bakerstreet | kiss my lips

Someone had left. Someone had left Beacon Hills and hadn't said goodbye. And someone else was pissed about that.

So maybe someone else got Danny to help him look for his cousin, Miguel, because someone else had to collect some money off of him. Maybe someone else found out where someone had gotten to and where they were holed up. Maybe someone else got in their jeep and drove out to find them, because fuck you, Derek Hale. You don't get to just walk out on them after something like that.

Stiles had lost too many people in his life for any of them to just willingly stroll on out of it like they wanted to. Too bad, Derek. You were in it and you were staying in it.

Which is what he told himself over and over as he drove through the night, caffeinated cola bottles littering the passenger side of the jeep. The motel he pulled into where a certain someone had tucked tail and run to was dirty and gross and dark. And Derek wasn't in his room. But he was there. The attendant told him that much. So Stiles waited.

He sat in his jeep and waited for the bastard to come back to his little wolf hole.

Derek had left town with good reason. Beacon Hills was, in his opinion, better off without him there. The people that remained were completely capable of handling themselves without him there to screw anything up. He'd managed to get to what he considered a good point with them and heading out was for the best before he had the chance to inevitably mess up any forms of friendship he'd managed to earn.

It helped that he'd had Cora, too. She was with him for a good part of the trip before they parted ways with her heading off to handle unfinished business that she had previous to being kidnapped and with him continuing on while he tried to find answers.

The least he could do was try to help them out without actively being there. It was why he was trying to figure out if there was a way to reverse what they'd done to find their parents. To let Beacon Hills fall back into a state of relative normalcy rather than being a literal beacon for anything remotely supernatural.

And that led him to universities and libraries and holes in the wall where people talked about things that got them labeled crazy. It was one of those places that wasn't far from his motel that had been holding his attention for most of the evening before night finally fell and the woman he was talking to decided she was finished.

It was less than ten minutes later that he pulled into the parking lot at the motel and took the spot in front of his room, not bothering to cast a look around as he got out and went to let himself inside.

Way to be smart, Derek. God. You were practically on the run and you didn't notice the bright blue jeep that wasn't really doing a good job of hiding in the lot? Or the boy that got out of the jeep, red hoodie a waving flag to anyone with eyes. Or anyone paying attention, which Derek clearly wasn't since Stiles managed to walk up to him and reach him just as he got to the door.

He should have thought about it, really. 'Sneaking up' on a werewolf and grabbing his arm to spin him around was probably a really dumb thing to do when said werewolf was basically on the run. Really, really dumb. But Stiles was too busy being angry to be smart.

"What the hell did you think you were doing," he opened his mouth to say as he grabbed onto Derek's arm and tried to jerk him around.

There was nothing chasing him, so he was hardly on the run. It was why he wasn't worried about the other cars in the parking lot or anyone else getting out of them. He was minding his own business and, from his experience, most people minded their own as well in places like that. He was sure he'd spotted a hooker coming out of the room next to his when he'd arrived a couple of days before and he was fine with keeping his head down after that.

So, going from completely fine with ignoring things around him to having someone grabbing his arm was jarring. Because his first reaction was turning to reach for the next of the person doing the grabbing...

Just to come to a stop with his fingers not even an inch from Stiles' throat as he registered who had found him. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Oh, hey, right. Werewolf reflexes. He guessed he should be glad that Derek's were good enough for him to stop when he did. And that there were no claws. Once he realized he wasn't going to die, the bravado flared back up and he gave Derek a sour look. "Looking for you, obviously. Asshole."

Yes, because we must add insult to injury. Call the confused and probably annoyed werewolf a name. Good job.

Derek was confused, but hearing the insult had him letting his hand fall with a sigh as he pulled himself out of Stiles' grip and went back to letting himself into his motel room.

"I know you don't need me back in town. So why're you looking for me?" He glanced over his shoulder as he swung the door open, stepping inside and expecting Stiles to follow. Considering how far they were from Beacon Hills and what time it was, he doubted he was heading back right then so there was no point in telling him to leave.

Stiles had pumped himself up to be angry the whole trip over and dammit, he was angry. He waited until they were inside the room before he pushed at Derek's shoulders, his own puffing up a bit. "You left. You just walked right out and didn't say anything. You know I didn't even know you were gone until I went to your loft?"

The door was closed behind them and Derek didn't turn to face Stiles again until he felt that push to his shoulders. Then he spun around, not moving any further into the room as Stiles spoke. "Why'd you go to the loft?"

Derek was lost as to why Stiles had been looking for him at all, both in and out of Beacon Hills. The fact that he'd clearly gone through the effort of figuring out where he was staying said a lot, but he was having a hard time thinking of a reason why he'd go through the trouble to begin with.

"To look for you, you... asshole." Yep, that was the only insult he knew right then. Asshole and maybe a few others he was saving for later. "Why doesn't matter. What matters is that you were gone. And you're here. Not home. What the hell, Derek?"

Push.

"Why does matter because this doesn't make sense." The push had him stepping closer, his own hand coming up to push at Stiles' shoulder, bringing them closer to the wall. "Why are you worried about it? Why do you want me back there? I thought you'd be the happiest to see me gone."

"Well then aren't you a big ball of wrong?" Shove, shove. Stiles pushed back against him, mouth set in a firm line as he remembered the feeling like a punch to his gut as he'd walked into the loft and found it empty.

He still didn't know why he was so pissed off by it, but he was. Pissed off enough to track Derek down and push at him again.

Derek kept moving, even as Stiles shoved back, until he had him against the wall almost in the entrance to the room. "You're still not telling me why."

Which was what he wanted to hear. Why Stiles was even looking for him in Beacon Hills to begin with. Why he'd wasted his time coming all the way out to the motel he was in to yell at him.

"Because--" He cut himself off, staring at Derek with an open mouth as he fished for a reason in his mind as to why he'd come all the way over here. Why he'd hunted him down and tracked him to this crappy motel and why he'd decided that driving here was a good idea.

Why he cared.

"Shut up. I ask the questions." Push.

Yes, because that was how things worked, Stiles.

There was an expectant look as Stiles paused and Derek waited for him to come up with an answer. Because he had to have one. Nobody got in a car and drove that long just to find someone for the sake of yelling at them.

The lack of an answer made him sigh, not moving as he was pushed again.

"Yeah? Then ask. Tell me what you needed to know so bad that you couldn't just call me."

It wasn't like he'd changed his number, after all.

"You left. Why did you leave? Why didn't you tell anyone? How come I had to find out that way? I thought we were--"

He glared at Derek, pushing again to try to get out from between him and the wall.

Derek took a step back at that, eyebrows raised as he stared at him.

"I left because it was better for everybody in Beacon Hills. I told Scott because I thought he was the only person that needed to know and he'd tell the rest of you if he thought it was relevant. And I don't know. Why'd you go to the loft, Stiles? You thought we were what?"

It was a step back, but Stiles still felt trapped against the wall by him. By that stupid questions.

"I thought we were friends. Clearly I was wrong. I guess coming here was a dumb idea. I guess giving a shit and worrying about you was a stupid idea. God..." He pushed at him again, fully intending to walk past and leave now that he'd totally made an ass of himself.

The surprise he felt over what Stiles said was enough to catch him off guard and he just stood there for a second, staring at him as he was pushed. Derek had been expecting to hear something else. That they were allies or they were stuck in everything together or some other ridiculous was of saying he shouldn't go off and abandon the people that he's been around for the past year while they're still dealing with shit.

Hearing that Stiles had worried and was admitting to it was completely out of left field and it took him a second before he moved after Stiles, grabbing him by the arm before he could reach the door. "Don't say that then try to walk out. When did you start considering us friends?"

"Let go," he grunted, pulling at his arm and trying to keep making for the door. This whole thing had exploded in his face. Not that he'd really had much of a plan. 'Go find Derek and--', that had been the gist of it. So yeah, he'd found him. Good for him. Seems he didn't want to be bothered.

Well, Stiles would just leave him to his... whatever the hell he was doing. "It doesn't matter, does it? If you'd thought you had friends, if you'd thought we were friends, you would still have left. So whatever, Derek."

He didn't let go even as Stiles pulled to try to free himself. Instead, Derek tugged him around, trying to bring them face to face again because there was no way he was letting Stiles walk out.

"Yeah, it does matter." Grabbing Stiles' shoulders, he pushed him back against the door, making sure he wasn't actually getting out of it as he crowded in close. "I would've told you I was leaving, Stiles. I would've come to say goodbye. And I would've kept in touch while I've been out here because I do know how to use a goddamn phone."

There was suddenly a lot of Derek in his space. A lot of wolf just there, pushing him into the door and talking to him like he had actual feelings. But he didn't, right? Because if he did, he wouldn't be that freaking blind to everything. "Bullshit."

Yeah, that's right, he called your bluff. "You would have done what you did. I had to find out from Scott, who you probably only told because he's an alpha now. And I'm clearly not, so that makes me expendable, right?"

Derek would admit he'd been pretty adamant about pretending he didn't have feelings before. But that was harder to keep up with after finding out he had more family than just Peter around and admitting to himself that some people in Beacon Hills, more than just Scott, mattered to him a lot more than he'd ever bothered to let them know.

Clearly, he should have done that before leaving.

"I told Scott because I knew that he gave a shit. That's the only reason why he heard it and you didn't." Because why would he announce his leaving town to somebody he expected to be pleased by the news? "What about you? If I'd stayed in town, would you've bothered telling me I mattered to you? Or is this what it took to get you to say it?"

"I shouldn't have had to say it. I figured you had a brain in your head to figure it out. Clearly I was wrong." Yes, Stiles. That's right. Sass the werewolf. Way to prove... anything, really.

But he stuck his chin out stubbornly, trying to glare at him. "If you'd pulled your head out of your ass long enough to notice anything, you would have noticed that."

"What the hell did you expect me to notice? That things you said to me were just a little less biting than usual? Because I don't know what I was supposed to take from something like that."

And that wasn't really mentioning the fact that it was hard to notice things when he spent his time before leaving town getting his ass handed to him by alphas over and over again. There wasn't all that much time to take notice of things between them.

"Hey, I was nice. You were the one trying to exclude me from all the werewolf games. Not my fault, Hale. Did you want a written freaking invitation? 'Dear Derek, I don't hate you anymore. I might even get upset if you died. Stiles'."

kiss my lips

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)