fic: gravedigger [teen wolf, eventual derek/stiles, pg-13]

[hoosierbitch]

This is just part of what I think will turn into a longer Derek/Stiles fic.

Also, WHY IS THERE NO TEEN WOLF KINK MEME? That's always how I find my groove in new fandoms. I AM SO LOST. Prompt me? I have many Derek feels. And Stiles feels. And Derek-damaged-by-Kate feels. And a weird love for Tyler Hoechlin's smile, which, if Derek ever smiled like that, I think the show would combust and die.

Laura dies in Beacon Hills, in the woods by their old house, and Derek thinks, I’m not the one who’s supposed to still be alive.

It was his fault, his fire, and somehow he is still here. He thinks perhaps he is being punished but it doesn’t make sense that some higher power would hate Derek enough to kill so many people just to teach him a lesson (Don’t trust humans. Falling in love makes you blind. You're weak and always have been).

Laura dies in Beacon Hills, which is where she’d wanted to be buried anyway. She’d told him that once, early on, when they’d been buying whisky by the box with a fake ID Laura bought in Minnesota and drinking until the world blurred and the pain dulled a little. She’d told him she wanted to be buried close to their family.

“Me, too,” he’d said, the whisky smooth going down now, never once thinking that he’d have to carry out Laura’s wishes; so certain it would be the other way around.

He buries half of her with his own hands.

He keeps his howl deep inside of himself, because there’s someone out there; an enemy more powerful than Laura. Stronger than Laura. Who’d been born to be an alpha, who had fought like she was dancing, who was—

He buries the howl that wants to break through him as he digs the hole, as he wraps her body and carefully ties a bow to hold the canvas covering her. He picks her up in his arms one last time and lays her down before he piles the dirt back on and smooths out the ground above her. Maybe in the spring he will plant something by her headstone, which will read Laura Hale, beloved daughter, sister, and friend.

He doesn’t howl and he doesn’t speak because what can he say? Laura, Laura, Laura, it was supposed to be me. She already knew that.

The wolfsbane burns his hands but he weaves it into rope so that he can surround her with a ward against evil spirits. It’s more myth than fact but he'd always thought Laura would end up doing it for him.

When the police come for him he sees Laura’s grave disturbed and the rope of purple flowers tangled in a pile by the side of the house.

They don’t give him her body back.

*

BTW, this was first posted on my new tumblr, which is here. It's mostly a combo of Teen Wolf/Leverage/White Collar love, with a side of Clint/Coulson.