❝ i am trying my hardest here, can you back off ? ❞
That fucking startled him.
And, regrettably - it showed. Maybe it would have felt better if his mouth closed with a sharp clack of teeth, but it didn’t. Instead he let his lips meet quietly, weight shifting as he stepped back to let space fill up between them.
Derek had learned a long time ago the art of diffusing a situation, despite the guttural, stubborn heat in one’s gut brought on by an argument. He wasn’t a stupid boy anymore, with irrational ideas of a working world. Dead children had been the outcome of that and if Derek could avoid that in the future, that would be great.
Maybe that was a dramatic way of thinking. He shook his head, gaze hitting the floor first before the hierarchy in him thought to let it rise again. It shouldn’t have felt hard to meet Stiles’ gaze, but it did, and his nostrils widened up on a strong exhale to do it.
“Listen,” He started, the end of which promising something more. He flexed his fingers, and reflexively looked around his loft to have a reason to avert his eyes. Once they came back to Stiles, he dipped his head forward with something he hoped came off as pacifying. “I don’t mean to -” A full stop, and a tongue chomp. Choose better words. “My intention wasn’t to imply you weren’t doing a good job, or anything like that. I did not want to make you feel shitty about that.”
Good. Keep going.
“I was just hoping to have a conversation with you about what more we can do.”
