Work Text:
"Wait, why are we here again?"
Stiles looked around the busy mall wildly, trying to avoid running into any wayward shoppers who happened to get in the way of Lydia Martin on a mission.
She grabbed his hand while rolling her eyes and pulled him along with her as she made a beeline down one of the mall corridors. "You need to get your gifts wrapped."
"What? No, I have paper and tape at home and--"
"Stilinski, I've seen the way you wrap gifts and it's pathetic. Plus I need an excuse to stop by the gift wrapping station again," Lydia said as she weaved sharply around a slow-moving older couple. Stiles felt like the last man in the chain when his class would play Crack the Whip during ice skating in elementary from being jerked past them.
"Wait, again? How many gifts did you buy this year?" Stiles asked.
Lydia waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, I'm done shopping. Have been since about three weeks before the wrapping station opened for the season."
"Then why--"
"Just keep up, Stilinski."
So Stiles did. He had almost six inches on her, even in her heels, but he was practically jogging to keep up with her. By the time they finally reached the gift wrapping booth, set up for the season by mall management to raise money for the local food bank, Stiles had to shrug out of his coat to cool down.
Stiles moved to get in an empty line with a guy he vaguely remembered from high school but Lydia grabbed him by the shirt sleeve and pulled him into another line with a customer already getting something wrapped. Stiles glanced back at the empty line with... Ian? Isaac? and shrugged when his former classmate looked back at him.
"Why--"
Stiles' voice trailed off as soon as the woman in front of them collected her wrapped gift and stepped out of line and he could see who was going to wrap his gifts.
"Derek!" Lydia exclaimed cheerfully, in a much happier tone than she'd greeted Stiles when she picked him up earlier. Stiles hadn't seen her since the summer and he didn't even rate a better greeting than a guy who wraps Christmas gifts?
But Stiles could see why as soon as they stepped up to the counter and he got an eyeful of this Derek guy. Tall, dark, and brooding at first glance and he wore it incredibly well. For a month during the summer between junior and senior year of high school Stiles tried in vain to grow stubble even a hint as magnificent as Derek's. His hair was thick, his arms strong and his lips...
Were moving.
"What?" Stiles asked, feeling dumb.
"We need these wrapped please, Derek," Lydia spoke up and poked Stiles to hand over the bag of gifts he was carrying for everyone. She glanced over the counter at the paper selection. "I'm thinking the foil silver paper with the inlaid snowflakes for half with the deep blue ribbon and the rustic Christmas tree paper with twine for the other half."
"Don't I have a say in what paper I like?" Stiles piped up.
"No," Lydia replied quickly. "Derek, what do you have for glitter paper?"
Derek glanced up at Stiles and quirked an eyebrow at him. Stiles took a deep breath and put his hands on Lydia's shoulders.
"You know your gift is in that bag too, right?"
"Is this your way of telling me to go get us coffees?"
"Sure, yes! Coffee's great. Lots of coffee! Take your time," Stiles replied back enthusiastically.
Lydia rolled her eyes at him but smiled fondly. "Decaf for you. Come find me if I lose my way into a shoe store!"
"Will do," Stiles called as she walked away in the direction of the food court. Once she was gone Stiles scrubbed a hand over his face and groaned.
"Sorry about her," Stiles said to Derek once he turned back to his counter. "You can use whatever's easiest, it's fine."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, she's fine. She'll never see the gifts anyway."
Derek shrugged. "You're the one that has to deal with her." He turned around to grab some sheets of paper to get to work. Stiles couldn't help it if his eyes drifted down Derek's body as he moved and twisted, grabbing this and that to start wrapping. Derek's words echoed in his head as he watched and then they actually clicked for him and he blinked.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Stiles asked.
Derek looked up at him, surprised. "What?"
"That I have to deal with her?"
"Oh." Derek seemed to get red and he looked around awkwardly. Across the booth Stiles' former high school classmate smirked at Derek. "I just meant, I mean. She's fine! Just, uh. She's your girlfriend, is all!"
Stiles watched Derek fumble for his words and how his expression veered between annoyed and freaked out as he tried to come up with the right thing to say. He snorted and when Derek looked up sharply at him he started laughing outright.
"Lydia's not my girlfriend!" Stiles snickered. "Maybe once upon a time but that ship sailed into other, bicurious waters." Derek seemed to relax at that.
"Besides, you think she could handle all this sexiness?" Stiles ran a hand down his chest in a mock-beefcake-y way and bit his lip. Now it was Derek's turn to snort and have a chuckle that only offended Stiles a little bit.
"I don't think anyone can handle it," Derek replied but he glanced up quickly at Stiles and ducked his head to hide a grin, bending over one of the gifts as he expertly folded creases in the wrapping paper.
Stiles leaned across the counter briefly and said in a quieter tone, "You certainly couldn't."
Derek's nimble fingers paused as he manipulated the paper. "You think so?" Derek looked up under his lashes at Stiles, challenging him.
Stiles felt heat zing through him and fought to keep the threatening grin from creeping across his face. Before he could reply a Post-It note was slapped down on the counter between them with a phone number on it.
"It's one thing when the customers hit on you but I cannot handle you being a horndog back. Spread the holiday spirit on your own time. I'm going on break," Ian-or-Isaac announced before he hurried out of the gift wrapping booth.
Stiles looked down at the phone number, then at Derek.
Neither of them moved.
***
"Are you mad?" Stiles asked as he walked out of the mall with Lydia.
Lydia gave him a confused look. "At what?"
"That Derek's going on a date with me?"
"Stiles, I didn't bring us there for me, I did it for you," Lydia told him like it was obvious.
"What? But why--"
Lydia cut him off with a kiss on the cheek and a wide grin. "Merry Christmas, Stiles."
***
One Year Later
"I'm home! Stiles?" Derek called as he walked in the loft.
"In here!" Stiles called from the bedroom. He listened as Derek toed off his boots and dropped his jacket on one of the stools at the kitchen counter. Dropped his keys in the bowl there, then paused to strip his socks off. Stiles could hear the soft padding of his bare feet across the floor as he got the bedroom.
Stiles was on the bed covered by a soft throw, and reading with one of the bedside lights on. He put his book down when Derek walked in and laced his fingers together on his bare chest. He smiled at his boyfriend and beckoned him as Derek stripped his shirt off over his head and dropped it on the floor.
Derek grinned back and crawled up the bed from the bottom, crouching over Stiles on his hands and knees as they kissed, greeting each other after a long day apart. Stiles buried the fingers of one hand in Derek's hair, holding his head close as his tongue traced the lines of Derek's lips under his own.
"Long day?" Stiles murmured when they pulled away.
Derek nodded. "Arduous. The constant threat of paper cuts or scissor-related injuries is always terrifying."
Stiles smacked Derek on the butt with a smirk. "Ass."
"And a damn fine one, I seem to recall someone saying," Derek replied with a laugh.
"Tired?"
Derek noticed the sly glint in Stiles' eye. "Depends on what you have in mind."
"I did some wrapping of my own." Stiles grinned as he wiggled his body. Derek raised his eyebrow but sat back so he was perched on Stiles' legs and slowly pulled the throw away.
Derek stared.
"Did you seriously gift wrap your dick?"
Stiles wiggled again and made his half-hard cock wave at Derek. "I learned from the best."
Derek leaned in and made an impressed sound. "That's a really great Tiffany-style you've got there, how long did it ta--"
Stiles reached up to pull Derek down on top of him by his shoulders, laughing while Derek grinned into his chest.
"Shut up and unwrap me, you bastard!"