Puzzle Pieces - isthatbloodonhisshirt (wasterella) (2024)

Chapter Text

Stiles inhaled deeply, rolling over and snuggling further into the pillow under his cheek, even as his brain banged pots and pans at him and told him he’d slept for long enough. He knew he had, but he also knew he was going to be so bored today, so it was easier to just sleep the day away.

When he’d gotten back after his exciting tromp through the woods, Scott had woken up at the sound of the door opening and had come to make sure he was okay. He looked like he hadn’t slept much, likely worried about Stiles, especially since his phone had died mid-sentence and he hadn’t known where he was.

Apparently he and Jackson had gone out to try and find him—friendship goals right there—but his scent had kind of blown all over the place by then so they couldn’t pinpoint his location. They had a long talk about it when they got back to the room with the others, and while uncomfortable, Scott had admitted that Stiles had sounded okay, and not distressed or threatened, so they’d all called it a night.

Still, Scott had tossed and turned for a while, worried about his friend, and Stiles felt guilty about it. They both went back to bed, Jackson waking up at the movement and grunting that he was glad Stiles wasn’t dead before promptly falling back to sleep.

He heard the others get up around probably nine, and while Scott shook him awake for breakfast, Stiles waved him off and mumbled for them to just leave him. He’d eaten with Derek anyway, and he was still tired and likely to have another long, boring day, so he was perfectly fine with being left to sleep.

Now, his bladder was screaming at him, and his stomach was threatening to eat his spine so he sighed and peeled open his eyes. He fumbled around for his phone on the night stand, having been smart enough to plug it in before going back to sleep, and squinted at the time. It was just after one, so he should definitelyget up or he’d have a hard time falling asleep tonight.

Dropping his phone, he rolled onto his back with a whine, rubbing at his face, then kicked the blankets to the foot of the bed and got up, shuffling to the bathroom. He’d gone to sleep wearing the same clothes he’d arrived back in, and was actually surprised he’d managed it because jeans were notcomfortable.

Relieving himself and washing his hands, he paused when he caught sight of himself in the mirror. This was a nice turtleneck. He wasn’t really one for turtlenecks, he found them a bit restricting, but this one was actually comfortable.

Realizing he was just standing there staring at himself, he shook his head and then went about getting ready for the day, brushing his teeth, taking a shower, pulling on a fresh set of clothes. He folded the gloves and shirt together, tucking them under his arm after he’d grabbed everything he’d need for the day, and then headed out of the room.

His friends, bless them, had left the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door, so he turned it around for the room to be serviced and then headed for the elevator.

The lobby was a bit busier today than it had been yesterday, and he debated whether to go back upstairs to eat lunch or try his luck at the restaurant. Or maybe he’d go into town. It hadn’t escaped his notice that the jerks had eaten his pie, so he needed another one.

Well, not needed, but wanted. Besides, he could buy the cake and some cookies or whatever while he was out. And it wasn’t like he had anything else to do!

He moved slowly through the lobby, the chatter relatively loud at this hour, and glanced over at the front desk since he wanted to return Derek’s things. The Werewolf was looking right at him, like he’d smelled him coming, and Stiles offered him a smile while moving in that direction. No one was at the desk, clearly no check-ins happening right now, so he walked right up to Derek’s side of it and put the turtleneck down on the counter.

“Thanks again for everything,” he said sincerely. “Gloves are folded inside, didn’t want to lose them.”

Derek nodded, taking the clothing and putting it somewhere behind the desk. Stiles saw his co-worker—her name tag read ‘Jessica’—giving them an interested look, but she didn’t say anything.

“How’s your leg?”

“What? Oh.” Stiles looked down at it, then back up. “Totally fine now, thanks. Like I said, it was just a twinge last night. All good.” He offered another brilliant smile.

“Good,” Derek said, eying him for a few more seconds. “Did you just wake up?”

“Yeah.” He laughed awkwardly, remembering that Derek hadn’t had the opportunity to nap like he did. “I uh, kind of went back to sleep when I got upstairs. I still have nothing to do right now, and I only have three books so I’m trying to save them. Figured sleeping the day away was a good idea.”

“Have you eaten lunch?”

Stiles blinked, surprised by the question. “Uh, no, I was going to right now.”

Derek’s eyes shifted to his computer, and Stiles saw them moving across the screen, the sound of his mouse clicking audible from where he stood. “We have a lull for the next little while. I was going to take my lunch break. There’s a good place to eat in the village if you wanted to avoid the business of the restaurant.”

Stiles’ mouth dropped open, but he was sure it wasn’t nearly as much as Jessica’s. Her eyes practically fell out of her head and she seemed completely confused by what she’d just heard.

Derek, for his part, just stared at Stiles, waiting for an answer. Had he just... really?

But why?!

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, sure. That’s—that would be awesome. Um...” Stiles patted at his pockets, knowing he had his wallet and phone, but he hadn’t been planning on leaving the lodge so he wasn’t dressed for it. “Let me just—I’ll run up and grab my jacket?”

Derek nodded his head towards a door behind him. “I’ll grab my stuff and meet you back here in five minutes.” He looked at his co-worker. “You’re okay if I take my lunch now?”

“I—sure?” she looked like she had no idea what was going on.

Stiles could relate, because he definitelyhad no idea what was going on!

“Okay,” Stiles said, motioning behind himself with both hands. “I’ll... be right back?”

Derek grunted, doing something on his computer before turning away from him. Stiles glanced at Jessica, who was staring at him like he was an alien. He just shrug-flailed expansively, then turned around to head for the elevators once more.

His mind was racing while he stood waiting for one, then stepped inside when it arrived along with three other people who were joking and laughing.

Stiles honestly had no idea what was going on. Sure, he didn’t mindwhat was happening right now, but he was also very confused. Derek was a Werewolf, and Stiles knew a lot of Werewolves. Sure, Jackson and Scott were his closest friends, but he actually knew tonsof Werewolves, and allof them were the same. They didn’t like strangers in their immediate space, because they had issues with foreign scents in their ‘dens’ or whatever. They didn’t like strangers too close to them, they definitelydidn’t want them wearing their clothes or sleeping in their beds.

Again, it was different with Scott and Jackson, they’d all been friends for literal years. Stiles was in their pack, so to speak. He may be human, but so were Danny and Allison, and while Allison was different since she was Scott’s girlfriend, he and Danny were still just regular old humans and they were in the pack. Jackson and Scott trusted him, they knewhim, he was theirs.

Stiles and Derek had literally met two days ago at check-in. And then Derek was out in the middle of the night chasing him down with his snowmobile to bring him home out of the cold, where he’d cuddled with him to warm him up, and then proceeded to let him borrow clothes, sleep in his bed, invade his kitchen and just... It was weird.

And now, after that disasterof an evening and early morning, Stiles had just gone to return the clothes he’d been lent and Derek had... kind of asked him out? Not like a date, but to hang out. To have lunch. That was superweird! Not unpleasant, but weird.

Were born wolves different from bitten ones? Stiles knew there were differences—for one thing, Scott couldn’t turn into a wolf, otherwise Stiles would’ve been playing fetch with him long before now—but he hadn’t thought that their territorialism would be thatdifferent. Did Derek generally let random strangers into his home and bed without worrying for his life?

Stiles had a general disregard for his own life, case and point being wandering through the woods in the dead of night in the middle of winter, so his actions weren’t at all unusual. He took sh*t care of himself when it came to prioritizing people’s safety, and he knew it. But Derek?

It was just weird, okay? It was weird.

Reaching his room, he winced when he found one of the staff in there, trying to bring it back to some semblance of order. He apologized profusely for bothering her, even as she apologized back, but he just quickly grabbed his jacket to pull on over his hoodie, his hat and gloves, and then wished her a good day before ducking out.

Derek was already dressed and waiting by the time he got back downstairs, and he jerked his head towards the back of the lobby, leading the way to the exit Stiles had taken the night before.

“You sure you trust me to go into the woods again?” Stiles teased while following him down the steps. They’d been cleared off, presumably due to the heavier traffic during the day, so it was easy walking down them.

“I trust you a lot more when you have supervision,” Derek informed him, waiting for him at the base of the stairs and then motioning the direction they were heading in.

“Ah,” Stiles said, pointing. “Right. I uh, went that way.” He motioned the direction he’d gone in the night before and Derek rolled his eyes. “What? It was my first time, cut me some slack.”

“You almost froze to death, I am cutting you exactly zeroslack.”

“Jerk,” Stiles insisted, shoving him lightly. Derek didn’t even falter in his steps, which made sense. Not only was he a Werewolf, but he was built like a house. “I will know for next time.”

“You will never do this again without supervision,” Derek argued, turning to raise his eyebrows at him before ducking his head under a low-hanging branch and disappearing into the trees.

“Hey man, I have an excellentsense of direction, I’ll have you know,” Stiles argued, following after him and almost tripping.

That earned him a snort and he scowled, trying not to get annoyed about it. Derek slowed ever so slightly though so they could walk side by side, and he noticed he was being appraised, like Derek was making sure he was warm enough.

Rolling his eyes, he pulled his hands from his pockets, showing him he was wearing gloves. “Do I pass inspection dad?”

Derek scowled, obviously not liking being referred to in that manner, and faced forward again. “You don’t seem to take good care of yourself. I’m just making sure we don’t get sued.”

“Trust me, my dad wouldn’t sue you. He is well aware of the walking disaster he has for a son.” Stiles had to slow down a bit when the incline got a little steeper, since he didn’t want to slide all the way down on his ass. Derek had done the same, though he seemed more practised at this so he didn’t look quite as concerned.

“How’d you tear your ACL, anyway?” Derek asked.

“Hilariously, by jumping a flight of stairs. I was trying to rush to get to my next class, and I jumped the steps and landed wrong. Did notknow blacking out from pain was a real thing until I woke up with a crowd of people around me freaking out thinking I’d broken my neck.”

Derek let out a small, annoyed huff that sounded suspiciouslylike the word, “Idiot.” He didn’t need to be getting sass from a grumpy Werewolf, but he didn’t call him on it, either. To be fair, Stiles acknowledged it was a dumb thing to do. He could’ve jumped three or four steps to get down them faster, but no. He’d gone for the full flight of stairs. His own fault, really.

Still annoying though.

“So you can’t ski, then,” Derek concluded.

“I snowboard usually, but yeah, can’t do that either.”

“We have other activities,” Derek offered, reaching the bottom of the incline first and waiting for Stiles to join him before continuing to walk. Stiles could see the village through the trees, so he’d definitelybeen way off course last night. “You should do some of them.”

“I booked two things for the trip, one this week and one next week,” Stiles said, the two of them shifting to single file when the trees got a bit closer together. “I have a fly-over booked for Thursday, and I have snowmobiling next Wednesday. But it’s expensive, you know? I’m still in school and dad’s not exactly rich. This trip was expensive enough, so I kind of just got the two things and figured I’d find other stuff to do in between.”

Derek hummed, footsteps crunching in the snow as they made it to the back of the grocery store, moving around it to the main road and walking side by side as Derek led them wherever they were going.

“What plans did you have to stay entertained?” Derek asked curiously.

“I brought my PSP, but I forgot that I suck at the games on it. I have some books, but I figure I’ll read them really fast with nothing else to do so I’m trying to save them since there isn’t a place to buy any around here.”

Derek was silent for a moment while they walked, motioning for Stiles to cross when they were halfway down the small strip. “I have some books,” he finally said. “If you wanted to borrow some.”

Stiles turned to him, eyebrows shooting up. “What, for real? Seriously?”

“Not like I don’t know where to find you,” Derek insisted dryly, giving him a look. “And if you have an event next Wednesday, it means you’re here for a while.”

“Fifteen days,” Stiles confirmed and Derek nodded back.

“I can bring you back to mine after work if you want. You can check out what I have and you’re welcome to borrow anything that you find interesting.”

“Seriously?” Stiles asked again, Derek stopping beside a door and then pulling it open.

“Yes, Stiles,” he said, sighing in exasperation. “Seriously.” He motioned for him to enter first and Stiles grinned, walking into the restaurant.

It wasn’t so much a restaurant as it was a kind of café. Well, like a café-restaurant hybrid? It looked like a cute little place, and it wasn’t very busy, probably because most people were eating up at the resort.

“Hey Derek,” the girl behind the counter said, eying Stiles briefly before focussing back on him. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I was here on Friday,” he insisted, moving to an empty table while shrugging out of his coat. Stiles followed him, doing the same since the little place was relatively warm.

“Yeah, and it’s now Tuesday. Usually you come on Sundays, whether you’re working or not.”

“I was busy,” Derek said. “You gonna do your job, or bitch at me for not keeping you in business?”

The girl held up both hands in surrender, gave Stiles a kind of ‘good luck!’ look, then turned back to the till to wait for them to decide what they wanted.

Stiles was standing behind his chair, putting his coat along the chairback, eyes on the board behind the counter. They had a lot of sandwiches, and he could see both banana bread andbrownies in their display case, so he was kind of excited. This place looked nice, and the prices were really good considering this was a tourist area.

“See anything you like?” Derek asked, leaning forward in his seat, watching him.

Stiles’ eyes dipped down to him, then back to the board, nodding. “Yeah, this place is great.”

“Go ahead and order whatever you want,” he said, motioning the till. “Hayden, just add it to my tab,” he called a bit louder, likely for the girl working to hear him.

“What?” Stiles looked back at him, startled. “No. Dude, you’re not paying for me.”

“I invited you out, isn’t that generally what happens?” Derek asked, a smirk teasing the corners of his lips. “Besides, you’re trying to save money and it’s not like I’m hurting for it. It’s fine.”

“Seriously, you don’t have to.”

“And I am seriouslygetting annoyed with you using the word ‘seriously,’” Derek replied with a smile that was all teeth and not at all friendly. “Just order your damn food.”

“You’re so bossy.” Stiles rolled his eyes, but he wasn’t going to push it. Derek was clearly sleep-deprived and trying to do something nice for him, he wasn’t going to be rude about it.

Eying the menu board again, he moved over to the till where this Hayden girl was and she offered him a small smile.

“Surviving?”

“Somehow,” he said with a small laugh. “Is he always like this with people he invites out for lunch?”

“Wouldn’t know, he’s never invited anyone out for lunch before,” she said, eying him with interest.

“Oh.” Well that explained the girl from this morning’s comments, Jessica’s surprise, and Hayden’s interest. Apparently Stiles was an anomaly. “Uh, can I get the, uh, tuna melt? With extra cheese?”

“Sure, you want the combo?” she motioned it on the board and Stiles nodded. It was only three dollars more, and came with a drink, dessert and bag of baked chips.

She got his bread and condiments order down, then handed over the most adorable little mini banana bread loaf, along with a hot chocolate and some plain chips. He shoved the wrapped banana bread loaf into the pocket of his hoodie, and carried his hot chocolate and chips back to the table as Hayden called out to Derek, asking if he was having his usual, which he confirmed back.

Stiles sat down across from Derek, sipping at his hot chocolate and licking his lips. “Thanks for lunch, but you seri—” he cut himself off at Derek’s raised eyebrows and redirected. “You didn’t have to. If anything, I owe youlunch for how accommodating you were last night.”

“It’s fine,” Derek said, for like, the millionth time. Stiles wondered if that was the only thing he knew how to say.

“Still, thanks. And again, thanks for last night. I’m sorry for being a pain.”

“You made me breakfast, so it balanced out.” Derek shrugged, arms still crossed over his chest. He looked really good in blue. Actually, he looked good in everything. And in nothing. Stiles mayhave gotten a little excited at the sight of him last night, because Derek was an insanely gorgeous specimen, and he’d been lucky enough to see a lotof him.

“You know, since we’re here, you should buy eggs,” Stiles informed him, sipping at his drink and licking his lips again. He noticed Derek’s eyes following the action, but didn’t dwell on it too much. He wasn’t thatdelusional, much as he’d love for Derek to be interested. “And like... groceries in general. Seriously—” Whoops, hadn’t meant to use that word, “—you have like, nothing in your fridge and pantry.”

“I eat out most of the time,” Derek said, repeating his comments from that morning. “I work at the resort five days a week, and usually wake up earlier than I did this morning. I jog to the resort, shower, eat breakfast and then start work. For lunch, I either go to my parents’ place, the kitchen, or come here. For dinner, I go to my parents’ more often than not, or if I go home, I just eat something easy to make. I don’t have the energy to make anything by the end of the day.”

“I love cooking,” Stiles said, noting Hayden had put a cup, a large cookie and a bag of chips on the counter. Derek made no move to get it, though it was clearly for him. “I find it relaxing.”

“Explains why you commandeered my kitchen,” Derek said dryly, but he had the beginnings of a smile on his lips, so Stiles didn’t think he was tooupset about it. He hadn’t seemedupset that morning, anyway.

“I just wanted to thank you by making you breakfast, is all.” Stiles glanced at the drink again, then put his own down and got up. Derek frowned, like he didn’t understand where he was going, but Stiles just went to get the cookie, chips and what looked like a latte, and brought them all back to the table, setting them down in front of Derek before taking his seat once more.

“Hayden would’ve brought them over eventually.”

“Maybe, but this way we can both enjoy our drinks together instead of me downing mine while you’re just sitting there staring longingly at my hot chocolate.” He smirked, picking his mug up and taking a sip. “You could’ve ordered one too, you know.”

Derek snorted. “Sure. It’s the hot chocolate I’m staring at.”

Stiles opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again. He put his mug down, eying Derek briefly, then said, “You are very forward, sir.”

“Not usually,” Derek admitted, eyes moving slowly along Stiles’ face, as if he were inspecting every inch of it. “Something about you is just... I don’t know. I guess I invited you to lunch in an attempt to figure out what that is.”

“Oh.” Stiles opened his bag of chips, figuring he didn’t have anything to say to that, and popped one into his mouth. He let out a small exclamation of pleasure, turning the bag around to check the label. “These are good!”

“Yeah, Hayden’s family knows a local company that makes them. They’re not really widely distributed, so this area is pretty much the only place you can get them.”

“I will have to stock up before I go,” Stiles said, then squinted slightly. “Not sure how well chips will hold up in my luggage though.”

“I’d guess not well,” Derek said honestly.

Stiles shrugged and shoved another chip into his mouth, chewing happily. He didn’t really know what to talk to Derek about, since Werewolf stuff was kind of off the table while in public, so he mostly just started babbling about himself. Nothing of importance really, he just didn’t want them to sit in uncomfortable silence while Derek tried to figure out what was going on in his head.

So he talked about school, about being in his final year, about his major and his job aspirations. Or lack thereof, really. Stiles didn’t know what he wanted to do with his degree, he just knew it was virtually impossible to get a job in this day and age without one.

Derek didn’t really ask questions, but he seemed content to listen. Even when Hayden came to drop off their sandwiches—Derek had some kind of roast beef thing that was like, fifteen inches high—he didn’t take his eyes off Stiles, just listening to him talk. It was actually kind of nice, having someone interested in what he had to say.

And Stiles knewhe was listening and not just tuning him out, because when he paused to take bites of his sandwich, Derek would ask the occasional question about something Stiles had just been talking about, so he was legitimately listening.

When they were done with their food, Stiles asked if Derek had time left since he’d already made him almost late this morning, but he got an hour for lunch and it’d only been about forty minutes. Stiles motioned the bakery, wanting to get himself another pie, and Derek followed him in, the two of them perusing everything. The pie Stiles had bought the day before—a raspberry pecan pie—wasn’t offered today, so he just went for a strawberry rhubarb pie instead. Scott didn’t like rhubarb, so he was less likely to try and steal it.

They went to the store next so that Stiles could buy that stupid cake that had landed him in this mess in the first place. Though to be fair, he had that cake to thank for his impromptu Derek meeting where the guy seemed to hate him a littleless, so he couldn’t be overly mad about it.

Derek actually went around and bought some groceries—real food, too! He got some eggs and bacon and a bag of bagels and even some chickenand rice. Stiles laughed about it, especially when Derek picked up some syrup, as if he expected Stiles to come over and make him pancakes at the ass crack of dawn.

Spoiler alert: he totally would if he could find his way to his cabin without getting lost.

When they got to the till, Derek made Stiles add the cake to his bill, even though he argued it heavily, but Derek was a Werewolf and even when he wasn’t obviously using his super strength, he was still using his super strength.

Stiles and Heather chatted while she rang through all the items, and Derek informed her near the tail-end that she’d almost gotten Stiles killed and to stoptelling the nice guests about the shortcut. That had ended the entire encounter with her stuttering and apologizing profusely, even as Stiles insisted that it was fine and not to worry about it.

“You didn’t have to make her so flustered,” Stiles insisted with a sigh, walking alongside Derek back towards the hill behind the store, taking the very shortcut Heather had just been chewed out about.

“I want her to stop telling people about it. You’re probably not the first one to have gotten lost, you’re just the first one to have gotten lost thatbadly.” He turned to arch an eyebrow at Stiles. “Didn’t you say something about having a good sense of direction?”

“Rude,” Stiles informed him, and had to slow down a little bit since he had both a cake anda pie. “Are we gonna make it back in time for you?”

“Should only take about seven minutes, and I’ve still got ten. As long as you don’t drag your feet, I’ll make it.”

“Asshole,” Stiles said to Derek’s back, but he was smirking while doing so, and he knew Derek heard it in his voice.

They made it back to the resort in fiveminutes, thank you very much, and Stiles followed Derek back up the steps and through the sliding door into the lobby. Derek stopped beside a door that looked to be for employees only and Stiles followed suit, smiling at him.

“Thanks for lunch. You didn’t have to do that, you know.”

“It’s fine,” Derek said, yet again, shifting the bags he held. Stiles wondered if maybe he was going to put them in the back, since he had some perishables in there. “I have dinner with my parents tonight.”

Stiles smirked. “Yeah, I remember.” He’d been there during the invite, though Derek had made it sound like he wasn’t interested. His smirk just earned him a scowl.

“Should be done around eight, if you wanted to meet me in the lobby. I can bring you back to mine so you can check out the books I have.”

“Right!” Stiles had forgotten about that. “Yeah, sounds great! I’ll make sure we have dinner at a reasonable time so I can come down and meet you.”

“Good.” Derek almostsmiled then, eyes skirting behind Stiles briefly before focussing on him once more. “Wear something warmer this time, so you don’t freeze to death.”

Stiles didn’t know if he was crossing a line, but he was kind of a blunt person, and because he couldn’t help it, he said, “I mean, if I don’t, does that mean I get more half-naked cuddles?”

Derek looked startled for a second, but before he could say anything, Stiles felt an arm snake around his shoulder, someone pressing into his side, and lips at his ear.

“What’s this about half-naked cuddles? I’m down if you are.”

The shudder of disgust that coursed through him then was actually almost comical. Or it would’ve been, if it hadn’t been happening to him, because Stiles had never had his mood soured quiteso fast in his entire life.

He noticed Derek’s entire demeanour shift, expression darkening, hands tightening around what they held and muscles tensing. As much as Stiles would loveto see Derek tear Matt limb from limb, maybe not with a lobby full of people as witness. Later, like, at midnight, when Matt stumbled outside by accident and happened to get mauled by a wild animal.

Oh no, so sad.

Stiles ducked out from under Matt’s arm, stumbling a little from the action, then turned to shove the cake into his chest. Not too hard, since he didn’t want to have to go out for another, but with enough force to make him back up a step.

“Here. It’s the cake for the others. Bring it up to them before they eat any more of my pie.” He knew the pie was long gone, but whatever. He just wanted Matt to f*ck off.

“You’re cute when you’re mad,” Matt said with a smirk, but he at least took the cake.

“I must look f*cking adorablein your presence then,” Stiles snapped. Seriously, he was tryingto have a nice time, enjoy a conversation, make plans with someone who seemed like a genuinelynice person. Why the f*ck was Matt here to ruin his life?

Seriously, he wanted to kick Danny, and he lovedDanny!

“Can’t say I don’t appreciate the view,” Matt offered with a wink. Stiles just stared at him impassively, wondering if he could make him go away by sheer force of will alone.

If not, then maybe Derek could, if the low growling emanating from him was anything to go by. Matt glanced at him briefly, giving him a once-over, scoffed, then turned back to Stiles.

“I’ll see you back upstairs.”

Stiles didn’t say anything, watching Matt walk away until he was out of sight around the corner, in the direction of the elevators. Turning back to Derek while pretending to gag, he noticed Derek still staring after him, even though he was out of sight by now.

“That’s why,” Stiles said, forcing Derek’s gaze back to him. His expression softened, but he frowned in confusion at the statement.

“What’s why?”

“You asked last night why I was underdressed for the weather.” Stiles sighed and motioned over his shoulder. “That’s why. He’s my friend Danny’s roommate, and he has a huge and grossboner for me. He’s super rich, so he isn’t used to being told no, so despite my very clear ‘not interested’ banner, he doesn’t care. He wants what he wants.”

Derek’s confused frown turned into a more annoyed one. “Your friends know this and they’re making you share a room with him?”

“He wasn’t supposed to be coming,” Stiles muttered. “I almost had to share a f*cking bedwith him, but thankfully my friends realized the vacation would end in murder and I’m sharing with Jackson instead.” He realized Derek didn’t know who was who and added, “The Kanima.”

Derek grunted his understanding, but Stiles honestly wasn’t sure if he knew which one that was. He seemed unhappy now, like he didn’t like hearing Stiles was stuck in a room with someone who basically touched him and fawned all over him without his consent. Sure, Stiles himself was touchy feely, but he had limits, and he’d neveract the way Matt did with him. If someone made it clear his presence wasn’t welcome, he wouldn’t forcibly insert himself into their personal space on a regular basis.

“Eight o’clock,” Derek said eventually, even though it was clear he wanted to say muchmore. “Bring warm clothes.”

“I’ll be here,” Stiles confirmed, propping up his voice and smiling.

Derek nodded once, then stood there. Stiles pressed his lips together, then realized Derek was waiting for him to walk away first, so he thanked him for lunch again, then turned and made his way for the elevator. When he rounded the corner, Derek was still standing there, and he wondered if he was going to wait until he disappeared into one of the lifts.

Entering the elevator with a family of four who looked like they were ready to drop dead from a day of skiing, he smiled at the little girl who was trying to peek into his bag to see what he had, and then squeezed out around them to get off on the fourth floor.

When he got back to the suite, only Matt, Lydia and Kira had returned. The girls wanted to take advantage of the spa the resort had, and Matt hadn’t wanted Stiles to be alone. Stiles definitelywanted to be left alone, thank you, so he put the pie in their fridge for later, grabbed one of his books, and hastily went back downstairs to the lobby so he could find a spot by the window and read.

Of course, it wasn’t that simple, because Matt just followed him knowing Stiles couldn’t go far, and proceeded to try and talk to him the entire time. Stiles ended up snapping at him, telling him he was perfectly happy sitting there reading on his own and to f*ck off and do one of the many activities he could afford to do.

Matt just scoffed at Stiles’ attitude, leaning a bit closer to him on the bench. “I happen to know you only have three books, Stiles. And your PSP isn’t going to entertain you forever. I’m willing to pay for some activities if you wanted to do some with me.”

“I have enough entertainment to last the whole vacation,” he said dryly. “Seriously. f*ck off. I cannot possiblybe any clearer.”

“Don’t worry.” Matt stood up, straightening his shirt like a f*cking douchebag. “When the boredom sets in, I’ll be here. Just let me know when you want me.”

Stiles made gagging noises at his back while Matt walked away, annoyed that he was just suchan asshole. Seriously, he didn’t understand how he and Danny were friends, but to be fair, Matt wasn’t likethis with Danny. He’d seen them interact, and Matt was actually a normal and kind human being with other people. He just wanted Stiles, and that meant he acted like this.

And Stiles f*cking hated him!

Scowling down at his book, he had to go back a few pages since he hadn’t actuallybeen paying attention, and glanced up when someone stopped in front of him. He was ready to make a scene if it was Matt, but it was the guy working at the hole-in-the-wall café to his left, holding out a cup of hot chocolate.

“Oh, thanks. Wrong person.”

“Derek got it for you,” the guy said, motioning over his shoulder towards the front desk.

Stiles stared at him, then leaned around him to look at Derek. There was a couple at the counter, arguing with each other, so Derek was looking right at him. He offered an almost smile and Stiles beamed at him, straightening and closing his book, reaching up to grab the cup with both hands.

“Hey, thanks man.”

“Don’t thank me, I just brought it over.” He shrugged, like he didn’t understand what the deal was, and then headed back to his station.

“Thanks Derek,” Stiles said, knowing he could hear him, despite the noise around them.

Derek nodded once in acknowledgement, then focussed back on the couple still arguing in front of him.

Stiles had no idea what this was, but... well, it was something.

And he was more than okay with that.

The second he opened the front door, Derek wanted to immediately take a step back out of the house and shut it again. Laura was literally on him the second the door swung open, eyes alight with mischief and positively buzzingwith anticipation.

“What’s this about a boy? Erica said there was a boy! And mum said you drove him here this morning! Why were you with him at seven in the morning Derek? Did you have a sleepover?”

“Changed my mind, I’ll eat at home.” Derek started to step back out but Laura grabbed the front of his jacket and wrenched him into the house, shutting the door behind him and dragging him through the large front hall towards the kitchen.

“You’re not going anywhereuntil I get the scoop! Who is he? When did you meet him? How do you know him? Why did you give him a ride this morning? Was he at your house? Whywas he at your house?”

“Laura,” Talia insisted when they crossed the threshold into the kitchen. “Behave.”

“Yeah, be nice to your brother,” Jason insisted, wrapping an arm around Laura’s shoulders and kissing her temple, nodding a greeting to Derek.

“It’s basically in my job description as his sister to notbe nice to him,” Laura insisted, though she didlet go of his jacket and he immediately shrugged it off, moving back down the corridor to toss it on the banister. He and Laura always tossed their coats there when they used to live in the house, and it was a habit they’d never gotten out of, despite the fact that there was a perfectly handy coat rack right by the front door.

Moving back towards the kitchen while rolling up his sleeves, a little hot in the large house, his mother was still at the stove mixing something and Laura had been tasked with cutting up a baguette. Jason was sitting at the island watching, a beer between his hands that he was shifting back and forth.

Jason was a strange pick for his sister, in Derek’s opinion. When she’d first introduced him to the family as her mate, honestly, Derek and Cora had thought she was joking. Laura was 5'7", with long, glossy black hair, striking brown eyes, killer cheekbones and the look of a literal model.

Nothing against Jason, but he was—kind of the opposite. He was only 5'2", a little heavyset from working a stationary job, and was kind of homely-looking. When people first saw the two of them together, outside the immediate area where people knew Laura was a Hale, the general consensus was that Laura was a gold digger and Jason had to be some kind of rich guy to have bagged a babe like her.

Honestly, it had made Laura sad for the first year they’d been dating, but Jason never seemed to mind and he was thrilled that Laura loved him. He didn’t care what she looked like, he insisted it was her heart he fell in love with, and that was the kind of sappy sh*t that got Laura melting into a puddle of goo.

Derek hated it.

He hated that he kind of wanted it even more.

Ever since Kate, relationships definitelyweren’t a thing he wanted, and he was stilladamant that he’d turn his back on his mate if they ever showed up because he didn’t need that kind of sh*t in his life. But he still kind of wanted it.

It just reminded him of how nice it had been this morning, seeing Stiles in his kitchen, making breakfast, wearing his clothes, how well he just fit. Then again, everything about Stiles was confusing for him, because he felt like he wanted to knowhim, but he also didn’t understand why.

Derek was not a people person. He didn’t make friendly with any of the guests, ever. Everyone else, sure. Jessica had flings with people now and again, and so did Kevin Francis, the other guy who worked the front desk with Derek.

Laura had made friendly with some people—just friendly, not flings, she had Jason—and so had many of the other people in his life. They made friends, traded numbers, hung out. Derek wasn’t really like that. He didn’t like making friendly with people in general, mostly because of Kate, but also because he didn’t really see the point.

The people who came up here came for vacation, and then they left. The chances of seeing them again were slim, even for the ones who returned on a regular basis. He didn’t know that he wanted to bother forming friendships with people he’d see twice a year, it seemed stupid.

Stiles was just... different. Derek supposed the reason he was so interested was because of what Stiles had done yesterday. The fact that he’d come over, arms laden with bags, and warned him about Kate. He hadn’t hadto do that, he could’ve just assumed Derek knew, or figured it wasn’t his business and kept going with his day. But he hadn’t.

It was like that one action, of Stiles being selfless and caring of someone else for no other reason than it being the right thing to do, had flipped some kind of switch in Derek’s brain. It wasn’t that he’d immediately been thinking about him, it was just that he felt like he’d noticedhim a bit more since that third encounter.

And finding him wandering around in the woods in the middle of the night, someone who’d been nice enough to warn him away from Kate, freezing and terrified and lost... he didn’t know. He hadn’t wanted him to get hurt. He’d wanted to help him.

Derek acknowledged that not many people were allowed in his house, and he supposed that the fact that Stiles was about as non-threatening as they came made it easier to let him in. His scent helped, and well, again, he was just a nice guy.

Not to mention lunch had actually been fun. Derek had kind of invited him out on a whim, recognizing that Stiles seemed bored based on their brief conversations the night before, and he wanted to get to know him a bit more, anyway. And lunch had been perfectfor that, since Stiles apparently didn’t like silence and kept the commentary going the entire time they were together.

Actually, Derek felt like the thing he liked the most about Stiles was how easily they could talk to each other. Stiles didn’t seem to have much of a filter, and he also didn’t seem to be put off by Derek’s sometimes abrasive comments. He was pretty sure he’d called Stiles an idiot multiple times over the past twenty-four hours, and Stiles didn’t once bitch him out for being a dick.

To be fair, Stiles wasan idiot, and Derek was nevergoing to get over how stupid he was for last night, but that was hardly the point. The point was, Stiles just fired back as good as he got, and Derek really liked that. It was like talking to a less annoying version of Cora.

Or maybe a more annoying version, but he was biassed because Cora was his sister and he had to find her annoying on principle.

Derek was still standing by the kitchen entrance with his arms crossed and watching Laura butcher the bread—probably explained why Jason was the cook in their household—when his father came up behind him, patting his shoulder once and smiling on his way by.

“Nice of you to drop by. Have a good night last night?”

“If the entire purpose of my invitation was for details on last night, I’m just going to head home right now,” Derek informed them all dryly.

“I’m just here for your mom’s cooking,” Jason said, raising one hand in surrender. “I need a break, and I don’t feel like getting poisoned by your sister.”

Laura threw a piece of baguette at him and Jason grinned, lifting his beer in silent toast before taking a sip of it.

“We were just interested in the young man you brought home last night, that’s all,” Michael said, moving up beside Talia to see what she was making before turning back to Derek. “You don’t often bring people home, we were curious about him.”

“Erica says he’s cute,” Laura sing-songed. Derek picked up the piece of baguette she’d thrown at Jason and hurled it at her head. She jerked when it hit her, turned to him with a frown and then threw another piece at him. Derek ducked it, smirking, and before she could toss another one at him—and miss again—their father stepped between them.

“Laura, I’d prefer we had some bread left for dinner.”

Laura made a face at Derek when Michael turned back to Talia and Derek just smirked at her, mimicking crying. It looked like she was debating whether or not she could get away with throwing more bread at him.

“He was an attractive young man,” Talia suddenly said from the stove, Laura whipping around to look at her, a delighted expression on her face. “I think you’d like him, Laura.”

“Oh,” she said with a grin, looking back at Derek. “Got yourself a hot booty call? Good for you, Derek!”

“For f*ck’s sake,” Derek muttered, crossing his arms again and leaning back against the wall. “I didn’t bring home a booty call. I was out for a run, as you very well know, since you tried to invite yourself along.” Laura waved his words off easily. “The moron got lost on his way to the village, tried to take the shortcut Heather told him about.”

“Heather shouldn’t be telling guests about that shortcut, it’s dangerous when you don’t know the area,” Talia said, a scowl clear in her tone.

“Exactly what I told her today when I saw her,” Derek agreed. “Anyway, he got lost and was all the way out by my place, so you know he’d been walking for a while. His lips were literally blue, I couldn’t just leave him there. So I brought him home and helped him warm up. It was more trouble than it was worth driving him back so late, it was almost midnight by then, so I just told him to stay and brought him back this morning. That’s it.” He gave Laura a pointed look and she pouted a little, seeming disappointed.

“That was very kind of you,” Talia said, turning to offer him a smile. “I’m glad you found him.”

“Me too,” Derek admitted.

“What’s his name?”

“Stiles.”

“Unusual name,” Michael said slowly, but Derek just shrugged. It was the guy’s name, what could he do?

“He’s one of the group with the wolves,” Derek told them. When the Alpha and his friends had checked in, Derek had immediately told his mother, who’d told the rest of the pack. They needed to be aware of other wolves in their territory, and while it was just the two of them, Derek knew the group was a mish-mash of various Supernaturals, not to mention apparently Kate Argent’s niece, who was also a Hunter.

He’d told his mother that earlier this morning after his shift had started, just in case. She didn’t seem concerned about Stiles’ friend ‘Ally’ so much, so Derek tried not to dwell on it. Besides, Stiles was a good person as far as he could tell, and based on what he’d been told, Ally also seemed like a good person.

But seriously, Kate was one f*cked up bitch. To think she’d almost gotten her niece killed in an attempt to kill a Werewolf. Derek was almost more annoyed with himself for having fallen for such a maniac.

“I’m surprised he stayed with you,” Laura admitted. “Knowing you’re a Werewolf while belonging to another pack. Wasn’t he worried?”

Derek sighed, a little disheartened. “Stiles doesn’t seem to have the best survival instincts. He told me a few stories about his time in his pack, and I think he’s more of a protector of others than someone concerned with their own safety. If we lived in a zombie apocalypse, Stiles would be the first guy to bite the dust trying to protect someone else.”

Laura narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “How did you guys have so much time to chat? Didn’t he show up super late at your place? How much ‘chatting’ could there possibly behappening that late at night?”

Derek stared at her, realizing his mistake. He knew it was only a matter of time before she texted around and Hayden outed him, so it was easier to admit now from the get-go. So he told them about lunch.

And about inviting him over after dinner. But only for books! It was only for books!

Laura was, predictably, superannoying about it, and Talia had to tell her to tone it down a bit to avoid Derek just walking out. He loved his family, he did, but his sisters were really obnoxious. He was just glad Cora was out with Malia tonight, because if she’d alsobeen there, he would’ve left by now.

They had dinner in the dining room once it was ready. Derek had assumed they were eating soup, but it was actually beef stew with rice and bread. It was delicious, as was all of his mother’s food, and reminded him why he often came by to eat. He really should try and make his own meals though. He was just lazy and tired after a long day at work, and making canned ravioli or Kraft Dinner was just easier.

Then again, he’d bought a whole bunch of groceries today. A part of him felt like it was because Stiles had been commenting on his empty kitchen, but another part felt like it was because he really shouldtry and make his own food sometimes. He shouldn’t constantly rely on other people to make things for him.

Once dinner was finished, Derek and Jason cleared the table and did the dishes, chatting about the new show Jason had just gotten into. It sounded interesting, and Derek figured maybe he’d give it a try. He didn’t watch much TV, since cable out this way was sh*t, but they had surprisingly good internet and the show was on Netflix, so he could probably check it out.

They were still chatting in the kitchen together, leaning against the counter while Jason drank the same beer he’d been nursing all night, when Laura poked her head in.

“Hey, didn’t you say you and your new boyfriend had plans?”

“Not my boyfriend,” he insisted with a sigh.

“Right, whatever, what time was that at?”

Derek frowned, then turned to check the time on the stove. “Oh sh*t!”

“Mmhm, have fun with your boyfriend!” she called after him as he rushed to the door.

“Not my boyfriend!” Siblings were the worst, he hated that he had two of them.

Calling a thanks and farewell to his parents, he pulled his coat back on and hustled out of the house. He wasn’t late, it was still five-to, but he didn’t want Stiles to think he wasn’t coming if he wasn’t there at exactlyeight.

Hurrying around the side of the house, he climbed onto his snowmobile and started it up. It was early enough that he could drive it over to the resort without anyone complaining about the noise, but he’d have to figure out what to do later when he drove Stiles back. Maybe he’d drive him up to the tree-line and then walk him back to the resort. Just to be sure he didn’t get lost from the tree-line to the front door.

Stopping right outside the entrance, he shut the engine off, nodding to a few of the guests in greeting out of habit, and headed quickly inside. He still had time before eight, but Stiles was already waiting for him in the lobby, sitting in the same spot as that afternoon. He grinned when he saw Derek, getting to his feet but staying by the bench as Derek approached. Stiles held his hands out to him, palms out.

“Gloves. Hat.” He pointed at his head, then unzipped the front of his coat and made a big show of motioning his chest. “Hoodie. Do I pass?”

“I suppose,” Derek said with a small huff of a laugh, then pointed back out the door. “Ready?”

“You said I passed.”

“I said ‘I suppose,’” he insisted.

“Still counts,” Stiles argued with a grin, then turned and grabbed the plastic bag that had been on the bench beside him. “I brought pie. Figured this way, the others wouldn’t eat it. You like strawberry rhubarb?”

“It’s okay.” Derek wasn’t particularly fond of rhubarb, but he liked strawberries, so maybe a pie with both would be good. “I just need to grab my groceries from the back.”

“Sure.” Stiles motioned for him to shoo with one hand and Derek turned to rush for the kitchens.

Erica and Jessica were both at the front desk chatting, and Erica smirked at him knowingly when he passed by. He flipped her off without even looking. Jessica’s shift would be over soon and she would be heading home for the night. She had tomorrow off, which meant Kevin would be working with Derek tomorrow.

He much preferred Kevin over Jessica. Kevin didn’t try to hit on him. Though Jessica had been surprisingly good about her flirting since lunch, and Derek wondered if maybe it was because he and Stiles had gone out together.

He didn’t dwell on it too much, heading into the back and through the corridor to the kitchen, grunting greetings to the people who called out to him. When he got to the kitchen, they were cleaning up most of the stations since the restaurant closed at nine and they tended to get less people in the last hour.

Derek grabbed his perishables from the fridge, then his other items from the corner of the large pantry and grunted a good night to the people cleaning up. One of them looked startled and called out a farewell, but nobody else said anything.

He made it back out into the lobby quickly, heading over to Stiles again, who was still where he’d left him, holding the pie in his hands and looking pleased with himself.

“Ready?” Derek asked again.

“Lead the way.”

Derek snorted softly and headed out of the resort, Stiles following behind him. They went over to his snowmobile and Derek shifted all his bags into one hand so he could lift the seat up. He took the pie from Stiles, putting it down in the compartment underneath the seat, then added his own groceries on the other side, trying to make sure both the pie and the eggs were safe from harm. Getting the seat back into place, he climbed on and started it up, Stiles sliding into place behind him.

Turning them around, Derek headed back for his home, being mindful of both his passenger as well as the groceries he had. He wanted to go a bit faster, because he didn’t want to lose out on too much time with Stiles since he’d have to bring him back sooner rather than later, but he acknowledged he had to be a bit careful.

Once they reached his place, Derek parked around the side as normal and turned off the snowmobile. Stiles slid off the back, but kept one hand on Derek’s shoulder.

“It’s very dark,” he informed him.

Derek couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him at that. “Right. Sorry, Werewolf. I guess a human would keep a light on or something.”

“Or something,” Stiles agreed.

Derek climbed off and lifted the seat. There was a small light inside the compartment, but it was built more to help see inside it than around it. He pulled out his groceries, handing Stiles the pie, and then shut it once more.

Stiles kept one hand on his shoulder while they made their way around the side of the house, Derek unlocking the door and turning on the hall light. Stiles’ hand slid off his shoulder then, the two of them moving into his house and Derek shut and locked the door.

He made doubly sure it was locked before kicking off his boots and heading down the corridor to the kitchen with his groceries.

“So how was dinner with your parents?” Stiles asked, keeping his voice level since he knew Derek could hear him. It sounded like he was taking off his coat and boots at the door.

“It was fine,” he said, putting the bags down on his counter and heading back out to the corridor while undoing his own coat.

“Is everything always just finewith you?” Stiles asked suspiciously, lifting his head from his bent over position so he could see Derek heading back in his direction. He was still untying his boots, and Derek wondered if they were different from the ones he’d been wearing yesterday.

“Most things are fine,” he agreed. “Seriously.” He smirked.

Stiles laughed sarcastically, rolled his eyes, and finished with his boots, toeing them off and straightening. He picked up the pie while Derek hung up his coat and they headed back for the kitchen.

“My bookshelf’s over there, if you wanted to get started. I’ll cut the pie.” Derek nodded towards his books, tucked away behind his television. His cabin wasn’t huge, so he had to make room where he could find it, and his shelves ended up along the far wall behind his television set. There was enough space to comfortably stand in front of the books, but he kind of wished he had a better setup.

“Thanks.” Stiles pulled his gloves off, setting them on the counter, and then wandered over to the shelf.

Derek busied himself with pulling out plates and getting the pie out of the bag so he could cut them some slices. He listened to Stiles’ movements across the space, the way his heart was slow and steady, his breathing even. It was weird having someone else in his place that wasn’t his family or pack, but he didn’t hate it as much as he thought he would.

Stiles’ usual scent followed wherever he went, only slightly overpowered by the pie he was cutting. He checked the freezer to see if he had any ice cream, but he didn’t, so he just popped the plates in the microwave for a few seconds to heat the slices up a bit, and then set them down on the counter, leaning forward on it and watching Stiles pick up books, read the back, and replace them.

“You’re got a lot of good titles here,” Stiles said, fingers running along the spines. “Not as many as I expected, though.” He turned to grin at Derek teasingly, who just gave him a look in response.

“I’m a little short on space. A lot of books my family owns in general end up in my parents’ basem*nt.”

“Hm,” Stiles said, picking up a book, reading the back and then hanging on to it while turning to head back for the kitchen counter. “Why don’t you guys set up a library?”

Derek arched an eyebrow at him. “Is that a joke?”

“No, seriously.” There was that word again. It was probably Stiles’ favourite word or something. “Think about it: I can’t be the only person who’s injured and poor at this resort. If you guys have all these books, maybe you could like, have a little alcove like the coffee shop and lend out books. People could check them out based on their room number or something and if they don’t return them, you could charge like, two dollars a book or something.”

Stiles set the chosen book down on the counter, Derek’s eyes straying to it. It was American Assassin by Vince Flynn. A good choice, interesting read.

“I don’t know that I’d be too happy if someone took off with my favourite book,” he argued, straightening and grabbing a fork, passing it over to Stiles.

“Then don’t put up your favourite books,” he insisted, rolling his eyes and taking the offered cutlery. “I think it’d be a good idea. It would also encourage people to read, you know? Like, at the end of the day, most people go back to their rooms and rot their brains watching TV or something. If you had another option, it would mean more people actually enriching their minds with something more stimulating than television.”

Derek had to admit, he wasn’t wrong. And they didhave a lot of books in the basem*nt... They could probably carve out a space in the lobby for it. After all, the alcove café hadn’t been there originally, but a lot of people complained for a while about wanting ‘just a coffee’ after a long day of skiing and most didn’t feel like waiting in the restaurant for a drink, heading back out to the café by the slopes, orgoing to the village. The alcove café had taken them only about two weeks to build and set up, and it was really popular.

They had space on the opposite side of the lobby, and Stiles was right about not being the only injured person who was stuck inside all day. It could be good, and it’d open up another position for someone to work in the resort. His mother was always looking for reasons to hire the younger people in town, just so they had some income generated during their holidays.

“I’ll talk to my parents,” he finally said, Stiles beaming at him and seeming pleased with himself.

He stabbed at his pie, cutting through the point and then popped it into his mouth. He chewed for a second, then his eyes widened and he made a pleased sound, similar to what he’d done back in the village when he’d tasted the chips. Derek found he really liked the little things Stiles did like that. It was just such an honest and adorable method of expressing delight in something.

“This is good pie. Damn,” he said, getting another forkful of it and shoving it into his mouth.

“Yeah, they make good stuff at the bakery,” Derek agreed, taking his own first bite. It was all right, but rhubarb still wasn’t his favourite. Still, it was good enough for him to finish the slice. Slower than Stiles, but he had a feeling Stiles was just the kind of person who did everything in super-speed. He certainly talked in super-speed sometimes, and he was excitable and flaily. It was annoyingly adorable.

“So,” Stiles said, scraping his fork’s edge along the plate to collect any crumbs that had escaped him, “tell me about you, Mr. Derek Hale. Born Werewolf, according to our conversation last night.”

“Yes,” he agreed, covering the pie back up so he could stick it in the fridge. He didn’t think it’d be bad to leave it out for a little while, but just in case.

“That’s cool. So born wolves can like, transform then?”

“All wolves can transform,” Derek insisted, turning back to Stiles and then motioning the living room. He didn’t want to talk with the counter between them, it felt a bit too guarded.

“Into a full wolf, jackass, don’t be like that,” Stiles insisted, slapping him lightly in the arm when he rounded the counter, the two of them moving to the couch. Stiles fell onto the side one of the blanket from the previous night was on and promptly wrapped himself up in it. Derek didn’t think he was cold, per se, but he still acknowledged his cabin wasn’t the warmest place in the world.

Derek didn’t often get the chance to talk about being a Werewolf with people. Certainly not with a human. His father and Jason didn’t count, since the former had been in the know about Werewolves long before Derek was even born, and Jason himself had grown up as part of a pack himself. Similar to Stiles, though Jason’s father was a Werewolf as opposed to Stiles just being best friends with one.

It was kind of interesting, the questions Stiles had for him, the things he was curious about. He never pried, and only offered up inquiries that were decently open-ended so that Derek could answer as much or as little as he wanted. For the most part, Stiles just seemed curious about the differences, like he was cataloguing things.

Apparently when Scott had been turned, nobody had known what the f*ck was going on and Stiles had ended up being the research guy. That had only gotten worse when Jackson had been turned because they suddenly had anotherWerewolf in their midst who was entirely differentfrom their firstWerewolf. And then apparently anotherfriend went through something traumatic and turned into a Banshee and Stiles by that point had wanted to just give up entirely.

Derek liked listening to Stiles talk. He was really passionate about everything, and when he started talking about all his friends, he pulled out his phone and flipped through pictures of them so that Derek would have a better idea of who was who. There were a lotof pictures of Scott, Allison and Stiles together, and he explained it was because they went to the same university. He did have pictures with the others too, but none with the guy who’d been hanging all over him.

Honestly, when the guy had come up to Stiles and slithered right into his space, Derek had felt a small stab of disappointment. He and Stiles had been getting along, but that didn’t mean Stiles was interested in him, or even singledespite the jokes and occasional flirts. When the guy had shown up and gotten right into Stiles’ space, he’d had a second to be disappointed, and then less than that for the disappointment to switch to annoyance, and then protectiveness.

Stiles’ entire demeanour changed the moment the guy had sidled up to him. He’d gone rigid, defensive, and it became instantly clear that this was someone he wasn’t particularly fond of. Derek didn’t know what their history was, but Stiles reacting how he did, ducking out from under his arm, and then shoving the cake at him had made it pretty obvious they weren’t involved.

Derek only remembered the small fight during check-in later on in the day, because to be fair, he checked in a lot of people and didn’t remember everything about all of them. But Stiles and his friend Scott had kind of stuck out in his mind because of Scott being a Werewolf, and upon reflection, he remembered Stiles being pissed someone had come and almost having to share a bed with him.

It was the same conversation Stiles had had with him after the guy had walked off. Stiles had expected to come on this vacation having a good time and hanging out with friends. Instead, he was stuck in the lodge all day with nothing to do, and rooming with someone who kept hitting on him without seeming to recognize or care that it was creepy and unwelcome.

“So what’s his name, anyway?” Derek asked when they’d moved on to talking about the group as a whole.

“Who?”

“The guy who was hanging all over you this afternoon.”

Stiles made a face at that. It was kind of cute. “Matthew Daehler. Like I said, rich, pretentious f*ckboy who thinks money buys everything, including people. He was okay the first time I met him, he was nice and all, but after I left he started sending me dick pics.” Stiles rolled his eyes at that. “Seriously, like I wantdick pics. If I want to look at a dick, I’ll just pull down my own pants.”

Derek snorted at that and Stiles offered him a cheeky grin.

“Anyway, things get worse every time I see him. Next semester is our last semester though, so I figure hopefully he and Danny will part ways after graduation and I won’t have to worry about him anymore.”

“Or he’ll just figure out where you are and move there with all the money he has,” Derek offered.

Stiles gave him a horrified look, then kicked at him lightly with his socked foot. “Dude, why? Why would you put that thought in my head? Jesus, I’m going to have to become some kind of recluse, live alone in a cabin far off in the woods.” He paused, then smirked. “Like you.”

“I’m not a recluse.”

“Kind of a recluse,” Stiles argued with a wink.

“You’re lucky my cabin is so far out in the woods, or you’d have frozen to death last night.”

“True,” Stiles conceded, shifting around under the blankets for a second. When a hand emerged, he was holding his phone up and he straightened instantly, looking over at Derek. “sh*t! It’s way later than I thought! You need to sleep, sorry.” He started to scramble out from under the blankets and Derek pulled his own phone out to check the time.

It was already almost eleven. Stiles had been over for just under three hours, and it had passed by like mere minutes. Maybe his friends and family weren’t entirely off-base making friendly with some of the guests, it sure made time go by faster. And he hadn’t spent the evening reading or watching television, or wasting his time online watching YouTube videos or browsing Reddit.

Now that he thought about it, his life was kind of boring...

Surprisingly, Derek didn’t really want Stiles to go. He kept thinking about how nice it had been last night, sharing his space with someone. How much he’d likedseeing Stiles in his kitchen this morning, making him breakfast, waking him up in a way where Derek was an actual human being and not just an animal grunting greetings at people.

He watched Stiles stand, shoving his phone into his pocket, commenting on taking the pie back, wondering about the time aloud and other random things.

“You could just stay again.”

Derek hadn’t realized he’d actually said the words aloud until Stiles froze, and slowly turned to face him, mouth practically hanging open. He scowled at the reaction, crossing his arms almost defensively.

“You stayed last night, is it so weird I’d let you stay again?”

“I mean—I kind of disrupted your entire morning routine,” Stiles said cautiously.

Derek shrugged. “It’s fine,” he insisted, because it wasfine. “Driving you back and then coming home would take me longer than just having you bunk here again, anyway. And this way, you can make it clear to that Matt guy that you hate being around him so much you’d rather risk spending the night with an unknown Werewolf than go back to a room he’s present in.”

Stiles squinted at him, expression thoughtful. “I dolike the idea of not having to see him again for a few hours.” He stood beside the couch then, seeming to ponder this, then nodded once, eyes returning to Derek. “I mean, if you’re sure it’s okay. Seriously, I can take the couch.”

“Seriously,” Derek said with an explosive sigh, “it’s fine.”

“You know, you rag of my overuse of the word ‘seriously’ but I think you underestimate how much you say things are ‘fine,’” Stiles informed him, pointing a finger at him and half-smirking. “But uh, sure. Okay, yeah. I can—I mean, I guess I can repay you with making you breakfast again.” He perked up. “Hey! And you have groceries this time! I can probably make you something worthwhile!”

“I usually get a breakfast sandwich at work,” he informed him. “When you ragged on me about my fridge and pantry, I kind of unconsciously bought ingredients for it.”

“Nice, nice,” Stiles said, nodding while looking towards the kitchen. “Okay, sounds good. Tomorrow, while you shower, I shall make you a breakfast sandwich fit for the Gods!”

“And for you.”

“I’m not eating your food, dude.”

Derek just gave him an unimpressed look. Stiles fidgeted for a few seconds, then sighed explosively and threw his hands up in defeat before turning towards the kitchen. Derek twisted around on the couch and watched Stiles mutter to himself about bossy Werewolves while he proceeded to put all their dishes from eating the pie in the dishwasher. Once he was done, he washed his hands, and wiped them on his jeans, looking thoughtful.

“I don’t have anything with me.”

“You can sleep in the same clothes as last night, they should still be where you left them.” He stood and stretched, suddenly feeling tired now that they were talking about bed. “I can lend you another shirt for tomorrow.”

“You got a spare toothbrush?”

Derek thought for a moment, honestly unsure, then headed for his bathroom to check. He had to dig around under the sink for a bit, but he did end up finding a new toothbrush, probably from one of his last dentist visits, whenever thathad been.

Had to keep up appearances, so they went to the dentist same as all the humans. The doctor’s was a bit harder, since they had to be more careful about it, but they’d gotten all their usual shots and whatnot when they were younger to make like the Hales weren’t anti-vaxxers, and then stopped going once they were all legal age.

Stiles had followed him to the bathroom, so he just held up the new toothbrush and the other man grinned, grabbing it and nodding a thanks.

“I’ll change so you can use the bathroom first,” Derek said, easing out around Stiles.

“Thanks.”

He grunted in response, disappearing into his room and shutting the door. He mostly did that for Stiles’ benefit, since wolves didn’t really have any shame, but he felt like Stiles might appreciate at least somesemblance of privacy between them. Wasn’t like they’d known one another for very long, after all.

Changing out of his clothes and grabbing a fresh pair of boxer-briefs, Derek dug around in his drawers for something to wear tomorrow, since he stillmostly had stuff at his parents’ and at work. He found another Henley, but this one was brown. He figured he could just wear it to work and switch out once he got there. Thankfully he had another one of the black turtlenecks for Stiles to wear tomorrow, so he pulled the clothes he’d need out and set them on top of his dresser for the morning.

When he exited his room, Stiles had just opened the bathroom door and they shifted around each other to trade places. Derek brushed his teeth and did his business, then washed his hands and went through his home to turn off lights. He double-checked the lock on the front door again, just to be absolutely sure it was locked, and then headed to his room.

Stiles was already under the covers on the same side of the bed as last night, his clothes in a heap on the floor by the end of the bed. Derek snorted at that, feeling like Stiles would trip over them in the night, but he didn’t comment on it and just turned off the light, shutting his bedroom door.

“My phone’s gonna die again,” Stiles said with a sigh, tapping away on it. He was probably texting his friends so they wouldn’t worry about where he was.

“Sorry, I’d offer my charger, but I need it for my alarm,” Derek said, sliding under the covers and getting settled.

“Nah, it’s fine. Technology rots the brain, anyway. It’s just that I know Scott’s a worrier, especially with you being a Werewolf and all.”

“Like I said at lunch, your survival skills don’t seem to be great, so I can see why he’d worry.”

Stiles flipped him off, but he was smiling while doing so, eyes still on his phone. Seeming satisfied with whatever response he got, he twisted to set the phone down on the second nightstand, only turning off the screen once he was sure he wouldn’t miss it in the dark, and then lay down beside Derek, rolling onto his side to face him. Derek himself was on his back, but had his head angled in Stiles’ direction so he could see him. He was pretty sure Stiles couldn’t see him at all now that all the lights were off. Wasn’t like there was any light coming from outside.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep,” he admitted with a frown. “I slept a lottoday after I got back.”

“You can go in the living room and read if you can’t manage it. Not like you can’t nap later if need be.”

“True,” Stiles conceded. “You reset your alarm?”

“Didn’t change it from this morning.”

Stiles hummed at that, then shifted around in bed again so he was on his back. “Okay, sleepy time.”

“What are you, five?”

“Twenty-two, I thank you,” he insisted, then frowned in the darkness and turned to look at Derek. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“Wow, you are old.”

“f*ck you.” Derek reached out to shove at him, Stiles laughing unrepentantly. “Go to sleep.”

“Yes sir.”

“Stop calling me sir.”

“Okay dad.”

“You’re really annoying.”

“One of my many, manycharms,” Stiles teased.

Honestly... he wasn’t wrong.

Stiles was never going to stopbeing embarrassed when he woke up half on top of Derek. Sure, it had only happened twice so far, but drooling all over a hot Werewolf’s chest wasn’t exactly one of his finer moments.

At least he didn’t seem to be kicking him or hitting him in the face, so that was a plus.

The morning went along the same as the day before, with Stiles getting dressed and making breakfast while Derek showered and woke up a bit more for his day. He felt guilty making himself a meal as well, but Derek was a Bossy McBosspants and he was too tired to deal with a death glare at six in the morning, so he just did as he’d been told.

The bagel breakfast sandwiches were actually really good. He didn’t know what kind of bacon Derek had bought, but it tasted better than regular bacon somehow, and he was pretty damn pleased with the outcome. He hadn’t added any tabasco sauce to his own, because he didn’t like setting his mouth on fire, but Derek seemed happy with the amount he’d put on his.

When they left, Derek told him to just leave the pie. He promised he wasn’t a fan of rhubarb and that he wouldn’t eat any of it without Stiles. He only agreed to leave it because it gave him an excuse to come back, though he didn’t say this to Derek.

They didn’t go to his parents’ place that morning, apparently his father was off today and he didn’t want to wake him, so they drove the snowmobile to the edge of the wooded area, and then climbed off. Derek pushed it the rest of the way to the house, leaving it beside another one parked around back before they trudged through the snow towards the resort together.

Stiles didn’t want to wake up his friends with his return, and honestly, he didn’t really feel like he should sleep the day away again or it’d f*ck up his sleep schedule, so when they hit the lobby, Stiles headed to his preferred bench with the book he’d borrowed and his shirt from yesterday and settled in to read.

He could hear the blonde girl at the front teasing Derek about Stiles having shown up with him two days in a row, but Derek’s voice was too quiet for him to really hear any of the rebukes. He didn’t mind, he found it kind of nice that Derek didn’t seem to make friendly with people very often, and had somehow warmed up to Stiles just because he was an idiot who’d almost died in the woods by his house.

When the blonde was off work, she disappeared around the corner where the restaurant was. When she came back around, she had a plate of French toast and a huge milkshake—Stiles was jealous, really—and then he watched Derek’s eyes track her all the way to his bench.

“Hiya cutie,” she said with a smirk. “Mind if I sit? ‘Course you don’t.” She shuffled over to sit beside him and he closed the book over his finger so he didn’t lose his spot. It was interesting so far, he was looking forward to seeing what was going to happen.

“Done for the day?” he asked, wishing she still had a name tag since he hadn’t thought to look yesterday, and he didn’t know her name.

“Mmhm. I work the night shift. It’s boring as hell most of the time, and my boyfriend works the kitchen in the morning, so our time together is limited.” She cut off a huge chunk of bread and stuffed it into her mouth, using one finger to wipe at syrup that had escaped the corner of her lips. He didn’t know what kind of lipstick she was wearing, but it was impeccable. Lydia would probably want to know where she’d gotten it.

“That sucks,” he said honestly.

“Yup. Derek wishes he could work the night shift, avoid people, but his mom is worried he’s going to turn into a recluse—” Stiles shifted his gaze to Derek and smirked, since that was what he’d called Derek the night before. Derek didn’t look impressed. “—so she makes him work the day shift. Lucky for him, or he wouldn’t have met you.”

Stiles turned back to her, offering a shrug. “I mean, he found me wandering in the woods, so I think it’s more likely if he’d been working the night shift, I’d have died. Or at least been in big trouble.”

The girl hummed, chewing on another bite of her French toast. Stiles noticed more than half of it was gone and he frowned suspiciously, then glanced up at her again. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought she might also be a Werewolf. Derek had a pack here, after all, they’d spoken about that, so it stood to reason some of the people he was friends with would have to be Werewolves.

He and this girl seemed to be closer than the one he worked the day shift with, and that suggested pack dynamics.

“I’m Stiles, by the way.”

“Erica,” she said, waving her knife a little in a mock wave.

“You know Derek long?”

“Toolong. I’m friends with his sister. And he’s basically my brother, in more than one way.” She smirked taking another bite of food, and her eyes flashed gold for barely a second, confirming his suspicions. He was fairly certain she and Derek could have a muttered argument with one another across the lobby and no one would notice.

“That’s really cool, that you guys know each other so well. He’s a really cool guy.”

The laugh that escaped her then was loud, and somewhat startling. “He’s an abrasive asshole who kicks you when you’re down, but rumour has it you have a smart mouth on you. Not a lot of people can keep up with his unique level of sass.”

“I am the sassiest motherf*cker you will ever meet,” Stiles informed her. “Derek’s sass is like child’s play.” Had Derek even sassed him once since they’d met? Okay, maybe once. But really, he was more blunt than sassy. There was a difference.

And Stiles had grown up with a weirdo like Coach Finstock, so anyone else was almost boring by comparison.

Erica looked amused by his response. “You seem fun. I like fun people. We’re having game night at Laura’s today, you should come. Bring your new grumpy friend, if you can manage to get him to join us. He never does for the in-person events.”

Stiles was a second away from saying yes when he remembered he had his own friends upstairs. So far, he’d spent more of his vacation with Derek than with them. Sure, they were out all day skiing and having a good time, but the evenings were kind of reserved for them hanging out together and he hadn’t really been around much for that.

“Maybe,” he said instead. “I’ll have to see if my friends and I have plans for tonight. And if Derek even wants to go.”

“He doesn’t, but he should. It’s fun. We play Werewolf.” Her eyes flashed again, grinning brightly. “You ever play?”

“Depends. Is it the game where you’re like, a village of people and there are Werewolves and a Seer and stuff and you ‘go to sleep’ at night and the game master kills people?”

“That’s the one. And hey, you can bring your group of friends, if you want. It’s more fun when we’re a bigger group where we don’t all know each other.”

Stiles narrowed his eyes at her. “But won’t most of your side be wolves? Isn’t that an unfair advantage? You can hear heartbeats.”

Erica waved her hand dismissively. “It’s a game, we don’t use our abilities to cheat, where’s the fun in that? Ask your friends, it’ll be fun times. We have loads of games, and it’s always a riot.”

Stiles nodded slowly. Honestly, it didsound fun. The only game they’d brought on their vacation was cards, because it was easier to travel with. But it sounded like the pack Derek belonged to held games like this regularly, from what Erica was saying. They probably had a lot of different things they could do, and if Stiles convinced the others to go, it’d be more fun for everyone. He’d be spending time with his friends, and also meeting new people, which was always a plus.

“I’ll ask my friends, see what they think.”

“Awesome.” Erica grinned ferally. “Well, I’m going home to bed. Hope I see you tonight.”

He nodded and offered her a small wave, and then watched Derek glare at her the entire way back across the lobby. He looked a little disheartened, like he felt betrayed somehow. Stiles just smiled to himself about it and went back to reading his book.

It was really good, and engaging. He was so engrossed that he missed Scott and Allison’s approach until they were literally right on top of him. The others had all woken up and were getting ready for breakfast, so the two of them had come down first to secure a table since it was nine by now and the place was beginning to get busier from the morning crowd.

Stiles had already had breakfast, but he couldn’t say no to second breakfast. And now he felt like a Hobbit, because he wouldn’t mind multiple meals a day, if he was honest.

While they sat waiting for the others, he told them about the invitation that had been extended to them. Scott was hesitant at first, but Allison was all for it and anything Allison wanted, Scott wanted, so he agreed it might be fun. When the others showed up and he relayed the invite, they were split on how they felt. Kira and Danny were interested, but Lydia and Jackson thought it sounded childish and stupid. Matt said he was in as long as Stiles was, which just had him gagging behind his menu.

In the end, everyone agreed to it, though Stiles felt like Lydia and Jackson mostly decided to go because it beat doing nothing in the hotel room. Besides, both were fiercely competitive, so he was sure they’d have fun even if they pretended they wouldn’t.

After breakfast, everyone headed back up to grab their coats and gear—or in Stiles’ case, to drop offhis coat and other items. They left soon afterwards, Danny forcibly dragging Matt out, and Stiles grabbed a mocha from the hole-in-the-wall café before reclaiming his usual spot by the window and reading the book Derek had lent him, sipping at his drink.

When a shadow loomed over him, he was ready to get his hackles up, thinking it was Matt, but the voice that reached him was very distinctly notMatt.

“Hello. Stiles, wasn’t it?”

His head snapped up and even though he’d never met this person in his life, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was Derek’s mother. He hadn’t gotten a good look at her when they’d stopped at the house the day before, but they had the same dark hair and features, and he kind of saw Derek’s smile in hers. Or he supposed her smile in Derek’s? Either way, he knew it was his mom.

“Hello. Hi.” He hastily stood up to shake her hand, realized he had no hands free, and turned to quickly put the cup and book down, effectively losing his page, but whatever. He faced her again, holding one hand out. “Hi, yes. Stiles. Is me.”

She looked amused at how flustered he was and shook his offered hand. “I’m Talia Hale, Derek’s mother.”

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“And you. I do hope my son’s been behaving.”

“Oh yeah, he’s been amazing.” Stiles realized she was probably just making sure Derek wasn’t making Stiles hate the place and write a bad review online. Or maybe she was going after the weakest member of the McCall pack to suss out the threat level.

They were just there for vacation, no territory disputes here!

“I’m glad to hear it. I’m sorry about the mishap the other night.” When Stiles frowned in confusion, she said, “Your adventure through the forest?”

“Oh! Yeah that was—entirely my fault, actually. If Derek hadn’t found me, I’d have been—well, doesn’t matter. I appreciated his help, and he was really nice for letting me crash at his place. I know how uh, some people feel about that.” If Erica knew Stiles was aware of him knowing about Werewolves, he was fairly certain Derek’s mother did, too. But it wasn’t like earlier this morning, where the lobby was empty, so he had to be more careful with what he said.

“I’m glad he was able to help. Perhaps a bit more care in the future?” she asked with a small smile. She sounded pleasant, but stern at the same time, like she wanted him to be more careful.

“Yeah, no, of course. No more midnight strolls through the woods, promise.”

“You can stroll through the woods whenever you please, I just meant it may be beneficial to have someone who knows the area along with you.”

Oh good! Derek’s mother didn’t hate him for being an idiot to almost die at her resort, that was nice. And to be fair, he definitely wasn’t going to go back out there without Derek, at least.

“I’d definitely like another look around in the daytime,” he admitted. “Actually, I have a fly-over scheduled for tomorrow that I’m looking forward to.”

“How lovely.” Talia smiled. “I think Derek might have this Thursday off. He has a thing about heights. You understand.” The knowing look she gave him made it clear that, yup, she knew he was aware of the Supernatural. She was evidently referring to Werewolves and their dislike of being off the ground. Scott was a wreck every time he got on a plane. So was Jackson. It was a miracle they got either of them to go anywhere, really. “He so rarely spends time enjoying the view from above. If you’re amenable, perhaps he could join you.”

“Sure,” Stiles said immediately. “I was going to go alone, so if he wants to come, I’m more than happy to spend time with him.” Stiles was really starting to feel more and more like he was an anomaly and that Derek didn’t often make friendly with people. His friends and family seemed to be trying to capitalize on his presence to make Derek actually go out and dothings. And he didn’t mind, not one bit. He was bored and alone, anyway! And he liked Derek, he was interesting. A little quiet sometimes, but Stiles spoke enough for the both of them anyway.

And honestly, he really liked that Derek listened. Like, he didn’t just sit there and zone out while Stiles spoke, he actually paid attention to him and commented on things he said. Not many people did that, and it made Stiles really appreciate this weird friendship they’d developed.

“Derek tells me you had an idea for the resort,” Talia said, and when she moved to take a seat, Stiles hastily picked up his book and mocha before sitting down as well. “I thought instead of hearing it from him, perhaps you could explain what you were thinking.”

Stiles had an idea for the resort? What idea? “I’m—what?”

“Something about a library?”

“Right!” He’d totally forgotten about that. He spoke a lot so things slipped his mind. And this was, yet again, another example of Derek listening to him whereas someone else likely wouldn’t.

It wasn’t really a complicated idea, and he was sure Derek had already told her about it, but Stiles indulged her and explained what he and Derek had been talking about the night before. He didn’t go into detail about his injury, just mentioned that he had one which was why he was stuck inside all day, and that while he’d love to do more activities, he had to watch his budget. She listened while he explained the general idea, and he was kind of struck by how similar to Derek she was in this moment.

She listened as attentively as he did, and she never interrupted him. She waited for him to finish what he was saying before asking a question or making a comment, and he found he really liked the Hale family. They seemed like really good people, and he appreciated that they didn’t dismiss his ideas as quickly as a lot of other people in his life did.

When he was done explaining the basis of his idea, Talia checked the time, and then stayed with him for a while longer, asking him general questions about his trip and what school he went to. She wasn’t prying, just more interested and curious. Kind of like a parent sussing out their child’s new friend to make sure they weren’t a bad egg.

Stiles figured she was just trying to get a read on him to make sure he wasn’t a risk to her pack. That he and his friends were honestly just there for a vacation and not trying to cause trouble. He supposed if they knew about Kate, it made sense. They’d probably be a little hesitant to have Stiles hanging around with Derek so much if he could turn around and stab him in the back.

After a long and rather interesting conversation about the way the resort got their food delivered, Talia checked the time again and said she had to head out to teach a class, but that she hoped to catch up with him again soon.

“I’m here all week,” he said with a small smile. “Literally, like, right here. This is officially my spot.”

“I’ll be sure to have a ‘reserved’ sign made for you,” she said with a small, teasing smile, and Stiles couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. “I believe Derek’s lunch time is coming up. If you’re interested, his father is making burgers. You’re welcome to join him if you’d like.”

“If he’s down for me crashing his lunch break, sure.” Stiles nodded. “I don’t want to bug him toomuch, I’ve already been a huge break in his routine.”

“I think Derek needed a break in routine,” she said, a little too honestly. “I’m sure he won’t mind you joining him. It was nice chatting with you, Stiles.”

“You too,” he said with another huge smile, and waved when she headed out.

He wondered what Derek thought of the lengthy conversation he’d been waving with his mother and shifted to glance over at him. There was another dude working with him today, that Jessica girl evidently having the day off. He was a good looking guy, but nowhere near as attractive as Derek. Stiles felt like not many people could be more attractive than Derek, if he was honest.

Idris Elba was a f*cking smokin’ dude. And Oscar Isaac was pretty hot. But aside from that, Stiles couldn’t think of anyone more attractive than Derek, which was saying something given the other two men were famous actors.

Bottom line, Derek was a super hot dude, which explained why he always got hit on. Somehow though, Stiles found it more annoying to witness today than yesterday. He felt like a part of him hated it because he understood all too well—thank you, Matt—what it was like to have unwanted attention, especially in a situation like Derek’s where he was working and had to play nice. Another louder part of his brain was actually annoyed because... Well, these people didn’t knowDerek. What if he was taken? What if he married?

Sure, Stiles acknowledged that he’d hit on him upon reaching the front desk himself, but he’d offered a cheesy pick-up line and had basically made it clear he was just joking. No way someone like Derek would be interested in him, so it had mostly been in good fun—though now he didkind of regret it and vowed never to do something like that again.

He didn’t know, but somehow, seeing the two girls at the counter giggling and chatting it up with Derek, when they were clearlydone being checked-in, was annoying. Derek was working, and he had things to do, and it was obvious he was just smiling and trying to be polite because it was his job, but he probably wanted them to walk away so he could drop the fake smile from his face.

Stiles debated for all of two seconds before standing up. He took his mug and book with him, just in case, but hoped no one stole his spot. He kind of liked that spot, it was near a heater, while also providing a nice view of the hills outside.

And a nice view insidetoo.

Derek was still smiling politely while the girls spoke about their evening plans, clearly hinting for him to ask more questions so they could invite him along. His gaze shifted to Stiles when he saw him approach, but he didn’t look like he wanted Stiles to back off, so he just walked right up to the counter, standing beside the two girls, and beamed at him.

“Hey babe, you ready for lunch yet? Your dad’s almost done with the hamburgers, and I am starving.”

The girl right beside him seemed startled, and then embarrassed. Her friend just looked disappointed, but neither of them said anything.

“Just finishing up one last check-in, then we can head out,” Derek said, and the smile he offered Stiles was a bit more genuine.

“Cool. I’ll be waiting over there.”

“You always are,” Derek said with a small smirk. Uncalled for, in Stiles’ opinion, he knew damn well Stiles was stuck inside, but he didn’t call him on it and just slapped his book lightly against the counter before heading back for his seat. Thankfully, no one had stolen it. It made sense, most of the people lingering in the lobby were the ones checking in or checking out. A few were taking breaks from the slopes, sipping drinks from the hole-in-the-wall café, but they tended to mill around further in the lobby, like they were trying to keep away from the doors and windows to warm up.

Stiles fell back onto his cushy seat—for a bench, it was very comfortable, almost like a booth—and then proceeded to finish off his mocha while flipping through the book to find the page he’d been on before Talia’s arrival. He didn’t look up to see if the girls had left, mostly because he was a little embarrassed by his own actions.

About five minutes later, a shadow loomed and he glanced up, Derek arching an eyebrow at him while wearing his coat. “Babe?”

“What? I was just trying to help.” Stiles affected his most innocent expression and Derek snorted, clearly not buying that for a second.

“We’re a little early for lunch, but apparently I’m being ordered onto a plane tomorrow, so might as well talk to dad about that before then.” He eyed Stiles briefly, then shrugged out of his coat, holding it out to him. “Here. It’s a short walk, and I’ll survive the chill better than you will.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you just got a hard-on for seeing me in your clothes,” Stiles teased, grabbing the jacket while getting to his feet. Derek said nothing while he shrugged it on, taking the mug from the bench and bringing it back to the café. Stiles shoved the book into one of the over-large pockets, then he and Derek headed out of the resort so they could walk the short distance to the Hale house.

Stiles noticed Derek had switched out his black, polishable shoes for his boots, and he wondered how often Derek changed clothes in a day considering he apparently usually jogged to work in the morning.

As they climbed the back steps to Derek’s old home, it occurred to Stiles that he’d met Derek’s mother, and was now about to meet his father.

“Our relationship is progressing so fast,” he teased to Derek, pretending to fan himself. “I don’t think I’m ready.”

Derek rolled his eyes, sliding open the glass door that led directly into the kitchen from the back patio. “We cuddled together half-naked after basically knowing each other for five minutes, don’t talk about ‘moving too fast.’”

“Why Derek Hale.” Stiles slapped a hand to his chest, smirking mischievously. “Are you hittingon me? Are you insinuating you want morethan this wonderful friendship we’ve been developing over the past two days?”

“Get in the house before I leave you outside to freeze,” was Derek’s evasive response.

Stiles just grinned and stepped over the threshold, honestly wondering if he was going to have some kind of vacation romance like he’d been joking about with Scott on the way up the mountain.

Derek felt like he was being punished, because that was the only explanation for why he was the one tasked with meeting up with Stiles and his friends to bring them to Laura’s.

Okay no, honestly, it was probably because Derek and Stiles knew each other, and Derek was the only one who’d stayed at the resort after his shift because he and Stiles had ended up going to the village to wander around and chat some more. They even ended up having dinner together, and had then proceeded to buy additional snacks from the store for their evening activities.

Of course, because he was still there, and he knew how to get to Laura’s, he was the one who ended up having to lead the way there. Which would be fine, except for the fact that he didn’t like people, and he was now being forced to shepherd a group of them through the forest.

On top of that, he had to bring his snowmobile, because he didn’t want to leave it at his parents’ overnight in case he needed it. He didn’t know whyhe’d need it, but just in case. So he’d have to drive it super slowly through the woods while the others traipsed along beside him, and having unfamiliar wolves at his back was making him feel nervous just thinking about it.

Not to mention Kate Argent’s niece. Sure, Stiles made her seem nice enough, but Derek was forever going to be suspicious of any and all people with the last name ‘Argent.’

Shifting his weight uncomfortably in the lobby, he heard Stiles approaching long before he saw him, his voice carrying from the elevator while he told them about all the snacks he’d gotten for everyone. They were already in the compartment under the seat of Derek’s snowmobile, since he’d gone to get that while Stiles had been corralling his friends.

When the elevator doors opened, Stiles was the first one out and he grinned at Derek before making his way over to him, bouncing slightly like he was excited. Derek managed to keep the endearing smile off his face by sheer force of will.

“You look like a bunny,” he informed him once Stiles had stopped in front of him.

“If I hop around the lobby, are you gonna chase me?” he asked with a wink.

Maybe, Derek thought, but said, “No, I’d have you committed.”

“Yeah, we tried to have him committed a few times. Didn’t work,” one of his friends said with a grin. He had his arm wrapped around a girl’s shoulders, and Derek recognized both as Scott and Allison from the pictures Stiles had shown him. He was right when Scott held his hand out to him. “I’m Scott.”

“Derek,” he said, shaking it briefly, then taking the girl’s when she extended it as well.

“Allison. Don’t hold my last name against me, I promise my aunt’s a bitch and we don’t associate with her.”

He just nodded once, not really knowing what to say to that. The rest of the group introduced themselves, shaking his hand. Matt was last and offered him a condescending smile, his handshake loose and fleeting, like he was disgusted to be anywhere near someone like Derek.

As if he wasn’t standing literally shoulder to shoulder with another Werewolf.

“Shall we go?” Stiles asked, clapping his hands together. “I’m excited to play with a huge group of people, it should be really fun.”

“Erica and Isaac get competitive, so it’s not thatfun,” Derek insisted.

“Lydia and Jackson too, so this should be reallyfun,” Stiles countered, bouncing past Derek and turning to walk backwards while grinning. He was really playing up the hopping bunny thing now, it made Derek want to tackle him into the snow when they got outside.

He didn’t, but it was a near thing.

When he got to his snowmobile and started to climb on, Stiles stopped beside him, eyes bright. “Hey, can I drive it? I’m doing the snowmobiling thing next week but I’ve never actually been on one. Or, driven one since, you know.” He motioned Derek.

“Sure.” Derek climbed back off, motioning for Stiles to go for it. He climbed on, looking excited, and Derek motioned the starter, then gave him quick tips and pointers on the steering. He felt someone come up right into his space, tensing instantly at the proximity, but relaxed slightly at the words he heard.

“You know, maybe you should just—climb on behind him.” Danny offered him an innocent shrug. “Stiles is kind of accident-prone, he might drive it right into a tree.”

“Hey!” Stiles insisted, insulted.

“I’ll be sure to mention that to my sister for next week,” Derek said with a small smirk, but he climbed on behind Stiles anyway, reaching around him to get it started up and making Stiles put his hands where they needed to be.

“Can we go?” Matt asked, clearly unhappy. “It’s f*cking cold.”

Derek turned to look at him, pleased at how jealous he seemed to be, and very deliberately rocked his hips forward in the guise of shifting closer to Stiles. That had Stiles accidentally floor it forward a few feet before he managed to get the machine to stop, and Matt’s face darkened. Derek just smirked, feeling like the night might not be a total bust after all. He was going to enjoy this game with Matt.

Turning the snowmobile around slowly, Derek motioned the direction they needed to be heading in, and they set off together as a group, the others walking through the trees where the gaps were smaller while Derek and Stiles manoeuvred through the larger areas to fit the machine.

Laura’s place wasn’t far from the resort, about twelve to fifteen minutes on foot, so they made it there relatively quickly. It looked like the others had all arrived so Derek motioned the front door while he got Stiles to drive around the back to park beside Laura and Jason’s own snowmobiles.

“You guys have a lot of snowmobiles,” he said once they’d turned off the engine and climbed off, Derek grabbing the snacks.

“Only in the winter. It’s easier and faster to get around when running isn’t an option. We put them away for the summer and take out our ATVs instead. Though Cora lives close to the stables, so she tends to use horses during the summer.”

“How does that work?” Stiles asked curiously, following Derek around the house to the door. “The whole Werewolves thing. Don’t animals hate you guys?”

“We make them nervous, but the horses grew up with us around, so they don’t really know to be afraid of us. It’s like when you see all those zoo animals with service dogs and whatnot. Both animals are comfortable with one another because they grew up together so they don’t know to be nervous. The horses are like that with us, though I’m not really much of a horse person.”

“This place must be really fun in the summer,” Stiles said, looking around while Derek pushed open the front door of Laura’s home. “The snow is nice and all, but it’s probably gorgeous when the trees are in bloom.”

“It’s fine,” Derek said, which earned him a snort from Stiles, the two of them stepping into the front hall.

It was already littered with boots and coats, and the two of them added to the piles. Laura’s place was bigger than Derek’s, this cabin having been built to accommodate a large group of friends. Laura wanted a family, so it made sense for her to get a bigger one, and it worked out well for nights like this, where a group of people would be hanging out together.

They’d never had quiteas big a group as this before, considering both comprised of eight people, but it looked like Laura and Jason had just shoved all their living room furniture against the wall and laid out some blankets and pillows in the middle of the room to accommodate the larger crowd.

When they walked in, everyone was still in the midst of introductions, and had to partially start over since Stiles had missed the beginning. Laura ended up handing out red solo cups and a sharpie for everyone to write their names on, just to make life easier. Stiles spent entirely too long writing his name in an elaborate font, which was kind of funny when considering he was probably the only person everyone in the room would remember.

Stiles’ friends evidently wouldn’t forget him, and Laura hadn’t shut up about Stiles since yesterday so Derek’s side all knew him, too.

The humans were given some alcohol—after Laura legitimately checked IDs to confirm ages, despite Stiles partially covering his so they couldn’t see his name because apparently it was embarrassing and ‘Stiles’ was a nickname—and the wolves grabbed some aconite-laced pop and juice.

“I didn’t know this was a thing,” Scott said, looking down into his solo cup and sniffing suspiciously. “Are you sure this is okay?”

“We only laced it a little bit,” Laura promised. “Just to give a bit of a buzz. It’s supposed to be similar to being tipsy as a human.”

“Huh.” Scott squinted into his cup, then shrugged when he saw the other wolves drinking without concerns and took a tentative sip.

They all started settling in their huge circle, the snacks and more alcohol in the centre for easy access. Stiles fell down beside Erica, the two of them having started a conversation about some show they were apparently both watching and seeming uninterested in pausing while everyone else got organized.

Derek made a bee-line for him and practically hip-checked Matt out of the way to grab his other side. That earned him a scathing look and Derek just smirked while rubbing salt in the wound, leaning heavily over Stiles to join the conversation, saying something to Erica about a show he honestly hadn’t even heard of.

Stiles didn’t seem to mind the proximity, something Matt noticed and was very obviously annoyed about. The only downside was that he ended up snagging the spot right across from Stiles, so that meant he would be stuck looking at the asshole the whole night.

“Okay,” Laura said loudly, clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention. “First off, does everyone know how to play the game?”

There were some nods and grunts, confirming the room at large had played the game before in some capacity. Apparently Matt had only ever played it as a game called ‘Mafia,’ but the rules were basically the same.

One game master, moderator, narrator, whatever people wanted to call them knew everything about the characters, and everyone had to close their eyes at ‘night’ while the action unfolded. During the day, after someone’s death by Werewolf mauling, the villagers had to attempt to weed out the Werewolves and lynch them. If the game ended with a Werewolf standing, then the Werewolves won. If the villagers ended up surviving to the end, then they won.

“Cool. I kept in all the special cards except the village drunk, because that one’s boring, but I pulled out enough cards for us to have a good game. I figure I’ll be the game master for the first round, then we can draw straws or something for the other rounds. A reminder to the Werewolves at large,” she spun in a circle, pointing a finger at them all, “nocheating. This is all in good fun, so keep your ears to yourself. When we’re bored playing this, we can move on to other things.”

“We should do truth or dare,” Cora insisted with a mischievous grin. “We have enough people to make that reallyinteresting.”

“The last time we played truth or dare, half my living room got destroyed,” Jason said, beer bottle at his lips, “so, no.”

“Spoilsport.”

“We can decide on other games later. For now, we play!” Laura shuffled the deck of Werewolf cards while walking a slow circle around the group. She stopped in front of Boyd, holding the deck out for him, and he grabbed the top card. She moved around the circle clockwise for everyone to grab a card and when Derek got his, he sighed.

Werewolf. He was so bad at being a Werewolf. Which was ironic, considering he wasone. Once all the cards had been distributed, Laura went back to her seat, picking up her drink and sipping at it to give everyone time to figure out how they wanted to play their parts. Derek glanced at Stiles, who’d put his card face-down on the floor, and was drumming the fingers of his right hand overtop it, looking pensive.

“All right! Everyone go to sleep.”

Derek obediently closed his eyes, and when Laura called for the Werewolves to wake up, he opened them and looked around. Stiles grinned at him from right beside him, and slowly raised his hand to denote he was the Alpha. Derek couldn’t help smiling back, and then looked to see who the last werewolf was.

It was his friend Danny, and the three of them tried to pantomime who to kill before being put to sleep for the Seer to wake up.

The round lasted a fairly long time, with lots of arguing and yelling that only got more dramatic as the humans got tipsy and the wolves overindulged in aconite-laced drinks. The Werewolves won the first round by the skin of their teeth, and Derek was fairly certain it was because of Stiles. He was an exceptionally convincing liar when heartbeats were kept out of the overall equation.

The second round, Derek was the Seer and he died on the first night so he got to watch the game unfold as a bystander. Stiles was the Witch in this round, and managed to poison a Werewolf, which allowed the villagers to win the second round.

The last round they played ended in a tie, since the end result was one villager and one Werewolf. The villager couldn’t lynch the Werewolf without a second vote, and the Werewolf couldn’t kill the villager until nightfall, which wouldn’t come without someone getting lynched. Stiles was a Werewolf again, and Derek was starting to feel like he was reallygood at these kinds of games.

He’d probably do well playing Jackbox Games.

They couldn’t decide on another game to play by the end of the third round, and it was getting late. Most people had work the following day—not Derek, thankfully—and most of them were ‘happy’ from all the drinking they’d done, so it was safer to call it a night.

“This was super fun,” Stiles said to Laura with a huge grin. “Thanks for letting us come!”

“It was definitely more fun with a bigger group,” she agreed. “You’re welcome any time.”

Derek waited for the group to get organized and once they were outside, Erica and Boyd offered to take everyone back to the resort, since they had to head back that way anyway for their car to go home. Derek nodded his agreement, since it saved him from back-tracking, though he was kind of disappointed at losing out on more time with Stiles.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” Derek said to him. “We can meet at the airfield. Or in the lobby, if you’re not sure how to get there.”

“I amprone to getting lost in the woods when you’re not around,” Stiles insisted, despite that literally having happened only once.

“True,” Derek said anyway.

Stiles rocked on the balls of his feet, hands in the pockets of his coat and turning to look at his friends, who were chatting amongst themselves and waiting on him. Matt was staring at them exceptionally hard. Derek just stared right back up until Stiles faced him again, licking his lips.

“Hey, you still have my pie.”

Derek blinked, staring at Stiles’ big brown eyes. Was he... asking what he thought he was asking?

“I do,” he confirmed. “I do have your pie. Did you—want some pie?”

“You know, I think I might want some pie.” Stiles beamed at him, looking ridiculously pleased. “If you’re okay with me coming over to have pie.”

“It’s your pie, you’re definitely welcome to have it whenever you want.”

“Isn’t it a little latefor pie?” Matt asked coldly, clearly having been eavesdropping. “We should really be heading back.”

“Nothing wrong with a late night piece of pie,” Derek offered, smiling at Matt. It was all teeth, and he tried to make it as menacing as possible, a very clear, “Back the f*ck off, buddy.”

Matt didn’t seem entirely deterred, though he didn’t say anything else, grumbling under his breath and turning away while Stiles twisted and called out to Scott.

“I’m gonna grab some pie at Derek’s. See you later?”

“Sure man, text me.” Scott raised one hand in farewell. “Nice meeting you, Derek!”

“You too.”

They both stood watching the group head out, Matt checking over his shoulder a few times, as if waiting for Stiles to change his mind and catch up. He didn’t, standing beside Derek with his hands in his pockets while the others disappeared from sight.

Once they were definitely out of range, and Cora and Malia were coming out of the house, Derek smirked at Stiles, who looked a little sheepish.

“Sorry for inviting myself over.”

“It’s fine. Matt’s face was worth the annoyance of your company.”

“Lie,” Cora teased on her way by, poking at his arm. Derek turned to slap at her and she smacked him back. He took a huge step to whack at her again, but she twisted out of reach and he was too lazy to go after her any further.

“Siblings seem great, so glad I don’t have any,” Stiles said with a laugh.

“Yeah, bane of my existence,” Derek agreed with a sigh, moving around the side of the house. Cora and Malia lived close enough to walk, so only Derek had his snowmobile. And really, he only had it because of Stiles. Not that he minded, he liked being able to have an excuse to invite Stiles over.

Or have Stiles invite himself over. Derek was definitely keeping that pie.

“You’re really good at that game, by the way,” Derek said, the two of them climbing onto the snowmobile, Stiles shifting closer to him and wrapping his arms around his waist.

“Yeah, it’s all about observation and body language in a game like that, and I’m pretty good at it.”

Derek hummed his agreement and started up the machine, the conversation on hold for the moment. He was sure they could continue, since Derek could shout for Stiles to hear him, and his own hearing was good enough to hear anything Stiles had to say back, but it was better to have an actual conversation in the comfort of his living room.

Turning them around, Derek headed back for his place. He went a bit faster than usual, since he didn’t have to worry about groceries or the noise level this time, and he would admit to liking the tight grip Stiles had on him whenever he did a jump, like Stiles was worried he’d go flying off even though Derek made sure not to do anything too over the top.

When they reached his place, he drove them around back and parked, turning off the engine while Stiles stumbled off behind him.

“Dude, that was so fun!” Stiles said, grinning brightly and rearranging his tuque from its lopsided position. “I could barely see anything except what the light on your snowmobile illuminated so it was almost like flying blindly through the trees, it was awesome!”

Right. Night vision. Derek forgot about that a lot. Including now, since Stiles probably couldn’t see anything.

“Glad you had a good time.” He touched his shoulder lightly so that Stiles could grab hold of his arm and then led the way around to the front. Once inside, he flicked on the light and kicked off his boots, making his way to the end of the corridor and his kitchen. “Did you actually want pie, or was that just an excuse to spend more time with me?”

“I’ll never say no to pie,” Stiles insisted from the door, though Derek didn’t miss the fact that he hadn’t answered his question.

He cut a slice for Stiles and set it in the microwave to warm up before grabbing some applesauce from the pantry for himself. He had the pie on the counter with a fork by the time Stiles wandered into view, rubbing his hands together before blowing into them. He’d been wearing gloves, but the temperature had dropped over the course of the day.

“Thanks.” Stiles pulled the pie closer, then paused. “What about you?”

“It’s not my favourite,” he admitted, spooning more applesauce into his mouth.

“So what isyour favourite?” Stiles asked curiously, cutting through the crust with his fork and popping it into his mouth.

Derek held up his applesauce in answer and Stiles gave him a, “Fair enough” sort of look. Derek really liked apples. Apple pie was the most amazing thing in the world. Apples, cinnamon, flakey crust, just—perfection.

It was probably one of the reasons he didn’t mind having Stiles in his space. He smelled like a walking apple pie. That and the forest. Derek couldn’t say he had any problems with that scent lingering on his furniture or his clothes.

They were both silent for a moment while they ate their respective desserts, then Derek motioned the couch once they were done, leaving the dishes on his counter. They sat and chatted for a while longer, mostly about Stiles’ observational skills, but also about the book he’d chosen and what he thought of it.

Stiles had wrapped himself up in the blanket again, and Derek felt like he might have to leave that blanket there forever, just to ensure that Stiles did that every time he came over. He was kind of adorable all bundled up like that.

When Derek’s eyelids began to flag, having had a lot of late nights and early morning, Stiles checked the time on his phone and cursed, scrambling to his feet.

“sh*t, sorry. I keep doing that to you. At least you get to sleep in tomorrow, but still.”

“It’s fine,” Derek insisted, getting to his feet and stretching. He hesitated, watching Stiles for any cues on how he was feeling, and noting him dragging his feet a little. Not literally, but he was taking his time putting his phone away, fluffing the blanket, looking around for his coat despite it being in the front hall. “Did you... want to stay?” Stiles turned back to him and Derek shrugged. “I’d have to drive there and back again, and I’m meeting you in the morning anyway. We can just... save time. You can stay again, we can have some breakfast and then head out around ten for the fly-over. If you want.”

“Do you mind?” Stiles asked with a small wince. “I don’t want to impose or anything—”

“You’re not imposing.”

Stiles offered him a small smile, then nodded once. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. If you’re cool with it, it’s the better option anyway. Like you said, waste of your time to go back and forth all the time, and we both know I can’t be trusted alone in the woods.”

“Definitely not,” Derek agreed.

“Cool. So just—same clothes for me to sleep in?”

“Yeah, should be where you left them. Toothbrush too. And if you—I’m gonna shower in the morning, but if you need to shower or anything...”

“Maybe, yeah. Tomorrow morning or something.”

“Sure.”

“Cool.”

Derek felt like this was more awkward than usual. Probably because the other two times had legitimately been due to the late hour. This time, Derek wasn’t working in the morning, he coulddrive Stiles back, it wasn’t a hardship. He just... didn’t want to.

And Stiles didn’t seem to want him to, either.

This was both of them actively admitting they wanted to spend more time together, and while it wasn’t a secret given they’d hung out a fair bit the past few days, it somehow seemed more poignant when that ‘hanging out’ literally involved just sleeping.

“Okay, I’ll—bathroom. I’ll go first?” Stiles motioned down the corridor.

“Yeah, sure.”

Stiles nodded and moved around him to head for the bathroom. Derek didn’t know why, but the air felt reallycharged all of a sudden and he rubbed at his mouth with one hand in an attempt to get himself under control.

This wasn’t any different from the past two nights, it was just... an admission on both sides that they wanted to spend time together. That was all. It was fine.

He didn’t know why his heart rate had just picked up. There was no reason for his heart rate to pick up! What was he, a f*cking lovesick teenager? Jesus.

Shaking the feeling off, Derek moved to the kitchen to busy himself with putting the dishes away. He set an alarm on his phone for nine to make sure they were both up in time for Stiles’ fly-over, then went to double-check the door was locked. He wondered if having a human in the house was making him more paranoid about safety, because he really didn’t check the door this much when he was by himself.

Stiles came out of the bathroom before Derek had managed to get back to his room to change, so he grabbed a fresh pair of shorts and then traded places with him. He changed out in the bathroom, brushed his teeth, did his business, and then finished getting organized for the night. When he was done, he went through the cabin to turn off all the lights, checked the door again, and then headed into his room with his dirty clothes, tossing them into his laundry basket while shutting his bedroom door.

When he looked over at the bed, Stiles was yet again sitting up with his phone on the side that was sort of kind of his. He was probably texting his friends to tell them he wasn’t coming back again, a slight furrow between his brows.

“Everything okay?” Derek asked, waiting for him to finish before turning off the light.

“Hm?” Stiles looked up at him. “Oh, yeah, fine. They just had a near miss with Kate apparently. Boyd and Erica took them in around back since she was smoking out front with some guy. Ally’s a little shaken up about it.”

Derek hesitated. “Do you need to go?”

“I asked if he wanted me to head back, but Scott said she’s okay and not to worry about it. He’s her boyfriend, so he’s really all she needs. And she’s got Lydia and Kira with her, too. I’ll just grab her something nice from the bakery tomorrow to help cheer her up.” He locked his phone and set it down on the nightstand.

Derek got the light when Stiles was settled, then plugged in his phone and slid under the covers. Stiles had turned to face him, but Derek wondered what he could see, considering his limited vision. Most places in the city had lights outside, but the woods were dark so it was literallypitch black for him. Stiles likely couldn’t even see his shadowed profile.

“She deleted her Facebook a few years ago,” Stiles admitted quietly. “Her Instagram too. I don’t know, after everything that went down with Kate, it was like Ally tried to make herself disappear from existence. Like she didn’t want anyone to know who she was, because her aunt was batsh*t crazy. She was kind of a mess for a while, if I’m honest. I didn’t think she and Scott were gonna make it with how bad things got.”

“I know what kind of damage Kate can do to people,” Derek admitted quietly.

“Yeah. I guess—she probably did something to your family too, huh? Since you already knew about her.” Stiles went quiet for a moment. “You don’t have to tell me or anything, but whatever it was, I’m sorry. I saw first-hand how f*cked up she is, and the fact that she tried to get her niece killed in an attempt to off my best friend... Can’t say I’m too happy she’s hanging around.”

“She comes four times a year,” Derek admitted. “She tried to get an in with our family so that she could destroy the business from the inside. She wanted to completely ruin my parents.”

“sh*t, what a f*cking bitch.”

“It’s not murder like your situation, but I don’t know if what happened with Scott and Allison was before or after her attempts here. Given our ages, probably after. She might’ve escalated.”

“Kate’s dad was a grade A douchebag,” Stiles said. “I think she tried to be like him for a while after he died, but then realized she was going to end up on the wrong end of a rifle and decided to go back to whatever she was trying before. Like with your family. She’s a little unstable, so who really knows. Would be great if we could have her arrested, but it’s hard to makes charges about the Supernatural stick without outingthe Supernatural.”

“Yeah.” Derek rolled onto his side so he could see Stiles more clearly in the darkness. Stiles didn’t seem to be looking at anything, further proving he couldn’t see him, but he kept his eyes open anyway. “She almost got in,” he admitted quietly.

“Got in?” Stiles asked.

“To the family. She almost tricked her way into the family.” He paused. “It was my fault.”

“Nothing is anyone’s fault where she’s involved.” Stiles snorted. “She’s a manipulative, crazy bitch. It’s an all-around bad combination.”

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “She used to flirt with me a lot. Before. I was young, and stupid, and I thought she loved me. My mom was concerned, kept trying to talk me out of being around her too much. I was stubborn and a dick, so I thought she just hated our age gap and was being protective. Kind of found out the hard way my mom was right.”

“How?”

“Overheard Kate on the phone, talking about her plans and how naive and easy I was. She wasn’t wrong, in retrospect, but it was a hard pill to swallow at the time.” He made a face. “I was around sixteen when I met her.”

“Wow, nice to know she’s trying to tick all the boxes,” Stiles said dryly. “Statutory rape, murder, manipulation, hate crimes.”

“A real winner,” Derek agreed with a snort. “She’s the reason I don’t like people.”

“Can’t say I blame you, to be honest,” Stiles agreed. “People can be the worst.”

“Not all of them.”

He saw the corner of Stiles’ lips quirk at that, like he was holding back a smile. “Yeah well, some of us try to be good people. And I’m glad I managed to almost die my way into your life. You’re a pretty cool guy, despite what Erica keeps saying about you.”

Derek rolled his eyes, because he was no stranger to the multitude of compliments Erica had been giving him the past few hours. But he knew she cared about him, same as he did her. They just had a weird way of showing their affection for one another. He cared about everyone in his pack, even if he wasn’t great at showing it.

“I can’t say I’m too upset about you almost killing yourself,” Derek admitted. “Emphasis on the ‘almost’ though, because you dying would’ve been bad for business.”

“Yeah, probably. ‘Stupid teen dies trying to use a shortcut to buy cake from a closed store.’ Best headline ever, to be honest.”

“Better than ‘Idiot mauled to death by pack of wolves trying to feed his sugar addiction.’”

“It was not mysugar addiction,” Stiles insisted, pointing a finger in an approximate estimation of Derek’s face. “I had pie. It was the others who wanted cake.”

“Can’t say I’m too upset they wanted cake,” Derek admitted again. Honestly, there were a lot of things about that first day he couldn’t be too upset about, up to and including Stiles being here for the third night in a row.

He didn’t know whyStiles kept coming back like he didn’t mind his company, but he was glad for it.

Stiles was silent for a moment, blinking in the darkness, a pensive look on his face. Then he slowly sat up, Derek arching an eyebrow but not moving. Stiles turned to look down at him—or, where he thought he was, at any rate—and licked his lips.

“This isn’t just—me, right? Like, I know I joke and flirt and stuff, but this is... It’s not just me, right?”

Derek stared at him for a moment. At the way his eyes shifted from side to side unseeingly, the way he worried his bottom lip, the steady increase in his heart rate. Stiles looked like the kind of person who didn’t understand his own worth. It was the same thoughts Derek had when he considered how little regard Stiles held towards his own well-being. He cared about other people far more than himself, and for all his bravado, he didn’t seem to think much of himself.

Sure, he’d flirted with Derek upon arrival, but it was clear he hadn’t expected it to go anywhere. It was like he was used to constantly being overlooked, second best, last chosen, that even now, in this moment, where Derek felt he wasn’t being extremely subtle, even nowStiles stillwasn’t sure.

Shifting so he could sit up, Stiles tried to track his movement based on sound, and started slightly when Derek pressed one hand to his cheek, rubbing his thumb against his skin.

“It’s not just you,” he agreed quietly. “I know we haven’t really known each other very long, but you’re just... I like spending time with you. I want to spend moretime with you. You’re fun, and interesting, and if you wanted to spend your whole vacation locked up in my cabin, I wouldn’t say no to that.”

Stiles’ heart did something weird in his chest and he suddenly looked a little flustered. “Oh. That’s—wow. Yeah see, I’m not used to things working out in my favour, this is kind of new territory for me. All my usual crushes kind of crash and burn and we come out the other side as friends.”

Derek couldn’t help the small smile at that, thumb still moving lightly along Stiles’ skin. “Can’t say I’m too upset by that.”

“You don’t seem too upset by much,” Stiles admitted quietly.

“Maybe I like the idea that other people were too stupid to see your worth.”

Stiles let out a half-hysterical laugh, and it was actually one of the most adorable things Derek had seen him do to date. He reached up with both hands, finding Derek’s shoulders, then bringing them up to his face, dragging his fingers through his beard.

“So am I going to play ‘plant the kiss on the Werewolf’ or you gonna help me out here?”

“That sounds like a fun game,” Derek admitted with a snort. “But maybe some other time.”

Stiles’ expression faltered slightly, but clearly it was because he misunderstood. Derek was more than okay with playing ‘plant the kiss on the Werewolf’ some other time, but right now, he’d rather they just skip the awkward attempts for Stiles to find his lips in the pitch black and just go right to the actual kissing part.

So Derek leaned forward, being sure to give Stiles plenty of notice, and brushed their lips together lightly. Stiles still jerked at the action, startled, but it didn’t last long. The second he knew exactlywhere Derek’s lips were, he dove right in. His hands shifted from Derek’s face back into his hair and he parted his lips in an open invitation, pressing himself closer to Derek.

Not one to ignore a blatant offer, Derek’s tongue slid past Stiles’ lips, tangling with his, and wow. It had been a while since he’d actually made out with someone. He couldn’t remember the last time he had, and quite frankly, he didn’t want to. Because he didn’t want to compare anything to this right now.

Stiles fit so perfectlyagainst him, Derek’s free hand snaking around his waist and splaying along the small of his back, pulling him closer. Stiles’ shirt had ridden up a bit so that Derek’s palm was flat against his bare skin, and he suddenly wished they didn’t have that extra layer between them.

When Stiles pulled back briefly to breathe, keeping their faces close enough that their lips were still touching, like he was worried he’d lose track of where Derek’s were if he shifted away too much, Derek shifted their positions with the hand at the base of Stiles’ spine so that he fell back onto the mattress with Derek on top of him.

The blankets got tangled between their legs, Derek growling at the inconvenience of it, but he didn’t want to let go of Stiles to deal with it so he did his best to ignore it. Stiles was already half-hard beneath him and Derek rocked down into him, mind going back to a few hours before when he’d done the same thing against him while sitting on the snowmobile.

A groan slid up Stiles’ throat, swallowed up by Derek’s mouth on his, and Stiles’ legs wrapped around his waist, rocking upwards into him.

When Derek broke off to bite and suck at Stiles’ neck, another positively filthygroan slid up his throat. It was something Derek hoped nobody else everheard, because he wanted that sound to belong only to him.

“f*ck,” Stiles insisted, tilting his head back to give Derek more room to work. “f*ck, I don’t have any spare underwear here, I swear to God, don’t do this to me.”

The irony of his words was the fact that Stiles was rocking up into Derek almost as hard as Derek was grinding down into him.

“You can go commando,” he insisted, biting particularly hard at the juncture where neck and shoulder met. He didn’t exactly meanto leave any marks behind, but if they went back to the resort tomorrow and Matt saw Stiles completely coveredin marks and hickeys, well, he couldn’t say that would upset him too much.

Werewolves were territorial, and liked marking their territory. It was no different when that territory happened to be a person, and as long as Stiles didn’t tell him to stop—which he would, immediately—he wasn’t going to worry about leaving behind a few reminders of their evening.

“f*ck, I hate you!” Derek heard the lie in both his voice and his chest and smirked against his neck.

“I can fix that problem,” he admitted, licking his way to Stiles’ sternum, then pulling back so he could wrench Stiles’ shirt up to his armpits and sliding his tongue down the centre of his chest. He let his hands slide down Stiles’ sides as he lowered himself, and felt the hands in his hair tightening before one of them left. Stiles’ heart was pounding in his chest like crazy, and Derek honestly wondered if people had been stupid enough to leave someone as perfect as him waiting on the sidelines. Their loss was his gain, apparently.

Managing to kick the blankets off the end of the bed, Derek licked and sucked his way down Stiles’ body, biting at his ribs on his left side, then his stomach close to his belly button, then tugging his sweats and shorts down a bit so he could leave another mark on his hipbone.

“Oh f*ck. Oh sh*t. Oh f*cking f*ck!”

Derek was insanely pleased with the sounds escaping him, and he looked up the length of Stiles’ body at him. The hand he’d pulled back earlier was up over Stiles’ head, gripping the headboard so hard his knuckles were turning white. The other was still in Derek’s hair, tugging almost painfully every few seconds, like he was trying to stop himself from hurting him even though he wouldn’thurt him. Werewolf and all, he didn’t think Stiles could hurt him too badly by getting overexcited.

It occurred to him how disorienting this must be for Stiles, in a way. He couldn’t seeanything, it was almost like wearing a blindfold. All he could really do was take his cues from what Derek was doing, but even that had its limits. Case and point being right now, since he’d lifted his head to look up at Stiles, and thus had left him with absolutely noidea what he was doing.

Stiles’ chest rose and fell rapidly and he arched his back, left leg bending slightly and pressing into Derek’s side. Well, he wasn’t going to let Stiles suffer for long, that would be cruel, and honestly, Derek was really enjoying the view.

Maybe he should be thanking Heather for her poor decision to tell Stiles about the shortcut. He didn’t think they’d have ended up here otherwise.

Derek’s hands were already gripping the sides of Stiles’ sweats and shorts from having bitten at his hipbone, but he tugged them down slowly, watching Stiles’ face the entire time, and enjoying the expression flitting across his features.

He kept tugging and tugging all the way until Stiles’ dick was freed, slapping back against his abdomen, which had the hand on the headboard tighten even further. Derek pulled the pants down a bit further to about mid-thigh, then bit at the inside of Stiles’ left one without warning. He jerked at the action, breathing kicking up a notch, but all Derek could smell rolling off him in waves was arousal.

“You’re gonna have so many marks when I’m done with you that everyone will know who you belong to,” Derek said against the bite he’d just given him, licking at it a moment later.

“f*ck me,” Stiles groaned, jerking his hips up desperately for friction that wasn’t there.

“Not tonight.” Derek swiped his tongue along the bite once more, wanting to soothe the pain somewhat, and sat up to reposition himself a bit better. He paused while doing so, staring down at Stiles, because he was quitethe sight to behold.

With his shirt rucked up to his armpits, bite marks littering his neck and torso, and his pants halfway down his legs, his co*ck flat against his stomach and drooling pre-cum. This was a sight Derek honestly felt like he could get used to.

His wolf was growling possessively in the back of his mind and he felt his eyes burn as they flashed, drinking in the sight. He quite enjoyed seeing his marks all over Stiles. He felt like he might want to give him a few more before the night was through.

First though, he had something he needed to follow through on, and his eyes shifted down to Stiles’ dick again. Shifting back on the bed on his knees, Derek pressed his hands against Stiles’ hips and bent down, licking a stripe up his co*ck. Predictably, Stiles tried to jerk his hips upwards, but Derek held them firmly to the bed.

“Oh f*ck,” he moaned. “f*ck, Derek.”

Oh yeah, he reallyliked Stiles saying his name like that. He sounded wrecked and desperate and his voice was all husky and sexed out. Derek definitely wanted to hear more of that right now.

The hand in his hair had briefly left him when Derek had sat up, but it came back now, twisting in the strands and tugging almost insistently. Who was Derek to deny Stiles something he so desperately wanted? It would be rude.

Keeping one hand pressed against Stiles’ left hip, he brought the other up to grip his co*ck, pumping it agonizingly slowly a few times justto make him squirm before licking up the length of it once more and sucking on the tip.

Stiles’ hips stuttered again, but not insistently, more in reaction to what had just happened. Derek let his tongue dip into the slit, collecting the pre-cum there, and then being mindful of his teeth—he honestly didn’t trust himself not to wolf out right now—he slowly lowered his face down until his nose was buried in coarse pubes, a shuddery breath escaping Stiles at the action.

Swallowing once around the co*ck in his mouth, Derek sucked hard on his way back up, Stiles bucking slightly and another strangled shout escaping him. He curled his legs slightly, like he wanted to close them around Derek’s head, but managed to resist, planting both feet flat on the mattress and arching his back.

“f*ck, f*ck. Oh f*ck!”

Derek was going to tease him about that later. Stiles liked to use that word during sexual encounters, apparently.

He set a relatively slow pace at first, mostly because he was enjoying watching Stiles squirm. His own dick was painfully hard in his shorts, but he ignored that in favour of making Stiles lose his mind. He really wanted to make this a blowj*b Stiles was nevergoing to forget.

After what was probably an agonizingly long time for Stiles, Derek slowly began to pick up the pace, his free hand moving down to squeeze at Stiles’ balls before moving lower and rubbing his middle finger against his perineum.

Stiles had turned his head into his raised arm, biting hard at his biceps even as his other hand continued to tug in intervals at Derek’s hair. Derek kept his eyes locked on Stiles’ blissed out face as he continued to bob his head, knowing when he was getting close because of the shift in his breathing and the small, aborted jerks of his hips.

It didn’t take long for him to get pushed over the edge, Stiles biting down harder against his own arm before ripping his face away from it and arching his back with a shout. It sounded like he’d tried to warn Derek, but hadn’t quite made it, eyes clenched shut and teeth biting into his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood.

Derek held him down with his one hand, the other still rubbing at his perineum even as he sucked hard on his way back up Stiles’ co*ck, most of his cum having gone straight down his throat. He made sure to tongue the slit for every last drop before letting Stiles’ dick slide past his lips, sitting up at the foot of the bed and staring down at him.

He was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and had brought the one arm over his eyes as he struggled to breathe, chest rising and falling rapidly. It looked like he was trembling slightly, but whether that was from the intense org*sm, the cold, or both, Derek wasn’t sure. He liked to think he’d literally sucked Stiles’ soul out of his dick though.

Smirking, he slowly slid his way back up Stiles’ body, biting more marks into his pale skin as he went and licking the hurt away afterwards, all the way up to his collarbone. He left a particularly dark hickey there, just because he could and Stiles didn’t stop him, then kissed him again lightly, Stiles’ lips slightly parted as he continued his attempts to breathe.

Derek’s shorts felt sticky and uncomfortable, and when he glanced down, he realized that at some point, he’d actually creamed his pants. If he had to guess, it was when Stiles had come, because that had been kind of an overload of... everything. Scents, sounds, the feel of Stiles’ skin, everything.

“I think I died,” Stiles insisted, lips moving against Derek’s since he was still hovering over him. “I think you killed me.”

“You’re a pretty hot corpse then,” Derek offered, kissing him lightly again. “And I saved your underwear.”

Stiles let out a startled laugh at that, letting his arm slide off his eyes, even though he still couldn’t see anything in the dark. “Yeah. I guess you did. If you give me a second to come back to life, I’ll return the favour.”

“You already did.”

“I—what?”

Derek had one hand braced by Stiles’ head, the other still on his hip. He shifted the hand on his hip away and slid it into his own boxer-briefs, fingers coming back sticky with cum. He lowered his hand to Stiles’ stomach and smeared it across his skin.

Stiles jerked slightly, eyes widening before looking down the length of his body unseeingly. “Did you just—did you rub your cum all over my stomach?!”

“Just making sure people know who you belong to.” Derek kissed his cheek, then the side of his neck.

“Pretty sure all the hickeys and bite marks are going to be more than enough!”

“Not to wolves.”

“The only person who wants into my pants isn’t a wolf!” Stiles paused. “Aside from you, clearly.”

Derek just hummed his agreement, still running his cum-covered hand along Stiles’ skin, over his stomach, up his sides, across his chest.

“Is this going to be a thing with you?” Stiles asked after a few moments.

“Probably.”

“Hm.” Stiles was silent for a few seconds, then said, “I think I need to start bringing more clothes when I come to your place.”

“Don’t. I like it when you wear my clothes.”

“Fine, but fair warning, I definitelydraw the line at underwear.”

“That’s okay, I like you better commando anyway.”

“You are going to make my life verydifficult.”

Derek just smirked against Stiles’ skin, enjoying their mixed scents and the images of Stiles already burned into his memory.

“Hope you can keep up, because trust me little bunny, I’m very, verygood at chasing.”

The way Stiles’ heart stuttered in his chest was immeasurablysatisfying. Derek had never felt so f*cking sated in his life.

Stiles didn’t know why, but things with Derek seemed to be so f*cking easy. Like, everything about their friendship and pseudo-relationship was just easy. There was no weird awkwardness, no bouts of discomfort, no necessity to explain themselves to each other.

Honestly, Stiles was soconfident in their weird relationship that after their activities and a shared shower where Derek got all handsy again, Stiles told him to stop just because he felt a little over-stimulated and he’d known immediately that Derek would before he even did. He’d asked him to stop and Derek had backed off instantly.

He’d made it clear it wasn’t about not wantinghim—because God he did, he really did—but he was just a little over-sensitive after what they’d done. His legs were barely holding him up, so having Derek try and start something in the shower was going to have him on his ass.

He’d slept like a rock afterwards, half on top of Derek like always, though he fell asleep like that this time instead of just waking up like that from having shifted around in the night. He kind of hated Derek’s alarm clock for going off, but at least they’d already showered and it went off much later than he was used to when he slept over at Derek’s.

Said individual hit the snooze button three times before he declared it time for them to get up. Stiles whined about it, but he also had a fly-over to look forward to, so he tried not to be too upset about it.

He had to borrow another shirt from Derek, and some socks, and didn’t miss the hungry look he got when he pulled the borrowed items on. Derek hadn’t been kidding about liking him in his clothes, Stiles figured it was a wolf thing. He knew Allison wore a lot of Scott’s clothes, but that was mostly because she found them comfortable. Now he wondered if it was actually for the same reason.

Stiles made breakfast again, since he liked cooking and Derek hated it for some unknown reason. He had a Werewolf attached to his back the entire time, teeth and lips against the skin of his shoulder and neck as he worked.

When Stiles went to the bathroom before they left, he took a second to inspect himself in the mirror. Derek had really gone to town all over, and he kind of wished he’d gotten a turtleneck this time. Of course, today was the day Derek handed over a soft long-sleeved shirt with a low V instead of a turtleneck, likely because he wanted his work to be visible.

What a dick.

Stiles didn’t hate it...

They made it to the resort relatively quickly, and then Derek led him out back and through a path in the trees. The airfield was all clearly marked with signs and whatnot, but Derek insisted he didn’t trust Stiles not to get lost. He then used that as an excuse to hold his hand, and while Stiles was annoyed they were both wearing gloves, it was still nice to have Derek’s hand in his.

He realized, quite embarrassed, that they were about to see Derek’s fatherwhen they reached the airfield, and his neck was... not subtle. He felt ready to die when the man’s eyes dipped down to look at it, clearly visible with the shirt he was wearing and his lack of scarf since his coat wasn’t done up all the way, but he thankfully didn’t say anything.

The fly-over was f*cking amazing. Stiles kind of wished it was hours and hours long, though he did acknowledge he was up in the air perhaps a bitlonger than normal people. Probably Derek’s father trying to indulge him, but a part of him also wondered if it was because he was being a bit of a dick to his son. Derek was practically crushing Stiles’ hand almost the entire time, and Stiles honestly wasn’t sure how much he looked out at the scenery.

Either way, Stiles enjoyed himself a great deal and was very vocal about it with Mr. Hale once they’d landed again. Derek looked a little green, and seemed more than happy to be back on solid ground, but Stiles appreciated that he’d gone with him, even if it was kind of his mother’s fault. Still, he hadn’t backed out, despite his clear discomfort, so Stiles kissed his cheek in thanks and then dragged him back towards the resort for lunch.

Predictably, Stiles spent the whole day with Derek. After lunch, Derek drove them both into town in his bomb ass Camaro that was parked in the underground lot of the resort. There was a gated area for the staff who had to drive in, along with all the Hale’s vehicles that they kept there in the winter. During the summer, they parked most of them above ground near the main house, but since they used them far less in the winter, they got to hang out in the underground lot.

Derek drove him around to show him all his favourite places, including the school he’d been to and the various hangouts and ‘fun’ places for teenagers to do stupid teenage sh*t. Stiles ended up comparing a lot of it to his own home town of Beacon Hills, and they argued the merits of growing up in small towns versus big cities, which was a hard conversation to have given neither of them knew what growing up in a big city was like.

They had dinner at Derek’s favourite place growing up—it was mostly diner food, but that suited Stiles just fine—and then headed back to the resort. Despite reallywanting to spend the night with Derek again, Stiles recognized he’d kind of neglected his friends, so after parking in the lot and heading back up to the lobby, he bid him good night and promised he’d see him first thing in the morning. Derek was working again, and Stiles still couldn’t snowboard, so he was going to take up his perch at the entrance once more.

When he got back to the room, the others were just about ready to go swimming in the heated pool, Scott having texted Stiles four times about it, which he hadn’t seen because his phone was dead all day on account of him... not having charged it... in a while.

After telling them to go on ahead, he plugged his phone in, changed out, and then headed downstairs. They were the only ones in the pool, and Stiles stood inside for a long while debating whether or not he wanted to do this. On the one hand, snowball fight in a heated pool. On the other hand, he had to go through the snow and cold winter air to get tothe pool.

Eventually, he sighed and made a mad dash for the water, tossing his towel on one of the heated seats on his way by before cannonballing into the deep-end. He got a few double-takes that he didn’t understand at first, and then remembered he had bite marks literally everywhere. Matt looked pissed. Lydia looked smug. Scott just looked happy, like he was glad Stiles was having a good time.

Such a bro, Scott. Stiles loved the guy.

They hung out in the pool for almost two hours, Stiles avoiding Matt—who seemed in a bad mood anyway, so that was fairly easy—and when they got out, it was a mad scramble to get their towels and head back inside. Stiles kept his towel around his shoulders on his way back to the elevator, since it covered up a majority of the marks, but he caught sight of Erica leering at him across the lobby and figured the towel wasn’t doing much for him.

After they warmed up, they headed to the village since it was still early enough and stopped to grab some drinks and goodies from the café Derek had taken Stiles to for lunch. It wasn’t Hayden working, but the guy behind the till was as friendly as she’d been, and they were allowed to sit and hang out until close, chatting and laughing together.

Matt’s sour mood was kind of a damper on things, but most of them ignored him so it made it easier to just enjoy their time together. After finishing up their drinks and snacks—Stiles got a brownie this time, and it was just sogood, f*ck—they headed back to the resort.

The girls were talking about taking a break from skiing the following day, and Stiles tried not to be disappointed about it since the whole purpose of the trip was to spend time with his friends. Still, he didn’t really have much time with Derek, and a selfish part of him insisted he’d rather be spending time with him.

Then again, Derek was working all day, and staring at each other longingly across the lobby wasn’t really a productive way to spend his day, so when they asked him to do an activity with them that he coulddo, he agreed to it.

That was how he spent the next day snow-shoeing. It wasn’t exactly his thing, but the girls were having fun, and Jackson ended up tagging along for some reason, so he and Stiles just hung back and chatted about Jackson’s courses while following the group along. And it did Stiles some good to get some exercise, if he was honest, andhe spent time with the friends he didn’t see much. He’d have loved to have a few spare moments with Danny, but he seemed to have a Matt attachment, and no thank you.

They got back late in the afternoon with Stiles positively ravenous, but when he went to check on Derek, he’d already gone to lunch—not because he didn’t want to wait for Stiles, but because he was a Werewolf and they got realcranky when they were hungry—so he just joined the girls and Jackson in the restaurant. It was still a good time, but he was practically counting down the minutes lost with Derek.

He kept reminding himself Derek was workingand thus they wouldn’t really be spending time together, but still. By this point, it had been almost twenty-four hours since they’d last spent time together, and Stiles was really starting to feel it. Which seemed pathetic when he thought about it, but if the way Derek tracked his movements whenever he walked across the lobby was anything to go by, Derek was feeling the same way.

Stiles went back up to the room with the others, and when Allison and Kira decided to go to the spa again, Stiles stayed behind to play some card games with a reluctant and whiny Jackson while Lydia read magazines on one of the beds. Eventually, Jackson got bored and started watching TV, so Stiles just sat leaning back against the closest bed and tried to read the book he’d borrowed from Derek, despite the fact that he kept getting distracted by the TV.

When the others came back from skiing and showered, Lydia texted Kira and Allison to come back so they could all make dinner together in the suite.

Stiles went down briefly to find out what Derek’s evening plans were, but he only said he was having dinner at his parents’ place and had no other immediate plans. Stiles asked if he could come and have pie again at his place, and Derek had just smiled and said he’d come back around eight with the snowmobile, since he’d jogged to work that morning without Stiles there to make his breakfast.

Dinner was in the process of being made when Stiles got back upstairs, Kira and Allison having returned by then. It was nothing fancy, mostly just ready-made meals and some butter tarts, but it was more about the company than the food anyway. Matt was in a bit of a better mood, which was nice for everyone in the room except for Stiles. He didn’t want to kill the happy though, so he tried to be a little less hostile than usual, though he mayhave made sure to keep a regular T-shirt on so the collar exposed as many of his hickeys as possible. He was a little cold, but it was worth it for the annoyed look that flickered across Matt’s face every time he looked over at him.

Stiles kept an eye on the time, not wanting to be late for Derek, and at half-past seven, Scott nudged him and motioned the door, so the two of them headed out. Scott didn’t say anything while they went down the elevator and once they reached the lobby, he led him towards the back. They didn’t go outside, but they hung out near the door, both of them watching the snow fall through the window, coating everything in a fresh layer of white.

“You heading over to Derek’s today?”

Stiles felt guilty immediately, because he hadn’t actually... said anything. That meant Scott had noticed him keeping an eye on the time.

“Was uh, thinking about it, yeah.”

“Good.”

Stiles arched an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, good?”

“You seem happy.” Scott shrugged. “I know this trip became a little disappointing for you when the doctor said you couldn’t snowboard, and I know it was downright ruinedwhen Matt showed up, so I’m glad you’re having a good time. And you seem to really like him. And he clearlylikes you.” He turned to eye Stiles’ neck, then made a face. “By the way, you still smell like his spunk.”

“Wha—I showered!” Stiles insisted. Seriously, the happy times had happened on Wednesday and it was now Friday, he’d definitelyshowered at least twice since then!

“Yeah, that takes a while to come off, especially if it’s rubbed into your skin. Which he obviously did.”

Stiles shoved at Scott to make him shut up, feeling heat rising up his throat. It also occurred to him that Scott knew this because he’d probably done it to Allison, and wowthat was a visual he didn’t need. Bad brain, cease and desist!

“I feel like I’m being a bad friend,” he admitted quietly, looking out at the snow again.

“You’re not,” Scott insisted. “You spend all day inside, alone, while we’re out skiing. Derek’s working, so it’s not like you get to spend time with himeither. And really, you can spend time with us whenever you want. You see Allison and I literally all the time, you’re visiting Jackson and Danny for Reading Week in February, Lydia’s coming to see us in March, and Kira’s spending all summer back in Beacon Hills with us before she starts job-hunting. It’s not like you’re going to be lacking in time with us, and I mean, we see you off and on during the day.” He looked over at Stiles, offering him a smile. “We’re not upset, you know. We get it. Nobody cares that you’re spending time with Derek.”

“Matt cares,” Stiles said, smirking a little. Scott laughed and nodded in agreement.

“Matt definitelycares, but that’s his problem. You wanted a winter romance on this vacation, and somehow you actually managed to bag that.” Stiles snorted, shoving him lightly for the insult, but Scott’s smile fell and his expression turned a bit more serious when he continued. “This thing you guys have, you and Derek... I don’t know man, but I don’t think it’s fleeting. Like, he looksat you, you know? I saw it when we went to play games the other night. And you guys seem really attuned to each other. You’re having actual meaningful conversations, not just talking about the weather or fluffy things that people having a fling would talk about.” He shrugged. “I don’t know, but if this is all the time you guys get, you might as well make the most of it.”

Stiles pressed his lips together, watching the snow fall a bit more heavily outside. He hoped Derek was okay coming back. He could probably make the trek with his eyes closed, and he wasa Werewolf, but still.

“You’re sure you guys don’t mind?” Stiles asked, slanting a glance his way.

Scott patted him on the shoulder. “It’s totally fine. We all talked about it, without Matt around, obviously. We’re just glad you’re having a good time, since you were kind of the only one whose vacation got shot.”

Stiles nodded slowly, thinking things over a bit. “It’s not like I’m gonna livethere, you know? It’s his place. But if I could like, maybe bring some underwear, at least? In case I stay over kind of thing? And that way Jackson can have the bed to himself.”

“Yeah, he’s been reallyenjoying that, you might have ruined our dynamic for our next trip, Jackson’s not gonna want to share with Danny again.” Scott grinned at him and Stiles snorted, nudging him again.

“I’ll still be here, though. Like, during the day, if anyone wants to hang out, I’ll be here. Just—might spend a few evenings with Derek, is all. He usually has dinner with his parents anyway, so it’s not like I won’t stick around with you guys.”

“As long as we know what you’re up to, that’s the important thing.” Scott slapped him in the arm again. “What time is he meeting you at?”

“Eight. For pie.”

“And probably more than pie,” Scott teased. Stiles just snorted again and shoved at him, the two of them looking out the window once more for a long while.

When they went back upstairs, Stiles subtly packed his carry-on with a few items, including his phone charger, and when he went down to the lobby to meet Derek, the Werewolf didn’t say anything about it, but Stiles could tell he was pleased.

Stiles spent the night again, and while there was nothing sexual this time, they stayed up fartoo late for Derek’s schedule talking, and that more than anything made Stiles feel like Scott was right.

Whatever this thing with Derek was, it wasn’t exactly fleeting, and the thought of that kind of terrified him.

But not enough for him to want to stop.

“We don’t have to play if you’re not interested,” Derek said, sitting down on the couch with his laptop and setting it up on the coffee table, plugging in the power cord. “You don’t have to let Laura bully you.”

“It sounds fun,” Stiles insisted. “Besides, I want to see what all the fuss is about. Erica and Cora were whining at me earlier that they need someone to knock you off your pedestal, so we’ll see how much my ADHD and wealth of useless knowledge comes in handy.”

Derek glanced over at him to gauge his expression, wanting to be sure he wasn’tfeeling pressured into this. Laura could be extremely persuasive when she wanted to be, and the last thing Derek needed was for Stiles to have a sh*tty night because his sister was a bully.

But he seemed perfectly happy, tapping away at his phone while he read through the rules of the various games available in the Jackbox Games pack. Derek had asked Laura to try and stick to the trivia games or the voting games more than anything else. It would be harder for Stiles to do well or have fun in a game like Fibbage, where it relied heavily on people’s knowledge of one another to be any fun.

And he wantedStiles to have a good time. Not only because he deserved it, but also because Derek felt kind of bad for him and how bored he always seemed to be. Stiles had spent the night the day before, and then gone back with him in the morning for the start of his shift. He’d read for a while until his friends came down for a late breakfast and had gone to have brunch with them. Afterwards, he’d basically spent the entire day sitting in the lobby reading, changing positions on his seat so often that Derek was waiting for the time he’d look over and find Stiles hanging upside down in boredom while he tried to read.

It wasn’t that he thought Stiles found the book boring, but more that he didn’t seem like the kind of guy to sit around. He always seemed to be moving, and not being able to was obviously a struggle for him. But he’d managed, sticking to the book all day and finishing it just before he went to dinner with his friends. He’d joined Derek for lunch hours earlier, though his late second breakfast meant Stiles wasn’t hungry and he just munched on some chips from the café while Derek ate his usual sandwich.

They’d already agreed to meet up at eight that night in the lobby again, so it gave Stiles time to have fun with his friends at dinner and a bit afterwards, and allowed Derek time with his family—much as he didn’t want to see them right now, since his sisters were annoying. At least his dad hadn’t said anything about Stiles’ appearance when he’d seen him on Thursday at the airfield, but Erica had blabbed which was how she and Cora ended up chatting with Stiles in the lobby today, and Laura ended up coming by at some point when Derek hadn’t noticed.

Derek couldn’t exactly help that he’d gotten carried away. It had been three days since he’d marked up Stiles’ neck—and other places—and most of them were still visible. Well, the ones he wanted people to see, anyway. No one should have caught sight of the ones on his torso and thigh, though apparently Stiles had gone swimming at one point since then so Derek figured more of them had been noticed.

That only made him feel smug though, and he hoped Matt was one of the witnesses. He wanted to make it explicitly clear to him to back off because Stiles belonged to him.

Derek paused in his setup at the thought, his wolf growling happily at the idea that Stiles belonged to him. Except... he didn’tand that seemed like a weird thing to cross his mind. Stiles didn’t belong to anyone, he wasn’t a possession, and Derek would never treat him as one. He had no idea where the thought had come from, but before he could dwell on it too much, his phone vibrated loudly against the coffee table and he snatched it up.

“What?”

“Where are you? You better not be bailing on us, Stiles said he wanted to play!”

“Stop being so impatient,” he insisted with a scowl, opening Steam so he could load the voice channel. “I’m logging on now, we had to get home.”

“Stop making out and hurry up.”

“We’re not—” He cut off when Laura hung up, muttered about annoying siblings, and dropped his phone onto the cushion beside him on the opposite side of where Stiles was sitting.

Once Steam was open and Laura invited him to the voice channel, he clicked on it and hoped his laptop microphone and speakers would be okay for this. He normally wore a headset so that the microphone wouldn’t pick up the others’ responses, but hoped there was some kind of programming involved so that it wouldn’t happen.

“Can you hear us?” Derek asked when the channel loaded.

“Hello Stiles!” Cora called cheerfully.

“Greetings room at large!” Stiles said, waving one arm widely while pressing against Derek’s side, looking at the computer screen. “So, this should be fun.”

“Only if you manage to beat Derek,” Malia insisted dryly. A few people agreed enthusiastically and Derek felt like this was definitely going to be a gang-up-on-Derek sort of night.

His eyes scanned the players to see who was on today. Erica was working, and he knew Isaac had bailed, but it looked like Jason hadn’t joined in either. So it was just his sisters, Malia, Boyd, him and Stiles.

“Trivia Murder Party?” Laura asked.

“Yes!” Cora exclaimed excitedly. “Let us dethrone the king!”

“I’m gonna have a greatnight,” Derek said dryly, but he clicked on the game invite anyway. When the screen loaded, he showed Stiles the website to log into and then the room number. When it confirmed all the players were in, they started the game.

Stiles had the blanket over his shoulders, like he always did when he visited, but he was leaning heavily against Derek on the couch. Derek joked that he was trying to cheat by looking at his answers, but it was clear Stiles didn’t need anyhelp.

He and Derek were almost neck and neck the entire game, up until close to the last round. Derek managed to sneak ahead, but just barely, which ended up being moot since Stiles overtook him at the end of the game for the final win.

His sisters and cousin made a hugedeal of Derek being dethroned, as if he’d never lost this game before.

Okay, to be fair, he’d only lost it once. But that had been when he was half-distracted by the TV and they hadn’t considered it a real loss because he wasn’t paying attention. It was kind of nice though, having someone challenging to go up against. Not that his friends and family weren’t challenging—his mother killedthem all at this game—but it was still nice having someone like Stiles to go up against.

They switched games after another round and played a few random ones just so Stiles could see what was available, but still stayed away from ones that required more knowledge of one another. Boyd called it a night around ten-thirty since he had work in the morning, but Derek had Sunday off so he stayed awake as long as Stiles wanted to keep playing.

By midnight, everyone else decided to call it, since two of them were working tomorrow—not as early as Boyd and Derek usually did, which allowed for later nights—and the last was planning on sleeping until dinner. They bid each other goodnight and then Derek logged out of Steam, shutting his laptop and looking over at Stiles.

He had a big, tired smile on his face, head resting on Derek’s shoulder but angled up so he could look at him.

“That was really fun. I didn’t know things like this existed, this would actually be really good for my friends and I. A way to kind of hang out and keep in touch while we’re all split up. Is it expensive?”

Derek shook his head. “Steam is free to download, and only one of you needs to own the game. There’s like, five or six of them, I don’t remember. Laura has them all, and she’s usually the one who coordinates. Once someone owns it, you can just share the screen and everyone else can log on using their phones, like we did.”

“Yeah, it’s really cool.” Stiles was staring down at his phone now, the screen showing they’d disconnected from the game because Laura had shut down. “You’re really lucky all your friends are here with you.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. He had one arm wrapped around Stiles’ shoulders and he let his fingers brush lightly up and down his arm overtop the blanket, watching the action as he did it. “You and yours are in different places, right?”

“Mm,” Stiles agreed, and Derek noticed he’d closed his eyes, like he was starting to fall asleep against his shoulder. “We didn’t fully split though. It was like—a partial split. We were a bit too worried to completely separate, given our history of bad luck with the Supernatural. Jackson and Danny are at Yale together. Kira and Lydia went to Harvard. Scott, Ally and I ended up at Brown.”

“Those are all really good schools,” Derek said, surprised. He hadn’t meant to sound quiteso surprised, but Stiles mentioned coming from a small town, so it was impressive to hear all those schools listed for so many of the students.

“Yeah, we had to fight really hard to get into them. Lydia was guaranteed no matter what, she’s a genius. Jackson probably bought his way in, to be honest. The rest of us just studied hard and did what we could to get accepted.” Stiles shrugged one shoulder sleepily. “Worked out in the end.”

“You’re almost done, right?”

“Mm. Last semester after the new year.”

“What then?”

Stiles was silent for a moment and Derek thought maybe he’d fallen asleep, but then he inhaled deeply and sat up, stretching and rubbing the back of his head. Derek’s hand slid off his arm and the blanket pooled around his waist. When he turned to grin at Derek, he looked ready to pass out.

“Then I guess I figure out how to be an adult. But that’s future Stiles’ problem. Present Stiles needs sleep.”

“You know you probably get more sleep than I do, right?” Derek asked with a small laugh.

“Not all of us like living in a state of sleep deprivation!” Stiles stood, stretching again. “Still can’t believe you wake up earlyto jogto work.”

“Haven’t since you’ve been around.”

“Yeah, because I make your breakfast,” Stiles insisted dryly.

Derek just smiled at that, because he wasn’t wrong. Having someone to make him breakfast at home was certainly a highlight of this entire relationship he had with Stiles.

This weird, amazing, somewhat scary relationship he had with Stiles.

Standing as well and bunching the blanket back up in the corner of the couch, Derek kissed Stiles’ temple before turning him around and giving him a light shove towards the corridor. Stiles obediently went to the bathroom to get ready for bed, shutting the door while he went about his business.

Derek looked around, but didn’t see anything requiring immediate clean-up, so he just went to his room to change into some fresh shorts while thinking about what to do tomorrow. He wanted Stiles to do something entertaining, and considering Derek had the day off, it was the perfect time for it. He figured maybe he could take him snowmobiling off the beaten path.

He knew Stiles had one of Cora’s tours coming up on Wednesday, but she couldn’t take them anywhere too far into the woods, and she also didn’t usually go that fast because it wasn’t safe for people without quick reflexes like they had as Werewolves. But if he took Stiles out, maybe they could go further in, do a few of the trails that guests didn’t generally go on. He could bring him up the mountain a bit, since Stiles hadn’t had the chance to do that given he had no way back down.

It suddenly struck Derek that tomorrow was Sunday. Exactly one week tomorrow, Stiles would be leaving again. The thought had panic spark through him at the idea that he’d never see him again. That this was the only time he’d get with him. While he knew the others were happy he was just making friendly and getting some action, it didn’t feellike that to him.

He didn’t know where Stiles’ mind was at, but things felt... different. He really likedStiles, which was something he never thought he’d everexperience after Kate royally f*cking him up emotionally. But Stiles was just... different. He made Derek happy, and he liked seeing him in his clothes and in his house and having him in his bed, and marking him, and scenting him and just...

He liked Stiles. He wanted him to stay.

He knew he couldn’t, but Derek really, reallywanted him to stay.

“You okay big guy?”

Derek turned and realized he’d been standing in front of his dresser with his dirty clothes in his hands, not having gotten around to dropping them into the laundry. Stiles was holding his own clothes under one arm, wearing the same shirt and sweats Derek had lent him that first night. Even though Stiles brought his own clothes now, he stillwore the pyjamas Derek had lent him, and that made Derek extremely happy.

“Fine. Just remembered tomorrow is laundry day.” Not that it mattered much for Derek, since laundry mostly got done at work. Satomi Ito always worked Sundays and Derek had a separate laundry bag at work that she always tossed into a machine for him near the end of the day. He never made her do his underwear though, just his shirts and slacks, and he always made sure to show his appreciation for taking care of him. He’d known her basically his whole life since she’d been one of the first people his mother had hired and was an old family friend, so she was kind of used to taking care of a spoiled brat like him.

And his sisters. But mostly him, since his sisters actually did their own laundry...

Derek coulddo his own laundry, it was just more convenient having it done at work since he usually only hadwork clothes there. Besides, Satomi wasn’t shy about making her thoughts known, and while she bitched at him for the state of his clothes sometimes, until the day she said she wouldn’t wash them anymore, he wasn’t going to poke the bear.

Or Werewolf, in her case. Since she was one. Not part of the Hale pack, but she and hers owned some territory to the north and she’d been friends with his mother for a long time.

“I didn’t know laundry required such intense concentration.” Stiles was in front of him, rubbing at his forehead where he was probably frowning. “You need help putting clothes in the washer or something?”

Derek gave him an annoyed look at the cheeky expression on his face. “Work does my laundry, I only wash what I have here. Along with annoying guests’ extras, since you’ve been wearing half my closet.”

“Ouch,” Stiles insisted with a grin. “See if I take you up on wearing any of your clothes ever again. Maybe I should just take these off.” Stiles tugged at the front of the shirt he was wearing.

“I wouldn’t say no,” Derek admitted. “But you’d probably be cold.”

“Not with a Werewolf blanket.” He frowned. “Except then I’d likely get crushed so, human blanket for you it is!”

Derek snorted, resisting the urge to roll his eyes and just shoved Stiles towards the bed while heading for his door. He dumped his clothes into his hamper, and realized he... actually had a lot of them in there. He supposed it made sense, he hadn’t jogged to work very much since Stiles had started spending the night. It meant he got dressed at home and then undressedat home. Satomi wasn’t going to have very much to wash tomorrow.

Derek went to the bathroom to get ready for bed, double-checked the door was locked, then went through the house turning off all the lights. Stiles was already under the covers on his side with his eyes closed when he entered the room, and Derek stood in the doorway for a second staring at him.

Stiles really... fitin his space. Seeing him lying there in bed, Derek couldn’t help but think about how rightall of this was. He didn’t know why Stiles was such a perfect little puzzle piece that fit into every hole in his life, but he really wasn’t sure how he was going to react the day he had to leave.

sh*t, maybe Derek wouldn’t let him leave.

“What’re you staring at?” Stiles’ sleepy voice asked, and Derek realized he’d opened his eyes to slits to see what was taking him so long.

“Not much,” was Derek’s response and Stiles snorted and shifted under the covers so he could pull one arm out to flip him off. “Telling me to f*ck off would’ve been easier,” he informed him, turning off the light and shutting his bedroom door.

“Too much energy,” Stiles argued.

“And pulling your arm free didn’t use up any energy?”

“Shut up,” Stiles groaned, burying his face in his pillow. Derek just smiled and slid under the covers beside him, Stiles shifting over immediately once it was clear he was settled. Derek wrapped an arm around him, pulling him further into his side, and Stiles threw one arm and one leg over him, rubbing his face against Derek’s left pectoral and letting out a slow breath.

Derek stared up at the ceiling, his hand returning to what it had been doing out in the living room, fingers brushing lightly up and down Stiles’ back this time. He listened to the sound of Stiles’ breathing and heartbeat even out, slowing further and further until it was clear he was asleep.

Even though he was also tired, Derek couldn’t close his eyes. His mind kept reminding him he didn’t have much time left with Stiles, and he was kind of trying to figure out how to change that. Would it be weird to want this to continue even after Stiles was gone? How would he even broach that topic? He wasn’t exactly Mr. Talk-About-Feelings, but this thing he had with Stiles, he didn’t want to lose it.

He didn’t know if he’d ever find it again.

Turning his head slightly to look down at Stiles, he pressed a kiss to the part of his forehead he could reach, then rested his cheek against it, closing his eyes and tightening his hold on him.

They still had time. He wasn’t going to worry about it just yet.

They still had time.

TBC...