Title: (Take Away This) Ball and Chain 1/6
Author:
safaiagem /
bloody-hellfireWord Count: 43,785
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin, Laura Hale, Original Characters
Warnings language, violence, sexual situations, blood and gore
Summary: Supernatural AU. When Derek Hale was sixteen years old he lost everything he loved in the fire. Desperate to his family he tried make a deal with a crossroads demon named Stiles. Stiles turned him down and Derek reluctantly tried to move on with his life. Six years later Derek is a hunter and when he receives word that Stiles might have known more about the fire than he let on that night Derek decides to hunt him down. What he finds when he finally captures Stiles is not what he expects and that the two of them might have a common enemy.
(Take Away This) Ball and Chain
You can run all your life
But not go anywhere
Ball and Chain by Social Distortion
Prologue
Derek Hale was sixteen when his entire world fell apart. If he was honest with himself it was not that his world ‘fell apart’ as it was 'burned down'. He was at school with Laura when he felt it. Something was wrong, Derek could feel it in his bones, and when he looked at Laura he knew that she felt the same thing. The sheer amount of speeding laws they broke getting to the house was disgusting and Laura was half transformed by the time they got home.
A home that was now engulfed in flames and through the roar of the fire Derek could hear his family screaming. They were werewolves, they could heal quickly, and it kept the wolf members of his family alive for much longer than they should have been. Laura kicked the door to the house in and managed to drag Uncle Peter out. Derek knelt beside him and watched in horror as the burns were too severe to heal. Laura turned to go back into the house, to do something, but quickly the roof caved in. Derek held her back. She was still screaming that she had to go in and save them when the fire trucks appeared.
Six hours later and the walls around him were closing in. He had to get out, get away from all of this or he was going to put a fist through the wall. Laura looked up when he picked up his jacket, grabbed his bag, and started for the door. She didn’t stop him. He was thankful for that.
In the back of his mind Derek replayed a conversation with his father and Uncle Peter. They were talking about hunters and Derek asked if werewolves were the only creatures that were hunted. His dad had smiled sadly and showed him a book of all the things they had encountered over the years. The book that Derek had taken to school that day and it was still in his bag. Derek slid down a tree and sat down, pulling out the book. It was all hand written and he could recognize his dad’s handwriting, his mom’s, Uncle Peter’s, he could see each one. It made his chest hurt as he flipped through the pages.
He was not sure what he was looking for but Derek remembered his dad mentioning something about wishes. There was something out there that could grant his wish and there was only one thing Derek wanted more than anything in the world right now. The moon was half full and his vision made it easy to read the pages. He knew what it was when he saw it, scribbled at the top in Uncle Peter’s writing, the words ‘crossroad demons.’ It listed what he needed to summon one. A picture, bone of a black cat, and some graveyard dirt. And what to do with them. It said that he would have to sell his soul, but Derek did not care about that. He needed his family back and he would do anything for them. He closed the book and began to look for what he needed.
Finding the bone or a crossroads was not easy. The crossroads ended up being in the middle of nowhere. Derek dropped his bag off to the side and dug a hole in the ground. He did not have a container to put them into so he hoped that this was going to work. He put the bone, dirt, and his student ID in the ground, buried them and waited.
Derek smelled the demon before he saw it. The stench of sulfur was strong to his sensitive nose. He turned to see that he was no longer alone. He was surprised to see a kid standing a few feet away. He looked like he was around Derek’s age. Bright amber eyes, an almost lanky body, and brown hair spiked in all directions. He was wearing a t-shirt with a blue flannel button down over it and his hands shoved into his jean’s pockets. To anyone passing by he would have looked like any normal teenager, but much like when Derek stood next to a human, he could see how things were just slightly off. The way he held himself, the tilt of his head, his entire essence just off enough to make someone uncomfortable.
“I know how this works,” Derek said his own voice sounded hoarse like he had been screaming for hours. The demon tilted his head to the side, but said nothing. “You can have my soul. I don’t care when. You can have whatever you want, just bring my family back. We have to seal this deal, right? With a kiss? So let’s do that and you can bring them back and you can decide when you want to drag me to hell.” Derek rolled his shoulders and walked toward the demon when a hand was on his chest, stopping him when they were inches apart.
“Whoa there, slow down turbo. I just got here,” the demon said smoothly. “Why don’t you back it up a quarter inch and then tell me, slowly, what happened before you go making deals you don’t understand.” Derek stared at the demon in front of him and took one large step back.
“My entire family--almost my entire family, died tonight,” Derek said clenching his fists tightly, nails biting into flesh. “There was a fire and they couldn’t get out for some reason. It was too much and they couldn’t--” Derek cut himself off because he had no idea if this demon knew he was a wolf. The demon studied him and then grinned.
“You’re a werewolf. That’s fascinating,” the demon said. “I haven’t seen one of you guys in a long time.” He paused and looked Derek over like he was a science experiment; it was a little unnerving. “What’s your name?”
“Derek,” Derek replied evenly. “I left my ID in there, shouldn’t you know that?”
“I like to hear it from the source,” the demon said waving him off. “How old are you, Derek?”
“I’m sixteen. Now can we do this? I need you to bring back my family. Let’s just make this deal and move on? Please.” Derek was not trying to sound impatient, but there had to be some sort of time limit to these things. The demon looked thoughtful.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he said turning and walking down the street.
“A walk? Don’t we need to do this here?” Derek asked. The demon turned around as he walked and grinned.
“Kid, I’m King of the Crossroads, pretty sure I can do whatever the hell I want. Now get your shit and let’s go.” Derek stared at the demon’s back for a moment before he grabbed his bag and started after the demon. They walked down the road in silence until the demon turned into the forest and began to pick through the woods.
“So, how do you like high school?” It was so inane that Derek was stunned for a moment.
“It’s okay,” he said slowly.
“Just okay? Do you play any sports or anything? Are werewolves allowed to do that?” the demon asked.
“We can as long as we don’t draw too much attention to ourselves.” Derek paused. “My town is weirdly obsessed with lacrosse for some reason, but I don’t play.”
“What are you interested in then?” the demon said. This entire thing was getting a little too bizarre, even for Derek.
“Not really anything specific, but why are you asking me all of this? How is this relevant?”
“It’s not really.” The demon shrugged and ducked under a tree branch. “I haven’t been human for a long time and I was curious.”
“You’re asking the wrong person because I’m not human either,” Derek mumbled and when he looked up the demon was looking at him almost fondly.
“No, I suppose you’re not. You said ‘almost your entire family’ died today, who survived?” the demon asked without missing a beat.
“My sister, Laura,” Derek said softly. “And my uncle, but they aren’t sure he’s going to make it. Even with our healing ability he was hurt too bad. If he wasn’t a wolf, he’d be dead already.”
“Are you close to your sister?”
“Yeah, I am.” The demon fell silent and they picked their way through the forest. The demon stumbled once and Derek steadied him without thinking. The demon raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. It was not until they reached the edge of the forest that Derek realized the demon had walked them back to the hotel where Laura was.
“What are we doing here?” Derek asked.
“Not what we’re doing Derek, but what you’re doing. What you’re going to do is walk away from here and go back to your sister,” the demon said. His expressive face was now completely blank. His features giving nothing away and his heartbeat steady.
“What about our deal? I need you to bring my family back,” Derek said, feeling a panic rise inside of him.
“You’re sixteen, Derek, and just lost everything. You’re not in the right frame of mind to be making a deal. You’re not thinking of the consequences. Suppose I do bring someone back, I could only bring one, but what about them? I could give you ten years maximum, but then they would have to watch you die.” the demon gestured to the door where Laura was. “Your sister already lost everything and now you want her to lose you too? You can’t put her through that.”
“What do you care about Laura and wha
.t she goes through?” Derek yelled. The door to the hotel opened and Laura looked outside. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying. She looked worried.
“Derek? Are you out there?” Laura called out. Derek could see how frail she was, in a way he never thought his sister could be. It broke his heart.
“Go back to your sister, take care of your Uncle, and take it one day at a time,” the demon said.
“Will it ever get better?” Derek asked.
“I don’t have the answer to that. It’s entirely up to you how you handle it and how you live your life from here on out. Now, go back to your sister, because I’m not making a deal with you.” The demon put his hands in his pockets and Derek felt like he was being stared down by someone much older than he was. Laura was still calling for him and it was like she could not see him in the distance for some reason. Derek looked at the demon one last time and turned to walk back to Laura. She threw her arms around him as soon as she saw him and when Derek looked back at the woods, the demon was gone.
+++
He watched from nearby as the young werewolf held onto his sister, his new alpha, for dear life. He even saw Derek turn around and look for him, but he could not be seen now. He was standing far enough away that he could not hear them and he would not be seen unless he wanted them to. He heard someone coming up behind him, but he did not turn around to greet them.
“Stiles, your bleeding heart is going to get you killed one of these days,” a familiar voice said behind him.
“I’m a demon, Lydia, we both know I don’t have a heart,” Stiles replied, still watching as Derek and his sister walked back toward their hotel room.
“I think we both know that isn’t true,” Lydia said and Stiles could see her as she walked into his view. The body she was using was one she was quite fond of, a young girl with strawberry blond hair, bright eyes, and a killer smile. “As your second I can’t outright call you an idiot, but...”
“Like that’s ever stopped you,” Stiles said.
“But” Lydia continued. “I have a feeling that you saying ‘no’ is much more complicated than you’re letting on.”
“I said ‘no’ and that’s all that matters,” Stiles replied shrugging. “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”
“I would never ask such a thing,” Lydia replied and Stiles knew she was being as honest as she was capable of being.
“Good now let’s get out of here.” Stiles turned his back on the Hale’s and their tragedy. His part in this was done. Where Derek and Laura went from here did not concern him. He had other things to worry about.
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