Chapter Text
The first night Stiles is gone is... fine.
Derek goes through his normal routine; he makes himself dinner, eats with the television on low, trying not to let the silence filling the house settle like weights in his bones. When he can’t make himself stay awake any longer, he checks that the doggy door is unlocked so Bean can relieve himself during the night, and makes his way up the stairs to his bedroom.
He takes a shower, brushes his teeth, and then tucks himself into bed with a soft sigh. There are a few moments where he stares at the ceiling before he admits to himself what he’s doing; he’s listening for a heartbeat that isn’t there anymore.
With a groan, Derek rubs his hands over his face and pushes himself out of the bed, wandering down the stairs with only half his mind on where his feet are going, dimly aware of the clicking of toenails following him.
Opening the back door of the house and taking a quick moment to make sure there’s no one around, Derek falls into his full shift and gives Bean a sniff or two, the puppy surprisingly okay with the enormous wolf in his space.
A nip to the ear when the pup gets too rowdy has Derek’s grumbling out the wolf-like equivalent of ‘Stay’, something Bean does not want to follow, whines and little skip-hops telling Derek he wants to play with this new aspect of his owner. Another, firmer growl has Bean flopping back into his doggy bed, a disgruntled whimper-snort telling Derek he is not happy about it.
Derek gives Bean one last nuzzle before slipping out of the house, making sure the pup is covered in his scent while he’s gone. Once that’s done he exits the house and takes a few bounding strides past the treeline to enter the surrounding forest.
It’s easier like this, as the wolf; the feelings are still there, but they’re muted and simpler to look at with a critical eye. Derek knows he’s being ridiculous, that Stiles was only here for a few months and he shouldn’t be feeling the Pack-bond pull so strongly, but he also knows this has been simmering under the surface for longer than Stiles showing up at his house.
It takes him a few moments to realize he’s run the entire length of the forest and he’s now standing at the edge of the road leading out of Slate, leading towards Beacon Hills...
A low whine leaves Derek’s throat as he pads over to the cement path, nose almost pressed against it as he desperately tries to catch a scent of Stiles’ Jeep.
It’s kind of hopeless; while Slate wasn’t the most traveled town, it had its fair share of traffic and Stiles had already been gone for hours. Still, it soothes something in his chest to check and realize Stiles left no scent markers for someone malicious to track him by.
With one last huff at the road, his own scent marker to warn supernaturals that Slate was protected and under his territory, Derek makes his way back to the house and revels in the stretch of his muscles.
The run helps clear his head, and makes him realize he’s being paranoid and overdramatic. Stiles has only been gone for a few hours and Derek was already acting like a pup with his first crush. He’s a little glad Stiles wasn’t here to see him like this, because he’s pretty sure there would be almost endless teasing before Derek found something to distract Stiles with.
A flush covers his face when he makes it back to the house, shifting back to human and pouring himself a drink of water as he imagines a few ways to distract Stiles now that they’ve started... whatever it was they started. Derek isn’t sure if he’s ready to go that far yet, but it’s nice to think about, knowing there isn’t any pressure to follow through with it.
His phone is lit up when he makes it back to his bedroom with a few missed texts, the last one only a few minutes ago, all of them from Stiles. Shaking his head again, Derek huffs out a breath at how ridiculous he was being as he reads through the messages.
Made it to a hotel.
Not *completely* sketchy, but I’m not going to look too closely at the corners and am glad I don’t have a wolf nose.
I keep listening for Bean.
I miss that doggy.
Send me a picture when you get this??
Sorry, you must be sleeping.
Ignore the last few messages!
I’ll talk to you in the morning.
Derek rubs his thumb over the ‘I miss’ in Stiles’ message, wondering if he should tell Stiles how he’s feeling with him gone, or if that might be too much, too soon. It already sounds like Stiles is having a hard time sleeping, he doesn’t need to be worrying about Derek on top of that.
So, instead, he sends Stiles the asked for picture of Bean, the pup raising his head questioningly when he hears the click of the camera app. Hesitating for a split second, Derek adds an offer to talk if Stiles needs to, promising that Stiles isn’t keeping Derek awake if he follows through.
There is enough time for Derek to get back into bed before his phone rings, a picture of Stiles reading to Susan that Derek isn’t even sure Stiles knows he took lighting up Derek’s phone.
Taking a deep breath, Derek accepts the call.
“Hello?”
There’s just breathing on the other end and a too-fast heartbeat that Derek is slowly becoming sure that he could pull out of a crowd, before Stiles sighs out a, “Hi.”
Silence reigns for a few more seconds before Derek tries again. “How bad is the hotel you’re staying at?”
A shift of fabrics rubbing against each other, most likely Stiles getting comfortable on the bed he’s in, before, “I’m really glad that I’m planning on taking a shower as soon as I get up, because this is just... I meant it when I said that I was glad that I didn’t have your nose.”
“I also meant it when I said that I would fly you back.”
“And leave me stranded without a way to get around? No, thank you. Or were you planning on shipping Roscoe to Beacon Hills too?”
Derek doesn’t say what he was hoping; with both a quick way to get there and no way to run around the town that tried to kill both of them, that Stiles would be safer and would be more inclined to find an excuse to get back to Derek sooner. He doesn’t say it, but he’s pretty sure that Stiles hears it anyway, if the heavy sigh that floats down the line is a hint.
“It’s only going to be a couple of weeks, Derek. I’m making sure that I have a backup plan, a backup plan for my backup plans, and an emergency plan for those as well before we go into anything. I’ll be fine and back before you know it.”
It helps, hearing Stiles say that. Although, there is a part of him that remembers the last time that someone said that to him all too clearly. It’s part of the reason that he hasn’t been able to go to sleep, for all that Stiles has been gone for only half a day.
“I’m not running in blind, or half sure this time, Derek.”
Stiles’ voice has gone soothing, no doubt knowing what it is that is keeping Derek quiet. Derek wonders when they learned these little things about each other, whether it was something that they noticed back when they were both in Beacon Hills and just ignored, or if it was something that only happened now that they had room to just be in Slate.
Derek breathes out at that, Stiles answering him with a happy hum, and switches the conversation over to Bean. He tells him about how the puppy has been sniffing around the house and making confused wuffling sounds, leading Derek to believe that he’s looking for Stiles. Stiles whines at that and orders Derek to put the puppy on the phone so that he can say goodnight to him.
It makes Derek laugh, but he does as Stiles asks. He keeps the muttered, ‘Not fair, laughing where I can’t see.’ to himself as he puts the phone near Bean’s head, the puppy’s tail wagging happily as soon as he hears Stiles’ voice. Derek can understand where Bean is coming from, grinning at the bark Bean gives when Stiles asks who the bestest boy is.
It continues on in this way, with Stiles talking with Bean for a few more minutes, telling the pup to take care of Derek while he’s gone. Derek laughs at that, making Stiles call out that Derek isn’t part of this conversation and that eavesdropping is rude, so Derek drops the phone on the bed and tells Stiles that he’s buying him a new one if Bean chews that one to bits.
Bean does nip at the phone as it falls, obviously thinking that it’s some kind of toy, before looking at it with his head tilted in confusion. He clearly is baffled how this strange thing sounds like Stiles without having Stiles there, making Derek chuckle again as he leaves the room to check the house once more.
He’d still be able to hear Stiles if he really concentrated, but Derek also doesn’t see the harm in letting Stiles talk to Bean without him listening in. It’s probably going to be a whole list of ridiculous ‘orders’ to keep an eye on Derek or something like that, which makes Derek feel a little warm that Stiles is looking out for him, despite the fact that he’s using a puppy to give him feedback.
So, instead, he heads to the kitchen to get a drink of water, chuckling at the sound of Bean barking at whatever Stiles says, sounding like he’s agreeing with the orders that he’s being given.