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No.
That was the first thing that popped into Derek’s mind. Complete and utter unacceptance. He shuck his head no, no no no no no no no no no. A thousand times, the word no.
The second thing you ask?
Curly fries.
Salty curly fries.
He had no idea why, maybe the denial was making his head spin. When Deaton said…. Soulmates. Derek just left. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t hesitate. He just walked out. He walked-ran back to the Tattoo parlor. He got in his car and he started driving. Now he was sitting in the parking lot of some freaking fast food restaurant staring at the bag of large curly fries sitting in his lap.
He scuffed to himself, because Deaton was wrong, there was no way Derek said, finally processing the words in his head. Stiles… he was just a kid, a high schooler skipping school, who happened to have an over imaginative mind when he was sleeping. Derek was a werewolf his senses were heightened. He may have a weird sensitivity to Stiles’ emotions, he’ll admit that. But to say, or even think they are soulmates is just preposterous.
Maybe Deaton wasn’t as good as a Druid as he remembered. His memory had to be covered with the nostalgia goggles.
He went home after that, leaving the fries in his car, he didn’t know what else to do with them. He would end up regretting it later, his car would be tainted with the smell of the fatty fried potatoes.
**
The sun was just starting to reach the sky, painting the world in bright beautiful colors. Stiles was cold and tired, and he smuggled into something behind him, it was radiating warmth, he blinked face itchy. Long black hair.
Then he realized the thing he was using as a pillow was breathing. He sat up quickly, fear rushing through him, it was a wolf. Stiles yelped and stood up. His legs were sore from running, and he felt the exhaustion run over him.
The wolf roused, stretching, almost like a dog. But then it did something that was… well…. Strange to say the least. He stretched and stood. Hair, receding into skin. Legs and arms growing longer, paws turning into hands and feet, claws clearing in color and turning into nails.
A wolf became a human.
**
Stiles gasped awake. That was weird. The wolf turned into a person. He shook his head trying to get rid of the vivid details of it out of his head, he looked accusingly at his Adderall pills, that was the only thing different. He finally managed to get into a decent schedule, taking them at the same time every day, now he was having weird vivid dreams every night.
Coincidence?
He thinks not!
He looks over at his clock and it’s close enough to when he’s supposed to get up, so he gets out of bed and gets ready for school.
After showering, and dressing. He runs downstairs and makes coffee before his dad can get up and seize it from him. Because according to the Sheriff, Stiles didn’t need coffee with his already hyperactive mind and body. According to Stiles, the Sheriff didn’t know his life.
The disagreement has ended with Stiles burning his tongue many a time, trying to quickly gulp as much coffee as he could when his father woke up to the smell of brewing coffee. The only reason John hasn’t gotten rid of their coffee maker, is because he knew Stiles would go out and just buy some from somewhere.
After finishing the cup Stiles grabs his bag and school books and heads for his jeep. He sits in his car mentally preparing himself for the hell Mr. Harris is going to give him for skipping the past two days. But then again, when is Mr. Harris not giving Stiles hell?
That man has a personal vendetta against Stiles, and he would gladly skip class for the rest of the year, but he needed to get on his dad’s good side, so he can work at the tattoo parlor, he was already pushing his luck not having to tell him, where the job is, or who the person he is working for is. He was going to just have to accept it for now.
_
Derek had another dream last night. It was… less… stressing. If that was the correct word for it. He had felt a sense of peace in the dream, like he managed to sleep. In his own dream. He was safe… so was the person he was protecting.
It was like a movie that Derek could only watch while he was asleep. It would pause and press play in his dreams. Continuation for times of… of consciousness.
He didn’t want to think about it. Not about what Deaton said.
Derek knew all about soulmates. It had been something he dreamed of as a child. His mother and father were soulmates, they were lucky. Everyone has a soulmate, but they often miss them, or honesty never meet them. Derek was naive enough to believe he had one at a time in his life.
He thought it was Paige.
A girl he had been foolish with. He rushed his love for her, he was fearful that he would lose her one day, so he had her bitten, trying to turn her, and caused himself to lose him faster than he would have in any other scenario he’d imagined.
So he gave up on the hope he would be as lucky as his parents.
He settled on the idea he would grow up and find love just like everyone else. He’d meet someone they would be friends, they would eventually see their feelings for each other and the rest would be history. Deaton…. Deaton was just…. He was wrong… he had to be. He knew all there was to know about soulmates.
You have to be in proximity for the soul to crave the bond. Reasons why many people don’t find their soulmate, they simply don’t live anywhere near each other. Once the soul beings to bond, It craves to be around the other soul, drawing you too them in strange ways. Like if their car breaks down and is in the shop, you suddenly have the urge to go get your oil checked or to stop ignoring that check engine light. Or other things like if you work at a coffee shop you suddenly want to get coffee more often.
Then there are dreams, encounters you may have had with your soulmate. An idle chat about them, a bump into them at the library. Passing their car on the road. Every time you dream of them, you get a clearer sense of them, something drawing you to them.
An image, a word, a symbol.
Something that is tied into their identity.
Derek isn’t overlooking the fact that Beacon hills is a small town and he and Stiles may have almost crossed paths, and if they were soulmates that would mean something.
Derek doesn’t overlook the fact that Stiles suddenly has this strange urge to get a tattoo, even though it seems his heart races at the mention of a needle.
Derek doesn’t overlook the fact that Stiles had a dream about his tattoo, even drew it on paper before Derek had ever shown it to anyone.
His opinion totally isn’t biased.
What!?
It isn’t.
_
Stiles was right. Mr. Harris gave him an exceeding amount of hell in class. He gave him about six worksheets that he had to complete before Friday- two days from now. Scott told him they only got one assignment in the two days he skipped, which meant that Mr. Harris pulled five assignments out of his ass, just to make Stiles’ day harder.
Seriously what did he do to the guy to deserve this?
You know- Besides skipping class… two days in a row.
Anyway those assignments got shoved to the bottom of his bag at the end of the day with honestly more respect than he had for the class. He stored his bag in the back of his jeep and hopped into the front seat heading to the Hale’s Tattoo Temple.
-
Derek had been out of his mind all day. He left the store multiple times for no reason other than to buy curly fries. He didn’t even like curly fries. Now he was saddled with not one, not two, but three bags of curly fries.
Why you ask?
He had no idea.
-
Stiles peeled out of his jeep and basically skipped into the building. He was so happy and was excited to tell Derek the news.
“My dad said yes.”
“to what?” Derek asked, looking at Stiles shocked. He didn’t come this morning so he assumed he wasn’t coming today.
“To me working here!”
“Oh. Yeah, that’s- that’s good.” Derek was being… weird. He didn’t know how to act right now. not with the fact that he didn’t even know Stiles was going to show up. Not with the dreams, not with… not with what Deaton said.
Derek may tell himself that it isn’t true, it still is bothering him, in the back of his head.
Stiles didn’t let it affect him, he was in a good mood Damnit. Finally, out of school, and he was now going to be able to just sit in here all day, and get paid for it! Score!
But why was he so happy to sit in here? Sure the drawings were pretty cool. But he probably wasn’t going to be able to stay here if someone was in the process of getting a tattoo. He would pass out, or be sick.
Besides, Stiles was too hyperactive to sit here all day now that he thought about it.
His jeep gave him trouble, but nothing a little duct tape and elbow grease couldn’t help. He wasn’t stretched for cash, not to mention if he did have any extra money he would spend it all on curly fries anyway.
Gosh, he has a serious problem with curly fries. completely obsessed. It was almost like he could smell them right now.
Wait
He did smell them, that was the unmistakable smell of godly deliciousness. Stiles would know it anywhere.
“Did you eat curly fries today?” Stiles asked.
“No.” Derek said, and then looked at the bags behind the counter. “But I did buy some, I don’t want them. Do you like fries? You can have them if you want.”
Derek doesn’t think he has ever seen someone so excited at the mention of fries in his entire life.
“Seriously?” Stiles asked, walking over to Derek, Derek bent over and grabbed one of the bags. “Dude this thing is untouched.”
“Yeah, I didn’t want them.” Derek said shrugging. Stiles gave him a slightly suspicious glance and then seemed to make up his mind in some inner debate, and began to quickly devour the fries.
Stiles moaned at the first bite, and honestly every bite after.
Something made Derek want to grimace, and another part of him made a click, thoughts connecting.
“So I take it you like curly fries.” Derek said, stepping back, picking up the two other bags and handing them to Stiles.
“OH MY GOSH are you serious? IS it my birthday today? Why did you buy so much if you didn’t want them? You know what it doesn’t matter, ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you’ right? I love curly fries with a burning passion. BURING like hot, like you don’t understand, I want to be buried with curly fries when I die so I can have them in the afterlife.”
“I just had the urge, sorry their cold they have been sitting in here for a while. Eat all of them, nice to know if I ever get the urge again I know I will have someone I know who won’t waste them.”
“I love you.” Stiles said, quickly finishing the bag in his hand. As if he was pacing himself before when he thought he only had the bag’s limited amount. Derek was actually kind of worried that Stiles might choke from eating so fast.
He kept an eye on his as he ate.
But many thoughts were going on in Derek’s head.
Once again all the things that can qualify someone as a soulmate.
- Close proximity for the souls to start to crave to be connected.
- He and Stiles were in a small town…
- Dreams of their first meeting.
- …they had a dream… Stiles as a young child and Derek as a wolf. If they met in the past- years ago for the first time it would mean the dream was of their first meeting.
- Craving for something that connects you to them.
- Stiles had been drawn to the only tattoo parlor in Beacon hills.
- Derek had been craving Curly fries- something that Stiles wants to be buried with apparently.
The small town, dreams, and cravings… it was all too much for Derek. It all slid into place. What if Deaton was right? He couldn’t be right… Stiles is young. He… he…
Derek desperately tried to grasp on to something. Some reason why they couldn’t be soulmates. His mind scrambled, he couldn’t find it. So he defensively went to the fact that it couldn’t be true. with all of the facts he couldn’t hold that logic.
Then something his mother had said to him rang in his ear.
**
Talia Hale had just finished washing the dishes, Derek waiting for her, sitting on a stool. She needed to tuck him in for bed time. No one dare make fun of him for it either.
“Momma… how did you know daddy was your soulmate?” A young Derek asked his mother. Goodness he looked up to them so much. They were his hero’s in more ways than one. He loved hearing the story of how they got together. “Like really really really know?” Derek said. He’d been going around the playground at school trying to find his soulmate but he wasn’t having any luck, his mom must have had some sort of trick.
“You mean aside from the fact that we were drawn together by our very souls?” She asked.