Sooooo uuuuuhhhh I watched the girl king earlier and I am a sucker for medieval stories about badass girls and I immediately got feels and of course feels translated into sterek??? Have fun with a few words I just threw together in an hour!
4 years ago Derek never would have believed he would be stepping down from the throne to hand the crown to his younger sister, barely 18. 4 years ago, Derek wouldn't have believed he would have ever been King in the first place. In fact, 4 years ago, Derek wasn't sure he would still be alive at this age.
It was 4 years ago that Derek had woken up out of the daze with a jolt, while wandering the forest outside the castle walls in disguise. He woke to the world to the sight of burning amber eyes and pale freckled skin. Oh, and ever since that day life hadn't stopped coming at him. Ever since that day, he could think of nothing but the golden eyes mage with the red cape.
The night was well underway but the festivities made no sign of ending any time soon. Nevertheless, Derek said his farewells to Cora, kneeling before the new queen and kissing her knuckles, before she pulled him to his feet for a proper hug.
"You better send me letters, brother," she told him as she kept her arms locked tight around him. "Don't make me send my best men after you."
"I promise." Derek nodded. "And you better make good use of that crown."
Cora pulled back to look at him with the same fiery, regal eyes their mother had once worn and for just a second Derek mourned his departure.
"You know I will," Cora replied, bodly, shin tilting up and yes, Derek did not regret passing the title on to her a single bit. She would make a great queen to the people of their kingdom and they deserved it after the hell their lands had been through the last decade or two. Derek knew Cora would rebuild the Hale legacy.
He squeezed her hands and then quickly pulled away before he could get misty eyed. As he turned, he never once looked back. Going to his quarters, he dressed down and pulled on a plain dark cloak, grabbed his bag and made his way to the stables. His horse had been readied for him by one of Cora's stablemates as Derek had already dismissed everyone keeping watch on him.
The moon shone bright above as Derek lead his mare out of the palace stables and down the courtyard. A perfect night to start his epic journey. Not a hero's tale, surely. Derek hadn't been born to inspire songs of legend and myth. But it was his heart's journey, his soul's fate. The kingdom would do well without him. There was someplace else where he was needed.
"I know you aren't about to leave without saying goodbye," Erica's voice rang out from his right and her hair gleamed in the moonlight as she stepped out of the shadows with Boyd to her right. Derek's two most faithful and successful knights. He'd relied on them for much of everything after they had helped him escape the bandits that had befallen him, when Peter had risen to take over the throne. They'd been by his side much like the mage had, only they hadn't left. And yet, here he was leaving them.
"I'd hoped to spare myself the pain," Derek said, somber, turning to them as his fingers tightened around the reigns.
"You could always take us with you," Erica replies, crossing her arms over her chest. Strong-willed and loud-spoken but loyal to the core. There'd never been a better knight.
Boyd placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and Derek heard the light sigh she gave. Stepping forward, Derek let go of the reigns and laid a hand on each of their arms.
"My sister needs you here more. You have served me better than I could have ever asked for. Now, I just ask you to take care of her for me," he said, and with a light squeeze and sorrowful look, he stepped back again, back into his mare's wisping white breath in the cool dark night.
"We don't need to listen to you anymore though, do we now?" Erica continued to stubbornly resist but her voice was somber as well and she made no move to embark on the mission with Derek.
"But we will serve our queen with our lives. As we have served you," Boyd added from next to her and Derek knew without a doubt that Erica felt the same way.
"And please," Derek said, mounting his horse before meeting their gentle gazes again, "take care of yourselves."
They nodded silently and Derek tried to brave a smile before he gave a light nudge to the gentle creature's ribs beneath him and she started to ride off into the night. It was hard not to feel anxious, his heart rabbiting in his chest, the world feeling like it was unraveling in his hands just like when he'd been a teenager. Back when the Argents had attacked from within when they'd come to sign a peace treaty, and proceeded to murder nearly everyone in the castle. Or back when he had found Laura, a great rising queen - the Phoenix they had called her - cut in two, and that by their very own uncle, who had been so tormented by the Argent's attack that he had lost all grip on sanity, very much so that Derek had felt the need to take it upon himself to rid him of his misery, and with that take upon the immense task of stepping up to the throne and leading a sea of people to success. Or back when he had left him.
It had taken so much out of him and so long, all of the last four years, to make it through those disasters, to heal and grow, to become stable enough to see into his future. And now here he was, leaving his family and friends and home behing in a flourishing gallop, riding out into the unknown on the flimsy hope that'd he'd be able to find the boy who'd stood by his side when he was becoming the man he was today, fit for a throne and the face of a kingdom.
But Derek knew, he was nothing without this man. The spark that had relit the fire within him, especially the one in his heart. The smile that had carried Derek through the nights of eternal gloom until he saw the light again. The endless words that filled his soul with substance. The joy that coiled in him as strength. The warmth that melted his numbness so that he could feel the world, the love, the life.
Day and night he rode, taking only so much rest as his darling Moonshine needed, for he knew once he reached his goal she would be free of service to live the rest of her days in pasture. At night Derek would lay on the damp ground and stare up at the sky, or at least what he could see if it between the tree branches, and he would count every star and for each remember one of the moles that stretched across his beloved's skin. He could still feel the warmth of his body beside his, beneath his, above his - all smooth skin and lithe muscle, squirmy limbs and impatient heart - impatient hands that tugged him closer beneath the sheets, and the honey-dee voice, demanding, "Kiss me already."
Those quirky, bitten down lips that no one owned, not even Derek. Despite the strong, determined promises that he was his forevermore, Derek had known there was no way he could tame that energy and right he had been. Truth was, he had never meant to be tamed.
And every night Derek tortured himself with every of their encounters, from the time he'd caught the quick-fingered mage stealing apples from the withered courtyard like they were what the people called 'fruits of love', to the times they snuck hurriedly through the castle walls just to catch each other around the bend and fall into each other's arms, to the night he woke when his beloved slipped out of the bed, the air smelling like salt and sorrow, and proclaimed he'd had to leave, for it was his duty - his duty to the king, who had a duty to his people to reign with the future in mind, with a wife and a child. Every night he let the waves of love and loss crash over him until he rose again, sleepless but restless, spurned on by a burning desire.
And he never gave up till he rode in that little town off toward the coast with the little wood house with the red roof - just like Derek had once heard described in lush, beloved detail. A childhood home that had been abandoned, and had now been regained as was evident by the smoke rising from the chimney.
Derek dismounted and although his body burned in different ways, both exhaustion and eagerness and anger and desperation, he made sure to tend to the faithful Moonshine and let her graze freely after the tiring week long journey. By then, a figure had exited the little country house, almost like he had been called upon by that red string of fate that tied them together.
"Derek," he heard, a whisper carried over by the wind that blew the hood of his cloak back as Derek strided over with confident but calm steps, trying to practice himself in dignity.
He stopped in front of a bizarrely still  older image of someone he'd once known, the hair scraggly and longer, curling slightly, tantalizing and tempting Derek to reach over and run his fingers through it. There was a little scruff along the jaw, but he could still spot the familiar moles beneath it. The mouth was the same, soft bitten lips that hung open like he'd just run out of breath from incessant chatter, like anything and everything in the world took his breath away because he could find the magic in the smallest speck of dirt.Â
But the eyes - the eyes spoke of the same longing and light Derek had yearned to see, something in his chest blossoming like the first, hungry spring flowers on the first day of sunlight. And now it was him who was frozen to the spot at the flood of emotion, wanting to do everything all at once and not knowing where to start.
"Wha⊠what are you doing here?" The question trembled just like the parting declaration a year ago had, falling from barely composed lips, which were ready to crash forward and into Derek's and let the world crash and burn around it if it had to.
"You idiot," Derek let out with a laugh, and just like that it was easy all over again, taking that one step to close the chasm in his world and take back into his arms what was meant to be there, lips sliding ever so softly against the soft exhale.
Still, the man in front of him trembled with resistance, albeit a hand came to clutch the front of Derek's shirt, closing his eyes and shaking his head.
"What are you doing? You can't-"
"You never thought to stop and ask me what I wanted," Derek interrupted authoritatively. "Never once. I was the king and yet you decided to think and act for me, going against my words, ignoring my promises like you had no faith in me."
"That wasn't-" Stiles was quick to defend, eyes shooting open with a guilty look. Yet he stopped, troubled. "Was the king?"
Derek nodded, a smile starting to form on his lips at the prospect that this was the very moment of the rest of his life, here, with his heart beating into Stiles' hand, where it had always truly been. "I have passed on the reign to Cora."
"Cora⊠but DerâŠ" Stiles argued softly, like he barely dared utter the words, his resolve melting along with the slip of his nickname for the former king, one only the closest to him could use. Derek just waited, patiently looking into those swirling sunlit eyes.
"You made your choice. It was my turn to make mine," Derek stated and took a step back so he could take Stiles' hand. "And now I give you one more decision to make and if you so choose, it'll be the last one I ask of you. My choice is you. Over the kingdom, over the land and the riches and the roles⊠I-I never quite wanted to be king. But you⊠I've wanted you since the day I met you."
Derek hadn't prepared for this speech whatsoever, he'd been too busy with the swirling memories to be able to decipher them with words, but he could swear on his life this speech was the best one he'd ever given and by far, it was the most important. He watched them hit their mark as the hand in his trembled and the eyes began to swim in tears, while Derek kneeled before the strongest mage he knew.
"Stiles, if you so desire, I will be yours forevermore. I don't ask of you any sacrifice or compromise. The kingdom is in safe hands and I⊠will you let me find my new home in yours?"
4 years ago Derek hadn't been ever able to imagine ever feeling he had found home and comfort and love again, certainly not in a single person but as Stiles launched himself forward with unabashed joy, extensive joyous energy bundled and held back for years by sheer will - that's how tough his beloved mage was - and threw them both onto the ground, chests and hearts aligned, Derek knew once and for all, Stiles would always be king to his heart.
