Chapter Text
It's been about three weeks since the whole Kanima/Gerard showdown and things have been surprisingly peaceful, so Stiles is doing some overdue processing in the woods. Life's been too quite lately. No new dead bodies, no new werewolves, no more psycho hunters other than Chris and Allison (who are way less crazy then their relatives). Stiles can almost say it's been good.
Of course Stiles is bored out of his mind.
After spending a solid three and a half months fearing for his life and trying to keep everybody alive, doing nothing is starting to drive him a little crazy. What kind of person was he that he could miss experiencing life or death situations?
Of course that's when a werewolf Stiles has never seen before comes crashing through the trees and, wait for it… tries to go for Stiles' throat.
(Stiles might bring some of these things on himself, but that's victim blaming.)
Luckily for Stiles, Derek jumps in and saves Stiles' life. Again.
At least Stiles is pretty sure Derek's the thing that jumps the werewolf. If it is Derek, he's way more furry than normal.
Stiles' instincts kick in and he looks around for a weapon. He finds a large, sturdy branch, hefts it and manages to hit the strange wolf right at the back of his head. The werewolf falls, giving Derek just enough time to tear his throat out. With his teeth. (Stiles might start taking Derek's threats seriously now, considering this is the SECOND time Stiles has seen Derek kill someone. But probably not. It's just not in Stiles nature to show fear around his enemies. Or frenemies, in his and Derek's case.)
Now that the danger has passed, Stiles finally gets a good look at Derek and whoa. Derek's definitely WAY more furry than normal. Like covered in fur. And he looks like a wolf, like a real wolf. Or more accurately, what a pony would look like if it was wolf shaped.
Stiles blinks at Derek. Derek blinks as Stiles.
He doesn't really know what the protocol is when someone kills another being to save your life so he just says “Thanks.”
Derek blinks at him again before throwing his head back and howling.
The howl gives Stiles a shiver and he isn't sure if it's Derek being victorious about taking down an enemy or just calling the rest of the pack to take care of the body. Either way, Stiles doesn't have any bars on his phone so he's just going to stay with the body until he can decide what to do with it. He finds a fallen tree to sit on and waits, hoping Dereks betas are coming.
It's a little weird when Derek comes over to sit on the ground next to Stiles, so close he's pressing up against Stiles' leg. Stiles stares at him before deciding that Derek's just more willing to give into animal instinct when he's ALL wolfie. Stiles is pretty sure he read somewhere that werewolves where tactile creatures so he tries not to jump when Derek puts his chin on Stiles' knee. Derek shaped like a wolf and cuddling with Stiles is better than Derek naked and just in Stiles general vicinity so Stiles doesn't push Derek away, even though the wolf gets blood on Stiles’ jeans.
Stiles is staring at Derek's ears because they look soft and he's really tempted to pet them when said ears prick up and Derek takes his head off Stiles' knee. (But he doesn't move away so it's less like Derek doesn't want to be seen with Stiles in public and more like he doesn't want to be seen sort of cuddling with Stiles in public. Stiles can roll with that.)
Scott crashes into the clearing wolf face out and snarling. Isaac walks in a minute behind him looking bored. Stiles snicker and shake his head because sometimes Scott is such a drama queen.
“I told you everything was fine.” Isaac says with a sigh.
Scott isn't paying attention. He loses his wolf face and stares at Stiles. “What are you doing out here?”
Stiles raises an eyebrow at the emphasis on the 'you'. Scott sounds like he's never seen Stiles in the woods before. “I was enjoying mother nature. Why is that so surprising?”
“You're not supposed to be out in the woods, Stiles!” Scott says as if they've had this conversation a million times before. For the record the only person who's ever said Stiles couldn't go out in the woods was his dad and last he checked that was not Scott.
“When was this decided and why didn't I know about it?”
Isaac's looking from Scott to Stiles in obvious confusion and Derek's starts to growl softly. Stiles is pretty sure he's missing something. Isaac's eyes finally lands on Scott and he says with annoyance “You didn't tell him?”
That gets Stiles' attention. “Tell me what?”
Isaac's still glaring but he turns it on Stiles “That there's been a rouge werewolf getting messy with the woodland creatures.” he turns back to Scott “You told me you asked for Stiles help and he wasn't interested.”
“Really?” Stiles asks, raising a brow at Scott.
Scott shrugged looking guilty. “I didn't think you'd want to get involved.”
“Why wouldn’t I want to get involved in looking for a rouge werewolf that could have started killing people?”
“Because of…” Scott gestures at Stiles face and the mostly fading bruises there. “…what happened.”
“So you have pulled this all the other times I’ve gotten hurt too?”
Scott gets a confused look on his face. “What?” he asks softly.
Stiles just pinches the bridge of his nose and tries to figure out how to bring the conversation back around to more important things but he gets distracted by Derek's growling, which had definitely gotten louder. Stiles pushed lightly at Derek's muzzle to get him to stop. Scott's eyes go wide and he flails his arms and starts to walk closer like he thinks Derek is going to attack Stiles or something. Derek just growls that much louder. Stiles sighs and puts a hand up. “Stop. Both of you.”
Scott makes a frustrated sound. “I was just trying to protect you!”
“Yeah” Stiles says with a laugh, “and look how that turned out! I got attacked by a werewolf I didn't know was running in the woods, even though this knowledge would have stopped me from going out in the woods in the first place!”
Scott arghs like a pissed off pirate. “I'm going to go call Mr Argent to tell him we found the rouge wolf and make him come and take care of the body.” then he stomps off to find a signal for his phone.
Stiles blinks at Isaac. Isaac blinks at Stiles.
(Well at least Derek's stop growling.)
~*~
Stiles and Isaac sit on the fallen tree with Derek between them, pressing up against both their legs, but he puts his head on Stiles' knee again.
Stiles is jiggling his foot up and down making Derek's head bounce and the wolf glares at him even more than usual.
“Sooo…” Stiles says in slight desperation, “…how's it going?”
Isaac smiles a little. “Derek can't turn back into a human.”
Stiles stares down at Derek, who's giving Isaac a look that could kill. “Well.” Stiles says a little hesitantly before deciding that this was something he could laugh about later (when he wasn't within biting distance of Derek's teeth) “We'll work on that.” he doesn't even try to resist giving Derek a pat on the head. He turns back to Isaac. “How's it going with you?”
“Good, well better I suppose. My emancipation been approved.”
Stiles' eyes go wide in surprise. “Really? Wow that was fast.”
Isaac shrugged. “Well I've been working at the cemetery all my life, the house is all paid for, Doctor Deaton gave me a job at the animal clinic and your dad put in a good word for me.”
“That's good. That's really good.” Stiles fidgeted some more, not sure how to ask his next question so he just goes with the most direct approach. “Um, are you going to stay at the house?”
Derek made an angry sound and Isaac flinched a little. “I don't have anywhere else to stay and I don't have enough money for a down payment on an apartment yet so...” Isaac makes a 'what can you do?' gesture.
“But you don't want to stay at the house?”
“God no.”
Stiles grins. “Okay!” he says, clapping his hands. “That settles it!”
Isaac and Derek stare at him. “What's settled?” Isaac asks hesitantly.
“You two are staying with me and my dad.”
“Wha-”
“Well he obviously likes you and he likes dogs so until Derek figures out how to human again he can pretend to be your dog. My dad'll totally go for it.”
~*~
“No Stiles.” The Sheriff has his (patented) 'I am The Sheriff and what I say is law'-look on.
“But daaad!” Stiles whines. “Look at this face!” he grabs Derek's muzzle and pulls Derek's face up so he's looking at the Sheriff. Stiles pulls out the puppy dog eyes because he knows Derek's not going to, “You can’t say no to this face.”
“I can when it's attached to a creature the size of a horse.”
Stiles presses his hands over Derek's ears with a gasp. “Dad!” he hisses, “You're gonna give him a weight complex!”
The Sheriff just shakes his head. "Besides Derek is a ridiculous name for a dog. Especially one that looks so much like a wolf. Wolf-dogs are illegal Stiles! I am the Sheriff!"
Isaac clears his throat. “I'll take care of all of his food and my food and I'll walk him and I'll even walk Stiles if you want me to.”
Stiles is convinced that in the end it's a combination of Stiles puppy dog eyes and Derek's not-puppy-dog-eyes that do it and not Isaac's amazing and sweet and actual puppy personality. He's also pretty sure that the bacon he bribes the Sheriff with doesn't hurt.