Work Text:
The room was warm and silent, except of the sharp click of the computer mouse and the occasional tapping noise from the keyboard. Stiles scrolled down another lengthy paragraph, highlighting a chunk of text before grabbing his pen and jotting down a few notes on his notebook. He was currently making a detailed outline for a history paper, and somehow he can’t believe that he’s still doing the outline. Even if he has refined his researching skills throughout the years, no one can be very good in book research. He has spent countless of hours at the school library, pouring over shelves of books and deciding which books were useful. He borrowed a couple that were currently scattered all over his room, and he managed to finish reading and bookmarking them just a few hours ago.
Even if he found the right facts in the books, he still couldn’t resist using the Internet to check up on them. Which turned out to be a bad idea because he found even more sources. His head was starting to throb again, so he leaned back on his chair and stretched his arms. He caught sight of his wall clock and sighed.
Five-seventeen. He did a quick mental computation and concluded that he has been awake for about 35 hours. He smiled tiredly at the thought, as he has broken his previous record of 28 hours, a feat that he was extremely proud of when he was just a freshman. He stood up and walked to his bed, sitting on its edge and picking up his tumbler or still-warm coffee. He gulped down the remaining contents before standing again and walking back to his seat. He navigated through the countless opened windows, minimizing everything school-related.
A browser window was left open, showing scanned pages of a badly-beaten bestiary. How he managed to actually find a worn but operational copy of another bestiary, Stiles didn’t know. But he was glad that this copy was quite informative and above all, completely free of charge. He didn’t have to fight for his life in getting this. Although, it took him a ridiculous amount of time (and cups of coffee) to find, download, and save the entire thing.
He decided that it would be beneficial if he had a book like this within reach. Stiles actually considered this his “bedtime reading material”, or his excuse to read something else asides from tax declarations of the eighteenth century. The mouse cursor moved through words, while he used the arrow keys to move through pages. He was halfway done with the chapter on werewolves and their packs when his breath hitched, and he had to bend forward and rest his head on his table.
‘Should’ve known…’ Stiles thought, feeling his chest tighten and his pulse speed up more. He suddenly remembers the reason why he didn’t last for more than 28 hours before. A panic attack came from nowhere, and he actually thought that he was going to die that that point. He had to curl himself into a tight ball under the covers as he attempted to regulate his breathing. He ended up sleeping for half a day after that.
Stiles didn’t really want to spend his Saturday evening and entire Sunday sleeping off, so he tried to fight off his bouts of tiredness and heaved deep breaths. If his dad was here, he would be subjected to hours of sleep and house arrest, but he was all alone now and had to deal with this by himself.‘Shit’ he cursed under his breath.
He leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes, trying to imagine random things to calm himself down. What he saw behind closed lids was a bit surprising: warm sunshine, a field of tall grass and wild flowers, and a couple of dogs…no,wolves, chasing each other. The images made him smile a bit, but didn’t really help him calm down. He could hear the beating of his heart in his ears as he squeezed his eyes tighter, not minding the world around him.
Until he heard his name from somewhere . And felt a heavy hand rest on his left shoulder, pulling him slowly back to reality. He scrunched his face a bit and moved his head to rub against the foreign hand.
“Stiles…” he heard his name once again, clearer and softer this time. He cracked an eye open and didn’t expect to see Derek Hale staring at him upside-down. Or was it him who was staring upside-down?
“Monster…” he muttered out, shutting his eyes once again and appreciating the warmth from the hand on his shoulder. He also came to appreciate another warm presence on the right side of his neck, and took him a while to register that it breathed.
“Your pulse is completely off the charts. What the heck is wrong?” Derek asked calmly, moving his nose to nuzzle on the exposed neck. He exhaled a breath then pulled back. “You haven’t slept, haven’t you?”
“Touché, Sourwolf. Excellent deduction skills there…” Stiles said, as he felt more lightheaded than ever. He moaned a bit, heaving his breath again. Why wasn’t he calming down?
He was still caught up with his thoughts while keeping his mind from completely floating away before he realized that he was being manhandled from his computer chair to his bed. He was about to curl into his default ball of comfort before he was pulled flush against a steady chest. Derek’s chest, his mind noted kindly.
“Okay, time to talk. What have you been doing that you completely missed out on sleep?” Derek spoke out, the deep rumble of his voice rising above the stillness of the room. “and don’t even think about skipping the coffee details, you practically reek of caffeine; I am sure that any human can smell it off you” his arm wrapped around Stiles’ waist while the other rested on top of his arm.
“You know…the usual school work. Was…caught up with research, and writing…and reading” Stiles replied, still trying to regulate his breathing. He had to admit that the warmth all over him was helping him a lot. “How about you? What brings you here to visit my humble abode?”
Rough fingertips brushed against his all-too sensitive arm, sending shivers all over his body. “I was lying on my bed when I suddenly heard a rapid heartbeat. I was scared for a moment that someone was in danger, and I had to tune out everything else to pinpoint who was having problems. Turns out that it was you…”
“Huh? Okay…so why come to me? And how’d you know it was me anyway?”
Derek chuckled a bit, his body shaking a bit. “I thought you were busy digging through pages of werewolf habits? Can’t you figure that out yourself?”
Stiles moved his head in protest “oh c’mon. My brain is currently swimming in limbo, and I am trying to string together words just to talk to you properly. Try to carry the conversation for once…”
“You really don’t know?”
Stiles huffed out a breath in annoyance, getting another amused chuckle in response. He was pulled in a tighter but comforting hug.
“It’s because you’re pack, Stiles. That’s why I had to run and see what was going on…” Derek whispered lowly
That...made his heartbeat spike up again. The hand on his arm suddenly traveled to his chest and stayed there.
“Hey, hey…calm down, will you?” the Alpha said, his thumb absently stroking an exposed collarbone. “Shh…” he cooed, rubbing his cheek against the side of his head.
“I…I—“ Stiles gasped out. His brain decided to go on overdrive, making him see flashes of gruesome images of being ripped apart from the chest, or choking on his breath. “No, no…scared…” he moaned out again.
“Stiles. Calm down…please” Derek re-adjusted himself on the bed, now leaning on the headboard properly while turning the teenager a bit to face him. Stiles moved his head to rest on Derek’s neck, inhaling the salty and musky scent of the werewolf.
“Listen. I’m right here, okay? Nothing is going to harm you as long as I’m here.” He rubbed slow circles on the boy’s back, and breathed normally. “Open your eyes, you idiot. Breathe with me…”
He did as was asked, and forced his eyes open. A small table with stacks of books and a few paper cups fell directly in his line of sight, and this somehow jogged his brain. He tried to sync his breathing with Derek’s as he kept his eyes on the books. He suddenly remembered something.
“Shit…my report!” he half-exclaimed, as he attempted to sit up. However, he couldn’t move because he was still held down by a firm hand.
“Your report? Are you kidding me? You need to sleep off your thoughts first”
“But—“
“No, Stiles” Derek growled out. “You said that you did your outline, right? And it’s still Sunday tomorrow. You need to rest; your excessive amounts of caffeine is starting to takes its toll and making you incapable of doing anything coherent”
At this, Stiles smiled. “Woah, that’s some observation you noted Sourwolf. When did you become such an expert on me, huh?”
There was no immediate reply, as Stiles thought that he was able to get Derek to shut up. He turned his head to look up at the Alpha’s face, just in time to see a small smile that immediately disappeared like it wasn’t there. He was caught off-guard when the other man leaned down and pressed his forehead to Stiles’.
“Since we needed each other” he simply stated, before moving his head and giving Stiles a chaste kiss on the lips.
For something so sudden, it didn’t feel wrong at all. The moment lasted for a short while, before Derek pulled away and kissed his forehead afterwards. “Stiles, please get some rest. I can leave later when you’ve fallen asleep or something…”
At this, Stiles instinctively held onto Derek’s gray shirt. “N-no. Don’t leave…” he stammered. He knew that sounded a bit needy as intended, but he realized that he didn’t care anymore. “Stay. Until the morning. Or when I wake up. Or…” he knew that saying “forever” was demanding so much already, but it sort of felt right. But maybe not now. Lucky for him, Derek didn’t object further.
“Okay, okay. Although, will it be okay for your dad to find me in your room, on your bed, with you?”
There was a huff. “Bah. I locked the door anyway. And he knows that I’ve been working on endless projects. He won’t bother me…us…at all”
As if granted permission, Derek shifted his position so that he was lying flat on the bed now. Stiles curled up facing him, trying to get as close as he possibly can. The larger man gathered the limp body in his arms and pulled him close. Inhaling his scent, he commented “the coffee seems to be disappearing from you…” while resting his nose on the pale neck.
“Uh, what does that supposed to mean?” he yawned, feeling his eyelids droop.
“Your scent is back, your heart beat is steadying back to normal, and you’re about to fall asleep soon…”
Stiles hummed in contentment. He tried to reach for a pillow, and felt his head being carefully maneuvered to rest on one. He sighed, then suddenly whispered “don’t you dare leave, or I’ll hunt your wolf ass down…”
A hand moved to cup his jawline, and didn’t miss on the thumb slowly caressing his neck and finding his pulse. “Just sleep, Stiles. You’ll still see my wolf ass when you wake up”
“Promise?”
He heard an echo of his question in affirmation, before he finally drifted to a serene sleep, filled with sunshine and tall grass, and of course a few wolves.