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Stiles stood in the middle of the library, hands on his hips as he stared at the far wall. He’d spent the last several hours directing Derek to move bookshelves to free up the space. Then he’d climbed up a ladder, working with a level to hang twelve clocks along the wall. He’d argued with Derek about the pros and cons of using digital as opposed to analog while walking up and down the aisles at the local home goods store. Derek had been a big fan of aesthetics, but Stiles pushed for digital stating they had the date on the display.
They’d come to an agreement when Derek found some simple analog clocks in walnut frames that had a day and date display on the face beneath the dial. Stiles had to admit, they looked good. The wood matched the shelves perfectly and Stiles told Derek as much, enjoying the pleased smile it brought to Derek’s face. It had taken a while for them to decide which time zones the clocks would represent but finally decided to go every other time zone around the world, just be thorough. Also, it would mean they were only off by an hour or two at most.
They hung two world maps below the clocks with a long wall shelf running along the length of the wall beneath them. On the shelf, Stiles set up thirteen small granite bowls filled with a different color of push pin in each one. Twelve of the bowls had the name of one of the gods and goddesses on them. The Last one had been another argument that Stiles had won; it simply said “Et. Al” and was filled with clear push pins.
Once they were both satisfied with the setup, the hardest work began. Stiles set his computer on one of the library tables that Derek had pulled closer so they could reference it without moving back and forth too far. “We should probably start with Zeus,” he said.
“Wouldn’t alphabetical be easier?” Derek suggested. He pointed to the bowls that were arranged alphabetically.
“You’re right, so...Aphrodite,” he said, picking up a handful of pink push pins.
Derek sat down at the table with a stack of sticky flags and a pen. “Alina in Beacon Hills,” Derek read off as he wrote. “You know, they all hit Beacon Hills a lot lately. Maybe that should be a clear one.”
“That’s going to be a lot of flags, too,” Stiles commented.
Derek looked at the wall, eyes narrowed as he tilted his head to the side. “We only know of a couple of places that more than one or two of the gods like to visit. Beacon Hills, Greece, and Orlando. Not sure what it is about Florida,” he muttered.
“Disney World,” Stiles said off-handedly.
“Anyway…” Derek continued with a fond eye roll. ”We could create charts for those locations and keep them on a clipboard hung next to the map."
Stiles nodded. “That’s a good idea. We could actually do that for each of the locations. Create a database and keep a computer nearby. That way we just have pins and not a whole bunch of papers.”
Derek nodded and began making notes on the laptop in front of him. Most likely, Stiles and Danny would create the database, but he could at least make notes. Perhaps just start with a list of all the locations and which color pushpin belonged there. Stiles seemed to pick up on what he was doing and began moving around the map, consulting the mess of notes he’d made over the past several months, and pushing in pins.
By the time Stiles’ stomach growled, indicating it was time for dinner, they’d made their way through the notes in Stiles’ books. Derek stood to head to the kitchen. He remembered Boyd and Erica mentioning they’d be home that night for dinner and he wanted to be sure there was something for them to eat. He stopped when he realized that Stiles wasn’t following him. “What’s wrong?”
Stiles was staring at the notes for Beacon Hills. “I didn’t notice it at first, but when Aphrodite and Hephaestus came to fight against the Titans. We didn’t find them here in Beacon Hills.”
Derek thought back to the gathering of the gods and remembered Aphrodite and Hephaestus showing up last, the two of them arriving on a motorcycle. His jacket as he stood beside them in Hank’s body had the name of a bike club from San Diego on the back. Aphrodite, as Alexis, had the same logo on the front of her too-tight tank top. He couldn’t understand the significance of the observation, though.
“Why would every god and goddess possess someone in Beacon Hills, except those two?” Stiles questioned and Derek paused his steps and turned to look back at him over his shoulder. “Wouldn’t it have been easier for them to possess their chosen bodies here?”
Derek’s head started to hurt as he tried to follow what Stiles was saying. “We could just ask them, I suppose. If we can find them. You could start with Hank and Alexis, they seemed to be favorites of theirs.”
Stiles nodded and turned back to the board, frowning and letting out a deep sigh. “I know we’ve got this organized, but I still feel like we still don’t even know where to begin if we really did want to find one of them.”
“Start at Beacon Hills and move out,” Derek suggested as he finally left the room and headed down to the kitchen.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he heard voices coming from the living room. Following them, he found Erica and Boyd curled up together on the couch. They had their heads close together as they spoke but Derek could tell they were talking about the project he and Stiles had been working on upstairs.
He ran a hand over their shoulders as he passed to enter the kitchen. He pulled out the steaks that had been marinating since that morning. Turning to set them on the island, he smiled at Erica leaning in the doorway. Her lips were twisted into a smirk and he quirked an eyebrow in curiosity about what was on her mind.
He continued to make dinner, the silence stretching between them. He had put the steaks on the stovetop grill and the fries into the air fryer before turning his attention back to her. She’d moved to sit on one of the bar stools. Her elbow rested on the counter, chin in hand and the same smirk on her lips.
“Was there something you wanted?” he asked, taking dishes and glasses out of the cabinets.
“Just waiting,” she responded, the hand not holding up her head running over the surface of the island in seemingly random patterns.
“For?”
Stiles shouted upstairs and then there was scrambling. Derek heard Boyd chuckling as there was a crash on the stairway. Hurrying out of the kitchen, he found Stiles sitting on his butt at the bottom of the stairs, his face a mix of pain and anger.
“What happened?” Derek asked, watching Boyd slowly descending the stairs, a twist of a smile on his face. He really spent too much time with Erica.
“Those tricky bastards!” Stiles shouted, slapping his hands down on the floor before holding them both to his chest with a whimper.
“I prefer Goddess,” Erica said from behind Derek.
“Of course you do,” Boyd said, still smirking as he moved around Stiles to join her.
Derek looked between Stiles and the couple who rubbed their noses together in a disgustingly cute, and unlike them, display of affection. Moving to help Stiles to his feet, he watched Erica and Boyd interacting. His mind started to spin and he wondered if this was what it was like inside of Stiles’ head when he was on one of his mental spirals.
“That’s why we got Hank and Alexis because we needed Erica and Boyd as well as Hephaestus and Aphrodite,” Derek said slowly, choosing his words carefully as the idea was still a bit unformed in his mind.
Stiles glared at Erica and Boyd. “I can’t believe you didn’t just tell us,” he muttered.
“It makes a kind of sense,” Derek admitted. “I’m actually a bit embarrassed we didn’t figure it out sooner.”
“You? You’re embarrassed?!” Stiles shouted, waving his hands around and Derek just barely missed getting nailed in the face. “I’m supposed to be the brains of the operation!”
“Athena is the brains of the operation,” Erica pointed out, smiling.
“So, why didn’t she possess me?” Stiles shouted.
“Who says she didn’t?” Erica smirked and Stiles froze.
Derek could see when Aphrodite left Erica because there was a moment of blankness in her eyes, but then Erica didn’t miss a beat leaving the room. Stiles seemed to have missed the change because he chased after her, demanding answers while Boyd and Derek shook their heads, fondness for their mates filling the both of them.
“Aphrodite was kidding right?” Derek asked, hoping that Hephaestus was still present.
Boyd grinned. “I don’t know, Apollo, you tell me.” The blankness washed over Boyd and Derek knew he wouldn’t be getting any answers, so he entered the kitchen to get Stiles to calm down and finish cooking before the steaks were completely ruined.