I'm fine. |stiles stilinski•

Part 14

"Hey, how was school?" Derek asks, opening the car door for me.

I hesitate. "Yeah, it was good." I say.

"You're lying. What happened?" He says. I forgot he can tell if I'm lying- great.

"Nothing bad. I just had a bit of a 'meltdown' but Malia found me so it was fine." I say when he climbs into the car next to me. He puts a hand on my thigh and strokes my leg with his thumb.

"What happened?" He asks softly.

"Nothing- I just dropped my books on the stairs and couldn't pick them up and then my cannula was getting in the way and my catheta hurt my chest, but I'm okay. Promise." I say, putting my
hand on his.

🍃🍃
6 days later

I lie in bed, not being able to sleep because of such a splitting head ache. Suddenly I hear a clang and the noise of my window being slid open. I recognise the familiar, husky breathing to belong to Derek.

"I'm awake." I whisper into the darkness. It's 3:30am.

"I know." He hushes back. I feel the bed wobble as he lies down next to me, and I roll over to face him.

"What're you doing here?" I ask quietly, and I see his teeth as he smiles in the dark.

"I wanted to see you." He grins, his voice still calm and soft.

I nuzzle my cold head into his warm neck and nudge up next to his body.

"I thought you'd miss your personal heater." He chuckles, wrapping his arms across my torso.

"Mmm." I reply, shutting my eyes. And as if by magic, I easily fall asleep in his arms.

🍃🍃

I wake up early, and realise I've been lying on Derek all night, who is still fast asleep. His face is tanned with a little stubble on it, and his chest slowly goes up and down, in the rythm to his heart beat. Suddenly the crushing feeling that I'm starting my next block of chemo today hits me, and I feel a wave of nausea and anxiety. I gently shake Derek awake.

"Morning." He mumbles sleepily. I smile.

"Derek, we gotta go to the hospital." I whisper into his ear.

He rubs his eyes and sits up slowly, his arm lazily around my neck.

"You good?" He asks me. I smile "yes" awkwardly, and climb out of bed, shivering the moment I lift up my covers.

"Hey, here." Derek says, rushing over to me with a blanket.

"Thanks." I say, wrapping the warm blanket around my delicate frame.

We arrive at the hospital at 7am. Derek watches intently as the nurse inserts the I.V into my catheta.

When I'm finally wired up to the chemo, the nurse leaves us alone. Derek's face scrunches up and he holds a hand over his nose.

"What?" I ask, looking at him.

"Ugh, it's the smell. The chemo- I've never smelt something like this before." He says, looking at the I.V.

"Why, what does it smell like?" I ask.

"Like... Like a poison." He says, frowning.

"Doesn't surprise me." I murmur.

We sit in silence for a bit, until Derek starts to talk.

"Does it hurt? Like, right now? Can you feel it?" He asks, looking at the snaking tubes going into my body.

"Only when they put the needle in at the beginning. But, no, I can't feel it." I tell him. He frowns.

"Derek, you know you don't have to stay." I tell him, shuffling in my chair.

"I know, I want to though. It's not fair to leave you alone for four hours not doing anything." He says, putting a hand on my arm.

"You know, I never knew you even cared about me. Like, I knew you cared, but I didn't think you'd ever wanna give up so much of your time for me. I always thought you just liked me because you had to." I say looking straight ahead. Derek doesn't answer.

Eventually he speaks. "I didn't used to like you. You were annoying, and weird. But I still cared about you. So when I found out from Scott, I went mad." He says, watching me.

I turn to face him. "What do you mean? Angry?" I ask. He nods.

"I was furious. Because it wasn't fair. Like, it was you Stiles, you never did anything wrong." He says.

"Cancer doesn't choose it's victims, Derek." I say back.

"I know. So that's why I spend so much time with you. Because if you're gonna go through so much shit, I'm not letting you do it alone." He says. I smile at him gratefully.

"Thanks." I say, shuffling in my chair again.

"You comfy enough?" He asks.

"Not really." I say back, looking down. He soothingly strokes my thigh.