Derek kicked a rock as he walked around the Preserve. He was sure that his mother would find him once she figured out that he had run away from home. Laura was trying to tell him that just because she was going to the Alpha one day that he had to listen to her now. He didn't, and he knew it. He had to listen to Peter, not her since Mom and Dad were at work. But that didn't stop her from being a big brat and annoying him.

So Derek had run away from home for the afternoon. Peter did it all the time. Derek knew that it wasn't really running away since Peter always came back, but he didn't care. He didn't want to be where she was.

There was soft chatter somewhere close. It sounded a lot like Cora, but the heartbeat wasn't hers. Derek wondered who else was in the Preserve that was Cora's age. Cora was two; even as a Werewolf, she would never be allowed to run around here alone.

Derek headed toward the sound, his hearing making him think it was closer than he thought it was. He found a boy who seemed to be around Cora's age, playing with a pile of leaves. There were no other humans around—no heartbeats in Derek's hearing range. Derek looked at his watch on his wrist, remembering how Peter had taught him how to read it when he put it there a few months ago. He loved the watch, and other than bath and rough playtime, it didn't come off.

It was ten thirty-four in the morning that meant that this kid really shouldn't be out there.

"Hi," Derek said as he stepped closer to the kid. The kid looked up at him and thankfully didn't start crying like that kid in the grocery store the other day.

"Ba, ba," the kid said, holding out his hands. Cora did that when she wanted to be picked up.

Derek wasn't sure. He knew that animals didn't like it when humans touched their babies, but he wasn't sure about humans. His mother didn't like it when strangers touched him and especially Cora. He had never asked about what he was supposed to do if he found a human baby all alone out in the Preserve.

"Mom is gonna kill me," Derek said as he stepped close enough to pick up the boy. The toddler just patted his face and then curled into him, like Cora did when she wanted to take a nap. "Don't go to sleep."

Derek watched as the boy's eyes closed, and his breathing changed. "You have no survival instincts." Derek still wasn't sure what that meant, but Peter said it about Cora all the time when she did something stupid. The boy was dead weight, but Stiles could carry him. At least, hopefully.

Trying not to focus on how much his arms were starting to ache and then heal up and ache and heal up, Derek pushed on. He knew where home was, and he knew the smells on the wind. Peter was good at teaching him that.

When he was about halfway home, he could smell Peter and his Mom. Derek started to rush.

"Oh, dear God, where did he steal a baby?" Peter asked when Derek saw him.

"I found him in the woods. He was alone; I couldn't hear a single heartbeat other than his."

"Give him to Peter," his mother said.

Derek did, and as soon as he let go, the boy was crying. Shrill screams. Peter handed him right back, and he stopped.

"We have a bigger problem, Talia," Peter said.

"What?"

Derek looked at his Uncle, who was staring at the boy.

"The moles on his face. I got a good look. I see that every single day when I go and visit Chris at the station. His partner, Stilinski, that's his kid."

"So Derek kidnapped a toddler from a local deputy."

"I didn't kidnap him."

"He's right, Talia. There are no other heartbeats. There are no screams in the wind for him. I'll call Chris."

"Your Mate will not be able to mollify the man. He's going to be freaked out and think we stole him."

"Chris will help. He's good at lying about the Supernatural. Let me just call him."

"Fine. Let's go home, and we can deal from there."

Derek wasn't sure what was wrong. Chris' partner was a good man. Derek really liked him. The man was a little freaked out at Peter coming to visit Chris so much since there was a decade between them, but he also knew nothing of werewolves and their mates. He didn't know the history of the whole thing either. Derek knew that Hale Werewolves met their mates on blue moons. Derek wasn't sure what that meant, but he had heard it from Peter. Well, he had heard Peter talking about it.

The walk home was dreadful. While the boy had stopped crying, he was sniffling in Derek's ear. It was annoying. He just wanted away from this kid, and he kind of wished he hadn't followed the sound of him playing.

"Talia, dear," Derek's dad said as they got close. "This is Deputy Stilinski; he wants permission to head out on foot into our area of the Preserve to look for his son. I guess he ran away from the babysitter, and she didn't know it."

"Well, Deputy, you don't need to go looking," Peter said. He reached back and tried to land his hand on Derek's head, but Derek was ducking and weaving to get away. It made the boy in his arms, upset, and he started to babble at him. The words were nothing that Derek could understand, but he understood the thought behind him.

"My son."

Derek looked at the man when Peter finally caught him by his hair and tugged him in front.

"Derek found him wandering in the Preserve and brought him to where we were all out for a walk. We were coming back to call Chris since Peter recognized Stiles from photos on your desk," Talia said.

Derek let the boy be taken from his arms by the strange man. He was dressed in the uniform that Derek knew meant he worked for the Sheriff's Department.

"I hope that the babysitter knows not to take her eyes off of a toddler again," Peter said.

"She's been more than talked to. Chris is with her at the moment. She had brought her boyfriend over, and they were making out in the backyard when I got off of shift. Mieczysław had been unseen for at least four hours."

Derek tried to wrap his mouth around the word that the man said. He assumed it was the boy's name. He would cry if that was his name too. He still hated that his parents had called Cora her name since it was so close to Laura. He really hoped that when they had their fourth kid, they were already talking about that they didn't name him something close to Derek.

"Thank you, Son," the man said as he dropped to his knees in front of Derek.

Derek leaned back into Peter. The man smelled weird, like all of the cops that Derek had been around. He knew it was the gunpowder. He still didn't like it.

"You are welcome," Derek said.

The man smiled and bounced Mieczysław a little on his knee. Mieczysław reached out to Derek, but Derek stayed back. "He doesn't take to many people. Maybe my wife and I will have to bring him around sometime. I'll set up a thank-you dinner at my house sometime soon. Claudia is going to be livid."

"Where is she?" Talia asked.

"Out of town visiting her family in Poland. She missed a big family thing when she was at the end stage of her pregnancy, and she's only just now felt like she could leave Mieczysław alone with me."

Derek curled his lips at the name, and Peter smacked him on the back of the head for it. Derek made his face normal. He waited to find out what was going to happen next.

"Well, you cannot help what someone does when your back is turned, but at least he is unharmed," Talia said.

"Yes, and it seems taken with your son. This is Derek, correct?" The man reached out to shake Derek's hand with the arm that wasn't wrapped around Mieczysław.

"Yes, my middle child."

"Thank you for finding him and for bringing him back to me."

"He's not nearly as horrible as Cora."

"DEREK!" Derek's mother hissed at him, but Derek just grinned when the man laughed at him.

"I've heard that little siblings can be horrible. I am sure that your sister said the same about you."

"You have no siblings?" Talia asked.

"No. I was an only child. My wife has a younger sibling, though, and she talks about her a great deal. They love each other even though they were raised apart and only allowed to call and talk to each other every so often."

"Mom!" Laura yelled as she came running out of the house.

"Yes, Laura?" Talia asked. Her tone was sharp.

"It's Deaton, and he said there is an issue."

"What is it?"

"He said that Celeste and Kais are coming to town."

Derek noticed that the man jerked a little at that and stood up. Derek looked at Peter to see that he noticed as well.

"They don't leave Poland. Why are they coming here?" Talia asked.

"Because Claudia refuses to take Mieczysław to them," the man said.

"What?" Peter asked.

"My Claudia was born Claudia Gajos. She respects what her family does; it's not the life for her."

"You know..."

"Well, I didn't know until just now. She's told me that I have Supernaturals in Beacon County, that there is actually a big family of them but never who you were or anything. Until now. You have nothing to fear. They are just coming to see Mieczysław, I promise."

"You promise?" Talia asked.

"You are my people; they are not. I will never stand for a Hunter who attacks those who had not harmed an innocent."

Derek looked at the man, and he stared at him. He knew he wasn't lying; his heart didn't do that weird thing that Peter's did when he lied to Derek's mother. Derek was kind of in awe of the man. He really wanted to just never go away from him. Derek heard Peter laughing and looked at his Uncle. Peter was looking at him with a smile on his face.

"Go inside and see if Cora is awake," Peter said.

Derek did as he was asked, even though he heard Mieczysław calling out to him. He ignored that as he didn't need another baby in his life. Cora made his life horrible already.

"What are you doing?" Stiles asked. His voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard to Derek.

"I'm getting coffee. What does it look like I'm doing?" Derek asked. He looked at the menu board even though he wasn't going to get anything different than what he always got. It sometimes worked, though, to stop Stiles from pestering him. Derek was looking forward to when Stiles went to college in a month. It would be so much better, and he would be alone. Derek had just finished up the course that allowed him to apply at the Sheriff's department, and he was starting in a week.

"I don't know. You were staring at the board like it had the answers to everything, but you couldn't read it. I just wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten how to read. I was going to offer to help you if so."

"I didn't forget to read. I was thinking about something else while looking in that direction.

"I see. Well, I'm about to head to visit Dad. Did you want to come with and pester Chris?"

"No." Derek tried not to sound like the suggestion was the worst thing in the world, but he was pretty sure that he failed. It just wasn't something that he really wanted to do at all. Spending time with Stiles was the worst thing in the world to him.

There was the scent of Stiles' disappointment, but Derek didn't care about it or the scent that came next. He just kept looking at the board.

"You know, if you told him that you hate him, it would be better," a voice said.

Derek turned to look at Adam Calavera, the man who lived in the area as the main Hunter in charge of Beacon Hills. He was part of Stiles' Aunt's family of Hunters. Derek liked them all, and it meant that he and his family still felt safe. Chris had left the Argents behind, so he had not thought that another family would take him. Celeste and Kais had been more than happy to do it, though. He was a good man who had grabbed onto Peter with both hands even though he had been stupid young when they met. It had been a good story to tell the young of the Pack and pushed more of the whole stupid thing about Hales meeting their Mate on the blue moon. Derek had been too young when they met, just three years old, but Peter had been thirteen, and he knew. Chris had found it a good escape from his family and the danger that they showed. Then the FBI had gone after them. Argent Arms International was still in Chris' name, but he had someone else running it. The Argent family of Hunters was all but dead, with only Chris left not in prison. His wife, who had left and was in the process of divorcing when he met Peter, was also in prison. There were a lot of deaths laid at the feet of the Argents, and thankfully, Chris had been tied to none of them.

"What?" Derek asked.

"When it's you two alone, you treat him like that, but when it's a big family thing or an event, you and he hang out. You are sending him mixed signals, and he has no clue what to do with them."

"Does he complain to you?"

"No, actually, he doesn't talk to anyone about you from what I understand. It's just what I see when I actually look. Talk to your Uncle if you don't believe me."

Derek frowned as Adam left. He stepped up to finally order his coffee, to go instead of drinking it there as he had planned. He thought about what Adam said. When they were in a group setting, Stiles was different from when he was alone with Derek. Derek wasn't upset with Stiles most of the time when they were in a group setting. He was usually fairly talkative, but when they were alone, Derek didn't like the attention. He wasn't sure why. It wasn't that Stiles was younger than him. He wasn't sure what the hell Stiles that put him off. He shook his head to clear it. Adam was just fucking with him. Stiles was just a family friend; it wasn't like he was important at all.

Almost home, Derek stopped to look at the tree that all of them had marked their growth on, from Laura down to Spencer. It was milestone ages seven, ten, thirteen, and then eighteen. Of course, Spencer still had a few ages to go on it, but it was there. The tree was fully grown, then they started it, so it wasn't going up either. He touched Laura's name and smiled. She was nearly ready to take over as Alpha; there were just a few more years of her and their mother ruling together to show that she was good enough to take over. Derek was looking forward to it since it meant that his mother could relax. Things were better now, but there had been many issues during Derek's younger years. The Argents, the near cutting down of the Nemeton. It had made for a lot of things happening that were too much. Talia was tired, and everyone in the Pack knew it.

Derek knew that his parents planned on staying around, but not having to be on point all the time could mean they could relax. It was something that they would be able to do with gusto. Of course, Laura was courting a young man that she had run into on the last blue moon. It was like it was the biggest deal in the world. Derek had gone through a lot of blue moons and never met his Mate. Laura had waited longer, of course, but still, Derek didn't believe in it. It was just a coincidence.

"Derek?" Peter asked as he stopped his car. "Did you walk to town and back?"

"Yeah, I had a lot on my mind."

"I can smell that Stiles found you. He said he was going to give you a hug for getting hired with his father. He's happy that there is another Werewolf there to help protect him.

Derek frowned as Stiles had done neither of those things. Though, Derek had been kind of an asshole about it all. He just was never sure how to take Stiles. Stiles' teenage years had been horrible, just like Cora's. They both smelled of lust more than anything else. Though Derek knew that Laura had said the same thing about him.

"He found me," Derek said.

Peter frowned at Derek and then sighed.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing."

"Ah," Peter said, like it answered everything in the world. "Just tell him to leave you alone and stop seeking him out at events. I get that you use him as a buffer to keep others away, but it's unfair to him to jerk him around like you are."

"Jerk him around?" Derek asked.

"Derek, Stiles has a crush on you. He's had a crush on you for years. You acting like you can't be away from him during events, and then when it's just you two and you treat him like shit is fucking him up. Just tell him to leave you alone and let him go." Peter pressed on the gas and left before Derek could say a thing back to him.

Derek stood there for a while as he thought about what Peter said. He had just assumed that Stiles liked to annoy him but now the scents that Stiles had let out before leaving the coffee shop made sense. He had been eighteen for months at this point, and he seemed to be following Derek around everywhere. He hadn't even thought that it was anything like that. He was shocked, really. Stiles didn't smell any different than he had his puberty hit when he was around Derek, though he guessed that was when Stiles had started to crush on him. Stiles would have assumed that Derek knew.

Finding a small little clearing in the deep parts of the Preserve was easy. Cell signal was good all over it as accidents happened, and even though Werewolves healed quickly, broken things took a long time to heal. It was better to always be ready for that call, which meant that someone could not make it home than worry and hunt for them.

Derek found Stiles' phone number in his contacts list. Stiles was a good go-between with the Pack and the Hunters when it was just passing off information, and Celeste wasn't in the area. He found the last conversation that he had with Stiles. It had started with Derek asking a question when he was getting ready to apply for the newest deputy position and then had turned into a two-hour discussion on the newest Marvel movies. Derek could see it as he scrolled through the texts, the hot and cold that had been there even before Stiles had turned eighteen. Derek felt bad now. He liked Stiles, sometimes. He wondered if he was going to like him more after this. When there was no haze of lust and hormones every single time that he was around him.

Stiles, it's been made aware to me that you have a crush on me. I wasn't aware of this, and I'm sorry if how I've been acting has led you on. I have never looked at you that way and never will. Please refrain from hitting on me anymore. I'll gladly remain a friendly acquaintance since our families are so close.

Derek checked over the message before he hit send. He watched as it was received by Stiles' phone and then read. No little dots popped up to tell him that Stiles was sending anything back. He frowned but got over it easily. He really didn't care because it was done. He didn't have to worry about that anymore. Stiles would go to college and get over him, get over being mad at him. Things could go back to normal. He laughed as a bunny hopped into the clearing, saw him, smelled, and then took off as fast as it could go.

Derek looked around the room as he watched Cora and Spencer getting set up for the annual Halloween bash that the family put on. He wasn't working this Halloween, a rarity as after Mischief Night, it was something that he was used to. Though this Halloween fell on not only a full moon but also a blue moon, Derek had asked for it off. The Sheriff had been more than willing to give it to him. Derek smelled Stiles somewhere, but he hadn't seen the younger man in years. He always smelled him in places to let him know that he had been there, but Stiles hadn't been in the same room as Derek unless there were many other people in the room as well in years. Derek felt like he should hate that, but he had been happy to not have the younger man's attention on him like that.

"Ready?" Peter asked.

"Yes, let's get out of here before they decide to give us more to do," Derek said.

Peter laughed and headed out of the room. They were on the way to the store to get sherbet and other things for the party that wouldn't hold up well in a house full of Werewolves with their appetites.

"What did Stiles want?"

"Oh, he came to tell Laura himself that he wasn't coming to the party tonight." Peter got into his car and waited for Derek to get in before turning the key to start it.

"Why not? This is the first one he's not been in school for since he left for college. He loved these parties."

"He has to work."

"He didn't get the invitation?"

"Laura didn't send one to him, and he found out that she just assumed he was going to show up since he was never formally invited to the others by Talia. It was always Cora telling him that he was showing up. So he didn't request it off. I guess he also just started his new job, so he didn't feel like he should ask for the night off."

"Job? What does he do?" Derek asked. He couldn't remember what Noah said Stiles had gone to school for. He knew that he had a degree in criminal justice, but he couldn't remember what the other one was in. He tried to remember anything said to him about Stiles and realized that what he knew he heard people talking about, it wasn't things that had been told to him. He wondered why that was. He shrugged and then looked at Peter, who had been quiet the entire time.

"I would have thought you would have known. He's heading up the night shift in the lab."

"Lab? What..." Derek trailed off. He knew that one of the lab techs had left to move across the state with her fiancé. He hadn't realized that Stiles had applied for that or that he had the credentials. It was overseen by a melomaniac that Derek hated. Derek hated it when lab techs were sent out as he couldn't anger them at all. They did only what they were supposed to, and that sometimes meant keeping Derek from finding clues using his nose to help things along. The Sheriff had no power either. The lab was under a different head, and they helped the Sheriff's Deputies and didn't answer to them.

Now Stiles was working in the lab, and Derek wasn't sure what he was expecting when they were both called to the same scene. It was not going to go well, Derek assumed.

"What's wrong?" Peter asked.

"I'm just trying to envision how the first cast goes where he and I are working it."

"Things are that bad between you? He asks about you all the time, according to Cora."

"I mean, when we are at the same event when he's been home, he talks to me a little, but I just realized that in the last eight years, he's never sought me out to talk to me at all. He's never been in a room alone with me. He never asks anything other than asking how I am, and he never lingers."

"Ah."

"I also have realized that no one tells me anything about him. I mean, if I ask Noah how he's doing with school, he answered, but he's never brought up in a conversation by anyone else. I've heard people saying what I know of him when they don't know I'm there. I didn't realize that he was that hurt by my turning him down. I was kind and didn't call him anything. Why does he hate me?" Derek asked.

"I don't think that he hates you, Derek. I think he was just hurt at the start, and people have just kind of kept the same thing going. As to not telling you about him, maybe they assumed you wouldn't want to know. You were rather strange acting just after the whole thing before Stiles went to college."

"How many degrees does he have?" Derek tried to remember how often Stiles came home and figured out that he really didn't during college. It was usually a week or two here and there, but he was never home for whole summers. Derek hoped that it wasn't on him. He hadn't meant that he wanted nothing to do with Stiles. He really didn't mean that at all.

"Well, two. He ended up with a Master's in criminal justice and then a Ph.D. in something that allows him to do the job he's doing now. He's also certified as a deputy to go out with the other techs to scenes if they are strapped for Deputies to give them protection. He went through the training course that all of the other Deputies did. Noah is rather proud of him."

Derek nodded his head. He could see that. Yet, no one talked about him around Derek. He wasn't sure what that meant, really. He wanted to know but also was afraid to know. Noah had not treated him any differently over the years.

The store was packed with people getting last minute things for Halloween. Thankfully the candy that was to be handed out was bought two weeks before and was hidden in Peter's house where everyone in the Pack never went unless they wanted to find him and Chris in positions that no one wanted to see them in.

"I went to Noah's last week with a file; I didn't smell Stiles there all that much. Did he move into his own place?" Derek asked as he grabbed the cake mix that had been used for something else instead of the cake it was supposed to be used for. Peter had the list on his phone, but Derek knew a few things that they needed off of the top of his head. He had heard Laura yelling about it before he had been fully ready to wake up for the day.

"Not really. He had a place, but the guy who was renting it to him fucked him over and rented it to someone else the day he got back, and he was supposed to move in. Noah offered, but Stiles really didn't want to be twenty-six and, you know, living with his father. So Chris offered him the room over the garage. He's still looking for another place to move to, and we didn't charge him first and last and a deposit. He just pays part of the bills for the whole thing since the water and electricity are all on the same. There isn't a lot that Stiles likes that's on the market right now. He's thinking of just buying a house, so he's taking his time with that. He had been aiming to do that but to have an apartment to do it from first."

"What happened with the guy who fucked him over?" Derek asked.

"He's being investigated by a lot of people. Seems that he has some kind of racket going about renting to people who then pay him more just to have a place. He's just the manager, and the firm that employs him gets their take, but he then takes what else is left for himself as a kickback for renting to friends over other people. According to the application that Stiles filed out, it's stamped with the note that says he turned it down after it was offered to him."

"I hate people like that."

"A lot of people do. The place has had a few others report it for other violations. According to sources close to the firm, the firm that owns it is not looking good since people have reported him before."

"You mean that woman you like to flirt with downtown."

"She's a lovely woman who likes to feel pretty but has no want of a lover. She enjoys my attention, and I get all of the lovely gossip."

Derek laughed and grabbed the cans of fruit that was needed for the cake. He had no idea what Laura was doing with it, but he was getting what she wanted.

"So what I am getting from all of this is that Stiles hates me."

"No," Peter said. He shook his head to add emphasis, and it didn't sound like he was lying. He was a lawyer, though, working literally opposite Chris, but somehow those two made it work. Now Stiles was living with them.

Derek turned a corner and ran into someone. He saw that the guy was looking at his phone and frowning, standing in the middle of the endcap of the aisle.

"Sorry," Stiles said.

Derek looked up, shocked to see that it was him. He wasn't even paying attention to who had run into him. He looked at his basket and then his phone again before turning to head the other way. Derek felt his phone vibrate, and he pulled it out. It was two forty-seven, and Derek frowned as that meant they were behind on shopping. It was Laura yelling at them.

"Your sister will be the death of me one day," Peter said as he looked at his own phone.

Derek laughed and agreed. He tried not to look at where Stiles grabbed stuff from the shelves on the store's far wall. He wasn't sure why he couldn't look away from him. He didn't know what the hell was going on.

"Oh shit, why can't we get the ones that at least try and do as we ask on a crime scene?" Deputy Jones said.

Derek looked up at where his partner was looking. He frowned as Stiles wasn't in his normal uniform for crime scenes. He was dressed in jeans and a heavy hoodie, but his Deputy badge was attached to his belt and visible. He was even wearing a gun.

"He's here to watch over them, not collect evidence," Derek said.

"What? Does the Sheriff not think we can do it?" Jones asked.

"No, asshole. He knows that you can, but the rest of the guys are dealing with other things, and there is a report of someone who went into the school, and it's not a staff member. He'll probably call you over the radio. Since this is a very fresh body, it's not like he wants the techs here alone while looking at it. He wasn't aware that I was this close to the scene, so he just hasn't got you radioed yet." Stiles' eyes were moving over the body that had been found at the edge of the Preserve. Throat slit in a horrible way.

"Do you need a vest?" Derek asked.

"One of the techs is bringing me one. I was supposed to be off duty, but it was this or draw in one of the guys that had been working all day."

"I have a spare in my vehicle. Why don't you go and get it on?" Derek asked.

Stiles didn't fight him. Which was something that was still strange to Derek. He didn't fight about a damned thing with Derek anymore. Derek didn't like it, but he had asked Stiles to treat him like he had before, but Stiles was still just acting like this. He was respectful as hell when he was around Derek. There was nothing that anyone could say about him when they saw them together. But this was the Stiles that Derek knew. He would have thought that maybe Stiles had changed a lot in college, but he was the same with Peter, Cora, Spencer, and the rest of the Hales, but he was distant as hell with Derek. Like they hadn't known each other since they were two and six.

Derek only had a few distant memories of that day, finding Stiles in the Preserve after his babysitter had chosen to suck face with her boyfriend instead of watching him. After that day, Stiles had escaped a lot from even his parents to find Derek and then Cora later on. If Stiles wasn't where he was supposed to be, look for the closest Hale, and there he was. It wasn't impossible to understand why he did it, but it was crazy to know that Stiles was attached to the Hales.

Stiles had been working for six months with the Sheriff's department, and Derek felt as lost now as he had when he had first worked a scene with Stiles.

Derek looked over to see him in Derek's cruiser's back with his undershirt still on, but he was strapping the vest to his body. He moved like a predator. The fighting lessons that he had gone through with Chris and Peter growing up showed in every single way that he moved.

"Why do you hate him?" Jones asked.

"What?" Derek asked. He turned to look at his partner.

"I wasn't around for you guys growing up together. So I only have what I have heard, and everyone says that you hate him."

"I don't hate him."

"He is so stiff with you."

"He had a crush on me, and I let him down easy when he was eighteen, and since then, he's been like this," Derek said. He wondered if everyone at the station thought that he hated Stiles. He really didn't. He didn't understand him all of the time, but he didn't hate him. He couldn't hate him.

"Ah, so he's stiff with you because he doesn't know how to ask. Wasn't that like...eight years ago?"

"Yes, it was. It was eight years ago, and I've barely seen him since then. My family hangs out with him when I am not around. I don't know why he acts like this."

"Huh," Jones said.

Nothing more was said on it that night. But it hung at the back of Derek's mind as he dealt with the person being creepy near the school. Turned out, he had escaped from Eichen, the legitimate side of it, and was dangerous when scared. Derek was able to get him under control with no damage to him or the guy. He didn't know what to do, though, when he got back to the new station that had the crime lab inside of it instead of halfway across town. The regulations for a lot of things had changed, and it was just easy to build new instead of retrofitting the old places.

"Here you go," Stiles said as he dropped a folder onto Derek's desk with the prelims on the body and a little more information on the other case that they were working on with a body found deep in the county. Derek was the main on it mainly because he had been the one to find the body while off duty and running.

"Thanks. Do you mind staying in case I have a question?" Derek asked.

"Can't. Got a few things I need to keep an eye on. Just email me if you have a question that I haven't anticipated."

Derek scowled as Stiles walked away. He sighed and looked down at the folder. It had Stiles' smell but also the smell of everyone else in the lab. He opened it up, and just like every other time, it was all typed up. The only scent of Stiles was from where he had grabbed the papers from the printer and stuffed them into the envelope. The scent of Stiles was calming, and Derek had no clue why. He had found that out over the last six months. The soft scent of pine that followed him everywhere was calming as hell to him. He wanted to say that it was a smell of childhood, and it was why but Stiles hadn't smelled like that before to Derek.

"Tea?" Jones asked.

"Sure." Derek rolled his head and settled in to read the report to figure out what they had so far on the killer. It was strange as hell what they had, but he hoped that more information helped. Sometimes it didn't.

It was only about fifteen minutes later that Jones got back with the cup of tea for Derek.

"I got one of the low caffeine ones since we are nearly done with your shift."

"Thanks."

"Stiles give us anything?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't help with what he has right now. I'm sure it will make sense later."

"Well, anything you need help on?"

"No. Stiles said I could email him if I did need any help. He's got it all laid out, and really he answers more questions than I would have had."

"Really?" Jones picked up the report, and he started to frown. "Dude, he treats you with kid gloves."

"What?"

"These notes? Yeah, those are things that we don't get, at least not all of them. If it's something he's pretty sure we don't know, he adds it but nothing this detailed. It's like he doesn't want you to email him. I bet the one that he gives his father won't be like this."

Derek frowned and looked toward the door that would take him to the lab area. He wondered what would happen if he went back there. Would Stiles refuse to talk to him? He stood up and aimed to do that. He snagged the report from Jones before leaving. He at least needed to have a reason. He was halfway across the room before he walked back and grabbed the other one. He would have more than one reason to do what he was doing.

Stiles was in the glassed off area of the lab, music playing softly in the room. Derek could hear it, but he was pretty sure that no one else could. It was some of Stiles' music that Derek knew helped him think. It was the same as when he had been in school. Stiles looked up when Derek tapped on the glass. His eyes widened in shock and then narrowed before he held up a finger. He looked down at something then flashed all ten fingers at him. Derek nodded.

Derek settled in at the little desk area where reports were filed. It was sometimes better than doing it at other desks as most of them were standing up or if they weren't, they had rolling chairs. Derek wasn't sure what the difference was, but he had heard all about it. He ignored the flashing on the screen with a hand waving and telling him not to touch. It was a running joke he had heard from another tech.

"How can I help you, Deputy Hale?" Stiles asked after ten minutes had passed.

Derek looked at Stiles and saw that his face was impassive.

"What did I do?" Derek asked.

"I'm not sure that I understand," Stiles said as a look of confusion came over his face.

"You can call me Derek. We've known each other long enough for that."

"How can I help you with work matters, Deputy Hale?" This time Stiles' tone was like he was cold enough to choke out a fire.

Derek wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but he was going to talk to Cora about this. She would know.

"Um, nothing, I guess. I think I got it." Derek stood up, taking his two files with him.

Derek knocked on the door to Peter's house and waited for someone to come and answer the door. Stiles' Jeep wasn't there, which was the only good thing about this. Derek was still reeling a little from the way Cora had told him that she would refuse to discuss Stiles with him at all.

"Derek, who can I help you?" Chris asked as he answered the door.

"I wanted to talk about Stiles. I was hoping that Peter was home."

"He's not. He's doing a deposition in Los Angeles at the moment."

"Oh."

"You don't look well."

"I wanted to talk to him about something personal."

"Can you talk to me about it? I know I'm not your Uncle, but we have been close for a long time."

"I don't...maybe?" Derek said. He wasn't sure as he didn't know what was going on. Cora had never treated him like she just had, and he was a little lost.

"Why don't we get some tea going, and we can talk."

Derek nodded his head. Chris was second in command in the county, and he wondered what Chris knew that Derek didn't know about everything. He wasn't sure which side he would take, but he was usually good at being the middle ground in fights unless the fight was with Peter.

"So, what's this about?" Chris asked after he turned the kettle on. He turned around and leaned against the counter, waving for Derek to sit down.

"Stiles."

"Ah. I wondered when you were going to come to this."

"So, everyone knows that he's acting weird?" Derek asked.

"He's not acting weird. To everyone else, he's acting normal, and everything is fine. It's only to you that he's acting weird. He's trying to respect your wishes from nearly a decade ago. He's trying to leave you alone. He's trying to be a good guy and make sure that you don't feel like you are being hit on by him."

"Why?"

"Well, it seems that many of the things you didn't like about him are things that are intrinsic to him. So he's just doing everything that he can to not do anything remotely friendly around you so that he doesn't offend you."

Derek tried to understand that. He kind of did, but he didn't really. "Why?"

"You guys work together. No matter what, if you report him for misconduct, it's going to look worse on him than you. He's the Sheriff's son, and while he's not directly in Noah's chain of command, there will be favoritism mentioned. It will all look like his father used his pull to make sure that he's not hurt in any way. We all know that Noah wouldn't do that, but we are not everyone else. So yes, he's keeping his distance to make sure that nothing happens."

"But has he always planned on doing what he's doing?"

"Yes, and no."

Derek growled. Chris held up a hand as the kettle went off. Derek waved for him to get on with it.

It took only a few minutes for Chris to get their tea ready. It was a green tea, so it didn't take long at all to steep. Derek blew over the top of the tea and then took a sip when it was handed to him. It was one of Peter's favorite blends, mainly because it helped settle him down. He watched Chris as he futzed with putting up the tea and rinsing the steeping pot before putting it in the drainer to dry up. Chris took a seat across from Derek and settled in.

"Yes and no?" Derek asked.

"Yes, he was always planning on doing this job but not here. He was going to work in San Francisco at a crime lab there and then transfer here after a few years or a decade, but something changed. I don't know what that change is. I'm not even sure that Peter does either. I heard Noah talking to Stiles about it one day at the diner before he came to work with us."

"Noah is fine, right?" Derek asked.

"Yes, his last doctor visit has his stress levels down, and therefore his blood pressure is as well. I don't know what is going on, but it's personal, and therefore I'm not going to try and get into the middle of it. You shouldn't either. Stiles is allowed to determine how he treats people as long as how he treats them is not horrible. Not talking to you...well, you might think it's wrong, but he's not hurting you."

"No, I guess I just expected him to come back and be Stiles. To be there every single time I turned around."

"Maybe think about that? Think you want him to be like he was before after you told him that you didn't want him to be like before."

"He had a crush on me!" Derek nearly yelled.

Chris glared at Derek until he settled down. "And yet, he never pushed it on you. He talked to you a little more than most people, but he talks to the Hales more than everyone else. Your family never thought anything of his crush. You never did until he was getting ready to go to college. You asked him to stop something, so he did."

"I didn't mean that he had to treat me like a stranger."

"Maybe think about why you don't like it, Derek. Try and figure out what you have going on in your own head before trying to get into Stiles'. He's not that complicated, and while yes, he has a few traits that are close to Peter, he doesn't let anyone hurt him. Not in a long time, at least."

Derek nodded, but then Chris' words and tone hit him. Derek gasped and looked at Chris. Chris, though, was looking down at his tea. How could Derek hurt Stiles? Derek knew that Stiles had been obsessed with a girl when he was younger, but then he realized that she didn't care about anything but having the things that looked the best but might not be. Last Derek knew Lydia Martin was a raging alcoholic married to Jackson Whittemore. Derek figured that it was a cautionary tale for most kids who decided that being popular the end all to be all. Derek had never really cared about being popular. Yeah, he had been on the basketball team, but he never won games just to get popular. He had played because he loved the sport.

Chris was saying that Derek had hurt Stiles, but a crush wasn't something to be this hurt over for this long. He didn't know what the hell was going on, but he was going to find out.

It wasn't hard to figure out Stiles' routine. The young man had a not very varied routine at all, and it took only a week and a half for Derek to realize that outside of Cora and the rest of the Hales, Stiles had no friends. He didn't go out for drinks with anyone even when they asked him, as friends or something more.

Derek followed Stiles into his favorite coffee shop and waited for Stiles to order and settle in at a table before he stepped up to do the same. He felt Stiles looking up at him a few times while he ordered two pastries and a tea. This place had okay tea, and he knew that Stiles liked the coffee here. Derek preferred the tea shop down the road some, but this was where Stiles was, so this was where he would be for now. Derek watched Stiles reading on his phone and sipping at his coffee while Derek waited for his tea. The two pastries came out first, on two different plates as he asked. He turned to snag his drink when it was set down before turning to head to where Stiles was. He rounded the line that had formed at the last minute and stopped. Stiles' table was empty. There was no trace of him. Derek looked out to see his head disappearing back toward the station. He looked at the pastries and then at the lady who was filling orders. She gave him a smile and held out her hand for the plates. She boxed up the items and handed that over to Derek.

Outside, Derek lost Stiles, the scents of the people all around muddying the smells until Derek had to get desperate and just walk in the direction that Stiles had been headed. He had no clue why Stiles had just run off like that. It was like he knew what Derek's plan had been. Derek wasn't above making a scene. He really wasn't above forcing Stiles to talk to him. He wanted to fix whatever was going on with them.

Two weeks, Derek had been thinking, and it hadn't really taken long at all for him to realize that he did miss Stiles. The Stiles that he had been around when Stiles was in high school. He missed the brightness that was brought to the table when Stiles was around. He could learn to live with Stiles' crush if he still had it. Though, Derek wasn't sure why anyone would have a crush on someone after this long.

Derek found Stiles' scent near the park. He followed it to the small collection of trees that were under fairie control. They lived there happy and kept an eye on the kids who played and let someone in the Pack know if someone hanging around made them feel weird.

Stiles was sitting in the middle of the faerie circle, his coffee cup sitting outside of it. He looked like he was meditating. Which was something that Derek didn't think that he could do with his very active brain and his ADHD. Derek took a step and found a faerie in front of him. She was glaring, and Derek realized it was the Queen of this little area. He stepped back and opened up the box with the pastries in it. She glared at him, and magic seized the box, but she still didn't let him pass.

So Derek went back into the park and settled in to wait for Stiles leaving. He didn't look up much but kept his nose active. He was downwind from the opening so he would smell when Stiles made his escape from the area and not have to watch it all that closely. Derek looked up nearly an hour later and realized that Stiles wasn't in the middle of the faerie ring anymore. He stood up and walked over. Stiles wasn't in the middle of the area at all. Derek glared at one of the fairies who was laughing at him.

Deciding that it was it, Derek headed toward where he had left his car and headed out to where Stiles was still living with Peter and Chris. He found that the Jeep was there, so he waited. He couldn't hear anyone inside the house, which just meant that Stiles wasn't there. He would come back at some point, and Derek would be waiting.

It didn't happen for two hours, Stiles was dropped off at the edge of the road, and he was walking back toward the house and the garage. Stiles stopped and looked toward the house. Both Chris and Peter were at work and wouldn't be home for another two hours.

"What can I help you with, Deputy Hale."

"You can start by calling me Derek."

"Sorry, Deputy, I can't do that."

"Why not?" Derek asked.

The look that Stiles gave Derek was heartbreaking.

"I can't. Please, if that's all you needed, you can leave now."

That scent from years ago was back again; there was no lust or anything else with it, but it filled Derek's head with pain, not pain that he felt but just normal pain. Like it hurt Stiles to be around him.

"Stiles, what did I do?" Derek asked.

"It's nothing, Deputy, don't worry about it, but please. I will call the station on your ass. I rent this. I have a contract, and it's stated that I am allowed to ask people to leave my land, including the Hales. I'm sure that Peter will be more than happy to explain it to you."

Derek moved over to where he was on house land and not garage land. Stiles nodded his head and went up the stairs to get into the apartment over the garage. Derek just watched him. He was sure what was going on, but he was going to find out.

Derek stopped when he found the Hale book of family history. He hadn't seen it taken down since Laura's first kid was born. He opened it up and leafed through it, looking for new ink for some of the family. Maybe someone had found their Mate, and Derek just hadn't heard yet. He had been working long hours since half of the guys who worked the station were all sick. There was a horrible stomach bug going around that had them out for at least a week, and everyone was staggered enough that it was a few guys going down each day. Derek and Chris were working more hours than normal, especially since Noah had it as well as part of the lab staff.

Stopping on the page with his information, Derek found that the location where it spoke about his Mate wasn't empty. It said rejected. He frowned because Derek had never rejected his Mate. He had grown out of his phase of thinking that finding his Mate on the blue moon was a curse. It was just about three years until the next one. He had time. There was writing on the page, though, that looked like it was erased. It wasn't impossible to erase magical writing like the pen used for the book, but it always left a trace. Derek snagged a pencil from the desk and a thin sheet of paper. He very carefully got pencil lead dust out of the pencil, using his claws to grind it down how he wanted before dropping it on the page and smearing it carefully. It left what he wanted on there. Peter had taught him the trick.

Met first time July 30th, 1996: ages 6 and 2. Too young. Younger felt the bond while it seemed the other did not.

The writing was Peter's, which wasn't that odd. Despite his job and his place in the Pack, he was also the historian.

Met second time October 31st, 2020: ages 30 and 26. Again nothing. Younger felt the bond break, and the other did not feel a thing.

Derek frowned. He remembered that day. It was the day of the blue moon, and it hadn't been all that special at all. Derek hadn't actually had anything interesting with anyone that day. He couldn't remember anything about that day when he was six, either. It was so damned long ago that it was crazy to try and remember. He laid the book down and walked over to what Peter called the family grimoire. He opened it up and found the page for the year 1996. There wasn't a lot of stuff there, but for the date Derek met his Mate the first time, there was one single entry, well it was a long entry, but it was the day that Derek had found Stiles, then named Mieczysław, in the woods. Derek flipped through the book to find the Halloween entry, and he found that it had a lot of information about the party and a note from Peter that Derek had run into Stiles in the store.

Looking at the first book, the words flooded his mind. Younger felt the bond while it seemed the other did not. Derek remembered Stiles crying when Derek had tried to give him to Peter. He remembered that after that, Stiles had come around a lot. He had escaped his family every single time that he could, and Derek was near.

Derek flipped through the family book to find Stiles' entry. He was close enough to the Pack that Derek figured that it was in there. He looked around the area where Spencer was and after, but Stiles wasn't there. Then he went back to Cora and between Cora and Spencer was Stiles. The entry was started the day that Derek had found him. There was nothing about a mate for Stiles there, but there was a discussion of the low-level magic he had and how he felt the Pack bonds just as much as everyone else in the Pack. Derek tested out his Packs bonds, and he touched each one. The feeling of everyone was there. Yet there was not one for Stiles. Derek had no Pack bond to him.

There was a note at the bottom of Stiles' page that was added on Halloween. The one-sided bond between Stiles and his Mate broke today. It was kind of bland, and while Derek knew it was Peter's writing, he assumed that it would have been more to it. No one in the family treated Derek any differently. He would have assumed that someone would hate him for what he had done to someone Derek's parents thought of as their own son. Cora was fine as long as Derek didn't bring up Stiles.

"Fucking hell," Derek said. He rubbed at his forehead as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. He hadn't even felt that bond. He never remembered it. He knew that Stiles had a little bit of magic based around his wants and wishes. He couldn't make people do things that they didn't want, but he could help things along when people wanted them. He didn't know what was going on, but he didn't like it. He thought about what he remembered when he was younger. He had been an angry little thing about thinking about life, forcing someone on him that he didn't want. Derek wondered if somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew about Stiles. A little bit of his hindbrain that hadn't wanted that kind of leash to anything. He didn't know what he wanted, what he needed back then. But this, the desire to understand why Stiles wasn't willing to be friendly with him, it made sense now. It made all kinds of sense that he didn't like. He hated it, really. He fucking hated everything.

Derek folded up the paper and resolved to throw it away in his room. He had a lot that he needed to do. He needed to do something. He wasn't sure what, but he needed to do it.

Derek found Stiles sitting at a table in the break room of the station. He smiled and dropped down into the seat across from him. Stiles didn't even look up from where he was reading as he ate the sandwich in his hand. He laughed as he read something and then realized he wasn't alone. Stiles looked up at Derek, his smile on his lips, not falling away even though it was Derek in front of him. Three months of slowly making friends with him was paying off.

"Hey, Deputy, did you need something?"

The name thing was the only sticking point, and Derek figured that it was the part of Stiles that kept himself work-friendly with Derek instead of friendly-friendly with Derek. Derek didn't mind it at all. He would take this as slowly as he could. No matter what, his Mate was worth that. Derek had time before the next full moon. It was still only early in 2021, and he had until August 30th of 2023 before he would need to prove to Stiles that he meant this. It was a long game, and he was up for it.

"Just wanted to see if you want to come out with us tonight. We all get off at the same time, and some of us were heading out to get dinner and watch the game tonight at the bar."

"Sure, Dad's eating dinner with your mother tonight to talk business, and it was that or eat at home alone. So yeah, that sounds good. Swing by and snag me as you know; I get lost in work sometimes."

Derek nodded his head. He waited for Stiles to look down at his Kindle again before he slipped the cupcake up onto the table beside him. Stiles would notice it and eat it; he always did.

Hours later, Derek slipped into the large table, going all the way into the middle so that everyone else could file in on either side of him. It was just five of them, Chris and Parrish, as well as Jones rounding out who was going. Chris shoved Derek to where he wasn't in the middle anymore. He frowned at the man as Stiles came over to sit down, being the last to arrive.

Stiles got in the booth with the only open spot left. He didn't get too close to Derek, but he wasn't super far away either. Derek kind of liked it. He could smell the aftershave that Stiles used in place of cologne. It was soft and pleasing to Derek's nose, which meant he had made sure that it wouldn't bother Werewolves when he bought it. Peter had probably been the one to test it out.

"Ah, perfect," Peter said.

Derek looked up at his Uncle and frowned at him.

"Let me in to sit beside my husband," Peter demanded.

"Why should we?" Parrish asked.

"Well, I mean, I guess I could go and sit in a corner and drink the round I just ordered by myself."

"Up Hale, let him in," Jones said.

Derek waited for Stiles to get out, and then he did as well. It would mean that to stay in the booth, they would have to all be pressed together. Derek glared at his Uncle as he slipped into the booth. Stiles waved for Derek to get in, and Derek pressed as close to his Uncle as he could to give Stiles room, but Peter pushed him away.

"Quit trying to fuck this up," Derek said low enough that Peter would be able to hear it but no one else. Peter just grinned at Derek before he looked at Chris.

"How are you doing, sweetheart?" Peter asked.

"Oh, God," Parrish said.

"You wanted Chris here," Jones said.

"I know," Parrish said.

Stiles laughed and bumped his shoulder into Derek's shoulder. The touch was good, and Derek's wolf kind of like the touch, even though it was brief.

A waitress dropped off the first round of drinks. Stiles grabbed the beer bottle and handed it to Derek before Peter grabbed his and Chris' drinks. Stiles' drink looked and smelled like it was just Dr. Pepper.

"Not drinking?" Derek asked.

"Not until I get food in me. I get drunk very quickly when I have nothing in my belly, and it's been a while since lunch. So yeah, once we get food into me, I'll get a drink that's not pop of some kind."

"And Peter knew that?" Jones asked.

"The day I turned twenty-one, Peter took me out drinking. He literally went to where I was going to college, and he dragged me out and took me drinking. So yeah, he learned the hard way to not let me drink on an empty stomach."

"He got wasted horribly," Peter said.

"You are lucky he didn't get sick." Chris was glaring at Peter.

"I kept a close eye on him and made him eat some beer cheese pretzels. He got better, and I made sure that he never drank unless I saw him eat something first. Usually, a full meal unless he can prove to me that he ate a meal."

"Speaking of food, what kind of appetizers are we going to get?" Stiles asked.

"Well, I want meatballs," Derek said.

"Oh, I love them and the nachos."

Derek hummed at that. He knew well what Stiles liked. It wasn't hard to know what he liked about the places he liked to eat since he talked more and more about things about Derek. Stiles was talkative, and since Derek had tried to be nicer to him, trying to talk to him about anything and everything, Stiles had been becoming work-friendly with Derek. It was a good step, and Derek liked it.

"How was work?" Derek asked when he was sure that the other four were interested in discussion.

"Eh, that one idiot that was hired in is still making my life a living hell for not actually following a damned thing that needs to be followed to make sure that we aren't taken to court to prove that we fucked up shit. Dad's being kept well in check on all of it."

"Why can't he be gotten rid of?" Derek asked.

"The guy who is in charge of the lab hired him in and is being lax about firing him. We are making sure that nothing he does fucks anything up and documenting it all; we have to wait for him to make a big fucking mistake."

Derek nodded his head. He listened to Stiles ranting about it all for several minutes while he watched him. Derek jumped when his phone vibrated. He lifted up to pull it out and then looked at it. He looked at Parrish, who was looking at him with wide eyes. He knew what that meant. Derek shook his head, glared, and Parrish shrunk in on himself a little bit.

"Be right back," Jones said as he slipped out of the booth and headed toward the bathroom.

"Ah, peace at last," Stiles said.

"What?" Peter asked.

"Okay bad choice of words. Jordan, you were asking me about something the other day, and I told you I had no clue about it but that I need to ask someone else."

"Yes," Parrish said.

Derek heard his heart rate jumping up. He was scared.

"Hellhound is what you are looking for."

"Dear God, he's hunting a Hellhound?" Chris asked.

"No, no, he is a Hellhound."

Derek looked at Parrish with new eyes. He knew that something was up with him, but he thought he was magical like Stiles. He wasn't, it seemed though. Hellhound was a hell of a lot different. Magic created them when needed. He felt bad for the man who Jordan Parrish had been. Though, at least the one thing that Derek remembered about them was that magic took loners. Only children with no living parents still around, so that the change in them wasn't noticed. Magic protected itself.

"And how long have you been a Hellhound?"

"Since my junior year of high school. Seemed there was something that might have happened around that time that would have needed a Hellhound to keep the Supernatural a secret, so he was called up as it were."

"I somehow survived an IED blowing up in my face. It was damned strange. I discharged from the military using PTSD as a reason and felt drawn here."

"That tracks with what I know," Peter said.

"You can help?" Parrish asked.

"Yes, I can. Come to my house tomorrow evening. I'll be off of work. Chris and I can do some more searching."

"Okay."

The talk was tabled as Jones started back across the room. The game started, and most of the talking died down outside of talking about the teams playing. Stiles got a little tipsy as the night wore on, and he leaned into Derek more and more as well, before just outright laying his head on Derek's shoulder.

Derek knew something was wrong as soon as he let himself into his loft. Derek had only been living there a few months, wanting to be out of the family house to have a place for him and Stiles. If they got that far. It was in the family, one of the holdings that they owned. So it wasn't like he was paying for it. Derek pulled his gun and listened to the sounds in the loft. There was no heartbeat, but that meant shit. He could smell the lingering scents of the party that had been held there the night before. It hadn't been his idea, but since he was the one who closed the case that had been plaguing the department for months, he had been voted the person who got to hold the party.

Stiles' scent was strong still, and Derek loved the scent. He wished it was there all the time.

Taking his time, Derek cleared the whole ground floor of the loft. He looked at the stairs and carefully went up to his bedroom area. He dropped his hand with the gun as soon as he found Stiles laying in his bed, reading the book that Derek had been reading before bed the night before, trying to wind down after the party since he had to work early today.

"What the hell, Stiles?" Derek demanded. He walked over to his safe and put up his gun before pulling off the rest of his gear and stowing it where it belonged. He put his badge into the safe as well. He turned to see that Stiles was still reading and seemed to be ignoring him. Derek stripped off his uniform, leaving himself in his tank top and boxers. Stiles still wasn't looking up.

Stepping close, Derek saw the earphones in Stiles' ears. He was lost in his own world, reading and listening to music. He hadn't even noticed Derek moving around him. Derek shook his head before slipping into the bathroom to get a shower in. Hopefully, Stiles would notice that at some point.

Derek rushed through the shower but took his time afterward, grooming himself. His beard was getting a little long, and he needed to trim it up a little. He should have done it before the shower, so he rinsed off again when he was done. Stiles was sitting up on the bed, his hands between his legs. He looked up at Derek.

"Sorry, I got really into that book. I'm thinking of stealing it from you when I leave. If I leave."

"If?" Derek asked. He wondered why Stiles wouldn't think that he was leaving.

"When did you find out?"

"Find out what?" Derek asked.

Stiles looked at Derek with the look on his face that Derek was used to now, seeing Stiles looking at idiots with it for a long time. It had seldom been turned onto him, though.

"That I was your Mate?"

"Something was said to me, and I was looking at my history in the family books. I found that it said I had rejected my Mate. I didn't remember doing it. It had the dates, and the detailed history had the dates and the needed info. It wasn't hard to put that together after that."

"And you decided to?" Stiles asked.

"Become your friend because we had never really been that before and see what came of it. I wanted nothing more than that, I promise."

"Huh. Well...what do you feel?"

"I feel the Pack bond that had been missing before. I know that it was one-sided before. I never meant to hurt you like that."

"I know. Peter told me everything after he realized that you were not handling how I was acting. He's the one that suggested just backing off all the way. I didn't know why I felt it, but you didn't. We still really don't. I just know that I've been happier over the last few months than I have been in a long time. I won't..." Stiles sighed and ran his hands through his hair. He looked up at Derek again. "I'm not gonna be some..."

"Like I would ever think that you would roll over and do what I say all of the time. I've known you almost your entire life, Stiles. It's like you are a mystery to me."

"I know that I just...Despite the bond breaking, I've tried to date. College was my trying and then a lot of failure on that, so I just fucked around so that no one paid that close of attention to me. Yeah, a few tried to make an honest man out of me, but it just never...clicked. I don't want to just jump into this and us not talk things through."

"We can talk as much as you want when you want."

"And you'll tell me if you don't want to?" Stiles asked.

Derek hesitated, and he knew that it was Stiles wanted when he asked that. "Yes."

"Good because I will not have you sacrifice what you want or what you need to make me happy. I can't have you saying yes to everything that I want if you don't want it. That's not a good way to start a relationship."

Derek nodded his head. He knew that. He also understood that he needed to be a fully willing participant in this, not a yes-man.

"Thank you," Derek said.

"You are welcome, but this doesn't mean I'm okay with just jumping into a relationship. We are going to go on dates. We are going to talk. We will set boundaries, and we will keep to them."

"Of course." Derek didn't think they were just going to jump into something.

"However, I'm tired as hell, and neither Chris nor Peter are around at the moment."

Derek nodded his head but stopped as he really didn't understand. "Explain."

"I get nightmares sometimes. It's night terrors leftover from childhood."

Derek remembered the night terrors after Stiles' mother had died. He remembered hearing him screaming when he stayed the night sometimes. Peter had usually ended up in bed with him or him in Peter's bed. Cora, if she was woken up by the sound, did as well.

"Your Dad?"

"I...He doesn't know that I started to have them again, and I don't want him to worry about me. Yes, I know he's my father, but he's got a lot of pressure with the reelection coming up. He's a shoo-in, but that asshole from the upper county is running against him. He's worried since it's the first time he's run against someone since he ran the first time. So yeah, I don't want to bother him."

"That's part of why you moved into the garage apartment," Derek said.

"Yes. Cora went with your Uncle, and I've slept for shit for three nights."

"You fell asleep here last night, and Parrish had to wake you up."

"Yeah, cause this is Pack."

Derek got it then, and he knew what Stiles wanted. It wasn't just sleeping here. Stiles had fallen asleep on Derek's couch with Derek near him.

"Then let's get some dinner, and then we can go to sleep. I feel like I could sleep for ten hours myself."

Stiles nodded his head and stepped into Derek's space to give him a hug. Derek turned his face into Stiles' and scented him. Stiles did the same back. He had been around the Pack for so long that he had many mannerisms of born wolves.

"You could fall asleep right now, couldn't you?" Derek asked.

"Yes, but I do need to eat, maybe a nap while you order food? You remember what I like from the Chinese place, yes?"

"Yeah. I can get that." Derek tugged Stiles over to his bed, hugging him all the while. Derek laid on his back, and Stiles climbed into the bed and rolled to his side, putting his back to Derek. His face was buried in the pillow that Derek used most.

"Fucking hell," Stiles whispered before his body went limp. He passed out all right. Derek set a timer for twenty minutes from them and made sure it was only going to vibrate. The place delivered, and Derek would order when the timer went off and not before. He texted to find out the work schedule from Parrish. Stiles and he both had the next day off. Which was a damned good thing. Stiles could catch up on sleep and relax. Peter and Chris would be home that evening as well, and Derek could go and stay with them for a little while. They had offered him a room before, and he had never taken them up on it. Maybe he should while getting closer with Stiles.

Derek hadn't meant to hurt him before, and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure that he never did again.

The End