The Unexpected Journey- A Sterek Novella

4. Whiskey and Nightmares

Stiles lay in the bed shifting his position again for probably the hundredth time trying to get comfortable. The rest of the evening after Derek dropped him off had dragged by so slowly, he thought he could have counted every last star in the sky in the interim. He spent his time flitting around the house, unable to sit still, blaring the song 'You Don't See Me' by SafetySuit on repeat from his docked iPod and doing mundane tasks trying to numb his mind until his dad got home a little after eight. His dad took one look around the clean house and jokingly pulled his gun asking who he was and what had he done with his son. Stiles had mumbled some excuse about wanting to help out more and excused himself to go to bed. Trudging up the stairs to his room, he hadn't missed the perplexed look on his father's face but thankfully he hadn't stopped or questioned him any further.

                What was he going to do? He had no idea how to handle the predicament he now found himself in. One fumbling close encounter in a wine cellar with Heather had most certainly not prepared him on how to handle an infatuation with one Derek Hale. Even all the years he had spent pining after Lydia didn't help him now because after all, that had certainly worked out like he planned. Was he destined to always want the one thing he could never have then die a lonely death of a heart attack in his late fifties from all the fat and cholesterol ridden food he had consumed trying to fill the void in his pathetic existence?

                The whole situation was still so new to him. He had barely begun to explore the idea that he was even attracted to guys and suddenly the most virile of men was on his radar. Stiles berated himself thinking, 'Of course I would fall for the most unavailable man on the planet. Even if Derek had been inclined to find a man attractive, why would he ever want an awkward, pale skinned, lovesick teenager.'

                The clock on the nightstand read close to eleven by the time Stiles eyes finally drooped in exhaustion and he fell into a fitful sleep. He tossed in his sleep still seeking the comfort he couldn't find while awake.

~

                Derek's drive home was no less pathetic as he replayed the short car ride over in his head. What the hell did he think he was doing? Stiles was just a boy... a nobody pain in the ass kid whom he had only just managed not to throttle on many occasions. Now here he was, his brain and body feeling like it wanted nothing more than to consume the little shit. There were so many reasons not to go down this road he could probably be still be listing them come morning.

                Derek began running through the list in his head as he parked and went inside his loft. Stiles was a seventeen year old kid with absolutely no life experience. He was a twenty-two year old man who had suffered enough already in his life, he may as well be ancient. They couldn't possibly have anything in common. Stiles was human. He was a born werewolf. Stiles was annoying, exasperating, talked to much, never sat still, and did his best to antagonize and harass Derek at every given opportunity. Derek was mystified trying to figure out what even attracted him to the boy in the first place.

Besides, Derek didn't want to be in another relationship ever again. They tended to end in tragedy and pain. At fifteen he had betrayed his first love by trying to have her turned and that had ended with him having to kill her himself to end her pain when the bite didn't take. Then later being sixteen years old, heartbroken and lonely, he had fallen for Kate, who had seemed so sophisticated and mature since she was four years older than him. He couldn't believe this beautiful woman had wanted him, a sixteen year old nobody. He should have asked the question more than once since she turned out to be a psychotic bitch that had used and manipulated him with her need to prove to her family she was some great hunter. That relationship ended with the fiery deaths of almost his whole family in their ancestral home when Kate had used information she had gleaned from him to condemn them.