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Sterek Angst & Hurt/Comfort Fic Rec List

Sterek fics full of angst and pining and perfection. Favourites marked with hearts, newly added fics with a +

Accountability - “So,” Sandy says. “Is Derek the one beating the crap out of him as well?” Jake exhales slowly, shakes his head. “I’m not sure. Stiles is protective of him, that’s quite clear – but that’s how Stockholm Syndrome works, right?” That’s exactly how Stockholm Syndrome works. +

Advanced Vocabulary - “Why do you like me?” Derek asks as he folds his shirt and drops it onto Stiles’ computer chair. “For your body,” Stiles says. 

an awful curse - Derek says, “The first thing I ever said to you was, ‘This is private property.’“ “Yeah,” Stiles says, voice hoarse, “I remember.” Derek says, “This is real.” Stiles echoes, “This is real.” Derek tilts his head forward, touching their foreheads together. They stay that way, eyes closed, just breathing for a long time, until Scott says, “What the hell is going on?” ♥ ♥ ♥ + 

And Dwell Beneath My Shadow - Derek is not stupid. He gets why Stiles puts up with him. It’s clear every time Stiles looks at him, the spicy scent of lust and arousal Stiles’s body can’t help but put off. It doesn’t surprise him. Not at all. Derek knows what he looks like, knows that his face and his body are more than enough to compensate for his shitty personality. Stiles wants him more than he is annoyed by him. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not anything to be amazed over, nothing to write home about. Stiles isn’t the first— and most likely won’t be the last— hormone soaked teen who has panted over Derek. ♥ ♥

and every demon wants - (… his pound of flesh.) The first bruise is from a playful shove delivered by Scott. It rests just underneath his last left rib, yellowing with time. The flesh there feels tender to his touch, even though it doesn’t outright hurt. When he takes his shirt off for lacrosse practice the first time after that he is self conscious. What if somebody notices? What if they bring it up? What if they tell his dad? ♥

And You Say You’re Alone - Between the kanima, the Argents, and Peter’s untimely return from the dead, everything has fallen apart. Stiles and Derek try to put their lives back together once the crisis has passed. Stiles deals with the aftermath of being tortured, and the distance growing between he and Scott. Derek attempts to become a stronger alpha and keep his pack safe, and that includes Stiles. 

Angry Bits of Broken Dreams - Derek can barely breathe around the shards of all the things he’s gotten wrong. 

A Swelling Rage - It’s the bruise on Stiles’ arm, like the curve of fingers, that makes Derek see red.

At Regular Intervals - This day ends with a traumatic head injury. 

Ave atque vale - Stiles has read a lot, watched a lot of TV, and seen what’s probably most of pages of Wikipedia. But this? This he’s certain of. No one deserves to go to a funeral alone.  

Bittersweet Between my Teeth - At first he thinks it’s the Adderall - the Adderall, mixed with the Jack and Coke, mixed with whatever else he shouldn’t have drank - but this has never happened before, not like this.

Blood Moon - Stiles hated this. He hated lying, he hated the secrecy and he was beginning to hate that he had to pretend he was fine when he felt like he was falling apart. ♥

Break the Lock If It Don’t Fit - “Do you know what just happened?” Peter asked, frowning. “Do you know what Derek did?” ♥ 

Broken - He’s been sitting in Stiles’ room for an hour, now, waiting for Stiles to get back from wherever he’s been. He doesn’t really know why he’s here just that it’s where he needed to be. Somewhere that Peter wasn’t, he thinks, and somewhere he’s felt – safe.  

Burn By Night - Sheriff Stilinski has been kidnapped by Alpha werewolves. As bait. For his own son. ♥ ♥

By Any Other Name - He doesn’t know his name, he doesn’t know who he is, and neither does the werewolf he’s on the run with. But he’s pretty sure they hunt monsters, because they seem to be really good at it. ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Chase Away Every Monster - Stiles holds very still, focusing on breathing. His nose is stuffy from tears of pain and panic, and every breath feels like it’s coming through one of those coffee straws that aren’t worth a damn. 

Damaged Goods - There’s fire then, burning Derek from the inside out because he needs to breathe but can’t. Chemical fire rages in his body and he’s going to die in the flames just like his family did. Derek doesn’t want to die, but there is nothing he can do to stop it. ♥

Dangerous Currents - When Derek finds Stiles this time, he’s nowhere near his house. ♥

Differential Equations - Stiles has all the variables, but he doesn’t even know that there needs to be an equation yet. ♥ ♥

Drawing Lines - Derek has drawn a line in the sand; Stiles remakes it in cement.

Dream Catcher - Stiles has been kidnapped. Stiles is still there. Derek may be losing his mind. ♥

Echo - Soon after Deaton begins training him, Stiles starts weaving talismans for the pack. ♥ ♥ 

Even the stars they burn - Derek finds out quite by accident what makes Stiles shut up. If he reveals along the way that he didn’t always carry this darkness around, then that’s entirely Stiles’ fault.

Events Occur In Real Time - To say that Stiles is having a bad day would be a gross understatement. As it is, he’s not sure how he ended up here, depending on Derek Hale of all people to save him - again.

Every Eye Is Full Of Fire - Derek doesn’t argue, which proves Stiles is going to die. ♥ ♥ ♥

Every Step You Take - Stiles accidentally ends up magically bound to Derek. It’s super. ♥ ♥ ♥

Exhaustion Makes the Mouth Grow Talkier - That verbal filter most people have that Stiles usually ignores? Is even less effective when he’s exhausted.

Famous Last Words - “So,” Stiles says, resting his elbows on his knees and settling his chin in his hands. “Hypothetical then: one of you guys gets dosed with some sex wolfsbane – how do we deal with it?” ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Fire In The Blood - Gerard Argent sets another fire… ♥

Flint and Tinder - “Hi,” a voice comes through and Derek really wishes it’d take more than that to know who it is. + 

God, How Things Change - After killing Peter Hale, Derek and Stiles have to deal with the aftermath: Scott doesn’t want to forgive Derek for taking away his chance for the cure, Jackson struggles with adjusting to his newfound powers, and Lydia remains in a coma. Derek has his own demons to wrestle, and the more time he spends with Stiles, the less sure he is that he’ll be able to control himself. ♥

Gut Instinct - It’s Stiles, in the end, the one the smell is coming from. Grief is practically leeching off his skin in waves only when he walks down the front steps of the school he looks… normal. He’s even smiling, humoring Scott on some inane story that echoes at the edge of Derek’s hearing and suddenly he feels incredibly curious. ♥

he is and as he is - First times and muffins.

Hide Of A Life War - “We have received confirmation that there is a hostage situation in progress at a warehouse compound two hours out of Los Angeles, following a multiple-vehicle pileup on Highway 101 this morning…” ♥ ♥ ♥ 

How It Should Be (We Just Have to Fix It - Set after the events of Abomination. Derek never did get a chance to finish asking his questions and Stiles is not in the mood.

hyper heart alone - When Stiles returns home to help his father recover from an injury, he discovers that things have changed somewhat in his absence: Derek is working closely with Stiles’ father, around the house and underfoot, generally annoying and disconcerting Stiles with his presence. Well, Stiles isn’t sure you could call all the sex they end up having annoying, but he isn’t really willing to call it anything else, either. ♥

I Could Find My Way Back  - What’s the worst that could happen? ♥ ♥ 

I could see for miles, miles, miles - Stiles is looking for something, and it takes him all over the world, but the answer has always been waiting back home.  

I Don’t Want To Be Saved - And everyone, everyone has their own ideas about this relationship, they all say the same things, they all do. “He’s not good for you,” “It’s Derek,” “This is the fourth night in a row,” “What kind of asshole dates a high schooler?” “I’m not okay with this.” But Stiles pulls the red hood up, wanders from the path, and he’s picking flowers, and he’s breathing, “My, what big teeth you have,” and Derek bares his fangs, and yeah. Fuck them. ♥ ♥ ♥ 

I Intend to be Independently Blue - Stiles is the worst thing that could have happened to Derek. He hasn’t been wolfing out at inopportune moments since his teens, but only because he has a system in place. And this is where Stiles comes into play. Because he’s been messing with this system, and doesn’t even know. Also, there’s a wendigo. ♥

I Need You So Much Closer - Afterwards he’d attribute it to anything else he could. Adrenaline, worry, head trauma, even maybe just withdrawal from Adderall. It was just a flash of pain, from just his temples to the back of his head. It traveled faster than Stiles could comprehend; he just felt the dull after ache as if he’d been hit. But he hadn’t. He was pretty sure he hadn’t. ♥ ♥

I Stayed In The Darkness - “You’re not blind,” says a very familiar voice somewhere to his left. “We’re underground.” 

i want you to be king forever - Derek is the world’s worst Alpha, Stiles is apparently the kind of person that throws Molotov cocktails at other people, and it takes them both a while to realize that fires are always started by a single spark. ♥ ♥ ♥  

I Won’t Give Up (On Us) - Stiles doesn’t know where he is, or what’s happening to him exactly, but all he knows is that Derek’s going to fuck up whoever did this to him. Or, the one where Stiles gets kidnapped by a Dijiin. ♥ ♥ ♥

I Won’t Sit Outside Your House - Derek won’t define what they are, despite how the wolf wants to, because the man knows better. He knows Stiles will find someone else, will be better off with someone who can just be a man, not someone pretending he’s one. He knows this. He knows. 

In quiet, a favor - “You like happy endings, huh?” Stiles says, lying pressed in against his back, sliding his fingers along the edge of Derek’s chest, along his ribs and up his sternum. ♥ ♥ 

In Your Absence - Words are not Derek’s friends. Not by a long shot. So Derek doesn’t use them. He doesn’t open up. He doesn’t share. It doesn’t matter how much he might want to, it’s just not something that happens. ♥ 

Injection - A few months after the kanima war, a rival pack appears in Beacon Hills. Given a week to either submit, leave, or die, Derek and his pack are desperate for a way to win the oncoming battle. The worst part? The other wolves have marked Stiles as their number one target.

inside these arms - Stiles is having the worst day of his life and it keeps happening. ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Integral to Survival - Derek is in the cell for about ten minutes before the lone door opens and a new body is tossed in. The person hits the floor with a grunt, rolls, and stands as the door is clanging shut. “That’s really not the way to treat a guest!” ♥ ♥ ♥ 

it spins like a wheel inside you - “Do you remember your first full moon?” Laura asks. Her front is pressed against Derek’s side, he can feel her ribs under the thin cotton of her Led Zeppelin T-shirt and they’re wedged together on a double bed in a tiny hotel on the outskirts of a small town in North Carolina.  Derek and Laura before and after the fire. ♥ ♥ ♥ 

It’s Been Four Hundred and Ninety Days - It’s been four hundred and ninety days, and it took Derek forever but they’re at day one again. ♥ 

keep going - Don’t sleep don’t eat don’t think don’t breathe—hyper vigilance, she calls it. Stiles thinks that figures; hyper activity, hyper focus, it’s always hyper something.  

Like a Melody (it won’t leave my head) - Stiles doesn’t notice the constant buzzing in his head until it’s gone. ♥ ♥  

Lock All The Doors Behind You - He has no idea what you’re supposed to say when you find one of your…werewolf acquaintances, completely out of their mind, growling like they’re about to see what your insides taste like. There’s no handbook for this. Stiles is thinking that if he survives he might write one. ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Love, Like a Sentence of Death - Derek would like to ignore it and never speak of it again, but that’s the exact opposite of how Stiles operates. ♥ ♥ 

Love So Hard, It Could Rip My Heart Out - Stiles is seventeen, and his best friend is drifting away, and his dad isn’t speaking to him, so he’s going to make some bad decisions. He’s seventeen and he needs bad decisions to look back on when he’s thirty, and nothing is a worse decision than Derek Hale. He’ll let the Big Bad Wolf in, let him press Stiles down into the couch and he’ll wrap his arms around him and he’ll know it’s a bad choice, but it’s his, and Derek is here when no one else is. ♥ ♥ + 

miles and miles of endless road (i’m at the mercy of a ghost) - Stiles just wants his Jeep back and the Sheriff doesn’t quite get it. But when he does, it’s like a sucker punch to the jugular.

Muérdago - Mistletoe was often considered a pest that kills trees and devalues natural habitats, but was recently recognized as an ecological keystone species, an organism that has a disproportionately pervasive influence over its community. In Norse myth, an arrow made of mistletoe was the only thing that was able to kill the god Balder. The goddess Frigg had asked all other things to vow not to hurt Balder, but she had ignored the mistletoe because it seemed too small to be dangerous ♥ ♥ ♥ 

My Belladonna Baby - Derek knows what should happen next, what ought to happen if he were a good, decent person. He should tell Stiles’s he’s sorry, yet a-fucking-gain, he should calm the other man down, tell him that next time will be different or some other bullshit. But Derek isn’t good or decent and Derek doesn’t do any of that. ♥

no alarms and no surprises - a heart that’s full up like a landfill. 

No place for no hero - After all, it’s the Sheriff’s son they’re avenging. 

Nothing Less - Derek even does up Stiles’s seatbelt, which Stiles thinks he should comment on, because it’s not like he got hit with kanima juice or something. He’s fine. But then Derek’s already sliding behind the wheel, and Stiles keeps losing little pockets of time. 

Oh, How Things Change! - The story goes like this: A new girl moves to Beacon Hills when Stiles is in the third grade. She’s pretty, her eyes are green and her hair is strawberry blond, and Stiles falls for her head over heels. ♥♥

Pale Horses - Being bitten had never been on his to-do list, but he could deal with that. Helping Derek Hale become a competent Alpha, though, that was so not in his job description. ♥  

Prince Charming - Stiles may not be anyone’s idea of a knight in shining armor, but he’s got this saving the princess thing down.…As long as no one tells Derek that he’s the princess in this metaphor.  

Radio Silence - Derek’s still looking at him like he’s never seen him before. Hell, maybe he hasn’t. There’s certainly fewer layers over his core than there used to be, stripped off gradually with the last of his awkwardness. ♥ 

Red-Handed Man - According to science lycanthropy is a disease. According to Derek it’s a curse. Stiles calls bullshit on both those theories. ♥ ♥ 

(Sacred) In the Ordinary - The Pack, after college, graduate school and the starting of careers, comes back to Beacon Hills. Nothing’s gotten less complicated after all this time. 

Safe As Houses - Stiles always seems to find himself in the line of fire. Accidentally, on purpose.

Safe at Anchor - All hail Stiles, the Fixer of Wolves. ♥ ♥ ♥ + 

Say it Sweet - “Wolfsbane.” Derek grits his teeth. “Interrogation blend. Still in my system. It makes me talk.” 

Say Something - That first time Stiles decided it was probably wise to let sleeping werewolves lie. 

Shredded - He hasn’t seen Derek for two weeks. He’s beginning to think that Derek doesn’t really want his help, even though he’d been so sure Derek was telling the truth. Derek had offered him a kind of submission that had terrified Stiles, he has no idea how to be responsible for that kind of trust. 

Sleeping with my eyes wide - There are things that Derek knows. He is twenty-four years old. His sister still owes him ten dollars. He is a werewolf. He’s dated Kate Argent for eight years. Derek knows this, and he knows that his life is good.  

So Take a Long Shot - Stiles is ten when his father teaches him how to shoot. He sucks with a handgun, more likely to shoot off his own foot than the target. The same cannot be said for his skill with a long-range rifle (but he’s no one’s weapon). Eventually, Stiles knows, the secret will come out, because there are just some people he will save at all costs. (That day comes when they’re hunting a redcap through the forest and can’t reach Derek in time). 

space, a love story - The wolves are here. People are dying. Stiles is quiet, and Derek has yet to stop running. He’s never had a reason to. ♥ ♥ 

Spark, Smolder, Catch - When Stiles starts pulling down Derek’s burnt-out house, Derek finds himself letting him. He doesn’t know why. Wherein Stiles and Derek are both broken and doing more damage might just be what they both need to move on. 

The Adventures of Sourwolf and the Sheriff - Derek gets kidnapped. He wakes up in the cave with the wrong Stilinski. ♥ 

The Hour of the Wolf - Stiles never wanted to be a werewolf, but the choice is taken out of his hands by a series of unfortunate events. When he wakes up his life has become infinitely more complicated. 

The Pull of the Tide - Stiles appears alone at the doors of the emergency room the morning after the full moon, covered in blood with a deep slash torn across his left side. He’s suffering from hypovolemic shock and barely conscious and he won’t tell anyone what happened—not his hospital appointed psychiatrist, not his father. Not even his pack. The list of suspects is disconcertedly short. There were only seven others in the woods with Stiles that night: Derek, Scott, Boyd, Erica, Isaac, Jackson and Allison. And none of them remember the night in quite the same way. ♥ ♥ 

the projectionist - Not everyone can be the hero of their own story. 

the smoke has blackened my bones - “Don’t hurt him like that again,” Stiles must look like an idiot, standing up to an Alpha werewolf when he’s just some lanky teenager, a lanky teenager that only has the entire internet at his disposal, and while the internet is useful in many ways, he’s not quite sure it’ll suddenly morph into some badass weapon useful enough for fighting a werewolf. But that’s just it, Stiles will always put himself in the line of fire for everyone he cares about because he has to. He doesn’t have superhuman strength and he doesn’t have the heart-crunching urge to sit back on his haunches and howl at the moon. He’s just human, painstakingly human and he has to do what he can.

the sound will bring me home again - In which Stiles doesn’t remember what happened with Gerard Argent, or very much else, actually. ♥ 

The Time Stiles Gets Possessed (by a demon called Bob) - Stiles is walking through the woods when the demon takes him. His mind is reeling with distracting thoughts of a stupid alpha werewolf and their kisses, and he doesn’t know what hits him when there’s black smoke swirling all around. 

The Troubke With Reclining Your Body in a Horizontal Position - Stiles doesn’t lie to hurt other people. He lies to hurt himself. 

The Woebegone Kid - “You know, this is the third time you’ve saved me from drowning.” Stiles’ expression turns fierce, challenging. “And I’d do it again. Whether you like it or not.” ♥ ♥ 

There’s A Wolf-Shaped Float In This Parade - Two ways Sheriff Stilinski finds out and one he doesn’t.

They’ll Take It All - Stiles is not, by nature, a liar.  

Things thicker than water- Stiles inherited his mother’s eyes, and her smile, and her antidepressants. The same ones she took handfuls of the night that she died.

Things To Do On The Dates You Aren’t Having - “So are we dating now or what?” Stiles asks the third time he finds himself doing the obligatory postcoital cuddling with a certain sour wolf. ♥ ♥ ♥ 

this boy, half-destroyed - Derek Hale used to have a family. Now, he’s got a teenage human more trouble than he’s worth. 

to a fear resigned - What now?” Stiles asks the worn cotton of his pillowcase, not bothering to turn around, not just yet. 

To Have Outlived The Night - Derek steps away from the window. “You helped me. They took that as a declaration.” ♥♥♥

Totally Fucking Enlightened - Stiles is in the sparse woods on the slope beside Beacon Hills Cemetery, which wasn’t where Scott said he’d be at all, which is why it takes Derek an hour and a half to find him by following the grease-boy-whiskey scent of the Jeep’s meandering path.  

Tricksters Make This World - Stiles comes back to Beacon Hills during the new moon in April. ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Try to Let Your Heart Fly Free - The problem is that Stiles is always talking, but he’s never actually saying what he’s feeling. 

Untitled - In the end, he just doesn’t tell Scott. ♥♥  

Villains of the Moon - But most of all, above all else, Stiles is tired. Or the one where Stiles barges over to Derek’s place to vent, and Derek surprises Stiles in a way that he didn’t know was possible.

Waiting for you to say it first - Four months. Four months they’ve managed to avoid one another. Stiles quit going to pack meetings. He quit doing research unless Scott really, really begged him to. He avoided driving the road that led out to the turnoff to the Hale house, he avoided going to all the spots where Derek might possiblybe. Four months, and now, here they are, standing in the Minit Mart, Stiles thinks, staring down at the grimy tiles. He can hear the catch of Derek’s breath, and he closes his eyes and breathes deep.

When I am Lost, You Have Not Lost Me - Stiles has acquired the gift of precognition. It’s not a gift.  

when it don’t come easy - Stiles needs to have a talk with his self-esteem, man up and shut this - whatever the hell this is - down before he gets hurt. Again.

When you stop believing in Santa you get underwear - There are some salvageable things though. A virtually untouched heavy slate sign that says, engraved in an ornate script that confirms at least one person in the Hale family had a sense of humor (Stiles has a horrible suspicion it might have been Peter), When You Stop Believing in Santa You Get Underwear. +

with the words you borrow (only place that you’ve known) - Stiles thinks it’s hilarious how Derek gets all nervous around his dad, because c’mon, really, it’s Derek. 

Words and Wounds (we’re falling together) - Lydia isn’t the only genius.

Worlds that turn on their own - When Stiles had left Beacon Hills, he’d done it with every intention of never coming back. Ten years later, he finds himself forced back to his hometown. Of course, it’s not long before things are just as they had been before — that is, falling headlong towards disaster, and this time, stopping it isn’t really an option.

Writ in Hecate’s ink on willing skin - “As you’re always so fond of pointing out, you’re the alpha. When bad shit happens to you, it affects all of us. If someone wants to use your alpha mojo or your wolf force or,” Stiles waves his hand, “whatever you want to call it for diabolical purposes? We need to be ready.” + 

You’ll Be Doing Alright - The weather reports are calling for a White Christmas. ♥ ♥ ♥ 

You’re a Dream to Me - Derek has the first dream in a shitty motel room just across the Nevada border, when his clothes still smell like smoke. ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Your Skin is a Love Song (Told in the Melody of your Scars) - He remembers each and every bullet wound.