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Ever since Stiles has officially become the Hale pack's Emissary, Derek could spend days just watching him in meetings with other packs and even on pack nights. He tries to reconcile the old image of Stiles -- a restless, rambling, easily distracted teenager -- with the man who came back after years of college.
Derek assumed that Stiles would jump at the chance to work with Scott, but by the time his studies and FBI training was finished, Scott had moved on. Of course, he only did that because Derek came back a few years after Stiles left for DC. And he came back with his eyes flashing red, Cora's pack in Brazil having helped him restore the spark he gave up for her. He didn't ask for it, but it does feel good to be able to uphold the family legacy and be settled on Hale land again.
"Look, I understand what you're proposing, Satomi," Stiles says from his spot at the head of the table, "but it's not going to work."
They're discussing a way to protect both the Ito and the Hale pack's territories from any future possible repeats of the hunter's waging a war at all things supernatural.
Stiles is leading the discussion and Derek stares, still not used to him being assertive like this, calm but firm. It's not as impactful now, in a meeting with Satomi, who's an ally as much as she is a friend. Derek has seen Stiles reduce a room full of Alphas into silence and marvel before.
"You know our pack doesn't exactly do conventional relationships," Stiles says.
Satomi smiles and glances at Derek, who's doing his best not to blush.
"Yeah, that too," Stiles says. "But I was actually referring to the fact that Peter and Chris have some sort of weird arrangement going that I do not want to analyze too closely."
"Because it seems to marginally involve your father?" Derek blurts out.
It's been amusing, now that the no-longer-teens have settled into relationships, to watch the adult pack members dance around each other and try to figure out how to make their relationships work.
"Yes, thank you, dear," Stiles tells him, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Excuse me if I don't want to think who it is my dad is sleeping with. Or not sleeping with. Which would be the preferable option across the board."
He shakes his head and gives Derek one more glare before he turns back to Satomi.
"What I was saying is that thanks to those shenanigans, we can't just cut off all hunters," Stiles tells her.
She's about to say something, Derek can see her mouth opening. But Stiles isn't finished.
"What we can do, however," he says, pointing to a page in one of the old spell books he found in the Hale vault, "is to make the Argent blood a part of the protections around both yours and our territory."
Satomi narrows her eyes at the page and nods after a few moments.
Derek leans back and smiles, his eyes back on Stiles as he's talking about how they're going to make things work. Seeing him like this is unlikely to ever get boring or old.