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Stiles should definitely not be as amused as he currently was. He knew it made him a horrible person, and an even worse boyfriend, but he couldn’t help how much this was making him laugh.
He was getting so much entertainment out of this and he couldn’t help the brief laughs and face-splitting grins crossing his features whenever he watched Derek struggle.
Of course, it was all about context. Depending on the context, he wouldn’t be as amused and entertained as he was right now. But because Derek’s life wasn’t in danger, and nobody was going to get hurt—except maybe Derek’s pride—it was perfectly acceptable for him to be amused.
“Stop that,” Derek practically snarled, not looking away from what he was doing.
“Stop what?” Stiles asked innocently, tilting his head slightly and attempting to exude pure innocence.
“I can smell your amusement,” Derek informed him dryly. “Stop that. You’re throwing off my concentration.”
“I don’t think I have anything to do with how horribly this is going, but it’s cute you’re trying to blame me so you look better.” Stiles grinned and crouched, resting on his haunches and keeping his eyes on the little white ball Derek was attempting to hit through the rotating windmill.
Stiles hadn’t even known Beacon Hills had a mini golf course until one of his coworkers had a birthday and insisted they all go. Most of them had gotten drunk and played horribly, but Stiles had actually had a good time.
He and Derek didn’t go out much. Not for lack of trying, something just always came up. A Chimera was in town trying to disembowel people, a group of Kappa were invading the woods and sucking people dry, a surprisingly aggressive Unicorn was sprinting down the main road. The usual. But it meant the two of them didn’t get to do things very much.
This mini golf place was in Beacon Hills, and it was cheap. Not the course itself, the course was awesome, but admission was cheap. It was someone’s hobby, a side job, and the owner wasn’t lacking in funds so he’d just made admission five dollars.
Five dollars! Nothing was that cheap anymore! Hell, water at the movie theatre was almost five dollars, so a full game of mini golf for five dollars was amazing.
It made it way easier for them to do this and then leave without feeling like they wasted money. They were already four obstacles in, which meant they’d pretty much paid for their round already. Stiles was having a blast, but Derek? Well, he wasn’t so sure. If nothing else, Stiles was mostly enjoying this because of Derek so that had to count for something, right?
“Are you gonna hit the ball any time soon?” Stiles asked, trying to keep the amusement out of his tone.
“I’m trying to concentrate,” Derek insisted. “You’re not helping.”
“Oh, I could really not help, if you like,” Stiles teased.
Derek said nothing, rearranging his stance and clearing his throat, gripping the club tightly with both hands. He stared down at the ball, then over at the hole at the base of the windmill, then at the ball again. After a good fifteen seconds of back and forth, Derek swung and Stiles almost lost his shit.
The way he hunched his shoulders and grumbled while rushing forward made Stiles feel a little bad, but he couldn’t help being entertained.
It wasn’t that Derek was bad at mini golf, because really, who wasn’t? Oh no! The thing that made this whole thing hilarious was that every time Derek missed a shot—which was most of the time—he was destroying the course because even his light taps were having the balls ricochet off the various obstacles.
Derek was obviously worried and stressing about it, but the owner had already come over to tell them multiple times that everything gets damaged and to not worry about it.
Though Stiles knew Derek did worry because he didn’t like that he was destroying things. Stiles just thought it was funny and started calling Derek his Hulk boyfriend.
Even offered to paint him green, which Derek had not found as funny as Stiles did.
Derek was now crouched at the base of the still rotating windmill, poking at a rather large crack in the small wooden structure where his ball had almost broken clean through.
“This game sucks.”
“This game is amazing,” Stiles insisted, moving up behind him and leaning into his crouched form, kissing at his stubbled cheek. “Don’t be such a sourwolf. We’re just having a good time.”
“You’re not the one damaging someone’s livelihood,” Derek insisted, grumbling. “And you’re winning.”
“Is that the real reason you’re pouting? Because despite all your super-strength, and enhanced abilities, and general Werewolf awesomeness, you’re getting your ass handed to you by a human?”
“I’d be pouting if you were just any human, but it’s hard to feel embarrassed at losing out to someone who can recite pi to the forty-ninth number and do calculus in his head.”
“I get bored, okay!” Stiles gave him an extra loud, extra wet smack on the cheek, Derek letting out a disgusted sound but he didn’t wipe the spit away and didn’t make Stiles let him go.
“Yes, because normal people learn math when they’re bored.”
“It’s working out for me right now,” Stiles said with a grin. “Come on, let’s go find your ball.”
Stiles pulled away from him so he could turn to locate the stray ball, Derek still crouched in front of the windmill.
Thankfully, while there were a lot of people there, there wasn’t a set path to follow. People could go from one course to another without any set order, so they didn’t have to worry about holding up a line. Though there was one obstacles he wanted to try.
Stiles wasn’t sure he would find the ball, but when he moved through one of the free obstacle courses, the owner appeared holding it out and Stiles smiled, thanking him while taking it.
“Please tell your friend to stop worrying,” he insisted. “This place isn’t meant to be taken so seriously. It’s really not a problem. It’s not his fault he’s so strong.”
Stiles had to smile privately to himself, because he loved that this guy thought Derek was a strong young man. He was, really, a strong young man, but he was unnaturally strong and it was cute people thought Derek was normal.
Anyone looking at him should know he wasn’t normal. He was fucking gorgeous, there was nothing normal about someone who looked that good.
“I’ll try and get him to lighten up.” Stiles turned to jog back over to where Derek was waiting for him. He put the ball down in front of the windmill, and then stood back waiting for Derek to try again.
It took almost five minutes, but he finally got it through the small hole and thrust both fists in the air, still holding his club. Stiles just slapped his ass in congratulations and moved to the other side to see how far out his ball was from the final hole and burst out laughing.
Derek came around the side and scowled.
He’d been trying so hard not to damage anything further that his ball hadn’t even cleared the minuscule tunnel it had to pass through. It was literally right on the cusp, thus impossible for him to hit.
“You are so bad at this,” Stiles insisted, still laughing. Derek shoved his hand into his face and told him to go be a hyena somewhere else.
Stiles was still laughing almost hysterically when his phone went off. He pulled it from his pocket, wiping tears from his eyes, and felt his good mood decline. Derek obviously sensed the shift, because he turned from inspecting his problem to stare over at Stiles.
“Gotta go.” Stiles waved his phone just as Derek’s dinged in his pocket. “Our Alpha calls.”
“Your Alpha,” Derek insisted, grabbing his ball, then moving past Stiles, kissing his temple on his way by. “You know I only do anything he asks because his plans would get you killed otherwise.”
“Fair.” Stiles sighed and grabbed his own ball from the hole, the two of them heading back to the front to return the balls and clubs.
They made it to the parking lot relatively quickly, Stiles climbing into the passenger seat of the Camaro and Derek starting the engine. They drove out of the lot, and Stiles was kind of disappointed they hadn’t gotten to spend as much time there as he’d have liked.
Par for the course with them, though.
“What time does it close at?” Derek asked.
“I don’t know, like ten?” He turned to Derek. “Why?”
Derek shrugged one shoulder. “It was fun. I had fun doing something different with you.” He glanced at Stiles and smiled a little. “If we finish up whatever emergency we’re going to deal with, maybe we can head back, get a few more rounds in.”
Stiles beamed at him. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Derek reached out to grab at his hand, squeezing it tightly before releasing him. “I’m glad we’re doing something different.”
“Me too.”
“Though you need to stop laughing at me.”
“Not gonna happen.”
“It was worth a shot.”
Stiles grinned and leaned over to kiss Derek’s cheek, hoping whatever emergency they were heading into finished quickly. He really wanted to get back to their date.
And he was glad Derek wanted that, too.
END.