Turn It Up To Eleven 1/2
Turn It Up To Eleven
Derek was sleeping in the dirt and that made no sense. Granted he was a hunter and that meant that he slept in odd places every now and then. He was also a werewolf so this was not the first time he had woken up in the dirt but this was the first time he had woken up and was unsure how he got there. His head did not hurt so no one had hit him recently and there was a warm presence in front of him that said he was not dying anytime soon. Granted things had been odd since Stiles had become his partner. Stiles had been a crossroads demon that held Derek's contract but had broken it when they worked together to kill the demon that burned Derek's house to the ground and killed Stiles when he had been human. Recently Stiles had escaped out of hell and returned as a regular demon. Now they were working together as partners and for some reason being a werewolf and a demon hunter just seemed to attract more trouble than it did when Derek was working alone. Now it seemed like every other thing they had to hunt knew about them and found them entirely too amusing. It was annoying.
Derek shifted as the world came into focus and he realized that Stiles was the warmth he felt. They were having sex but they had never cuddled like this before. Stiles' back was pressed against Derek's front and they were wrapped around each other. Stiles was breathing softly, his heartbeat steady, which was not a good sign. Stiles rarely slept. Derek sat up and looked around. The sun was high in the sky. It was probably the middle of the afternoon. It was a clear day and it looked like they were in the middle of a large field. The grass was uncut and wild like no one had ever taken care of it before. When he shifted Stiles seemed to wake up. Stiles rolled onto his back and blinked up at Derek like everything was coming into focus for him too.
"Derek? Why are we lying in the dirt?" Stiles asked.
"I have no idea," Derek said. He was almost leaning over Stiles and for some reason it made his heart beat a little faster. The reaction terrified Derek. It that had never happened before. "I remember stopping the car on the side of the road."
"Yeah, you smelled something weird," Stiles said frowning. "So we got out of the car and went to check it out but I don't remember anything besides that. It's just blank."
"Did we get hit with something?" Derek asked and Stiles shrugged. The smell was gone but other things seemed to be missing too. Derek stood up and pulled Stiles to his feet. The field was large and stretched in all directions. There were woods to on the horizon line to the East and West but the field seemed to stretch to the horizon line interrupted to the North and South. The demon killing knife was on his hip but the gun he had brought with him was gone, along with his cell phone. "Stiles, where's the car? Better yet, where did the road go?"
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto," Stiles muttered.
"That was a well placed pop culture reference and an excellent dog joke," Derek deadpanned. "How do you know the Wizard of Oz?"
"I catch on," Stiles grinned. "I was serious though I really don't think we're in the same place we were before we went to sleep. This feels different. It makes my skin crawl." Derek nodded. It was like there was a haze over this world that he could not quite see through, it made the edges of his vision fuzzy, and his senses felt dulled. Derek concentrated on the world around them. Stiles was a low hum of energy but there were other things to the East and West in the woods that felt strange but familiar.
"Let's go East," Derek said. Stiles nodded and they began to pick their way through the field. It was not that hard to make their way through though. The world felt unnaturally flat. The more they walked the more Derek began to feel like he was in some sort of painting. The woods slowly began to come into view and the closer he got the more he could smell. When he realized what it was Derek put a hand out and stopped Stiles.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Werewolves," Derek said and Stiles tensed. Werewolves were not keen on their partnership and Laura had recently thrown holy water in Stiles' face. Derek did not expect anyone else to understand why he trusted Stiles with his life. When Stiles had broken their agreement his superiors had thrown him back into Hell. Stiles seemed to be suffering from PTSD like symptoms with flashbacks though he refused to talk about them. Lydia, Stiles' second in command and now his successor, told Derek that Stiles was being tortured. Derek was not sure he would ever know what Stiles went through for him so the least he could do was trust him. Stiles healed but he also felt pain and having to deal with werewolf claws in his body was probably not fun. "There are eleven of them. We could go check out the other side if you want." Derek could see Stiles visibly relax and throw up that bright smile that he seemed to think Derek could not see through.
"Nah, we're right here, let's just ask the wolves," Stiles said. He shoved his hands in his pockets. Derek could see that Stiles was clenching his fists. Stiles tried not to act different but Derek could see the cracks in the facade.
"All right," Derek said and they continued across the field. As they reached the edge of the woods Derek frowned when a fence came into view. It was roughly four feet high and made of wood. It stretched across the forest and vanished into the distance. It looked like something he would see in a backyard of a suburban family, but it was still odd. The smell of the wolves was stronger now and there was something about it that made his stomach clench. Stiles frowned at the fence, his head tilted to one side, until he shrugged and climbed over it easily. Derek hopped over and within seconds of his feet touching the ground he felt a wolf running toward them quickly.
"Someone is coming so be ready." They had stepped into another pack's territory and now Derek was going to have to do some fast talking to sort the drama that came with dealing with other packs. The wolf that was running at them, however, was using speed that he had not seen in a long time. As they got closer and Derek could smell them it felt like all of the air was punched out of his lungs. Stiles must have noticed something and looked like he was about to ask something when a body crashed through the wood and into Stiles.
Stiles had excellent reflexes and was quick on his feet so he managed to avoid getting his throat torn out by the wolf. The wolf did not give Stiles a chance to regain his footing as they went after him again. It was all so fast that Derek barely saw the wolf abandon their pursuit of Stiles to shove him away from the battle. Derek fell back against the ground. The wolf had shoved him hard enough to take him off his feet. Stiles twisted and kicked the wolf's feet out from underneath them. Stiles pulled the knife he kept around his ankle out and put it to the wolf's throat.
The wolf he had pinned down was a woman, middle aged, with long black hair, golden eyes, and prominent cheekbones. She was slowly turning human underneath Stiles, but Derek could not breath because it was not possible, this was not possible, there was no possible way that he was seeing this.
"Derek, she looks like--" Stiles began and that was enough of a distraction that she got a foot on his stomach and kicked Stiles back. She moved in front of Derek, shielding him from Stiles. He could not handle this.
"Stay away from my son you hell spawn," his mother said. It looked like her, it smelled like her, it felt like her, but she was dead. Derek knew that she was dead because he had witnessed it. He had seen bodies found and how she was among them yet there his mother was, standing in front of him, protecting him, from a threat. Derek managed to stand on shaking legs. He was afraid to reach out and touch her out of fear that this would fade away into some horrible nightmare. Stiles glanced at Derek and stayed on the ground.
"Mrs. Hale?" Stiles said and his Mom bared her teeth at Stiles. "Look, I'm not a threat here, I promise you."
"All of your kind are a threat," Mom spit out. "What are you doing coming into our territory? And what the hell are you doing with my son?" She was angry and Derek could not let this escalate, but he was frozen in place. Fortunately, Stiles seemed to realize this too.
"Okay," he said showing his hands. "I'm putting my knife back around my ankle and I'll go back over the fence. No one needs to get torn apart or anything messy like that, okay?" Mom growled, but Stiles moved slowly putting the knife back around his ankle and slowly backing toward the fence with his hands in the air. Mom kept an arm in front of Derek like she could keep him from going anywhere near Stiles. "I'm going to turn my back to climb over the fence and I'm going to trust you not to rip my spine out." Stiles did not wait for Mom to respond before he turned and began to climb over the fence. Mom moved as if she was going to attack while his back was turned, but Derek touched her arm. She was warm, alive, she felt real. She glared at him as Stiles dropped back down to the ground his hands in the air again. "See? No problem."
"Next time I won't be so forgiving," Mom warned. “Not after what you tried to do to my family.”
“I don’t believe we’ve ever met, Mrs. Hale,” Stiles said.
“Your kind. The way you used that woman to almost burn us to the ground in our own home. If we hadn’t realized what was happening we would have died,” his mother said. “So I won’t hesitate to send you back to hell.” Derek could see the way Stiles paled at that threat, the way his amber eyes got wide and frightened, and if this disagreement was as bad as Mom was making it sound then he had to stop this. They did not know where they were and if Stiles ended up in the Pit Derek would never see him again.
"Mom," Derek said and his voice did not sound right. “It's all right. I don't think he was going to hurt me. I think we were both in the wrong place at the wrong time." It was a blatant lie and he was too shocked to really conceal it. Mom stared at him like she could tell he was lying. She looked back at Stiles and glared.
"Stay off of our land and away from my son," she said.
"Yes ma'am," Stiles said, but he was looking at Derek. Stiles' hands were still in the air and his left pointer finger twitched, followed by his right pointer and middle fingers, then he pointedly looked at the ground. He was trying to tell Derek something and over the last few months they had gotten fairly good at non-verbal cues. He was saying '1-2-here' which translated to '12 here.' Stiles wanted them to meet back here at midnight. Derek was standing behind his mother so he nodded and thankfully she could not see.
"Let's go Derek," Mom said. Derek hesitated for only a moment. He wanted to stay with Stiles because this was obviously wrong and there was something going on, but this was his mother. Her scent, being around her, it felt real and he wanted to be with her again. Derek glanced back at Stiles one last time, his hands still held in surrender, and followed his mother into the woods.
Derek was not sure what to make of this. On one hand the woman felt like his mother, looked like an older version of her and even smelled like her. On the other hand though, she was dead. Yet here he was walking through unfamiliar woods with her as if it were normal. Every now and then Derek would have to look back at her. It was unnerving. There was something wrong with this entire situation. The world still had that haze that Derek could not quite shake and the woods that they were walking through were not the one’s he grew up in. The trees looked too familiar and there were not any sounds of animals around.
“Why are you staring at me, Derek?”
“I’m not,” Derek said. She stopped and stared him down in a way that made him feel ten years old again.
“You are. What were you doing out here?” she said.
“I was on a walk and he was just jumping over the fence. You got here right when I did,” Derek said.
“That’s a lie,” Mom said. “You smell like him.” She winced like the smell of Stiles was personally offending her. “It smells like you’ve been around him for months. He smells like you too, but that’s not possible. I just saw you this morning.” Once again Derek felt like someone had just pushed him into a frozen river.
“You did?” Derek asked before he could second guess himself. His mother’s eyes widened and she cupped his face with her hands. She studied him and Derek had to hold himself back from pulling her into a hug. This was too much for him to handle. She was dead, she was supposed to be dead, how was she here?
“Oh sweetheart, what did he do to you?” Mom said softly.
“Mom, you can’t be here,” Derek said. Mom jerked back away from him like she’d been hit by something. “You died, everyone died, that fire happened and everyone died.”
“What are you talking about, Derek? The fire happened, yes, but it did minor damage and that demon ran off before we could do anything,” Mom said.
“No, it was just me and Laura who survived, and then I became a hunter and something is wrong about this.” Derek was trying to explain how this was wrong but all his mother could do was shake her head.
“They’ve gotten into your head again. They did it with that woman and now they’re doing it again with that boy.” Mom put a hand around his shoulders and walked with Derek through the woods. “Let’s go home.” Home, as it turned out, was the same home Derek had grown up in. Mom kept an arm around his shoulders the entire way but was quiet. He could see the anger in her though. It was the same anger that he saw the first time he came home smelling of Kate when he was a teenager. The day right before the fire, she stared him down and asked him what was going on. Derek had lied and said that there was nothing.
The next day the house was burned down and when Kate's body was found he had no idea what had happened. He called on Stiles to make a deal with a demon for his family, but Stiles turned him down saying that he did not deal with children. Derek did not find out the truth about Kate and how she was possessed until six years later. Now he was walking into a clearing that not only had the house that, last Derek had seen, was barely standing, completely fine but he could also feel his entire family. His father was his alpha and Derek could feel it in his bones. It was a different feeling from Laura and it made Derek want to run away. The door flew open and Laura raced down the stairs. It made him feel a little better seeing her because she was the constant in his life.
"What the hell did he do this time?" Laura asked.
"He's talking nonsense," Mom said before Derek could defend himself. "Try to get him to explain while I go talk to your father." Mom left him with Laura outside the house and vanished to go find his dad. Laura crossed her arms and crinkled her nose.
"You smell like you've been rolling in rotten eggs," she said. "Want to tell me what's going on?" Derek tried to explain but Laura cut him off halfway through. "The fire never happened, Derek. I don't know what you're talking about. Do you need to come inside to see for yourself?" Derek was not sure he could handle walking into that house and seeing it like it had been when he was a child. Something was wrong though and running away from these people was not going to make it better. He had hours to kill before he was going to meet Stiles so it seemed logical to get a look around. If nothing else, Derek knew he needed to know the exits of this place.
"Yeah, maybe it will," Derek said. Laura offered him a hand and they walked into the house.
Stiles kept his hands in the air until Derek was out of sight with the wolf that was apparently his mother. If Stiles had been suspicious that something was wrong now he was sure of it. While Stiles had not met anyone else in the Hale family besides Derek and Laura that did not mean he did not recognize the signs of family the minute he got a look at her. Derek had once told Stiles that his mother was the fastest wolf he had ever seen. She had really given Stiles a run for his money. He was not keen on sending Derek out alone, but the threat of being sent back into the Pit was pathetically crippling. Stiles cracked his neck and started across the field to the other side. Mrs. Hale had mentioned that this side was wolf territory and that meant that the other forest was someone else's territory.
As Stiles suspected there was another fence that stretched across the forest to the West. This time Stiles took the time to examine it and he could smell mountain ash and wolfsbane. This was a barrier designed to keep wolves out. Stiles climbed over the fence and hopped down. No one came running at him this time so he took this as a sign that it was okay to explore a little. The woods were strange, like someone made a copy of a few trees and spread them for miles in all directions. He found a few small traps that would have caught him were he not paying attention. Instead Stiles stayed alert until he felt something familiar.
Lydia was in the middle of the woods doing her nails. She looked like the Lydia he had known for a long time and she even gave him that same 'oh great it's you' look that she had mastered when they worked together. That look did not stay long because her eyes went wide and she was in his personal space in seconds.
"What happened to you?" she said touching him everywhere like she was looking for wounds.
"Easy, easy, what are you talking about? What's with all the touching?" Stiles asked slapping her hands away, but he froze when he realized just how scared she looked. "What?"
"The Pit," Lydia whispered. Stiles hated himself instantly for the way he tensed up but he knew she noticed. Lydia noticed everything. "You've been there again but I just saw you a few hours ago."
"We haven't seen each other in months," Stiles said slowly. "Not since I got demoted and you took my position."
"Something isn't right," Lydia said. "Explain to me right now what’s going on because I just saw you a few hours ago. A few hours is way longer than it would take to get in and out and it wouldn't have left these kind of scars." Lydia yanked him down to the ground and glared at him until Stiles talked. He told her about being King, about the Hale fire, and he was about to tell her about turning down Derek's deal when she held up a hand to silence him.
"I wasn't done yet," Stiles said.
"No, but I've heard enough. You mentioned the wolves and that's all I need to know. You smell like a wet dog and you really need to get over your obsession with them." Lydia rolled her eyes and sighed. "I don't know what kind of joke you're pulling this time, but I don't want to hear anymore. Like most of your jokes, it’s not funny." Stiles was about to argue that he is always funny when he heard someone laugh behind them.
“Maybe we do need to work on that sense of humor,” a woman’s voice said. Stiles turned around slowly and saw a beautiful woman with long, blond hair and a sharp smile watching him. That was not just who he saw. He also saw someone that he knew all too well, that sharp smile echoing various times over his mortal and immortal life, and it made him see red. Stiles had never seen the body that Saul had used to burn down Derek’s home and kill his family, but he knew about her. Stiles had dealt with Saul once, he had killed that shadow that seemed to haunt him, and now he was staring at it again.
Stiles was on his feet before he could think twice and charging towards her, at Saul wearing that woman Kate’s body, and pulled the knife attached to his leg. Derek had the knife that killed demons, but that did not matter. Stiles was more than willing to just cut her up anyway. Kate (or Saul, Stiles was not sure what to refer to her as in his head) grinned and side stepped his attack easily. She laughed at him as she knocked the blade from his hand. Stiles ignored his lack of weapon and tried to punch her if only to get rid of that smirk, but Kate stopped his fist with her hand like it was nothing. Stiles tried to jerk it away but she slowly began to crush the fingers in his hand. It was like the Pit all over again and it stole the air from his lungs as he crumbled to his knees.
“Stiles, Stiles, I thought we were past this,” she said.
“Why would we be past this, Saul?” Stiles gasped through his teeth. She was crushing his hand.
“Please, I don’t go by that name anymore, just call me ‘Kate.’ We moved beyond this years ago and I’m sad that you’ve decided to bring it up again.” Kate released his hand and Stiles held it to his chest. He was fairly sure that the bones knitting themselves together hurt more than them breaking. Kate punched him hard enough that Stiles heard the bones on his cheek shatter and he bit through his lip to keep from crying out in pain. He refused to “Let’s not do this dance again.” Stiles did not need to look up to know that she was gone. In the back of his head this made sense. The Hales were alive so of course Saul, Kate, would be as well. Lydia knelt in front of him and shook her head.
“You forgave her a long time ago,” she said. “I think you need to tell me what’s going on again and this time much slower and as coherently as you can.”
Derek spent the rest of the day with his family. It set his nerves on edge. His entire family was there and they all looked at him like they had just seen him earlier that day. They did not feel like doppelgangers or some sort of shapeshifter yet here was his family alive and well. Even if there was some sort of creature playing a terrible joke on him, it did not explain the house. Every detail from it was perfect. There was not a single thing that was out of place from the basement to the attic. Derek looked for something, anything, that could prove to him that this was not the house that he grew up in but the more he looked the more evidence piled up that this really was his house.
Dinner made things worse. They all insisted that they have a family dinner. That meant sitting around the table with his parents, Laura, cousins, Uncle Peter and his wife, and they all seemed to know that something had happened with Derek and the demons again. They kept bringing up Kate and Derek wanted to correct them and tell them that it was not really Kate. That the demon that wore Kate's skins name was Saul and Derek had slit his throat earlier that year with Stiles at his side. He wanted to defend Stiles when they talked about how horrible all demons were, that they all had blood on their hands, but that felt like a lie. Stiles did have blood on his hands and probably more than Derek wanted to know about. They could all hear any lie he told so he said nothing. Derek just ate his Mom's cooking, avoided his Dad's eyes, and went to bed early. Derek watched the sun and tried not to panic too much.
Derek had mastered sneaking out when he was seeing Kate as a teenager and it seemed that things had not changed much. All it took was carefully avoiding the loud areas of the floors and he was out the window on the far side of the house. About a half mile away from the house Derek stopped and listened to see if he was being followed. There were next to no natural sounds in the forest so when he did not hear anyone Derek was fairly confident that he was on his own. He found the fence and jumped over easily then waited again to see if anyone was coming. When it seemed clear he walked toward the middle of the field until he saw Stiles waiting for him. It was not a full moon but it was bright enough that there was plenty of light even without his wolf eyes. Stiles had one of his hands in his pockets and the other had a small book and he looked up when Derek got close. He looked a little pale and Derek could smell some blood on his clothing that had not been there earlier. It made Derek run up to him a little faster and he wanted to touch and make sure Stiles was not injured.
"What happened?" Derek said.
"Well, I've been trying to figure that out, but I might have something that can help," Stiles said waving the book around a little.
"No, someone hurt you, I can smell the blood," Derek said.
"It's not important," Stiles said waving him off. "What I have here is like a version of your Uncle and Father's journal that you normally have only it's made by a hunter family that is rather well known." Stiles sat down and began to look over the book. Derek wanted to pester him to make Stiles tell him what had happened, but the way Stiles looked on edge. Derek sat down next to him and they began to flip through the book. Most of it was in Latin and Derek could pick up on a few phrases here and there but nothing that stood out.
"They don't feel like shifters," Derek said. "My parents smell like my parents, the house looks like my house, I don't think someone could recreate that."
"Maybe none of this is real," Stiles said as he flipped through a bunch of pages. "'A 'trickster' is a demigod-like creature that thrives on creating mischief and mayhem. With the power to make objects materialize out of thin air, the Trickster accomplishes its destructive feats via unusual and often humorous methods.' I fail to see anything humorous about this though. If this thing got in our heads though, it would know exactly what your family felt like. None of this is real."
"If it isn't real, how are we supposed to get back? Are as asleep and we just need to wake up?" Derek said.
"None of this is real but that doesn't mean we're asleep either," Stiles said. He closed the book and seemed to think on all of this for a moment. "We can get hurt though and this isn't sunshine and rainbows either. Your family is alive but that also means someone else is too." Derek frowned until he remembered his mother had mentioned that the demon got away. That meant Saul was still in Kate's body when she tried to burn down the house. Derek was overwhelmed with a burning desire to protect Stiles that he had not felt in a long time.
"Saul, he's here, in Kate's body," Derek said softly.
"He's taken her name, so I guess it's just Kate for now. Packs a hell of a punch too." Stiles touched his cheekbone and grimaced. Derek touched the place where Stiles had been hurt with his thumb but jerked his hand away a second later. That was not something that he and Stiles did and Derek did not understand where the impulse came from. "I'm fine, Derek, don't worry about me."
"You know I will anyway," Derek said. They stared at each other for a moment and then both stood.
"We need to remember that this isn't real," Stiles said. "We have to keep a distance from this. That thing is messing with our heads and I have a bad feeling something will happen if we get lost here."
"And you need to be careful," Derek said. "Saul--Kate, she's a psychopath and she won't hesitate to make you miserable. She’s gotten into both of our heads now. We can't let it happen again." They were standing oddly close and Derek could feel the heat coming off of Stiles. There was something about this world that made Derek want to protect Stiles even more. There was something else though, something that made a lump form in his throat that had not gone away since they had arrived, and now it sounded like they were going to go their separate ways. Derek wanted to kiss Stiles, which was strange. He had always found Stiles attractive but he had never wanted to kiss Stiles just for the sake of kissing him. It felt strange, but it did not feel wrong.
"I will be. We should meet back here again tonight though," Stiles replied. His eyes were a little wide like he was fighting something too. Derek watched as Stiles' gaze flicked toward his lips and it made his stomach drop when he realized that Stiles wanted to kiss him too. It shouldn't be strange though, they kissed all the time, so why were they hesitating now? Derek did not have much time to obsess about it because Stiles leaned forward and kissed him. This was strange too though. Normally when they kissed it was rough and hard like they were fighting. This time it felt soft, tentative, and it took a lot of self restraint pull away. "Just keep reminding yourself that none of it is real."
"I will and we'll meet back here tonight. Try to stay out of Kate's way," Derek said. Stiles nodded and they both walked toward their territory lines. Derek kept repeating in his head that this was not real. Everything in this world felt hazy, except Stiles.
Stiles jumped the fence and tried to keep himself from freaking out too much. Wanting to kiss Derek should not be worrying him this much. This world that they were in, none of it was real, so why should he trust anything? At the same time Derek was real so perhaps that was the only thing he could trust. It made sense that they were a little more co-dependent than usual. Stiles ignored the way he was freaking out and tried to focus on the fact that he needed to figure out a way to wake themselves up. There was nothing funny about this and Stiles did not see how bringing back the dead was going to teach them anything. This trickster was different and whatever they were doing seemed lost on Stiles for now. Even if this world he could feel the moment Lydia got close and Stiles smiled to himself.
"You know I can tell the second you get close," he said.
"Good," Lydia said as she emerged from the shadows. "then we don't need to waste time with me jumping out and scaring you. We can get right to the part where you're being an idiot."
"I'm always an idiot. I don't see how this is any different," Stiles said.
"You're going to make Kate angry with this obsession with the wolves and your ranting about how this isn't real. She's going to do a lot worse than crushing your hand and punching you and you know that," Lydia said. Stiles did know that, he could only imagine how much this was going to piss Kate off, and he did not care. There was no way he was going to leave Derek alone in a world where someone was playing with the memories of his family. Derek did not deserve to face that by himself, not when he had someone who could help, but Stiles also knew that he was being selfish. He needed Derek too and he needed to get them out of here.
"I need to see every book you’ve got," Stiles said. Lydia glared at him but gestured for him to follow her.
Derek shifted and went on a run. He could still smell Stiles on his skin and there was no doubt that his family would be able to smell it as well. Derek did not mind smelling Stiles on him, it seemed like their scent had mingled almost and become one over the last few months, but they would not be happy to know that he was still seeing a demon. He did not blame this version of his family for hating demons but he wished he could find a way to explain to them why Stiles was different. They did not believe him that this was not real and he could not figure out a way to show them how he knew Stiles would never hurt him but the words died on Derek's tongue. If he had lived in this world, if it had been a demon that had used Laura and almost set the house on fire, he would not have wanted to hear anything about them either. There was no way he would have trusted a demon either.
Derek shifted back and could feel his family start to wake up as he approached the house. There was a slightly elevated heartbeat and Laura was waiting for him outside. She looked angry and a little resigned like she already knew exactly where he was. Stiles' scent still lingered so she probably did.
"You said that this world isn't real," Laura said when Derek sat down next to her. "You said that in the real world Mom, Dad, everyone died in that fire and it was just the two of us."
"Yeah, in the real world it's just the two of us," Derek said.
"I refuse to believe that this is some sort of elaborate fantasy. That the person I am right now isn't real and I can't believe that you're willing to accept something as terrible as that world," Laura snapped. "And do you know what confuses me even more? If you're so convinced that this isn't real and that a demon killed our family, how can you be around one like it's no big deal?"
"Stiles is different," Derek said.
"He's really not." Laura stood up and glared down at him. "He's going to betray your trust because that’s his nature. No matter what you think you know about him, you're wrong. He's using you for something just like she used you to get to us. I just can't understand how you can trust one of them when in what you think is the 'real world' they killed our entire family." Laura walked back into the house and left Derek sitting on the front steps. He felt like he had some sort of reason why he trusted Stiles as much as he did but Laura had a point. Derek should not have trusted Stiles but he did. Derek felt the rest of the pack waking up and he went inside to see them.
Derek spent the rest of the day with his family. He played with his younger siblings and his cousins, chasing them around the forest and pretending that he did not see them coming when they tackled him. He spoke with Peter about all of the creatures in the world that were listed in the notebook which existed in this world. Peter seemed surprised that he was so interested in everything that was out there and they spent hours going through page after page. When Peter walked out of the room Derek put the notebook in his jacket. He spent time with his parents and it made his heart feel a little less heavy when they both hugged him tightly. He could not imagine leaving them and that was when Derek realized that he had forgotten that this was not real. Over the course of the day there were times where he thought that this was real and he had no where else he needed to be. Derek closed his eyes and repeated to himself that this was an illusion, it was not real, it couldn't be, but a little voice nagging in the back of his head pointed out that the world felt sharper. The haze that seemed to linger over the world was fading and it all looked real. It was almost like coming out of an extremely detailed dream.
Derek clenched his teeth and reminded himself that no matter how real any of this felt it was fake. He could remember the fire and everyone dying. He remembered the shift of power and when Laura became his alpha. He remembered being a hunter and being Stiles’ partner. Derek focused on Stiles. He was the thing that was different. Stiles was real and that was what he needed to focus on. Thinking about Stiles made his heart speed up a little and when Derek opened his eyes Laura was staring at him. Derek did his best to ignore the way she was looking at him like she knew who he was thinking about.
He snuck out again that night and looped around the forest a few times to make sure that no one was following him. There was no doubt in his mind that Laura knew he was meeting with Stiles and Derek just hoped that she would not involve herself. The Laura in the real world only tolerated Stiles because Stiles broke their deal and went to Hell for him. This version of Laura in this world had no reason to tolerate Stiles and Derek did not want to break up a fight between the two of them. Derek jumped the fence and found Stiles in the same spot as the night before. Only this time Stiles was surrounded by several books and he seemed to be reading them at break neck speeds.
"Find anything?" Derek said as he sat down next to Stiles. He did not mean to sit as close to Stiles as he did. They were shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip. If it bothered Stiles he did not show it. If anything he smiled a little to himself and leaned a little into Derek.
"Our books are always so long winded," Stiles snapped the book closed. "Demons seem to think they are above the rest of the world so the only lore we seem to focus on are the things that can kill us."
"So you talk a lot about other demons and angels," Derek said and Stiles nodded. "Well maybe this can help." Derek pulled out Peter's notebook and when Stiles saw it his eye lit up.
"Oh I hope your uncle in this world is as big of an obsessive as the one in the real one. His notebook was brilliant," Stiles said. Derek opened the book and they flipped through the pages until they got to a section on tricksters. There was a lot of information but nothing that helped them. They were not asleep so their physical bodies were still in danger but there was no way of proving whether or not they could die here. The more Derek read the more he began to realize that there might not be any waking up from this until the trickster decided that they had to.
"Stiles, there's something I need to tell you," Derek said after they spent several hours going through Peter's notebook and the books that Stiles had brought with him. They were still sitting close but they had broken apart a little. Stiles blinked and looked up from the book he was reading.
"Did something happen?" Stiles said and there was an odd edge to his voice. It was an edge that Derek had heard before when someone was threatening his life in front of Stiles. It was the edge that came out when Stiles was going to get angry and do something to protect him.
"Not what you're thinking. No one tried to hurt me or anything. It's just that there were a few times today where I forgot that this wasn't real," Derek confessed. "The world used to feel really hazy, dreamlike, but now it feels sharper and there were a few times where I forgot that the family back over that fence isn't my real family."
"There's no telling what will happen if we get lost here," Stiles said. "If the trickster is trying to convince us that this is reality and we accept it as reality we could be trapped." Stiles closed the book and moved closer to Derek. "We can't forget that this isn't real no matter how it might feel. You're real and I'm real. Everything else is just our memories being used against us. What brought you back? What made you remember that this wasn't our world?" Stiles' eyes were wide and worried, he was a little scared even if he never would admit it, the thought of being trapped in this world scared him, and it scared Derek too.
"You did. Thinking about you reminded me that this isn't real," Derek said. "So I need a memory of you to remind me." Derek was reaching for Stiles before he could think twice about it and Stiles was moving forward until they were in each other's space. While being around his family felt good it was only around Stiles that he felt relaxed. Stiles smirked until he was practically in Derek's lap.
"You need some sort of memory of me to remind you that this world isn't real?" Stiles said when they were chest to chest.
"Yeah, you got any ideas?" Derek wrapped his arms around Stiles' waist.
"I can think of a few." The kiss was soft, barely there, and it still seemed to steal the breath from Derek. He pressed his forehead to Stiles' and took a deep breath taking in every detail of Stiles' scent. The undercurrent of sulfur that never went away and the way he smelled a little human and a little like a wolf. They had barely touched and it already felt too intense. Derek opened his eyes and found Stiles staring back at him. He looked surprised too, like he was not expecting all of this to be too much to handle, and it made Derek feel a little better that he was not the only one affected.
"I'm going to need more than that," Derek managed to ground out. He barely recognized his own voice.
"As you wish," Stiles said grinning. This kiss was heavier and Stiles seemed to open up for him. Normally Stiles did not like to yield to him but he must have been able to sense just how much forgetting had frightened Derek. He did not protest when Derek bit his lower lip and he did not fight when Derek rolled them so Stiles was on his back and Derek was looking down at him. Stiles barely let him catch his breath before pulling Derek down into another wet and dirty kiss. Derek had to force himself away from Stiles' mouth and kissed his way along his jawline until he got to Stiles' neck. "You and your neck kink."
"Don't even try to deny that you don't like it," Derek said. Stiles scoffed and Derek bit down on Stiles' pulse point grinning when he felt Stiles arch against him swearing. "I told you not to deny it."
"You're terrible," Stiles mumbled. He took a fist full of Derek's hair and pulled him away from his neck. "I don't know why I put up with you."
"I could say the same about you," Derek said. Stiles chuckled and pulled him down for another kiss. Derek wanted to stay exactly where he was and kiss Stiles until one of them stopped breathing, but it was getting late. If he was not home when his family woke up there was no telling what they would do. Derek broke the kiss and looked down at Stiles. "I need to head back."
"I know," Stiles said but neither of them moved to untangle themselves from each other. Derek could tell that Stiles did not want to move anymore than he did. It took a lot of effort to pull away from Stiles and help him gather all of the books. "Do your best to remember that this isn't real. I'll keep looking into tricksters and see what I can find. If you can try asking your uncle about it without tipping him off."
"Be careful," Derek said. Kate was still out there and it made him nervous that he was not there to help Stiles if he needed it.
"You too," Stiles said. They stared at each other for a moment before Derek decided that fuck it and he kissed Stiles one last time. "Needed some more material to help you remember?"
"Yes," Derek lied. He was not sure how Stiles would react if he knew that Derek wanted to touch him, kiss him, all the time now. Even if sex was off the table Derek would be fine by lying together and that was not how they worked. It terrified him but Derek also found it grounding. Stiles was the only thing in this world he could trust and if he started to second guess that Derek was sure he would be lost here. "Again tonight?" Stiles nodded and they went their separate ways. Derek thought about how it felt to touch Stiles, how it felt right, and how everything around him was an illusion.
Stiles stashed all of the books he had stolen from Lydia under a tree and smiled to himself as he jumped over the fence. It was a little silly that he was smiling simply because he has just spent time with Derek. The fact that they went from being around each other all the time to only a few hours at night was probably what made the difference. That was why everything felt different, why he wanted to be around Derek more, it was their bond being kept apart. Stiles decided that he was not going to seek anyone out and spend the night alone. There was no telling when another demon was going to get angry at him for some stupid reason. It would not be the first time that had happened and it would not be the last either. Stiles just wanted to get away from this nightmare and go back to the real world where he and Derek could hunt monsters. Stiles blamed no one but himself for being so lost in thought that he only realized someone was running at him at the last second. He ducked just as someone was about to kick his head clean off.
"Maybe you aren't totally useless," Kate said grinning. "Then again maybe you are." Stiles did not have time to make a snappy remark before Kate charged him again. She was outrageously fast and it took all of his skills to avoid getting hit by her. Her knuckles grazed his side in a punch that would have broken something internally. Kate laughed and landed a sharp punch to his stomach. Stiles coughed and bent over instinctively which allowed Kate ample opportunity to throw her knee into his nose and knock him back. Stiles could taste the blood as it ran down his throat and it reminded him of Hell, of choking and drowning on his own blood, being torn apart, and voices laughing when he gave in and let them see how much it hurt. "I was expecting better. Maybe I should go play with your wolves and come back later. Then you might be ready for a fight." The mere mention of the Hales made Stiles forget about his wound. He stood up.
"You aren't going to touch them," Stiles said. He spit some blood on the ground and was proud when it got on Kate's boots. She did not look too happy about that.
"Is that all it takes to get you wound up? You're so predictable." Kate charged him again and despite his wounds Stiles managed to land a few blows on her. He felt satisfied when her nose broke under his fist but Kate responded by throwing him into a tree. She pinned him there by his neck and her sharp nails reminded him of Derek's claws. "I'm going to kill that boy of yours and his little pack. I'm going to make sure it is slow and there won't be anything you can do about it."
"I'm not going to let you touch them ever again," Stiles said through his teeth.
"I won't touch them if you stay away from them like I told you to," Kate snapped. "Rumor is that you don't think any of this is real. Are you sure about that?"
"Of course I am," Stiles said without hesitation.
"Are you willing to bet the wolves lives on that? Are you willing to let me kill your boys entire family because they aren't real? Are you that confident?" Kate asked. Stiles felt his heart speed up as he thought about how Derek would have to watch them die, watch Kate kill them, and how much it could hurt him. He thought about how the world did feel sharper like Derek said. Like the dream was fading and everything felt real here. Stiles was doubting and he hated himself for that. "That's what I thought." Kate released his throat and took several steps back. "You want to keep those wolves safe? Then stay away from them. It's as simple as that. I don't want anymore issues with that pack when the territory lines are working just fine. Stay away or we'll get to see just how fake all of this is." Kate vanished and left Stiles alone in the woods. His wounds were healing but he could still taste the blood. He slid down the tree to the ground and hit his head against the trunk a few times.
"God damn it."
<-- masterpost next -->
Derek was sleeping in the dirt and that made no sense. Granted he was a hunter and that meant that he slept in odd places every now and then. He was also a werewolf so this was not the first time he had woken up in the dirt but this was the first time he had woken up and was unsure how he got there. His head did not hurt so no one had hit him recently and there was a warm presence in front of him that said he was not dying anytime soon. Granted things had been odd since Stiles had become his partner. Stiles had been a crossroads demon that held Derek's contract but had broken it when they worked together to kill the demon that burned Derek's house to the ground and killed Stiles when he had been human. Recently Stiles had escaped out of hell and returned as a regular demon. Now they were working together as partners and for some reason being a werewolf and a demon hunter just seemed to attract more trouble than it did when Derek was working alone. Now it seemed like every other thing they had to hunt knew about them and found them entirely too amusing. It was annoying.
Derek shifted as the world came into focus and he realized that Stiles was the warmth he felt. They were having sex but they had never cuddled like this before. Stiles' back was pressed against Derek's front and they were wrapped around each other. Stiles was breathing softly, his heartbeat steady, which was not a good sign. Stiles rarely slept. Derek sat up and looked around. The sun was high in the sky. It was probably the middle of the afternoon. It was a clear day and it looked like they were in the middle of a large field. The grass was uncut and wild like no one had ever taken care of it before. When he shifted Stiles seemed to wake up. Stiles rolled onto his back and blinked up at Derek like everything was coming into focus for him too.
"Derek? Why are we lying in the dirt?" Stiles asked.
"I have no idea," Derek said. He was almost leaning over Stiles and for some reason it made his heart beat a little faster. The reaction terrified Derek. It that had never happened before. "I remember stopping the car on the side of the road."
"Yeah, you smelled something weird," Stiles said frowning. "So we got out of the car and went to check it out but I don't remember anything besides that. It's just blank."
"Did we get hit with something?" Derek asked and Stiles shrugged. The smell was gone but other things seemed to be missing too. Derek stood up and pulled Stiles to his feet. The field was large and stretched in all directions. There were woods to on the horizon line to the East and West but the field seemed to stretch to the horizon line interrupted to the North and South. The demon killing knife was on his hip but the gun he had brought with him was gone, along with his cell phone. "Stiles, where's the car? Better yet, where did the road go?"
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto," Stiles muttered.
"That was a well placed pop culture reference and an excellent dog joke," Derek deadpanned. "How do you know the Wizard of Oz?"
"I catch on," Stiles grinned. "I was serious though I really don't think we're in the same place we were before we went to sleep. This feels different. It makes my skin crawl." Derek nodded. It was like there was a haze over this world that he could not quite see through, it made the edges of his vision fuzzy, and his senses felt dulled. Derek concentrated on the world around them. Stiles was a low hum of energy but there were other things to the East and West in the woods that felt strange but familiar.
"Let's go East," Derek said. Stiles nodded and they began to pick their way through the field. It was not that hard to make their way through though. The world felt unnaturally flat. The more they walked the more Derek began to feel like he was in some sort of painting. The woods slowly began to come into view and the closer he got the more he could smell. When he realized what it was Derek put a hand out and stopped Stiles.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Werewolves," Derek said and Stiles tensed. Werewolves were not keen on their partnership and Laura had recently thrown holy water in Stiles' face. Derek did not expect anyone else to understand why he trusted Stiles with his life. When Stiles had broken their agreement his superiors had thrown him back into Hell. Stiles seemed to be suffering from PTSD like symptoms with flashbacks though he refused to talk about them. Lydia, Stiles' second in command and now his successor, told Derek that Stiles was being tortured. Derek was not sure he would ever know what Stiles went through for him so the least he could do was trust him. Stiles healed but he also felt pain and having to deal with werewolf claws in his body was probably not fun. "There are eleven of them. We could go check out the other side if you want." Derek could see Stiles visibly relax and throw up that bright smile that he seemed to think Derek could not see through.
"Nah, we're right here, let's just ask the wolves," Stiles said. He shoved his hands in his pockets. Derek could see that Stiles was clenching his fists. Stiles tried not to act different but Derek could see the cracks in the facade.
"All right," Derek said and they continued across the field. As they reached the edge of the woods Derek frowned when a fence came into view. It was roughly four feet high and made of wood. It stretched across the forest and vanished into the distance. It looked like something he would see in a backyard of a suburban family, but it was still odd. The smell of the wolves was stronger now and there was something about it that made his stomach clench. Stiles frowned at the fence, his head tilted to one side, until he shrugged and climbed over it easily. Derek hopped over and within seconds of his feet touching the ground he felt a wolf running toward them quickly.
"Someone is coming so be ready." They had stepped into another pack's territory and now Derek was going to have to do some fast talking to sort the drama that came with dealing with other packs. The wolf that was running at them, however, was using speed that he had not seen in a long time. As they got closer and Derek could smell them it felt like all of the air was punched out of his lungs. Stiles must have noticed something and looked like he was about to ask something when a body crashed through the wood and into Stiles.
Stiles had excellent reflexes and was quick on his feet so he managed to avoid getting his throat torn out by the wolf. The wolf did not give Stiles a chance to regain his footing as they went after him again. It was all so fast that Derek barely saw the wolf abandon their pursuit of Stiles to shove him away from the battle. Derek fell back against the ground. The wolf had shoved him hard enough to take him off his feet. Stiles twisted and kicked the wolf's feet out from underneath them. Stiles pulled the knife he kept around his ankle out and put it to the wolf's throat.
The wolf he had pinned down was a woman, middle aged, with long black hair, golden eyes, and prominent cheekbones. She was slowly turning human underneath Stiles, but Derek could not breath because it was not possible, this was not possible, there was no possible way that he was seeing this.
"Derek, she looks like--" Stiles began and that was enough of a distraction that she got a foot on his stomach and kicked Stiles back. She moved in front of Derek, shielding him from Stiles. He could not handle this.
"Stay away from my son you hell spawn," his mother said. It looked like her, it smelled like her, it felt like her, but she was dead. Derek knew that she was dead because he had witnessed it. He had seen bodies found and how she was among them yet there his mother was, standing in front of him, protecting him, from a threat. Derek managed to stand on shaking legs. He was afraid to reach out and touch her out of fear that this would fade away into some horrible nightmare. Stiles glanced at Derek and stayed on the ground.
"Mrs. Hale?" Stiles said and his Mom bared her teeth at Stiles. "Look, I'm not a threat here, I promise you."
"All of your kind are a threat," Mom spit out. "What are you doing coming into our territory? And what the hell are you doing with my son?" She was angry and Derek could not let this escalate, but he was frozen in place. Fortunately, Stiles seemed to realize this too.
"Okay," he said showing his hands. "I'm putting my knife back around my ankle and I'll go back over the fence. No one needs to get torn apart or anything messy like that, okay?" Mom growled, but Stiles moved slowly putting the knife back around his ankle and slowly backing toward the fence with his hands in the air. Mom kept an arm in front of Derek like she could keep him from going anywhere near Stiles. "I'm going to turn my back to climb over the fence and I'm going to trust you not to rip my spine out." Stiles did not wait for Mom to respond before he turned and began to climb over the fence. Mom moved as if she was going to attack while his back was turned, but Derek touched her arm. She was warm, alive, she felt real. She glared at him as Stiles dropped back down to the ground his hands in the air again. "See? No problem."
"Next time I won't be so forgiving," Mom warned. “Not after what you tried to do to my family.”
“I don’t believe we’ve ever met, Mrs. Hale,” Stiles said.
“Your kind. The way you used that woman to almost burn us to the ground in our own home. If we hadn’t realized what was happening we would have died,” his mother said. “So I won’t hesitate to send you back to hell.” Derek could see the way Stiles paled at that threat, the way his amber eyes got wide and frightened, and if this disagreement was as bad as Mom was making it sound then he had to stop this. They did not know where they were and if Stiles ended up in the Pit Derek would never see him again.
"Mom," Derek said and his voice did not sound right. “It's all right. I don't think he was going to hurt me. I think we were both in the wrong place at the wrong time." It was a blatant lie and he was too shocked to really conceal it. Mom stared at him like she could tell he was lying. She looked back at Stiles and glared.
"Stay off of our land and away from my son," she said.
"Yes ma'am," Stiles said, but he was looking at Derek. Stiles' hands were still in the air and his left pointer finger twitched, followed by his right pointer and middle fingers, then he pointedly looked at the ground. He was trying to tell Derek something and over the last few months they had gotten fairly good at non-verbal cues. He was saying '1-2-here' which translated to '12 here.' Stiles wanted them to meet back here at midnight. Derek was standing behind his mother so he nodded and thankfully she could not see.
"Let's go Derek," Mom said. Derek hesitated for only a moment. He wanted to stay with Stiles because this was obviously wrong and there was something going on, but this was his mother. Her scent, being around her, it felt real and he wanted to be with her again. Derek glanced back at Stiles one last time, his hands still held in surrender, and followed his mother into the woods.
Derek was not sure what to make of this. On one hand the woman felt like his mother, looked like an older version of her and even smelled like her. On the other hand though, she was dead. Yet here he was walking through unfamiliar woods with her as if it were normal. Every now and then Derek would have to look back at her. It was unnerving. There was something wrong with this entire situation. The world still had that haze that Derek could not quite shake and the woods that they were walking through were not the one’s he grew up in. The trees looked too familiar and there were not any sounds of animals around.
“Why are you staring at me, Derek?”
“I’m not,” Derek said. She stopped and stared him down in a way that made him feel ten years old again.
“You are. What were you doing out here?” she said.
“I was on a walk and he was just jumping over the fence. You got here right when I did,” Derek said.
“That’s a lie,” Mom said. “You smell like him.” She winced like the smell of Stiles was personally offending her. “It smells like you’ve been around him for months. He smells like you too, but that’s not possible. I just saw you this morning.” Once again Derek felt like someone had just pushed him into a frozen river.
“You did?” Derek asked before he could second guess himself. His mother’s eyes widened and she cupped his face with her hands. She studied him and Derek had to hold himself back from pulling her into a hug. This was too much for him to handle. She was dead, she was supposed to be dead, how was she here?
“Oh sweetheart, what did he do to you?” Mom said softly.
“Mom, you can’t be here,” Derek said. Mom jerked back away from him like she’d been hit by something. “You died, everyone died, that fire happened and everyone died.”
“What are you talking about, Derek? The fire happened, yes, but it did minor damage and that demon ran off before we could do anything,” Mom said.
“No, it was just me and Laura who survived, and then I became a hunter and something is wrong about this.” Derek was trying to explain how this was wrong but all his mother could do was shake her head.
“They’ve gotten into your head again. They did it with that woman and now they’re doing it again with that boy.” Mom put a hand around his shoulders and walked with Derek through the woods. “Let’s go home.” Home, as it turned out, was the same home Derek had grown up in. Mom kept an arm around his shoulders the entire way but was quiet. He could see the anger in her though. It was the same anger that he saw the first time he came home smelling of Kate when he was a teenager. The day right before the fire, she stared him down and asked him what was going on. Derek had lied and said that there was nothing.
The next day the house was burned down and when Kate's body was found he had no idea what had happened. He called on Stiles to make a deal with a demon for his family, but Stiles turned him down saying that he did not deal with children. Derek did not find out the truth about Kate and how she was possessed until six years later. Now he was walking into a clearing that not only had the house that, last Derek had seen, was barely standing, completely fine but he could also feel his entire family. His father was his alpha and Derek could feel it in his bones. It was a different feeling from Laura and it made Derek want to run away. The door flew open and Laura raced down the stairs. It made him feel a little better seeing her because she was the constant in his life.
"What the hell did he do this time?" Laura asked.
"He's talking nonsense," Mom said before Derek could defend himself. "Try to get him to explain while I go talk to your father." Mom left him with Laura outside the house and vanished to go find his dad. Laura crossed her arms and crinkled her nose.
"You smell like you've been rolling in rotten eggs," she said. "Want to tell me what's going on?" Derek tried to explain but Laura cut him off halfway through. "The fire never happened, Derek. I don't know what you're talking about. Do you need to come inside to see for yourself?" Derek was not sure he could handle walking into that house and seeing it like it had been when he was a child. Something was wrong though and running away from these people was not going to make it better. He had hours to kill before he was going to meet Stiles so it seemed logical to get a look around. If nothing else, Derek knew he needed to know the exits of this place.
"Yeah, maybe it will," Derek said. Laura offered him a hand and they walked into the house.
Stiles kept his hands in the air until Derek was out of sight with the wolf that was apparently his mother. If Stiles had been suspicious that something was wrong now he was sure of it. While Stiles had not met anyone else in the Hale family besides Derek and Laura that did not mean he did not recognize the signs of family the minute he got a look at her. Derek had once told Stiles that his mother was the fastest wolf he had ever seen. She had really given Stiles a run for his money. He was not keen on sending Derek out alone, but the threat of being sent back into the Pit was pathetically crippling. Stiles cracked his neck and started across the field to the other side. Mrs. Hale had mentioned that this side was wolf territory and that meant that the other forest was someone else's territory.
As Stiles suspected there was another fence that stretched across the forest to the West. This time Stiles took the time to examine it and he could smell mountain ash and wolfsbane. This was a barrier designed to keep wolves out. Stiles climbed over the fence and hopped down. No one came running at him this time so he took this as a sign that it was okay to explore a little. The woods were strange, like someone made a copy of a few trees and spread them for miles in all directions. He found a few small traps that would have caught him were he not paying attention. Instead Stiles stayed alert until he felt something familiar.
Lydia was in the middle of the woods doing her nails. She looked like the Lydia he had known for a long time and she even gave him that same 'oh great it's you' look that she had mastered when they worked together. That look did not stay long because her eyes went wide and she was in his personal space in seconds.
"What happened to you?" she said touching him everywhere like she was looking for wounds.
"Easy, easy, what are you talking about? What's with all the touching?" Stiles asked slapping her hands away, but he froze when he realized just how scared she looked. "What?"
"The Pit," Lydia whispered. Stiles hated himself instantly for the way he tensed up but he knew she noticed. Lydia noticed everything. "You've been there again but I just saw you a few hours ago."
"We haven't seen each other in months," Stiles said slowly. "Not since I got demoted and you took my position."
"Something isn't right," Lydia said. "Explain to me right now what’s going on because I just saw you a few hours ago. A few hours is way longer than it would take to get in and out and it wouldn't have left these kind of scars." Lydia yanked him down to the ground and glared at him until Stiles talked. He told her about being King, about the Hale fire, and he was about to tell her about turning down Derek's deal when she held up a hand to silence him.
"I wasn't done yet," Stiles said.
"No, but I've heard enough. You mentioned the wolves and that's all I need to know. You smell like a wet dog and you really need to get over your obsession with them." Lydia rolled her eyes and sighed. "I don't know what kind of joke you're pulling this time, but I don't want to hear anymore. Like most of your jokes, it’s not funny." Stiles was about to argue that he is always funny when he heard someone laugh behind them.
“Maybe we do need to work on that sense of humor,” a woman’s voice said. Stiles turned around slowly and saw a beautiful woman with long, blond hair and a sharp smile watching him. That was not just who he saw. He also saw someone that he knew all too well, that sharp smile echoing various times over his mortal and immortal life, and it made him see red. Stiles had never seen the body that Saul had used to burn down Derek’s home and kill his family, but he knew about her. Stiles had dealt with Saul once, he had killed that shadow that seemed to haunt him, and now he was staring at it again.
Stiles was on his feet before he could think twice and charging towards her, at Saul wearing that woman Kate’s body, and pulled the knife attached to his leg. Derek had the knife that killed demons, but that did not matter. Stiles was more than willing to just cut her up anyway. Kate (or Saul, Stiles was not sure what to refer to her as in his head) grinned and side stepped his attack easily. She laughed at him as she knocked the blade from his hand. Stiles ignored his lack of weapon and tried to punch her if only to get rid of that smirk, but Kate stopped his fist with her hand like it was nothing. Stiles tried to jerk it away but she slowly began to crush the fingers in his hand. It was like the Pit all over again and it stole the air from his lungs as he crumbled to his knees.
“Stiles, Stiles, I thought we were past this,” she said.
“Why would we be past this, Saul?” Stiles gasped through his teeth. She was crushing his hand.
“Please, I don’t go by that name anymore, just call me ‘Kate.’ We moved beyond this years ago and I’m sad that you’ve decided to bring it up again.” Kate released his hand and Stiles held it to his chest. He was fairly sure that the bones knitting themselves together hurt more than them breaking. Kate punched him hard enough that Stiles heard the bones on his cheek shatter and he bit through his lip to keep from crying out in pain. He refused to “Let’s not do this dance again.” Stiles did not need to look up to know that she was gone. In the back of his head this made sense. The Hales were alive so of course Saul, Kate, would be as well. Lydia knelt in front of him and shook her head.
“You forgave her a long time ago,” she said. “I think you need to tell me what’s going on again and this time much slower and as coherently as you can.”
Derek spent the rest of the day with his family. It set his nerves on edge. His entire family was there and they all looked at him like they had just seen him earlier that day. They did not feel like doppelgangers or some sort of shapeshifter yet here was his family alive and well. Even if there was some sort of creature playing a terrible joke on him, it did not explain the house. Every detail from it was perfect. There was not a single thing that was out of place from the basement to the attic. Derek looked for something, anything, that could prove to him that this was not the house that he grew up in but the more he looked the more evidence piled up that this really was his house.
Dinner made things worse. They all insisted that they have a family dinner. That meant sitting around the table with his parents, Laura, cousins, Uncle Peter and his wife, and they all seemed to know that something had happened with Derek and the demons again. They kept bringing up Kate and Derek wanted to correct them and tell them that it was not really Kate. That the demon that wore Kate's skins name was Saul and Derek had slit his throat earlier that year with Stiles at his side. He wanted to defend Stiles when they talked about how horrible all demons were, that they all had blood on their hands, but that felt like a lie. Stiles did have blood on his hands and probably more than Derek wanted to know about. They could all hear any lie he told so he said nothing. Derek just ate his Mom's cooking, avoided his Dad's eyes, and went to bed early. Derek watched the sun and tried not to panic too much.
Derek had mastered sneaking out when he was seeing Kate as a teenager and it seemed that things had not changed much. All it took was carefully avoiding the loud areas of the floors and he was out the window on the far side of the house. About a half mile away from the house Derek stopped and listened to see if he was being followed. There were next to no natural sounds in the forest so when he did not hear anyone Derek was fairly confident that he was on his own. He found the fence and jumped over easily then waited again to see if anyone was coming. When it seemed clear he walked toward the middle of the field until he saw Stiles waiting for him. It was not a full moon but it was bright enough that there was plenty of light even without his wolf eyes. Stiles had one of his hands in his pockets and the other had a small book and he looked up when Derek got close. He looked a little pale and Derek could smell some blood on his clothing that had not been there earlier. It made Derek run up to him a little faster and he wanted to touch and make sure Stiles was not injured.
"What happened?" Derek said.
"Well, I've been trying to figure that out, but I might have something that can help," Stiles said waving the book around a little.
"No, someone hurt you, I can smell the blood," Derek said.
"It's not important," Stiles said waving him off. "What I have here is like a version of your Uncle and Father's journal that you normally have only it's made by a hunter family that is rather well known." Stiles sat down and began to look over the book. Derek wanted to pester him to make Stiles tell him what had happened, but the way Stiles looked on edge. Derek sat down next to him and they began to flip through the book. Most of it was in Latin and Derek could pick up on a few phrases here and there but nothing that stood out.
"They don't feel like shifters," Derek said. "My parents smell like my parents, the house looks like my house, I don't think someone could recreate that."
"Maybe none of this is real," Stiles said as he flipped through a bunch of pages. "'A 'trickster' is a demigod-like creature that thrives on creating mischief and mayhem. With the power to make objects materialize out of thin air, the Trickster accomplishes its destructive feats via unusual and often humorous methods.' I fail to see anything humorous about this though. If this thing got in our heads though, it would know exactly what your family felt like. None of this is real."
"If it isn't real, how are we supposed to get back? Are as asleep and we just need to wake up?" Derek said.
"None of this is real but that doesn't mean we're asleep either," Stiles said. He closed the book and seemed to think on all of this for a moment. "We can get hurt though and this isn't sunshine and rainbows either. Your family is alive but that also means someone else is too." Derek frowned until he remembered his mother had mentioned that the demon got away. That meant Saul was still in Kate's body when she tried to burn down the house. Derek was overwhelmed with a burning desire to protect Stiles that he had not felt in a long time.
"Saul, he's here, in Kate's body," Derek said softly.
"He's taken her name, so I guess it's just Kate for now. Packs a hell of a punch too." Stiles touched his cheekbone and grimaced. Derek touched the place where Stiles had been hurt with his thumb but jerked his hand away a second later. That was not something that he and Stiles did and Derek did not understand where the impulse came from. "I'm fine, Derek, don't worry about me."
"You know I will anyway," Derek said. They stared at each other for a moment and then both stood.
"We need to remember that this isn't real," Stiles said. "We have to keep a distance from this. That thing is messing with our heads and I have a bad feeling something will happen if we get lost here."
"And you need to be careful," Derek said. "Saul--Kate, she's a psychopath and she won't hesitate to make you miserable. She’s gotten into both of our heads now. We can't let it happen again." They were standing oddly close and Derek could feel the heat coming off of Stiles. There was something about this world that made Derek want to protect Stiles even more. There was something else though, something that made a lump form in his throat that had not gone away since they had arrived, and now it sounded like they were going to go their separate ways. Derek wanted to kiss Stiles, which was strange. He had always found Stiles attractive but he had never wanted to kiss Stiles just for the sake of kissing him. It felt strange, but it did not feel wrong.
"I will be. We should meet back here again tonight though," Stiles replied. His eyes were a little wide like he was fighting something too. Derek watched as Stiles' gaze flicked toward his lips and it made his stomach drop when he realized that Stiles wanted to kiss him too. It shouldn't be strange though, they kissed all the time, so why were they hesitating now? Derek did not have much time to obsess about it because Stiles leaned forward and kissed him. This was strange too though. Normally when they kissed it was rough and hard like they were fighting. This time it felt soft, tentative, and it took a lot of self restraint pull away. "Just keep reminding yourself that none of it is real."
"I will and we'll meet back here tonight. Try to stay out of Kate's way," Derek said. Stiles nodded and they both walked toward their territory lines. Derek kept repeating in his head that this was not real. Everything in this world felt hazy, except Stiles.
Stiles jumped the fence and tried to keep himself from freaking out too much. Wanting to kiss Derek should not be worrying him this much. This world that they were in, none of it was real, so why should he trust anything? At the same time Derek was real so perhaps that was the only thing he could trust. It made sense that they were a little more co-dependent than usual. Stiles ignored the way he was freaking out and tried to focus on the fact that he needed to figure out a way to wake themselves up. There was nothing funny about this and Stiles did not see how bringing back the dead was going to teach them anything. This trickster was different and whatever they were doing seemed lost on Stiles for now. Even if this world he could feel the moment Lydia got close and Stiles smiled to himself.
"You know I can tell the second you get close," he said.
"Good," Lydia said as she emerged from the shadows. "then we don't need to waste time with me jumping out and scaring you. We can get right to the part where you're being an idiot."
"I'm always an idiot. I don't see how this is any different," Stiles said.
"You're going to make Kate angry with this obsession with the wolves and your ranting about how this isn't real. She's going to do a lot worse than crushing your hand and punching you and you know that," Lydia said. Stiles did know that, he could only imagine how much this was going to piss Kate off, and he did not care. There was no way he was going to leave Derek alone in a world where someone was playing with the memories of his family. Derek did not deserve to face that by himself, not when he had someone who could help, but Stiles also knew that he was being selfish. He needed Derek too and he needed to get them out of here.
"I need to see every book you’ve got," Stiles said. Lydia glared at him but gestured for him to follow her.
Derek shifted and went on a run. He could still smell Stiles on his skin and there was no doubt that his family would be able to smell it as well. Derek did not mind smelling Stiles on him, it seemed like their scent had mingled almost and become one over the last few months, but they would not be happy to know that he was still seeing a demon. He did not blame this version of his family for hating demons but he wished he could find a way to explain to them why Stiles was different. They did not believe him that this was not real and he could not figure out a way to show them how he knew Stiles would never hurt him but the words died on Derek's tongue. If he had lived in this world, if it had been a demon that had used Laura and almost set the house on fire, he would not have wanted to hear anything about them either. There was no way he would have trusted a demon either.
Derek shifted back and could feel his family start to wake up as he approached the house. There was a slightly elevated heartbeat and Laura was waiting for him outside. She looked angry and a little resigned like she already knew exactly where he was. Stiles' scent still lingered so she probably did.
"You said that this world isn't real," Laura said when Derek sat down next to her. "You said that in the real world Mom, Dad, everyone died in that fire and it was just the two of us."
"Yeah, in the real world it's just the two of us," Derek said.
"I refuse to believe that this is some sort of elaborate fantasy. That the person I am right now isn't real and I can't believe that you're willing to accept something as terrible as that world," Laura snapped. "And do you know what confuses me even more? If you're so convinced that this isn't real and that a demon killed our family, how can you be around one like it's no big deal?"
"Stiles is different," Derek said.
"He's really not." Laura stood up and glared down at him. "He's going to betray your trust because that’s his nature. No matter what you think you know about him, you're wrong. He's using you for something just like she used you to get to us. I just can't understand how you can trust one of them when in what you think is the 'real world' they killed our entire family." Laura walked back into the house and left Derek sitting on the front steps. He felt like he had some sort of reason why he trusted Stiles as much as he did but Laura had a point. Derek should not have trusted Stiles but he did. Derek felt the rest of the pack waking up and he went inside to see them.
Derek spent the rest of the day with his family. He played with his younger siblings and his cousins, chasing them around the forest and pretending that he did not see them coming when they tackled him. He spoke with Peter about all of the creatures in the world that were listed in the notebook which existed in this world. Peter seemed surprised that he was so interested in everything that was out there and they spent hours going through page after page. When Peter walked out of the room Derek put the notebook in his jacket. He spent time with his parents and it made his heart feel a little less heavy when they both hugged him tightly. He could not imagine leaving them and that was when Derek realized that he had forgotten that this was not real. Over the course of the day there were times where he thought that this was real and he had no where else he needed to be. Derek closed his eyes and repeated to himself that this was an illusion, it was not real, it couldn't be, but a little voice nagging in the back of his head pointed out that the world felt sharper. The haze that seemed to linger over the world was fading and it all looked real. It was almost like coming out of an extremely detailed dream.
Derek clenched his teeth and reminded himself that no matter how real any of this felt it was fake. He could remember the fire and everyone dying. He remembered the shift of power and when Laura became his alpha. He remembered being a hunter and being Stiles’ partner. Derek focused on Stiles. He was the thing that was different. Stiles was real and that was what he needed to focus on. Thinking about Stiles made his heart speed up a little and when Derek opened his eyes Laura was staring at him. Derek did his best to ignore the way she was looking at him like she knew who he was thinking about.
He snuck out again that night and looped around the forest a few times to make sure that no one was following him. There was no doubt in his mind that Laura knew he was meeting with Stiles and Derek just hoped that she would not involve herself. The Laura in the real world only tolerated Stiles because Stiles broke their deal and went to Hell for him. This version of Laura in this world had no reason to tolerate Stiles and Derek did not want to break up a fight between the two of them. Derek jumped the fence and found Stiles in the same spot as the night before. Only this time Stiles was surrounded by several books and he seemed to be reading them at break neck speeds.
"Find anything?" Derek said as he sat down next to Stiles. He did not mean to sit as close to Stiles as he did. They were shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip. If it bothered Stiles he did not show it. If anything he smiled a little to himself and leaned a little into Derek.
"Our books are always so long winded," Stiles snapped the book closed. "Demons seem to think they are above the rest of the world so the only lore we seem to focus on are the things that can kill us."
"So you talk a lot about other demons and angels," Derek said and Stiles nodded. "Well maybe this can help." Derek pulled out Peter's notebook and when Stiles saw it his eye lit up.
"Oh I hope your uncle in this world is as big of an obsessive as the one in the real one. His notebook was brilliant," Stiles said. Derek opened the book and they flipped through the pages until they got to a section on tricksters. There was a lot of information but nothing that helped them. They were not asleep so their physical bodies were still in danger but there was no way of proving whether or not they could die here. The more Derek read the more he began to realize that there might not be any waking up from this until the trickster decided that they had to.
"Stiles, there's something I need to tell you," Derek said after they spent several hours going through Peter's notebook and the books that Stiles had brought with him. They were still sitting close but they had broken apart a little. Stiles blinked and looked up from the book he was reading.
"Did something happen?" Stiles said and there was an odd edge to his voice. It was an edge that Derek had heard before when someone was threatening his life in front of Stiles. It was the edge that came out when Stiles was going to get angry and do something to protect him.
"Not what you're thinking. No one tried to hurt me or anything. It's just that there were a few times today where I forgot that this wasn't real," Derek confessed. "The world used to feel really hazy, dreamlike, but now it feels sharper and there were a few times where I forgot that the family back over that fence isn't my real family."
"There's no telling what will happen if we get lost here," Stiles said. "If the trickster is trying to convince us that this is reality and we accept it as reality we could be trapped." Stiles closed the book and moved closer to Derek. "We can't forget that this isn't real no matter how it might feel. You're real and I'm real. Everything else is just our memories being used against us. What brought you back? What made you remember that this wasn't our world?" Stiles' eyes were wide and worried, he was a little scared even if he never would admit it, the thought of being trapped in this world scared him, and it scared Derek too.
"You did. Thinking about you reminded me that this isn't real," Derek said. "So I need a memory of you to remind me." Derek was reaching for Stiles before he could think twice about it and Stiles was moving forward until they were in each other's space. While being around his family felt good it was only around Stiles that he felt relaxed. Stiles smirked until he was practically in Derek's lap.
"You need some sort of memory of me to remind you that this world isn't real?" Stiles said when they were chest to chest.
"Yeah, you got any ideas?" Derek wrapped his arms around Stiles' waist.
"I can think of a few." The kiss was soft, barely there, and it still seemed to steal the breath from Derek. He pressed his forehead to Stiles' and took a deep breath taking in every detail of Stiles' scent. The undercurrent of sulfur that never went away and the way he smelled a little human and a little like a wolf. They had barely touched and it already felt too intense. Derek opened his eyes and found Stiles staring back at him. He looked surprised too, like he was not expecting all of this to be too much to handle, and it made Derek feel a little better that he was not the only one affected.
"I'm going to need more than that," Derek managed to ground out. He barely recognized his own voice.
"As you wish," Stiles said grinning. This kiss was heavier and Stiles seemed to open up for him. Normally Stiles did not like to yield to him but he must have been able to sense just how much forgetting had frightened Derek. He did not protest when Derek bit his lower lip and he did not fight when Derek rolled them so Stiles was on his back and Derek was looking down at him. Stiles barely let him catch his breath before pulling Derek down into another wet and dirty kiss. Derek had to force himself away from Stiles' mouth and kissed his way along his jawline until he got to Stiles' neck. "You and your neck kink."
"Don't even try to deny that you don't like it," Derek said. Stiles scoffed and Derek bit down on Stiles' pulse point grinning when he felt Stiles arch against him swearing. "I told you not to deny it."
"You're terrible," Stiles mumbled. He took a fist full of Derek's hair and pulled him away from his neck. "I don't know why I put up with you."
"I could say the same about you," Derek said. Stiles chuckled and pulled him down for another kiss. Derek wanted to stay exactly where he was and kiss Stiles until one of them stopped breathing, but it was getting late. If he was not home when his family woke up there was no telling what they would do. Derek broke the kiss and looked down at Stiles. "I need to head back."
"I know," Stiles said but neither of them moved to untangle themselves from each other. Derek could tell that Stiles did not want to move anymore than he did. It took a lot of effort to pull away from Stiles and help him gather all of the books. "Do your best to remember that this isn't real. I'll keep looking into tricksters and see what I can find. If you can try asking your uncle about it without tipping him off."
"Be careful," Derek said. Kate was still out there and it made him nervous that he was not there to help Stiles if he needed it.
"You too," Stiles said. They stared at each other for a moment before Derek decided that fuck it and he kissed Stiles one last time. "Needed some more material to help you remember?"
"Yes," Derek lied. He was not sure how Stiles would react if he knew that Derek wanted to touch him, kiss him, all the time now. Even if sex was off the table Derek would be fine by lying together and that was not how they worked. It terrified him but Derek also found it grounding. Stiles was the only thing in this world he could trust and if he started to second guess that Derek was sure he would be lost here. "Again tonight?" Stiles nodded and they went their separate ways. Derek thought about how it felt to touch Stiles, how it felt right, and how everything around him was an illusion.
Stiles stashed all of the books he had stolen from Lydia under a tree and smiled to himself as he jumped over the fence. It was a little silly that he was smiling simply because he has just spent time with Derek. The fact that they went from being around each other all the time to only a few hours at night was probably what made the difference. That was why everything felt different, why he wanted to be around Derek more, it was their bond being kept apart. Stiles decided that he was not going to seek anyone out and spend the night alone. There was no telling when another demon was going to get angry at him for some stupid reason. It would not be the first time that had happened and it would not be the last either. Stiles just wanted to get away from this nightmare and go back to the real world where he and Derek could hunt monsters. Stiles blamed no one but himself for being so lost in thought that he only realized someone was running at him at the last second. He ducked just as someone was about to kick his head clean off.
"Maybe you aren't totally useless," Kate said grinning. "Then again maybe you are." Stiles did not have time to make a snappy remark before Kate charged him again. She was outrageously fast and it took all of his skills to avoid getting hit by her. Her knuckles grazed his side in a punch that would have broken something internally. Kate laughed and landed a sharp punch to his stomach. Stiles coughed and bent over instinctively which allowed Kate ample opportunity to throw her knee into his nose and knock him back. Stiles could taste the blood as it ran down his throat and it reminded him of Hell, of choking and drowning on his own blood, being torn apart, and voices laughing when he gave in and let them see how much it hurt. "I was expecting better. Maybe I should go play with your wolves and come back later. Then you might be ready for a fight." The mere mention of the Hales made Stiles forget about his wound. He stood up.
"You aren't going to touch them," Stiles said. He spit some blood on the ground and was proud when it got on Kate's boots. She did not look too happy about that.
"Is that all it takes to get you wound up? You're so predictable." Kate charged him again and despite his wounds Stiles managed to land a few blows on her. He felt satisfied when her nose broke under his fist but Kate responded by throwing him into a tree. She pinned him there by his neck and her sharp nails reminded him of Derek's claws. "I'm going to kill that boy of yours and his little pack. I'm going to make sure it is slow and there won't be anything you can do about it."
"I'm not going to let you touch them ever again," Stiles said through his teeth.
"I won't touch them if you stay away from them like I told you to," Kate snapped. "Rumor is that you don't think any of this is real. Are you sure about that?"
"Of course I am," Stiles said without hesitation.
"Are you willing to bet the wolves lives on that? Are you willing to let me kill your boys entire family because they aren't real? Are you that confident?" Kate asked. Stiles felt his heart speed up as he thought about how Derek would have to watch them die, watch Kate kill them, and how much it could hurt him. He thought about how the world did feel sharper like Derek said. Like the dream was fading and everything felt real here. Stiles was doubting and he hated himself for that. "That's what I thought." Kate released his throat and took several steps back. "You want to keep those wolves safe? Then stay away from them. It's as simple as that. I don't want anymore issues with that pack when the territory lines are working just fine. Stay away or we'll get to see just how fake all of this is." Kate vanished and left Stiles alone in the woods. His wounds were healing but he could still taste the blood. He slid down the tree to the ground and hit his head against the trunk a few times.
"God damn it."
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