Sterek Week 2022

Almost Sterek

Regret. Nostalgia. Bittersweet. Longing.

Stiles has felt these in abundance since leaving Beacon Hills roughly ten years ago. He left with everything he held dear. Well almost everything. He left his heart behind, and he goes by the name Derek Hale.

Stiles didn't start out with much once he moved. He got a decent sized apartment and began college at Silver Arbor University, in New York City, to obtain a degree in Creative Writing and Elementary Education. While he was a freelance writer, he taught kindergarten full time. Soon his works became popular, and he became well known. He never let his fame take away from his kiddos and gladly signed their books when they brought them in. After all, he did start out writing children's books.

However, his inspiration changed one day when he got back home. His publisher held a book signing event at a local bookstore and hundreds of people showed up, not to mention how many children showed up. He's exhausted as he slips into his house, deposits his keys in the bowl by the door, toes off his shoes and walks further in. He goes to the cabinet in his study and grabs out the bottle of scotch along with a single glass. He never allows himself to have more than one.

A few minutes later he makes his way down the hallway, with a glass of wine, undoing the top three buttons of his dress shirt, loosening his tie and rolling up his sleeves. It's nice to have the book signing on a weekend to allow him time to decompress after.

He plops down in the front row of seats in his small home theater and faces the several monitors that adorn the wall instead of one big screen. On each monitor sits a moment frozen in time. On each monitor sits a memory frozen in his mind.

Where a teenager gripped a saw to cut off the alpha's arm. Where a boy held up an alpha in a pool for hours. Where a teenager harbored a supposed fugitive in his bedroom not to mention it being the sheriff's house. Where a young man places his hand on the alpha's shoulder when one of his betas dies at his hands. When a teenager eggs on the alpha who knows his strength and plans to use it, really packing a punch. When a son desperate to find his father pleads with the alpha to see what's right in front of him. When a young man sits knee to knee and shoulder to shoulder with the alpha as he spins a story about the very powerful talisman.

His eyes scan all those memories and more. They all have several things in common but the most bittersweet thing they have in common...is they were opportunities missed.

Now here he is at almost 30 years old wondering what could have been and wondering if he'll ever stop loving him. Loving Derek Hale.

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

Stiles reclines in his seat with his glass of white wine, his tie completely undone, the top three buttons of his shirt unbuttoned, and his glasses settled on the bridge of his nose. He sits and watches the monitors with bittersweet memories that make his heart ache.

He goes through them all like he always does at least once a day. Then he gets to the memory at the temple in Mexico and his heart aches, so he looks away for a moment. It was quite possibly one of the most heartbreaking moments of his life aside from his mother's death and his father being kidnapped by the Darach. He takes a deep breath to calm himself.

When he looks back, he pauses as he realizes how many times–at least seven–he looked between Derek and the temple. Stiles picks up the remote and rewatches the scene again and again and again.

He slumps in his seat, his wine glass forgotten and wishes that at that moment he had chosen Derek. He'd been desperate to, as every fiber of his being screamed at him to go to his–and he knew when Derek told him to go, that he'd be fine, that he was lying. He took a step towards Derek before turning and running towards the temple, despite his instincts screaming for him to turn around.