Initiate // Sterek

// seven //

We decided we would walk the rest of the way back to the compound. Well ,we decided that after I had practically begged to not have to run again. So we set off at dawn, not bringing any water with us because we had nothing to carry it in. I asked Derek if he could catch something for us to eat, like a wild rabbit or something, but all he said was he "won't hunt animals himself, because it feels like he would be going against his ancestors" or something. It didn't really make sense, because wolves had to hunt to survive but I didn't question it any further. It was sort of cute, in like a heroic way.

We walked, Derek and Malia using their sense of smell as direction. I wondered what Derek had been talking about yesterday when he said that thing about Malia not turning out like her father. Who was her father? And what did he do?

Derek told Malia to go up ahead to find out what she could see, and he hung back for me to catch up with him. I smiled inwardly at the gesture, hoping he didn't see it.

"Hey." I said as we began walking side by side. Derek was tall. Very tall. I liked it. "Hi." He replied, looking straight ahead. I wasn't really sure what to expect of him. A second ago he seemed pretty confident in whatever he was doing, but not so much anymore. If I'm honest I was kind of nervous, but I wasn't scared. It was a good nervous.

"Thank you," I told him, breaking the silence that had grown between us. "For last night. If you hadn't have done that I probably wouldn't be alive." I told him honestly. A look of anger crossed his face. Did I say something?

"If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have been there in the first place." Derek said angrily, walking more ahead of me now.

"What do you mean? I thought I was here because I have some supernatural ability or whatever?" I asked confused, stopping in my tracks. "I know that..." He said, pausing for a moment. "If it wasn't for my kind.... If it wasn't for my family... You wouldn't have to be here, Stiles." He said in a sad tone.

"You could still be in highschool, playing lacrosse, dating Lydia, - " he went on until I cut him off. "Wait. How do you know about Lydia?" I asked. "You talk in your sleep." He replied simply.

"But Derek, that's normal. I don't want to be normal. I'm not normal." I sighed. He looked upset, most likely with himself. I walked back up to beside where he was standing.

"Besides I wouldn't want to go back to that school." I told him, humour edging my voice slightly. "And I wouldn't want to date Lydia." I told him, looking him in the eye.

I leaned in slightly, and he leaned down too, our foreheads touching. I thought briefly back to what Malia had said about Derek not making the first move, so that's what I did.

Our lips brushed off each other's slightly, sending a shiver down my spine. I went ahead and pushed them together properly, both of us practically melting into the kiss. His mouth felt even better than I remembered. My hand went to the stubble on his jaw, tracing his jawline with my fingers.

In that moment I didn't care about anything else, this was more important.

"Achem," A female voice coughed, causing us to break apart. "Stiles, when you're finished making out with my wonderful cousin, could the two of you come up here? I think I see the compound." Malia said, smirk wide on her face as she turned around to head back up to the hill she had came down from. I looked over to see a slightly red-faced Derek looking back at me. He smiled slightly before heading up towards the hill, me following after him

Cousin? Malia and Derek were cousins? So when Derek was talking about Malia's father he meant his uncle? Wasn't Peter his uncle? So many questions....

When we got to the top I looked over to the building Malia had spotted. I obviously had no idea what the compound actually looked like from the outside, but Derek had. So when he said that was it I believed him. It was still a fair bit away and would take a while to get to.

"Are you sure you guys don't turn into actual wolves? Because if you did this would be a whole lot faster."

~

Eventually, we made it down to the entrance of the compound. There hadn't been much conversation along the way except occasional glances between one another.

We came up to a large wall with a symbol engraved into it. Derek drew out his claws and placed them in the indents of the weird looking symbol. He twisted it a few times, in different directions, before it made any noise. When it did, the wall seemed to shift back slightly before slowly sliding open into one of the many, many, hallways of this place.

"How did you do that?" I asked curiously. "It's a family thing. It can only be opened by the claws of a Hale." He said turning to face us. "Listen, I don't know what they're going to be like in there. They might be worried about us, well, about you Stiles, but they might be angry too. At me." He said, turning to me in particular. "No matter what they say to me, you cannot defend me, alright? They'd think something fishy was up and they wouldn't even think about trusting any of us, okay?" He asked genuinely. I could see the urgency in his eyes.

"Okay." I told him as we went in.

The halls were quiet, I couldn't hear a single sound besides the sound of our feet. But for all I knew the dorms were on the complete opposite side if the building. It had seemed so big, I didn't get why they needed all the space. We kept walking, twisting and turning, until eventually I could hear the sound of voices. The dorms, I noticed as we came to one of the only familiar things in this place.

We came up to the door and stood there for a minute, trying to prepare ourselves for whatever might happen on the other side. I decided to get it done and over with, so I knocked gently on the door, before turning the handle and walking in.

I did not expect what I saw on the nearest bed when I walked in.

"Lydia?"