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There’s a lot of ways Stiles likes to wake up post coitus. His favorite is with Derek’s hands gently tracing lines down his body, curled up around his back, lips pressing gentle kisses along his hairline. He likes sleeping in and waking up warm and sated and comfortable.
Stiles isn’t sure how he feels about this though. About waking up in what is now officially his and Derek’s bed, alone—half-naked, thank god, considering—with two owlishly bright eyes peering at him under a nest of bedhead.
Stiles clears his throat and pushes up on his elbow. “Uh. Morning?”
“Daddy says wake up,” Miriam says, her voice a hushed whisper. “He said that I can’t wake you up, but now he says WAKE UP!”
Her piercing voice erases every trace of Stiles’ sleep-fog, and he blinks, then smiles and drags her into the covers to tickle her until she laughs and squirms out of his arms. Laying back, her tiny hand on her chest, she grins at him.
“What are we having for breakfast, kiddo?”
“Pake-cakes,” she says happily, then scrambles out of the bed. Her little feet make tiny padding noises on the floor, and he hears her stumble on the stairs, then hears Derek’s voice rising to scold her for running where she’s not supposed to run.
Stiles lays back against the pillows to luxuriate a little, hands tucked behind his head. The sun is warm, coming in through a few crooked slats in the blinds, and he feels a little like a cat—stretching and soaking in the early morning heat.
This is all still very new. It’s still an adjustment for both him and Derek. Stiles had agreed, when Derek had given him the key and presented the idea like an offer—making sure Stiles knew that no wasn’t a deal-breaker or anything. He still had his place, his lease wasn’t up, but they were trying. They both wanted this, and they were trying, and Stiles hadn’t thought he would ever get here with anyone.
With a groan, he finally pushes himself up out of the bed and stumbles to his side of the closet. He grabs a pair of sweats and a t-shirt from his dresser, then shuffles downstairs to find Derek at the stove flipping pancakes, and Miriam scooping chopped strawberries out of a bowl and onto her plate.
Siles gives a jaw-cracking yawn, walking up behind Derek, and puts his arms around his waist, pressing a kiss to the back of his neck.
“Morning, babe,” Derek says quietly. He’s not really a pet names kind of guy, but ‘babe’ has been coming a little easier, a little freer, and it makes Stiles shiver inside every single time he hears it.
“Morning, you,” he says back. He releases him to go for the coffee as Derek finishes plating the pancakes. Miriam has all the toppings on the table, spread out and kind of a mess, but Stiles loves it this way. He loves all of this, so damn much. Every time he blinks, he sees a future with Derek, with Miriam, a secret fantasy of another kid, and a ring on his finger.
He doesn’t want to take things too far too fast, but he can’t help himself.
They all settle, and Stiles takes another gulp of coffee before asking, “You excited about your field trip, munchkin?”
Miriam grins. “Yeah! You an’ daddy can come wiff me too!”
It’s rare Derek gets to attend field trips with her, considering his schedule at the school conflicts with everything Miriam’s class does. But it’s her last year of Pre-K and Laura all-but threatened Derek and Stiles both if they didn’t take the day off and go. It’s just a trip to the zoo, and Derek’s been more antsy about it than usual since Miguel just went in for surgery for his stomach, and will be with the clinic another few days. But neither of them wanted to let Miriam down, and Derek’s got a genuine, soft smile on his face.
“What animal are you most excited for?” Derek asks as he sprinkles a few chopped pieces of banana between his pancakes.
“Um,” she says, tapping her chin with her little finger. She grins. “Pengins!”
Derek laughs. “I don’t think they have those at our zoo. What about the camels. You love the camels.”
Her eyes brighten, and she says in a high, almost squeaky voice, “Yeah! I love camels! I’m gonna pet ‘em. Kay?”
“We’ll see,” Derek says, fond and amused, and maybe a little nervous because she’s going to be a handful. Luckily her class is only ten kids, and Stiles is pretty sure there’s at least seven chaperones.
Since Derek’s already dressed and ready, he takes over getting Miriam’s hair brushed while Stiles hops in for a quick shower. By the time he’s ready, Derek’s downstairs twisting a tie into the bottom of her braids. Stiles gets everyone’s coats, and then they pile into his car and head out for the school.
---
“At least it’s a nice day,” Derek says. He’s got a loose grip on his cane, which is a change from the iron, white knuckle grip he was holding before when they hadn’t been sure how busy the place was going to be. Luckily mid-morning on a Tuesday meant the place was almost totally empty. Just another field trip, but the kids there were older, and on a guided tour which meant the pre-ks could run wild, exclaiming at everything that they walked past.
Right now they were in front of the tiger, who was licking away at a giant ice cube that looked pink with raw meat and whatever else the zoo keepers had frozen along with it. Gross, but fascinating, and Stiles had taken his time describing it to Derek who just made a face and squeezed his arm.
“I swear these kids run on photosynthesis,” Stiles says as he looks over at two boys trying to climb onto a rock formation. “One of them is going to end up in a cage at some point.”
“As long as it’s not ours,” Derek says, and it does something to Stiles to hear it like that. Ours.
“That’s…mean, but true,” Stiles eventually says with a snort, and he flushes when Derek leans over and pecks him quickly on the side of the face. “Come on, Miriam’s waving at us.”
Derek puts his cane in front of him, which has saved him several times now from little bodies rushing this way and that. They find Miriam with her face pressed to the glass, and she reaches out for Derek’s hand the moment they’re close enough.
“Daddy, can I have a tiger?”
Derek snorts a laugh. “Uh. No, Mimi. I don’t think we can have a tiger. People don’t own tigers.”
She pouts, turning back to press her face against the glass, even as she tugs Derek closer. “I want you to touch it, daddy. You can’t see it if you can’t touch it!”
Derek hands his cane off to Stiles, then kneels down and puts his arms around her. “Why don’t you just tell me, okay?”
She sighs, but quickly starts to describe the tiger—taking far longer than Stiles would have, if he’d been asked to at her age. He feels a warmth in him about it, the way she’s so careful with her dad, and so aware of what he needs, even at her age. Stiles wonders if he would have been a terrible kid to his parents, if either one of them had been blind. Probably, he thinks.
Miriam finishes up, then rushes off to catch up with her zoo partner as Derek takes his cane back, and they stroll up a small hill and around the corner to where the hippo paddock is. They stop at the sign, and Derek absently touches the braille there, his fingers brushing over each line.
“Do places like this suck for you?” Stiles asks. “I mean, Scott and I never…by the time he got hurt you know, we were kind of too old for the zoo.”
Derek laughs. “Who the hell is too old for a zoo, Stiles?”
“Nerds who thought they were way cooler than they actually were?” he offers.
Derek elbows him lightly as they move on to the fence where Miriam and her friend are talking about the hippo from Madagascar, and the sad lack of pretty skirts on these ones. “My dad used to take me to the hands-on exhibits when I was little,” Derek eventually says. “They do it once a week. They’ll take one of the animals out and do a little show and tell thing. It’s usually just like, birds, and the big snakes, and sometimes they have elephant feeding and stuff. I got to touch the elephant’s trunk a few times, and the giraffe once.” His hands reach out and touch the small, bronze-looking statue of two hippos. “I liked it.”
Stiles bites his lip, thinking of tiny Derek and his dad, and how Derek seems to put every single one of those good childhood memories to use with his own daughter. He thinks that Derek is doing it right, how things in his life were a little tragic, and sometimes a lot tragic, but he never let that change the sort of person he is. Stiles loves him so much for it. He loves him for a lot of things, but that’s a big one.
The kids all get pretty bored by the time they reach the flamingos, and the teacher is suggesting they all move to the grassy area to have lunch. Derek stays behind to help the kids get situated on their blankets with their sack lunches, and Stiles goes with two of the other moms for the slushees the zoo provided as part of their package.
They’re waiting in the line for the slushees to be ready, and one of the moms turns to Stiles with a sort of half smile which sets him on edge a little. “So,” she says, and Stiles bristles. “You and Mr. Hale, huh?”
Stiles shrugs. “I guess? I mean, depending on what you…”
“It’s just nice to see him getting some help, you know?” she clarifies.
Stiles frowns. “Help with…”
“It just must be so hard,” the other mom says, that kind of false pity in her voice which Stiles has heard before. “Being…the way he is. And being a dad.”
“Uh,” Stiles says, and he’s debating how uncomfortable he wants to make these moms because it’s not really his place, but he hates this. “The way he is,” he decides, letting them dig their own graves with this one.
As predicted, the mom blushes. “You know,” she waves her hands at her eyes.
“Green eyed?” Stiles offers.
She huffs, and it’s obvious she sees what he’s doing. “I just mean…”
“You just mean it’s amazing how a grown-ass man can take care of his own kid and be blind at the same time because wow, you couldn’t even imagine what that would be like?” he says, a little vicious, but damn it, he’s a little shit. Always has been. “Hell, it’s amazing he can even dress himself, let alone keep a kid alive, right? Gosh, thank God he met me.”
They stand there looking at him. “I didn’t mean…”
“I know exactly what you meant,” he says. “I also know why you said it to me instead of to Derek. Because you know exactly how shitty it sounds.” He grabs the trays of slushee and heads back to the teacher and one of the other moms, who start to pass them out.
He’s got the two for Miriam and her friend, and he offers them over, smiling at how excited they are since the swirly straws have little, plastic tigers attached to them. Miriam yanks hers out of the slushee, getting red, sticky everywhere, and she immediately climbs into Derek’s lap and shoves the straw at him.
“Daddy lookit! There’s a tiger, so you could see it now!”
Derek smiles and gently runs the tip of his finger over the straw in spite of the juice which is dripping all over. “Wow,” he says, “that’s a really pretty tiger, Mimi. I can see why you would want to take one home.”
“Yeah,” she says, and heaves a sad sigh. “But we can’t. It’s lillegal.”
He laughs as she climbs out of his lap and goes back to her lunch, and Stiles eases up against his side. His eyes seek out the two women who are standing together and talking quietly, and he just smiles before he goes back to watching the girls.
“Something happened,” Derek says after a moment.
“How…”
“Because normally you’re talking my ear off.” Derek sets his half-eaten sandwich down and finds Stiles’ hand. “What is it?”
“Just some of the parents being…”
“Ah,” Derek says. “Which one? The, I can’t believe he’s so brave to come here and chaperone, or the, thank you for being his eyes?”
Stiles snorts a laugh which he buries in Derek’s shoulder. “Oh my God, kind of both? Like…I didn’t let them talk much because it was so gross.”
Derek huffs a laugh and shrugs as he goes back for his food, talking with his mouth full. “I only ever invite them over for Mimi’s birthdays. Now you know why.”
---
It’s on the way home that Derek’s phone rings, and the one sided conversation is tense, but Stiles immediately knows it’s Scott, and knows everything is probably fine because Derek isn’t totally pale and doesn’t look sick. When he hangs up, there’s a long silence before he speaks.
“He can come home tomorrow. And Scott wants us to have dinner with him and Kira tonight.”
Stiles licks his lips. “Alright.”
“I said yes,” Derek finishes.
“Okay. You know it’s fine if you don’t…”
“He has to retire,” Derek says, and there’s a note of finality in his voice that hits them both kind of hard. He’s quiet another minute. “I’m…I’m not going to get another dog right now.”
“Okay,” Stiles says.
“But I think dinner will be good. He did so much for Miguel, and the surgery he said probably gave him another five or six years. That’s…more than I hoped for.”
Stiles hates that Miguel now has a ticking clock, but he supposes that’s the life of all dogs. All things, really. Stiles is no stranger to death or the idea of mortality, but he still feels the sting.
“I’m excited for you to actually like…get to know him outside of the whole vet clinic thing,” is what Stiles eventually says.
Derek takes the offer of subject shift with grace and a small smile. “Me too. I think I’m going to ask Laura to keep Mimi tonight though. It’s been a long day, and I think she’ll be a nightmare before we’re done.” He turns back and asks Miriam if she wants to be with her auntie Laura, which gets a loud, resounding yes.
As Derek calls Laura to talk about it, Stiles tries to think of something—anything—to make Derek feel better, but his mind is just coming up blank. Right now, he just plans to be here, and if he figures something out, he’ll jump on it.
---
Derek almost feels like hearing about Miguel is a blessing in disguise, because the emotional impact of knowing that he has to retire him as a guide completely distracts him from the nerves of getting to finally spend some actual time with Scott and his wife, who are some of the most important people in Stiles’ life.
Dinner goes easy enough, and Kira is startlingly sweet, but sharp around the edges which Derek really appreciates. He gets to hear plenty of embarrassing stories about Stiles over the meal which takes a lot of the edge off, and soon enough they’re in the living room as the night starts to wind down.
“God, I want ice cream,” Kira groans.
“Right?” Stiles says. “We should do that, dude. You only have like what, two months left to indulge your pregnancy cravings?” Derek feels Stiles turn toward him, and nudge his jaw with his nose. “Babe, you want ice cream? Scott and I can go get some if you’re cool hanging back here?”
“Sure,” Derek says, because he’s tired after the long day at the zoo, and he feels comfortable with Kira. “You know what I like.”
“Yeah, I do,” Stiles says suggestively, and then he giggles when Scott protests loudly and hits him hard enough to jostle him against Derek.
Derek grins and kisses him before Stiles peels himself away. Soon enough Derek can hear Stiles’ car backing out of the drive, and he sits back.
“So can I be super rude and just dive right into something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about?” Kira says, immediately breaking the silence. “Because I know we don’t know each other, but ever since Scott told me that you had a kid, I’ve been dying to pick your brain.”
Derek offers her a smile, and he finds he really isn’t bothered at all. “Go ahead, before the circus gets back.”
She laughs. “Oh my god, I know, right? Those two! Anyway I just…okay. Scott is kind of freaking out.”
Derek frowns. “First time parent jitters?”
“Yeah. But he’s also kind of…” She hesitates for a minute, and Derek lets her gather her thoughts, though he’s pretty sure he knows where she’s going with this. “He’s scared, more than I am.”
Derek licks his lips in thought, then asks, “Did Stiles tell him about Miriam? When she was born, and all of that?”
“I don’t know,” Kira admits. “He hasn’t said anything about it if he did.”
Derek hums, then decides he might as well tell her because at the very least, he can give them the worst case. “Miriam’s mom went to jail when she was pregnant with her. I had to take a DNA test to confirm paternity, and then I got to take her home. My ex managed to get a DCS report filed against me, though, stating that my disability made my home unsafe, and it made me an unfit parent.”
“You’re kidding,” Kira whispers.
Derek shakes his head. “No. And they took her.”
“What!”
Derek offers a sort of tense smile. “They showed up at my house, and they took her while I was under investigation. I had to spend weeks proving that my blindness didn’t make me unable to care for my own child. The case worker tried to encourage me to move in with my sister, saying that having sighted people in the house would help my case.”
“Is that what you did?” she asked, her voice small.
“No,” Derek admits. “No. I just did what they asked me to do. I showed them how I folded her laundry and prepared her bottles and changed her damn diaper, and gave her a bath without managing to murder her and they couldn’t find any real reason to keep her from me. So she came home.”
“Is that going to…is that something I need to…”
“I doubt it,” Derek says. “You’re sighted, and unless you or Scott has some vindictive asshole trying to make life hard, I doubt anyone will say anything. So that’s the worst case, and if I can get through that, Scott can get through a few awkward, messy diaper changes and spilled bottles.”
Kira laughs, very quietly. “Can you…will you give him tips? They don’t make books for this, you know? I checked.”
Derek sighs, but it’s not at her. It’s at the unfair lack of resources that has a guy like Scott, who is good, and kind, and perfect for something like fatherhood, shaking in his boots because the rest of the world has told him that just for one small thing, he’s already unfit. “Of course I will,” he says, and he means it with more conviction than he means most things.
Before he can say anything else, Kira makes a kind of ‘oomph’ noise, and Derek stiffens, slightly afraid because he didn’t get to experience any of this. No, all he got was a phone call, and a cheek swab, then suddenly a baby carrier with a new born sleeping inside of it, and the cursory prison hospital diaper bag with a handful of baby wipes and two small packs of formula.
“Are you okay? Should we call Scott? Are you in pain or…”
“Derek,” Kira says softly, and he stops talking. “I’m fine. The baby just shoved a foot up into my ribs and…uhg.” She groans again. “They’re just feeling super active right now.”
“Oh.” He relaxes back into the couch cushion with a small sigh of relief. “Oh. Good. Because I’m kind of not prepared to deliver a baby, and I sure as hell can’t drive the car.”
Kira giggles. “My neighbor is on call for emergency baby stuff, it’s fine.” She’s silent for a second, then she says, with a lot of hesitation, “Do you um. Do you want to feel it? It’s kind of cool.”
Derek feels like maybe that’s crossing a line because he doesn’t know her that well. But then he thinks that she’s probably steps away from being his sister-in-law considering how serious he and Stiles are getting. And there was always a small part of him that wondered what it was like. So he nods, and he holds his hand out, and he lets her press it to her belly.
It’s harder than he expects, the shirt under his fingers warm with her body heat. Nothing happens for a beat, and then there’s a pulsing under his palm. He laughs and spreads his fingers out, and he feels the baby shifting and tapping.
“That must be hell,” he murmurs, moving along her belly as the baby moves.
Kira snorts. “God. You have no idea.”
---
“Do you think Laura’s going to bitch about you basically deciding we’re having a barbeque at her place without even asking?” Stiles asks a few minutes onto the road.
Derek laughs. “Do you have any idea how often she volunteers me for shit that I don’t want to do?”
“Right,” Stiles says, and Derek can hear the huge grin in his voice. “New staff orientation.”
Derek flushes a little, and clears his throat. “Well…that time it worked out.”
“Aww, babe,” Stiles simpers, and Derek reaches over, thumping his shoulder.
“Shut up.”
“God, you love me so much,” Stiles says. He quiets for a second, then says, “Thanks for uh…you know. For trying? With Scott and Kira. I know you’re not really over the moon about getting chummy with strangers but it means a lot.”
“It would feel worse if I didn’t actually like them,” Derek admits. “I’d still try, but that doesn’t matter now because I do.”
“I love you,” Stiles breathes out quietly.
Derek feels his own smile stretch across his face, and he reaches over, letting his fingers play over the shaved sides of Stiles’ hair as they make their way home.
---
Miriam is fast asleep when they get in, and Laura is in the living room watching TV. It clicks off the second they get into the room, and Stiles heads up to use the bathroom while Laura grabs her things.
“How was it? Meeting the in-laws?”
“Ha. Ha. They’re nice, actually. I volunteered your place for a barbeque this weekend. I know Stiles wants to invite his dad up, and I think it would kind of take the pressure off to have everyone there.” Derek reaches out for the chair he knows is to his left, and finds it after a second, leaning on the back because he’s just tired and ready for the day to be over.
Laura touches his wrist to let him know where she’s at, then comes in for her kiss to his cheek. “Fine by me. I’m happy for you, kiddo.”
Derek huffs. “You’re eight minutes older, Laur.”
“Eight long, eternal minutes that filled me with big sister wisdom,” she says, patting his cheek lightly. “See you bright and early tomorrow?”
“Yeah, yeah,” he says, then drags her in for a quick hug before she’s out the door. He drags a cursory hand around the living room walls to turn off all the lights, and hopes he got them all before heading upstairs to where he can hear Stiles humming to himself as he dresses down for bed.
Derek slips into the room, quickly pulling off his ‘date night’ clothes and throwing the into the hamper before deciding boxers are good enough. Stiles is still in the bathroom at the sink, so Derek elbows him over before brushing his teeth, and they exchange a quick, minty kiss before they’re crawling into bed.
“I’m exhausted,” Stiles groans, pushing his face against the back of Derek’s neck where he’s spooning him.
“Me too,” Derek agrees.
“Holy shit look at us. All like domestic, like an old married couple.”
Derek means to laugh, but it kind of hits him because it is like that. It’s like that a lot. When you factor in the job they do, and the four year old, and demanding family members, and it means they don’t really get a honeymoon phase like a lot of couples do.
“I…” Derek says.
Stiles seems to catch on pretty quick to his mood shift, because he grabs Derek by the hips really fast and kisses him several times on the back of his shoulder. “Babe, no. No, don’t get all angsty now. That’s not what I…I mean it is what I meant, but I don’t dislike it. Everything is always so damn chaotic and this is…it’s simple, and it’s safe, and it’s one of the reasons why I wanted to try this with you. Because I don’t think I could fall in love with someone this hard if I didn’t feel this safe.”
Derek just hums. He doesn’t really have the words to reply, so he holds Stiles a little tighter and hopes that’s a good enough answer for now. With the responding, final kiss against the back of his ear before sleep, Derek thinks that maybe it is.
---
The barbeque is total chaos. Derek’s brother comes down with his kids, and Miriam is thrilled to have her cousins around. Scott and Kira show up, then Eric and Boyd with their kids, and Isaac with Cora, and eventually Stiles’ dad. The introductions there are a little tense and nerve-wracking, but Noah Stilinski is a nice enough guy, and Miriam takes to him so fast it almost makes Derek’s head spin. It’s soothing in a way, sort of like the last piece of the puzzle of Derek’s new life he’s settling into.
Laura’s cooking up a storm out back, and the kids are wreaking havoc in the back yard, and Derek is just coming down the stairs toward the kitchen when he hears Stiles and Scott talking. Stiles’ voice sounds kind of stressed, which is why Derek finds himself stopping to listen instead of going in.
“…idea, but I’m not even going to go there right now. I’ll just get my baby fix from my gorgeous little god-child once they’re born.”
“I mean I get not rushing things, but have you even brought it up? It’s kind of a thing you should talk about,” Scott is saying, and Derek’s ears perk even more. He presses his hand to the wall to keep himself oriented, and feels only a little guilty for the eavesdropping.
“I figure we’ll get to it in time, but it’s not like…it isn’t a deal-breaker for me. Miriam is great, she’s the best, you know? And if that’s it, that’s it. I can live with that.”
“But you want babies, Stiles.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like Der and I can have a whoops kid, you know? Neither one of us has a uterus, so like…it’s a thing we can plan. And honestly I don’t even think he wants another one. The shit with Miriam was really traumatic. I don’t think I want to ask him to relive all that. And anyway what if I do ask, right? Then he runs screaming into the hills and I’ve ended up ruining probably the best thing in my entire life all because my big fat mouth.”
“Stiles,” Scott says with a tiny sigh.
Derek thinks he’s heard enough, but by the time he makes it into the kitchen, he can hear Stiles from the other room. He thinks Scott is still there but he’s not sure so he asks, “Hey, anyone in here?”
“Oh, Derek. Hey,” Scott says. “I think Stiles ran off to help your sister.”
“Yeah,” Derek says. He heads to the fridge and feels around for a can of soda, cracks open the top and sips it to be sure. Sprite. He can live with it. “Do you want anything? I know Laura’s place is a little nuts right now but I’ve been doing this a while if you need to get somewhere.”
Scott laughs. “Nah man, I’m good right now. It was loud out there.”
“Hah. Yeah,” Derek says, and he leans back on the counter. “I should have probably planned this better.”
“What?” Scott says, sounding surprised. “No dude, this is great. I mean, I don’t have a big family, you know? So I don’t get to do this like ever. It’s nice to know my kid will have that.”
“It was definitely an experience growing up,” Derek admits.
There’s a pause, then Scott says, “Can I ask you something?”
Derek almost laughs, because he can hear from Scott’s tone the same one Kira had used—it’s telling for how close they are, and how in love. “Yeah, of course.”
“I just…does it suck? Not being able to see your kid?” Scott takes a breath and it’s clear he’s not done, so Derek waits. “I don’t always feel like I’m missing much with Kira. There are times of course I wish I had met her before the accident. But this just feels…awful sometimes. And I just, I want to know it gets better.”
Derek palms a hand down his face because this isn’t really an answer he can give Scott. “I was born blind,” he says. “I had retinal detachment when I was a toddler, and before that I didn’t really have a lot of vision, so I don’t know any different. Seeing Miriam doesn’t really occur to me most days.”
“Right,” Scott says, sounding kind of defeated. “Yeah no I get that.”
Derek sets his soda down and guides himself around the counter until he’s closer to Scott. “I think if someone had some sudden miracle cure for my type of blindness, I’d probably take it,” he tells him—something he’s only admitted to one or two people in his life. “Not because this life sucks, but because it would make dealing with everyone else a lot easier. It’s probably going to suck for you, Scott. Not being able to see your baby. There’s probably a part of you that’s going to resent the accident, and that’s fine. You don’t have to be the blind warrior who takes the world by storm and is fucking happy about it, okay? Just don’t let it ruin anything you have with your baby.”
Scott’s quiet for a long moment, then he lets out a small laugh. “So like, it’s not the first time someone’s told me it’s okay to be angry about this, but it’s been a while since someone reminded me. I think I’m more excited than I am scared or angry, but sometimes it really does suck.”
Derek smiles and he finds Scott’s shoulder, squeezing it. “Everything about being a parent sucks sometimes. But you have a lot of support. It was hard being a single dad for me. It was hard being a blind single dad even more. The next time I do this, with my next kid, it’ll be easier, because I won’t be so alone.” He knows what he’s doing—he’s telling Scott that he actually thinks about the future, and that everything with Miriam doesn’t send him into a panic spiral when the idea of more kids is put in front of him.
He’ll tell Stiles himself, later, when they’re alone. But he figures he owes it to Scott to let him know that Stiles isn’t going to be compromising or sacrificing something that really matters to him.
He hears the huge grin on Scott’s face when he says, “That’s great man. I’m really happy for you.”
Derek grins back. “Yeah. I’m really happy too.”
---
They decide not to drive home when all the kids have passed out on the living room floor. Scott and Kira leave after a while, and Noah heads back to his hotel. The Hales are still around, though Erica and Boyd have pawned their kids off on Laura for free babysitting while they get an impromptu date night.
“We can stay in the guest room,” Derek says, tugging on an exhausted Stiles’ hand. “It’s already made up, come on.”
Stiles doesn’t protest as he follows Derek up the stairs and into the first bedroom where he always crashes. He’s pretty sure the lights are off, and he and Stiles don’t waste any time stripping down to boxers and t-shirts before climbing into the bed. Derek’s mouth feels kind of gross, but he can live with it and steal a spare toothbrush from Laura in the morning.
Stiles curls up against him and kisses his collarbone before humming sleepily. “This was great.”
“Yeah,” Derek says. He still wants to talk to Stiles about the baby thing, but he figures it can wait until morning.
---
“Where is my gift basket?” Laura demands, way too early in the morning for her strange requests.
Derek’s at the counter nursing a cup of coffee. He can hear Stiles and Cora in the other room with the kids, watching some really loud, really musical cartoon. It’s way too early for that, too, so he’s hiding out in the kitchen until the caffeine has kicked in.
“What are you talking about?” he asks after swallowing down another mouthful.
“My gift basket. My thank you Laura, for hiring Stiles and giving me lots of great orgasms gift basket.”
“I hate you,” he responds.
“Mm yeah no, I’m pretty sure you love me a lot, considering,” she says. She pats him on the cheek and it only startles him a little since he’s come to expect it. He hears the thump of her own mug on the counter, then smells a fresh wave of coffee brewing.
Derek listens to make sure it’s just the two of them still, then he says, “I think I want another kid.”
It brings him just a little bit of pleasure to hear her choking on her coffee. “Uh. That came out of literally nowhere.”
“I overheard Stiles talking to Scott last night,” he admits. “He wants to have a kid in the future, and I’m…well. Me too. With him.” He sighs.
Laura is suspiciously silent for a minute, and then suddenly she’s on him, and wrapping her arms tight around him in a fierce hug. “I know you hate when I’m sappy or imply that you weren’t like…content before or whatever. But Derek, you’re happy. You’re in love. There’s more than just…Mimi and school and it makes me happy, okay? So if you ever want like an egg or whatever…”
“Oh my God,” he breathes.
“I mean it,” she insists, still not letting go. “We don’t have to talk about this now, but the offer is there. It’s always there.”
“Thanks,” he mutters.
He’s saved by Stiles walking into the room and saying, “Woah, love fest? Why are we hugging Derek?” Then he comes over to hug too, and Derek gets a lot more pleasure in wrapping his arms back around Stiles than he does with his sister glued to his back.
“We’re just feeling the love today,” Laura says, and Derek is grateful she understands timing, and letting Derek be the one to bring this up.
Later.
Much later.
Eventually she peels herself off, and leaves Stiles and Derek to their cuddling at the breakfast bar. Derek still hasn’t had enough caffeine, but Stiles’ kisses are pretty good at perking up his mood.
“You seem pretty happy this morning,” he points out.
Derek can’t help but grin as he cups Stiles’ face, feeling the rise of soft moles under the pads of his fingers and thinking just how beautiful Stiles is. And how much he loves him. “I am,” he says simply, and smiles when Stiles doesn’t press for a further answer.
Maybe that means Stiles feels it too. Whatever the case, Derek is still content, but he’s more than that now, and he owes it all to the man currently curled up in his arms, and the light he brings to Derek’s life.