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Stiles had enjoyed the novelty of a summer without complications, he’d enjoyed three plus months without any supernatural baddie coming after home and he’d been lulled into a false sense of security when no one called him.Then he went to the first day of his internship and there was Derek Hale on the television, being hunted as a mass murderer again.After class he apologized to the girl he sprayed with water than quickly left the room, dragging the cell phone out of his pocket grumbling about stupid sourwolves always getting into trouble.“Why can’t he just stay out of trouble?” Stiles mumbled as he clicked on the contact ‘DH’ and pressed the little green phone, bringing it to his ear just as he thought he really shouldn’t be calling a unsub from the lawn of the FBI internship building. He darted away from the building as the phone rang and rang. There wasn’t an answering machine, of course, so Stiles hung up and opened a new text message while he stumbled to a halt next to a tree.
‘HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE WANTED FOR MURDER AGAIN? …… Okay, now that that’s out of my system, where are you? What’s happening?’
He pressed send then wondered if he should delete the text. What if someone finds the link between him and Derek? Stiles groans as he heads back to the dorm at a fast clip. It had been an all day class so the sky was darkening and he didn’t see what he tripped over until after he heard the yipping growl. He flipped over and saw the black form, starting to blend into the shadows of darkness. The lights of the campus weren’t on yet so there was nothing but the twilight to see by. Stiles looked around, backing away from the creature who was still laying on the ground staring intently at him.It wasn’t a dog but Stiles would have been surprised if there were actual wolves anywhere near campus. As he was sliding back on his butt and pushing his book bag out of the way just in case he needed to use it against the wolf or he needed to run he saw the flash of blue eyes.“Look, I don’t know what you’re doing here but most of the people on this campus has guns, not silver but it’s going to hurt. I can promise you that.” He continued to ramble as he reached subtlety towards his sweater pocket, there was an inseam that opened, he was holding a small vial of liquid wolfsbane, there was also a vial of powdered silver nitrate as well but he couldn’t get to that side. It didn’t matter though; the wolf was watching his hand.The wolf growled, sliding forward on his stomach until he overtook Stiles’s position and then flopped heavily on top of the human’s slim form. Stiles groaned under the weight and slumped to the ground as the creature pressed its nose into his throat. Huffing in and out a couple of times, the wolf seemed to relax even further and Stiles had a much belated thought.“Derek?” he whispered.The wolf yipped and pressed his nose back into Stiles’s neck like it was embarrassed.“What the hell are you doing here? You idiot!” he hissed as he shoved at the wolf but Derek belligerently stayed where he was. “We need to get you out of sight, thankfully this is party central and almost no one is in the dorms right now but this is a shit show waiting to happen if we don’t get you out of sight.”Derek’s wolfy chest rumbled in a purring growl before he stood and let Stiles get off the ground. He wiped the excess dirt and grass from his pants and shirt before they fell into step and walked towards the dorms again.He noticed a random person walking, staring at Derek, “I know, he got out without his leash. I am going to get it now. Silly rascal,” Stiles stated with a forced levity. The person smiled back and then they were at the door and heading inside. He climbed the stairs to the third floor and walked over to his door and shoved the key into the hole and twisted more enthusiastically then was strictly necessary then waved Derek inside and closed the door. He turned, suddenly faced with a naked panting human Derek Hale and stared at the sight.“Could I trouble you for some clothes maybe?” Derek snapped.Stiles jumped to action mostly because he didn’t think he could stop staring at the man’s attributes if he didn’t have something to do. He fumbled through his limited clothing and grasped at a large t-shirt that he tended to sleep in and a pair of sweats that would hopefully stretch enough to go over those impressive thighs, not to mention…“So,” he squeaked then cleared his throat as he tossed the clothes towards the other man, “You want to explain to me what the hell has you wanted for murder again? As well as why you’re here in front of my dorm as a wolf?”Derek grumbled as he caught the clothing and dressed then without saying a word to Stiles who was still waiting for answers, headed over to the kitchen. Stiles noticed the movement in the corner of his eye and rushed to follow the two strides across the dorm.“I asked you a question!” Stiles shouted.“Couple of them actually,” Derek returned waspishly and Stiles fumed as the man found something and immediately started eating.“Then answer me goddammit!” Stiles snapped as he pulled at Derek, seeing the remains of a turkey sandwich disappearing quickly into the man’s mouth, “I was saving that for dinner!”Derek chewed and swallowed and Stiles found his eyes lowered to his throat and watched as the werewolf’s jaw worked around another mouthful of turkey sub before he groaned and slumped down in the one chair in the ‘dining nook/study area’“Please Derek?” he asked, the anger and whatever else just dropping as he noticed that Derek was thin. He was hungry; Stiles had never seen the man hungry. He’d seen Derek homeless and living in the skeleton of his old house but he’d never seen him hungry. Stiles wasn’t hurting for food, his face wasn’t plastered all over Wanted Signs, so he just let Derek finish the rest of the sandwich, get a bottle of water and down it in three chugs before he cleared his throat and tried again. “Please answer me Derek.”The werewolf spun around, “What do you think happened Stiles? I was blamed again for something I didn’t do. The Hunters are wiping us out; I was hunting them and got caught up in one of their massacres. It’s easier for them if they blame us for the deaths because then there is nothing on them. I came here because I—you. Look I don’t know what I’m doing here, I was close and I was tired of running. I’m forgetting what its like to be a man, I’ve been in the wolf form for weeks now.”Stiles rubbed his eyes, “And you remember now?” he asked.“Yeah, being annoyed by Stilinski, same old same old.”“Ass,” Stiles said chuckling.He looked up and noticed that Derek was smiling slightly, still munching on something else he’d found on the counter. Stiles kept all sorts of snacks in his kitchen area, there wasn’t much in the way of stoves or anything but he microwaved with the best of the college students.“Look, I came here because I didn’t know where else to go, things are happening in Beacon Hills and I didn’t want to go back. I can’t go back but now my face is in the papers and all over FBI database so I’m stuck. I need some help here,” Derek growled.“You suck at asking for help you know that?” Stiles responded.“Yes,” Derek gritted out, “Please Stiles.”The human heaved a weary sigh and grabbed his laptop and got to work while Derek moved around the small dorm for a while then slumped down on the small bed in the corner. Stiles looked over the paperwork, the sightings and all the reasons why everyone thought Derek was at fault and it looked like it had more to do with the fact that he’d been in the same place at the same time with a dead body and his background of being on the run from the law. They were also highlighting the deaths of his family and the later death of his sister as the ‘reason’ he was like ‘this’. And Uncle Peter’s rash of killings, which were documented despite the ‘animal attack’ angle, wasn’t helping his case.“Well, it looks like,” Stiles started as he looked over and noticed that Derek was asleep on the bed, his back pressed against the wall and curled into as small a space as possible. He would have been ironically more comfortable as a wolf but Stiles recalled what he said earlier—he was losing himself in the wolf. He needed to be human.Stiles shut down the laptop and decided that he could make a couple of inquiries tomorrow about the case and for now, he would let Derek sleep. He walked over to the bed and grabbed one of his nearby throw blankets and draped it over the man who shifted and growled, weird sounding in his human shape. Stiles pressed a hand gently to his arm, “Its just Stiles. You’re safe here. I promise.”Derek stirred another second or two then he resettled into sleep. Stiles moved another pillow and blanket to the floor and laid down to get some rest, undoubtedly this was going to be a long week.As he slept, Stiles dreamt that he was weightless and floating. It was a strange warm cloud surrounding him as he flew above the world, he was free now from everything Beacon Hills had become. He was warm.It was the warmth that brought him back to the surface again, realizing quickly that he was sleeping in his bed and there was a heavy weight along his side. He turned his head and found wolf!Derek laying next to him, still sleeping but his ears were doing some tick-tock movement that meant he wasn’t completely out of it. And Stiles was against the wall now, he frowned at the protective measure Derek seemed to be taking with him despite the fact that they hadn’t ever really been friends and had been separated from each other for over two years now.When he shifted and reached out his hand towards the wolf, Derek’s blue eyes snapped open and he yawned. All his teeth showed for a couple of minutes before he licked his snout and resettled again and watched as Stiles lowered the still raised hand and sank his fingers into Derek’s pelt. The werewolf’s eyes closed and he leaned just slightly into the touch so Stiles rubbed him gently, scrubbing his fingernails into the hide and pelt.“You know, during the day you could be my ‘pet’, I could make that happen and then at night we could find a way to keep you in your human form, to make sure you get the human time that you need.”Derek huffed but didn’t change back to add to the discussion so Stiles dropped it and continued to rub Derek’s head and side. He didn’t touch the wolf’s chest or undercarriage or anywhere that might be considered to be a threat to him. Stiles didn’t want to lose whatever this trust was while he had it.“It’s going to take some time to get everything worked out with the FBI, I’m only an intern so anything I try to give to them might not get to the right people. I don’t know what I can really do for you here. Are you sure you want to stay here?”Instead of answering, Derek shoved his cold nose and snout under the edge of Stiles’s shirt and nuzzled into the skin of his lower back, “Yeah yeah okay, I got it. You’re good here.”Derek sniffed and Stiles wanted to ask how he made the doglike noise into something imperious and grouchy. It took talent that’s for sure. Stiles stayed in bed for a little while longer, eyes bouncing between the clock and the wolf next to him, then got up to shower in his small bathroom and let Derek shower after him, taking his spare towel. Stiles was going to need to go to the store for a couple of things, not least of which was more clothes for Derek when he was human.When Derek was clean and sitting on the bed again, silent and sullen, the human cleared his throat and asked, “So what are we going to do? To get you out of the house every once in a while?”Derek shrugged and went back to drying his hair then he neatly hung up the towel in the bathroom and shifted back into the wolf before scratching at the door. Stiles rolled his eyes and grabbed his book bag before they headed out. Derek didn’t stay with him though, running off towards the copse of trees.“Come back later for some dinner Wolfy!” he shouted, Derek turned and bared his teeth at Stiles for the nickname then took off.Stiles headed back towards the institute and went to class. He annoyed his teacher for hours until the man sent him to one of the other buildings with his questions. Stiles figured he was being reprimanded for his curiosity until he got to the front door and realized this was one of the on-sight FBI offices, only a small contignet of agents were on staff here, to be here for the interns and the professors because they worked with live cases there was always a chance that someone could hit on a lead that hadn’t been seen before. Stiles figured that this was a good thing then he felt the rubbing along his leg and looked down just as the door opened in front of him.“Mr. Stilinski is it?” the big man asked as Stiles continued to stare at Derek who was sitting next to him with his tongue lolling to the side and he looked thoroughly rumpled like he’d been playing in the dirt but it did detract a little from the fact that he was a wolf.“Don’t think you are going into the house like that, bud!” Stiles hissed then heard the other man clear his throat and he looked back up.“Intern looking into the mass murder unsub, correct?” the man asked.“Yes, the professor sent me here?” Stiles asked, even though it wasn’t supposed to come out as a question.“Is this your dog?” the man asked.“A stray, I fed him last night, he seems pretty harmless and now I can’t seem to shake him.”The other man crouched in front of Derek, a healthy distance away from the wolf’s muzzle and reached out his hand, Derek sniffed his hand then licked the fingers in front of him before he nuzzled into Stiles’s leg. What the hell man! Stiles thought as the agent laughed and invited them in the door. “Come on, many of our dogs were originally strays who were trained, maybe you already have a partner on your hands. Dogs are an amazing part of the agency, they can smell so much more than humans obviously.”Stiles laughed nervously as they both walked in and he followed the agent into a side office, the nameplate stating ‘Agent Richard Walker’. He watched as Derek walked along next to him, wavering just a little and panting still and Stiles wondered if it was part of the show or if Derek had had anything to eat since last night. Stiles had a pop tart that morning and picked up another couple of turkey sandwiches at the cafeteria but Derek had turned his nose in disdain at the cherry flavored pastry. Then he was left wondering how much energy it took to shift from man to wolf and back again because he’d already done that at least three times in the last 36 hours.Stiles would have to ask.“So you think the unsub is being wrongfully accused?” Agent Walker asked as he sat down behind the desk. Stiles sat down in one of the other chairs and grabbed one of the sandwiches out of his bag. He looked questioning over at the Agent who nodded before he broke it in half and dropped part of it in front of Derek’s nose. The wolf immediately gobbled it up on ‘hungry like a wolf’ style and Stiles looked back to the Agent and started his case.“This guy, he was actually from my home town, I recognized him and he had some trouble there too. Some trouble that turned out to be the fault of stupid kids who didn’t know any better. I know the professor didn’t get into to the details but it looks like the case is weighing heavily on the fact that he has a past with the law. A past that was trumped up then and is now.”The Agent stared at him, brows furrowed and Stiles could hear Derek growling, it was a low vibration against his ankle and Stiles shoved him a little, trying to get him to stop before they both got kicked out.“Are you saying that you got access into the files about this case?”Stiles looked at the door then looked back, unsure of what he should do or say, “Ummmm, well… I mean, yes. I did that yes.”The Agent glared for a couple more seconds then laughed, hard enough that Stiles thought he should ask the guy if he was okay. After a couple of minutes Stiles started to get annoyed.“What’s so funny anyway?”The Agent finally wiped away the tears in his eyes and looked over at Stiles, “Look, the agency is always looking for that kind of spunk, but I also knew it was going to happen because Agent McCall spoke to us very specifically about you. Not to mention we have agents in the field who spoke to your father, he is a well respected man working a weird town that has a lot of secrets.”Stiles sat back in his chair, “Is this about to turn into an X-Files conversation?”Derek was watching them both from his place on the ground, having resettled against Stiles’s side when they weren’t in imminent danger of getting to boot or arrested.The agent shook his head still chuckling, “More like a Fringe conversation. We understand what your father is dealing with, only a few of us are in the know, and that doesn’t include your best friend’s father, despite the fact that his son is – well you know.”Stiles shoved his chair away from the desk and moved towards the door, “What do you mean you know?” he stage whispered as he closed the door the rest of the way.Agent shook his head, “That doesn’t really work in here, every office is bugged and there is a video feed.”Stiles reopened the door and gestured quickly towards Derek who was staring at the agent with his hackles up and his eyes a low shimmer of blue, almost like he didn’t know if they were in danger or not. “Yeah well I’m out. I am not going to be recorded about this stuff.”“Mr. Stilinski, you have an opportunity most people would pay for. You have a chance to work with the FBI on this one, clear your friends name and prove your deductive skills to those who will be your superiors someday. Don’t you want that?”Stiles glared at him, “Not if it means that the rest of my friends suffer for it. What are you planning to do, with what you know I mean?”“Teach you to be the best agent you can be, then send you home with a contingent of men in the know, to help as this ‘under the table’ war heats up.”Stiles slammed the door again, “War? What war?”“The war your best friend neglected to tell you about, we were only brought in on Beacon Hills because of Derek Hale and your entrance here. We knew it was home to one of the nemeton’s but as you can imagine, our job isn’t to keep the secrets it’s to make sure that the bad guys are caught and that is still the human and normal bad guys. We don’t really know what to do with the others.This knowledge of ‘others’ like your friends have only come to the surface when more murders started happening which connected to some of the weirdness reported to us by Agent McCall from his time in Beacon Hills. Your father corroborated what we needed in his reports.“Is this why I was accepted here?” Stiles sneered, hating the idea that once again the supernatural would take precedence over his skills.“It is why you were fast tracked yes, but your deductive skills as reported to us but Agent McCall and Sheriff Stilinski, who both did a great job detaching their emotional bias to describe to us the kind of skills you have. Those skills are the reason you are here.”Stiles took a deep breath and flopped down into the chair again, pressing a hand to Derek’s head in comfort, for both of them. The wolf moved a little closer so he was scrunched under the chairs and pressed into Stiles’s feet, “What happens now then?”“You come here and work, maybe you can even train the stray to be your partner. He does seem to already have a strong bond with you,” the man said with a private smile that made the back of Stiles’s neck twinge in apprehension. It was like he already knew but Derek and other werewolves being able to turn into wolves wasn’t public knowledge on the supernatural side, let alone the human side of things. Hopefully the man was just grasping at straws and as long as Stiles didn’t say anything, they could just slide in and out of here until Derek was free of all charges.“I’m going to find the real culprit but it might not be as cut and dried as you would like,” Stiles stated, thinking of the network of hunters. Maybe they were answering to someone but it was more likely that they weren’t. It could be a bunch of different killers.“Mr. Stilinski, focus on what can be learned about these murders, focus on disproving the allegations against your friend if you can and leave the rest to the professionals. Remember that this is still training for you, albeit training with some of the best deductive minds in the country but training all the same. It’s not your job to find all the answers, it’s your job to hone your mind and focus the investigation for others to finish. You are, after all, only an intern.”
Stiles was pacing the dorm room this time while Derek lounged on the bed watching him, in human form and dressed. They went to get clothes, food and other necessities for Derek after work and now was the first time he had any privacy to work out his frustrations.“’You are, after all, only an intern’, wise guy,” he said again and scrubbed a hand through his hair. “And you, what the hell were you doing there?”Derek shrugged.“I guess I am going to just have to swallow my ego about this whole thing being about the supernatural. If it means getting you off then I’ll handle it. I guess you can come with me to the office as well. You going to learn some dog tricks, some FBI dog tricks?”Derek huffed, “If I have to.”“Yeah, I think you have to,” Stiles grinned then went over to the kitchen area and started pulling some sandwiches together and fed his new roommate. They ate a quick meal and Derek napped as a human while Stiles worked on some paperwork then Stiles ‘forced’ the werewolf to watch a couple episodes of the newest show that he was binging before Derek shifted back into his wolf form and they both fell asleep on the bed.This continued for several weeks until it became routine to spend their days and nights together. Stiles worked on the case and anything the agents gave him to work on, while the other agents who were ironically looking for his human form as a person of interest spoiled Derek. When he’d been downgraded to a POI, Stiles had taken them both out for Thai food and found the quietest part of the park for them to eat it in.They binged TV shows together, both sitting in the bed, Derek as a human and a wolf depending on what he needed. Stiles was learning a lot about what Derek needed, he needed and wanted to be touched and comforted. He wanted to be close to another being and he trusted sparingly. He was also learning that Derek was really smart, he’d been offered several scholarships for athleticism and his grades but then the fire happened and everything just stopped for him.Stiles took the opportunity to ask questions, both at home with Derek and at work with the other agents. He also knew from Agent McCall that the time was coming for them to return to Beacon Hills, Scott and the others needed them but Stiles didn’t want this thing to end.Working with the other agents was a dream come true, spending time with Derek and figuring him out was a long ago desire that Stiles had never really admitted to having. He didn’t want to just figure out Derek Hale though; he wanted to stay with the man.It was a month into this arrangement and Stiles was lying in his bed, running his fingers through the wolf’s scruff. Derek had recently started rolling over and letting Stiles rub his vulnerable places, it wasn’t something the human took lightly. Stiles liked talking to Derek when he’s in this form because the werewolf didn’t talk much anyway but this way Derek had the excuse to not say anything.“Look, I don’t know what you can smell off me these days, even when you first got here. I think you should know, it’s not just your body or anything if your scenting anything like arousal or whatnot.”Derek huffed and shoved his nose into Stiles’s side.The human just shifted a little but didn’t push the wolf off of him, he’d gotten used to the cold nose routine, and if the scent of his skin helped Derek in some way, he could live with the chill. “I don’t know what to do here man, what to expect. I mean, we do cuddle a lot and not just when you’re a wolf. Am I supposed to not read into that?”Derek grumbled and lapped at Stiles’s skin them with a ripple of skin, Derek was laying next to Stiles in human form. The human’s hand was still grasping at the back of his neck and Stiles quickly removed his hand. He moved, trying to give Derek the space he needed but the werewolf just shook his head and looked at Stiles.“I wouldn’t be here, with you, if it was just about my body,” Derek whispered and Stiles stared slack-jawed with surprise. But the werewolf just continued as he pressed his human nose into the joint of Stiles’s armpit, he rested there for a second and took a deep breath. “When I’m with you, it feels like pack and home. I don’t want to lose that. When I smell the arousal and all that, it concerns me because anytime I’ve ever answered that particular scent something awful tends to happen.”“So we don’t do anything about it,” Stiles said with a shrug and forced a smile, “We’re close to getting you out from underneath all this and then you know I am going to have to go back to Beacon Hills. Gonna have to save Scott and the others.”Derek sat up and looked at him, “I’m going with you?”“No Der,” Stiles said as he sat up too, trying to ignore the naked god sitting next to him in bed. “I don’t want you to go back to that place, you don’t have to.”“I’m not letting you go without me,” Derek frowned.Stiles reached out on instinct to smooth away the frown and Derek leaned into the touch, “You got out, you deserve better than that place.”“So do you,” Derek growled, shoving forward and pressing his lips to Stiles’s in a desperate kiss. Stiles stayed still for a second then opened his mouth, tilted his head and gentled the kiss. Derek let it happen, then froze like he didn’t know what to do or he didn’t know what he was doing.Stiles inched backwards because he had no intention of adding to Derek’s impressive list of people who take advantage of him. Derek stared at him in surprise, shaking his head.“Mistake?” Stiles forced the smile back on his face as Derek kept watching him.“No, I don’t know what this is but it wasn’t a mistake,” Derek whispered, “I don’t want you to go but if you are going back then so am I.”Stiles grinned, nodding, “Do you maybe wanna do it again? Maybe?”Just as quickly, Derek was back in wolf form and Stiles laughed as the big black wolf curled up next to him and decided to go to sleep.“Got it Sourwolf, you let me know when you’re ready,” Stiles curled up on his side and around the body of the wolf, making sure not to cage the beast. Despite the human brain inside the wolf, Derek didn’t like feeling stuck and Stiles learned after a quick nip a couple days ago to respect the wolf’s boundaries as well as the man’s.
It only took a couple more days for Stiles to put together enough information to clear Derek’s name and put the FBI on the trial of the right man, or men as the case may be. This had been the work of hunters and there was enough physical evidence to put them on the trail.Stiles and his FBI dog ‘Miguel’ also tested pretty well as a team on the obstacle course and Agent Walker was giving him a hard side-eye about that. Though when Stiles said he needed to go back home the man agreed since he’d been getting updates from Agent McCall and knew things were getting bad there. Stiles gratefully took one of the SUV’s when Walker offered it. He packed a bag and watched as Derek grabbed a change of clothes before they loaded up the car with food and water and some righteous road trip tunes.He was getting into the cab when Derek stopped him and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, “When we get out of this, and we will, you and me are going to take a break and just get away. Okay?”Stiles stood shocked by the kiss, nodded as Derek walked around the front and got in.“You coming?” Derek asked, a little to smug for Stiles’s sensibilities. He readjusted himself and figured if Derek didn’t want to smell his arousal for the next several hours then he shouldn’t have kiss him. He got into the vehicle and started the car, thankful for the darkened windows despite the fact that Derek was cleared, sometimes small town cops don’t get the news immediately.He looked over at Derek, “We are going to have to come up with a story you know?”“Why?” Derek snorted.“Do you want to tell Scott and the rest of them the truth? Where’s the fun in that?”“You’re an idiot,” Derek snorted, “What kind of story would you tell?”“Well…”