Work Text:
♚♞♚♞♚♞
“Stilinski!” Derek’s voice comes loud and sharp. Stiles winces and turns around slowly. Yep, there is his gorgeous boss standing in the hallway with his tie a little too loose around his neck wearing a scowl. Derek does not look happy. Stiles lifts his hand up slowly in greeting and presses his lips tight together. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Of all days, it just had to be Derek who caught him.
“Heeeey there, Derek.”
“It’s Mr. Hale,” Derek corrects. Stiles closes his eyes for a moment and nods slowly. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He’s so fired. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I–it’s not what it looks like, okay?” Stiles says, trying to breathe.
“Not what it looks like. Well then you explain to me why you’re standing at the water cooler with your pants in your hand and wearing nothing but boxers. In a workplace. Inmy work place,” Derek adds.
“Look, I didn’t know anyone else was here! I spilled some coffee on my pants and I have this thing tonight and…I really thought I was alone. I don’t have time to go home and get another pair of pants so–” Stiles stops talking the second Derek’s eyes narrow on him.
“So Heather isn’t around here somewhere trying to pull her clothes on?” Derek asks.
It’s so unexpected. Stiles can’t do anything except let his jaw drop in surprise. His head jerks forward and he tries to understand what Derek had just suggested. It takes him only a couple seconds before he bounces back. “What the hell? Heather is married. With a kid.”
Derek’s expression only seems to harden with this news.
“She’s married with a kid,” Derek repeats.
“Yeah! Jeez, what kind of person do you think I am?” Stiles asks, shaking his head. “I’m not having some affair with a married woman and I’m not lying about the pants thing either. I just wanted to clean my pants.”
“And the bathroom wasn’t an option because…?” Derek prompts.
“Greenburg went in there five minutes before he left for the night,” Stiles explains. “Really, Derek, I was desperate.”
“Stiles, I am the CEO of this company. Can you show me some goddamn respect and call me Mr. Hale for once in your life?” Derek growls.
He nods. “Right. Yes. Mr. Hale. You got it. Um. Can we forget this ever happened?”
Derek’s eyes dip down to his toes and slowly make their way back up to his eyes. “You’re running out of favours, Stilinski.”
“I know. I know. I swear I’ll make it up to you, Der–Mr. Hale. I swear. It’s just that my best buddy is announcing his engagement tonight and I need to look good.” Stiles holds up his pants. “I don’t know how to make this any better.”
Derek huffs and turns without another word. Stiles gasps as though he hadn’t been breathing properly while he was in the room. He probably wasn’t. Derek and his scowls do something to him. He tries not to let it keep him up at night.
Stiles remembers Derek’s first day of taking over this godforsaken company from his sister, Laura. She’d also been scary as hell, but she’d been fun. They had had a great relationship. He still feels a twinge of disappointment when he thinks of how she had called him into her office to let him know that she’d be stepping down and her brother would be taking the CEO position. It was good to mix things up, she had said.
Derek hadn’t liked Stiles on the spot. He’d told Stiles, in front of the entire office, that maybe he had worked well as Laura’s assistant but he would be moving positions in the company. He’d decided that Stiles wasn’t going to work out for him.
Then at lunch that day, he’d seen Derek downstairs in the building food court. He’d gone over, ready to plead his case and ask Derek to give him a shot. Just one week.
Instead, he’d tripped and bam. His entire lunch ended up in Derek’s lap. Derek had ordered Stiles to leave for the rest of the day and tomorrow, he would have assigned him a new job.
Honestly, Stiles can’t really be upset with Derek. It turns out that his new position is even better. He’s the manager of the research team and he loves it. It’s the position he had hoped to get one day, but he’d just worked so well with Laura.
Erica had taken over his job as Derek’s assistant and she’ll pop by Stiles’ office to tell him the latest updates about Derek’s life. He’s not entirely sure why, but it entertains him so he looks forward to her poking her head in his doorway.
Stiles rubs the stain on his pants. Scott is going to kill him. There’s no other way to describe it. He’s going to ruin all of the engagement party photos. He winces.
Scott’s been such a great friend to him and now he’s finally getting married to the woman of his dreams, Kira Yukimura.
“Stilinski,” Derek’s sharp voice startles him. He turns and Derek is holding out a pair of pants. “They might be a bit wide on you.”
“You’re letting me borrow a pair of pants?” Stiles breathes. “Are you sure about this?”
“No. Now don’t blame me for being late to your friend’s engagement party. And next time? Just come talk to me before you decide to strip down in the staff kitchen.”
Derek’s gone in a second, his pants on the table. Stiles tugs them on, surprised at how well they fit. They’re not perfect by any means, but they’ll do. He forgets his soiled pants on the chair as he rushes out to get to Scott and Kira’s party.
♚♞♚♞♚♞
“Um, dude? The pants?” Scott whispers half-way through the night.
“Long story. They’re Derek’s.”
“The CEO who hates your guts?” Scott asks. His eyebrows go up. “Did you two finally hook up?”
Stiles lets out a hard laugh. “No, Scottie boy, we did not. We never will. He hates me way too much to want to get in my pants.”
“Damn, I thought he already had.” Stiles elbows Scott and he smiles. “Sorry, buddy. Thanks for coming tonight.”
“Wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Stiles answers. “Kira looks beautiful.”
Scott turns to follow Stiles’ eyes to see Kira laughing with Allison. “Think Ally was upset?”
“No. She’s way too excited for you. Plus, she’s happy with Isaac. It’s all good.” Stiles claps a hand on Scott’s shoulder. “Think you’ll get cold feet?”
Scott shakes his head. “Nope. I have no doubts. Kira’s the one for me.”
Stiles grins. “I’m happy for you, buddy.”
♚♞♚♞♚♞
“How was the engagement party?” Derek’s voice comes suddenly the following morning. He looks up from his desk to see his undying crush standing in his doorway. Stiles had taken his door off the hinges and put it into the storage room. He wanted to be the manager with the open office concept. He regrets it a little - he never hears people coming.
He nods. “It was great. Thank you for the emergency pants. I’ll bring them back in tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
Stiles doesn’t know what to say to that, and Derek doesn’t leave right away. He glances at the empty hinges and Stiles rushes to say, “I wanted to be an–”
“I know. I heard. It was quite the talk last year when you dragged your office door down to the storage room.” Derek gives him the smallest hint of a smile. “It’s what makes you great at your job, Stilinski.”
“Um. Thanks.”
Derek hesitates before he asks, “Are you scared of me?”
It catches Stiles off guard and he can only say, “No, sir.”
“Maybe call me Derek.”
Then he’s gone as though he hasn’t been there at all. It takes Stiles half a day to convince himself that they really had spoken and Derek had requested to be called by his first name. Stiles smiles and nods along with Erica’s story about the staff finding a pair of forgotten pants in the kitchen. When she asks if he thinks that someone got it on with Derek, he can only murmur a dazed “maybe.”
He doesn’t really realize what he’s done until the next morning and he’s carrying Derek’s pants back into the office.
“Are those Derek’s?” Erica demands.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Oh my god. You are the one who got into Derek’s pants!” Erica says, grinning.
Technically, he did get into Derek’s pants. Just not the sexy-times kind of pants like he wishes. Stiles shrugs. “Yeah, I guess I got into his pants.”
He’s still confused as to what happened yesterday. Dereknever stops by his office. Because Derek hates Stiles.
Only yesterday, it didn’t feel as though Derek hates Stiles.
Moving past Erica, he heads towards Derek’s office.
He knocks on his door and waits while Derek finishes up a phone call. He steps in when Derek waves him to and sets the pants on the desk.
“Whatever you say Peter. I don’t care. Tell that to Mom. I gotta go. Meeting. Bye.” Derek hangs up before Peter (whoever that is) can argue. He shakes his head. “My uncle is annoying.”
“I just came to bring back your pants.”
“Oh. Thanks. And thanks for cleaning them,” Derek says. He picks up the pants and stares at them.
“No problem. Thanks for saving my ass. I should…get back to work.”
“Yeah.”
Neither of them move for a second. Stiles isn’t sure what changed between them, isn’t sure what to do now, so he finally stands up. Before he leaves Derek’s office, he says, “Have a good day, Derek.”
“You too, Stiles.”
♚♞♚♞♚♞
“What the hell, Stiles? You hooked up with Derek and didn’t think to tell me?” Heather demands as she marches into his office. He looks up and chokes on air.
“Hooked up with Derek? What? No. I didn’t.”
“The entire office is talking about how you got into Derek’s pants,” Heather says, tapping her foot.
“Got into–oh fuck. No, I just borrowed his pants the other day.” Stiles groans and rubs his face with his hands. “Fuck, fuck. The whole office? Do you think Derek’s heard?”
“He has,” Derek’s voice comes. Stiles jumps and throws his hands off his face. “Heather, nice to see you again. Could I have a moment with Stiles?”
“Of course,” Heather says. As she passes Derek, she turns around and gives Stiles a thumbs-up. He rolls his eyes and then stands up.
“Derek, I didn’t mean–”
“I really wish you had a door on your office right now. Can we get lunch to discuss this? Somewhere that nosy people can’t hear us?” Derek says abruptly.
“Sure. Let me grab my wallet.”
“Don’t bother. It’s on me.”
Stiles supposes it doesn’t help the rumour that they walk out of the office together after being ‘outed’ but it doesn’t seem to bother Derek. When they get into the elevator, they’re not alone. Stiles doesn’t say anything until they’re seated in the food court, off in the corner.
“I’m sorry, Derek–”
“It’s my fault. I should’ve been more discreet with my feelings. Erica pulled me aside today and explained to me that I haven’t been very fair with you. She said that I’m too harsh on you, especially in front of other staff, and the office thinks that I hate you.”
Stiles blinks. Then he blinks again just to be sure he’s not dreaming. “You don’t hate me?”
Derek shakes his head. “Quite the opposite, actually.”
“The opposite of hate…?” Stiles lets his voice trail.
“Stiles, I’m going to be very blunt with you. If I make you uncomfortable at any point, tell me to stop talking. If I make you uncomfortable at the office, I will demand that Cora step up into the position of the CEO. She could use some responsibilities anyway.” Derek’s speaking so damn seriously and Stiles can only hope he means what he thinks he means.
“Okay.”
“I had you moved from my personal assistant because I find you very, very attractive. Besides, Laura was selfish keeping you to herself. You have a lot of talents, Stiles. You should be using them.” Derek looks down at his hands on the table. “I might be a little harsher with you than I mean to be but it’s only because I didn’t want everyone to know that I’ve developed…feelings for you.”
Stiles clears his throat. “Romantic or sexual feelings?”
“Both.”
“When did that happen?” Stiles asks, surprised at how easy it is to talk to Derek about this stuff. He had thought that the guy would be tough to hold a real, serious conversation with. Boy, had he been wrong.
Derek shrugs. “I don’t know. The first month I was here, I guess.”
Stiles nods. “And you’re telling me this because?”
“My crush is what the rumours are founded on,” Derek says. “Erica knows how I feel and I think she accidentally let it slip.”
“Um. But Erica knows how I feel about you.”
Derek winces.
“I’ve been crazy about you ever since you demanded that I call you Mr. Hale for the first time,” Stiles murmurs. “It’s a turn-on, really.”
Derek’s eyes flash open and meet his. “You–”
“I have feelings, both romantic and sexual, for you, Derek.” Stiles gives him a bright smile. “Maybe those office rumours are just a bit too early?”
Derek looks relieved. He nods. “I’m still your CEO.”
“Yeah, yeah, but everyone knows you’re way too rational to ever let feelings get in the way of running the business. Everyone will expect you to come down on e just as hard as you usually do. So do I,” Stiles says, grinning. “Does this mean you’ll go on a date with me?”
"No.”
“No?”
“I wanted to ask,” Derek explains.
“Oh. Okay. Ask.”
“Stiles, will you go on a date with me?”
"Eehh, if I don’t have anything better to do,” Stiles says, shrugging. He laughs at Derek’s look of pure horror on his face. He shakes his head. “No, no, dummy! Of course, I’d love to go on a date with you, Derek.”
Derek throws a fry at Stiles’ face. “I think I liked it better when you were terrified of me and stammered Mr. Hale.”
“You’re such a dork.”
But then Derek’s reaching out to hold one of Stiles’ hand across the table and things get a little quiet between them. Stiles interlocks their fingers and smiles. Derek smiles back.
♚♞♚♞♚♞
“Wait, so you lied to me?” Heather demands the following day.
“No. No, at the time, we were not having sex together. We’re still not. But we’re going to try out dating. See where it goes,” Stiles tells her. He grins. “It turns out that Derek Hale doesn’t hate my pretty ass. He likes it. A lot.”
Heather laughs and rolls her eyes. “Well, I’m happy for you, Stiles. God knows how long you’ve been crushing on him.”
“How long?” Derek asks.
“Damn, I should get my door put back up,” Stiles murmurs. “Go away, Derek.”
“Since you started working here. He was so upset that you didn’t like him because he would–” Heather seems to remember she’s talking to her CEO. She smiles and says, “Excuse me” before leaving the office.
“I like her,” Derek comments after she’s gone.
“You thought I was sleeping with her!” Stiles says, laughing.
“Yeah, well, now that I know she’s not…I like her. I also wish you had a door on your office,” Derek murmurs. He comes around behind Stiles’ desk. His lips are lightly pressed against his.
Stiles’ breath hitches before he whispers, “Oh yeah? You gonna do naughty things to me if I get a door?”
“Maybe you should get a door and find out,” Derek murmurs.
♚♞♚♞♚♞
Stiles gets the door put up that afternoon. None of his staff question why.
♚♞♚♞♚♞