Lock All The Doors Behind You

Fanfiction
Title:	Lock All The Doors Behind You
Author(s):	entanglednow
Date(s):	27 September 2012, 23 October 2012
Length:	25,959 words
Genre:	M/M Slash, Hurt/Comfort
Fandom:	Teen Wolf
External Links:	Fic on AO3, Podfic on AO3
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Lock All The Doors Behind You is a popular Teen Wolf fan fic by entanglednow. It's a canon-compliant hurt/comfort fic set in between seasons 2 and 3 with Derek/Stiles as the pairing. In it, Isaac, Erica, Boyd, Jackson, and Peter are part of Derek's pack but Scott and Stiles are not when Derek goes missing for a month and returns in a feral state.

Rhea posted a podfic of the story a little less than a month after it was published. The podfic is 2 hours 38 minutes long, and is also on AO3.

Summary

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.

Recs and Reviews

"Lock All The Doors Behind You" has been read and recced widely. As of 19 July 2014, it is in the top 5 Teen Wolf fics on the AO3 for both kudos and bookmarks; it is the third-most kudosed fic overall, in any fandom, with over 10,000 kudos. On Goodreads, which has a much smaller fic-reading community than AO3, it has 36 reviews and has been rated 141 times, for an average rating of 3.96 out of 5, as of 3 May 2015.

Dira Sudis's review:

Oh my God, this is the feral!Derek/caretaking!Stiles story I had no idea I wanted, and it is GORGEOUS. Pants! Storybooks! Scent-acclimating! Face-biting! This is really fantastic (and I am really, REALLY delighted that you did not go the magical-healing-sex route). <3 <3 <3

Rec post by gluttonforpunishment:

this is sweet and funny and more than a little bit heart-breaking. Amnesia!Derek is pretty much the most adorable thing ever (despite being murderous and a little bit rapey) and entanglednow writes an awesome Stiles. I swear you wont regret reading this.

aetter's review:

I pretty much loved this in its entirety for various reasons (ranging from awesome use of Scott to the touches of Isaac and Erica that made the whole situation realistic enough to be plausible), but the absolute best thing has to be the conflict-resolution scene between Stiles and Derek at the end. It's angry, impassioned and honest and no matter what's happened to them before, this is how they communicate with each other and yeah, of course Derek would hate everything about the way Stiles chose to handle the situation, but he's grateful and he hates that, too. And Stiles defends his decisions and never backs down, never submits because he doesn't know how.

Rec post by useyrwordsderek:

This story blue-balled the shit out of me (after all that, I wanted some PORN), but I'm reccing it anyway because it is SO FREAKING GOOD that I couldn't not. Derek is feral and Stiles has to try to get him back to the land of the living. I laughed out loud so many times reading this. It's just brilliant - a must-read.

tourdefierce's review:

I feel like I have a lot of feelings about this fic.

A metric fuck load of feelings.

First of all, the writing is solid. Your Stiles voice was amazingly subtle but still had the energy that I associate with Stiles' POV. Your dialogue had me smiling but always crying like a CHILD because god, Stiles' dialogue while he was taking care of Derek was tearing me to pieces. I feel like you've bridged this gap in canon, from Stiles' aloof and slightly malicious feelings toward Derek and a place that I'd like them to be, friends and looking at becoming more. You've done that here. You've put Derek in a position to wake-the-fuck-up and you've let Stiles become unafraid. What's so great about Stiles is that he's always afraid but he's fucking doing it all anyway and here, you've allowed him to not only be afraid but overcome fear that I think Stiles could definitely associate with Derek. So, this story really bridged this gap in their canon relationship (lol. I first wrote "this gay" and giggled a lot when I fixed it).

The way Stiles just fucking stands his ground and tries made me well up and generally have a lot of feelings about Stilinski men. I keep thinking about the passing of Stiles' mom and all the hurt/comfort years those two men have been through and for Stiles to just own up to Derek and be like NO. I'LL DO THIS. I'LL MAKE HIM COME BACK, was just something that had me clutching my chest. It's fantastic characterization, super raw and genuine. I think paired with the feralness of Derek, this sort of base instinct, it really brought them to a place that I love and I loved the fucking journey to get there. I rarely read things without sex because I love a good payoff but this, wow, this was a pay off. Derek's anger at the end and Stiles' confusion and frustration: it felt like climbing out of a hole, you know? It felt like such a payoff, like they had actually grew in a logical way by the end of the story. And I was so proud of them! Admittedly, I cried when Derek said Stiles' name and the whole face biting thing had me drawing hearts all over their faces, but whatever.

Anyway, the longing in the rest of the pack made me feel SO MUCH BETTER because I do love the way they are sort of becoming a thing, even if it's a really rough journey. So I delighted in the pack-scenes and the conversations between Stiles and the pack.

This fic just was so amazing and hit all the buttons that I needed it to, without even knowing I needed them to be pushed. Thank you. This was lovely.

Fanworks Inspired by the Story

• The one where Derek has turned feral and Stiles takes care of him, ^{Archived version} art by rowennaleanne