Title:
More Grimm's than DisneyFandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Derek/Stiles
Summary: Like Derek Hale wasn’t built like a Superman, with a tragic backstory better than Batman’s. Like he wasn’t a real-life hero who sacrificed and protected and never asked for a thing for himself.
Like Derek hadn’t saved his life, his best friend’s life, his father’s life, more times than he wanted to count.
Author's Note: Been a while since I hit up Teen Wolf. Hope you all enjoy!
“This isn’t good,” Lydia said over the pounding of the rain overhead. She might be the smartest person Stiles knew, but she was also sometimes the Queen of Obvious Statements. He wanted to say as much but then Derek started to thrash and Stiles had to swallow hard against the lump that was forming in his throat.
“What the hell is wrong with him?” Scott demanded.
Scott, god bless him, wasn’t so great at dealing with his betas when they were hurt. Also, no one knew. He was just … thrashing. He’d been in a fight with a wolf from another pack, but the gashes he received were nothing that should have done this to him.
“Wait,” Stiles managed to push the words out. “The other alpha, she said she’d leave the territory if he survived the night. Not the fight.”
“What do you think she meant?”
“Holy shit. She kept quoting Hamlet all night. I thought she was just some sort of theater freak.”
Lydia seemed to get what he was saying and both she and Issac began to turn Derek over to check his wounds. Scott still wasn’t there just yet.
“What are you talking about? All those strange things she was-”
“Oh my god! Were you not sitting beside me in senior English? Hamlet. He’s killed by poison.”
“You think she poisoned him?”
“I think she poisoned both of them,” he said. He felt bad for the other guy, really he did, but he didn’t doubt he was already dead.
“Wolfsbane,” Lydia said with a certain horror. It meant she was getting the banshee vibes again and that sure as hell wasn’t good.
“We can go to Deaton’s.”
“Scott, we don’t have the time,” Lydia said.
Stiles closed his eyes and knew he didn’t have a choice. It wasn’t like he was going to be able to hold it in much longer anyway. Maybe something good would come of it.
“I’ll be right back,” he said as he dashed out of the room. He was barely to the bathroom when he felt it again. He didn’t fight it this time. In fact, he let himself picture Derek as he was right now, writhing on the floor, poisoned and at death’s door. He let his grief rise and at the same time, he felt it at the back of his throat.
The roots came first, crawling their way up before they began to branch out. It had become a familiar torment over the past three months. The flowers came last and with them, the spasms. His body tried to clear the air passage but the flowers blocked the way. It took a minute of coughing, but it came loose and Stiles had never been more relieved to see the small purple flowers as he was in that moment.
He grabbed the stem and rinsed them in the sink quickly and turned to realize a figure was blocking the doorway.
“Stiles?”
“Not now,” he told Issac. It wasn’t like the werewolves would be able to smell the blood he’d washed off, but for now he just needed to get the damn thing to Derek. He already knew from his own research that it was a hardy form of wolfsbane that would serve as remedy to most poisoning. He just hoped it worked on this one.
He handed the plant to Lydia who didn’t even bother to ask where he got it. Isaac was sure to bring it up later and Scott might remember the blood scent but he was too busy holding onto Derek. Derek wasn’t exactly writhing anymore as he was seething. Ice blue eyes looked at Stiles and he roared. “What did you do?”
Stiles’ eyes widened as he looked at Derek but he pushed away the moment of fear. He couldn’t know. There was no way Derek could know in the state he was in.
“Come on Der,” Stiles said as he took the lighter from his pant’s pocket. “This is going to suck so don’t make it harder than it has to be.”
He looked at Lydia and she nodded. She’d removed the flowers from the stem and it was ready. He hated to be the one to do it, but it had to be done. He lit the lighter and pressed it to the flower petals that Lydia had embedded in Derek’s wound.
For a moment nothing happened, but then the flowers took flame and Derek roared again. It was enough though, Stiles could feel it. The spark in him recognized the healing taking place in the werewolf’s body and he leaned back against his hands and watched as Isaac and Scott tried to keep him still.
He closed his eyes and listened to the others as they tried to reassure Derek, but he had only a moment before he felt the press of one very angry Sourwolf over top of him.
“Derek?”
“Where did it come from, Stiles?”
“What are you talking about? Derek, calm down. You’re injured.”
“Where did you get the wolfsbane?”
“Are you suggesting I poisoned you? Because not cool man. I thought we were done with blaming each other for murder.”
“Where!”
“Derek, stop!” Scott tried to interject but Isaac damned him before Stiles had to do it himself.
“He has hanahaki.” Isaac’s voice was quiet but it stopped Derek’s rage instantly. Derek went limp above him but he didn’t pull away. He just sagged, as if he’d known all along.
Which he probably did.
Which was why Stiles never said anything.
Derek Hale had a laundry list of things he felt guilty for and Stiles never wanted his death to be one of them. He didn’t want any of them to know. In fact, he’d had a plan so that they wouldn’t and Deaton has even agreed to help him, in the end. If Stiles could believe him, which he only did on every other Thursday.
“What?” Scott’s voice sounded crushed and Stiles ignored the “Oh, Stiles,” he heard from Lydia. He was just glad the rest of the pack wasn’t there to hear it too. They’d know soon enough and he’d get the puppy eyes from each and every one.
He couldn’t take it tonight.
“Whatever. It worked in our favor tonight. Derek will survive the night and the other alpha will get the hell out of Beacon Hills.”
“Whatever?” That seemed to have roused Derek from where he was still propped up over Stiles.
Stiles began to backpedal, physically and vocally, but a hand on his neck stopped him and the prick of nails against his skin let him know that Derek wasn’t quite in control of himself just yet.
“Who is it?” he demanded.
“Are you serious?” Stiles barked out before he could stop himself.
“What?”
“You’re seriously asking who I’m in love with? I just fucking coughed up wolfsbane! I mean, the pack is cool and all, but there are only two werewolves I spend any time with and one of them is my best friend who … no. No offense Scotty Boy. Love you like a brother, but not looking for that sort of action.”
“Right back at ya, Stiles,” Scott said, his smile in place.
Derek was still above him and Stiles began to get worried. To the point where he pressed his fingers to Derek’s pulse just to check it.
“What are you doing?”
“Just making sure. You just…. stopped.”
“You can’t have hanahaki,” Derek said, confused.
“I just coughed up a bough of wolfsbane. Been doing it for three months now. Pretty sure only hanahaki does that.”
“You’re in love with me?” Derek said, like it was the most incredulous thing ever.
Like Derek Hale wasn’t built like a Superman, with a tragic backstory better than Batman’s. Like he wasn’t a real-life hero who sacrificed and protected and never asked for a thing for himself.
Like Derek hadn’t saved his life, his best friend’s life, his father’s life, more times than he wanted to count.
“It only took you two years to figure that out. I thought you guys could smell things like that.”
“Love doesn’t give off a scent, Stiles,” Isaac took the time to point out.
“That can’t be possible.” He could hear the others in the room, trying to get them to stop bickering but something was off with the whole things. Stiles would have expected an angrier Derek.
Derek moved away from him and Stiles was left confused. “Um, I know what I feel, Derek. And if I wasn’t, then I would be dying from it.”
“Don’t say that! You are not dying!”
“Woflsbane doesn’t lie!”
“You can’t die from unrequited love when the person actually loves you, Stiles!”
The whole room was still and Stiles shook his head. “What the hell? You can’t just say that! What type of martyr complex do you have? You can’t stand to be around me!”
Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. They spent plenty of time together, even time they didn’t necessarily have to, but usually because Stiles showed up at Derek’s and made him do things. Like grocery shopping. Movies. Going to the bookstore together. Or their now-regular Saturday mornings at the coffee shop. And …
“Oh my god. We’re dating.”
Derek’s eyes went wide and his brows furrowed. “What?”
“We’re dating. I mean, you never asked and I sort of forced you to go out with me all the time but I don’t actually do that any more and I’m in love with you and you just said you were in love with me and we go to get coffee and you go to see the movies that no one else will go to and just last month I read that book that you liked just so you’d have someone to talk about it with. We’re totally dating.”
Derek did the most unexpected thing then. He actually smiled. He shook his head, and let out a small laugh. “Would you stop fucking dying then?”
Derek held his hand out to him and Stiles took it, letting the older man help him off the floor.
“I wasn’t trying to die,” he complained.
“You never are Stiles.”
“You were the one writhing on the floor from poison a few minutes ago.”
“Which you cured by coughing up magical flowers that are killing you.”
“Which you cured. By saying….”
And it hit. It his hard enough that his knees buckled. The only reason he didn’t end up on the floor was because Derek caught him with an arm around his waist.
“By saying I love you.”
“Derek.”
“Say it, Stiles.”
“I’m in love with Derek Hale.”
“I’m in love with Stiles Stilinski.”
“And he’s your boyfriend,” Stiles teased.
“Yep. It looks like.”
“And he’s going to treat you-”
“Oh my god! Would you two shut up and kiss already!”
“Lydia, I don’t want to see that!” Scott interjected.
“Close your eyes, Scotty!” Stiles yelled out quickly, because there was a smiling werewolf holding him and Stiles wasn’t about to let go any time soon.
When Derek pressed their lips together, Stiles forgot about everything else but this. Derek’s strong body, holding him tight, the soft whisper of a sigh that passed between them, and the unavoidable truth that he’d been such a fool to deny.
Derek Hale loved him.
He loved Derek Hale.
Maybe life wasn’t a fairytale and maybe it wasn’t a comic book either, but Stiles had a hero in his arms and he wasn’t exactly a sidekick himself. They battled the nasties that tried to take out their home, that wanted to hurt their friends and neighbors, and they kept people safe. And somehow, in all the twist and turns that had been their lives for the past four years, they’d somehow found love as well.
Maybe, it was more a Grimm’s story than Disney, but just perhaps, they could have a happily ever after, after all.