A/N: I don't know why I wrote that. I just know this idea wouldn't leave me alone and of course would interrupt me in the middle of the writing of another story. So yeah. Hope you'll like it :)

Chapters will be updated weekly.

Summary: Not every story has a happy ending. Stiles and Derek's certainly didn't. Can a person live without the other half of their soul?

I own nothing.

Chapter 1

Derek Hale's 18th birthday started with a strange, tingling sensation on his left wrist.

That night, right when the glowing clock on his nightstand showed it was only fourteen minutes to midnight, Derek sat up in his bed, wide awake. He stared eagerly as the minutes ticked by, counting the seconds with his breath held in excitement.

Eleven minutes to go.

The skin on his wrist seemed to darken, only by a shade or two. Derek squinted, turning on the lamp on his nightstand. It started.

Eight minutes to go.

The bruise-like colored skin turned into a horizontal, long and thin smudge, tingling and sharpening with every second that passed. Derek's eyes flicked back to his clock.

Three minutes.

The smudge formed into dark letters, written in a short, square, clean handwriting. Derek frowned. This... thing, couldn't possibly be it. It couldn't be someone's real name.

Four seconds.

Three.

Two.

Seriously?

One.

That was it. Derek stared at his wrist for a few long minutes past midnight, a deep frown wrinkling his forehead as he wracked his brain, trying to form a few attempted versions of the words in his head. What kind of name was that? There had to be a mistake. The first and middle names alone were at least twelve letters long each, and those were only the ones Derek could recognize. Because, really, he couldn't even pronounce the name, let alone remember it.

What kind of parents would hate their child that much to name them that...? Derek shook his head in pity.

The last name was considerably easier, though. Stilinski. Derek couldn't figure whether this was a girl's name or a boy's, and it only served to frustrate him even more. How would he be able to find his soulmate if he couldn't even say the name? He growled in annoyance.

Jumping out of his bed, he slid into the chair in front of his desk and turned on his computer, quickly finding the Soulmate's-Pool-And-Information website - or, for short, S.P.A.I.N - and carefully typing in the insanely long name on his wrist, letter by letter. He practically slammed at the 'Enter' button, shifting impatiently as the page loaded agonizingly slow. Derek wanted to scream. Crappy internet connection.

'Requested name not found.'

Derek's heart sank. He stared at the words blinking on his screen, not really seeing, trying to reason with himself and come up with excuses as to why Stilinski was not in the names pool.

There was, of course, the option of death, but Derek didn't want to even think about it, shaking his head to get rid of the fear that gripped at his heart at the thought. A more probable explanation was that his soulmate was not old enough yet. Ever since S.P.A.I.N was established seven years ago, everyone at the age of sixteen added their names to the list, two years before their own mark showed. It was a huge improvement on the finding process, which up until then had soulmates finding each other through phone-books or destiny, if at all.

So, in conclusion, Derek chose to hold on to the option of his soulmate being too young to sign their name in yet. It was a little strange, knowing his mate was at least two years younger - just a kid - but then again, his aunt Julia was four years older than her husband and she only found him after a six-years-search, two years before S.P.A.I.N became a thing.

Derek couldn't imagine what it's like to search for your soulmate for that long, not knowing if they were still alive, or whether or not they gave up on you and married someone else... he only got his mark nearly forty minutes ago, and already he was on edge, his whole body swelling and vibrating with energy and eagerness to find them. He drummed his fingers on the top of his desk, chewing at his bottom lip anxiously.

He couldn't wait, he wanted - needed - to find them right away. Jealousy bubbled in his chest as he thought of Laura. His older sister got her mark two years ago, and it took her less than a week to find her soulmate. James Paul Webber, his name was. A British graduate from London. He contacted Laura through the Pool four days after his name appeared on her left wrist in his lean, long handwriting, having his own birthday only the previous day. How lucky was she? Derek thought bitterly. She found her mate insanely quickly, and even had him fly to the States within the next week after their first contact, getting him to move into the Hale house after only a couple of months of online dating.

Derek heard so much - especially from Laura - about the first time two soulmates touch each other. Everyone kept saying how wonderfully perfect it was, how complete it made you feel. Like you were only a half of a whole right up until you touch your mate for the first time... and that's how you really know. That's how you can never confuse them with another similar name, can never get the wrong one. That's why giving up on your soulmate was a rare - and in most cases, even frowned upon - option, and usually made only by ones that lost hope or already lost their soulmate.

Derek couldn't even think of such a thing.

The Bond, he heard about even more. He read books and articles and novels about it and the wonderful things people could do through it. Derek knew everyone could sense their mate's strongest feelings through it. Many could project images or thoughts to each other, if they practiced enough, although very few could actually carry out a conversation.

Once, on one of his research sessions, Derek even heard of three or four cases a year in which mates could keep each other alive long enough for them to receive medical treatment. It was rare, but possible. It fascinated him, the strength of a bond between two people and the things they could achieve together. He wanted to have that, desperately.

A sudden yawn made him snap out of his thoughts, and he covered his mouth and stretched, glancing to the side to take a look at his clock. 2 AM, the numbers glowed at him softly in the dark bedroom. He better go to bed... tomorrow is going to be a busy day, if he knew his family well enough. He could start his search tomorrow.

With that thought, Derek shuffled to and dropped on his bed and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep with his right hand wrapped around his left wrist, right over the name written in that short, clean handwriting.

If you asked him in the morning what he dreamed about, he'd probably just shrug and say he didn't remember anything. But the image of a faceless person he didn't even know was burned into his eyelids, floating in front of him every time he closed his eyes.

At first, Derek wasn't sure what woke him up.

His alarm went off at 7 AM sharp, and at the same time two girls were jumping up and down on his bed with screams of joy and a very out-of-tune 'Happy Birthday' song, pulling his blankets off of him as they flopped down with a double-bounce of the mattress.

"Get off...!" Derek groaned and tried to bury his face back in his pillow, but Laura wouldn't have any of that. She snatched his pillow away with a huge grin as Cora - who was only fifteen years old and didn't have her name added to the Pool yet - giggled and squealed in excitement, clapping her hands together five times fast.

"Wake up, wake up!" Derek's younger sister shrieked happily, eagerly shaking his shoulder. "Let us see!"

"Come on, you lazy ass. Get up!" Laura joined in, grabbing Derek's shoulder as well and helping Cora turn him around. Derek squinted at them, growling in annoyance and yanking his hand free. With an irritated groan, he sat up, glaring at them both.

"You sure know how to wake a guy up." He grumbled, stifling a yawn through a half-hearted glare. Laura grinned.

"You're welcome." She said. "Now show us your arm!"

Too tired to argue, Derek obeyed and stretched out his hand, showing his sisters the longest name they have ever seen.

"Is that an S?"

"It doesn't look like an S..."

"Is this even in English?"

"Wow. Poor kid."

Derek nodded in agreement as his sisters made matching confused expressions, frowning at the strange name on his wrist.

"Can you even pronounce it?" Laura asked curiously. Derek shook his head.

"I just call them 'Stilinski'," He said, shrugging. "It's the only part I can say without biting my tongue off."

Cora frowned.

"Are they in the Pool yet?" She asked, even though the answer was already written bright and clear on Derek's face. He shook his head again.

"No." He said shortly, voice tight with disappointment.

"Well... maybe they're my age," She said with a smile, trying to cheer him up. Derek made a face.

"That's worse."

"You can't even tell if it's a girl or a boy," Laura mumbled distractedly to herself, Derek's hand still clasped in her grip as she turned it over and studied the dark inky scar. Derek gave her a look, snatching his hand back with a glare.

"You two are rays of sunshine." He said dryly. Cora giggled.

They were all sitting at the breakfast table when it started. Hale relatives and their families started pouring into the large kitchen shortly after Derek joined breakfast, congratulating him on his birthday and patting his back happily as children ran inside and around, screaming and laughing.

It's been a tradition in their family. Every time a member of the Hale family got their soulmark, the whole family threw a party for them to celebrate and join their efforts and put it into finding the lost soulmate. That's what they did for Laura two years ago, and that's what they were going to do for him now.

Hope sparked inside him. Derek thought that if anyone could find Stilinski, it was his family. They had sources like no one else in the town had.

Uncle Peter and aunt Julia both took a seat on either of his sides on the couch as soon as Talia Hale cleared the plates, both holding a laptop. They flexed their fingers in unison, grinned at each other, then turned their piercing gazes to Derek.

"So." Aunt Julia said, her eyes flicking to her brother for a second before returning to Derek. "Show us the name."

Very reluctantly, Derek stretched his hand forwards and twisted his arm so that the softer skin of his wrist - still sensitive and pink-ish from the scarring - faced up and showed everyone the terrible name of his supposed soulmate. Peter frowned, clicking his tongue in thought.

"It would be either very hard or very easy to find him." He hummed quietly, as if to himself. Derek tensed and jerked up, quickly turning two wide and shocked eyes to his uncle.

"HIM?" Derek asked, mouth hanging open.

"Well, yes." Peter answered, looking at his nephew in surprise, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. He blinked once, then leaned forwards a bit and traced his forefinger along the first name that scarred Derek's wrist. "You see this? Only Slavic male names end with that specific order of letters. It's very clear that this is a guy's name. Polish, I assume. Or Czech."

"A guy."

"Yes, Derek." Peter closed his eyes for a second and sighed, long and tired. "A guy. You're gay. Get over it."

Derek blushed to the roots of his hair.

"Well, stop mocking my son and get on with it, Peter." Talia called from the kitchen. Peter rolled his eyes.

"Okay." He said, typing a few things on his laptop. "Jules, you start feeding all the versions you can into S.P.A.I.N." He ordered as his sister nodded and started typing frantically on her own keyboard. "Talia, you and Dan go through the phone-book. Laura can use my phone to call Tadeusz in Poland and ask him if he knows anyone by this name. I'll go through all the other search engines online."

"Go team, go!" Laura called happily, snatching Peter's phone from the table and leaping to the rocking chair in which James sat quietly, landing on his lap.

"Hey. What about us?" Cora asked from her place behind the couch, giving her older brother an annoyed look. "You didn't give Derek and me any tasks."

Peter sighed again, blocking out the sudden sound of multiple ringing phones that filled the living room.

"That's because Derek is still busy moping over the fact that apparently, he's gay." Peter answered slowly with very little patient left. "And you, young lady, don't know any Russian yet, so that'd be useless. Right?"

Cora huffed.

"Right." She grumbled under her breath, stomping away in disappointment.

Derek sat there in silence as everyone worked, staring into nothing with his pale green eyes wide with shock. His soulmate was a guy... his soulmate was a guy? Seriously? Derek always assumed he was straight. Because, well, everyone in his family were. He even had a crush on Jenny Blake when he was fourteen, for Christ sake!

But, if he was completely honest with himself... he did think Duke Ragen from his Latin class had a smokin' body.

The only other gay guy he knew was Matt from next door. He was five years older than Derek and already lived there with his mate and his mother. They barely talked to each other, only nodding in acknowledgement whenever they saw each other in the neighborhood. He was a quiet and private guy, somewhat shy, much like Derek himself.

Maybe he should catch a moment with him sometime.

So, okay. If what uncle Peter said was correct, Derek's mate was indeed a guy. Derek turned the thought in his head, the faceless image of the person from his dreams popping into his mind as he bit his lip in thoughts. Maybe it was true... it definitely felt true. The second Peter suggested Derek's soulmate was a male, it felt like a sealed deal. Derek couldn't picture himself with a woman anymore in any way, the faceless, blurry shape morphing into a masculine figure with broad shoulders and tall, lanky frame.

And honestly? It felt right.

A/N: So? What do you think? Don't forget to leave a review and tell me, eh?