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It made perfect sense when you thought about it. Admittedly, he’d really thought Lydia and he might have a shot at a happily ever after – the relationship had been such a long time coming. But it had flamed hot and bright before burning out quickly. Fortunately, they had remained friends and things had only been awkward for a short time. She was off working towards her Fields Medal and he was incredibly proud of her.
Somehow, it always seemed to end up being he and Derek inadvertently paired off. Whether it be pooling Derek’s supernatural knowledge with Stiles’ research abilities, or something as simple as organising Scott’s bachelor party together, they always seemed to end up – well, together.
Yet another failed attempt at dating someone who knew nothing about the supernatural and Stiles found himself drowning his sorrows on Derek’s couch, knocking back copious amounts of chunky monkey ice cream and bemoaning the fact that he was always, ultimately, alone.
Derek had let him bitch and whine, patiently listening as Stiles went into exquisitely embarrassing detail about how Ryan had reacted when he and Stiles were attacked by a god-damn manticore of all things. Ryan had just stood there, frozen to the spot in complete shock and horror as Stiles fought the manticore off long enough to encircle it in mountain ash before contacting a local hunter buddy to come and handle the monster du jour. By the time he’d remembered Ryan, the other man had been a quivering wreck (which so did not match his buff build, dark hair and pale eyes AT ALL in Stiles’ opinion) who couldn’t get away from Stiles fast enough.
“I’m never going to find someone who loves me enough to fight monsters by my side.”
“Stiles – “
“No, it’s true! First, they have to get past my overall lack of coolness – Liam has told me in excruciating detail just how uncool I am – so that’s hard enough. And despite what people might say, college is NOT the heaving, hedonistic hotbed of bed-hopping that is generally believed – at least not for me!” He was practically elbow deep in the tub of ice cream, an ice cream headache threatening vaguely.
“Come on Stiles – “
“Then you add in the ragtag pack of people I hang around with constantly. I mean, how is a person meant to get over those guys in a hurry? One person asked me if I was in a cult – a cult Derek!!” He waved his spoon for emphasis, ignoring the splatters of ice cream that flew around with his enthusiastic gestures.
“Maybe you need to put the ice cream down – I think you might be slightly dairy drunk.”
“And everyone is already paired off in the pack and I’m always on the outside. All alone.” He sniffed, feeling very sorry for himself and slightly sick from all of the ice cream he had consumed in a short space of time.
“Not all of them.”
“What?” He wiped his nose on his sleeve, peering up at Derek who was sat on the arm of the couch.
“I said not all of them. The pack I mean. Not all of them are paired off.”
“I am not – nor have I ever been interested in your sister – apart from a minuscule amount of time which to be fair was full of lives being threatened so I’m not sure it counts – Cora is WAY too scary for me!” Derek gave a sigh as though life was being hard on him.
“And what if I wasn’t talking about Cora?”
“Ewww, I’m not desperate enough to even consider Peter!” Suddenly Derek seemed to be really, really close and Stiles felt hot and cold at the same time. “Ummm – well, who else in the pack would even look at me that way?” His voice sounded very loud in what felt like an unnatural quiet.
“Do I actually have to spell it out for you?” Derek couldn’t be saying what Stiles thought he was saying – could he? Stiles wasn’t given any longer to wonder because suddenly Derek’s lips were pressed against his in a gentle kiss. “Your lips are cold.”
“The rest of me isn’t.” Another kiss, slightly longer but no less gentle. “What about you and Braeden? I thought you were doing the whole long-distance thing. You know – absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.”
“You are so blind, Stiles. That’s been over for a very long time – she said she was tired of being second best.”
“Second best?” His voice was a whisper, hope rising in his chest despite his attempts to push it down.
“She figured out that I liked someone else and had done for quite some time. And she wanted to end things while we were still friends – in fact, she advised me to go for it the very next opportunity that presented itself.”
“So – this other person you like...”
“Do you think your favourite soda and ice cream are on hand by accident?” They were speaking against each other’s lips now, each word a tiny kiss.
“So you’ve been, what, waiting for me to see what’s been right in front of my face all along?”
“Something like that.” Somehow they were tangled together lying on the couch and Stiles realised that one of his hands was cradling the back of Derek’s head, whilst the one holding the spoon had somehow squirmed its way beneath Derek’s shirt.
“Derek.”
“Yes, Stiles?”
“I’ve noticed. In the past but most definitely now.”
“Finally.” He lost track of the spoon then.
No one else seemed even remotely surprised – Scott echoed Derek’s “finally” before slapping Stiles on the back in congratulations. And even his Dad had been relieved that Stiles had come to his senses. So yeah – finally together. They just made sense.