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Sometimes, in the early mornings before anyone else is awake, Stiles just likes to watch Derek. The way the soft dawn light just barely illuminates his skin; the way his features soften in sleep and a sort of peacefulness settles over him. Sometimes, in the early mornings before anyone else is awake, Stiles will smile to himself and thank his lucky stars that this wonderful, amazing man is in his life.
They'd been through a lot, him and Derek; through kanimas and alphas; through demons and darachs, beserkers and ghost riders; through death and loss and the end of the world more times than anyone ever deserved. But there were also the good times. When they found each other again, years after Mexico, and Stiles had graduated college; when they found each other in a small town in South America that Stiles absolutely did not go to purely to find Derek; when they danced around each other for months before Cora, in all her sisterly wisdom, locked them in a cupboard until they got their heads out of their asses and just made out already. Her words.
Sometimes, in the early mornings before anyone else is awake, Stiles thinks about how they both got out of the town that was trying to kill them; how they made a life together far away from the pain and the heartache that went hand in hand with Beacon Hills; how their family, both found and blood-bound, escaped the same town to live in peace, finally. Sometimes, in the early mornings before anyone else is awake, Stiles remembers the people that didn't make it out with them; he thinks of Erica, her fierce passion and raucous laughter ripped away too soon; of Boyd, his calm presence, his steadying flame, snuffed out by monsters for no reason other than to cause pain; and he thinks of Allison. Sweet, vicious, lovable, ferocious, good Allison. Taken well before her time by a monster wearing his face on a vengeance-driven rampage none of them should ever have been a part of.
There were times Stiles wished that he had never gone out that night, looking for a dead body because it was a novelty in his sleepy little town; because he'd thought it would be fun. Yes, there were many many times he wished he'd never gone out that night. But then he looks at this man beside him. This beautiful man with kaleidoscopic eyes and an easy smile; this man with his brooding nature and tough-guy exterior wrapped around a heart of gold; this wonderful man who allowed Stiles into his life, and allowed Stiles to drag him into his in return.
Sometimes, in the early mornings before anyone else is awake, Stiles just likes to watch Derek. The way the waning night wraps around them both in a safe embrace; the way their bodies gravitate together even in sleep until they're a tangle of limbs with no beginning or end. Sometimes, in the early mornings before anyone else is awake, Stiles will press a gentle kiss to Derek's hand and hope for just one more day with this wonderful, amazing man.
And sometimes, just sometimes, if only for a moment, Stiles will lift his hand to Derek's cheek and thank the stars and the moon and fate itself that he is awake before anyone else, just so he can keep these moments in his heart and to himself.