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Stiles has worked in the Haunted House ever since freshman year of high school. Him and Scott did it every year, since part of the proceeds went to getting costumes for the kids in the long-term ward at Beacon Memorial. Ever since he was old enough to be of help, he’d been scaring people all through the month of October. Scott got to work the help desk - he’s too nice and he doesn’t have a convincing growl. When they were fourteen, Scott cried after he had to scare people in his mask. Stiles swore not to tell, but he also asked if they could switch Scott’s position. He still thinks it was just a lucky break.
The thing about college, though, is that it’s hard to keep traditions going when you live miles and miles away. Especially month-long ones. Stiles hasn’t worked in the Haunted House for years. But he’s a graduate, now, bachelors at least - he’ll go back for his master’s after this gap year - and he has once again been roped into the job.
They mostly get kids, preteens, honestly, who are genuinely terrified of the guy running after them with the chainsaw (this is Stiles’ favorite job of all the ones he’s rotated, even at 21). Closer to Halloween they get a lot of kids closer to Stiles’ age, high schoolers that almost always show up drunk. He likes scaring them even more.
And sometimes, sometimes they’ll get actual adults, taking kids who are too young to go by themselves. The older siblings babysitting or the good-natured parents who don’t mind a scare or two. This night is one of those times.
The haunted house isn’t actually a house - it’s set up in the preserve, in a series of abandoned cottages that were probably once extensions of the town but have long since been taken over by the forest and turned into something a little more natural and wild. There’s a little hut close to the edge of the preserve where Scott (guilted by his mom, just like Stiles) mans the booth and people buy their overpriced tickets, the ding of the till echoing slightly in the trees.
Lydia refuses to work in the dirty as hell circumstances, but she does come by for a kiss from Scott every once and a while. They both went to school in Boston - it’s kinda insane how things work out. Scott McCall scored the girl of his dreams, and Stiles isn’t even mad about it. He’s been over Lydia for a long time, now.
People are only allowed up in half-an-hour intervals - they try to keep things interesting, switch things up and not let people close enough to hear so that they don’t know what will scare them until they’re inside. It’s why they’re the best Haunted House in the county, and why they always get out-of-townies coming and making them such a large profit.
Which benefits the hospital, as well as Stiles’ pockets.
"Any good ones for the first round?" Stiles asks as he passes by the hut on the way to the spider house. There all he has to do is man the controls, which isn’t as fun as some of the other stuff, but he’s out of practice. The only jobs they trust him with anymore are the spider house and the end zone, which is fine, because he gets to chase people off the preserve with a chainsaw. Scott shakes his head. "Regulars. We have newbies on the next one though."
Stiles raises an eyebrow. “So early? Newbies usually come way after dark.”
Somehow they think it’s a rule, or so it seems, considering newcomers almost never show up until after 10. “Maybe things have changed? We haven’t exactly been around in a while, Stiles.” Scott shrugs him off, and Stiles sighs. “Thanks, bro!”
Some things never change.
Stiles runs off to the spider house, where he spends the next half hour scaring the living hell out of hoards of preteen girls. He’s starting to think he might be too old for this, but boy does he love relishing in the screams of children.
three hours earlier
"Derek, you promised," Laura sing-songs, at which point he contemplates punching her in the face. It’s not like it would hurt… that much. She’s going to be an alpha - doesn’t that mean she heals faster, or something?
At this point, his siblings are agreeing, repeats of “you promised, you promised” filtering through his ears like nails on a chalkboard. He groans, head falling back, and Laura bites him because she’s a dick and she likes to remind them she gets to be the leader. Every five seconds.
"You know, technically, Laura promised - "
His big sister tsks at him, shaking her head. “A deal is a deal, Derek. You told me that if you couldn’t manage to sit through the Evil Dead without running out - “
"I was getting popcorn!"
"For thirty minutes? You told me you’d do it. A bet’s a bet, little bro. Now it’s time to ‘cough up’, so to speak. And by that, I mean go to the haunted house."
Derek frowns. “Can’t I just take them together?”
"Nope. This is how it goes. Every year. Besides, it’s Lily’s first year - you can’t make her go with her siblings when they all got to go their first years with their friends. Where is your heart, Derek?"
He doesn’t punch her. It’s a close thing, though.
Sibling rivalries really don’t get better, even when you can slap “decades old” onto your list of achievements.
Stiles knows exactly who Derek Hale is. Everyone knows Derek Hale. He’s like 29 and he just started teaching History at BHH. Stiles is glad Derek wasn’t teaching in Beacon Hills until after he graduated, because he’s not so sure he could’ve paid attention in History class when all that was going on right in front of him. Combined with the fact that he coaches his little sister’s softball team, and it isn’t hard to see why the golden gossip girls (the ladies over 60 who knit and gossip together on Stiles’ dad’s street, and often invite him in for cookies and details about his friends) are halfway head over heels with him.
That being said, Stiles doesn’t really pay any mind to Derek Hale, just as a general rule. He has too much to think about without wondering about people way out of his league (a lesson he learned with his crushes on Danny and Lydia in high school and tried, yet failed miserably, to learn from in college, with minor success). So when he sees him on the security camera (as usual, since the spider house is the first in the circuit), he doesn’t think much of it. Though it is pretty cute that he’s taking his fourteen year old brother and his friends to the haunted house.
It’s not until things get going that Stiles actually starts paying attention to him. Of course, he does his best to scare the boys (who are somehow thrilled by it - but then, so was he at fourteen), but every time he tries to scare Derek he’s astonished by just how scared he gets.
He yelps. Like a tween girl. When Stiles does his best trick - dropping the big spider on his head - he jumps so high his sweater rides up, and then awkwardly tugs it down. Even on the shitty black and white feed Stiles can tell the guy’s blushing. He seems thankful he decided to let the guys go a little ahead of him, so they wont hear him or pay attention over their own giggling, but Stiles - Stiles can see it all.
It’s not like he’s never seen anyone scared before. But he’s never seen anyone older than him who cannot seem to control it and who - he has to say it - looks so freaking cute while he’s at it. Derek looks like he’s trying so hard - he keeps frowning, eyebrows going together whenever he gets close to the cameras, but then Stiles will press a button or crank a lever and he’s jumping and covering his eyes all over again.
Turns out Derek Hale is a massive dork.
Stiles has no idea what to do with this adorable information.
So the haunted house freaks him out. They really should call it the Haunted Houses, plural, because there’s like five of them, and then just when you think it’s over some guy chases you with a chainsaw. Really? It wasn’t scary enough?
Laura, of course, comes to pick them up just so she can see how ruffled he is. She loves laughing at his humiliation. She’s thirty five, and a successful lawyer - everyone outside of the family says she’s extremely professional.
Derek does not see it.
Lucas and his friends spend most of the ride to their houses laughing hysterically, but once it’s just family Lucas complains to Laura nonstop about how uncool Derek is. Laura nods sympathetically at him in the rearview and silently laughs at him the entire time.
It’s awful, and his whole family will pay for this.
Derek has never liked scary movies. It’s ironic (or so Laura claims) considering he’s a werewolf, but he just… doesn’t like them. He doesn’t like being scared, he doesn’t like it when people sneak up on him, he doesn’t like jump scares, he hates clowns, he doesn’t even really like the dark. It’s just… a thing.
He guesses they probably think now that he’s older he wont be as scared, but it isn’t really something you grow out of. Besides, with how close their family is, it’s hard not to fall into old and childish habits when they gather together for the holidays. Derek has his own apartment downtown, but he’s been staying at the Hale house more often than not lately, helping decorate the roof for Halloween and running with the ginger snap kids because, as Laura puts it, “I have more important things to do.”
It’s true. She’s preparing to take over the pack in the winter, now that Talia has finally decided to step down. At 56, she’s actually a little young for it, but she had Laura young - Richard was her soulmate from the start, and they got married first year of college and had Laura by the time they were twenty. Now that Laura’s established a firm in Beacon Hills, servicing the surrounding county as well, Talia feels like it’s time to step down. Laura’s been having to adjust, slowly taking on the mantle instead of just the “potential” one she’s been carrying her entire life.
The whole family is gathering for the family, which is in about a month. They’re doing it slowly so they’ll attract less attention to the actual date and event, but Peter and his children are in town, so Derek not only has to take his youngest siblings - Lucas and Lily, fourteen and thirteen - but his cousins, too.
He swears Laura is setting him up to fail as much as she can before the ceremony, at which point she claims she’ll become an “actual, responsible adult” in terms of family, which is also pack for a Hale.
Derek thinks this is probably a just good excuse for her to enact her revenge for the Milk and Feathers incident on Laura’s sixteenth birthday.
Stiles is working chainsaw tonight. He’s spent the past week in the spider house, and Derek Hale showed up twice, both times equally petrified. When he asked around, he discovered that since his aunt and uncle are in town for a few weeks, Derek not only has his youngest siblings who need a babysitter for this, but also his twelve year old twin cousins (who are homeschooled, apparently. The Hales, man. The fucking Hales).So he’s expecting him at least one more time - after all, who visits for Halloween and doesn’t see the famous Haunted House? No one coming to Beacon Hills, that’s for sure, and certainly not the Hales, who live on the preserve and therefore have no excuse.
He wonders who the hell is trying to punish Derek Hale, too. It’s clear the guy is horribly afraid every time he goes through, so why is he coming? Stiles doesn’t know, but he kinda wants to bring the guy back to his apartment and wrap him in a blanket. Maybe make some cocoa. Or a comforting tea.
Scott tells him he sounds like a mama bear. Lydia catches his fist so he wont, “- fuck up that unevenly perfect jaw I have come to love, Stiles.”
Scott also tells him to grow some balls and use his words, maybe ask the guy on a date, but he does it out of punching range.
Stiles hates him.
What he doesn’t hate is his job tonight. Putting on the mask and revving the chainsaw is forever his favorite part of working the Haunted House. He gets to run around with deadly objects and get paid for it, and 21 or 15, he’s going to be forever excited about that opportunity.
It’s hard work, but since he started college Stiles also started working out a little more. Well, running, at least. It was a really good way to get out of the room when his various roommates wanted the room to themselves, and it could be done at any time, which was nice. He’d never be a track star or anything, but he can run pretty damn far with a chainsaw, which is pretty great when ten thirteen year old boys decide to think they’re safe in the home stretch.
Of course, when four giggling girls led by one with Derek’s shockingly green eyes come out, Stiles doesn’t have to work very hard to get them running. He knows Derek always made the last two wait for last, so he doesn’t feel like a slacker when he lowers the saw and lifts his mask before he goes back to where Derek is emerging from the last cottage, the sound of a screaming soundtrack in his wake.
His cheeks are blotchy red, visible even beneath the thick stubble he keeps. It’s less stubble and more of a beard, really, but so short that it still rides that fine line. He has his arms crossed over his chest, low, almost like he's hugging himself, and his sweater is a warm, light brown, with red and blue patterning.
Fucking adorable. He's like, thirty, and he's fucking adorable.
Stiles hears Scott’s words in his head. Man up, bro. He sighs.
He moves forward.
Derek jumps slightly when he realizes the boy is coming towards him. Up close he can tell he’s, in fact, a man, not some teenager, and the mask on his head suggests he works for the Haunted House. Derek prepares himself to be scared, but all the guy does is smile.
"I’m not gonna scare ya, big guy. You’re Derek Hale, right?"
He nods a little, unsure.
"Pro-Tip - don’t look so scared in the spider house." He grins. "We’re told to target the ones who look scared."
Derek frowns hard. “Isn’t that a little mean?”
The guy shrugs. He doesn’t really look that young at all, now that Derek can see him properly - his hands are huge, one wrapped expertly around the saw that’s low at his side. “People are supposed to come to be scared,” he tells him, tilting his head. “But I’ve been really curious as to why you’re here.”
He’s positive his face is already red, but he still feels hot all over having to admit the stupid bet. “I lost a bet with my sister.”
Haunted House guy steps closer. When he tilts his head that way, curious, he puts his neck on display. It’s very long, and looks… almost strong, lean and tough like everything about him seems to be. Derek swallows.
"What was the bet?"
He feels the opposite of tongue tied - he can’t stop talking. “I had to watch the Evil Dead. I chickened out when his girlfriend was doing that baby-talk thing.”
The guy breaks into a laugh, but it doesn’t really feel like he’s laughing at Derek. More like he’s surprised, and he can’t help but laugh because of it. Derek’s never felt less insulted at someone for laughing at him.
"Tough break," he says, then puts a hand on Derek’s shoulder. "I think I’m probably past my five minute break by now, but remember: try to look unaffected, or make someone else look more scared than you do. The operator in the spider house is watching. Also, come on Thursday and avoid looking around in the third room of the dollhouse. Just run through."
Derek really doesn’t want to admit that he has no younger siblings left to make him go. This guy… he’s - uh, cute. Really… attractive, and his hand is warm on Derek’s shoulder and he seems sort of… protective. Which is odd for people outside his family. Most people sense that Derek’s a werewolf, and therefore assume he can protect himself. All the extra muscle doesn’t really help. So he tells him, “Okay. Thanks?”
He gets one of those grins, that feels warm and real. The guy turns to leave, and Derek starts walking home - it’s not far, they’re on the preserve - before turning back. Laura probably left with the kids already, so he doesn’t feel bad about stopping.
"Wait!"
The guy turns around, and even with the mask back on, Derek feels something twist in his stomach. “You have a name, right?”
He hears that laughter again - with him, not at him. “Stiles! Gotta go!” He turns on the chainsaw and revs it.
Derek shudders and walks back, testing Stiles’ name on his tongue.
Thursday comes, and Derek isn’t in the first wave like he usually is when he shows up. It’s not like Stiles - invited him, like a date, he doesn’t have to listen to his advice, but expecting Derek and not actually seeing him is kind of a let down. He is ridiculously attractive, and super adorable about it. But it’s not like Stiles was actually planning on it going anywhere.
It’s just a little more difficult than he anticipated, going from college, where he was fairly popular and didn’t have any problem having sex or falling into relationships, back to Beacon Hills, with it’s far smaller pool to choose from and unfortunate abundance of people who’ve known him since before he could talk.
He’s running low on options, and his wing-man is all gross and practically married.
Seeing Derek was sort of a break from all that. But whatever - maybe he’ll never come by again, and maybe Stiles will spend his whole gap year forgetting about Derek and finding some other super cute individual to hook up with and bring to dinner with his dad.
(He totally hasn’t been imagining Derek blushing hard at the dinner table with his father, or anything. Not at all.)
Stiles revs his chainsaw and emerges from the trees, right in the face of a fifteen year old girl, who screams and clings to her friends as they run off together. He sighs and puts it down, taking off his mask, too - that was the last of the groups, supposedly.
There’s the sound of leaves crunching behind him.
Stiles whips around, ready to apologize profusely, but Derek is standing behind him instead. It’s not what he expects - his mouth falls open a little from shock.
Derek has his hands stuffed in his pockets, and he’s wearing a sky blue sweater that’s easily visible even in the dark that is Haunted House nights in the middle of a forest. He walks closer, shuffling through the leaves a little. “I didn’t, uh, have any more siblings.” One hand slips out of his pocket to the back of his neck, and he’s blushing again. “I ran out.”
Stiles quirks an eyebrow. “I find that hard to believe given the size of your family.”
It looks for a moment like he’s offended him, but then Derek laughs. “I didn’t know we were that well known around town.”
Of course he wouldn’t. Stiles rolls his eyes - Derek seems pretty oblivious, for a renound teacher and all. Then again, maybe Derek is just one of those middle children who took a backseat when it came to notoriety - there are archetypes of this, Stiles knows, but he’s majoring in Computer Sciences and he minored in Mythology. He doesn’t really have any idea, and his penchant for distraction seems to be making Derek nervous.
"Why are you here?" The question comes out rude, when he intended it to be curious. "If you ran out of siblings, I mean."
Derek frowns. “You… invited me.”
Damn it. That reasoning is thoroughly adorable. Stiles is thrown off by it. By the fact that Derek actually wanted to take him up on an invitation enough to go through an experience he really really dislikes because Stiles told him to come back.
It’s an indication of interest.
"Can I invite you out to dinner, then?" Stiles talks with his hands, slightly nervous, but not that he’ll be refused. It’s the kind of nerves that come no matter what, in this kind of situation. "Because while some people may like Haunted Houses for that sort of thing, I sort of don’t want my date to be terrified the whole time."
Stiles has had a long time to learn how to be forward, and if Derek’s smile is any indication, it seems like he’s used to it. They both stand there for a moment, smiling way too hard because wow, that was actually… really easy.
It’d be anticlimactic if it wasn’t, you know, Derek Hale.
"That diner on 42nd is open ‘til 1am," Derek points out, stepping a little closer and rocking up onto his toes a little. "If you’re hungry."
Stiles wisely manages to keep from pointing out that he had dinner beforehand, and, remembering the fact that Derek walked straight into the woods the other day, offers a ride.
"You made him watch The Shining on your third date?” Laura asks over the table, leaning in. They’re getting coffee, Laura and Stiles and him, because Derek wants to ease him into the whole mess that is his family.
Derek feels his ears go hot, but Stiles laughs, linking their fingers together easily. “Trying to reprogram him. Every time he got scared, I became the distraction. He could still hear it, though.”
Laura’s eyebrows climb, and then she cackles, turning straight to Derek.
"I like him, kid. I guess I wont have to sue him now."
Stiles squawks and launches into a confusing line of questioning, and Derek sort of feels like this could be the beginning of something terrifying.
It’s not as bad as he’s made it out to be.