#leather jacket lore

(As told from a snippet from my Sterek WIP, "Pseudology")

------

"Back in the old, old, old days, werewolf parents used to wrap their children in pelts and fur blankets when they felt threatened. It worked a lot like how weighted blankets nowadays provide a number of mental health benefits, like reducing stress or promoting better sleep. The heaviness simulates a feeling of being held, which can subconsciously ease your mind.

"Pelts, however, also had the addition of smelling like animal hide and the fur would feel almost like curling up against a mother wolf's body, back when fully shifted wolves were a more common occurrence. The combination of warmth and weight and softness and the smell of food, the smell of being provided for, helped to create a sense of safety for them.

"Nowadays, a werewolf can't just walk through the streets wrapped in a big, fur pelt unless he wants to draw a lot of attention. So, a leather jacket is the modern interpretation of that. Leather is one of the few clothing materials made of animal hide. Under all of the smells of bleaches and dyes and preserving chemicals, the faint smell of prey can still be picked up. Especially if the coat is old and the protective layer is chaffed off, releasing the hide smell. And the heavy weight of the jacket on a wolf's shoulders subconsciously feels like being wrapped in someone's arms. A leather jacket to a werewolf is like a weighted blanket to a human. It comforts them when they feel vulnerable and helps them feel safe." Derek paused for a bit to allow Stiles to fully comprehend all of the information laid before him. He had considered adding in an example of how there were compression vests out there meant to keep dogs calm during thunderstorms, but ultimately decided against it. It wouldn't do to give Stiles anymore ammunition to make dog jokes.

Once the spark of understanding was clear in those whiskey eyes, Derek continued. "Stiles...do you remember what had been going on in my life the first time you saw me in my coat?"

"Your...your sister had just been murdered."

"Mm," Derek hummed in agreement. It had taken a long time for him to finally talk about what had happened to Laura without sounding horribly broken up about it anymore. Not indifferent or uncaring, just more accepting. "I had lost the last person I had ever felt close to in this world. I hadn't known about Cora yet and I didn't have any other friends or family. The jacket was a coping mechanism."

Stiles nodded, digesting the information in stride as the conversation began filling in all of the burning knowledge gaps that had probably been haunting him for years by now. "And the jackets on Erica, Isaac, and Boyd?" The boy wasted no time moving through what was undoubtedly a checklist of questions in his head, almost as if he were afraid he might forget something if he didn't get through them fast enough.

"Becoming a werewolf for the first time can be stressful," Derek said, easily indulging Stiles' curiosity, "All of your senses are heightened to a point bordering on pain, sounds that used to be imperceptible can sound as loud as gunshots, all your bones ache, and your skin feels like it's on fire. At times, it can literally feel like you're dying. I bought them those jackets because I figured it would help to ease their transitions. I never explained the reasoning behind the jackets to any of them and I never forced anyone to wear them. They never seemed to want to take them off, though, so I think it soothed them, even if they didn't actually understand why."

"That's...that's actually really sweet of you, big guy. I didn't know you were such a softie. You're like some kind of-of...you're like a cuddly Teddywolf!" Stiles was absolutely tickled pink at the name.

Shit. This was worse than Sourwolf. Way worse.

"Wait, hold on. Back at the hospital, when we were trying to find the alpha," oh, thank god for Stiles' short attention span, "wasn't Peter also wearing a leather coat?" Goddamn Stiles' attention to detail! "No, it wasn't a coat. I mean, okay, it was a coat, but it wasn't a jacket, if that makes sense? It was longer than a jacket. Like, it was closer to the floor. It was more like a leather, um, like-like a, uh... a leather…" Stiles' hand was waving insistently by his face as he struggled to find the description he was looking for.

Derek sighed heavily in defeat.

"A duster," he murmured reluctantly, taking pity on the stuttering mess Stiles had become. If he had let this go any further, Stiles was going to have a conniption.

"Yes, a duster! Exactly! Thank you! Peter was wearing a leather duster that time at the hospital. But he had been comatose for years before then, hadn't he? Since the fire? It wouldn't have made sense for him to have the coat with him before he even knew the fire was going to happen."

Well, it couldn't be helped.

And Derek had actually been hoping that he could've gotten away with his misplaced good deed after all this time, too. "I was the one who got it for him. I thought it would help him heal. Maybe give him a little bit of comfort after suffering something so traumatic."

Stiles' whirling mind seemed to hit the brakes a little at that. Derek couldn't really blame him. As far as he knew, the only impression Stiles had ever gotten about the relationship between Peter and Derek had been tumultuous at best. For Derek to get Peter a coat, now knowing the significance of what wearing a leather coat meant to a werewolf, it was easy to see how that might be unusual.

"I had gotten it for him right before Laura and I left for New York. Before I knew he was a murderous psychopath, willing to kill his own family and innocent kids for power and revenge. If I had known back then what he would become, I would have lined the seams with wolfsbane and filled all the pockets with mountain ash."

Stiles let out a sudden bark of laughter, quickly covering his mouth to stifle his outburst. The laugh managed to take Derek by surprise.

"Sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean to laugh! I just would have loved to have seen that."

That sweet little smile at Peter's expense made his heart thump heavily in his chest. Was it normal to be so fond of someone for also wanting to see his uncle suffer?

Derek couldn't help the small, affectionate quirk to the side of his mouth at Stiles' enjoyment. The cute mole just at the corner of the boy's upper lip danced as he laughed, the sound carrying high and airy like wind chimes.

Derek made sure Stiles could only catch the briefest glimpse of his grin, just enough to know that Derek was fine with him laughing, before quickly turning away. Derek couldn't risk maintaining eye contact for too long. No, Stiles was too damn perceptive for that.

"So, why did you stop wearing it?"

"One day, I realized I didn't need it anymore. I think it was around the time I tried making my own pack. I think it was maybe because I didn't feel weak and vulnerable when I was surrounded by them. I found myself only needing my jacket when they were at school and I was left on my own. I was still making really bad decisions after that, getting into unhealthy relationships, and what had happened to Boyd and Erica weighed on me a lot, but it didn't feel like I could break at any moment anymore. For the first time in years, I felt like I had people I could turn to. Even when I pushed Isaac away, when I ran away to South America, when it became so hard to trust anyone anymore, I never felt truly alone. There would always be someone I could turn to if I ever got in any trouble. The more people I connected with, the less I needed it to make me feel safe. I felt protected. Over time, as I started to get my life back together, I found that I no longer needed other people to feel strong."

Stiles' eyes softened fondly at that as he said lightly, "I'm glad, big guy." There was so much sincerity and conviction in those four words that the werewolf could feel radiating rays of sunlight blooming beneath his ribcage.

Before the warmth in Derek's chest could truly settle in, the other's inquisitive, mile-a-minute brain was already pulling at the next thread within reach, his thirst for knowledge truly unquenchable.

"But isn't it, I don't know, bad for a werewolf to show other werewolves when they're vulnerable? Isn't that kinda like a sign of weakness or something?"

"That's a very good question." Derek felt impressed by just how astute Stiles could be. "Think of it like this. Most people know that smoking can be a sign of stress, right? A person will sometimes smoke when they feel nervous or when they're upset. You see it in movies all the time: detectives working on cases through a long night, someone whose hands are too shaky to light their cigarette after they've seen a murder, that sort of thing. Everyone knows that people smoke cigarettes at their low points. But, if you were to see a stranger smoking on the street, would you automatically assume it was because they were feeling vulnerable?"

"No."

"No, you wouldn't. Maybe they started smoking at a young age and now the habit is too strong for them to break as an adult. They may have started smoking during a stressful time in their lives and couldn't stop even after the stress was gone. Maybe they saw someone they looked up to smoke and wanted to emulate them. Maybe they think it makes them look cool. There are so many other unseen factors at play that people won't even think twice about seeing someone smoking. The same logic applies to werewolves and leather jackets. Just because they wear it when they feel vulnerable, that doesn't necessarily mean that's the only time they wear it. You never know. Maybe it's just cold outside."

"Whoa…that's intense. I never could have imagined so much lore from something like a leather jacket. Who would have thought that a coat could be the crutch of werewolf society?"

"Any more questions?"

"Oh, uh, no! That's all I've got."