Sterek One Shots

Hale of Heart

"Is that...?"

"Yup."

"It can't be."

"It is."

"But... wow."

"I know."

"Dude."

"Yeah. Kinda trippy, right?"

"Like, I can't even... Who did this?"

"A witch who should probably take up another hobby. Like macramé. Or philately."

"I don't understand."

"Philately? Well, Scott, it's the collection and study of postage stamps, which, thinking about it doesn't make me understand the hobby any better either, really."

"Stiles. That's not what I meant. I don't understand... that... this."

"Believe me, bro. Neither do I."

"And Derek just... gave it to you?"

"Not for keeps or anything, so don't go suggesting it's like he's asked me to take full custody. I'm just looking after it. For now. This is a temporary arrangement. While his inner rage becomes his outer rage. And given the situation, I kinda understand where he's coming from. He looked pretty intense."

"He always looks intense though."

"Point."

"What I can't believe is that of everyone in the pack, Derek left it with you."

"What's wrong with me?!"

"Nothing, Stiles, just... he doesn't like you, does he? And this is kind of an important part of himself he just decided to leave with you for some unspecified amount of time. Plus, dude, you're like way clumsy."

"Gee, thanks, Scott. I may not be a werewolf with superhuman agility and reflexes, but I'm hardly going to break his... this. I'm not a total spaz; I grew out of that stage of my life some years ago, thanks. Though if my best friend thinks I suck, what must my enemies think, huh?"

"Apparently they give you their heart in a jar."

Stiles groans loudly before thunking his head against the kitchen table. He mumbles that Derek isn't his enemy - Scott was being unnecessarily dramatic - he was more like a frienemy. He hides his face in his folded arms because looking at the actual heart of Derek Hale in an actual glass bell jar might just make him throw up. For real. He wasn't kidding that time he told Derek (the first time and all the times that came after that, jeez) that he didn't like the thought of chopping off bits of people's anatomies, and though he wasn't personally responsible for magicking Derek's heart out of his rib cage and into a display case, he is still very aware of the wrongness of it. This defied all the laws of nature.

The heart palpitates, the fast rhythm magnified by the dome of the jar. Wherever the hell Derek is and whatever he's doing, he is really going for it, like full on aerobics. Zumba maybe, Stiles thinks with mean smirk, remembering the DVD he'd found at Derek's place just last week. Derek had insisted that it wasn't fucking his. Stiles called bullshit and Derek had literally thrown him out of the house.

"No, really," Scott continues. "I can't believe he just left his freaking heart with you."

"Are you seriously more hung up on the fact that Derek had me look after the damn thing, over the fact that there is a real live, beating heart on my kitchen table? For real?"

"Dude, I'm not like saying you're not awesome and a total champ for babysitting, but if my heart magically appeared outside of my chest, I wouldn't let it out of my sight. No way."