Sarcasm

When stiles was a child he was a sarcastic little shit.

Now stiles is a teenager, he’s a sarcastic little shit.

He used to think that his sarcasm drove people away, and it did, but there must be something wrong with Derek because he stays. He always stays.

When they first met, and Derek had said this is private property, stiles had a bunch of different sarcastic remarks on the tip of his tongue; he held them back because Derek looked like he might have ripped stiles in half if he had said any of them.

After they got to know each other he didn't hold back any more. Most of them slipped past his lips without his brains consent but he didn't feel guilty about them.

It's just sarcasm, what harm can it do?

Derek was always there, by his side, taking his sarcasm and never staying away too long.

When he left, he always found his back. And every time he comes back it's the same. The longing glances, the prolonged touches, the time they spend together.

It drives stiles absolutely mad. He thinks there is something between them but Derek never acts on, and stiles doesn't want to make the first move because what if he's wrong?

What if the longing glances and the prolonged touches are just apart of stiles’ imagination? It wouldn't be the first time he's put too much into a relationship that was all a figment of his imagination.

His sarcasm is something not many people put up with to get to know him as a person.

He's 147 pounds of pale skin and fragile bones, sarcasm is his only defense.

And it is, he hadn't been joking with Scott when he'd said that. Sarcasm is his defense mechanism.

It's what he turned to when his father got promoted to sheriff and was gone all the time and it was just he and his mother.

It's what he turned to when his mother was getting sick and people would tell him she was going to be okay.

It's what he turned to when his mother died and everyone just kept saying sorry.

SORRY DOESN'T BRING HER BACK!

It's what he turned to when his father started drinking.

It's what he turns to since Scott got bit and he's had to face bad guys left and right with barely a single break.

It's what stiles uses as a weapon. And maybe his sarcasm is going to be the death of him. Maybe it isn't. But there is no way he's giving it up.

He's a sarcastic person by nature; it would be like taking half of his soul trying to take away his sarcasm.

Over time it becomes clear as to why Derek never ran away or left him like most people. Its because Derek is a sarcastic little shit just like stiles.

He hadn't really noticed it before. The way Derek would always meet his sarcasm with Derek's very own. The way Derek never took offence to his sarcasm and just went right back at him with his own.

Maybe that's why stiles fell so hard for him? Because it's the most attractive thing ever when you can be sarcastic and people can set your sarcasm and not be offended by it.

No one ever really understands the true nature of sarcasm. It's something that is inside you. Something that you can't really control, it has a mind of it's own.

Maybe that's why so many people take offence to it, because they don't understand. Maybe that's why only those who wield it, don't take offence, because they understand.

They understand what it's like when the sarcasm takes hold and becomes almost impossible to stop.

They understand the way it slips past your lips before your brain can even catch up to stop the words.

Maybe that's why Derek always comes back. Because he knows what it's like, and he knows what stiles is trying to say even why he can't say it. He knows that sarcasm is stiles’ defence mechanism and is able to read past it, to see what stiles is really trying to say.

That's how they get together finally.

Sarcasm, and tons of it.

Stiles had gone over to tell Derek to stop being a self-sacrificing asshat, and not to throw himself in front of stiles again because he could “fucking take care of himself dammit!” and didn't want to “be treated like a damsel in distress!”

Derek had yelled that stiles was “lucky that someone was watching his back!”

After that it was a chaos. Stiles and Derek yelling back and forth throwing sarcasm here and there until Derek finally took a step back, out of stiles personal space, and read the situation.

“Are you really mad at me for saving you? Or is it something else?” He asked.

“What do you mean? What else could it be?” Stiles had asked.

“Maybe you're mad because I stole your thunder?” Derek asked. He shook his head no and said, “Nah, that's not it.” with his cocky little smug  smirk. “Maybe it's because you can't stand to lose me and would rather deal with the pain of being hurt than to see me die?” He'd said still with the smirk but stiles could see the hope in his eyes.

The silent question, that was asking for him to be right. Stiles had told Derek that he was “partially right” and that he “was an idiot for taking his thunder.”

Derek had just smiled and pulled stiles into a passionate kiss.

Maybe they both are sarcastic little shits? But they can be sarcastic little shits together.