Title: A Californian Werewolf in New York
Fandom: Teen Wolf (with a small crossover with Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Pairing: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Categories: AU, Romance, Drama, FutureFic
Length: Long (16,314 words / 1:45:15)
Warnings: Underage Sex (Stiles is seventeen)

Author on LJ: dancinbutterfly
Author Website: dancinbutterfly / Fic Master Post on LJ

Author's Summary:
When Derek finally realizes that there's nothing left for him in Beacon Hills, he goes back to New York, gets a life, falls in love and finds his home.

Review:
It's a sweet, if somewhat implausible/wish-fullfilling AU from canon post-season two. Basically, this story is how Derek Hale got his groove back. Realizing it'd be better for everyone if he move back to New York [the implausible part], he says his goodbyes to some of the pack and returns to the East Coast. Slowly pulling his life together, he closes up the apartment he had with Laura and gets a new one and reconnects with some old friends. He's able to mourn his losses and start living again. During all this, Stiles calls wondering what happened to him, and they start communicating over the phone and via text. When Stiles visits New York to check out colleges, their long-distance friendship blossoms into romance, though they still have some things to work out.

I really loved Derek's characterization and progression. As the show's king of angst, it's fun to read a story where Derek is given a chance to heal and be happy. His relationship with Stiles is sweet and very them, and I love that Stiles says Derek has become his new normal when the supernatural in Beacon Hills becomes too much. Stiles is also very in character, but make no mistake, this is a Derek character study story, and so Stiles has a shorter (though intense) role in it. There's a fun guest appearance by Oz of BtVS, in which he plays an old friend of Derek's from his New York days.

Written as a podfic/fanfic collaboration, there is also a podfic to check out!

Going back to normal, like an actual mostly-human normal, is scary easy. The economy is shit so getting a job isn't easy but he doesn't really need one. He has the life insurance pay out for his entire family, and now Laura, and the home owners insurance, and it’s a lot. So he goes to the movies. He goes to the park. He rides the subway and helps his neighbors carry their groceries up the stairs of their walkup. He pulls out his old laptop and charges his iPod.

He even takes up running again. Not wolf running either. Like, down sidewalks in the mornings for exercise instead of for physical punishment or preparation. After a month he even realizes that he's saying good morning to Mr. Aaronson, the older guy from 4C who's always leaving for a jog as he's coming back, like they used to before he left.

It's on a run that he gives himself permission to sublet the apartment and move. Laura would want him to. She's always wanted what was best for him and that definitely wouldn't include him lingering around their old place, looking for her ghost.

So he looks through her papers and calls the guy Laura was working with at some bank to take a look at the money from the fire they've been squirreling away for the last almost-decade. Turns out there is a lot more than Derek thought there was, enough that he actually doesn’t have to worry about anything ever again. No, really, he could not work, keep a car in Manhattan and afford all the tickets parking it on the street every day would cost him.

"And that's after what you lost during the crash," the accountant tells him with a sad little sigh. "We took a hit but we've bounced back fairly well and the market's steadily improved. Give it another couple years and we'll have your portfolio back to where it was in '07," he promises with dollar signs in his eyes like Scrooge McDuck.

It's blood money and Derek can't forget, thoughhis mom's voice is in his ear going "You should do something nice for yourself, baby. It's okay." So he finds this great condo in the NYU area and buys it because fuck it. Seriously. He isn't leaving New York again so he might as well right?

Californian Werewolf in New York
with podfic by knight_tracer: mp3 | m4b