#sterekweek2016

“I know what you are!” Peter spits as they dodge through the sails of his ship.

“I’m the best there ever was!” Stiles answers, swinging at the Captain and making him nearly miss the mast as he dodges the blow.

“You’re a tragedy!”

The words earn Peter a kick that sends him careening into the sails. “Me?! Tragic?!”

“He was leaving you!”

Stiles freezes, a shard of ice suddenly stabbing at his heart as Peter grins at the blow he knows he has landed.

“Your Derek,” the name is said with such contempt, but Stiles is too busy looking for the boy in question to punish Peter for the slight, “is leaving you.”

There he is, guarding Laura and Cora despite the fact that they are more than capable of holding their own, a bright brilliant smile on his face as he knocks a sword out a pirate’s hand to the amid the cheers and whoops of Stiles’ Lost Boys.

I’ve always wanted to fight pirates!

“Why wouldn’t he want to leave? Why should he stay? You have nothing to offer. You are nothing!”

Stiles just barely dodges the blow that follows those words, but not the one after it and his head is ringing as he unsuccessfully tries to get his bearings, Peter’s voice oozing like poison into his ears.

“He would rather grow up than stay with you!”

Peter hovers in front of him, a grin on his face before he takes on a contemplative expression, his eyes shining with malicious glee as he asks, “Perhaps, you are thinking, that it won’t matter? That this want to grow up is only a passing fancy? Very well, then let us take a glimpse into the future…”

Stiles takes a mad stab at Peter, trying to cut off what he’s saying with a scream, but it is as if all of Stiles’ skill has fled him when Peter easily dodges the attack and smacks a blow to Stiles’ head, his voice cutting through Stiles’ own cries.

“Ah, it is the handsome Derek! He’s in his bedroom, but what’s this? The window is shut!”

“I’ll open it!” Stiles’ words are no more than a snarl as he desperately tries to make Peter stop talking.

“It’s locked! Barred shut against the world!”

“I’ll call out his name!” Derek… Derek… Derek!

“He can’t hear you!”

“No!” It’s not true.

“He can’t see you!”

“Derek!” IT’S NOT TRUE!!

“He’s forgotten all about you!”

Stiles can’t breathe as dim memories of a Time Before Neverland overcome him, can’t think as those memories try to pull him down, and his vision is starting to blur as he begs, begs, “No more… Stop… Please…STOP IT!”

Peter relents, only to kick him into the crow’s nest before hovering over him in triumph, a manic gleam in his eyes as he takes in Stiles’ quivering, tear-stained form.

“Oh, but what’s this I see? There is another, in your place. He is called… Husband.”

Stiles knows it’s useless, but he tries just one more time, just once more so they say that he didn’t give up without a fight, and quietly accepts the hand across his face that sends him tumbling down, down, down to the ship’s deck.

It’s so quiet now, almost as if the whole world has gone silent, and Stiles feels so, so tired that he barely resists the blade that pushes his head up and makes him stand just so Peter can knock him back down again.

It’s then that someone pops the bubble that Stiles is in and sound rushes back like a wave, his Lost Boys screaming and crying out as the Pirates cheer, all of that drowned out by Peter’s rancid breath in his ear.

"You are going to die alone, Pan. Alone and unloved." A hand is pulling his head back and Peter's lips are suddenly a lot closer to his face than they were before. "Of course, you could always be my-

“Never!” Stiles spits, literally spits, twisting his head so that a large glob of saliva hits Peter right in his eye, making the man howl as he throws Stiles to the deck and raises his sword to deal the finishing blow...

...only for an echoing howl, more vicious and much closer, to cut him off and Stiles looks up from his sprawled position to see Derek tackle Peter to the ground and try to wrestle his blade away, only managing for a few seconds before Peter’s men are pulling Derek off to toss him beside Stiles.

“Silence all!” Peter orders, his voice a malicious hiss as he gives the pair of them a look that would send a lesser man quaking in his boots. “Let us hear a Derek’s farewell...”

Stiles can feel Derek pressing against him, a soft sob leaving the boy’s lips as his gaze seems stuck for a moment on the wound that splits Stiles’ brow, before those green-brown-blue-beautiful eyes meet his own.

“I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry that I have to leave and that I can’t stay,” The words are no more than a whisper and Stiles Pretends, Pretends that he and Derek are alone, that he did not fly away during their fight and instead let Derek know how he felt. “If it was just me, if I was the only one... but I need to take care of Laura and Cora, just like you do for your Lost Boys, and to do that I need to grow up.”

Derek closes his eyes and opens them slowly, defeat slumping his shoulders into a bow as he tries to smile, “I do have something for you, though-”

His words are cut off as Peter yanks him back, hand twisting Derek’s wrist as he brings the younger boy’s clenched fist up to his face. “What is-?”

“It’s just a thimble.” Derek’s voice is completely defeated, a plea to Peter to let him do this, and Stiles has never hated the man more than when he outright laughs in Derek’s face.

“Well, aren’t you so sweet?” He sneers, releasing Derek with a grand flourish and a bow, “By all means, give him your precious thimble.”

Derek ignores him and instead leans over Stiles’ splayed form, pressing his cheek against the place that Peter was only moments ago to whisper, “This belongs to you... and always will.”

There is a sudden gasp from both of his sisters, but Stiles can’t make heads or tails of it before Derek is placing his hand against Stiles’ cheek-where is the..?-and pressing his lips against Stiles’.

Warmth... an all encompassing warmth that starts at his lips and spreads throughout his body, making him close his eyes at the sensation and lean in, wanting more of that welcoming, loving heat...

He’s dimly aware of Derek’s sisters speaking in low tones, of his Lost Boys quietly pulling away from the Pirates, but most of his attention is on the feeling that is still spreading throughout his body that reminds him of the very first time he flew...

It lasts merely moments before Peter is pulling Derek away again, trying to take away the warmth that came with him, but by then it’s too late.

Stiles Knows now.

He Knows that Peter was wrong, he Knows that he will win this fight, and he Knows that Derek will still leave.

But none of that matters.

Stiles Knows Derek loves him.

It’s filling him up, chasing away the coldness that had frozen him before, making him feel as if he could take on a hundred Captains, fight a thousand Pirates, and still have enough strength to swim a million leagues with the Mermaids of Neverland.

“Pan, you’re glowing... pink?”

He can’t contain this feeling and with the foresight that has defined their relationship, Scott manages to warn everyone before Stiles releases his joy in a shout, a wave of Something knocking every Pirate to the ground or over the sides of the ship as Stiles shoots into the sky with a yell of pure joy.

He does a few twists and turns, reveling in his Lost Boys’ cheers and howls of delight, before he makes his way back down to the deck, Time seeming to slow when he lands near Derek.

The boy is looking back at him, tears still clinging to the corners of his eyes and a brave smile on his face, so he’s completely shocked when Stiles dips forward to give him a ‘thimble’ of his own.

He tries to give back a little bit of the warmth that Derek gave him, tries to make it so Derek Knows too, and is happy to see that it must have worked at least a little; Derek’s smile is much bigger now and the tears are all gone as well, although Stiles seems to have transferred some of his Pink to the tips of Derek’s ears...

“Thank you.” Stiles grabs his blade and soars over to where Peter was thrown, ready to fight again, ready to win as Derek and the other children cheer below him, meeting Peter’s incredulous stare with one of his own.

“I’m not alone, Captain, and I am not the one that is unloved!”