The plan was plain and simple. Find the fairies. Tell them to leave. Secure the territory.
Yeah. Simple enough to be messed up by two inflexible elements.
"I wanna help," Stiles said amidst their approach to the secret hide-out in the woods.
"No. Not you," Derek denied his involvement as harshly as always.
"Hey. I can do s-"
"No!"
"You´re not my alpha. I can do what I want." The bitter taste that spoiled his mouth since Derek had started dating his teacher made him feel sick to the core. At the beginning he had even liked Jennifer Blake. Phew! Not anymore. Now he couldn´t even look at her in class without being fraught with disgust and hate. Nobody had noticed that he cared about Derek that much. Nobody suspected that he suffered because he wanted to have Derek for himself. Nobody knew he was a fool.
"Stay in the back," Derek ordered. "I got this."
Obviously Derek overestimated himself quite a bit. He had many talents but diplomacy wasn´t one of them. The flock of fairies got more and more angry talking to him. Soon they wailed like hell was about to break loose. Stiles got concerned and stepped up to Derek. "Okay, listen to me, funny little people..." The next second the leader chanted a spell.
"STILES! Get out of the way!" Derek pushed him aside and the flash of firelight emblazing the dark hit Derek right in the heart. The alpha crashed to the ground.
"NO!" Stiles´s scream mixed with the deafening noise of the cheering fairies. Boyd and Isaac grabbed Derek and made a run to seek cover in the depths of the woods. Frantic, Stiles chased after them. His heartrate went through the roof. What did they do to Derek? What spell did they use? What will happen? The darkness of the woods swallowed them up. "Deaton!" Stiles cried, completely wrecked. "We have to go to Deaton." God! Don´t have a panic attack. Not now. Just don´t. No. No. No. His eyes watered. His lungs hurt. His mind cracked. Darkness all around. Derek! No! Not you.
Half an hour later their hectic flight wound up at the animal clinic with the whole pack assembled.
"He´s dead," Deaton stated remorselessly, hovering over Derek´s lifeless body.
"He can´t be," Isaac said, sounding devastated.
"He is not breathing," Deaton answered matter-of-factly. "That implies he is."
Jennifer, who had rushed to Derek´s side after Scott had called her, sniffed unhappily.
Duh! Really? This is all Derek´s being dead gets out of you? A sniff? Well. Stiles didn´t even make such a tiny sound even though he felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest. But he had no right to throw a fit. He had no relationship whatsoever with Derek. He and the wolf were never in any way...
"It´s my fault," Scott said, exasperated. "I asked him to help me to get rid of those fairies." Allison squeezed his hand. Isaac glared at the gesture with blatant annoyance.
"Well," Deaton continued, "there is still one tiny spark smoldering. Knowing the fairies and their spells there might be one small chance to bring him back."
"What is it?" Isaac dragged his mind off the loving couple. "I´ll do it."
"There is only one person who can succeed at that task."
Jennifer stopped sniffing just like that. "Who?"
"The one Derek loves." Deaton´s lips twitched barely noticeably. "The one he trusts."
"Oh." Jennifer´s face lit up. "What shall I do?"
Arrogant bitch! Stiles swallowed the insult with trouble and caused his stomach to rumble like he had taken poison.
"Nothing too profound," Deaton continued, unaffected by Stiles´s yowling wheeze. "A kiss will do."
"Sure." She smiled like an unholy angel.
God! I hate her. Stiles, still frozen to the spot at the wall, was still trying to keep his feelings to himself, though the bitter taste in his mouth almost made him keel over. No. Please. Don´t do this.
Jennifer bent down and kissed Derek passionately on the lips. The pack held their breath. Stiles´s non-existent heart felt nothing but black despair.
Nothing happened. Nothing. Derek remained dead.
"Why isn´t it working?" Isaac´s voice dropped to a whisper.
"She´s not the one," Deaton stated cruelly.
Jennifer´s eyes darkened. The sudden hate in them was shockingly revealing.
Now what? Stiles, still grief-stricken, couldn´t stop speculating about her surprising change of heart. Doesn´t she love Derek? Doesn´t Derek love her? Does he love anyone?
"It could be anyone," Isaac said, pacing the room.
"No. The one is here. Already suspicious but afraid to take a chance."
They all looked around frantically. What? Who should that be? Is it me? Is it you?
Scott was the only one that gave Stiles a very serious survey. "Stiles, buddy?"
No. Don´t do this to me. Don´t you even dare... "It´s not me," Stiles pressed out, face twitching and turning like he was going mad.
"And why not?" Deaton inquired calmly.
"He doesn´t l- Oh god. He hates me." The second the words were out of his mouth he noticed how wrong they sounded. Utterly wrong.
"And you? Do you hate him?" Deaton had no mercy.
"I-I-," Stiles stuttered, and then he broke from the wall and stormed through the door that led to the room with the caged animals.
Scott rushed after him. "Hey, come on. It´s okay. Nothing to be ashamed of."
Stiles stuck to a cage containing a terrified, beautiful fox. "That´s not it. I just know it´s not me."
"But you care for him?"
"´Course." Stiles looked at his friend like he had asked the most stupid question ever.
"Don´t you want him to live?"
Stiles rubbed his wet eyes. "I want nothing more but it won´t work because it´s not me."
"Maybe." Scott put an arm around his shoulders. "Just give it a try, okay? Nobody will judge you no matter what happens."
Yeah? What about Jennifer? Despite his fears he let Scott drag him back inside, leaving the whining fox behind.
Deaton nodded confidently at Stiles. "Affection for someone else, no matter who it is, is never in vain."
"Yeah," Stiles breathed, feeling like his face was going up in flames. His complexion must match his red hoodie by now. If this doesn´t work out Derek is dead. DEAD! Don´t be a jerk. This is not about you. Quickly he bent down and touched Derek´s mouth with his lips as if he feared he could change his mind again otherwise. Derek´s lips were amazingly warm for a dead man. The people crowding the room went dead silent. Stiles kept kissing Derek for a pretty long time considering his reluctance to do this in the first place, like he didn´t want to let go of Derek at all, like he wanted this moment to last forever.
Isaac cleared his throat. Allison whispered something in awe. Scott snorted despite the tragic event.
Finally Stiles straightened up, eyes swimming with tears. Still he caught Jennifer´s gleeful grimace. "See, I told you..."
A howl, deep and soulful, ripped from Derek´s mouth. His body jumped on the table. CLUNK
The whole pack startled back into motion.
"Oh my GOD!" For seconds Stiles fumbled with Derek´s shirt, gaping down at him. Derek opened his green eyes, overflowing with sparkling reborn hope. Stiles let go and stumbled backwards. Once again he fled but this time through the door leading outside. The brutalized door crashed shut behind him.
"W-What happened?" Derek growled in his usual manner.
The gathering pack relaxed. Deaton smiled like Mister Know it All. "You were dead but the kiss of your mate brought you back."
Derek blushed, actually blushed, which made him look unnaturally vulnerable. "Where is he?" he hawked up.
Jennifer made a strangled defeated sound. Nothing more. Nobody cared to comfort her. Derek didn´t even seem to notice that she was present.
"You knew," Scott broke the spell of awkwardness accusingly.
"Every wolf knows his mate. You should know that, Scott," Derek said, sounding quite unsettled.
"He freaked and ran," Isaac gave away, his eyes clinging to Allison.
"Okay." The man who wasn´t breathing a minute ago pushed easily off the operating table. "I need to talk to him." He hurried after Stiles, not giving a thought about anyone else who had witnessed his miraculous resurrection.
"About time," Deaton agreed like a proud matchmaker.
The pack stared at him like he was the biggest traitor ever.
"Yeah, I knew, too. Didn´t you? Are you wolves or not?"
Man! That guy. The master in every respect.
**********************************************************
In the morning Derek gave up looking for Stiles and went to the loft. And guess what? There he was. Lolling on his sofa in his very own way, looking like a little lamb. "Hey, sourwolf, please don´t rip my throat out with your teeth. I did what needed to be done. That´s all."
Derek was scared silly. "W-What are y... I was looking everywhere for you."
"I figured," Stiles sighed, mouth twitching. "That´s why I came here. I needed a few hours to think."
"So? What´s the conclusion?" Slouching Derek stole up to him.
"That this is all pretty fucked up."
"Yeah, I´m sorry," Derek confessed, guilty as hell.
"What?" Holy fuck! What now? "Why?"
Derek shrugged. "That you had to do this."
Is this Derek fucking alpha Hale? "Nobody forced me."
"I´m sorry, though." Derek stopped right in his personal space, hovering.
Yet Stiles didn´t shy away from him. "I didn´t do anything I didn´t...want to."
"You hate me?" Baffled Derek raised both eyebrows.
"No. Not since...um...doesn´t matter...," he breathed out reluctantly, as if he wasn´t so sure that telling the truth was the right thing to do. "I kind of...like you. I wanted you to wake up. I wanted you to live...I didn´t mind kissing you..."
"Is that so?" The crest-fallen expression was flushed out of Derek´s face.
"Yeah," Stiles flustered and bit his lip. "I know I´m not someone you´d ever consider kissing-" The next second he was seized by the shoulders and pulled up against the broad chest of the werewolf. Their faces bore against each other.
"Idiot." Derek´s mesmerizing eyes stared him down. "I´ve always wanted you."
"Seriously?" Stiles spluttered, relishing in the awesomeness of Derek´s strong body. Yummy! "What about Jennifer?"
"That´s over."
"How come?"
"The revelation that you´re my mate I guess," Derek replied, making this a little bit too easy for himself.
"Oh." Yes. He had been jealous of Jennifer but she didn´t deserve such an unfair blow-off. Nobody deserved that.
"I understand," Derek accepted the liability for his past choices. "This is all going way too fast. You need time to think about this..."
"No." The heck with it! He didn´t owe that woman a fucking thing. She was the one that had come from nowhere and stole Derek away. So. All her fault. "Not really. I´ve been thinking about you...and me...making out...for some time..."
"Have you?" Derek smirked. "How long exactly?"
"Since you smashed me into the wall." Uh...where did that come from? How humiliating to confess something like that?
Derek´s eyes flashed in crimson glory. "Really? That turned you on?"
"I didn´t say that..." Hastily Derek´s lips met with Stiles´s busy mouth and every urge to talk more was lost to scraping kisses and sparking licks. Whew! Stubble attack. Inflamed he kissed back like he had never done anything else with one hottie sourwolf. A little sloppy at first, afraid to do it wrong, that Derek might end this faster than Stiles wanted him to, whining like a pleasured cub. Derek reciprocated by growling deeply, pulling Stiles into him, showing off his own delight. The kissing deepened rapidly. Wolf and boy were crashing together, hands grabbing everywhere, hips jerking in agreement.
Stiles broke away, gasping for air. "Maybe we should move to..."
"Shut up," Derek murmured against the line of Stiles´s neck.
"Yeah."
"Good boy," Derek praised smugly, nipping at the tender flesh.
"Oh, come on," Stiles moaned, but every further cheeky reply was melting away, because Derek gripped him tight and swung him around to lean him against the wall.
"On the spot." Playfully he pinned Stiles´s hands against the wall above his head, showing the boy his teeth. "You like that, right? You like to feel the wolf?"
"Oh yeah," Stiles squealed in utter bliss. "Please, yes."
"Do you even know how long I´ve wanted to do this?" Derek bit down on the neck submissively exposed to him. "Do you?"
"Show me, mighty alpha," Stiles dared to provoke him. "Show me how it´s done."
Later, much later, they were cuddling on the sofa, both looking a bit shell-shocked.
"Since when did you know?"
"Since our talk in the police car."
"What? Are you freaking kidding me? How could you know back then?"
"Your scent is very unique to me."
"Oh my god! You knew all this time and didn´t tell me."
"Hello. Underage. Boy."
"So?" Stiles scoffed. "Didn´t hold you back today."
"That won´t happen again. Not until you are of age."
"Good plan," Stiles agreed softly, getting to his knees. "Aren´t you forgetting something?"
"What?"
"Me." Stiles jumped on Derek´s lap, straddling him.
"Stiles!"
"Not listening, sourwolf. So not listening." He kissed his mate like the world was about to end tomorrow. And maybe it was. He wouldn´t take any chances. He wouldn´t waste one more second to be with the one he´d wanted for such a long time.
That was the plan.
Not to be messed up by one inflexible element.
Underage. My ass!
