Chapter Text
“Dammit,” Derek sighed as he bent over to pick up his car keys from the cold tarmac, hitting the lock button and quickly pocketing the keys before he could drop them again.
It had been far too long since Derek had had a decent night’s sleep – with work, and keeping the house in order, and visiting the hospital, and—
“Uncle Derek!”
—And the children.
“Derek, hey! Watch this!” Erica chirped just before she fell into a clumsy cartwheel.
Derek smiled at Erica and nodded his head in approval. “That’s great, Erica. Did you learn that in gym?”
The little blonde girl nodded her head enthusiastically, skipping to Derek’s side to walk with him.
“I’m really proud of you, Erica, just—Don’t do it in a parking lot, okay? It’s dangerous.”
With a serious nod that sent blonde curls bouncing around her face, Erica took Derek’s hand and tugged him towards the building in front of them.
The building in question was a huge, blue building which looked like it was made entirely out of plastic – it was, one might say, a glistening blue cathedral of screaming kids and frustrated adults.
—Otherwise known as Play Pen, a horrifically overpriced maze of colours, climbing frames, and ball pits. Apparently, it also happened to be a popular resort for kid’s birthday parties in Beacon Hills. The building was set a few miles out of the town, but since it was the only thing of its kind in the surrounding area, Derek had had to trek out there quite a few times in the last few years.
He entered the familiar room, wide, high-ceilings, and filled to the brim with children of all ages, running around, high on sugar, and screaming at the tops of their lungs. And it wasn’t exactly where Derek had wanted to spend his Saturday afternoon.
“Derek!”
He heard the voice before his eyes found the messy mop of dirty blonde curls in the crowd, bouncing as he ran towards his uncle and his sister.
“Hey Isaac,” Derek smiled down at him, ruffling his curls. “You ready to go home?”
“Well,” Isaac replied, dragging out the vowel longer than necessary, “I really, really wanna go ride the huge slide – Jackson said only babies were too scared.”
“Yeah, well Jackson’s a—” rude spoilt brat, Derek finished in his head, before sighing, “Go on then. We’ll wait right here.”
After fifteen minutes or so, and a few longing looks from Erica as she watched the other children playing, Isaac returned, an adorably sheepish look on his face, but Derek let him off the hook – after all, this was a party, and Isaac was allowed to have fun, even if Isaac having fun meant Derek getting a headache.
“Uncle Derek?” Erica piped up from beside him, her voice dropping to a whisper as she added, “I need to pee.”
Derek dragged in a deep breath – so deep, his lungs actually ached a little – and exhaled slowly, running a hand through his hair. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he wasn’t running on three hours of sleep, but he was, which was depleting his mood a considerable amount.
He swung the five year old up into his arms, took Isaac by the hand, and began scouring the area for an employee. After a moment, his eyes found a tall, lanky man – although man was a bit of an overstatement, since he didn’t even look old enough to drink yet – who looked the least busy out of the surrounding employees.
Derek quickly made his way over to him, clearing his throat to get the boy’s attention. “Excuse me—”
“I know, I know,” came the exasperated response, “kid’s been sick in the ball pit—we’re dealing with it.”
Nice. “Uh, no, I—”
“Please don’t tell me you’ve lost your kid – today’s, like, the worst day to lose your kid.”
“Actually,” Derek replied before the kid could come up with another scenario which would, no doubt, cause him to pull his own hair out, “she just needs the bathroom. But I’m glad you’re so enthusiastic about me not losing my kids.”
“Oh,” the employee – Stiles, Derek could see from the nametag, now that the kid had actually turned to face him – sighed in relief, “Sorry about that – parties are the worst. But that’s easy enough. Right down there, and take a left.”
Derek nodded, the corners of his lips twitching as he tried to restrain a smile, “Tell me about it. Thanks.”
“Any time,” Stiles responded with a grin, before returning to his task.
___________________________________________________________
It wasn’t long – twelve days, to be exact – before Derek was, unfortunately, back at Play Pen for another birthday party, only this time, he’d been asked to stay and keep an eye on the kids, for reasons he had been sighing too loudly to pay attention to.
He had been there – doing his level best to drown out the perpetual screaming by burying his head in a book, glancing up every few minutes to check that the screams were still of joy and not of pain, before promptly resuming his reading – for almost half an hour before he heard a voice, which was surprising in itself given the level of noise in the room.
“Hey, do you mind if I sit here?”
Derek glanced up, quickly scanning the room (and finding it brimming with parents, and siblings who were bitter that they hadn’t been invited to the party), before shrugging indifferently as he returned his gaze to the ever-so-slightly familiar face, “Sure, I guess.”
“Both of them were invited to this one, then?” the new arrival asked with a chuckle, and Derek squinted for a moment, before his eyes zeroed in on the nametag, and he realized where he had seen this man before.
“Yeah,” Derek responded, quickly returning to his book.
“Must get pretty annoying, being the dad who always has to bring them here, of all places. I mean, I work here, so I don’t really have a choice, but I admire your willpower.”
Derek slowly glanced over the top of his book at this man who seemingly didn’t know when to shut up. “I’m not their dad,” he paused for barely half a beat before adding, “Don’t you have a job to do?”
Stiles chuckled, “I’m on a break. They’re kinda few and far between around here, so we take them when we get ‘em. And if I get asked one more time where the bathrooms are, I’m seriously gonna get it tattooed on my face.” There was a pause in which Derek sincerely hoped that Stiles was done talking, but no. “Dude, do you realize how creepy “I’m not their dad” sounds when you’re in a room full of kids?”
Derek just raised an eyebrow incredulously, wondering whether this kid was bored or just set on irritating the living daylights out of him.
“I’m their uncle,” he sighed, returning to his reading, and sincerely hoping that Stiles would get the message.
He seemed to, for the time being, at least, and left the table to head over to the small café they had set up for the parents.
After a minute, Erica came bouncing towards Derek, shrieking his name, though she quietened down a little when he winced. She climbed onto his lap without a second thought and huffed loudly.
“I hope you’re not tiring yourselves out,” Derek teased, “Otherwise, who’s going to make sure that Tilly gets her exercise?”
Tilly was the little black pug that Derek had been pressured (by two little kids, aged five and three at the time) into adopting after they visited a shelter one day two years ago. The kids had continually surprised Derek by reminding him that she hadn’t been walked that day, or that they were out of dog food, and they always fed her themselves without prompting.
“I will, I’m not tired, I promise!” Erica responded quickly, bouncing slightly in Derek’s lap as he resisted a grin.
“That’s my girl. Do you need anything to eat?”
She shook her head, brushing away the hair that was sticking to her face after running around relentlessly.
“Do you need me to tie that back for you?” Derek offered, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, and chuckling when it fell in front of her face again as she nodded. He reached into his pocket for a small hair tie and shifted her in his lap so that she had her back to him. He gently pulled all of her hair back into the tie and she wriggled around to face him again.
“Thank you!” she beamed, reaching for his glass on the table and taking a long drink.
Stiles returned with a cup of coffee – and, honestly, Derek had been hoping that he had been called back to work or something – and took his seat again, grinning at the little blonde girl in Derek’s lap.
“Who’s that?” Erica whispered, though her whispers were the loudest whispers Derek had ever heard and he had no doubt that Stiles had heard her.
And so he stage-whispered in return, “I don’t know. He’s just a weird guy who works here and decided to sit there.” And maybe he bit back a smirk as Stiles pouted.
“My name’s Stiles,” he beamed at Erica, “What’s yours?”
“Erica Hale,” she replied matter-of-factly, offering a small hand out to Stiles, who shook it gently, nodding politely.
“It’s awesome to meet you, Erica Hale,” he responded. “Are you enjoying the party?”
Erica responded enthusiastically, and the two became immersed in a conversation about each of the different elements of the play area.
Eventually, the conversation rolled around to the big red slides that Isaac had been so desperate to use the last time he was here, and Stiles asked Erica if she had been down it yet.
She paused for a moment, as if reluctant to respond, then shook her head shyly.
“Well,” Stiles replied conspiratorially, “me too. It’s way too big for me. It’s scary.”
Erica eagerly responded with a nod in agreement, before squeaking excitedly, “We could go down it together! Then we wouldn’t be scared!”
At that moment, Derek thought it best to intervene – sure, Stiles might have been a little annoying in the fact that he wouldn’t shut up earlier, but this was his break and, from what Derek could see, he deserved it.
“Maybe later, Erica. Stiles is taking a break,” he informed her gently, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
“Actually,” Stiles whispered with that same tone of conspiracy, “I’ve secretly wanted to go on the big slide for ages. I just needed a brave little girl to do it with.” He grinned, offering out his hand to Erica to help her down from Derek’s lap. “Only if your uncle doesn’t mind, though.”
“You don’t have to do that—”
Stiles waved Derek off. “No, no, it’s totally fine. I should probably get back to work, anyway. I’ll bring her back in one piece,” he grinned, before turning to walk back towards the play area with Erica in tow, already animatedly discussing something with her which was lost to Derek’s ears.
Derek just watched for a moment, before rolling his eyes, Idiot.