For @imagine-sterek 10k 10 Day Celebration, Day 1: Engagement.
Title: Since Always
Rating: Gen
Ship: Stiles Stilinski/Derek Hale
Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, True Mates, Kid Derek Hale, Fluff, The Hale Family Lives
Warning(s): None, tho you could probably say too much fluff xD.
Word Count: 894 words
Summary:
A 4 year old Derek makes a promise to Miss Claudia. Years later, he fulfills it.
Read on AO3 or Below.
*
Miss Claudia is Derek's favorite aunt. She is not her actual aunt, but she is his mom's best friend, and so he and Laura call her aunty Cee. Derek loves her. Especially her eyes, he thinks; they're beautiful like his own beta gold eyes when the light hits correctly.
Miss Claudia is very beautiful. So, when he hears his uncle Peter tell her that she's fat, he gets angry.
"Uncle Peter!" He shouts, and runs at his uncle's legs with all his strength, delighted when his uncle takes a step back. He hits his legs repeatedly with his hands.
"What's gotten into you?" Uncle Peter asks, and Miss Claudia wraps her hands around him. She lifts him up in her arms, and he hides his angry face under her chin, nosing at her neck. Her smell always calms her, and lately her smell has become even better. His wolf really likes it. It's like his birthday mornings, or like the earth after rain.
He removes his face from her neck and cups Miss Claudia's cheeks in his hands. "You're beautiful, Mis Cee. Not fat," he turns to glare at his uncle.
Miss Claudia laughs, the sound the best thing he's heard in all his life. And in his four-years of life, he has heard many things.
"Oh, you sweet child, thank you." she says, and uncle Peter sighs behind him. "But Peter didn't call me fat,"
"But he did!" He had heard. "You should not lie when you're upset, mama says so," he pats her cheeks again. He's here for her. He'll be her knight in shining armor.
"Your mama is correct, of course," Uncle Peter says, and he hides his face in Miss Claudia's neck. "Derek, oh come on. Don't hide,"
"Apologize!"
"That's a big boy word," Miss Claudia praises, and he beams up at her.
"Daddy said Laura should apologize to me because she killed Mr. Bear," he tells her while trying to be strong. He misses Mr. Bear everyday, but at least he has Mr. Blue to keep him company now.
Miss Claudia hums and sways with him, and this, Derek likes a lot too.
"Claudia," his uncle says.
"Oh, right. Kiddo, Peter didn't call me fat, baby. He was just telling me I've gotten big,"
He frowns. "Isn't that the same thing? Daddy said Mama is also getting big, and she yelled at him." His mama has his baby sister in her belly, and Derek will one day find out how a baby went inside her. But for now he's just excited to be a big brother.
"You know why she is so big, Derek?" Miss Claudia asks, and he nods. She smiles, boops his nose, and he giggles. "Just like she has a baby in her belly, I do too."
"Ohhhh," that makes so much sense. "That's why you smell so good!"
Miss Claudia stops swaying, but he doesn't mind. "I smell good?"
"Uh huh. Like, like chocolates and the mud after rain and the grass when I'm a wolf, like all the best smells mixed together!"
"Derek," his uncle whispers, and he sounds like he does when Laura beats him at chess. "Are you sure?"
"Yes," he tells him, and jumps down from her arms and makes Miss Claudia sit on the nearest chair, which happens to be couch in the living room. He puts his ear against her belly, where the baby is. He can hear a very faint thump thump sound, faster than most humans he's heard. "Miss Claudia smells very good because of this baby. I think he will also be beautiful, like you!"
"He?"
"Yes, miss Claudia! He and me are gonna be the best of friends," an idea forms in his head. He turns to uncle Peter. "Uncle Peter, you said you will marry Uncle Chris right? When the gov-govnernent-"
"The Government," his uncle corrects.
"When the government allows boys to marry boys?"
"Yes, Derek, I will. Why exactly are you asking this?" He asks with a smirk.
He jumps up, and then bends down to kiss Miss Claudia's belly lightly through her clothes. He walks towards his uncle and makes him carry him in his arms.
"I want you to be my Best Man when I marry him,"
"Miss Claudia's baby?"
"Of course uncle! Who else?"
"And you're sure?"
"Yes yes yes!"
His uncle laughs. "Claudia, what do you say, do you want this little man to be your son-in-law?"
He also turns to look at her. She is crying, but she is also smiling very big.
He tries to remember the word... "Hormones?"
"Oh, my smart boy," She says, and then adds, "Of course I want you to be my son-in-law. But remember, when you ask my son to marry you, it has to best proposal in the world, okay?"
He can definitely do that. "Anything for your baby, Miss Claudia!"
And just like that, Derek is engaged.
*
This story is told by Peter years and years later, who is Derek's Best Man.
"You loved me since then?" Stiles whispers to his now-husband, the same honey eyes of his mother's shining with love and adoration, and happy tears, voice low enough that only the ones closest to them and the werewolves can hear what is being said between them.
Derek squeezes Stiles' hands under the table. "I've loved you since always."
