Chapter Text
Derek Hale was only four years old when he first met Stiles- “Trust me, that’s a lot easier than my real name.” -Stilinski.
Derek had been dutifully walking behind his mother as she made her way through the grocery store, occasionally grabbing the item she pointed out for him, happy that he was now old enough to go with and that Laura had decided that she had ‘better things to do’ instead of coming with as well.
(The fact that she has yet to tell him what those ‘better things’ are to this day has him thinking that she just was throwing a fit that he got to tag along.)
As it was, they had been in the store for a decent amount of time when Derek’s mother had noticed someone at the other end of the aisle.
“Claudia? Claudia Stilinski? Is that you?”
Derek had looked up from where he was trying to decide if he wanted Coco Puffs or Captain Crunch this week-
(He loves Coco Puffs, even to this day, but Laura always stole his back then and wasn’t really fond of Captain Crunch, but Derek didn’t really like it either, so it was something to think about.)
-to see a pretty lady with long brown hair pushing a stroller towards his mother, a wide smile on her face as she got closer.
“Talia Hale! So nice to see you! I hear you just got back into town from some important get together upstate, something about a conference?”
Derek had listened for a little while, waving when his mom introduced him to Mrs. Stil-lins-key, but his attention had been quickly diverted to the stroller when they started talking about ‘bars’ and ‘degrees’, things that the grownups are always saying that they’ll ‘tell him about when he’s older’.
He was already nearly five! Wasn’t that old enough?!?
A gurgle had drawn him out of his thoughts, and Derek had grinned at the baby in the stroller, fingers in their mouth but a grin still directed Derek’s way anyway, something that made Derek grin even wider as he had waved and said softly, “Hi, baby.”
That had earned him another gurgle and the baby had lurched a little in their seat, almost as if they were trying to get out, only to not realize that there were belts keeping them in place. Their face had started to scrunch up as each try ends with the same result and it made Derek’s stomach pinch, because he hadn’t wanted the baby to be unhappy, so he had tugged on his mother’s hand to try to get her attention.
“Mom?”
“Just a second, sweetie, I’m almost finished.” His mother had given him a quick smile and swept a hand through his hair before going back to speaking to Mrs. Stilinski, leaving Derek uncertain on what he should do...
At least, until the baby had started to make these little whimpering noises and then Derek had muttered, “Shhh, shhh. It’s okay, it’s okay...” as he started reaching forward to unlock the belts holding the baby in place.
Now, normally, Derek knew that he should never mess with someone else’s baby, that he should never, ever do anything that might make people mad at him, but his Momma also told him that Hales are supposed to protect and take care of the people of Beacon Hills. Mrs. Stilinski and his Momma were still talking about grownup things and Derek had taken care of Cora before, he was pretty confident that he could handle a baby.
He was, after all, nearly five years old and he could go to the grocery store with his Momma. He was practically a grownup himself!
The baby had quieted almost immediately as soon as Derek had started working on the belts, almost as if they knew what Derek was doing-Stiles always takes this moment to claim that he had because he was a genius even at two if anyone makes the mistake of telling this story around him-and had started to make these little bubbling noises that sort of sounded like encouragement as Derek had fought to keep his claws in.
Momma had always said to be gentle whenever they interacted with regular humans, especially so with babies, and the last thing Derek had wanted to do was hurt the little guy(girl?)-Stiles also teases him for not being able to tell, despite Derek’s argument that he was four at the time-because he had a hard time unbuckling a few belts.
It had taken a few tries, but Derek had finally got the belts undone, only to suddenly be tasked with an armful of happy baby when the kid lurched forward, nearly sending Derek sprawling to the linoleum under his feet.
The baby had burbled happily at Derek as he had arranged them both into a seating position, little hands patting at Derek’s cheeks and tugging lightly at his hair, which had made Derek giggle as he kept playfully ducking away.
“Not gonna get me!”
That had earned him another shriek of laughter as the baby redoubled their efforts and it had apparently drawn both of their mother's’ attention as well.
“Świętosław!” The shout made both of them jump, the baby’s eyes widening as Derek had instinctively curled his body around the smaller one in front of him. “Oh my god, did he fall out?!? Is he hurt?!? I know I belted him in-”
“He didn't fall! I took him out!”
“Derek!” Now his Momma was angry, which had the baby making the whimpering noises again and made Derek curl up even more. “You know you're not supposed to-”
“He was starting to cry and wanted out! I was just trying to help...”
Mrs. Stilinski seemed to take a deep breath and gently extract her son from Derek’s grip, with only a few whimpers from the little kid, and had given Derek a smile that he didn't need werewolf senses to tell wasn't sincere.
“I'm sorry for scaring you, sweetie, but hearing Świętosław yell like that scared me; I thought he had fallen and really hurt himself!” she had snuggled Stiles closer at that, and Derek had immediately felt bad for taking him out of the chair.
“M’sorry, he just sounded upset and I tried to tell my Momma that…”
“I know, bear,” it's his Momma that spoke that time and Derek had leaned back against her much like Stiles was pressed against Mrs. Stilinski. “I should have listened and that’s my fault, so I’m not mad at you, but I still think you need to apologize to Claudia and promise not to take babies out of their strollers anymore. No matter how upset they get, you get their Momma’s permission first, okay?”
“Okay,” Derek had peeked at Mrs. Stilinski and saw that she didn’t seem as angry as before, so it was a lot easier for him to turn around and say, “I’m sorry for taking your baby out, I didn’t mean to make you upset, he just was going to cry and I didn’t want him to cry…”
Mrs. Stilinski had smiled at him, a real smile this time, and had gone to buckle Stiles back into his stroller, something he very vocally was against. “Thank you, sweetie. I understand that you were just trying to help, but next time, wait until me or your Momma say it’s okay, alright? Świętosław is still just a baby and could get hurt very easily…”
Derek still wouldn’t be able to tell what kind of noise that he made at thought of accidentally hurting Stiles, but whatever it was, it made Stiles lean forward in his seat with his hands out and babble, “Sh, sh, sh, it otay!”
It was probably an attempt to mimic what Derek had done earlier, but both mothers had thought it was the cutest thing they had ever seen and spent the next few minutes cooing over Stiles and saying what a sweet boy he was.
(Derek likes to turn the tables on Stiles at this point in the story and tease him that this was the last time that anyone ever called Stiles sweet unironically.)
Their mothers spent a few more minutes catching up and making plans to meet up later that week, even going as far as to check out together, Derek making funny faces at Stiles to keep him giggling throughout the entire process.
This, of course, caused another round of cooing from their parents.
At the end of the transaction and when they finally got all the groceries into the car, Derek’s mother had scooped him up, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and said, “Say goodbye to the Stilinskis, Derek.”
“Bye, Stil-lin-keys!”
Mrs. Stilinski also had picked up Stiles at this point and they both waved at his and his mother’s retreating back as they chorused, “Bye, Hales!” with Stiles farewell sounding more like, “By ‘Ales!” which had made Derek giggle.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Funnily enough, it’s Laura that gives Stiles the moniker he goes by instead of his real name:
It was during one of the playdates that their mothers had set up, something that both Derek and Stiles had taken to like fish take to water; granted there had been a few fights in those early days, a rather unfortunate event involving a Batman action figure and Derek’s nose that they swore never to speak of again, but they got along rather well for the most part.
Derek is six at this point and Stiles is about to turn five, both of chattering excitedly about the fact that they were going to start kindergarten in the fall… Stiles especially so because Derek was going to be in the same class as him and his mother was going to be his teacher.
They’re practicing writing down their names when Laura barrels through the door, Derek’s father at her heels, making a beeline for the pair of them as soon as she spots them.
“Hey, nerds! What are you doing?”
Laura had started thinking she was even cooler than usual because she’s heading to middle school next year, so she was walking around like she was better than them and ‘nerds’ was just the first of many new ‘nicknames’ she had given them.
(It was also the only one that stuck around to this day.)
“We’re writing out our names, so we’re busy.” Derek had grumbled, as annoyed back then as he is now by the various ‘nicknames’ his sister called them. “Go away, Laura.”
“No way! Let me see how good you’ve gotten!” Her tone had said that she was looking for anything but improvement and was instead looking for something else to tease him for, much like she had when Derek had messed up his ‘D’ that morning and had spent the better part of the time waiting for Stiles worried that his friend would think Derek was as stupid as Laura had made him feel…
“DAD!” Derek had yelled out, tucking his paper underneath him as Laura had reached for it, while Stiles makes a disgruntled noise next to them at being bumped, “MAKE LAURA GO AWAY!”
“LAURA! LEAVE YOUR BROTHER ALONE!”
“Tattletale,” Laura had hissed, but thankfully had moved away from where she was squishing him against the kitchen table. “I JUST WANTED TO SEE HOW GOOD HE HAD GOTTEN SINCE THIS MORNING!”
“I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU WERE DOING, LEAVE YOUR BROTHER ALONE AND HELP ME PUT THE GREOCRIES AWAY!”
Laura and Derek had huffed at their father’s yelling, both knowing he was only doing it for Stiles’ benefit since they both could hear him perfectly even if he whispered, and had made her way into the kitchen…
…unfortunately, she had also noticed that Stiles had left his paper completely unguarded as he had dutifully filled it all the way to the lines at the bottom.
“HEY!”
Derek’s head had snapped up at his best friend’s voice and he was just about to call for their father again, but Laura’s words had cut him off, her scrunched up face only making the whole thing that much worse.
“What is this? I thought you were supposed to practicing your names!”
“It is my name!” Stiles’ face had turned red at that and Derek had snatched the paper away from his sister, glaring at her and hoping she would just stop talking and go away.
No such luck.
“It looks like a bunch of gibberish to me! I bet it’s not a real name, I bet you’re only pretending to write your name!”
“It’s a Polish name!” His face is getting redder and redder, which makes Derek feel like screaming at Laura until he makes her leave... “And my mom said it was special!”
“In what way is ‘Stiles-is-slaw’ special?”
“It’s not ‘Stiles-is-slaw’! You’re saying it wrong!”
“No, I’m not! That’s the way you wrote it!”
“Yes, you are so saying it wrong!” Derek had interjected, his own face going red at the feeling of embarrassment and fear that Laura’s attitude was going to mess up his friendship.
“No, I’m not!”
“Yes, you are!”
“DAD! Tell Derek that I’m not saying his friend’s weird name wrong, and that he’s the one that spelt his name wrong!”
Bruce Hale had exited the kitchen with a sigh that could only be described as long-suffering and/or annoyed; looking back, Derek could feel sorry for all the trouble the three of them put his father through, but at the time he was just hoping that his Dad would tell Laura off and get her to leave them alone.
“Laura, I just told you to leave your brother and his friend alone!”
“But he’s writing his name wrong, and he won’t listen to me!”
“It’s not wrong!”
“Is so!”
“IS NOT!”
“CHILDREN!” All three of them jump, Derek and Laura more so because they know that tone of voice and it means that their Dad is completely done with the argument. “That is enough! Laura, I’m pretty sure that Derek’s friend knows how to write his own name, and just because it’s different to your own does not mean that you get to make fun of him for it! You will go to your room and think about how it feels to be made fun of for something that’s different from other people.”
The emphasis that Bruce had put on the end of his sentence had shut Laura up like nothing else had and she had quietly accepted her punishment, her head slightly hanging as she left the dining room.
Bruce had sighed and made his way back into the kitchen, but Derek had barely noticed his father leaving, because he was too focused on the way his best friend was looking at the paper bearing his name.
“Are you okay?”
“…do you think that she’s right?”
“Laura is a jerk and I don’t like her.”
That had earned him a chuckle before the mood became serious again. “I mean, do you think that she’s right about my name? That other people would make fun of me because of it?”
Derek’s hesitation had spoken for him and he could only watch as the paper is torn in two before, “It is a special name, my momma said so…” jolted him into action.
“It’s not bad! Just different and people can be mean about things that are different…” Derek had remembered the talk his Mom and Dad had given him, about how he should be very careful not to let people know about being a werewolf because it could put all of them into danger, so much so that he wasn’t even allowed to tell his best friend about it!
A soft sigh had been his only answer and Derek had felt even worse about not being able to help his friend before he looked at the ripped paper and an idea struck his brain.
“What about a nickname?”
“A nickname?”
“Yeah! That way, no one will make fun of you for having a different name! It’s perfect!”
There had been a scrunched nose at Derek’s enthusiasm, but he hadn’t let that deter him as he pointed at the crumpled-up paper, “Laura was wrong, anyway; it doesn’t look like ‘Stiles-is-slaw’, it looks like ‘Stiles-is-law’, like everybody has to listen to you.”
“Yeah! And my Daddy is a police officer! It is perfect!”
“Stiles?”
“Yes!”
Beaming over at Derek, the newly dubbed ‘Stiles’ had picked out a fresh sheet of paper and began to write again in earnest, something that had Derek feeling like he was on top of the world as he went back to his own paper.
His Dad’s soft *That was very nice, Derek.* was just the icing on top of the cake.