Stiles could see when things finally clicked in Derek's mind, when he finally understood. There was a subtle change in how he felt Derek through the bonds too. Relief. Understanding. His mate felt a little bit lighter. So when the flame ceased to exist and he was pulled in for that kiss, Stiles smiled on the teary expression on Derek's face and kissed back.

"I love you too, Derek. And I'm so proud of you," he reached up with his free hand, sighing happily, and ran his thumb across the wolf's cheek, right under his eye. Stiles felt more... accepted and that in turn made his own soul feel lighter, a soft smile gracing his lips before he kissed Derek again – this time a little bit deeper and filled with his emotions for his brave wolf.

"Better?" he asked in-between soft chaste kisses, his fingers lightly squeezing Derek's hand as they were still entwined.

"Yes. Much." There was no magical cure for fear but he knew as long as he reminded himself that whatever shape the magic was going to take, it was Stiles and it wasn't fire, it was going to be fine. There was going to be slip ups, it was unavoidable but the first step was made, a big one. As long as they were going to not have too many problems when slip ups happened, he was happy with the progress made.

Releasing his mate after another quick kiss, he nodded. "Let's try a bigger flame." Who knows, maybe in a few days they could at least light a few candles for a romantic mood. Besides sex and blood and injuries and pain, romance had been severely lacking lately. Then again, with the alpha out there, they could have romance once they won and taken care of this Zepar.

Stiles was very satisfied with the progress already made. Frankly, it went better than what he hoped for. And Derek suggesting to try a bigger flame only made him feel prouder of his mate and he let that seep through their bonds as he slid right next to the other man, nuzzling to his side, their thighs touching. He put an arm around him and held out the other in front of them.

"You're doing great, love," Stiles said then concentrated on his palm again, the magic doing what he wanted to do the next second. The flame was bigger this time and after a few moments it flowed down to cover Stiles' whole forearm, dancing happily there, the glowing in the druid's eyes intensifying as he kept up his concentration. He hoped he wasn't overdoing it for Derek, but he waited patiently for his reaction.

Click for the gif

He already started having some ideas how they could use the combination of the fire and Derek's skills in combat, but that had to wait for a little while longer to be brought up for the wolf.

When Derek said to try for a bigger flame, he had expected it to go from a flame in the hand to a hand on fire, but not a whole arm. His first instinct was to douse the flames immediately because it looked like Stiles was on fire himself, as if he was about to burn. But it didn't have the same scent as actual flames so he curbed the instinct after his eyes had widened. Stiles probably had been expecting that reaction with the arm wrapped around the Hale, not going anywhere even though the normally tense muscles got even tenser. It was instinct, the body getting ready to fight or flight.

Derek took a few shuddering breaths. This was fine, this was not fire, this was Stiles. But he didn't reach out to touch and he didn't like it when he was fine with the flame in the palm. He mostly wanted to get up to get a bucket of water to throw on Stiles, which would probably not do much besides getting the human wet.

"I don't like seeing you on fire." But he wasn't really on fire because there was no scent of burning skin. There was no sign of the skin changing at all. There was no pain screaming at him through their bonds. There was only the increase in heat, the sound of the flames hungrily searching for something to sink their teeth in, so to speak.

He was frozen in place, unsure what to do or say. Allowing himself to get used to being so near it. Tomorrow he'd touch it, tomorrow would be better. This was to get used to it.

Stiles expected this much from Derek's reactions and to his credit, the wolf didn't try to flee or jumped to douse the flames. Which was progress in Stiles' eyes. He turned his arm to the left then to the right and slightly wiggled his fingers at the end, making the flames dance a bit faster before they slowed back down.

"I know you don't, but then again, I'm not really on fire and you know that," Stiles winked at Derek before pressing a reassuring/soothing kiss against his face. "I'm fine and you'll get used to seeing me like this – and being more 'on fire' since I'm sure the phoenix will make a comeback when necessary. To be honest, it still amazes me that I'm capable of doing something like that. It was quite the shock and definitely something to digest. It looks badass, though, if you ask me..." Stiles said on a light, chatty tone, obviously trying to put Derek's mind at ease and to kinda distract him too.

"When I'm like this I feel no pain – as you can tell yourself because of our connection. I only feel some of the heat and the tingling of my magic under the skin. It's fascinating, really. I wonder if Jordan feels something similar when the hound takes over..." he mused, looking back at the flames while leaning his head on Derek's shoulder, his other hand lightly caressing the wolf's side.

The phoenix had been separate from Stiles almost, but this was more like he was on fire himself, like a firestarter or a hellhound like Parrish. "I don't think Jordan feels much of anything when the hound is in control," Derek hummed, especially since at first the deputy hadn't even been aware of anything when the other in him took over and it had taken a lot of work from both the hound and Parrish to get where they were now. Jordan was allowed to know what was going on but the two weren't working together as well as the Hale would have liked. Some training was needed there.

"Maybe you're right about Jordan. We should ask him next time. I know about his work in progress kind of state with the hound now," Stiles nodded, glad that Derek was more or less relaxing on his side. His... or rather their... plan seemed to be working because it seemed that the alpha was starting to get used to the presence of the flame. No freaking out, just some tension and hyper-awareness about his environment.

As they talked, or more as Stiles babbled on and got comfortable against Derek, the more he was relaxing again – as relaxed as he could get that was. It wasn't that the flaming arm was beginning to be normal but it was more part of the situation. A flaming arm should probably never be part of normal, since the flames didn't hurt the mates, it was still fire able to do damage around them. Though when the hound walked into a building, he wasn't setting everything aflame either. Unless he wanted to. They should know what kind of damage the flames could do, if it was like everything with magic: being about intent.

"Touch something that's okay to burn," Derek spoke up suddenly. It was good to know now how much damage the flames could do. "Or maybe two things. One you want to burn, the other you don't want to burn. It doesn't hurt me but it hurt Zepar. We need to know how it works." Oh wait, they had the tea lights there for Derek to try to light so he pushed one to Stiles.

To Derek's suggestion, Stiles lifted his head and sat up more, pulling his hand back from the warm side to adjust the tea light on the floor between them. "I know how it works. It's all about intention. My kind of magic is based on that. Deaton's books doesn't lie about that at least," he chuckled shortly then moved his flaming hand over the candle's wick. "Like... right now I don't want to light this candle, so the wick won't catch on fire, no matter how long I keep my hand there..." he explained while moving his hand right over the candle for a few moments. When he pulled it away, the candle looked like it did before. No flame, just sitting there perfectly unchanged.

"That's partly why you aren't burned by it, the lack of intention, and also because you are my mate, the magic is kinda like a third bond or connection we share. It is another part of me that's a part of you. It makes you immune like I'm immune to your alpha bites," he explained then he repeated the same movements with his hand over the wick and this time when Stiles pulled it away while letting the magic shrink back to cover just his hand, the candle was now lit.

"But when I put intention behind the flame, like when we were fighting Zepar, it is capable of destruction. I guess my outburst in the woods was an early manifestation of that," Stiles thought out loud.

"My alpha bite isn't about intent though, it usually has an affect – either it kills you or it changes you. Lydia was immune to the bite in a way, but it activated her banshee powers. The change itself is about intent of the one who got bitten. Like Jackson and Kate, it reflected what they were and mutated. With you..."

It was different. It wasn't that Derek had any control over what his bite did while Stiles had all the control. The magic was proof of that, he was able to use it in a way he wanted it. Though Derek suspected that if he wanted to harm the alpha, it still wouldn't work as intended. Stiles could use his magic to make himself stronger, and could use it to pin Derek. He wasn't immune to the magic, it simply couldn't harm him too badly. Which was a good thing or Stiles would never be able to use healing spells on him either.

Stiles was Aries so his element was fire, Derek was water, it made sense they struggled with all of this. "I'm not immune to your magic, it just can't harm me." Which meant, if they were successful enough in letting him get used to all of this, then they could combine their powers together. If Stiles, somehow, could use Derek as a guide for his magic, using his body to further the reach... they'd be nearly unstoppable if they trained it right.

"I meant the magic makes me immune to your alpha bite, not that the bite is about intent," Stiles clarified. "Otherwise without the magic I probably would've turned into a werewolf or died after the claiming bite you gave me during your rut," he shrugged.

Making a reversed wave with his hand, he made the candle's flame go out and now his arm and hand were fire-free too, so he wrapped both around Derek to snuggle back against him.

"Sure you are not completely immune to my magic either, but because it's a part of me, it recognizes you as a part of it too, so that makes you partially immune to it. And because there's no intention behind to harm you. I guess if there was, it could hurt you. But I wouldn't want to harm you like that in a billion years," he shrugged, burying his face into Derek's neck.

"You did amazing, by the way," he added, caressing Derek's chest with his hand which was previously 'on fire' but now looked as normal as usual. "As I said, I'm very proud of you."

Whenever Stiles shrugged, it was a way for him to let Derek know that he misunderstood, like this little sign his mate unconsciously showed even though he took the time to explain it patiently. There were two shrugs right after one another so the werewolf decided to let it drop. They both knew what it meant now, and what the fire could do. Immunity, allowance... whatever it was didn't matter, it meant Stiles' magic wouldn't hurt Derek and the alpha's bite couldn't turn the human. They could harm one another sure, they could use other ways too but they never had to worry about losing control and that hurting their mate.

The flames were gone, the exercise had gone relatively well, meaning there hadn't been triggers and they had been able to talk while the flames remained active. And he knew if they kept this up and built it up every day, he'd be back to his old self in no time. He loved Stiles so he was determined to love fire too.

Leaning into the hug as Stiles pressed close, Derek sighed. It felt ridiculous to take praise for not freaking out over a small flame, like it was an accomplishment. This wasn't something he was used to. Peter hadn't exactly been the kind of man to not push to be better, to be perfect. Talia had never judged but she hadn't been the type of woman to hold the hands of her kids with every little step they took. Derek was the complete opposite with their daughter and Stiles was the same way as him. Always praising, always building up instead of tearing down. Derek had done enough of that in the past.

"It's not fast enough. They’re watching, they'll know we're healed." He worried for Stiles, for what this Druid Council would think of him, judge him on. If they couldn't even stop one, then there was no way they could stop the entire council.

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