ecarian:
Pals, friends, comrades, I not only need a fic where Derek and Stiles speak Polish at each other to the annoyance slash liminal fondness of the pack but I also require a fic where Stiles DOES NOT speak Polish due to reason a) his mom did not teach him (who perhaps did not know herself! And Stiles’ Gramma lived too far away!) reason b) it fell into disuse! Taught at an early age and then forgotten in the aftermath of tragic loss! and reason c) he’s selected for a student trip to Poland! Won through hard work and a tearful personal essay on family history!
THE POINT BEING Stiles does not know how to speak Polish and it is NOT, in fact, a class taught either at the honourable Bee Aytch Aytch Ess and also! The library is tragically bereft of Rosetta Stones. Fast forward to Stiles’ earnest but unfruitful attempts at Internet Language Acquisition and enter Derek from stage left cued to the exact moment Stiles proclaims—
“I can’t even say my name!”
—in heartbroken frustration. Stiles, who in a moment of despair shoves his birth certificate, in its little plastic sleeve, the paper worn and wrinkled, fuzzy on the edges, at Derek chest. “See!” he announces.
Derek is silent. He handles the certificate carefully, reverently, holds it between his palms like a little book, thumbs bookending, turns in different direction under the lamp, studying.
With annoyed triumph, Stiles crows, “It’s impossible.”
“Zdzisław,” Derek says, calling upon six years and a masters degree in Comparative Linguistics and Semiotics. “It means uh, create glory.”
AND THEN! Obviously after Stiles says, “What, you’re kidding, are you serious, no way,” demands lessons. “My heritage!” he explains. “My mom!” and Derek, knowing a thing or two about moms, says, “Okay.”
And then they fall in love obviously.
So I thought I put this up two weeks ago, but apparently I didn’t. Sorry.
***
When the principal announces that BHHS along with two other schools in the area are to hold a writing contest and sending the winners to Poland for a tour of a whole list of WWII sites and Holocaust museeums, Stiles knows he’s not turning it in. Even if he only has to write a motivation as to why he should be allowed to go.
Stiles writes the letter, has to, writes about his grandma’s journey to the US and how she met Stiles’ grandpa in a support group for Holocaust survivors, his mother’s illness and how she promised she’d take him once she got well again. He writes, because Coach brings it up Scott looks at him with his puppy eyes and looks so happy and excited about sending Stiles to a country he’ll most probably get lost in.
”You could go!” he says. ”They let you bring someone else, too.”
”I guess,” Stiles mutters, and writes, cries over it and writes some more. Then he crumples it up in a little ball and throws it in the bin, ignoring it and most definitely not turning it in.
Stiles doesn’t turn it in, but Scott does.
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