Author:
ladyoneillTitle: Joie de Vivre
Rating: PG13
Pairing/s: Derek/OFC, Peter/Stiles
Character/s: Peter, Derek, OFC
Summary: Strolling through the garden, Peter hears something he hasn't heard for well over a dozen years.
Warnings: here? nothing but a reference to mpreg
Submission Type: ficlet
Word Count: 659
Prompt: Laughter
Author's Notes: Peter, Derek, Teen Wolf, none belong to me. Angelina and the cubs do belong to me. No profit being made. Set several months after "Doing The Right Thing" in my
Dark Side Of The Moon series, some of which have been posted here out of ordert. Overall it's forced MPREG, forced mating/bonding, Peter as Alpha.
Autumn is coming. A few of the trees are beginning to turn from green to yellow and red and squirrels are gathering nuts, but the air is still warm as Peter strolls through the garden. The hedge has grown rapidly and reaches his shoulder, blocking from sight the meadow on the other side, but as he nears an opening, he hears an unfamiliar sound coming from it.
Derek is laughing.
Startled, Peter stops for a moment. The laugh is so open, so happy, and it takes him back to memories of a giggling child, a snorting teenager.
The man Derek became never laughed, but here he is...
Something loosens in Peter's chest and while he doesn't want to intrude, he needs to see this. Stepping through the opening he's surprised even more to find Derek on his back, knees raised, and Cora's son, Andrew perched a top them on his stomach, tiny hands clasped in his uncle's. Derek bounces him and Andrew shrieks in delight, then again when Derek's knees fall open and the boy tumbles down.
"Again!"
Derek laughs and lifts the cub onto his chest, bouncing him there like he's a cowboy and his uncle a horse.
Sitting on the blanket next to them Angelina helps the boy's twin, Arabella, weave a crown of purple mums and Peter notices the happy smile on the face of Derek's mate.
And hears something else, even over the laughter of cubs.
The first to notice him, Angelina stiffens and starts to rise as she addresses him with a deference he once wanted so badly, but now hopes she'll soon lose. "Alpha."
"No, no, stay there, please. I didn't mean to interrupt." He can see in her conflicted expression how much she wants to stand and bare her throat, but Derek's hand reaching out for her knee keeps her in place.
Derek himself, no longer laughing, but still smiling, sits up and slings Andrew onto his shoulders. "Can we help you, Peter?"
"No. I just heard..." How to even broach this? Crouching at the edge of the blanket, the late Summer sun warming his shoulders, he smiles at his nephew. "Well, I heard a couple things." He glances over at Angelina again and she's smiling now, too. A proud look. A content look. "Are congratulations in order?"
Derek's hand find his mate's as he nods. "We were going to tell everyone at the Pack meeting on Saturday."
"You still can. We'll celebrate. Do you mind if I tell Stiles, though?"
"Of course not."
Slightly turning to Angelina, Peter asks, "And you're well? Have you seen a doctor?"
"We have an appointment next week," Angelina replies softly. "It's not the norm for my former Pack to rely on human doctors, but Derek wants to make sure everything's okay."
"Derek and his siblings were all born in the hospital. So was I. Whatever you're most comfortable with, the two of you." Unborn cubs don't come across as anything but human so it's becoming more common for werewolves to give birth in hospitals under the care of obstetricians as long as the wolf mother can control her healing and pain management during labor. Cora chose a midwife and home birth; Stiles has no choice but Deaton, but Derek and Angelina can do whatever they want.
Anything to bring another healthy cub into their Pack.
"And you're both happy with this?"
The look that passes between them, mated for only four months and already bearing, is enough proof for Peter that this was a good choice for Derek, that Angelina already cares deeply for him, and that they'll be wonderful parents.
Looking at the happy cubs crawling all over them is proof of the latter, and makes him want to go find his own cubs.
But, first he has a purple flower crown to place on the head of a little princess who demands it of her Alpha.
Derek chuckles and Peter grins in delight.
End