Chapter Text
Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful?
Will you still love me when I’ve got nothing but my aching soul?
I know you will…
Derek awoke from his dream with a satisfied hum. He couldn't quite remember what he had been dreaming about, only that it had been good. As the haze of sleep slowly cleared, Derek opened his eyes to greet the morning sun. It was mornings like this that Derek was glad that he had moved back into the old Hale house. The sunlight was just beginning to dapple through the leaves of the old trees that surrounded the house and Derek watched as the bees and butterflies danced around the leaves and the birds began their morning song.
Still toeing the line between awake and asleep, Derek rolled over and threw his arm over Stiles. He grabbed the younger boy’s chest and gently used it as leverage to pull himself closer so that they were spooning. Derek sighed happily and snuggled into the crook of Stiles’ neck.
Derek briefly considered falling back asleep, when he realised that Stiles’ usual scent was not right. It wasn’t unpleasant… but it wasn’t right. It smelled kind of like something he had been sprayed with once by one of those facist sprizter girls at the mall. Also, Stiles’ chest felt oddly lumpy, almost as if he had breasts. Fuck.
Derek clenched his jaw and opened his. Okay. Yep. He was spooning Erica. Derek let out an involuntary yelp and pulled his hand from Erica’s chest, jumping straight out of the bed. That was when he realised that all of the pack was in the bed.
“What are you all doing in my bed?” Derek growled.
No response.
“Stiles!” Derek screamed angrily, "I thought we talked about thi-,"
“Shh, Derek!” Scott hissed from somewhere below Isaac and Allison. Derek honestly wasn’t sure where Scott was in the heap of bodies on Stiles’ side of the bed. After all, it was only a queen sized bed and there were potentially 10 of them in the puppy pile. “Stiles is sick.”
Derek’s expression softened. Stiles had told Derek that he wasn’t feeling well yesterday. He must have spiked a fever in the middle of the night and was intercepted by the rest of the pack on the way to kitchen or something… either that or Derek was just a really heavy sleeper.
“Everyone move over,” Derek whispered, “there’s a whole other side of the bed you can spread out onto now.”
There were murmurs of disagreement. Derek rolled his eyes. He dragged Erica toward him, out of the pile and right to the very end of Derek’s side of the bed. She didn’t stir. She was the heaviest and most hideous sleeper. Derek shuddered as he took in her face; she looked like one of the victims from The Ring. Her mouth and one eye were wide open; her hair a tangled blonde mess that had taken the shape of the mattress over the course of the night. Looking at her, Derek recalled the time that Allison had found Erica napping in the janitor’s closet of that bank. Allison had sworn up and down that Erica was dead, but Derek knew better.
Next was Jackson. Derek fished him out of the pile and moved him next to Erica. Still half asleep, Jackson grabbed Derek’s arm and whispered groggily, “I don’t wanna go to school today.”
Derek raised an eyebrow. He rolled his eyes and patted Jackson on the head. “Whatever,” Derek barked. Jackson grinned, letting go of Derek’s arm and rolling over to spoon Erica. Derek smiled fondly before shaking his head and turning his attentions back to the pile of bodies.
He moved Allison off the top of the pile, revealing Lydia and Aiden underneath. He pushed Lydia and Aiden next to Jackson, before placing Allison gently on top of them. What had Derek’s life become? He was literally playing tetris with the bodies of teenagers.
Finally, Derek could see Stiles. Well, most of him at least. He removed Isaac and wedged him between Jackson and Erica. Isaac let out a small noise of contentment as Jackson readjusted his position to fit closer to Isaac’s body.
Stiles really did look sick. He looked clammy, cold, puffy eyed and pale. Scott was holding Stiles closely, both arms wrapped around him protectively as Stiles shivered into his bare chest. Derek raised his other eyebrow. Their bromance was insane. As was his pack’s ability to literally sleep through someone picking them up off the bed and moving them. If someone attacked them in the middle of the night, they would be fucked…
“Scott, I’ve got this,” Derek whispered.
Scott grunted in response, stirring from his sleep and looking at Derek. He nodded slowly, crawling over Aiden and Lydia to find a place next to Allison in the bed.
Derek jumped right into where Scott had been sleeping.
“Hey,” he whispered into Stiles’ ear.
“Derek,” Stiles groaned, “feeling sick…”
“I know,” he whispered, carding his fingers through Stiles’ hair. “I guess we’ll be spending the day in bed.”
“Can’t,” Stiles wheezed, “stuff to do.”
“It can wait.”
Stiles shivered into Derek’s bare chest, wheezing and coughing. “Gotta go grocery shopping. Nothing for the pups to eat.”
Derek sighed heavily. Obviously Stiles was not well enough to leave the bed, but at the same time Derek loathed grocery shopping.
“It can wait.” Derek repeated, hopeful that Stiles would drop the issue. “I don’t want to leave you while you’re so sick,” he said carefully.
Stiles raised one of his eyelids and looked at Derek. “You’re not even going to offer, are you?” Stiles asked bluntly, flailing as wildly as his weak limbs would allow.
“Fine. I’ll go. What to do we need?” Derek sighed.
“Milk!” Scott offered from the other side of the bed.
“Oh, and cookies!” Isaac shouted gleefully, apparently now very awake and full of beans.
“Coffee,” Jackson moaned.
“Peanut butter, ham, cheese, bread. And can you grab some of those steaks that we had the other night?” Aiden murmured groggily.
“Chocolate, soda water, cheerios, lucky charms and mayonnaise.”
“Mac and cheese!”
“Orange juice.”
“Oh, Derek, can you get some brownie mix? I’m having a serious craving for brownies.”
“Well, if Scott gets brownie mix, then I want cookies and cream ice cream.”
“Yeah, good idea! Can we get some chocolate topping while we’re at it?”
“Mince, lasagne sheets, béchamel sauce, pasta sauce… um… oh and garlic bread.”
“Oh, oh, don’t forget to grab some tea and some honey,” Lydia said cheerily. “Oh, and breath mints,” she added darkly, looking at Erica’s sleeping form darkly.
Derek’s jaw clenched. How in the actual fuck did they expect him to remember all of that?
“Well, since you’re all awake now, why don’t you all go and I’ll stay here?”
They all sighed and grumbled in unison, throwing random excuses at him.
“I’ve got a foot thing,” Jackson murmured.
“Period,” Allison and Lydia chimed in unison.
“My… uh… face hurts?” Isaac said slowly.
“C’mon Derek, you know that Stiles will heal faster if the whole pack is with him.”
“But I’m the alpha,” Derek retorted.
They all groaned loudly. “Yes, we know!” They all screamed back at him.
“As the alpha, shouldn’t you be providing for the rest of your pack?” Lydia asked smugly.
“Plus, we don’t have any money…” Scott added.
Dammit.
“Okay baby, I’ll be back soon. Stay in bed,” Derek whispered to Stiles. He sighed again as he mentally prepared himself for grocery shopping.
“Derek,” Stiles rasped, “No sugar. Fruit. Vegetables. Healthy stuff.”
Derek kissed him on the forehead, “Okay, back soon.” Derek gave the whole pack one final glare before grabbing a shirt, his pants and shoes and storming out of the room. “What the actual fuck?” Derek growled, as he tripped and fell to the floor on the way out of the room. He looked at Ethan and Danny who were spooning in the doorway, smelling suspiciously of sex.
“There was no room in the bed,” Danny offered apologetically, smiling sheepishly.
Derek rolled his eyes, continuing his storm out.
“Where are you going?” Cora called out to him from the kitchen.
“Out,” Derek replied darkly.
“Where?”
Derek sighed and walked into the newly refurbished Hale house kitchen. Cora was sitting on top of the kitchen bench in a position that looked both dangerous and painful. Boyd smiled at him from behind the kitchen bench and waved.
“What are you doing?” Derek asked confusedly, raising an eyebrow.
She raised an eyebrow back at him. “Meditating, what the hell does it look like?”
“Do you have to do it on the space that we prepare food?” Derek asked, trying to untangle her limbs in his mind in an attempt to understand how she even got into that position.
“Yes,” she replied bluntly. Derek raised his other eyebrow. She looked at him expectantly. “Well, where are you going?”
“Grocery shopping,” Derek sighed. “Stiles is sick and the rest of the pac—,”
“Jeez, Derek. I didn’t ask for a play-by-play of your morning. Grocery shopping would have sufficed.” Cora replied sharply.
Derek rolled his eyes at her. She really was a female him. Though he would never admit it. Ever.
“Get pop-tarts,” she yelled after him, as he walked out the door to his car.