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Stiles was four years old. He loved to play and color and watch cartoons and be with his mommy and daddy, just like lots of other boys and girls. But he wasn’t like the others, not really.
Because Stiles and his mommy were dragons.
Not the ones that could even be huger than a forest and breathed fire that could char anything. They were dragon shifters, with little stubby horns on their heads. Mommy could even shift and get wings and the prettiest blue scales covered part of her skin, which was so cool. Mommy said that one day when Stiles got bigger, he would be able to do that, too. Stiles couldn’t wait for that day.
Stiles liked going out to play with other children or go to the park, but Stiles liked being home the best. The things that were most important to him were there. Mommy said that those very important things were his hoard.
Stiles knew about hoards. Mommy kept her hoard in their basement. She had lots of pretty figurines, dried flowers pressed flat that hung in picture frames, fancy plates and tea cups with all different designs on them, all nicely put in display cases. Sometimes she would bring up some of the cups and dishes for them to use for very nice dinners. And the middle of her hoard was an old sofa that used to belong to Mommy’s family, with a blanket on top of it that Grandma made special for Mommy.. Mommy would sit on the sofa and wrap the blanket around her and look at her hoard. But while she would be smiling, sometimes Stiles noticed that her eyes looked kind of sad. He didn’t understand how someone could be sad looking at their very favorite things.
One time, he asked Mommy why her eyes looked sad. She sat him in her lap and told him, “Because all of my hoard isn’t here, and I miss him.”
Stiles was a smart little boy, and he noticed that Mommy used the word “him” instead of “it“. The only “him” that Mommy could mean was Daddy. Daddy was a deputy who worked with the sheriff and caught the bad guys. Stiles thought that Daddy was so cool, and he wanted to be like him when he was grown up. But Daddy wasn’t home with him and Mommy as much as he wanted.
Mommy went down to her hoard almost every day for a little bit to make sure everything stayed neat and pretty. When Mommy and Daddy were home together, they went down to the basement a lot. Sometimes Stiles would go down there, too. Mommy never had that sad look in her eyes when Daddy was there. She always looked so very happy, and Stiles wanted her to look that way always.
“One day, my little Mieczyslaw,” Stiles’ mommy said, “you will find someone who makes you and your hoard feel complete. That will be your very special someone. They will do things on their own, too, like their job or being with their friends, but they will always come home to you. And you might even have children with them.” She smiled her big beautiful smile at him and stroked his hair.
**********
One day, Mommy took Stiles deep in the forest to a big beautiful house with lots of windows. Stiles could hear lots of happy laughter coming from around the house, and he could see children and doggies running around playing and laughing. Mommy got Stiles out of the car and she brought him over to a pretty dark-haired lady.
“Claudia, so nice to see you!” the pretty lady said. “And this must be Mie..mie..chi…”
“I’m Stiles!” he corrected. Only Mommy could say his name right.
The pretty lady smiled. “Stiles, then! I’m Talia Hale.”
“The Hales are kind of like us,” Mommy explained.
Stiles gasped. “Dragons? I’m going to play with other dragons?” He jumped up and down and looked closely at Miss Talia’s head to see if he could see little horns sitting in her hair, too.
Mommy laughed. “No, we are the only dragons in town. The Hales are werewolves. Some of the kids are in their wolf form, see?”
She pointed at the what Stiles thought were dogs, but they were really shifted werewolves. “Oh, wow, that’s really cool!” And with that, he ran over to the other kids, hoping to play with them.
One of the wolves, a black one with pretty gold eyes, stopped playing chase and ran up to Stiles. Stiles pet the werewolf on his head. “You are so soft,” he said. “I like you.”
The wolf must have liked Stiles, too, because he sniffed him all over. Stiles giggled. The wolf’s nose was wet and it tickled!
“Do you like me, too?” Stiles asked happily.
The wolf barked once and licked his cheek. That was a yes, Stiles decided.
Miss Talia walked over to him. “That’s my son, Derek,” she told Stiles. “He’s a couple of years older than you are.”
Stiles nodded, then turned back to Derek. “Hi, Derek! I’m Stiles! That’s not my real name, but no one can say it right except for Mommy.”
Derek’s head turned to the side like he was thinking. Then he barked again, pushed his head against Stiles, and ran off.
“He wants you to play chase with him,” Miss Talia said. Stiles was glad that he was starting to understand wolf. Maybe someday when he was bigger, Derek would understand dragon, too.
Stiles and Derek chased each other around. Sometimes the other children and wolves joined them, but it was just the two of them most of the time.
When it was time for Stiles’ nap, he crawled up in Mommy’s lap, and Derek laid down at his mommy’s feet. Stiles was happy laying in Mommy’s lap with Derek near him. That was weird because Stiles never needed anyone other than Mommy and Daddy.
The last thing Stiles heard before he fell asleep was something about Derek and mates. He didn’t know what a mate was. Maybe he’d find out later. Right now, Luke Skywalker was calling to him to practice with their light sabers!
**********
Stiles got to play with Derek and his family more often. He had a big sister named Laura and a little sister who was too little to become a wolf yet named Cora, and he had a lot of cousins. Sometimes Stiles wondered what it would be like to have a big family like the Hales, but Stiles was happy with just Mommy and Daddy.
Usually they played at Derek’s house, but finally Derek got to come play at Stiles’ house. He was super excited and couldn’t wait to bring Derek to his room.
When Miss Talia and Derek arrived, he bounced around excitedly and pulled Derek up to his room as soon as his mommy waved bye-bye to him.
Stiles tried to keep his room clean. Most of his toys were in a big box on the floor, and there were some board games on a shelf next to it. But Stiles wanted to show Derek his very favorite things. His hoard. “C’mon on the bed, Derek!” he called, pulling himself up on his bed. Derek came up right after him.
Stiles’ hoard sat on top of his bed. There was his extra-special pillow that he needed to go to sleep by himself, his Star Wars figures including Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, and a really awesome Batman figure with weapons that he could actually shoot. And there was a very pretty blanket that Mommy made just for him that made him think of her scales. It was a little hoard, but Stiles loved it, and it would get bigger as he got bigger and loved more things.
“Wow, you have Star Wars?” Derek said excitedly. “That’s awesome!”
“Yeah!“
But now that he was looked at his hoard, Stiles felt like something was wrong, that something else needed to be there. He looked around for what could be missing.
Then he saw Derek move closer and pick up Darth Vader.
Stiles didn’t like it when anyone but Mommy and Daddy went near his hoard, but when he saw Derek touching it, something warm and happy filled his tummy. He felt like his hoard was okay again. It was right to have Derek here among his very important things.
He picked up Luke and started an exciting duel with Derek.