Chapter Text
Stiles woke up feeling better than he had in...
Well, that was sad; he couldn’t actually remember the last time he had felt this good. His injuries had finally faded completely. It turned out he hadn’t murdered seventeen people by feeding them to an angry forest. His dad was finally in the know about all things Wolfy and was still alive. He hadn’t set anything on fire or summoned anything or even turned anything into anything else for almost a whole day and night. OK, maybe he’d been asleep for at least half of that, but it still should count!
The best part of recent events was making its presence known right at this moment actually.
Stiles felt warm and protected beyond any level he could recall. The sheets he lay on had to be at least 1000 thread-count and Egyptian cotton no doubt. Lydia’s mother would never settle for anything less, not even for guests. Soft sunlight filtered through the curtains that he had forgotten to shut last night but Derek must have remembered.
Derek.
He was the reason Stiles felt so safe just now.
Stiles could feel Derek’s gentle breathing, an indication that the man was still asleep. They were spooning. A week ago Stiles probably would have lost an organ, maybe his liver or at least a kidney, by laughing it out of his body had anyone said he and Derek would wake up in bed together, ever. Stiles just let his muscles relax as he lay there enjoying the heat and the feeling of the muscular body pressed against him. He had one arm thrown across his torso, pulling him closer. It was nice. As Stiles just revelled in the sensations flooding in from where his body contacted the werewolf’s, he felt rather than heard Derek’s breathing change slightly.
Stiles smiled as Derek twitched and stretched a little, before relaxing back into his sleepy softness and burrowing back into Stiles’ chest.
“How did I become Big Spoon?” Stiles murmured into the soft hair behind Derek’s ear as he scented him.
Derek’s response was to bare his neck to Stiles and grumble contentedly. It was practically a purr.
“You make me feel safe” Derek rumbled, “Sleep better. Sorry”
“Never feel sorry for letting me be the strong one” Stiles’ voice was like a caress “It makes me feel safe too”
Derek turned his head a little so Stiles could suck a mark into the soft skin of his throat. It wouldn’t last, of course, but it was a gesture of such trust and vulnerability from the usually so guarded wolf that Stiles, for a moment, felt shocked and humbled.
He vowed to never let Derek be hurt again; at least not if Stiles could do anything humanly possible to prevent it... Maybe even ‘more than humanly’... ‘Non-humanly’...? Vegetatively...?
“You know what the weirdest thing is about this?” Stiles asked softly.
Derek just made a noise which could conceivably be interpreted as ‘go ahead’ or ‘tell me’ or possibly ‘I don’t care’.
“I realise that I have had my morning wood grinding into your butt for more than ten minutes and I haven’t even thought about freaking out or being embarrassed; not once!”
Derek’s response was to grind back on the ‘issue’ in question and rumble even more.
“No... not fair... are you... you are you bastard! You’re purring? Since when did you become a cat?”
“Not cat, wolf. Sleepy wolf. Too tired to get upset. Cuddle now”
“You’re not freaking out that I’m hard? Or that I’m not freaked out about it myself?”
Derek gently took Stiles’ hand, the one from the arm Stiles had been holding him close to his chest with, and moved it down about 2 feet.
“What? Oh! Ohhhh!”
“Now we’re even, Sleep more”
Derek’s phone indicated a message received.
“Let me guess, sleep no more?”
Derek grumbled in a far less pleasing way as he reached over and retrieved his phone from the bedside table. Stiles took a few seconds to appreciate both the view he got as the shirt Derek was wearing rode up with the stretch, as well as the way the parts of Derek’s body that were still touching his body rearranged themselves across and around him.
“Can we do this all the time?”
“Ask your Father”
“Meany”
“You’re not the one likely to be put in jail for corrupting a minor”
“I’m already pretty corrupted; we could probably argue a reduced sentence”
“Damn!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Peter found something last night. It was scratched into the door of the old house with a claw.”
He showed Stiles the strange, angular symbol.
“What does it mean?”
Derek was silent.
“Do not try to keep me out of things Sourwolf! I’m pretty sure if I wanted to I could throw you into the lake from here; or ask one of my leafy buds to do it! Hey! Leafy buds! Get it?”
Derek sighed deeply and muttered under his breath too low for Stiles to hear clearly.
“What was that? I know your ticklish spots and we’ve already covered the whole ‘having no morals’ thing; I will use my knowstuff for eebil! Mwahahahaha!”
“I said ‘Why did I have to fall in love with an idiot’?”
Stiles was very still. Not just still for Stiles, but very, very still.
“What’s wrong?” Derek asked, turning over so he could look into Stiles’ eyes.
“You said... No one has ever said that to me except Mom and Dad and... “
“I love you a little differently than they do”
Stiles’ smile was almost more blinding than the tiny beams of sunlight trying to find their way through the gaps in the drapes.
“I just don’t want to spoil the morning with bad news” Derek sighed.
“Please Derek, trust us to look after each other when we’re awake as well as when we’re sleeping. I can’t help you if I’m left out of things. Oh, and me too!”
“What’s you too?”
“I love you too you big Grumpy Cat”
It wasn’t until Stiles was already getting light headed from lack of air that he realised this was only his and Derek’s second kiss. It was a good kiss. It was much more sexy than their first, but not in any danger of being pornographic. It would probably make people uncomfortable to watch, but it wouldn’t offend them or make them need brain bleach. Well, except for Scott, but he was a hypocritical wuss anyway! Air was definitely becoming an issue. Stiles wondered if he could actually make oxygen like a real plant could. That would be useful for things, he thought. I could hide underwater for hours; pretend to be a statue like those guys in the mall that one time; go caving without worrying about bad air... wait, there’s no light in a cave, scratch that one... We’re still kissing... I don’t seem to need to breathe anymore, hmmm... What about Derek though? I don’t want to finally find the last specimen of the fabled Hunkosaurus Rex only to kill it with hot man loving before I can learn to ride it!
Derek was looking into his eyes and seemed to be breathing. He must be getting his oxygen from somewhere? Stiles was... oh! Cool!
They broke the kiss.
“I learned a new trick!” Stiles grinned.
“I noticed. Just when I was about to faint from lack of air, suddenly your breath was more than enough to survive on”
“Pass out, not faint. We should totally enter one of those kissing competitions!”
“I do not want to enter a competition”
“Not even one where you have to kiss me?”
“I don’t need to parade you around like a trophy Stiles”
“What about me though? I really, really, seriously, really need to show you off at least a little. At school at least once, twice would be better, maybe the mall? If it really bothers you I’ll cancel the ads in the paper and take down the Facebook posts and the website.”
Derek could do eye rolling for the Olympics (if it was a sport)
“Just a little flaunting?”
Derek sighed.
“I keep my shirt ON this time, and no bending over to pick things off the ground”
“Your blue wife-beater and those black jeans with the tears in them”
“Those are claw marks from training”
“They’re still hot”
“Yes to the jeans, but I’ll get Lydia to choose a shirt. I don’t trust you”
“You just said you did trust me! No takesie backsies!”
“I trust you with my life and my heart, not with my public reputation”
“Can we get her to consult with Danny? We can see which outfit makes him giggle and drool the most.”
“Stiles!”
“Anyway, speaking of shirts, this is one of my old shirts you are wearing, is it not?”
“No”
“I’m sure it’s mine”
“You gave it away; mine now”
“Who did I give it...?”
“Miguel! He gave it to me”
“Dorkwolf!”
Derek’s spontaneous grin was more precious to Stiles than any diamond he could ever imagine.
“OK, so let’s hear the details of what Peter found, and then we can go get freshened up and breakfasted”
“You’re not going to like it...”
“I’m tougher than I look”
Derek just stared at Stiles for several heartbeats with an entire universe of words behind his forest green eyes.
“What do you know about Alpha packs...?”
.
.
.
.
.
The combination of Sherriff Stilinski’s ability to organise facts; Chris Argent’s knowledge of Hunter ‘incident records’; Derek’s memories of names he had heard his mother and sister discussing; Peter’s added knowledge via the phone; Danny’s skills with information retrieval and above all the frightening melding of Lydia and Stiles into almost a single mind to oversee everything meant that what Derek had, that morning, thought of as a huge and dangerous mystery was soon mostly explained. It was still incredibly dangerous, but no longer an unknown threat. The number of Alphas in the pack was either 4 or 5. Derek had met three of them (Kali, Ennis and their leader Deucalion) although there were conflicting reports about the final member(s).
Deaton tried to remain neutral and aloof, but the combination of Stiles’ persistence and his father’s perceptiveness meant the taciturn mask was cracked in less than an hour. With his additional information, scant though it was, Danny was able to find a handful of pictures taken from security footage.
The final member of the Alpha Pack was young, very young, and seemed out of place next to the dangerous auras of the other three.
“Wait a second!” Stiles said as they were looking at some of the photographs Danny had projected onto the big screen TV in the living room. “Go back, that’s not the same guy!”
“Yes it is Stiles!” Jackson grumbled.
“No, he’s right” Danny said, “Look at the curve of his ass in those pants. You can see the line of his underwear.”
“Really? You and Stiles noticed that?” Jackson snorted.
“Yes, he’s cute” Danny glared “But in this shot, taken outside the gas station, he’s obviously going commando”
“Not just commando, almost Navy Seal size from this angle!” Stiles quipped.
“Twins?” Lydia asked.
“Wait, that reminds me of something...” Chris said pensively.
“How do twins their age become Alphas?” Melissa asked, shivering, “Did they both kill someone?”
“They had to, unless it was inherited” Derek said.
“Remember those rumours Peter recalled from before the fire; these Alpha’s may have killed their own packs” Allison growled.
“I think I might have something on those twins, from a couple of years ago” Chris gave up looking at his online database “It must be in my old files; the ones I haven’t transferred yet”
“Well we’re supposed to get back to town sometime today” Melissa said practically, “We’ll find out then”
“How are we going on the packing?” Lydia asked.
“Almost done!” Stiles said, “I just have to put these books back and I’m set!”
“Are they my Grandma’s Herbals? She wouldn’t mind if you borrowed them. No one except me is ever likely to read them anyway”
“Stiles, what language are these written in?” John was flicking through one of the books.
“That one is in Greek, these two are in Latin and the blue one is in some sort of Arabic derivative I think?”
“You can read Greek and Latin?” Deaton asked, obviously trying not to seem impressed.
“My Latin is pretty good, although Lydia’s is better, and my Archaic Latin is pretty terrible according to her. Greek actually turned out to be easier than I thought, maybe Mom’s genes kicked in there? I taught myself enough to have a working knowledge of most things in a month or so.”
“And the Arabic?”
“Google Translate is your friend. It’s way harder than Greek, or even Latin though, so I’m going to have to work at it if I want to be fluent.”
“When we get back, remind make sure you pop into the surgery Stiles. I might have a couple of books that you’d find helpful.”
“I’m planning on harassing you until you agree to be my Yoda Doc! Or at least, I’m hoping that you’ll try to help me learn how to control this stuff.”
Deaton gazed placidly at him. “We will do; there is no try.”
Stiles almost stopped himself from launching into his happy dance.
Several minutes later all the cars were loaded and Lydia had reset the alarms and had left a note (and a large tip) for the cleaners who would soon be out to make the Lake House pristine again.
Allison and Chris headed off with Allison driving and Chris already deep in conversation with someone on his phone.
Melissa and the Sherriff were driving Roscoe back and also taking Danny for an ‘unrecorded check-up and x-ray’ at the hospital on the way home.
Jackson and Lydia were off on some mystery mission that even Danny was in the dark about and Derek had already loaded the trunk and the backseat of the Camaro with Stiles’ ever increasing mountains of stuff.
The drive back was uneventful, apart from some hot and heavy hand-holding going on in the black sports car.
Derek pulled into the parking lot of the supermarket barely forty minutes after they left the Lake. Stiles got out and managed, only just, not to face plant as he stood up. Derek’s experience with keeping his face unreadable was all that stopped the man from giggling like a school child at the flailing and swearing.
Derek grabbed a trolley as Stiles took out his phone and brought up the list he had composed during the drive.
He sent a copy to Derek’s phone.
They somehow fell into an almost choreographed dance as they spun their way around the market. Derek would keep circling back to Stiles with the trolley to relieve the younger boy of his chosen items.
It was on one of these ‘return flights’ that Derek ran into the other trolley, knocking it out of the hands of the woman pushing it and into the shelves nearby.
Several boxes of Frosties were so upset at this accident that they decided to hurl themselves to the floor.
“I’m so sorry” Derek said, slightly flustered, “Let me help you up”
The woman was sprawled as elegantly as someone who has to be described with the word ‘sprawled’ could be. She was pale and dark haired and quite pretty. Looking up at her combination Nemesis/Rescuer she drew a small breath and her gaze flicked up and down Derek’s form.
“I’m pretty sure it was mostly my fault” she smiled at him as he took her hand and pulled her to her feet. “I was looking around for the cooking oil and not watching where I was driving”
Derek smiled his ‘public’ smile at her and tried to shake off the strange fuzziness that he was suddenly feeling.
“I’m new to the area, so I still don’t know where things are”
Derek nodded absently as he felt his head pounding.
He worried for a few seconds, but couldn’t smell any gun oil or Wolfsbane, nor the presence of another wolf.
“Oh, how rude of me!”the woman was saying “My name is...”
His vision was going blurry and his hearing was phasing in and out.
Suddenly all he could hear was Stiles’ heartbeat. It was loud, louder than he had ever heard it, and it was coming closer. He focused on the sound and the room stopped spinning around him.
“Derek? Derek? Are you ok?”
Stiles was there. Stiles was safe. I am safe. Stiles was here with him and therefore he was safe.
“Stiles...”
The touch of Stiles’ strong, beautiful fingers on his arm made the room snap into focus again.
He was fine.
He wondered what had just happened.
“Uh... Hello!” the woman said...
What was her name? Did she tell me...?
“Are you a friend of... Derek’s?”
She smiled in a friendly manner; Stiles did not.
“Boyfriend actually. Running late. Nice to meet you. Got to go!”
“Derek” she smiled at him, “Who is your busy, young, friend?”
“Call me Stiles!”
Stiles was still glaring, and ignoring her outstretched hand.
“Hello Stiles” She smiled even more, “My name is Jennifer.”