Chapter Text
Of course Stiles manages to get himself a boyfriend right when he can't have all the sex all the time as he always thought he would. But they need to be dancing most of the time they aren't sleeping, and falling asleep in the middle of a blow job is just not a good look for anyone. Besides, the rest of the top ten are back in the condos, and while an elaborate room swap agreement leaves all the dating couples sharing rooms, there just isn't time.
Stiles has the jazz piece with Derek, the fox trot with Lydia, a contemporary with Allison, hip hop with Comfort, his own solo, top twenty, top ten and top four group numbers, plus he has to brush up on his previous tango with Anya and jazz with Allison. He really does have too much choreography in his head at this point, mostly because it's all coming so fast.
But he makes time to sneak into Derek's rehearsals, especially the ones with Eliana, with whom he's dancing a pas de deux from Swan Lake. Derek mostly has to look yearning, which he does very well. Stiles jokes that if he'd known that's Derek's love-sick look they could have been sucking face five weeks sooner. Derek doesn't look like he agrees, though Stiles finds it endearing the way he rolls his eyes with his whole head and sighs with his entire body. It isn't much of a disincentive to annoy him, to be honest.
The finale is two long days of dancing that pass in a blur. The four of them open the show with a Broadway number, and after that Stiles remembers catching Allison as she leaps toward him; Lydia bumping Derek's ass with her hip; Lydia's hair flowing out behind them as they glided across the floor; Derek flipping Allison over his head in their Lindy hop; Lydia and Allison's competing salsa dancers; and flying across the stage with Comfort.
Stiles doesn't get to see anyone's solo or most of the all-star pieces, because of all the quick changes, but the best comes last, when he and Derek close the show with their jazz piece. Derek's covered in fur and Stiles in black feathers, and he rides onto the stage kneeling on Derek's back as he crouches low, then leaps over his shoulders to land in front of him. It's easily the most fun he's ever had on a stage, and given the evening he's just had that's saying something.
In bed that night Derek says, "At this point I'm not even sure if I care what happens."
"Are you kidding me?" Stiles says. "If I get that money I am totally leaving your ass. Luckily I won't have to because you're going to win."
Derek sighs. "Can we be serious, at least tonight?"
"No," Stiles says, but he rolls on top of Derek, pins him down, kisses him like he means it, like Derek's first kiss was opening the door and this is blasting it off its hinges. Besides, if there's something Stiles knows how to do, it's work out the jitters. "Sex tonight. Plenty of time to be serious after tomorrow."
"Keep kissing me, then," Derek whispers.
And Stiles is more than happy to do that.
The next day's performance is easier, of course, because the competition is over and everyone can relax. There are group dances, reprise dances, some guest dances. Nigel sells tickets to the tour by promising that people will see Derek dance with his sister and Stiles dance with Scott.
They're announcing the boys' results first, entirely appropriate as anything that comes after the coronation of Queen Lydia will be anti-climactic. There's a package about Derek where he's really intense, and one about Stiles where he's laughing a lot. They stand on the stage holding hands and grinning at each other and waiting for Cat to give them the results already.
She says Derek's name, and his face crumples. Stiles grabs him for the two seconds they'll let him and whispers in his ear, "You deserve this, okay? Enjoy this."
Derek nods, and then they're pulling Stiles away and there's confetti and everyone's applauding and Derek crouches for a little bit to get his breath before he can talk to Cat and thank his family and his fellow dancers and say "Oh my god" a lot and it's adorable how completely overwhelmed he is.
Stiles gets whisked backstage, to Scott's waiting and welcome arms, and he feels a little badly that Scott will have two runners-up on his hands by the end of th evening. By the time Stiles finds Derek again Laura is already there, helping him to calm down. Stiles hangs back and watches them, listening with half an ear to Cat talking to Allison and Lydia, when Derek looks up at him and smiles.
It will all be over soon. Later there will be a party, and after a quick break there will be rehearsals and a tour and the Big Future in which Stiles will apparently actually be a professional dancer which, how about that.
But right now, Derek's walking toward him, here in this little changing corner backstage where the cameras can't come, and as they kiss he can hear the crowd cheering for Lydia's win. Stiles is happy for her, but his cheers, such as they are, are for right here, and right now.
"So," Derek says, "need a date for the party tonight?"
Stiles recognizes the quote and laughs, but decides maybe it's time to go off book. "Actually I already have one. Amazing dancer, irritable, but totally won America's hearts just like I said he would."
Derek blinks, and stares at him, wide-eyed. "You're honestly happier about being right than you would have been if you'd won, aren't you?"
"I'm right, you won, we're both happy," Stiles says.
"I was already happy last night," Derek says, obstinately. "Or last week, or when we got to LA, or maybe that night in Vegas, or—"
Stiles stops him with a kiss, decides to just let him have this one. "Me too, dude," he says, grinning. "Me too."