This post appeared again on my dash and it makes me smile every time, but this time I can't get the idea of a sterek version out of my head.
Imagine the Hale fire happened a week before school started and Derek didn't deal with it well. People would whisper behind his back or pity him and he hated it. Then he met Stiles, a chaotic ball of energy that barrelled into his life, treated him like anyone else, went on long rambling tangents, and made Derek smile.
They started dating and ended up getting married after graduation. But with every milestone that passed, Derek would think about his family. He wished his mum was in the crowd the day he graduated, he wishes his family could have met Stiles, wishes they could have gotten to know him, that they could have seen how he makes Derek smile.
At their wedding, they lay a flower on each of the seats that Derek's family would have filled.
On their honeymoon, Derek gets a call from Cora. She and Laura had been clearing out old boxes of stuff and she found a photo of the soccer team she and Derek played on when they were younger, and one of the kids in the photo looks just like Stiles.
Derek shows Stiles the photo and Stiles says, "Yeah, I was the goalie."
Later, when Derek is on the phone to Laura, he tells her about the photo and how he and Cora were on the same team as Stiles.
"I remember those games," Laura reminisces. "Mum and I used to watch the goalie - sweet kid. He would sit down in the goal and play in the dirt. Mum thought he was hilarious. She loved that kid."
Derek smiles as he looks at his husband and thinks, Yeah, I love him too.