Archive of Our Own ^beta

As it turns out, Derek can in fact go full wolf, just like his mother could. And he wasn't even an alpha anymore. Everyone was kind of assuming it had something to do with strong emotions. Derek knew that was the truth. He knew he was just done with trying to be human. Every attempt to lead a normal life for him ended in death. The deaths of people he loved. Of innocent people.

So he became a wolf and stayed that way. It took people a while to get used to. It still freaked Scott out a bit. Allison just avoided him at all costs, as she always had. Isaac seemed kind of lost, but everyone knew he was in Scott's pack now. Lydia didn't care either way, as long as Peter was out of the picture. And he was. Peter went off a disappeared again. No one knew where he was, and no one really cared, as long as he wasn't around and wasn't causing them all trouble.

Then there was Stiles. He was the first to adjust to Derek being a wolf. First he took it as a joke, as something funny. He would mess around and treat Derek as though he was a dog, making stupid jokes, trying to get him to do tricks for treats. Derek was not a fan of that. He growled. He rolled his wolf eyes somehow, or at least it seemed like he did.

At some point Stiles' jokes turned more into affection. They became scratches behind his ears, petting him when it was just the two of them alone. That seemed to be happening more often than not. Then Stiles started talking to him. First about regular things, how school was going, things he was learning about different myths and stories. Then the things he talked about became more personal, things he never told anyone. How he felt when Scott and Allison first started dating. How he felt abandoned by him. Then how he felt the same way when Scott started spending a lot of time with Isaac.

He talked about how his feelings for Lydia were so different than they used to be. He wasn't in love with her anymore, but he did love her. They were friends. Maybe not as close as he had been with Scott, but they were friends. She was there when he needed to get out and have fun. He was there when he needed someone to talk to about school stuff.

He talked about how he was starting to question his sexuality. It wasn't as if he hadn't thought about it before, but with his massive crush on Lydia, it never really mattered.

And through all of the talking, Derek was just there in wolf form, listening. He would curl up on Stiles' feet on the couch. Stiles would lay back and use Derek as a pillow. If Derek had been in his human form, one would probably call it cuddling, but it was different when Derek was a wolf. There was a security blanket feeling when Derek was a wolf.

On a lot of the days when he would listen to Stiles talk, Derek would spend most of the time thinking about his life and how things had changed for him. He worked through his guilt. He worked through his anger. Because he was a wolf, he didn't have to deal with new problems, and that gave him the time and space he needed to deal with his past, something he never really had a chance to do before.

As be became more accepting of these things, he knew soon enough he would be ready to go back to being a functioning person, but he didn't want to lose this new closeness he had with Stiles. There was a new trust between them. A friendship that no one else really understood, because how could you become friends with a wolf?

Stiles worried about the day Derek would turn back. He worried that things would go back to the way they were before Derek was a wolf. The sort of distanced hate they had for each other. He liked having someone there to listen to him. Someone he could trust with everything he thought about.

Then it happened. Derek had spent the night in Stiles' room. He had taken to doing that a while before. He would sleep in Stiles' bed with Stiles curled around him. It was the sort of physical affection both of them had needed for a long time.

When Stiles woke up that morning, he noticed something was different. There wasn't dark, soft fur under his face, in his arms. There was a slightly fuzzy chest, taut muscles, smooth skin. At first he thought he was still asleep, dreaming. Then he opened his eyes and looked up. Then he knew he was awake, because he saw Derek, his human face, eyes closed, breathing deeply.

He was surprisingly okay with it all, because it was still Derek. It was still the person he had become so close to in the past few months. He stretched and yawned, then curled back up around Derek, nuzzling back in and fell back into a deep sleep.

It was not long after that that Derek awoke. He, too, knew something was different right away. His entire body felt different. It was a little stiff, because he was a wolf for so long, but after he tensed and relaxed his muscles, things started to feel normal again.

He opened his eyes and looked down, a small smile on his face. He saw that Stiles was still curled around him, arms locked around his waist. Stiles was drooling a little, as he often did while he slept. He brought his hand up and ran it through Stiles' hair, trying to wake him up gently. Stiles murmured and rubbed his nose against Derek's chest before tilting his head up and opening his eyes.

When he saw that Derek was looking down at his with a small smile on his face, a matching smile bloomed on Stiles' face.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

Seemed like things weren't going to change between them anytime soon, Derek's form not mattering one bit.