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“Promise me you’ll take good care of Roscoe.”
Derek’s head jerks up at the familiar voice. “Stiles?”
The human in question startles, dropping his car keys and Derek ducks his head to hide his smile. It’s been at least six months since he last saw the younger man, but from the looks of things, Stiles hasn’t changed much.
“What the fuck man?” Stiles couches to retrieve his keys and hands them over to the mechanic. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry.” While he’s got his back turned, Derek watches Stiles carefully. On second thought, perhaps he is a little broader in the shoulders, his hair’s just a little longer. It’s a good look on him.
“No, you’re not,” Stiles gripes, turning back to Derek, but he’s grinning as he says it. “What are you even doing here?”
“Same thing as you, I guess.” He gestures over to the Camaro parked out the front of the auto shop, then wanders over to stand by Stiles at the counter.
“Oh. I guess I always assumed you serviced yourself.” Stiles’ eyes bug out and he flushes. “I mean, the car… serviced the car yourself.” He groans, raking a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I’m running on post-finals brain rot,” he explains. “This mouth cannot be trusted right now.”
“I’ve never trusted anything that’s come out of your mouth anyway,” Derek teases with a shrug. “I’m actually here to pick my car up though, not drop it off. You need a ride?”
“No.” Stiles stammers. “Thanks though.”
“Oh,” Derek tries not to feel disappointed. It’s been so long since they’ve hung out, he’d been looking forward to a chance to catch up. He collects his keys from the mechanic. “Another time then?”
Stiles flushes again, nodding vigorously. “Yeah, uh, sure. See you ‘round Derek.”
Sliding into the driver’s seat, Derek drops his head against the steering wheel with a groan. That could have gone better.
***
Stiles walks from the garage to the station, his conversation with Derek playing over in his head. He can’t believe how badly he’d managed to stick his foot in his mouth, and Derek had just shrugged it off.
He tries to put it behind him. There’s no point dwelling on it. Hopefully Derek will have forgotten about it by the time Scott finally gets around to organising another pack night.
“Oh hey, Daddio.” Stiles saunters into his dad’s office. “You ready to go?”
“Just a moment.” John tosses Stiles his eyes. “I just need to finish up some paperwork, but once I’m done, you want to get breakfast?”
“Oh my god yes.” Stiles twirls the keychain around his fingers. “I want to drown myself in coffee.”
Pushing the last of the files away, John stands, tugging Stiles into a one-armed hug. “I missed you kid.”
“Yeah, me too.” Stiles returns the hug. “But now you get me for three whole months. I’m going to make sure you’ve been following your diet.”
“I take it back,” John groans pulling away.
“I was going to let you have bacon,” Stiles sighs, “but after that little remark all you get is egg whites and spinach. Come on.”
***
Kira [8:49AM]: What are your plans for the day.
Derek stares at the message for a second before responding.
Derek [8:49AM]: Why?
Kira [8:51AM]: Scott got called into work early and I’m hungry. Breakfast?
Derek [8:52AM]: I’ll be there in 5
“So, Stiles is back.” Derek tries to keep his tone light and free from any inflection that might give the words meaning.
“Ugh, I know,” Kira groans. “Scott hasn’t shut up about it for days.” She drops into the passenger seat and shoves her bag onto the floor by her feet. “I swear he loves Stiles more than he loves me.”
“Sure.” Derek focuses on pulling out of the driveway without scraping the bumper on the curb.
“But not as much as you love Stiles.”
That jerks Derek out of his reverie. He glances across at Kira, scowling.
“I’m not in love with Stiles.”
“Of course not,” Kira agrees. She reaches across to mess with the radio. “You just want to marry him and have his babies and live happily ever after.” She settles on a station and leans back in her seat. “It’s sweet. You should tell him.
“No way.”
“Why not?”
Derek turns onto the main street and concentrates on finding somewhere to park.
“He doesn’t like me that way.”
Kira’s laugh is loud and obnoxious. “Uh, yeah he does.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, come on.” Kira picks at the seam on her skirt. “Stiles and Scott tell each other everything. And I mean everything.” She smirks. “And then Scott tells me.”
“I don’t think so.” There’s a parking spot right in front of the diner. Derek flicks his signal and starts backing in. “You should have seen him this morning. He couldn’t get away from me fast enough.”
Kira sits and watches him for a moment before pulling her phone from her pocket. “Do you trust me?” She asks, tapping furiously at the screen.
“Not when you get that particular look on your face.”
“You should definitely trust me,” she says, grinning madly. “What are you doing tonight?”
***
“Life is so unfair.” Stiles leans against the counter while Scott examines Mrs Hatley’s cat. “I’ve been back for less than a day and I’ve already run into him.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“It was the worst.” Stiles groans, tipping his head back to smack into the cupboard. “I basically told him I thought about him jerking off.”
Scott shoves the cat into Stiles’ arms. “Can you take Sooty back to Mrs Hatley so I don’t need to listen to you mope about Derek Hale.”
“Shh,” Stiles covers the cat’s ears with a hand. “Don’t say his name. You’ll summon him.”
Scott raises an eyebrow.
“It’s true!” Stiles follows his friend from the room. “Everywhere I go, there he is! It’s like a big stupid reminder from the universe. I can never be free of his stupid beautiful face.”
“I thought you were over this crush.”
“Yeah, well, so did I,” Stiles moans. “But somehow he’s even hotter and nicer than he was before. He offered me a ride home.”
Scott’s phone beeps and he pulls it out of his pocket to read the message.
“You need a distraction,” Scott tells him. “Come out for dinner with me and Kira. We could go see that new Marvel movie after.” He texts something while he speaks, his fingers moving quickly over the screen.
“I cannot put into words how much I don’t want to do that,” Stiles says, following Scott back towards the waiting area.
“It’ll be fun.”
“No, it won’t,” Stiles argues. “Are you kidding me? I am not third wheeling a date with you and Kira.”
“It won’t be a date. It’ll just be three friends hanging out, eating dinner.”
“We could do that at my place,” Stiles counters.
“Yeah, but that new restaurant just opened on main street.” Scott’s voice takes on a pleading tone. “Come on man, we haven’t seen you in so long. Come out for dinner with us.”
“Ugh, you know it’s cheating when you use the puppy dog eyes on me,” Stiles whines. He hands the cat to the elderly woman in the waiting room.
“So, you’ll come?”
“Yeah, I’ll come.”
“Great, Kira already made a reservation. We’ll see you at seven.”
***
Derek stands by the front entrance to the restaurant and adjusts his leather jacket… again. He can see Stiles sitting inside, playing with his phone while he waits.
Taking a deep breath, Derek opens the door and walks across to the table.
“Hey.”
Stiles’ eyes go wide at the sight of Derek, his heart rate kicking up a notch.
“What are you doing here?” He demands, leaning around Derek to look towards the door.
“Uh, meeting you?” Derek takes a seat opposite Stiles, but already he can feel his stomach sinking.
“I—" Stiles flounders, his mouth flopping open and closed. “Excuse me.” He pushes his chair back from the table, the legs screeching against the floor. “I have to go make a scene.”
He stands slowly and calmly walks from the restaurant. He doesn’t go far, just paces the strip of pavement outside with his phone to his ear.
“What the fuck dude?”
Derek doesn’t want to eavesdrop, but even without his werewolf hearing Stiles is loud.
“I can’t believe you’d set me up like this. Were you planning on coming at all?”
It hurts. More than Derek would have thought, still he can’t drag his eyes away from Stiles.
“—it’s called a secret crush for a reason, Scott! There’s no way he feels the same—”
Derek doesn’t quite catch the last bit. Stiles glances up and catches him watching through the window and lowers his voice.
Stiles has a crush, Derek heard that bit loud and clear. It’s enough to give him hope that Kira hadn’t just been teasing him.
He watches Stiles lets out a long sigh and shove the phone back into his pocket before walking back into the restaurant. He sits back down at the table and pulls in his seat, polite smile plastered on his face.
“So.” Stiles folds his arms on the table.
“So.” Derek leans forward in his seat, heart racing. “You want to tell me about this secret crush?”
“Oh my god.” Stiles head drops onto his arms. “You heard all that?” He flaps a hand before Derek can answer. “Of course you heard all that.” He sits up straight in his seat. “Or was it Scott? Did Scott say something because I will revoke our friendship if he did.”
“Actually,” Derek licks his lips. “It’s was Kira.”
“No,” Stiles gasps. “She knows too? This is—” He rakes his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry man, I didn’t mean for you to get dragged into this.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s not. Scott and Kira set us up and that’s not fair on you. I know you don’t like me that way, so it’s fine if you want to leave.”
“I do.”
“Oh,” Stiles slumps.
“I mean, I don’t want to leave,” Derek clarifies. “I do like you, though. That way.”
“Oh.” Stiles straightens. “That’s—good. That’s really good. Because I do too—” He winces. “Which you already know. Can we just start this again?” He asks, wiping his hands on his napkin. “I don’t know why I’m so nervous, we’ve known each other for years.”
“Sure,” Derek says, “or, we could just head back to my place.”
Stiles scrambles to his feet. “Please.”
***
They’re on each other as soon as Derek unlocks his front door. Stiles tugs at Derek’s jacket, pushing it from his shoulders and onto the floor.
“I can’t believe you’re wearing this,” he mumbles, sucking a hickey into Derek’s neck. “It’s eighty degrees out.”
“You’re one to talk,” Derek growls, tugging on Stiles’ flannel shirt. It joins the quickly growing pile in the floor. His hands trail lower, his thumbs dipping underneath Stiles’ waistband.
“Fuck,” Stiles gasps as Derek’s wandering hands find their target. “Bedroom.” He wraps his legs around Derek’s hips as the werewolf hefts him up and they stumble down the hall.
***
“Oh my god,” Stiles groans, rolling onto his side. Derek collapses beside him, grinning. “Scott and Kira can never know their plan worked.”