The First Meeting

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/1274452.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: Gen, M/M
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, sterek - Relationship
Characters: Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski, Claudia Stilinski
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Wolf Derek, kid stiles, Protectiveness,
Time Skips, Drabble, Art, First Meetings, A Boy and His Wolf, Child Derek
and Stiles, Developing Relationship, Scents & Smells
Language: English
Series: Part 2 of A Boy and His Wolf
Stats: Published: 2014-03-06 Words: 1,981 Chapters: 1/1
 The First Meeting
by orphan_account, twobirdsonesong

Summary

Derek, just a young wolf himself, stumbles across a child who appears lost in the woods.

Notes

A Boy and His Wolf is a collaborative project between heavenorspace and myself.

It will be a series of vignettes, out of chronological order, set in a world where Derek, in the form
of a wolf, first encountered Stiles when he was a toddler playing in the woods. Derek is under strict
pack orders not to reveal himself as werewolf to the human boy and must only interact with him as
a wolf. When Stiles is a child, their relationship is strictly platonic and protective in nature. As
Stiles grows older that begins to change.

Each drabble will be accompanied by a piece of art drawn by heavenorspace.

(art by heavenorspace)

Derek is out in the forest investigating a rabbit trail, practicing his hunting strategies the way his
father taught him, when a woman’s voice calls out.

“Stiles! Oh god, Stiles, where are you!?!”

Derek ears prick forward. The woman sounds distressed. Fearful. Panicked.

“Stiles, sweetheart, where are you?!?”

The woman is a ways off from him, sticking to the safety of the marked paths, but her voice carries
loud and clear through the trees.

Derek doesn’t know what a “stiles” is – it’s not a word he’s heard around the pack or at school –
but it sounds important. He glances around. The rabbit he’d been tracking is long gone, but he
catches faint, sweet hints of a woman’s perfume and the acrid tang of nervous sweat. She’s afraid,
but he doesn’t know why. Maybe it has something to do with her missing stiles?

He’s not supposed to interfere with the humans who live in the town near the wood’s edge, but he
knows from listening to his parents talking that sometimes people go missing, that they wander off
the trails and get lost. The humans don’t have the ears, eyes, or noses that the wolves do. Derek’s
pack tries to rescue the disoriented humans when they can, leading them back to safety, as long as
they don’t reveal their true natures. Derek knows the stories of what happens to wolves who get
caught by human hunters, but if he can help this woman find something she’s missing then he’s
going to do just that.

His mom always tells him that a kind heart is more powerful than a sharp claw.

Derek steps away from the rabbit burrow and focuses, listens past the rustle of leaves and the
shifting of the wind. He sifts through the usual odors of wood and loam and fur and old rain water.
He pushes aside the familiar notes of his pack, of their territory markers, and the big buck a mile
away that his father is probably going to bring down for dinner. He’s still not much older than a
pup himself, but he has a sharp nose – his mother always tells him so.

He searches deeper. There. Something small and young. Something human. Something clearly not
of the forest. Derek’s nose twitches and his muscles tense, fur bristling a little in anticipation.
Muzzle lifting to the sky and then dipping low to the ground, Derek follows the scent, winding
through the trees. The sharp tang of salty skin and processed food grows stronger, as does the sound
of a small human heart beating.

And then he hears the soft inhale of someone breathing.

Derek stops. There. There’s a little boy playing at the base of a massive tree, too far off the
marked trail to be truly safe. There are other things in the woods besides Derek’s pack.

This close he smells hale and healthy, like milk and soap and the faint traces of a woman’s
perfume. The same perfume he caught earlier. This must be the “stiles” the woman was calling
for. Derek catches the shared scents of a home and family; it’s the same way he smells a little like
his mom and dad and his sisters. It’s the scent of pack.

The boy suddenly wheels around on somewhat unsteady feet and catches sight of Derek. Derek
waits for the scream of terror, but it never comes.

“Woofy!” The boy calls out and immediately starts toddling towards him, arms outstretched and
face bright with joy.

He must only be three years old and tall for his age. His clothes are dirty and he’s got a smudge on
his forehead and dirt under his nails. He has moles on his cheek and neck and he smells completely
unharmed, just immensely curious.

The boy waddles right up to him and Derek instinctively shoves his nose in the kid’s belly, sniffing,
and he jumps back when a loud noise bursts from the human. Laughter. The kid is laughing;
mouth wide open and full of new teeth and his eyes remind Derek of a doe.

Suddenly the boy’s chubby hands paw at Derek’s muzzle, grabbing for his ears.

“Woofy!” The child babbles brightly and Derek would be embarrassed but the wolf doesn’t know
how to blush. The boy has no fear of the wolf and Derek doesn’t know why.

My name is Derek, he thinks. Derek Hale. Who are you?

Instead, he licks the boy’s cheek in greeting and the boy claps his hands together in unbridled joy.
Derek grins as much as a wolf can grin, tongue lolling and ears twitching. He likes the boy.
Derek wants to play with him, roll around in the dirt and snort and snuffle, paw and mouth at each
other, chase bugs and track down rabbits. He wants to bring the boy back to the house and push
him in front of his father and ask if they can keep him, make him pack. Because the boy already
smells like home.

But the kid is human and probably has his own family waiting for him, looking for him. In the
distance, Derek can hear the woman continuing to call out, her fear rising higher as the minutes tick
by. Derek remembers that he was going to help her find what she lost. And he did.

He remembers getting lost once, and how his older sister had to come get him and lead him home.
She spent the whole walk back pointing out markers – a stump, a massive boulder – that would
guide him home if it ever happened again. Derek doesn’t think that’s going to work with this
human child. He considers shifting into his human body, but he doesn’t know how much a toddler
will remember and he doesn’t want the boy’s mom finding her son with a naked kid. He’s young,
but he’s not stupid.

Derek stares into the boy’s big brown eyes, catching his focus and holding it.

Come with me, Derek thinks as loudly as he can, wishing he could communicate with him like he
does his pack when they’re all wolves together. He knows if he were in his human form his
eyebrows would be drawn and his mouth tight. His sisters make fun of him for it sometimes –
calling it his broody serious face. Derek watches as the kid’s expression hardens, mouth turning
down and eyebrows furrowing as he leans closer and closer to Derek’s muzzle, staring him down
until Derek realizes the kid is mocking him. He’s mimicking his expression.

Derek licks the kid’s nose in retaliation and the boy squeals.

“Woofy!” The boy repeats, still smiling toothily at him.

Derek would frown if he could. He isn’t sure how to get the boy to follow him back to the woman.
He can’t take him by the scruff the way his mom and dad do to him, and he can’t shift and just take
him by the hand. Derek circles around the boy, licks his cheek again, and nudges at him with his
snout.

Come on, he thinks. Follow me.

Thankfully, the boy reaches out and tangles his grubby fingers in the ruff Derek’s shoulder. Derek
takes a few tentative steps and is relieved when the boy toddles alongside him, using his grip on
Derek’s fur to help steady himself.

Derek walks slowly, following the strengthening scent of the woman who is still calling out. As
much as he wants to get the boy home unharmed, he’s going to be sad to see him go. Maybe he’ll
be able to find the boy again in town; he has his scent after all.

The trees thin and they emerge from the tangle of the forest, stepping back out onto the trail. The
woman is just a couple hundred yards away now, her back to them. Derek walks them closer, but
remains silent. He doesn’t want to scare her more than just the sight of him will.

“Mama!” The boy calls out and the woman turns around.

She doesn’t scream, but it’s a near thing. Her eyes grow huge and her mouth drops open; her heart
beats far too fast. Derek can smell her fear; it rolls off of her in thick waves. He can scent the
different layers of it – distress for her missing son and fear at the sight of her baby standing with
young wolf.

“Stiles!” She gasps and the boy lets go of Derek’s fur to toddle off towards his mother.

The woman takes a few lunging steps and snatches Stiles up in her arms, holding him close to her
chest with one hand on the back of his head, but she doesn’t take her eyes off of Derek.

He lowers himself down to the ground, belly to the forest floor, trying to make himself look as
harmless and subordinate as possible. He flattens his fur and his ears and curves his tail low around
his legs. He’s glad he’s still as small as he is, even if his paws are huge.

She seems familiar to him, somehow. He must know her from town. This close he can smell
something clinging to her that’s even more familiar to him. Layered between the notes of her own
scent are hints of shaving cream, coffee, and the steel of a gun. Derek knows that combination:
The Sheriff. This is the Sheriff’s wife and his son. Claudia, Derek thinks. Her name is Claudia
and he’s pretty sure they’ve met before, maybe at one of the diners or a store. But of course she
wouldn’t recognize him in this body.
The Sherriff is sort of the alpha of the town and she is his mate and Derek’s wolf wants to nuzzle at
her mouth, display his obedience even though his own father is the alpha of his pack; the human
boy of him overriding that instinct wants to hide behind his own mother’s legs.

He doesn’t know how to tell her that it’s ok, that he’s safe, that he’s just a boy too. That he goes to
elementary school and he’s learning how to add and subtract and he’s really good at the states and
their capitols. He wants to tell her that he goes grocery shopping with his mom and rough houses
with his sisters and he only bites things he’s supposed to bite. He would never hurt her or her son.
He can’t shift to human and wave hello and say some nice and polite like he’s been taught to do.

All Derek can do is whine softly and hope Claudia understands.

She looks down at him, her breath still coming fast. But Derek can hear that the rapid pace of her
heart is slowing as she calms down. She has her son in her arms and Derek is as little of a threat as
he can make himself. He knows his eyes are just a little too human, but he can’t control that.

“I…” Claudia says, taking a few steps back. “Just, stay there.”

Derek blinks to let her know he understands and he doesn’t miss the spike of surprise in her scent.
He has to be careful – she can’t know he’s not just a young wolf.

Claudia stares at him for a long moment before she turns on her heel and starts walking quickly
away.

“Bye bye, woofy!” Stiles waves his chubby arms at him. Derek wags his tail back.

Derek watches as Claudia makes her way down the trail, back in the direction he knows leads to a
dirt parking lot. Over her shoulder Stiles stares at him with wide, bright eyes, waving and waving
until they disappear around a corner and out of sight.

Derek misses him already and he wants to howl out loud and clear to let Stiles knows he’s thinking
about him. But Derek has his scent now. He’ll be able to find him again.
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