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It’s another moderately busy Wednesday afternoon when Stiles’ favorite customer walks in.
Derek.
Stiles doesn’t know anything about Derek, besides the fact that he comes in and orders the same thing every day. A large soy latte (with an extra shot, on days where his frown is a little more frowny than usual).
Stiles also knows that he’s only seen Derek smile or laugh once and it was totally at Stiles’ expense. (Stiles can’t help it that the mop makes an excellent dance partner.)
But, Stiles wants to know more. He wants to know everything, actually, in a not creepy stalker kind of way.
“Hey, Derek! Welcome back, buddy!”, Stiles says in a genuinely cheerful tone. None of that fake customer service for Derek.
*grunt*
Ah, yes. Derek.
“So, I was thinking…”, Stiles goes on.
Derek lifts an eyebrow and Stiles tries to act like he’s unbothered by the movement.
“So, yea, um, I was, you know, thinking about it and I realized that I don’t know where you work.”
Silence. Fuck.
“I mean, yea, why would I know that? That would be weird! And creepy! Which I’m not! Creepy that is. Weird? Sure! Why not?”
Stiles forces his mouth to stop moving and wants to slam his head against the counter repeatedly. Derek stands on the other side of the counter looking bewildered and really, Stiles can’t blame him. Just great, Stilinski.
“Right, so a large soy latte coming right up, then!”
Stiles finishes ringing Derek up and jumps right into making Derek’s drink. He’s glad to be doing something other than embarrassing himself, any further. When the drink is finished, Stiles places it on the hand-off counter.
“One large, soy latte for Derek.”, Stiles calls out.
Derek walks up, grabs his latte and starts to walk away, before turning around again. Stiles is worried he might have made a bad drink, when he hears Derek say in a low voice, “Hale Inc.”.
“Uh, what?”
“Hale Inc. That’s where I- you asked where I work. Hale Inc.”
Stiles is so happy he could burst into song, but he manages to hold himself back. That can wait until Mr. Perfect leaves.
“Oh! Cool! Thanks!”, Stiles responds, a little too cheerfully and way too awkwardly.
Derek grunts again in response and leaves. Stiles is so happy by the response (no matter how small). Instead of bursting out into song, he decides to pull out his favorite dance partner, Mr. Mop, until his manager yells at him to get back to work.
~
Stiles decides to scheme a little. When Scott hears this, he warns Stiles against it.
“Stiles, you know that your schemes don’t work half of the time.”
Stiles rolls his eyes at his best friend.
“Okay, sure. My schemes don’t work half of the time, but do you know what that means?”
Stiles continues, not caring about what Scott has to say.
“It means that they work the other half of the time. So, there’s a 50/50 chance that this time, luck will be on my side.”
Scott sighs.
“Whatever you say, dude.”
~
Stiles has a plan. He decides that since the whole swapping of information worked last time, it could work for him again.
The next time he sees Derek, he wants to ask him so many things, but can’t bring himself to do it. When Stiles said he wanted to know everything about Derek, he wasn’t lying. He wanted to know it all. Again, not in a creepy stalker way, but more of a please smother me with your perfect facial hair type of way. So, yea. Not creepy!
Stiles forces himself to focus on the task at hand (not humiliating himself in front of the hottest person he’s ever seen) and sighs, getting Derek’s attention.
“Ugh, I hate the summer. Fall is where it’s at. It’s not too cold, not too warm. Kinda the perfect weather. What about, um, what about you?”
No response.
Stiles looks up to see Derek watching him make the soy latte.
AWKWARD!
When Stiles’ is done making Derek’s drink, he hands it out and gets ready to do the whole “See ya later! Have a great day!” thing when Derek says, “Spring. For the same reasons you like fall, only the spring has more sun.”
Then, without waiting for a response, Derek turns and walks out of the cafe.
Stiles couldn’t be any more happy and decides it’s game on.
~
“So a lady came in here today going on and on about how great white chocolate is. How it’s the best kind of chocolate. How absurd is that? I mean, it’s not even really chocolate! It’s sugar! Just tons of sugar! And the complete disrespect of milk chocolate! Definitely decaf for her.”
“I’m more of a dark chocolate guy, myself.”
Stiles smiles softly.
“Of course, you are.”
~
“My best friend, Scott, is totally freaking out about what flowers to get his date tonight. I mean, sure, it might be my fault for suggesting the roses he chose were a little fancy, but WHO AM I??? And really, what do I know about flowers? Nothing.”
“He could try daisies.”
“Good call. Thanks, man.”
Stiles swears he sees the slightest of smiles from Derek.
~
“Iron Man, am I right?”
* blank stare*
“Okay then…”
“Spiderman has always been my favorite.”
Stiles melts a little.
~
“Team Edward???”, Stiles practically screams.
*scoff*
“Look dude, if you haven’t seen or read the literary and cinematic classic that is Twilight, just say that.”
*eye roll*
“Team Jacob.”
~
One rainy Saturday, about two weeks since Stiles started his little inquisition, he decides enough is enough. He was going to ask Derek a real question. “What’s your number?” “Will you marry me?” You know, something totally normal and unrelated to vampires.
Stiles was happy that it was the weekend. It gave him a couple days until he had to see Derek again. It gave him time to get ready and really think about what he was going to say. The bell on the door of the cafe and Stiles shouts out a completely generic, “Welcome”, too lost in his thoughts of Derek to look up.
“One large soy latte, please.”
Stiles’ head pops and he struggles (and fails) to look normal.
“Hey! Derek!”, he says overly upbeat, “What’s up? How’s it going? What, uh, what are you doing here?”
There’s a ghost of a smile on Derek’s lips and Stiles could faint.
“Hey, Stiles.”
Oh, god. Derek just said Stiles’ name for the first time.
“I’m just, you know, getting coffee.”, Derek continues.
Duh, Stiles!
“Right. So, yea. That latte. Coming right up. Soy. Large. For Derek. Coolio.”
Coolio? Seriously?
Derek looks like he wants to laugh and isn’t that just great. Just as Stiles felt he was getting somewhere, he had to ruin it by being his normal, awkward self. Stiles focuses so deeply on making the latte that he completely misses the fact that Derek is talking to him.
“I’m sorry, what?”, Stiles asks.
“I said, I really like a good rainy day.”
“Oh, yea, totally. Especially when I’m home and binging a ton of movies.”
“Like Twilight?”
Stiles’ gaze shoots to Derek and sees that Derek has a playful smile on his face. It’s pretty much the best thing Stiles has ever seen, he decides and huffs out a laugh.
“Yea, like Twilight.”
And Derek smiles brightly at that. Okay, so this is the best thing Stiles has ever seen and he wants to die.
“Here’s your latte.”, Stiles says, handing the drink to Derek, trying to keep anything too embarrassing from coming out of his mouth.
“Thanks.”, Derek says, but doesn’t move.
“Um, anything else?”, Stiles asks, confused.
“Yea...what time are you off?”
Wait. What.
“What?”
“I was just wondering if you’d like to watch a movie or something with me? After your shift.”
Stiles smiles big and bright.
“Derek, are you asking me if I’ll watch Twilight with you?”
Derek rolls his eyes, but the smile he has stays on his face.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but yes. Yes, I am.”
~
Well, well, well. Stiles’ scheming paid off after all. Take that, Scott!!!