Derek can’t fathom it. He can’t wrap his mind around just...allowing Stiles to be gone. There is an insistent tug in his chest, urging him east, and the only logical explanation that Derek can think of is that it’s Stiles pulling him east, urging Derek to find him even when the rest have given up.
One morning, as thunder cracks across the open sky causing Derek to curl in on himself, he feels a phantom sensation urging him not to flinch away. He can’t explain it - didn’t even want to try - but somehow he can feel Stiles in the flashes of lightning. He can almost smell him, and longs to find him, touch him, make clear all the things he’s hidden from Stiles – and himself – for the year they’ve known each other.
That day, Derek packs his things and heads east, just not quite in the direction he is pulled.
Longing and Lightning: The Mate of a Genius Loci is now available on AO3. A companion fic to this beautiful piece of writing by rei_c/ @fybandwagon . It’s also the Mates square on my @twbingo card.