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Derek sat in the small office on the third floor of the Hale House. No one in the Pack bothered him when he came in here and closed the door. This was the place where he did those things no one else in the Pack wanted to handle. Pushing his glasses up on his nose, hating that his eyes were growing strained the longer he sat in here shuffling papers. The only saving grace was that his vision would go back to normal within an hour of putting the papers away.
He glanced at the checkbook balance and knew there was enough money for all of the bills, but the number at the bottom of the electric bill was higher than he’d budgeted. Running a hand through his hair, he looked down at his desk that held a solar-powered calculator and a small desk lamp that was currently off because the setting sun shone through the west-facing windows.
Pushing himself up to stand, he decided that he needed coffee to get through the rest of the bills. He opened the door to the hallway, hearing music coming from down the hall where Erica and Boyd’s bedroom door stood open. He paused outside the room—the glare of the overhead light casting the furniture in shadows. The stereo played to no audience. Sighing, he reached around the corner and flipped off the light before crossing the room and turning off the stereo.
He waited to see if anyone objected to the silence, but instead, he heard noise coming from the game room. Heading towards the stairs, he shut off the hall light. He reached the second floor, flipping off the hall light there and stepping into the game room. Scott, Isaac, Liam, and Mason were sitting on the couches in front of the large screen television, shouting and shoving each other as they played Super Mario Kart. Shaking his head, he left the room, knowing that if he tried to turn off the television, he’d just end up with a headache from the whining that would ensue.
He headed down the hall to the library, knowing that Stiles had mentioned spending the afternoon working on a school project. Entering the room, he didn’t see Stiles right away, but he did see a cord leading away from the outlet near the door. He followed the cord to a power strip. All six slots, including the two USB ports, were filled. Gaping, Derek looked up to see Stiles bent over his laptop while music played from his phone. He took notes on an iPad to his left while several other electronic devices that Derek didn’t recognize buzzed and hummed around him.
The longer Derek stood there, unnoticed by Stiles, the louder the buzzing in Derek’s head grew until he identified it as the electricity flowing through the room. Focusing, he could hear it everywhere around him, mixing in with the sounds of numerous radios and televisions throughout the house. Even though the house and wiring were only a few years old, he was surprised they hadn’t tripped a breaker or blown a fuse.
Instead, Derek was the one to blow a fuse. He let out a roar, and all of the living noises in the house stopped. Even Stiles’ breath paused before he looked at Derek with concern. “Alright there, big guy?”
“No,” he growled, rubbing at his ears. “Do you have any idea how much electricity you use?”
Stiles looked at all the devices surrounding him. “I don’t know, dad. A lot?”
Derek wasn’t in the mood for Stiles’ attempts at humor. Turning on his heel, he headed out of the room and down the stairs to the basement. He eyed the far wall and the breaker box. Derek knew he should probably put more thought into his actions, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. It seemed Stiles’ spontaneity had rubbed off on him more than he’d realized.
Two long strides and he stood in front of the box and pulled it open. Working quickly, he flipped every breaker to the ‘off’ position, except for the one marked ‘refrigerator’ in Stiles’ messy scrawl. He heard the shouts throughout the house and grinned.
When he turned to head back upstairs, he spotted Stiles shaking his head, a frown on his face. Derek almost turned everything back on, but then Stiles grabbed the box of battery-operated candles that they kept in case of emergencies from the shelf to the left of the stairs.
“Barbecue for dinner, I guess,” he said, and Derek grinned, following him up the stairs.
Scott and Isaac were pulling on their jackets while Liam and Mason stood in the doorway. “We’re gonna head to my house,” Scott explained. “Mom says we have power there.” Derek frowned and watched them go.
Boyd and Erica weren’t far behind, claiming they were going out for dinner, and asked Derek to let them know when the power came back on.
Lydia, Jackson, and Ethan came down the stairs next. Derek hadn’t even realized they were there, but from the frown on Jackson’s face, the loss of power probably interrupted something he deemed vital to human existence.
“Not even storming, and the power goes out. What kind of crappy wiring do you have in this place?” he snarked, ducking when both Lydia and Ethan smacked the back of his head.
Lydia stepped into Derek’s space while Ethan dragged Jackson outside. Smirking, she glanced towards the kitchen where the refrigerator had just kicked on, its hum loud enough even for her to hear. She rested a hand on his bicep. “Let us know when the power is up and running again,” she told him. “I suspect it might take a couple of days at least.”
Derek watched her go, amazed that out of everyone, the banshee was the only one that picked up on the fact that only a majority of the power had gone out. Shaking his head as the front door closed behind her, Derek figured he might as well turn the power back on now that it was just him and Stiles in the house. He turned to head into the basement, stopping when Stiles called his name.
“Where are you going?”
“Everyone’s gone,” Derek said.
“I’m still here, and I think I was the biggest drain on the electricity, so why don’t we leave it off for a little while.”
Derek shrugged and followed Stiles out to the deck on the back of the house. He stared at the candles lining the railing around the deck, their electric flames flickering in the twilight. The cushions had been pulled off all of the chairs and stacked in the middle of the deck, blankets draped over them, and Stiles sat down, making grabby hands at Derek to join him.
Derek moved to sit behind Stiles, leaning up against the cushion-less chair at the edge of the nest Stiles had built. Derek pulled him over to sit between his legs, Stiles' back pressed to Derek’s chest, and buried his face in Stiles’ neck.
Breathing deeply, the tension melted from Derek’s body. He listened to Stiles hum to himself while the sun sank lower into the sky. Derek heard the quiet rumble of thunder in the distance and wondered how long before the rain reached them. The porch had a roof to keep them dry, but if the air grew too cold, he would worry about Stiles getting cold.
The temperature dropped slowly, and Derek debated heading back inside, but Stiles snuggled closer and pulled the blankets up tighter around himself when the first raindrop hit the roof. The sound of the rain lulled Derek until he drifted off to sleep, content to be wrapped up with his mate, disconnected from the craziness of the electronic age.
A month later, Derek found himself in the office again, bills spread out. The electric bill remained high but definitely lower than the month before had been. Two days with only the refrigerator running had made a big difference. Unfortunately, Stiles told him that Derek couldn’t keep doing it every time he got tired of the world.
Another contributing factor was the amount of time that Stiles had spent away from the house. He didn’t tell Derek where he went or what he was doing, but he came home smelling like dust and exhaustion, so he didn’t push his mate to share what was happening. He trusted Stiles; he just missed him.
Sighing, Derek propped his elbows on the desk, rubbing his hands over his ears, trying to drown out the hum of electricity running through the house. He thought about leaving the house, shifting and running as far as he could into the middle of the woods, but he knew that the bills weren’t going to pay themselves. Groaning, he returned his attention to the papers in front of him.
A knock on the door startled him out of his concentration. Glancing up, he saw the door open, and Stiles poked his head around, a grin on his face. “C’mon,” he said.
“Can’t.” Derek gestured to the desk.
“Yes, you can,” Lydia said, rolling her eyes as she shoved past Stiles and entered the room. “Sign five checks and leave this to me.” She stuck a pen in Derek’s hand, then stood staring at him, her hands on her hips until he obeyed.
Stunned, he allowed himself to be pulled out of the chair and pushed from the room. Stiles stood in the hallway, two backpacks at his feet. He picked one up and handed it to Derek before shouldering the other one and heading towards the stairs. He stopped halfway down the hall and looked over his shoulder. “Coming?”
“Where are we going?” he asked, his feet already moving.
“Surprise,” was the only answer that Stiles gave, and Derek smirked at his monosyllables. Derek followed Stiles out of the back door and into the treeline. The setting sun cast long shadows, and the path was getting darker the deeper they went into the woods. Eventually, Stiles paused and turned, gesturing for Derek to turn around. He felt Stiles digging around, and then a light shone over Derek’s shoulder.
They continued to walk in silence. Derek was watching the bobbing of the flashlight Stiles carried, wondering where they were going, and just when he was about to ask, they reached a clearing. In the center stood a small cabin that Derek had wholly forgotten existed. His dad used to bring him out there for “guy’s getaways” whenever his sisters had slumber parties, but Derek hadn’t been back since the fire.
He could smell the fresh wood and saw that the roof had been reshingled. This had to be where Stiles had been disappearing to, but he couldn’t believe he’d done all this work on his own. Scenting the air, he could smell Boyd and other members of the Pack as well. Stiles headed right up to the door and pushed it open, pausing to take his phone out of his pocket. Derek watched him turn it off and drop it into a box attached to the wall next to the door. Closing the box, he engaged a padlock attached to it.
“What are you doing?” Derek asked, stepping up next to him.
“Disconnecting,” Stiles told him. “I didn’t want not to bring it because I might need to call the Pack if something happens to you and you can’t howl for them.”
He stood back and gestured for Derek to step inside the cabin. Once Stiles closed the door, Derek studied the room around him. He recognized the battery-powered candles lining the shelves on the walls and moved to turn them on. He heard Stiles drop his backpack to the ground before he stepped up and took Derek’s off his back.
Once he was free of the pack, Stiles wrapped his arms around Derek’s waist from behind and rested his chin on his shoulder. “There’s no electricity running to the cabin at all,” Stiles explained.
Derek nodded, turning around in Stiles’ arms. “There’s no hum,” he said, smiling and rubbing his nose against Stiles’.
“You can come here whenever you need to get away, and we promise to cut back on the electricity use at the house,” he told him. “While we’re gone this weekend, Boyd is in charge of replacing all of the light bulbs with energy-saving ones. He’s also putting timers on the main lights in the common rooms.”
Derek shook his head. “You’re amazing.”
Stiles grinned. “You’re the amazing one. This is the least we can do.” He pressed his lips to Derek’s gently. “Whatever will we do with all of this free time and no electronics to play with?”
Derek chuckled at the way Stiles wiggled his eyebrows. “I can think of a couple of things.”
Stiles bit into his lower lip. “Yeah?”
Derek picked Stiles up under the legs and carried him to the other end of the cabin, where a canopy hid a large bed. Battery-powered fairy lights decorated the material, giving the area a warm, romantic glow. Smiling, he climbed onto the bed, still holding Stiles, and fell against the mattress, caging him in and pressing his lips to the side of Stiles’ neck before nipping gently at it. He repeated the action when Stiles let out a small whimper.
“Oh, yeah,” Derek whispered against his neck.