Chapter Text
Stiles braced his forepaws on the forest floor and tried his best to stay upright as Derek’s enormous, flat tongue dragged across his cheek again and again. The fur there was damp with saliva and it must be sticking up in a really stupid way thanks to all this post-rain grooming. His whiskers felt oversensitive. He gave them a twitch.
The only reaction that earned him was an impatient chuff through Derek’s nose (as if Stiles hadn’t been sat here for what felt like three days already) and a nibble of large canines up behind his ear.
There weren’t fleas there. Why was Derek biting at imaginary fleas? Stiles did not have fleas!
He gave an impatient huff of his own, a little mocking, and then a whine when Derek simply moved on to the back of his head.
The rain had stopped, the clouds were gone, they should be playing! He almost wished he had human vocal cords so he could beg and plead and annoy Derek until the wolf wanted to chase him again. The chasing was fun! Half his instincts in this form were chase!
The fox in him was desperate to run and hunt, to track down a tasty mouse or maybe even a rabbit! They could share a rabbit; he’d even give Derek the tastiest bits.
Oh, maybe he was just hungry.
On cue, his stomach gave a thunderous rumble.
Derek finally paused his grooming, tilting his head to stare down at Stiles’ midsection before his Alpha-red eyes met Stiles’ own. His muzzle pulled back and he bared his sharp teeth in a canine version of a smile that made Stiles feel giddy with elation. He hopped up onto all four paws and bounced a couple times for good measure.
Derek smiled at him! Now they needed to hunt, to celebrate!
The area they’d stopped in was almost equidistant between the old Hale house and Stiles’ own backyard, a route he’d walked dozens of times in his human form, bemoaning the underbrush that liked to snag his clothes and tangle his feet up. He didn’t have that issue whilst in his fur. He was built for this.
His radar-dish ears swivelled as he listened intently, seeking out nearby prey. It was springtime, there would be all sorts of creatures roaming the forest looking for their own meals, especially after a rain shower had temporarily driven them into shelter.
There! A big, juicy rabbit nibbling on the clover that blanketed the area to the north.
Stiles run towards it, realising too late that he wasn’t being nearly stealthy enough in his loping approach. Not only that, his paw landed on a stone as he peered around the sequoia closest to the rabbit and he had to muffle a yelp of discomfort. The rabbit froze, a clover bud hanging out its mouth, then ran.
The chase was fast paced, the rabbit bounding to and fro to throw him off before darting down into its burrow, and the chase was over as quickly as it began.
A vole made itself an easy target not even ten feet away and Stiles resigned himself to a slightly less glorious catch.
A minute later, he trotted back to Derek and laid the vole in front of his Alpha’s forepaws. When Derek made no move to take it, Stiles nudged it towards him with his nose in an unmistakable gesture and laid down to watch, his eyes flicking from Derek to the vole and back again. The snack did look pretty tiny in comparison to Derek; maybe he should’ve held out for that juicy rabbit after all. A few seconds passed before Derek sighed a big wolfy sigh and scooped the vole into his jaws in one bite, chewing briefly before swallowing.
The wolf stepped over to Stiles and pressed their wet noses together in a thank you that made him want to bounce again, and then Derek… walked away.
Derek walked away in the direction of his house and Stiles wanted to whine again. It was pathetic; he was a strong independent fox! He could spend his fox time alone.
It was fine.
Stiles kept telling himself that as he dejectedly dug at a patch of damp earth beneath a bush, looking for worms. He remembered worms being tasty in this form, they’d been one of his favourites when he was a cub, second only to the slimy crunch of snails.
But that was when he’d has his mom to do the majority of their hunting. The worms had been an appetiser to keep him entertained whilst she hunted a proper meal for them both. He hadn’t realised how rusty he was, having hidden away this part of himself and forgotten the skills he needed to survive in his fur; his poor show with the rabbit was proof of that.
He was genuinely wondering if he’d have to face the shame of heading home for a human lunch when he heard something big dragging across the forest floor.
A muffled howl echoed through the trees and Stiles took off running toward that howl without hesitation. The instincts were so strong in this form. He couldn’t resist the call of his Alpha, nor the mouthwatering scent of… was that…
A deer!
Derek was dragging a whole deer along with him, jaws clamped around the leg of a yearling that hadn’t grown a full set of antlers yet. Stiles yipped excitedly and pranced in a circle around Derek and the lunch he’d brought for them both, only calming when a low warning growl rumbled from that broad chest. Once he had reluctantly settled, Derek nudged the deer in the same way Stiles had the vole – a gift, presented just for him.
Where did you even start on a meal this big? It was like an all-you-can-eat buffet and the indecision was stalling him out.
With a repeat of his adorably sharp smile, Derek came to lie next to Stiles, the fur of their sides pressing together in a squish that was so warm and familiar, felt so much like family, that Stiles wanted to bounce and purr and cry all at once.
They lay like that, both flat on their stomachs and pressed close, as Derek slowly stripped morsel after delicious morsel from the deer, placing them in front of Stiles’ nose for him to enjoy. It was a very good deer.
Afterwards, when they’d left the remains for the scavengers and thoroughly cleaned the mess from each other’s muzzles, Stiles rubbed his fluffy body against Derek’s legs and flopped to the ground.
He was so full. Deer was a meal fit for foxy kings and Derek had provided it for him like it was no big deal.
The human part of Stiles’ brain knew he would feel a certain way about all this later – it was all just fuel for the pesky crush he’d been harbouring ever since Scott had been turned – but the fox was simple. All that mattered was food, sleep, and a mate to share both those things with.
Yep, the human part was cringing as the fox lolled on his back, baring his throat and his slightly rounded stomach. But when Derek rolled his wolfy eyes and obligingly nuzzled at Stiles’ throat before curling his large body around the smaller fox, both parts of Stiles were in agreement.
This? This was awesome.