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Really it’s Derek’s own fault for choosing to move back into the house. Living under the same roof as his parents again is one thing, but living with his sisters is entirely another.
School being out of session means his nephews are in rare form bouncing around the house. And since he’s the only one of his siblings without a “real” job (“grad school doesn’t count, you nerd,” Cora likes to tell him), he’s usually the one stuck with babysitting duty. And he loves the boys, he does, but it’s difficult to get any work done on his thesis when cooped up inside with a couple of stir crazy eight-year-olds.
So. Community pool it is. Laura signed the boys up for swimming lessons four days a week without telling Derek until the night before their first one, but Derek doesn’t have it in him to complain too much. At least it’ll get them all out of the house for a little while, and maybe wear the boys out enough that they’ll be content to laze around in front of the TV for few hours afterwards while Derek writes.
Josh and Beck are a handful on a good day, but they seem fairly well contained now, racing each other from wall to wall across the shallow end. The instructor (“call me Stiles” he’d said at the start, which the boys had loved and Derek had scowled at) watches with a smile on his face and doesn’t bother correcting their form.
So far the guy hasn’t even gotten fully into the pool, or even taken his shirt off, just sitting on the edge with his legs kicking idly about in the water while he observes the kids. But if this is just some sort of glorified babysitting deal, Derek has absolutely zero problems with that. He brought a book with him and he knows the boys are already competent enough in the water to make lessons fairly superfluous anyway.
“Alright, high dive time!” Stiles shouts out of nowhere, and that definitely catches Derek’s attention.
Derek shoots up out of his chair and stalks forward, ready to put his foot down, even if it means being the bad guy. Or possibly the hero, judging by Josh and Beck’s matching terrified expressions.
But Stiles just starts laughing, smoothly takes his shirt off and throws it to the side, and jumps down into the water. “Kidding, guys. Relax. Besides, nobody gets to go on the high dive unless they can beat me in a race to the deep end. And no way are you two up for that.” Stiles smirks.
Josh looks affronted, and Beck sputters indignantly. “Yes we are!”
“Yeah!” Josh nods. “Just not, uh, maybe not in the deep end. But we could beat you over here. We’re fast! You saw!”
Stiles nods, considering. “Okay, you have a point there. You two are pretty fast… But, if you want, I could teach you to be faster. I could even teach you how to be that fast in the deep end, too.”
Josh and Beck clamber all over themselves in their enthusiasm at this. And Derek can’t decide who’s suddenly more in love with Stiles, the boys or him.
In his oversized T-shirt and loose board shorts, Stiles hadn’t looked like much at first. But in the water, the sun glistens off of a beautiful expanse of freckled, tanned skin, and his bare chest is considerably broader and more muscular than Derek had assumed. Stiles’ eyes shine bright at Josh and Beck’s sudden eagerness to learn, and he smoothly guides them into a basic breaststroke as though it had been their idea all along.
Derek sits back down in his chair with his book, though he spends more time watching the water than reading.
The next two weeks are a very sweet kind of torture.
The Hale family has breakfast all together early each day, before the adults head out to work and Cora heads to a local summer camp where she’s where she’s a councilor. Derek gets in a quick workout while the boys are on dish duty, and then the three of them head over to the pool to fawn over Stiles for a couple hours.
Well. The boys fawn. And swim. Derek just offers an awkwardly terse “hello” and then retreats to his usual deck chair with a book he has no intention of finishing any time soon.
Stiles becomes Josh and Beck’s newest most favorite person ever, and Derek would be jealous if he thought he’d ever had any chance at that title in the first place. Or if he wasn’t just as head over heels gone on the guy as well. He almost joins in with the boys on exclaiming over Stiles at dinner one night, and has to abruptly stuff a bread roll into his mouth to keep from saying anything embarrassing.
It will never come to anything, of course. Derek is socially inept at best and outright mean on a bad day. And even if someone did manage to make it past the rough exterior, he’s been told his personality is “about as boring as a PBS documentary from the early nineties.”
Derek happens to enjoy those documentaries, thank you very much, but he’s pretty sure that fact just proves Cora’s point.
So Derek doesn’t entertain the idea of anything more. Even if the warmth in his chest that grows a little bit stronger everyday spent at the pool is starting to feel a lot like pining. He doesn’t let himself think about it too much.
That is, until one day when he runs into Stiles outside of their schedule interactions at the pool.
“Catching up on a little light summer reading, huh?” The voice is unmistakable, even if Derek usually only hears it from a distance and directed at eight-year-olds. He looks up just as Stiles slides into the chair across the table from him in the reading room of the university library.
Derek blinks and has to forcefully pull himself back to the real world from out of his three-hour research binge. He’s got about a dozen thick books in stacks around his laptop and notebook, and the glasses he only ever wears when he doesn’t care how he looks are so far down his nose they fall off when he raises his head, and he scrambles to catch them and put them back on.
It’s a Saturday, which is one of his few free days anymore. Laura took the boys to the science museum for the afternoon, and Cora is babysitting later for her biweekly “Voltron Marathon and Root Beer Float Night.” Derek has no idea what time it even is.
“I, uh. What?” he responds eloquently.
Stiles looks entirely too amused. “Just teasing, man. And sorry to interrupt if you were, like, in the zone or whatever. But I was studying in the corner over there,” he motions over his shoulder with his head, “and I noticed you’ve been sitting in the exact same position for way too long to be comfortable. So, consider this your friendly reminder to get up and stretch every once in awhile. Maybe grab some coffee or something while you’re at it to recharge.”
“Oh. Um. Thanks?” Derek raises a hand to massage the back of his neck and cringes as the stiff muscles protest. “I probably should finish up. Coffee sounds amazing right now.”
“Cool. Happy to be of service. And hey, if you–” Stiles cuts himself off abruptly and swallows, for the first time since Derek’s met him looking vaguely nervous. “That is, I know a place? If you want some company? I just came out the other end of the computer science project from hell and could use the caffeine. But only if you want. Seriously, don’t feel obligated if you–“
“That’d be nice,” Derek interrupts before Stiles’ cheeks can get anymore pink. Or before his own can.
Derek packs up quickly, stops by the circulation desk to returns the private collection books he borrowed, and they head out at leisurely pace towards the edge of campus.
“So what were you working on?” Stiles asks after several minutes of not quite comfortable silence.
“My comparative mythology thesis. The moral order versus the moral necessity in regards to the hero’s journey. Just, uh, ‘boring’ history and mythology stuff.”
“Boring? That sounds freaking awesome. Like that Joseph Campbell shit, right? Have you ever seen that old PBS miniseries of his? I think I still have the VHS tapes my mom and I used to watch. She loved that stuff.”
Derek’s eyes widen, and the feeling in his chest that was shaping up to look a lot like pining suddenly solidifies into something even stronger and potentially more dangerous. “I actually have those VHS tapes too.”
Stiles grins. Derek is doomed.
Over coffee at a table by the window they exchange basic information about themselves. Stiles is taking a couple of classes over the summer around giving swimming lessons and pulling life guard duty, and then finishing up his last semester of college in the fall with a computer science degree. Derek still has another year to finish his masters, but is thinking about getting a doctorate as well, and then maybe teaching.
“Sounds like a solid plan you got there. I’m jealous. I have pretty much no clue what I’m gonna do after I graduate. I mean, the only job I’ve ever had is at the pool. Hell, I still live at home with my dad.” As soon as the words are out of Stiles’ mouth he looks like he wishes he could take them back, an embarrassed grimace on his face.
Derek shrugs. “I live at home with my parents too. And both my sisters. And Josh and Beck.”
Stiles laughs. “Wow. Must be a full house.”
“It’s… I don’t know. It’s been an adjustment from being on my own in New York. But it saves me a lot of money in living expenses. And I like being there for Laura.”
“Your sister?”
“Yeah. She wanted a new start after the divorce, so she sold the house and is back with our folks until she can find another place. Plus she can use the extra help with the kids now that it’s just her and them.”
“Well, the boys certainly love you. They won’t shut up about you, in fact.”
Derek’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. He knows he’s one of the few male influences in their life at the moment, other than their grandfather who still works full time at an age when he could easily retire. But Derek’s never entirely certain if he’s really connecting with the boys, or if he’s just an easy target for their shenanigans. “Nothing too incriminating, I hope,” he tries for casual, but can’t keep the small, pleased smile off his face.
Stiles must catch it, because he smiles easily right back at him. “Josh is convinced that you’re actually Superman. Like, literal cape and all. He’s just waiting to catch you ripping your shirt off to reveal the spandex.”
This startles a laugh out of Derek, and also a blush. The news that his nephews adore him just as much as he does them is the most pleasant surprise he’s experienced in a very long while.
And it’s in that moment, too happy to keep his guard up, that Derek realizes that this conversation with Stiles is the first conversation he’s had in years with someone who wasn’t a member of his own family that he genuinely felt perfectly at ease through. That he enjoyed, even. And that he kind of wants to never end.
Derek downs the rest of his drink, wishing it were the kind that might offer him some extra courage right now, and steels himself. “Are you busy later?”
Stiles shakes his head. “Not really? My best friend recently started seeing someone, and my social life has taken a bit of a nose dive since then.” He makes a face. “Not that I don’t have other friends. I do. I mean… Sort of. Okay, I swear I’m not as pathetic as I keep making myself sound.”
“Do you want to get dinner with me?”
The question seems to catch Stiles off guard. His whole body freezes, and then his mouth opens and closes a couple of times without sound.
“As a date,” Derek clarifies, feeling intensely awkward when Stiles still doesn’t say anything.
“...No way,” Stiles finally responds, barely a whisper.
Derek winces and starts to excuse himself so he can go hide in his bedroom forever, when Stiles lunges across the table to grab onto his wrists and stop him. “I mean yes! Oh my god, yes! I don’t– I just wasn’t expecting– Derek, I have basically had a crush on you since the moment I met you, there is no way this is really happening.”
“Wait, you have?”
“Dude. I taught half of that first swim lesson with my shirt still on! I had to psych myself up just to get into the water when you and all your muscular, five o’clock shadow gorgeousness was sitting right there watching me. Did you really not notice?”
“I…” Derek huffs a quiet laugh and shakes his head at himself. “I was too busy losing my mind over how beautiful I thought you were, to be honest.”
Stiles goes bright red, ducking his head, and noticing when he does so that his long fingers are still wrapped loosely around Derek’s wrists on the table. He starts rubbing light circles with his thumbs into the skin at Derek’s pulse. Derek’s breath catches.
“I’m not do anything right now either, if you want to get a head start on dinner,” Stiles say quietly, the moment sliding effortlessly into something intimate and soft.
“Alright,” Derek sighs, just as quiet.
“You don’t think Josh and Beck will mind? If we…”
“Not even a little bit. And I’m pretty sure Laura will just try to high five me if she finds out.”
“Awesome. Let’s get to it, then.” Stiles let’s go of Derek to get up, but when Derek joins him he immediately finds his hand again and laces their fingers together. “Hey, maybe after dinner we can break out those VHS documentaries, huh? Make a real night of it.”
It takes Derek a moment to realize that Stiles isn’t teasing him. The expression on his face is utterly sincere, open and adoring, and Derek doesn’t think he’s ever been happier to be exactly as ‘boring’ as his sisters claim he is.