OMG this one: “Okay wait. Can we stop joking around like we’d ever actually date? It’s really starting to hurt…” hurts so me so much because at first I thought it was Stiles saying it but no it's totally Derek because stiles is constantly joking because he thinks there is no way Derek would take it seriously. Only Derek has been in love with stiles forever and stiles joking about it just makes it more clear how completely uninterested he is and how little a chance Derek thinks he has.
“That’s as unlikely as cows flying, Scott,” Stiles says with an eyeroll. “As unlikely a bisexual character saying the word bisexual, as unlikely as the republican party passing a motion for gun control, as unlikely as me and Derek going on a date,” he continues, trying to keep the bitterness off his voice at the last one.
The room is silence for a moment and Stiles looks up from his phone to see everyone glaring at him.
“Excuse me,” Derek mutters and pushes off his chair, slamming the back door on his way out.
“Dude,” Scott says, giving him miserable puppy eyes. “That was mean.”
“What,” he says, again frowning at them.
Erica slams a pillow on his face. Hard.
“You’re a shithead, Stilinski. Fine, we get it, you don’t want to date Derek, you’re saving yourself or whatever the fuck, but stop throwing it in his face.”
“Throwing what in his face? And what do you mean I don’t want to date Derek. Derek doesn’t want to date me and that’s fine, whatever, I get it, okay. I’m dealing and trying not to make it weird.”
“You’re literally the stupidest person I’ve met in my entire life,” Isaac tells him.
“Derek likes you,” Lydia says, looking at him patronizingly. “And you keep making jokes about how you two could never be together.”
“There it is,” Isaac says with an eyeroll.
“I’m an asshole,” he mutters, rubbing his hands over his face.
The choruse of yes that meets that sentence really isn’t warranted.
Stiles winces. “I should go talk to him.”
He gets up from his seat and follows Derek out, feeling like he oughta punch himself in the face when he catches sight of him sitting on the porch steps, shoulders hunched like he’s gearing up for the next blow.
Stiles sits down next to him.
“So I’m an asshole,” he starts.
“It’s fine,” Derek says, looking down at his shoes.
“It’s not though, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just- I was trying to deal with the fact that you’d never in a million years want to date me, and my way with dealing is making a joke out of it, I guess.”
Derek looks over at him, brows furrowed.
“I’m sorry, I just- assumed, I guess. You’re you and I’m just kinda-”
“Amazing,” Derek says and then blushes, looks back down at his shoes.
Stiles rubs the back of his neck and pretends his cheeks don’t feel a lot warmer than they did just two seconds ago.
“You’re pretty amazing too,” he says, awkwardly. “Extraordinary, even.”
Derek sneaks a peek at him.
“Yeah,” he says and has to swallow around the lump in his throat before he says, “and if you- maybe wanted to go, like, on a date, or something- I- I would really like that.”
Derek turns totally towards him and the way his expression softens and he smiles with his eyes at Stiles makes Stiles want to do something stupid, like go steal Derek’s favorite painting or writing his name on every building in Beacon Hills or kissing him stupid.
“I’d like that,” Derek says quietly.
Stiles can’t really stop the beam that breaks on his face.
“Yeah,” Derek breathes out and then leans forward so carefully, something in Stiles aches for him, makes him rush forward to kiss him, slow and sweet and chaste and everything Derek deserves.