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Derek Hale loved to cuddle.
It was the darkest, deepest secret of the town of Beacon Hills, deeper even than Sheriff Stilinski and Melissa McCall’s weekly movie dates that started their secret affair or Malia’s crush on Lydia. Even bigger secret than what exactly Chris Argent does for a living.
Not that Derek told Stiles about it. But it’s hard not to notice, when you immediately become a little spoon to Derek being a big spoon the first thing you go to sleep every night. And when you watch TV. And when you nap together. And when you cook and Derek shows up in the kitchen only to hug you from behind and then disappear and come back to whatever he was doing before.
It was uncanny. Big bad wolf adored cuddles and hugs and apparently, according to Stiles, also rainbows and kittens and unicorns. His reputation was about to go down so far that it could reach the actual bottom of all the reputations in the history of fallen reputations (Stiles was almost sure there is a book about it, there has to be).
So as soon as Stiles Stilinski, Derek’s boyfriend of five months (five months and six days, thank you very much), figured this out, he just simply had to take advantage of it.
It first started with a few nicknames that Stiles created and used once in a while in their conversations just to somehow make Derek spill the beans and confess to his extraordinary hobby. (Stiles was positive that the number of hugs he received from Derek in the last five months – five months and six days – definitely ranked this huggly-cuddly thing as a hobby. Obsession even.)
“Can you pass me salt, Der-Bear?”
“My dad wants you to come over for a dinner. Is Thursday okay, snugglebug?”
“I’m off to Scott’s for a movie. Wanna join us, cuddlekins?”
“Sorry for being late, Snuggly Cuddly, I had to bring my dad some salad for lunch, I can’t seriously have this man eating junk food all the time.”
But it seemed to be the one last straw when he decided to go with the most creative nickname from his list. He decided to drop the bomb one Sunday when they started cleaning up after dinner (which was just a nice term for throwing away empty boxes of their Thai takeout).
“Okay, Hugsy Wugsy Cuddle Cakes, whatcha say we watch that movie you-”
“The fuck, Stiles?”
Stiles blinked, deciding to play the fool about Derek being clearly upset.
“Is something wrong, smoochy boo?”
Derek raised his eyebrows, like he was just questioning Stiles’ sanity.
“Smoochy boo? Hugsy wugsy cuddle what? Seriously, Stiles?” He shook his head. “What the hell?”
“Nothin’, why?” He hoped his fluttering eyelashes would be enough to keep Derek from killing him. Not that he’d mind Derek punishing him whatsoever. Stiles already started to imagine being tied to the huge bed in Derek’s bedroom. Or held hostage in the shower, with Derek teasing his body with a shower handle. And lying on the kitchen table and putting honey and whipped cream and maybe also liquid chocolate into a new use.
Oh, and ice cubes, since he secretly loved the ice cubes scene from Nine And a Half Weeks.
Derek grunted loudly to get his attention again and gave him a cautionary look that said do not fuck with me like that or none of this will happen anytime soon. Sometimes Stiles thought Derek was in fact psychic and could read people’s minds which made Stiles torn between being somewhat alarmed by it and totally turned on.
Stiles shrugged and said “I was wondering about giving you a nice nickname that would match your favorite pastime activity. But no pressure, you don’t need to choose one yet, I still have a few options, like…”
“What pastime activity, for fuck’s sake?”
“You know what, you just should be happy I’m not calling you Honey Boo Boo, I’m just sayin’.” Not that Derek would have any idea who Honey Boo Boo was (Stiles was working really hard on making him a TLC fan, to no avail yet though) but Stiles was on the roll, having his infamous mouth diarrhea. Derek sighed heavily, like he was running out of the patience.
“Stiles…”
“Okay, okay. But geez, dude. Don’t be such a sourwolf” Stiles raised his hands defensively. “Oh, see? Let’s take sourwolf. It’s not cute and you don’t particularly like it, which is crazy, because I’m really proud of this one, but yeah, so, like I said, it’s not cute, so I thought I have to come up with something really cute, I just thought you would like it, just like you like cuddling. With me. Hopefully. Hopefully just me.” Derek seems like he was overwhelmed with the number of words that flooded him a second ago, but at the same time he was cautiously considering what exactly Stiles just said.
He frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Derek pretended to stay composed and confident, but it was his eyes that gave him away. Somewhere deep there, the sheer panic was arising.
A panic that his secret has just been given away.
Derek walked out of the kitchen way faster than he would be expected to. Like he was running away from his not-so-secret-anymore secret and the whole situation itself. Stiles was just hoping he wasn’t running away from him.
He knew that this is what Derek did, that was his thing; the moment his feelings were concerned, he would just run away. And sometimes he would run away for good. Stiles couldn’t let this happen, he could really even promise giving up on the subject of cuddling and snuggling and hugging (although he still had nicknaming him in his plans for the future). He gave Derek a few minutes to gather his thoughts and started to prepare some hot tea for both of them – vanilla for Stiles and pomegranate for Derek.
But before he could finish it and go look for Derek (his guess would be Stiles’ bedroom, windowsill if he was to be precise, as – for some reason – it was Derek’s favorite place in the whole house), he felt a hot breath on his neck and a muscular body backing him up against the counter. Stiles shivered, feeling soft, warm lips pressed against his skin.
“You were right, Detective Stilinski. I love cuddling with you. Guilty as charge.” Derek’s hands gently caressed Stiles’ hips, sensitive skin now burning under the touch. “But you won’t tell anyone about it, are we clear? Or I will rip your throat out. “ Derek started sucking on the skin on Stiles’ neck, giving him a massive hickey, the kind that Stiles will have to hide from his dad at least for the next week. “With my teeth.” Stiles let out a throaty laugh, hearing Derek making a reference to one of their first interactions. “And no fucking nicknames, they all sucked so badly… Maybe apart from sourwolf, I kind of enjoyed this one.” He added, smiling when he felt Stiles’ body relax against him.
“I really thought you hated it.” Stiles smiled when Derek hugged him from behind, closing his body in a tight embrace and kissing gently the top of his head. “So will you be my cuddly sourwolf?” He asked more for fun than really meaning it.
Derek laughed and then lowered his head to playfully bite the back of Stiles’ neck.
“How could I say no to that?”