Derek took a step back and looked at the tree they had just finished decorating. “There. What do you think?” It wasn’t a real tree, but it was big enough to cover the whole space at corner near the window. While most ornaments were handmade, some at Adrianna’ s school, some with her aunts, some with his own help, there were some that they had bought at their shopping spree the day before. All of them, though, were on the spectrum of blue and purple and sparkles.
“I say it’s awesome.”
Derek nodded satisfied, a smiles playing on his lips at Adrianna’s serious face as she was examining their work. “Agreed. Want some hot chocolate?”
“Absolutely!” She flopped on the couch and turned on the television straight on the cartoon channel.
They had decorated the rest of the house earlier, putting lights out in the balcony, and on the kitchen counter, and over Adrianna’s bed. Their house was aglow in the most festive way, as Derek couldn’t find the strength to deny her such a simple enjoyment.
Being focused on making the hot chocolate, Derek didn’t raise his head as Adrianna said “Dad, look!”
“Patience, Adrianna.” He would spill the damn thing and it smelled heavenly.
Her voice came from the couch filled with this tone of mischief she saved for special occasions. “Okay. But don’t tell me later that I didn’t tell you about the man hanging from the above balcony, okay?”
The what?”
Derek raised his head so hard he ended up spilling the chocolate, burning his fingers in the process. There was indeed a man hanging over their balcony. The only thing he could see from where he was, were the man’s legs, dangling dangerously just at the wrong side of his balcony.
Oh God.
“Adrianna, go to your room,” he said, bolting to the window.
“Oh, I’m not missing this.” Derek didn’t want to argue, lest the man would drop to his death. But he was going to have a serious talk with her later. About listening to her father and… and stuff. He pulled the balcony doors open. The man was still hanging leisurely, with great ease in fact, and he didn’t seem to be in a hurry.
If the guy wasn’t crazy, he had to be a were because no normal human could pull this shit without panicking.
“Hello. May I use your balcony? I fell over…”
“For heaven’s sake, stop hanging like that!” Derek approached him, grabbing the chair he had outside and stepped on it. He wrapped one hand around the guy’s waist and took a deep breath as he pulled him over the rail. The man followed his lead and leaped effortlessly on the floor. “What have you been thinking?” Derek fought hard not to growl as he jumped from the chair, but it was to no avail. There was something about the man. Something that smelled wrong and right at the same time.
“I’m so sorry for the inconvenience. I just… It was an accident okay? We were decorating with my daughter and as I tried to put the balcony lights, I somehow lost my balance—“
“Your balance.”
“Okay, I slipped, I admit it. Luckily though, the last moment I managed to grab from the railing and here I am!” The wide smile on the man’s face annoyed Derek to the bone, but he couldn’t deny it was bright and easy, albeit a little too forced.
For the first time since Derek got outside, he allowed himself to examine the man. His senses were now on alert for a whole different reason, recognizing the kind of smell on him. He smelled were alright, but not a wolf. A jackal or, by the way his eyes glint and the smirk that followed, a fox.
“You’re a fox.”
“Oh yeah! A true vulpe.” He sniffed loudly , “And you’re a wolf!” He gave him his hand waiting for a shake. “I had smelled a wolf on the building but I wasn’t sure it was you until I got on your balcony. I’m Stiles. Thank you for saving my butt man.”
Derek didn’t take his hand. Instead, he took a couple of steps back and folded his arms on his chest. “No problem. Now, if you ‘d be as kind as to go back.” Paige had been a human from a fox family, and after she passed away, her family made clear they wanted to do nothing with them. Adrianna was a human too, and they had never warmed up to Derek being a wolf for a reason he never quite understood. He had felt the way foxes were condescending against wolves. How they didn’t want to deal with them, because they thought of them as dangerous and bloodthirsty. Maybe it was just Paige’s family. Still, ever since, he regarded foxes with reserve and caution.
“Dad?”
Adrianna’s voice was closer than it should have been.
“I told you to go to your room.”
“Well, this is more fun!”
As if on cue, the door bell rang. Derek led Adrianna into the living room and went to open the door, only to meet void.
“Down here.”
Derek looked lower. A kid. A young girl in bright pink pajamas, around Adrianna’s age, was looking at him.
“I’m Chloe and I’d like my dad back please.” Her voice was so serious, Derek felt the urge to bow. He didn’t.
“Hello Chloe.” Finally he had found his manners. No child should be the recipient of impoliteness. “Your dad is inside and in one piece.”
“Thank you,” she said, her eyes searching inside to find the truth in his words.
“Hey hi!” Behind him, Adrianna waved at Chloe with a huge smile.
“Hello.” Chloe’s face softened, a timid smile painting her face sweetly.
“I’m Adrianna. This is my dad, Derek. Do you want to come in and play with me?”
Bingo.
Chloe was already nodding. “Adrianna, you should also ask for her father’s permission, and I’m sure they’d probably want to go upstairs and finish their decorating.”
“Stiles, is it okay for Chloe to stay for a while?” Well, they didn’t lose any time. Derek recognized the voice accompanied by the eyes. It was the face his daughter pulled when she wanted something too much to take no for an answer. There was yet to be a person that hadn’t fallen for her charms.
Stiles looked quite serious though as he answered, “Only if your father approves, and only for,” he checked his watch, “thirty minutes.”
Apparently the fox was familiar to those tactics. Well, it took a fox to know one. Derek sighed and turned to Chloe. “Only for thirty minutes,” he said equally serious.
Chloe’s face brightened more, and she took Adrianna’s extended hand faster than light as they trotted noisily into her room.
Stiles looked at them as they went, smiling. He turned around only when the door was shut. “Look man, I’m sorry for the trouble. When they finish, I promise I’ll try not to annoy you anymore.”
Derek sighed as he headed to the kitchen. “It’s okay.” Adrianna used to be a social kid, but after her mother’s death two years ago, she closed herself up. She had Paige’s character, vibrant, loud and gentle, and Derek hated to see her lonely. Tonight, it was the first time she had actively asked for someone to play with. “Does Chloe like hot chocolate?”
“Teeth rotting sweet.” Stiles smiled. Derek prepared two mugs and took them to the girls, that were looking at the bookshelf, pulling down one book after the other.
“Be careful not to spill chocolate on the books” he warned more out of habit than anything else. The last he wanted was to clean up a hot mess on the carpet.
Chloe tsked him, rolling her eyes. “We’re not kids you know.”
“You’re eleven.”Derek couldn’t stop himself.
“I’m thirteen,” she corrected him with the formality she had used to thank him earlier.
“And I’m almost twelve, dad. Two months to go.”
As if this explained anything.
Stiles, though, was laughing against the door.
“If you’re not kids, there there’s no reason for you young lady to visit the fair tomorrow. Most of the rounds don’t allow adults. We’d be just losing time.” It was obvious that Stiles was teasing her, and yet, Chloe half closed her eyes dangerously, sipped her chocolate and said nothing.
But Derek knew better. He waited for it.
“That’s not fair,” Adrianna whined.
There it was.
Adrianna was ready to say more but Chloe looked at her, and as if this look was a kind of agreement, they just nodded at each other.
“Foxes,” Stiles muttered, going back to the living room.
Derek followed him silently. “How did you know she…”
Stiles was leaning against the counter, hands in his pockets. Derek realized he had never invited him.
“She smells wolf alright, but… there is a hint there, underneath the wolf and human smell. It’s like what you smell at me only considerably faded. You’re accustomed to her smell and can’t tell it apart because it’s already faint and too familiar for you.”
With a nod, Derek gestured at the couch. “You can sit if you want.”
“It’s okay, man. I can tell you don’t like foxes even though her mother is one.”
“Was.”
The mirth fell from Stiles’ face, his eyes darkening. He only offered a small nod.
“It’s been two years.” Two years difficult in so many ways that Derek would never manage to describe them even if he wanted to.
“There’s never enough time to get over it.”
The sorrow in Stiles’ eyes spoke personal experience. “Your spouse?”
“My mother. Chloe is adopted.”
“How long is she with you?”
“Four years.” The way his face lit up again at the mention of his daughter and the memories was unique. His eyes, under the intense illumination of the Christmas lights around them, were gold. “She was at the school I’m teaching, and we bonded. It started slow, but I managed to adopt her after a year. She lost both her parents in an accident. Wolves, too.”
“She’s human, though.”
“So is Adrianna.”
“You want a beer?”
Stiles huffed, “Yes, please.”
KKKKKK
Derek came back to his house to find Stiles cooking breakfast. It wasn’t a new thing for them. For almost a year now, they helped each other with daily tasks, easing the burden of being a single father. It helped that they had been working different shifts, with Stiles being a teacher and Derek working late night shifts as a cop.
“Good morning.” Stiles turned the pancake with expertise and poured some tea for Derek. “How was work?”
“Too much,” Derek admitted, taking the cup of tea Stiles had made for him.
Stiles’ help had been priceless, and his friendship was welcome on every level. Up until they had started hanging out regularly, Derek hadn’t realized how starved he had been for a simple relationship, one that involved talking, listening and understanding. Stiles had become his best friend and Derek couldn’t imagine his life without him.
“The girls will be up in fifteen minutes. Plenty of time to eat.” Stiles put in front of him a plate with pancakes. “Eat Derek, you look like shit.” Stiles’ face was filled with concern.
Of course, if Derek wanted to be honest, he liked that it was. He liked that Stiles was around him so much. He liked Stiles, period.
“Thank you,” he mumbled and managed to look away from where Stiles was cutting up the fruits for the girls’ snacks. He took a bite from the pancakes after putting some maple syrup. His shift had been so tiring that the pancake had been the highlight of his day, so if he moaned a little as he tasted the food, sue him.
Stiles hand slipped where he was cutting the fruit, and he hissed. “Shit.” He threw the knife on the counter and put his finger in his mouth. Derek was right next to him in the following moment.
“Let me see, Stiles.” Stiles shook his head negatively. “Sometimes I swear you’re like a big child. Let me see.” Derek waited, eyebrows raised in a warning. If the cut was deep – and depending where the cut was- it might needed stitches.
In the end, Stiles gave up. He took his finger off his mouth, flinching as Derek took it in his hands and looked at it. It was deep, but it was right on the meat of his finger tip so going to heal in a couple of days.
“Am I gonna live, doc?” Stiles wore this expression on his face, something between amused and desire. How the man was able to pull both of them at the same time was beyond him, but Derek didn’t complain. Stiles was among the most handsome men he had ever met, and looking at all those peculiar expressions wouldn’t be a task for Derek. Ever.
“I think you will.” Derek took some paper and wrapped it around the wound, applying pressure on it.
“I’m glad,” Stiles mumbled looking directly on his lips.
“Me too.” Derek’s gaze moved from Stiles’ eyes to his lips and back again and it wasn’t the first time they had come so close to kissing, but Derek’s heart was beating in a furious tempo inside his chest. This time wasn’t like the others. The others were like a gentle pull and tag. A simple game of testing the waters. This one? This one was it. “I want to kiss you.” It was only a whisper and if not for their close proximity or the were-hearing might not have been heard.
But Stiles had heard. “Then kiss me.”
Derek did. It was gentle, almost chaste, but the moment Stiles let out that soft moan, Derek couldn’t hold back. He touched Stiles’ cheeks with his fingertips, while Stiles was wrapping his arms around his neck, deepening their kiss, tongues tasting, teeth nipping. Stiles’ scent, sandalwood and coffee, as it blended with his own was intoxicating.
“Dad?”
Derek’s heart dropped as he pulled away, and turned around. Adrianna was looking at them gaping, eyes wide open, ready to scream.
“God,” Stiles murmured behind him, feeling as helpless as Derek.
“Adriann—“
Derek never had the chance to finish because Adrianna did scream. While running inside. “Chloe, it happened! It finally happened! Chloe, I told you!” Her voice never quieted. Instead, it was only a minute before Chloe’s screams, happy and loud, filled the house.
Derek stood frozen until Stiles’ hand on his shoulder brought him back to reality. “You think they placed a bet?”
“I think they’re too young for bets.” Finally, Derek turned around. “Are you okay?”
“Me? You’re the popsicle.”
“I’m okay.” Derek reached to touch Stiles’ cheek. “More than okay,” he said, smiling.
The whisper behind them wasn’t at all a whisper. “See?”
KKKKK
Adrianna was laughing on the floor where she was sitting, next to the tree that this year was significantly pinker. The lights around the house were still the same though. Too many. Maybe more. He had lost count.
“But you did take us to the fair the next say. Both of us!”
“A date,” Chloe affirmed with satisfaction. At her sixteen, sometimes Chloe still looked older than her real age. Adrianna on the other hand was another story. Both of them though, warm and bright and full of life.
“It wasn’t a date,” Derek and Stiles said together smiling with intimacy and understanding at each other. It wasn’t a date because it had been even better than that. Derek had found in Stiles a friend. A best friend. Someone he could count on. Someone who offered his presence and support unconditionally. And so did Stiles. Their relationship didn’t evolve into something else for more than a year.
“Don’t laugh little foxes! We don’t forget how you set us up to go around that Ferris wheel five times!” Stiles tried to sound threatening, but he wasn’t. He was laughing the same as the girls.
Chloe rolled her eyes in a very familiar way. “You’re acting like a child,” she mocked, and Adrianna rolled on the floor crying from laughter. “God, do you remember the day we moved in all together?”
“You mean Stiles’ whining about how all our stuff weren’t going to fit in the new house?” Adrianna managed. Derek remembered that and, if he wanted to be honest, he didn’t want to remember that.
“Oh I don’t want to hear it from the girl who didn’t sleep for two nights in a raw at her new room because it was the wrong color!” Stiles wasn’t beyond arguing with a fourteen year old apparently.
“But it wasn’t! You can’t expect me to sleep in a green room Stiles! It was green!”
“To be fair,” Derek dared to butt in, “It was awful.” They needed to move fast because Stiles’ lease to his house was ending, so they didn’t have the time to paint it before moving in. For a week their stuff was in a mess, and they slept in the living room while they painted room after room.
“Et tu, Brute?” Derek just shrugged over Stiles’ accusation. Truth was truth and that green had been hideous. Their own room used to be dark purple.
“So Stiles,” Adrianna said in the same voice she had used that night to point at Stiles hanging over their balcony,” What are you waiting for?”
Derek eyed her and then so did Stiles, who got up and went to his coat. He came back holding a small, velvet box and being more nervous than he had ever seen him. Stiles took a deep breath and looked first at Adrianna and then at his Chloe.
They both nodded.
“Derek,” he said kneeling in front of him on the couch. Derek was sure that if the girls weren’t sitting on the floor already they would have fallen off from their seats the way they leaned closed, with starry, expectant eyes. “Will you marry me?”
Derek’s heart beat inside his chest so loudly he could only hear the blood pumping in his ears. He made himself take a breath. It was his turn to look at the girls.
They both nodded.
Derek smiled and fell into Stiles’ arms, happy among his family.
“This is a yes,” Adrianna explained and Derek was absolutely sure, from where he was nuzzling in Stiles neck, that he heard them high-five.
