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Peter is exhausted. He is shaking with the need to sleep, and he is so tired, that his eyes aren’t even burning anymore. They feel sandpaper dry, and his vision keeps tilting in a strange way, making it hard to do the research he needs to, but he can’t stop.
He still hasn’t found out what is causing all the deaths in town, and there are more bodies every day. And Derek keeps looking at him in a certain way, expecting Peter to know the answer and he simply doesn’t.
So he stays up, night after night, researching and reading all the books, hitting up all the contacts he still has left, but nothing makes any sense. The fact that the words keep swimming in front of his eyes doesn’t help at all.
Peter startles badly when someone suddenly slides the book out from under his hands.
“I wasn’t asleep, I swear,” Peter immediately says, eyes not even focused enough to see whoever closes the book, but his other senses are telling him that it was Derek. “I wasn’t asleep,” he repeats again, because he doesn’t want Derek to think he slacked off.
“I know that, Peter,” Derek softly says and nudges Peter off his chair.
“I’m going to figure out what’s responsible, I swear. I have a good lead, I just need a few more hours,” he mumbles, stumbling over his feet when Derek pushes him towards the bedroom.
“Peter, it’s a human. The Sheriff arrested her already.”
“What?” Peter slurs and thinks that he needs to ask more questions later, when he isn’t so tired.
“Why are you pushing yourself so hard over this?” Derek wants to know as he steers Peter towards the bed and gently sits him down.
“You need me to know. It’s the only reason you keep me around. I’m useful to you, and if I can’t be you won’t need me,” Peter mumbles, allowing Derek to take his shirt off, but at Peter’s words he stops. “I saw you look, saw how disappointed you were. You’re gonna get rid of me.”
“Peter,” Derek whispers, and Peter realizes that he has reached the hallucination part of exhaustion because he thinks Derek sounds desperate.
“Just, do it after I sleep, okay?” Peter mumbles, face already pressed into his pillow.
“Sleep,” Derek says, and Peter is out before he can look if Derek really just sat down on the bed or not.
~*~*~
Peter snuggles closer to the pleasant warmth in front of him, wondering why it doesn’t always feel like this when he sleeps. It takes him some time to wake up a bit more and realize that it usually doesn’t feel like this because he is usually alone in his bed.
When he realizes that he tries to pull away from the person in front of him, but Derek tightens his arms around him and pulls him back into his chest.
“Are you awake yet?” Derek asks, and he sounds sleepy himself.
“Yeah,” Peter warily says, because he has never expected this.
“Do you remember yesterday?” Derek asks.
Peter wants to shake his head but just as he is about to do that, things start to come back to him. Derek taking the book from him, and, most embarrassingly, his own admission.
“Yes,” Peter says, because he knows that this is it. Derek will tell him that Peter is right, that he is of no use to Derek if he doesn’t know about the supernatural threats in town.
He is useless to Derek.
“The one responsible was a human serial killer and she decided to dispose of all of her victims she accumulated over the years in this town. It was nothing supernatural,” Derek tells him, and Peter nods.
It’s good to know he hasn’t missed a supernatural clue, but he still hadn’t figured it out.
“And I was watching you, because I was worried. You should have seen yourself. You were pale, and your hair was in total disarray and you weren’t even properly clothed,” Derek tells him next and Peter frowns at that.
“You were watching me because you were waiting for me to come up with the solution,” he gives back.
“No. I’m not keeping you around because you’re useful,” Derek says. “I’m keeping you around because you’re my family and I love you.”
“You killed me,” Peter says even as he ducks his head, pressing his face further into Derek’s chest.
“Because you were out of your mind and burned all over again. I didn’t want to kill you, but I thought I had no choice,” Derek explains and rubs his face all over Peter’s hair.
“I would never get rid of you because you’re not useful, because that’s not the reason you’re still here.”
“Then why am I?” Peter asks, and he doesn’t dare to hope for the answer he always wanted, doesn’t dare to hope that Derek allows him to stay because he loves him, but Peter thinks that maybe he can hope now.
“Because I love you,” Derek says, again, but this time it clearly has a different meaning, beyond the familial bond they share.
Peter drags in a shuddering breath, pressing his lips to Derek’s chin and just breathes for a few moments. It’s a lot to take in after believing for so long that this would never happen.
“I love you too,” he gives back, and Derek forces him to look up, tilting his head until he can kiss him.
“Never push yourself like that again,” Derek says between kisses and Peter thinks that he can’t promise that, could never promise that when it comes to Derek and his safety, but the words get lost between kiss after kiss.