoulder. He draped the only blanket they had over the both of them and wrapped his arms around Stiles before finally closing his eyes and sighing in contentment.

"Do you think Clarke was telling the truth? About the Ark?" Stiles whispered after a few minutes.

"Maybe… It's okay though. They'll know it's safe to follow, they'll join us soon." Derek tried to reassure him as he stroked Stiles' back in soothing circles.

"But what if they don't?"

"They will. They have to."

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