Sterek One Shots (boyxboy)

Moving Forward

Moving Forward by orphan_account
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Stiles leaves Beacon Hills a couple of weeks after he graduates. He packs his room up into boxes and prepares himself for an Ivy League education at Brown University.

He keeps in contact with everyone for the first couple of months, and then it's been a year and he only ever talks to Scott and his dad. When he returns during holidays and summer break he spends most of his time at home, catching up on sleeping and doing freelance graphic design work.

Mostly everyone's left town, trying to get far away from the memories as possible. That's another reason Stiles assumes they don't talk, because they all serve as a constant reminder to one another about the things they've seen, the things they've experienced.

It's everyone and no one's fault when they drop out of touch. High school friends can't be expected to be friends forever, and sometimes grief just drives people apart, and that's okay. Stiles doesn't hold any grudges, and he knows that no one holds any grudges against him. It's not as if they're ignoring one another, because at times they still like each other's posts on Facebook and send each other links to things that serve as reminders of old inside jokes, and that's okay. Stiles doesn't want anything more, and he expects that everyone else feels the same way.

Eventually he stops going back at all. Instead, his dad starts coming out to see him in Rhode Island, telling Stiles that he's just happy to have some time off of work to catch up with his only son. They do what they always did when they were in Beacon Hills, only now it's without the lies that had been necessary at the time, and the trust gap between the pair slowly closes when Stiles realises he doesn't have anything to hide besides the fact that his partners are increasingly becoming male rather than female.

He goes back to Beacon Hills in his third year, more than a year since the last time, worried when he receives a call from the police department back home. It's the first time he's been on the receiving end of a "Mr. Stilinski? There's been an accident," call, and he hopes that he doesn't have to go through it ever again. He packs his suitcase in silence, ignoring the questions his roommate is asking him, and boards the flight Scott booked for him.

They only ever talk via Skype, more irregular than they used to, but Scott still came through for him when it was necessary. This, Stiles thinks, is what growing up really is about. This is moving forward.

It turns out that the accident wasn't too bad. His dad had interrupted an armed robbery on his night off, because apparently the Stilinskis have been cursed with irony and misfortune, and had tried to protect the cashier. He was shot once, in the arm, and had tried to keep them from calling Stiles.

One of the deputies didn't listen, though, and Stiles has never been happier to see that his dad's employees weren't necessarily on the sheriff's side.

He hopes this meant that they were listening to Stiles about the no junk food rule too, but he didn't hold his breath.

He's been back in town for three days when he runs into Derek at the gas station of all places. He's filling up his Jeep, wondering how in the hell the car still runs at all when it needs fuel like the devil needs virgin sacrifices or whatever (that analogy got away from him, he'll argue later to Scott during their Skype session), when he sees someone familiar jog up the driveway and into the store.

Stiles follows, if only because he has to pay for his gas, and stands in line, unsure of whether or not to say anything when he realises he's in line behind Derek Hale.

"Do you even have to jog?" He asks, the words pouring out of his mouth when he realises that Derek's wearing a wife beater and jogging shorts because he's been running, and not because this is a new fashion trend or the lazy college student wear like back at Brown.