As Stiles starts to look him over, a distinct expression of confusion crosses Derek’s face. He’s clearly uncertain of what the teenager is looking for. If he was missing an arm of something, it would have been obvious from the get go. Heck, he would have picked up on it the moment he regained consciousness. This feels like a detailed examination, as though Stiles is looking for some sort of minute detail that would otherwise be overlooked. He doesn’t ask what the teenager is looking for though, honestly thinks it’s better not to know.
The look of confusion only deepens once the cultists are mentioned. It seems incredibly strange for them to be stealing from the shops; it’s not something that they’ve typically done in the past. And even then there’s always been a certain sense of hostility about them. To have them suddenly ignoring everyone after a week of literally trapping people on the campus grounds, it’s both unnerving and incredibly suspicious. Whatever they’re preparing for, it’s got to be big. “Very bad for us.”
He watches dumbly as Stiles climbs out the grave and takes a few moments to simply stare at the outstretched hand before accepting the offer of help. He wants to ask why Stiles had waited by his grave to begin with, wants to ask why he'd felt the need to be there when Derek woke up. In the end all that comes out is an incredibly vague and poorly timed, "Why?"
A look of confusion passes over Stiles face when Derek asks his question. It obviously isn't the 'why is your hand out', that seems to direct, and not obtuse enough for Derek. Especially since Derek does take the hand, and let Stiles help him get out of that hole.
When it finally hits him, the human shrugs, looking at Derek with a stark honesty, maybe a hint of embarrassment flushing at his cheeks when he speaks. "Because you're my friend. And friends don't let friends wake up from this alone."
At least Stiles doesn't. He kept vigil for Scott, he is keeping vigil for Derek.
One of these days Derek might learn to fully articulate his words. Possibly. It would certainly make his interactions with other people go a whole lot smoother. Conversations involving information and theories? Those he can do without difficulty. So long as he has a specific topic to go off on, he’s fine. It’s anything and near enough everything outside of those boundaries that causes a problem.
The werewolf tilts his head as Stiles gives his answer, it should be clear enough to the teenager that Derek is listening to his heartbeat. Hearing out loud that they’re friends is strange enough; it’s the second comment that has a part of Derek’s mind immediately rejecting the idea. Friends generally don’t sit by graves and hope that the buried person will wake up one day soon. And there’s a thought, what if he hadn’t woken up? Would Stiles have remained sitting there?
Eventually he does give a nod. It's a hesitant movement and Derek's clearly still processing the whole friendship thing. His mouth open and closes a few times before he lets out a frustrated noise, he wants to say something but he's having trouble putting his thoughts into words...
"You should have waited at the campus, it would have been safer. I would have sent you a message at some point."
Other people might not do that, but Stiles does. It had taken him a while to be dragged away from his mom's grave, as a kid. Knowing that someone is actually going to wake up? That's the easy part. He didn't even hazard a thought at Derek not waking up, because he has to. He's fucking Derek, and nothing has taken him down forever.
Stiles moves to brush dirt off his clothing, giving another shrug at Derek's words. "If the cultists had been trouble, I probably would have. But dude, I wasn't going to get hurt." Stiles smirks, finally looking up at Derek, "A thank you would work." It's a bit cocky, a bit sarcastic, but he's just trying to make the situation a bit lighter. He still needs to tell him Isaac's disappeared, but that can come in a couple minutes.
Derek still looks as though he wants to protest. As though he wants to emphasize the point that Stiles could have potentially gotten hurt regardless of the cultists. He opts to keep his mouth shut. Instead he settles for another half-strangled sound of annoyance before he sets his jaw. Just because the worshippers aren’t currently causing problems, it doesn’t mean that the city is suddenly safe. For all Stiles could have known Derek might have remained infected, he could have come back with that driving compulsion to kill again.
He rolls his eyes upon spotting that smirk. It’s not that he doesn’t appreciate the company; it’s more that he’s a little ticked about Stiles being so casual about potential risks. It’s the fact that the teenager is throwing around his self-sacrificing attitude for Derek of all people. That he didn’t seem to consider the possibility of the werewolf returning with murderous intent. With a short sigh he drops his scowling expression to just look at Stiles for a few seconds. “Thank you,” The words sound surprisingly sincere.
"You're welcome." Stiles gives the returning words with sincerity as well, the smirk dropping from his lips. He is pretty sure Derek considers Stiles a friend, but he may not ever hear it. That's okay, to him. Guy's not the best with his words, cool, whatever.
Still, they should probably move away from this subject. Onto...well, less pleasant conversations, if he's going to be honest. "Do you feel weird or anything?" Stiles realizes that the question seems like it's coming out of the blue, so he continues, "I mean--every time someone dies, people have something off about them. I'm just wondering if you managed to dodge it, or something." Which would be lucky for him--and Derek really does deserve the break.
He definitely considers Stiles a friend, which brings his running total up to three. He mainly has ‘acquaintances’ around the city, people that he seems to cross paths with once or twice and then never meets again. The rest of the teenagers from back home might as well be included into that category; Derek rarely sees them these days. Save for Scott. The less said about those interactions, the better though.
The werewolf takes a moment to consider the question, to really analyse how he’s feeling at the current moment. Eventually he shakes his head. Everything seems fine to him, nothing feels out of the ordinary and he’s going to assume that nothing looks strange. Nothing happened the last time around either, as far as he could tell at any rate. There’s a clearly confused and slightly suspicious look on Derek’s face as he poses his own question, “Should I feel weird?”
"...maybe?" Stiles gives him a slight look, trying to sort out what that might actually mean. "Like, my friend Pearl became human for a week, after she died, and uh...Scott suffered a consequence too." Stiles probably shouldn't mention that, mainly because of the whole 'Peter' thing, but the fact remains that Scott did suffer a consequence. Maybe Derek did get lucky.
"I mean, if you feel fine, and are still your wolfy-self, then there really isn't anything to worry about." He shrugs, "Which means I can probably tell you...I think Isaac got shipped back to the Hills."
Once again the werewolf shakes his head. He still feels fine, still feels like a creature of the night and even pops out his claws to double check. As far as he can tell all of his abilities are still in place. There are no voices in his head, no visions appearing before him, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Whether that’s actually a good thing or not remains to be seen. Sure it sounds nice but there’s always a possibility that the consequence will hit him later. Maybe it’ll hit him harder than strictly necessary to make up for the delay.
Any expression he had on his face is immediately dropped at the mention of Isaac. He should be happy for the kid, he’s gone back and he’s going to be fine. He’s not like Erica, he’s hasn’t returned to face his death or anything like that. He’s going to join Scott’s pack; he’s going to have a stable group of friends. And it’s not as though they were particularly close in the city, they hadn’t spoken a word to each other in month. But they had been pack members and it always stings a bit to lose one of those. Derek just gives a very stilted nod before looking back in the direction of the campus. “Thank you. For telling me.”
"Yeah...sorry about that." Stiles shrugs, looking a bit awkward. Even if they didn't seem to talk a lot (and Stiles certainly didn't really get along with Isaac), he still had been one of Derek's betas. Jackson's the only one left, now. He wasn't really sure how he could have broken the news any better--maybe waiting until Derek had been alive for more than a few minutes? But Stiles had never been really good with timing.
"But hey, uh...at least I'm still here?" Yeah not actually the best point to make, and yes it's very clear you're still here, Stiles.
Derek gives a short shrug, brushing aside the apology. What’s done is done. The timing could have been better, no doubt about that, but it really doesn’t matter now. The news has already been given. Isaac is gone; the one potential werewolf he would actually feel comfortable trusting has left. Sure, Scott’s still around and he’d help out if necessary but given their history? Derek’s not entirely certain on trusting him. And Jackson is a lost cause for assistance plain and simple.
“You are,” but it’s not the same thing. There was a certain bond between the two of them, a link between former-alpha and bitten beta. Stiles might be a friend and Derek might view him as part of the pack these days, but they don’t have that connection between the two of them. They never will. The werewolf folds his arms before letting out a sigh, “Anything else you need to tell me?”
"But it's not the same thing," Stiles states, giving a nod. He gets it; or well, he probably doesn't get it at all. Fair enough; Derek is going to have to deal with this on his own, whatever he needs to do with it--probably brood or something of that nature. "There...people haven't seen Scott, but he hasn't gone home." Stiles gives a shrug. He doesn't seem that concerned--and that might be a cover up...but there isn't anything they can do about it. He hasn't been kidnapped. Probably just voided.
The werewolf makes a small noise of agreement and leaves it at that. Even if he wanted to explain the connection, he wouldn’t know where to begin or how to actually go about doing it. No, it’s easier this way. He’s reached a settled agreement with Stiles and he’s perfectly capable of dealing with Isaac’s departure on his own. Their lack of actual interaction within the city will speed up the so-called healing process. He’ll take a day to reflect on it and then move on.
The news about Scott is a little more unsettling. If he hasn’t gone home and no one has seen him recently then that either means he’s dead, kidnapped or voided. Process of elimination then. As far as Derek can tell, Stiles doesn’t appear to be overly concerned about his best friend’s disappearance. So that potentially rules out a kidnapping. And given the amount of time he must have spent in the graveyard recently, surely he'd have found Scott's grave if he were dead. Which leaves one answer, “You think he’s in that void place?”
"Yeah." Stiles sighs, running a hand through his hair, before giving a shrug. "It's the only logical answer I can come up with." He starts to walk, figuring that Derek will follow him. "Which means it's just a matter of waiting. I got shoved there twice, and there isn't anything you can really do about it." But sit and wait, and hope they come back okay.
It goes without saying that Derek ends up following Stiles’ lead. That’s how things tend to go when it’s the two of them wandering around for whatever reason. One of them leads, the other follows. It’s a well-established routine by this point.
He gives the teenager a look over but doesn’t utter the dreaded question of, ‘are you sure you’re okay?’ Like Stiles said, there’s nothing they can do if Scott’s truly stuck in the void. They can sit around and wait and hope, or they can carry on and attempt to do something productive. Time for change of subject then, “Are the cultists raiding all of the stores or just a few of them?”
"It seems they are raiding all of them--or at least the ones that are open. I haven't actually studied it much yet, so I could be wrong." He's been trying to make sure everyone still is alive and exists, and waiting for Derek to wake up. "Basically clearing shit up. Something is coming that has them going into some sort of hoarding mode."
He shakes his head, "I haven't been to the library yet, either. But I'm starting to think there isn't any more to learn for us, there." Which is probably not what Derek wanted to hear.
Derek gives a short nod of understanding and leaves it at that. The stores had been relatively bare before their trip to Infect London; it’s unlikely that they’ve been filled in their absence. If the cultists are desperate enough to go scavenging through clothing and hardware stores, something potentially game changing is about to happen. Specifically ‘game changing’ in the misery, chaos and pain variety. And it’ll probably involve their god of choice attacking the campus at some point. Why go COMPASS when you can go for their test subject first, right?
As if that wasn’t disheartening enough, the topic of the library is brought up. It’s not as though he can really dispute Stiles’ claim, there simply isn’t enough relevant information within that place. Even the recently decoded books are slim on actually useful points; it’s mostly embellished tales that serve very little purpose. “There has to be something.”
"Maybe? I mean, we've probably overlooked something but," Stiles sighs, glancing back at Derek, before giving a shrug. "I'm burned out, man. I know I need to keep working at this, but it's just getting harder." Probably not something Derek needed to hear; he just got back from the dead, last thing he needs is Stiles whining. But it's true. Taking a break to wait a grave had been nicer than spending his time in the library--which is saying something.
“Take a break then.” It’s the common sense answer but Derek’s making a point of it anyway. He fully intends to go back to the library, he has his mind firmly set on heading there as soon as possible. He’s not going to force Stiles to join him, if the teenager wants to spend his time doing something else that’s entirely his choice. Someone needs to be on the those books though, they’re running out of time and those tomes have the best odds for a few scraps of relevant information. Derek might as well put his free time into re-reading them.
“We’ll part ways at the campus.” The werewolf will head towards the library while Stiles can go and do whatever he feels like doing.
"Wait--seriously?" Stiles blinks for a moment. Because hey, what did he really expect? He--well he isn't really sure. He rolls his eyes at himself and nods. Because yeah, it makes sense. "Right. You'll let me know if you find anything, right?" Because yeah, he really does need the break. Not that he has anything else to do, actually, but the past week has pushed his attention disorder management out of sync, and it's taking some time to get back into some sort of control.
“Yes, seriously.” And there’s the patented ‘you’re being an idiot’ look from Derek. It’s not as though Stiles will be of any use if he’s bored with reading the same tomes over and over again. His mind will inevitably wander and he’ll start looking for other, more distracting, methods of entertainment. Things will go a whole lot smoother if Derek takes responsibility of the reading task, just until the teenager is ready and willing to give it another go. Assuming that the world doesn’t end within the next week or so, he really wouldn’t put it past the power of a god to cause something like that.
Regardless, he gives Stiles a short nod. As though that question really needed to be asked, of course he’s going to share any information that he might find. Disregarding the fact that the last time he shared information the whole thing ended in his death. “If I find anything, I will.”
Stiles keeps walking, moving to shove his hands in his pockets, to keep them from flailing about. He knows Derek is right, that he has a point, but Stiles feels nearly bad for not actually joining him in research. He just wouldn't be any good right now, and he figures Derek probably wants time to decompress alone, without Stiles underfoot.
The campus is in sight, meaning that they are nearly done with their little walk, here. "Thanks. I'll keep doing some talking, see if anyone found out anything new." Because Stiles is more likely to talk to people than Derek.
The werewolf spares a quick glance towards the distant campus grounds before his attention is back on Stiles. It’s a little strange how there’s something clearly off about their conversation today and yet Derek has no solid idea of what exactly is wrong. He can make assumptions and claim that it’s due to people leaving or the circumstances of his own death but, he doesn’t want to assume the wrong thing. Nor does he really want to ask. So he does what he does best, he tries to ignore the problem, even if it does make him sound crankier and generally more distance than usual.
“Okay. If you haven’t done it already, take those notes to the people you mentioned.” He can’t imagine that anyone has made a break through recently but it is worth asking around. And it’s certainly better for Stiles to do the talking given Derek’s apparently natural ability to offend people in a few seconds flat.
Derek dying has something to do with it, but on a whole, Stiles is just a bit tired, this week. Especially after the debacle with the Gods, he feels like he's hit a brick wall. It's frustrating, and he doesn't want to take that out on Derek. He's just--he's just happy that Derek's alive, at all, and still here. With Isaac leaving, Scott disappearing, Stiles had been half worried that Derek wouldn't come back at all, either.
At least he's been proven wrong with that. At the mention of the notes, Stiles blinks, shaking his head. "Shit--I forgot. I'll do that today." Of course he forgot; his memory is shit lately, and with the mess of zombies the last week, it slipped his mind. Doesn't mean he's not annoyed at himself.
Derek’s half tempted to play the whole note thing off, say that it doesn’t matter and leave it as that. It’s obvious that Stiles has been distracted over the recent weeks, he can’t be blamed for forgetting something that was only mentioned in passing, but what’s to say that he won’t get distracted again during this week? The kid has enough on his mind without needing to hunt a couple of people down to ask them a series of questions. Not only that but a research related task seems like a roundabout way to lure Stiles back into helping when he should be taking a complete break from it all.
“Do it when you have a bit of time to kill. There’s no rush.” That’s a bold-faced lie; there is an element of speed needed in this sort of thing. The sooner they can get hold of relevant information, the better their odds of surviving whatever plans the cultists have set into motion. “
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The look of confusion only deepens once the cultists are mentioned. It seems incredibly strange for them to be stealing from the shops; it’s not something that they’ve typically done in the past. And even then there’s always been a certain sense of hostility about them. To have them suddenly ignoring everyone after a week of literally trapping people on the campus grounds, it’s both unnerving and incredibly suspicious. Whatever they’re preparing for, it’s got to be big. “Very bad for us.”
He watches dumbly as Stiles climbs out the grave and takes a few moments to simply stare at the outstretched hand before accepting the offer of help. He wants to ask why Stiles had waited by his grave to begin with, wants to ask why he'd felt the need to be there when Derek woke up. In the end all that comes out is an incredibly vague and poorly timed, "Why?"
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When it finally hits him, the human shrugs, looking at Derek with a stark honesty, maybe a hint of embarrassment flushing at his cheeks when he speaks. "Because you're my friend. And friends don't let friends wake up from this alone."
At least Stiles doesn't. He kept vigil for Scott, he is keeping vigil for Derek.
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The werewolf tilts his head as Stiles gives his answer, it should be clear enough to the teenager that Derek is listening to his heartbeat. Hearing out loud that they’re friends is strange enough; it’s the second comment that has a part of Derek’s mind immediately rejecting the idea. Friends generally don’t sit by graves and hope that the buried person will wake up one day soon. And there’s a thought, what if he hadn’t woken up? Would Stiles have remained sitting there?
Eventually he does give a nod. It's a hesitant movement and Derek's clearly still processing the whole friendship thing. His mouth open and closes a few times before he lets out a frustrated noise, he wants to say something but he's having trouble putting his thoughts into words...
"You should have waited at the campus, it would have been safer. I would have sent you a message at some point."
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Stiles moves to brush dirt off his clothing, giving another shrug at Derek's words. "If the cultists had been trouble, I probably would have. But dude, I wasn't going to get hurt." Stiles smirks, finally looking up at Derek, "A thank you would work." It's a bit cocky, a bit sarcastic, but he's just trying to make the situation a bit lighter. He still needs to tell him Isaac's disappeared, but that can come in a couple minutes.
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He rolls his eyes upon spotting that smirk. It’s not that he doesn’t appreciate the company; it’s more that he’s a little ticked about Stiles being so casual about potential risks. It’s the fact that the teenager is throwing around his self-sacrificing attitude for Derek of all people. That he didn’t seem to consider the possibility of the werewolf returning with murderous intent. With a short sigh he drops his scowling expression to just look at Stiles for a few seconds. “Thank you,” The words sound surprisingly sincere.
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Still, they should probably move away from this subject. Onto...well, less pleasant conversations, if he's going to be honest. "Do you feel weird or anything?" Stiles realizes that the question seems like it's coming out of the blue, so he continues, "I mean--every time someone dies, people have something off about them. I'm just wondering if you managed to dodge it, or something." Which would be lucky for him--and Derek really does deserve the break.
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The werewolf takes a moment to consider the question, to really analyse how he’s feeling at the current moment. Eventually he shakes his head. Everything seems fine to him, nothing feels out of the ordinary and he’s going to assume that nothing looks strange. Nothing happened the last time around either, as far as he could tell at any rate. There’s a clearly confused and slightly suspicious look on Derek’s face as he poses his own question, “Should I feel weird?”
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"I mean, if you feel fine, and are still your wolfy-self, then there really isn't anything to worry about." He shrugs, "Which means I can probably tell you...I think Isaac got shipped back to the Hills."
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Any expression he had on his face is immediately dropped at the mention of Isaac. He should be happy for the kid, he’s gone back and he’s going to be fine. He’s not like Erica, he’s hasn’t returned to face his death or anything like that. He’s going to join Scott’s pack; he’s going to have a stable group of friends. And it’s not as though they were particularly close in the city, they hadn’t spoken a word to each other in month. But they had been pack members and it always stings a bit to lose one of those. Derek just gives a very stilted nod before looking back in the direction of the campus. “Thank you. For telling me.”
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"But hey, uh...at least I'm still here?" Yeah not actually the best point to make, and yes it's very clear you're still here, Stiles.
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“You are,” but it’s not the same thing. There was a certain bond between the two of them, a link between former-alpha and bitten beta. Stiles might be a friend and Derek might view him as part of the pack these days, but they don’t have that connection between the two of them. They never will. The werewolf folds his arms before letting out a sigh, “Anything else you need to tell me?”
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The news about Scott is a little more unsettling. If he hasn’t gone home and no one has seen him recently then that either means he’s dead, kidnapped or voided. Process of elimination then. As far as Derek can tell, Stiles doesn’t appear to be overly concerned about his best friend’s disappearance. So that potentially rules out a kidnapping. And given the amount of time he must have spent in the graveyard recently, surely he'd have found Scott's grave if he were dead. Which leaves one answer, “You think he’s in that void place?”
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He gives the teenager a look over but doesn’t utter the dreaded question of, ‘are you sure you’re okay?’ Like Stiles said, there’s nothing they can do if Scott’s truly stuck in the void. They can sit around and wait and hope, or they can carry on and attempt to do something productive. Time for change of subject then, “Are the cultists raiding all of the stores or just a few of them?”
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He shakes his head, "I haven't been to the library yet, either. But I'm starting to think there isn't any more to learn for us, there." Which is probably not what Derek wanted to hear.
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As if that wasn’t disheartening enough, the topic of the library is brought up. It’s not as though he can really dispute Stiles’ claim, there simply isn’t enough relevant information within that place. Even the recently decoded books are slim on actually useful points; it’s mostly embellished tales that serve very little purpose. “There has to be something.”
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“We’ll part ways at the campus.” The werewolf will head towards the library while Stiles can go and do whatever he feels like doing.
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Regardless, he gives Stiles a short nod. As though that question really needed to be asked, of course he’s going to share any information that he might find. Disregarding the fact that the last time he shared information the whole thing ended in his death. “If I find anything, I will.”
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The campus is in sight, meaning that they are nearly done with their little walk, here. "Thanks. I'll keep doing some talking, see if anyone found out anything new." Because Stiles is more likely to talk to people than Derek.
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“Okay. If you haven’t done it already, take those notes to the people you mentioned.” He can’t imagine that anyone has made a break through recently but it is worth asking around. And it’s certainly better for Stiles to do the talking given Derek’s apparently natural ability to offend people in a few seconds flat.
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At least he's been proven wrong with that. At the mention of the notes, Stiles blinks, shaking his head. "Shit--I forgot. I'll do that today." Of course he forgot; his memory is shit lately, and with the mess of zombies the last week, it slipped his mind. Doesn't mean he's not annoyed at himself.
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“Do it when you have a bit of time to kill. There’s no rush.” That’s a bold-faced lie; there is an element of speed needed in this sort of thing. The sooner they can get hold of relevant information, the better their odds of surviving whatever plans the cultists have set into motion. “
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