Archive of Our Own ^beta

Since discovering he and Lydia are Banshees, they've worked hard to get a handle on his powers. Though Stiles feels even more in the minority since Banshees are not supposed to have male counterparts, he's slowly learning to accept who he's become.

And Stiles has become a lot of things since Peter clawed him. After Derek got stabbed by Kali and Deucalion annoyed the shit out of them, they found out their teacher Jennifer was the Darach, who sacrificed people in a certain ritual, including Stiles' best friend before Scott when he was little. 

Then they dealt with Deucalion, Jennifer was killed, they've added a Kitsune to their fucked up Scooby Doo gang, and Scott's dating her. Stiles spent a few days at a mental hospital, then became possessed by a psychotic fox called the Nogitsune and killed a bunch of people, including Allison and Alden.

Even if everyone else would say he wasn't responsible for it, he damn well felt responsible. Derek was kidnapped by Kate and turned into a sixteen year old kid again, them lost his powers. Scott turned his first Beta, a Freshman named Liam, they were all on a hit list except for Peter and Stiles, and now Scotts and Kira have been kidnapped and taken to Mexico by Kate Argent and her band of Berserkers. Though he could continue on naming everything that happened, those were the biggest ones since.

To Stiles, his life is like a jigsaw puzzle, one of those five thousand piece ones. First it started off completed all pieces in check and accounted for, everything good. The first time happened when his mom died, three thousand of those five thousand pieces were gone.

But he wanted to try and put those pieces back together, remember all the good memories he had of his mom, being friends with Scott, having his dad when he could. Slowly he started to piece together together again and was almost at five thousand again. That is until the day he and Scott went to go find Laura Hale's dead body and Scott proceeded to get bitten by Satan in a V-Neck, pieces started getting taken away again.

Major pieces didn't start getting taken away until Lydia got attacked by Peter. That was the worst night of his life and he'd do anything to go back and be in her place. Then Peter attack him, turned him into a male Banshee, Derek got stabbed, the rituals, all of it.

The biggest had to be when he went through Hell with the Nogitsune and got an Evil twin. Before that he'd lose maybe ten, fifteen pieces, but after that, he felt like he lost three thousand. Losing his mind, remembering whenever he'd kill someone and liking it. It took so much out of him, he's surprised he's still got pieces at all.

After Derek did a very long imitation of a Wolf Kebob, he felt him and Derek get a little closer. Derek wasn't so sour with him, they trusted each other more, which was good. Then Stiles learned from Peter what turned Derek so cold before the fire. When he fell in love with Paige and then had to put her out of her misery when her body wouldn't go through the change.

Then later on he learned that before the fire, he was in love with Kate Argent, who was too old for him and was sexually abusing him and manipulating him before killing his family. You'd have to be crazy not to feel so cold and bitter after losing all of that.

But after he met Stiles and Scott and the rest of their friends, he's changed. He's not so closed in, suffocating in his walls, he's opened up.

He's let Stiles touch him without looking at him threateningly or verbally threatening. They've actually had real conversations, he's even gotten a small handful of smiles from the former Alpha. Small smiles and even big ones showing beautiful but deadly teeth.

Even if he was in love with Lydia, Stiles also fell for Derek. Even if Derek didn't really have any indication he liked the teen either, he loves him. And he's got used to that with Lydia, what's another one gonna hurt with Derek? 

Then Malia came along. God, is she beautiful. Even though she scares him a little bit, making him the little spoon when they'd cuddle, nearly clawing him sometimes when they'd have sex, and the fact that she is the daughter of Peter Hale, Satan in a V-Neck, she's a good person slash Werecoyote. He loves her too. So technically, he's in love with three people, kissed two of them but is only in a relationship with one of them. And he's oddly okay with that.

And now comes Scott and Kira taken from Derek's loft and carted to La Iglesia in Mexico, the church that got leveled by an Earthquake, and where they found teenage Derek. They don't know what's happening to them right now but Stiles has a horrible feeling sitting in his gut.

Lydia wasn't with them this time, but he hopes she's okay wherever she is. He knew his dad would be pissed that he went behind his back and went back to Mexico, but he knew Stiles needed to help save his friends. But even before they were kidnapped, he just got this feeling...A knot in his stomach that would tighten more and more every day, and that meant one of two things. One, he was close to having a panic attack, which hasn't been since Lydia kissed him to calm him down. Or two, someone's gonna die soon. And by how he was feeling now, someone's gonna die very soon.

He remembers Derek shaking his shoulders and yelling to snap him back to reality when he and Lydia showed up to his loft, screaming while Braeden was there with him. They can't remember going there, but if they managed to show up to Derek's place and a Banshee screams, it wasn't a good sign. Like Derek said, Banshees don't predict danger, they predict death. And two Banshee's predicting death at the same time is most likely underlined as a very bad sign.

After just saving Derek's life again when Liam tried to rip his throat out while he was shifting, Liam finally calmed down, repeating that mantra about the three things that cannot be long hidden. They finally reached their destination and as soon as Derek went to open the back door to the van, he was yanked out of it by a Berserker.

"Derek!" Stiles yelled, watching as the former Alpha was thrown back before being dragged off by it. Stiles, Liam, and Braeden went to go help him but Stiles froze when he watched his Sourwolf getting stabbed over and over by it. And seeing Derek getting stabbed was far worse than just feeling it.

"DERREEEEEEEKK!!" He screamed, tears pooling in his eyes, some rolling down his cheeks. His screamed echoed through the desert, through the ruins of the old church and old village. He's sure Scott, Kira, and wherever Kate was, they could hear it.

Everyone, supernatural and human alike in the general vicinity heard it. Kira covered her ears while Scott, who was currently a Berserker at the moment, thanks to Kate, wasn't phased by it. He did however turn and look, listening for a brief moment as the Banshees scream continued to echo through the ruins.

The Banshee's scream rang through the former Alphas ears. He's lost all his powers but Werewolf or not, Stiles was right there, everything and everyone could hear it. This one was more haunting than the last time he screamed his name. When he looked at the teen, Stiles was crying. Why would he be crying? He wondered that even when he thought Kali killed him and he actually hugged him while crying. Why would he cry over him, he hates him.

Cause he cares about you, idiot, he thought. He cares about all of his friends, cares about helping the best he can. He doesn't hate you. Derek's been amazed at how Stiles has handled all this. From the beginning, to him being the Nogitsune, which he's sure wasn't very pleasant for him, all of it, to now. He's truly underestimated Stiles, he's a tough kid with a good heart.

He clearly underestimated his strength when he threw the former Alpha around like he was a ragdoll, but he was possessed, but still. He and his friends have gone through things no normal person in this entire world could ever come close to wrapping their heads around. Though they've been bent and broken, maybe into a better shape because of it. 

There's always been a small part of him that liked Stiles. Even if he's just a kid, he likes him. He's not in love with him, but as time passed, he's grown very protective of him. He'll never admit it to anyone, especially since they still fight like a married couple, he'd kill to protect him and anyone else he cares about. Except Peter. Peter can go fuck himself, he still doesn't trust him.

Stiles remained frozen, staring at Derek while he lie there wounded, and didn't wanna leave him. Even when he told him to go save Scott. When he finally forced himself to go, he looked back at him one last time before going in, pulling his focus towards saving his best friend.

#

While Braeden stayed behind to help the others and to watch over a dying Derek, everyone else was busy trying to kill one of the Berserkers. Then Kira told Stiles that it was Scott and if they don't stop everyone, they'll kill him. 

While Scott was snapping out of it, he had gotten another feeling and stopped. Outside Braeden begged Derek not to go, and watched the life leave his body. Stiles felt it and cried while he screamed again, but this time, he didn't scream his name.

#

Derek was alive. He was alive, and he had no clue how it happened. Once they all walked out of the church, he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw he was alive. He ran up to him and hugged him again like last time, and Derek didn't hesitate to hug him back, feeling the teen shaking like a leaf in his arms. 

Derek told them all that he evolved. Turning into a real Wolf, not like he normally did. He evolved, shifting from human to a black Wolf with brilliant blue eyes. He attacked Kate and then Chris Argent went after her. He hopes she's dead, and so does everyone else. Peter certainly won't get away with his plan to kill Scott.

Scott was absolutely right when he said that Peter was never really an alpha, but a monster. And he's glad Derek didn't turn out like him. He started to at first when he turned Isaac, Erica, Boyd, and Jackson, but he's the polar opposite to what Peter is. He hopes he's comfortable in Eichen House when they get back home.

#

Learning that he was leaving was hard. Watching him get stabbed and feeling him die, it took away a thousand pieces. But seeing him alive out back five hundred of them. But now watching him leave, with them and with her, was taking them away again.

After Derek said his goodbyes to everyone, he nodded at Scott and then looked at Stiles. He felt everyone else turn their heads and look at him but Stiles kept his focus on him. He wanted to day goodbye but it would take some pieces.

He wanted to hug him, kiss him, tell him to be careful, but that would just take away more. And watching him look away and get in the car with them and watching as they left, took more. In his mind he felt like he had a few hundred pieces left. But in his heart, he's sure they're all gone. If only he knew Derek could still hearing him screaming in his head long after they drove away.