Betting On Forever (Part One)
So this is for niablackcat who requested this fic because of this gif set.
I started, got a few thousand words in, then got stuck, so I drafted in mrstotten to help. And my GOD did she help.
This a joint fic from both of us. There wouldn't be a fic without her.
This is a Sterek Teen Wolf fic in case you're wondering!
It’s not like Stiles spends a huge amount of time thinking about it. But when he does it seems strange, good strange, but strange nevertheless, he cant really put a finger on when they decided to become civil to each other let alone friends, best friends even.
He thinks maybe it happened when they bonded over the death of Derek’s family. Either way, him and Derek are friends, oddly enough, and they spend more time together then Derek does with his own uncle, or Stiles does with his own father for that matter.
Stiles was 14 when Derek Hale’s family house burned down, a fault in the wiring wiping out almost an entire family in a heartbeat, leaving only Derek, his sister and uncle behind. Stiles remembers it like it was yesterday, the announcement over the loud speaker at school asking for Derek and Laura to come to the Principal’s office, the hushed whispers of the teachers the next period, and then the silence, in his house, as Stiles pushed open the door, knowing his dad wasn’t there and that something horrible had happened.
Derek and Laura had been taken out of school for a year, some said that Peter had a breakdown and took the kids to live in the mountains somewhere, others said they had all gone crazy. Either way, Stiles had kept his head down, worked his skinny butt off and somehow been put forward a year at school. Into Jackson and Lydia’s year, one step closer to Lydia Martin, Stiles had thought. Scott had pined for a whole week until Allison Argent had turned up as new girl in Stiles year and somehow looked twice and Stiles’s best friend in the year below her and after that Stiles had been pretty much forgotten. Not that he minded, his work load increased exponentially until his head was full of school work and there wasn’t much place for anything else.
That was until Derek and Laura had come back to school.
Due to Derek having missed a year of school Stiles found himself sitting next to the brooding teenager two years older than him in Chemistry, Biology, English Lit and History. It hadn’t been so bad at the start, Derek had pretty much ignored him and Stiles had just gotten on with the work like he always had, and ignored the word vomit that threatened to spill whenever Derek was in the vicinity. Which given the list of classes they sat next to each other in was hard.
It wasn’t that he knew what to say, or even what Derek felt, the loss of his mother was enough for him, he couldn’t imagine what pain the three remaining Hale’s had gone through, and were more than likely still going through. It was because, for some reason Derek made him nervous and when Stiles got nervous…well he got chatty although a few death stares had put a stop to the chat pretty darn quickly, for the most part.
It had been about half way through the first year of Derek being back that he’d lifted his head from his History book and uttered more than the necessary words to Stiles.
“So I was thinking we could study at my place tonight.” It wasn’t a question, and Stiles could almost hear the underlying order under his words. He blinked, swallowed around his suddenly dry throat and blinked again and said the first words that came into his mouth.
“You have a place?” Derek’s eye had twitched, “Oh God I am so sorry, I didn’t mean that, of course you have a place, I mean it’s not like you live in the woods, or an abandoned warehouse or anything like that I just meant…” he trailed off as Derek’s lips twitched, “ok, I’m shutting up now.”
“Peter rebuilt the house, or rather got it rebuilt while we were away,” Derek offered and Stiles had blinked again. Because obviously faced with actually talking to Derek Hale Stiles turned into a wordless mess. When he wasn’t babbling crap about Derek not having a home…obviously. “I mean, if you don’t want too then…”
“No…” For a second Stiles had thought Derek had looked hurt but he’d rubbed a hand across the back of his neck and ignored the rumble as Stiles’s stomach had announced it was lunch time.
“No what?”
“Sorry, sometimes I forget not everyone follows my train of thought…what time?” Stiles tried to grin, feeling somewhat like the world had just started turning backwards. Derek Hale was offering up his private life to Stiles, for no reason other than they’re were doing a project together in History.
“After school,” Derek had replied and gone back to copying notes from the board.
“Ok.”
…
The Hale house had been bigger than Stiles had remembered. The frontage different, there was a wrap around porch now with a porch swing in one corner that hadn’t been there when Derek’s family had been alive. Stiles could still remember the Hale family barbeques, the Hale family had been in Beacon Hills for generations, practically owned half the town, and had opened up their house during the summer to entertain the town. And Stiles could remember looking up at the house aged five thinking it was a castle.
But it had been bigger, is the point, and the long legged girl curled up on the porch swing with one leg hanging off, her toes just touching the ground pushing the swing every now and then had been Laura, although Stiles wouldn’t have known if she hadn’t uncurled herself and stuck her hand out, her name sounding like music to Stiles’s ears. She was beautiful, then again the entire family had been, and despite Stiles’s strongly straight proclivities, he could even say that Derek was beautiful, in a very rugged and manly way of course. Laura had her brother’s thick dark hair, or rather Derek had his sisters, a slight curl at the ends, eyes the colour of…well Stiles had still yet put a finger on the exact colour of the Hale’s eyes, but they were a bluey green. Greeny Blue perhaps. Either way they were almost mesmeric and Derek had stabbed Stiles in the ribs with his elbow and grinned at his sister before ushering Stiles inside.
“No crushing on my sister,” he had said and Stiles had spluttered something in a way of explanation, but was struck by the rare smile on Derek’s face.
He likes to think that’s how they became friends, however tentative.
It wasn’t until months later that Derek had opened up, one too many swigs of the Sheriff’s alcohol, and a great view of the stars from Stiles’s back yard and he’d just lost the ability to put a stopper on the words, the ache, the pain of losing his family, how Peter was holding it together, how Laura seemed stronger than all of them.
Stiles had done the only think he could have done, the only thing that worked with Scott when Scott got maudlin about his dad, and reached between them and curled their fingers together. He hadn’t said anything, neither had Derek, but they were closer after that, especially when Stiles remembered the date of the fire and turned up the day after (he knew what it was like when well meaning people bothered you on the actual day) with a stolen 6 pack of beer of dubious quality and a rolled up blanket.
Even though he’s not 100% positive, he’s pretty sure that’s when they became best friends.
…
“Wanna hang out tonight?” Stiles shifts his phone under his ear and holds out his favourite Batman t-shirt and his favourite Bullseye one in front of him.
“Can’t, hanging out with Derek,” he answers and Scott sighs, “just because Allison’s busy,” Stiles says and Scott lets out a small embarrassed laugh.
“Yeah, but duuuuude, we never hang anymore,” he whines and Stiles throws his bullseye shirt back onto his floor. He pulls the phone out from under his ear and tries to extract himself from the t-shirt he wore at school today. He gets stuck with his arm sticking half out of the head hole.
“It’s his birthday,” he shouts, and misses Scott’s reply as the phone clatters to the floor and he manages to haul both arm and head through the hole and pull the Batman shirt over his head. “Sorry,” he mutters at the now silent Scott, who he can imagine shrugging because he knows Stiles, and knows that Stiles can’t do only one thing at once, like talk on the phone without trying to get dressed.
“Between you being like an untapped genius…”
“Hey…less of the untapped thank you,” Stiles defends his virginity with a grimace, even though he knows full well Scott wasn’t talking about that.
“And Allison, and Derek, we never hang anymore,” he whines against and Stiles sits heavily on his bed and hauls a shoe out by a lace from under it. He frowns and slides to the floor, reaches under his bed and pulls out the other shoe.
“Not my fault you’re whipped,” he mutters, clasping the phone under his ear again and reaching down to pull his laces tight. “Listen, Scotty Scott Scott, it’s Derek’s birthday man, I promised, tomorrow though ok?”
“Ok,” Scott grumbles but he knows he’ll be texting Allison and grinning like the idiot he is within two minutes of hanging up on Stiles. It’s why he loves Scott, that and the fact that Scott didn’t leave his side for three months, literally, after his mom died, Scott bounces back so easily.
“Stiles,” his dad shouts as Stiles runs down the stairs and past the living room. Stiles grabs a hold of the door jamb and nearly slips on the rug by the front door.
“Derek’s birthday, gotta go,” he says, “love you,” and ducks out of the house before his dad can answer. But he’s pretty sure there will be some eye-rolling going on right now.
…
Stiles lets himself into the Hale house, Peter told him to just walk in already after he got annoyed with having to answer the door to Stiles’s numerous visits when he and Derek became friends. He’s greeted by Merry, Derek’s lab pup, who attacks him with the love that he’s come to not fear anymore. He bit Stiles once, hard, but after Derek had told him off in the tone one usually reserves for small children, explained at Stiles was “pack” (his word, not Stiles’s) he had licked him practically to death and loved him ever since. Pippin isn’t far behind, Derek’s other puppy, a curly haired mongrel of a dog that had the biggest doe eyes Stiles had ever seen. Whatever Merry does, Pippin follows and Stiles crouches down and pulls them both into an awkward, licking hug. The fact that Derek had called his dogs after the Hobbit’s had been a great source of teasing for Stiles who revelled in the fact that Derek was a closet geek.
“Derek?” he calls once they have finished licking him and roll off in a weird puppy ball of fur and playful yips.
“Here,” Derek’s voice floats through the house from the kitchen and Stiles makes his way there rubbing at the dog drool on his cheek.
“So happy birthday buddy, you ready to go get wasted and pick up chicks, well you pick up chicks, my love life sadly is non existent, and obviously less of the alcohol as we’re both underage and my dad’s the sheriff…um…hi,” he stalls in front of a startlingly beautiful blonde girl with hair curling over her shoulders and a smile a mile wide on her lips.
“Stiles this is Erica,” Derek says and there’s a small embarrassed blush on his cheeks.
“I didn’t mean that about the chicks, I meant for me, Derek’s a great wingman, although he’s not that great as my pitiful love life will be testament to, I’m going to shut up now,” Stiles clamps his lips together at the laugh coming from Erica’s mouth bringing a wide smile to Derek’s face and tells himself the stab of jealousy in his stomach is to do with being left behind on the single train…again.
“Erica…this is Stiles,” Derek says, like it’s meant to mean something to her. Erica flicks her hair off her shoulders and nods.
“So…” she starts, reaching backwards and curling her arm around Derek’s waist, “we ready to go?”
…
Turns out Erica is the same age as Stiles, in Stiles’s class at school actually, a transfer student same age as Stiles, which doesn’t stop Derek from putting his hands all over her though in a way that makes Stiles want to vomit.
They end up bowling, Erica showing off her incredible figure with every opportunity and Stiles can see why Derek can’t seem to take his eyes off her.
“Why the long face?” Derek asks when Erica sidles off to get drinks, his elbow digging into Stiles’s ribs.
“Just tired,” Stiles answers, going into sulk mode for a reason he can’t fathom. Derek narrows his eyes in the way that usually gets Stiles to spill everything but then his face softens.
“Oh shit Stiles I’m sorry,” he smacks his forehead, “I can’t believe I forgot,” he pats at Stiles’s knee and it takes a second for Stiles to realise he’s talking about Stiles’s mom. She died next week and Stiles always goes into mope mode around the time, he feels sick that he forgot even for a second.
“Don’t apologise, I shouldn’t have come out really but it is your birthday after all,” he says, swallowing down his last mouthful of watery, flat coke.
“And if you hadn’t,” Derek says with a glance towards where Erica is making her way back across the bowling alley, “you wouldn’t have met Erica,” with that Erica winds one arm around Derek and leans in enough to show off her impressive cleavage and kiss Derek’s on the neck. Derek smiles like he’s never smiled before and Stiles feels bile rise in his throat.
He manages to get home relatively early, with a headache building behind his eyes and a sick feeling in his stomach and goes to bed, dreams of Erica digging red talons into Stiles’s ribs.
…
“Mind if I sit down?” Stiles looks up from his History text book, mouthful of what claims to be mash potato but Stiles seriously thinks might be wallpaper paste to find Erica standing over him with her mile wide grin.
“Um...sure,” he kicks the chair out in front of him and Erica sits, takes a bite of her apple and wrinkles her brow as she chews thoughtfully.
“Ok this is probably going to sound like paranoid girl syndrome but I get the feeling you don’t like me,” she says and Stiles feels his stomach cramp with guilt.
“I…”
“I know you’re important to Derek, he basically talks about you, Peter and Laura and that’s it. I just wanted to get to know you a little, because I like Derek Stiles, I really do,” she smiles genuinely, one that starts off on her lips but spreads across her whole face to her eyes.
“That’s great, I’m glad, I really am, and I didn’t mean to make you think I didn’t like you, I do, from what I know, I just…there are a few things right now that, you know what? You don’t need to know, you probably don’t care, so I’m gonna shut up now,” Stiles trails off and Erica grins again.
“I think I like you too, Stiles,” she laughs gently and takes another bite of her apple, stands and makes her way through the dining room, drawing every guys eyes as she walks past.
“What…the holy hell…is that?” Lydia Martin braces her hands on the edge of Stiles’s table and Stiles thinks he’s going to have a heart attack. He’s had a crush on the girl since he was three and now she’s actually talking to him, for the first time in his life. He takes a sip of his water.
“Erica…Reyes, transfer student,” he gasps out and Lydia spares him a look that reads ‘do I know you?’ before flicking her hair and walking off.
…
“So she’s great right?” Derek asks that evening, his foot nudging Stiles’s head lightly. Stiles grimaces, pushes at Derek’s foot and sits, glares down at him.
“Erica? Yeah, she’s great,” he replies, because she is, and if there’s one thing he’s learnt about Derek, it’s that he can’t seem to lie to the guy. Derek cocks his head to the side and then smiles. Erica is great, she’s sweet, has a smile that makes Stiles smile right back, she’s totally smitten with Derek, in a way that makes Stiles want to vomit sometimes. But there’s just something, niggling, taunting, at the back of his mind, and he can’t put his finger on it. He shrugs and Derek sits as well, pushes at his shoulder.
“She’s an animal as well,” he says quietly, with a slight blush of embarrassment but a wolfish grin. Stiles feels his eyes widen.
“Have you?” He knows that Scott and Allison are going at it like sex crazed rabbits on Viagra whenever they can, but he’s never really thought about Derek. Probably because Derek’s always been single, like Stiles. Derek shakes his head and runs his hand through his hair.
“Not yet.”
“Ok but when you do, no gruesome details please, I get enough of that from Scott,” Stiles grumbles and Derek pouts sarcastically at him.
“Aww, someone jealous?”
“No, just…gah…” he lets out a noise that crossed between a cat being strangled to death and a girly scream as Derek launches at him and covers his face with a pillow, his fingers digging into the spaces between Stiles’s ribs.
“Admit it,” he hears muffled through the pillow and taps against Derek’s bicep twice. Derek relents, lifts the pillow and grins down at him.
“Dick,” Stiles pokes him in the stomach, “and fine, I’m jealous, because I totally want to bone you,” he smirks at Derek.
“Doesn’t everyone?”
“Not Erica, apparently,” Stiles grins and Derek shakes his head.
“Oh Stiles…why do you provoke me?” His face breaks out into a slow grin, and he launches himself at Stiles with a growl.
“Fuck…”
…
At the beginning of the second year with Derek by his side in most classes, a new girl turns up at school. She’s pretty, cute, blonde, and smiles shyly at Stiles on day one in the lunch hall. Derek digs him in the ribs and nods in her direction.
“Go talk to her,” he whispers and Stiles rolls his eyes, makes a face at Derek as his sips at his water.
“Yeah, because my track record is so great so far,” Erica kicks him gently under the table.
“You’re too hard on yourself Stiles…you’re totally cute,” she swirls her fork through her pasta surprise and grimaces, takes a sip of water and Stiles nudges Derek in the ribs.
“You hear that Derek, you’re girlfriend thinks I’m hot,” he sings and Derek rolls his eyes.
“I said cute,” Erica corrects.
“I heard hot,” Stiles shrugs and shovels a forkful of his pasta into his mouth.
“Idiot,” she grumbles but then her face breaks out into a sneer that Stiles has come to realise means he’s going to regret something and she pushes her chair out and stalks over to the new girl. Stiles slips lower in his chair and tries not to choke on his food as Derek chuckles beside him.
“Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god,” Stiles mutters under his breath and catches his knee on the underside of the table as Erica and the new girl approach them, “gotta go,” Stiles announces and Derek grabs the back of his jeans and hauls him back into his seat.
“Stay,” he orders as Erica arrives at their table.
“Derek, this is Aubrey, Aubrey my boyfriend Derek,” Aubrey smiles shyly again and Derek smiles right back at her. She blushes, and Stiles has seen that effect more than once. “And, this is Stiles,” Erica does a little flourish with her hand and pulls out the chair in front of Stiles and sits back in the one in front of Derek. Aubrey mutters hello and sits, tucks her hair behind her ear. Derek nudges him in the ribs again.
“So Aubrey…” Stiles starts and Aubrey looks up at him, blinks big blue eyes at him, the same time Derek and Erica lean forward together to watch and Stiles swallows, “gotta go.” He bolts, manages to make it out of his chair before Derek can pull him back and hides out in the locker room until lunch is over.
…
“Derek’s here,” his dad calls from the kitchen as Stiles heads towards his room, he stops mid step and sticks his head around the door frame, “and he’s pissed at you.”
“How did he…” Stiles trails off and hits his head against the frame, “damn Camaro…”
“Why’s he pissed at you?” The Sheriff asks, not taking his eyes off the files in front of him.
“Why is anyone ever pissed at me?” Stiles shrugs and his dad raises an eyebrow.
“Because you’re an idiot.”
“Right…thanks dad, love you too.” His dad waves absently at him and goes back to his files and Stiles looks at the stairs like they’re a mountain before climbing them slowly and pushing his door open. Derek’s arm reaches out and hauls him inside, uses his body to slam the door shut.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Whoa dude, anyone ever tell you, you get handsy when you’re angry?” Derek’s frowns at him, and although a lot of people shake in their boots when Derek Hale frowns, Stiles can see the softness underneath, the caring side of Derek that’s only pissed because Stiles didn’t even make an effort with Aubrey.
“Again Stiles…what the hell is wrong with you?”
“Me? You’re the one waiting in my room to slam me against the wall like we’re in some cheap porno,” the corner of Derek’s eye twitches, “and you know what? There’s probably something wrong with her anyway.”
“Why?” Derek asks, letting him go and Stiles rubs the back of his head. It didn’t hurt, Derek’s done it more than once but he’s starting to think he may get a flat head if Derek does it anymore.
“Because…” Stiles starts and Derek raises an eyebrow at him.
“Because?”
“Have you looked at me recently?” Stiles spreads his arms and Derek smirks.
“Unfortunately yes,” Derek replied and Stiles feels his face fall, against his own wishes.
“See?” he says with a shrug. Derek takes a step towards him, frowns again and shakes his head.
“Ok that’s not what I meant and you know it. Stiles…”
“I’m just not…Scott, or Jackson, or Danny…or you,” Stiles waves his hand at him. Derek’s the full package, good looking, built, smart, yet there’s a soft side underneath, sometimes so far underneath that Stiles thinks it might be suffocating under all that muscle.
“No but you’re you,” Derek says, poking him in the chest and Stiles rubs at the spot with the heel of his hand.
“And what’s that mean?” he asks and Derek lets out a small laugh, taking another step closer. Stiles swallows.
“You really want me to pull out the poetry?” Derek asks with an eyebrow arched over one bluey green, greeny blue eye.
“I’m not asking you to seduce me,” Stiles shoves at his shoulder and Derek laughs, “ just tell me why the hell a seemingly sane girl would want to be with me,” Derek’s face falls to a serious look and he claps Stiles on the shoulder, his thumb somehow finding it’s way under Stiles’s t-shirt.
“How many friends do I have?” He asks and Stiles frowns, his mind almost distracted from the conversation at the feel of Derek’s thumb moving in slow circles.
“Loads,” because it’s true, everyone loves Derek, apart from Jackson, but that’s maybe because Jackson is jealous of the fact that Danny has a massive crush on Derek. Plus Jackson hates pretty much everyone.
“How many?” Derek asks again narrowing his eyes slightly.
“Five?” a shake of his head and Stiles sighs, “Four?” Derek scoffs, “Ok fine, two if you include Erica,” Stiles concedes and Derek shakes his head, his thumb moving against Stiles’s neck like it’s meant to be there.
“No Stiles, one. You,” he squeezes Stiles’s shoulder gently, “now ask me again why I think she would want to be with you,” Derek raises his eyebrows expectantly and Stiles sighs.
“That’s different,” he says and Derek frowns, and neither of them mention the fact that he’s still got his hand on Stiles’s shoulder. Stiles leans back against the door again.
“How?”
“Because…because, God I hate you,” Stiles sighs again and Derek grins, his hand slides off Stiles’s skin.
“No you don’t,” he says, patting Stiles once on the arm, “and if you don’t talk to her tomorrow, I’m going to make you…”
“Yeah…how?”
“I’ll think of something.”
…
By some miracle, and by miracle Stiles means Derek pushing him practically at the feet of Aubrey as she is standing at her locker, Stiles manages to say three words to her, all of them incoherent, but her face lights up as she smiles at him.
Stiles is taking it as a win.
It takes him a further three days to actually say something coherent to her, and she laughs, tucks her hair behind her ear.
After that it just starts to get easier. Aubrey starts joining them at lunchtime and Erica being awesome makes her feel welcome in a way that neither Stiles nor Derek has the hang of yet. It takes several more weeks for Stiles to actually work up the courage to ask her out though. The release of the new Batman movie and the facts that Erica was kidnapping Derek for a weekend with her family at a wedding and that Allison and Scott had finally got a weekend without either of their parents around meaning Stiles was without his usual go to guys for super hero shenanigans. He had to admit it had made him feel really good, Aubrey’s bright smile when he asked her out, her eyes sparkling and her generally acting like he, Stiles Stilinksi had just made her day.
He spends the rest of the day on a high, only Derek’s growly face frown putting a damper on things, but he puts that down to the fact that he is missing the epicness of Batman to deal with family politics and dancing than because Stiles asked Aubrey out, after all this had been what Derek wanted, right?
“Dude…what the hell am I going to wear?” Stiles sighs heavily as Derek makes a non-committal noise from his bed. “What’s up with you grumpy?”
Nothing…Batman,” Derek nods at his closet and Stiles wrinkles his noise.
“Wore it yesterday.”
“Stud muffin,” Derek picks at something on his jeans.
“Too obvious,” Stiles replies and Derek sighs.
“I dunno Stiles, to be honest I don’t care,” Stiles frowns and kneels at the end of the bed by Derek’s feet.
“Ok harsh…what’s going on?” Derek shrugs and Stiles runs his finger along the arch of his foot. Derek twitches, and there’s a smile threatening on his lips, “don’t make me do it against Derek,” he warns.
“Nothing’s wrong, promise…just pissed I don’t get to see The Dark Knight with you,” Stiles may not have Derek’s freaking ability to know when he’s lying, but he’s pretty damn sure Derek’s lying right now. He cocks his head to the side and Derek shrugs again and looks down at his hands.
“Ok,” Stiles answers and gets off the bed, wanders back to his closet and hauls out his Bulls-eye shirt, he holds it up for Derek.
“That one,” Stiles hauls his old shirt over his head and pulls the new one on and holds his arms out as he looks at Derek. Derek cocks his head to the side, “as good as it’s ever gonna be,” he mutters.
“Fuck you,” Stiles grins. He should be nervous, he should be pacing and biting his nails and wondering what the hell he’s going to say, but there’s something about Derek that calms Stiles.
“You wish kiddo,” there’s something dark swimming under Derek’s eyes and Stiles feels like the airs just been sucked out of the room. It’s meant to be a joke, light and amusing but somehow it misses by a mile. Derek grins though, after what feels like an age, although the grin doesn’t quite cover the look in his eyes and Stiles clears his throat and tugs on the hem of his t-shirt.
“Ok you can go now,” he says waving his hand at the window and Derek lets out a small laugh, stands, stretches and Stiles doesn’t look at the strip of skin between Derek’s t-shirt and the bottom of his jeans.
“Have fun,” he calls as he jumps out of the window and Stiles shakes his head. Why can’t the guy use the door like everyone else?
…
The date itself goes off without a hitch, and before he can blink it seems like he has a girlfriend, a hot girlfriend, the type that guys stare after and he can totally see their eyes go from him to Aubrey then back as if to say how did Stilinski pull that off.
The cherry on the cake is that as well as being gorgeous Aubrey is awesome, she loves basketball, comics, the same movies and books as Stiles and has a killer sense of humour, and to top it all off his friends actually likes her. Of course with Scott it is more that Aubrey means Stiles spends less time with Derek and Erica, but it is still pretty amazing finally getting his friend back. Double dates bringing back team Stilinski and McCall without Stiles feeling like a spare wheel.
Of course Derek goes into sulk mode, Stiles knew he was never great at the sharing thing, and more time with Scott and Allison meant less time with Derek and Erica and left Derek walking round school like someone had kicked his puppy.
It took a couple of months to finally find the balance between spending time with both couples and some time alone, that and the reinstitution of weekly guys night with him and Derek once a week seemed to bring a smile back to his friends face. Of course that did leave less time for him and Aubrey to be alone, but she didn’t seem to mind, see hadn’t he said she was great?
It took another few months before Stiles started to realise that Aubrey wanted more. He felt like an idiot, an outsider the first time she moved his hand to her breast, because shouldn’t it be him making these moves, trying to get her to move further, instead it just felt odd Stiles had spent the last three years thinking about what it would feel like to finally get to this point with a girl (specifically Lydia Martin), to feel her soft body under his, strawberry tasting lips opening up under his own, tasting fresh and sweet. Aubrey’s body was soft and smooth and she was letting him in, inviting him to touch, to feel to taste. And it all just felt wrong. It’s during one of their most recent make out sessions that things finally take a turn for the weird. When he finally had it figured out, why things weren’t working with Aubrey the way they should, she reminded him of Derek. With her, like with Derek he felt comfortable, he could be himself, he could smile and laugh and not worry that the other person thought he was different, too hyper, to loud, too Stiles.
The problem is he comes to this conclusion while Aubrey’s lips are on his neck, he’s thinking about Aubrey, then how much she reminds him of Derek, and before he can stop his mind wandering down the track it was on, something he has never had much success with, he thinks about Derek’s lips on his neck, how they would feel rougher, chapped with the wind and the way he always bit down on them when he ‘s thinking. Instead of smooth skin there would be the burn of stubble, rough and scratchy against his skin, he wouldn’t be gentle, with soft closed mouthed kisses against his neck, Derek’s lips would be open, rough, demanding, taking more and more before biting down on the soft piece of skin between his neck and his shoulder, and it’s this thought that causes Stiles cock to suddenly go hard in the middle of his make out session with his girlfriend.
Aubrey’s sweet, surprised but pleased smile makes his stomach clench with guilt, this was the first time in five months of make out sessions he’s reacted as strongly as this, and it makes her happy, makes her smile to see that her boyfriend isn’t a freak, that she can make him aroused, and how the hell can he ever explain that it wasn’t her, that he had gotten hard thinking of his best friend. And how the hell had that happened anyway?
He tries to think of an excuse, any excuse as she goes back to his neck, her soft sweet mouth trying to recreate the reaction. Stiles has never been happier to hear his father come into the house. Their hurried movements to get clothes back in order forestalling the words that Stiles doesn’t want to say.
Aubrey leaves, the same secret, shy smile on her face and Stiles flops down on the bed, his stomach churning with a mixture of guilt and bone deep arousal at the thought of Derek’s lips. What the fuck is wrong with him? He has a beautiful, fun sexy girlfriend and all he can think about is what it would feel like to have his best friend’s mouth on him, those hands, so huge that Stiles used to make inappropriate and pretty tasteless jokes about them, sliding over his stomach, twisting beneath his jeans and cupping his dick.
Smothering a moan, Stiles snakes his own hand around himself, groaning as the relief of finally being touched causes pre come to spill out, aiding his hand, making his dick wet and slippery. Giving himself over to the weird, warped fantasy and the sure and certain knowledge that he belonged in the seventh circle of hell right now, he moves his hand as he thinks about Derek, of all fucking people, Derek bloody Hale, his body crowding on top of Stiles, hard and strong, pushing him into the mattress, his lips making a path of bites and nips down Stiles neck and chest, he comes with Derek’s name on his tongue and tears in his eyes.
He cleans off his hands and then buries his face in his pillow as he realises how truly fucked he is. He was an overactive hyper ADD ridden freak who rather than wanting to mack on his extremely hot girlfriend is making himself come at the thought of his best friend, his very straight best friend.
When did he develop this gay hard on for Derek?
What the fuck was his life?
…
It doesn’t take him long the next day to realise exactly what he’s going to do, which is nothing. Stiles is adept at ignoring the pink elephant in the room, to shoving his fingers in his ears and lalalalaing his way into a better reality.
What happened yesterday would be ignored. He has a great girlfriend, a magnificent girlfriend who is hot and sweet and funny. More than that Derek is his best friend, and he’s straight and he has an equally hot and wonderful girlfriend who Stiles adores and would never hurt (not only because he’s still a little certain she could rip his throat out with her teeth if she wanted to), not that it matters because Derek is straight and he doesn’t want Stiles that way and to push these feeling onto his friend who doesn’t want them, would mean the end of his friendship, and Stiles needs Derek. There. He admits it, he needs Derek, everything else could be ignored, but not that, so Stiles will push it down, ignore it and make things work with Aubrey. He isn’t going to lose the person he loves over something as stupid as a mixed up crush.
Of course the fact that the person he loves and is most afraid of losing is Derek should clue him into how doomed this plan was, but he’s Stiles, and he will go on ignoring the pink elephant. Thank you very much.
Of course the one blocker in the plan to ignore pink elephants is alcohol, cos everyone knows with alcohol, pink elephants get a free rein, which is why when Derek turns up with some beers and a video when his dad is on night shift for their weekly boys night, Stiles knows he should make an excuse, but he also knows that there has been something wrong with Derek and Erica all week. Derek has been moody and snappy in a way that he only gets when he is worried or scared, so Stiles battens down the hatches on the pink elephants stables and invites him in.
They are on their third beer when Derek brings up the fact that he knows things have gone further with him and Aubrey, his shrug and glance away coupled with a mumbled ‘Erica told me’.
“Well yeah,” Stiles starts awkwardly. “I mean it’s the furthest we went but there is still, just…well lets say it hasn’t went any further…” he slurs and is well aware that his sentences aren’t making any sense anymore.
Derek’s eyes are hooded, but Stiles can read him well enough to see the curiosity underneath and this is so not the conversation he should be having right now. He needs to remind himself of all the reasons why talking about that night is a bad idea.
“So Erica?” Stiles asks, his change of conversation making one of Derek’s eyebrows rise, and god dammit how could something that should remind him a cheesy cartoon villain make Derek look so fucking attractive.
“Erica?” Derek parrots, his tone inviting Stiles to go further.
“Yeah, or rather, you and Erica, how did you, you know” Stiles waggles his eyebrows in a way that he knows always makes Derek smile and ignores the burst of heat in his chest when it works. “How did you guys take it to the next stage?”
“We didn’t,” Derek states baldly. “We haven’t, you know.”
“Wait, still!” Stiles buts in. “You mean you and Erica still haven’t, you know?” At Derek’s shake of his head Stiles finds himself unable to contain his next words. “But dude you guys have been together for nearly a year”
“So?” Derek asks, his manner getting defensive. Recognising the signs Stiles drops the conversation, handing over another beer and refusing to admit that he’s pleased that Derek hasn’t taken that step yet.
The silence is broken over their fifth beer as they sat on the rug, their backs to the sofa and the heady buzz of alcohol along with the warmth of sitting body to body with Derek making him feel sleepy, unguarded.
“So why d’you want to know?” Derek asks. At Stiles blank look, he lets out a frustrated sigh. “About me and Erica, why do you…are you thinking of….with Annie?”
Stiles wants to answer the question but his eyes have ended up level with Derek’s lips as his friend kneels slightly. “Cos you know that’s a big step Stiles, you should make sure it’s right… that she’s…..so you love her?” The question seems to come out in a rush as if Derek hadn’t meant the words to come out but hadn’t been able to stop them. Derek’s eyes are hooded and there is something in them that Stiles didn’t see often, a softness that he had sometimes surprised on his friends face as Derek had listened to him go on about a madcap adventure, or telling stories about his mum. He doesn’t see it often and has never seen it this close before.
“I don’t….” Stiles stutters over the questions, kneels up so he’s facing Derek, their knees almost touching. “There is something and she is great and when I kiss her I want to…” at the word kiss, Stiles sees Derek’s eyes drop to his lips and he finds himself unable to stop his tongue coming out to wet his lips, like an instinctive reaction, he sees Derek’s pupils dilate and his head come forward and even as the warning flashes through his mind, he’s unable to stop the top half of his body moving towards Derek as if pulled by a magnet and he is unable to stop himself as their bodies meet, their chest touching and their lips a hairsbreadth apart, so close he can feel the warmth of Derek’s breath as it ghosts across his lips, can smell the beer and fresh mint pulling him towards him.
But in the end it is Derek who makes the final step, his mouth closing over Stiles’s own, it’s hesitant, slightly awkward, but there’s a pressure building in Stiles’s chest as Derek presses closer, seeking permission. Stiles opens his mouth, his tongue darting forward, granting the permission and in a heartbeat the kiss changes, from soft and exploratory, to open, dark and rough as if Derek is claiming him through the kiss, marking him as Derek’s, for a moment Stiles wonders if he still knows how to breathe or if he even cares.
This is what has been missing from every kiss he and Aubrey had ever shared, his heart’s pounding, his body feels alive as a thousand and one nerve ends are set alight. Derek’s hands are cupping his face, one hand creeping round to curl at the back of Stiles’s neck, his thumb pressing in lightly under Stiles’s chin and in an instant Stiles realises that this, this is what he has been waiting for, this is all he’s ever wanted.
It takes one word to bring his world crashing down, as Derek pulls away from Stiles, his eyes wide, pupils blown, and a soft almost wondering smile on his face. Stiles twists his hand in Derek’s shirt to pull him back in but a word slips out of Derek’s lips before he can, Erica, he sees Derek’s lips open to say more but stops him before they come, his hands untangling and pushing Derek away before pushing himself off his knees and standing, ignoring the dizziness brought on by the alcohol and the kiss he thought he would never get to have, he runs his hands over his short hair.
“Yes, Erica, your girlfriend Erica, my friend Erica….”
“Stiles…” Derek starts, pushing himself up and moving towards Stiles. “No, it’s not…..”
“Aubrey,” Stiles breaks in desperately his mind grabbing onto the first thing he can think off to wade off Derek’s pity, of Derek trying to explain what just happened.
“Aubrey?” Derek repeats the name as if it were a question.
“Yes Aubrey,” Stiles answers. “My girlfriend Aubrey who you are trying to help me get to fourth base with and well if that was a lesson, then yep would definitely work, but no back to Aubrey, your girlfriend Erica’s friend, my girlfriend Aubrey.” Stiles tries to control the word vomit as it leaves his mouth, trying desperately for something, anything that will stop Derek figuring out what just happened.
“You kissed me to help you get Aubrey into bed?” Derek’s question this time is harder, bit out with some force, which makes sense, I mean come on its not every day your best friend practically jumps in your lap, of course Derek had kissed back, actually technically Derek had started it, but hey…drunk and the first word that had left his lips was Erica, leaving Stiles in no doubt at where his mind was during the kiss.
“Yes, well know, I just need to know how to… you know!”
“No I don’t know Stiles, how about you enlighten me.” Derek’s words are definitely harsher now, his anger seeping through and Stiles searches desperately for a way to bring things back, to let Derek know that things could go back to the way they were.
“I love her,” the words slip out easily, and not for the first time, Stiles almost flinches at the ‘I know you’re lying’ face that Derek gives him. Even though it’s not technically a lie, he does love her, he’s just not in love with her. This though, this tiny white lie, this could pull them back. “I love her and I want to, you know, go to that next step with her and I need you to know help me.”
Derek closes his eyes, and for half a second Stiles actually thinks he’s in some kind of pain, but when Derek opens his eyes again, all that’s there is a blazing hot anger. “I think you are beyond help Stilinski,” he sneers.
Stiles feels his own hackles rise at the tone of Derek’s voice. “What the fuck do you mean by that?” he asks, half confused and half angry at Derek’s tone. All of him wondering what the hell has happened in his life recently.
“I mean, dream on, you really think she is going to go to bed with you?” Stiles knows deep down that something is wrong, this is Derek, his Derek and he had never, ever spoken to Stiles like this. “Face it Stiles, you aren’t the type of guys girls like Aubrey pop their cherry with.” There’s a bite to Derek’s tone, an underbelly that feels almost furious, like the way a wounded animal at Dr Deaton’s, would react to a threat, but the words just stir a fire in Stiles Belly.
“Ha, like you are any better,” he snaps back.
“What do you mean by that?” Derek replies, his tone icy and dangerous.
“Well you aren’t having much luck getting Erica to fall for your oh so manly charms, at least Aubrey and I have only been dating a few months, you have had a full year and she still won’t so much for the great Hale charm.”
“You don’t know the first thing about me and Erica,” Derek grinds out.
“Oh yeah?” Stiles asks. “I know I could get Aubrey into bed before you manage it with Erica.”
“You think so,” Derek ask his eyes flashing.
“I know so, in fact I am so sure I am willing to bet the jeep on it.”
“The jeep?” Derek’s anger seems to fade slightly, his tone questioning. “You’re willing to bet your mothers jeep?”
“It’s not a bet I plan to lose.” Stiles answers with far more conviction than he feels.
“I don’t want your mom’s jeep.” Derek replies his eyes hard.
“What do you want then?” Stiles asks confused, he doesn’t have much more than the jeep to barter with.
“You…” Stiles’s feels his heart leap to his throat, “finish with her,” Derek replies the slight hesitation in his voice making his words sound harsher. “If I win, you break up with her, no arguments.”
“You want me to break up with Aubrey?” Stiles asks, pressing his fingers to his throbbing temple. “Dude you were the one that shoved us together in the first place.”
“I was wrong,” Derek states simply. “I don’t like the person you’ve become with her.” The sneering tone is back in his voice. For the first time Stiles realises they are facing each other like enemies
“And if I win?” Stiles asks, the fight going out of him, this is his best friend for fuck’s sake. “If I win you play nice with her…and Scott.” Stiles states, seeing Derek’s back go up, his eyes flashing dangerously and not for the first time Stiles wonders what his problem with Scott is.
“Deal.” Derek says, putting his hand out, Stiles leans forward, his brain struggling to figure out how it had come to this, how it had gone from easy conversation to kissing to arguing like enemies.
He feels his hand being enveloped in Derek’s, the sharp spike of electricity going up his spine almost making him miss Derek’s final words before leaving.
“But just so you know, I don’t intend to lose either.”
…
It takes them five days to speak to each other again, the longest they have ever gone without speaking. They both ignore the pleas from Erica and Aubrey to sort out whatever has gone wrong, in the end it was Scott that forces the issue. Sick of Stiles moping about and probably wanting some more free time to mack on Allison he drags a loudly objecting Stiles over to where Derek and Erica are sitting, Derek looking like he wants to growl at the world and Erica bored out of her mind.
“Ok pops, it’s your weekend for the kid, just so you know he has been a brat, if you give him back to me in this state again, we will be revising our custody agreement.”
With that Scott’s gone and Stiles is too shocked at Scott showing not only friendliness to Derek but some actual wit that he’s stunned into a temporary silence, and when he looks at Derek he sees the same sort of shocked look on his face. When their eyes finally meet, Stiles can see the spark of warmth and a smile grows across his face, within seconds they’re both giggling like hyenas, Stiles sitting to catch his breath and Derek murmuring between laughs that he didn’t know McCall had it in him.
Erica simply rolls her eyes at both of them, mutters insult about the male species making its way out, but even Stiles can’t miss the wide grin on her face, and like that, the fight is over.
…
It takes Stiles another two days to bring up the bet, worried about how it might be taken and wary of another fight, but Derek, after a moment’s hesitation, takes over the conversation.
“I want to cancel it,” he says quietly. “It was stupid and immature and definitely not fair to the girls, I didn’t mean the things I said that night Stiles, I was just….”
“Drunk?” Stiles supplies helpfully.
“Exactly,” Derek says, relief evident in his voice, “I also didn’t meant it about not liking Aubrey, she is…you…well you love her, and if you love her then that’s enough for me.”
“I…that is, I don’t….” Stiles tries to will the words out, to tell Derek the truth about his feelings for Aubrey, or the lack of, but he keeps wondering what if Derek looks further, if he begins to wonder what that kiss had been about, and the words stick in his throat. “I haven’t told her yet, you know about the love thing,” he finishing helplessly with a shrug.
Derek looks at him considering. “I think that’s smart buddy, give it some time, but I will make more of an effort with her, Scott too,” he tags on a little reluctantly.
“Wait, wait what?” Stiles stutters, astounded and delighted at the same time. “You’re going to be nice to Scott? Scott McCall, the guy who is most likely to be hit over the head by a bat by you for no reason whatsoever? That Scott”
“Yeah, that Scott,” Derek answers sourly. “You don’t need to be smart, I thought you would be happy.”
“I am,” Stiles interjects quickly, his hands talking with him in a way that only ever happened when he was really excited. “But you hate Scott.”
“I don’t hate him,” Derek admits reluctantly. “It just used to bug me how much he always expected of you, but that doesn’t matter, it’s not my business, and Scott and Aubrey matter to you so I’m going to make an effort.”
“But why?” Stiles asks, more than a little confused.
“Because you matter to me, you moron,” Derek answers, the look on his face making him look like he’s questioning Stiles’s intelligence. Stiles gets that look a lot, but right now it doesn’t bother him. He and Derek are friends again, Derek is going to make an effort with Scott, and they no longer have the odd awkwardness of the bet between them. Life is good again.
The little niggly voice in the back of his head takes that moment to remind him that Derek had just said he was going to be nice to a girlfriend that Stiles doesn’t actually want, and there is still the matter of the big gay boner he has for his best friend, but Stiles tells the voice to shut the hell up and starts day dreaming about pink elephants. He has Derek back, that is all that mattered, the rest will take care of itself.
Somehow.
Part Two
I started, got a few thousand words in, then got stuck, so I drafted in mrstotten to help. And my GOD did she help.
This a joint fic from both of us. There wouldn't be a fic without her.
This is a Sterek Teen Wolf fic in case you're wondering!
It’s not like Stiles spends a huge amount of time thinking about it. But when he does it seems strange, good strange, but strange nevertheless, he cant really put a finger on when they decided to become civil to each other let alone friends, best friends even.
He thinks maybe it happened when they bonded over the death of Derek’s family. Either way, him and Derek are friends, oddly enough, and they spend more time together then Derek does with his own uncle, or Stiles does with his own father for that matter.
Stiles was 14 when Derek Hale’s family house burned down, a fault in the wiring wiping out almost an entire family in a heartbeat, leaving only Derek, his sister and uncle behind. Stiles remembers it like it was yesterday, the announcement over the loud speaker at school asking for Derek and Laura to come to the Principal’s office, the hushed whispers of the teachers the next period, and then the silence, in his house, as Stiles pushed open the door, knowing his dad wasn’t there and that something horrible had happened.
Derek and Laura had been taken out of school for a year, some said that Peter had a breakdown and took the kids to live in the mountains somewhere, others said they had all gone crazy. Either way, Stiles had kept his head down, worked his skinny butt off and somehow been put forward a year at school. Into Jackson and Lydia’s year, one step closer to Lydia Martin, Stiles had thought. Scott had pined for a whole week until Allison Argent had turned up as new girl in Stiles year and somehow looked twice and Stiles’s best friend in the year below her and after that Stiles had been pretty much forgotten. Not that he minded, his work load increased exponentially until his head was full of school work and there wasn’t much place for anything else.
That was until Derek and Laura had come back to school.
Due to Derek having missed a year of school Stiles found himself sitting next to the brooding teenager two years older than him in Chemistry, Biology, English Lit and History. It hadn’t been so bad at the start, Derek had pretty much ignored him and Stiles had just gotten on with the work like he always had, and ignored the word vomit that threatened to spill whenever Derek was in the vicinity. Which given the list of classes they sat next to each other in was hard.
It wasn’t that he knew what to say, or even what Derek felt, the loss of his mother was enough for him, he couldn’t imagine what pain the three remaining Hale’s had gone through, and were more than likely still going through. It was because, for some reason Derek made him nervous and when Stiles got nervous…well he got chatty although a few death stares had put a stop to the chat pretty darn quickly, for the most part.
It had been about half way through the first year of Derek being back that he’d lifted his head from his History book and uttered more than the necessary words to Stiles.
“So I was thinking we could study at my place tonight.” It wasn’t a question, and Stiles could almost hear the underlying order under his words. He blinked, swallowed around his suddenly dry throat and blinked again and said the first words that came into his mouth.
“You have a place?” Derek’s eye had twitched, “Oh God I am so sorry, I didn’t mean that, of course you have a place, I mean it’s not like you live in the woods, or an abandoned warehouse or anything like that I just meant…” he trailed off as Derek’s lips twitched, “ok, I’m shutting up now.”
“Peter rebuilt the house, or rather got it rebuilt while we were away,” Derek offered and Stiles had blinked again. Because obviously faced with actually talking to Derek Hale Stiles turned into a wordless mess. When he wasn’t babbling crap about Derek not having a home…obviously. “I mean, if you don’t want too then…”
“No…” For a second Stiles had thought Derek had looked hurt but he’d rubbed a hand across the back of his neck and ignored the rumble as Stiles’s stomach had announced it was lunch time.
“No what?”
“Sorry, sometimes I forget not everyone follows my train of thought…what time?” Stiles tried to grin, feeling somewhat like the world had just started turning backwards. Derek Hale was offering up his private life to Stiles, for no reason other than they’re were doing a project together in History.
“After school,” Derek had replied and gone back to copying notes from the board.
“Ok.”
…
The Hale house had been bigger than Stiles had remembered. The frontage different, there was a wrap around porch now with a porch swing in one corner that hadn’t been there when Derek’s family had been alive. Stiles could still remember the Hale family barbeques, the Hale family had been in Beacon Hills for generations, practically owned half the town, and had opened up their house during the summer to entertain the town. And Stiles could remember looking up at the house aged five thinking it was a castle.
But it had been bigger, is the point, and the long legged girl curled up on the porch swing with one leg hanging off, her toes just touching the ground pushing the swing every now and then had been Laura, although Stiles wouldn’t have known if she hadn’t uncurled herself and stuck her hand out, her name sounding like music to Stiles’s ears. She was beautiful, then again the entire family had been, and despite Stiles’s strongly straight proclivities, he could even say that Derek was beautiful, in a very rugged and manly way of course. Laura had her brother’s thick dark hair, or rather Derek had his sisters, a slight curl at the ends, eyes the colour of…well Stiles had still yet put a finger on the exact colour of the Hale’s eyes, but they were a bluey green. Greeny Blue perhaps. Either way they were almost mesmeric and Derek had stabbed Stiles in the ribs with his elbow and grinned at his sister before ushering Stiles inside.
“No crushing on my sister,” he had said and Stiles had spluttered something in a way of explanation, but was struck by the rare smile on Derek’s face.
He likes to think that’s how they became friends, however tentative.
It wasn’t until months later that Derek had opened up, one too many swigs of the Sheriff’s alcohol, and a great view of the stars from Stiles’s back yard and he’d just lost the ability to put a stopper on the words, the ache, the pain of losing his family, how Peter was holding it together, how Laura seemed stronger than all of them.
Stiles had done the only think he could have done, the only thing that worked with Scott when Scott got maudlin about his dad, and reached between them and curled their fingers together. He hadn’t said anything, neither had Derek, but they were closer after that, especially when Stiles remembered the date of the fire and turned up the day after (he knew what it was like when well meaning people bothered you on the actual day) with a stolen 6 pack of beer of dubious quality and a rolled up blanket.
Even though he’s not 100% positive, he’s pretty sure that’s when they became best friends.
…
“Wanna hang out tonight?” Stiles shifts his phone under his ear and holds out his favourite Batman t-shirt and his favourite Bullseye one in front of him.
“Can’t, hanging out with Derek,” he answers and Scott sighs, “just because Allison’s busy,” Stiles says and Scott lets out a small embarrassed laugh.
“Yeah, but duuuuude, we never hang anymore,” he whines and Stiles throws his bullseye shirt back onto his floor. He pulls the phone out from under his ear and tries to extract himself from the t-shirt he wore at school today. He gets stuck with his arm sticking half out of the head hole.
“It’s his birthday,” he shouts, and misses Scott’s reply as the phone clatters to the floor and he manages to haul both arm and head through the hole and pull the Batman shirt over his head. “Sorry,” he mutters at the now silent Scott, who he can imagine shrugging because he knows Stiles, and knows that Stiles can’t do only one thing at once, like talk on the phone without trying to get dressed.
“Between you being like an untapped genius…”
“Hey…less of the untapped thank you,” Stiles defends his virginity with a grimace, even though he knows full well Scott wasn’t talking about that.
“And Allison, and Derek, we never hang anymore,” he whines against and Stiles sits heavily on his bed and hauls a shoe out by a lace from under it. He frowns and slides to the floor, reaches under his bed and pulls out the other shoe.
“Not my fault you’re whipped,” he mutters, clasping the phone under his ear again and reaching down to pull his laces tight. “Listen, Scotty Scott Scott, it’s Derek’s birthday man, I promised, tomorrow though ok?”
“Ok,” Scott grumbles but he knows he’ll be texting Allison and grinning like the idiot he is within two minutes of hanging up on Stiles. It’s why he loves Scott, that and the fact that Scott didn’t leave his side for three months, literally, after his mom died, Scott bounces back so easily.
“Stiles,” his dad shouts as Stiles runs down the stairs and past the living room. Stiles grabs a hold of the door jamb and nearly slips on the rug by the front door.
“Derek’s birthday, gotta go,” he says, “love you,” and ducks out of the house before his dad can answer. But he’s pretty sure there will be some eye-rolling going on right now.
…
Stiles lets himself into the Hale house, Peter told him to just walk in already after he got annoyed with having to answer the door to Stiles’s numerous visits when he and Derek became friends. He’s greeted by Merry, Derek’s lab pup, who attacks him with the love that he’s come to not fear anymore. He bit Stiles once, hard, but after Derek had told him off in the tone one usually reserves for small children, explained at Stiles was “pack” (his word, not Stiles’s) he had licked him practically to death and loved him ever since. Pippin isn’t far behind, Derek’s other puppy, a curly haired mongrel of a dog that had the biggest doe eyes Stiles had ever seen. Whatever Merry does, Pippin follows and Stiles crouches down and pulls them both into an awkward, licking hug. The fact that Derek had called his dogs after the Hobbit’s had been a great source of teasing for Stiles who revelled in the fact that Derek was a closet geek.
“Derek?” he calls once they have finished licking him and roll off in a weird puppy ball of fur and playful yips.
“Here,” Derek’s voice floats through the house from the kitchen and Stiles makes his way there rubbing at the dog drool on his cheek.
“So happy birthday buddy, you ready to go get wasted and pick up chicks, well you pick up chicks, my love life sadly is non existent, and obviously less of the alcohol as we’re both underage and my dad’s the sheriff…um…hi,” he stalls in front of a startlingly beautiful blonde girl with hair curling over her shoulders and a smile a mile wide on her lips.
“Stiles this is Erica,” Derek says and there’s a small embarrassed blush on his cheeks.
“I didn’t mean that about the chicks, I meant for me, Derek’s a great wingman, although he’s not that great as my pitiful love life will be testament to, I’m going to shut up now,” Stiles clamps his lips together at the laugh coming from Erica’s mouth bringing a wide smile to Derek’s face and tells himself the stab of jealousy in his stomach is to do with being left behind on the single train…again.
“Erica…this is Stiles,” Derek says, like it’s meant to mean something to her. Erica flicks her hair off her shoulders and nods.
“So…” she starts, reaching backwards and curling her arm around Derek’s waist, “we ready to go?”
…
Turns out Erica is the same age as Stiles, in Stiles’s class at school actually, a transfer student same age as Stiles, which doesn’t stop Derek from putting his hands all over her though in a way that makes Stiles want to vomit.
They end up bowling, Erica showing off her incredible figure with every opportunity and Stiles can see why Derek can’t seem to take his eyes off her.
“Why the long face?” Derek asks when Erica sidles off to get drinks, his elbow digging into Stiles’s ribs.
“Just tired,” Stiles answers, going into sulk mode for a reason he can’t fathom. Derek narrows his eyes in the way that usually gets Stiles to spill everything but then his face softens.
“Oh shit Stiles I’m sorry,” he smacks his forehead, “I can’t believe I forgot,” he pats at Stiles’s knee and it takes a second for Stiles to realise he’s talking about Stiles’s mom. She died next week and Stiles always goes into mope mode around the time, he feels sick that he forgot even for a second.
“Don’t apologise, I shouldn’t have come out really but it is your birthday after all,” he says, swallowing down his last mouthful of watery, flat coke.
“And if you hadn’t,” Derek says with a glance towards where Erica is making her way back across the bowling alley, “you wouldn’t have met Erica,” with that Erica winds one arm around Derek and leans in enough to show off her impressive cleavage and kiss Derek’s on the neck. Derek smiles like he’s never smiled before and Stiles feels bile rise in his throat.
He manages to get home relatively early, with a headache building behind his eyes and a sick feeling in his stomach and goes to bed, dreams of Erica digging red talons into Stiles’s ribs.
…
“Mind if I sit down?” Stiles looks up from his History text book, mouthful of what claims to be mash potato but Stiles seriously thinks might be wallpaper paste to find Erica standing over him with her mile wide grin.
“Um...sure,” he kicks the chair out in front of him and Erica sits, takes a bite of her apple and wrinkles her brow as she chews thoughtfully.
“Ok this is probably going to sound like paranoid girl syndrome but I get the feeling you don’t like me,” she says and Stiles feels his stomach cramp with guilt.
“I…”
“I know you’re important to Derek, he basically talks about you, Peter and Laura and that’s it. I just wanted to get to know you a little, because I like Derek Stiles, I really do,” she smiles genuinely, one that starts off on her lips but spreads across her whole face to her eyes.
“That’s great, I’m glad, I really am, and I didn’t mean to make you think I didn’t like you, I do, from what I know, I just…there are a few things right now that, you know what? You don’t need to know, you probably don’t care, so I’m gonna shut up now,” Stiles trails off and Erica grins again.
“I think I like you too, Stiles,” she laughs gently and takes another bite of her apple, stands and makes her way through the dining room, drawing every guys eyes as she walks past.
“What…the holy hell…is that?” Lydia Martin braces her hands on the edge of Stiles’s table and Stiles thinks he’s going to have a heart attack. He’s had a crush on the girl since he was three and now she’s actually talking to him, for the first time in his life. He takes a sip of his water.
“Erica…Reyes, transfer student,” he gasps out and Lydia spares him a look that reads ‘do I know you?’ before flicking her hair and walking off.
…
“So she’s great right?” Derek asks that evening, his foot nudging Stiles’s head lightly. Stiles grimaces, pushes at Derek’s foot and sits, glares down at him.
“Erica? Yeah, she’s great,” he replies, because she is, and if there’s one thing he’s learnt about Derek, it’s that he can’t seem to lie to the guy. Derek cocks his head to the side and then smiles. Erica is great, she’s sweet, has a smile that makes Stiles smile right back, she’s totally smitten with Derek, in a way that makes Stiles want to vomit sometimes. But there’s just something, niggling, taunting, at the back of his mind, and he can’t put his finger on it. He shrugs and Derek sits as well, pushes at his shoulder.
“She’s an animal as well,” he says quietly, with a slight blush of embarrassment but a wolfish grin. Stiles feels his eyes widen.
“Have you?” He knows that Scott and Allison are going at it like sex crazed rabbits on Viagra whenever they can, but he’s never really thought about Derek. Probably because Derek’s always been single, like Stiles. Derek shakes his head and runs his hand through his hair.
“Not yet.”
“Ok but when you do, no gruesome details please, I get enough of that from Scott,” Stiles grumbles and Derek pouts sarcastically at him.
“Aww, someone jealous?”
“No, just…gah…” he lets out a noise that crossed between a cat being strangled to death and a girly scream as Derek launches at him and covers his face with a pillow, his fingers digging into the spaces between Stiles’s ribs.
“Admit it,” he hears muffled through the pillow and taps against Derek’s bicep twice. Derek relents, lifts the pillow and grins down at him.
“Dick,” Stiles pokes him in the stomach, “and fine, I’m jealous, because I totally want to bone you,” he smirks at Derek.
“Doesn’t everyone?”
“Not Erica, apparently,” Stiles grins and Derek shakes his head.
“Oh Stiles…why do you provoke me?” His face breaks out into a slow grin, and he launches himself at Stiles with a growl.
“Fuck…”
…
At the beginning of the second year with Derek by his side in most classes, a new girl turns up at school. She’s pretty, cute, blonde, and smiles shyly at Stiles on day one in the lunch hall. Derek digs him in the ribs and nods in her direction.
“Go talk to her,” he whispers and Stiles rolls his eyes, makes a face at Derek as his sips at his water.
“Yeah, because my track record is so great so far,” Erica kicks him gently under the table.
“You’re too hard on yourself Stiles…you’re totally cute,” she swirls her fork through her pasta surprise and grimaces, takes a sip of water and Stiles nudges Derek in the ribs.
“You hear that Derek, you’re girlfriend thinks I’m hot,” he sings and Derek rolls his eyes.
“I said cute,” Erica corrects.
“I heard hot,” Stiles shrugs and shovels a forkful of his pasta into his mouth.
“Idiot,” she grumbles but then her face breaks out into a sneer that Stiles has come to realise means he’s going to regret something and she pushes her chair out and stalks over to the new girl. Stiles slips lower in his chair and tries not to choke on his food as Derek chuckles beside him.
“Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god,” Stiles mutters under his breath and catches his knee on the underside of the table as Erica and the new girl approach them, “gotta go,” Stiles announces and Derek grabs the back of his jeans and hauls him back into his seat.
“Stay,” he orders as Erica arrives at their table.
“Derek, this is Aubrey, Aubrey my boyfriend Derek,” Aubrey smiles shyly again and Derek smiles right back at her. She blushes, and Stiles has seen that effect more than once. “And, this is Stiles,” Erica does a little flourish with her hand and pulls out the chair in front of Stiles and sits back in the one in front of Derek. Aubrey mutters hello and sits, tucks her hair behind her ear. Derek nudges him in the ribs again.
“So Aubrey…” Stiles starts and Aubrey looks up at him, blinks big blue eyes at him, the same time Derek and Erica lean forward together to watch and Stiles swallows, “gotta go.” He bolts, manages to make it out of his chair before Derek can pull him back and hides out in the locker room until lunch is over.
…
“Derek’s here,” his dad calls from the kitchen as Stiles heads towards his room, he stops mid step and sticks his head around the door frame, “and he’s pissed at you.”
“How did he…” Stiles trails off and hits his head against the frame, “damn Camaro…”
“Why’s he pissed at you?” The Sheriff asks, not taking his eyes off the files in front of him.
“Why is anyone ever pissed at me?” Stiles shrugs and his dad raises an eyebrow.
“Because you’re an idiot.”
“Right…thanks dad, love you too.” His dad waves absently at him and goes back to his files and Stiles looks at the stairs like they’re a mountain before climbing them slowly and pushing his door open. Derek’s arm reaches out and hauls him inside, uses his body to slam the door shut.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Whoa dude, anyone ever tell you, you get handsy when you’re angry?” Derek’s frowns at him, and although a lot of people shake in their boots when Derek Hale frowns, Stiles can see the softness underneath, the caring side of Derek that’s only pissed because Stiles didn’t even make an effort with Aubrey.
“Again Stiles…what the hell is wrong with you?”
“Me? You’re the one waiting in my room to slam me against the wall like we’re in some cheap porno,” the corner of Derek’s eye twitches, “and you know what? There’s probably something wrong with her anyway.”
“Why?” Derek asks, letting him go and Stiles rubs the back of his head. It didn’t hurt, Derek’s done it more than once but he’s starting to think he may get a flat head if Derek does it anymore.
“Because…” Stiles starts and Derek raises an eyebrow at him.
“Because?”
“Have you looked at me recently?” Stiles spreads his arms and Derek smirks.
“Unfortunately yes,” Derek replied and Stiles feels his face fall, against his own wishes.
“See?” he says with a shrug. Derek takes a step towards him, frowns again and shakes his head.
“Ok that’s not what I meant and you know it. Stiles…”
“I’m just not…Scott, or Jackson, or Danny…or you,” Stiles waves his hand at him. Derek’s the full package, good looking, built, smart, yet there’s a soft side underneath, sometimes so far underneath that Stiles thinks it might be suffocating under all that muscle.
“No but you’re you,” Derek says, poking him in the chest and Stiles rubs at the spot with the heel of his hand.
“And what’s that mean?” he asks and Derek lets out a small laugh, taking another step closer. Stiles swallows.
“You really want me to pull out the poetry?” Derek asks with an eyebrow arched over one bluey green, greeny blue eye.
“I’m not asking you to seduce me,” Stiles shoves at his shoulder and Derek laughs, “ just tell me why the hell a seemingly sane girl would want to be with me,” Derek’s face falls to a serious look and he claps Stiles on the shoulder, his thumb somehow finding it’s way under Stiles’s t-shirt.
“How many friends do I have?” He asks and Stiles frowns, his mind almost distracted from the conversation at the feel of Derek’s thumb moving in slow circles.
“Loads,” because it’s true, everyone loves Derek, apart from Jackson, but that’s maybe because Jackson is jealous of the fact that Danny has a massive crush on Derek. Plus Jackson hates pretty much everyone.
“How many?” Derek asks again narrowing his eyes slightly.
“Five?” a shake of his head and Stiles sighs, “Four?” Derek scoffs, “Ok fine, two if you include Erica,” Stiles concedes and Derek shakes his head, his thumb moving against Stiles’s neck like it’s meant to be there.
“No Stiles, one. You,” he squeezes Stiles’s shoulder gently, “now ask me again why I think she would want to be with you,” Derek raises his eyebrows expectantly and Stiles sighs.
“That’s different,” he says and Derek frowns, and neither of them mention the fact that he’s still got his hand on Stiles’s shoulder. Stiles leans back against the door again.
“How?”
“Because…because, God I hate you,” Stiles sighs again and Derek grins, his hand slides off Stiles’s skin.
“No you don’t,” he says, patting Stiles once on the arm, “and if you don’t talk to her tomorrow, I’m going to make you…”
“Yeah…how?”
“I’ll think of something.”
…
By some miracle, and by miracle Stiles means Derek pushing him practically at the feet of Aubrey as she is standing at her locker, Stiles manages to say three words to her, all of them incoherent, but her face lights up as she smiles at him.
Stiles is taking it as a win.
It takes him a further three days to actually say something coherent to her, and she laughs, tucks her hair behind her ear.
After that it just starts to get easier. Aubrey starts joining them at lunchtime and Erica being awesome makes her feel welcome in a way that neither Stiles nor Derek has the hang of yet. It takes several more weeks for Stiles to actually work up the courage to ask her out though. The release of the new Batman movie and the facts that Erica was kidnapping Derek for a weekend with her family at a wedding and that Allison and Scott had finally got a weekend without either of their parents around meaning Stiles was without his usual go to guys for super hero shenanigans. He had to admit it had made him feel really good, Aubrey’s bright smile when he asked her out, her eyes sparkling and her generally acting like he, Stiles Stilinksi had just made her day.
He spends the rest of the day on a high, only Derek’s growly face frown putting a damper on things, but he puts that down to the fact that he is missing the epicness of Batman to deal with family politics and dancing than because Stiles asked Aubrey out, after all this had been what Derek wanted, right?
“Dude…what the hell am I going to wear?” Stiles sighs heavily as Derek makes a non-committal noise from his bed. “What’s up with you grumpy?”
Nothing…Batman,” Derek nods at his closet and Stiles wrinkles his noise.
“Wore it yesterday.”
“Stud muffin,” Derek picks at something on his jeans.
“Too obvious,” Stiles replies and Derek sighs.
“I dunno Stiles, to be honest I don’t care,” Stiles frowns and kneels at the end of the bed by Derek’s feet.
“Ok harsh…what’s going on?” Derek shrugs and Stiles runs his finger along the arch of his foot. Derek twitches, and there’s a smile threatening on his lips, “don’t make me do it against Derek,” he warns.
“Nothing’s wrong, promise…just pissed I don’t get to see The Dark Knight with you,” Stiles may not have Derek’s freaking ability to know when he’s lying, but he’s pretty damn sure Derek’s lying right now. He cocks his head to the side and Derek shrugs again and looks down at his hands.
“Ok,” Stiles answers and gets off the bed, wanders back to his closet and hauls out his Bulls-eye shirt, he holds it up for Derek.
“That one,” Stiles hauls his old shirt over his head and pulls the new one on and holds his arms out as he looks at Derek. Derek cocks his head to the side, “as good as it’s ever gonna be,” he mutters.
“Fuck you,” Stiles grins. He should be nervous, he should be pacing and biting his nails and wondering what the hell he’s going to say, but there’s something about Derek that calms Stiles.
“You wish kiddo,” there’s something dark swimming under Derek’s eyes and Stiles feels like the airs just been sucked out of the room. It’s meant to be a joke, light and amusing but somehow it misses by a mile. Derek grins though, after what feels like an age, although the grin doesn’t quite cover the look in his eyes and Stiles clears his throat and tugs on the hem of his t-shirt.
“Ok you can go now,” he says waving his hand at the window and Derek lets out a small laugh, stands, stretches and Stiles doesn’t look at the strip of skin between Derek’s t-shirt and the bottom of his jeans.
“Have fun,” he calls as he jumps out of the window and Stiles shakes his head. Why can’t the guy use the door like everyone else?
…
The date itself goes off without a hitch, and before he can blink it seems like he has a girlfriend, a hot girlfriend, the type that guys stare after and he can totally see their eyes go from him to Aubrey then back as if to say how did Stilinski pull that off.
The cherry on the cake is that as well as being gorgeous Aubrey is awesome, she loves basketball, comics, the same movies and books as Stiles and has a killer sense of humour, and to top it all off his friends actually likes her. Of course with Scott it is more that Aubrey means Stiles spends less time with Derek and Erica, but it is still pretty amazing finally getting his friend back. Double dates bringing back team Stilinski and McCall without Stiles feeling like a spare wheel.
Of course Derek goes into sulk mode, Stiles knew he was never great at the sharing thing, and more time with Scott and Allison meant less time with Derek and Erica and left Derek walking round school like someone had kicked his puppy.
It took a couple of months to finally find the balance between spending time with both couples and some time alone, that and the reinstitution of weekly guys night with him and Derek once a week seemed to bring a smile back to his friends face. Of course that did leave less time for him and Aubrey to be alone, but she didn’t seem to mind, see hadn’t he said she was great?
It took another few months before Stiles started to realise that Aubrey wanted more. He felt like an idiot, an outsider the first time she moved his hand to her breast, because shouldn’t it be him making these moves, trying to get her to move further, instead it just felt odd Stiles had spent the last three years thinking about what it would feel like to finally get to this point with a girl (specifically Lydia Martin), to feel her soft body under his, strawberry tasting lips opening up under his own, tasting fresh and sweet. Aubrey’s body was soft and smooth and she was letting him in, inviting him to touch, to feel to taste. And it all just felt wrong. It’s during one of their most recent make out sessions that things finally take a turn for the weird. When he finally had it figured out, why things weren’t working with Aubrey the way they should, she reminded him of Derek. With her, like with Derek he felt comfortable, he could be himself, he could smile and laugh and not worry that the other person thought he was different, too hyper, to loud, too Stiles.
The problem is he comes to this conclusion while Aubrey’s lips are on his neck, he’s thinking about Aubrey, then how much she reminds him of Derek, and before he can stop his mind wandering down the track it was on, something he has never had much success with, he thinks about Derek’s lips on his neck, how they would feel rougher, chapped with the wind and the way he always bit down on them when he ‘s thinking. Instead of smooth skin there would be the burn of stubble, rough and scratchy against his skin, he wouldn’t be gentle, with soft closed mouthed kisses against his neck, Derek’s lips would be open, rough, demanding, taking more and more before biting down on the soft piece of skin between his neck and his shoulder, and it’s this thought that causes Stiles cock to suddenly go hard in the middle of his make out session with his girlfriend.
Aubrey’s sweet, surprised but pleased smile makes his stomach clench with guilt, this was the first time in five months of make out sessions he’s reacted as strongly as this, and it makes her happy, makes her smile to see that her boyfriend isn’t a freak, that she can make him aroused, and how the hell can he ever explain that it wasn’t her, that he had gotten hard thinking of his best friend. And how the hell had that happened anyway?
He tries to think of an excuse, any excuse as she goes back to his neck, her soft sweet mouth trying to recreate the reaction. Stiles has never been happier to hear his father come into the house. Their hurried movements to get clothes back in order forestalling the words that Stiles doesn’t want to say.
Aubrey leaves, the same secret, shy smile on her face and Stiles flops down on the bed, his stomach churning with a mixture of guilt and bone deep arousal at the thought of Derek’s lips. What the fuck is wrong with him? He has a beautiful, fun sexy girlfriend and all he can think about is what it would feel like to have his best friend’s mouth on him, those hands, so huge that Stiles used to make inappropriate and pretty tasteless jokes about them, sliding over his stomach, twisting beneath his jeans and cupping his dick.
Smothering a moan, Stiles snakes his own hand around himself, groaning as the relief of finally being touched causes pre come to spill out, aiding his hand, making his dick wet and slippery. Giving himself over to the weird, warped fantasy and the sure and certain knowledge that he belonged in the seventh circle of hell right now, he moves his hand as he thinks about Derek, of all fucking people, Derek bloody Hale, his body crowding on top of Stiles, hard and strong, pushing him into the mattress, his lips making a path of bites and nips down Stiles neck and chest, he comes with Derek’s name on his tongue and tears in his eyes.
He cleans off his hands and then buries his face in his pillow as he realises how truly fucked he is. He was an overactive hyper ADD ridden freak who rather than wanting to mack on his extremely hot girlfriend is making himself come at the thought of his best friend, his very straight best friend.
When did he develop this gay hard on for Derek?
What the fuck was his life?
…
It doesn’t take him long the next day to realise exactly what he’s going to do, which is nothing. Stiles is adept at ignoring the pink elephant in the room, to shoving his fingers in his ears and lalalalaing his way into a better reality.
What happened yesterday would be ignored. He has a great girlfriend, a magnificent girlfriend who is hot and sweet and funny. More than that Derek is his best friend, and he’s straight and he has an equally hot and wonderful girlfriend who Stiles adores and would never hurt (not only because he’s still a little certain she could rip his throat out with her teeth if she wanted to), not that it matters because Derek is straight and he doesn’t want Stiles that way and to push these feeling onto his friend who doesn’t want them, would mean the end of his friendship, and Stiles needs Derek. There. He admits it, he needs Derek, everything else could be ignored, but not that, so Stiles will push it down, ignore it and make things work with Aubrey. He isn’t going to lose the person he loves over something as stupid as a mixed up crush.
Of course the fact that the person he loves and is most afraid of losing is Derek should clue him into how doomed this plan was, but he’s Stiles, and he will go on ignoring the pink elephant. Thank you very much.
Of course the one blocker in the plan to ignore pink elephants is alcohol, cos everyone knows with alcohol, pink elephants get a free rein, which is why when Derek turns up with some beers and a video when his dad is on night shift for their weekly boys night, Stiles knows he should make an excuse, but he also knows that there has been something wrong with Derek and Erica all week. Derek has been moody and snappy in a way that he only gets when he is worried or scared, so Stiles battens down the hatches on the pink elephants stables and invites him in.
They are on their third beer when Derek brings up the fact that he knows things have gone further with him and Aubrey, his shrug and glance away coupled with a mumbled ‘Erica told me’.
“Well yeah,” Stiles starts awkwardly. “I mean it’s the furthest we went but there is still, just…well lets say it hasn’t went any further…” he slurs and is well aware that his sentences aren’t making any sense anymore.
Derek’s eyes are hooded, but Stiles can read him well enough to see the curiosity underneath and this is so not the conversation he should be having right now. He needs to remind himself of all the reasons why talking about that night is a bad idea.
“So Erica?” Stiles asks, his change of conversation making one of Derek’s eyebrows rise, and god dammit how could something that should remind him a cheesy cartoon villain make Derek look so fucking attractive.
“Erica?” Derek parrots, his tone inviting Stiles to go further.
“Yeah, or rather, you and Erica, how did you, you know” Stiles waggles his eyebrows in a way that he knows always makes Derek smile and ignores the burst of heat in his chest when it works. “How did you guys take it to the next stage?”
“We didn’t,” Derek states baldly. “We haven’t, you know.”
“Wait, still!” Stiles buts in. “You mean you and Erica still haven’t, you know?” At Derek’s shake of his head Stiles finds himself unable to contain his next words. “But dude you guys have been together for nearly a year”
“So?” Derek asks, his manner getting defensive. Recognising the signs Stiles drops the conversation, handing over another beer and refusing to admit that he’s pleased that Derek hasn’t taken that step yet.
The silence is broken over their fifth beer as they sat on the rug, their backs to the sofa and the heady buzz of alcohol along with the warmth of sitting body to body with Derek making him feel sleepy, unguarded.
“So why d’you want to know?” Derek asks. At Stiles blank look, he lets out a frustrated sigh. “About me and Erica, why do you…are you thinking of….with Annie?”
Stiles wants to answer the question but his eyes have ended up level with Derek’s lips as his friend kneels slightly. “Cos you know that’s a big step Stiles, you should make sure it’s right… that she’s…..so you love her?” The question seems to come out in a rush as if Derek hadn’t meant the words to come out but hadn’t been able to stop them. Derek’s eyes are hooded and there is something in them that Stiles didn’t see often, a softness that he had sometimes surprised on his friends face as Derek had listened to him go on about a madcap adventure, or telling stories about his mum. He doesn’t see it often and has never seen it this close before.
“I don’t….” Stiles stutters over the questions, kneels up so he’s facing Derek, their knees almost touching. “There is something and she is great and when I kiss her I want to…” at the word kiss, Stiles sees Derek’s eyes drop to his lips and he finds himself unable to stop his tongue coming out to wet his lips, like an instinctive reaction, he sees Derek’s pupils dilate and his head come forward and even as the warning flashes through his mind, he’s unable to stop the top half of his body moving towards Derek as if pulled by a magnet and he is unable to stop himself as their bodies meet, their chest touching and their lips a hairsbreadth apart, so close he can feel the warmth of Derek’s breath as it ghosts across his lips, can smell the beer and fresh mint pulling him towards him.
But in the end it is Derek who makes the final step, his mouth closing over Stiles’s own, it’s hesitant, slightly awkward, but there’s a pressure building in Stiles’s chest as Derek presses closer, seeking permission. Stiles opens his mouth, his tongue darting forward, granting the permission and in a heartbeat the kiss changes, from soft and exploratory, to open, dark and rough as if Derek is claiming him through the kiss, marking him as Derek’s, for a moment Stiles wonders if he still knows how to breathe or if he even cares.
This is what has been missing from every kiss he and Aubrey had ever shared, his heart’s pounding, his body feels alive as a thousand and one nerve ends are set alight. Derek’s hands are cupping his face, one hand creeping round to curl at the back of Stiles’s neck, his thumb pressing in lightly under Stiles’s chin and in an instant Stiles realises that this, this is what he has been waiting for, this is all he’s ever wanted.
It takes one word to bring his world crashing down, as Derek pulls away from Stiles, his eyes wide, pupils blown, and a soft almost wondering smile on his face. Stiles twists his hand in Derek’s shirt to pull him back in but a word slips out of Derek’s lips before he can, Erica, he sees Derek’s lips open to say more but stops him before they come, his hands untangling and pushing Derek away before pushing himself off his knees and standing, ignoring the dizziness brought on by the alcohol and the kiss he thought he would never get to have, he runs his hands over his short hair.
“Yes, Erica, your girlfriend Erica, my friend Erica….”
“Stiles…” Derek starts, pushing himself up and moving towards Stiles. “No, it’s not…..”
“Aubrey,” Stiles breaks in desperately his mind grabbing onto the first thing he can think off to wade off Derek’s pity, of Derek trying to explain what just happened.
“Aubrey?” Derek repeats the name as if it were a question.
“Yes Aubrey,” Stiles answers. “My girlfriend Aubrey who you are trying to help me get to fourth base with and well if that was a lesson, then yep would definitely work, but no back to Aubrey, your girlfriend Erica’s friend, my girlfriend Aubrey.” Stiles tries to control the word vomit as it leaves his mouth, trying desperately for something, anything that will stop Derek figuring out what just happened.
“You kissed me to help you get Aubrey into bed?” Derek’s question this time is harder, bit out with some force, which makes sense, I mean come on its not every day your best friend practically jumps in your lap, of course Derek had kissed back, actually technically Derek had started it, but hey…drunk and the first word that had left his lips was Erica, leaving Stiles in no doubt at where his mind was during the kiss.
“Yes, well know, I just need to know how to… you know!”
“No I don’t know Stiles, how about you enlighten me.” Derek’s words are definitely harsher now, his anger seeping through and Stiles searches desperately for a way to bring things back, to let Derek know that things could go back to the way they were.
“I love her,” the words slip out easily, and not for the first time, Stiles almost flinches at the ‘I know you’re lying’ face that Derek gives him. Even though it’s not technically a lie, he does love her, he’s just not in love with her. This though, this tiny white lie, this could pull them back. “I love her and I want to, you know, go to that next step with her and I need you to know help me.”
Derek closes his eyes, and for half a second Stiles actually thinks he’s in some kind of pain, but when Derek opens his eyes again, all that’s there is a blazing hot anger. “I think you are beyond help Stilinski,” he sneers.
Stiles feels his own hackles rise at the tone of Derek’s voice. “What the fuck do you mean by that?” he asks, half confused and half angry at Derek’s tone. All of him wondering what the hell has happened in his life recently.
“I mean, dream on, you really think she is going to go to bed with you?” Stiles knows deep down that something is wrong, this is Derek, his Derek and he had never, ever spoken to Stiles like this. “Face it Stiles, you aren’t the type of guys girls like Aubrey pop their cherry with.” There’s a bite to Derek’s tone, an underbelly that feels almost furious, like the way a wounded animal at Dr Deaton’s, would react to a threat, but the words just stir a fire in Stiles Belly.
“Ha, like you are any better,” he snaps back.
“What do you mean by that?” Derek replies, his tone icy and dangerous.
“Well you aren’t having much luck getting Erica to fall for your oh so manly charms, at least Aubrey and I have only been dating a few months, you have had a full year and she still won’t so much for the great Hale charm.”
“You don’t know the first thing about me and Erica,” Derek grinds out.
“Oh yeah?” Stiles asks. “I know I could get Aubrey into bed before you manage it with Erica.”
“You think so,” Derek ask his eyes flashing.
“I know so, in fact I am so sure I am willing to bet the jeep on it.”
“The jeep?” Derek’s anger seems to fade slightly, his tone questioning. “You’re willing to bet your mothers jeep?”
“It’s not a bet I plan to lose.” Stiles answers with far more conviction than he feels.
“I don’t want your mom’s jeep.” Derek replies his eyes hard.
“What do you want then?” Stiles asks confused, he doesn’t have much more than the jeep to barter with.
“You…” Stiles’s feels his heart leap to his throat, “finish with her,” Derek replies the slight hesitation in his voice making his words sound harsher. “If I win, you break up with her, no arguments.”
“You want me to break up with Aubrey?” Stiles asks, pressing his fingers to his throbbing temple. “Dude you were the one that shoved us together in the first place.”
“I was wrong,” Derek states simply. “I don’t like the person you’ve become with her.” The sneering tone is back in his voice. For the first time Stiles realises they are facing each other like enemies
“And if I win?” Stiles asks, the fight going out of him, this is his best friend for fuck’s sake. “If I win you play nice with her…and Scott.” Stiles states, seeing Derek’s back go up, his eyes flashing dangerously and not for the first time Stiles wonders what his problem with Scott is.
“Deal.” Derek says, putting his hand out, Stiles leans forward, his brain struggling to figure out how it had come to this, how it had gone from easy conversation to kissing to arguing like enemies.
He feels his hand being enveloped in Derek’s, the sharp spike of electricity going up his spine almost making him miss Derek’s final words before leaving.
“But just so you know, I don’t intend to lose either.”
…
It takes them five days to speak to each other again, the longest they have ever gone without speaking. They both ignore the pleas from Erica and Aubrey to sort out whatever has gone wrong, in the end it was Scott that forces the issue. Sick of Stiles moping about and probably wanting some more free time to mack on Allison he drags a loudly objecting Stiles over to where Derek and Erica are sitting, Derek looking like he wants to growl at the world and Erica bored out of her mind.
“Ok pops, it’s your weekend for the kid, just so you know he has been a brat, if you give him back to me in this state again, we will be revising our custody agreement.”
With that Scott’s gone and Stiles is too shocked at Scott showing not only friendliness to Derek but some actual wit that he’s stunned into a temporary silence, and when he looks at Derek he sees the same sort of shocked look on his face. When their eyes finally meet, Stiles can see the spark of warmth and a smile grows across his face, within seconds they’re both giggling like hyenas, Stiles sitting to catch his breath and Derek murmuring between laughs that he didn’t know McCall had it in him.
Erica simply rolls her eyes at both of them, mutters insult about the male species making its way out, but even Stiles can’t miss the wide grin on her face, and like that, the fight is over.
…
It takes Stiles another two days to bring up the bet, worried about how it might be taken and wary of another fight, but Derek, after a moment’s hesitation, takes over the conversation.
“I want to cancel it,” he says quietly. “It was stupid and immature and definitely not fair to the girls, I didn’t mean the things I said that night Stiles, I was just….”
“Drunk?” Stiles supplies helpfully.
“Exactly,” Derek says, relief evident in his voice, “I also didn’t meant it about not liking Aubrey, she is…you…well you love her, and if you love her then that’s enough for me.”
“I…that is, I don’t….” Stiles tries to will the words out, to tell Derek the truth about his feelings for Aubrey, or the lack of, but he keeps wondering what if Derek looks further, if he begins to wonder what that kiss had been about, and the words stick in his throat. “I haven’t told her yet, you know about the love thing,” he finishing helplessly with a shrug.
Derek looks at him considering. “I think that’s smart buddy, give it some time, but I will make more of an effort with her, Scott too,” he tags on a little reluctantly.
“Wait, wait what?” Stiles stutters, astounded and delighted at the same time. “You’re going to be nice to Scott? Scott McCall, the guy who is most likely to be hit over the head by a bat by you for no reason whatsoever? That Scott”
“Yeah, that Scott,” Derek answers sourly. “You don’t need to be smart, I thought you would be happy.”
“I am,” Stiles interjects quickly, his hands talking with him in a way that only ever happened when he was really excited. “But you hate Scott.”
“I don’t hate him,” Derek admits reluctantly. “It just used to bug me how much he always expected of you, but that doesn’t matter, it’s not my business, and Scott and Aubrey matter to you so I’m going to make an effort.”
“But why?” Stiles asks, more than a little confused.
“Because you matter to me, you moron,” Derek answers, the look on his face making him look like he’s questioning Stiles’s intelligence. Stiles gets that look a lot, but right now it doesn’t bother him. He and Derek are friends again, Derek is going to make an effort with Scott, and they no longer have the odd awkwardness of the bet between them. Life is good again.
The little niggly voice in the back of his head takes that moment to remind him that Derek had just said he was going to be nice to a girlfriend that Stiles doesn’t actually want, and there is still the matter of the big gay boner he has for his best friend, but Stiles tells the voice to shut the hell up and starts day dreaming about pink elephants. He has Derek back, that is all that mattered, the rest will take care of itself.
Somehow.
Part Two