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The car spluttered and threatened to give up.
“Please baby please hold on. We are soon there, soon.” Stiles pleaded that his jeep would make it the last hundred or so meters that reminded before he would come to the rest stop just of the highway. His dad had told him that Stiles precious jeep never would make the trip back home, but Stiles had insisted. He now regretted that decision as he finally turned into the rest stop.
He had written his last exam yesterday and now he was on his way back to his dad over the summer. Despite his car billowing smoke from the engine he couldn’t not feel proud of himself when he thought of how great he was doing in college. Whit only one year left now he was almost done with his computer degree.
A knock on his car window woke Stiles from his thoughts. Outside a man was standing and not just any man, but possibly the hottest man Stiles had ever laid eyes on. He flailed his way out of the car, tripped over his own feet and propelled right into the man. The man, not expecting Stiles falling over him, went down to the ground with a small “oofh”. Stiles had somehow regained his balance and didn’t go down with him.
“Move” the man more growled than said. Stiles attempted to sped aside but tripped again, this time over the man’s legs and not his own. He fell with a squeal and landed beside the man on the ground.
“Hi, could you please save my baby?” Stiles mentally facepalmed. He had just tripped into this stranger making him fall over and the tripped over him once more making himself fall over and now he’s asking for help. Stiles braced himself and looked over at the man who looked confused. Why did he look confused? Stiles had thought he would be angry, maybe even murderous, but confused, why?
“Derek” the man said, stood up and then help Stiles up.
“No, no. My name is Stiles. Well it’s a nickname but let’s not get started with that now. Way too long story, dude.”
“Derek. Not dude. My name.” the man, Derek, said with a scowl. His eyebrows were doing some pretty serious frowning. His eyebrows, not the rest of his face. How is that even possible? Stiles wanted to pet them. Bad Stiles, he scolded himself mentally, you can’t go around petting people’s eyebrows. Especially people that are stranger, even beautiful stranger like Derek.
“Sorry, dude, I mean Derek, uhm…” Stiles trailed off. Derek was staring at him like he was from another planet, but then suddenly he started to smile. A wide, dazzling smile that made Stile swoon just a lite bit.
“I would gladly help you with your car Stiles” he said, “Assuming your baby is your car and not an actual baby.” Wait what? Did Stiles hear that right? Did Derek just offer to help him and was smiling about it. Was Derek missing a few braincells or what?
“Dude, did you just offer to help me?”
“Don’t call me dude. And yes, I would like more than anything to help my soulmate fix his car.” Stiles would have tripped again if Derek hadn’t caught him.
“Soulmate?” Derek’s hand on his arm made Stiles t-shirt ride up a bit and the short MOVE in block letters were made visible. And now when Stiles thought about it, that had been the first word Derek had said to him. Stiles hadn’t thought about it then because you would be surprised about how many persons had said just exact that word to him before and never had his reply been the right one. Before now apparently.
Derek was also staring at the word on Stiles’ arm. He now looked a bit troubled, like he regretted the first thing he had said to Stiles.
“Show me yours!” Stiles exclaimed, too late noticing his choice of words. Derek only raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him but moved his shirt away to show his words on the side of his ribs. This time Stiles couldn’t control his fingers before they moved on their own to touch his first word to Derek, his soulmate.
“Wow” he sounded, blinking up at Derek who was looking at him with an equally dazed look on his face. All too soon Derek cleared his throat stepping away from Stiles. He then continued to ask what was wrong with Stiles jeep. Stiles just pointed at the still smoking engine and shrugged, he had zero knowledge of cars even though his beloved baby almost falling apart at least once a month. Derek popped up the hood of the car and started to evaluate the problem.
“So, are you a mechanic?” Stiles asked wanting to get to know Derek better.
“No. I’m a pediatrician. Fixing cars is just a hobby.”
“Cool. I’m studying for a computer degree, only one year left now.” Stiles had no idea how old Derek was, no more than a few years older than himself he would guess, but he still wanted to make a point of almost being out of college. A lot of people often mistook him for being younger than he actually was and he didn’t want Derek to get the wrong idea.
“Why pediatrician? I didn’t take you for a guy who would willingly spend all his day around sick children. No offense.”
“None taken” Derek said blushing a bit. Blushing? “I became a pediatrician because of my soulwords. I didn’t want my soulmate to suffer the loss of a child because I couldn’t save it.” Stiles heart melted. This man had dedicated his life to save an unknown person’s child. Stiles almost regretted his words now. Derek must have been terrified of failing his soulmate all his life.
“Fortunately for us you’re a car doctor to.” And he was. Stiles jeep was no longer billowing smoke and looked normal.
Stiles felt a bit awkward. Should he ask for Derek’s phone number? They were soulmates, but they had also just met. What was he supposed to do?
Apparently, Derek knew that too, because he handed Stiles a small card. It was a business card with Derek’s name and number. And the address of the hospital he worked at, which was in Beason Hills.
“Dude, you live in Beacon Hills? Me too. I mean my dad too, who I’m on my way visit. That’s such a coincident!” This made Stiles throw himself into a spiel of questions to Derek, like where he was from and how big of a family he dad. Derek seemingly in no hurry answered as good as he could and asked Stiles some questions of his own. They ended up on that rest stop for some hours before the finally remembered they had places elsewhere to be, or people might come looking for them. They parted with promises to meet up again the next time Derek had a free afternoon.
When Stiles at last arrived at his dad’s place the Sheriff had almost sent out officers looking for him. Thou the Sheriffs firm expression softened when he heard the reason for Stiles being and demanded a meeting with Stiles newly found soulmate as soon as possible.