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“On my honor, I will try - “ Stiles said, holding up three fingers on his right hand, his thumb holding down the pinky.
“That’s the Girl Scout oath,” Isaac interrupted, looking bored as he changed the channel on the television.
“No, it’s not,” Stiles argued, throwing a piece of paper from the table next to him at the beta’s head, feeling a sense of accomplishment when it got stuck in his curls.
“That’s the Girl Scout sign, though,” Scott said, pointing at Stiles’ other hand still in the air. “The Boy Scout one is like a peace sign.” He showed Stiles what he meant.
Stiles shook his head, dropping his hand to pick up his phone and open a Google search. He flipped Isaac off when he muttered, “There he goes,” under his breath.
“The peace sign is the Cub Scout sign, the one I was doing is the Boy Scout sign….and the Girl Scout sign.” He sighed and dropped his phone back on the table, dropping his head to the surface with a groan. “What does it matter? How did we get on this subject anyway?”
“You were trying to use the Boy Scout oath, incorrectly, for your wedding vows,” Boyd said, walking into the room with a bowl of popcorn in one hand and a stack of DVDs balanced in the other.
“Incorrectly?” Stiles squeaked, hurrying to grab his phone. “On my honor, I will try-”
“On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To, keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight,” Boyd rattled off as he set down the popcorn and handed the DVDs to Isaac; it was his turn to choose the movie.
“You were a scout?” Isaac asked. He stared at Boyd for a moment before nodding. “That makes sense.”
“Have you picked a movie yet?” Scott asked, moving to sit next to Boyd and grabbing a handful of popcorn.
“There’s too many in here,” he complained, finally picking up Love Me if You Dare.
“I’m not reading subtitles all night,” Scott complained.
“Then learn French,” Isaac said, putting the DVD into the player with finality.
Stiles huffed and stared down at the piece of paper in front of him, muttering, “On my honor-”
“Maybe you should try to start with something that isn’t part of an organizational oath,” Boyd said, rising to his feet and taking a seat across from Stiles at the table. “Why are you so focused on the word ‘honor’ anyway?”
“It just sounds like something you’d hear in a vow,” Stiles said, rubbing a hand over his face.
“It’s in the church vows, isn’t it? Love, honor and obey?” Scott called from the couch, shoving Isaac when he shushed him because the movie had begun.
Boyd chuckled dryly. “We already know you aren’t going to obey Derek; that’s part of why he loves you,” he said, grinning when Stiles squeaked in protest. “Maybe focus on the love part?”
Stiles dropped his head back to the table. “Derek already knows I love him. I want him to know how seriously I’m taking this whole thing.”
“Dude, you’ve been werewolf-married since junior year of college,” Scott said, leaving the couch when Isaac threatened to smother him with a pillow if he didn’t stop talking over the movie. “This isn’t even supposed to be a movie night. We’re supposed to be helping Stiles with his vows.” Isaac waved him off and turned up the volume on the television. “Why are you writing your vows anyway?”
“Derek’s parents did it, and I thought it would be a nice way to honor them by keeping the tradition alive,” Stiles said. “I know how hard it is for Derek not to have them here for this, even if he’s only doing it to appease my father, who’s said multiple times that he doesn’t care.”
“He was lying,” Boyd, Scott, and Isaac said in unison, the three of them having heard the story from Derek enough times to know the Sheriff had only been saying what he thought his son wanted to hear.
“Derek didn’t want to tell you that he was lying, but he was lying,” Scott continued. “Your father wants to see you get married. I overheard him talking to my mom about how he and your mother used to imagine your wedding.”
“I’m sure the person I’m marrying doesn’t fit into their plans,” Stiles said, smiling sadly as he tried to picture his mom sitting in the seats to watch him and Derek wed.
“Your mom and dad took bets on who you’d marry. Your mom said you’d marry a man,” Scott said, smiling when Stiles’ eyes welled up at tears at the early acceptance of his sexuality. Scott continued before Stiles could get too overwhelmed. “Your dad said you’d marry a mythical creature.”
“So, they both won?” Stiles asked. “Where would my dad get that idea? He didn’t even know about werewolves until high school.”
“You wanted to marry the tooth fairy when we were five, dude.” Boyd and Isaac stifled their laughter but lost the battle when Stiles flipped them all off.
“Derek’s way hotter than the tooth fairy,” Stiles mumbled, running his pencil over the blank sheet of paper in front of him.
“Do not use that in your vows,” Boyd said, grinning when Stiles threw down the pencil and pushed away from the table.
Stiles left the room, climbing the stairs to the bedroom he and Derek shared. He crossed to the windows and stared out over the city, wondering where Derek had ended up that night. Stiles hadn’t planned to ask for help with his vows; he’d thought it would be easy. Instead, he’d been staring at a blank page when Scott had shown up and called Isaac. He wasn’t sure how Boyd ended up there but suspected that Derek had something to do with it.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out, smiling at his father’s face. “Hey, Dad,” he answered, moving to sit cross-legged on the bed, still looking out the window.
“How is it going with the vows?”
“Did Scott put up a billboard?” Stiles asked, rolling his eyes when Scott shouted a protest from below.
“Actually, Derek just left here,” he said. “We had dinner, and he told me what you were doing. I sent something with him that might help.”
“What?”
“You’ll have to wait and see,” he said, hanging up before Stiles could even begin to beg for a hint.
Hanging up the phone, Stiles fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. He heard the loft door sliding open and figured either someone was leaving or Derek had arrived home. He heard talking and then footsteps drowned out by the sound of Isaac protesting that the movie wasn’t over yet.
When the door closed again, he heard Derek climbing the stairs. He knew it was him because Derek had banned the others from the bedroom. None of them complained, though, since they said it always smelled like sex, making them uncomfortable because “No one wants to think about mom and dad having sex.”
Stiles watched him as he reached the top of the stairs. In one hand, he held a carry-out bag that smelled like the Thai place they both liked, and the other was a reusable shopping bag he recognized from his dad’s house. He also had his laptop tucked underneath one arm. “You hiding anything to drink anywhere?”
Derek raised one eyebrow and jerked his chin toward the fridge they’d put in the bedroom shortly after a very active full moon night when neither of them wanted to get out of bed to get something to drink. “You did restock it, didn’t you?”
Stiles snorted and then had to think if he actually had done as Derek had asked that morning or if he’d just thought about it. Crossing his fingers, he rolled to his stomach and reached for the door, relieved when he opened it to reveal a few bottles of soda and water. He grabbed a soda for him and water for Derek, settling on the bed while Derek set down the food and his laptop.
“What’s in the bag?” Stiles asked, handing over Derek’s water.
“Pad Thai,” Derek responded, chuckling when Stiles elbowed him. “It’s from your dad.” He handed the bag to Stiles and began to set out the food, pulling two pairs of chopsticks out of his back pocket and setting them closer to Stiles.
Stiles opened the bag and discovered a photo album, a notebook, and a flash drive. “Well, that explains the laptop,” he told Derek.
“Or I just thought we could watch movies or television shows with weddings so you could steal vows from them,” Derek teased, finally managing to settle onto the bed and pulling his food into his lap, poking at it with the chopsticks while Stiles ran his hands over everything from the bag.
“I, Ross, take you, Rachel….”
“Yeah, I think we can skip those,” Derek said, taking a big bite of his food and gesturing towards the album with a raised eyebrow.
Opening the album, Stiles let out a soft gasp as his eyes filled with tears. The first page was a wedding announcement from the Beacon Hills Gazette about his parents’ engagement. Turning the page of the album, he found photos from their wedding. It had been a small gathering with mostly family. Stiles didn’t recognize most of the people, but he only had eyes for his parents.
His mother’s smile was bright and beautiful in every shot. He stopped on a photo of his parents stood in front of the altar. Their foreheads were pressed together, tears visible in both of their eyes. Stiles wiped at his face. He didn’t know what had prompted the moment, but it was beautiful, and he knew it was something that needed to be in his and Derek’s ceremony.
He couldn’t bear to turn the page; his heart locked on the image. His mother’s voice startled him from his thoughts. Blinking back his tears, he turned to find the source. The computer screen showed a video of the wedding playing. He glanced at Derek who was watching him instead of the screen. Pulling the computer over into his lap, he turned up the volume a tiny bit since the sound wasn’t the best. His father had obviously had video footage converted to digital but not remastered.
“Before we get to the ‘I do’s,’ the bride and groom have asked to share a moment of silence with all of you. This moment is to honor those family and friends unable to join us today. John and Claudia wish to thank them for how they have molded and shaped them into the people they are today,” the pastor announced, and Stiles watched as his parents pressed their foreheads together. He even saw the camera flash taking the photo he’d been admiring in the album.
Stiles choked out a sob. Derek gathered him into his arms and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. When Stiles managed to bring himself back under control, he looked up to see silent tears covering Derek’s cheeks. “We have to do that,” he whispered. “I don’t care what else happens in the ceremony; we have to do that.”
Derek nodded in agreement, swallowing loudly enough for Stiles to hear. “I think that would be perfect,” he whispered before leaning to brush their lips together. “They would have loved you, you know?”
“I don’t, but thank you,” Stiles told him. “I know my mom would’ve loved you.”
Derek chuckled and took out the notebook from the bag and opened it to the middle before handing it to Stiles. “It looks like your mother was planning our wedding.”
“How? I didn’t even know you back then,” Stiles sputtered as he opened the notebook and swallowed, seeing his mother’s familiar handwriting. It was just the slightest bit unsteady, which meant she’d written it when her health first started deteriorating.
Melissa took me to see a psychic. We both laughed at the idea, but the idea of finding out about the future I won’t be a part of intrigued me. I began to suspect the woman wasn’t a fraud when she immediately took my hand and expressed sympathy for the shortness of my life. She couldn’t tell me more than that, but she did share a few things that I don’t want to forget.
My son will find happiness after a lot of strife with a lost soul alone in the world. He would marry a man with dark hair and magic eyes. I laughed at that, but she just smiled at me in a way that told me she was holding something back. “Your son will never forget you and will include you in everything that he does in his life.” That thought made me sad because I want my son to get on with his life, but I smiled at never being forgotten.
I wanted to help in any way that I could, so I had ideas for things for Mieczyslaw and the events in his life. I’m not sure how many I will be able to put down before my mind doesn’t allow me to anymore, but I’ll do my best.
Stiles had to put the book down. The words blurred, and he couldn’t make them out anymore. He couldn’t stop the tears long enough to read what was in the rest of the book. Derek took the book and laid it to the side. He removed everything from the bed, setting it on the floor next to the bed, and then pulled Stiles to lie down. Pulling him against his chest, Derek wrapped around him and let him cry, soothing him with words and gentle touches.
Stiles had no idea how much time had passed before he could bring himself under control, but when he pulled back, he could see that Derek had started to doze off. Watching Derek’s eyelids flutter, Stiles’ heart filled with so much love. At that moment, he knew what his vows would be, even if they would be short.
“Derek Hale, I vow to love you and honor you as our families loved and honored us for as long as I live,” he whispered before pressing a kiss to Derek’s chest and snuggling closer to get some rest.