Chapter Text
Ameliorate- To make a bad situation better.
~0~
3 Years Earlier
Derek watched the new boy who has a doe-like appearance, he had the biggest brown eyes the wolf had ever seen. His hair was a dark chocolate brown and was buzzed, moles scatter across his pale skin. He was attractive to put it simply, very attractive, with his thin frame and large fox-like grin, which was aimed at his friend ‘Scott’.
“So do you know his name yet?” Laura asks with a tease, grinning at her younger brother.
“Huh?” Derek snaps out of his thoughts and looks up at Laura, frowning.
“He’s been here a week and all you’ve done is stare and count how many moles he has. Do you have a name to go with his adorable face or not?”
“I have not been staring-”
“Please, you're practically drooling over the poor boy.” Laura grins, chuckling at her baby brother's embarrassment.
“I-I have not been drooling, I just think he’s interesting that’s all.” Derek huffs, the tips of his ears flushed red.
“Oh? Do you find him interesting? What's so interesting? What do you know about him?” Laura questions, flipping her mousy brown hair behind her left shoulder.
“He… uh, he’s best friends with Scott McCall and he's in AP Chemistry, History, and Biology, which we share together. Yet he hates Math. He never stops moving, constantly twitching and fidgeting and he doodles on all his notes and school work. Oh and I’m fairly certain his favorite color is red.” Derek crosses his arms annoyed, unaware he fell right into his sister's trap.
“All information I assume you got through stalking him and not actually talking to him. Should I be worried you’re turning into a mini Peter?” The eldest wolf shakes her head and laughs quietly.
“I haven’t- it’s not. I’m not stalking him.” Derek scowls, his brows knit together, annoyed at his sisters teasing.
“Then go talk to him like a normal person.”
“But we’re not normal Laura, and I don’t want to scare him. I’ve never done something like this before…” The knit in his brow relaxes slightly.
“Something tells me he’s not going to be easily scared,” Laura encourages, smiling softly. “Just try and talk with him, who knows maybe he’ll be even more interesting up close, and maybe he’ll find you interesting too.”
“Fine. Okay, sure. I’ve got history class with him after lunch, I’ll talk to him then.”
Derek in fact did not talk to him in class. He felt like a coward, so putting on a brave face the wolf marched right up to Stiles, who was leaning against his locker talking to Scott about Lacrosse tryouts. He approached the shorter boy who startled at his sudden appearance, his heart speeding up immediately.
“Derek hey. What's up?” Scott smiled hopefully.
“Scott,” The wolf nods in acknowledgement. “I hope you don’t mind if I steal Stiles' attention for a moment.”
“Oh… yeah sure.” Scott’s hopeful smile falls into an awkward one as he turns back and bids his best friend goodbye. “I’ll meet you at the jeep.”
“Uh okay…” Stiles nods as Scott leaves. “Um, was something wrong?” The human asks, turning his attention back to Derek.
“Why would anything be wrong?” Derek frowns, smelling the anxiety coming off the teen.
“Well we’ve never spoken before and today I got into a fight with you co-captain Jackson, so I kinda assume that’s what this is about.” Stiles crosses his arms in a defensive pose, trying to appear confident, but his chemo signals betrayed his true feelings.
“What?” Derek freezes. ‘He got into a fight with Whittborn?’
“Um no, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” The eldest boy assures, making Stiles lift his brows confused. “It’s about our history class. I know it’s not a group project, but I was wondering if maybe you wanted to work together anyways?”
“Oh… I mean… sure?” The confused look on the teen’s face didn’t go away, but his anxiety did lessen some.
“Good. Are you free tonight?” Hope bloomed in the wolf’s chest.
“I guess I should be.” Stiles blessed him with a shy awkward smile.
~0~
Derek had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning like an idiot as he made his way over to his Camaro.
“So I assume you talked to him?” Laura teases as she slides up next to her brother, walking across the parking lot with him.
“Yes and I’ll be going over to his house right now to work on our history projects.”
“Oh homework, how romantic.” She chuckles.
“Hey I talked to him didn’t I? And now I get to spend even more time with him, I say that’s pretty good.” Derek defends.
“Well I wish you luck little brother. I’ll see you tonight.” Laura winks and stalks off to her own cherry red mustang.
Stiles home was close to town, plants overwhelmed the front porch and Derek could smell far more in the back of the house. From the lack of the teen’s obnoxious blue jeep, he knew Stiles wasn’t home yet. The wolf stepped onto the porch, taking the opportunity to look around at the assortment of plants. The family had the oddest array, Chamomile, Lavender, Lemon Grass, and Forget-Me-Nots, sat alongside Deadly Nightshade, Foxglove, Hogweed, and the one that caught Derek’s attention immediately was Wolfsbane.
‘Why would they purposefully grow such poisonous plants?’
Before the teen could think further into it Stiles' jeep finally pulled up into the driveway, who tripped and stumbled his way out of the vehicle quickly.
“Sorry. Sorry. I had to take Scott home and I forgot I had to drop my Dad off his lunch at the station.” Stiles blurts, his cheeks red in embarrassment. “You haven’t been waiting long have you?”
“No, I've only been here a few moments, I was just looking at your plants.” Derek admits as he observed the other boy's jittery and anxious behavior. “Station?”
“Oh yeah those are mine, my Mom loved gardening so I try my best to keep all her plants alive.” Stiles goes on to explain absentmindedly as he unlocks the front door. “My Dad is the Sheriff so I almost always bring him food up to the station, so he doesn’t stuff himself full of whatever the quickest junk is.
Stiles offers him a drink and snack, and once they’ve gathered what they wanted Derek is led upstairs to the bedroom. There was a twin sized bed that sat in the far left corner of the room with red sheets, unmade blue duvet, and a handmade quilt on top. His desk was stacked with history books, a good amount written in Polish, and notes scattered across the hard surface. The most noticeable thing was the bookshelf on the right side of the room that was overwhelmed with all different kinds of books; from SCI-Fi, Fantasy, Crime and Mystery, to old history books, and books of legends and myths, a good amount of these are also written in Polish. The ones in Polish were obviously old, bound in leather and the pages yellowed with age. They reminded Derek of his mothers own collection of books that were protected in the home's private library.
“Do you speak Polish?” He finally asked, despite already having an idea of the answer.
“Hm?” Stiles looked up from where he was setting their things up on the floor. “Oh yeah, It’s actually my native tongue. My Mother gave me these when I was nine.”
“Nine? Aren’t these a little too advanced for a nine-year-old to read?” Derek questions as he picks up one of the old history books, being careful not to damage the fragile pages as he flips through it.
“She said she wanted to make sure I knew our culture and history. I was expecting things like normal history books, religions, rulers, but when I finally got around to reading it, it was all about fairytale creatures like fae and witches.” Stiles frowns slightly as he observes the book in Derek's hands. “She gave me that around the time her Dementia started making her forget things a lot, so I think she may have been confused what these books really were.”
“Dementia?” He frowns, a pit forming in his stomach as Stiles' scent turns bitter with sorrow.
“Frontotemporal Dementia, it's a rare form of Dementia that shrinks the brain's frontal and temporal lobes. She passed away when I was 10.” Stiles explains, not looking away from the book.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Derek mumbles apologetically, not meaning to bring up such painful memories for the boy. He flips to a random page in the book and is immediately confronted by a hand sketched drawing of a wolf.
The title on the page read Wilkołak
The drawing next to the text made a chill go up the teens spine. It showed a fully shifted Alpha with beady eyes that seemed to stare right at him. Its mouth was open and snarling, drool leaking out of its mouth and onto its fluffy coat, as if fresh from a hunt.
He immediately shuts the book and puts it back where he found it, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end at the graphic image.
“Sorry I’m not meaning to snoop. I read a lot myself, and I enjoy learning different languages.” The eldest boy turns back to the other, embarrassed about his ill manners.
“That’s okay, you just gave me a better idea for my paper.” Stiles smiles, easing the tension as he takes the book back out of the bookshelf from where his classmate had placed it. The teen goes back over to the mini set up he had made on the floor for the two and sits down.
“Oh? What kind of idea?” Derek questions and follows after the teen, sitting down next to him calmly.
“So Mrs. Andrews wanted us to write about our own cultures, and technically myths and legends are a part of culture.” Stiles smiles as he flips through the book, his once sad scent turning a sort of melancholy. “I’ve always loved these stories. My Mom used to tell me stories all the time starring these creatures. Ya know most kids got stories about princesses and true love, I got stories about tricky fae, Druids, and werewolf packs.”
The Wolf couldn’t help but smile a little as the boy rambled on.
“She would tell me about how when the Catholics came to Poland and tried to harm our family, because we Gajos had a long lineage of Pagans. The wolves would protect them and in turn my family helped them control their humanity. The Catholics believed Wilkołak’s were beasts that were cursed by witches, while the Gajos worshipped them, and saw the shapeshifting ability as a gift.”
“Are you Pagan? Do you believe the shift is a gift?” Derek asks softly, hope pooling in his chest.
“Yeah I’m Pagan, I still try to hold onto as much of my culture as I can; It was always really important to my Mother that I do. I think if such a thing really did exist then yeah I think I would, I mean could you imagine being that closely aligned with the Moon and the Earth? Something that can walk between both worlds? That would definitely be a gift.” Stiles' smile beamed, before faltering, suddenly feeling self-conscious.
“Sorry, I’m not meaning to talk so much, especially about my Mom and these Fairytales.” His ears tint pink when he notices Derek’s gentle eyes on him.
“That's alright, I like hearing you talk so passionately. To be honest I asked to work on our projects together so that I could get to know you.”
“Why?” Stiles blurts out confused.
“I don’t know, because I find you interesting. Is it really so shocking that I’d want to be your friend? Why else did you think I wanted to come over?”
“Kinda Yeah. I’ve only ever had one friend in my life and that’s Scott.” His hands fidget in his lap anxiously. “I figured you just needed help with the assignment, since I’m top of the class in history.”
“Well no I didn’t need help I assure you, and now I guess you’ve got another friend. If that's alright?” Derek didn’t know what it was about this peculiar boy, but he made him feel relaxed in his presence, like he was meant to be there.
Stiles only smiles shyly and looks back down at the book in his hands, before nodding, not believing the other teen. He doesn’t believe that Derek will want to be his friend for long, but he doesn’t voice that. He was always told he talked too much, was too loud, he was always just too much in general. Sometimes he wondered how Scott put up with him for so long, so he wasn’t going to hold onto hope that Derek would truly stick around. Smart, Athletic, Handsome Derek, they were just too different, it would never work out.