Work Text:
It's a normal Saturday. Stiles is on his way to the station to give his dad some coffee to help him through a double shift. When he steps out of the house though, he quickly realises that it's way colder than he thought and his favourite red hoodie is missing. He quickly goes back to his room, through the living room and kitchen. No hoodie. Not even in his car. That leaves one place: Derek's loft.
So, this is how we find Stiles at this unfathomable hour, on his way to the loft to get his hoodie so he can save his dad.
It's early. All of the betas that live with Derek are still sound asleep and so should Stiles be in this cold. He shivers from the cold as he turns in at the loft.
Stiles quickly lets himself in with a key he once made illegally and what he saw in front of him changed his life forever. Okay, that's a bit dramatic but it was pretty life changing.
In front of Stiles is a very grumpy looking Alpha werewolf busy sketching with ink. He's clearly been at it a while since there are multiple sketches of the most beautiful flowers all in black India ink.
"What do you want," Derek more states than asks with the most uninterested tone in existence.
"I… I think I forgot my hoodie here on pack night. You know… the red one…" Stiles trails off as he stares at the sketches.
"DEREK! These are beautiful! Did you make them? Of course you did. Wow! Since when can you draw? Wait, since when do you draw?" Stiles rambles curiously.
"I've always drawn, Stiles," Derek states, but clearly looks more uncomfortable by the minute.
"Why don't we know about it?" Stiles asks sadly.
"It's just something I do for myself," Derek says uncomfortably.
"But the whole world should see it!" Stiles exclaims, "It's beautiful! Why don't you share it?"
"I don't know, I haven't really thought about it," Derek replies.
"Would you ever sell it? Or do exhibitions at a gallery? Maybe share it on social media?" Stiles rambles on a bit too excited.
"I have sold a few in the past, haven't considered a gallery and definitely not social media," Derek says, sounding a little bit more interested in the conversation at hand.
"What if I make you an art account? Say, on Instagram and maybe even YouTube and Tiktok if you would consider recording a time-lapse of your art," Stiles asks.
"NO Stiles, no videos and no time-lapses," Derek states, sounding almost angry.
"But… yes to photos and Instagram?" Stiles pushes.
"No… Maybe to photos and Instagram," Derek sighs defeated.
Derek's never told anyone, but maybe it won't be too bad to share his art. Maybe some other lonely soul could benefit from or enjoy his black and white botanical sketches. Maybe someone can feel inspired looking at his creations. But that means social media, and if there's one thing that Derek despises more than anything, it's sharing one's whole life on social media.
But here is Stiles. No one in the pack even knows about his hobby. No one knows about the secret thoughts he has about his art and how he sometimes just wants to throw it off a rooftop so more people could see it. Here is young Stiles. Stiles that knows social media better than he knows himself and could probably make this work. He could and probably would, help Derek if he just asked. Maybe this isn't such a bad idea.
"Hey! Sourwolf! Lost you there for a minute. So, what do you say? Art account?" Stiles inquires hopefully.
"Fine, but I get the final say on how it looks and what to post and what not. And definitely nothing personal or identifiable," Derek states matter-of-factly.
"Deal!" Stiles practically screams, just to be hushed by Derek.
"And the pack can't know," Derek adds quickly.
"What! Why not?" Stiles whisper-screams.
"What can't the pack know?" Asks a very sleepy looking Erica.
Derek looks panicked. Stiles, ever so good at lying to werewolves, quickly jumps in, "That I forgot my hoodie here again. It's why I'm here at this lovely hour. I know I'm forgetful, but please don't tell."
"Whatever," is all Erica manages while drinking some water and going straight back to bed.
When she's gone, Stiles tries again.
"Why can't the pack know? You know they'll be supportive. We need them to share your stuff and help it get seen," he says more quietly.
"No. At least not yet." Derek adds quickly.
"Okay fine, but you should tell them. They'll be thrilled. I'm going to grab my hoodie and leave. Message me when the pack isn't here so we can do a little photoshoot for your sketches to upload. I'll handle the social media part, you just keep creating, okay?" Stiles looks like he's going to vibrate out of his skin.
"Yes. Thank you," Derek says monotonously.
After Stiles leaves, Derek sits down next to his art. He should pack it all up and move it to his room before the pack wakes up. Was this the right thing to say yes to stiles? Maybe this is his chance. He can always shut it down if it's not working for him… he starts packing up his art and moving it up.
At the station Stiles is scribbling in a notebook possible Instagram handles. Something that fits Derek but still has some relation to art, so people know what to expect. Maybe something about ink… or black and white… maybe something about the woods or forest. Wolves? No, too much.
How about forestink? No, that literally has the word STINK in it. Inkforest? Maybe, but maybe it needs the word “art” to make it more obvious and less tattoo-like. Inkforestart? Inkwoods.art?
Stiles sends both possible usernames to Derek to hear his thoughts. He gets a simple response, “Second one.”
Okay, Inkwoods.art it is. Stiles quickly creates an account and starts filling out the bio. He’ll use one of Derek’s sketches as the profile picture. He just finished setting up the account when his phone dings.
“Pack’s gone, come over.”
On his way over, Stiles stops by his house to pick up his battery powered ring light, just in case. When he arrives, he finds an anxious looking Derek.
“Hey, ready to do this?” Stiles questions carefully.
“Let’s get this over with,” Derek states simply.
They start inside. Posing the sketches to get maximum natural light. They also try a few different styles. One, where it’s simply the sketches with a white background and one where they add some of Derek’s art materials in the photo. But nothing fits. It all looks too stiff.
“How about we go take some photos outside in the woods? It’s where you get your inspiration from after all, right?” Stiles asks after what felt like the millionth attempt.
So, they grab all the sketches, some inking supplies, the ring light and a white sheet for a possible background and they go outside.
In the woods they find a nice looking stump with a whole bunch of moss growing on it and pose the sketches one by one. This is it! It looks nice and natural and very much like Derek. Plus, it’s in Derek’s back yard and he can take some more photos himself later if he ever wants.
After the sketches’ photoshoot, Stiles tells Derek to go sit at his table with different sketches in front of him with a pen or pencil or paint brush in his hand, pretending to make the art. This is for Instagram stories. Derek reluctantly agrees to that and Stiles takes as many different looking photos as possible.
When they’re done, Stiles sits on the couch and starts to lightly edit the whole bunch of photos. Nothing much, just a little more light and contrast and a little bit more shadows. When he’s finished he shows the final products to Derek to get his approval. Derek’s face seems to light up while looking at the screen.
“Okay, so I’ll handle posting these and you just keep on making art. If you ever feel like taking photos of your art or your hands making art or even the forest, you can do that and send it to me or upload it on the stories feature of the app, okay?” Stiles asks.
“Okay, but I doubt that I will.”
Stiles posts the first sketch that day with a story and an inspirational quote. Derek logged in on his own phone so he can check the progress and if he likes the way it looks. He actually really likes the way Stiles edited the art. It looks nice and he feels like he could really share it with the world. He writes a short quote about art and his mission of sharing it and sends it to Stiles to update his bio and for a caption for the next day’s photo. When he refreshes the page to look at the updated bio, he’s surprised to find that he now has two followers: Stiles, of course, and some stranger.
The week passed with Derek making art and sending captions to Stiles for his daily uploads. Soon, Derek starts taking photos in the woods and uploading stories from that. After that week, Stiles shows up to photograph the next batch of artwork. He even shows Derek how to upload a real Instagram post.
During this week Derek anxiously awaits a package. He knows that he told Stiles “No Video” but he just bought a tripod for his phone. He told himself it’s to take photos of his hands while sketching for stories, but he’s been reading up on time-lapses. When his package arrives, he quickly goes up to his room and locks the door since he can hear Boyd and Isaac chatting downstairs.
He sets up his new tripod and phone over his art station and hits “record time-lapse”. At first, he suddenly has no idea how to draw. Then, he realises that it’s still exactly the same and he really gets into the groove of things. After he finishes, he sends the time-lapse to a very surprised but pleased Stiles and takes a few photos of his hand “making” the work of art.
A month passes in much the same way, except Derek now posts some of his own posts and stories and Stiles posts all his Instagram reels for him. Derek now has 19 followers, including Stiles, when it happens:
@queencatwoman likes your post.
@queencatwoman started following you.
Derek immediately calls Stiles and Derek NEVER calls.
“Hey, what's up?” Stiles greets.
“It’s Erica! She liked my sketch and started following me,” Derek says panicked.
“Okay, calm down. She probably saw that I followed you and checked you out. She probably has no idea it’s you,” Stiles tries to reassure him.
“Are you sure?”
“No, but it’s possible. Anyway Derek, don’t you think it’s time to tell the pack?”
“Not yet.”
“Okay, but chill, okay? Lots of people follow lots of others without knowing them. It’ll be fine,” Stiles reassures him one last time before hanging up.
A week after The Incident, Derek sees a DM from Instagram.
From @queencatwoman
“Nice art, love the nature vibe!”
Before he could have another freak-out session he replies with a simple: “Thanks.”
Derek checks his account just before the next pack meeting starts: 53 followers. He’s started posting more and more himself and relying less and less on Stiles. Don’t get him wrong, when he’s busy or too consumed in art, Stiles will definitely post for him, but he’s been getting the hang of the whole Instagram thing.
Just before the meeting starts Stiles screams “SELFIE!!!” and tries to get one with the whole pack in, which is a bit of a struggle considering they have to hide their glowing eyes. Just as he’s saying something about putting it on Instagram, Isaac says the dreaded words: “Hey guys, who’s this Inkwoods.art guy you're all following?”
Derek feels like his blood has gone ice cold. Stiles looks conflicted and Erica looks weirdly smug at Lydia.
“Derek?” Stiles asks quietly, while the others are preoccupied.
“Yes, I guess now is the time,” Derek says defeated.
“Only if you’re ready. We can always try to lie to a bunch of werewolves,” he tries to comfort.
“No, now is probably as good a time as any,” Derek says, still sounding not too happy about it.
“Okay listen up everybody, Derek needs to say something,” Stiles yells over the packs chatter.
After a minute or so of complete silence, all Derek says is: “It’s me.”
Suddenly it’s chaos.
“What’s you?”
“Wait, the Instagram account?”
“No way, you can draw?”
“Is this a prank?”
“It’s very aesthetic.”
After the initial shock wears off they all pull out their phones and log into Instagram, searching the username Isaac mentioned earlier.
“Wow!”
“This is amazing Derek!”
Ping, ping, ping, ping goes Derek’s phone with all the new followers and likes.
“You know I knew all along right?” asked Erica.
“Well… uh… no I didn’t,” says Derek quietly.
“Yes, and me,” announced Lydia.
“Doesn’t matter,” chimes Allison in, “we all love your art and will fully support you by liking and sharing it until your phone blows up with notifications.”
Later that evening, Derek quietly thanks Stiles again for helping him set everything up and giving him the courage to actually start this. He also sits outside with a cup of hot coffee and thinks that maybe his dream of reaching more people with his art isn’t as crazy as he first thought and maybe it could be possible. Especially with such a supportive pack by his side. Tonight’s sketch is uploaded with a quote and ends with the caption: “Thank you to my friends.”