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“Does it feel cold in here to you?” Stiles grumbled from the other side of the bed.
Derek—still groggy from the late night—shushed Stiles. “Go back to sleep.”
The blankets rustled, and then ice-cold feet pressed against his legs. “Don’t you find it a little freaky the kids are still asleep? Maybe we should check if they’re okay.”
He listened to the steady heartbeats in the rooms down the hall—a habit that started when the two of them first moved in together, and he was terrified of losing Stiles.
“The kids are fine.” He rolled over and dragged Stiles in closer to curl up together. “Shut up and enjoy the quiet morning.”
“That's what I love most about you, you’re so sweet and reassuring,” Stiles said, shuffling around the bed. “Okay seriously, it’s freezing.” He sat up. “My nose is an icicle!”
“Daddy!” Samantha shouted from down the hall. “Daddy!”
Burying his head under a pillow, he groaned. “You couldn’t just enjoy the morning, so it’s your turn.”
“But you’re Daddy,” Stiles said.
Samantha yelled again.
“Hurry, before she wakes the others up,” he said, at the same moment Eli’s cooing came over the baby monitor. Eli never woke up crying, he was a happy baby. Aubrey, on the other hand, woke up with a loud wail.
“Daddy! Look ousside!” Samantha shouted, running up to his side of the bed.
The bed moved as Stiles got up. The blinds zipped open. “It snowed,” Stiles said. "It snowed a lot."
He peeked out from under the pillow. Their backyard had been dumped in fluffy white snow, and it was still coming down in giant wet clumps. Beacon Hills rarely got snow, and they hadn't had snow like this in years.
Samantha shoved her face right in his face. Her hair was still in its fancy bun from last night's party, except it had turned into a frizzy mess from the night's sleep. “Snow angels?” she asked, her brown eyes wide and pleading.
“After breakfast,” he said. Grabbing her, he pulled her onto the bed as she giggled. “You’re cold too.”
Along with her arrival came their cat Georgie, who jumped up on the bed with a meow, and his paws dug into Derek's legs as he walked around trying to find the perfect spot to rest. Georgie was the first stray Stiles insisted on taking in. Though if you asked Stiles, he’d tell you the first stray he took in was Derek.
Samantha settled on his chest, her hair tickling his nose. She lay quietly as he tugged all the bobby pins and tiny elastics from her thick curly hair.
Out in the hall, there was the soft pattering of feet. "Hey dudes," Stiles said. "Did you have a good sleep?"
"I'm cold," Logan whined.
“Go climb in the bed with Daddy and Samantha,” Stiles said. “I’ll turn up the heat.”
Together, Eric and Logan came into the room. Eric had the teddy bear he never went anywhere without in his hands. Logan’s hair stuck up in tufts, and he had pillow creases across his face, the same way Stiles always woke up, and it made Derek smile.
Samantha stirred on his chest. “Go away.”
“Be nice, Sam,” he said. He pulled back the covers so the boys could climb in.
“What the...” Stiles muttered out in the hallway. The floor creaked as he carried on down to the twins' room. “Good morning Eli, good morning Aubrey,” he said, his voice coming over the baby monitor sitting on Derek’s nightstand. “Oh no, you guys are freezing.”
Logan and Eric fought over who got to lie on him so he moved into the middle of the bed and rearranged the three kids so each of them had a spot.
Stiles returned with Eli and Aubrey wide awake in his arms. “Take them,” Stiles said, passing the twins off to him. “I’m going to check the furnace, something’s wrong.”
While he drifted in and out of sleep, Samantha fawned over the twins, and the boys squirmed around playing some game of make-believe.
Six kids were never their plan. They bought a house in Beacon Hills, got to the point in their life where kids were a thing they both wanted, found an egg donor, Malia agreed to be their surrogate. When Malia was already six months pregnant with twins, Derek, Stiles, and Scott were tracking down a faction of Monroe’s hunters.
They found four kids instead.
Their place had started off as a temporary solution since their parents had been killed by hunters, and they needed time to track down a pack, but the kids' parents were omegas, and the kids had nowhere to go. At that point, Derek and Stiles had already fallen in love with the kids, along with the rest of their pack, so it was an easy decision to keep them.
He liked how loud and full their house always was. It reminded him of his own growing up. And even when the kids didn’t stop fighting, and all the rooms were a mess, he would still find himself smiling because, after everything, he wasn’t going to take his family for granted.
“The furnace isn’t working, and nothing’s open because it’s New Year’s Day,” Stiles said as he came back with two bottles of formula.
“There’s probably the old space heater in the attic,” he said.
“Daddy’s warm,” Samantha said.
“That's his wolf blood,” Stiles said, pressing a kiss to her forehead before handing Derek a bottle. “I hope Faith’s not too cold... maybe I should check on her.”
At eight years old, Faith was the oldest, and the only one out of the four siblings who hadn’t quite warmed up to them yet. They knew it would take time for Faith to come around, just like it took him a long time to let his past go and move forward with Stiles.
“Stiles, remember what the therapist said?” He adjusted the kids so he could sit up against the headboard and feed Eli.
“Let her come to us when she’s ready, I know,” Stiles said. He held out the second bottle to Aubrey who was always determined to do it herself. She took it with two eager chubby hands and curled into Derek to drink.
Stiles flopped down onto the bed, and the older three attacked him. Their laughter floated through the room as Stiles tossed Eric onto Logan, and Samantha jumped onto Stiles with a shriek.
Duke came running in from the hallway, letting out a loud bark as he jumped up and sniffed the commotion. The king bed was big enough that Derek and the twins stayed a safe distance away from the wrestling. Georgie sought refuge with them.
Eli played with Derek’s beard as he drank the formula, his little fingers tugging at the hair. Aubrey whined, dropping the bottle to the bed so she could point at the other four where Stiles was losing with the three kids piled on top of him.
"They're okay, they’re just playing," he said, running his hand down Aubrey's back. He picked up the bottle, thankful for the anti-leak lid, and handed it back to her.
Stiles fell back onto Eric's legs, pinning the boy to the bed. "Okay, okay, time out!" Stiles wheezed.
"Dad, get off me," Eric said and pushed against Stiles.
"Oh, am I crushing you?" Stiles said and poked Eric's side.
Eric giggled. "Stop! Dad!"
Stiles sat up. "I say we have our morning snack in bed... maybe watch a movie?"
"Yes!" All the kids cheered while they jumped up and down on the bed. Eli wiggled his butt even though he didn't understand what was going on.
"Great," Derek said. "That's not going to be a mess."
"That's why we have stain remover spray,” Stiles said.
"We have that because you live here," he said, cradling the twins in each arm.
Stiles slid up beside Derek, pressing a kiss to both Eli and Aubrey’s noses. “Hm, my sexy stay-at-home dad,” Stiles said and pressed a chaste kiss to Derek’s lips.
“Gross,” Samantha said.
“Yeah, get a room!” Logan shouted.
Stiles pulled away, his mouth hung open. “Where did you hear that?”
“Auntie Cora,” Logan said innocently.
Stiles laughed. “Sounds about right.” He grabbed Logan's ankle and pulled him across the bed while the six-year-old screamed. “We have a room but none of you stay out of it,” Stiles said, tickling Logan while he thrashed on the bed and laughed.
The twins finished their bottles while Stiles enlisted the help of the other three to get a snack ready.
“Okay, kids get in the middle of the bed, no jumping or fighting,” Stiles said as they came back to the room with a tray of snacks. “And remember our deal, you guys have to eat the fruit as much as you eat the chocolate.”
As Stiles got the kids organized and gave a stern warning to Duke not to eat the food otherwise he’ll kick the dog out, Derek realized that Faith was standing in their doorway watching silently. Their other dog, Bailey, sat next to her and wouldn't leave her side—the way Bailey had done since Faith moved in.
“Hey kiddo,” Stiles said, lighting up when he realized Faith was there. “Want to join our personal furnace? We’re going to watch Tangled.”
“Okay,” Faith said, quietly. She climbed into bed with her siblings. Bailey jumped up and took the spot beside Duke.
Stiles got back into bed and turned on the movie. He ran his hand down Faith’s back. “I’m glad you’re here with us," he said, pressing a kiss to her head.
Faith looked back at Stiles and Derek, smiling nervously. “Me too,” she whispered, and burrowed in closer to Samantha, focusing on the movie.
Stiles’ eyes sparkled with unshed tears when he looked over at Derek, he didn’t have to say anything for Derek to know what he was thinking. Their life was complete in a way Derek never thought his life could be again.
Faith, Logan, Eric, and Samantha were a mess of limbs and blankets in the middle of the bed, all glued to the TV while they idly ate their snacks, they were the quietest they'd ever been. Even the twins were oddly calm as Stiles took Aubrey into his lap so he and Derek could sit hip to hip.
“Why are they so quiet?” Stiles whispered in Derek’s ear.
"The late night?” he suggested. They allowed the kids to ring in the New Year with the rest of the pack, something he thought they were going to regret today. Maybe he thought wrong. “Give them five minutes after they finish all the chocolate.”
"They teamed up on me, gave me puppy-dog eyes, I'm weak! You should've never sent me alone," Stiles said. He brushed Aubrey’s dark hair behind her ear as she dozed against his chest with her thumb in her mouth. “We have the cutest kids on the planet.”
"We do," he agreed.
Eli was still curled up in his own arms, he felt so small and fragile. It terrified him to think about how vulnerable all the kids were, and that there was only so much they could do to protect them. But at that moment, he felt the safest he had ever felt.
Eventually, they'd get the kids up, make breakfast, and get them dressed in whatever warm layers they could find. They would all go outside into the snowstorm and trudge around the subdivision, have a snowball fight, make snow angels, and come in with blotchy red cheeks to drink hot chocolate.
But for now, he took in what his life had become because of Stiles and his stubborn determination to love Derek. He enjoyed the rare calm morning and stayed right where he was, underneath all of their kids while the heartbeats of their family blended together in his head to make the perfect soundtrack.
Stiles laid his arm over Derek’s shoulders and played with his hair. “It's like we have our own little pack,” he whispered.