Work Text:
Laura could not be a werewolf.
That was absolutely ridiculous, for one thing, and for another, it was Laura. She was sweet. She was gentle. She was…
Well, okay, maybe she was only like that with Derek, but a werewolf? That was still insane.
He said so. “You’re not a werewolf, Laura.”
“Yeah, Derek, I am.” Derek rolled his eyes, and Laura sat down on his bed. “Look, I’m telling you because I’m kind of freaking out about it and I’m probably going to need your help.”
“With what?”
“Hiding it from Mom and Dad, for one thing.”
“Yeah, because they won’t know something’s up,” Derek said, and then corrected himself. “Wouldn’t. Because nothing is up. You’re not a werewolf.”
“And you’re my anchor,” she finished, without explanation.
Later, Derek would understand. Later, he would be grateful, touched, even honored. Now, he was just confused. Maybe he should have moved away after college.
*
“Scott!” Stiles yelled across the field. “Scott!”
“What the hell, dude?” Scott muttered, and Stiles caught the words, faint and hanging in the air. He laughed.
“Just testing your senses,” he said back, hoping that no one around him was watching him mutter to himself.
“That hurt.” That was one of the things he liked about Scott. To Scott, the obvious was worth stating in these cases, because he assumed that Stiles hadn’t meant to hurt him.
“I know. Payback for all the times you yelled in my ear before you found out.”
“I was a kid! They do that!”
Coach Finstock shouted something, and they resumed practice, playing with enthusiasm and skill. “Stilinski wouldn’t pass to me,” Jackson growled to Finstock later, and Finstock gave him a sympathetic pat to the shoulder.
Stiles and Scott shared a grin at their lockers. Stiles didn’t know what they’d do if they weren’t better players than Jackson.
“You ready to go, man?” asked Scott, slinging an arm around Stiles’ shoulders when he nodded and turned to go. “Wanna fill me in on where you were last night?”
“Not really,” Stiles said as they emerged from the school. The sun was beginning to dim, trees casting shadows on the parking lot.
Standing next to Stiles’ Jeep was Derek Hale.
Stiles knew who Derek was. Derek, former star of the lacrosse team. Beacon Hills’ resident bad boy and criminal or shy with a heart of gold, depending on who you asked. Stiles knew who he was, all right, but he didn’t know him well.
And he’d bitten his sister two weeks ago.
“I need you to tell me what’s going on with my sister,” Derek said, and Stiles tensed.
*
They didn’t encounter each other often after Stiles explained, curtly and flippantly, that he was an alpha werewolf, Laura was part of his pack, and, dude, the stance and the glare weren’t all that intimidating when Stiles could easily kill him.
Derek hated him. Laura didn’t.
“He’s like a hyperactive puppy who’s really scary sometimes,” she said. Derek disagreed. Stiles wasn’t scary, but he was no puppy. Derek’s instincts said that he was worthy of respect.
Sometimes, Derek hated his instincts.
Laura told him there were hunters in town, people who hunted werewolves. She rolled her eyes as she explained that Scott, Stiles’ friend and another beta, had fallen for their daughter.
“Are you in danger?” he asked, and she bit her lip and changed the subject.
*
Stiles was beginning to regret his decision. “She has a brother who wants to murder me,” he told Scott, who had taken to Laura immediately.
“Yeah, but he can’t really do that, can he?” Scott pointed out.
Stiles fiddled with his lacrosse stick. “No, of course not. But he’s still annoying. I think he has it out for me.”
“You’re an alpha and your dad’s a werewolf sheriff. What can he possibly do?”
“Get in our way.”
*
They might not see each other often, but Derek knew where to find Stiles. He gritted his teeth and knocked on the door.
“Are you going to get my sister killed?” he asked.
“Not if I can help it.” Stiles stepped outside and sat on the front steps. He motioned casually for Derek to sit beside him. He did, but did it reluctantly.
“My mom was our alpha once,” Stiles said. Derek looked down at the leaves at his feet. “She died. Hunters.”
“I’m sorry,” Derek told him, not sure what else to say. Stiles’ candor had caught him off guard. His breath fogged in the cold as he spoke, and he saw little clouds forming as Stiles breathed in and out slowly, repeatedly. “Why did you bite Laura?”
Stiles turned to look him in the eye, eyes narrowed, and his face was suddenly closer than Derek expected. Derek tried to blink away the unexpected mental image of him moving forward a few inches, still with that challenging gaze.
“She asked me,” Stiles said. “Scott’s not exactly careful. She found out.”
“She didn’t tell me she had…wanted it.”
“Yeah, well, probably would’ve been even harder to explain.” Stiles shrugged. “Makes sense, though. She’s kinda…”
“Aggressive already?”
“I was going to say independent. And protective. Of you.”
Derek didn’t have anything to say to that. Stiles continued, “I only bit her because she asked.”
“And you needed a pack.”
“Okay, that too. But after Scott—he hated me for a while, you know—I wouldn’t do it to anyone who didn’t want it.”
Derek didn’t know. “Why did you bite Scott?”
“Because I needed him safe.” Stiles sucked in a long breath and let it out slowly. “I convinced him it was what he wanted. I shouldn’t have.”
“When?”
“What?” Stiles blinked, long lashes flecked with wet. Derek didn’t point it out.
“When did it happen?”
“After my mom,” he said. “And yeah, I know. If she wasn’t safe, why would Scott be any different? But it felt like it would be, I don’t know. Like it would help.”
“You can’t protect everyone.”
“Yeah, but I have to.”
*
“What do you mean, they’re after you?” Derek hissed through the phone.
“I mean,” Stiles said, “they’re after us. Well, not them, so much. One of them. She suspects I bit Laura.”
“That’s probably because you did.”
“She asked for it!” Stiles insisted. “She literally came up to me and asked me for it!” It was true, but he saw Derek’s point all the same, reluctant as he was to admit it.
“Stiles, why did you call me?”
“Oh. Uh. Yeah, I’m not having the best day.”
“Why didn’t you call your dad? The werewolf sheriff?”
“I don’t want him to worry.”
“Oh?”
“I got shot.”
“So by ‘they’re after you,’ you meant you’ve been shot and Laura could be.”
“And Scott.”
“That is not the…that is not the point, Stiles. Where are you?”
When he drove up, Stiles was bleeding, his arm wrapped in a plaid shirt.
“Dude, I hope you know I’m going to bleed all over your Camaro.”
“Where are Laura and Scott?”
“They’re trying to get hold of some wolfsbane. Bullet’s poisoned.”
“Jesus, Stiles.”
“Drive. Scott said we could go to the clinic.”
*
They weren’t friends. He still hated that Stiles had bitten his sister.
Still, holding him up in a pool and talking about trust, Derek had to admit he trusted him.
“It’s because of Laura. You only trust me because she does,” Stiles pointed out, gasping for breath.
“Does it matter?”
“I still don’t trust you,” Stiles said.
“Fine.” Derek made to drop him, and Stiles glared.
*
They weren’t friends, but Stiles had to acknowledge the grudging respect that had formed between them.
“This is gross,” Stiles declared, digging his claws into his leg, and Derek grunted his agreement.
“Laura, take Derek,” he said when she showed up and he could move.
*
“Derek! Derek!” Stiles shouted, voice echoing through the woods. “Derek, where the hell are you?”
“He’s not here,” Scott said. “I can’t smell him.”
“Oh God,” Laura groaned. “Oh God. Derek.”
“Look, the alphas are on their way. We don’t have time to find him,” Scott warned.
“We can’t just leave him behind.” Laura dug her knuckles into her scalp. “We can’t, Stiles, he’s my brother. I know you don’t care about him, but I do.”
“I care,” Stiles said, meeting her eyes calmly.
“Why?” asked Scott, and Stiles made a face at him. “Sorry, Laura. I didn’t mean that.”
“We’re finding him,” Stiles said. “I promise, Laura. We’ll find him.”
*
“Just because I’m human doesn’t mean I’m incompetent,” Derek said, startled by Laura’s fierce hug. The alpha lay unconscious on the floor. “He was distracted. I took advantage.”
“That’s kind of badass, Derek,” Scott said approvingly. Laura nodded, tears in her eyes and a hysterical giggle forming in her throat.
“Thanks, Scott,” he said, and looked to Stiles.
“Derek,” Stiles said. “I—God, I’m sorry. That wasn’t supposed to happen. I mean, obviously you getting kidnapped wasn’t supposed to happen, but I’m sorry, okay?”
Derek rolled his eyes and broke out of Laura’s hold with only a little bit of difficulty.
“You’re kind of shitty at this alpha thing, you know that?” he told Stiles with a small grin.
“Like you’d be any better.”
Derek would never admit how true that was.
“I really am sorry,” Stiles said later, standing in his doorway. He had followed Derek and Laura home after dropping Scott at his house, wanting to make sure the alphas weren’t on their trail. “I feel like I kind of sentenced you to constant mortal peril when I bit her.”
“You did,” Derek told him.
Stiles winced. “Yeah. Fair.”
Derek waited for him to say something else, and when he didn’t, prompted, “Was there something else you wanted?”
“No. I mean, yeah. I mean. We’re kind of almost friends, aren’t we?”
Derek stared at him.
“I mean, like, with the mutual life-saving,” Stiles clarified. “I kind of feel like you maybe care a little bit about whether I live or die.” When Derek shrugged, he added, “I do.”
“Really?” Derek said. “You don’t trust me, but you care about me?”
“I didn’t trust you,” Stiles corrected. “Since the kanima and Gerard and the alpha attacks…”
“We’ve gotten into a habit, yeah.”
“I trust you, man,” he said. His shoulders sagged, just enough for Derek to notice. “And I was worried today.”
“It’s hard on you,” Derek said. “It’s hard for you. The pack. Being in charge.”
“Why do you say ‘the pack’ like you’re not a part of it?” Stiles asked. “You are, you know.”
“Because of Laura,” Derek laughed softly. “Like everything in this mess.”
“It’s not because of Laura.” Stiles flashed him a half-hearted grin. “Don’t know what it is, really, but that’s not it.”
“Huh.”
“I’m gonna go,” Stiles told him, pointing in the direction of the staircase. “I can hear your parents’ car. Don’t want you to have to explain the jailbait werewolf in your bedroom.”
“It is completely ridiculous that Laura and I both still live with them.”
Stiles shook his head. “I’d live with my mom forever if I could.”
Derek looked up at him, startled, but Stiles had vanished.
*
This time, Derek found Stiles.
“Oh my God,” Stiles said. “Oh my God, thank God you’re here.”
“Laura,” Derek said calmly through the phone, “I found him.”
“Derek, the alphas—“
“Locked you in here. I know.”
“They’re still out there! We have to—” Derek shook his head. “They’re not?”
“We took care of them.”
Stiles looked at him closely, disbelieving. “You?”
“Mostly Laura and Allison.”
“Wow.” Stiles was stunned. “Wow. You. Wow.” Not knowing what else to do, he reached out and pulled Derek into a hug.
Derek froze for a moment, Stiles freezing with him, because what the hell was he doing? Hugging Derek was…that was weird. Or it should be.
He turned his face to Derek’s neck, breathing shallowly, and Derek pulled back and searched his face.
“What happened, Stiles?” he asked softly, a hand on Stiles’ shoulder.
Stiles took a deep breath and looked Derek in the eye. “Later,” he said, nodding to himself. Derek nodded back, still gripping his shoulder, his thumb moving over the skin at his collar.
“Oh, gross,” Scott said from the doorway. “Are you guys gonna make out?”
“Scott!” Stiles squeaked, and Derek smiled as he released his hold.
“Later,” Derek said, nodding seriously, and Stiles smiled and nodded back.