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“Derek, what the hell?”
The camaro came to a halt, but Stiles had no idea where they actually were. He was completely lost about 5 minutes into the drive from his dad's house, since Derek had covered his eyes with a bandana before they'd left, and Stiles was already wondering why the Sheriff would let him go so easily on his 21st birthday and behave so weird all morning. Of course he knew that his dad didn't always have the best image of Derek, given how they first met back in the day, but as the years had passed he'd actually grown fond of the guy. He'd actually told Stiles that about a month prior to his birhday.
Derek opened the camaro's door for Stiles and helped him out. The smell of fresh grass hit him in the face, but it was a good hit, like getting cake smashed in your face or something.
“Where the hell are we, Derek?” he demanded to know from his boyfriend, who'd been awfully silent during the whole ride.
“You'll see in a few seconds,” Derek replied, took Stiles' hand and led him down a pretty short path.
Stiles almost tripped a few times because the ground became kinda uneven after a while, but Derek made sure to catch him every time. After a good two minutes they stopped and Derek untied the bandana slowly.
Stiles immediately knew this place.
“Derek, what...”
“I... Your dad told me you use to come here every birthday, so...” Derek explained, rubbing Stiles' back lightly as he looked at the gravestone that showed the name and a picture of Stiles' mom. “I know, there's probably a reason, why... you didn't want me to come here, but...”
“Thank you...” Stiles said sincerely, taking Derek's hand, but never taking his eyes from his mother's face.
There was a long moment of silence between the two of them.
“Happy birthday, Stiles,” Derek whispered in his ear before he gently kissed Stiles' temple, rubbing his back still.
Stiles gulped, visibly repressing a tear or two. He'd though he wouldn't have the time to make it here today, since his dad had been telling him about his awesome plan for the day which consisted of a long list of things which Stiles hadn't even really looked forward to.
“Oh crap, I need to get back. Dad's gonna get so mad if I'm too late for his legendary lasagna - which is actually just 3 kinds of meat, a bit of noodles and a whole load of cheese...” Stiles suddenly blurted out, already turning around, but Derek held him back by the arm.
“Don't worry,” Derek said, smirking. “His legendary lasagna will wait until tonight. We have all day.”
“Oh? Oh! You mean...” Stiles finally got it. “You mean you wanna kidnap me for the day? Oh, you sneaky little bastard. Sorry, mum.” He smiled at the gravestone. “But Derek totally is.”
“You still didn't suspect a thing,” Derek noticed, looking damn proud of himself and his awesome plan.
“Indeed I didn't.” Stiles grinned. He closed the distance between the two of them and pulled Derek into a tight hug. “That promises to be one of the bestest birthdays I've ever had.”
“I really hope so,” Derek replied, returning the hug and caressing Stiles' neck with his right hand.
“So,” Derek began after a moment of staying like this. “Don't you want to introduce me?” He gestured towards the stone.
“Oh... Yeah,” Stiles said while pulling away from the buff guy. “So, mum. This is the guy I told you about. The grumpy butt who likes to wear tight clothes that compliment his not-so-grumpy butt.”
“Oh, you talk to your mum about my butt?” Derek raised an eyebrow.
“Of course, I was informed mothers wanna know about that stuff. And you DO have a nice butt. It's worth at least a mention. Anyway...” he continued, “that's the guy I've been so anxious to bring here, because I didn't know if he would ever wanna visit this place. You know why,...” He turned his eyes to Derek. “... and I'm really happy he's here now.” Stiles smiled. “Because I really love him a lot.”
Derek cleared his throat. “I know. And don't worry, Mrs. Stilinski, I'll always keep an eye on this weird kid who tends to get his also very nice butt in trouble every once in a while.”
Stiles chuckled. “So now you're talking about my butt, huh?”
“Well, you started the butt-talk.” Derek gave him a smirk. “Either way, it's nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Stilinski. You can be proud of your kid. I don't like to admit it, but he can protect his butt pretty well.”
“HA! That's new to me. But thank you anyway,” Stiles grinned, taking a little bow for emphasis. That is, before he got his head smacked in the process. The guy put on a distressed smile. “And yes, mom, he tends to do that.”
“Don't pretend that you don't enjoy that every once in a while,” Derek whispered in his ear, looking in the air as if it was the most uninteresting thing in the world to say.
“Oh god,” Stiles exclaimed. “Seriously? In front of my mother? Wow, you really are a butt!”
They both chuckled.
“But yeah, mom, he's a nice guy when he's not broody or... horny, you know. And yes, I'm an adult now, stuff happens here, okay?” Stiles explained, his flailing arms completing the picture of a weirded out kid. In fact, he almost hit Derek's head once or twice.
“Yes... and I'm really sorry, but we need to leave now, Stiles,” Derek said, gesturing towards the graveyard's exit.
“Oh, we do? What for?” Stiles looked at him, his eyes wide open in surprise. “What else do you have planned for today?”
“You'll know soon enough, don't always be this impatient.”
“I think this is actually the first time you're doing something like this, I mean... surprising me... with something good, and not like, the news of another murdering creature in town,” Stiles stated, raising an eyebrow.
“There are still signs and miracles,” Derek replied, turning a little bit more towards the exit. “Come on. We can always come back here afterwards. I think, you actually will want to come back afterwards.”
“Uuuhhhh, now you've got me interested,” Stiles grinned, turning back to his mother's gravestone again. “I'm sorry, mom, we need to go now.” He paused for a second before saying, “I love you”, and then turned around, taking Derek's hand and making for the camaro.
As the car left the parking lot and headed towards another, to Stiles undisclosed, location, the birthday boy placed his hand on Derek's.
“Thank you, Derek. This really... means a lot to me,” he said, smiling and looking out the window, enjoying the breeze of fresh air from the open window.
Derek just nodded. It wasn't necessary for him to say anything, Stiles had learned to find the meaning in Derek's gestures and even his silence. Well, he'd had the past five year to figure all that out. And Derek wasn't actually as grumpy anymore as he was when they first met in the woods. Probably Stiles' constant blabbering had colored off on the guy.
“I just hope you'll like my next surprise. This one might be even bigger than visiting your mother,” Derek said, visibly trying to suppress how proud he actually was of his plans.
“Seriously? I don't know, man. That thing just now is pretty damn hard to beat, you know?” Stiles replied, highly doubting that there was anything better than this just now.
“We'll see,” was all Derek said, and then they stayed silent for the rest of the ride.
They ended up at the side of a pretty big field somewhere in the middle of nowhere, which a hot-air balloon in the middle of the scenery.
“Seriously, dude? That's your big surprise?”, Stiles said, looking at Derek while seeking confirmation for his assumption.
“Yes, that's it. Come on now, get out of the car,” Derek replied and had already hurriedly left the thing.
As Stiles got out of the vehicle, he heard Derek exhale sharply, followed by a deep grunt and Derek being out of sight for a moment, before he straightened up again.
“What's wrong?” Stiles asked.
“Uh, nothing, nothing. I just tripped,” Derek answered, patted his jacket and then hurried to reach Stiles. Together they walked up to the guy who was busy with a few last preparations for the ride.
The man helped them get in the giant basket which was probably built to make enough room for about 10 people and got inside himself when he was done with everything, while telling them that that they shouldn't lean their heads too far out of the basket.
They slowly rose into the air, the ground revealing more and more of its beautiful landscape. Stiles was captured by how fast everything seemed to small and that, even though it was a little windy when they took off, there wasn't even a small breeze up in the air.
The driver explained that this was because the balloon was driven by the wind, therefore picking up its exact speed. And they were actually lucky to be able to take off at that time of the day, since usually it was too windy and they mainly took off two hours after sunrise and before sunset.
“That's pretty cool. Guess we were pretty damn lucky, huh, Derek?”, Stiles grinned from the railing, turning his face to look at Derek.
Who was sitting in the corner of the basket.
What the hell.
“Derek, what's wrong? Are you okay?” Stiles asked and sat down beside him to check on him.
“Yeah, yeah, I'm good. I... I'm good,” Derek replied, nodding hurriedly, failing hard at being convincing.
“Yeah, I can totally see that, Der,” Stiles muttered and moved closer towards his boyfriend, pressing their arms together.
“It's just... I'm not very good with heights, y'know.”
“You what?” Stiles couldn't prevent a loud laugh breaking out of him.
“Shut up! We're... we're more comfortable on the ground, okay?”, Derek said and bumped him in the side to make the guy shut up.
“Okay, okay, I'll shut up about it before you throw me out of this basket,” Stiles grinned, but gave the driver a reassuring look that this was in fact not gonna happen – the throwing out part, of course.
“But still,” Stiles continued, “this is pretty damn cool. Still not as good a surprise as the graveyard, but still pretty damn cool,” and placed a little peck on Derek's cheek.
Derek didn't say anything for a moment, but then he made cautious advances to get up. Never letting go of the basket of course. Safety first.
“I... I need to talk to you, Stiles,” he began, trembling a little, and very much refusing to look at the beautiful scenery.
“Oh god, what? Do you wanna break up with me on my birthday? Oh well, I'm pretty sure that's not it, since you just visited my mom for the first time and all, but you know, everyone gets those thoughts when they here that,” Stiles uttered.
“Shut up, Stiles.”
“Okay.”
“I ah... There's a reason why I asked your dad to let me kidnap you today, Stiles,” Derek said, his hands cramping while he was trying hard not to use his claws for a better grip.
“Yeah, it's my birthday, I know.” Stiles leaned against the railing beside Derek and looked at him curiously.
“No, that's not it.” Derek gulped. “I mean, yes, that as well, but... There's another reason.”
“So you do wanna break up with me?”
“No, Stiles. You just explained to yourself why I would in fact not break up with you, but if you don't stop talking now I'll definitely reconsider that choice,” Derek said, easing up a little.
“Okay, I'll shut up now for real.”
“Good.” Derek sighed. “So, as I said, there was a specific reason for all this... and... I'd actually written down something that I forgot at home and I totally forgot how I worded it, so willyoumarrymeplease”
Oh.
Stiles' eyes widened. “Can you repeat that, please?”
“WillyoumarrymepleaseStilesStilinski,” Derek muttered, all the while fumbling in his jacket with one hand, gripping the railing even tighter with the other. When he finally found what he was searching for, he pulled a necklace with a pendant out of his jacket's inner pocket and held it towards Stiles, gripping it tight because he was obviously afraid he would accidentally drop it.
“Will you, Stiles Stilinski, please take my hand for marriage?” Derek said, straightening up as well as he could under the given circumstances, the silver necklace still in his hand.
Stiles all the while hadn't even moved an inch. He was still looking at Derek, trying to figure out of the guy was shitting him or if he was still in bed dreaming and would be woken up violently by his alarm clock in a couple of seconds. At least Derek looked pretty damn serious.
“Hit me,” Stiles demanded.
“What?”
“Hit me, in the face preferably. I need to make sure I'm not dreaming this before I give you an answer,” Stiles said, arms flailing as every time he was nervous.
“I know something way better,” Derek mumbled and took a brave step forward to kiss Stiles long but tenderly. “Marry me, Stiles Stilinski,” he whispered against Stiles' lips, staring into his eyes.
Stiles' whole body shuddered at the feel of Derek's breath against his skin, so he was actually having a hard time putting himself together.
“... Okay,” Stiles whispered. “I will definitely marry you, Derek Hale.”
Stiles cupped Derek's face and pulled him into another kiss, this time a little more passionate and it might also involve lip-biting which went unnoticed by the driver.
They only parted when the long forgotten man cleared his throat rather heavily even though he was looking away.
Stiles giggled at the thought of how many couples he must have seen like that and how grossed out he now might be by the whole thing.
He pulled Derek away from the railing, with a little effort admittedly, to sit down on the ground with him again, and said to the driver, “Thank you for that wonderful ride, but I think it's about time we land again.”
The guy turned around and after he saw Derek crouching there like a wet kitten, he just nodded and directed his eyes at the ground to find a good spot for landing.
“What's that in your hand by the way?” Stiles asked Derek, since his fist was still clutching it tightly.
“It's a necklace I got from my dad, before he died,” Derek answered and gave it a melancholy look. “And I want you to have it.”
“Oh, Derek, I... I'm not sure I can take this...”
“Please, Stiles,” Derek insisted. “I don't just wanna give you a ring, I wanted it to be something that means a lot to me. Because you mean a lot to me. You mean the world to me, Stiles. And this is the least you deserve, okay? Please take it.”
Stiles smiled. If that guy wanted something, there wasn't much to convince him otherwise, was there?
“Thank you,” Stiles said, kissing the guy once more before he received the necklace and put it on.
“Hey, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm afraid we can't land here yet. Gonna take a little longer to find the right spot,” the driver threw in.
“Don't worry, it's okay. Right, Derek?” Stiles said, grabbed Derek's hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
“Yeah... sure,” the dude just said, squeezing Stiles' hand back.
Suddenly Stiles hurried to get out his phone and punched a few numbers in, then waited for the other person to answer the call.
“Hey dad, check this...”