The next time Stiles sees Derek is almost a week later when he, Lydia, Scott and Isaac are over at Derek’s place to watch movies. Scott is there, as usual, under protest, but he goes because he always does because Stiles and Isaac always convince him to. Somehow, Stiles has convinced Lydia into showing up, though he isn’t sure how exactly that worked out.
Derek spends most of the night ignoring Stiles and sitting on the opposite side of the room but about halfway through the second movie they run out of popcorn so Stiles gets up and goes to the kitchen to make more.
Once in the kitchen, he lets himself have the little freakout he’s been ignoring all night. Derek hasn’t spoken to him. And it’s not that he hasn’t spoken to anyone. It’s not that he’s in one of those bad moods where all he does is stare at the screen and grunt out one word answers anytime someone speaks to him. No, that’s not it at all. Derek and Isaac had this whole five minute discussion about the best place in town for pizza. And Derek and Lydia argued about the possible meanings behind this new Latin text about werewolves she found online. That means one of two things. Derek never listened to the mix tape at all and the fact that they haven’t spoken all night is just coincidence, or he did listen to it and he didn’t like it and now he doesn’t know how to bring up the very awkward subject of what is apparently unrequited love.
Then, as was bound to happen, Derek walks into the kitchen. “Did you mean it?” he asks. No greeting, no questions about why there’s no popcorn, no niceties at all. For an instant, Stiles seriously regrets falling for someone who has no sense of being nice or of lying about stuff like this.
Stiles doesn’t turn around. “No, it was a joke.”
“Oh,” Derek says quietly. Stiles turns around just in time to see Derek walking away.
“Of course I meant it! Who makes a romantic mix tape as a joke?” Stiles asks, probably a little louder than necessary. Not that it matters. Isaac and Scott would be able to hear this entire conversation even if it was whispered.
“Then why did you say - “Derek starts but Stiles cuts him off before he can finish. “Because, in case you haven’t noticed, sarcasm is a thing that I tend to use when I get nervous.”
“So what you’re saying is I make you nervous?” Derek asks with a so small it’s nearly invisible smirk on his face.
“You make everyone nervous.”
“This - this is getting off track. Not that I’m surprised,” says Derek.
“Right. Back to the whole you letting me down thing. Let’s just get that over with.”
“Letting you? What?” Derek scowls. “There’s something wrong with you, you know that?”
“You somehow think I don’t know that? Really?”
From the living room, Lydia shouts, “What’s the hold up on the popcorn, Stilinski?” Scott and Isaac laugh and immediately refuse to explain to Lydia why they’re laughing.
Derek looks like he’s about to say something, looks like he’s killing millions of brain cells just trying to think of something, but he says nothing, so Stiles turns around and puts the popcorn in the microwave. He watches the microwave like it contains the secrets to the universe and Derek leaves sometime before the popcorn is completely finished.
They spend the rest of the night not talking, sitting on opposite ends of the room and avoiding all eye contact.
Two days later, Stiles finds a cd in his mailbox labelled ‘To: Stiles From: Derek’ and under that it says ‘You’re an idiot.’
Stiles can’t help but laugh when he sees it. Who else would give him a mix as a response? If he wasn’t sure this was somehow the musical equivalent to a break-up (even though they’ve never actually dated) he would think they’re perfect for each other.
He moves at near werewolf speed to get upstairs and put the cd into his laptop. The playlist on the cd is fairly short, only five songs.
And the mix is... not what he expected. It’s the opposite of a break-up mix.
The first song is “Robot Heart” by Hawksley Workman which is kind of sad in a beautiful sort of way and fitting on a level songs just shouldn’t be.
The second is “Needs” by Collective Soul, which is really confusing with talk of “not needing anybody” until the last lines of “all I need is you” which is kind of ridiculously sweet. The third song is “Faster Car” by Keith Urban, and that’s... a song he has trouble picturing Derek listening to, but upbeat tempo aside, it’s pretty much true.
And that’s when it hits him - he really is an idiot. Every time he calls, Derek shows up whether it’s just to drive him home after the Jeep has broken down again or rescuing him from angry water sprites. And it isn’t just a recent thing, either. This has been going on more or less since they met. Derek has always been saving him, rescuing him, helping him. And he’s done the same for Derek, even back when he found Derek actually terrifying.
And that means something, doesn’t it?
The next song starts before he’s really wrapped his head around it.
That means something.
He plays the playlist about six times over before he grabs his phone and texts Derek.
“So I guess we should go on a date then, huh?”
Five seconds later, Derek texts back, “I think we’re a little past that, don’t you?”
Stiles: ...But I’m hungry.
Derek: What?
Stiles: Usually a first date involves food and I’m hungry.
Derek: ....
Derek: You mean you want to go out now?
Stiles: Yes, right now. Unless of course you wanted to drag this out for another year or two.
Derek: Now is fine.
Derek: FINALLY.
Stiles: What?
Derek: Isaac stole my phone. He says “You look happy. It scares me.”
Stiles: You’re always scary.
Derek: I’ll be over to pick you up in twenty minutes.
Stiles: ...
Stiles: Good to know this whole ‘dating’ thing isn’t going to change the way you behave. That would be awful.
Stiles puts down his phone after that in an attempt to avoid saying anything more awkward.
In the twenty minutes before Derek shows up, he considers changing his clothes about four times but doesn’t - he doesn’t want to seem overeager. So instead he brushes his teeth three separate times, puts on deodorant twice and sprays himself with a little cologne. He then changes his shirt because he figures it will smell too strongly of cologne. And then he can’t pick a shirt. Not that any of his shirts are particularly spectacular, they’re just t-shirts.
After about five minutes of debating over shirts, he looks out the window to see the Camaro pulling up out front. He unceremoniously grabs a gray t-shirt and yanks it on over his head then crashes down the stairs and opens the front door just as Derek raises his hand to knock. Derek smiles and Stiles can’t help but think that Isaac is completely wrong - Derek is ridiculously attractive when he smiles, when he’s happy, he’s even more ridiculously attractive than usual.
“Hi,” Stiles says and he’s nervous, so his voice comes out unintentionally high pitched.
Derek clears his throat and swallows. “Hey.”
“So...” Stiles says aimlessly and points at the camaro.
“Right,” Derek says.
Stiles turns, starts walking towards the car and exactly three-point-five seconds later, starts falling forward, tripping over his own shoelaces. His face is inches from the ground when Derek grabs his hand and jerks him back so he’s standing.
A few seconds pass and Derek’s hand is still on his wrist and they both sort of start staring at it. Derek is about to remove his hand when Stiles smashes his other hand down on top of Derek’s. “Don’t,” he says. Then he smiles and leads Derek back into the house.
The next time Stiles sees Derek is almost a week later when he, Lydia, Scott and Isaac are over at Derek’s place to watch movies. Scott is there, as usual, under protest, but he goes because he always does because Stiles and Isaac always convince him to. Somehow, Stiles has convinced Lydia into showing up, though he isn’t sure how exactly that worked out.
Derek spends most of the night ignoring Stiles and sitting on the opposite side of the room but about halfway through the second movie they run out of popcorn so Stiles gets up and goes to the kitchen to make more.
Once in the kitchen, he lets himself have the little freakout he’s been ignoring all night. Derek hasn’t spoken to him. And it’s not that he hasn’t spoken to anyone. It’s not that he’s in one of those bad moods where all he does is stare at the screen and grunt out one word answers anytime someone speaks to him. No, that’s not it at all. Derek and Isaac had this whole five minute discussion about the best place in town for pizza. And Derek and Lydia argued about the possible meanings behind this new Latin text about werewolves she found online. That means one of two things. Derek never listened to the mix tape at all and the fact that they haven’t spoken all night is just coincidence, or he did listen to it and he didn’t like it and now he doesn’t know how to bring up the very awkward subject of what is apparently unrequited love.
Then, as was bound to happen, Derek walks into the kitchen. “Did you mean it?” he asks. No greeting, no questions about why there’s no popcorn, no niceties at all. For an instant, Stiles seriously regrets falling for someone who has no sense of being nice or of lying about stuff like this.
Stiles doesn’t turn around. “No, it was a joke.”
“Oh,” Derek says quietly. Stiles turns around just in time to see Derek walking away.
“Of course I meant it! Who makes a romantic mix tape as a joke?” Stiles asks, probably a little louder than necessary. Not that it matters. Isaac and Scott would be able to hear this entire conversation even if it was whispered.
“Then why did you say - “Derek starts but Stiles cuts him off before he can finish. “Because, in case you haven’t noticed, sarcasm is a thing that I tend to use when I get nervous.”
“So what you’re saying is I make you nervous?” Derek asks with a so small it’s nearly invisible smirk on his face.
“You make everyone nervous.”
“This - this is getting off track. Not that I’m surprised,” says Derek.
“Right. Back to the whole you letting me down thing. Let’s just get that over with.”
“Letting you? What?” Derek scowls. “There’s something wrong with you, you know that?”
“You somehow think I don’t know that? Really?”
From the living room, Lydia shouts, “What’s the hold up on the popcorn, Stilinski?” Scott and Isaac laugh and immediately refuse to explain to Lydia why they’re laughing.
Derek looks like he’s about to say something, looks like he’s killing millions of brain cells just trying to think of something, but he says nothing, so Stiles turns around and puts the popcorn in the microwave. He watches the microwave like it contains the secrets to the universe and Derek leaves sometime before the popcorn is completely finished.
They spend the rest of the night not talking, sitting on opposite ends of the room and avoiding all eye contact.
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Stiles can’t help but laugh when he sees it. Who else would give him a mix as a response?
If he wasn’t sure this was somehow the musical equivalent to a break-up (even though they’ve never actually dated) he would think they’re perfect for each other.
He moves at near werewolf speed to get upstairs and put the cd into his laptop. The playlist on the cd is fairly short, only five songs.
And the mix is... not what he expected. It’s the opposite of a break-up mix.
The first song is “Robot Heart” by Hawksley Workman which is kind of sad in a beautiful sort of way and fitting on a level songs just shouldn’t be.
The second is “Needs” by Collective Soul, which is really confusing with talk of “not needing anybody” until the last lines of “all I need is you” which is kind of ridiculously sweet. The third song is “Faster Car” by Keith Urban, and that’s... a song he has trouble picturing Derek listening to, but upbeat tempo aside, it’s pretty much true.
And that’s when it hits him - he really is an idiot. Every time he calls, Derek shows up whether it’s just to drive him home after the Jeep has broken down again or rescuing him from angry water sprites. And it isn’t just a recent thing, either. This has been going on more or less since they met. Derek has always been saving him, rescuing him, helping him. And he’s done the same for Derek, even back when he found Derek actually terrifying.
And that means something, doesn’t it?
The next song starts before he’s really wrapped his head around it.
That means something.
He plays the playlist about six times over before he grabs his phone and texts Derek.
“So I guess we should go on a date then, huh?”
Five seconds later, Derek texts back, “I think we’re a little past that, don’t you?”
Stiles: ...But I’m hungry.
Derek: What?
Stiles: Usually a first date involves food and I’m hungry.
Derek: ....
Derek: You mean you want to go out now?
Stiles: Yes, right now. Unless of course you wanted to drag this out for another year or two.
Derek: Now is fine.
Derek: FINALLY.
Stiles: What?
Derek: Isaac stole my phone. He says “You look happy. It scares me.”
Stiles: You’re always scary.
Derek: I’ll be over to pick you up in twenty minutes.
Stiles: ...
Stiles: Good to know this whole ‘dating’ thing isn’t going to change the way you behave. That would be awful.
Derek: I’m leaving now.
Stiles: This conversation?
Derek: My house.
Stiles: Oh. Right.
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In the twenty minutes before Derek shows up, he considers changing his clothes about four times but doesn’t - he doesn’t want to seem overeager. So instead he brushes his teeth three separate times, puts on deodorant twice and sprays himself with a little cologne. He then changes his shirt because he figures it will smell too strongly of cologne. And then he can’t pick a shirt. Not that any of his shirts are particularly spectacular, they’re just t-shirts.
After about five minutes of debating over shirts, he looks out the window to see the Camaro pulling up out front. He unceremoniously grabs a gray t-shirt and yanks it on over his head then crashes down the stairs and opens the front door just as Derek raises his hand to knock. Derek smiles and Stiles can’t help but think that Isaac is completely wrong - Derek is ridiculously attractive when he smiles, when he’s happy, he’s even more ridiculously attractive than usual.
“Hi,” Stiles says and he’s nervous, so his voice comes out unintentionally high pitched.
Derek clears his throat and swallows. “Hey.”
“So...” Stiles says aimlessly and points at the camaro.
“Right,” Derek says.
Stiles turns, starts walking towards the car and exactly three-point-five seconds later, starts falling forward, tripping over his own shoelaces. His face is inches from the ground when Derek grabs his hand and jerks him back so he’s standing.
A few seconds pass and Derek’s hand is still on his wrist and they both sort of start staring at it. Derek is about to remove his hand when Stiles smashes his other hand down on top of Derek’s. “Don’t,” he says. Then he smiles and leads Derek back into the house.
They don’t make it to dinner.
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1. Baby I Love You - Aretha Franklin
2. I Love You (I Always Have) - Mikky Ekko
3. Lullaby - Felix Cartal feat. Natalie Anguili
4. Lovers In A Dangerous Time - Barenaked Ladies
5. Anyone Else But You - The Mouldy Peaches
6. I’m Sticking With You - The Velvet Underground
7. Easy Silence - Dixie Chicks
8. Forever Love - Anna Nalick
9. Better Together - Jack Johnson
10. I Am In Love With You - Imogen Heap
Derek’s Playlist:
1. Robot Heart - Hawksley Workman
2. Needs - Collective Soul
3. Faster Car - Keith Urban
4. Howlin’ For You - The Black Keys
5. No One Knows - Queens Of The Stone Age
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Nope.
I can't.
DONE.
TOO MANY FEELS.
but srsly it was wonderful, and i love it. all the cookies and internets for you.
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