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It wasn’t like a miraculous event, where everything changed overnight. In fact, it took days for some, and weeks for others, but slowly people started to relax around him. The first thing Stiles noticed was the checkers guy. He was watching Stiles as he walked down the strip mall, and Stiles did a double take, because Arnold hadn’t looked at him in a very long time. Not since Stiles had been about twelve, and beat the crap out of Arnold for a week solid.
“You want to play?” Arnold asked as he motioned towards the board in front of him.
“Me?” Stiles asked, pointing to his body in a combination of surprise and disbelief.
“Who does it look like I’m talking to?” he asked and Stiles grinned at him. He knew that Arnold was important to Derek, that Derek would come and play for hours sometimes, and if the invitation was real, Stiles wasn’t about to squander it.
They played for an hour and a half, and Stiles started to lose on purpose because he didn’t want Arnold to get pissed. “Chess is more my game,” he admitted, and in a few days, when he walked by again, Arnold motioned to the small wooden pack sitting next to his table.
“I have a chess set, if you’re interested,” he said offhandedly. Stiles grinned, sat down, and got his ass handed to him for the next few hours. It was great.
*
“You’re smiling more,” Mrs. Sherman said as Derek paused in his lawn mowing to have a glass of lemonade. He tilted his head to one side curiously. “I’ve noticed.”
“There’s a lot going right in my life right now,” Derek admitted, and she nodded at him.
“I guess that’s so.” She tapped her finger on her own glass, trailing a drop of condensation for a moment before looking up at him again. “You’re still dating that Stilinski kid.” It wasn’t a question, so Derek shrugged.
“Stiles has been great. Really helped bring some people together.” He was also a pain in the ass, incredibly self involved, and still grounded. Derek was starting to think that he was grounded because the Sheriff wanted Derek over for dinner, more than he was still trying to punish Stiles.
“You’re smiling again,” she said, and when he looked at her, she was smiling as well.
“It’s easy to do right now,” he admitted.
“That’s a good thing. I’ll just leave the pitcher here, for when you’re ready for more.”
“Thank you ma’am.”
*
“Scott, it’ll be easy! I promise. You just go up to her and say,” Stiles took in a deep breath and stared right into his best friend’s eyes. “Look Allison, I know we’ve had our differences, and I know you were supposed to stay out of things supernatural, but it’s obvious you and your father aren’t going to do that. I’d really like it if you would consider joining my pack. You’re really solid, and strong, and the whole archery thing is amazing. I’m not trying to get in your pants, I just really care about you and think you’d be a great pack member. If you want to take a year to decide, the offer will still be open then. Thanks.”
Scott’s eyes went wide and he shook his head emphatically. “Noooo! Stiles, I could never do that! She’d be so embarrassed! I’d be so embarrassed! It would never work!”
“Oh my God!” Stiles said, tossing his hands up in the air. “Look bro, do you want her in the pack or not?”
“Yes! Yes, I do, but I’m just, I don’t want her to feel pressured or anything. You know?” Scott’s hands went to his hair and started tugging at it. “I want her to know that I respect any decision she makes regarding it, and I’d love to have her, but I don’t want her to think that she can’t go off and do things without my permission or, you know, anything like that. She’ll still be her, and she’ll still have to listen to her Dad, and she can go to college all the way across the world if she wanted to, even though Derek says she wouldn’t want to do that if she was in the pack, but…” He took in a breath, and if Stiles didn’t know for a fact that he wasn’t about to have an asthma attack, it would certainly look like he was now.
“Did you get all that?” Stiles asked, glancing behind him at the door to his father’s study.
“Yep,” Allison said. She opened the door and stepped out and Scott’s face went bright red. “So, you want me in your pack but you’re terrified to ask me because… I broke up with you, or because I wasn’t supposed to get involved this time around?”
“Um…” Scott looked utterly betrayed and Stiles gave him a bright smile. It was good for Scott to be off kilter, it would make his reactions more real. “Yes?”
“Oh you idiot,” she laughed, walking over to him and wrapping her arms around him. “Yes, I would like to join your pack. You will have to talk to my dad of course, because he’s not going to be okay with me doing so and being out of the loop. If you’re good with that, then I’m good with this.”
Scott slumped into her arms and held her close. “Ally,” he said, and it sounded like a moan of dismay. “You mean that?”
“Every word.”
Stiles gave them a grin and headed for the door. “Well, my job is done,” he said as he brushed his hands off on each other. “Don’t make out in my house or my father is going to kill me.”
“Where are you going?” Scott asked, twisting just enough to look at him.
“I have pack things to do with Derek.” He could feel each of the pack members, the bright hot silver that was Erica, the strong blue that was Boyd, the interesting yellow of Isaac, and the creepy weird green of Peter. Derek was deep red, and Ethan was a strange sort of orange. Stiles didn’t think that Derek felt the members like colors, he thought that Derek probably felt them like emotions. It hadn’t occurred to Stiles that being Derek’s Mate would join him in the pack bond like this, but if he’d been thinking about it, he might have realized that was why a person couldn’t be in another pack then their Mate’s. There was no way he was going to get around joining Derek’s pack, because he’d already done so.
Not that Scott really knew that, because Stiles was still playing moderator between the packs. It didn’t seem to matter, he was doing a great job, people were getting together, and he was fairly certain that he’d always be just a little on the outside of everything, even immersed as he was in it.
“Okay, I’ll see you later bro,” Scott said and Allison gave Stiles a wink.
“Yep! Have a good night.” Stiles twirled the keys around on his finger and hopped out of the house. It was the first night he had free of his grounding, and he planned on making the most of it.
*
“Really?” Derek asked, raising his eyebrows at Stiles. “Your dad’s not going to suddenly appear with a patrol car and arrest me half way though this night, right?”
“Look, Derek, he likes you, remember? He’s not going to do anything to make you look bad to anyone, because now his precious son is with you.” Derek hated it when Stiles acted all… well, show-offy. Like he knew the secrets to the universe, and he’d tell you all about them if you’d shut up long enough to hear.
“If you say so.” Derek sent a soft wave of “get out” at his Uncle, and he didn’t even have to try to hear the answering laugh. The bonds between pack had grown strong, incredibly strong, and he couldn’t imagine leaving that for anything. How Deucalion or any of the other Alpha’s had done so was beyond him. It didn’t matter.
He slipped his arms around Stiles and pulled him in close. Stiles grinned and licked Derek’s neck, sending a shiver of delight through him. “I’ve got ideas for tonight,” Stiles said, voice heated, arms tightening around him.
“Yeah?” Derek asked, lifting his eyebrows. Stiles’ ideas were always amazing. “Then let’s head up.” He’d never tell Stiles that though.