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Wolfsbane. That was the first thing he noticed when things started coming back into focus and his other senses kicked in.
To an ordinary person you’d think he was just covered in dirt but one sniff and Derek knew this was no accident. Someone had known he would be on this bus and that all it would take was enough wolfsbane and he would be trapped. Even lifting his upper body took effort and it was then he realized his left leg was broken and wasn’t likely to heal anytime soon.
“Derek?”
Hearing one of his beta’s made him refocus his attention and he looked to the side to see some of the bus seats had formed a barricade between him and the rest of the travelers. “Erica, are you okay?” He yelled back and coughed when he inhaled some smoke.
“Think I’ve broken some ribs and Boyd has bashed his head, but nothing we can’t handle.” She went silent for a moment and Derek could hear the faint murmur of Boyd talking. “How are you?”
Derek took one more look over himself and apart from the broken leg, he seemed okay. “I’m okay, just a little bruised-”
“Liar.”
His head snapped to the side and through the murky air he could make out another person laying on their back with a seat blocking the view of his body. “Excuse me?”
“Your friend just asked if you were okay and mate, you’re not okay. That leg looks like it’s going to fall off any second.”
Derek glared at the kid who looked almost amused at catching him out on the lie and he crossed his arms in annoyance, “No point worrying them.”
A response was heading his way when there was suddenly a loud bang and they both looked up, Derek only now just thinking about the fact that just because he survived the crash doesn’t mean the hunters wouldn’t still be coming for the bodies. “Erica, can you get free? Can you see what’s going on?”
Nothing came back.
“Erica!”
“Relax Sourwolf, she probably just can’t hear you.”
If they were humans he would of accepted that as a reasonable answer but they weren’t and the distance wasn’t far enough to warrantee no response even with wolfsbane in the air. What if the hunters got her? What if that loud bang was them taking her and Boyd out of the picture to leave Derek alone in fighting them?
A strangers voice suddenly filled the silence. “Hello! If you can hear me, we’re trying to get to you. Your friends are safe and with the medics being checked over. How many are there of you?”
Derek glanced around and saw that it was only the two of them.
“Two casualties, one critical and another serious but not life threatening.” The kid spoke back quickly with a firm tone and then winced as he clutched something out of site from Derek. “ETA on getting us the heck out of here?”
“Unsure I’m afraid, there’s a lot of debris to move and the area around you is unstable. We have to assess the best way to get you out. Have you got names so we can contact anyone for you?”
“I’m the sheriff’s son and Sourwolf here goes by Derek.”
For someone who was currently in a bus wreckage, the kid seemed relatively calm and was only replying with relevant information, like he’d done this multiple times.
“Derek you got family?” The stranger yelled back.
“You just pulled them out.”
“Okay, sit tight and we’ll get you out as soon as possible.”
The Sheriff’s son gave a small sigh and Derek tried to assess his condition but most of him was hidden, and considering he’d just told the stranger he was seriously hurt, but not life threatening, told Derek not to worry too much. “I think it was a little bit of an exaggeration saying my leg was life threatening,” he commented.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood, you probably don’t even know half of what’s going on.”
“You’d be surprised.”
As the initial shock passed, Derek took in the guy’s appearance and if it wasn’t for the smudges of dirt on his face, he wouldn’t be someone Derek could ignore. Who was he kidding though; even with the smudges this Sheriff’s kid was attractive. He had freckles dotted around his face and neck, brown eyes that even in this smoky air you could tell would melt your heart and from the one hand he could see, those fingers were something you could definitely find good uses for.
“Like what you see,” came an amused comment and Derek huffed as he looked away. Now was not the time to get distracted.
“So, you think they’ve forgotten about little old us?”
Derek looked away from the barricade blocking them from freedom and stared at the guy he now knew was called Stiles after a few small conversations in the past couple of hours.
“They probably just can’t work out how to get us out once they get through,” he replied. Or they’re really hunters and are hoping we die in here.
“Surprised my Dad hasn’t kicked his way in yet,” Stiles muttered and shifted where he was, the scent of blood beginning to reach Derek the more time passed. “So, if this is to be our last moments, is there anything you regret?”
“What?”
“Oh come on, don’t tell me you haven’t been thinking about it. That game people play at parties where you talk about what you’d do if the world was ending, that’s pretty much what’s happening here.”
“The world isn’t ending Stiles.”
“No but we might not be in the world tomorrow. Humour me, please.”
Derek took one look at the guys face and he knew he’d cave. This boy could probably ask him for anything and he’d say yes, but why he thought that he wasn’t sure.
Giving a small shrug, Derek leant back against the wall and looked away from Stiles. “I’d regret not moving on probably,” he started and pulled his good leg up to his chest. “I was going out with this woman and she wasn’t exactly the best person you’d meet … turns out she was just using me for my p-“ he stopped himself from saying pack and threw in a random word “-power.”
“You a powerful man then?”
“Something like that,” he replied and felt his claws threatening to come out. “I was so angry that I let someone use me like that so ever since I just haven’t let myself open up again. I guess if this was really my last day, I’d regret not trying with someone new.”
“Anyone in particular?” Stiles prompted and Derek met his gaze across the wreck.
Not until now.
Derek couldn’t get the words to come out but he couldn’t lie either, so he simply shrugged. “How about you?”
A soft laugh came from Stiles and Derek lifted an eyebrow in curiosity. “Apart from getting on this bus?”
“Obviously,” he said with a smirk.
“I regret chasing after people who were way out of my reach,” he joked but Derek could tell there was something more to it. “I get too invested in people who end up just wanting to be my friend … doesn’t always put me off either. I once got told I was the most desperate person for love in all of creation and I suppose they were right.”
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting companionship.”
“Say’s the Sourwolf who swore off women for what I assume is years.”
“People,” he corrected and blushed when the realization came over Stiles’ face. “You shouldn’t have to work so hard to be with someone though. When you meet the right person, you’ll just … know. At least that’s what I’ve been told.”
Stiles hummed in agreement and closed his eyes as the silence fell back over them.
Another half an hour passed and Derek grumbled in discomfort as the wolfsbane began to leave his system and his leg began to repair itself. Looking over at the human to make sure he wasn’t noticing the skin knitting together, he saw that Stiles had gone awfully pale.
“Hey kid, you alright?” Stiles remained motionless and Derek pushed himself up to sit straighter. “Kid!”
“I’m not a kid,” Stiles muttered and a sigh of relief left Derek as two brown eyes looked over at him. “You keep calling me that and if you locate my driving license it will tell you I’m 27.”
“Well you keep calling me Sourwolf,” he snapped back and then froze when he realized what the name included. Wolf. Was Stiles a hunter and had been behind this the entire time?
“That’s because you growled at me when I sung to my music half way to Beacon Hills, plus you’ve got this whole predator vibe going on.” The human’s heart stuttered a little but Derek barely noticed as he saw blood drip from Stiles’ nose. “Ah shit, time’s running out.”
“You said your injuries were serious, what did you mean, where are you hurt? I can barely see you.”
Stiles gave a small smile and lifted his other hand over the seat to show it was dripping with blood, “Afraid I never specified who had the serious injuries and who was critical wolf boy.”
Derek felt his worry grow as Stiles dropped his hand back down and he tried to push himself through the rubble, however with a broken leg to drag behind him, it wasn’t proving easy. “How are you hurt Stiles,” he repeated.
“Just a little impalement.”
His entire body froze as the word sunk in and Derek used his senses to make out the condition of the guy. Now that the wolfsbane was pretty much out of his system and the smoke was beginning to clear, he could smell just how much blood was near him. The heartbeat a few meters away was faint and Derek used his eyes to see that Stiles barely looked alive now that he focused.
“Either I’m hallucinating or your eyes are red.”
“Blood loss making you see things,” Derek replied on autopilot with an excuse he was taught as a child when a human caught you wolfing out. “You should have told me how serious you were.”
Stiles huffed and let his head roll sideways to face him, “Not much you could have done.”
Derek decided the pain in his leg could be ignored and he dragged himself over to Stiles, his hand grasping the limp one closest to him. “You’re going to be okay Stiles, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Bit serious for a first date don’t you think,” Stiles teased as he squeezed Derek’s hand slightly.
“Yeah well, the world’s ending tomorrow right? Might as well take a chance,” Derek joked back and tried to take the pain from Stiles but nothing happened. Not a single black vein appeared on his arm. “Are you in pain?”
He shook his head and coughed slightly as the blood from his nose dripped into his mouth. “Probably not a good sign right? The not being in pain.”
Derek’s grip tightened and he looked back at the barricade; someone should be coming any second now.
“Is anyone out there?! Hello!!”
His voice had gone hoarse with the amount of yelling he’d done to get someone to respond to him and Stiles grip on his hand stopped completely. Derek had no idea how thick the barricade was and he didn’t dare leave Stiles side incase he needed CPR.
“Think only one of us is getting out of here.”
“No!” Derek snapped and cupped Stiles’ face in-between his dirt-covered hands. “Stiles, just hold on. They’ll be here any minute now and then you’ll be fine.”
“End of the road for me Sourwolf,” a soft voice replied and Derek growled under his breath as the human looked up at him with acceptance. “Can you do something for me? Can you tell my Dad that I was okay, that I wasn’t in any pain and that there wasn’t anything he could have done-“
“Shut up, this is not happening. I told you I would get you out, so stop with the death speech and just focus on breathing.”
“So serious,” Stiles muttered and closed his eyes.
“Stay awake,” he demanded and shook Stiles until he opened his eyes again. “Lets talk about something to distract you. What do you do for a living?”
“Cop. like my Dad.”
“Following in your Father’s footsteps, I get that. You enjoy it?” Derek wasn’t even sure what he was saying anymore, his entire focus on the heartbeat that was getting slower every minute they talked.
Stiles didn’t respond to his question, instead he rolled his head to the side so his lips brushed Derek’s palm cupping his face. “Wish you could build a time machine,” the weak human muttered and Derek leant closer to hear what he was saying. “You could have been a new chapter.”
Derek frowned as Stiles began to say random things in gibberish and he turned his head back to meet his gaze, “I’m not losing you. Do you get that? I have lost so much and I can’t have another death hanging over me. So stop being so selfish and get yourself together.”
“So serious,” were the final two words that left the human’s lips and then the silence was no longer voluntary.
Now when you ask Derek why he did what he did next, he couldn’t give you an honest answer. Desperation? Maybe. Instinct? Most likely.
Before another breath could be stolen from Stiles, Derek was leaning down slowly and the wolf rose to the surface so that his fangs fell from his lips. “You’d be worth chasing in this world and the next,” he whispered and with one last breath he moved to the side to bite into a guy he wasn’t even sure would survive the next hour, let alone the transition.