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Aged three and three quarters, Derek takes his son into the preserve for the first time. Aleksandr absolutely loves it, holding onto his dad’s hand the whole time babbling mostly incoherently about the smells and the trees and the animals. Stiles, ever the house husband (although he would slap Derek for calling him that) stays back at home, finishing off editing a piece for work.
They stay there overnight, Derek finding the little cave where he and Laura used to camp out whenever they stayed in the preserve. It doesn’t smell of them anymore, unsurprisingly, it’s been over fifteen years since Laura’s death.
Derek lays out roll mats, and puts sleeping bags over the top. It’s warm at night at the moment, but Alek still curls up into a little ball in his Avengers themed sleeping bag (totally Stiles’ fault) and wiggles until he’s warm. They’ve already eaten dinner, Stiles packed a little picnic for them, and so whilst Derek builds a little fire, Alek has a nap.
The whole trip started when Derek mentioned to Stiles that he wanted his son to grow up in and around the preserve like he did when he was young, and Stiles decided that it was the best idea ever and planned it all out. He would stay at home and finish off work, whilst the two werewolves would hunt around in the forest, and then the next morning when Derek and Aleksandr came back triumphant they would all go for pancakes and bacon at the best diner in town.
When Alek wakes up, its not quite dusk, but getting there. Derek shows him how to use his vision in the dark properly, shhing him with a smile when Alek stomps around in the leafy undergrowth when they’re trying to catch a glimpse of animals.
“Daaaad,” Aleksandr whines, lips pouting and petulant. That face is Derek’s undoing. “Can we have the marshmallows now? I know you wanted to keep them a secret from me but I can tell you brought them.”
That’s where Stiles’ personality shines through totally in their son, curious, mischievous and downright cunning at times. Derek has already resigned himself to the fact that any game has been scared off by his son hours ago, and accepts defeat. Derek gets the fire going, and the two of them happily sleep in the little cave that night. Derek misses Stiles a little, but he loves spending any time he can with his son. Aleksandr looks even younger asleep, his mouth slack just like Stiles’. For the longest time, the two of them argued about who Aleksandr inherited more traits from. Derek won; mainly because of the whole werewolf argument, but in all, he’s a fairly even mix. He has Derek’s eyes and hair colour, but Stiles’ nose and mouth. Back when Stiles was seven months pregnant all he could go on about was how much he hoped their child wouldn’t have his mouth. If he’s completely honest, Derek loves the fact that Aleksandr inherited that particular feature from his husband, although he’d never tell Stiles that.
The next morning, bright and early, Derek cleans up where they set up camp, packing up all of the rubbish, and the clothing lying haphazardly on the ground whilst Alek tries and fails to roll his sleeping bag back up.
“Why is this so hard?” He complains, and Derek just snorts into the cold remains of the fire.
Over waffles, Alek describes in great detail his trip into the woods; although he fails to mention how much noise he made which played a large part in scaring off all of the animals. Stiles nods along happily, forking what appears is a whole egg into his mouth at once. Stiles is disgusting sometimes, but Derek doesn’t mind. That much.
“An then- an then Papa tried to get me to howl so I could tell you where I was but I couldn’t do it.” He suddenly looks so horribly sad, and Stiles never wants to see that emotion ever on his face again.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret,” Stiles says, leaning in close to the middle of the table. Aleksandr immediately forgets about the forkful of waffle and leans in eagerly. “When Uncle Scott first became a werewolf, he was terrible at howling!” Alek’s face turns to an expression of extreme surprise.
He immediately turns to Derek. “Papa? Papa is this true?” Derek smirks.
“The first time Uncle Scott howled, he sounded like a dying cat. It wasn’t very impressive.”
Stiles sniggers into the remains of his breakfast.
***
Over the next three months, Derek and Alek go on more ‘treks into the wilderness,’ and Alek loves it so much he even decides to go out on his birthday. It’s a full moon that night, and Stiles comes along too. They have a little barbeque in the cave, although Alek’s favourite part is still the marshmallows.
That night, whilst his Daddy and Papa are curled up together, Alek lies awake. His ears can pick up the sounds of an animal nearby, and from what Papa has told him, he thinks it’s a deer. He’s never seen one properly before, he always scares them off so he wiggles out of his sleeping bag in order to go and have a look.
It’s darker than he normally goes out now, the dead of night, and Alek strolls along in his flannel jammies and batman hoodie. He realises slowly that he can’t hear the deer anymore, and he also can’t remember the way back to the cave.
Suddenly everything seems colder and scarier, and Alek wishes he had just stayed in his warm sleeping bag where his Daddies are. The trees are making creepy noises, and every so often he can hear an owl hoot ominously.
He quickly starts to cry, tears soaking into the cuffs of his cool hoodie and he wails out for his Papa and his Daddy. He can’t hear his daddies. He keeps crying out, louder and louder until in an act of desperation he screams out “Daddy!”
The word as a low bass rumble to it, and it hurts his throat a lot. Minutes later Derek comes crashing through the undergrowth, eyes wild as he spots his son.
“Alek!” He cries, dropping down to his knees so that he can embrace his son. “What are you doing? I was so worried!”
Aleksandr sniffles, the warm scent of his Daddy calming him. “I just wanted to see the deer, okay?”
Derek clutches his son tighter. “I understand Aleksandr, but please don’t go off into the woods without me okay? Especially at night! We just want to make sure you’re safe.”
Alek clutches his daddy tighter.
Halfway back to the camp, they find Stiles, hair on end from his pulling it in anxiety.
“You’re okay? He’s okay?” Stiles runs towards his family and scoops both Aleksandr and Derek up together, holding them close. “I’m so glad you’re safe, I don’t know what I would have done, oh god.”
They return back to the cave and stay there in a bundle. Suddenly, Derek whips his head up. Erica, Boyd, Scott and Isaac are all crowded around the entrance, eyes glowing and side burns out.
“We heard a howl.” Scott says, when Stiles demands why they’re there.
Derek feels a flush of pride. “That was my son you heard.” He says, cueing many squeals and congratulations. Alek would lap it all up if he wasn’t mostly asleep. Derek takes all the praise instead, smiling lovingly down at his son. He then takes the piss out of Scott mercilessly, about how his son howls better than he did. Scott looks like he wants to agree but tries to defend himself anyway.
Stiles sighs, and then tugs his little boy closer. “Not that I don’t love you guys but, could you all go home now? We’re supposed to be on a camping trip.”
It’s fair to say that all the betas go home suitably chastised and irritated.