Work Text:
Her parents once told her not to stare at people or listen to people’s conversations without their permission because it is rude, but she is still with her Dad in the baby section of the grocery store even when they don’t have a baby and she is so bored. So when two pretty women pass by to grab some stuff off of the shelves, she stares and listens.
The blonde lady with the cool clothes is talking lively while putting an item in the basket resting on her inner elbow, “…and everyone knows that Stiles is Derek’s anchor, except the two idiots themselves.”
“Can’t believe they’re still not together,” Her black-haired friend shakes her head as they both walk away.
She pulls a face; she doesn’t like it when adults use words she can’t understand. She never heard of someone or something named Stiles. Apparently, it’s an anchor…whatever that is.
“Daddy, what’s an anchor?” she asks, tugging at his shirt.
“Uhh…It’s what keeps boats from drifting away in the water,” he says distractedly, searching the stacks of somethings she also doesn’t know while holding his phone to his ear. “Holy-.How? Why are there so many choices?”
Oh.
But wait…
“Daddy, Daddy, do ships have boy names?” she tugs again.
“Oh, um, sure, sweetie. Now, let me get back to talking to Mommy, okay?” He points to the phone then looks back at the shelves and picks a box up. “Okay, so here’s one but it’s slender regular. How can something be both slender and regular? Isn’t that mutually exclusive?”
So Derek is a ship and Stiles is his anchor but for some reason they are not together.
A ship without its anchor and an anchor without its ship.
That’s sad.
-
When they are back home, she takes a sheet of paper and some crayons. She draws Derek floating on the violent water waves, but he isn’t about to topple over or get lost in the vastness of the ocean, because she also draws Stiles keeping him steady and safe. She hangs the drawing on the fridge door and tells her parents not to touch it because Derek and Stiles need to be together.
Forever.