Forget? He never forgets. He doesn’t forget the ghosts in his lungs or the skeletons in his closet. He doesn’t forget when he wakes up screaming and he never forgets as he falls to his bloody knees finished to the bone.
Don’t ask him if he forgets because he never forgets.
Magical Stiles Stilinski, Magical Tattoos, Tattooed Stiles Stilinski, Slow Burn, Flashbacks, Soulmates, Canon-Typical Violence, Pack Dynamics, Derek Hale is Stiles Stilinski’s Anchor, Alpha Derek, Good Alpha Scott McCall, Everyone Is Alive, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Idiots in Love, Season 3A rewrite, Future Fic
Stiles gains magical abilities he never knew he had while battling the Darach all while slowly falling in love with the person he least expected, Derek Hale. After the pack defeats her, Derek leaves Beacon Hills—and Stiles—behind. A few years later, there’s a new big bad the pack is struggling to defeat. The only thing their alpha can think to do is call on the one person who can truly bind Stiles’ powers and complete their pack.
Derek saunters back into Stiles’ life as if he never left and the past seems to surge to the forefront of Stiles’ mind.
Angst, Grief/Mourning, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Coming of Age, Growing Up, Mutual Pining, Emotional Healing, Slow Burn, Stiles Stilinski Sees Ghosts, Soulmates (kind of), Falling In Love, Dealing With Trauma, Murder Mystery B Plot
!! Minor Character Death, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Allusions to Canonical Non-con, Suicidal Ideation
Derek looks like the movies. When the camera pans out and shows a glimpse of the mysterious bad boy, the one who is tortured and hard-edged and smokes cigarettes beside the bleachers. And you just know, from the very beginning, that’s the boy the main character is going to fall for. No one can resist the injured eyes and the romanticized nihilism, certainly not a nobody who can never garner a second glance from anyone.
For a moment, Stiles is struck with the thought that, were they any other two people on the planet, he would have loved Derek. Could have envisioned something real with him. Stiles fiddles with his seatbelt strap to avoid thinking that. That he is the main character.
or: Stiles can see ghosts and Talia Hale’s appearance in his living room makes things really fucking complicated.
“You better hold on,” Derek says, as if he read Stiles’ thoughts. He turns his head slightly to the side, glancing at him over his shoulder. “I don’t want to get in trouble if you get hurt.”
“Good idea,” Stiles manages to say, having to raise his voice in order to be heard over the loud engine. “My dad might press charges. Did I mention he’s a sheriff?”
“Maybe we should call this off.”
“No way!”
[ This summer it’s been 8 years since I wrote this fic, and I got a little emotional thinking about it today, so I wanted to bring back some attention to it for the first time in a while. Even though I see many flaws with it nowadays, it’ll always be special to me, for so many reasons, and not a summer goes by without me thinking about it. ]
During the duration of the service, Stiles keeps his gaze trained forward, just staring at the trees. His mom loved trees, thought you could tell a lot about people by what kind of trees they liked. She liked sycamores.
He hopes wherever she ends up is overflowing with them. He hopes all she can see right now is sycamores, on and on and on, extending well beyond the horizon. It is what she deserves.
Stiles knows, for the rest of his life, he will only be seeing sycamores, too.
-
Approximately 65k, Explicit, AU where Stiles can see ghosts. You begin with Stiles and Derek at thirteen and sixteen (respectively), following their lives through the years as they enter adulthood. Warning for canonical predatory behavior and character death. A story about dealing with grief, growing up, and falling in love.
(graphic made by the light of my life, @seanchaidh7, and includes sneak peeks of her artwork !)
