for @sterekdrabbles 27/09/23 challenge, using the prompt words: SLIPPERY, THUNDER, and RICH... and also the 25/09/23 challenge, using the prompt words: ATTEMPT, BEAUTIFUL, and JEALOUS.
over 100 words so also tagging @sterekdrabblesgonelong
The ground was slippery underfoot, rain thrashing and apocalyptic and turning the preserve's rich soil swamp-like and dangerous for anything or anyone without claws.
Thunder clapped at the very same moment lightning flashed in the spaces between the dense canopy, and as Derek searched, his wolf-thoughts flashed, too, presenting more like fragments of memories than cohesive patterns.
He saw electricity and light bulbs, top hats and black cats, images of the scientist Tesla; a human being harnessing nature to bring order to the world via chaos.
To some, that's known as magic.
Derek sniffed the air again. This time, his attempt at catching the scent trail was successful—even over the ripe smells of wet earth and petrichor and ozone.
He picked up the pace, now flying through the undergrowth like a shot bullet.
When he found the clearing, he saw Stiles—standing tall, shaking off the way he'd stumbled through the thick brush, breath laboured, pale arms held out for balance, raindrops careering down his face and red t-shirt clinging to him and making Derek irrationally jealous—and it took Derek's breath away.
Stiles was so, so beautiful.
In that moment, Derek's previous thoughts mirrored reality.
Then, there was only sensation.
The scent of him, the sight of him, the sound of him.
Derek now knew the boy was an intrinsic part of all of it: the earth, the woods, the sky; creation itself. The spark just underneath Stiles's skin was thrumming with the entire universe.
And when Stiles closed the gap between them just as Derek shifted his form, lunging and seizing Derek's face and crowding into Derek's mouth with searing lips and teeth and tongue—God, the touch of him, the taste of him—Derek breathed, for the first time in years.
When he remembers it happening, Derek remembers it as a cacophony. So intense, so overwhelming. Just so, so much.
Because it turns out finding your mate really is everything.