Hero (Sterek)

Chapter 10

Truth be told, Stiles wasn't sure if Lydia and Scott were wrong...so to speak. Yes, when looked at in a certain light, Derek was a sort of constant factor in the crazy, violence that had become Beacon Hills. And it wasn't coincidence either. Far from it. Wherever Derek stepped, misfortune seemed to follow. The guy couldn't catch a break.

But it also wasn't like everything that happened was his fault. Sure, maybe if he hadn't bitten Jackson none of the kanima stuff would have happened—but then again maybe if Jackson weren't such an emotionally stunted douchebag with a Loki complex he would have just turned into a wolf like he was supposed to. And no one could blame Derek for getting involved with Kate because she was a manipulative bitch that took advantage of his innocence, so that was out. And yeah Scott blamed Derek for ruining his life—making sure he had no chance at all at a normal life by killing Peter—but the whole idea was a long shot in the first place. There was no definitive proof that it would have worked.

Yet...Derek hadn't exactly made any moves to redeem himself. In fact he made more problems: Isaac, Erica, and Boyd. And it's not like he's the winner of Alpha of the Year or anything—two of them decided to book it right out of town when things got a little hairy, Derek absolutely failed to help Scott control his abilities—instead Stiles had to do it—and he sort of indirectly killed Allison's mom. So Derek wasn't really a good guy—but he also wasn't a bad guy, which is why Stiles had a hard time justifying hanging out with Derek when everyone generally agreed that Derek wasn't someone they wanted to hang around. He must be missing some grand part of the puzzle here. That had to be the only explanation.

Stiles thought about this the entire drive to the home improvement store and thought about this while looking for Spackle and paint and thought some more about this the drive back to his house. And he was uncharacteristically silent the entire time, which made Derek increasingly nervous as the minutes passed without even the slightest sarcastic remark even when Derek went out of his way to avoid the only other customer in the store—an old lady with a cat carrier. And there were a lot of sarcastic remarks that could have been made about that. But as soon as the door opened, and Stiles set foot onto the blue carpet and spotted his dad's giant blue marlin above the dining room table he broke his silence.

"Sure you're scary and all, but it's not like you're some amoral, rabid beast!" he exclaimed as though they were having a conversation this whole time.

Derek coughed and nearly slipped over the neon green J&O Plumbers commercial leaflet that fell from the open door. "What?"

"It's true, it's true," Stiles said shutting the door. "You are rather terrifying—on first glance. Alright maybe the second or third glance, too—but that's not the point—"

"Stiles," Derek interrupted with a pointed glance to the stairs.

"What—oh hey Dad! Home early, I see." Stiles stepped closer to Derek—right in front of the massive hole in the wall. But it was too late by the way his father simply raised a brow.

"I forgot some papers," he said. "You have something you want to tell me?"

Stiles could practically feel Derek tensing up inside his leather jacket right next to him. "Er...like what?"

"Like how you decided to build a new window?"

Stiles tried to smile but it was more of a grimace. "It was, uh, an accident. We were totally going to fix it."

"We?" the Sherriff glanced at Derek. "You were here when this happened?"

Derek swallowed. "Uh, yeah."

"It's not even ten—how early were you here? No, don't answer that. I'm starting to get the idea that I probably won't like the reason. Stiles, can I talk to you in the kitchen for a minute?"