a hermit at the market part 2
https://archiveofourown.org/works/23229589/chapters/55709797
The body in front up him tensed up, hands that were previously sorting herbs into piles stopped moving for a second. Whiskey coloured eyes slowly raised upwards to meet green ones.
“Derek.”
The voice was colder than he remembered. Void of any inflictions. No longer was there the excitement that often came with the rambles of strange topics. No longer was the enticing tilt when the genius was figuring something out. No longer was the ever-present sarcasm there, the one that never seemed to go away completely.
Gulping he stared into Stiles’ eyes. Eyes he hadn’t seen in years.
“How are you?”
When he didn’t get any vocal nor any physical reaction his hands became sweaty. Stiles always moved. It was natures law.
Stiles is smart. Stiles never holds still. Stiles is part sarcasm.
Two of those were gone already. He hoped the third wasn’t too.
Scratching with his left hand behind his head he let out a nervous chuckle. Unable to walk away and look for the spark he came here for he searched for something to say to his pack mate, friend, former pack mate, acquaintance.
His acquaintance blinked.
“Is there anything I can help you with? The rosemary-honey blend can be quite soothing at night while I find the blackberry with white jasmine to be more pleasant in the morning.”
Pointing at several small packages which contained said herbs Stiles voice took a more pleasant yet impersonal tone. Never acknowledging their background and instead treating him like any other possible buyer.
Derek’s heart broke a little then and there.
This wasn’t the boy he remembered. The one who looked monsters in the eye and laughed in their face. This wasn’t the boy who held him up in a swimming pool for three hours. The boy who held him after Boyd-Erica-almost-Cora’s death.
What the hell had happened since they last saw each other?
