Advent Calendar 2016: Day 11
I had a pretty productive day! Did laundry, shoveled the deck and front walk/sidewalk, decorated the tree (I'll post a pic when I remember to take one), changed the litter box, took out the garbage, vacuumed and made brownies. Mom's boss also dropped by randomly to give us a batch of potato soup he made. If tasted okay but there were too many mushy textures for me to appreciate it. :p
meet me under the mistletoe
Pre-Stiles/Derek, Scott/Allison, PG, 2180-ish words
High school AU, mistletoe, Christmas dance
For kitty_fic who gave me the prompt "mistletoe" and let my imagination fill in the rest.
"Why did I sign up for the party planning committee, again?" Stiles grumbled as he helped his best friend Scott decorate the Christmas tree for the winter formal. He was haphazardly throwing shiny icicle strings on the branches, not that the fanciest decoration in the world could compensate for the pungent scent of eau de teenaged sweat and gym socks.
"Why did I sign up for the party planning committee, again?" Stiles grumbled as he helped his best friend Scott decorate the Christmas tree for the winter formal. He was haphazardly throwing shiny icicle strings on the branches, not that the fanciest decoration in the world could compensate for the pungent scent of eau de teenaged sweat and gym socks.
"Looks good on college applications," Scott replied cheerfully before turning to wave at his girlfriend Allison who was across the gym hanging a banner. Stiles didn't even have to turn and look to make sure Allison gave him one of her brilliant, beautiful smiles in return.
"Early acceptance, dude," Stiles threw back but he wasn't listening anymore, too enraptured by watching Allison on top of a ladder. "I'm not even going to this stupid thing."
He tossed the last few strands of icicle he had on the tree and dusted his hands off. "I'm gonna go find the candy canes Finstock was talking about. Scott?"
Stiles considered lobbing a ball from the tree at Scott's head but it probably wouldn't even penetrate the love bubble around him at that moment so he shrugged and walked away. Finstock went off on a rant before setting the decorating committee loose in the gym, something about boxes in the store room off the locker room... Stiles honestly wasn't paying much attention.
Stiles only joined the committee because Scott did and Scott only did it because of Allison. He was super happy for his best friend and Allison was great but Stiles felt like the flattest third wheel in the history of ever around them. With any luck going to college in the fall would turn that around and Stiles would finally have a chance at a girlfriend or boyfriend or a casual acquaintance with a liberal view on the term "friends with benefits".
He ducked into the locker room and wound his way around the bays of lockers until he got to the supply closet beside the coach's office. Another mystery was how Finstock, of all the teachers, was named the head of the decorating committee Stiles mused as he noticed that the door was already ajar.
"Guess we'll never know," Stiles said quietly to himself as he pushed the door open and stepped inside the dark room.
"Never know what?"
Stiles yelped at the strange voice coming from the dark and jumped--right into someone's arms. He flailed for a moment as what felt like disembodied arms wrapped around him to still him and the overhead light flipped on.
Stiles froze in place, one arm over his head while the other gripped at the arm around his waist and looked into the eyes off the lacrosse team captain.
"Uh," he grunted before pushing easily out of Derek Hale's arms. "Sorry. Didn't know anyone else would be in here."
"No problem," Derek replied easily. Stiles folded his arms over his chest and tried not to look away from the way Derek's eyes pierced into his unwaveringly.
"What won't you ever know?"
Stiles gaped at Derek for a long moment, then blinked. "Uh, oh. Right. Finstock."
"Finstock what?" Derek pressed but he looked amused as he asked.
"How he got to be the supervisor of the decorating committee, is all. Doesn't seem like his thing, you know? Not unless we made the theme for every dance Independence Day and gave him five minutes during every event to give a speech."
Derek's eyes widened and at first Stiles figured he'd said too much but then Derek started laughing, tilting his head back and exposing his long throat and letting Stiles get a peek at the thick pelt of chest hair he was already hiding under his long-sleeved t-shirt. How Derek could look like he did at only a few months older than Stiles wasn't fair.
"I've wondered about that myself a time or two," Derek agreed. Stiles wasn't sure what to say next so he nodded and then turned to look through the shelves for the candy canes. Derek, however, seemed to be in an uncharacteristically talkative mood. "What are you looking for?"
"Candy canes," Stiles replied as he moved some boxes around. "Have you seen any?"
"No, but if I see them over here I'll tell you as long as you let me know if you find the mistletoe," Derek offered.
"Deal."
Stiles and Derek looked through boxes and moved equipment and uniforms around as they looked for their respective decorations. Stiles got distracted looking through some old team photos when Derek spoke up again, right behind Stiles, and scared him.
"Anything?"
Stiles jumped and fell against the shelf, rocking it and overturning a box from the top shelf. It fell over and a piece of mistletoe on a string rolled out and dangled over Stiles' head. He laughed wildly and struggled to right himself before escaping to the other side of the closet.
"Found it! That would have been awkward, am I right?" Stiles said loudly, just this side of hysterically.
Derek gave him a weird look but collected the box and stuffed the mistletoe back inside. As he did he reached inside the box and pulled out a handful of candy canes. "Two birds with one stone, good job."
Stiles moved forward to grab the candy canes from Derek. He held out his hands but instead Derek gave him the whole box and turned to grab a smaller box, dumping some papers out of it onto a shelf. "Coach'll never notice," he said with a small smile as he scooped the candy out of his box into the other.
When he was done Derek swapped boxes with Stiles and their fingers brushed as they made the exchange. Stiles nodded his thanks and turned to leave but Derek's question halted him in his tracks.
"You going to the dance?"
Stiles turned around jerkily. "Wasn't planning on it."
"Oh." Derek seemed to be... disappointed?
"I mean, I was thinking about it," Stiles amended quickly.
"You should, it'll be fun."
"Yeah? How so?"
Derek's eyes widened and he seemed to be stumped for a second. "Uh. Fake snow! Yeah, there's fake snow planned after the Snow King and Queen are crowned."
"Oh. Okay."
"Yeah," Derek said while he nodded. "So you should show. For the snow. I don't know what it's made of but I'm curious to see if it'll make Jackson freak out about ruining his hair."
Stiles snorted at the thought of Jackson having a hissy fit over fake snow getting all over his fair and clothes. Could be worth the show if it panned out. "That would be funny, actually."
"You wouldn't want to miss it. You should definitely show," Derek agreed.
"Sure, thanks man." Stiles held up the box of candy canes and fled back to the gym before Derek could say anything else to make his head explode.
Stiles and Derek weren't strangers to each other by any means but they'd had maybe a handful of interactions in the past few years of high school. Derek was on first string while Stiles and Scott were benchwarmers, at best. Stiles got more homework done during practices than he did actual lacrosse training. Scott's asthma kept him bench-bound but he at least tried at times; even played in a game once!
Derek Hale was great at lacrosse, which is why he shared the captaincy of the team with Jackson Whittemore. But unlike Jackson Derek was never an outright dick to people, that Stiles knew of. He even stepped in and called Jackson on being a creep when he picked on those he considered "lesser" than him.
But he'd never given Stiles the time of day before like this. Maybe he made an early New Year's resolution to be nicer to the little people or something, Stiles thought to himself. He was just happy that he hadn't popped a fear boner or something equally as embarrassing. As hot as Derek was Stiles tried to keep those thoughts at bay so he wouldn't make a colossal mistake.
When he returned to the gym Scott was nowhere to be found and when he looked around Stiles noticed Allison was missing as well. Stiles sighed and started to turn back to put the candy canes on the tree but before he did he saw Derek across the room with his own box of decorations. And he was staring at Stiles.
Stiles resolutely gave his full attention to decorating and ignored Derek because his only other option would be to stare back and drool.
"Christmas gift to myself: don't be like that," he whispered to himself determinedly.
***
"I thought you weren't coming!" Scott cried as Stiles approached him and Allison later that night.
"I didn't either," Stiles said with a sigh, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his dress pants. He was wearing a plain white button-up shirt and a light blue tie to match with the colors chosen by the decorating committee.
"What changed?" Allison asked.
Stiles shrugged, feeling uncomfortable. "Figured I should check it out since we put so much into planning it."
Scott gave him a suspicious look but as soon as Allison pulled him out onto the dancefloor his thoughts were elsewhere. Stiles did a lap around the gym to say hello to a few people and check out the snacks. He got some punch instead and sipped it as he completed his loop. He tried not to acknowledge it but he couldn't help but notice that Derek was nowhere to be found. The entire rest of the lacrosse team was seated at a couple tables, flipping water bottles and cheering each other loudly, but Derek was MIA.
He checked the time on his phone, already prepared to call the night. As he did a text came in from a number he didn't recognize.
Supply closet 5 mins
Stiles checked the text a couple times and looked around himself to see if anyone was pointing and laughing at him from afar. Everything seemed to be on the up-and-up, though.
Warily Stiles made his way out of the gym and to the locker room. It was quiet inside and dim, with only the off-hours lighting on. The supply closet door was open again and Stiles felt his heart skip a beat as he let himself wonder if maybe...
"This is how an episode of Criminal Minds starts before the attractive young ingenue gets brutally stabbed, you know," Stiles said loudly as he stepped into the dark closet.
"And yet you still came," Derek said softly from further inside. "Take another step."
"That's not at all creepy," Stiles replied but did as he was told. Once he did the sound of a couple snaps got his attention and then his eyes were drawn to the soft light from a couple glowsticks that Derek held in his hand. "Curious."
"I had to work with what I had," Derek said with a shrug.
"Work on what exactly?" Stiles asked.
"Look up," Derek told him with a hesitant smile. Stiles tipped his head back and saw a sprig of the mistletoe from earlier hanging over his head. He looked at Derek with a confused look and didn't know what to say.
"I think this is the first time I've ever seen you speechless," Derek laughed.
"Uh, yeah. Y'think?" Stiles replied in a disbelieving tone. "Is this a joke?"
Derek looked surprised. "No, why would it be?"
Stiles gestured to the mistletoe. "Because stuff like this doesn't happen to me."
"It didn't happen to you," Derek corrected and he took a step toward Stiles.
"Whoa," Stiles breathed. "Are you sure there's no cameras around or that someone's going to jump out and yell 'gotcha' at me and in a year I go into hiding after becoming a viral meme?"
Derek raised an eyebrow at Stiles. "I've always admired your imagination. It was one of the first things that attracted me to you."
Stiles swallowed hard as the words washed over him and boom, there it was. "Did you ingest some of the mistletoe? Bad egg nog? Spiked punch?"
Derek stepped up to Stiles so their chests brushed but he still didn't touch Stiles. "Why do you do that, always put yourself down?"
"Because it's easier than waiting for someone else to do it?" Stiles replied, as if it were obvious. "This is bizarre to me."
"It's not the easiest thing I've ever done," Derek admitted. "But since you're standing under the mistletoe and all do you think maybe ... can I kiss you?"
Stiles looked at Derek incredulously. "I... sure?"
"This is the first step, okay? Then I'd like to dance with you out there," Derek whispered as he leaned in. Their lips touched, brushing softly for a brief moment that sent shivers through Stiles' body to his toes. It wasn't a passionate, perfect kiss but it gave Stiles all kinds of ideas.
"I don't get this," Stiles murmured as Derek pressed their foreheads together.
"That's the next step," Derek promised. "But for now, mistletoe."
meet me under the mistletoe
Pre-Stiles/Derek, Scott/Allison, PG, 2180-ish words
High school AU, mistletoe, Christmas dance
For kitty_fic who gave me the prompt "mistletoe" and let my imagination fill in the rest.
"Why did I sign up for the party planning committee, again?" Stiles grumbled as he helped his best friend Scott decorate the Christmas tree for the winter formal. He was haphazardly throwing shiny icicle strings on the branches, not that the fanciest decoration in the world could compensate for the pungent scent of eau de teenaged sweat and gym socks.
"Why did I sign up for the party planning committee, again?" Stiles grumbled as he helped his best friend Scott decorate the Christmas tree for the winter formal. He was haphazardly throwing shiny icicle strings on the branches, not that the fanciest decoration in the world could compensate for the pungent scent of eau de teenaged sweat and gym socks.
"Looks good on college applications," Scott replied cheerfully before turning to wave at his girlfriend Allison who was across the gym hanging a banner. Stiles didn't even have to turn and look to make sure Allison gave him one of her brilliant, beautiful smiles in return.
"Early acceptance, dude," Stiles threw back but he wasn't listening anymore, too enraptured by watching Allison on top of a ladder. "I'm not even going to this stupid thing."
He tossed the last few strands of icicle he had on the tree and dusted his hands off. "I'm gonna go find the candy canes Finstock was talking about. Scott?"
Stiles considered lobbing a ball from the tree at Scott's head but it probably wouldn't even penetrate the love bubble around him at that moment so he shrugged and walked away. Finstock went off on a rant before setting the decorating committee loose in the gym, something about boxes in the store room off the locker room... Stiles honestly wasn't paying much attention.
Stiles only joined the committee because Scott did and Scott only did it because of Allison. He was super happy for his best friend and Allison was great but Stiles felt like the flattest third wheel in the history of ever around them. With any luck going to college in the fall would turn that around and Stiles would finally have a chance at a girlfriend or boyfriend or a casual acquaintance with a liberal view on the term "friends with benefits".
He ducked into the locker room and wound his way around the bays of lockers until he got to the supply closet beside the coach's office. Another mystery was how Finstock, of all the teachers, was named the head of the decorating committee Stiles mused as he noticed that the door was already ajar.
"Guess we'll never know," Stiles said quietly to himself as he pushed the door open and stepped inside the dark room.
"Never know what?"
Stiles yelped at the strange voice coming from the dark and jumped--right into someone's arms. He flailed for a moment as what felt like disembodied arms wrapped around him to still him and the overhead light flipped on.
Stiles froze in place, one arm over his head while the other gripped at the arm around his waist and looked into the eyes off the lacrosse team captain.
"Uh," he grunted before pushing easily out of Derek Hale's arms. "Sorry. Didn't know anyone else would be in here."
"No problem," Derek replied easily. Stiles folded his arms over his chest and tried not to look away from the way Derek's eyes pierced into his unwaveringly.
"What won't you ever know?"
Stiles gaped at Derek for a long moment, then blinked. "Uh, oh. Right. Finstock."
"Finstock what?" Derek pressed but he looked amused as he asked.
"How he got to be the supervisor of the decorating committee, is all. Doesn't seem like his thing, you know? Not unless we made the theme for every dance Independence Day and gave him five minutes during every event to give a speech."
Derek's eyes widened and at first Stiles figured he'd said too much but then Derek started laughing, tilting his head back and exposing his long throat and letting Stiles get a peek at the thick pelt of chest hair he was already hiding under his long-sleeved t-shirt. How Derek could look like he did at only a few months older than Stiles wasn't fair.
"I've wondered about that myself a time or two," Derek agreed. Stiles wasn't sure what to say next so he nodded and then turned to look through the shelves for the candy canes. Derek, however, seemed to be in an uncharacteristically talkative mood. "What are you looking for?"
"Candy canes," Stiles replied as he moved some boxes around. "Have you seen any?"
"No, but if I see them over here I'll tell you as long as you let me know if you find the mistletoe," Derek offered.
"Deal."
Stiles and Derek looked through boxes and moved equipment and uniforms around as they looked for their respective decorations. Stiles got distracted looking through some old team photos when Derek spoke up again, right behind Stiles, and scared him.
"Anything?"
Stiles jumped and fell against the shelf, rocking it and overturning a box from the top shelf. It fell over and a piece of mistletoe on a string rolled out and dangled over Stiles' head. He laughed wildly and struggled to right himself before escaping to the other side of the closet.
"Found it! That would have been awkward, am I right?" Stiles said loudly, just this side of hysterically.
Derek gave him a weird look but collected the box and stuffed the mistletoe back inside. As he did he reached inside the box and pulled out a handful of candy canes. "Two birds with one stone, good job."
Stiles moved forward to grab the candy canes from Derek. He held out his hands but instead Derek gave him the whole box and turned to grab a smaller box, dumping some papers out of it onto a shelf. "Coach'll never notice," he said with a small smile as he scooped the candy out of his box into the other.
When he was done Derek swapped boxes with Stiles and their fingers brushed as they made the exchange. Stiles nodded his thanks and turned to leave but Derek's question halted him in his tracks.
"You going to the dance?"
Stiles turned around jerkily. "Wasn't planning on it."
"Oh." Derek seemed to be... disappointed?
"I mean, I was thinking about it," Stiles amended quickly.
"You should, it'll be fun."
"Yeah? How so?"
Derek's eyes widened and he seemed to be stumped for a second. "Uh. Fake snow! Yeah, there's fake snow planned after the Snow King and Queen are crowned."
"Oh. Okay."
"Yeah," Derek said while he nodded. "So you should show. For the snow. I don't know what it's made of but I'm curious to see if it'll make Jackson freak out about ruining his hair."
Stiles snorted at the thought of Jackson having a hissy fit over fake snow getting all over his fair and clothes. Could be worth the show if it panned out. "That would be funny, actually."
"You wouldn't want to miss it. You should definitely show," Derek agreed.
"Sure, thanks man." Stiles held up the box of candy canes and fled back to the gym before Derek could say anything else to make his head explode.
Stiles and Derek weren't strangers to each other by any means but they'd had maybe a handful of interactions in the past few years of high school. Derek was on first string while Stiles and Scott were benchwarmers, at best. Stiles got more homework done during practices than he did actual lacrosse training. Scott's asthma kept him bench-bound but he at least tried at times; even played in a game once!
Derek Hale was great at lacrosse, which is why he shared the captaincy of the team with Jackson Whittemore. But unlike Jackson Derek was never an outright dick to people, that Stiles knew of. He even stepped in and called Jackson on being a creep when he picked on those he considered "lesser" than him.
But he'd never given Stiles the time of day before like this. Maybe he made an early New Year's resolution to be nicer to the little people or something, Stiles thought to himself. He was just happy that he hadn't popped a fear boner or something equally as embarrassing. As hot as Derek was Stiles tried to keep those thoughts at bay so he wouldn't make a colossal mistake.
When he returned to the gym Scott was nowhere to be found and when he looked around Stiles noticed Allison was missing as well. Stiles sighed and started to turn back to put the candy canes on the tree but before he did he saw Derek across the room with his own box of decorations. And he was staring at Stiles.
Stiles resolutely gave his full attention to decorating and ignored Derek because his only other option would be to stare back and drool.
"Christmas gift to myself: don't be like that," he whispered to himself determinedly.
***
"I thought you weren't coming!" Scott cried as Stiles approached him and Allison later that night.
"I didn't either," Stiles said with a sigh, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his dress pants. He was wearing a plain white button-up shirt and a light blue tie to match with the colors chosen by the decorating committee.
"What changed?" Allison asked.
Stiles shrugged, feeling uncomfortable. "Figured I should check it out since we put so much into planning it."
Scott gave him a suspicious look but as soon as Allison pulled him out onto the dancefloor his thoughts were elsewhere. Stiles did a lap around the gym to say hello to a few people and check out the snacks. He got some punch instead and sipped it as he completed his loop. He tried not to acknowledge it but he couldn't help but notice that Derek was nowhere to be found. The entire rest of the lacrosse team was seated at a couple tables, flipping water bottles and cheering each other loudly, but Derek was MIA.
He checked the time on his phone, already prepared to call the night. As he did a text came in from a number he didn't recognize.
Supply closet 5 mins
Stiles checked the text a couple times and looked around himself to see if anyone was pointing and laughing at him from afar. Everything seemed to be on the up-and-up, though.
Warily Stiles made his way out of the gym and to the locker room. It was quiet inside and dim, with only the off-hours lighting on. The supply closet door was open again and Stiles felt his heart skip a beat as he let himself wonder if maybe...
"This is how an episode of Criminal Minds starts before the attractive young ingenue gets brutally stabbed, you know," Stiles said loudly as he stepped into the dark closet.
"And yet you still came," Derek said softly from further inside. "Take another step."
"That's not at all creepy," Stiles replied but did as he was told. Once he did the sound of a couple snaps got his attention and then his eyes were drawn to the soft light from a couple glowsticks that Derek held in his hand. "Curious."
"I had to work with what I had," Derek said with a shrug.
"Work on what exactly?" Stiles asked.
"Look up," Derek told him with a hesitant smile. Stiles tipped his head back and saw a sprig of the mistletoe from earlier hanging over his head. He looked at Derek with a confused look and didn't know what to say.
"I think this is the first time I've ever seen you speechless," Derek laughed.
"Uh, yeah. Y'think?" Stiles replied in a disbelieving tone. "Is this a joke?"
Derek looked surprised. "No, why would it be?"
Stiles gestured to the mistletoe. "Because stuff like this doesn't happen to me."
"It didn't happen to you," Derek corrected and he took a step toward Stiles.
"Whoa," Stiles breathed. "Are you sure there's no cameras around or that someone's going to jump out and yell 'gotcha' at me and in a year I go into hiding after becoming a viral meme?"
Derek raised an eyebrow at Stiles. "I've always admired your imagination. It was one of the first things that attracted me to you."
Stiles swallowed hard as the words washed over him and boom, there it was. "Did you ingest some of the mistletoe? Bad egg nog? Spiked punch?"
Derek stepped up to Stiles so their chests brushed but he still didn't touch Stiles. "Why do you do that, always put yourself down?"
"Because it's easier than waiting for someone else to do it?" Stiles replied, as if it were obvious. "This is bizarre to me."
"It's not the easiest thing I've ever done," Derek admitted. "But since you're standing under the mistletoe and all do you think maybe ... can I kiss you?"
Stiles looked at Derek incredulously. "I... sure?"
"This is the first step, okay? Then I'd like to dance with you out there," Derek whispered as he leaned in. Their lips touched, brushing softly for a brief moment that sent shivers through Stiles' body to his toes. It wasn't a passionate, perfect kiss but it gave Stiles all kinds of ideas.
"I don't get this," Stiles murmured as Derek pressed their foreheads together.
"That's the next step," Derek promised. "But for now, mistletoe."