Pairing: Pre-slash Derek/Stiles

Warning: Post Season 3A - some spoilers through that as well as speculation about the fallout thereof. Also Hale family feels.

Disclaimer: Not my characters. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Beta-ed by dysonrules This is what happens when khasael links me to wolf behaviour articles. Also, I think that the Hales (Derek in particular) (a) deserve some happy and (b) would be different-ish if that happy ever happened.

"Hey, Derek, is Stilinski sending you links to articles about wolves?" Cora asked when he got back in the car.

They were somewhere in Wyoming, meandering their way east. Part of him knew he should find a place to settle and get Cora enrolled in school again but a GED had been good enough for him when he and Laura left so it would suffice for his little sister as well. Derek felt that being together and away were more important than stability at the moment.

"What."

She rolled her eyes at his inflection. "Stilinski. You know, Stiles. Has he been sending you links to articles about wolf behavior?"

"Yes, Cora, I remember who Stiles is. And no, I don't think," he pulled his phone from his pocket only to realize it had gone dead. He tried to remember the last time he'd used it. A week ago? Two?

Cora's put-upon sigh was all teenager as she snatched the device and plugged it into the car charger. "You really would find a cave and just become a mountain man if you could, wouldn't you?"

He shoved his hand in her face, effectively silencing her and pushing her back in her seat. Things like this were coming back slowly. The banter. The teasing gestures. The normalcy of being siblings, instead of alpha and beta.

By the time she stopped spluttering at him, he'd pulled away from the gas station and onto the highway. He wondered if they could make Cheyenne by nightfall.

Derek didn't think about his phone again until they'd stopped for the night. Cora tossed it to him as he was putting his duffle bag on the bed closest to the door.

"Tell Stilinski we're not actual wolves."

"Why don't you tell him? He's been texting you," Derek replied.

She huffed and shut the door to the bathroom.

When his phone finally powered up and found a cell signal, it was like the thing became possessed. It beeped non-stop for two minutes straight before all of the incoming message notifications stopped.

He scrolled through the list. There were a couple from Scott the day after they'd left but nothing from him after that. Isaac sent one every few days asking about their trip. Derek felt a little bad that he'd not been in better contact with Isaac. He hoped being Scott's beta was doing Isaac more good than being Derek's beta ever had.

The rest of the messages were from Stiles. Twenty in all. Five from just after they'd left and then one a day from there. Most were multimedia messages. Derek started with the oldest.

From Stiles (10:24am): I stopped by the loft but it's cleared out. Way to skip town and not say goodbye, asshole.

From Stiles (11:20am): Did you really just leave? I was kind of kidding, but I checked all of your usual haunts and all of your stuff is gone.

From Stiles (11:21am): It occurs to me that since one of the places I checked was your old family home, 'haunts' is probably not a good word to use. Sorry

about that.

From Stiles (1:09pm): Scott apparently knew you were going. Or that you were gone. Or whatever. Nice to be kept in the loop, as usual. I can't believe you just left, dude.

From Stiles (8:45pm): I've been thinking about it and I guess I can understand why you left. If anybody needs a break from the Hellmouth that is Beacon Hills it would be you (and Cora too, I guess). I wish you'd said goodbye though. I hope you guys find what you're looking for.

The next message was from a day later with no text, just a sound attachment. Derek opened it expecting some sort of verbose rant that Stiles decided he didn't want to type out on his phone.

Instead he heard a soft, low howl. It wasn't a wolf howl and it wasn't the trainwreck that was Scott's first howl. Just a small, mournful noise made by human vocal cords.

Cora opened the door to the bathroom, pajamas on and her hair wrapped in a towel. "Was that-?" she paused, staring at Derek.

"I think…" he started, then clicked on the next message. It was the same, a soft howl. Different enough from the first to know that it wasn't just a second copy of the same message. "I think it's Stiles."

Cora's eyes widened and she practically dove for her phone.

Derek kept going through the messages from Stiles. One per day. Just a sound file of him howling and nothing else. No explanation. Nothing.

"Um, I think I know what he's doing," Cora said, staring down at her own phone. She turned it around so Derek could read the title of the article: 'Wolves Howl More for Their Friends'

She pulled the phone back and began scrolling. "He's been sending articles about how wolves howl more when a pack member that they have a strong relationship with is taken away. He also sent an article about how wolves howl more when higher ranking members of the pack disappear. It says they try harder to re-establish contact with those wolves than others."

Derek frowned. "Has he been sending you messages like this?" He indicated his phone.

She shook her head. "No. I mean, he texts me random stuff. Stupid tumblr posts and information about the World's Largest Ball of Yarn or whatever but never anything really personal. Nothing like that."

He sat for a minute, staring at his phone. What was Stiles trying to say? Was he sending the messages because he thought Derek was still the alpha? Surely he'd spoken to Scott. Stiles was always loyal to Scott, why would he howl for Derek as his alpha? And if that was the case, and Scott was Stiles' alpha (he refused to think about why that rankled with him), then was Stiles calling him for another reason?

Was Stiles trying to say they were friends?

There was a part of him that wanted it to mean something else but he was too unsettled to deal with that right now. Not when he wasn't even sure if he was ever going back to Beacon Hills.

"I think you should answer him."

Derek startled at Cora's statement. He hadn't realized how far into his head he'd been. "What?"

"I think you should answer him. Re-establish a connection."

Derek rolled his eyes. "What do you want me to say? Hey, Stiles, got your howls?"

Cora giggled. "Howls it hanging?"

"Oh God, you're as bad as he is." His lips tugged into a bit of a smile a the thought, though. That really did sound like something Stiles would say.

"Howl you doin?" Cora was full-on laughing now.

"Please stop."

She had tears running down her face. "I've been mooning over you."

He sighed. "You are a disgrace."

Then he hit her in the face with a pillow.

Things devolved into a wrestling match from there. Two exploded pillows and a broken chair later, they lay on the floor beside each other, panting.

"Seriously, though, you should answer him," Cora said.

Derek looked over at her. "You mean like actually…" he trailed off.

She nodded. "He's looking for his lost packmate. I think you need to let him know you're still here."

"He's not my packmate. He's in Scott's pack," Derek argued.

Cora's snort was less than ladylike.

He thought about it a bit longer. "Alright."

"Yeah?"

He nodded. "Yeah. You're right. He deserves to hear back."

She grinned at him.

They waited until the next day. Derek didn't want any (more) complaints about their noise levels so they packed up first thing in the morning and set out on the road. Once they'd reached a fairly deserted stretch of highway, he pulled onto the shoulder and got out.

"How do I record it?" he asked, fiddling with his phone.

Cora sighed and snatched it from him. "I'll handle that, you just provide the howl."

She punched a few buttons on the phone and then nodded at him.

Derek took a deep breath. He hadn't done this in a while, had been too busy fighting and running to really just relax and let loose for fun. He wondered if he could do this at all. Would it sound stupid on the phone? He'd never heard himself howl before. He was about to back out when he thought about Stiles, recording howl after howl, and sending them to him unselfconsciously.

He took another breath, threw back his head, and howled.

It was strangely cathartic.

Once he was done, he looked down to see Cora furiously swiping her fingers across his phone. After a moment she grinned up at him, triumphant. "Done!"

He started back toward the car and the paused. "Do you… um… do you want to do a family howl? Just for us?"

She stared at him for a moment. He could see tears gathering in her eyes and he opened his mouth to take it back when she nodded suddenly. "Yes. Yes, please."

Derek stepped over and put his arm around her waist. They breathed in and then lifted their voices together. By the time they were done, Derek's eyes felt suspiciously moist and Cora was openly crying. They hugged by the side of the road for a minute before she shoved him back.

"Enough of this emotional crap," she said, wiping her eyes, "let's get back on the road."

He ruffled her hair then side-stepped away from her playful swipe.

They'd been on the road for about five minutes when Derek's phone pinged with an incoming message.

Cora opened the message and read aloud: "Good to hear from you, Sourwolf. I missed you, too."