Defying the Death Date Chapter 1: Loss, a teen wolf fanfic

Teen Wolf || Steter || Teen Wolf || Defying the Death Date || Teen Wolf || Steter || Teen Wolf

Title: Defying the Death Date – Mischief Mondays Series

Tags: m/m, alternate season 2, soulmate AU, Pack Feels, Spark Stiles, Pack Alpha Derek, temporary character death, grief, hurt/comfort, fluff, m/f

Main Pairing: Peter/Stiles

Side Pairings: Scott/Allison, Boyd/Erica, Jackson/Lydia

Teen Wolf Characters: Mieczysław 'Stiles' Stilinski, Peter Hale, Derek Hale, Jackson Whittemore, Erica Reyes, Vernon Boyd, Isaac Lahey, Lydia Martin, Scott McCall, Allison Argent, Danny Mahealani, Sheriff Noah Stilinski

Summary: Everyone bears their soulmate's birth-date on their body and when their soulmate dies, their death-date joins it. Stiles realized that Peter was his soulmate when the date burned itself into his skin while Derek ripped out Peter's throat. He may have lost his soulmate, but he somehow gained family, a pack. He helps Derek build a new pack, all while being haunted by Peter's phantom.

Defying the Death Date

Mischief Mondays Series

Part 1: Loss

Everyone was blessed with a soulmate and bore a mark to help them identify their other half. When a person was born and their soulmate was already alive, they bore their soulmate's date of birth somewhere on their body and, upon their own birth, their birth date appeared on their soulmate's body. While many people shared a birthday and it was harder to find one's soulmate solely based on that, people usually got their confirmation when they saw if the other person's soulmark matched their own birthday. Cases where both coincided and there was a soulmate mix-up were incredibly rare but not entirely unheard of. The true, final confirmation if one had found their soulmate came when one of them died. Just like the date of birth, the day someone lost their soulmate, their soulmate's death date appeared on their own body too.

Stiles was eight years old when he first saw a death date. Him and his father had been at the dinner table, poking at their food more so than eating it, both weighed down by his mother's deteriorating health, when the numbers had burned themselves into the skin of his father's wrist. He'd been right there, watching the realization, grief and anger wash over his father. It had been the most devastating thing he'd ever witnessed. For the first time, Stiles started to dread his soulmark.

All his life, it had been a source of joy. He'd been born with it already and from the moment he was old enough to understand birthdays and soulmates, he would celebrate his soulmate's birthday. His mom would bake cupcakes, they'd even put candles on them and Stiles would blow them out and wish for good health and happiness for his soulmate. Every October 27th. It was the birth year that caused some tension in the Stilinski household, though Stiles didn't quite understand it at first. It didn't matter to him, all that mattered was that he had a soulmate.

Only later did he understand that maybe a soulmate born in 1976 was maybe a little old, as a match for a boy born in 1995. He started covering his soulmark up, when he entered school, to avoid the teasing and weird looks he got for it, because most of his peers had soulmarks whose dates were off by one to four years in either direction. Not by nineteen.

Still, even as he braced himself for potential teasing and even as he had started to fear the second soulmark he knew would one day appear on his skin, there was always a sense of hope.

Somewhere out there was his soulmate. His perfect match. The person who would love him as much as his mom and dad had loved each other. Would love him more than anyone else. Someday, Stiles was going to meet them and it was going to be the most magical amazing mind-blowing experience of his life. He just knew that, deep down.

/break\

Thoughts of his soulmate were simultaneously less and more on his mind after Scott got turned into a werewolf. Less, because holy shit werewolves were real and Stiles had to do all the research to figure out how Scott could control his wolf and not like attack innocent people (like innocent Stileses). But a couple weeks into the mess, the matter was suddenly a pressing presence in the forefront of his mind, because Scott had found his soulmate.

Allison Argent, new transfer student… and, apparently, the daughter of a family of werewolf hunters. Because of course she was. Scott never did anything halfway, so why wouldn't he fully commit to a starcrossed lovers Romeo and Juliet kind of situation. With more potential deaths.

The first time Stiles saw Peter Hale was in the hallway of a hospital and it was neither magical, nor amazing, but perhaps a little mind blowing. After all, Derek's comatose uncle turned out to be the Alpha who bit Scott and he also turned out to not be as comatose as previously assumed.

Still, there were no… sparks, there was no recognition, no heart eyes or immediate swooning.

No, Stiles would only realize that Peter was his soulmate the third time they met.

(After a horrific second meeting on the lacrosse field that included the mauling of Lydia and the kidnapping of Stiles. Though a much tamer and less deadly kidnapping than Stiles would have anticipated, if one considered the dead nurse in Peter's trunk or the state Lydia had been in when Stiles and Peter left the school grounds. He'd later wonder if that had been the bond, subconsciously preventing Peter from harming his soulmate. In the following weeks, he was going to think a lot about the way Peter had taken his hand, his breath hot on Stiles' wrist, but dropping it and letting him go when Stiles declined the bite. Sometimes, that thought would be the only thing that'd allow Stiles any sleep at all in the time after Peter's death.)

The third time Stiles met Peter was at the burned out Hale House, after Peter tore Kate Argent's throat out with his claws. There was still a sense of insanity in his red-burning eyes and Stiles found himself terrified and rooted to the spot, Jackson hot on his heels after Stiles had more or less forced the other jock into being his chauffeur to the crime scene.

All Stiles could see was the Alpha who had bitten Scott. The monster who had torn into Lydia. The cold-blooded murderer who drove his nurse's corpse around in the trunk of his car.

So Stiles threw the Molotov cocktail, to be ignited by an arrow from Allison. Setting Peter on fire (for the second time in the man's life and good gods help him, Stiles felt his stomach twist at the reality of that). But it were Derek's claws sinking into Peter's throat that ended the man's life.

The moment Derek tore them out, a searing pain shot through Stiles' entire being and for a long, agonizing moment, he felt like he was on fire himself. His knees buckled from the overwhelming pain and he went down onto the ground, desperately grabbing his shirt to pull it up and see the spot where the pain seemed to originate from. His left hip. His eyes widened in true horror as he watched today's date burn itself into his flesh in the same elegant cursive as the birth date on his right hip.

His soulmate had died. This very moment, his soulmate had died. The moment Derek ripped out his uncle's throat, Stiles' soulmate died. His eyes widened, terror and grief and confusion melting together into an awful emotion that seemed to drown him, because he could no longer breathe. He couldn't breathe. He tried to but it was like his lungs had stopped working, because his soulmate was dead. His soulmate was dead and he had helped kill him.

"Stiles?" Scott sounded concerned and confused, stepping up to him. "What's wrong?"

"What's… happening?" Allison asked, right next to her soulmate.

Her still alive soulmate, the soulmate she loved and who loved her. The two who were supposed to be starcrossed and tragic but were just magical and perfect and had gotten that meet cute first meeting, falling in love at first sight even before they compared soulmarks weeks later. The two who had gotten what Stiles always had dreamed of, and Stiles? Stiles had just killed his one shot at true happiness. Happiness with an insane killer werewolf, but that was his fated match.

"Stiles," Derek growled, a deep and dark and commanding sound.

When Stiles' head jerked up at the sound, Derek was somehow right in front of him. And for some reason, Derek was holding the hem of Stiles' shirt, was lifting the other side of it. Showing off the birth date on Stiles' right hip. A sharp intake of breath as Derek's eyes looked from one date to the other and in that look full of pity and concern, Stiles had his definite confirmation that no, the death date was not a coincident, his soulmate hadn't randomly died in some other part of the world.

Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes and started spilling without his say so. Tears of mourning. For his one shot of happiness. For the soulmate he never got to meet. For… For the man Peter may have once been, before the fire and the insanity. For himself.

Arms wrapped around him. Strong arms that he definitely did not know. He blinked but couldn't stop crying, so he just leaned into the broad chest in front of him and cried and cried and cried. For the soulmate he had just lost, for the part of himself that he had just lost.

It felt like everything around him kind of just faded away. All he knew were the tears that wouldn't stop and the swirling thoughts of grief, anger, disappointment, loss, hurt, rage and… self-hatred.

He'd killed his own soulmate. But at the same time, what did it say about him to begin with, that his soulmate was a killer? Was that what had made them a perfect match? When push came to shove, Stiles had been as willing and ruthless to end a life to protect those he loved. No, not just protect. Avenge. The last thoughts in his head before he'd thrown the Molotov cocktail had been of Scott and Lydia. Was he… the same as Peter?

What would he do, if someone had not just hurt those he loved, but murdered them? He'd kill them. He'd kill them all with no hesitation, a vicious part of his mind whispered. Wasn't that what Peter had done? Killed those who had killed his family? Scott and Lydia had only been collateral damage, in a stage where Peter was so beyond caring that his revenge was all he thought of. Nothing and nobody else had mattered to the wolf at that point.

If they were a true match, did that mean Stiles had that in him too? He knew how fiercely loyal and protective he was. Deep down, he knew he would do anything for those he considered his. So if someone took them from him, took them all from him, left him entirely alone, broken, with nothing left but his revenge? Would he lose is too? Would he stop caring about who got hurt along the way too, because those who got hurt weren't his, didn't matter?

Stiles was too afraid to dig for the answer and that finally jolted him out of his stupor.

When he came to it, he was somehow sitting on his bed in his room and not on the forest floor. Disoriented, he looked around, wondering if it had just been a twisted nightmare. Derek, with his arms crossed and leaning against the wall opposite Stiles' bed, eyes a blazing red, was proof that it had very much happened. Peter was dead. Stiles had helped kill him.

"How… did I get here?" Stiles asked softly after another moment.

"Jackson drove us," Derek grunted, glare etched into his features. "He dropped Scott and Allison off too. Scott stayed with her, seeing… her aunt… die messed with her."

Right. Yeah. And she was Scott's soulmate. Of course would Scott stay with her. Soulmates were important. Were… Stiles couldn't help but press a hand against his hip, against today's date.

"He wanted to stay with you. But I told him I would. And that he could go and be with her."

"Why?" Stiles looked up, confusion all over his face. "Why would you stay with me? You hate me."

"Hate is a strong word," Derek looked constipated. "You're an annoying little shit. That doesn't make me hate you. It just makes me annoyed with you. When I need you, you tend to… be there. That's more than I can say about… anybody else, at this point…"

Stiles swallowed hard and, for some reason, remembered that day at the hospital. Facing Peter for the very first time. Calling Scott and Scott not picking up because he was on his special birthday date with Allison, celebrating the date on Scott's wrist with the person who belonged to that date.

Stiles was never going to spend October 27th with his soulmate. Was never going to get to blow out a cupcake candle together with his soulmate. He wasn't going to get to do that alone anymore either, was he? What good was celebrating the birthday of someone who was dead? And what right would he have to do so as the one who'd helped kill the other?

"I killed my soulmate," Stiles whispered, sullen and broken.

"I killed your soulmate," Derek corrected, staring at the floor.

"I helped," Stiles argued with an upset glare on his face. "If I hadn't set him on fire – I set him on fire, after ever… everything he's been through, I set him on fire…"

Suddenly, Derek was right there again, hugging him. Why. When had Derek hugs become a thing? They were nice. Derek was very comfortable for hugging. But that made it no less confusing.

"Why are you being nice to me?" Stiles asked. "Not exactly hating me isn't the same as staying with me and… hugging me… I was fairly sure you were allergic to hugs, actually."

There was a pause and Derek was decidedly not looking at him when he finally answered. "Because we're family. Because you're… my uncle's soulmate. You're… the only family I have left now."

Oh. Stiles didn't know what to say to that, but his heart clenched at the realization that Derek truly and fully had… nobody left anymore. And your family's soulmates were family. That was… true. Derek was… family now. Stiles didn't know what to do with that, but a tiny part of him felt relieved. Relieved that maybe not everything was bad, maybe something good could come from it. He didn't have much family himself, after all. It was just him and his dad. Now, it was him, his dad and Derek. Maybe they could be broken together.

/break\

Stiles' heart was beating out of his chest when his dad got home. The thought had built in his mind after the realization that Derek was now family, but the more time passed the more jittery he got and unsure about whether or not this was a good idea. His dad could immediately tell something was up.

"Okay, what kind of trouble did you get into now, kiddo?"

Noah looked mostly concerned. Stiles his his lip hard and then grabbed his shirt to lift it up enough to reveal his hip-bones. A horrified and devastated expression overcame the sheriff when he read today's date on his son's skin. With shaky hands did Noah pull Stiles into a bone-crushing hug.

"No," Noah whispered, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Mietek."

His childhood nickname got a weak sob from Stiles and he clawed his fingers into his dad's uniform, pulling himself as close as he could, trying to bury himself in his dad's chest and breaking down for the second time that day, a crying and sobbing mess.

"There… There is more, dad," Stiles forced out once he was somewhat calmed down.

Noah frowned at him, his whole focus on his son. Stiles tugged his dad along to the couch so he could sit down. Stiles himself took a seat opposite his dad, on the table so he could look at him.

"I know who my soulmate was," Stiles took a slow, shaky breath. "Peter Hale."

That gave Noah surprised pause and then he made a face. "That annoying lawyer brother of Talia Hale's, I remember him. Wait. He… He's a missing person right now? He disappeared from the hospital. Do you… know what happened to him…?"

"So…" Stiles shifted a little, fidgeting with his hands. "There's a whole lot more that I need to tell you to explain that. Like, everything that I've been… hiding from you in the past few months."

The relief on Noah's face was wary. "Lay it on me, kiddo. There's nothing we can't get through together, you know that, right? You and me, we got each other."

He reached out to take one of Stiles' hands, stopping him from fidgeting. A small, watery smile spread over Stiles' lips as he took a deep breath, bracing himself for what came next.

"Before I can explain it, I need to tell you that werewolves are real – please don't look at me like that, I need you to believe me, I need you on my side dad, and I can prove it. Derek?"

Noah looked startled when former two times murder suspect Derek Hale walked down the stairs, scowl on his face. Stiles' heart was hammering in his chest when Derek went into beta-shift, red eyes flashing at the sheriff, who immediately went for his gun.

"Derek's a werewolf and your gun is not going to do anything but mildly inconvenience him," Stiles bit his lips. "The murders? The ones you couldn't explain, the 'animal attacks'? Those were werewolf attacks – that's why Scott and I kept blaming Derek, because we knew he was a werewolf and we thought that he was the one doing everything, but he wasn't, he was kind of investigating the same thing as us. Basically, you, me and Scott, Derek, we were all doing the same thing from different angles and with incomplete information. But now that we have them all, I want you… I need you to know. Please put down the gun and listen to me, okay? Derek isn't a danger."

"He has fangs, Stiles!" Noah sounded distressed. "And his eyes are flashlights!"

"He's my nephew now," Stiles said with emphasis. "Wow, that sounds so bad, I hate that. But… his uncle is my soulmate, dad. Whatever else happens, Derek and I are in this together now. I trust him. Please, sit back down and let me explain everything dad, please?"

Both Noah and Derek had equally disturbed looks on their faces at the conclusion that Derek was now Stiles' nephew. With a shaky breath did Noah sit back down, while Derek let the beta-shift leave his face. The Alpha came to stand behind Stiles, with his arms crossed.

"The Hales were a family of werewolves," Stiles spoke slowly, patiently. "The fire was laid by Kate Argent. The Argents are a family of werewolf hunters. She was… particularly bigoted. She burned them all alive because she wants all werewolves dead. Laura and Derek left for their own safety, but Laura came back to investigate the fire when she had a lead and it… got her killed."

"By Kate Argent?" Noah asked, eyes darting between Stiles and Derek.

"No," Stiles swallowed hard. "By Peter. Werewolves have super healing and he'd been… he'd been healing for the past six years. Agonizingly slow and alone. When Laura returned, he killed her. I don't know why, didn't have the time to ask him. Maybe it was vengeance because she abandoned him, maybe he'd still been out of it so much he just noticed the threat of another wolf…"

And with that, Stiles launched into a detailed and exhaustive recount of everything that had happened, starting with that fateful night in the woods that had led to Scott being turned. His father looked mortified for most of it, but at least he no longer looked like Stiles had lost his mind. Derek was a firm and strangely comforting presence at Stiles' back, filling in any supernatural details that Stiles may have still been lacking. By the time he finished, Stiles felt strangely light and empty.

Author's note: So just how tired are y'all of hearing me say "this fic ran away from me"? Because, uh, yeah, this fic ran away from me. This was supposed to be a oneshot but then I wrapped what now is chapter one and was overcome with the urge for platonic Sterek sharing their complicated grief for Peter and then I thought "okay but what if the sheriff just adopts Derek because he's family now?" and then I had the desire to rewrite season 2 and the building of the Hale Pack under the premise of platonic!Sterek and Stiles helping Derek build the pack. I realized that may stray a little from the Steter this was supposed to be about and then had the thought "okay but what if Peter uses the soulmate bond to resurrect himself, instead of Lydia? So Stiles, in his grief for his soulmate, is haunted by the teen spirit of Peter flirting with him?" and at that point, I just gave up and decided this was gonna be another multi chapter fic...

So yeah! Next chapter, Derek moves in with the Stilinskis and we're starting to build the Hale Pack!