Chapter 2

Stiles didn't think that the middle of the woods where Derek could murder him and no one would ever know was the best place to have this conversation. Not only was the whole murder thing a possibility constantly weighing on Stiles' mind, but Derek had already proved that strangers could stumble upon them far too easily. Plus, they were uncomfortably close to the scene of the crime, and what if the perpetrator returned? Dreadful.

Still, Derek had that even-try-suggesting-that-we-go-somewhere-else-and-I'll-rip-your-throat-out-with-my-teeth look on his face, so Stiles got right down to the explaining.

"So, I'm a fairy."

Stiles didn't really think about the words until they were already out of his mouth, but Derek's eyebrow was suddenly raised in what amounted to mocking laughter in Derek-speech, so Stiles reevaluated and then became righteously angry.

"Seriously? I'm trying to reveal my deepest, darkest secret to you (and I still don't trust you that much, by the way), and you're going to make fun of me? Not cool, bro'." Stiles huffed. "Anyway, I'm a fairy. With the wings and the flying-"

"What, do you have fairy dust, too?"

Stiles glared, crossing his arms over his chest. "I resent that. I mean, I totally do, but I still resent that."

Derek didn't respond, but his eyebrows were saying plenty (something along the lines of "Fairy dust, you've got to be kidding me" and "I will rip your throat out with my teeth," but Stiles always thought Derek's eyebrows were saying "I will rip your throat out with my teeth").

"Look, it's not, like, 'think of a happy little thought' fairy dust, O.K? It's just- Fairies have magical powers. Mostly it's parlor tricks, nothing serious. Anyway, whenever a fairy uses his powers, it leaves behind this layer of…dust. Hence fairy-dust."

Derek's eyebrows were definitely saying "I really don't believe you and will probably soon rip your throat out with my teeth solely to shut you up even though I was the one that pressured you into talking in the first place". What Derek's mouth said was, "How'd you even- Did fairies switch you at birth or something?"

Stiles flushed, equal parts embarrassment and anger. "No. That changeling myth is so over-exaggerated. I mean, yeah, some fairies steal human children from their cradles, but some werewolves eat people." Stiles leveled his gaze at Derek, eyes dead serious. "I'd ask if you eat people, but I honestly don't want to know the answer."

Derek growled a little and glowered a lot, but Stiles was actually feeling very sober, because the question had some merit. "My mother was a fairy. Taught me a few things before- She never did tell my father. I never really knew why. She was very firm about keeping the secret, said I could tell absolutely no one, so I didn't."

Derek was silent now, probably, Stiles mused, thinking about his own childhood, a family desperate to keep a secret. The consequences of failing. In a strange sort of way, Derek could understand why he'd done it, was the only one who truly could. Scott, who had never had the opportunity to hide the secret from Stiles, wouldn't understand. Couldn't.

Stiles thought, just a for moment, sitting in the woods with Derek silently contemplating at his side, that maybe, just maybe, he and Derek would make good friends.

Then, of course, Derek's face toughened, and he looked back at Stiles all I'm-an-alpha-werewolf-without-any-of-those-girly-feelings-you-insist-on-having, and Stiles realized that, with his constant yammering and uncanny ability to provoke looks ranging from generally annoyed to I-am-definitely-going-to-murder-you-slowly-and-painfully on Derek's face, they would actually make terrible friends.

"So, you're a fairy," Derek stated even though Stiles had already said that twice, so there really wasn't any point anymore, "with wings-" Derek really needed to get over the whole wings thing "-and you've been lying to everyone about it." His mouth stopped moving, but his eyebrows said "Am I seriously supposed to believe this crap?"

Stiles made a choking noise in the back of his throat. "What? Mr. Big, Powerful Werewolf has trouble believing in fairies? Seriously?"

Derek sniffed disdainfully. "I always thought they were a myth."

Stiles rolled his eyes, unable to contain his disbelief. "And most of the world thinks werewolves are a myth, yet here you are. Seriously, dude, I just don't see how this is that surprising to you. You grow fangs and claws."

"And you-" Derek said, an I-will-only-maim-you-and-not-totally-kill-you growl behind the words "-have wings."

Stiles dropped his head into his hands. Talking to Derek was like talking to a brick wall. That couldn't wrap it's mind around the concept of "wings".

"Look, alright, I can see that this is hard for your inferior intellect to understand-" cue growl from Derek (probably with a little fang) "-so I'm going to show you something, a little bit of fairy magic, and then you're going to stop looking at me like I'm crazy, and start paying attention, because the only reason I'm actually telling you anything of this is because, by some terrible, horrible happenstance, I just might need your help." Stiles' voice had steadily risen while speaking until he was practically shouting.

Derek didn't say anything, and Stiles pointedly ignored his angry-eyebrows (and, really, when weren't they angry?) because he found he actually felt a lot better about this situation if he just got mad at and blamed everything on Derek.

Stiles grabbed up a twig from the ground and held it out between him and Derek. "This," he said, very seriously, "is a twig." Derek rolled his eyes. Stiles continued as if he hadn't seen it. "It is a dead, non-fruit-bearing, basically useless twig, would you agree?" Derek didn't say anything, so Stiles took that to mean "yes".

"Now, observe carefully." Then, Stiles closed his eyes, and focused on the twig, like his mother used to tell him to do when he was young.

"Think about what you want to happen," she would say with a sweet smile on her face, wings glittering in the sun, and Stiles would stare, transfixed and unabashed, because those magic lessons were one of the only times his mother would let her wings out, and they were the most beautiful things Stiles had ever seen. "Picture it happening. Imagine each step taking place."

He could feel it working, pulling through his skin, like his soul was wriggling around, and then Derek gasped, and Stiles wasn't sure if he'd ever heard Derek, Mr. Doom and Gloom, sound so awestruck, and he felt a little smug about that. When he could feel the familiar itch of dust settling on his hands, Stiles opened his eyes.

He raised the newly grown, bright red apple up to Derek's face and said, "Go on. Pluck it; eat it. It's real." Derek's eyes were wide as-

Derek actually hadn't believed him. Derek, son of a bitch that he was (pun intended), had thought that Stiles was making it up. Making it up? Wings and his mother and fairies? Derek was an even bigger idiot than Stiles had ever imagined. He might even be as big of an idiot as Scott (but probably not, because it was Scott).

Stiles opened his mouth to rag on Derek incessantly for not immediately believing whatever Stiles told him, but suddenly Derek's face was stern and expecting, mouth opening and closing with a harsh "What is it?"

And what did Derek even mean by- "Oh, right. The reason." The reason that Stiles might be overreacting to but might also be under-reacting to because not even Stiles really knew what the reason was.

He swallowed once.

Then three more times, to be safe.

"Right. The reason," he repeated because Derek repeated "You're a fairy" after Stiles had already said so twice. "Well I found this-" and the paper was out of his hand before Stiles even got the chance to hold it out "-on the top of the tree. I think it was meant for me because I'm pretty sure I'm the only guy around who can fly willy-nilly to the tops of trees to receive cryptic letters with silly smiley-face stickers, except I must not be anymore because someone managed to leave that."

"Great," Derek groaned, crumpling the paper in his hand, and Stiles kind of wanted to yell at him for that but realized that it probably wasn't the time. "Someone else like you."