The Wolf Den

….Well this was certainly a new one

Derek honestly wasn’t sure what to do with this, he had been in the younger woman’s position a few times himself- being muscular and male and having a “resting bitch face” meant he was often mistaken for causing trouble when he was minding his own business, but he didn’t really know how to respond to the situation in any case……

“Ma’am, it doesn’t look like you’re being restrained or in immediate physical danger, is there a reason you can’t simply leave?” he offered, deciding to let his nursing training kick in- placate, ask rather than demand, don’t judge the situation if there’s any chance of a simple and actionless outcome….

Though he did offer the younger woman an apologetic look, hoping she wouldn’t take offense to being ignored

    * THE OLD LADY was fuming. Though the man that had come to address her was attractive (she had eyes, after all) he wasn’t being helpful. “Why should I leave! Why can’t she leave!” She had turned red in the face, a stark contrast to her white hair. “I have rights, you know!” She pulled her arms up, and started swinging her purse wildly in the air - processing no care for who it may it, if it did hit anyone.

Caitlyn, for her part, shielded her face from the wild purse swings. “I think we should go!” She yelled at the man. “I don’t think she’s going to stop!” She paused, though, frown on her face. “Unless you think there’s something you can do?” Beyond them, the purse continued to swing.

Oh shit, Derek really hadn’t expected that reaction

Ducking to avoid the purse, he instinctively backed up to defend the innocent woman from the assault, hands up just in case he needed to swat the purse away

“Well, we could call the cops, but I don’t think having an old lady arrested would be great PR, and I’m pretty sure defending ourselves from her would just get us arrested, so... running sounds like the best idea,”

Derek hated to turn tail as much as anyone, but he was mature enough to know when a situation called for it, and this one certainly did

He turned quickly, ushering the young woman to go first, before hurrying away from the assailant

     * “SAVE ME, save me!” The woman was screeching, Caitlyn red in the face as she stood fidgeting across from her. “Please, calm down, ma’am. I’m sorry I–” Her words were cut off by another call for help. Caitlyn sighed, shifting and feebly trying to wave her hands in front of the woman’s face. When someone finally approached, the older woman - grey and frail in appearance, donning a black cardigan - sighed with relief. “Oh thank you! This lady here is harassing me! She’s threatening my wellbeing! Please save me!”

“I’m not doing–!” Caitlyn flushed again. “I already said I’m sorry I mistook you for a thief I’m–” Hopeless, Caitlyn turned to the stranger. “I’m sorry. I really haven’t done anything here. And I have this under control so you can—”

....Well this was certainly a new one

Derek honestly wasn’t sure what to do with this, he had been in the younger woman’s position a few times himself- being muscular and male and having a “resting bitch face” meant he was often mistaken for causing trouble when he was minding his own business, but he didn’t really know how to respond to the situation in any case......

“Ma’am, it doesn’t look like you’re being restrained or in immediate physical danger, is there a reason you can’t simply leave?” he offered, deciding to let his nursing training kick in- placate, ask rather than demand, don’t judge the situation if there’s any chance of a simple and actionless outcome....

Derek didn’t drink, as a rule, it wasn’t that he had some righteous thing against alcohol- hell he had tended bar for years- but he just didn’t like the idea, personally, of being drunk, he was the kind of person who always wanted all of his faculties about him, so with all that being said, it was unusual for him to be at a bar, it just wasn’t a place he typically found any pleasure in, but… for some reason, he had been feeling lonelier the past couple of months, as though he was freshly missing someone, even though he couldn’t think of who that could be

In any case, the idea of spending the evening at home alone again was… unpleasant… and there wasn’t much open at midnight these days, so, bar it was

He just hoped no one was going to notice his fruity cocktail was actually a mocktail, the bartender had given him enough of an amused look as it was…

Once today’s meeting was over Rebekah wasted no time leaving their table against their protests. She made her way over to the nearest person at the bar she found who looked the least likely to get on her nerves. “Well, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one not drinking tonight” she commented as she put her own non-alcoholic drink next to his on the bar, leaning slight against. “May I ask you a favor? Simply a few minutes of conversation so I appear busy?” She was in no mood for one of her clients to try to approach her now their meeting was over. Next time she’d see them would be in court if everything went to plan.

Oh... this was unexpected, but not at all unusual

Derek had played this role before, though mostly back when he was tending bar, he was still fairly used to it though

“Not a problem at all, I’d be happy to,” he promised, shifting so that he could face her more directly, make it appear like they were having a more personal conversation

“I take it the lack of alcohol and the desire for a distraction are connected?” he guessed, glancing breifly over his shoulder at the direction the stranger had come from, spotting a couple of people drinking by themselves

Yeah, he had a pretty good guess of the reason she suddenly needed to avoid someone, though he wasn’t about to directly assume

“Just a nurse, though people are making the comparison more and more these days, in fact if they get any more determined they might just out the U.S. Nursing Coalition for being the Justice League, there go our secret identities,”

Usually Derek’s sarcasm was as dry as driftwood, making it almost impossible to tell when he was teasing- not helped by his, as Cora called it, “resting bitch face”, but he had learned quickly in New York how to bubblegum up his attitude a little so as not to scare pediatric patients, and he’d- thankfully- retained a little of that knowledge even now

“Yeah, but don’t call her a sidekick, it uh… bruises her ego,”

Almost as if to help with the gimmick, Leia barked, tail wagging excitedly

“What do you say then? Are you willing to join our ragtag Bat-team and let me patch you up? Or are you going to make me chase you down the ally waving a first aid kit full of Hello Kitty band-aids in your face?”

He had Wonder Woman too, but the threat of putting Hello Kitty anything within ten feet of this girl seemed like the far better bait

***

Hope rolled her eyes a bit at the joke. It was borderline dad-joke territory. It was definitely the kind of joke that MG would have made when they went to school together as members of what he called the ‘Super Squad’.

“I’m not joining your Bat-team,” Hope said with a huff of laughter that caused her face to twinge in a bit of pain. “But if you’re going to chase me down with band-aids, I guess I can accept some help.” Accepting help was the last thing she wanted to do, but she had a feeling that this guy was serious about chasing her down with his insane desire to help her and she was too tired to deal with that level of BS. “Only because I like your dog,” she added before bending down to scratch behind the dog’s ears.

“That’s totally fair, my dog is awesome,” Derek agreed

In general, he kind of hated people, a weird trait for a nurse he knew, but people just.... they could be cruel, they could be evil, and Derek didn’t have the emotional capacity to handle that for the most part

Dogs though, dogs were pureness incarnate and Derek loved them- so he perfectly understood the logic

Leia seemed happy with the decision too, tail wagging with joy as she leaned into the affectionate scratches, soaking up the love

“You… feel drawn to the forest too…?”

Derek had always chalked it up to growing up on a reserve, but that never felt right as his reasoning, it never really clicked, his desire to run through the trees, to sit in the grass beneath the moon and simply exist…. normal people didn’t have that desire, did they?

“Sorry, um… what kind of creepy shit?”

He thought about her words, pursing his lips a little, the only people he really had in his life were his family….

“Just my family members, and they all live in New York, I don’t think I’d chance sending flowers all the way there- especially not in winter, but… maybe I’ll just get some for myself,”

Maybe if he had the flowers in his home, he’d remember over time…

“You too? That’s great I thought I was the only one really” She of course knew people that liked going into the woods but she hadn’t actually met many and no one felt drawn like her it would seem, she just liked being around nature, sit by the base of a tree just enjoying the moment “Well I heard there was creepy thing but that’s all…maybe someone was just messing with me.” She sighed and shrugged.

“Yeah, I think you would have to buy them online on a store from New York” Which she supposed he could so, though you’d have to trust that the store does deliver what it says. “That’s a good choice too, what would you like?”

“Not the only one at all, ever since I got here it’s like... I can’t stay away from the woods,”

It was such an odd feeling, and one he didn’t remember having in New York, maybe it was just something about this town...

“Well you’re in luck, I’m practically the king of creepy shit, wanna run it by me just in case?”

Derek had seen plenty of weird, creepy, horrific things as a nurse, once you have to fish worms out of a guy’s nose, you kind of stop being intimidated by..... well, anything

“Yeah, it’s really not the same as choosing something fresh in person is it?” he nodded in agreement, although that did bring him back to the same question he’d walked in with- what kind of flowers to buy?

It was the strangest thing….

Derek didn’t consciously remember what was drawing him here, there was just some sort of… tug…. like buying flowers on Valentine’s Day was something he… did…. even though he had never had a significant other and certainly didn’t buy flowers for his family on Valentine’s Day…

Still, he had found himself at the store and now that someone had called out his presence, he wasn’t entirely sure what to do

“Um… I’m….. not quite sure,” he confessed, rubbing the back of his neck

“I was just sort of… drawn here I think…..”

“Really? You know sometimes I feel that way, not about the store but like the forest but  then creepy shit has been going on there apparently so I don’t go anymore” She said with a faint chuckle  “But maybe…there is someone you want to give something to? It doesn’t have to me romantic you know.”

“You... feel drawn to the forest too...?”

Derek had always chalked it up to growing up on a reserve, but that never felt right as his reasoning, it never really clicked, his desire to run through the trees, to sit in the grass beneath the moon and simply exist.... normal people didn’t have that desire, did they?

“Sorry, um... what kind of creepy shit?”

He thought about her words, pursing his lips a little, the only people he really had in his life were his family....

“Just my family members, and they all live in New York, I don’t think I’d chance sending flowers all the way there- especially not in winter, but... maybe I’ll just get some for myself,”

It was the strangest thing....

Derek didn’t consciously remember what was drawing him here, there was just some sort of... tug.... like buying flowers on Valentine’s Day was something he... did.... even though he had never had a significant other and certainly didn’t buy flowers for his family on Valentine’s Day...

Still, he had found himself at the store and now that someone had called out his presence, he wasn’t entirely sure what to do

“Um... I’m..... not quite sure,” he confessed, rubbing the back of his neck

Derek really needed to stop getting involved in other people’s bullshit…

“Alright, then how about you let me patch you up myself? We can even go by a drug store and get a new first aid kit so you have proof that I haven’t tampered with anything beforehand,”

Derek, ever the boy scout, did actually have one in his car, but people like this always seemed to think he put cyanide in the rubbing alcohol or something and never trusted it, so he wasn’t even going to bother mentioning it this time around

And it wasn’t that the girl wasn’t annoying as sin- she certainly was, but she kind of reminded him of Cora that way, the fake cheeriness just to irritate him, the stubbornness, the fighting to begin with….

Maybe that was why he had wanted to help in the first place, as much as he liked to say it was because he was a nurse and that was just part of who he was….

Leia beside him seemed none the wiser to the potential danger here, giving an exciteable bark as she tried to trot closer to the stranger, tail wagging and tongue lolling out, eager to meet a new person

Sometimes Derek really wished he was a dog, it seemed like so much more of an innocent existance…

***

Hope raised an eyebrow at the suggestion that they go buy a new first aid kit. If anything that would draw attention if she walked into a drug store with some of her more obvious bruises. But more than that, why the hell would some stranger care enough to buy a freaking first aid kit to patch her up. “Are you some aspiring superhero or something?” she teased through a swollen jaw, a glint of amusement in her eye as she looked down at the excited dog. “I guess this is Robin?” Hope nodded toward the dog, instantly regretting it a bit as her body protested most movements. Maybe she was a bit more roughed up than she wanted to admit to herself at first. No one ever seemed to mind when Hope pushed herself too far though. It was kind of impossible to tell her when to slow down or stop.

“Just a nurse, though people are making the comparison more and more these days, in fact if they get any more determined they might just out the U.S. Nursing Coalition for being the Justice League, there go our secret identities,”

Usually Derek’s sarcasm was as dry as driftwood, making it almost impossible to tell when he was teasing- not helped by his, as Cora called it, “resting bitch face”, but he had learned quickly in New York how to bubblegum up his attitude a little so as not to scare pediatric patients, and he’d- thankfully- retained a little of that knowledge even now

“Yeah, but don’t call her a sidekick, it uh... bruises her ego,”

Almost as if to help with the gimmick, Leia barked, tail wagging excitedly

“What do you say then? Are you willing to join our ragtag Bat-team and let me patch you up? Or are you going to make me chase you down the ally waving a first aid kit full of Hello Kitty band-aids in your face?”

Oh

That was… unexpected

Though, definitely a pleasant type of unexpected

Derek had just assumed that Stiles would never…. want…. him…..

After all, why would he? Derek was twelve flavors of fucked up and Stiles-… well, Stiles wasn’t exactly the most trauma free person either, but he was charming and funny and beautifull inside and out and he was so damn smart, he was… what did the kids these days call it? A treat? Stiles was a treat and he could have anyone he could want and Derek was….. something to look at, he supposed

But he knew Stiles wasn’t that shallow, sure he had expressed interest in Derek’s body before- not intentionally probably, but Derek knew what lust was when he smelled it- but that wasn’t the same thing as actually wanting to be with someone, and Derek knew Stiles well enough by now to know that he didn’t go for someone just because they were attractive

God, he’d spent years pining after Lydia Martin, practically ignoring the other people who’d had crushes on him….

Deciding not to think about any of that anymore- atleast not right now- Derek eagerly gave into the kiss he had longed for for so long, his fingers twisting gently into Stiles’ hair, the necklace clutched in his other hand banging against his wrist as he pulled Stiles closer, letting him guide everything, not wanting to overstep his boundaries but craving the attention all the same

It was insane that only moments ago, he’d been living through the worst moments of his life on repeat, and now…. he couldn’t remember the last time anything felt so right and good and perfect

.

Stiles slanted his mouth open against Derek’s, relished the grate of stubble at his cheeks and the flex of thick shoulders beneath curious fingers. There was a frantic sort of passion to him, at any moment his brain would catch up with other parts of himself and the reality of their situation would pull him back to abrupt anxiety, he shoved reality away with all his might to take a step and pull Derek into his place. He fumbled with the door without breaking the kiss, crowding him back to cage him against it with the whole of Stiles’ comparatively meagre bulk. 

There was another soft noise directly against Derek’s lips at the grip in his hair, a mindless encouragement that he wouldn’t have thought himself capable of making a few hours ago. The Stiles that had first met the Hale years before could hardly keep up with the influx of new information, whether it was the cold sweat from the real memories or the overwhelming reality of how one of Derek’s big hands felt, hot on his hip like a brand and better than the idea. 

Kicking relentlessly at the cerulean water of the pool, muscles cramping with exertion, certain that the only thing he needed to do was to keep the werwolf’s head above the surface. The shock of being slammed against a steering wheel, unable to cut into Derek as he paled and wasted away on the vet table. The unspoken trust that had built, against all their instincts even when they’d tried to sabotage it with spite, growing relentless and strong.  

Derek had never really wanted to trust Stiles, he certainly had never wanted to like him, but Stiles did to him what he- seemingly unintentionally- did to everyone around him- he made Derek trust him, like him, want him, adore him, love him

The wittiness and sarcasm were easy to take or leave, but the bone-deep loyalty that Derek will still swear he had never seen in anyone other than a wolf, the relentless desperation to hold onto the few people he held dear cleverly disguised as stubbornness, the gentle caretaking he performed day in and day out ranging from making his dad healthy lunches to checking in on Derek and his pack when he honestly he had no reason to...

Derek couldn't remember the last time he didn't think of Stiles as pack- not because of the memory wipe or because it had been too long ago to remember, but because the seams blurred together so perfectly that he didn't really know when that change took place

He wasn't pack when he tried to pawn Derek off to the tech kid all the way back in the early days, but he was when Boyd died and he took the initiative as the only person to try to lend Derek any comfort; he wasn't when he tried- and failed- to hack Derek's arm off, but he was when Scott became an Alpha- Derek knew that for sure, the scent of another Alpha on Stiles had always made his nose burn in that distinct territorial way that made him feel like a possessive boyfreind long before he realized he had any romantic feelings for Stiles- but... where was the line? The pool? The darrach? The deaths that piled up and bled together like a sickening, gory mossaic of Derek's life? He couldn't tell...

And somewhere in that time- distinctly, Derek thought, before Stiles joined the FBI, but he couldn't be entirely sure- the feelings of pack had grown to feelings of... of more....

And Stiles... he kissed in a way that was so unique to him, so perfectly in sync with how he acted with everything else, a little nervous and eager and putting all of himself into each moment, his grip clingingly tight and his lips almost bruising with force, each touch was like cool water pouring over Derek's burning skin, he didn't even realize that they'd stepped inside until Stiles was caging him in, and for the first time, he enjoyed the caging sensation

With Stiles it didn't feel like a cage, it felt like a protective barrier, keeping the rest of the world out- the agonizing world that had only ever caused so much pain for them both...

Stiles was protecting them from it

At first Derek worried that Stiles was having regrets, that he had screwed things up, just acted without thinking, assumed-....

"Are you okay?"

....Oh.....

With a shaking breath, Derek carefully uncurled his hand, revealing a hand-made necklace- a wooden triskelion wrapped delicately in a leather cord- and draped it around Stiles' neck

"This is a replica of the necklace my mother Talia gave to Mama Selena when they got engaged, it was to make sure that everyone knew who's pack she was in, and so that she herself would know when she was alone that she had a home with the Hale family, it’s... it’s special, only something to give to the people you cherish most, I want you to have this, Stiles,"

Pausing, Derek resisted the urge to nervously bite his lip what if Stiles rejected it?

Derek had been taught since childhood to control his strength, not to hug too hard, to be gentle with the fragile humanity around him

But fuck. all. that.

Derek squeezed, he hugged Stiles the way a child would hold a teddy bear, with white fingertips and sweaty palms and sucking in breath after breath as the scent of his packmate flooded his nose again

God, he felt like his senses had been put on mute all this time, and now he finally had them back

Stiles smelled warm and familiar, like freshly laundered cotton and mulled apple cider and a little bit of oak and a sharp, stinging spice that Derek had learned long ago meant anxiety and emotional distress

That last part hadn’t always been a prominent part of Stiles’ scent, but…

After a couple of shaking breaths, Derek pulled back just enough to cup Stiles’ face and kiss him

He didn’t care about the preamble anymore, he was so fucking tired of the masks everyone wore around eachother out of fear of getting hurt, Derek didn’t think it was possible to hurt more than he had that morning so what was a little more pain? And he had been bottling up the desire for closeness with Stiles for…. years, if he was being just brutally honest with himself, he always locked it up tight with all of his other feelings and pounded it with a mallet whenever it risked making an appearance, and he was sick of it

The last few weeks getting to know Stiles as their most…. pure, unharmed selves had been like a fairytale, and Derek had suffered so much loss that he didn’t think it was much if a surprise that he wanted just a little bit of a fairytale in his life

“Sorry…” he breathed as he pulled back, sucking in another breath, arms still around Stiles

“I’m… sorry for just…. just springing that on you….”

Chewing his lip, he let one hand stay carefully placed on Stiles’ back, the other reaching into his pocket for what he had grabbed earlier

“I-.. you don’t have to… feel any kind of-…. I just…. sorry.…”

Derek’s arms encircled him in an instant and he took great gulps of Stiles’ likely disappointingly human but still familiar scent, “I gotchu, issok.” He slurred on repeat into the ridge of Derek’s collarbone, inadvertently rubbing perfect circles around the Triskelion without even noticing he had started using the flat of his palm, speech hampered by the band around his ribs from the force of the embrace. 

The harsh whuffs of hot breath over his neck were overwhelmingly comforting all of a sudden to the point that his throat tightened painfully; having not had the rest of the pack all up in his business getting their good olfactory dopamine from his pheromones or whatever it was they seemed to need to do when they alternately pawed and sniffed at him. Stiles was trying, he didn’t know how else to comfort Derek, where to even start. 

The startled little yelp that had been brewing was swallowed as Derek guided his jaw into place with his hands, tilted his chin up until their mouths met. Stiles’ brain promptly short circuited and the soft press of his hands jerked to twist desperately at fistfuls of fabric. There had been something holding him back from the ease of Echo Springs Derek with the sweet dog, the happy family life and carefully cultivated career, like Stiles was the black hole that sucked the people around him into chaos. 

Now every ounce of the tension that had brewed, thick and static in the hour before a storm crackled like a live wire between them where Stiles thought it had only been him. The strange determination to hold each another at arms length even when they’d allied, claim distrust, yet how terrifyingly easily they’d unquestioningly die for each other, how they nearly had already a hundred times over.

Oh

That was... unexpected

Though, definitely a pleasant type of unexpected

Derek had just assumed that Stiles would never.... want.... him.....

After all, why would he? Derek was twelve flavors of fucked up and Stiles-... well, Stiles wasn’t exactly the most trauma free person either, but he was charming and funny and beautifull inside and out and he was so damn smart, he was... what did the kids these days call it? A treat? Stiles was a treat and he could have anyone he could want and Derek was..... something to look at, he supposed

But he knew Stiles wasn’t that shallow, sure he had expressed interest in Derek’s body before- not intentionally probably, but Derek knew what lust was when he smelled it- but that wasn’t the same thing as actually wanting to be with someone, and Derek knew Stiles well enough by now to know that he didn’t go for someone just because they were attractive

God, he’d spent years pining after Lydia Martin, practically ignoring the other people who’d had crushes on him....

Deciding not to think about any of that anymore- atleast not right now- Derek eagerly gave into the kiss he had longed for for so long, his fingers twisting gently into Stiles’ hair, the necklace clutched in his other hand banging against his wrist as he pulled Stiles closer, letting him guide everything, not wanting to overstep his boundaries but craving the attention all the same

Pain

Everything had been going just fine, he was making breakfast as usual with Leia wandering around the kitchen in circles waiting for a hand out, and then suddenly…. the most indescribable agony shot through Derek’s veins

The memories slammed into him like a speeding train, flashes of his family’s deaths pounding through his mind one by one as he dropped to the ground and screamed, alerting poor Leia as she barked and wimpered, unsure of what to do

He must have spent an hour on the kitchen floor, reliving the pain of the past decade, remembering every little hurt, each loved one lost, like a screw being driven through his skull, one by one…..

Realizing that his life had been a lie up until now

It was at around the hour mark, long after Leia had given up and decided to just curl up on the floor next to him and lick his face continuously, that he remembered something else-

He wasn’t alone here

Springing suddenly to his feet, he ran out of the house, not even bothering with a jacket- but paused breifly, turned back inside and grabbed something from his nightstand before rushing back out, barely remembering to close the door behind him as he sprinted down the street

He had never been so uncoordinated, spilling into the driveway like a stumbling madman as he tumbled up the steps and started pounding frantically on unfamiliar door

“STILES!!!” he shouted, hands shaking as he banged against the door

“STILES!!!!!”

@wittyliability​

I feel like it’s more than guilt though, I feel like I lost something. Some of us have to make mistakes. some of us have to get our hands a little bloody sometimes. some of us are human! Where’s my dad? Everyone has it, but no one can lose it. What is it? A shadow. I’m a thousand years old you can’t kill me. So if you’re gonna do this then I think you’re gonna have to take me with you. I’m fine. Yeah, aside from the not sleeping, the jumpiness, the constant overwhelming crushing fear that something terrible is about to happen. Say it. Say you believe me.

The memories utterly crushed him with their full weight, mind reeling as his brain struggled to process the sheer volume of new old information streaming back in from whatever spell had interrupted them.

Stiles jolted upright from where he found himself sprawled against the shower floor, the water still spraying down lukewarm atop him nearing cold, he was gasping in pathetic little panicked breaths that were mostly steam. He tore at the shower curtain with a shaking hand, ripping it back to make sure that he was actually alone. On coltish, trembling legs he hauled himself out of the bath, collapsing on his knees by the toilet bowl nearly losing the singular slice of pizza he’d been able to wrangle for lunch with a pitiful moan. 

He startled like a deer at the pounding coming from his front door, looking around wildly for the flannel pyjama pants that he’d discarded before his shower and shrugging on a hoodie that hung open around his wet chest, fingers refusing to cooperate with the front zip. With the smooth metal of his bat in his grip he crept down the hallway, the strange static and buzzing that he noticed from time to time now blotted out almost everything and his vision swam with it. Stiles’ arms shook like leaves.

Derek had been taught since childhood to control his strength, not to hug too hard, to be gentle with the fragile humanity around him

But fuck. all. that.

Derek squeezed, he hugged Stiles the way a child would hold a teddy bear, with white fingertips and sweaty palms and sucking in breath after breath as the scent of his packmate flooded his nose again

God, he felt like his senses had been put on mute all this time, and now he finally had them back

Stiles smelled warm and familiar, like freshly laundered cotton and mulled apple cider and a little bit of oak and a sharp, stinging spice that Derek had learned long ago meant anxiety and emotional distress

That last part hadn’t always been a prominent part of Stiles’ scent, but...

After a couple of shaking breaths, Derek pulled back just enough to cup Stiles’ face and kiss him

He didn’t care about the preamble anymore, he was so fucking tired of the masks everyone wore around eachother out of fear of getting hurt, Derek didn’t think it was possible to hurt more than he had that morning so what was a little more pain? And he had been bottling up the desire for closeness with Stiles for.... years, if he was being just brutally honest with himself, he always locked it up tight with all of his other feelings and pounded it with a mallet whenever it risked making an appearance, and he was sick of it

The last few weeks getting to know Stiles as their most.... pure, unharmed selves had been like a fairytale, and Derek had suffered so much loss that he didn’t think it was much if a surprise that he wanted just a little bit of a fairytale in his life

“Sorry...” he breathed as he pulled back, sucking in another breath, arms still around Stiles

“I’m... sorry for just.... just springing that on you....”

Chewing his lip, he let one hand stay carefully placed on Stiles’ back, the other reaching into his pocket for what he had grabbed earlier

“You can relax, if I was going to hurt you, I wouldn’t have brought my dog along,”

Sure, some people used their pets as lures to bring victims closer to them, but Derek wasn’t one of those people

Ofcourse, to be fair, he wasn’t the kind of asshole to hurt innocent people to begin with, but that was beside the point

Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose and took another step forward, trying to maintain some calm and composure instead of getting irritated right off the bat as he usually tended to

“Listen, I’m a nurse, you look like you’re in rough shape- other guy inconsequential- would you just let me help you to the hospital? I can show you my ID badge if you don’t believe me,”

He kept one hand secure around the leash, the other reaching down carefully to fish into his jacket pocket, relieved that he hadn’t gotten changed before taking Leia for her walk, so he still had his badge on him

***

Or maybe the dog was part of the innocent guy act, a part of her brain mused but Hope just rolled her eyes and tried not to wince at the way the movement did nothing to help the forming headache in her skull. “Yeah, I’m gonna go with a big no on the hospital bit. Thanks!” she said with that faux cheeriness that got under people’s skins. No way was she going somewhere that required any potential risk at exposing her name.

She knew her Aunt Rebekah had done the necessary things to put her in the system as Hope Marshall, but hospitals asked questions about family medical history. Jobs could care less. Besides, a trip to the hospital meant a call to her emergency contact… Rebekah. She couldn’t imagine her aunt would be all too pleased to find her niece had been getting into fights again. This time she didn’t even have the excuse of hearing someone bad mouth her family so soon after their deaths. This time? It was just a desire to let off some of the anger that had been building steadily since Landon’s disappearance and death.

Derek really needed to stop getting involved in other people’s bullshit...

“Alright, then how about you let me patch you up myself? We can even go by a drug store and get a new first aid kit so you have proof that I haven’t tampered with anything beforehand,”

Derek, ever the boy scout, did actually have one in his car, but people like this always seemed to think he put cyanide in the rubbing alcohol or something and never trusted it, so he wasn’t even going to bother mentioning it this time around

And it wasn’t that the girl wasn’t annoying as sin- she certainly was, but she kind of reminded him of Cora that way, the fake cheeriness just to irritate him, the stubbornness, the fighting to begin with....

Maybe that was why he had wanted to help in the first place, as much as he liked to say it was because he was a nurse and that was just part of who he was....

Leia beside him seemed none the wiser to the potential danger here, giving an exciteable bark as she tried to trot closer to the stranger, tail wagging and tongue lolling out, eager to meet a new person