Work Text:
“The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts, some figures and instructions for dancing”
Stiles met Derek during the first class of Music Theory. Rushing in late, he had no choice but to sit in the first available seat and hope that the professor wouldn’t see him. This seat happened to be next to the hottest person he had ever seen, and the flailing that hadn’t quite ceased from his sprint into the room only seemed to gain momentum.
Derek didn’t notice, too intent on taking notes, and at the time Stiles was grateful, thinking that he had successfully managed to not make a bad impression on someone so devastatingly attractive. He would later come to regret that hubris.
Stiles met Derek for the second time when he literally ran into him in one of the study rooms in the library, too focused on texting Scott and his delicious coffee to see what was in front of him. What was in front of him revealed itself to be the man from his Music Theory class, his solid frame not swayed by the impact, but his face betraying his bewilderment.
“Oh, sorry! Damn it, that cup was full!” Stiles fell to the floor, too intent on mourning the loss of his precious coffee and gathering the notes he had spilled all over the floor. Hearing a noise above him he looked up, a blush coming to the surface when he realized whom exactly he had run into and the suggestive position they were now in. Clearly his throat, he finally gathered the last of the cards and stumbled to a standing position.
“Um hi? Sorry about that, I was debating the merits of Star Wars with my best friend who is a traitor to the cause and still hasn’t seen the movies even though he loves Star Trek. Not that there is anything wrong with Star Trek, I mean live long and prosper dude, but seriously? He’s like the personification of Luke Skywalker and he doesn’t even know it,” and here, Stiles came to a stop, wishing he could just disappear from Derek’s confused scrutiny. “So I’m Stiles. We have Music Theory together?”
“Hi,” Derek responded, finally settling on amused as Stiles ran out of steam. His voice was soft, in contrast to the sharpness of his features and his apparently omnipresent leather jacket. It did things to Stiles insides that he did not want to think about in his presence. “I’m Derek. Were you going to study in here?”
“Oh right! Yeah dude, this is my usual study spot, but if it’s taken I can find another no problem,” and Stiles began to move, shuffling back in the direction of the other study rooms and the exit. He stopped when he heard a “No,” turning back to glance at Derek.
“There’s plenty of room for the both of us, we can study together,” and suddenly Stiles could feel a smile envelope his face and he followed Derek back into the room.
No one was quite sure how it happened after that, but Stiles and Derek quickly became friends, and as a result their friends came together until you couldn’t see one person without at least three or four of the others. They were an eclectic bunch, seemingly with nothing in common to drive them together, but to them it made sense. Stiles quickly found kinship with Erica’s sense of humor, Derek appreciated Lydia’s quick wit, and Scott fell into an epic bromance with Isaac, leading some to question if it might turning romantic soon. With them came Boyd, Derek’s best friend from high school and Erica’s boyfriend, Jackson, who brought Danny into the mix, and Allison.
Through it all, they stuck together, attending parties as a group, meeting for lunch and dinner almost everyday, and finally sharing several apartments in their last two years of college. Stiles and Derek grew closer and closer, until one day they looked at the other and both seemed to realize that they had fallen in love without notice.
As they both were studying music, they often composed together, and with time their compositions began to reflect the nature of their relationship. The first time they fought stemmed from a misunderstanding, leaving both parties huffing at the other and trying not to appear stung by the barbs.
“So why don’t you leave Stiles, if that’s what you really want? I see the way you look at him!” Derek burst out, his normally quiet nature undone when he saw Stiles sitting close to his ex-boyfriend. The sight would not usually have caused Derek to panic, but Stiles had been distant recently, and Derek’s insecurities got the best of him. Now, fighting back tears he walked out, and returned to their shared apartment with a new song.
“It wasn’t anything like you thought,” Stiles began, curled in on himself on their bed when he saw Derek enter. Derek stopped, remaining in the doorway while he waited for Stiles to continue. “I noticed that a couple of my mom’s things were gone and I just panicked and looked everywhere and I couldn’t find them! So I started calling everybody, asking if they had seen them, and finally I called him and he said he had them at his apartment and we could meet so I could get them back. I would never do that to you, Derek, I swear.” And with that, Derek walked toward the bed, his weight dipping the mattress until he settled, and the two fell asleep.
Not all of the songs were sad, though they had their fair share of those. Some were silly, poking fun at the fact that their friends lamented at how frequently they fucked. Some followed revelations that neither could whisper in the light, like the truth behind Derek’s relationship with Kate or Stiles’ guilt after his mother’s death. And some came when they would look at the other in turn and their breath would catch at just how much they loved each other.
When all was said and done, they had composed 69 songs in total, both together and apart, and it represented the breadth of their love and its jagged, but perfect nature. Years after completing the project, following both of them receiving their degrees and each getting a job in the business, they decided to record them together.
The decision to release them was not made lightly; many nights were spent arguing over the personal nature of the work (“I don’t know if I want to share this with other people, Stiles, it feels like too much.” “But we’re sharing our love, Derek, what could be more special than that?”). Finally, after months of recording a demo, having it picked up by a major label and rerecorded for better quality, their album titled 69 Love Songs was released.
The acclaim came overnight, people moved deeply by the adoration and respect pouring from the words and voices of their band, Triskele. But, Stiles had been right in suggesting they release the album; while Derek feared that the album would make their relationship and all of their flaws too public, the important moments stayed theirs. After all, when Derek proposed to Stiles one quiet night after they had finished another marathon of Star Wars, the public couldn’t see the joyful tears in Stiles’ eyes when he threw himself at Derek and said, “Yes!”
“And I,
I love it when you give me things.
And you,
You ought to give me wedding rings.
You ought to give me wedding rings…”