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The 7-year-old pouted, tiny arms crossed over his slim chest as he let out a huff before glaring at the dark haired girl who sat cross legged, a gleeful smile on her pink lips “no I don’t” he whined in response.
“Why are you whining?” Derek grunted as he pulled himself into the treehouse that sat serval feet from the ground in one of the lower trees.
Mr Hale and Peter had found Cora and Stiles attempting to make the wood into shape as they left for their daily run. Stiles letting out a squeak of surprise when Cora swung the wood and hit him in the stomach.
Peter had teased them before reluctantly telling a tearful Stiles they would help with their “stupid treehouse, but it needs to be further away so I can’t hear you” Stiles and Cora had quickly agreed.
“Stiles loves Heather” Cora sang, laughing at her brother snarl and Stiles redden cheeks.
“No I don’t!” Stiles exclaimed, hands waving in front of him as if it would someway help convince Derek he was the one telling the truth and not his devil sister “Cora’s just saying that because she loves Jackson!”
“Ewwwww” Cora’s hazel nut orbs widened and her mouth twisted like she had ate something sour “I don’t love Jackson, he’s a big bully, and he pushes you over. Mom says I’m not allowed to bite him” she defended.
Derek wiped his head to face Stiles, the 12-year-old clenching his fists and trying to hold in his growl “is Jackson still being mean to you?” he demanded to know, eyes roaming the pale, mole dotted boy looking for injuries.
Stiles shrugged, hunching in on himself at Derek’s wandering eyes “Jackson’s mean to everybody, he even stole Scott’s inhaler so I punched him” he puffed his chest out in pride before deflating “Mom told me that was bad tho and Ms Charter put me on time out”
“You shouldn’t fight”
Cora barked out a laugh “you get in trouble for fighting all the time, Mom says you have no control and Uncle Peter says he always has to save your dumb ass” she repeated the words her uncle had ranted often.
“But I can fight” Derek ranted, eyebrows raising in challenge at his sister “want to see, I can kick your butt any day”
“I can fight” Stiles broke in, shifting on the bean bag to glare at Derek better “my Dad’s a deputy he taught me how to fight” he moved his arms in a punching motion.
The older boy rolled his eyes “you’re like a baby deer Stiles, you can’t fight, you fall over your own feet” and Stiles could admit that was kind of true. Just last week he had fallen down the McCall stairs when trying to push Mr McCall away from Scott when the older man had insulted his son.
Stiles had never seen Rafael so worried when he had blinked to find the older man above him, holding his head in place until he was sure the boy didn’t have any back pain. When the adults had asked about the bump he told them he and Scott had tried to play lacrosse in the house and tripped.
Scott had looked on with the confused puppy dog look until Stiles had explained “My Daddy is a deputy, he’ll get mad and put your Daddy in jail, it was an accident” he reasonable pointed out, much too mature for his 7-years of age.
“I’m brave” Stiles stood “I’ll show you, tell me what to do” he ignored Cora’s insistence to sit back down and for Derek to get out.
“I dare you to jump out of the treehouse” Derek joked, Laura had given him a similar dare when they were kids, telling 8-year-old Derek to jump off the roof which he stupidly did. James, his older brother, had screamed when Derek landed in his gardening.
And Stiles didn’t think. He was brave. His Mommy was sick and everyone kept telling him how brave he was, his Daddy told him he was brave when no one had been in the house one night and he had put himself to bed and locked all the doors.
Nobody knew that every time his Mommy was in the hospital he cried, because he knew one day she wasn’t going to come home. They didn’t know that night he had locked all the doors, grabbed his Walkie Talkie and talked to Scott so he wasn’t alone until he had heard the door open and he had sobbed.
Derek was the bravest person he knew. Derek couldn’t think he was weak. The floor disappeared from below him and he fell backwards.
Derek startled at his sister’s scream, the world seeming to pause as Stiles disappeared from his sight, his eyes flashed as he pulled Cora back from the edge and jumped from the tree. Stiles was lying on his back, small scratches on his uncovered arms one of which was bent at a strange angle.
“MOM!” Cora roared at the top of her lungs, scrambling down the ladder and pushing Derek away from her best friend “Stiles!” she frantically shook his shoulders when there was no reply.
“Stop, Cora, stop his arm is broken!” Grabbing the pale hand in his own he focused all her power on leeching the pain from the young boy before him until Stiles let out a small groan and blinked up at the Hale children.
“Cora! Derek!” Laura was sprinting towards them, Talia seconds behind. Skidding to a hault on her knees Laura took over for her brother and leeched the pain from the small boy.
Calmly Talia took in the scene “Cora, honey, run to the house and have your father call Mr Stilinski and tell him to meet us at the hospital”
“Mom”
“Now Cora” and there was no doubting the Alpha voice being used as her youngest ran towards the house. Kneeling Talia ran her hand over the break before humming “Stiles, honey, we’re going to take you to the hospital and have them take a look at your arm”
Stiles bottom lip wobbled dangerously before he bit into it harshly and nodded curtly “don’t tell Mom, she’ll worry and Ms Charter already says she had enough on her hands dealing with me” he pushed himself to a sitting position ignoring the hands urging him to sit back “I’m fine”
Talia shook her head fondly before helping Stiles to his feet and putting a hand on his back to keep him steady “come on honey” she urged him forward.
As he stood Stiles made eye contact with Derek who was gazing wide eyed at Stiles’ arm like he had never seen such a thing in his life, his gaze far away, like his Mom got when she thought about her illness and realised there was no cure. He looked lost.
“What happened?” Laura demanded to know, jerking Derek to his feet and pulling him behind the duo.
Derek shook his head before yanking his arm from her grasp and rushing forward, his hands reaching out for Stiles but stopping at his Mother’s warning look “I’m sorry, I’m sorry it was just a joke Stiles!”
“Am I brave now?”
Derek’s startled laugh was watery as he nodded wildly “You’ve always been brave you dumbass, I never doubted that, you’re the bravest person I know” the blush and small, private smile had Derek stopping in his tracks as they reached the house, his stomach fluttering in both fear of losing his human and something he couldn’t identify.
“Derek told Stiles to jump!”
“Derek Hale!”