A Coward 'Till The End, Lies.

You're to proud to say
That you made a mistake
You're a coward till' the end
I don't want to admit that we're not gonna fit
No I'm not the type that you like
Why don't we just pretend?

xXx The Day Before Present xXx

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME STILES!"

"I want you to stop being a coward Derek! I want you to feel something for once! Do you like being miserable!? Do you!? Why cant you just let yourself be happy! For once!"

Her lamp didnt stand a chance as Derek swiped it off of the table smashing it against the wall.

"What part of 'I cant be with you', isnt getting through your thick skull?! I cant be with you Stiles! We CANT be TOGETHER!"

"BULLSHIT! You're scared and youre trying to run like a terrified little boy because you know with us its not gonna be just a one night stand, hell if we're doing that its a bit too late dont you think! At this point im pretty sure I know your body better then I do mine by now! So what is it huh!? Whats the real reason you wont let your self be with me? I think I deserve to know after being your fuck toy for half a year!"

Stiles was red in the face, her heart jack hammering against her rib cage.

They've been pussy footing around this for months between stolen kisses and stolen virginity and not talking about any thing unless the lights were off and theyre the only ones home.

Derek simply glared, chest heaving, his eyes dangerously close to turning red.

Stiles stared him down, she wasnt the scared little virgin she'd been when they started this six months prior, she wasnt letting this go, not when they were so damn close to being something.

"TELL ME DEREK! C'mon Big Bad Alpha! Whats so wrong with me huh? What is it that makes me good enough for a quick shag but completely undateable? Huh? TELL ME!"

The growl that ripped from his chest made her jump out of her skin.

"YOU'RE NOT MY MATE STILES!"

Oh.

So thats what heartbreak feels like.

"W..what?" Her voice sounds pittiful even to her own ears, she must sound fucking pathetic to Dereks.

He sighed, running a hand through his thick black hair, he looked disheveled and a little bit broken; regretful.

"You're not my mate Stiles, I'm sorry but youre not, and... And im just gonna break your heart, not because i'll want to but because I've been promised to someone else, just like Scott and Alison, I wont have a choice, do you understand that Stiles?"

"Oh..." Her heart was lodged in her throat, choking her, she couldnt use her words, couldnt process what was being said so she simply nodded.

Derek's smile was grim, he looked as sick as she felt.

"I love you," Ouch, that hurt like fuck, "and you're pack but... You need to move on, you need to..."Derek paused, closing hazel eyes, "You need to leave Beacon Hills after graduation,"

Stiles actually choked on her breath at that, brown eyes wide in disbelief.

"You need to leave before you get hurt so bad you cant be fixed."

Shit. Internal bleeding didnt hurt half as much as this.

"I'm sorry, just... I'm so sorry."

He opened his eyes but Stiles couldnt look at him, she felt like her bones were suddenly concrete, she felt his presence move closer to her before deciding against it and crossing the room instead.

The moment Derek jumped out of her window Stiles emptied her stomach into the trash can.

Her daddy always told her boys werent worth the heart ache.

If only she'd listened.

xXx Present Day xXx

Saturday morning saw Stiles making a pillow fort in her living room, with enough sweets to feed an army and all six seasons of Supernatural on dvd.

She hadnt bothered changing out of her pj's and was currently looking up universities on her laptop. If Derek wanted her gone then fine, she'd leave. Her grades we're good enough and she'd already been excepted to a shed load of Uni's far enough away from him, but close enough so her dad could still visit. No biggy. No siree bob.

The door bell rang at half three and Stiles opened the door to find Lydia looking as imaculate as always carrying way too many bags of chinese take out.

"Oh my god you actual saint! Come in, come in, come in!!" Lydia chuckled allowing Stiles to usher her into her house.

"Yeah, well Ive heard food can mend a broken heart."

Stiles froze as she placed the take out on the kitchen table.

"Err... What do you mean?" she asked faking innocence as she ripped open the bag of prawn crackers with more force then strickly needed.

Lydia sighed and rested her hands on Stiles' shoulders, kneeding at the tension in them. "Youre phone is set to voicemail, you missed school, Derek smashed up his living room on Thursday night after he was at yours and he hasnt spoken since, he just keeps growling. I can smell salt on your cheeks and clothes so I know youve been crying, plus Mrs Ecklson said you saw you at the store yesterday buying enough candy to last you until next halloween. I know you Stiles and I know Derek too, you're both hurting and I want to help you."

Lydia wasnt Teen Queen in that moment, she wasnt acting or playing dumb, she wasnt doing something that would benefit herself later; she was being real. She was just a teenage girl helping out her best friend because thats what they had become, it had taken eight months, a pack of werewolves and a near death experiance but they finally had a friendship that meant something, one that would last.

The thought made Stiles wanna laugh and cry and tell Scott to go and suck it all at once.

"Okay, fine, but we need to take this to the living room first."

And that was how the two 18 year old girls ended up in a pillow fort eating chinese food and sweets like they were in preschool instead of on the cusp of graduating and heading off to Uni.

"So," Lydia started after taking a massive bite out of her kow pung chicken. "Whats wrong."

Stiles crumpled, smile slipping from her face as she shoved a handful of gummy worms into her mouth.

"Ey wuv im."

Lydia raised one perfectly sculptured eyebrow in question and Stiles held up her hand whilst she chewed and swallowed.

"I love him Lydia."

Lydia nodded in understanding, she'd put that much together herself.

Stiles took the red heads silence as means to go on.

"We've been... having sex for like six months and I thought it was going well, I thought it was going somewhere, I mean, he was all sweet and attentive and he actually talks to me y'know, like more then just monosylables! We have actual meaningful conversations and then the next minute we're fighting and he's telling me to leave him alone and spitting all this bull about how we 'cant be together' and that I need to stop seeing him because hes older than me and hes a werewolf and hes dangerous and urrghh! But he keeps coming back, climbing through my window and stealth cuddling me and then it all starts all over again..." Stiles paused dragging her hand through her tangled hair, Lydia placed her hand on Stiles' thigh in reassurence.

"Get it off of your chest honey, you'll feel better, trust me."

The funny thing was Stiles did trust her, trusted her more then anyone except her dad and...

"OH! And did you know he told me that he, and I quote, 'Couldnt imagen living without me!' I mean seriously! He's giving me all these mixed signals and its been going on for months! MONTHS!" She paused again taking a big bite out of a brownie chewing with an extremely adorable but serious look on her face. Lydia almost wanted to smile at her but the rant wasnt over yet, the jokes could wait until after the heart to heart.

"What happened on Thursday then?" she asked instead, "Must have been bad for Derek to lose his temper I mean, his house is wrecked, well more wrecked than usual."

Stiles rubbed her face and Lydia noticed the tears pooling in her chocolate eyes, her inner wolf wanted to make Derek cry for hurting her pack sister.

"We err, we we're making out and I just made an off hand comment about how we might aswell date because we spend all our time together anyway and how im certainly not kissing anyone else and he just loses his shit. He starts yelling and then im yelling and then he tells me that im not his mate and that theres no point in us even trying because ill never be his mate so... yeah." Lydia made an odd keening sound in her throat before dragging the now sobbing Stiles to her chest, rocking the younger girl in her arms.

"Thats not the worst part either, he, he told me to leave Beacon Hills after graduation, he told me to get out of town before I get seriously hurt." Lydia actually growled at that, low and feral clutching Stiles tighter in her arms. "I'd already applied to Berekly and they accepted me so, I'll probably go there, I means its close enough that I can visit but... yeah."

They sit quietly for a while, the only sounds Stiles' soft crying and the comforting shhing sounds Lydia keeps making.

Lydia couldnt figure Derek out, she was 100% sure he and Stiles were mates, hell even Jackon had noticed, so why was Derek denying it. A werewolf refusing it's mate was like a fish refusing to swim. So what the hell was he playing at?

"I'm sorry for ruining your top." Stiles whispered sometime later pulling Lydia from her thoughts.

"Shh Stiles just, let it out, Im here for you."

xXx

Sheriff Stilinski arrived home that night to two teenage girls curled up together and fast asleep on his sofa surrounded by an unholy amount of junk food. He lips were just about to quirk into a grin when he noticed the tear tracks dried on his daughters cheeks and how Supernatural was paused on the telly.

Putting two and two together, after all he wasnt sheriff for nothing, he tucked the girls in with the quilt his late wife had knitted and headed up to his room to dig out his Wolfbane shot gun shells, no one messes with a Stilinski without concequence, Alpha werewolf or not.