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Derek forgets that his pack is made up of teenagers sometimes. It’s hard to think of them as such when he’s seen them beaten up and fighting for their lives. When they’ve been thrown across a room, either by a threat or by himself. He knows he’s put them through a lot. Derek keeps telling himself he does it because it’s for their own interest. How else are they meant to learn, unless he has broken every bone in their body at least twice. It’s not like they won’t heal.
But when he looks around himself now, everyone sitting in a circle on a floor, it’s clear as day. It’s kind of painfully obvious how much they need this, and that’s the only reason he’s agreed to it. It’s kind of impossible to say no to spin the bottle, considering it’s all they’ve asked him for, when he asks so much more of them.
Playing normal teenage games isn’t easy, but they give it their best go. Stiles keeps complaining, saying that none of these are fair, not with the werewolves trumping them in each and every game. Derek disagrees.
When they play Truth or Dare it’s Lydia who picks the questions that are most hard hitting and it’s Allison who is fearless as she completes each and every one of her dares.
It’s weird, but Derek is pretty sure he never allowed himself to be a real teenager back when he really was a teenager. There’s no way he’s going to admit this, but he’s enjoying himself. He almost laughs when Stiles tells them he’s only lying to test whether he can beat their wolf-y senses sooner or later. Apparently he’s been training himself to lie more affectively. No one seems to think it’s working, not even the humans.
They get sick and tired of Truth or Dare pretty quickly. Mainly because they’ve become so close that there is nothing they don’t know about each other or because there’s nothing any of them wouldn’t do. There comes a point when you’ve fought off hunters, Kanimas and a string of other supernatural beings that streaking through the woods for 2 minutes seems like child’s play. Not that Derek isn’t laughing on the inside, wanting to cheer on Boyd as he flits through the trees, darting in and out of sight.
Erica suggests they play musical chairs next. Which Derek actually does remember playing when he was in kindergarten but he doesn’t see why a group of teenagers would be interested in playing it. Still they set up the chairs and plug in Lydia’s iPod while Derek controls the music. It wouldn’t be right if he wasn’t in control and he isn’t going to be dancing around a couple of chairs trying to snag a chair.
Partly because he would feel silly, partly because he would probably shove who ever stole his seat out of the way in an alpha manner and sit there stoically until he was the last one standing. Or sitting, rather.
Allison wins, but it’s a bit of a fake win, because Scott sat down but gave up his seat to her immediately when he looked at her face. Stiles scoffs, but everyone else is laughing. Out of all of them Scott still reminds Derek most of a puppy.
All in all it’s pretty amazing how different each and every one of them is. There’s something endearing about every one of them. Derek couldn’t imagine the pack without any of them in it. It would be like a missing puzzle piece.
Scott is genuine and would do every thing and anything to protect the people he loves, even though that goes for most of them. Derek knows that despite how daft he can seem at points he’s nothing but good natured though and it still surprises him when Scott says something deep and meaningful. He thinks it takes everyone by surprise actually. Because no matter how stupid Scott can seem, when it comes down to it, he’s probably smarter than all of them put together. It’s not that he’s the brains behind the pack, but he’s something alright.
Things between Allison and Derek are still rough at times. It’s hard to get over the fact that there had been a time when they would have killed each other without blinking first. At the end of the day though, there is a mutual respect.
Jackson and Lydia sort of come as a package. It’s not that they aren’t different as different can be, but where one of them is, the other is usually not far behind. Derek thinks they’re good for each other though. Jackson still has trouble opening up, and Derek is thankful for it, because it means that he’s not the only one who’s emotionally shut off. But where as Derek has no one, at least they have each other.
Some day he wishes for something like that. Someone he can look at the way Jackson looks at Lydia, where his gaze softens and a gentle smile will play on his lips, and for a moment nothing else matters. Derek thinks he needs that. He wants that. He just doesn’t quite think he deserves it, or will ever be able to have that. It was hard enough trusting his pack in the first place, he doesn’t see how he can have a relationship that goes deeper than that.
Then there are Isaac, Erica and Boyd. When the others go home, the three of them stay. There’s enough space in the house and now that they’ve restored the Hale House, each of them have a room to themselves. Not that it really matters, because Derek knows that, once he’s gone to his own room they all crawl into bed together, sometimes they crawl into his bed.
It’s a bit weird. It’s a bit crowded. But mostly it’s comforting. Especially when they’ve had to fight off another threat and they’ve all healed physically, but emotionally they’re still healing. No matter how often they do this, the chance that one of them doesn’t get to go home after a fight is always there. It’s a horrible thought and it makes them all crowd against each other extra tightly at night.
Everyone in his pack is a little broken, but together they fit, like there are chunks missing out of themselves but they slot together and make something bigger. Something better.
And then there’s Stiles, who Derek cannot seem to figure out. At all. Although he tries. Derek wants to tell him how proud he is at times, because despite the fact that he can not handle a bow and arrow like Allison or think of new and inventive ways to trick anyone into anything like Lydia, he’s at their side. Always. He fights and he’s covered in bruises on the best of days. Some small cuts.
Derek knows that Stiles is tired and yet he’s there every day and Derek secretly thinks that Stiles is the glue that holds everything together. He’s who convinced Scott to join the pack in the end and he’s the one who made sure that Derek and Allison made their peace.
And once Stiles had gotten over the fact that Lydia had chosen Jackson over him once and for all, it had been the start of a wonderful friendship. Or a horrible one, depending on how you looked at it, considering the two of them got up to more shenanigans together than the rest of the pack combined. Once Lydia had joined the pack, Jackson followed, not wanting to be apart from her.
Derek isn’t sure why but his betas all have a sense of respect for Stiles. He’s asked about it but still not gotten a straight answer and by now he isn’t sure he wants to know.
He’s pulled out of his thoughts by Stiles nudging him and offering him a red plastic cup. Derek quirks an eyebrow at him and looks at the cup in front of him, taking a sniff and smelling alcohol as well as something else.
“Alcohol in a red plastic cup? It’s a bit of a teen movie cliché, even for tonight,” he tells him as he watches Lydia hand out cups to everyone else around them.
“Well, we could have gotten a different color but there is nothing wrong with teen movie clichés. I mean there’s always a happy ending in those, right? We could do with one of those. Also, I love that you know this is a teen movie cliché. I bet you love those kind of films. I can totally see that. It’s your big, dirty secret. Am I right? I’m totally right,” Stiles said excitedly as he looked at the cup in his own hand.
Ignoring Stiles rambling Derek sighed slightly before asking, “You do know I can’t get drunk, right?”
“You can. Lydia and I found this special kind of wolfsbane that won’t kill you but get you werewolves drunk. C’mon, get back in the circle. Lydia and Erica want to play ‘Never have I ever’,” Stiles got up, joining everyone else as they sat back down, plopping down next to Scott and nudging him, a grin on both their faces.
“I don’t know the rules to this game,” Derek admits as he sits down between Boyd and Isaac and looks around at the circle, waiting for one of them to explain it.
“It’s easy,” Lydia starts off as she focuses on Derek “One person says something they’ve never done and then everyone who has done it has to take a sip from their drink. Got it? Okay. I’ll start. Never have I ever…” she paused, thinking about her next words carefully, before smirking, “smashed Stiles into a wall.”
There was a slight murmur before Derek, Scott as well as Erica all lifted their cups to their lips and took a sip.
“Apology accepted by the way, guys,” Stiles said with a roll of his eyes as he looked at everyone who had just taken a drink, only earning himself a shrug from Scott, as if to say ‘Sorry, dude.’
“My turn,” Erica exclaimed and pouted slightly thinking about her question. “Never have I ever made a sex tape.”
Everyone grimaced when not only Jackson and Lydia took a sip as well as Scott and Allison. “Gross. I never want to see that,” Stiles commented.
“Never have I ever made out with someone of the same sex,” Boyd said next, causing everyone to take a sip except for Stiles, leaving him gaping at the rest of the circle.
“Excuse me but who did you all make out with?”
Ignoring the question Jackson smirked at Stiles. “Never have I ever not been kissed.”
“That doesn’t even make sense, Whittemore,” Stiles complained, looking down at his drink grudgingly.
“Just take a sip, Stilinski,” Jackson told him, looking at him like the big douche he was. With a sigh Stiles lifted the cup to his lips and took a small sip, mad at Jackson and everyone else for either biting their lips not to laugh or for looking at him pityingly.
They played for another hour, questions ranging from ‘Never have I ever been to prison’, where everyone argued that both Derek and Isaac would have to take a sip, to ‘Never have I ever rubbed off while thinking about someone else in the pack’, a question that should have been left unanswered, considering how many of the pack had lifted their cups at that.
Once Lydia had deemed everyone drunk enough and it was harder to come up with questions she had pulled out the empty bottle again and pressed it into Derek’s hand.
“I’m pretty sure we’ve run out of games,” he said looking down at the bottle and then back up at Lydia, giving her a quizzical look. It was getting late, almost midnight, and he had to admit that this night had been exactly what they needed. Back when he had been a teenager he hadn’t done this. Any of this. He’d never hung out with friends or played silly games that involved alcohol and a high school attitude.
“Almost. Except for one. Spin the bottle,” Lydia instructed him. Out of everyone in the pack she was the only one who talked to him like that. Demanding. As if there was no room for argument and she was the alpha, not him. With a sigh he spun the bottle, everyone watching it as it slowed down and pointed towards Stiles.
“Now what?” Derek asked, looking up at Stiles who was blushing furiously and looking slightly panicked at Scott, who gave him a shove.
“Now go in the closet with Stiles. Someone take the time. Boyd?” Boyd lifted his phone up and nodded. “Alright you’ve got seven minutes. I’ll start the clock once you’ve closed the door.”
Derek got up, walking into the closet first followed by Stiles, who closed the door behind them, crowding up against Derek, forcing the alpha to take a step backwards. Reaching up he pulled a string, illuminating the small space.
“What are we doing in here? There’s no rhyme or reason to this game,” Derek grumbled slightly, upset that he didn’t immediately grasp what was going on.
“It’s seven minutes in heaven,” Stiles explained. “It’s…it’s stupid. It’s this game where you spin the bottle and who ever it lands on has to go in a closet with you and you have to make out with them for seven minutes.”
“Oh.”
“We don’t have to. Like I said. It’s stupid,” Stiles rushed to say and then pursed his lips slightly for a second, as if in thought.
“So…come here often?” he asked, as he looked at Derek, feeling that if he didn’t say anything and the conversation died it would be the most awkward seven minutes of his life.
“He does realize he’s in a closet, right?” Derek could hear Jackson ask someone from outside the closet.
“Yes. The irony is hard to swallow, sweetie,” Lydia replied, earning herself choked laughter from Erica.
Smirking slightly Derek looked at Stiles, “Well yes, it is my closet after all.”
“Right. It’s nice. I like what you’ve done with the space.” Lifting an arm he tried to do a sweeping motion, resulting in elbowing Derek who let out a slight huff of air.
“Five minutes left,” came Boyd’s voice from the other side of the closet.
“So you’ve really never been kissed?” Derek asked him all of a sudden, causing Stiles to blush once again.
“No. I figure it wouldn’t be fair to put that on anyone. You know…they might just fall hopelessly in love with me and I will have ruined them for anyone else and I’m just not ready for that kind of commitment.”
“Right.”
“Right,” Stiles confirmed with a little firm nod.
“So what you’re saying is you’re waiting for the right person to kiss?” Derek asked again after a moment’s hesitance.
“I’m waiting for someone who thinks they can resist me. I picked Lydia as my crush for ten years cause I knew that she had a horrible taste in guys and would always pick Jackson over me. Who’s a douche. Who smirks too much.”
There was a growl on the other side of the door as well as some muffled laughter.
“Four minutes.”
“You’re not as irresistible as you like to think you are,” Derek told him, earning himself half a frown and half a pout from Stiles.
“Well, I guess I have three and a half minutes left to prove you wrong,” Stiles said, because there was no other way than to take that as a challenge, and Stiles never shied away from those.
Pushing forward he pressed his lips against Derek’s who had been about to reply.
The kiss in itself, was horrendous. Derek pulled back as quickly as possible, banging his head against a shelf, his hand coming up to rub at his skull.
“What was that?” Derek said his eyes wide as he looked down at Stiles.
“Pretty sure us mere mortals call that kissing,” Stiles replied with a slight wince, cause despite his inexperience he was pretty sure he had not done that right.
“That’s not kissing. That was a physical assault on me. Kissing does not involve that many teeth. Not usually anyway and…God,” Derek put his arm down again and stuck his tongue out slightly, the taste of copper in his mouth, as he tried to look at his tongue, and failed.
“You bit my tongue. I mean you really bit it and drew blood,” Derek complained as he swallowed down again, trying to get rid of the taste.
“I was aiming for your bottom lip. Apparently that’s sexy. You know…biting someone’s bottom lip while kissing them. Also it’s not like biting your tongue is the worst thing that’s happened to you this week,” Stiles replied defensively, trying to ignore the snickering that came from the other side of the door.
With a sigh Derek steps slightly forward, crowding Stiles against the door, and lifts his hands and cups Stiles’ face.
“What are you doing? You’re not going to snap my neck, are you? Because I’m no-” Stiles begins, before he’s cut off but Derek lips.
This kiss is nothing like the first, because Derek knows what he’s doing. This kiss is slow and measured and it’s just lips for now. There are no teeth or tongue, but there’s the slight exhale of air and breathy sighs and Derek’s hands finally drop from Stiles’ face, just so he can plant them firmly on his hips.
Stiles wouldn’t have expected that kissing Derek would be anything like this. He’s imagined it, not that he’d ever tell anyone that. In his mind Derek would be rough. He’d slam him against a wall and take what he thought was rightfully his. There’d be mutual hair grabbing and more moaning instead of these quiet little huffs.
Except this version is better because it’s… it’s kind of comfortable. It doesn’t make either of them freak out, because it’s a nice kiss. There’s not any sexual tension there right now. It makes Stiles wish he hadn’t kissed Derek before because this is the perfect first kiss and the other one was…well, it was very Stiles. Then again he doesn’t know whether he would have gotten to this point if he hadn’t.
After what felt like both an eternity and a nano second, Derek finally pulled back.
Stiles was glad that he was still pushed up against the door, Derek’s hand firm and steady on his hips and keeping him in an upward position. Part of him was scared that he’d just slide down to the floor if Derek let go, his legs not really seemed to be working very well right now.
“Right so ...” Stiles broke off, unsure of what to say. The silence stretching between the two of them became almost unbearable, Derek was just starring at him, not that it in itself was unusual. Derek could hear Stiles’s heartbeat speeding up, even more than it had when they had kissed.
“So that’s how you kiss someone.” Derek told him. “Really kiss them.”