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It started with one of those huge plastic Christmas trees that came in a box and you had to assemble yourself. Stiles wandered into the newly finished Hale house to find Derek on the floor, cursing in a pile of fake tree. There were coils of lights in piles around him and a giant unopened bag of tinsel off in the corner. It was on its side and had a dent like it had been kicked across the room. For a second, Stiles wondered if they’d somehow pissed off Santa himself and he was taking revenge on Derek via murderous Christmas decorations.
“Derek, what are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Derek grumbled.
“Honestly? Being eaten by the Christmas spirit. Like, actually eaten alive.”
Derek didn’t even bother looking at him, instead holding up the instruction diagram and growling at it like if he just tried hard enough he could growl it into submission.
Stiles dropped his backpack by the couch and crouched on his knees next to Derek. He snatched the paper out of Derek’s hand and started directing him what to do.
Everything went okay until Derek failed at his wolf strength and broke the connecting piece to one of the stand legs. They both stared at it for a long moment. Half a roll of duct tape later, the tree was assembled and ready for decorating. Stiles helped him coil the lights around it. Derek seemed to know how he wanted it to look, so Stiles just followed his instruction.
After they finished, Derek disappeared into the kitchen and came back carefully carrying a couple bags full of small ornament sets.
"Everyone gets to pick a set, so everyone gets to put what they want on the tree." Derek said, picking out a box of his own and carefully prying it open. He’d chosen some delicate looking snowflake ornaments. Stiles noted that the ones he bought were real glass, not the plastic ones that Stiles and his dad used.
"There's three different kinds of tree toppers in here." Stiles said as he poked through them all.
"You can pick a topper or decorations, not both."
“Where did you even find all of these?”
“The store.”
Stiles rolled his eyes, and saw buried at the very bottom of one of the bags, exactly what he wanted. “Aha!”
“I knew you’d find those,” Derek grumbled when Stiles pulled out the box.
“You’re the one who bought wolf ornaments, so don’t even try to act huffy.” Stiles grinned while he tried to get the box open without crushing anything. He prayed that he wouldn't drop any and watched Derek out of the corner of his eye. Derek seemed completely at ease.
Stiles finally got the box open and started to hang the wolf ornaments on the tree. “So, this is something you've done before."
Derek adjusted a strand of lights for the third time, then said quietly, "Mom put down decorating rules after we accidentally tipped over the tree one year. I was five."
Stiles grinned at the mental image. “That’s probably the most precious thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Shut up,” Derek grumbled, but it was good-natured.
“Scott’s mom tried to use, like, natural decorations one year. Popcorn garland, painted pine cones instead of ornaments, that kind of thing? We got in trouble when she caught us eating the popcorn off the back of the tree.”
Derek had a small smile threatening to break through. “How old were you?”
Stiles shifted his feet. “Ten.”
Derek laughed. Actually laughed. Stiles didn’t think he would ever get tired of hearing it. Things had settled down since those first few months after Scott was turned and shit went to hell. Derek had thrown himself into fixing the house so the pack, which included Scott, Erica, and Boyd, would have a reliable place to gather. Derek laughed more now, but there were still times where it looked like he didn’t know if he was allowed to have this. The simple happiness that came from having people around that cared.
“It looks crooked,” Scott said from the doorway and Stiles almost dropped the box with the last ornament in it. He hadn’t even heard Scott come in. He waved a hand at Scott to shut up. “It’s not crooked. Come help decorate.”
The rest of the Betas were right behind Scott. Derek ended up having to huff at them to be careful when they all descended on the bags of ornaments at once. Stiles just dropped on the couch and watched, because it was always funnier from a safe distance away. In the end, no one wanted to give up ornaments for a tree topper, so the tree was kind of bald looking. From the proud look on Derek’s face once they were through, though, Stiles figured it could be ugly as sin and Derek would still be happy. For a first tree as a pack, it wasn’t bad.
Derek spent the next few days gradually turning the house into the mother of all festive houses. A half dozen fake reindeer even ended up on the roof.
“No Santa?” Stiles asked as he watched Derek awkwardly climb the ladder with one arm. The other was wrapped around a plastic reindeer that Stiles was pretty sure originally came with a plastic Santa sleigh. He’d offered to help but Derek insisted he’d just fall off the roof and break his neck. It was a distinct possibility, so Stiles hadn’t fought it and instead monitored the situation from the ground.
“Laura and I used to stay up and listen for the reindeer to land on the roof. We wanted to catch one to see if it tasted like regular deer.” Derek said as he secured it so it wouldn’t blow over. Once he was satisfied, he stepped off the edge of the roof and landed gracefully on his feet, then reached for the last one. “Dad used to put these up on the roof. Deer are comfortable in groups, so in theory it would attract them.”
Stiles grinned so wide he was afraid he would sprain something. “And how old were you when you found out Rudolph wasn’t real?”
Derek wouldn’t look at him. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he mumbled.
Since most of them had families that required their presence during actual Christmas day, they had worked out that the pack would get together on Christmas Eve. Isaac and Stiles led the cooking of dinner. It turned out that Isaac was actually a pretty good cook, and he didn't mind doing it. Stiles was pretty sure if it weren't for Isaac and him, the pack would just live on cereal and soup, with the occasional rabbit. Derek could cook but didn’t want to, Boyd couldn't be bothered half the time, and they found out pretty quick that Erica should not be allowed near a cooking appliance. Ever.
Afterward they flopped over the couch and floor, limbs haphazardly thrown across each other. The tv was on low, and Home Alone was playing because it wasn’t Christmas without it. No one paid any attention, too busy being full to bursting which for werewolves took some dedication, considering their metabolism. Stiles considered it a cooking success. He found himself dozing off against Derek’s shoulder, enjoying how Derek radiated warmth. He was jostled awake when Derek shifted.
“You can go ahead and open the presents, if you want,” Derek said.
Stiles almost laughed at how the wolves crawled over to the tree with pained ‘yay’s. Scott, on his back, scooted across the floor using his feet until his head bumped the closest box.
“Scott, toss me that one. No, the other one. Go left,” Stiles directed while Scott blindly grabbed for presents above his head. He finally found the right one and tossed it in Stiles direction. It missed by a mile and Derek caught it before it sailed behind the couch.
Stiles grinned when Derek saw it had his name on it. “From me and Scott, with love.”
Derek looked surprised as he opened it, like it didn’t occur to him that he would be getting anything. Then he ripped it open and stared at the hideous Christmas sweater.
“This is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said in an amazed voice. And then he pulled it on over his head.
Stiles just stared. “I didn’t expect you to actually wear it.” He’d expected Derek to make a face and toss it away.
There were nearly simultaneous shouts from the pack, and that jerked Stiles attention back to them. Scott was ripping into a box and whoa that was the brand new game console that had just gotten released. Boyd and Isaac were having similar shitfits over their own boxes, and Erica was staring silently at a piece of paper in her lap. She clutched it so tight, the edges crumpled in her hands. Stiles saw a keychain peeking out of one fist.
“You wanted to get your driver’s license, right?” Derek asked.
Erica turned to stare at him, slack-jawed and eyes bright. “Yeah, but, a car, really?”
“You still have to share it with Isaac and Boyd.”
Erica stumbled to her feet and launched herself at Derek, who caught her easily. She wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. “Thank you, Derek.”
“You’re welcome.” Derek smiled, a small intimate one, and patted Erica’s back. When she let go she was blinking furiously, but Stiles didn’t dare say anything.
Derek saved the potentially awkward moment by nudging Stiles’ shoulder with his own. He gestured to the tree. “Yours is in there too.”
Stiles almost swallowed his own tongue when he ripped away the wrapping paper and saw the laptop box. He was glad he sat down to open it, because he was pretty sure he’d have fallen down otherwise.
Stiles turned to ask Derek if he was serious, but Derek’s attention was on Isaac, who was handing him a small gift. Derek looked surprised, like it didn’t occur to him that he would be getting anything else himself. Isaac leaned close and said something that Stiles couldn’t catch, and Derek ruffled Isaac’s hair with a fond look.
He tried to keep one eye on Derek, but it was hard when he had a lap full of awesome new technology. Boyd and Erica both gave Derek presents, and he caught Isaac shyly inching something toward Scott. Which, hello. That was definitely something Stiles would have to poke his nose into later.
Scott was the first to realize how late it had gotten and gave Derek a manly half-hug goodbye, which warmed Stiles’ heart to see. Scott still wasn’t as touchy-feely with Derek as the rest of the pack, but he was getting there. Boyd was the next to go, then Erica. Derek pushed a small stocking into each of their hands as they left. Isaac disappeared upstairs with his.
Stiles found Derek outside, leaning against the porch railing and watching the snow fall. Derek turned to him, still wearing that dumb sweater. “Thank you for your gift. I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier.”
“Dude, don’t thank me for that. I feel bad about it now.” Stiles admitted. “Derek, you gave us really expensive gifts.” Derek clearly put a lot of effort into finding something for everyone. And Stiles had gotten him an ugly sweater as a joke.
Derek shrugged. “If you don’t like your gift, you can return it.”
“No, I love it. Thank you.” Stiles said quickly. “It’s just, really expensive.”
“Who else would I spend it on?” Derek asked softly and turned to stare out at the forest. “Christmas is for family, for pack. I finally have one again.”
Stiles felt his heart thud. “I’m pack too?”
“You’ve always been pack.” Derek looked at him with a mixture of confusion and hurt. “How could you think you weren’t?”
“I guess I sort of knew, but I wasn’t sure?” Stiles chewed on his lower lip. “I’m not a wolf like everyone else.”
Derek pulled away from the railing and stepped right into Stiles’ personal space. He held Stiles’ eyes and repeated slowly, “You have always been pack.”
Stiles swallowed. “Can I give you another present?”
Derek’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “Okay?”
The kiss wasn’t anything more than a close-mouthed press of lips. Derek froze and looked stunned when Stiles pulled away. Shit.
“Okay clearly I misread the situati--mmph!” Derek pulled him back in with a hand curled around the back of his neck. Derek kissed like he was starving for it. Stiles did his best to keep up, and after a while Derek must have realized Stiles wasn’t going to pull away, because he slowed, turning it softer. His mouth was warm, and the hand cradled his neck, just there, not pushing him.
Stiles just stared when Derek pulled back and looked at him warily, like Stiles hadn’t just been an eager participant.
“I think you got the short stick again,” Stiles mumbled.
Derek snorted and pressed his face to Stiles’ neck. An easy, comfortable silence stretched between them. Derek’s hand fell from his neck and he wrapped his arm around Stiles’ waist. Stiles let himself press closer, slid his hands underneath the edge of Derek’s sweater. God, he was warm. “Someday, I think the pack would like to hear about your family. They sound pretty awesome.”
He felt Derek nod. “Someday.”
Stiles' phone chimed and he awkwardly fished it out of his pocket. Derek turned his head enough to see the screen and Stiles felt him smother a laugh.
From: Scott
derek gave me a stocking with jerky in it theres a reindeer on the package ??