The sound of morning birds was always the cheeriest part of Derek's barren flat. It was a familiar and relaxing sound for Stiles to wake up to the next morning. That is until he opened his eyes and saw the grey walls surrounding him. Stiles started screaming but quickly cut it off as he began to remember bits and pieces of the night before. He was drunk and Derek took him home. All the details were blurry, but Stiles still had his pants on so it wasn't one of those nights sadly. Hey, Derek was hot. Stiles would feel blessed for a night with the muscular werewolf God.

Looking around even more Stiles saw that he was alone. He found a bottle of water and a note written on torn notebook paper.

Stiles,

Had to leave.

Drink water.

Go to school.

Derek

Eloquent as always Sourwolf Stiles thought with a pounding head. He probably should have listened to Derek's advice about the water, but he didn't want to eat or drink anything at the moment. The pain of the migraine was also grounding, it kept his panic at bay. He did decide to go to school however, but only because if he didn't then the school would call home and make his Dad worry. His Dad had enough on his plate already, he didn't have time for more of Stiles' screw ups.

When he made it outside, the boy was pleasantly surprised. Sometime in the night Derek must have went back to the road and gotten Stiles jeep. It was nice even though it was probably only because he didn't want to hear any of Stiles complaining about walking to school from the loft. He should stop complaining so often. Thinking about that, Stiles decided that he might as well cut down on talking all together. It just seemed to annoy everyone in the end. If he was going to be useless then he might as well not always be in the way.

It was a slow drive to the high school. Stiles didn't even bother to go back home for his things, or to change. He didn't even bother to look at the time. If he did then he would have realized that he was going to be an hour early to school. Surprising considering the late hour he stayed up to and the raging hangover. After parking his Jeep, Stiles walked into the perpetually unlocked school building and began to wander the halls. After the first fifteen minutes he began to feel the exhaustion and decided to go into one of the empty classrooms. He sat down at a desk in the front and put his head down.

He felt so lost. His Dad was too busy with work and Stiles didn't want to bother him. His friends hated him. Derek hated him. Not as much as he used to since he didn't leave Stiles to die in the woods, but he might have just not wanted to have to move Stiles' dead body away from The Hale house. He drifted in and out of an uneasy sleep. After his time was up Stiles was shocked awake by the first bell of the day. Sighing, the boy picked up his bag and went to class to deal with another day in social isolation.

Coach's was the first class of the day that Stiles had with any of the other pack members. He idly wrote notes as he threw subtle glances in Scott's direction. It tore his heart out to know that he was the one that caused his best friend so much pain. The longer class dragged on the less notes Stiles took, and the more he stared in Scott's direction. He was so desperate for any attention from his best friend that he stopped paying attention to Coach at all. He was brought back to reality by the teachers angry voice.

"Stilinski! Since you seem to be so entranced by your little boyfriend over there, you probably already know the answer to this question. So what is it?"

"Uhh." The boy's face turned red from embarrassment of being pointed out in front of the entire class. He wanted to disappear. Stiles didn't even hear what the question was in the first place.

"Of course you don't know the answer. Who would expect you to? Just pay attention Bilinski. Almost as bad as Greenberg." He whispered the last part very loudly. The class was torn, they didn't know if they should pity Stiles or laugh at him. Scott pretended that the situation didn't even happen. The wolf never even blinked at the teachers mistreatment of the human like he would have before the incident. It made Stiles feel like he deserved it all that much more. He slunk down in his desk and continued his notes, never looking back up at Scott for the rest of the class period. He didn't need to be pointed out again and looking at his best friend, or ex best friend, hurt so bad.

Stiles didn't mumble a word for the remainder of his classes. Something in the school felt off, but not one person connected it to his silence. They didn't pay him enough attention to notice that something was wrong. The day passed quietly until lunch, then everything went to Hell. Stiles was so desperate for anyone to notice him, that he decided to sit with his friends that day. Every previous lunch since the incident was spent wandering the halls. He couldn't wander anymore. The boy didn't grab any lunch, both because he wasn't hungry and this could end very badly. The latter was proved right.

As Stiles walked over to his old table, he could feel the tension in the room rise. Taking a deep breath, he sat down in the empty chair at the end of the table, right next to Scott. The entire group stiffened. Scott, Lydia, Isaac, and Malia looked at Stiles in sync. The entire table grew silent.

After a few seconds the group seemed to realize they were all staring and began eating their lunch like their lives depended on it. Stiles looked down at his tray of spaghetti. He wasn't hungry and if everyone else wasn't going to put on a show and act like everything was ok then neither would he. He pushed the offending food away and began to fidget with his hoodie sleeves. After a few minutes of tense silence Scott got up and proclaimed, "I just forgot! I have a meeting with my English teacher!" before rushing out of the cafeteria and in a direction that was decidedly not where the English department was.

"Stiles," Lydia started.

"No. Just forget it." He replied before leaving the cafeteria in favor of the secluded bathrooms. When he got there Stiles locked the door and threw his bag to the other side of the room. He paced around in circles while his fingers tugged at his soft brown locks and his breath quickened.

"No, no, no, no, no." he murmured under his breath. "Please no!" Feeling the oncoming of a panic attack Stiles tried all of his coping skills, counting, breathing, his emergency inhaler, but none of it worked.

When all else failed Stiles had one last, go to, move. Running. He ran out of the bathrooms, out of the school. He didn't bother with his Jeep. Just running. He had to get away. Away from the hateful silence. Away from the loneliness. Away from the sinking feeling dragging him deeper and deeper under the black depths of depression.

As Stiles began to tire out and come back to the real world, he realized where he was running to. He was right by Derek's flat. He slowed down and looked up at the building. No, he couldn't go in there, another rejection would kill him. Sure the wolf helped him the previous night, but he wouldn't put up with Stiles just showing up every time he felt like this. He wouldn't stand a chance of surviving if somebody else rejected him. It would be the same as jumping off a roof…

Stiles began to run even faster, this time with a clear destination. He ran all the way to the Beacon Hills hospital. When he went in, he was careful to use a side entrance to try to avoid Scott's mom. He was too anxious for the elevator, so Stiles ran up the steps, all the way to the roof. He was relieved to get out of the stagnant building and into the fresh afternoon air. Reaching his destination, Stiles felt his mind calm slightly. The boy walked to the edge of the roof and looked down. It was higher up than he remembered. He took calming breaths and just stared at the pavement below.

Stiles jumped in shock when he heard a door bang behind him. After he rebalanced himself, Stiles looked back to see an angry Derek Hale with blood red eyes tearing into his very soul. It was enough to scare the life out of him. Nobody had seen Derek look that angry since Kate was killed.

"What are you doing?" It almost came out as a roar.

"I swear it's not what it looks like!" Stiles frantically waved his hands in surrender and stepped off the edge of the roof. The furious Alpha stomped over to his pack member and snatched him further away from the ledge. He slammed the boy against the nearest wall and got so close to his face they could hear each other's breaths.

"You ran past my apartment stinking of depression and thoughts of suicide, then I follow you to the edge of the roof of a building that would have killed you had you jumped off." Derek was quieter but his anger remained constant.

"I wasn't actually going to…" Stiles whispered hoarsely. He looked down guiltily. It was once again his fault that Derek was angry. He always made the man angry, even when he tried really hard not to. The last thing Stiles wanted to do is cause the man any more pain.

"Just, don't worry me like that. Ever again" Derek rested his head in the crook of Stiles neck. He didn't seem as angry, just scared. Slowly, the boy wrapped his arms around the wolf. He snuggled closer to the brunette. They stood like that for a long time.

"I'm sorry Derek. I promise I won't ever do anything like that."