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Stiles slowly blinked awake and stretched luxuriously. That had just been the best night of sleep he’d gotten in a long time. The room he was in was partially lit by sunlight, and there were white walls. His bedroom didn’t have white walls. He stared blankly at the unfamiliar ceiling above him, not sure where he was.
It came back to him quickly, though. Graduating high school yesterday. The pack ignoring him for months and practically kicking him out thanks to Theo, including his supposed best friend. Derek coming back to Beacon Hills to come get him and take him away from that horrible place.
Derek.
Stiles turned his head and saw Derek sitting on the other bed in the small motel room. He had a book in his hand but was ignoring it in favor of looking over at Stiles. He’d probably already sensed him waking up before Stiles had even opened his eyes.
Werewolves and their crazy abilities.
“Did you sleep well?” Derek asked. “You looked like you really needed it.”
Derek had only driven for a couple of hours the night before since by the time they had left the Stilinski house, the sun had already set. By the time midnight had come around, they’d only gotten a couple of towns away from Beacon Hills. Due to the late hour, they had decided they were far enough away for the time being, and together they had scoured the town they were in for a motel with vacancies so they could sleep.
Stiles didn’t know how late Derek had stayed up, but he himself had been exhausted both physically and mentally from his very busy day and he’d fallen asleep on his bed as soon as he’d set down his own pillow. Apparently, he hadn’t even bothered to change his clothes, he realized as he looked down at himself still in his Batman t-shirt and jeans. But the werewolf looked pretty awake, and Stiles had always suspected that Derek was very much a morning person, despite being a born werewolf.
“Yeah, I slept great,” Stiles answered, stretching again. “Being away from Beacon Hills helped.” Being with Derek probably helped, too, but that wasn’t something he was going to admit out loud.
He took his cell phone out of his pocket. Still not one message from the pack. He wasn’t really expecting to get one, especially since they had all ignored him at graduation and most likely had no idea that he had left. It still hurt, though.
Derek set his book down on the nightstand. “We should go check out and then get something to eat. And we have to decide where we’re going next.”
Stiles’ stomach grumbled at the mere mention of food. Derek raised an eyebrow at him, and he flushed in embarrassment. “Yeah,” he blurted out before Derek could comment, “that sounds like a great idea, big guy! Let’s pack up and go!”
**********
After checking out of the motel, the two went to a little diner down the street. It was Sunday, a little past noon, and the hostess informed them that brunch was still being offered. “Oh, thank goodness,” Stiles breathed as he sunk into the booth they were led to. “I’m totally in the mood for some pancakes!”
It wasn’t long after they’d sat down before they were greeted by a cheerful waitress. “Hey, what can I get you two?” she asked them.
“Pancakes, please,” Stiles said. “With bacon.”
“Sure thing, sugar,” the waitress said, then turned to Derek. “And for you, hon?”
Derek quickly perused the menu. “I’ll just have the basic breakfast with scrambled eggs and a cup of coffee,” he said, handing the waitress their menus.
“Will do,” she said, taking them and walking away.
The conversation while they waited for their food was simple and flowed easily. Stiles told Derek about graduation and how Coach Finstock had come up to him and given him the infamous Independence Day speech yet again, then he had patted Stiles on the shoulder and sniffled as he walked away. In return, Derek told him about the drive back to California and the beautiful forests that he’d driven through. “I wouldn’t mind going back to some of them to run,” he finished, looking rather shy, which Stiles privately thought was the most adorable thing ever.
Before they could say anything more, their waitress returned with two big plates of food. Stiles’ eyes lit up at the sight of the large stack of pancakes that was set in front of him, then proceeded to soak them in a puddle of maple syrup. He cut into the stack and shoved a forkful of them into his mouth. He groaned in happiness. “So good,” he sighed, his mouth stuffed with pancake.
Derek was staring at him with the faintest amount of pink in his cheeks. Stiles swallowed his bite as quickly as he could. “Sorry,” he said, embarrassed. Derek certainly didn’t want to see him stuffing his face with abandon.
There was only the sounds of chewing and silverware clinking against plates as the two ate their food. Once they had finished their brunch and the table had been cleared, Derek unfolded a map of the United States and put it on the table between them.
Stiles’ eyes lit up and his mouth widened into a huge grin. “You actually carry a paper map of the country around?” he asked, delighted. “When there are map apps on cell phones? You are so old-fashioned!” He leaned forward to pinch the werewolf’s cheek fondly.
Derek slapped his hand away lightly and glared at Stiles, though there was little heat behind it. “I got it at the motel.”
“Eh, semantics,” Stiles shrugged, still grinning.
“Anyways,” Derek shot Stiles a look, who quickly mimed zipping his mouth shut. “We have to be in New York in a little more than two months to get you to your university in time for orientation.”
Stiles nodded. “Dad’s going to meet us there. He‘ll be flying in.”
“Okay,” Derek said. “Well, we’ve got plenty of paths to take to get to New York.”
Stiles studied the map and noticed a large road coming out of the area around Los Angeles. He followed its path all the way to Chicago. He saw the name of the road and he did a little jump in excitement. “Route 66! We can take Route 66!” he said, pointing to it on the map.
Derek’s eyes immediately went to where Stiles was pointing.
“Route 66 is one of the original highways! It’s supposed to have all these cool diners and fun roadside attractions to see, like dinosaurs and stuff! We can go down to LA and find where it starts and then travel however slow we want and see every single awesome thing there is to see! Oh my gosh, this is going to be the best road trip ever!” he finished, flailing his arms around excitedly. “What do you think, Derek?”
The werewolf nodded slowly. “I figured that would probably be the best route to take east.” He tapped his finger at the beginning of the road. “This is Santa Monica, so that’s were we have to go.”
Stiles beamed. “Then it’s settled! We’re going south to Santa Monica and then onto Route 66!”
Derek said something so softly that Stiles couldn’t hear what it was.
“I’m sorry?” Stiles said, cocking his head to the side.
Derek’s shoulders slumped a little and he looked down. “Laura had wanted to drive on Route 66, too.”
Stiles held his breath. It was very rare for Derek to speak about his family, and Stiles wanted to learn as much as he could about them.
“When Laura and I had been living in New York,” Derek continued, “we had talked about maybe coming back to California, by car this time, and going down Route 66. She only had a few specific things she wanted to see, but she thought that going down the first highway would be pretty cool.”
Stiles put a hand gently on Derek’s shoulder, relieved when the werewolf didn’t shrug it off. “We’ll visit all the places that she wanted to go to, too, okay?” he said quietly. “We’ll do this trip for her, too.”
Derek smiled softly, and Stiles’ heart skipped a beat. He loved Derek’s smile so much. “Thank you, Stiles,” he said gratefully.
Stiles grinned back at him. “No problem, dude. We don’t have to decide yet what we’re going to do once we get to Chicago. How much time we have left once we get there will probably determine how out of the way we can travel and still be in New York in time!”
“Okay,” Derek said. “You want to head out now?”
“Yeah. Let me call my dad first and let him know where we‘re going.” Stiles said, turning on his phone. He sighed when he saw no new messages again.
Derek raised an eyebrow. “The pack?” he asked.
Stiles sighed. “Yeah.” He closed his eyes and willed himself not to cry. Once upon a time, at least before the Nogitsune, he thought that he had once meant so much to the pack, or at least to Scott, the one who had practically been his brother since they‘d been kids. Scott’s betrayal hurt more than anything except his mother’s death.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over and saw Derek looking at him with concern. “You don’t have to talk about it now,” he said quietly. “But I’m hear to listen whenever you want to talk about it, or anything.”
Being away from Beacon Hills had really changed Derek, for the better. Stiles hoped that the same would happen to him. “Thanks, buddy,” he said softly. “I’m not ready to talk about it yet, but soon.”
He took a deep breath and called his father. He was supposed to work that day, so Stiles wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to answer.
Thankfully, his father did pick up the phone after a couple of rings. “Son? Is everything okay?” John asked, and Stiles could hear the shuffling of papers presumably on his work desk in the background.
Stiles smiled in relief even though his father couldn’t see it. “Everything’s great, Dad. I had a really good sleep last night.”
“That’s great, son!”
“And we’ve decided what we’re gonna do now.”
“What’s that?”
“We’re gonna go down to Santa Monica, and from there, take Route 66 across the country! And we’re gonna stop at all sorts of those awesome kitchy places that are supposed to be there and take pictures and send postcards of all the places we go and stuff!” Stiles told him, beaming.
“That sounds like a lot of fun,” John said. “I hope you plan on sending me some of those postcards.”
Stiles snorted. “You’re the only one getting them, silly! I got all those stamps after all!” He felt a pang in his heart when he realized that his father was really all he had in Beacon Hills anymore, but he breathed in deeply and continued on. “So, yeah, we don’t know yet what we’ll do when we get to Chicago, but that’s okay. We have time.”
“Well, you two have a great trip, son,” his father told him. “I know you probably won’t be on the phone much, but please call once in a while. Postcards are nice, but give your old man a call sometimes, too, okay?”
“Of course I’ll call you, Dad!” Stiles promised.
“I’d better get back to work. I’ve got a ton of paperwork to handle today,” John sighed loud enough for Stiles to hear.
“Talk to you later, then, Dad,” Stiles said. “And I’ll see you in August!”
“Bye, son! Say hi to Derek for me!”
Stiles hung up and put his phone away. “Well, let’s get going, big guy!” he said, putting an arm around Derek’s shoulders. “Let’s get this road trip back on the road!”
The next two months or so on the road were going to be amazing. Who knew what kinds of awesome things they would see and do? And maybe, just maybe, something might happen between the two of them.