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Heather breaking up with him had been a bit of a relief to be honest. They had been great friends for so long and dating hadn’t done any favors for their dynamic. He had faith they’d be friends again but for now prom was tomorrow, he was newly dateless, and in possession of a non-refundable tux his father refused to let him waste. This was how he found himself presently sitting stag next to Scott, equally stag and with him for moral support, sipping punch.
Scott was not moral support for long however, as Allison walked over and asked him to dance. Stiles was too much a friend to turn down Scott’s pleading puppy eyes so he waved them off and watched as Allison pulled Scott into the jumping throng. For something to do, Stile got up and sauntered the long way round the dancing crowd to the punch table.
He hesitated when he saw Derek Hale standing at the other end of the table, deliberately choosing snacks and putting them onto his plate. Derek Hale had been a bit of a conundrum to Stiles since their first class together in 8th grade and the fact he was at Senior prom standing just 15 feet away short-circuited Stiles’s brain. He was quiet, that much Stiles knew. So quiet, in fact, that Stiles did not know what his voice even sounded like. Derek was smart though, if the fact that he had been in every one of Stiles’s AP and honor courses since they’d been in 10th grade said anything about it. He was the catcher and star hitter on the baseball team and Stiles had been to nearly every home game (he’d missed three okay, but he’s really not counting) and relished every chance he got to see Derek smile.
Suddenly something cold and sticky ran down his hand into his sleeve and he dropped his cup with a yelp realizing his definitely-not-totally-enamoured staring had caused him to pour punch all over his arm. He saw Derek turn towards him in surprise just as Stiles ripped his eyes away to find the napkin pile. In his rush to find the napkins Stiles lands his hand in the punch bowl instead and it tips over, spilling the punch all over the floor and his shoes.
“Agh! Oh my God. This just gets better and better.”
“We should find a custodian.” Derek is right next to him suddenly, standing in the growing puddle of red punch and grinning at Stiles in good humored judgment.
“We?”
Derek shrugs and pouts his lips a bit. “Boyd got the nerve to ask Erica to dance so I’m kind of just here.”
Stiles brightens a bit at hearing that Derek is at prom alone. He’ll have to mention he is too somehow. “Okay then. Thanks.”
They head into the hallways in the direction of the custodial office. Stiles is still dabbing at his rental jacket sleeve and Derek has his hands shoved into his pockets.
“You sure you didn’t need to let anyone know you were going anywhere?” Derek asks a few hallways later.
Stiles looked up from his sleeve and found Derek looking intently over at him. “Huh? Oh, no. I came with Scott and Allison asked him to dance.”
Derek’s eyes brightened for a moment before they turned confused. “You didn’t come with Heather?”
“What?” Stiles genuinely didn’t know Derek even really knew him let alone knew he had been dating someone. “No. We broke up on Monday.”
“Oh.” Derek didn’t say he was sorry and Stiles liked that.
“It’s alright though. We were better friends.”
“That’s good.” Derek answered, a little too quickly.
Stiles nodded, pursing his lips awkwardly, not knowing what to say.
“So you’re single then?” Stiles never knew the right thing to say but he somehow managed to find something to say anything. The wrong thing to say as it happened. The most incriminating things.
“Um, yeah. Single.”
“Weren’t you dating Paige?” That’s a normal thing to say right? Derek had asked him about Heather after all.
Derek chuckles. “That was a while ago. I broke up with her a few months ago.”
“Oh.” Stiles isn’t sure why they’re talking about this. Is it building up to something? He wants it to build up to something. “I hate being single.” He grumbles.
“Haven’t you only been single for like a week?” Derek’s perfect eyebrows arch teasingly, a lopsided grin on his lips. Stiles wants to kiss them very suddenly and he looks away quickly when he realizes he’s staring.
“Yes. But we weren’t together that long. And I mean, yes she only broke up with me because my heart wasn’t really in it, but that doesn’t mean I want to be single.” Oh that was not the right thing to say. Not at all.
“How come?”
Stiles realized they had stopped walking and were still nowhere near the custodian office. Derek was leaning awkwardly against the wall and Stiles stood close enough that he could see the blue and green and yellow that blended together in his eyes. l
“How come what?”
Derek rolled his eyes in a blue-green tornado. “How come your heart wasn’t in it?”
“Because-” He was going to say it wasn’t he? Why not right? Derek wasn’t his friend anyway, so he wouldn’t lose him. “Because I like you.”
Stiles doesn’t get any kind of answer he expects. Maybe a ‘sorry, Stiles, but I don’t swing that way’ or ‘I do too’ but not, “Why?”
Stiles just blinks for a moment. “Why?”
“Yeah. You don’t know me. We don’t talk to each other. We don’t have any of the same friends. I never say anything in class.”
“But I’ve been to all the baseball games since I realized you always catch every foul ball, and I know you always use wood pencils and sharpen them before class starts and you started sitting with Boyd in the cafeteria when his sister and went missing and he had no one else to sit with and-”
Derek was chuckling and Stiles blushed a deep pink as he narrowed his eyes confusedly at Derek.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Because I’ve been to every cross country meet ever since I found out you intentionally run slower so you can help Scott finish through his asthma.”
“You know about that?” Stiles asks incredulously. “Only Scott knows about that. Coach just thinks I’m slow.”
“I’ve seen you running through the preserve on your own time.” Derek admits sheepishly, his cheeks turning a cute rosy color. “You’re pretty fast.”
Stiles dips his head shyly. “So we’re both single, and we both have best friends getting it on the dance floor, and we both like each other?” He looks coyly up at Derek from under his eyelashes. “Does that mean we can finally be not-single together?”
“I think that’s exactly what that means.” Derek reached out and slid his hand into Stiles’s before pulling him down the hallway. “But we should probably get that mess of yours cleaned up first.”