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Derek Hale is a superhero, ‘cept no one knows he’s a superhero.

Alright, that’s not exactly true. Lots of people know he’s a superhero, they just don’t know that Derek is the one behind this particular mask.

And there are a lot of masks out there, which Derek finds strange, despite being one of them. He doesn’t really know where the idea came from or who was the first to decide slip on a pair of tights and use whatever power they had to dish out some vigilante justice, but suddenly the supernatural community became the superhero community, and when Derek lost everything, he decided to join them.

Not that he wears tights, no ma’am. He’s definitely a black jeans kind of hero. Even though they’re kind of restricting. Tights would probably be a lot easier, considering all the fights he manages to get himself into whenever he dons that mask.

Doesn’t mean he’s going to wear them.

The mask, though, the mask is kind of mandatory, no matter what the rest of the outfit looks like.

Derek doesn’t know who came up with that rule either, but he can admit that it’s a good idea. The last thing he wants is the people in his pack to find out that he’s the superhero running around with a lame-ass name like ‘Remus’. Cora had given him the name and he didn’t have the heart to turn her down, especially when he considered the fact that doing this could leave Cora yet another family member down. And there weren’t that many of them left to lose.

But he needed to do this, he needed to make up for letting one of the bad guys get close enough to murder almost his entire family.

And the less said about that, the better for everyone.

Keychain, however, is not a problem that is so easily solved.

Beacon Hills doesn’t really have a large population of superheroes. In the years that Derek’s been donning a mask there have only been two other active – Huntress and Keychain.

And isn’t that a stupid fucking name?

Keychain is the exact opposite of Remus – the exact opposite of Derek. He’s rash and impulsive, he revels in what he’s doing, in taking down the bad guys, throwing himself in harm’s way. Which, Derek can admit, if only to himself, is probably an admirable trait, one that Derek himself would admire if Keychain didn’t gloat about it so much.

His power is extraordinary, creating portals to places out of thin air, like it’s as easy as breathing. It’s a power that Derek doesn’t want, but one that he knows the value of. One that other people know the value of, too.

Because the superhero population of Beacon Hills is nothing if not well-known and Derek has had to duck TV crews and journalists more than once.

Unlike Keychain, who seems to lap up the attention and practically throws himself at the first media person he can find after whatever heroic endeavor he’s just accomplished.

Derek doesn’t even know what it is about the guy that gets on his nerves, he just does.

On second thought, it probably has something to do with their first meeting, and once again, the less said about that the better. Derek still has the scar.

At the end of the day, Keychain is good, he’s something that Derek has never seen before.

But the guy also knows how good he is, and he tells anyone who stands still long enough just exactly how good he thinks he is.

Case in point, the way the guy is currently pointing and laughing at the spot where one of his portals has zipped closed with the bad guy on the other side of it. Derek doesn’t really know where or what the portal opened onto, but the patch of wet ground just inches from the toes of his black boots suggests that it wasn’t the Ritz.

“Did you see that?!” Keychain crows, literally bouncing on his toes. “I fucking vaporized that mofo!”

Derek wrinkles his nose. The smell of salt is heavy in the air and it’s making him sick. “Yeah, I noticed,” he grunts.

Keychain shoves at his shoulder. “Tell me that wasn’t awesome.”

Derek shakes his head, rolling his eyes even though he knows Keychain can’t see the gesture through the mask that covers his entire face.

Cora says it makes him look like a washed-out Spiderman, but Derek can’t really help it, he has one of those faces that’s almost instantly recognizable.

“Are you serious?!” Keychain gripes, pulling Derek out of his thoughts. “You’re seriously pissed off right now?”

“I’m not pissed off,” Derek assures, “I just don’t feel like celebrating.”

“Dude, that dude was a bad dude,” Keychain insists. “The guy was eating people! People, Remus, like you and me.”

Derek grits his teeth. “I know that, he did take a chunk out of my shoulder, after all.” The wound is still bleeding profusely, but there’s not much pain, thanks to Derek’s ability to turn his senses on and off. “But excuse me if I don’t think the death of a person is something we should be throwing a party over. Even if he was a bad dude.”

Keychain’s mouth pinches closed and Derek can’t see his eyes past the red mask and cowl that make up the guy’s costume (God, he hates that word) but he thinks the guy is trying to hide his embarrassment behind anger.

“Well, excuse me if I’m happy to see another bad guy off the streets.”

And he’s failing.

“I am, too,” Derek points out. “But I’ll never be happy that someone died. Bad guy or good guy.”

He’s lost too much in his life to ever think that.

He turns away from his fellow superhero before either of them says anything more and falls into a full run, putting on a burst of speed to get himself as far away from the situation as possible, as quickly as possible. Someone has probably called the cops and Derek wants to be far, far away before the Sheriff shows up.

And therein lies the last problem in Derek’s life, the Sheriff. Or rather, the Sheriff’s son, Stiles.

He’s a friend of Cora’s and the man Derek can’t seem to get out of his head.

‘Problem’ doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Chapter 2

Stiles Stilinski is a superhero, ‘cept no one knows he’s a superhero.

Alright, that’s not exactly true. Lots of people know he’s a superhero, they just don’t know that Stiles is the one behind this particular mask.

Actually, no one really knows about Stiles at all, about the powers he has or what he chooses to do with them and he doesn’t really know how or why that happened.

‘Cept Scott, because he tells Scott everything and Scott was the person Stiles’ first portal opened to. He was a needy, clingy child.

Because he knows that at least of his friends is also regularly donning a mask and calling themselves a superhero (really, who does Allison think she’s fooling with a name like that? She couldn’t be more obvious if she tried. She’s a fucking archery State champion for crying out loud. Though Stiles will admit that the short red wig and black eye mask she wears to protect her identity are really freaking awesome) but for some reason, Stiles has kept everything to himself, even though he knows his skills could probably help his friends.

Or, if not help, exactly, then he’d be really fucking popular. Come on, who wouldn’t love a guy who could take them to Paris for dinner any day of the week?

But anyway, it’s not like his friends have that many problems that they need to deal with. Nothing that they would need Stiles’ particular skillset for anyhow.

But he still keeps his powers to himself, because he doesn’t much like the idea of people only being his friend because he can take them to Paris for dinner.

Stiles has issues, he’s aware of this, and one of them is what’s happening right now.

He sighs heavily and watches Remus leave the scene of their latest success and wishes he knew who was behind that mask.

Stiles looks back at the water on the ground and scowls behind his mask.

Remus has a point, he has to admit. They’ve all lost a lot in their lives, and joking about someone losing their life wasn’t really the brightest thing Stiles had ever said.

Even a douchebag like this guy had been.

Stiles sobers and looks down at his hands, where the power that had drowned this guy had come from and he tries to calculate how long it takes someone to drown.

Hoping for the best, Stiles reopens the portal and drags the guy back into the alley, coughing and spluttering and heaving huge, gulping breathes as he drips water everywhere. Stiles tries not to feel guilty about the poor fish that are now dying next to his feet.

Until Remus had shown up in town, Stiles had never really worried about his powers or where they came from or what he did with them. But Remus had a conscience and a sense of morality that puts Stiles and the rest of the supes to shame, it seemed, and Stiles has started to think twice about his ability to kill someone without losing any sleep over it, even though he has other options available to him.

Too bad he didn’t put some thought into today’s incident, instead of sending the guy to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in front of the only superhero in the country that was scared of hurting the bad guys. He brought him back, though, not that Remus had stuck around long enough for that.

Stiles might be taking his anger out on Remus a little. Maybe.

Sirens wail in the background, pulling Stiles out of his head, and he turns to face the mouth of the alley just in time to see the Sheriff’s cruiser skid to a halt, lights still flashing.

“Someone called about a fight, they heard growling,” the Sheriff says as he ambles his way towards the superhero. “Why am I not surprised to find you in the middle of this?”

Stiles pushes his cowl back a little – though his mask stays firmly in place – and forces a grin onto his face as his father stops in front of him.

Sheriff Stilinski narrows his eyes at his son, then turns to look at the guy on the ground. Stiles can’t quite manage to hide his wince.

His father is the only one, besides Scott, who knows everything about Stiles and he knows exactly what Stiles is capable of. It’s both a blessing and a curse.

“So, what are we talking about here?” the Sheriff asks, gesturing to wet pile of person.

“Cannibal, apparently,” Stiles says with a sigh. “Remus and I caught the guy chowing down on a homeless man in the Preserve. Chased him down to here and I…” He trails off with a wiggle of his fingers and his father rolls his eyes.

“Of course you did.”

“Hey! The guy was eating people. What is it about that that is so hard for you guys to grasp?”

The Sheriff chuckles. “Let me guess, Remus wasn’t exactly a huge fan of this plan either?”

“Eating. People.” Stiles enunciates the words slowing and carefully.

“And you could have taken him to Eichen House,” his dad says just as carefully. “It isn’t exactly that far away.”

Stiles blows out a breath. He has nothing to argue with, he knows that both Remus and his dad are right. Between the two of them, they could have subdued the guy until they got him to the supernatural prison beneath the local psychiatric hospital. It’s not like it’s something they haven’t done before. Hell, there would have been no subduing necessary, Stiles could have just popped a portal and pushed the guy through it. Actually, that’s exactly what he did do and he’s starting to understand why people are on his case about this.

It’s not like he kills people often, in fact, before today, there had only been one other time.

Come to think of it, Remus had been involved then, too. But that was really more of an ‘us or him’ sort of situation, and there are very few things on this earth that Stiles would pick over Remus.

Even Scott and his dad are on the bubble.

The Sheriff pinches the bridge of his nose. “Get out of here, Stiles. I’ll clear this up.”

Stiles points to the guy on the ground, who’s now unconscious, apparently. “Eating people,” he says firmly, “you should probably do something about that.”

Stiles bounces away before his dad can say another word, shedding his mask and cowl before he makes it back to the street, slipping into the crowd like just another person.

His jeep is parked a few blocks away because he doesn’t really like using his powers for selfish reasons, no matter that Scott likes to tell him that this isn’t Charmed. Though considering Scott is his very own White Lighter, they’ve got a lot of the same powers as that show.

When Stiles reaches his Jeep, he gets behind the wheel and just sits there, staring straight ahead. He hates this part, when the whole thing is over and he has to go back to his regular life and pretend that he can’t send a man to the bottom of the ocean with just a few flicks of his wrist.

It’s not that Stiles’ life is bad, he just doesn’t like the fact that he can’t be truthful to everyone around him.

Which is all on him and he knows it. He was the one who decided to keep his mouth shut about what he can do, he was the one who decided to out a mask on and use the skills he acquired to help the people of Beacon Hills.

Powers aren’t secret, though it’s not exactly something people talk about. No one wants to know that the guy delivering your mail can levitate, and so, people tend to keep their powers to themselves. There are a few exceptions, of course, like Scott’s mom, who has the same power as her son, if to a lesser extent, and uses that power in her profession as a nurse.

The fact that Stiles chose to only confide in Scott about what he can do means he has no one to blame for the situation he’s in than himself.

He blinks suddenly, taking in the area around him and he rolls his eyes at himself as he realizes that he’s been so lost in his own head that he’s managed to drive himself almost the whole way to Scott house without any conscious thought whatsoever. Doesn’t mean he’s going to make himself turn around, he just spends the rest of the journey actually making a choice to drive to their. It’s not like he has anywhere else to hang out after all.

He gets to Scott’s driveway and sits in there for a few minutes behind the wheel, just staring at the house in front of him, before he rids himself of his stupid costuming, stashing it underneath the passenger seat, and gets out, making his way up to the front porch.

Scott’s house is usually a common place for their group to hang out anyway. Since most of them decided to stay in town after high school (Stiles and Scott) or settled on the local community college (Allison, Cora, Isaac and Danny) or chose colleges that are only a few hours’ drive away (Lydia and Jackson), it’s become their central hub whenever more than one of them is in town at the same time.

Case in point, Stiles meandering up the front steps and finding Liam currently holed up at a coffee table on the porch, school books flung everywhere. The poor boy looks completely frazzled.

“You okay?” Stiles asks as he stops in front of the door and Liam just waves a hand at him.

“Finals,” he mumbles around the pencil in his mouth. “They’re being way too loud in there. Came out here for some peace and quiet so that I can concentrate.”

Stiles doesn’t bother to point out that he could just go home to his own house and study in the comfort of his own bedroom. They just have that sort of friendship – even if Liam is a relatively new addition to the group.

“You need anything?” he asks, because he only graduated high school a year ago, he hasn’t yet forgotten the hell that is finals.

“Um.” Liam looks startled to be even asked and he looks around at the organized chaos he’s created. “Chips? And maybe a soda?”

“Coming up.”

Stiles lets himself into Scott’s house, because, really, they’ve been friends since they were four, he’s feels like he’s sort of entitled by now, and he immediately realizes why Liam is currently on the porch. The living room is filled with people decorating a Christmas tree.

Stiles had maybe forgot it was December.

“Hey!” the crowd roars, waving their hands in the air as they look at Stiles and he smiles at Scott, Allison, Cora and Isaac.

“Should you even be doing that without Melissa?” Stiles asks because decorating a Christmas tree is a family thing and, yeah, he loves his friends, but it’s not really the same thing as far as he’s concerned.

“She has to work,” Scott explains. “But it’s okay, Derek’s gonna help me make it up to her.”

Derek, Cora’s brother and Isaac’s foster brother, is sitting in one of Scott’s armchairs, ever present sketch pad in his hands as he watches the people around him and Stiles can just imagine the beautiful picture of the scene that Derek’s going to create for Scott’s mom.

And Stiles…Stiles just can’t deal with this right now, not after his run in with Remus

Because Derek Hale is the bane of Stiles’ existence since Stiles and Cora became friends back in sophomore year of high school and Stiles learned that it wasn’t just strawberry blonde goddesses that did it for him.

Ever since Stiles got over his obsession with Lydia Martin – because she sat him down and told that he was only interested in her because she was safe, not because he actually wanted to be with her – Stile realized that there was a reason he had been so focused on Lydia for most of his life.

Derek is the tall, dark and handsome cliché brought to life and the more Lydia became his friend and less of a crush, the more his crush on Derek grew.

Stiles knows it’s probably because Derek’s safe – there was no chance that someone like Derek Hale would be interested in someone like Stiles – but he also knows that Derek is a nice guy and Stiles would really like to get to know him better if only he could get over his stupid crush.

But every time he’s faced with Derek, Stiles reverts back to a middle schooler and he babbles like an idiot until he has to go away.

Now, he saves himself some embarrassment and throws and awkward wave at the people in the living room on his way to the kitchen.

He turns on the coffee pot for some much needed caffeine and set about getting Liam’s snack when his phone rings.

When he takes it out of his pocket, Stiles checks the screen and frowns when he sees the name of the shop flash there.

Before she died, Stiles’ mother, Claudia, had owned a craft shop, the only one in Beacon Hills. She sold art supplies, paints, charcoal, scrapbooking materials, things like that and Stiles had loved hiding amongst the stacks after school, playing with the softness of the paintbrushes and watching with awe as artists came in to purchase huge stretched canvases bigger than their whole bodies.

After Claudia’s death, Stiles’ father had hired a manager to look after the store, loath to close it down and deprive the town of their last remaining hold on Claudia Stilinski.

When Stiles graduated high school, wandering aimlessly with no clear goals, the manager his dad had hired had decided to quit and move overseas. It just made sense for Stiles to take over the role, it was what his mom would have wanted, probably what she’d dreamed about when she was still alive knowing all the while that her son would have had bigger and better plans, because that’s just the kind of kid Stiles had been.

He’s not going to pretend that his mom’s death hadn’t changed him, but he’s content for now, with his little job – both of them – and his little group of friends. He’s not saying that he’ll be happy with this life he’s carved out for the rest of his life, but for the foreseeable future…it’ll do.

And Derek Hale was keeping his store in business anyway.

“Hello?” he says as he answers the phone, wary because his employees don’t usually call him unless there’s an issue.

“Uh, hey, Stiles, it’s Mason.

“Hey, Mason, what’s going on?”

“Uh, I don’t mean to bother you, but Heather hasn’t come in for her shift. I’ve covered for her for the last couple hours, but I really can’t stay here any longer, I have plans. It’s my mom’s birthday.”

Stiles glances at his watch. It’s after three and the shop only stays open until five-thirty; Heather was really very late.

“Alright, Mason, I’ll be down in a few minutes to let you go. Thank you for hanging on. I owe you one.”

They say their goodbyes and Stiles hangs up, shoving his phone back into his pants pocket and picking up Liam’s snack. Well, at least he won’t have to sit and make an idiot out of himself trying to make small talk with Derek.

Silver linings.

“Listen, guys, uh-”

Scott laughs, cutting Stiles off. “What, did you just come by to steal my snacks and run?” He has baubles hanging from his ears. Stiles is kind of hoping that that’s the image that Derek gifts to Melissa.

“What?” Stiles looks down at the items in his hands. “Oh, no, these are for Liam. He’s…having issues. But I do have to take off, something’s come up.”

Scott’s humor vanishes instantly and his face floods with concern as he pushes himself away from Allison. “Is everything okay?”

“No, yeah, everything’s fine. Just something I have to deal with. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Call me later!” Cora shouts after him. “You owe me pizza!”

Stiles just waves at her and leaves the house, depositing Liam’s snack next to his hand on the coffee table. He reads over Liam’s shoulder, takes in the fact that he’s working on a physics practice test, and picks up a pencil, erasing something and putting something in it’s place.

“Force equals mass times acceleration.”

Liam collapses onto the tabletop. “Goddamn it.”

Stiles squeezes his shoulder. “You’ll be okay.”

It only takes Stiles a few minutes to get to the shop – Beacon Hills isn’t really all that big – and the parking lot of the strip mall where the store is located is empty when he pulls up, something that both relieves and bothers him in equal measures.

Inside the store is just as empty, save for Mason, who’s pacing behind the counter nervously.

“I’m sorry, Stiles. Normally I would have just stay and call you to close up, but like I said, it’s my mom’s birthday and we’re having a party and I…”

Stiles holds up a hand. “Seriously, man, you’ve gone above and beyond just staying this long. Get outta here and tell your mom happy birthday from me.”

Mason grabs his stuff as quickly as possible and books it out of the store, leaving Stiles standing there alone.

It’s quiet in the shop, few customers come in this time of say and when they do, they know exactly what they’re looking for and don’t bother to browse.

Stiles is instantly bored.

His ADHD isn’t usually much of an issue anymore, now that he’s almost out of his teens, but he still has trouble sitting still and doing nothing, so he takes to wandering around the shop, checking stock levels and making notes on anything he needs to order.

It’s boring work, but at least it’s something to keep his mind busy.

About twenty minutes before the shop is due to close, the bell above the door chimes and Stiles pulls himself out of the pre-stretched canvases and makes his way back to the counter.

“What…are you stalking me?!”

The words are out of his mouth before he has a chance to think about what he was going to say and Derek just stands there, blinking at him in confusion.

“Uh…no? I didn’t even know you were going to be here. You’re never here on a Saturday.” He says it almost desperately, like he was actively planning on Stiles not being in the shop when he stopped by.

“Heather never showed for his shift and Mason had plans, so here I am.”

Derek nods stiltedly, shuffling his feet and juggling the bag and ever present sketch pad in his hands. “You…uh…no plans?”

Stiles snorts. “Please, who’s gonna wanna take me out on a Saturday night? I don’t exactly look like you.”

Stiles snaps him mouth closed and Derek blushes to the tips of his ears, but there’s also something else in Derek’s expression, something that Stiles can’t quite name and Stiles clears his throat, desperate to move on.

“So, uh, what can I get for you this fine evening, Mr. Hale?”

Derek manages a grin. “I need some more charcoal and some drawing pens.”

Stiles turns on his heel. “You know you can make your own charcoal, right? You’d probably save a lot of money, not to mention, put me out of business.”

Derek chuckles, which makes Stiles inordinately pleased.

“Trust me, it’s not really the same as buying it,” he says. “Plus, I, uh…me and fire don’t really mix well nowadays.”

Stiles stops, frozen for a second before he spins around. “Derek, I…I am so sorry, I didn’t mean…”

Derek smiles. “I know, Stiles, really. It’s fine.”

Derek’s whole family, except Derek, Cora, their older sister, Laura and their Uncle Peter, had been killed in a fire at their house almost a decade ago. Stiles’ dad always said that it was arson, but he could never prove it and so the murders had remained unsolved.

“Still,” Stiles says, “I’m sorry.”

Derek just nods and tries to reposition his bag on his shoulder, but he loses his grip on his sketch pad and it tumbles to the floor.

“Oh, shit.” Stiles stumbles forward, trying to catch it. It’s one of those huge, expensive art journals, with a hardcover and it lands on the spiral bound edge with a loud crack, falling open on the green tile floor.

“No-” Derek starts, but Stiles is already there, picking up the journal and looking at the page that is now on full display, showing drawings of…

“Is that me?” Stiles gapes, staring at the delicate pencil drawings on the page. “That’s me,”

“No, well, yes, but I…” Derek seems flustered, completely lost for words.

Somehow driven on by Derek’s embarrassment, Stiles starts to flip through the book. “You draw me a lot apparently.”

“You’re interesting,” Derek says through gritted teeth and Stiles falters.

“Is that…is that it? I’m just interesting? What, am I weird looking or something?”

“NO!” Derek shouts, taking a step closer. “No, you’re not…you’re not weird, that’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean? ‘Cause this says a lot, Derek, and I need you to explain it to me before I have a panic attack or something.”

Derek manages a smile. “Well, you said the drawings say a lot.”

“Yes, but are they saying the same things that I’m thinking – or hoping, maybe that’s a better word, ‘cause I like you a lot and I’ve liked you for a long time now. So this right here? This is either going to give me everything I ever wanted, or finally help me start to get over you.”

Now Derek is smiling for real, a huge, gorgeous grin streaking across his face and Stiles gets lost for a second in the brightness of it.

“Uh,” he says eloquently and Derek chuckles.

“Stiles, would you like to have dinner with me tonight?”

Stiles gapes. Again. “Like…for real? A…a date?”

“Yes, Stiles, a date. With me.”

Now that Derek’s embarrassment has faded, he’s back to his normal self, all confidence and swagger, though after what Stiles has just seen, he can’t help but think that the swagger is just a front, something to hide behind and Stiles is going to make it his mission to see past it more often.

“Yes,” he says quickly when he realizes he hasn’t given Derek an answer. “Yes, I would like to have dinner with you.”

Impossibly, Derek’s grin grows. “That Italian place on the other side of town? Away from the prying eyes of sisters and brothers and best friends.”

Stiles laughs. “Sounds good, man.”

“Alright, I’ll pick you up at seven.”

And with that, Derek snatches the sketch pad out of Stiles’ hand and spins way, walking out the door before Stiles can say anything else.

Stiles jumps into motion, closing down the shop so that he can get home and get ready for his date. His date with Derek. God, is this real life?

It’s not until he’s counting down the drawer that Stiles realizes that Derek never got the items that he came in for.

Before he leaves for home, Stiles zips around the store and gathers the charcoal and a set of the more expensive drawing pens.

He can make a loss, just this once.

Chapter 3

Derek’s not really surprised when, an hour after he accidentally on purpose asked Stiles out on a date, Peter Hale popped into existence in a rather impressive light show for someone who was usually trapped in a waking coma in a private medical facility.

Derek’s uncle had sacrificed his own life during the fire to save that of Cora. Derek and Laura had been out that day – Derek at baseball practice and Laura with friends. Peter, seeing that most, if not all, of his family were already too far gone to save, had found Cora slumped against the wall, breathing shallow and skin red and raw, but her pulse steady. He had gathered Cora up in his arms and rushed her through the flames, causing his body irreparable damage as he got her to a sewer access that had been boarded up in the basement. She managed to crawl to safety while Peter succumbed to his injuries. He wasn’t dead, his body had just been too badly damaged to even have a hope of functioning again.

Thankfully – though not for everyone – Peter had learned himself a brand new trick a few months later – astral projection, and ability that allowed him to leave his body for a short period of time and just…go somewhere else.

Now, of course, he’s decided that a visit to Derek just couldn’t wait.

Derek rolls his eyes. “Do you, like, sense these things?”

Peter smiles. “No, but it’s always fun to watch you squirm when I stop by.”

Derek nods his head a little ruefully. “Figures.”

Peter takes in Derek’s appearance – and Derek squirms even more under the intense gaze, seeing as he’s wearing nothing but a pair of navy boxer briefs – then takes in the chaos of the room around them. It’s almost like every single shirt Derek owns is lying on the bed in front of him and yet he still can’t decide which one to pair with the blue jeans he’s already chosen.

“Aw,” Peter says smugly, “finally asked out the young Mr. Stilinski, I see.”

Derek knows that Peter is well aware of his feelings for Stiles – he’s popped up looming over Derek’s shoulder as he draws enough times for it even to have the pretense of a secret anymore. And once Peter knew, it wasn’t long before Laura and Cora were in on it as well.

“Well, let me just start by saying it’s about goddamn time. Do you have any idea how long we’ve all been waiting for this?”

“I think I should be worried how invested everyone seems to be in my love life.”

“Not your love life, in your relationship with Stiles,” he says as he paces back and forth across the floor of Derek’s bedroom. “You’ve been dancing around each other for so long we were all about to take matters into our own hands.”

Derek frowns. “I’m actually terrified of all of your right now.”

“What? It’s not like either of you would have said ‘no’ if Laura or Cora told you that she’d paid for you both to have dinner together one night. He’s been drooling over you almost as long as you’ve been panting after him.”

“You don’t know that.”

Peter clicks is tongue. “Actually, I do. What? You think you’re the only people I go to visit? Please, Stiles are I are involved in a very serious game of checkers.”

“Terrified, I’m absolutely terrified of you right now. And also hoping that that’s not true.”

He ignores him and rakes her eyes over his half-dressed form again and shakes his head. “You’re not wearing those jeans.”

Derek sighs and looks down at the jeans as he sits down on the bed to pull them on. “Why? What’s wrong with them?”

“You’re going on a date, Derek, a date with Stiles. If you showed up on a date with me wearing blue jeans, there would not be a second date and I’m not letting you lose Stiles that easily.”

Derek frowns. “That’s deeply disturbing on so many levels and I don’t really think Stiles is going to care about what kind of jeans I’m wearing.”

“He’s literally been waiting years for you to ask him out, Derek, though he always thought it was nothing more than a dream. He deserves something better than old blue jeans and whatever grimy Henley you’ve got picked out.”

Derek looks over his shoulder at his bed and the dark purple Henley that’s lying amongst the shirts. Peter apparently knows him better than he knows himself.

“Plus,” he goes on, oblivious, “Stiles told Cora that you said you were taking him to that new Italian place; they aren’t going to let you in in jeans. It’s a classy joint.”

“You’ve been spying on Stiles getting ready?” Derek crows, indignant on Stiles’ behalf.

He…has a point, though, unfortunately. It is a little more upscale than the places he and Stiles and the rest of their friends usually eat, Derek just didn’t want to take Stiles to one of their usual places on what could be their first date of many. Taking him to one of their usual haunts also runs the risk of them running into someone they know – like Stiles’ father – and Derek would like to avoid that for as long as possible. At least until he knows if he and Stiles are going to be an actual thing or not.

He signs and turns back to the spirit of his uncle, still standing in the middle of the room like it’s his loft instead of Derek’s, despite him being incorporeal. “Did you come here to help me or to judge me?”

“Both,” he says brightly, the heels of his black boots not even making a sound as he crosses the hardwood floor as he trips to his closet, the doors of which are already open.

“I wonder it’s too late to cancel?” he mumbles to himself as he follows after, though he knows there would be no way he could even contemplate doing that.

“Such a little liar,” Peter snarks, turning to look at the shelves just inside the door of the closet and Derek doesn’t think he’s ever moved so fast in his life.

He manages to place himself between Peter and the shelves before Peter can spot the black and white mask and shirt that make up what Derek gallantly calls a superhero costume. They stare at each other in complete silence for what feels like hours and he narrows her eyes at Derek, something like suspicion in his expression. His gaze ticking back to the shelves only once before he spins around and heads for the rails in the closet. Derek breathes a silent sigh of relief, but deep down, he can’t help but wonder if the look on Peter’s face had meant that he knew exactly what he would find if he looked.

Derek decides not to dwell on that thought right now.

“Here.” Peter points to a pair of black jeans. “Those should be dressy enough that no one will notice if they don’t pay too much attention. Black boots, your better ones and do you have a nice white shirt?” He spots a crisp white shirt on the bed that Derek does not remember buying and Peter nods in agreement. “This gray sweater and you’re ready to go.” Derek’s uncle smirks. “You don’t need me to pick out your underwear as well, do you?”

Derek scowls at her and pulls on the jeans, uncaring about the gaze on him as he starts to get ready, adding a black belt to Peter’s ensemble. He has to admit, he has good taste.

He’s just about to sit on the bed to lace up his boots when he notices Peter looking at the unmade sheets.

“What?”

“You need to change the sheets, Derek.”

Derek flails, a little reminiscent of Stiles. “Peter!”

“You don’t know what’s going to happen later and I doubt you want to bring Stiles back to the sheets you’ve been sleeping on for a month.”

It hasn’t been that long, but that’s really not the point. “Nothing’s going to happen tonight. It’s our first date.”

Peter smiles at him, but it’s more condescending that anything. “You really believe that, don’t you?”

“Yes, because it’s the truth.” Derek rubs at his temples. “Look, I…I care about Stiles, okay? I don’t want to go on this date tonight and have him think it’s about nothing but sex. He deserves more than that. I want to show him that he’s worth more than that. Do I want to have sex with Stiles? Of course I do, but when that happens, it’s going to be at the right time in our relationship and the first date is not the right time.”

Peter softens instantly. “You know, you might look like an angry chipmunk on a bad day, but you’re really just a big teddy bear, aren’t you?”

“That’s it, get out.” Derek points towards the front door, even though he knows that not Peter’s exit point.

“Derek, come on! I just want to wish you good luck.”

“I don’t need luck, Peter. It’s Stiles.”

He nods his head, like that was all he needed to hear. “I’ll try pop in.”

Derek rolls his eyes at her as Peter winks out of existence. He knows that Peter sometimes has no control over his powers. It’s just something that happens to Peter, trapped as he is by his own body most of the time.

But Derek appreciates the sentiment.

He stares at the unmade bed for longer than he probably has time to, debating over whether he should actually change the sheets before he leaves, or wait until he gets home.

He’d meant what he said, this wasn’t about sex and he doesn’t want to give Stiles that impression by bringing him home on their first date.

He leaves the sheets as it is and, since he has another half hour to kill, picks up his sketch book.

Chapter 4

“No, but, Scott, you don’t understand, it was so amazing.”

Scott sits on his couch and grins up at Stiles as Stiles paces back and forward in front of him, retelling the whole date to his best friend. And Scott, the awesome guy that he is, just sits there and lets him, listening with what appears to be rapt attention.

“Just, from the moment I got into the car and gave him the things he’d come into the shop to get, it was like we’d known each other forever, like, it was so easy, so natural. I didn’t know dating could be like that.”

Scott hums. “Well, yeah, when it’s with someone you really connect with, rather than someone you just find hot.”

“Hey!” Stiles exclaims. “I know I haven’t dated a whole lot, but I’ve had an emotional connection to all of them.”

Scott raises an eyebrow at him, a move Stiles is pretty sure he stole from Cora. “Really? So you and Heather at her eighteenth birthday party? That was an ‘emotional connection’?” Scott looks weird when he does air quotes, Stiles notices. “You’re sure it wasn’t just the fact that both of you wanted to lose your virginities before you graduated?”

Stiles pouts. “Okay, fine, Heather was…was a thing. But it doesn’t matter because we’re friends, she’s my friend and we just…helped each other out with something.”

“And Malia? You’re gonna sit here and tell me that you had feelings for Malia?” Scott frowns. “Or stand there.”

Stiles blushes. “Alright, Malia was a blip, but what do you want from me? I was trying to distract myself. Derek was being all…Derek. Plus, you know, Malia’s a nice girl, I really did like her a lot. She just…”

“Wasn’t Derek.” Scott rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling so Stiles doesn’t think there’s too much worry that he’s pissed Scott off.

“Well, excuse me. Not all of us can find our soulmates when we’re fifteen.”

Scott gets that dopey look on his face he always has whenever he thinks of Allison and Stiles rolls his eyes, knowing he’s probably already lost Scott for a while.

“Alright, I’m gonna go. I have to…burn off this energy or something.”

“No, wait.” Scott shakes himself out of his Allison-stupor and leans forwards on the couch. “I’m really happy for you, man. I know Derek is a good guy, he’s…Isaac says he likes you a lot, so. I hope it works out for you.”

Stiles thinks back to the kiss Derek had pressed to his lips as they left the restaurant, and he’s pretty sure he’s own dopey grin beats Scott’s hands down.

“No, I have to go. Or else I’ll end up doing something stupid like calling him.”

Scott snorts. “Calling the guy you’re dating, what an insane thought.”

Stiles just leaves, doesn’t even bother saying goodbye, and gets in his Jeep to head into town.

He’s pulling on his cowl and mask before he knows what he’s doing and he frowns, because that’s not what he was planning on today, but, he supposes he has nothing else to do. Like he told Scott, he needs to burn off his energy, and since the shop is closed on Sundays, he has nothing else to do, except sit around and hope that Derek calls.

Being a superhero beats that.

With the Jeep parked in the lot of the shop, Stiles knows he won’t really draw attention to himself, Stiles portals himself out of there and ends up…

Right in front of Remus.

Remus growls behind his mask. “What…are you stalking me?”

“Hey, I didn’t know you were going to be here. I wasn’t exactly thinking when I…”

Remus turns away, cutting through the alley behind the library. “Yeah, well that actually explains a lot.”

“Hey, fuck you, dude.” Stiles hurries to catch up.

“Don’t call me ‘dude’.”

“Don’t walk away from me. You realize I could throw up a portal in a second and you would walk right into it. You could end up anywhere.”

Remus stops in his tracks and spins to face Stiles. “What do you want?”

“Well, I didn’t actually want anything, ‘cause like I said, I wasn’t exactly looking for you, but now that I have you here, I think we should talk.”

Stiles thinks it says something about how much time he’s spent contemplating Remus and his lack of facial features that he can tell that the guy is frowning.

“Talk about what?”

Stiles falters. “What do you mean, talk about what? You know about what. This has gone on for too long.”

Remus’ mask shifts and Stiles knows he’s raising his eyebrows. “Gone on for too long? I’m sorry, does the fact that you stabbed me in the back have a time limit on how long I can be pissed about it?”

“I did not stab you in the back, that is a blatant lie.”

“You threw portals up all over the place and the guy slipped through one and came up behind me. You might as well have been holding the knife in your hands, Keychain.”

“I…” Stiles stumbles over his words and he heaves a sigh. “Alright, yes, you’re right, I got a little over excited, but, dude, you have to cut me some slack. It was my first-”

“No, dude, I don’t have to cut you any slack. You almost got me killed, do you understand that?” Remus shakes his head. “We’re supposed to be on the same team, I’m supposed to be able to count on the other supes in town the same way I can count on the cops. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Huntress chooses to keep herself as far away from both of us as she can possibly get.”

There’s something in Remus’ voice that Stiles doesn’t really understand. It’s not anger, he’s not angry at Stiles anymore it seems, more like reluctant acceptance that Stiles – Keychain – is just nothing more than an unwilling alley. The unwilling part on Remus’ side of the equation.

No, it’s more like he’s disappointed in himself, for not…for not being better, maybe? For not helping Stiles be better? Stiles really doesn’t know and when Remus starts walking again, Stiles hurries to catch up.

“Wait, what are you talking about? Why wouldn’t Huntress want to work with-”

When Stiles finally catches up, Remus is standing at a dead end, like he took a wrong turn, but he’s staring at something on the ground in front of him and Stiles has to step around him to see what it is.

When his eyes land on the stiff, pale form of the girl he lost his virginity to, it’s all Stiles can do to hold onto his lunch. Heather’s eyes are wide and glassy and Stiles just knows that she’s been lying her, alone, for more than a day. And he hates himself.

“I have to call my dad,” he whispers, doesn’t even care that he’s practically outing himself to Remus as he fumbles for his pocket where his cellphone is stashed, not even thinking about the fact that throwing up a portal would be a lot faster than fumbling at the screen with shaking fingers. He can’t take his eyes off of Heather’s.

He presses the phone to his ear and the ringing brings him out of his shock a little, but when he looks up, Remus is gone.

Chapter 5

Derek runs.

He’s not proud of himself, in fact he hates himself for it. But he couldn’t stand there. He couldn’t look down at that poor dead girl and wait around for the cops to show up.

Beacon Hills is a quiet town. Yeah, they have the odd crazy guy who tries to shoot people or a girl who goes after someone with a cleaver, but Derek has never been involved in anyone getting killed. He knows that Huntress witnessed a murder once, she wasn’t fast enough to stop the guy with the gun to his wife’s head. But Derek hasn’t set eyes on a dead body since the day Kate burned his house down.

But that doesn’t stop Derek taking the gruesome image that is seared behind his eyelids and committing it to paper.

Seeing the dead girl’s – God, Derek doesn’t even know her name – lifeless eyes on the brilliant white page next to Stiles’ sparkling ones makes Derek sick to his stomach and he rips the page out of the book, shoving it down the garbage disposal in the hopes that that’ll get rid of the whole thing.

Derek hates himself even more for even thinking that that was a good idea.

Then he just feels numb.

Memories of the fire, of Kate, of finding Cora burned and blackened, all of them come swimming to the forefront of Derek’s mind and he’s reaching for the vodka before he even knows what’s happening.

But before he can take that first sip, there’s a loud knock at the door to his loft.

He thinks about ignoring it, taking a long swig from the bottle and falling into it for the next day or so, but there’s something about the sound that makes Derek curious and he pulls it open, gasping audibly when he sees who’s on the other side.

Stiles looks absolutely wrecked.

“Are you okay?” Derek asks before he can even think about the words and Stiles just shakes his head.

“Heather…the girl, yesterday, who didn’t show up for her shift.”

Stiles doesn’t need to say anything more, because Derek gets it, knows that the girl he and Keychain found is Heather. Was Heather. God, Derek’s going to be sick.

“My dad…my dad says she was murdered. Someone murdered her, took her life. How…how can someone do that? What does that even mean?”

Derek grips Stiles by the sleeve of his hoodie and drags him into the loft, sliding the door closed behind them.

“I’m…I’m sorry. I didn’t…I didn’t mean to come here. I mean, I could go to Scott’s or Danny, but I just found myself here and I can’t make myself leave and I...”

Derek shushes him. “Stiles, it’s fine, it’s more than fine that you came here. I want you to come to me if you’re upset. I know it’s only been one date, but I…” he can’t finish the sentence, doesn’t know how to, but Stiles is nodding and Derek thinks he gets it, so he leads the younger man over to the bed, just thinking that he needs to lie down.

Because Derek gets it, too; Derek may have faced a nightmare in that alley, but Stiles lost a friend, someone he was close to, had to listen to his dad tell him that she’d been murdered. It’s Stiles who needs to be held, comforted, not Derek.

“Dad says she…there was an arrow. They’re looking for Huntress, just in case,” Stiles says softly as he curls up into Derek’s chest. “So, you know, that’s…that’s something at least, right? A lead, even if I don’t think Huntress did it.”

Derek swallows past the lump in his throat. “It’s a clue. Someone will know something.”

“Yeah,” Stiles agrees, stretching the word out, “but it’s also not really much, because if Huntress doesn’t know anything, we’ve got nothing.”

He says ‘we’ like he’s involved in the investigation and Derek imagines Stiles hounding his father for information every second of the day until they find Heather’s killer. And Derek promises to use everything he has to help.

“I should have called her. I should have called her parents when she didn’t turn up for her shift, I could have stopped this.”

Derek shakes his head. “Stiles, no. She was probably already dead. An arrow, that doesn’t really imply that she was held somewhere, kidnapped or something. An arrow seems quick, sudden. It’s likely that she was already dead long before she didn’t turn up for her shift.”

“Oh, God, I just feel so…so helpless, I just don’t know what to do. Derek, you have to help me, tell me what to do. I can’t think, I can’t…I need you to tell me what to do.”

Derek doesn’t think about what he’s doing, he just surges forward and presses his lips to Stiles’ in what is probably the most chaste kiss of his entire life. Considering that kiss is happening at the grand old age of twenty-four says a lot really.

But then Stiles turns, twists his body until he’s facing Derek more and reaches up to cup Derek’s cheek in his palm, sliding his tongue along Derek’s bottom lip.

It’s not so chaste anymore.

Derek returns the kiss with everything he has, his mouth opening under Stiles’ ministrations, his tongue sweeping into Stiles’ mouth, learning the taste of him and just wanting more.

The scent of arousal hangs heavy in the air and Derek just can’t make himself think this is a bad idea. It’s what you’re supposed to do, right? When times are hard, you take comfort in your significant other.

Because that’s what Stiles is, his significant other. Or at least, that’s what Derek wants him to be, and by the way Stiles is clinging to him, the desperate, needy, hungry sounds he’s making, it’s safe to at least assume that Stiles feels the same way.

With one swift movement, Derek gets to his knees, pulling Stiles along with him as he crawls his way up the bed, Stiles clinging to him with everything he has.

“God, you’re such a fucking animal,” Stiles grunts against Derek’s throat, where he’s trying to unsuccessfully suck a mark. It’s one of Derek’s powers – and Cora’s – he heals quickly and he needs to stop Stiles before he notices.

“I’ll show you just how much of an animal I can be.”

It’s corny and cheesy and when Stiles laughs like it’s the funniest thing he’s heard in days, Derek just can’t bring himself to care, because Stiles is laughing and that’s what they need right now.

Chapter 6

Stiles wakes up to a cold, empty bed and panics for exactly three point eight seconds before he spots Derek’s cell phone and his reading glasses on the nightstand.

Then he spends another seventeen point two seconds laughing over the fact that Derek would need reading glasses. But he has to admit, Derek does look ridiculously hot in those thick black frames.

“Derek?” he calls out, his voice not loud enough to damage the quiet of the loft in the early morning.

“Kitchen,” Derek calls back, his voice slightly louder and Stiles feels the last bit of tension disappear from his shoulders.

There was always the possibility that Derek was trying to avoid him by hiding in the bathroom of his own house. However remote.

Stretching, Stiles kicks the covers away and stretches, taking a moment to look down at the expanse of his naked body and the marks Derek had left there. There are a lot of marks. Stiles particularly likes the ones that form a line down the crease of his thigh.

Now that he’s aware of where Derek is, he can hear the guy fumbling about in the kitchen and decides that it’s pointless to stay in bed when the person he wants is in another room, so he pushes himself up and searches the floor for his discarded clothes.

He finds his pants over by the window and he pulls them on as he spins around in a circle, looking for his shirt and it’s only then that Stiles remembers that he hasn’t actually been home since …he swallows hard, images of Heather’s body flashing through his mind.

It’s a sight that makes Stiles realize that he really should go home and change.

His cellphone chirps in the pocket of his dress pants and Stiles spends a two point one seconds being amazed that it hadn’t died somewhere during the night, the promptly freaks out when he spots the time. He doesn’t even bother to read the email Danny sent him.

Stiles flails so badly that he knocks over the nightstand.

“Stiles?” Derek calls, appearing out of the kitchen. “Are you okay?”

Stiles glares incredulously at the time on his phone. “It’s ten thirty?! How is it ten thirty?! Wait, what day is it?! Oh, my God, never mind! I’m late, I am so very, very late. I was supposed to be in work two hours ago!”

“I’ll make you some coffee,” Derek says, spinning back to the kitchen.

“I don’t have time for coffee!”

“To go!”

“Okay, okay that sounds better. Um…” He looks down at the truly disgusting shirt in his hands. “Do you think…I mean, would it be okay if I borrowed a shirt or something? I can’t show up to work in something I’ve literally been wearing all weekend.” Because of course he didn’t change his shirt when he came home from his date with Derek. Like the love sick teenager he actually is.

Derek chuckles faintly. “Sure, in the dresser.”

Stiles opens the first drawer he can get his hands on and promptly forgets about everything in his life when his eyes land on the black and white mask lying on the bottom of the drawer.

It’s like Stiles’ stomach falls out or something, there’s a horrible, numbing emptiness where it should be because he knows this mask, he’s seen this mask hundreds of times, he’s fought and bickered and generally been annoyed by this mask for years now.

Well, no, the person behind the mask and that just can’t be right, the person behind this mask can’t be Derek, because the person behind this mask is nothing but a pain in Stiles’ ass. And not in a good way.

It has to be as mistake. They can’t be the same person, they’re not even remotely similar and Stiles is running out of excuses. He can’t talk himself out of it, the evidence is right there in front of his eyes, literally in black and white.

Derek is Remus and Stiles’ world suddenly doesn’t make sense anymore.

“Did you find one?” Derek calls out to him and Stiles startles out of his stupor enough to slam the drawer closed and pull open another and grab the first piece of cloth he can see.

He’s glad that what he grabbed what actually a t-shirt, but he’s also a little surprised that it’s purple.

He’s just pulling the shirt over his head when Derek appears at the end of the bed, a travel mug of coffee in one hand.

Stiles moans and makes grabby hands at the silver container. “God, you are a life saver right now.”

Derek just chuckles some more and passes the coffee over. His eyes go a little darker when Stiles moans at the first sip and Stiles files the moment away for later perusal.

If there’s even going to be a later.

“There’s a spare toothbrush under the sink. It’s still in the package, I promise,” Derek offers earnestly and Stiles shakes his head, checking the time on his phone again.

“No time. I literally should have opened the shop two hours ago. I have a toothbrush and some other shit in the back room. Hopefully I’ll have time to freshen up.”

Derek just nods and smiles, dipping his head a little to press a kiss to the corner of Stiles’ mouth and Stiles pulls himself back from taking it any further.

“I’ll see you later?” Derek asks and Stiles just nods his head, his voice caught behind the lump in his throat. Derek looks so open and vulnerable, a look on his face that Stiles has never seen before and he hates the fact that he doesn’t have time to deal with it.

Instead, he just picks up his shoes from the floor at the end of the bed and races out of the loft and heading for his jeep.

He makes it to the shop nine minutes later, flying past his father in his patrol car in the process and he really hopes he’s not going to return home to a speeding ticket. But then he has to stand in the middle of the parking lot for a minute, because his shop is already open, shutters up, lights on.

To say Stiles is confused would be an understatement.

Carefully, he pushes open the door, looking around, his hands already forming the shape he needs to throw a portal just in case he needs to sneak up behind a really stupid burglar.

He relaxes instantly when he stops the figure slumped behind the counter.

Danny is reading a computer magazine and looking completely bored.

“Danny,” Stiles, letting the door fall closed behind him, “what are you doing here?”

Danny gives him a tight smile. “I heard about Heather. I figured you just needed some time to yourself or something, so I swung bad your place and got keys from you dad. He told me to tell you to call him, by the way.”

Stiles nods. “Yeah, yeah, thanks. I’ll do that.” Stiles slips behind the counter and stands next to Danny and his friend frowns at him, his face full of concern.

“Are you okay?”

Stiles slips behind the counter to stand next to his friends. “Yeah. I just needed…needed…”

The truth of the matter is, Stiles doesn’t really know what possessed him to go to Derek’s, he just needed somewhere he felt save, where he felt wanted. And the first place that came to mind had been Derek. Not Derek’s loft or Derek’s bed, just Derek himself.

“I’m…I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”

Danny just nods and doesn’t say anything more and Stiles is left to stew in the knowledge of what he’d found in Derek’s dresser.

“Hey, can I ask your advice about something?” Stiles asks suddenly, unaware he was even going to speak.

“Use more lube, I’m sure it’ll fit,” Danny snarks and Stiles knows he’s just trying to lighten the mood, but Stiles chokes on his tongue anyway.

“Dude! How do you…what makes you…I don’t…what?!”

“You have at least three hickies that I can see, one of which is on your wrist, by the way, which I don’t even know how to explain, and your neck and jaw line is covered in beard burn. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you got some last night.”

Stiles’ face burns. “It fitted just fine,” he grumbles, “but that isn’t what I wanted to talk about.”

Danny sighs and turns to face Stiles head on. “Alright, I’m listening. Hit me.”

And this is why Stiles likes Danny, because he’ll listen and let Stiles ramble no matter what and sometimes, Stiles just likes to have someone who’s not Scott to talk to, mostly because Scott is an actual puppy and wants to fix everything, even if he can’t. It’s the part of his power that spills over from the physical and Stiles loves him for it, but sometimes Stiles just needs someone who’s not so emotionally involved in wanting happiness for Stiles to talk things over with.

He clears his throat. “What would you do if the guy you’d just started dating had a secret, a pretty important secret, and you found out about it? Would you tell the guy you knew?”

Danny narrows his eyes and sucks at his teeth. “I think it depends. This secret, does it change the way you feel about this guy?”

Stiles wrinkles his nose. “I don’t see…what…what do you mean?”

“Does this secret make this guy look better or worse to you? Is it something that changes the way you think about him?”

Stiles shakes his head minutely. He already knows that Derek is a good guy, an amazing guy, knowing that Derek pulls on a mask and puts his life on the line when he doesn’t have to…well, that just makes Stiles a little more certain that Derek is the one for him.

If he can get them both past the fact that, behind their masks, they both the apparently hate each other.

“He…he’s a good guy. I like him a lot. This secret…this secret doesn’t change that. It makes…it kinda makes me feel like I don’t deserve him.”

Even though Stiles is also one of those guys people call superheroes, knowing that Derek is one, knowing he would want to save people and help people despite everything that has happened to him in his life, definitely makes Stiles think Derek is so much better than he could ever be.

Danny shrugs. “There’s your answer. You like this guy, this secret that he has doesn’t change that, doesn’t change your relationship, so the only reason to tell him you know would be to make sure that there are no secrets between the two of you. And as we all know, secrets between two people in a relationship can be a very bad thing.”

Stiles cringes. “Yeah, I don’t…I don’t want to start this thing with secrets between us.”

“Then you have to come clean, simple.”

Stiles nods. “Thank you, Danny. You’ve…you’ve been a big help.” He claps Danny on the shoulder. “I mean it, for everything you’ve done today. I owe you dinner or something.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t mean you can cut out now and go talk to this guy,” Danny scolds. “You’re not leaving me here alone while you go have hot, life affirming sex.”

Stiles pouts. “Fine, but I just want you to know that it definitely was life affirming sex and I plan to have a lot more of it. In fact, I plan to be having it for the rest of my life, so put that in your pie plate, Bingo.”

“Good, I’m happy for you. And stop quoting Buffy at me.”

“Dude, I’m so impressed that you actually got that reference.”

“I’m a geek, Stiles, of course I got that reference.” Danny grins at him and Stiles is so glad that things are easy between them.

Heather’s death has been hard, there’s no doubt about that, and it’s going to take Stiles a long time to get over it. He probably never will, at least, not until her killer has been caught. But, like with Stiles’ mother, he knows that he can’t just dwell on the sadness, life goes on, as horrible a thought as that might be.

“By the way,” Danny smirks at him, “are you ever going to tell me who this guy is, the one you’re having hot, life affirming sex with?”

Stiles can’t help the grin that spreads across his face. “Derek Hale.”

Danny groans. “I hate you. It’s actual, physical hatred.”

Chapter 7

Derek waits for three hours after Stiles leaves for work before he decides he needs to go on patrol.

Derek works as an illustrator, with various high profile clients on his retainer, but the thought of sitting at his drafting table, working on the commissions he has to complete…it’s just not possible. After everything that’s happened, finding Heather’s body, Stiles coming to him, spending the night with Stiles, it all just makes it impossible for Derek to concentrate

He hadn’t been on patrol since…since that alley, when he’d run like a scared dog, and he feels like he needs to make up for that, needs to make amends for acting like such a coward.

Stiles would yell at him for having such thoughts. Hell, at this point he thinks even Keychain might bitch him out for thinking something like that, but it’s hard to push the feeling away. Even a night with Stiles – a perfect, glorious night where he was able to do what he’d always wanted and kiss every single inch of Stiles’ body – hadn’t been enough to drive the thoughts away and Derek just needs to try and do something, so he changes into black combat pants and a gray Henley. He grabs his mask from the drawer and his phone from the coffee table and heads for the door.

He doesn’t usually put the mask on until he’s as far away from his loft as it’s possible and still be in Beacon Hills, but as soon as he leaves the building and gets into the fresh air, the smell hits him.

Someone, someone he knows, or knew at some point in his past, was outside his building, prowling in the parking lot, if the heavy, cloying scent they left behind is anything to go by. There’s also a heavy smell of blood, that strong, metallic acidity, like sucking on a penny, that makes Derek wrinkle his nose and swallow down the lunch that wants to make a sudden reappearance.

And the scent of the blood is leaving a trail leading away from his building. Derek can’t imagine what kind of scene he’s going to find at the end of the trail. Not after yesterday, not after Heather, and he’s not certain he wants to follow it.

He’s shaking as he ducks into the alley and pulls on the mask, making sure his gloves are covering his hands, even though he’ll probably ruin them within the hour. The blood in the air is so strong, he’s sure he’s going to find a massacre.

He finds the first body less than two blocks away. The face is torn apart by what appear to be knife marks, blood and other fluids leaking everywhere. There are a number of arrows littering the ground, but even from where Derek’s standing, there’s not enough arrows for the amount of holes in this guy’s body.

For some reason, Derek suddenly doesn’t feel so guilty or nervous taking out his cellphone and placing a call to the Sheriff. It’s possible he’s not thinking about this clearly.

“Stilinski,” he answers, sounding distracted.

“Sheriff, this is D…uh, Remus.” Derek cringes at his slip. Outing his secret identity to his boyfriend’s father before he’s even told his boyfriend is probably not the brightest of ideas.

And he’s resolutely not thinking about when – or how – he’s going to tell Stiles about all of this.

The Sheriff, thankfully, cuts off Derek’s thoughts before they can run away completely.

“Yes, uh…s...s…Remus.” The Sheriff clears his throat and Derek doesn’t have to wonder too much about the word the Sheriff struggled over. He’s called Derek ‘son’ more than once. “How can I help you?”

“I’ve been told that you…the body that was found yesterday. There’s more.”

The Sheriff clears his throat again. “Yes, my uh…there is currently an open homicide investigation, but are you saying there’s going to be more? How do you know that?”

“I’ve found the first body,” Derek says quickly. He doesn’t have the time to sugar coat anything and he knows that the Sheriff is used to this and more.

“First body,” Stilinski says calmly, waiting for Derek to go on.

“I’ve caught the scent of at least four different corpses, all within the radius of downtown.”

Derek curses himself for mentioning scent. Almost three years doing this and he’s managed to keep his powers to himself, revealing only the bare minimum to the people of the town and still be able to do his job.

He doesn’t know how many times he’s seen Keychain stopped in the street by someone who’s asked to be portaled somewhere, like Keychain is an airline.

“Caught the scent, huh? Neat trick” The Sheriff says and Derek purposefully doesn’t respond and the Sheriff huffs a sigh. “Alright, Remus, however you want to play it. Where are you right now?”

Derek looks around, taking in the sights and the scents in the air and gives the Sheriff the address of the apartment block that’s not really in the best part of town.

Though they don’t really have a whole lot of town in the first place, so the ‘bad part’ isn’t really all that bad or all that far from the ‘good part’.

“That’s near Derek’s apartment,” the Sheriff notes with a smirk in his voice. Again, Derek says nothing and he can almost hear the Stiles’ father rolling his eyes. “Alright, can you hang tight for a few minutes? We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

It really is only a few minutes before Derek can hear the sirens of the Sheriff Department vehicles as they race their way to his location. Beacon Hills isn’t really that big a town, after all, and it isn’t long before Stilinski is falling out of his car and stumbling towards Derek.

“Um, Remus,” he says shortly and Derek snorts, because he knows no one will be able to see him rolling his eyes.

“I understand this is a little…unusual,” he admits, looking down at the body.

The Sheriff follows his gaze. “Do you have any idea who it is? Is it…do we know…him?

“Him,” Derek confirms, because he can understand why the Sheriff might struggle. The body is pretty torn up, the face gone completely, the rest of the body covered in blood, disguising any sort of identifiable features. Derek can’t even begin to imagine what else he’s going to find.

“The scent…he smells homeless.” He’s already outted himself, he may as well just deal with it. “Or at the very least, he hasn’t washed or changed his clothes in at least a month.”

“You think maybe he was kidnapped?”

Derek shrugs. “I don’t know; has anyone in town been reported missing?”

“Not that I’m aware of, and certainly not in the last month.”

“Maybe he was taken from another town or even state.”

The Sheriff sighs and looks at Derek. “You said there was more than one body.” Derek nods. “You know where the rest of them are?”

“I can follow the scents.”

“Do that, and call me every time you find one.”

“Yes, sir.” Derek turns away, already falling into a run, following the stench of death and blood.

“Oh, and Derek?” the Sheriff says softly, well out of earshot of any of the other deputies or techs that are flitting around now, but nevertheless, Derek freezes anyway, his heart beating a tattoo against his chest.

“It’s nice to know that there’s someone else out there behind a mask that I know I can trust.”

Derek doesn’t say anything, can’t find his voice, so he just runs, putting the Sheriff and the first body behind him as fast as he possibly can.

The Sheriff is apparently just as smart as his son.

Chapter 8

Stiles finds a dead body before he finds Derek.

It’s odd, because after yesterday, after Heather, the cold sense of detachment Stiles. Stiles feels is almost surreal. He can’t even tell if this body used to also be someone he knows, because the face has beaten to a bloody pulp, probably for this very reason and Stiles feels sick to his stomach.

He knows he needs to call the police, call his dad, but Stiles is rooted to the spot, just like yesterday, but not like yesterday at all, looking down at the body that used to be a man, a son, a father, a brother, a friend, and he keeps seeing someone else in his place. Scott, Derek, his father. He just can’t move.

This body means that they have a serial killer in Beacon Hills and it just makes Stiles even more afraid, especially now that he knows that Derek is behind one of the masks that protect their town.

What if Derek gets himself caught up in this while he’s only trying to help? What if Stiles loses Derek after only just finding him?

Stiles can’t even manage to remember how to use his powers enough to get to his father to tell them about his gruesome discovery. He’s frozen to the spot.

“What in the…did you…what did you do?”

Stiles finally unfreezes and whirls around to face the voice behind him and comes mask to mask with Remus – no, Derek. Derek is the one behind that mask and Stiles is so focused on that that Derek’s words don’t register at first.

“I…what…? You think…you think I did this?”

Derek shrugs. “It’s not like this is the first time I’ve seen you kill.”

Stiles scoffs. “I haven’t killed anyone! You thought you saw me kill a guy who was eating people to make his power grow. I literally saved your life that day and now you think I’m…what? On a killing spree? If you’d stuck around longer than ten seconds you woulda seen me pull the guy out and my – the sheriff arresting him. He’s being held on remand until his trial.”

Derek narrows his eyes at the guy in front of him, trying to see if he’s telling the truth. “I’ve seen what killing can do to people. It really wouldn’t surprise me.”

“I didn’t kill anyone!”

Stiles takes a deep breath and looks away from Derek’s covered face. He has to mentally remind himself that Derek doesn’t know it’s Stiles behind Keychain’s mask. He knows Derek and Derek knows him. There’s no way that Derek would be accusing him of this if he knew it was Stiles.

Stiles is almost sure of it. Like, eighty percent sure.

“Listen,” he says carefully, “I was looking for you when I found…when I found this guy. I literally just got here, I swear.”

“I’ve been tracking bodies all over town,” Derek confesses, “all of them look that this.”

Stiles looks back at the body and back at Derek. “You think I did this?” He spreads his arms wide. “Do I look like I’m capable of doing this? Do you see any weapons on me right now?”

“Keychain, I’ve seen you create portals to anywhere within the blink of an eye. It’s not a stretch to think that you brought the guy here through a portal to dump his body.”

Stiles can do nothing but stare at the man in front of him. “Derek, I’ve known you for years, I...I’ve been doing this superhero thing with you for a while. Have you ever, ever, thought that I could do something like this? Kill for the fun of it?”

Derek shakes his head. “I-” He cuts himself off and stares at Stiles, his head cocked to the side like a dog. “What did you call me?”

Stiles feels himself pale beneath his mask. “Uh…see, that was why I wanted to talk to you, because before I left for work this morning, I was kinda looking for a shirt and I found-”

Stiles is cut off by the sound of flesh being punctured and he looks up from where he’d been staring at his shoes and sees the arrow sticking out of Derek’s shoulder. “What…? Derek!”

Derek stumbles to his knees, his eyes trained on the shaft of the arrow, like he can’t understand what it’s doing there. Stiles drops beside him, his hands to the wound, trying to stop the blood flow. It’s the same kind of arrow as the ones littering the ground and Stiles knows without looking that they’ve found the serial killer. And their best weapon is out of commission.

Suddenly, there’s a sound of ripping flesh and Derek screams, loud and drawn out, and Stiles watches with wide eyes as the arrow is torn from Derek’s body and through his own hands before it flies across the alley.

“Nice,” someone says and Stiles looks up to see a silhouette of a woman standing in the mouth of the alley. She’s backlit by the sun, so Stiles can’t get a clear look at her face, but she’s holding the arrow in her hand and even as Stiles watches, she touches her finger to the tip, smearing the blood on her pale skin. She’s holding a bow in her other hand and there’s no doubt in Stiles’ mind that she shot Derek.

“Who are you?” he asks, calling up his power, prepared for anything.

Even though he can’t really see her face clearly, Stiles knows the woman is smiling. “Aw, don’t you worry about that, sugar. Derek knows who I am and that’s all that really matters.”

“Kate,” Derek mumbles, trying to struggle to his feet, but Stiles can tell that something isn’t right. Derek’s losing too much blood for a wound like that. “You shouldn’t…you’re not supposed to be here.”

Kate, apparently, clicks her tongue. “You know, I thought this was going to be harder, I have to admit. After all the trouble you caused me in the past, I was expecting more of a fight, Derek. After all, we all know how weak you are, don’t we? And I think this right here just proves it.”

Stiles turns away from her, reaches out to cup Derek’s face through the mask. “Don’t listen to her, Derek, you’re not weak. You hear me? You’re not weak.”

“Not yet,” Kate gloats, “but give it a couple minutes for my little potion to kick in and we’ll see how he feels then.”

“What did you do to him?” Stiles whispers, horrified.

Derek lets out another pain-filled moan, his legs giving out completely and he falls back into Stiles’ arms.

“Just getting what’s mine, Sweetheart. What I’m owed. What should have been mine eight years ago, if only Derek had the balls to give it to me.” Kate looks back at the arrow, a smug smile on her lips. “But it doesn’t matter, it all worked out in the end and now I only have one more to go.” Her gaze slides to Stiles and she grins wickedly. “Well, maybe two.”

And with that, she’s gone, disappearing around the corner in a flash of silver and Stiles is left sitting in the middle of a dirty alley with a barely conscious superhero in his lap.

“Now would be a good time to panic,” he admits to the silence, but then he shakes his head. No, this is not a good time to panic, because right now, his usually strong, hard, indestructible, maybe-boyfriend is lying on the ground, bleeding out, unconscious and he’s trusting Stiles – Keychain – to keep him safe.

Before he can really think about it, Stiles waves his hand in the air and a portal no bigger than Stiles’ face opens in front of him, and through it, Stiles can see his father, standing somewhere downtown.

“Dad,” he whispers, because he can hear people around his father and he still has an identity to protect, at least for now.

“Jesus Christ, Stiles. You almost gave me one of those heart attacks you’re so sure I’m gonna have,” the Sheriff gripes.

“I do not have time right now, you have to listen to me.”

The Sheriff is suddenly worried. “Stiles? What’s going on? Are you alright?”

“Yeah, no, I’m fine. It’s Remus, he was hurt. We found another body and we think the person who did it shot him with an arrow, like the others, and I can’t wake him up. I don’t know, there’s something weird going on, something’s making this worse than it should be, but that’s not why I needed to talk to you.”

“What? Is there something wrong? Do you know something about the bodies?”

“I don’t know about that, but the person who shot Der – um, Remus; her name is Kate. She’s…she just ran out of here, from the alley behind the little grocery store near the library. She’s wearing silver, she has blonde hair and she’s carrying a bow. You need to stop her, she’s…she’s up to something, Dad, something really bad.”

His dad nods. “A witness said he saw someone with blonde hair leaving one of the crime scenes, so that’s good enough for me.”

“You have to stop her, Dad.”

“We will, Stiles. We will. You just…just take care of Derek.”

Stiles stares at his father, shocked. “You…you knew?”

“Stiles, I’m a mind reader. Seriously, you didn’t think your powers came out of thin air, did you?”

Stiles points a finger through the portal. “We’re so talking about this when we fix everything.”

He closes the portal before his dad can say anything else and opens another, bigger one, big enough for him to be able to manhandle Derek through and straight into Scott’s living room.

“Scott!” he yells as he gently lowers Derek onto the couch. “Scott, get in here right now!”

Scott practically tumbles down the stairs as he comes to Stiles’ call. “What? Oh, God, what? Who’s dead? What’s going on?”

Stiles waves his hand in Derek’s direction. “He was shot with an arrow, in the shoulder. I need you to do your thing and fix him up because I need him back right now and we need to deal with what’s going on, because I think there might be something really going on here and oh, God, I can’t breathe.”

Stiles falls to his knees next to the couch, one hand on Derek’s arm, and doesn’t even move as Scott clambers over him to get to the patient.

Because that’s what Scott does, Scott’s a healer, he takes peoples’ pain, heals their wounds, makes them better and is basically really, really awesome.

Stiles really loves him and Stiles thinks he might really be freaking out right now.

“Whoa, dude, this is Remus. Why are you hanging out with Remus? You guys hate each other, remember?” Scott asks, even as he goes to work, laying his hand on Derek’s shoulder, his hand and arm already streaked with black as he takes Derek’s pain.

Stiles manages a laugh. “Funny story, actually. Turns out, Remus is actually Derek and I’m kinda, sorta, maybe dating Derek. I think.” He reaches across Scott and pulls Derek’s mask off, because it’s really not necessary right now.

Scott cocks an eyebrow at him. “Kinda, sorta, maybe, you think?”

“We slept together. Like, a lot.”

“Fuck you,” Derek grunts, his voice weak as he pushes ineffectually at Scott’s arm, jostled back into consciousness by Stiles pulling awkwardly at his head. “I didn’t sleep with you. Where the hell do you get off saying shit like that?”

“What? Derek, come on. I mean, I know I’m not exactly Casanova, but I thought-”

“Uh, Keychain?” Scott butts in. “You might wanna take off the mask before you go about trying to save your dignity.” He glares down at Derek. “And you, lie still. I’m supposed to be helping you here. Stop wriggling.”

Stiles looks down at himself, at the red costume he’s wearing, his mask and cowl still firmly in place.

That had been the whole point, right? To make himself as unrecognizable as possible. It’s just that his disguise worked a little too well. Not that Derek has any room to complain.

His eyes are drawn back to Derek as he falls back against the couch in a huff, before he raises his eyebrows at the person sitting in front of him. “Scott? You’re…what are you doing?” He follows Scott’s hand down to where it’s resting against the hole in Derek’s shoulder.

“He’s healing you,” Stiles explains. “You got shot, remember? Arrow?”

Derek shakes his head slowly, more confusion than denial. “What…I don’t…I…” he narrows his eyes at Stiles – Keychain. “Wait. You called me by my real name. Who the hell are you?”

With a sigh, Stiles reaches up and pulls down his cowl, pulling off his mask at the same time and he watches with something akin to horrified fascination as Derek’s expression goes from angry to confused to shocked and finally to guilty.

“Stiles,” he says, reaching out a hand towards him, even as Scott tuts at him and tries to get him to lie back down. “I…I don’t know what to say.”

Stiles shakes his head. “Hey, no, there’s nothing to say. We didn’t know who was behind the masks, it’s no one’s fault.”

“But, the things I said to you…”

“Hey, you found me standing over a dead body. Your reaction is more than understandable.”

“I-” Derek pauses and frowns, cocking his head to one side as he looks up at Stiles. “You knew who I was?” He phrases it like a question and Stiles can feel himself blush again.

“What?”

“Before Kate shot me, you called me by my name. You knew who I was before you took off my mask, how?”

“Uh, this morning, when I was looking for a shirt to wear to work…” He trails of when Derek chuckles.

“You found my mask.”

“Well,” Stiles huffs, “you shouldn’t just leave it lying around in a drawer. Anyone could just…find it.”

“It was in a drawer.”

“You said I should look in the dresser to find a shirt to wear to work so that I didn’t look like I slept in my clothes last night and, you know, that’s where the drawers are, in the dresser and you never specified which drawers I should or should not look in and if you knew that you had that mask in one of those drawers then you should-”

“Stiles,” Derek cuts him off calmly, “breathe.”

Stiles takes a deep breath and glares at Derek. “I’m not taking responsibility for this. I’d also like to think us finding out about each other’s secret identity was kind of inevitable. ‘Cause…you know.”

He smiles when Derek blushes and ducks his head. Yeah, he’s pretty proud of himself for landing this guy.

Suddenly, Scott sighs and takes his hands away from Derek’s shoulder. “Alright,” he says, backing up and wiping his hands on his thighs. His blue jeans end up smeared with blood. “I’ve healed all of the internal damage and the wound. You’re as good as new.” He winces. “Well, almost.”

“Almost!?” Stiles and Derek exclaim at the same time.

While Derek looks up at Scott with wide eyes, Stiles waves his hands in the air. “What the hell does ‘almost’ mean? Are we talking life threatening here?!”

“If it was life threatening, don’t you think I would have lead with that?” Scott points out, which has Stiles relaxing slightly.

“So what’s wrong?” Derek asks, but he doesn’t seem as worried anymore.

“It’s not…you’re completely fine, perfectly healed, physically. The damage that was done is gone, the arrow must have hit a blood vessel which is why there was so much blood and you lost consciousness, but there’s something in your blood, some chemical or agent or something and I can’t get rid of it.”

“Kate,” Derek breathes, his eyes on the floor. “There must have been something on the arrow. She shot me up with something. I guarantee it.”

“Okay, that’s the third time you’ve said that name. You knew the woman who shot you? You know who she is? She’s the person who’s been killing people, isn’t she?”

Stiles is shocked when he sees Derek blush, this time more from humiliation than embarrassment and he’s starting to wish he hadn’t asked the question in the first place.

“Her name is Kate…” Derek shakes his head, running his hands through his hair, shifting in place, like he’s doing anything he can not to finish his statement. “Her name is Kate Argent, she’s Allison’s aunt.”

He says it all in a rush, his words all running together like he thinks it’ll be easier to deal with the faster he says it, and Stiles can sort of understand why because Scott looks like he’s going to have a heart attack.

“What…what…why….how…” Scott stammers and Stiles agrees, those are four very excellent questions.

“Kate is the Silver Arrow. Seven years ago, she killed my family and she tried to use me to do it.”

Stiles shakes his head, trying to make sense of the words that Derek is saying. “What do you mean, she used you? Used you how?”

Derek levels a glare at Stiles that both scares him and turns him on in equal measures.

“I was sixteen years old, Stiles. She was a grown woman. How do you think she used me?”

“Oh.” Stiles swallows hard as images start flooding his mind of sixteen year old Derek and the tall, athletic woman in the alley. He never got a good look at her face, but Allison is the kind of classically beautiful that make Stiles want to cry, and she had to get her looks from somewhere.

“She manipulated me,” Derek is saying when Stiles tunes back into the conversation, “made me fall in love with her so that I would tell her everything she wanted to know. My powers had just manifest and she wanted them for herself. She wanted to strip them from me. She was so pissed when she realized that whatever she was planning had failed, kept accusing me of lying, insisting that I had no powers because whatever she was using should have worked. She started asking about the rest of my family, kept getting madder when I told her that my mom had the only real, active power out of all of us. Cora and Peter’s powers hadn’t manifested yet and Laura took after my dad’s side of the family with her passive power.”

“What are Laura’s powers?” Scott asks, thankfully, because Stiles’ tongue is still somehow stuck to the roof of his mouth.

Derek huffs a laugh. “She…she can sense peoples’ emotions. It’s not the sort of power you brag about.”

Stiles blanches. “Oh, my God! Is why she always had that little smirk on her face when she sees the two of us together?”

Derek blushes. Stiles is oddly fascinated by the way the tips of his ears turn pink. “Laura was the one to tell me I had feelings for you. She’s spent the last couple months trying to get me to ask you out.”

Stiles grins for less than a second before he frowns. “Why didn’t you? Why did you wait so long?”

“Because I didn’t want things between us to change. We were good friends, Stiles, I didn’t want to lose that in case it didn’t work out.”

“Why would you think we wouldn’t work out?”

“Okay, no. Stop this, right now,” Scott orders. “We don’t have time for you two to deconstruct your relationship. There’s some sort of foreign matter swimming around in Derek’s blood. That needs to be our priority right now.”

Derek nods. “That and the fact that I think I’m losing my powers.”

He says the words so casually, so offhandedly, that it takes Stiles a second or two before the meaning of the words hit him, but when they do, he’s scrambling for Derek, checking him all over for injuries that he knows aren’t there.

“What? Are you…do you feel okay? I know Scott healed you, but do you feel okay?”

Derek grabs his hands, stilling him and drawing him closer at the same time. “I feel fine.” He presses a kiss to Stiles’ lips. “But I’m beginning to think that whatever is in my blood is probably related to the fact that I’ve lost my powers, and I’m also thinking that Kate was probably the one who put whatever it is into my blood.”

Stiles stares at Derek for a second or two before he pushes himself to his feet and reaches for his cellphone in the front pocket of his pants.

“This sounds like a job for Lydia.”

Chapter 9

Lydia Martin.

Derek doesn’t know much about her, they’ve never really spoken one on one before, they always just seem to be hanging out with the same people, usually on opposite sides of the room.

But he does remember all the years when she was all Stiles could talk about. That, and his ten year plan to win her over and how they were going to live happily ever after. Cora used to come home from school and complain about it all the time, because Lydia has been dating Jackson Whittmore since they were fifteen and it doesn’t look like they’re going to break up any time soon.

When Derek had started to realize he had feelings for Stiles, Lydia was all he could think about. Because Derek Hale is probably as polar opposite to Lydia Martin as anyone was likely to get.

And though he hasn’t mentioned her for the last few months, Derek still gets insanely jealous when Stiles all but throws himself at Lydia when she walks through the door.

“Lydia, I…thanks, you know, for coming.”

“You said it was an emergency,” Jackson and Stiles glares at him, as if he could make him disappear with just a look.

Derek has never managed to get a clear read on Stiles’ – Keychain’s – powers, so for all he knows, Stiles may very well be capable of just that. He did manage to get Derek and himself from that alley to Scott’s living room with nothing more than a wave of his hand.

“Yes, Jackson, I did say it was an emergency. What I didn’t say was that you should tag along like you’re stuck to Lydia’s side. You’ll have to learn how to fend for yourself sometime, you know. Got to cut the cord, Whittmore.”

“Fuck you, Stilinski,” Jackson mutters.

Stiles shakes his head and points to Derek. “Nah, he’s the only one who gets to do that.”

The blush Derek can see stealing across Stiles’ face might have been cute in any other situation, but Derek’s too busy trying to make his own blush disappear that he doesn’t have much time to appreciate it.

Stiles making a point to explain their relationship to the new people in the room seems like it should be a good thing for Derek, and on the surface, he thinks it probably is. Stiles isn’t embarrassed about the two of them dating, even though there’s a lot that he probably could be embarrassed about, considering Derek’s so much older than Stiles and a guy. He’s also not deaf, he has enhanced hearing after all, he can hear what people whisper about him when he passes them in the street, how they all see him as some loser living off of his parents’ insurance payouts and lazing about on his ass all day.

A few words in the right ears would clear up that misunderstanding – an artist who works from home doesn’t really have a regular office space nor a nine-to-five lifestyle – but Derek has always been a private person. Having people gossip about their misunderstandings about him are better – in Derek’s opinion – than them gossiping about his real life.

Though, dating the Sheriff’s teenaged son is probably not going to help him maintain that plateau.

On the other hand, Stiles could be doing this, all of this, as some sort of elaborate ruse to make Lydia jealous, maybe hoping that seeing him with someone else would be enough for Lydia to realize her feelings and declare her undying love for Stiles and the two of them would run away into the sunset together and live happily ever after and have a bunch of super smart little mini Stiles’ and oh God, Derek’s babbling in his own head.

Stiles is rubbing off on him already.

The strawberry blonde in question nods her head and Derek, an impressed look on her delicately pretty face. Derek can definitely see what Stiles sees in her and she’s about as different to Derek as it’s possible to get.

“Not bad, Stiles,” Lydia informs him gently. “I approve.”

Stiles grins and throws himself on the couch next to Derek. “I know, right?”

The expression on Stiles’ face isn’t one of infatuation. It’s honest and open and full of something that Derek doesn’t have the nerves to name just yet and he feels like a complete heel for questioning Stiles’ for even a second.

Jackson snorts. “Okay, great, Stiles is getting some from the town loser. Can we get to the point of this little pow wow?”

“First of all,” Stiles says forcefully, beating Derek to the punch, “the so-called ‘town loser-” he’s even using air quotes, which Derek doesn’t find adorable “- is actually a world renowned illustrator. And secondly, he’s also Remus, so get your facts straight before you start slinging mud.”

Jackson’s eyes grow wide and he looks at Derek with renewed interest. The intensity in his gaze makes Derek squirm in his seat.

“You’re Remus? Seriously? That’s…man, I’ve been following your work for years. That thing you did when you found that kid in the Preserve? That was so awesome, man, I gotta tell you. The way you used your senses like-”

“Hey, Jackson?” Scott interrupts. “I think you might have a little problem in your pants right there, you wanna go to the bathroom and take care of it? There’s lotion under the sink, you know, just in case.”

Derek sniggers quietly behind his hand but Stiles has no such composure or manners, and bursts into hysterical giggles right there on the couch.

Jackson blushes scarlet and slumps into a chair. “Fucking assholes, I hate all of you. I don’t even know what I’m doing here.”

“Neither do I, since you weren’t invited!” Stiles yells at him, humor all but gone.

“No, but I was, and we were hanging out so I just thought I made sense to bring Jackson and Danny along. I didn’t think it was going to be an issue.”

Danny. Danny has stayed quiet up until now, but Derek can still see the ghost of a smile around the corner of Danny’s lips as he watches Jackson sulk in his chair.

Stiles sighs at Lydia “Look, I don’t really know how to say this, so I’m just gonna come right out and say it – I think you have some kind of super power, a power that can figure out the chemical makeup of anything. We need you to do your thing on Derek’ blood. He was hit with an arrow earlier today and Scott fixed him all up, but he says there’s something in Derek’s blood that he can’t get rid of. We were hoping you could tell us what it is, because we think it’s messing with Derek’s powers.”

Lydia gives Derek an assessing look, like she’s trying to figure out if Derek is actually worthy of her time and Derek tries to look as guileless and innocent as possible, but he’s been told, numerous times, mostly by Laura and Cora, that he has a ‘resting bitch face’ that he can’t really do anything about, so he’s not sure how much help he’s being in this situation.

“I’m going to need some of his blood,” she says simply and starts taking off her coat, not denying the fact that she has a power and Derek blanches.

“Excuse me? No one told me I’d have to donate for this cause.”

“It’s my power,” Lydia explains, “I can…well, to put it simply, you give me a liquid and I can tell you the exact components and solutions that make up that liquid. So, if there’s something in your blood, I should be able to isolate it and break it down to its exact chemical makeup.”

“I can draw your blood so that you won’t have to, like, bleed into a bowl or something,” Scott offers and Derek looks around the room at the five people surrounding him.

When he woke up this morning, with Stiles curled under his arm and snoring indelicately and just looking so fucking beautiful that Derek found it hard to pull himself away and exactly three people knew about Derek’s life as a superhero – Laura, Cora and Peter. And then the Sheriff dropped the bomb that he knew, and now Stiles and Scott and Lydia and these two other boys that Derek only marginally tolerates are all aware that Derek puts on a mask and puts his life on the line to protect the town from people who wish to destroy it and he’s not sure how he was supposed to deal with any of this.

Instead, he decides that he has to deal with the problems at hand before he can deal with his future and what this might mean for him and he nods at Scott and pulls up the sleeve of his shirt.

It takes a while for Scott to find a vein – he’s used to working on animals, not people – but eventually, the healer has a syringe full of Derek’s bright red blood and Lydia beckons for it.

“I don’t know what, exactly, you’re expecting to get out of this,” she says as she transfers the blood into a clean white bowl from Scott’s kitchen.

Derek makes a mental note to accidentally break it on purpose before he leaves. Even just the thought of someone eating out of that bowl now that it has been filled with Derek’s blood makes him extremely nauseous.

“Well, if we can figure out the ingredients of the serum,” Stiles says carefully, “then maybe we can reverse engineer it and find a way to stop it or cure it or…something.”

Lydia inclines her head, looking oddly impressed and annoyed for being so. “Alright, you have a point. Does anyone have a notepad and a pen?”

Danny gives her the requested items and she takes everything to the dining table, turning her back to all of them while she does her thing.

“So…do you all have powers?” Derek asks after it’s been quiet for too long and he’s jumping out of his skin. The only thing keeping him on the couch is Stiles, pressed up closed and his hand in Derek’s. It’s a comforting thing that Derek didn’t know he needed.

At the other end of the couch, Scott snorts a laugh. “Jackson doesn’t.”

Jackson squawks. “How do you even know that?!”

“You over compensate, dude,” Stiles sniggers, “It’s so fucking obvious that you’re flying solo. But, you know, you make it work for you.”

“No, I don’t have any powers.” The teenager is actually pouting and Derek has to physically stop himself from laughing and it’s only then that Derek realizes that everyone else in the room does have powers, as do a lot of other people in Stiles’ social circle, like Scott’s girlfriend, Allison, and Derek’s sister, Cora, and foster-brother, Isaac.

Being the only non-powered person in the group must have some kind of effect on Jackson and Derek spends a little too much time wondering just who exactly this guy pretends to be to make up for that, if it was so obvious to Scott and Stiles without either of them knowing for sure.

His animosity towards Stiles probably has something to do with it.

Before he can contemplate Danny’s powers, Derek is hit hard with the realization that none of these people had any real idea about the others, none of them knew that Derek and Stiles were two of the masked heroes running around Beacon Hills, and yet, they’re still here. Even after finding out that someone shot Derek up with something that is putting his powers at risk, they haven’t run away.

Even Jackson, who definitely has no reason to stay and should run at the first opportunity.

But he’s still here, still willing to do whatever’s asked of him to help someone he doesn’t even know that well, and despite the supposed animosity between him and Stiles, Stiles still has enough faith in Jackson to trust him with the secret of not only his own powers, but everyone else’s as well.

Maybe Derek should start listening to Peter. Closing himself off has done nothing to help him. Not when he compares himself to Stiles.

“What was with that body?” Stiles asks suddenly and the other three boys suddenly sit up straighter in their chairs.

“Body?” Danny repeats, eagerness practically oozing from him. “You guys found a body?”

Derek takes a deep breath. If he’s really going to do this…this whatever with Stiles, he should probably learn right now that with Stiles came Stiles’ friends. Whatever happens from here on out with Keychain and Remus, Stiles’ friends were probably going to be a part of it, at least in some capacity.

“I found four, actually,” Derek says carefully, gauging reactions, but the boys just looked intrigued. “I’d been tracking the scents all over town all day, checking in with the Sheriff, but so far, no one has any leads or even speculations.”

“Did you recognize anyone?” Jackson inquires fervently, leaning forward in his chair. “Are the bodies people we know?” Derek should probably be concerned about this kid’s blood lust.

“Heather, yesterday, but the ones we found today, there’s no way to tell if I knew any of the,” he says carefully. “Their faces were messed up pretty bad, like whoever killed them didn’t want them to be recognized. Plus, the Sheriff says that no one’s been reported missing in town lately, so the chances are that they were taken from somewhere else and dumped here. They’re waiting for DNA results and Missing Persons’ to tell them something.”

“Wonder if they’ve found anything out yet?” Danny wonders out loud as he stares off into the middle distance.

Scott stares at him, clearly weirded out. “What is his doing?”

Jackson snorts. “That’s Danny’s power. It’s called Technopathy. He’s basically got the internet in his head and he can hack into any computer, tablet or phone that’s connected to Wi-Fi or anything like that.”

Derek hums. “Convenient.”

Danny shrugs. “Sure, sometimes, but other times it gets a bit weird, you know? Have you tried watching porn when the pictures are beaming straight into your head?”

“Can’t say that I have.”

“It’s really awkward, just, FYI.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Next to him on the couch, Stiles starts giggling again, burying his head in Derek’s chest and Derek takes just a moment to bask in the touch, to know that Stiles is safe and sound for the moment, no matter what happens or doesn’t with Derek’s powers and Kate and whatever it is that she’s planning. It won’t stay that way forever, of course, because this is Kate and things are never easy around Kate. She comes in and she fucks things up and she doesn’t care who or what she hurts or kills along her way.

Derek leans forward and gently presses a kiss to Stiles’ hair, smiling faintly when he hears Stiles’ hum in contentment.

“Urgh,” Jackson grunts, “if I’d known I was going to come over here and watch the two of you make heart eyes at each other, I would have just stayed at the movies.”

“Once again, Jackson,” Scott speaks slowly, like he’s not sure Jackson can keep up, “no one asked you to come here. You want to leave? Door’s over there. Or I’ll make you one! I can literally send you to any place on earth you want to go.”

Derek isn’t really surprised when Jackson makes no move to leave, instead settles back further into his chair, but he’s eying Stiles with open curiosity, like he’s going to take Stiles up on his offer some point in the future. He might put up a fight, but Derek can already tell that Jackson actually likes all of the people in this room, including Derek. Or, at least, the Derek that’s underneath Remus’ mask.

“Hmm,” Danny says suddenly. “The coroner’s office still have no ID’s on the bodies, but they say that they were killed by a clean shot through the heart with a projectile similar to the arrows found at the scene. The last body also had a lot of other arrow-like wounds, almost like the shooter was having fun before delivering the final blow. And, all of them had their faces and hands marked up and their teeth smashed in.”

“Trying to destroy any chances of ID’ing the poor bastards,” Jackson huffs.

Danny sounds like he’s reading straight from the coroner’s notes and Derek just has time to consider the damage that Danny could cause to the country – no, the world. If he had the right motivation.

“It also says that there was some sort of residue in the wound, something that couldn’t identify. Something no one has ever seen or heard of before today.”

“Like the same stuff that’s in Derek’s blood?” Scott queries and it’s an answer that Derek would really like to know, too.

“Did they have powers? The people who were killed?” Stiles asks, casting his eyes to Danny, who just shrugs.

“If they did, it’s not something that you can identify just by looking.”

Derek cranes his neck so that he can look down at the top of Stiles’ head. “What are you thinking?”

“What if they had powers and she took those, too? What if she’s collecting powers? She said she had one more to go, or maybe two, when she looked at me, she upped to two.”

Stiles shuffles and shifts until he’s sitting on his knees on the couch cushion, looking into Derek’s eyes.

“She used telekinesis to get that bolt out of you, she made sure she left with it, with it covered in your blood and whatever it was that she introduced to your system. What if the serum on the bolt somehow enabled her to extract your power from the blood while the serum that was put into your blood stream mutated until it locked on to whatever it is that gives you your power and, like suppressed it?”

Jackson gives a reluctant nod. “It makes sense, if you squint. If the dead folks had powers and she took them, there’d be no way of telling. Plus, we’re never going to find out what powers she’s taken or for what reason.”

Derek grins. “I know how we can find out about the powers. Still working on the reason.”

Stiles sits back a little until he can see Derek clearly. “How? You know someone who can talk to dead people?”

Derek lets a grin stretch across his face. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

Stiles’ eyes grow wide and he starts bouncing in place, but Derek can see something in his amber brown eyes that says that the boy is feeling something more than excitement. “Seriously? You know someone who can do that? I mean, do they…is it just a recently dead thing or…or anyone? Can they see the dead person or just talk?”

Derek makes another mental note to ask Stiles what this is all about when things are less intense, but for now, he simply shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know, I’ve never actually seen him do it. All I know is that it’s easier with the recently dead and he needs something that belongs to the victim, something personal, in order to connect to them. Or the body itself, I think that works.”

“Wow,” Stiles breathes, looking awed.

“Here.”

Stiles and Derek both start as a sheet of paper is shoved under their noses and they glance up.

“You did it?” Stiles asks. “You figured out what’s in his blood?”

She nods. “It’s a combination of things, chemicals all mixed together. When it was introduced to the blood, it latched on to whatever it is that gives us our powers, whatever chemical makeup that makes us different, and isolated it, cutting off the access to it. It’s why your powers are gone, Derek. They’re still technically there, she’s just blocked your access to them.”

Derek stares at her, suddenly seeing her in a completely different light. “You can tell all that just by looking at some of my blood in a bowl?”

“I’m a genius,” Lydia says simply, and Derek isn’t inclined to disagree.

“So, can you fix Derek?” Scott speaks up suddenly. “Can you get rid of all that stuff in his blood? Or find a way to counter act it? Like and antidote or something?”

Lydia pauses, like she’s thinking everything over in her head. “I…I might be. I’m making no promises, but if I can recreate the serum exactly, I might be able to figure out an antidote.”

Jackson suddenly claps his hands together, startling the room at large. “Alright, so, what? We need to find the shit to remake this serum crap, break into the morgue to speak to the dead people and hunt down the crazy person who is responsible for all of it. The six of us. Right, shouldn’t be too hard.”

“We’re gonna need Cora,” Derek wonders aloud, “she has the same power as I do. And she knows Kate. She’ll be able to track her down to wherever she’s hiding out.”

“Jackson and I can go to the high school and find the things I’ll need for the serum,” Lydia says and Derek nods his approval.

“I can go to the morgue with Isaac and talk to the bodies,” he says and Stiles chokes on nothing.

“Isaac? Isaac is the talking-to-dead-people-guy? Wow, I did not see that coming.” He snorts. “And the award for creepiest superpower goes to Isaac Lahey.”

“I’ll have to go to the morgue with you,” Danny says suddenly, ignoring Stiles completely. “You’ll need help getting in there and past all the security stops. This might be Beacon Hills but they still won’t let a couple of teenagers just waltz into the morgue and poke at the corpses.”

“Hey.” Derek points a finger at him. “I graduated college.”

Stiles groans. “Oh, God, you did. You’re, like, twenty-five and we’re dating and my father can read minds, so he probably already knows.” He grips Derek’s shirt, suddenly panicked. “You should run while you still can.”

Derek rolls his eyes and leans around Stiles to look at Scott. “You should call Allison. She needs to know, it’s her aunt and she has the same power as Kate. We might need her.”

Scott sighs and gets to his feet. “Yeah, she’s really going to love me when I tell her that her aunt is a serial killer who’s stealing the powers of people in town and we have to hunt her down and stop her.”

“Hey, if she’s any sort of decent person, then she’ll want to help,” Stiles points out, determined.

Scott just mumbles something under his breath and leaves the room with his cellphone.

“We’re going to the school,” Lydia announces. “Come on, Jackson.” She flounces out the door without waiting on him and the boy just dutifully follows

Stiles jumps to his feet. “Jackson, wait, I…” he trails off, clearly not knowing what to say and Jackson just looks back at him.

“This isn’t your fight,” Derek says, somehow understanding what Stiles is trying to do, but also unable to speak the words. He doesn’t really know Jackson, he can just see the weird relationship between him and Stiles and Stiles’ friends. It’s not one that Derek can understand, but it’s not for him to get in the middle of, at least, not until they fix everything. If they can fix everything.

Jackson shrugs. “Lydia’s in this, and for reasons that I still don’t understand, you guys are my friends. Pretty sure you’d do the same for me.”

Derek nods, because it’s true, but when he looks at Stiles, he’s surprised to find his boyfriend nodding, too. Whatever animosity is between him and Jackson, it obviously doesn’t come between their friendship.

“I’ll call Isaac, he can meet us at the morgue, and I’ll get him to tell Cora to meet you at the alley where we saw Kate last.”

Stiles struggles to his feet and follows Derek out into the hallway. “Wait, I’m coming with you.”

Derek doesn’t fight the urge to roll his eyes. “Stiles, I don’t have any powers and out of all of us on this mission right now, you are the one who has the most useful powers. You need to be with Cora going after Kate, because you can get everyone out of there if anything goes wrong. I’m not going to need anything like that at the morgue watching Isaac talking to some dead people. It’ll be fine.”

Stiles fists a hand in the front of Derek’s shirt and pulls him close, kissing him long and hard and even without Laura’s powers of sensing emotions, Derek knows what Stiles means with that kiss and he gives back everything he’s getting and more and he promises himself that they’ll really talk about this as soon as this is all sorted.

For now, he pushes Stiles away and unlocks his phone to call Isaac.

He doesn’t look at Stiles again. He won’t be able to help himself if he does.

Chapter 10

They track Kate down to the Preserve and Stiles really shouldn’t be surprised. Everything she’s been doing, it seems, has revolved around the Hales, the same as it did eight years ago, so it would make sense that she wanted her super-secret hideout to be close by.

Though that still doesn’t give Stiles or the rest of them any idea as to what Kate’s plan actually is.

“The only thing she wanted was Derek,” Cora says as Stiles throws a portal that takes him, Cora, Scott and Allison away from Kate’s base – a crooked little building that Stiles thinks was probably a house at some point – and back to Derek’s loft, where they all planned to meet up after their respective missions.

“This is such a cool power,” Scott simpers as he steps out of the portal and into Derek’s living room. Stiles takes a second to bask in the praise before Allison throws her quiver of arrows clear across the room.

Stiles turns to look at her just in time to see her drop down onto Derek’s couch and put her face in her hands.

None of them know what to do, so they all stand around awkwardly until Allison manages to pull herself together after a few long, deep breaths. She drags her fingers through her hair and looks up at the three of them, forcing a wide grin onto her pretty face.

“I’m sorry, but this is such bullshit,” she curses desperately. “Kate and I used to be close growing up, you know? Yeah, she was older, but she wasn’t as old as my parents and she was the closest thing I had to a sister, I thought I knew her. I thought there wasn’t anyone in the world that I knew better than Kate. And yet, I’m sitting here right now after learning that she’s killed a whole bunch of people, and she wants to kill more? How…how is it possible to be so wrong about someone?”

“People hide stuff,” Cora says bluntly, munching on an apple she apparently stole from the kitchen. “It’s just life, you can’t know everything about someone, it’s just not the way it works. Yeah, some people hide more than others, but everyone inevitably keeps something back from everyone. Kate’s was just a really, really big something.”

Stiles watches as Scott and Allison share a look, mostly full of denial at Cora’s words, but he can see the realization creeping in around the edges. Stiles thinks about what Derek could be keeping from him, secret powers and identity aside, and what he could be keeping from Derek. He doesn’t think it’s anything big, probably just little stuff, like the fact that he loves raw carrots and hates penguins, but he has to admit that Cora has a point and the fact that he’ll never know every single thing about the person he wants to spend the rest of his life with upsets him more than Kate wanting to kill them all.

He looks around the living room. With Derek seemingly at the top of Kate’s hit list, maybe hiding out at Derek’s loft wasn’t such a bright move.

“That still doesn’t explain why she wants to kill Derek and his family,” Allison points out, “if that’s still her goal. What possible reason could she have for that?”

“Because she’s power hungry.”

All four of them turn to see Laura Hale walk into the room, looking respectable in her deputy’s uniform.

“Laura?” Cora asks, taking a step forward, but she’s prevented from questioning her mother any further by the sound of the front door opening and their little band of morgue raiders practically fall into the house.

“You can check off the box that says ‘is Kate collecting powers?’” Danny calls out as he drops his bag next to the door of the living room before he joins Allison and Scott on the couch. “Also, Isaac’s power is so badass. Like, seriously, he was talking to these people like they were right in front of him.”

“They all had powers?” Stiles asks as Derek crosses the room him. “All the bodies that you found today, they all had powers?” Derek nods, but there’s something else in his eyes that Derek doesn’t really like. “What? What is it?”

Derek clears his throat. “Your friend, the one who…”

“Heather,” Stiles provides and Derek nods again.

“Her body is still in the morgue. I remembered you saying that they didn’t know who did it and they had no idea why someone would kill her, so I asked Isaac to talk to her.”

“Oh.” It’s the only word Stiles can think to say. It never occurred to him that Isaac’s powers would be able to help Heather or her parents.

“She had telekinesis.”

Stiles’ mind flashes back to the alley, when the arrow had been torn out of Derek’s shoulder with the power of Kate’s mind alone and he doesn’t need Derek or any of them to say anything more. “Right, okay then. Lydia, has anyone…”

Derek’s hand finds the back of his neck when he can’t find the words and Stiles lets himself lean into the touch, taking comfort in the warmth of Derek behind him, the strength that is completely inside him, powers or no powers.

“I called them on the way here,” Danny tells him. “She said she’s managed to actually recreate the serum, but she hasn’t managed to even think about an antidote yet.”

“Antidote?” Laura repeats. “Look, does someone want to tell me what on earth is going on here?”

Cora looks like she’s being caused actual, physical pain as she rolls her eyes and turns to her mother. “Kate Argent is back in town.”

“Yes, thank you, I got that part.”

“She stole my power,” Derek says softly and Laura’s eyes swing to him.

“She did it? She actually managed to do it?” Derek nods and Laura drops down onto the coffee table. “God, I always thought she was so full of shit. I didn’t think she was actually capable of doing something like this. I didn’t think it was possible at all.”

“Neither did we,” Allison mumbles. She raises her hand in the air. “Same power as Kate,” she mumbles.

“I knew you were Huntress,” Stiles says, pointing at her accusingly.

Laura sighs. “Mom said she was dangerous. She tried to talk Dad into killing Kate, just so that something like this didn’t happen. But you guys know what Dad was like, he was so passive, so against violence. I should have just put a bullet in her head and called it a day.”

“And now she’s killing people all over town and taking their powers so that she can gear up for something that’s probably gonna be pretty epically bad for everyone.” Cora gives her mother a sarcastic thumbs up. “Way to go, Dad.”

Laura gives her sister a clip around the back of her head before she turns her attention to her brother. “Do we know what she’s planning?”

“We think she’s coming after us,” Derek says, “finish what she started.”

Stiles narrows his eyes at Laura. “You said she was power hungry. How do you know that?”

Cora snorts. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Well, I mean, yes, but…but why? Is it just purely for the knowledge that she’s more powerful than everyone else? Or does she have something specific in mind? Why steal Derek’s power? Why not go after mine or Scott’s?”

“It’s revenge,” Laura murmurs. “She wants Derek to be powerless so that he can’t stop whatever it is that she’s planning.”

“And what’s that?” Scott asks and Stiles clears his throat.

“She went after the Hales that night because she thought they were the ones responsible for her not getting what she wants, right?” the siblings nod. “Well, that night, there were four Hales who didn’t die. I think she wants to finish the job and without Derek’s power, it’s almost impossible for him to save everyone.”

“That’s what she wants,” Isaac says quietly, “she wants to watch you stand by because you can’t save them. That’s her end goal.”

Danny raises his hand. “Can I just say that that is a really stupid plan? I mean, as plans go, it’s pretty sucky. She doesn’t even get anything out of it. She’s not…she’s not gaining anything.”

“She’s getting a whole bunch of new powers,” Cora gripes, “that’s gotta be a check in the plus column.”

“Powers that aren’t hers,” Allison points out. “She’s gonna struggle to control them.”

“That’s our way in,” Stiles says suddenly. “We know what these powers are so we turn them against her. We…we…we bombard her, attack her from all sides, split her focus, make the powers attack her.”

“Alright, General Custer,” Scott laughs, “but in all seriousness, we do need an actual plan. We know where she is, or at the very least, we know where she’s using as her base. Should we just…stake it out and hit her when she shows up?”

Derek nods. “I don’t much like the idea of hanging around waiting for her to show herself, but at the same time, we don’t know where she is right now. I don’t want to do this in the middle of the street or at the mall.”

“Well, until she shows herself there’s not really much we can do,” Isaac points out gently.

“And once again, Kate’s the one holding all the cards. Great.” Derek turns on his heel and heads for the spiral staircase in the corner of the room, taking the steps two at a time until he disappears from view.

The others continue to argue, pointing out different tactics and offensive maneuvers that might work against Kate, but Stiles just can’t right now and he leaves them to it and follows Derek up the stairs. The room is hazy in the afternoon sunlight, nothing more than a bed for when Isaac or Cora stay over and Stiles’ belly twists when he spots Derek curled up the middle of the bed, shaking minutely.

“Derek,” he whispers softly. When Derek doesn’t answer him, he climbs up onto the bed, flailing around for a minute until he can fit himself against Derek’s back in a position reminiscent of their scene out in the living room. Derek grabs Stiles’ hand and holds on tight.

“This isn’t your fault,” Stiles says to the back of his neck, pressing a kiss at the exposed skin.

“Isn’t it?” Derek squirms closer. “I let her into my life, I told her everything about my family, everything she needed to know in order to kill them.”

“You couldn’t have possibly known what she was planning. There’s no way anyone could hold you responsible for what Kate did. It doesn’t matter what you told her, it doesn’t matter that you were dating her. She’s the one who took the information she had and decided to use it to kill a dozen innocent people.”

Derek shifts on the bed until he’s facing Stiles. He looks devastated, his face pale, eyes red and wet, like there are tears just waiting to spill even as he looks at Stiles like Stiles will disappear if Derek so much as blinks.

“I could have stopped this once and for all. I could have killed her, Stiles, and then she wouldn’t be here right now, and those people wouldn’t be dead. I should have killed her, Stiles, and we would be fine.”

Stiles shakes his head and reaches out to cup Derek’s face in his hand. “No, Derek, we both know that you wouldn’t be sitting here with me right now if you had killed Kate that night.”

“Stiles-”

“No, Derek, because you’re not capable of that. Look how you reacted when I portaled that guy the other day. You thought I’d killed him and you couldn’t even look me in the eye.”

“I didn’t know that was you, though, I thought-”

“It doesn’t matter, Derek, you were still uncomfortable with the fact that you thought that you’d be partially responsible for someone winding up dead. You’re not the kind of person who could kill someone and be okay about it. Cora and Laura are the same, for all they bitch and act like they’re better than everyone else.”

That gets a laugh out of Derek and he snuggles closer. “I hate that you know me so well. It takes all the mystery out of this.”

Stiles snorts. “Don’t you think we have enough mystery without there being mystery here, too?”

Derek cups the back of Stiles’ head. “I don’t want there to be mystery. I just want there to be us.”

“We are just us,” Stiles promises. “I swear, whatever happens or doesn’t happen with Kate, it’ll be you and me, always.”

“What if I never get my powers back?”

Stiles rakes his eyes over Derek, takes in the open, vulnerable look in his ice green eyes. “Derek, I fell for you long before I found out that you were Remus. Yes, Remus was part of the reason I decided to put on a mask. But, personally, this isn’t a deal breaker. I’m not gonna stop seeing you because you can’t smell me from a hundred miles away.”

“Slight exaggeration, Stiles.”

“But you get my point. Powers or no powers, I just want you.”

He watches as Derek searches his face, like he’s looking for something, like his looking for the truth.

He must find what he’s looking for because he surges forward, pressing his lips against Stiles in a hungry, desperate kiss, his tongue sweeping into Stiles’ mouth without bothering to pause and ask for permission.

Stiles just goes with it, rolling onto his back as Derek settles over him, between his legs.

Derek’s hands scramble beneath his shirt, thumbs sweeping Stiles’ nipples and Stiles’ gasps. He can feel himself growing hard in his pants and he rocks his hips up, finding an answering hardness in Derek’s jeans.

“Oh, God, your sisters are literally in the next room. Cora can probably hear everything we’re doing right now,” Stiles all but growls, his voice low and gravelly from arousal. Derek doesn’t answer, just moves away from Stiles’ lips and down to his throat and Stiles just gives in, throws his head back against Derek’s pillow and resigns himself to the fact that he’s going to get off with his boyfriend with his friends just downstairs.

It’s not like Scott and Allison haven’t done the same thing. Stiles is still convinced Allison gave Scott and hand job when they all went to the movies last month.

His hips find a rhythm against Derek’s, the two of them panting into each other’s mouths as they grow closer and closer to the edge, both of them moaning loudly, gasping and crying out each other’s name.

Stiles comes with his fingers digging into the meat of Derek’s ass, his fingernails scraping against the denim almost painfully and Derek’s teeth buried in the juncture where Stiles’ neck meets his shoulder.

“Come on,” he whispers into Derek’s ear, running his fingers through Derek’s dark hair.

“Stiles,” Derek grunts, pulling back until he can look Stiles in the eye. The rhythm of his hips grows faster as he chases his orgasm and Stiles urges him on with words and touches, presses sweet, chaste kisses to any part of Derek he can reach.

Suddenly, Derek stills, his whole body growing tenses as he comes, his eyes never leaving Stiles’.

“Wow,” Stiles breathes, his chest heaving, “that was intense.”

Derek huffs a breathy laugh and rolls onto his back.

“I can’t believe I did that when my sisters are less than twenty feet away.”

“We’re stealthy, baby, it’s why we’re so good at what we do.”

Derek’s smile fades as he turns to stare at the ceiling. “Used to be.”

“And you will be again.” Stiles rolls in to press another kiss to Derek’s throat just as the bedroom door bursts open and Isaac’s face appears around the bannister.

“Hey, we’re-” he stops and wrinkles his nose, making a disgusted face once he gets a look at the two of them. “Oh, God, seriously? With all of us right there?”

Stiles shrugs. “When you’ve got a love like ours, you can’t stop to think about propriety.”

His heart skips a beat when he realizes what he’s said. Neither of them have confessed that word yet, it’s been less than a two days, after all, since their first date, and while Stiles is pretty sure that’s what the tight, knotting sensation he gets in his stomach every time he looks at Derek means, he’s completely not sure that Derek is feeling anything remotely similar. He knows Derek, knows how hard it is for him to open up to people, how wary he is of being hurt again.

He knows it’s too soon to be throwing that word around and he hopes like hell that Derek just skips right over it, pretends he didn’t hear it so that Stiles can pretend he never said it and they can avoid it like the fucking plague and isn’t that a great way to start a relationship?

Instead of ignoring it, however, Derek reaches down and take’s Stiles’ hand, squeezing tightly once, even though he doesn’t say anything.

It’s not a declaration of undying love, but it’s not rejection, either. Derek isn’t telling him that it’s too soon or that he doesn’t think of this as anything more than a fling, and for now, it’s good enough for Stiles. He’ll let Derek get there are his own pace, even if he thinks he’s already there.

Isaac, bless him, either ignores the whole awkward situation or misses it entirely, because he just rolls his eyes and barrels on with whatever he barged in to say.

“Laura says that we’re going after Kate now. She says we can’t let her have any more time to do whatever she’s doing. Cora says she can track her down.”

“I’m still not sure I’m comfortable doing this in a public place,” Derek admits, “but surprise is probably the only thing we have right now.”

Isaac blinks at them, clearly waiting for them to get to their feet and raises an eyebrow at them when they don’t move. “Well? Come on, guys, we have to do this.”

“Uh,” Stiles blushes while Derek sniggers next to him. “We might need a few minutes to show first.”

Isaac makes a frustrated noise and stomps away.

“Shower?” Derek repeats.

Stiles grins. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“You might want to make it a quick one,” a voice says from behind them and Stiles turns to see a man standing at the top of the spiral staircase where Isaac at stood moments ago.

“Peter?” Derek asks, shuffling to the end of the bed.

The man – Peter – grins. “I think I have something you’re looking for.”

Stiles and Derek shower as quickly as possible – sharing to save time and not for any other reason whatsoever. When they get back downstairs, hair still wet and clothes sticking to them uncomfortably, Peter is standing next to the window and everyone is staring at him.

“Were you always this creepy before you had this power? I don’t remember you being this creepy.” Laura is saying while Cora laughs next to her. Isaac looks uncomfortable and Scott, Allison and Danny just look really, really confused.

“Let’s discuss my creepiness when there isn’t a familiar looking blonde woman currently monologue-ing over my poor defenseless prone body,” Peter snarks.

“Wait a minute, is that your uncle?” Scott says but Stiles is pretty sure no one’s listening to him at this point.

“Kate’s at the hospital?” Derek asks, jumping to attention and yes, that’s probably the point Stiles should have been paying attention to.

Peter inclines his head. “I’m fairly certainly that was her, yes. It’s hard to forget the face of the woman who killed your entire family.”

“She’s there right now? You’re sure?” Derek presses, crossing the room to his uncle’s side.

“No, seriously, isn’t that the guy who’s supposed to be in a coma?” Scott is practically vibrating.

“After everything you’re seen, this is the bit that’s freaking you out?” Allison says calmly.

“It’s his power,” Isaac answers Scott, “he can astral project. Send his…spirit or whatever somewhere else while his physical body stays behind.”

“It only manifested the day of the fire,” Cora adds quietly. “It’s how he was able to tell Derek and Laura what was happening and tell them where he’d hidden me.”

Stiles has to admit, if only to himself, it’s a pretty cool power. One that Kate would probably like to have, if she’s even aware Peter possesses it.

“We have to go,” Laura says. “We have to go right now, we have to hit her now.”

“What, hitting her in a hospital is better than hitting her out in the open?” Danny snorts.

“Yes, because we can get the staff out of there and there shouldn’t be any visitors there this time. It’s the best we’re going to do right now and I refuse to wait any longer.”

“Gear up, I guess,” Isaac says and Allison strides across the loft to pick up her arrows.

“I just…I still don’t understand,” she says as she puts the spilled arrows back into their quiver. “It’s been years. It’s been almost a decade since she set that fire, since she…since she did what she did. Why would she come back now? What changed? Something must have piqued her interest.”

Stiles perks up, sitting up straighter. “Derek, you remember that news crew thing? After the bank robbery where you caught the guy in the alley and you walked him through one of my portals into a cell at the station? There was a news crew doing a thing on my dad and they saw us portaling in.”

Derek nods. “Yeah, I remember, but I wasn’t the one on camera, you were.”

Stiles had gone straight for the camera that day, bragging about how he and Remus had teamed up, how it had been his portal that allowed them to sneak into the bank in the first place. Fuck, looking back, Stiles really had been a little bit of a fame whore.

“I know that, dipshit, but you were in the background, talking to my dad about the guy we caught.”

Derek walks back over to Stiles, combing his fingers through Stiles’ hair. “Stiles, I was wearing a mask, that’s the whole point of a mask, to make sure people don’t recognize me.”

“Your shirt was torn.”

Derek grows tense, his hands leaving Stiles’ hair and Stiles sits up, turning to kneel on the couch so that he can face Derek.

“I remember I could see your tattoo, I was…I thought it was kinda hot. Honestly, thinking about it now, I can’t believe I missed it last night.”

Derek blushes hotly and wolf whistles fill the room but Stiles just grins regardless. He’s certainly not ashamed by what he and Derek did. Far from it.

“Hmm, I did notice you changed your sheets, Derek.”

“Wow, that just happened,” Isaac snorts. Allison throws a pillow at him.

Laura clears her throat and carries on heedlessly, even though Stiles can hear a smirk in her voice.

“Derek, you got that tattoo when you were sixteen. I’m assuming Kate saw it?”

Derek nods hesitatingly.

“You’re a hero now. I don’t think it’s too crazy a stretch to guess that she didn’t like that. It must have set something off in her and she decided she wanted to finish what she started. She never did think very rationally.”

Derek pushes himself away from Stiles and stumbles on his feet. “These people…she killed…those people are dead because of me. I got those people killed. Again.”

Stiles pulls himself to his feet. “Derek, come on, you can’t really think that, can you? Kate is…Kate is crazy. What goes on her head, what she’s done, that’s all on her, not you.”

Derek shakes his head. “No, Stiles, if she hadn’t seen me on TV, none of this would be happening right now.”

“And that’s my fault,” Stiles says sharply. “I was the one who pulled those cameras in there, I was the one who was showing off. Showing off for you, I might add, trying to get you to actually pay attention to me and stop thinking that I was some dumb kid too stupid to be doing this job.”

Derek just looks at Stiles sadly before he turns and walks away.

“Now might be a good time to mention that one of the guys that Kate killed was a fire starter,” Isaac says timidly, like he’s afraid of someone lashing out at him.

And Stiles is suddenly reminded of why Isaac is part of the Hale family in the first place – Isaac’s father had been beating him, abusing him. Cora had been the one to notice the bruises at school and called her brother. She and Derek had cornered him in the parking lot until he admitted everything. The next thing Stiles knew, Laura, newly minted deputy, was involved and Isaac had a brand new home, a brand new family and his father was behind bars.

And all of that means that Isaac probably shouldn’t be a part of whatever they’re about to do with Kate and Stiles desperately wants to portal him someplace safe until the fallout has passed, but he has a feeling that Isaac isn’t going to go anywhere, not if Cora and Derek and Laura are in the middle of it.

“Another one was invulnerable,” Danny adds, “until Kate shot her up with that serum. And the last one had invisibility.”

“We’re going now,” Laura says, suddenly in motion. “We need to get there, like, ten minutes ago, who’s got cars?”

Stiles looks up at Peter. “Where is it? Your…your care facility?”

“Beacon Hills Memorial. Private wing.”

Stiles throws a portal that opens into a nondescript looking hallway and Stiles waves his hand. “After you.”

Laura grins. “That is one neat little power.” She jumps into the portal and the others hurry to follow.

Danny pulls out his cellphone and glances around as Stiles and Derek look at him.

“What? I’m calling Jackson. We’re going to need that serum if we’re even thinking of attempting to take this chick down. Flame throwing and impervious? Please, we’re gonna need all the help we can get.”

Chapter 10

Stile’s portals apparently leave Derek a little queasy and just when he manages to get his stomach back under control, the smell of the hospital hits him and he feels queasy all over again. Even without his advanced powers, the smell overpowers him and he’s reminded of why he doesn’t stop by to see Peter more often.

He’s reminded of the other reason when Peter pops up next to him and points at the closed door in front of the group.

“She’s in there,” Peter stage whispers, pointing obviously. “She’s still talking, why do the bad guys have to talk so much? Must they detail every little bit of their plan as though they think no one can defeat them?”

“Kinda like what you’re doing now?” Cora snarks.

“Who is this guy?” Lydia asks, shifting closer to Jackson.

Stiles had picked her and Jackson up from the high school before they came here. Derek hasn’t had time to ask them what they found out or if Lydia has managed to find an antidote and it’s making him a little nervous that he’s still in the dark.

“Derek?” Stiles asks, his fingers tangling with Derek’s as they stand together. “Are you okay?”

Derek states at the door, behind which is the woman who wrecked his whole life.

“Bad memories,” he admits softly.

He looks over Stiles’ shoulder and Cora and Laura’s eyes snap to him, perceptive as ever. They give their brother sympathetic looks but Derek doesn’t return it, can’t return it. Knowing that he played a part in the deaths of his family and knowing that the woman who actually did it is less than ten feet away.

“Hey,” Stiles says sharply, drawing Derek’s attention back to him, “remember what I told you, none of this is your fault. Whatever happened, whatever’s gonna happen, this is all on Kate.”

“Aw, now that’s just not true,” a voice drawls, sending shivers down Derek’s spine, “is it, Laura?”

Kate walks out of the room, a bright, vibrant smile on her face as she talks to the people already surrounding her. She doesn’t look the least bit concerned by the fact that she’s outnumbered and Derek is left to wonder if there were other powers she’d taken that none of them realized.

“Kathrine,” Laura says sharply and something unpleasant clenches in Derek’s gut at the idea of letting his big sister fight his battles for him, but he can’t seem to make himself step up to the plate as Laura keeps talking. “Whatever you’re planning, whatever you’ve done, it was your choice. No one forced you.”

“No,” Kate insists, her voice lilting and melodious, “you forced me, Laura, you and the rest of your little family, and all your powers.”

Derek blinks, confused, but Cora speaks up before he has a chance to form words.

“That’s…that’s why you killed my family? Because…what, because we have better powers than you do?”

Kate points at Derek. “He doesn’t deserve what he had. He gave it up to the first pretty girl who batted her eyes at him. What kind of man is he that he’s willing to put everything aside for the person who loves him?”

“You didn’t love him,” Laura sneers, “you only went after Derek because you thought he could give you something you thought you deserved.”

Kate beams. She looks positively radiant under the dull electric lights and Derek is painfully reminded of the reason why he feel for her in the first place. He has never hated someone more.

“And he’s been so accommodating, hasn’t he? He’s finally given me what I so politely asked for, after all these years.”

“Yeah, you know we’re gonna get his powers back, right?” Stiles snaps and Derek wants to clamp his hand over Stiles’ mouth, just to keep him off of Kate’s radar.

But her piercing gaze snaps to Stiles and Stiles isn’t even wearing his mask to protect him. In fact, none of them even thought about protecting their identities before they marched their way to this show down and Derek’s hates himself even more for putting them in even more danger.

“Doesn’t really work that way, sweetheart,” Kate scoffs at Stiles. “Derek’s powers are mine now and by the end of this little pow wow, all of the rest of your powers will be mine, too.”

“That’s…that’s not exactly true,” Lydia says slowly.

Derek’s eyes tick to her and she’s standing between Jackson and Danny with her hand raised in the air like she’s in the middle of a classroom instead of a potentially life or death situation.

Kate sounds like she’s gritting her teeth. “What?”

“Well, Derek’s powers aren’t gone, they’re suppressed. All your serum does is block the body’s access to whatever part of him that houses his ability. He’s power is still there, I just have to reverse engineer your serum and find an antidote.”

Kate sniffs, but Derek can see that she suddenly doesn’t look so sure.

“You’ll never be able to find a way to fix him.”

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m a genius,” Lydia says with a wave of her hand. “It really won’t take me very long to reverse what you did.”

“It doesn’t matter. He’s powerless, isn’t he? The end result is the same, he’s powerless.”

“I thought your whole issue was that you wanted to take Derek’s powers so that you could have them?” Jackson asks, a comically confused look on his face. “The same as all those people you killed, you targeted them for their powers, right?”

“What’s your point, you moron?”

Danny smiles, like he can read Jackson’s mind. “Invisibility, invulnerability, a pyro. You killed those three people hours ago. If you had their powers, you would have used them by now. We should all be nice and crispy by now and you would have some fun powers to add to your arsenal.”

Lydia nods and Derek is seriously starting to wonder about the relationship the three of them have.

“Heather was killed days ago. You had time to extract her power, however you’ve managed to do that. But the powers you tried to take today…you haven’t had time to do that yet.” Lydia sounds almost as if she’s talking to herself.

Derek feels his heart rate pick up slightly. If Kate hasn’t had a chance to load herself up with the powers she stole, then they have a chance. They can win this.

Derek glances at Stiles again. His eyes are on Kate, like he’s afraid that if he looks away, she’ll kill someone, or worse. His body is tense, coiled like a spring and all Derek can think about is the conversation in his bedroom.

No matter what Kate has done, never mind the fact that she killed almost his whole family, Derek still isn’t capable of killing her.

Deep down, in the very depths of his soul, Derek knows that Stiles was telling him the truth. Which begs the question: if Derek can’t kill her, what are they going to do with her?

“It doesn’t matter!” Kate screams, her face red with rage, clashing horribly with her blonde hair and silver outfit.

The Silver Arrow really was the perfect name for her.

“I still won!” she continues to rage. “He’s powerless, he’s helpless. I won! I beat him!”

“Really?” Derek feels himself taking a step forward, putting himself in front of all of these people who came here for him, even though he has no way of saving them. But it feels right, it feels like this is his place. “You really think you came out on top right now, Kate?”

“You’re powerless!” She repeats. “You have nothing! I have everything! Everything!”

Derek spreads his arms wide and looks at the people behind him, the people who have his back. Laura and Cora and Isaac, Scott and Allison. Even people he doesn’t know very well at all, like Lydia and Jackson and Danny. All of them are standing next to him as he faces Kate down.

And of course, there’s Stiles, standing at Derek’s side, shoulder to shoulder with him like there’s no other place he belonged.

“I have everything, Kate. I have friends, family, people who love me and have come here with me, put their lives on the line to help me stop you. All of these people, standing behind me, while you are the one with nothing and no one.”

Kate’s eyes grow wide and panicked as she takes in the ten people surrounding her and she looks scared for the first time Derek can remember.

“Even your own niece isn’t on your side.” Scott’s voice rings out loud and clear in the silence that follows Derek’s announcement. Allison takes a brave but shaky step forward, her bow in her hands, arrow nocked in place.

“Allie,” Kate pleads. “Allie, it’s me. We’re good, right? You don’t…you know I only did what I had to do.”

“There were innocent people in that house, Kate,” Allison says, squaring her shoulders. “Little kids. How can you justify killing little babies?”

Kate raises her chin defiantly. “If it stopped them growing up to be anything like Derek, then I’ve done the world a favor.”

“Like what? A decent guy?” Isaac points out. “A guy who helps random strangers, a guy who puts his life on the line to protect this town? A guy who’ll help a random teenager he doesn’t know because he sees his father beating him, then brings that teenager to live with him? That’s someone the world should be saved from?”

Kate sputters. “He…he’s a…he’s nothing! He’s a fraud, a liar!”

“I’ve known Derek for a few years,” Stiles says, “he’s never once lied to me.”

“He told me he would give me anything I wanted,” Kate says coolly, her eyes hard. “That was a lie.”

“You wanted his powers!” Cora screams. “It’s not like you asked him for the last Rollo!”

“I wanted them and he refused to give them to me.”

“You mean your serum didn’t work,” Lydia says calmly. “That’s what happened, isn’t it? You tried to use the serum back then, but you didn’t have it quite right.” She ticks her eyes to Stiles. “That was her stressor, she was frustrated that her serum didn’t work so she took it out on Derek’s family instead.”

“It should have worked.” Kate almost seems like she’s talking to herself than the people around her. “I was told it would work and I couldn’t understand why it didn’t. So I got mad.”

“And you burned down his house with his family inside?” Allison says, horrified by the very idea.

Kate shrugs. “It was easy. My power made it easy. Derek made it even easier.”

Derek can feel people’s eyes turn to him. “I helped her sneak into my house a few times, told her how to avoid waking anyone up. She locked the bedroom doors from the outside then used flaming arrows through the windows to set the rooms alight. Kate’s power is the same as Allison’s, once she picks a target, she can’t miss. They couldn’t get out and they never stood a chance.”

Kate just shrugs again, like she doesn’t even care that she killed nine people that night.

“I’ve had enough of all this fucking exposition,” Stiles says suddenly and Derek can almost feel his eye roll.

“Stilinski, that is the first decent thing I’ve heard come out of your mouth,” Jackson laughs, but Stiles doesn’t spare him a second to snipe back.

“What do you think?” Stiles goes on, doing something complicated and intricate with his hands. “Bottom of the ocean? Volcano? Top of Mount Everest? Mars? Hey, maybe I can do Mars! I’ve never tried that because, you know, I like oxygen, but that would be kinda cool. We could send her to Mars. Think her eyes will do that buggy thing like Arnold in Total Recall?”

A portal appears in front of Kate, but all Derek can see through it is more of the hospital.

“You’re gonna let him just kill me?” Kate backs up towards the wall of the hallway. “I thought you were supposed to be the good guys?”

“What about all the people you killed?” Cora asks. “Did you give them any sort of consideration? Or did you just seem them as things that you wanted? Don’t they deserve some justice, some vengeance?”

“They didn’t even have to die! Not the ones you killed today!” Isaac shouts. “Derek proves that you shot them through the heart because you wanted them dead.”

“I wanted him to suffer,” Kate admits, her eyes flicking back to Derek, her gaze full of hatred and loathing. “I wanted him to know what I did before I killed him.”

“Yeah? Well now we get to give you the same consideration.”

Before Derek knows what’s happening, there’s an arrow sticking out of Kate’s left shoulder, the same place that Kate shot Derek.

Kate stumbles back against the wall of the wall, her hands already stained red with blood as she tries to pull the bolt free.

Allison lowers her bow and Derek can see the sadness in her brown eyes, even though she doesn’t waver in her decision.

“What…” Kate gasps.

“What have I done?” Allison guesses. “I did the same thing you did to Heather, the same thing you did to those three nameless people you killed today. I did the same thing you did to Derek.”

“You…you took away my powers?” Kate stammers around the pain. “Why…how could you do that, Allison?”

Just then, Derek notices Lydia standing behind Allison, a beaker of some clear liquid in her right hand, the top open.

“They weren’t yours,” Allison reminds her. “Whatever powers you had besides the one you were born with, the same one I was born with, they weren’t yours to have. I’m just putting the world to rights.”

“Karma’s a bitch, huh?” the strawberry blonde snarks with a grin.

Derek blinks. This is all…so very anticlimactic. It’s all a little unnerving, if he’s being completely honest.

“Stiles,” Allison has to practically shout to be heard over Kate’s wails. “I believe there’s still an open investigation into the fire at the Hale house? Not to mention the murders that happened this week?”

“Uh…yes. Those cases…yep, uh huh.”

Derek has to bite down on a grin at Stiles’ confused babble.

“I believe I just made a citizen’s arrest. Would you help me escort her to the station?”

“Oh! Uh, yes…yeah, I can do that.” Stiles waves his hands again and Derek can suddenly see the Sheriff sitting at his desk in his office through the portal.

Kate stands up straight as she stares Allison down. “You think I’m just going to go where you tell me to?”

Allison nocks another arrow into her bow. “I never miss, remember? I hit whatever I aim at, which means I meant to hit your shoulder, just like you did with Derek. Next time, I’ll be aiming four inches to your right and a little lower.”

Kate looks down at her own chest – four inches to her lower right puts the arrow straight into her heart, and yet Kate still looks back at the people surrounding her like she’s wondering how she can get herself out of this.

“Are you actually stupid?” Laura scoffs. “You’re surrounded by, like, ten people, most of them with superpowers. There’s no way you’re getting past us.”

Unexpectedly, Kate dashes forward, the arrow she pulled from her shoulder now held in her hand as a weapon. She lunges for Derek, murder and hatred burning in her brown eyes as she screams, long and wordless.

Derek doesn’t move, too stunned and surprised by the action. By Kate’s bizarrely brazen attack, but he’s forced to take a step back when someone throws themselves in front of him and the arrow sinks into Stiles’ chest, the white t-shirt he borrowed from Derek after their shower quickly becoming soaked with blood.

“NO!” Kate screams at the same time Scott yells Stiles’ name.

“Son of a bitch!” Stiles grunts and Derek catches him as he stumbles backwards. The portal dims and flickers.

“I would get her through that now, before the remainder of whatever amount of serum was left on that arrow makes its way through my bloodstream.”

Cora, Laura and Jackson wrestle Kate through the portal, Allison following at a more sedate pace, just seconds before the portal winks out of existence.

Scott rushes to Stiles’ side, Derek having laid him out on the ground. He pulls the arrow out of Stiles’ chest and heals the wound quickly and efficiently.

“Sorry, buddy,” Scott says with a sympathetic face. “Nothing I can do about the serum.”

Stiles just shakes his head. “It’s okay, man. God, she’s completely crazy. I hope to God someone can fix this.”

“I suggest you get to Kate’s hideout,” Peter says, suddenly reappearing now that the danger has past. Not that Peter was in any sort of danger, but it doesn’t surprise Derek that he’d kept himself out of the way. He probably wants to hold onto the surprise of his power so that he can torture Kate in prison.

Stiles nods. “Yeah, all her secrets are going to be there.”

“And how are we going to get there?” Isaac asks. “You don’t have you powers anymore.”

Suddenly, Scott’s phone rings and he frowns in confusion as he pulls it out of his jeans. He looks at the screen then winces, his whole face turning red.

“Um, hi, Liam,” he says when he answers and next to Derek, Stiles groans. “Yeah, we had some…stuff to deal with. Listen, are you busy right now? Great, can you come pick us up? We’re at Beacon Hills Memorial, we’ll be out front. Thanks, Buddy, we owe you one.”

“We should buy him something nice,” Stiles says when Scott hangs up. “And huge.”

“Let’s go then,” Lydia says and she marches towards the entrance, Isaac, Danny and Scott hot on her heels.

Derek turns Stiles to face him. “Are you okay?”

Stiles shrugs. “No hole in my chest, so I’m better than I was two minutes ago.”

Derek watches as he makes the same complicated gesture with his hands, his shoulders slumping when nothing happens.

“Damn,” he whispers. “My powers manifested the night my mom died. I just didn’t want to be in that hospital room anymore and a portal popped up. I ended up a Chuck E. Cheese until I created another one back to Scott’s house. That’s where my dad found me a few hours later. He was at a crime scene, a car accident, I think. A girl died. It was a while before someone managed to track him down and tell him what happened.”

“Stiles,” Derek tries to soothe, reaching out to grip Stiles’ shoulder.

Stiles forces a smile. “I’m not…I’m just saying, it’s been a long time since I was powerless.”

“No,” Derek says sharply. “You don’t have any powers, you’re not powerless.”

Stiles’ grin is real this time. “Throwing my words back at me? You’re learning fast. I have a lot of faith for our future.”

Stiles pulls Derek close and kisses him softly, passionately, and Derek falls into it, wishes he was anywhere but standing in the middle of the Preserve.

“Come on,” Stiles says against his lips, “let’s go see what Lydia can find out with that brain of hers.”

Chapter 11

“This is complicated stuff,” Lydia says as soon as they step through the door of the cottage. She doesn’t even bother to lift her eyes away from the chaos that’s in front of her, the table spread with bottles and jars and burners. Derek doesn’t even know where to begin to understand what his eyes are seeing.

He feels like he should be surprised, finding out that Kate had been using the old grounds keeper’ cottage as her base, but he really isn’t. She’d probably been really proud of herself, finding some sort of irony in the whole thing, since this was the place where she brought Derek to have sex. Derek can remember almost every detail. Every time he looks at a different part of the room, another memory hits him and he’s having trouble telling himself to remain in the building.

Then Stiles takes his hand and Derek grabs onto it like an anchor and suddenly he can breathe again, like Stiles is oxygen. It’s clichéd and ridiculous and Derek doesn’t care.

“Do you know how she managed to extract the powers?” Liam asks, crouching down so that he can see everything on a different level. They had to tell the poor kid everything on the way over, all of them crammed into Mrs. Dunbar’s car like sardines. He took it surprisingly well and Derek is pretty proud of the people he and Stiles have managed to surround himself with.

“I don’t see how anyone can make any sort of sense out of this,” Scott says as he squints around the room.

Derek spots a row of test tubes on a table along the side of the room, each of them labeled:

Telekinesis

Invisibility

Invulnerability

Derek

The test tubes look like their filled with diluted blood, the liquid a pale, translucent red. It’s eerie, seeing his blood sitting there like some experiment.

“I don’t…” Lydia trails off with a shake of her head. She’s reading through a notebook, turning pages faster than Derek thinks she can be reading them. “I don’t think she’s extracting the powers at all. I think she’s replicating them.”

“You mean, from scratch? Is that even possible?” Stiles surges across the room to Lydia so that he can read over her shoulder.

“It’s like that thing a few years ago, where people figured out how to replicate DNA or blood or whatever it was. Remember? That guy got off because he paid someone to create some DNA or blood so that he could plant it at the crime scene.”

Stiles nods solemnly. “My dad went on and on about that for weeks. He was really pissed.”

“Unsurprisingly,” Derek mutters. He imagines Laura feeling much the same.

“Well,” Lydia goes on, “it looks as though Kate was doing the same thing, replicating the blood that she collected and changing the DNA coding so that she could introduce it to her own blood stream.”

“That sounds really complicated,” Scott shouts from somewhere at the back of the room. “I don’t think a random dude would just be able to do that.”

“No,” Lydia murmurs thoughtfully, her eyes still on the book. “And it looks as though Kate wasn’t quite as clever as she thought.”

Derek takes a step forward. “What do you mean?”

“It’s not permanent. When Kate takes someone’s powers, when she tries to introduce them to her own system, the effect is temporary. From what I can read here, I would say…seventy-two hours, tops, before her body rejects the new powers. Or her body breaks down the foreign substance that was introduced. These notes aren’t exactly clear.”

“So Kate wasn’t ever going to be able to keep any powers she stole?” Danny asks.

“Well, I mean, she would have been able to shoot herself up anytime she wanted. Or however she was doing it, but, basically…yeah. The powers were never permanent.”

“This…” Looking over Lydia’s shoulder, Derek snatches the notebook out of her hands, causing her to let out a startled yelp. “This isn’t Kate’s handwriting.”

Stiles pulls at Derek’s arm so that he’s able to see. “Are you sure?”

“Stiles, she strung me along for months, I saw enough of her handwriting to know that this isn’t it.”

“She has a partner? Are you kidding me?!” Isaac gripes. “We sent all the really superpowered people with the other bad guy!”

Stiles swallows hard and looks around the sparsely decorated room. “Yeah, he has a point, we need to get out of here and figure this out some place else.”

“Alright, pack up everything that you can carry,” Lydia orders. “I want all of this. There are a lot of people who would pay and do a lot to get their hands on this sort of research, we need to get it some place…else.”

“I thought you were gonna say safe,” Scott says, shoving some papers into a plastic bag while Isaac and Danny and Liam gather all the vials and beakers into a convenient cardboard box.

“No place is really safe,” Lydia explains, “just safer.”

“Plus,” Stiles says slowly, “my dad and the rest of them will probably want to use this as evidence against Kate and whoever she was working with.”

“Oh.” Lydia stares at Stiles and if Derek didn’t know any better, he’s say she’s completely surprised by the idea of everything being evidence. “Right, yes, of course. Obviously.” She whirls on Danny. “You can make me a copy of anything digital, right?”

“Yes, Lydia.”

Derek spots a laptop and a tablet dumped haphazardly in a corner and goes to fetch them, not surprised when Stiles tag along.

“Hey, you think Lydia will let me have this when she’s extracted everything from it?” he asks, taking the tablet from Derek’s hands.

Derek snatches it back. “Probably not.”

“Boys!” Lydia scolds and Stiles rolls his eyes.

“Hey, we’re not Jackson. He’s off actually being useful for a change.”

“Then why don’t you follow his example and help me pack this stuff away?”

Stiles grumbles, but Derek can’t help but notice that he does as she asks.

“Hey,” Danny says suddenly, a piece of paper in his hands. “I think I know who her partner is.”

Epilogue

“Harris?” the Sheriff asks, staring at the man sitting on the other side of the two-way mirror. “Mr. Harris from the high school was her partner?”

Stiles can’t really do anything but shrug, because…yeah, he’s got nothing.

It’s after midnight on Christmas Eve – which, Stiles supposes, technically makes it Christmas Day – and Stiles had decided to call in to the station to see his father, since John is working until the following afternoon, getting home just in time for dinner. It’s something Stiles has gotten used to, not spending Christmas with his family, and normally he goes over to Scott’s and spends Christmas there. But things are different this year.

“Danny hacked his…everything,” he says, staring at his old chemistry teacher through the glass. Liam had laughed hysterically when he’d heard that Harris had been arrested, knowing he probably wouldn’t have to deal with the guy anymore. “He and Kate have been working together since back when she was trying to take Derek’s powers, before she set the fire. It took them a long time to get the formula right, apparently. Probably the reason he was still working at Beacon Hills High School.”

The Sheriff hums. “Probably using the school for resources, maybe even test subjects.”

Stiles thinks back to certain lectures and classes Harris taught, experiments he’d set up, remembering how strange they had seemed at the time and how pissed Harris was that Stiles and Lydia kept acing them all.

“You have evidence though, right, Dad? I mean, for both Kate and Harris. They’re not gonna get away with what they did, are they? Because I just finally managed to get Derek to remember that he’s a normal person. I can’t have him go back to that weird, closed off husk that I had to practically open with a nutcracker, and isn’t that a weird and not at all pleasant visual?”

“Apart from the evidence that you and your friends found, Harris folded pretty quickly. He gave Kate up for everything, the fire, the experiments, the murders. All of it. Cut himself a pretty sweet deal. He’ll do time, but not nearly as much as he should.” Stiles’ dad snorts. “He even tried to add statutory rape to Kate’s long list of crimes, but, even if I could build a case for that, the statute has past. Plus, he couldn’t tell me the victim.”

Stiles says nothing, just chews on his thumbnail and watches through the mirror as Harris and his lawyer converse loudly and heatedly. With the microphones in the soundproof room turned off, he can’t tell what the topic of discussion is. Since Harris has pled out, he can’t imagine what else there is to talk about.

“You know who it is, don’t you?”

Stiles flinches at his dad’s sudden words and he looks at him with wide eyes. “Why would you think…” he trails off and rolls his eyes. “Mind reader, right. You know, that’s really sneaky. I can’t believe you had this power my whole life and never, like, used it against me or something.”

“Your mother and I promised we would never do that. That’s not really why we have these powers. Come on, Stiles, you really think I wanna know what’s going on in that head of yours twenty four hours a day, seven days a week? Believe me, there are things a father doesn’t want to know about his son.”

An image of a sweaty, naked, writhing Derek, his teeth nibbling at Stiles’ nipple pops into Stiles’ head and he flushes hotly while the Sheriff chokes on his own spit.

“Yeah, things like that.”

Stiles drops his face into his hands. “Oh, God.”

John clears his throat. “Just out of curiosity, was that just your vivid imagination or an actual memory?”

“I don’t think you want me answering that question.”

The Sheriff smiles at his son, all traces of embarrassment gone. “So, you and Derek, huh?”

Stiles decides that he has nothing to be ashamed of and he nods his head sharply. “Yep, me and Derek. Stiles and Derek. Remus and Keychain. That’s what it is.”

“Is it serious?”

Stiles thinks back to Derek at the hospital, when Kate had stabbed Stiles, how Derek had looked so scared, so worried, his face full of emotion and he smiles, a private sort of smile.

“Yeah, I think…I think it might be. I mean, we haven’t said…we haven’t talked about it. But I’d like to think it is.”

“Good, I’m glad. Derek’s a good guy. Sure, he’s a little older than you, but I was older than your mom, so…” he shrugs.

“I...I’m…” Stiles takes a deep breath. “Did you just…give me your blessing to date the older man I’ve been crushing on since I was old enough to know what the word meant?”

“He still has to come to dinner. Sometime soon. Sunday.”

Stiles chokes on his tongue. “Dad, it’s…it’s Christmas, can’t this wait until after Christmas?”

“Sunday,” John says decisively.

“No, Dad, not Sunday. Sunday…Sunday’s big, that’s a big deal. We’re not…we’re not ready for that just yet.”

John narrows his eyes. “Fine, Thursday, then.”

“Okay.”

“And Sunday next week.”

Stiles groans but doesn’t argue. “Look, can I go now? It’s Christmas and I wanna go see my boyfriend. I kinda have to talk to Derek about something, anyway, something that I’m guessing you already know and wow, I’m never going to have a secret ever again.”

“I can turn it off and on, Stiles,” John says, looking physically pained at his son’s ramblings.

“I knew that,” Stiles says quickly. “But seriously, can I go?”

“Are you gonna be home for dinner?”

Stiles thinks about Derek at his loft, probably alone and hopefully with less clothes than the last time Stiles saw him. “Uh, probably not.”

“Go. I’ll see you tomorrow. And Merry Christmas, Stiles. The day after tomorrow, I promise, just you and me.”

Stiles gives his father and hug and races out of the observation area, knowing that he has a pretty cool father, when it all comes down to it. Not many men would have reacted the way the Sheriff did when they find out that their only son was in a serious relationship with another man and spending Christmas with him. Stiles knows how lucky he is.

Laura is in the reception area when Stiles gets there, her deputy’s uniform looking sharp and pressed even in the middle of the night and she smiles when she sees Stiles, big and wide and almost predatory. Stiles would be scared if he was anyone else.

“There’s my future brother-in-law.”

No, strike that. He’s terrified.

“Laura.” His voice absolutely doesn’t squeak, really. “How are you?”

She beams at him, her smiles practically lighting up the whole room. “I’m great, Stiles. I’m really…I’m really great.”

Stiles takes a mental step back and realizes that, yeah, she is great. She looks brighter, lighter, like that metaphorical black cloud had been hanging over her head and now it’s gone, and the reason for that sudden and miraculous change is sitting in a jail cell awaiting trial.

The fact that they’re all going to have to give evidence at said trial is something that is constantly at the back of Stiles’ mind, that and the fact that he’ll have to come clean about his powers to a bunch of random people he’s never met and will never see again after the trial. But he’ll do it, if it makes Laura look like this, if it makes Cora act like she actually likes her friends, if it makes Derek’s guilt all but vanish, Stiles will happily do whatever it takes.

“I’m…I’m really glad,” Stiles tells her, reaching out to give her a reassuring squeeze.

Her smile turns small and almost sad. “I’m just glad it’s all finally over, you know? It’s been eight years, I’m just happy knowing that my family can finally rest easy.”

“I’m just sorry that it took so long.”

Laura shrugs. “Doesn’t matter, it’s done now. She’s behind bars and she’ll stay there for a very long time. She got what she deserved.” Her smile grows again. “And I think Derek finally got what he deserves, too.” She pokes Stiles in the ribs and he blushes, but he rolls his eyes as well.

“Come on, Laura, stop. Derek and I…I dunno, I really like him, but I don’t think anyone deserves to be stuck with me. He might be glutton for punishment.”

Laura sobers almost instantly. “You’re a great guy, Stiles. Derek knows that, he’s always known that. I was just pissed that it took him so long to actually get around to telling you.”

Stiles laughs as he remembers Derek’s fumbling in his shop and the dropped sketch pad that started everything.

“What?” Laura asks.

Stiles shakes his head. “Nothing, just an inside joke.”

“Urgh, I do not want to know about my little brother’s sex life, thank you very much.”

There’s that blush again and Stiles ducks his face to hide it. “No, that’s not…you know what? I’m just gonna go and stop embarrassing myself in front of, like, everyone.”

She cackles loudly as he steps around her towards the door.

“Tell Derek I’ll call him later,” she shouts after him and Stiles doesn’t even bother to call her on the assumption. “Merry Christmas, Stiles! And dinner at ours on Friday! The whole family!”

Stiles just laughs and shakes his head, but there’s something warm and nice settling in his stomach at the thought of Laura considering him family. It’s actually kind of awesome.

The drive to Derek’s doesn’t take very long and Stiles can’t really decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but he parks his Jeep next to Derek’s car and doesn’t waste any time dawdling. Though, for the first time since Stiles has known Derek – and known about his powers – Derek can’t tell that he’s coming from sixteen miles away and there’s something about that that Stiles wants to take advantage of, if he wasn’t feeling so out of sorts.

Still, he gets straight into the elevator and hits the button for Derek’s floor and he slides the heavy door open and then…

And then there’s Derek, sitting on the couch, sketch pad balanced on his knees and any sort of reservations Stiles was feeling vanish instantly when Derek looks up at him with a bright, if private, smile.

“Hey, how is…everything?”

“Harris and his lawyer cut a deal, he gave Kate up, but she’s still denying everything.”

Derek nods. “Not really a surprise. She probably thinks she hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Stiles winces, upset at the idea of anyone thinking that murdering thirteen people is something that they don’t need to pay or even apologize for.

Stiles drops down on the couch next to Derek and kisses him, just a short press of lips, warm and familiar. “Merry Christmas,” he says as he pulls away, grinning widely.

Derek rolls his eyes. “It’s not Christmas yet, Stiles.

“It’s after midnight, yes, it is and I get to give you your present now.”

Derek’s eyes widen. “You got me a present?”

“I mean, it’s nothing big. Just…” he shrugs and pulls the little bag out of his hoodie and shoves it at Derek.

Derek lets out a snort as he opens the bag, pulling out the little stuffed wolf.

“You know, ‘cause of your name. The…the myth.”

“Cora gave me the name, she thought it was funny but I…I thought it just fit. It was a good fit.” He bops Stiles’ nose with the wolf. “Thank you, he’s great. I got you something, too.”

“And you were surprised that I got you something.” Stiles rolls his eyes and watches as Derek goes back to his sketch pad and tears a page out before handing it to Stiles.

Stiles looks at the page and immediately burst out laughing.

On the brilliant white page is a simple but incredibly detailed pencil drawing of a keychain with a stylized ‘S’. It’s incredible and perfect and Stiles couldn’t imagine anything better.

“I love it,” he says simply, holding the page delicately as he leans across to kiss Derek softly.

They make out for a while, slouching lower and lower on the couch until something digs into Stiles stomach and he’s reminded of the other reason he came to see Derek.

Stiles puts his hand into the pocket of his hoodie and closes it around the item there as he pushes himself off of Derek. “Listen, uh, can you take a talk for a few minutes?”

Derek looks at him, his eyes searching Stiles’ face for a second before he nods. “Yeah, sure.” Stiles pushes himself off Derek and Derek sits up, shifting in the couch until they were facing each other. “So what’s going on?”

Stiles clears his throat. “Um, well, Lydia came by my house this morning, or yesterday morning, since it’s after midnight now. She dropped something off.”

Derek cocks an eyebrow. “That isn’t supposed to be a euphemism right?”

“What?” Stiles gapes. “No, God, no, that’s not…” He trails off with a sigh. “She gave me this.” He pulls the object out of his pocket and hands it to Derek.

Derek stares at that the little blood filled with a thick yellow liquid with something akin to horror. “Alright, now I’m really scared.”

“It’s the antidote.”

Derek’s eyes light up, though he’s still staring at the bottle with apprehension. “We don’t have to drink it, do we?”

Stiles laughs. “No, it has to go directly into the blood stream. Scott says he can do it, or his mom, if we wanna go over there later.”

“So why do you look like this is the worst news you’ve ever gotten?”

Stiles smiles and shakes his head. “That’s not…I just don’t know if getting my powers back is the right thing to do.”

Derek reaches out to hold his hand. “Why? Your powers are part of who you are. Your powers are a part of you. They’re part of everyone.”

“Did I ever tell you why I put on that mask?” Stiles says and he knows he’s confusing the hell out of Derek with his randomness, but he doesn’t really know exactly what he’s saying, so he’s just going with everything that pops into his head.

“You didn’t, no, but I think we’ve been a bit preoccupied over the last few days. We probably would have gotten there eventually.”

“You,” Stiles says bluntly. “You were the reason I decided to be a superhero, Derek, because I wanted to be like Remus, I wanted to be as good as he was, I wanted to do like him and help people. I had this whole fantasy where we became a team and work together, but then I fucked that up on my first fucking day.”

“Stiles.”

“I got excited,” Stiles interrupts. “That first day. You – Remus – you were right there, doing what you do, stopping the bad guy, and I got so excited at just the thought of helping you that I just starting throwing portals. I didn’t mean to get your hurt.”

Stiles can still remember the horror, the terror he felt when the bad guy – a mugger, if Stiles recalls correctly – had slipped through one of his random portals only to exit another right behind Derek. Stiles can still hear the sound of the knife sinking into Derek’s back.

“I know that, Stiles. And I was fine.”

“Yeah, but you might not have been and you hated me a lot after that.”

“I didn’t know it was you. Obviously.”

“No, but you were right to hate me, I messed up and I could have gotten you killed. You were right to be wary.”

“Is this your whole argument?” Derek asks. “You messed up once so that means you don’t get to put on a mask and be a hero? ‘Cause I have to tell you, after everything that happened with Kate, I think you’re pretty damn heroic.”

Stiles blushes and hides a smile. “Stop being cute when I’m trying to be all serious.”

“Stiles, what’s really going on?”

Stiles takes a deep breath. “This whole superhero thing was fine when it was just, you know, people robbing the grocery store and dog-nappers and, yeah, even muggers. But Kate and everything that went down there? Murder and power stealing and arson and…and I don’t think I’m cut out for that and I’m feeling really, really guilty about having these powers and not…not wanting to actually use them to help people and I don’t think I deserve these powers anymore. I don’t think I should have them.”

“Stiles, your powers are part of who you are. It’s not a question of whether you deserve them or not. I mean, Kate had powers, do you think she deserved them? No, but she had them, because it’s just part of who she is. The same as you and your power.”

“But, Derek, I don’t think I can do that anymore, go out there and…and face all of that again.”

“Babe, let me ask you something,” Stiles is going to come back to the pet name later, he really is, but for now, he’s too enraptured by the serious look in Derek’s green eyes. “If you saw something, if you knew something was happening, would you be able to stand back and watch? If you knew that you could help, would you really be able to walk away?”

Stiles pouts. “Well, if I had no powers, yeah.”

“Come on, Stiles, I know you, even completely powerless, you wouldn’t be able to stop yourself from trying to help. You’re you father’s son, Stiles, and he raised a good man, a man who would give his life if it meant saving one person.”

Stiles scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Slight exaggeration there, buddy.”

“You threw yourself in front me when Kate was coming at me with an arrow. You took that arrow for me, not caring that it might kill you.”

“Well, that’s just…that’s ‘cause it was you.”

“No, Stiles, you would have done it for any of the people there.”

“Maybe not Jackson.”

“Fine, not Jackson, but do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

“That I’m awesome and you love me?”

Derek sighs. “Yes, Stiles, you’re awesome and I love you.”

“We’re gonna come back to that ‘I love you’ thing later, too.”

Derek kisses him, sudden and unexpected and wonderful and Stiles sighs because this is his life now.

“You don’t have to use the mask anymore, Stiles. You don’t have to go out there every day, acting like a hero, helping little old ladies cross the street.”

Stiles snorts. “No, but the look on Mrs. Kane’s face when I portaled her to the other side was freaking awesome, man.”

Derek ignores him. “We have real sheriffs and deputies for that, people like Laura and your father, who have built their careers around their powers because that’s possible for them. It’s not the same for all of us.”

Stiles grins. “What, you don’t want to be a UFC fighter? Ooh, or maybe a bouncer! I bet you’d make an awesome bouncer at Jungle. You’d have the fellas tripping over themselves to get in. Profits would soar.”

Derek smirks at him. “And you’d be okay with all of those random guys just throwing themselves at me every night?”

“Yes, because I know you’ll be coming home to me.”

Derek’s eyes turn soft and warm and he kisses Stiles again, a little deeper and hungrier than before.

“Your power is a part of you, Stiles. It’s not something you can deny.”

Stiles nods. “But I don’t think I’m cut out for fighting crime. Not the kind of crime that people like Kate bring around anyway.”

“Not everyone is.” Derek squeezes his hands. “But I think it would be pretty awesome if you could take us to New York or Boston or something for our anniversary.”

Stiles blushes, but the weird, heavy feeling in his gut that he’s had since the hospital is all but gone and he feels lighter, freer, even if he knows he’ll probably still get called in on the odd police case, and he’s oddly okay with that. He knows his power is useful, but he likes the idea of being a consultant for the big things, rather than someone who’s out on the streets every day, facing down the scum of the town – especially since most of the ‘scum’ he’s run into during his stint have been people he’d known, like the time he caught Matt Daehler with a camera outside Scott’s house. It was only made worse when Daehler tried to plead off by saying that Allison was inside and he just wanted a picture. As far as Stiles knows, the creep is still in prison.

“You think we’re going to be together long enough to have an anniversary?” he says instead of dwelling on the feeling and his stomach swoops when Derek smiles at him, soft and private, a smile that’s just for Stiles.

“If I have my way, all the anniversaries will be with you.”

“Sap,” Stiles chuckles, but he kisses Derek anyway, because how could he not after a line like that?

“What about you?” he asks when he pulls away, his hand cupping Derek’s cheek. “I mean, after the trial, pretty much everyone is going to know that you’re Remus, because you know how fast gossip travels in Beacon Hills, and the whole town will be at the court house for something like this, so your identity is gonna be blown to hell.”

Derek sighs and collapses back against the couch. “I never wanted to put that mask on in the first place.”

“What do you mean?” Stiles had always thought that Remus liked his job, he never seemed, to Stiles at least, like he was only going through the motions, but if Derek is telling him this, then it has to be true.

“I just felt like I had to, you know? I lost so much because of Kate, because I was stupid and naïve.”

“You were a kid,” Stile counters, because seriously, Derek’s guilt is another one of those things they’re going to talk about later.

Derek plows on like Stiles hasn’t spoken. “I felt like I needed to give back, to make my family proud. Laura was already well on her way to becoming a deputy when the fire happened, so she was doing her bit, but I knew that place wasn’t for me. Though Cora seems to be following in Laura’s footsteps, which I think is pretty great.”

“So you thought, vigilante justice was a better fit for you?” Stiles teases, reaching out to rub at the scruff on Derek’s cheeks and he’s rewarded with a smile.

“I guess so, yeah. But someone told me recently that what Kate did wasn’t really my fault, even if I was the one who let her into the house in the first place.” There’s a blush on Derek’s face and Stiles has to stop himself from crowing victoriously, because this is a big thing. This is Derek finally starting to realize that he wasn’t the bad guy, he was never the bad guy and if it took Stiles almost getting killed for him to figure that out, Stiles will take it.

“I’m also starting to understand that, no matter what I do, I’m never really going to make up for my family. No matter what you or Laura or anyone says, Stiles, I’m always going to hold on to at least part of the blame for that, but I think part of that mask, part of the whole Remus persona, was more about fighting the ghost of Kate. I think I just needed to make sure that someone, at least, paid for a crime that they committed. If I couldn’t put Kate behind bars for killing my family, then I could at least nail Ethan and Aiden for vandalism.”

“Little brats,” Stiles spits, because it’s true, the twins had tortured Isaac all the way through high school. Stiles bets that that had something to do with Derek’s motivations. “So, what does this mean? Are you hanging up the mask?”

After a thoughtful pause that makes Stiles wring his hands in his lap nervously, Derek nods. “Yeah, I think so. Maybe not permanently, but I think I’m done with vigilantism. I’ll probably still help out your dad and Laura, but for the most part…it feels good to just be Derek again. No alter ego.”

“Yeah, plus, it’s probably really hard to be a vigilante when everyone knows your real name.”

Derek laughs and tackles Stiles to the couch. Stiles likes this version of Derek, the one that laughs, that has tickle fights with his boyfriend, that can finally relax. He thinks he’ll keep him around for a while.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” he can’t help but ask when they’re both breathless and red-faced, shirts rucked up from entirely innocent reasons. “I don’t want you resenting me three months down the line when I’ve burned both our masks in Scott’s fireplace.”

“This is my choice, Stiles. One that I’m good with.”

“Cool.”

Derek presses down and kisses him and soon they’re both breathless and red-faced again, shirts rucked up from not so innocent reasons and Stiles is just about to suggest that they move to the bed when the door to the loft slides open again and Stiles has to crane his neck to see who just came in.

Isaac grins at them. “Whatcha doing?”

When Derek backs away, Stiles can’t help feeling a little miffed that Derek isn’t telling Isaac to leave. But then he remembers that it’s Christmas Eve – practically Christmas Day – and Isaac and Derek are family in every way but name and Stiles is the one intruding.

“Oh, God, sorry, I didn’t even think. You guys probably had plans. I’ll go, and you can call me later, Derek, when you’re free.”

“Stiles, wait.” Derek grabs Stiles’ hand and prevents him from getting up off the couch. “I asked Isaac to come by, yes, but I asked him to come see you.”

Stiles frowns, because that’s just not what he was expecting.

“Yeah,” Isaac says, coming to sit on the couch next to Stiles. “Derek says there’s someone you’d like to talk to.”

He gives the words such meaning, such a sense of importance that it takes Stiles a minute to realize what the hell he’s talking about. And then he remembers.

Isaac’s power is communicating with the dead.

He grips Derek’s hand so tightly that he’s probably cutting off the circulation, but he can’t make himself let go as he stares at Isaac with wide eyes.

“Are you…are you serious? You can really do that? You’ll let me talk to her?”

Isaac’s smile is sweet and kind and he nods. “Yeah, Stiles, you can talk to her. Right now.”

Stiles chokes on his tears. “Oh, God. I don’t…I can’t…do you need anything? Do I have to do anything?”

Isaac shakes his head. “No, the only thing I need is something close to the deceased. And I can’t imagine anything closer than her own son.”

Tears are streaming down Stiles’ face but he still manages a laugh giddy at the very idea of what’s about to happen.

“I’ll give you some privacy,” Derek says, moving to get off the couch.

“No,” Stiles almost shouts, tightening his grip on Derek’s hand even more. “Stay. I want you to be here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I mean, I would have had to introduce you to her at some point and I really want you to meet her. I want her to meet you. I want her to know how important you are to me.”

Derek settles back next to Stiles and leans in, resting his forehead against the younger man’s. “I love you,” he murmurs and Stiles grins.

“I love you, too.”

“Urgh,” Isaac says and Stiles can tell he’s rolling his eyes, but he knows it’s with fondness than anything malicious. “You two are giving me cavities.”

Stiles kisses Derek one last time, then turns back to Isaac, Derek’s brother in all but name.

“Alright, Lahey, do your thing.”

The End.