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Derek was startled from his sleep. Stiles thrashed violently, quiet whines escaping him.
“Stiles? Baby? Hey. Shh. You’re alright.” Derek whispered, turning to gently run his hand through Stiles’ hair.
Stiles thrashed again. He screamed. Then he shot up, his hand grabbed Derek’s wrist. He panted heavily and his knuckles turned white around Derek’s wrist.
Derek slowly sat up. He patiently waited for Stiles to calm himself. As he felt Stiles’ grip loosen, Derek slid his hand away to hold Stiles’.
Stiles finally looked at Derek.
“Sorry.”
Derek smiled and caressed Stiles’ face with his other hand.
“Don’t apologize.”
Derek slowly leaned back. Stiles followed right behind and laid his head on Derek’s chest.
“You want to talk about it?” Derek whispered gently after a while.
Stiles shook his head against Derek’s chest.
“Okay.”
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As if he could smell the fear and weariness coming off of Stiles, Shadow followed him around the loft. Derek watched, amused, as the puppy hopped behind Stiles as he went to get another cup of coffee. Stiles looked down at the puppy and glared a little.
“Well, I guess Shadow was a good name for you. You act like my little shadow. You are definitely learning from Derek.”
The puppy happily yipped, laying down on Stiles’ feet as he waited for the coffee to finish brewing.
“Well, he is our child, he has to learn how to protect you when I can’t.”
Derek smiled as Stiles stuck his tongue out at him. He looked back down at the paperwork that he was working on. He had gone into business with Chris Argent, selling legal arms to legit companies. He had learned well from his uncle and could decipher a lot more than Chris.
“I hate when you’re right. Come on, Shadow, we are going to cuddle with the big bad Alpha,” Stiles said, coming back over to the couch.
“I can hear you, you know, even when you whisper to the puppy,” Derek said, letting Stiles curl back up against him.
“Uh-huh, I’m aware.”
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"Is this real?"
Derek practically jumped out of his skin. He'd been sitting on the sofa in the living room, staring out the windows at the stars and trying to ward off the nightmares. They always got worse around the anniversary of the fire. He hadn't even heard Stiles walk into the room.
"What?" he asked, looking over to see his boyfriend standing there in his pajamas, face drawn and ashen.
"Is this real?" he repeated.
"Is what real?" Derek asked, looking around to see what he was talking about, unease creeping up his spine. Well, even more unease than he'd already been feeling from the nightmares.
"This," the other boy whispered, sounding terrified, as he gestured vaguely at everything.
And that Derek could understand, he knew what it was like to wake up and not be sure what was real and what wasn't. Stiles often woke up and questioned if anything was real, a side effect of the Nogitsune.
"Yeah," he said softly. "Yeah, this is real."
"Are you sure?"
Derek stood and walked over to the yard. Lifting Shadow from where he was laying on his bed, he cradled him to his chest and made his way over to Stiles. When he got there, he rested the puppy in Stiles’ arms.
“Can you feel his fur?” He whispered.
Stiles nodded, gently petting the puppy.
“He’s soft,” Stiles whispered.
“He is. He’s real,” Derek reached over and cupped Stiles’ face, “can you feel me touching you?”
“Yeah. I feel safe.”
Derek smiled and pressed a kiss to his forehead.
“Come on, baby. We will take Shadow and go back to bed, how does that sound?”
Stiles nodded and leaned into Derek's side.
As they settled into bed, Stiles curled up against Derek's side with Shadow still against his chest. Derek buried his nose in the side of Stiles' neck, making the other boy laugh a little. He could still smell the fear and uncertainty coming off of him, but he could also smell the calm that was starting to seep through him.
“I love you,” Stiles sighed out, pressing back against him.
Derek wrapped an arm around his waist and dropped a kiss to his neck.
“I love you too,” Derek replied, burying his nose back into his throat.