Chapter Text
The first time Derek was caught in his personal moments, he’d glared at the nuisance until he went away, returning to his happy place without a word. The incident was never brought up in Derek’s later encounters with Stiles, though the younger man did look at him with an odd expression the next time they were around each other.
Derek Hale had only ever had one happy place, and for a long while it had been gone due to the fire. When Derek found himself with spare change one day, he’d found that happy place once again in the convenience store comic book shelf fifteen minutes from his house. Derek had bought a small box, which as time progressed had become two, and then four, and then eventually sat comfortably at six. These six boxes were stacked in a cleaned corner of his home, with a comfortable wooden chair occupying the empty space beside the stack. A knit throw was neatly folded over the back of the chair and the room itself was tucked away upstairs, where none of the pack or their friends ever ventured in the house. Of course, the ever so meddlesome Stiles had ventured there one day, to interrupt Derek’s fifth reading of that particular comic of Captain America.
Some months later, in the middle of December, Derek was nestled comfortably in his happy place, the throw around his shoulders and his favourite comic in his hands. He lost himself during these stolen hours, where he didn’t have Erica, Boyd or Isaac breathing down his neck or the ever-annoying Scott and Stiles poking their heads around in his business.
Of course, as Derek smiled at the familiar rustle of turning pages, a soft chuckle interrupted Derek’s reading. The harrowed man’s eyes shot up to the door way, where he narrowed his eyes at the sight of Stiles leaning against his door.
“I thought I’d find you here. Dirty little secret and all.” He smirked at Derek, who bared his teeth at him.
Stiles’ hands went up in a sign of peace, “I was just... wondering if I could join you.” Stiles’ demeanor shifted considerably, and as his smirk turned to a timid smile Derek’s heart softened to the younger man. He nodded.
“If you crumple the pages, I kill you.” He warned, as Stiles settled himself on the floor by Derek’s chair.
Stiles nodded, reaching for the nearest comic.
-
“No way! Mjolnir isn’t infinitely heavy,” Derek told Stiles firmly, “It’s immovable. Like, the centre of the universe or something like that. If you read through all of them, you’d see multiple examples of why Mjolnir isn’t heavy!”
Stiles had begun laughing at some point during Derek’s rant against Stiles’ ignorant, fun-poking comment. Derek hadn’t realized that he’d been trying to provoke Derek, so the man shut his mouth and glared at Stiles’ smug expression.
Eventually, Derek laughed along, realizing that there was no going back from his nerdy outburst against Stiles.
And so began a nerdy tradition to sate the loneliness in both their hearts.