After a great deal of thought, I have made the decision not to post on this tumblr any more. While I still love Sterek and am still writing it, I’m not writing enough of it to have a dedicated tumblr for it any more. Any future Sterek drabbles and fanfic will be posted on my regular fanfic blog here. I may also repost some of my older stuff there as well. I will be leaving this tumblr up even though I am no longer posting to it. Thank you to everyone who has enjoyed my writing here.
Scott and Stiles had been inseparable from their first meeting. They had always done everything together, including signing up for the Jaeger program after Deaton had come to recruit them. And Stiles had fully expected that he and Scott would be drift compatible. They already made a great team, and he was sure that would translate to the drift. Only it didn’t.
“What do you mean we’re not drift compatible?” he demanded.
Deaton sighed. “I didn’t say that you weren’t drift compatible, it’s just that Miss Argent is more drift compatible with Scott than you are, and therefore they would make a better team.”
“But you told us that we would make a great Jaeger pilot pair.”
“I may have misspoken. Don’t look so glum, Stiles. You’re still a part of the candidate pool even if you and Scott aren’t a good match. There’s still a chance you might be drift compatible with someone else.”
Stiles doubted that. But then, pretty much nothing had been as he expected since he’d joined the Jaeger program. It had quickly become more and more clear that Deaton had wanted Scott in the program, and the only reason Stiles had been recruited was that Scott had refused to go without him.
And he couldn’t even manage to be drift compatible with his best friend. Most people tended to find him annoying in general, so Stiles couldn’t imagine somehow being drift compatible with them. And it wasn’t like there weren’t a plethora of other candidates in the program. No, Scott had been his best chance of being drift compatible with someone, and Stiles was just going to have to resign himself to figure out where else he might fit in the program.
Which is how Stiles found himself perched on one of the catwalks overlooking the Jaegar bay, listening to Deaton get into a fight with one of the Jaegar pilots. Well, Stiles couldn’t exactly hear what the pilot was saying, but he looked like he wanted to punch Deaton in the face, and Stiles could get behind that sentiment. Eventually, the pilot stalked off, and Stiles found himself wondering if maybe Deaton had once again bent the truth to get what he wanted.
He lost himself in thoughts of where he might be able to fit in if he wasn’t a pilot, and if he could really be useful here. Which was probably why he didn’t realize that there was someone coming until they were barreling into him. Stiles found himself sprawled on his back staring up at a pair of hazel eyes and a deep frown.
“You should pay more attention. You could get hurt.”
Stiles rolled his eyes. “Maybe you should watch where you’re going.”
It takes him a moment to recognize the guy as the pilot who’d been arguing with Deaton and that he was Derek Hale. Everyone in the Shatterdome knew who Derek Hale was. He and his sister Laura had been the most successful Jaegar pilots there were up until a month ago. That was when Laura had been killed in the middle a Kaiju fight. Derek had managed to get his Jaegar back to the base on his own, but he had been benched ever since. And he hadn’t been happy about that either.
Which gave Stiles an idea. It was probably crazy, but at this point, he was willing to try crazy.
Stiles is silent when he joins Derek in the window seat. It’s still pouring rain outside, and neither of them have to go out again today. Derek made room, so Stiles could slide into his lap and turned his attention back to his book. Stiles had brought his own book, and the afternoon was spent in silence save for the rain drops on the windowpane. But they’re warm and safe, and Derek is happy, and Stiles is content. Besides, books and cuddles are what rainy days were for.
Halloween duty could be completely insane even when it didn't fall on a full moon. Even before Stiles had known about werewolves, he'd known that full moons brought out the crazies. He was a son of a law enforcement official and his best friend's mom was a nurse. He'd heard all the stories before he'd become a deputy himself and started collecting his own. However, Stiles also knew the importance of family, and when Deputy Westfall has asked to trade shifts so he could take his daughter trick or treating for the first time, Stiles had agreed.
So far the night hadn't been too bad, but Stiles was keeping his fingers crossed. He'd had a gaggle of teenagers intent on egging their teacher's house to break up, one case of a guy flashing trick or treaters to deal with, and a noise disturbance from a party. It was all pretty mundane. Stiles knew that Scott had most of the pack at his and Kira's place, having a Halloween party of their own. Stiles wasn't going to make it this year, but he was glad to know that the pack was safely out of harm's way if anything should happen.
When he got the call about someone spotting an unaccompanied child, Stiles wasn't surprised. There was always at least one kid who got separated from their parents or group. He didn't expect to end up with his arms full of a hysterical werewolf dressed like a renaissance princess.
"She took Papa! He told me to run, and the bad men shot at me! I want my Papa!"
Her glowing golden eyes and tiny fangs combined with her tears were more heartbreaking than anything else to Stiles. He'd only ever met one other werewolf child, and he had been quite a bit older. He'd also been the most heavily protected member of that pack even though they were in friendly territory. Stiles couldn't imagine her being out here on her own unless something had gone terribly wrong. He also didn't know of any other werewolves in town besides Scott's pack which begged the question of just where this little one had come from.
Stiles carefully rubbed her back. "It's okay, sweetheart. You're safe now. My name is Stiles, and I'm a police officer. Can you tell me what happened?"
She sniffled a little, her face shifting back to normal. "Papa was taking me trick or treating. And then we were going to go get ice cream as a special treat because I've been so good with the move and everything. We were crossing the street and this big car pulled up. A blond lady got out, and Papa told me to run. Then men got out of the car and started shooting at me!"
The little girl dissolved into tears again, tucking her face into his neck. Stiles continued to rub her back as he tried not to sigh. It sounded like she and her father had been ambushed by rogue hunters. No hunters were supposed to operate in Beacon Hills without Allison's knowledge, but the fact that she associated with werewolves on a regular basis meant that some hunters disregarded her authority of Beacon Hills and the surrounding area. And it looked like someone was challenging her again.
Unfortunately, it looked like two newcomers to Beacon Hills were the ones who had gotten caught in the middle of the latest power struggle. Stiles was just hoping that the little girl's father was still alive. If the hunters thought that he was part of the Beacon Hills pack, then he might still be alive. He situated the little girl a bit better on his hip and bit back a sigh. Stiles had the feeling that this was going to be a long night.
"All right, sweetheart. We're going to go see what we can do about finding your papa, okay? Have you ever gotten to ride in a police car before?"
The novelty of that seemed to distract her long enough for them to get back to the station. His dad looked up from his desk when Stiles carried her in.
"Who's this?"
Stiles realized that he hadn't gotten her name, but she just considered his dad thoughtfully before speaking.
"My name is Talia Caryn Claudia Hale. I'm four."
His dad's eyebrows lift, but he didn't say anything. Stiles made a quick decision.
"All right, Miss Talia. How about you stay with Sheriff Stilinski here for a moment? I'm going to make a quick phone call, and then I'll get to work on finding your papa."
Talia frowned at him and then buried her face in the crook of his neck again. After a moment, she looked at him again.
"Okay. But you have to promise to come right back."
Stiles nodded, "I promise."
Talia reluctantly transferred to the sheriff's lap, and Stiles ducked away before she could start to fuss. His dad was much better with kids than he was, and Stiles was pretty sure that by the time his dad would have gotten a fairly good witness statement out of Talia. He needed to check in with Scott though. Hopefully, he would have some idea who Talia's father was, and if he didn't then maybe Allison would know something about the hunters.
The fact that Talia's last name was Hale worried Stiles though. The last time they had dealt with a Hale, it had been the werewolf that had bitten Scott and started their whole relationship with the supernatural world. Peter Hale had murdered his niece Laura and then had gone on to bite Scott as well as several other people and commit a number of other murders. Stiles had managed to connect most of the murders with people who had been involved with the arson and cover up that was responsible for the deaths of almost the entire Hale family and had left Peter Hale badly burned.
By the time that they had stopped Peter, they had a whole pack of teenage werewolves to deal with. And that was only the beginning. By the time they had gotten out of high school, their pack had expanded to have a banshee and a kitsune, and they had dealt with everything from Japanese demons to psychotic hunters and revenge seeking druids. College had been just as crazy, though thankfully, things had finally started to calm down the past few years. Stiles had almost thought things had gone back to normal or at least stable.
It took several rings before Scott picked up the phone.
"Stiles? What's up?"
"Do you know anything about a new werewolf in the area or rogue hunters that might have moved in?"
He could hear the frown in Scott's voice. "No. Let me grab Ally though. She might know something."
Moments later he was on speaker phone with the two of them.
"Stiles? Scott said we might have a hunter problem?"
"That what it sounds like. I've got a little werewolf by the name of Talia Hale who says someone attacked her and her dad while they were trick or treating and took her dad. She can't be more than four or five years old though. Dad's getting a witness statement from her now."
Allison sighed. "I haven't heard about anyone active in the area lately, but I'll check around. Is the little girl okay?"
"She seems shaken more than anything else. I've got to go, but call me if either of you hear anything."
He hung up with a sigh. Time to see what his had had found out. He had barely reentered the room when Talia practically attacked him, clinging to his legs. His dad gave him a rueful smile.
"I believe Miss Talia feels safest with you."
Stiles scooped the little girl up, perching her on his hip once again. Talia immediately buried her face in the crook of his neck once again while Stiles made his way over to the sheriff's desk.
"What did you find out?"
His dad sighed. "We're looking for Derek Hale. He's the new children's librarian actually. I ran the background check on him a couple of weeks ago. He's supposed to be starting work next week."
He tugged out a picture and handed it Stiles. The man in the photo was not what Stiles would have expected a librarian to look like. Male model, lumberjack maybe, but not a librarian. Stiles sighed.
"Do we have any idea why someone might be interested in him?"
His father shook his head. "Nothing mundane. He is Peter Hale's nephew, but Talia is his only living family at this point. He's been living in New York since the fire, and this is the first time he's been back since then."
Stiles bit back another sigh. That was not a good sign. It meant that instead a nice clear cut criminal case, they were going to be stuck with one that meant hiding information and coming up with cover stories. Stiles might be an old pro at it by this point, but it still could be deeply frustrating. And there was the fact that there was a child involved. Stiles knew that he should probably be calling child services at this point, but putting a werewolf in the hands of people who had no clue what they were dealing with seemed like a recipe for disaster. Which meant that he was going to be responsible for her until they could get this sorted.
"Can you get me his address? I figure it can't hurt to check it out, and Talia probably needs some of her own things if she's going to stay with me."
John Stilinski nodded. "Sure. Take back up when you go though. Parrish is due back from patrol any minute now."
Stiles nodded. "All right."
Then he turned his attention back to Talia. "Well, Miss Talia, once Jordan gets here we're going to go check at your house to see if you dad made it home. If he didn't, you'll stay with me tonight, and we'll keep looking for your dad tomorrow. Okay?"
Talia wrinkled her nose at him. "Do we have to wait? Can't we go now?"
He smiled at her. "Nope. We need to wait for Jordan. That way if your dad needs extra help, we already have it."
Thankfully, Jordan arrived before Talia got too antsy. It didn't take long for the three of them to drive out to Derek and Talia's home. Stiles was rather impressed by the place. It wasn't exactly the sort of place he'd expect from a children's librarian. The house was large and modern looking with big windows and dark wood siding. It wasn't really decorated for Halloween, but there were two jack-o-lanterns on the front porch. Stiles sighed and turned to Talia who was in the back of the cruiser.
"I need you to wait here for us, Talia. I don't want you to get out of the car for any reason, okay? Even if there is something scary going on outside. Do you understand?"
The little girl nodded.
"Good. I'll be back as soon as I can."
There was no response when he and Jordan knocked on the door. The good news was that the hide-a-key was easy enough to find. That was always better than having to break into someone's place. Inside, there weren't any signs that Derek had made it home. There was the sort of clutter and chaos that came with a recent move and having a child. Half unpacked boxes were littered around the building and toys were scattered in just about all of the rooms. Stiles found a small clutch of photos hung on the living room wall, most of them featuring Derek and Talia from the time she was an infant until now. There was an older photo of Derek and a woman Stiles recognized as Laura Hale, and an even older one that featured a teenage Derek with the entire Hale family.
None of it gave any indication of why someone would go after the Hales which, unfortunately, meant this was almost certainly the work of hunters.
"Find anything?" he asked Jordan.
The other man shook his head. "Unfortunately no."
Stiles nodded. "I'm going to put together a bag for Talia, and then we can head out."
It didn't take long for Stiles to locate the little girl's room. It was actually all unpacked and decorated with a forest theme. He quickly scooped up several changes of clothes, a night gown, and a well-worn bunny rabbit stuffed animal before heading back to the car, locking the front door behind him. He found Talia huddled in the back seat of the cruiser, watching anxiously for him.
"Did you find Papa?"
Stiles had to shake his head. "No. He wasn't there. So, you're going to stay with me tonight, okay? I'm just going to stop by one of my friend's houses to ask him to help look for your Papa tomorrow."
And he wanted to check to see if Scott or Allison had come up with anything so far. He was hoping that they had some sort of lead because otherwise Stiles wasn't sure where to start. They hadn't had any trouble with rogue hunters in the past six months, so either these people were new or they had followed Derek and his daughter.
When they arrived at Scott's, however, Talia didn't want to let Stiles out of sight, so he ended up carrying her inside with him. He wasn't entirely sure how Talia was going to react to werewolves she didn't know, but it was better that leaving her alone in the car when she was liable to burst into tears when he got out of the car. Situating Talia on his hip, Stiles knocked on the door.
Talia did not react well to Scott. She flashed her eyes at him and growled while tightening her grip on Stiles' neck.
"Mine!"
Scott looked bemused. "You can keep Stiles. What can I do for you?"
"Just wanted to check in before we go home to see if you'd found anything. There was nothing at the house."
Scott frowned. "Come in and talk to Allison. She has some ideas."
Stiles nodded then turned his attention to Talia. "Okay. We're guests here, so please don't attack any of Scott's pack."
Talia frowned at him. "Only if they don't attack me."
Most of the pack was still around, but they left the three of them alone as Scott led them towards the kitchen. Only Kira came to join them, slipping her hand into to husband's. Allison was in the kitchen with a cell phone pressed to her ear and a frown on her face. She looked up when they walked in, her eyes zeroing in on Talia.
"Keep in touch, Bruce. I need to know what's going on." She hung up and looked at Stiles with a grim smile. "I have good news and bad news."
Stiles nodded. "All right. What do you have for me?"
"I know who's behind this. It's Kate. I think she might have some history with Mr. Hale. That's the good news. The bad news is that I haven't been able to get any info on how many men she might have or where she might be holed up." Allison grimaced. "She might try and contact me. Kate hasn't tried to get me back into her camp since I married Isaac, but you never know. After all, she tried after years of radio silence when I was in college."
Stiles sighed. He'd been the one who had put together that it had been Kate Argent behind the Hale fire. It looked like she was trying to finish her work.
"All right. I'm going to take Talia home for the night, but tomorrow, we need to find Derek. Can I count on your help?"
Both Scott and Allison nodded.
"Just let us know what you need, and you've got it," Scott told him.
"Good. All right, Miss Talia, let's head on home."
It wasn't until Stiles had gotten her back to his dad's house that he realized he really didn't know what to do with a four year old. He hadn't exactly done a lot of babysitting in high school, and none of the pack had kids yet, though both Kira and Scott and Erica and Boyd had been talking about it lately. Talia though seemed to know the routine. It was only after Talia had been tucked in with her bunny in the spare room that they ran into problems. Talia didn't want him to leave. In fact, the idea of him leaving sent her into near hysterics.
Stiles finally managed to get her to compromise in letting Stiles go put on his pajamas as long as he came right back. It was less than five minutes away from her, but clearly that was too much for the moment that Stiles returned, Talia latched onto him and wouldn't let go. Stiles resigned himself to spending the night with her. It took a little bit of shuffling around to get them both situated comfortably, but there was something nice about having Talia cuddled up close.
He woke to find his dad standing over them with an odd look on his face that Stiles couldn't quite place. Something like wistful and nostalgic but not quite.
"I figured you might need a wakeup call. Turn up any leads last night?"
Stiles nodded, carefully disentangling himself from the little girl. "Allison's connections came through for us. We're looking for Kate Argent. It looks like this is all going back to the Hale fire once again."
His dad just sighed. "I'll be downstairs getting breakfast started. We can discuss your plans over food. I figure pancakes should be fine. Hopefully, Talia won't mind them."
Getting Talia up turned out to be a bit of a chore. Clearly, the little girl was not a morning person. Stiles couldn't exactly blame her. He was a night owl by nature, and early mornings were mostly made bearable by coffee. Still, the promise of pancakes was some incentive it seemed, and he and Talia made it downstairs with her dressed in less than half an hour. Talia quickly wolfed down the pancakes and sausage provided with a happy enough demeanor. It was only when Stiles brought up what was going to happen that day that trouble came.
"So, Talia, I'm going to go look for your father today. I need you to stay with my dad at the station, all right? I'll be back as soon as I know something."
Stiles shot a panicked look at his dad. The older man just shrugged.
"Talia, I can't look for your dad and keep you safe at the same time. My dad will keep you safe. I thought you liked him."
Talia made a face at him. "He doesn't smell the same as you."
There were things Stiles didn't think he would ever understand about werewolves. His dad cleared his throat.
"What if Stiles checks in with us while he's out looking for you dad? He can radio in every hour, and you can talk to him."
Talia considered this. "Fine."
The three of them made it out the door and off to the station a little later than usual. The unexpected addition of Talia had slowed their regular routine a little. Still, they made it to the station without being too late, and it didn't take too long to get Talia set up in the Sheriff's office and saying his goodbyes before getting down to business.
Allison and Isaac were both waiting for him by his desk. Stiles nodded at them.
"Let's take this outside."
Allison unrolled a map across the hood of Stiles' cruiser. "I did some more checking around, and Isaac and Scott ran patrols this morning. More bad news, they're not in any of the usual haunts. Not a whiff of anything near the abandoned warehouses or the industrial district. I also doubled checked to see if there was any property's locally in the Argent family name. There's nothing besides Dad's house and mine."
Isaac sighed. "I don't have much better news. I've got whiffs of wolfsbane, but nothing solid enough to follow."
Stiles frowned. "All right. So what do we know about Kate?"
Allison sighed. "It's all questionable. I mean, I've known Kate all my life, but I don't know how much of what I know is real. Especially given all the evidence you found. Kate's very much my grandfather's favorite and is still close to them. Dad suspects that the plan to take out the Hale pack was originally his idea. She's the one responsible in part for me finding out about the family profession. When we moved here, she started dropping hints and making leading comments. She's always been pretty competitive, and she knows how to hold a grudge. Beyond that, I'm not sure what I know that would be of use."
Stiles bit his lip. "It almost sounds like this all goes back to the Hale fire. What's the chance that she might return to the scene of the crime?"
Isaac frowned. "Didn't the county bulldoze the house years ago?"
"Sort of." Stiles shrugged. "They didn't do anything to the foundations or the basement."
Allison looked grim. "All right. Let's call in the rest of the pack. I don't want to go in without a plan. Kate's got back up, and we probably only have one chance at this if she's there."
Stiles nodded. "Right. We have a little girl who needs to have her dad back. We can't afford to screw this one up."
Isaac frowned. "What are you going to do if we can't save Hale? As much as I hate to say it, we might not be able to save him."
He just sighed. "Then I'm going to have to figure out to be parent. I don't think Talia's going to accept anyone else. She was barely willing to stay with Dad today, and most kids take to much better than they take to me. But that's the worst case scenario."
It didn't take long for the pack to gather together. While there hadn't been a major issue in a while, all of them remembered high school when it seemed like Beacon Hills was constantly under siege. Of course, they were older and wiser now. And knew the value of making sure they had a real plan. Since Jordan was in the know, Stiles pulled him in as well. He figured if Kate thought she was just up against local law enforcement first, it might make her underestimate them.
The old Hale house was on the far edge of town, almost in the preserve. All that was left of the house were some broken foundations poking out of the ground, but Stiles knew there was also an extensive basement area that was still intact. Stiles and Parrish shared a look before climbing out of the cruiser. Stiles took the lead, heading straight for the ruins, eyes darting around to for any evidence that someone had been in the area. There wasn't much beyond a few deep tire tracks, but that was enough to make Stiles figure they were on the right track.
He walked right up to the bones of the building, keeping a careful eye out for anyone who might be lurking around. When there was no reaction to his presence or any sign of an attack, Stiles signaled Jordan that he was going in and carefully raised his meager magical defensives. There wasn't a lot that Stiles could really do with his spark, but at the very least he could be warned if something magical was being thrown at him.
As Stiles climbed down into what remained of the basement, it became evident that there had been someone here recently even if it was hard to tell how recently. Still, there was clear evidence that someone had been coming down here on a regular basis. Stiles eased his gun out of its holster. Turning the corner, he didn't find Kate or any of her minions lurking. He did find Derek Hale, however, but what he found wasn't good. Stiles wasn't sure if Derek was even conscious or not.
The older man was strung up from the ceiling by chains, arms pulled over his head. He was also hooked up to a car battery, and Stiles bit back a wince as he took in all of the man's injuries. The fact that he was without a shirt just made it apparently how badly Derek had been tortured. And there really wasn't any other word for what had been done to the man. The electricity running through him had kept his healing from fully working on the injuries, and Stiles was honestly afraid the man wouldn't be able to tell friend from foe when Stiles released him. Still, he couldn't leave Derek just hanging there, and hopefully, Talia's scent on Stiles would help.
He also didn't have any time for delicacy. He didn't know how long they had until Kate or her minions reappeared, and he wanted to get himself and Derek to safely. So getting Derek down wasn't going to be a gentle process. First things first though. And when Stiles broke the connection between the battery and Derek, he caught sight of a pair of hazel eyes flutter open.
"Hey there, Derek. I'm Deputy Stilinski, and I'm going to get you out of here. Talia is safe and sound and tucked away at the Sheriff's station under guard by the sheriff himself, so you needn't fret about her. I'm going to get you down now. It's probably going to hurt, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't maul me when I get you free."
He wasn't entirely sure if Derek was understanding what he was saying, but at least it was worth a try to make sure the guy knew he was being rescued. It helped that Stiles had come prepared for this sort of thing. Amongst other things he had on his belt was a pair of bolt cutters. It took a little sawing at the chains, but Stiles managed to cut through. Derek didn't collapse like Stiles had feared, but he swayed dangerously on his feet, and Stiles doubted it would take more than stiff breeze to topple Derek. They needed to get to the relative safety of the cruiser.
Their luck didn't hold out that long. Stiles had barely gotten Derek out of the basement (Parrish had tried to help, but Derek had snarled whenever he came close) when Kate appeared. She was armed with a shot gun and what looked like a tazer to Stiles' eyes hung from her hip. Parrish put himself in between the pair and Kate. A nearly sub-vocal growl came from Derek.
Kate smirked at them. "Now what are you up to, boys? Don't you know that this is private property?"
Parrish squared his shoulder. "We're conducting a missing persons investigation. And this is no longer private property. It reverted back to the county years ago."
"Well, I'm not sure what you expect to find here. Just me and my boyfriend indulging a little. I know what we do isn't exactly to everyone's tastes, but surely it's not illegal."
Stiles snorted. Her attempt to pass this off as BDSM was laughable.
"You're not fooling anyone, Kate," Stiles said.
"You're also under arrest for the kidnapping of Derek Hale," Parrish added.
Kate laughed. "Oh, honey, that's not going to happen."
Before she could even raise the shotgun, an arrow whizzed by her hand. Allison's voice echoed out of the trees.
"Yes, it is. Kate Argent, you are guilty of breaking the Hunter's Code multiple times over. You can either submit to the officers here or I will deal with you. And you won't like my version of justice."
Kate shook her head. "Oh, Allison. You had so much potential. Then you had to throw it away on these mongrels. You won't really shoot your family."
There was a flash of golden eyes from the trees.
"She might not," Erica's voice rang out. "But she's not alone. And your henchmen are a little tied up at the moment."
For a moment, Stiles thought that Kate was going to go quietly. Her shoulders slumped, and the grip she had on her gun seemed to loosen. Then she swung the shotgun up and aimed it directly at Derek. Stiles pushed the werewolf behind him even as a shot rang out. Kate fell and Jordan lowered his gun as the pack came out of the woods.
Scott nodded at Stiles. "Get him back to the station and his little girl. We'll take care of this."
Stiles nodded. He had the feeling that Derek wasn't going to calm down or allow anyone to take care of him until he had seen that his daughter was safe with own eyes.
"Will do, Scotty. Come on, big guy. Talia's waiting for you."
The drive back to the station was a little awkward, and Stiles as glad it was just him and Derek in the car. Derek clearly wasn't happy to be back in a confined space, and Stiles couldn't blame him. He also tended to start growling if Stiles moved too far away from him, and Stiles was trying not to read too much into that. Derek was both very good looking under all of his injuries and very much Stiles' type. And the fact that he seemed to want to drape himself all over Stiles was doing things to Stiles' libido.
The two of them had just gotten in through the door when Talia practically flew out of the sheriff's office.
"Papa!"
Derek staggered under his daughter's weight, but Stiles could see just how tightly his was holding on to the little girl. Both Stiles and his dad gave the pair a few moments to reconnect before the sheriff cleared his throat.
"I know that you two would probably like nothing more than to just go home, but I'm going to need a statement, and we probably should take Mr. Hale to the hospital unless those injuries are going to heal overnight."
Derek frowned. "Do you have someplace private we can talk? I'm guessing you want to know everything."
Stiles tried not to let his surprise at hearing the man talk in complete sentences show. His dad gestured to his office.
"Come on in. I'm sure Stiles can keep Talia entertained if you'd prefer little ears not to be present. He's the one who's been taking care of her while we searched for you."
Derek's eyes flickered over to Stiles, and he could see the other man hesitating. But Talia muttered something into Derek's neck, and he sighed.
"All right."
The man handed him Talia and then said. "If anything happens to her while I'm gone, I'll rip your throat out with my teeth."
He had to bite back a smile at that especially when Talia glared at her father.
"She's in good hands. I promise."
Talia wrapped her arms around Stiles' neck and buried her face against his shoulder while Stiles settled at his desk. He was glad the station was mostly empty; he wasn't sure he could really deal with fending off questions, especially when he didn't know what story they were going with this time. Obviously, some parts of the story couldn't be included, and the fact that it had been Jordan who shot Kate added a complication, but at least it wasn't their first time dealing with this sort of rodeo. Talia mumbled something unintelligible into his shoulder, and Stiles gently rubbed her back.
In the end, it was all rather anticlimactic. Derek did end up going to the hospital, and Kate's minions were charged as accessories. And once the paperwork was done, Stiles figured that was it. He might see Derek and Talia around town, but he figured that would be it. He hadn't really thought he would miss the little girl as much as he did. Despite only really knowing Talia for a short period of time, Stiles had grown quite fond of her and found he wanted to know how she was settling in to Beacon Hills. Stiles knew that Derek and Scott had at least spoken and come to some sort of agreement about the two packs sharing territory in Beacon Hills, but Stiles was still curious about the Hales.
He was rather surprised when he came back from patrol one afternoon to find a plate of brownies and a handmade card on his desk. Stiles blinked and reached for the card. On the front there was a drawing that was clearly supposed to be Stiles and beside him was a big black wolf. He flipped the card open to find childish scrawl that read: Thank you for taking care of me. Love, Talia Caryn Claudia Hale.
Stiles barely had time to process that before the door to his dad's office opened, and Talia came running out.
"Stiles!"
She nearly bowled him over with her hug. He looked up just in time to see Derek shaking his dad's hand and following after his daughter.
"Papa says that I was lucky to find you, and we owe you thanks, so he helped me make double chocolate chip brownies for you. They're my favorite. I wanted to make you come home with us and have dinner because Papa makes the best teriyaki chicken, but he said that kidnapping people who take care of you even to feed them isn't polite."
Stiles blinked, a little startled at just how much the girl had transformed from shy to gregarious now that she was no long missing her dad, and looked at the girl's father. Derek Hale clearly had red creeping up his neck and his ears and looked a little embarrassed. Stiles just smiled.
"Well, thank you, Miss Talia. You didn't need to do anything for me. I was just doing my job, but I appreciate the brownies." He gently ruffled her hair and then turned his attention to Derek. Stiles held out his hand. "Mr. Hale, I don't think we have a chance to be properly introduced before. I'm Stiles Stilinski."
Derek shook his hand with a firm grip. "Deputy Stilinski, I can't thank you enough for taking care of my daughter. It's good to know that if the worst had happened, she would have been in safe hands."
"It was my pleasure. I'm just glad we were able to have this one end with a happy ending. How are you two settling in?"
Derek shrugged. "Pretty well. Talia's been having some nightmares, but she seems to be liking Beacon Hills. It's been a good change for us from New York, even if it is a little strange for me. So much has changed since I left."
"Well, if you ever need someone to show you two around town, I'd be happy to volunteer."
Derek smiled at him. "I may take you up on that. We had better get going though. I've got an appointment to with my new boss."
"I'll see you around them."
The other man nodded then turned to his daughter. "Say goodbye, Talia."
Somehow, Stiles found that he was running into the Hales all over town. Not that he minded at all. In fact, Stiles rather looked forward to it. Talia already had him wrapped around her little finger, and her father wasn't far behind. The more Stiles got to know Derek Hale, the more he liked him. Yes the man could be rather abrupt and stand offish (especially if you were hitting on him), but he also had a dry sense of humor, was just as big a geek as Stiles, and was a very devoted father. So ending up doing things like going out for ice cream with Derek or Talia or coming to one of Derek's kids programs at the library and talking about what it was like to be a sheriff's deputy wasn't a hardship for him.
It came to a head when Stiles and his father ran into Talia and Derek at the diner and started chatting while they waited to be seated. When the waitress came to get them, Talia rolled her eyes at the sheriff.
"Can I eat dinner with you instead? Papa is pining again."
John laughed. "I would enjoy that, Miss Talia."
Stiles blinked as the two of them headed off to the free table. "I think we've just been set up by your daughter and my dad."
Derek laughed. "I can't say I mind. I've been wanting to ask you out for a while now, but finding a babysitter that I trust and Talia likes has been a challenge."
"I wouldn't have minding having her along a date."
Derek shrugged. "I know. But I'd like a chance to get to know you without worrying about little ears."
So the two of them ended up in a booth across the diner from Talia and the sheriff. Stiles had been nervous at first, but he quickly relaxed over curly fries and a friendly argument over comic books. By the time their burgers arrived, it felt more like a fifth date than a first date. They lingered over dessert, and Derek sighed softly.
"I didn't really believe you were real at first. I haven't had anyone to count on or watch my back since Laura died, and suddenly there you were leaping to the rescue and smelling like pack. It was too good to be true. And then you were also good with Talia, and she adores you." Derek shook his head. "You're everything I could have imagined if I tried to dream up the perfect guy, and so much more. I keep expecting this to come apart at the seams. But it hasn't yet."
Stiles grinned. "I think that's the first time that someone's thought I was too good to be true. I'm sure reality will set in soon enough, and you'll realize just how annoying I can be. But I'm happy to let you keep that illusion as long as you like."
That made Derek laugh. "So, you're not going to say no to a proper date then?"
"Definitely not. With the munchkin or without? We could go see the new animated movie."
"How about dinner first, and if that goes well, we'll take Talia to the movies next time around?"
"Sounds like a plan."
A date with a cute werewolf dad wasn't not the expected result from Halloween patrol duty, but he'd say that this treat more than made up for the tricks of that night.
Stiles dumped his duffle bag in the entryway. "I'm home."
His boyfriend's voice drifted out of the kitchen. "Your dad just ran to the store. He should be back in fifteen."
He followed the sound of Derek's voice back to the kitchen to find the werewolf bent over the stove stirring some sort of concoction. Whatever it was, it smelled amazing. Stiles wrapped his arms around Derek's waist and leaned into him, pressing a kiss to the back of his neck.
"Dad's got you cooking already?"
Derek chuckled. "It was either that or leftovers. How was your flight?"
"Way too long. I wish our finals had matched up this year and we could have flown home together."
His boyfriend turned around and pulled Stiles into a proper hug. It had been nearly a month since they had seen one another in person. Luckily, their spring breaks had aligned this year. Despite their colleges only being about a three hour drive away from one another, both Derek and Stiles had found that getting together during the term was much harder than they thought, especially this year.
Derek pressed a kiss to the top of his head. "Just one more term now."
"I know."
By the end of spring, they both would be graduating with their bachelor's degrees. They had planned a trip across Europe for the summer, visiting a number of libraries and museums as well as the regular tourist spots. Then it would be back to Beacon Hills once again, at least for a little while. Stiles would be job hunting, though Derek had a job at the sheriff's department if he wanted. But neither of them had to think about that right now. No, they had entire week, barring supernatural shenanigans, to themselves at home before they had to go back to their senior year.
The front door opened again, and the two young men smiled at one another.
"Stiles? You home?"
"In the kitchen, Dad!"
It hadn't been easy, and it had taken years for them to get here, but Stiles didn't think that anyone could claim he and Derek had taken full advantage of Derek's second chance.
Stiles didn't know what to do with a sixteen year old Derek Hale. To be fair, he didn't really think anyone else did either. None of them had expected to find a deaged Derek when they launched their rescue mission. That one little hitch in the plan changed a lot of things. It doesn't help that Derek has no clue who any of them all. Thank god he was at least listening to Scott though.
By the time they get back to Beacon Hills, there were no new answers. Stiles had learned quite a few things about teenage Derek though. He's cocky and self-confident but has a sweet side too. He tries to hide that. Just like he tries to hide how sacred he is. During the drive back, no one mentioned his family. Especially after they realize that Derek still thinks they're alive. No one really wanted to be the one to tell him the truth.
Unfortunately, Deaton's a dead end. He doesn't know anything that could have caused this or how to reverse it. And that meant that the pack had to figure out what to do with Derek. Stiles wasn't sure how much longer Derek was going to cooperate with them either. The last thing they needed right now was him running off on his own. And that meant that they were going to have to figure out a cover for Derek. Which lead to a whispered conference at the vet's.
"We have to tell him," Stiles insisted.
"Are you sure?" Scott asked. "I mean, it might be better not to. It's a lot of shit to dump on a teenager, and I don't think we have time to deal with the emotional fallout."
"He's not going to trust us if we're not honest with him. And Kate's still out there. He trusts her at this point, remember? The last thing we need is for him to run off with her because he thinks she's his girlfriend."
"But-"
"Scott, when has lying to people or leaving them out of the loop ever worked well for us? Even when our plans worked, in the long run, it only caused trouble."
Scott sighed. "You're right. It's just-"
"I know."
And Stiles did. Telling Derek that almost all of his family was dead was not something that anyone really wanted to do, but it needed to be done before Derek found out some other way. Stiles took a deep breath.
"I'll do it. Tell him I mean."
"You're sure?" Scott asked. "I'm the Alpha after all."
Stiles just shook his head. "I've got it."
He had some experience about the wrong way to tell people that they had lost someone they loved. Spending as much time in the hospital with his mom had been an education in that. After a little while, Stiles had been able to tell how much practice a doctor had had in giving loved ones bad news. So he headed back into Deaton's office where Derek was waiting.
"Okay, here's the plan. We're going to go back to my place, Derek, and I'll do my best to explain what happened."
Derek scowled at him. "I'd really rather just go home. You can get my mom to deal with the rest of this. She's the Alpha."
Stiles just sighed. "Look, please trust me. I promise I won't lie to you, but I really need you to come with me."
Derek rolled his eyes. "Fine. But if I get in trouble with my mom, I'm blaming you."
Stiles' chest tightened just hearing that. The drive to his house was mostly silent. Stiles led the way inside, heading for the kitchen. This was the sort of conversation that called for hot chocolate.
"Have a seat. This won't take long," Stiles told him as he got out the stuff for hot cocoa.
It was rather odd to watch the teenage Derek sitting at his kitchen table. Stiles could see shades of the man that he knew, but there was a carelessness and a confidence to the younger version that the older Derek had lost. He carefully poured two mugs of the cocoa and sat down across from Derek.
"All right. There is no easy way to do this. I'm sorry, Derek, but your mother and the rest of the Hale pack are dead. A rogue hunter was responsible. There was a fire, and the only survivors were yourself and Laura. Peter made it out, but the injuries caused by the fire put him in a coma." Stiles kept going, wanting to get everything out there before the news really hit. "Laura was killed by Peter last year. In the end, you managed to kill him and became Alpha."
He knew the second his words really sunk in. Derek completely crumpled, folding in on himself in grief. Stiles hesitated a moment before leaving his seat and going over to the other teen. To his utter surprise, Derek accepted Stiles' arm wrapped around his shoulder, even leaning into the embrace. Stiles couldn't tell if Derek was crying or not, but it took a good five minutes before Derek was able to look him in the eye.
"I want to know everything." It was almost a growl.
"That's a long story. A lot has happened, and not much of it has been good for you. You're not going to like it."
"I need to know."
That made Stiles sigh. "Okay. But if you need me to stop, tell me. You can help me make dinner while I talk. My dad should be home in an hour or so. He's in the know, so we don't have to worry about making up a story for him. Scott's mom knows as well, but his dad doesn't, and we're trying to keep it that way."
He set Derek to work making a salad while Stiles started on grating cheese. Mac and cheese was easy enough to make, and it was comforting. They were both probably going to need that by the end of the night. Stiles started with Kate and went from there. He tried not to leave anything out. At this point, he figured that the truth was the best thing. The more that Derek knew, the less that could be used against him. He did try to be fair about it though. Stiles knew that some of his and Scott's assumptions about Derek early on had been off base and untrue, so he left that out. And things like Kate killing his family had not been Derek's fault. He didn't know if he could convince Derek of that, but he was going to try.
They had just gotten to the arrival of the Alpha Pack when the sheriff arrived home. He took one look at the scene in the kitchen before turning to his son.
"Stiles, do you want to tell me what's going on here?"
"We found Derek," Stiles offered.
"I can see that." His dad sighed. "I don't remember him being quite so young the last time I saw him."
"We're working on that. He doesn't really remember anything from the past six years or so."
John just sighed again. "How is this my life? All right, Derek, you're staying here until we get this sorted out. Stiles will help you figure out a cover story. I realize you're a werewolf, but I expect you to follow the same rules as Stiles: be home by eleven and tell me about any supernatural shenanigans going on."
Derek kind of blinked at his dad as if he wasn't sure what was going on. "Okay."
"Has Stiles filled you in on the current state of things yet?"
"We just got to the Alpha Pack."
"All right then. What's for dinner?"
Dinner was interesting. Stiles was a little surprised by how normal it actually way. His dad and Derek seemed perfectly happy to discuss baseball together, leaving Stiles to wonder what it had been like around the Hale family dinner table. Derek seemed to be dealing with all of the information Stiles had dumped on him so far, but Stiles was worried about when it really hit him. He knew how the Derek he was used would react to bad news, but that Derek had already faced more loss than you could shake a stick at. This Derek was relatively untouched by loss, and he'd had a lot thrust on him all at once.
The three of them ended up in front of the TV watching a game. Derek was quiet, but Stiles didn't know the younger version well enough to know if that was normal. The one thing that Stiles couldn't help but noticing was the fact that Derek almost seemed glued to Stiles' side. It wasn't obvious, but it was noticeable. Even with plenty of free seats around the room, Derek chose the one right next to Stiles. He'd also put himself in between Stiles and the door as well.
Once the game ended, his dad headed up to bed leaving Stiles alone with Derek once more.
"Do you want me to tell you the rest of it?" he asked.
Derek nodded, looking grim. "Yes."
He went over the Alpha pack and moved on to the whole thing with the nogitsune.
"…and that's when we realized you were missing. We started looking for you and ended up in Mexico. That's when you joined us."
Derek blinked at him. "Okay."
Stiles gave him a long look. "Are you okay? I mean, I just dropped a lot on you."
Derek shrugged. "I could ask you the same thing. It sounds like you haven even had a chance to recover from being possessed before being tossed into more danger. Human members of the pack are important. Someone should be taking care of you to make sure you're okay."
That sort of threw Stiles. It made sense in the context of Derek's previous pack. But it wasn't something that Derek had really followed as far as he knew since he'd come back to Beacon Hills. Well, Stiles hadn't really been pack at first, and according to his dad, Derek had been at the forefront of keeping Stiles alive during the nogitsune drama. Stiles just shrugged.
"I think we were all sort of in shock at that point."
Derek's frown deepened. "That's still not an excuse. Your Alpha should take better care of you."
Stiles was oddly touched by that. He also figured it was time to change the subject.
"So, we need to figure out what to tell people about that. Unfortunately for us, Scott's dad keeps sticking his noise into things, so we should probably have a story ready."
Derek made a face. "Can't we just say I'm a random Hale cousin? I have plenty of those even if we're not close. Actually, we can say I'm an O'Brian. Dad's family pretty much cut off all contact after he changed his name when he married Mom."
That was something Stiles work with. "All right, you're Derek O'Brian then. You got curious and decided to come down and see if you could find your relatives. Where are you from?"
"Portland, Oregon." Derek gave him a long look. "Do you really think that anyone is going to care that much?"
Stiles just sighed. "With our luck yes."
Derek wasn't too sure what to make of anything. The only reason he had stuck around so far was he did feel a pull to Stiles a little. It wasn't exactly strong enough to really call Stiles pack, but Derek could tell that the potential was there. It was like when his cousin Gwen brought her fiancé to visit. Sean was from a different pack, and while he didn't feel exactly like pack, he felt like he could be pack.
And it did help that Derek recognized Sheriff Stilinski, even if he had been Deputy Stilinski the last Derek had seen him. To be honest, Derek was pretty sure he was in shock. He had understood what Stiles had told him about his family being dead and everything else that had happened, but it didn't feel real. Not really. Derek couldn't imagine life without his family. Of course, he also couldn't imagine being the alpha either. That was always Laura. Maybe Cora, but not Derek.
But Stiles hadn't lied to him once about what had happened, and Derek was going to have to trust that Stiles' pack could figure things out. Curling into the comforter that smelled mostly of laundry detergent, Derek listened the sounds of the house, trying to get to sleep. He could hear the sheriff's steady heartbeat and breathing as he slept and the sound of Stiles fingers flying over a keyboard. Stiles' heartbeat was not exactly settled, but it did definitely have a pattern, and eventually Derek drifted off listening to it.
He woke to find the sheriff leaning over him. "Stiles is working on breakfast. Come on down once you're dressed."
It was a bit strange to be dressed in Stiles' clothes and surrounded by his scent, but Derek found it oddly comforting as well. Downstairs he found Stiles bent over the stove, frying bacon. The sheriff was seated at the kitchen table, reading the paper, and Derek was hit by a surge of homesickness. He wants his dad to be at the stove laughing and teasing his mom while she reads the paper. He wants to watch Laura and Peter fight over who got the sports section first and help Cora steal Peter's bacon. He wants to listen to Peter and his wife be mushy and make faces at them with Peter's daughters. He wants to see his dad scold Uncle Adam for trying to steal bacon from the pan and see Uncle Evan laugh at his husband then kiss him when he pouted. He wanted to go home.
"Derek? There's milk or O.J. in the fridge. Help yourself." Stiles voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "Breakfast should be done shortly. I hope you don't mind omelets."
Derek shook his head. "That's fine."
He helped himself to orange juice and sat down at the kitchen table, not sure what else to do or say. Within minutes Stiles had set a plate with an omelet down in front of him, and Derek could use the excuse of eating to avoid making conversation. The food was quite good; Stiles clearly knew what he was doing in the kitchen. He also chattered enough to fill the silence left by Derek, rambling on about research ideas and online sources. Derek could only follow about half of what the other teen was saying, but it sounded like he knew what he was talking about.
When the three of them had finished their meal, the sheriff let out a sigh.
"I have to go into work. You boys stay out of trouble please. We have enough going on that we don't need to add anything else to it."
Stiles nodded. "Will do, Daddy-o. We're probably just going to hang out here. Might go see if Deaton can tell us anything."
The sheriff nodded. "All right. I should be home for dinner barring any disasters."
Once he left, Derek found himself alone with Stiles. The other teen had already started with the clean-up from breakfast.
"Just let me get things cleaned up, and then I'll give Deaton a call and see what he has to say."
Derek started gathering up the plates. "Who's Deaton?"
Stiles blinked at him. "Right. I forgot you don't know. Deaton's an Emissary. From time to time, he's actually helpful."
Derek was still confused. The name was vaguely familiar. "Isn't he the vet?"
"Talk about irony, right?" Stiles grinned. "Anyway, he's probably our best bet about getting things sorted out quickly. If he doesn't know what's going on, I'm hoping that he can at least point me in the right direction with the research."
Not knowing what else to do, Derek helped Stiles wash the dishes. Once that was done, Stiles grabbed a backpack.
"Let's go."
Stiles' jeep at least was vaguely familiar. Well, Derek had ridden in it several times in the past few days, and that was as close to familiarity as he was getting right now. For once, it seemed like Stiles didn't have anything to say, so the only noise during the drive came from the radio. Derek didn't recognize any of the songs, and that more than anything else drove home that he wasn't in the Beacon Hills he remembered.
Derek hadn't been sure what to expect from Deaton. But he could definitely see Stiles didn't always find the man helpful. He'd been cryptic and vague the entire hour Derek had sat there while Stiles explained the situation and Deaton examined him. Not that any of that seemed to give the man any idea what had happened, and he and Stiles returned to the Stilinski house without any answers.
Stiles led the way up to his room. "I'm going to see what I can find. No offense to Deaton, but half the time he's completely useless."
"What can I do?" Derek asked.
Stiles waved in the direction of his bed and a bookcase as he sat down at his computer. "Feel free to help yourself. I'm going to be busy for a while, but maybe we can go out for lunch, and I can show you around town. You probably should know where most things are now."
Derek sighed and went to peruse the bookshelf. He grabbed the first title that caught his eye and settled on the bed to read.
Stiles was trying really hard not to be distracted by Derek curled up reading on his bed. It might be a losing battle. Not that it really mattered. He wasn't finding anything so far that could explain what had happened to Derek or how to reverse it which worried Stiles more than a little. Explaining young Derek to Beacon Hills at large was not going to be easy if this lasted more than a few weeks. The cover story about Derek being a cousin of the Hales worked for short term, but if he was going to be here longer than that they had school to worry about as well as a better story to explain why Derek had moved here and was living with the Stilinskis. Stiles wasn't about to let Peter get his hands on Derek, let alone live with him. Derek was vulnerable right now, and Stiles didn't trust Peter as far as he could throw him.
He missed the older Derek a surprising amount, even if he did like this one too. For all that the Derek that Stiles was used to didn't always make the best life decisions, but he was familiar at this point, and Stiles missed arguing with him. Plus, the older Derek had some life experiences that made Stiles worry about him a little less. He wouldn't have to worry about the older Derek running off with Kate Argent should she show up, and it seemed like he'd finally gotten past the point of trusting Peter.
But at the same time, it was fun to see the younger Derek. He didn't have the walls around him that the older one did, and he was far more willing to engage with Stiles. He might try to hide some of his vulnerability with bravado, but he was someone that Stiles would want to be friends with. There was something about him that made Stiles feel even more protective of him than he normally was. For all that Derek and Stiles hadn't always gotten along, Stiles had a great deal of sympathy for him, and he felt that people seemed to try to take advantage of Derek more than anyone else in the pack.
What Stiles couldn't figure out was why Kate would want to turn Derek into a teenager again. He really couldn't see the benefit in that for her. He couldn't think of any way that Derek could be of use to her right now. The rest of the Hale family was gone, and unless there was some sort of ritual that required a teenage born werewolf, it didn't make much sense. Then again, this was an Argent they were talking about. Most of them were crazy in Stiles opinion. This might just be some sort of insane revenge scheme on Kate's part for all he knew. The biggest problem was really that they hadn't faced Kate as an enemy, and Stiles had no sense of what to expect from her.
Sighing, Stiles tried to get back to work. He had a boatload of Mexican and Aztec mythology to sort through. At least, that's where he was going to start since they'd found Derek in Mexico. Hopefully, he'd be able to find something in there to at least give them an idea of what they were working with. The good news was that Derek was being fairly cooperative and didn't seem to mind hanging around. Stiles had actually expected a teenage Derek to be more difficult that the regular one.
The sound of his stomach interrupted his thoughts and Stiles sighed again.
"You hungry?" he asked Derek.
The other teen shrugged. "I could eat."
Stretching, Stiles climbed out of his computer chair. "I'm not sure what we've got, but there's probably something in the cupboards.'
Unfortunately, Stiles really did need to do some grocery shopping. There wasn't much left at this point besides some leftover salad and crackers. He made a face.
"Looks like we're going grocery shopping. Do you think that you can handle dealing with Beacon Hills?"
Derek just shrugged. "I don't see why not."
Which was how Stiles found himself going up and down the aisles of the local Safeway with a teenage Derek Hale. It was more than slightly surreal. But at least Derek seemed to know what he was doing.
"I used to help Dad with most of the cooking," Derek explained. "It was our thing to do without my sisters."
So the two of them set to work restocking the Stilinski kitchen. Stiles was aware that the two of them were getting some odd looks, but it wasn't until they ran into Agent McCall that Stiles realized what a bad idea this was. Unfortunately, the man was heading right for the two of them, and he didn't think that avoiding him would be an option.
Derek was just putting a bunch of carrots in their cart when Agent McCall sauntered over to them.
"I haven't seen you around as much as I expected, Stiles. If I remember correctly, you and Scott used to live in one another's pockets."
Stiles schooled his face into a calm expression. "You haven't exactly been around lately. Kids grow up you know."
McCall's eyes flicked over Derek. "And who's this?"
Stiles fought to keep from rolling his eyes. "This is Derek, and we've need to finish grocery shopping before the ice cream melts."
McCall ignored that. "Derek, huh? I don't think I've seen you around before."
"I'm visiting from Portland." Derek shrugged before turning to Stiles, seemingly dismissing McCall. "Do you and your dad like Japanese food? I know a pretty good recipe for grilled chicken we could try for dinner."
"You don't have to cook," Stiles protested automatically. "You're a guest."
"I don't mind. Besides, I like cooking."
McCall was still watching the two of them with narrowed eyes, but at least he wasn't actively engaging them anymore. Stiles decided it was time to make their escape and pulled Derek over two aisles.
"Can you tell if he's still lurking around?" he asked Derek.
Derek frowned. "I don't think so. Who was that anyway?"
"Scott's dad. He's a douchebag, and he keeps sticking his nose in our business. He doesn't know about the whole creatures of the night thing. We'd like to keep it that way."
Derek snorted at that. "Can't blame you. It felt like he was trying to grill you more about me than your dad did."
Stiles just sighed. "I don't exactly know what his game is. I just want him to go away so our lives can get back to normal. Or at least what passes for normal around here."
The trip back home was sort of awkward. Stiles wasn't sure how to act around this Derek, and he knew that Derek was probably in the same boat. Of course, Derek didn't even really know him. At least Stiles had some idea of who Derek was and what he was like. Except this Derek wasn't the one he knew, and Stiles wasn't sure if he should treat him like he was or not. The two of them seemed to do best when they had something to distract them from the whole situation.
It certainly didn't help that the younger version of Derek was still very attractive with the bonus of being a little more approachable than Derek was. Older Derek might be hot like burning, but younger Derek was cute, and that didn't help at all with Stiles' crush on the man. Especially since younger Derek was far more tactile. Every time Stiles turned around Derek was brushing against him or touching his shoulder. It made it a little harder for Stiles to keep his distance when it came to Derek. And he was trying to keep some distance because even if this was Derek, it wasn't the Derek they knew and who knew how long he'd be around for.
Derek was feeling more than a little conflicted at the moment. Because while Stiles wasn't really pack, he certainly felt like it to Derek, and his reactions to the other teen were throwing him off more than a little. He wanted to wrap himself around Stiles and take care of him more often than not. Stiles might say that he was fine, but there were times when Derek could smell the despair coming off of him. He had nightmares on a regular basis too, and Derek often found himself just wanting to crawl into bed with Stiles and comfort him.
It didn't help that Stiles was most definitely his type as well. Smart with some sass, slender and brunette, he reminded Derek a little of Paige, but it wasn't just that. Stiles had his own merits in spades from what Derek could tell. He was fiercely loyal to those he cared about and clearly kind. Derek knew that having him here had to be a burden for the Stilinskis, but both Stiles and the sheriff had been nothing but kind, and Stiles especially seemed to be going out of his way to make sure that Derek was all right.
Under normal circumstances, say if they had met at school or something like that, Derek probably would have asked Stiles out by now. But he couldn't really get a read on the other teen and if he'd even be interested. And he couldn't figure out if Stiles already had a boyfriend or girlfriend. Derek really hadn't had much interaction with the rest of the pack since he got here. Scott had come over a few times, once with his girlfriend, but other than that, Derek hadn't really seen anyone else since his rescue. He didn't exactly mind that. Things were confusing enough as it was without adding more people to mix.
"I think I found something!"
Stiles voice pulled him out of his thoughts. Derek set aside the book he was reading and turned his attention to Stiles. The other teen beamed at him, holding out a thick book to Derek.
"So, there's a ritual mentioned here about restoring innocence to a person. There's not a lot of detail, but at least most of what is mentioned matches up with your situation. I'll have to see if I can dig up a source that has the full details of the ritual, but at least we finally have a place to start."
The smile on his face made butterflies dance in Derek's stomach. He wanted to lean over and kiss Stiles. Instead he just clapped him on the shoulder.
"Sounds good."
He returned to his book with seething thoughts. The main one being if he was returned to normal, did that mean he would lose the closeness he was currently sharing with Stiles? Derek couldn't imagine that he wasn't attracted to Stiles at any point, but it was also pretty clear that he and Stiles hadn't been together before either. He didn't understand why not. Given what he knew, he would think that he would jump at the chance to forge connections. After all, he had already tried to build a new pack once since he lost his family, though admittedly it hadn't really sounded like Stiles had been a part of his pack then.
Which was too bad since from everything that Derek saw, Stiles was pretty much the perfect human pack member. Smart, loyal, and fearless when it came to dealing with the supernatural, Derek had now doubt that Stiles was a major asset to Scott's pack. If there was any sort of solution to Derek's situation, Stiles would find it. The problem was Derek was beginning to wonder if he wanted Stiles to find a solution. His old life didn't sound like anything that he would want to go back to, and Derek rather thought that he could make a new life here, even without the rest of his pack. At least he could if Stiles was willing to help him. Derek was pretty sure he'd been in over his head right now if it weren't for the other teen.
Maybe it would be worth to go ahead and ask Stiles out. While Stiles might be hopeful that they could reverse what had been done to Derek, he probably needed to start thinking about long term plans if that didn't work out. And while Stiles couldn't replace his family, he might be able to be a part of Derek's new family.
Stiles had the sinking feeling that this was not going to be as easy to fix as he had hoped. While the book he found mentioned the ritual, it didn't really have any detail. It had taken another two days for him to track down other records of the ritual, and what he had found hadn't exactly been encouraging. At least to Stiles' reading of the material. He probably needed to check in with Deaton and see what he made of it. Because from what Stiles was seeing, there wasn't a way to completely reverse the ritual. But he could be wrong about that.
He hoped he was wrong about that. Derek was the last person who deserved to have to go through something like this and then be stuck with it. As much as Stiles liked the teenaged Derek, it really wasn't the same as having the real Derek around, though he had to admit that the teenaged version seemed much happier in general than the adult. And Stiles was all for Derek being happy. He deserved that.
Shaking his head, Stiles put away his notes and headed down to the kitchen. Derek had insisted on takin over some of the cooking duties since it was something that he could do to help, and Stiles couldn't complain. As it turned out, Derek was a very good cook. Apparently he'd learned from his dad who had been a professional chef. The smells wafted up from the kitchen were calling to Stiles, and his dad should be home soon anyway.
It was really rather domestic setting the table while Derek cooked dinner. It felt like Derek fit there in the Stilinski kitchen, and Stiles wanted to keep him, either version really. Because Derek seemed content if not actually happy, and that was something Stiles so rarely saw. Of course, Stiles didn't know if puttering around the Stilinski kitchen would make the older Derek happy, but it was worth a try. It had taken exposure to this younger version for Stiles to realize that they had almost never seen Derek anything close to resembling happy before. It was a rather sobering discovery.
"Something smells wonderful."
His dad's arrival pulled Stiles out of his thoughts. Derek grinned.
"Chicken fricassee and a salad. Should be done in about ten minutes."
"Any news on the research front?"
Stiles sighed. "Sort of. I need to talk to Deaton about what I found, but that can wait until tomorrow. How was work?"
His dad shrugged. "Quiet. I'm going to grab a quick shower and change."
Dinner was routine. Or what had become routine for them since Derek had moved in. It was sort of nice. Derek often had answers for questions about the supernatural that his dad had, and he definitely was a better cook than either of the two Stilinskis. Besides, Stiles rather thought that Derek liked being a part of a family unit again. Stiles was a little worried about just how comfortable the three of them had gotten with this though. Sooner or later, Derek would leave, and then they would have to get used to it being just the two of them again. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but both he and his dad were getting more than a little attached to Derek, and it was going to hurt when he left.
The next morning saw Stiles dragging Derek to Deaton's to get his opinion on the information he'd found. He didn't know what he wanted the older man to find. Part of Stiles wanted everything to go back to the way it was, except that all messed up too. Things hadn't exactly been wonderful before Derek had been turned into a teen, but at least then he had been himself. But at the same time, teenage Derek was so much happier in general than adult Derek. And Derek deserved some happiness in his life.
Deaton hemmed and hawed and sighed before finally telling Stiles and Derek what he thought.
"So, the problem I see is according to this, only half of what was taken can be restored. We can either restore Derek to his adult body or we can restore his memories. Not both. And we have a finite time limit to do either. We have until the next full moon or Derek's current state will become permanent."
Derek and Stiles shared a look. That gave them five days to make a decision and perform the reversal.
Derek needed to get away. He couldn't think around Stiles anymore, and right now he really needed to think. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't figure out what to choose: his proper body or his memories. From everything that he had been told, his memories weren't exactly pleasant. Maybe he would be better without them. But what good would an adult body be if he didn't have the knowledge he needed. He was still in high school. Or at least, he remembered being in high school. While he might have gone to college, Derek wouldn't remember it. That wouldn't exactly help if he needed a job.
Maybe he should just skip it in general. Stay a teenager with no memories. Yes, he might wonder at what he'd forgotten at times, but maybe just starting over would be best for everyone. He just didn't know. He had no real frame of reference for this choice and the time crunch was putting more pressure on him than he liked. All Derek really knew that he wanted was Stiles in his life. Stiles seemed to be the one solid thing in his life right now, and Derek would admit he was terrified to lose that. But then again, there was nothing to guarantee that Stiles would remain that.
And it didn't help that ever since they had left Deaton's, Stiles had been hovering. Normally, Derek wouldn't have minded that too much. He liked having Stiles around most of the time. But right now he was a reminder of the decision that Derek needed to make and it was almost too much.
"I'm going for a walk," he announced. "I'll be back for dinner."
Stiles looked concerned. "I can come with you."
Derek shook his head. "No. I need some time alone."
Sties bit his lip and fumbled in his pockets. "Take my phone at least. It's got everyone's numbers in it, and if there's even a hint of trouble, call someone please, even if it isn't me."
He nodded and tucked the phone into his pocket. "I'll be back."
Derek didn't have a particular direction in mind, but he wasn't entirely surprised when his feet took him towards the preserve and his old home. He knew that Stiles had told him it had burned down, but he hadn't at all been prepared for the reality of it. The sight stopped Derek dead in his tracks and made his heart clench. The worst part was the fact that it was recognizable. Maybe if he hadn't been able to see his old home in the dilapidated ruin it wouldn't hurt so much, but there were still things that he could recognize, and it made Derek hurt.
Would it hurt more or less if he had the memories of what had happened here instead of just the knowledge? Derek doesn't know. He bit his lip and just stared at the wreckage of his home. There was nothing here for him to go back to. He could only move forward. But how and where were still questions Derek didn't have the answers to.
He didn't know how long he sat there, staring at what used to be his home. It was only the sound of a car pulling up that brought him out of his thoughts and back to the present. He turned to find a cruiser parked in the drive. The sheriff was getting out.
"I thought I might find you here when Stiles mentioned that you'd gone out. How are you doing, son?"
Derek just sighed. "I don't know. Did he tell you about the spell?"
Sheriff Stilinski nodded. "He did. Not an easy choice."
"I don't know what to choose. Or if I should choose anything at all. Maybe I'm just supposed to stay like this. Completely start over."
The older man didn't offer any advice. He just sat down next to Derek. Derek sighed and buried his face in his hands.
The Sheriff spoke. "No matter what you chose, Derek, there will be a place for you with us. That won't change. We might not have done the best job of making that clear in the past, but you can count on it from now on."
Derek sighed again, but he lifted his head from his hands when Sheriff Stilinski clapped him on the back.
"Stiles promised take out if we came home before dark. What do you say?"
Stiles didn't know what he wanted Derek to choose. He didn't what would make Derek the happiest (which was what he wanted him to choose), but he did know that waiting for Derek to make his decision was driving him more than a little crazy. So when he came home from school to find Derek sitting on his bed with a determined look on his face, he was hoping it was good news.
"Can we go to Deaton's tonight? I want to get this over with."
He didn't say what he had decided. Stiles didn't ask.
"And do you think that your dad could come?" Derek sounded a little more hesitant about that request.
Stiles nodded. "Of course."
The three of them were pretty silent during the drive out to Deaton's. Once inside though, Derek took a deep breath.
"I want my memories back. That means I'm going to stay like this. I'd appreciate it if I could continue staying with you for a little while at least. Once I get my feet under me, I can move out if you like."
Stiles' dad just shook his head. "You're welcome to stay as long as you like, Derek. We'll get things sorted out. We are going to have to come up with a plan to deal with your documentation and other paperwork, but we can figure that out later."
Derek nodded. "All right. Let's get this over with."
The ritual to restore Derek's memories thankfully was quite short, even if it was unpleasant. Or at least, Stiles assumed it was unpleasant by the look on Derek's face when he downed the concoction that Deaton handed him. Whatever it was, it did seem to work quickly for Derek's eyes almost immediately rolled back in his head, and if he hadn't already been sitting, he probably would have collapsed. It was one of the longest twenty minutes that Stiles could remember as they waited for Derek to come around and Deaton just calmly went about tidying up the clinic.
When Derek's eyes finally fluttered open, Stiles knew that it had worked. Nothing else could account the shattered expression in them, and Stiles found himself frozen and uncertain what to do. His dad, however, had no such problems. He pulled Derek out of his seat and into a hug.
"Come on, son. Let's go home. We can get everything else sorted out later."
Derek seemed like he was autopilot, but he followed the Stilinskis out to the car with no comment. It wasn't until they got back to the house that Derek fell apart, and Stiles was at a loss for what to do. Somehow he ended up on the couch with Derek wrapped up in blanket while his dad made hot chocolate. He hoped that his presence is enough to help Derek. He can't imagine what the full weight of all of your memories hitting you at once was like, but given Derek's past, he's not that surprised by this reaction. Even if he had no clue how to deal with it.
It wasn't really until the next morning that what this all meant really hit Stiles. He came downstairs for breakfast to find his dad and Derek discussing things like bank accounts and official identification. Derek might still look like a teenager, but he didn't sound like one. Stiles wasn't quite sure how to handle that. Both men looked up when Stiles entered the room. His dad waved him over to the table.
"Derek made cinnamon rolls. We're discussing his cover story. Come see if we missed anything."
He joined them at the table, snagging one of the cinnamon rolls. "So what have we got?"
Derek and his dad had been pretty through. They had mostly just taken the story they'd already provided to folks in town and expanded it, making the main reason that Derek had started looking for his extended family was that he'd been kicked out when he'd come out as bi to his immediate family. He'd known that his uncle had also been a black sheep in the family and had been hoping for a place to stay. The sheriff wasn't going to spend him back to the people who had kicked him out, so he'd taken the teen in instead.
Derek apparently knew someone who could be trusted to help with the documentation. He had already done most of his banking online, so there weren't any issues with having access to his funds, though they probably would need to set up a new bank account for Derek's new identity. Stiles couldn't see anything major missing. They would need to get Derek enrolled at the high school, but they probably needed to wait on documents for that. All in all, he figured they were set.
"Looks good to me. What's next?"
Derek was struggling to gain balance once again, but at least this time he had an idea of what he had gotten himself into. He wasn't entirely thrilled by the idea of going through high school again, but at least it wouldn't be all four years. And he had to admit that there was something to being about to start again. He wasn't sure that he deserved this second chance, but he wasn't going to waste it. Not this time.
Though explaining this to Cora was going to be an interesting conversation. He had no idea how she was going to react other than she would probably be sarcastic about it. Other than that, he had no idea. But that was the least of his concerns right now. He needed to arrange for a fake transcript so he could finish high school here in Beacon Hills and start looking into universities. At least he wouldn't be completely redoing university. He'd never had a chance to finish his degree.
He was also struggling with his memories now that he had them back. The time without them had somehow made them all fresh again. Or at least fresher. Derek wasn't as paralyzed by them as he once had been, but most of the distance of the years had disappeared.
But he might have a better support system this time around. Laura had done her best, but she had been just as lost as he was after the fire if not more so, and Derek knew that the two of them had never really been stable as people or a pack, despite Laura's best efforts. Sheriff Stilinski, on the other hand, was an established member of the community and knew something about dealing with traumatized people. And Derek figured that both he and Stiles could use that sort of help right now.
Derek would admit that he had been using both of the Stilinskis as something of an anchor throughout all of this. Despite the fact that Stiles was clearly recovering from his own trauma and the sheriff felt out of his comfort zone, they had been something solid that Derek could lean on for support, and that didn't seem to have change now that he had his memories back. Well, except for the fact that Derek was much more grateful for that support.
And he wanted to make a go of this. This was a second chance that he had never expected to be offered to have a family again. Derek knew that he had been pretty much adopted by the Stilinskis at this point, and he wouldn't ever take that for granted. Especially not when he was pretty certain he was falling for Stiles. Not that that was exactly news to Derek. It was something that he had been aware of and fighting for a while.
He hadn't wanted the vulnerability that came with caring for someone, especially someone who was completely human and had no defense against the supernatural. But Stiles had proved time and time again that he was going to be involved, and while he might get hurt at times, there was no one Derek would rather have in his pack and at his side. Nearly loosing Stiles to the nogitsune probably had something to do his willingness to take that risk. He could have lived with pushing Stiles away as long as Stiles went on to have a reasonably happy life. Stiles being dead or trapped in his own mind was not something Derek could have lived with.
Not that he was going to try and start any sort of romantic relationship with Stiles just yet. Not with both of them still rather shaken from everything that had happened in the latest round of insanity. Neither of them where in any headspace to be starting something. If one good thing had come out of his brief and disastrous run of relationships, it was that he knew how not to start one. Maybe once they had both gotten used to the most recent changes Derek could start thinking about asking Stiles on a date.
One of the things that did seem to keep Derek on an even keel was to continue cooking for the Stilinskis. It had been years since Derek had really cooked, and he was finding it more relaxing than he remember, and it didn't hurt that both the sheriff and Stiles seemed appreciative of his efforts in the kitchen. Living with the Stilinskis wasn't like living with his family, but it did have at least one thing in common with being in the Hale household. Derek felt like he was a part of something here more than with anyone else in Beacon Hills. Even when he'd had his own pack, it had been missing the sense that they really belonged together, despite Derek's efforts.
There was also Scott's pack and Derek's place in Beacon Hills to deal with as well. Derek had never actually joined Scott's pack, and he was still unsure if he would. But that didn't mean he wouldn't be their ally. Derek just wasn't sure that there really was a place for him in Scott's pack or if he would always be on the fringes, and he couldn't deal with that. But the Stilinskis were enough to anchor him and keep him from becoming an omega or losing control.
With a sign, Derek turned his attention back to the food cooking on the stove. He was expecting the sheriff home soon and Stiles would be back from Scott's within a half hour. By the time that the door opened, Derek was almost done with dinner.
"Derek?" John called.
"In the kitchen. Dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes."
"Stiles home yet?" the man asked as he wandered into the room. "Something smells good."
"Chicken fricassee. Anything new today?"
"You're now enrolled at Beacon Hills High School."
Derek made a face, and the sheriff laughed.
"I know. I wouldn't want to repeat high school either. But it's the best option we have."
Stiles came through the door at that moment, saving Derek from having to come up with some sort of reply to that.
"Is that dinner I'm smelling? What did you cook this time, Der?"
Derek smiled. "Chicken fricassee. You can set the table."
Within twenty minutes, the three of them were seated around the table eating together. It felt, despite the fact that Kate was still at large and they knew there was something more going on here even if they didn't what, quite peaceful and homey. And Derek had no doubt that while there would be plenty more chaos and danger in the future, there would also be nights like this. And that was definitely worth the rest of the headaches that came with this new beginning.
Derek knew his sisters would have latched onto the idea if they had thought of it first. That doesn't stop him from adopting the puppy. Quite honestly, Derek isn't sure that anything could stop him from adopting the puppy at this point. He'd been the one to find both the little girl and the puppy. The search for the missing child had become a major event when the Sheriff's office had called in the local park rangers to help them search for the four year old. Derek had found the girl, the puppy, and her kidnapper.
Once the kidnapper had been hauled away and the little girl reunited with her parents, the mother had thrown a hissy fit about the puppy which was what had been used to entice the little girl to go with the kidnapper. And Derek couldn't let the little grey slip of a thing with oversized paws be shipped off to the pound. So he offered to take her. The pup was barely eight weeks old, but according to Scott, the local vet, she was healthy and had all of her shots. Scott also said she was an Irish Wolfhound and she'd grow into her paws.
He spends an afternoon at the pet store buying supplies before he brings Riona home to his loft. Riona took to her new environment rather well as far as Derek can tell. She was perfectly happy to follow him around the loft and curl up at his feet. Riona seemed pretty mellow for a puppy as long she gets her two walks a day and Derek pet her regularly. True to form, both Cora and Laura decided that she needed to be spoiled. So Derek wasn't surprised to come home from work to find one of his sisters in the loft and new dog toys scattered around.
"You know, Der," Laura said, idly tossing a ball for Riona, "you really should look into training for her. I mean, Ri's pretty well behaved right now, but she's not going to be this small and cute forever."
Derek just shrugged. Riona was already housebroken, and the obedience training he'd done at home so far seemed to have worked rather well.
"You might even be able to get her certified so you could take her to work with you. I'd bet she'd love spending her days tromping through the woods."
That actually sounded like something Derek would enjoy. And his station could definitely use a search and rescue dog. About half of the time they were called out it was for hikers lost in the woods. So, on his next day off, Derek wandered down to the library to see what he could find out. They didn't have much, but one of the librarians recommended he head over to the community college which had some sort of service dog program. Which was how he found himself walking into the community college library.
"Hey, how can I help you?"
A young man with amber eyes and a broad smile appeared at his elbow. Derek blinked.
"Dog training books," he managed to get out.
"Are you looking for the course readings or just general research?" The guy asked. "I haven't seen you hear before, but you could always be a new student. About half of the students here are older or returning students, and I know you're not Professor Buckle's new TA since I've already met her."
It was hard to get a word in edgewise.
"General research. I'm thinking about training my puppy for search and rescue if possible," Derek offered.
"What kind of dog is it? Have you done search and rescue before? It's not the easiest set of skills to teach for a beginner…"
The librarian continued to ramble on while he led Derek through the stacks. Every so often, he managed to get a word in edgewise, but for the most part, he just listened. It was definitely easier than making small talk, and it was kind of fascinating to watch the librarian jump from one topic to another with the most random seeming connections. By the time that he'd finished talking, Derek had a stack of books and had showed the librarian picture of Riona on his phone.
"She's adorable. If you need more material, just let me know. I'm Stiles, and I'm on the reference desk most afternoons."
"Derek."
"Good to meet you, Derek. Just let me get you all checked out, and you're good to go."
He headed home with the books ready to get a start on his research. A week later he was enrolling himself and Riona in one of the programs at the college. Thankfully, Derek already had most of the training the humans needed for wilderness rescue work thanks to the fact that he was a park ranger. Riona took to her training well, and even if it was going to be at least a year before he could really take her out in the field, Derek was pleased with the results.
Derek was also seeing more of Stiles than he had first expected. The librarian was now a fairly regular fixture in Derek's life. Derek was in and out of the college library far more often than he'd expected, and Stiles was always quick with a bright smile and a funny story. He'd started seeing the man around town more often. Or at least recognizing him. It seemed like they had a number of local hangouts in common, including the same coffee shop.
That Derek had discovered when he'd gone in one morning during his regular morning run. He'd left Riona outside to go in to grab his coffee and when he came out, he'd found Stiles crouching by Riona, chattering animatedly at the dog who was quite happily sniffing his hands. The young man had blinked when Derek had come out with a cup of coffee in his hand.
"Hey Derek. Is this Riona then? She's adorable."
Derek smiled. "She is. Would you like to pet her?"
"Can I?"
"Absolutely. She's not working right now, so she can have all the attention she wants."
Stiles pet the puppy until she was butting her head against his hand. Stiles just smiled and scritched behind her ears and engaged Derek in a conversation about books. Like most of his interactions with Stiles it was light and fun and natural. Derek didn't feel quite as awkward with Stiles as he did when making small talk with most people.
"So, did you read that book I recommended? The Furies of Calderon?"
Derek smiled. "Yes. You were right. It was fantastic. I just started the second one in the series the other day."
"I know, right? And the series just gets better." Stiles let out a sigh as he gave Riona one last scratch. "I'd better get a move on. I'm picking up lunch for my dad. See you around, Derek."
Derek watched him head down the street before clicking his tongue at Riona. "Come on, girl. Time to head home."
Two days later, Derek found himself giving a group of sheriff's deputies a tour of the State Park's facilities. The two agencies worked together on a regular basis, especially during fire season or when hikers got lost. Their superiors on both sides tried to make sure the two groups got along and could work together well with events like barbeques and baseball games happening several times a year. Derek liked that. The previous park he had worked at had not had a good relationship with their local law enforcement, and they'd spent more time butting heads than actually getting work done.
"We're also just starting a search and rescue dog program. My dog, Riona, and I will be the first team once we finish our training, and we hope to add other teams in the future," Derek told the group. "Any questions?"
There weren't which meant they could all go to lunch.
"All right. You'll find lunch being served up by the admin building."
The group began the trip back to the main center of the park, and Derek found himself walking next to Sheriff Stilinski. The older man smiled at him.
"Good to see you again. How's that pup of yours?"
Derek smiled. "She's finally growing into her feet. The search and rescue training has been going well, and I'll be able to have her help out the next time we've got lost campers."
"Sounds good. My son keeps trying to convince me a need a dog that I'm living on my own." The sheriff smiled. "He hasn't convinced my yet, but I have to admit I rather like the idea of having another dog for the department."
"I can't complain. Having Riona around has been nice. My sisters keep trying to spoil her, but so far she hasn't been too much trouble. I'm hoping that she'll be successful when we get out in the field. It would definitely be a help when he have to track down lost hikers."
His pup was waiting for him the moment Derek got in the door. She didn't jump up on him, but she danced around his feet, barking happily. Derek reached down to pet her.
"Calm down, sweetheart. Just give me a minute and we can go for a walk," Derek told her.
It only took Derek a couple of minutes to change out of his uniform and into jogging clothes. Riona happily accepted the leash, and the two of them were quickly off. The two of them had long since settled into an easy pace when they went running together. So Derek steered them towards his favorite jogging route and let himself fall into the headspace where he wasn't really thinking about anything other than the ground beneath his feet. Running was one of Derek's favorite ways to decompress after work. It settled him in a way that even curling up with a good book and cup of tea couldn't.
He was so deeply in his own world that he didn't notice he had company until Riona took matters into her own paws, tangling her leash around the legs of the person running beside them, bring both of them to a halt. Stiles nearly toppled over before Derek steadied him.
"Sorry. Riona doesn't normally do this. Hold still a moment."
It takes some doing to get Stiles untangled from Riona's leash. Derek's not even sure how his dog managed this. Thankfully, Stiles seems perfectly willing to just stand there and pet Derek's dog while he did so.
"Well, that didn't exactly go as planned," he said with a rueful grin. "How are you Derek?"
"Good. Even if my dog is a hazard to other runners."
Stiles just grinned. "Oh, I don't know. She's too cute for anyone to stay mad at her."
Derek shook his head. "Don't tell me you're going to spoil her as well. It's bad enough that my sisters are always bringing her treats and new toys."
Stiles laughed and the conversation turned to other things, and Derek found himself agreeing to grab coffee with him. Coffee dates with Stiles quickly became a habit after that without Derek really realizing it. Coffee dates turned into movie nights, and by the time that summer rolled around, Stiles was a common fixture around the loft. Which meant that he was there the afternoon that Riona brought home a scraggly bundle of grey fur.
It had been pouring rain all week, and Derek and Stiles had the rare same weekday off. It had been spent curled up on the couch together having a Star Wars marathon. Between the films, Derek had nipped out to take Riona for a quick walk. His dog (he really couldn't call her a puppy any more) had taken off almost the moment they were outside. She'd come back before Derek could start to panic though, carrying with her what looked like a grey rag in her mouth.
Then the grey ball let out a piteous mew, and Derek realized it was a kitten. Riona released it into Derek's hands and he swiftly brought it inside. Riona followed looking quite proud of herself.
"Der?" Stiles called from the couch.
"Riona brought me a present. I'm going to be moment."
He headed for the bathroom to grab a towel. Once the kitten was dry, he'd have a better idea of what he was dealing with. Stiles wandered into the bathroom just as he was finishing up.
"So what did Riona bring you? Hopefully, not a dead bird, though that would be far more like a cat than like a dog." He peered at the towel Derek was holding. "Is that a kitten? She's adorable."
Derek nodded. The kitten mewed piteously. Stiles smiled.
"I'll grab some milk for you."
Between the two of them, they got the kitten happily situated in a shoe box with a towel and a little saucer of milk. Stiles had called Scott who had told them to feed her and keep her warm and to bring her in to the vet's office tomorrow. Once dry, the kitten was an even larger puffball than before. She also seemed perfectly happy to curl up and nap while Derek and Stiles watched their movie.
Scott gave the kitten a clean bill of health the next day as well as informing Derek that it was girl. She was a little undernourished, but other than that she was fine. And in need of a name. Derek spent the morning picking up the things that a kitten might need and trying to come up with something to call her. Dry and well fed, she might be tiny, but his new kitten was clearly a curious soul. Derek watched her explore the loft as he tried to come up with a suitable name. Nothing he had come up with so far really seemed to suit her.
Stiles popped in that evening with take out and to see how the kitten was doing. The kitten delicately sniffed at Stiles from her perch on the couch arm.
"I thought about Rhiannon," Derek told him, "but it's a little too similar to Riona, and I'm afraid they could get one another mixed up."
"What about Roisin?" offered Stiles. "Then you can have Ri and Ro. And it fits with your Irish name theme."
Derek shrugged.
"What do you think?" he asked the kitten. "Do you feel like a Roisin?"
The kitten batted at Stiles fingers.
"Let's take that as a yes." He grinned.
So, Roisin joined the Hale household. Ro was a quieter addition than Riona, but she got into her fair share of mischief. She seemed to especially like climbing on to bookshelves or other furniture and then jumping on you when you least expected it. All in all, Roisin was fairly friendly for a cat, but it was clear that she had her favorites. Derek was one of them, but the other was Stiles. Ro simply adored climbing all over the other man, and his lap was her favorite place to take a nap. Not that Derek minded that much.
It was an excuse to have Stiles over more often. Not that he really needed one. It seemed like Stiles was more than willing to spend most of his free time at Derek's. More often than not he swung by for dinner or to spend an afternoon lazing about discussing books or going to the farmer's market together. Both Laura and Cora teased them about how domestic they were already so early in their relationship, but Stiles just laughed at that.
And it wasn't like they didn't go out as well. Stiles liked to drag Derek out to little hole in the wall places to eat or to the movies or even just for a walk out to get ice cream. And to be completely honest, the whole relationship had sort of snuck up on Derek. It really hadn't been until he'd overheard Stiles tell one of his dad's deputies that he had plans with his boyfriend, that Derek had really realized what they were doing. To be honest, it had thrown him for a bit of a loop.
Not in a bad way. In fact, Derek would say that his relationship with Stiles was the best romance he'd had to date. Stiles made him happy and content with his life, which he couldn't say of either Kate or Jennifer, and there wasn't the bittersweet feeling that this had to end at some point like there always had been with Braeden. No, Stiles left a feeling of warmth and permanence.
It's another grey rainy day that see's the two of them cuddled together in Derek's bed, each with their own books and Ri and Ro curled up at their feet napping. Stiles was leaning against his shoulder, and the words just slipped out of his mouth.
"What do you think about moving in?"
Stiles blinked at him then a slow smile curved his lips. "We'll need to get more bookshelves."
It happens slowly over the next month. Stiles things begin to appear. His clothes in Derek's closet, his X-Box next to the TV. There was a memorable trip to the Bay Area to pick up bookshelves at IKEA. It takes a little more adjustments that Derek expected to have Stiles living with him. But learning to live with both a dog and a cat had taught him something about sharing space, and the two of managed to survive the transition with only a handful of screaming rows.
And it's more than worth it. Having Stiles around all of the time was wonderful. Oh, it wasn't all sunshine and roses, both Derek and Stiles were far too sarcastic than that, but it was still wonderful. Their housewarming party once Stiles has completely moved in had been fun, and it had meant meeting a number of Stiles' friends he hadn't had an occasion to before. Of course, introducing Laura and Lydia might have been a tactical mistake on Derek and Stiles' part.
The two of them spend the summer hiking in the preserve and lounging around Derek's loft. Stiles convinced him to lend a hand with the annual Sheriff's Department versus Fire Department ballgame which turned out to be a little more cutthroat than Derek had expected. It had been fun though, and Derek won't forget just how pleased the sheriff was to have him amongst the rest of the deputies on the team. More than anything else it felt like an approval of his relationship with Stiles, and Derek found it was something he'd craved without knowing it. His parents weren't around to approve of Stiles, but his sisters did, and that made Derek happy. Of all of his other romantic partners, they'd only ever like Braeden before, and even that was grudgingly. But Laura and Cora both seemed to love Stiles, and Derek was happy with his life. So he probably shouldn't have been surprised when everything was thrown into chaos.
It started with an all hands on deck call at work. Apparently, there was a family of tourist missing, two adults and their three year old daughter. Derek and Riona had been some of the first sent out into the field. After three days with no sign of them, things got kicked up into high gear. Derek and Riona had been assigned a far area of the park that had a few vacation cabins but not much else. Still, it was worth a try, and it wouldn't be the first time that someone got lost out here. There was a reason these cabins weren't that popular.
When Riona suddenly perked her ears up and headed for the farthest cabin in the area, Derek felt a prickle at the back of his neck. He had a bad feeling about this. Calling Riona to heel, Derek radioed for backup, just in case. Then he let Riona take the lead. The cabin itself still looked abandoned. There was no sign that anyone had been in or out recently. No lights on inside. No smoke from a wood fire. There weren't even any leftover pieces of trash. It would seem like no one was around, except that Riona was definitely scenting something.
Softly calling his dog to heel again, Derek slid his gun out of his holster and tried the cabin's front door. It was unlocked and opened easily. That was the good news what little there was. The bad news was very bad. There were dead bodies in the cabin at the very least. Derek knew that he should probably leave and call for backup, but he wanted to make sure that there was no one still alive in here first. If there was someone here and they needed medical attention, it would be best to know when he radioed for help.
The first thing he found were the bodies of two adults, which matched the descriptions they had of the Yukimuras. There was a whimper, and Derek scanned the area for any sign of life. A quivering shadow in the corner caught his eye, and he carefully made his way over to her. A pair of large dark eyes stared up at him for a long moment, and then Derek had a little girl latched on to his leg.
That was when everything went downhill. The cabin's front door slammed open, and Derek was confronted with an older man leveling a shot gun at his chest.
"You're one of them, aren't you? Another one of the monsters. I'll deal with you then I'll take care of the little one. I won't let you abominations…"
He kept ranting, but Derek was more focused on the man's gun. He couldn't radio for backup now without attracting attention which meant he was on his own. Or not exactly on his own as Derek could see Riona nosing the door open. That didn't exactly make Derek feel better. He'd much rather have his dog out of harm's way when dealing with a crazy person with a gun.
It was a stalemate. Derek didn't want to do anything that would provoke the man into firing, and at the moment he didn't seem all that inclined to shoot anyone, just threaten and rant at Derek. And that was fine with Derek as long as it kept him from shooting Derek, Rinoa, or the little girl. But that didn't solve the problem of the shotgun. That was still a threat. And one that he didn't have a good solution for.
Due to lack of a good solution, Derek went for a bad one that he hoped he could pull off. Thankfully, his dog appeared to be psychic because when Derek lunged forward and grabbed the barrel of the shotgun, Riona sank her teeth into the man's leg. Between the distract and the fact that Derek was younger and stronger than the older man, he managed to wrest the gun away and subdue the man.
By the time that his back up arrived, Derek had the man handcuffed and secured even if he didn't have a gag to shut him up. He also had acquired a limpet in the form of a three year old. The little girl had still yet to say anything but she clung to Derek with more force than he had expected. It did make things a little awkward once the rest of the rescue group arrived and she still refused to let go of Derek. So he and Riona made the trip back to Beacon Hills in the ambulance with her, and Derek found himself drafted by the ER nurses to help with her exam.
The good news was she was mostly physically unharmed, just dehydrated and hungry. But she had probably witnessed what had been done to her parents, and they had had to sedate her in order to get her to let go of Derek. And once he was free, his day wasn't over yet. He had given a preliminary report at the scene, but there was both follow up and paperwork to be done. And Riona to feed as well. Thankfully, dog food was one thing he did have on hand at the ranger station.
Derek was dead on his feet when all of his obligations were finally dealt with and he was free to head home. Of course, actually making it home without causing a traffic accident was another story. As much as he wanted to be back in his own space, Derek didn't think he was up to driving at this point, so it seemed like he was spending the night at the Ranger Station.
Or at least that's what he thought until his amazing wonderful boyfriend showed up to take him home.
"Scott's picking up take out for us as we speak," Stiles grinned at him. "You look beat."
It probably wasn't any surprise that Derek fell asleep in the car. Once they had made it back to the loft, Stiles gently nudged Derek towards the shower. Being clean definitely helped, and he found several bags of his favorite Chinese waiting when he rejoined Stiles. Not that he remembered eating or falling into bed afterwards.
The next morning Derek woke to purring in his ear and sun in his eyes. He was alone in bed except for the cat, but given that it had to be late afternoon, that wasn't too surprising. Derek groaned as he climbed out of bed. Wandering out of the bedroom, he found the loft abandoned and a note on the kitchen counter from Stiles letting Derek know that he'd taken Riona out with him running errands and there was food in the fridge if he was hungry. Derek smiled and helped himself to the food and headed for the couch.
Derek didn't turn on the TV. He had a feeling that his face was probably splashed all over the local news. The Yukimuras' disappearance had pretty much been the only story on TV lately, and this latest turn of events was probably being splashed everywhere. Derek had absolutely no desire to find out if anyone had leaked the information that Derek had been the one involved. The last thing he wanted to do right now was deal with the press. Hopefully, when Stiles got home he could tell his boyfriend just how bad the media coverage was. Derek had absolutely no intent of being caught on camera anytime soon.
He was making a new pot of coffee when the front door slammed open. Derek was almost immediately greeted by a very happy dog.
"Riona, down."
She sat but turned the puppy dog eyes on him. Stiles laughed.
"You're up. I've got groceries and took Riona for a run. The good news is that so far you're just a "State Park Ranger" in the media, but I doubt it will be long before they know your name."
Derek sighed. "I don't suppose there's anyway to give them a different name."
Stiles snorted. "You're just going to have to deal with being the local hero for a while. It will die down eventually. Dad says it typically takes about a month or so."
Sheriff Stilinski would know. He'd been in the same exact situation as Derek more than once in his career. Then again, that was always good when you were in an elected position. Derek, on the other hand, could see no benefit from all the publicity.
"I'd rather have someone else take all the credit."
The phone rang before Stiles could respond to that. Derek snagged it.
"Derek Hale speaking."
"Derek," Melissa McCall's worried tones came across the phone, "I hate to bother you when I know you're on downtime, but we've got a bit of a problem with Miss Yukimura."
He frowned. "What's wrong?"
Melissa sighed. "It's not all that surprising that she's developed a distrust of most adults, especially older ones, but she's pretty much refusing to give more than yes or no answers to anyone except for you. It either 'Yes', 'No', or 'Where's Derek?'. Neither social services or the child psychologist think we're going to get anywhere with her unless you're there. I was hoping you could come down this afternoon and give us a hand?"
"Of course. Just let me tell Stiles. I'll be there in about fifteen minutes."
Stiles offered to tag along for the trip, and thankfully, they didn't have much trouble avoiding the press who were camped out in the hospital's lobby. Melissa was waiting for them. She offered the pair a small smile.
"Thanks for coming. Kira's doing quite well except for the fact that she won't let anyone near her. She should be able to leave in a couple of days."
The woman led the way to a room at the far end of the pediatric ward. It was on the corner of the building, so the window had a view, and it was clear that someone had taken the time to try and make the space as non-threatening as possible with several stuffed animals and a bouquet of daisies and sunflowers. Kira Yukimura still didn't look very happy to be there. She was huddled at the head of the bed with an IV in one arm and looking utterly lost.
That expression changed when she spotted Derek in the doorway though. She didn't smile, but her eyes lit up a little and her shoulders relaxed. Derek smiled at her.
"Hey Kira, I hear you wanted to see me."
She held her arms up, and he stepped forward to scoop her up and sit down the bed with her in his lap. Stiles hovered in the doorway, and Kira turned her wary eyes on him.
"Who's that?"
"That's Stiles."
Kira's face scrunched up before Derek had a chance to elaborate. "What's a Stiles?
"I'm a Stiles," his boyfriend told her. "That's my name."
"It's a silly name."
Stiles nodded gravely. "My real name is even sillier."
"Really?"
"It's so silly, most people can't even say it."
That seemed to settle Kira's mind about Stiles, and she relaxed a little more. The two of them spent the rest of the afternoon with the little girl, coaxing her into helping the nurses. Kira warmed up to Melissa a little which was good, but she was still extremely wary of most of the hospital staff. She was also letting little things slip about what had happened to her. Stiles had taken to jotting down notes whenever that happened. Derek knew that social services had found a therapist for the girl, but he didn't think they'd had a chance to meet yet.
Visiting Kira quickly became a common occurrence for the couple. While she was getting better at interacting with other people, it was clear that she liked Derek best, closely followed by Stiles. And it wasn't like Kira had many people to support her. Her only family left were distant relatives in Japan, and while a great aunt was making arrangements to come to the States, Kira had actually never met the woman before. There was also the fact that Kira wasn't settling in very well at the foster home she was placed. It was just a little too busy for a girl who still jumped at every shadow and had trouble accepting new people in her space.
So it wasn't any surprise when about three weeks in, Kira's social worker asked if he and Stiles would be willing to take the little girl in temporarily. What was surprising was how quickly both of them agreed. Derek knew that he and Stiles were serious, but kids had only been idle conversation once or twice and they were still rather new as a couple. But both of the men had wanted to take on the challenge, and Derek knew something of losing your family, and he didn't want to be alone while she dealt with that. So Kira had joined the menagerie in the loft.
And it was both easier and harder than Derek expected. Being a parent was hard, but it felt like Kira belonged there just as much as Riona, Roisin, and Stiles did. Derek found himself very quickly very attached to the little girl, even if it meant completely reorganizing both his loft and his work schedule. And he was pleased to say that Kira seemed to be settling in with them pretty well. She had even taken to Sheriff Stilinski and Laura, though that had taken a little time.
Of course, Kira's great-aunt showed up at the worst possible moment to arrive at their door when Derek was chasing Kira with Riona hot on their heels and Roisin provided a rather vocal commentary from one of the bookshelves. The impeccably coifed elderly woman in a kimono had taken in the scene, blink, and then threw her head back and laughed.
"Well, I don't have to worry about you not being able to keep up with the child."
Derek automatically caught Kira as she went flying by him, quickly hoisting her up onto his hip.
"Would you like to come in?" he asked. The loft was a mess, and Stiles wasn't due home from work for a couple more hours, but it wasn't like he could just ask her to leave.
The next twenty minutes were awkward for Derek as he tried to regain control over his life. His conversation with Kaoru Yukimura was rather stilted up until the moment Stiles came swanning in the door with a grin.
"How does Biwa's sound for dinner? Grant traded me shifts, and I bet we could convince Dad to join us. What do you say Kira?"
Kira let out a squeal and launched herself at Stiles who caught her and swung her around. Mrs. Yukimura nodded approvingly.
"That sounds lovely. I'm looking forward to meeting the rest of your family."
Stiles took in her presence, blinked once, and then grinned. "Well, to be fair, it would be more of the immediate family than anything else, and Derek's sisters wouldn't be there which is too bad because they both adore Kira. I think that Cora is currently somewhere in South America right now on a photography trip, but Laura's a local, so you could probably meet her sometime before you leave. I'm assuming you are Kira's aunt. I'm Stiles Stilinski, Derek's partner."
Mrs. Yukimura smiled. "Pleased to meet you. So, dinner?"
"Just let me chance out of my work clothes and call my dad."
Dinner proved to be a rather brilliant idea. Derek was much more relaxed with the group setting, and that definitely helped things along. Mrs. Yukimura wasn't quite so intimidating once they got to know her a little bit either. Derek was pretty sure that while Kaoru Yukimura was every inch the iron willed matriarch of her family, she also had a good sense of humor and knew a thing or two about raising kids. She also seemed to approve of Derek and Stiles which was a good thing.
Kira's aunt was in town for two weeks which she spent getting to know Derek and Stiles and their family as well as their town, co-workers, and just about every other detail of their lives. Derek was pretty sure that she was satisfied with them as guardians for Kira, but it wasn't until she sat the two of them down towards the end of her visit that they knew anything for sure.
"I am quite pleased to have you two act as Kira's guardians for the most part, though I do have a couple of stipulations. I would like you to bring Kira to Japan every few years. The family will pay for it, and I think you all will enjoy our family home. I want Kira to grow up connected to her heritage even if her mother decided to make her home here in America."
Derek nodded after trading a look with Stiles. That sounded reasonable to him.
"I also would like you to keep in touch with us. Facebook, email, maybe an occasional skype call, whatever. It doesn't have to be every week, but I would like to keep in touch and know how Kira is doing on a regular basis. I'll leave you with contact information for myself and some of our other relatives."
Stiles grinned. "Not a problem. Anything else?"
Kaoru shook her head. "No. I have to say, you two are not what I expected, but I am very pleased that Kira ended up with people who care for her so much."
Derek smiled. "It's our pleasure."
Nearly two weeks later, it was raining buckets and the five of them were curled up in Derek and Stiles' bed enjoying the lazy Saturday. Stiles was reading to Kira while the dog sprawled across his feet. The cat was curled up on Derek's shoulder while he typed up a report for work. Part of Derek was incredulous about how he ended up here. This wasn't at all what he had expected when he'd adopted a puppy, but it was more than he'd ever hoped for when he'd moved back to Beacon Hills. With Kira curled up between him and Stiles and the rain beating against the windows, he had the feeling that the warmth in his chest wasn't entirely due to the comforters. Even if his sisters now teased him about collecting strays, Derek couldn't say he regretted the decision in the slightest.
Red and Wolf's was always busy on Saturdays. Then again, as Beacon Hills' only cupcake shop, it was almost always pretty busy. It had the added cachet of being attached to Beacon Hills' premiere comic and game shop which also funneled its fair share of traffic into the bakery. Of course, Derek didn't have to deal with the customers much. That task fell to Liam and Mason, under the supervision of Kira or Stiles if he was home. The boys weren't bad workers, but like most high school students, they needed someone to keep them from executing their more crazy ideas.
They were also the newest additions to the Hale pack in a situation quite similar to Scott and Stiles with Liam being a newly minted werewolf and Mason his best friend. Kira was Stiles' age and a kitsune. She was also the daughter of a friend of Derek's mom and a newly graduated web designer. She'd both built the shop's website and managed Derek's staff. These days he needed at least two people out front while he baked in the back. There were days when he couldn't believe how far the shop had come.
It had started as something to keep Derek distracted while Stiles was away at grad school. The two of them had managed college just fine with Stiles attending Thomas College. They'd been about two and a half hours away from one another which had been quite manageable. Even Stiles last year after Derek had graduated hadn't been two bad, though Derek probably spent more time skyping Stiles than talking to other people in person. But when Stiles had decided to go to grad school, Derek had been pretty much stuck in Beacon Hills due to pack politics with the territory the university had been in, and he'd started to go a little crazy being away from Stiles.
The business had actually been Jordan's idea. He's suggested it when Derek had offered to provide cupcakes for his and Laura's wedding right after Derek had graduated college, but Derek hadn't really considered it until he was driving his mom crazy with his moping around the house. Red and Wolf had started out as an online business with Derek making the cupcakes in the Hale kitchen and delivering them himself. By the time that Stiles had graduated with his masters, Derek had needed to recruit Isaac to help out with deliveries as well as moving into a space of his own. There had been a couple of fights with his dad about who's turn it was to use the kitchen.
So Derek had moved into a loft which he'd renovated to have an industrial kitchen, and six months later, Stiles had come home and moved in with him. Living together had been both wonderful and crazy making at the times with Derek was running his business out of the loft while Stiles was trying to get his own business off of the ground.
While Stiles might have gotten a degree in Forensic Psychology, his connection to the supernatural had led him to become something of an expert on supernatural creatures in general. He'd decided to set up a little consulting firm helping out when small supernatural communities were dealing with problems their local lore didn't cover as well as working to collect and preserve accurate lore. Stiles had gotten a lot of support for the idea both from Talia Hale as well as from a number of other alphas and various supernatural creatures.
So Derek baked cupcakes and Stiles fielded crises, often at the same time. It had been a little surreal the afternoon Stiles was giving instructions on how to deal with a pack of pixies while Derek was frantically trying to bake four hundred blueberry cupcakes. But despite the screaming arguments over whose turn it was to do laundry or not calling and letting someone know when you ran into a group of yeti and were going to be late, they had managed to stay together. It hadn't always been easy, but it had definitely been worth it.
The pair of them had also started dabbling in RPG games. Derek had gotten into a group during college, but it had been Stiles who came up with the idea of creating a game based on real supernatural lore. The project had mostly been something that the couple just played around with up until two years ago when Derek had gotten to go on Cupcake Wars. That had been an adventure and a half. He'd ended up bringing Stiles with him as an assistant since his only other option at the time had been bringing his cousin, Malia, and she could burn water. He and Stiles didn't often bake together, but at least Stiles had been around Derek baking and knew when to help and when to back off.
They had lucked out as well in the event they were making the cupcakes for. Dragon and Crown Games, a tiny company from Britain which had had viral success with their Arthurian based RPG game, was bringing its game to the States, and the winner's cupcakes would be featured at the launch party at Pax Prime in Seattle. Derek had the good fortune to have at least heard of the company before and know something about the game, and that fact had been appreciated by the guest judges, the co-founders of Dragon and Crown. None of the other contestants seemed to know anything about gaming in general or this particular company, so that had been an edge.
The whole competition had been crazy, but Derek had emerged victorious even after a minor mishap in the second round. But the major result of winning, besides the startup money that was the down payment on Derek's store front, had been a new friendship with Merlin and Arthur, the company's owners. Before long the four of them had put together Teen Wolf, a supernatural RPG game, and the pair of Brits were opening their very first brick and mortar store right next door to Derek's cupcake shop. Both shops had gone over quite well. Derek had given most of the cupcakes pop culture or fairytale names, and it seemed like all of that had been well received. These days both shops did brisk business, and Stiles' little consulting firm was well respected in the supernatural community.
The rest of the pack was doing quite well too, even if the younger members were a little spread out. Cora and Isaac were currently globetrotting while Cora took pictures and Isaac wrote pieces for a variety of magazines and websites. Laura had come home from school, married Jordan, and opened her own practice as well as had started taking over some of Talia's alpha duties.
The star-crossed pair of Scott and Allison were still going strong as well. In fact, Derek had provided the cupcakes for their wedding last year. Scott was now Deaton's partner at the veterinary clinic while Miss Allison was the most beloved and most obeyed third grade teacher at Beacon Hills Elementary, known for being both strict and fun in the classroom. Lydia was teaching math down at Stanford while Jackson was actually running a kids sports program nearby. Danny had met a werewolf from another pack and fallen for him, and Ethan had ended up join the Hale pack. The two of them ran a computer business together now. Erica and Boyd had been happily married since Erica graduated from university. She was currently building her reputation at a firm in Oregon while Boyd worked for the Forest Service nearby.
The pack elders were much the same as they always had been except for the fact that his mom was beginning to hand over her duties as alpha to Laura, and his dad was talking about opening a new restaurant now that all of their children were grown. Sheriff Stilinski and Melissa McCall had actually gotten married during Stiles' and Scott's senior year of undergraduate much to the glee of the two young men. So all in all, things were pretty good for the extended Hale pack. There had been a couple of major issues over the years as well as so minor shenanigans, but nothing that they couldn't handle together.
"Something in here smells amazing," the sound of his fiancé's voice pulled Derek out of his thoughts. "Are you experimenting again?"
Derek shook his head. "No, just the blueberry cupcakes for Laura. I have the feeling that she and Jordan are getting ready to announce a baby."
Stiles grinned. "The pack is going to go crazy if that's the case. First new baby in the pack in a couple of years."
The timer went off, and Derek pulled the cupcakes out of the oven. Stiles perched on one of the countertops.
"So, I just wrapped up the Perez case. Three days early."
Derek smiled as he set the cupcakes in a rack to cool. "Are you hinting at something?"
"It's a holiday weekend. The shop's going to be closed. Nothing's going on with the pack. We could nip up to that bed and breakfast you like on the Oregon Coast for a couple days. You're done with the baking for the day, and I'm sure Kira and the boys can handle things for the rest of the afternoon. We could leave tonight."
Derek stepped between Stiles' legs and leaned in to kiss him. "Sounds like a plan. Maybe we could get some of the wedding planning done?"
"I think we could manage that." Stiles wrapped his arms around Derek's neck and nuzzled their noses together. "Love you, Der."
"I love you too. I just need to frost Laura's cupcakes then we can head home."
As Derek reached for a pastry bag to fill with icing, he caught sight of the cookbook perched on a self. When he'd first gotten it all those years ago, he hadn't been able to imagine a future for himself, let alone one this happy. Now he couldn't imagine anything else. He had his pack, cupcakes, and Stiles. He couldn't ask for anything more.
Derek was on a mission. It was complicated a bit by the fact that he wasn't entirely sure what the protocol was to ask your boyfriend to prom rather than your girlfriend, but he figured as long as he included cupcakes, Stiles wouldn't mind too much. Thanks to Pinterest and interfering sisters, Derek at least had a plan on how to ask Stiles.
He just needed eight perfect cupcakes to do it. Which shouldn't be too hard. Derek was on the last recipe from the cookbook, and it was a fairly simple one. The trick was to make sure that the anise flavor didn't overpower everything else. For some reason like a lot of the recipes in his book, just following the recipe doesn't produce a tasty cupcake. Thankfully, Stiles was fond of licorice, so at least Derek knew he would like the cupcakes, once he got them perfected.
In all honesty, prom was a little more important to Derek than he was letting on. He had missed his opportunity with Paige, and that made getting a second chance with Stiles more important. There was also the fact that Derek was beginning to suspect that he felt far more for Stiles than he ever had for Paige. But he wasn't ready to admit that to anyone, not even himself. So instead he focused on right now and making the perfect cupcakes for a prom proposal, even if it does make him feel a bit silly some times. And the fact that it was the last cupcake on his self-appointed list to try and make seemed to make everything just that more important.
At least he had the comfort of knowing he wasn't the only one in the prom boat. Boyd too had to come up with his own way to ask Erica, and it sounded like Cora was going to ask Isaac. Scott and Allison were going together as were Lydia and Jackson, so it seemed like most of the younger parts of the pack would be there. It was either going to be a very fun night or a complete disaster. Derek figured it could go either way with this particular group. Either way, it would be an interesting night.
But first he had to ask Stiles. After nearly half a dozen test batches and several hours painstakingly piping words onto the best cupcakes in red icing (Derek had made more than one mistake and had to start over on a new cupcake), he had eight cupcakes spelling out his question ready to go. Derek carefully transferred the cupcakes into a small bakery box and took a deep breath. It was now or never.
The drive over to the Stilinski house was completely nerve wracking. Derek was terrified he was going to hit something and ruin the cupcakes, despite the fact that they were safely belted in in the back seat of the car. He made it to Stiles' front door without incident though, and his knock was almost immediately answered by the sheriff.
"Derek. Stiles is up in his room." The man eyed the cupcake box. "Any in there for me?"
Derek shrugged. "You'll have to ask Stiles."
John laughed. "You'd better go take them up to him then."
Stiles bounced to his feet when he saw Derek standing in the doorway. Derek took another deep breath and held out the bakery box.
"This is for you."
Stiles grinned and made grabby hands for the box. "What kind did you make this time?"
He flipped the top open and blinked at the cupcakes inside. Derek held his breath. Then Stiles grinned at him.
"Of course, Sillywolf. Did you think I would say no?"
Derek shrugged as relief flooded him. "I didn't want to assume."
Stiles just shook his head and leaned into kiss Derek. "Derek. I'd love to go to prom with you."
What Derek hadn't realized was just how crazy their parents were going to go over the whole thing. Still, despite the seemingly thousands of pictures that both his mom and the sheriff took of the two of them and the rather uncomfortable suit, Derek was over the moon the entire night. He and Stiles went out to dinner at the new fondue shop that had opened downtown before joining up with the rest of the pack at the ballroom. The evening was full of a dancing, laughter, and fun. And by the time that Derek dropped Stiles back home with a kiss on the front porch, he was practically floating.
The evening had been everything he'd dreamed of and more. And for once, Derek realized, he wasn't dreading what came next. He wasn't entirely sure what it was, but maybe it wouldn't be the disaster he would have expected last year. He'd have to wait and see, though now he wasn't terrified that it would bring danger to everyone he loved. In fact, it might be pretty wonderful.
Derek was beginning to understand why his friends went so crazy around Valentine's Day. He and Stiles might have only been dating for a little while, but Derek still wanted to make sure that he did something special for Valentine's Day. The question was what. He knew that Stiles didn't need a big fuss (which was good since Derek didn't think he could manage a major romantic gesture at school without combusting from embarrassment), but he wanted to do something special. And thankfully, his boyfriend had a sweet tooth.
The big drawback was that he didn't have much time to perfect his Valentine's Cupcake surprise, and it wasn't something he could work on when Stiles was around. The crème brulee cupcakes were maybe some of the more technically challenging that Derek had tried to make, but he was pretty sure that it would pay off. And admittedly, Derek was insisting that he make his crème brulee sauce from a homemade pastry cream rather than using store bought or a mix. Plus he had to master the technique of toasting the top. His dad had a kitchen blowtorch, but Derek had never really been allowed to use it before.
He spent just about every waking moment he wasn't at school or with Stiles working on the recipe. His dad had been very helpful when it came to learning how to properly toast the tops of the cupcakes after Derek had completely burned the first batch. Then again, ever since he'd mentioned that he was thinking about getting a degree in culinary arts, his dad had been more than happy to impart as many trade secrets as he could think of to Derek. Derek didn't think that he was ever going to end up in a high class restaurant like his dad had, but he loved cooking with his dad, and it was something special that just the two of them shared.
There was also the matter of figuring out what to do besides just giving Stiles the cupcakes. Derek was still wracking his brain to come up with an idea for a good Valentine's Day date. There weren't any movies playing that the two of them were interested in seeing, and it really too cold out to do something like a picnic. Doing something at home wasn't really an option because Cora had made it clear that she was celebrating single's awareness day with a James Bond marathon and couples were not welcome. At least he had the cupcakes. That was something at least even if he didn't have the rest of a plan for Valentine's Day.
What Derek hadn't counted on was Stiles. He still wasn't entirely used to a relationship where he didn't have to do most of the date planning. But Stiles had come up with a Valentine's Day plan of his own. Which was how Derek ended up on Stiles' front porch, clutching a box of cupcakes and not knowing what to expect. The Sheriff opened the door and grinned at Derek.
"Come on in. Stiles is just getting things set up."
Not feeling any less nervous, Derek headed for the living room. He wasn't sure what he expected to find there, but it wasn't the sight he found. The room was now dominated by a gigantic pillow fort. Stiles crawled out before Derek could say anything.
"You're early! What did you bring?"
"Cupcakes," Derek said.
"Great." Stiles beamed at him. "Take off your shoes and bring them inside."
Careful not to jostle the cupcakes too much, Derek made his way inside the blanket fort. Inside he found a vast array of snacks, more pillows and blankets, and several take out menus.
Stiles smiled a little more shyly at him. "I figured a take on dinner and movie wouldn't be too over the top for our first Valentine's Day. So what will it be? Chinese, pizza, Italian?"
Derek reached for the menus, mentally trying to think what would go best with crème brulee cupcakes. Probably Italian, but he really wasn't in the mood for that at the moment.
"How about that teriyaki place down on Main Street?" Derek asked.
"Sounds good to me."
Their order was quickly placed, and Stiles eyed the box of cupcakes.
"Are those dessert or appetizer? Because I did get us a dessert as well."
Derek just laughed. "They can be our appetizer."
He carefully opened the box to reveal the four prettiest of the cupcakes he'd made. Stiles made an appreciative noise.
"What kind are they?"
"Crème brulee. I even torched the tops to get that burnt sugar effect."
"You have one of those mini-blow torch things? That's so cool. I can use it sometime?"
That made Derek laugh. "I doubt Dad would let it out of his sight."
Curled up with their cupcakes, Stiles started the movie, and by the time that John delivered their take out to the front of the pillow fort, the couple were engrossed in Westley and Inigo's sword fight. The weight of Stiles' head on his shoulder was comforting, and Derek spared a moment to wonder at how he never would have believed, he never would have let himself have this a year ago. This relationship with Stiles still scared him more than a little, he wasn't sure he could survive losing Stiles too now, but he was pretty sure that they were worth the risk.
Stiles nuzzled closer, and Derek refocused on the moment. It might be their first Valentine's Day, but he was hoping it wouldn't be their last.
January was miserable. All right to be fair, just the weather in January was miserable; Derek himself was quite happy. Ever since New Year's Eve, Derek was pretty much walking on air. Admittedly, Stiles' kiss had led to an awkward conversation where Stiles hadn't quite apologized but he'd also made it clear that he hadn't wanted to pressure Derek into anything, but he really liked Derek. He wanted to see Derek was interested in maybe something more than friendship, and he totally understood if Derek wasn't ready to date again just yet, but he thought he'd throw the idea out there.
Derek had been nervous but willing to give it a try. He couldn't deny that he wanted to date Stiles, even if it scared him more than a little. And so far, it had been good. It helped that dating Stiles wasn't that much different than hanging out with Stiles; there was just more cuddling and hand holding and the occasional kiss or two. Everyone seemed pretty supportive so far, even if his sisters wouldn't stop teasing him. Quite honestly, Derek had been most worried about the sheriff's reaction to the fact that he was now dating Stiles, and in the end, he had been the one who was the most supportive. Of course, if Derek actually broke Stiles' heart, he had the feeling that Sheriff Stilinski might be his worst nightmare.
But so far things were wonderful, and Derek was feeling much more confident about having a relationship that wasn't going to backfire spectacularly. There were still days when Derek woke up sure that everything was going to fall apart on him, but those were few and far between. So it's not unexpected that a Saturday late in the month found him puttering around the kitchen baking on a while Stiles filled the room with his chatter and the wind and rain battered at the windows.
He was tackling ginger cupcakes, and the recipe was driving him crazy. The first batch, following the recipe exactly had barely tasted like ginger, and the second batch had been completely overpowering. Neither the third nor the fourth batches had turned out well either, and if this one didn't turn out, he was calling it quits for the day. Thankfully, he had mastered the green tea frosting that went with cupcakes. That at least was one thing that was going well.
With the cupcakes in the oven, there was nothing left to do except for clean up and wait for the baking to finish. His mother wandered into the room with a stack of mail.
"Something for you, Derek. Looks official." She handed him a thick envelope.
He frowned at it. A quick glance told him it was from Southern New Hampshire University, and he felt his stomach clench. It wasn't the first letter back he'd gotten from a college he'd applied to, but he'd yet to be accepted to any that really appealed to him. Texas wasn't exactly his cup of tea, and Derek rather thought he'd like to go some place other than California. He'd applied to all of the colleges that fit his criteria, but when he'd done his searching none of the schools really jumped out at him. There was one in Oregon that might be nice though and one in Alaska that might suit him. He really wasn't sure. He'd sort of been hoping that he'd only get one acceptance letter, and that would decide things for him.
"What's it say?" Stiles asked.
Derek scanned the pages. "I got in. And they're offering me a scholarship."
Stiles beamed at him. "That's great. Which school?"
"Southern New Hampshire."
"Huh."
The timer goes off, and Derek handed the letter to Stiles while he pulled the cupcakes out of the oven.
"How do they look?"
Derek smiled. "They look fine. I'm more worried about how they taste."
"Looks like a nice campus. And it's not in California or Texas." Stiles was fishing.
Derek just shrugged. "We'll see."
Stiles just shook his head. "You'll have to make a decision sometime."
"But not just yet. Here." He pressed a warm cupcake into Stiles' hands. "Tell me what you think."
Stiles bit into the cupcake and wrinkled his nose just slightly. "This is good. Not at all overpowering like before."
"Good. You can help me frost them then."
He handed Stiles a pastry bag. His boyfriend just grinned and squirted a dab on frosting onto Derek's nose. Derek wiped it off only to smeer the remains on Stiles' cheek. His boyfriend laughed and retaliated. Very few of the cupcakes actually get frosted and the kitchen is covered in frosting, but Derek doesn't mind a bit.
He still had three recipes to go on his New Year's resolution, and Derek was pretty sure that he wasn't going to get to them before the year was over with. He didn't really care. Either way he was going to keep baking. To be honest, he was rather glad to see the end of the holidays. Not that he wanted to go back to school exactly, but the Christmas break this year hadn't exactly been the break that everyone else got. Things had been absolutely crazy since it came to light that Peter was the rogue Alpha, and a lot of the winter break had been the pack dealing with the fallout.
It had not been fun, but they had managed to have a good Christmas anyway. Things were finally beginning to settle down, and Derek was hoping that they could get back to normal soon. Peter had survived both the wolfsbane bullet Stiles had shot him with and an Alpha who was very angry that her child had been attack. He'd also been turned over to several powerful emissaries who were able strip him of his stolen Alpha spark and place a binding spell on him. He was currently serving out his punishment under the eyes of a very powerful Alpha up in Canada and her equally power emissary sister.
Actually knowing who was responsible had helped with the Hales relationship with the Argents, and while Scott had initially been very upset with the Hales, he'd come around. So the new year was looking very good for the Hale pack, and Derek was definitely feeling much better than last year. Even if he was a bit nervous about tonight.
He and Stiles were hosting a party for the teens of the pack at the Stilinski home. Well, Stiles was hosting, and Derek was providing the cupcakes to go with the pizza they'd ordered. Stiles had become something of a constant feature in Derek's life. It was like he was afraid to let Derek out of his sight which made no sense what so ever to Derek. Peter hadn't managed to hurt him very badly, and Derek had healed just fine. Stiles had also become much more tactile with Derek as well. He was always seemed to be brushing up against Derek or touching his shoulder or sitting next to him on couch with next to no space between them.
Derek would be lying if he said he didn't like that. And he had to admit that he was rethinking his whole keeping his distance when it came to Stiles. It certainly hadn't kept Stiles out of trouble, and he'd almost lost Stiles anyway. But Derek had to admit he was still scared too. He wasn't sure he was ready to put himself out there again. But he did trust Stiles, and maybe this time it would be different.
The timer went off, and Derek was pulled from his thoughts as he rushed to pull the cupcakes from the oven. This was actually his third batch. Cooking with carbonated drinks was always a little tricky, and while Derek was an old pro at using soda in cupcakes, sparkling cider was turning out to be a challenge. However, the batch that he pulled out of the Stilinski's oven looked good and bounced back nicely when he tapped the tops. Hopefully, they would look good on the inside as well.
He could hear Stiles in the living room, setting up video games and movies. It was comforting to be able to track his presence by his heartbeat. It wasn't until after Peter had attacked them that Derek had realized that he'd been automatically listening for Stiles' heartbeat when he was around. It was especially soothing now that all he had to do was listen and he could be reassured that Stiles was safe and sound.
"How did they turn out this time?" Stiles popped his head into the kitchen.
Derek shrugged. "They look good. I'm just waiting for them to cool down a little so I can check the insides."
"Do I get to try one?" There was a hopeful look on his face.
He laughed. "Don't you always? Give me a few more minutes, and I'll have some frosting ready."
Stiles grinned and snagged one of the kitchen table chairs. "So, we've got just about everybody confirmed to come. I've got a wide selection movies and of course, Mario Kart. Pizza is ordered and should arrive shortly. Dad's going to check on us, but he's got the evening shift so the house is ours. You've got the cupcakes. Am I forgetting anything?"
He shook his head. "I think we're good. Let me just get these cooled and frosted and then we'll be ready to go."
By the time the doorbell rang, Derek had a platter full of cupcakes ready to go as well as a couple of extras he left in the kitchen. Erica, Boyd, and Cora all arrived together with bags of snack food and a few back up movies. Hot on their heels were Allison, Scott, and Isaac with Lydia and Jackson showing up before the door had closed. Danny showed up minutes later and there was a mad dash for the remaining places to sit that weren't the floor. There was quite of a bit of laughter and bickering before the group finally settled on a movie to watch, but Derek couldn't say he minded it.
It was sort of rare that all of them were in the same space at the same time for all that they were pack. During all pack events or pack meetings, yes, but other than that, they mostly hung out in smaller groups. And while there was clearly some tension between certain pack members, like the insults Jackson and Stiles traded, they were still comfortable with one another, and Derek felt safe with this group in a way he didn't with most of his fellow high school students.
He also ended up sitting on the floor with Stiles using him as a pillow. Even with most of the group being teenage werewolves, there was plenty of pizza to around, and enough snarking to make the movie fun without being too distracting. By the time midnight was approaching, Stiles was sprawled all over Derek, and most of the couples had gotten cozy in preparation for their New Year's kiss.
Just before midnight, the TV was switched to the countdown. When the ball dropped and the fireworks went off there were cheers and kisses, but Derek's world narrowed to the feel of Stiles' lips pressed against his cheek.
Derek was terrified. Which was why he was frantically baking. Well, he did have another excuse. It was the holiday season in the Hale household, and that meat all sorts of events that could use cupcakes. His parents were hosting all sorts of holiday parties, and there were plenty of potlucks and other events that someone would need to bring refreshments to. So Derek was practically living in the kitchen and churning out batch after batch of gingerbread cupcakes to keep himself from thinking.
Because if he thought about the fact that his little crush on Stiles had turned into something more significant, Derek was going to panic. So he just kept on baking. Not that anyone was complaining about that. In fact, Derek would venture to say that most of the pack was extremely pleased with the fact that there was always a cupcake available to them at the moment.
He wasn't ready to think about how Stiles' smile made his heart skip a beat or how much he liked it when the other teen chattered at him while he baked. Stiles' eyes lit up like liquid amber when he was excited about the topic at hand, and he was steadfastly loyal to those he cared about. He always seemed to know when Derek needed space, but he gave as good as he got in their arguments. He made Derek feel far more than he'd ever expected; it completely terrified him.
And Derek knew that Stiles wasn't going to hurt him, not intentionally at least. Stiles had more than proved he was pack, and Derek trusted him. What Derek didn't trust was himself. It was his judgement that had been wrong so many times. He was the one who had listened to Uncle Peter about Paige and gotten her killed. He was the one who had trusted Kate and nearly destroyed his own family. And while Derek might have accepted that not all of that was his fault, it was still true that his decisions had made those things possible.
The idea of making a decision that might hurt Stiles kept Derek from even thinking about doing something. Stiles deserved better. And the last thing that Derek needed to do was destabilize the pack by doing something that got Scott's best friend hurt. Scott was slowly accepting the pack, but something like Stiles getting hurt could set him at odds with them again. So Derek was going to have to settle for having Stiles as a friend and work on quashing all of these feelings that made him want more.
What Derek hadn't expected was to be ambushed by Stiles with a request to bake cupcakes for some event for the sheriff's department or Stiles' request that he do the baking at the Stilinski home. Still, Derek was happy to oblige, and the Stilinski kitchen did have all the equipment he needed. He wasn't expecting the way that Stiles hovered anxiously as he got set up. As Derek began to mix up the ingredients, Stiles finally spoke.
"I bet you're wondering why I asked you to bake over here instead of at your place."
Derek shrugged. "Not really."
Stiles just sighed. "Look, I need to run something by you before I take it to your mom. You know how we never found that Alpha that bit Scott? I think I figured out who it is."
Derek raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh?"
Stiles slumped. "Yeah. You're not going to like it though."
"I like the fact that we have a rogue Alpha at large even less."
"All right. You'll have to bear with me because it won't make sense unless I explain everything."
So Derek mixed up the batter while Stiles laid out what he'd put together. Derek was both impressed and appalled. Stiles really was brilliant when it came to piecing things together, but he didn't seem to have much thought for his own safety. He also had a sinking feeling in his stomach as Stiles presented connection after connection. So he wasn't really surprised, just sort of resigned, when Stiles concluded with, "So, I'm about ninety-eight percent sure that Peter is the Alpha we're looking for."
He sighed and stuck the cupcakes into the oven. "Have you told anybody else about this?"
Stiles shook his head. "No. I wanted to be sure before I did. But it sounds like you believe me."
Derek just winced. "It makes a lot of sense. And Uncle Peter hasn't been around much since school started. But he hasn't been causing trouble either, and Mom's had her hands full with other things. As much as I hate to admit it, I haven't been able to trust him in a while."
Then he frowned. "We need to talk to my mom now. If Peter has any clue that you know, he's going to come after you. He needs to be stopped before it comes to that."
"I'm afraid it's too late for that, nephew."
Derek's brain might have frozen, but his instincts hadn't. He grabbed for the younger teen, dragging Stiles behind him. He could feel his fangs dropping and his face shifting. Not that it would help necessarily. If it came down to a real fight, Peter had him outclassed. He was older and more experience, plus there was the fact that Derek didn't really want to hurt his uncle, and he wasn't sure that Peter felt the same way about him. He really didn't like the way his uncle was smirking at him.
"Now, Derek, this doesn't have to be ugly. I know you're fond of the boy, but really, I think we can all agree that it's best that you not get too attached to anyone these days. It never seems to end well, now does it?"
Behind him, Stiles made an inarticulate noise of anger; Derek was more focused on keeping himself between Stiles and Peter. He was just waiting for Peter to attack, and the more time his uncle spent talking rather than attacking them, the more time they had for help to come. Hopefully, Stiles had had the sense to text for help. But Derek knew that Peter wasn't going to keep talking forever. Sooner or later he was going to attack, and then they were all in trouble. Hopefully, he could hold out long enough for Stiles to be able to get out of the house and away. Derek didn't think that Peter would risk exposing them at this point. So at least Stiles might survive this fight.
When Peter pounced, Derek was ready. He yelled at Stiles to run and did his best to block Peter. But it wasn't before he was on the ground under Peter, trying his best to protect his vulnerable throat. However, Derek wasn't expecting the gun that went off or Peter to retreat. His head was pounding, and he couldn't quite figure out what was going on, but he could feel Stiles' hand on his shoulder and smell pack in the air over the scent of the baking cupcakes and gun powder.
"Stay down," Stiles said softly. "We're safe. Your mom is taking care of things."
The orange clove cupcakes weren't exactly a hit with his family. Only his dad and Cora seemed to like them, so Derek scrapped that plan and moved on to a different recipe. Spice cookies were a family favorite, so he'd gone with that recipe instead. Spice cake was not a new thing for Derek to bake even if this recipe used a few things his others didn't, and it didn't take much experimentation for him to perfect the cupcakes.
Which was a good thing. Thanksgiving was a major event in the Hale family, and since his mom was the Alpha, they always hosted. And that meant that they were going to be invaded. Of course, some of the relatives would stay with other family members (it was probably the only reason Uncle Peter had been allowed to move out), but the Hale house would be jam packed for the next week.
It was something Derek both loved and hated. He loved being surrounded by his pack. It made him feel warm and content in a way that nothing else did. However, Derek hated the lack of privacy and how hard it was to find a moment alone. As much as he loved his family, he did need a little bit of peace and quiet on occasion. But really, the good outweighed the bad in this case.
The house was fuller than usual this year as well. While Erica, Boyd, Jackson, and Lydia were all doing their own things with their families for Thanksgiving, Isaac would be join the Hale horde as well as Stiles and Scott due to both Melissa and the Sheriff working on Thanksgiving. Plus, Jordan was in the States for the holidays, and Laura was bringing him home for Thanksgiving as well. Thankfully, they weren't all staying at the house, but it was definitely going to cause some creative seating arrangements. There was no way they were all going to fit at one table.
Of course, the real completion was for space in the kitchen. If Derek wanted to do anything in there, he'd need to stake out a spot early on. Which was why he was up at four in the morning making cupcakes. By six, his dad would be up and have commandeered the entire kitchen with the help of Aunt Kerra, and Derek would probably find himself drafted to help make the meal. Feeding a pack of werewolves could be a serious task even when it wasn't Thanksgiving, and Derek knew that his dad would be drafting just about everybody in the house to help out in one way or another.
So he wasn't at all surprised when his father wandered into the kitchen as Derek was pulling out the last tray of cupcakes out of the oven.
"I thought that something smelled good own here." His father durned on the coffee maker. "How long have you been up?"
Derek shrugged. "Maybe an hour."
There was a companionable silence in the kitchen while Derek set to work on making the buttercream and his dad began the Thanksgiving meal preparations. While much of the cooking itself wouldn't start until later, his dad always liked to get a head start on the prep work, and some items couldn't be made until others were finished. So Connor made coffee started on the stuffing, and Derek frosted cupcakes and tucked them safely away in Tupperware before anyone woke up and tried to eat them prematurely.
It wasn't long before more people started waking up and drifting in to the kitchen. Derek retreated from the kitchen when it had more than five people working inside with a bag of apples to peel. For all that it was Thanksgiving, the Hales always had apple pie as well as pumpkin. There would be two pumpkin pies tonight as well, but the apple pie was the important one. At least to Derek. He hated pumpkin pie. Well, he hated pumpkin just about anything.
Laura joined him in the living room before too long, turning on the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and working on her own assigned cooking tasks. Once he'd peeled and the sliced the apples, they were turned over to Aunt Kerra for the pie, and Derek found himself on errand duty, picking up any last minute things that they needed like bags of ice for the home made cranberry sherbet or extra vanilla when they were running low.
Unfortunately, that meant that Derek was the one who had to brave the grocery store. He did his best to be in and out as quickly as possible given that the people in the grocery story were crazy. It wasn't quite as crazy as the crowds on Black Friday (he'd let Laura drag him along on a shopping trip once), but Derek still felt rather on edge until he got out of the store. By the time that he had gotten back to the house, Derek found that the teenagers of the pack had been recruited to crank the cranberry sherbet were just waiting on the ice.
Stiles was practically vibrating as they started dumping the ice into the ice cream maker. Derek wasn't surprised that they were munching on the cupcakes as they waited in the garage with the ice cream machine. Well, it wasn't really a machine in Derek's mind. It was a bucket that had a hand crank you would attach to the top.
"I can't believe that you guys actually make your own ice cream."
Derek just shook his head. "Tell me that after you've been cranking this thing for an hour. I know they make motorized ones, but Dad insists that it's tradition to make it by hand."
Stiles made a face at him. "So jaded, so young."
"Say that again when the ice cream is done."
Derek left him, Scott, and Isaac to get to work and headed back to the kitchen, bypassing the dining room where he could hear his mom organizing the tables and their settings. Thanksgiving was one of the few times of the year that they used the fine china and good silver, and Derek knew that all he would have to do was poke his nose in the room and he would be drafted to help out. Of course, that was exactly what happened with his dad when he entered the kitchen.
Still, the day passed with laughter and fun, and for the first time in ages, Derek felt completely at home with his pack, no longer holding himself a little bit apart from them. Dinner itself was a loud raucous affair. Derek found himself squeezed in with the rest of the teens in the pack at a card table at the end of the long dining room table. It wasn't until Derek settled on the couch with his apple pie for the annual watching of The Blues Brothers that Derek really thought about just how happy he had been all day.
Stiles flopped down next to him on the couch with a bright smile and a plate crammed with two pieces of pie (one pumpkin and one apple) and the last of the cupcakes.
"Thanks for this by the way," he said. "I haven't had a Thanksgiving like this in years. Normally we do the station potluck if Dad doesn't have to work or I eat with the McCalls if he does, but this was really nice. I felt like part of the family."
Derek stared at him. "You are a part of the family. You're pack."
Stiles blinked at him. "Really?"
Derek frowned. "Of course, you're pack. Both you and your dad."
Stiles' smile seemed to grow even brighter, and Derek felt his heart clench in his chest.
Derek wasn't sure what to make of Lydia Martin. He didn't really know the teenager. He knew who she was of course, no one at their school didn't. She was probably the most popular girl in the school and ruled with an iron first. According to Stiles, she was also incredibly smart. Actually, Stiles seemed to have a lot to say about Lydia Martin. He talked about her the way some people talked about religious figures, and Derek wasn't sure what to make of that either.
Nor did he know what to do with her hovering in his kitchen. Though to be completely fair, he didn't think that many people had seen this particular face of Lydia. Not that he blamed her for being shaken and not quite like herself. The past two weeks had been hellish for her, and Derek knew that even if most of it was over with, her future was pretty uncertain. The fact that no one was really sure what sort of supernatural heritage that she had, only that she was clear some sort of supernatural creature didn't help.
"Can I help you with something?" he finally asked, after watching her wander around the kitchen in silence for several minutes.
Lydia shook her head. "Stiles says you make good cupcakes. I wanted to try them for myself."
Derek shrugged. "As long as you're willing to wait. These have to bake and cool before they'll be ready."
It was Lydia's turn to shrug. "I'm not leaving until I know what's happening with Jackson."
He could understand that. Jackson was part of the reason the past two weeks had been so crazy. He's just thankful that the situation hadn't lasted longer. Jackson's reaction to the bite had been to become a kanima. The boy hadn't actually been aware of most of his transformations and actions save for some dreams. Which was probably for the best as far as Derek could tell. According to Stiles, who had started doing research the moment he knew there was something going on, it was because of Jackson's emotional state had affected his change, turning him into a snake like tool for vengeance. Because the thing about kanimas was that they could be controlled by a master.
Jackson had been used to kill two people before Derek's mom and Lydia had stopped him. They still didn't know who his master had been, but at least he didn't have to worry about being controlled any longer and was pretty much a normal werewolf at this point. However, his parents were all freaked out by the strange occurrences that had happened around their son (even if no one outside of the Hale pack knew just who had killed those people) and wanted to get him out of town. Jackson himself was more than a little shaken, though he seemed most comfortable when surrounded by the pack or when Lydia was near.
Derek knew that his mom was working on Jackson's parents to make sure that he would stay in Beacon Hills. The idea of a new werewolf being sent to strange place alone was a recipe for disaster even if Talia's connections could probably find a nearby pack. It would be better if the other teen just stayed in town. It was his parents that they would have to convince though, and Talia seemed to be doing a good job of that. But not knowing what was going to happen next had to be hard on Lydia. In the end, it had been her feelings for Jackson that had really made the difference in rescuing him. That sort of love was both powerful and a little bit scary. And he didn't think it was exactly easy to live with.
He carefully put the cupcakes in the oven and set the timer before turning his attention back to Lydia. She looked smaller than normal, bundled up in what had to be Jackson's sweatshirt and trackpants, hair pulled back in a messy bun that left red tendrils framing her pale face.
"Is there something I can do for you? Make tea?"
She looked like she could use something, and a cup of tea had been Nana's solution more often than not when a pack member was dealing with something emotional.
Lydia shook her head. "What kind of cupcakes are you making?"
"Orange and clove. I figured I'd experiment before Thanksgiving. Depending on how they turn out I might make them to supplement the pies for Thanksgiving. We never have enough desserts to satisfy people and it's shaping up to be an even bigger crowd than last year."
He started work on the frosting, wishing he had Stiles' ease of conversation. He really wasn't sure what to say to Lydia. He barely knew her, he couldn't reassure her that everything was going to be all right, and Derek was awkward at the best of times which this most certainly wasn't. Hopefully, the finished cupcakes themselves would be some sort of comfort even if Derek himself wasn't.
As if summoned by Derek's thoughts, Stiles bustled into the kitchen. He grinned gently at Lydia.
"Hey Lyds, I see you too have discovered the only place to be when Derek is baking. What'cha making this time, Der?"
"Orange clove cupcakes. They're an experiment mostly."
Stiles' cheerful chatter filled the kitchen while Derek finished up the frosting and took the cupcakes out of the oven. Derek had to slap his hands away from the still cooling cupcakes at least once, and he could felt Lydia's eyes, heavy on his back. Still, he does his best to act normally while he frosts the cupcakes, presenting the first to Stiles and the second to Lydia.
He helped himself to one as well and wrinkled his nose a little as he took a bite. It wasn't exactly what he had expected. It wasn't bad per se, but it also wasn't something that he thought his family was going to just gobble up. Still, he liked the citrus flavor to it. He might have been a little too heavy on the clove, but that was fixable. What wasn't was how other people found the taste. He watched to see Stiles and Lydia's reactions to the cupcakes.
"I like it. I'm not sure I'd eat a dozen of them, but I like it. It's different flavors than you normally get."
Stiles' cupcake had disappeared within the space of seconds. Lydia was still nibbling at hers, watching the two of them.
"I like its spice," Lydia finally said. "It gives the flavor an edge."
Derek just shrugged. "You don't think I need to tone it down some? I'll probably try them out on the pack before adding them to the Thanksgiving menu."
Lydia shook her head. "I like the bite of it."
Stiles' phone chirped and he made a face. "I got to go pick up Scott. Can I-"
His hand was already creeping towards the other cupcakes. Derek rolled his eyes and handed him two.
"Yes."
"Thanks, man."
Lydia shook her head as he left. Derek knew that the two of them hadn't exactly been friends before Lydia had been pulled into the world of the supernatural even if they had known one another. Stiles' infatuation with Lydia was well known, though Derek had to admit that he hadn't really seen signs of it at all in the past few months. There had been no more grand gestures or over the top declarations at school of late, and while it was clear that Stiles still respected Lydia a great deal, Derek didn't hear quite the same adoration in his voice when he talked about her anymore.
Then again, Stiles had been the one to really shepherd Lydia into the world of the supernatural. It was true that it had mostly been Lydia and Derek's mom who had done the work of rescuing Jackson, but it had been Stiles who had done much of the research. He'd also been the one to try and keep Lydia spirits up and try and support her at school.
"Stiles is a good friend," Lydia said aloud, making Derek blink.
"I know."
"I didn't. I never really thought about it before."
The look on her face wasn't one that Derek recognized. It was introspective and a little wistful, but beyond that, Derek couldn't tell what she was thinking. Then she looked at him and smiled.
Everything was a mess. Scott wasn't the only one who had been attacked that night. Both Jackson Whittemore and Lydia Martin had been bitten as well. Lydia was in the hospital in a coma; she hadn't turned, but she wasn't dying either. Jackson was fine, but it didn't seem like he had turned either. But it all combined to make a huge mess.
Derek didn't know how to make Scott accept the pack. He didn't know why Jackson hadn't turned into a werewolf, even if his scent had changed to something other than human. He didn't know why Lydia hadn't woken up yet. He didn't know who the rogue Alpha was or where they had disappeared to. The entire pack was upset and on edge, and there was not much Derek could do to fix that.
He had actually been assigned to helping Scott get acclimated and fit in with the rest of the pack. He'd tried to tell his mom what a bad idea that was, but she hadn't listened. But even Isaac, as new to being a werewolf as he was, would have been a better choice because Scott actually liked him. He still seemed to hate Derek and clearly resented the idea that Derek was supposed to a friend and mentor now that he was a werewolf. They had already gotten off on the wrong foot before, and as Derek had found when he'd tried to explain that the bite was a gift, they had very different opinions on things.
To that Scott was not taking the news that he was now a werewolf well was an understatement. Especially when it earned him the disapproval of Allison's parents. Allison herself had been pretty understanding about the whole situation from what Derek could tell, but her parents weren't happy, and Scott was finding himself dealing with far more rules and restrictions when it came to his girlfriend than he was used to.
The Argents were not at all happy about the recent turn of events, and while they had accepted that Talia Hale was not the one who had bitten Scott, there was still the rogue Alpha out there, and that was making the hunters jumpy and aggressive which of course set the rest of the pack anxious. Nothing had happened yet, but Derek knew that his mom was worried about the potential powder keg situation that was building.
Oddly enough, the people who reacted the best to the Scott being bitten by a werewolf incident were Stiles followed by the Sheriff and Scott's mother, Melissa. Both the parents had had a bit of a freak out, but they had settled into the idea rather well. The sheriff especially since he now had explanations for some of his unsolved crimes on the books. Stiles had simply accepted that the supernatural was real and promptly wanted to know everything he could about it. But even with those good reactions, that was three more people who now knew and had to be integrated into the pack.
All of it was beginning to get to Derek which was why he had cooped the kitchen. He didn't know what he could do to help the pack at this point, but at least he could bake. Cupcakes did tend to put people in a better mood, and hopefully the comfort food would help out some. At the very least it would help him unwind a little. And peanut butter and chocolate seemed like a good comfort food combination
He wasn't surprised when Stiles wandered in to join him. Stiles had pretty much become a fixture around the Hale house since he'd discovered the supernatural was real. Derek's mom had given him permission to read just about anything in the library about the subject as long as he didn't take the books out of the house. So Stiles being constantly around was typical. Scott trailing after him was less so. Derek rarely saw Scott at the Hale house unless Melissa made him come.
"What kind are you making this time?" Stiles asked, peering into Derek's mixing bowl.
"Chocolate peanut butter."
Stiles' eyes went wide. "Dude. I think I love you. Nothing is better than chocolate and peanut butter."
Derek wasn't prepared for the way his heart seemed to skip a beat at that, but he smiled. "I figured it was good comfort food."
Scott was scowling at the two of them. "When did you two get so chummy?"
Stiles rolled his eyes. "About when I learned that Derek makes the best cupcakes in the world, so sometime last spring."
Derek didn't say anything as he put the cupcakes in the oven. He was pretty sure that opening his mouth would make things worse. He never seemed to be able to say the right thing when it came to Scott. And he was pretty sure that if it came down to it, Stiles would take Scott's side over his.
Scott was still grumbling. "Great."
"Dude, try the cupcakes, and stop being a dick."
The silence while the cupcakes baked was only filled with Stiles' chatter as he expounded on everything from the history of werewolves in Europe to speculation on if the presence of werewolves on the team might improve lacrosse season. Scott scowled the entire time, and Derek made the peanut butter buttercream. He figured that was safe enough that it wouldn't set Scott off.
As soon as the timer dinged, Derek was pulling the cupcakes out of the oven and setting them aside to cool. Stiles made grabby hands for them. Derek chuckled.
"Wait until they're cool. Otherwise the frosting will just slide off."
"But they smell so good."
Derek just rolled his eyes. Scott's frown deepened. Derek was just bracing for the explosion that seemed to be building. He could feel the anger and unhappiness radiating off of Scott. He knew that this wasn't exactly what Scott had wanted or planned, but was it really so bad? It was wrong that the rogue Alpha had bit Scott without asking, but that wasn't the Hales' fault, and it wasn't necessarily a bad thing to be a werewolf. Derek knew that it had cured Scott's asthma for one thing.
But the one time Derek had tried to point that out to the other teen, Scott had pretty much bit his head off, so Derek had kept his mouth shut since. So Derek carefully frosted his cupcakes in silence before handing the first one over to Stiles who pretty much inhaled it before holding a hand out for another. Derek just grinned.
Scott on the other hand was not amused. "He ruined my life, and you're sitting there eating cupcakes!"
Derek didn't drop the cupcake he was holding. He'd heard this before. It wasn't something new even if it still hurt to hear. Stiles stared at his friend.
"It's not like Derek had a choice either you know, or did you miss the part where he was born a werewolf. It would be like blaming you for being Hispanic," Stiles said softly. "And we both know who's really to blame, Scott. It's me. I'm the one who took Jackson's stupid dare and dragged you into the woods that night."
Scott's face softened. "What? How was it your fault? You couldn't know that there was a crazy alpha on the loose."
"But I'm the reason that you were there in the first place."
"So? It wasn't like you were trying to get me turned into a supernatural creature of the night."
"But-"
"The only person to blame is the rogue Alpha," Derek interrupted. "Mom and Mr. Argent will take care of him. Here."
He stuck a cupcake in Scott's hand. "Try that."
Scott looked skeptical but he bit into the cupcake. "It's good."
"Told you." Stiles crowed. "Derek makes the best cupcakes. Especially when you don't treat him like he's the one who bit you or treating him like a pariah for something both he and Allison have already gotten over."
Scott looked a little sheepish. "Sorry."
Derek just shrugged. It was something. Maybe they weren't quite pack yet, but it looked like they might be heading in that direction.
Stiles was trying not to notice how nervous his husband was. Because if he thought about that, he was going to start thinking about how nervous he was, and that wasn't going to end well for anyone. The two of them had been waiting for this day for almost a year and a half now, and now that it was finally here, Stiles felt like he was on the verge of a panic attack, and that was not how he wanted things to go. Today he and Derek were going to finally meet their daughter for the first time and take her home, and the last thing he wanted to do was mar the event in any way.
The subject of children had come up about two years ago, and it hadn't taken the two of them long to decide on adoption. Then it was the long process to get approved and get on lists. And after that, it was a lot of waiting. This was actually the third time that there had been a chance to adopt. The first two times had ended with things not working out. So there was a reason for the nerves beyond just the fact that they would be meeting their daughter today.
But this time it was different, on multiple levels. For one thing, this was going to be a private adoption, and the papers were already signed. Their Kira had come to them in a roundabout way. Apparently, Derek's mother had known Kira's family, and when the kitsune kit had been orphaned, the werewolf pack in the area had reached out to the Hale pack. Since there were no other relatives stepping forward and kitsune and werewolves could get along quite well, it was decided that Derek and Stiles would take her in.
So now the two of them were driving down to Point Reyes Station in order to pick Kira up. There was a brand new infant car seat in the back along with a diaper bag that could barely hold everything foisted upon them by their packs. Both the McCall pack and the Hale pack were going more than a little overboard about the newest addition to their family. They all had seen pictures of Kira, but Stiles had absolutely no doubt that they were going to be invaded the moment they got her home.
Derek reached over and adjusted the radio, changing it from NPR to a station that was playing bright, cheery pop music. Stiles raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything. Derek was probably just as nervous as he was, and if he wanted to listen silly pop music to make the driver better, his husband wasn't going to complain.
It really was a beautiful drive. The two of them had left with plenty of time just in case something happened along way, but it also meant that they did not have to rush. They sort of were anyway, but Stiles did take the time to appreciate the coast scenery. He took another deep breath.
Neither of them were talking. There was really too much nervous energy in the car to do so. It was hard to believe that this was really happening, and as they drove past another tiny coast town, Stiles wondered if this was really real. He wasn't sure that he was going to believe it until Kira was actually in his arms. The road seemed to stretch on forever, and Stiles wondered if they would ever get to the end of it.
When they did finally roll into town it was late afternoon, and there was fog everywhere. Thankfully, it wasn't the supernatural sort. He and Derek followed their directions to a house that was just outside of town. Derek parked the car and the two of them shared a look. Taking another deep breath Stiles got out of the car. The house's front door opened before they even reached it, and a tall man stepped out with a smile.
"You must be Derek and Stiles. I'm Nick Deveroux."
Derek shook his hand. "Alpha Deveroux."
"Come on in. Kira's asleep, so we can get all of the boring parts of this."
The Deveroux home was cozy, and Stiles immediately felt at ease there. Nick gestured for them to take a seat.
"We scrounged together as much documentation and information about Kira as we were able to. Unfortunately, with almost everyone wiped out, there wasn't much to go on. But I do have Kira's birth certificate for you. As well as all the information we've been able on find on kitsune. They're not too different from werewolves, so hopefully there won't be too many surprises." Nick handed Stiles a thick folder of papers. "I'm glad you were willing to take her. We'd offer to adopt her ourselves, but the twins are four and the triplets are two, and I can't do that to Mia. Besides, the relatives we were able to contact in Japan, seemed to think you'd be the best caretakers for her. Though they do expect you to bring her to visit them."
Stiles smiled. It was nice to know that someone thought they'd be good parents. And he wouldn't mind a trip to Japan every now and then. He was idly flipping through the pages when a wail split the air. Nick sighed.
"And she's up. Let's go meet your daughter."
Nick led the way back into a room that had been a study which had clearly been converted into a nursery. Laying in a play pin was a seven month old infant wailing her lungs out. Nick deftly scooped her up and handed her to Derek. Stiles watched as his husband froze for a split second before cradling the baby close and rubbing her back soothingly. Kira calmed almost immediately, and Stiles was taken by just how natural the scene looked. Derek gently nuzzled the top of Kira's downy head, and he felt his heart melt.
Nick just shook his head. "Well, if there was ever any doubt that you were the right people for her, that settled it. She never calms down that easily for anyone else."
Derek and Stiles stayed the night. It gave them time to bond with Kira a little and to pack up the few things she had. It was an interesting evening. They quickly learned that Kira loved to be held and cuddled and wanted to be touched. She was curious too and did her level best to investigate anything she could reach. The first time Derek had handed her to Stiles to hold, he'd very quickly realized that was going to adore this little girl until the day he died.
The drive back to Beacon Hills the next day was tense in a different way. They had a much more precious cargo this time and some how damaging it was unthinkable. Thankfully, Kira took to the car trip quite well. She actually slept most of the way. Which was just as well. They pulled up in front of their new house and amazingly found no one waiting. It didn't take long for the two of them to get Kira settled in the nursery that they had put together. She woke almost immediately when Stiles set her down in her new crib, but instead of starting to cry, Kira looked around with wide eyes.
Derek wrapped an arm around Stiles' waist and sighed. "We should probably let everyone know that we're home."
"We're going to be invaded," Stiles groaned. "Let's just tell Dad and Melissa. They can meet their granddaughter, and then we'll let everyone else know."
John Stilinski was over at the house within minutes of hearing the news. Stiles was fairly certain he'd probably broken traffic laws, but no one was going to call the sheriff on that. He beamed at Derek and Stiles.
"Introduce me to my granddaughter, boys."
Melissa smacked his shoulder. "Give them a moment, John. She's a baby, not evidence."
Derek laughed but when to fetch Kira. Stiles couldn't help the way his heart swelled when the two of them reappeared. John held out his arms for Kira.
"Dad, meet Kira Stilinski-Hale."
He smiled down the little girl. "Hello, sweetheart."
Melissa snapped a photo. Then she handed the camera to Stiles.
"My turn. She's absolutely adorable, Stiles."
The grandparents hadn't been there more than ten or fifteen minutes when other cars started pulling up in front of the house. Stiles rolled his eyes.
"I think the cat is out of the bag."
Derek sighed. "We knew it would happen sooner or later."
By the end of the next thirty minutes, the house was completely full of pack members there to see their newest addition. Kira bore with being passed from person to person fairly well for the first twenty minutes, but then she wanted Derek or Stiles and nobody else. The rest of the pack was rather put out about that, but that didn't stop Allison and Lydia from cooing over how cute she was and discussing fashion options for the infant.
The kids especially seemed fascinated by Kira. She wasn't the first baby most of them had seen, but all of them wanted to hold the new baby, and werewolves especially seemed fascinated by her.
"She smells interesting. Not quite like a wolf. Maybe spicier?" Talia informed Stiles. "She smells good though. I can baby sit if you'd like."
Stiles smiled at the twelve year old. "I think you may have to get in line on that one."
Talia sighed. "That's what Mom said too."
Kira eventually fell asleep despite all of the attention. The two packs lingered despite that, and Stiles quickly discovered they hadn't come empty handed. There were all sorts of dishes that could be frozen and easily reheated as well as their refrigerator was far more stocked than Stiles remembered it being when they left to pick Kira up. Beyond that there were more toys than you could shake a stick at as well as a stack of baby clothes. It had been almost two years since there had been a new addition to the pack, but even so, this seemed to going a bit overboard.
Still, he knew it was because they loved him and Derek and wanted them to be happy. And it was just as clear that everyone already adored Kira. Even with the early tragedy in her life, Kira was going to grow being very loved and very happy if Stiles had anything to say about it. When he made his way back to the living room after stowing their new abundance of gifts in the nursery, he found that number of people in the house had dwindled. Stiles lingered in the doorway for a long moment, watching Derek talk softly with his sister even as held a sleeping Kira up against his chest.
It had taken a long time for them to get to this moment, but Stiles was absolutely certain that it had been more than worth the wait.
