Through the years

10.

Four days.

To say Stiles was stubborn would be an understatement at this point. 

He had just spent four days outside in the woods, sleeping there on a bed of rough dead leaves and eating whatever the pack was kind enough to bring out to him even though they thought it was stupid of him as he was freezing during the night and overheating during the day under the burning sun. 

It was 4 am, the start of the fifth day, when Derek reached Stiles' sleeping form. 

The wolf was shaking significantly and his eyes were roaming around every corner of those woods as he crawled closer to the brunette. 

He sniffed the resting boy, poking him to wake him up. 

But Stiles wasn't moving. 

Derek whined quietly and shook Stiles more and more to wake him up but the brunette was still motionless and the wolf was starting to get scared. 

He didn't know what to do, his human wasn't responding and as he was starting to panic more than he already was by being outside on his own, Derek forgot to just check if he could hear the brunette’s heartbeat. 

His whining intensified as he circled around the brunette's body, facing the boy's head and nuzzling against his chin, trying to get any reaction. 

When he got none, he whimpered and pulled away. 

"S-stiles?" Derek had emerged back from the depth of his own mind in Ragnar's panic. 

But seeing what had scared his wolf, scared Derek too. 

Upon laying eyes on the motionless brunette out in the woods in the middle of the night all alone brought back undesired memories and Derek felt like dying again. 

"Stiles? Wake up." he said, his heart beating too fast as he shook the brunette vehemently. "It's not funny. Please, please open your eyes." he begged and the brunette started to stir.

"What..?" Stiles finally awoke, blinking and frowning as he searched his surroundings before looking at the wolf. 

"Stiles." Derek sighed in relief and the brunette was startled out of his sleepy state when he heard the wolf speak. 

"Oh my god, Der!" he exclaimed as he eyed the teary eyed wolf. "You made it!" 

"You're okay?" the wolf asked shakily and Stiles frowned. 

"Of course, I'm okay, sourwolf." he replied and saw the tear rolling down his cheeks. "What's wrong? Talk to me."

"I...I thought..." he hesitated, looking away. "Nothing, it's stupid."

"It's not stupid." Stiles told him, his voice firm as he looked deeply into the wolf's eyes. "Tell me." 

"I thought you were dead." he finally admitted, tears cascading down his face as he cried and Stiles felt his heart hurt. 

Wordlessly, Stiles pulled the wolf into his arms, Derek's head laying on his chest. 

The wolf cried for a while, calming down as he listened to the beating of the human's heart. 

It was a confirmation that the human truly was okay and alive. 

"That's why you were so scared of going out?" the brunette asked quietly. "Because you associated the woods with her death?" and when he felt a nod against his chest Stiles tightened his hold on the wolf. "Nothing like that is ever going to happen again."