crack_van | Crash Landers by gyzym (PG-13)

Fandom: TEEN WOLF
Pairing: Derek/Stiles
Length: 31,173 words
Author on LJ:

gyzym
Author Website: AO3 profile, tumblr
Why this must be read:

I'm a total sucker for epistolary fic, and this one is all kinds of adorable. One summer, in between the usual supernatural shenanigans, Stiles starts leaving behind random—angry, funny, sad, but above all rambly—notes for Derek in weird places for no good reason. Grafually, they start developing a weird, lopsided but ultimately endearing stalking-each-other-to-leave-notes thing.

It's so, so perfect, and the two of them are totally damaged and true-to-life. The denouement is all sunshine and puppies and rainbows—only uh, not literally. And of course, the notes themselves are a treat all on their own.

A man's car is his temple, the first (well, technically second) one says. Stiles shoves it into Derek's cracked window one afternoon when he sees the Camaro in the lot of the grocery store, and cackles for the rest of the day.

This is actually an illegal parking spot, I hope you know that, the next one says. In a different color than the main body of the script, Stiles is forced to add, I want you to know that I wrote this BEFORE I saw you parked here, on the theory that I would eventually find you parked somewhere illegal. I didn't expect it to be SO SOON, oh my god. I'm probably saving you from getting a real ticket here. Be grateful. He puts that one under the windshield wiper again, going through the effort, this time, to date and fill out the front of the ticket properly so that any passing officers will think someone else really did deal with it. Which is technically way more illegal than Derek's parking job, but whatever. It's not like that's a new thing for Stiles.

The one after that says, Sometimes I want to thank you and don't know how. So: thanks. Stiles sticks it under Derek's door handle at three in the morning one night, on his way back to his Jeep to drive home, shower off the blood, and maybe just go ahead and sleep for a thousand years. He doesn't add an addendum to let Derek know that he wrote this one ahead of time too, on the theory that Derek would pop up to save him from certain death eventually; Derek doesn't need to know that.

Actually, Derek doesn't need to know any of this, doesn't need Stiles leaving him strange little parking ticket notes at odd hours. It's weird, and Stiles feels weird about it. But there's something…almost freeing in it, Stiles thinks. He's sure Derek knows he's the one leaving them, because, even putting aside the scent Stiles is sure he's leaving all over them, who else would have access to parking tickets? But Derek doesn't bring it up at pack meetings, doesn't send Stiles angry texts demanding explanations, doesn't say anything about it at all. If anything, Derek is scowling at Stiles less these days than he used to; Stiles keeps catching him staring from across the room, blinking and looking away whenever Stiles meets his eyes.

Crash Landers