two frozen hearts set out to thaw
↳ For Day 6 of @averysterekwinter - Hurt/Comfort
Excerpt:
At this point in Stiles’ life, there are an overabundance of ways that he has imagined he could die.
I.e. Demon possession, asphyxiation, torture, blunt force trauma, poison, getting bit and his body rejecting the bite, drowning, bleeding out, ending up as collateral damage in an all out pack war, getting hit by a car or a bullet, developing the same disease as his mom...
The list went on.
Somewhere down the line he had read that if you imagined yourself in life threatening scenarios you’ve never been in before, it can better prepare you for reacting to the real thing. It was an appealing strategy. One that offered a sense of control over the uncontrollable, and Stiles got it in his mind that if he could anticipate the pain and the bad endings, they wouldn’t hurt as much.
And so, as time went on, he started going through these possibilities in his head every time he danced on the edge of danger. He’d start with the typical run of the mill scenarios - the most likely to happen - then the most unlikely next, both as a counterbalance and Hail Mary to fend off his fear. Eventually, he ended up with a morbid checklist of sorts that he could mentally tick through before plunging himself into unpredictable, life-threatening situations.
Like this morning, for example. After Stiles had finally located the snow-hidden trail veering off one of the mountain’s back service roads (the one that should lead Stiles to the secluded cabin Derek has been holed up in for the last year) he’d done exactly that: Ticked through his little list with the habitual mindset of one tossing back their morning vitamins.
But by some cruel twist of irony, hypothermia had never made the list
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Read The Rest On Ao3❤️
