Re-Gifting, Teen Wolf FanFic
TITLE: Re-Gifting
RATING: PG-13
CHARACTERS: Derek/Stiles, past-Cora/Stiles, Scott
WORD COUNT: ~3200
WARNINGS: Language. Spoilers through 3x07, slightly canon-divergent after that.
SUMMARY: In which Stiles's ex wants to play matchmaker.
AO3 Link | Master Fic List
Disclaimer: What is belonging? I wouldn't know, because none of this belongs to me.
Author's Notes: So this is the first thing I've actually finished and "published" in well over a year (try March 2012...). Also, it's my first time playing with Teen Wolf, so please be kind. I started writing this back in July, just after "Currents" (3x07) aired, so it's slightly canon-divergent from there. It's also set a couple years, vaguely, in the future.
Here's hoping this opens the floodgates and I start finishing more fic...
----------------------
“Hey remember that one time we tried dating and it was really good until we totally fucked it up?”
Stiles blinked and slowly pulled the phone away from his ear to double-check the caller ID. “...Cora…?” he said cautiously.
“Who else, dumbass?”
“Uh…”
“You’ve got a break coming up, right?” she plowed on.
“Yeah…”
“You coming back to see your dad?”
“It’s Christmas…”
“You’re coming over for dinner.”
“...okay.”
“Good. Call me when you’re back in town.”
Stiles stared at his phone for a long moment after she’d ended the call. At one point, he’d somehow found her charming. For three, long months, apparently.
Could’ve had something to do with all the crazy sex and teenage hormones.
Stiles shook himself out of his memories and forced himself to focus again on studying for his Astronomy final.
---
His first night back in Beacon Hills since August and his dad immediately sent him out to pick up some last minute groceries. Stiles hadn’t even managed to take his bags up to his old room before his dad had shoved him out the door with a list and some cash.
As he pushed his cart down the baking aisle, he tapped a text to Scott to let him know he’d made it back to town. About the time he hit ‘SEND,’ his cart crashed into someone else’s.
“Shi...Derek!” Stiles said with surprise as he looked up and recognized the driver of the other cart. Derek looked just as surprised to see him, though it translated as a single raised eyebrow. “Heyyy.” Derek’s expression didn’t even flicker. “Um...how are things?”
“Fine,” Derek grunted. His eyes shifted to the surrounding bags of flour. He grabbed one before he even glanced back at Stiles. “Cora said you’d be back for the holiday.”
“Uh, yeah. I’m supposed to have dinner with her sometime before I head back.”
“Good. She misses you,” Derek said in a clipped tone, staring intently at his own cart. They hadn’t been the best of friends, but they’d at least been amiable by the time Stiles had graduated high school. Stiles wasn’t quite sure which one of them was to blame for the sudden awkwardness between them, but he felt like Derek was a safe bet.
“Yeah; I miss her, too,” Stiles admitted. When Derek kept on staring silently at his groceries, Stiles cut in with a “Well, gotta grab the rest of this list so Dad can start baking. See ya later, man” and ducked out of the aisle before things could get any weirder.
---
By the time he went to bed that night, he’d received texts from half the pack regarding what was apparently going to be the Best Pack Christmas Party Ever. Considering the last Pack Christmas involved an Emergency Room and a dozen stitches in Stiles’s knee, he figured they weren’t actually setting the bar too high.
He sent texts back, assuring everyone he’d be present, and told Siri to remind him to double-check the Jeep’s first aid kit next time he left the house.
---
Christmas Eve, Stiles headed over to the McCall house for some quality Bro Time while his dad worked a half-shift at the station. Allison had dragged Isaac out for some last-minute Christmas shopping so, for the first time in what felt like forever, Stiles actually got some one-on-one time with Scott.
Halfway through their traditional viewing of Gremlins, Scott turned to him and asked abruptly, “Are you and Cora back together?”
Stiles blinked dumbly at him for a minute before he said, “Uh...no?”
“You really don’t sound positive, dude.”
Stiles tried not to wince. “I mean, she called me the other day, but I’m pretty sure it was just friendly.”
“Uh huh.”
“Why do you ask?” Stiles asked, even though he figured he’d probably regret it.
“She texted all three of us to make sure you make it tomorrow night.”
Stiles sighed. “Yeah man; I have no clue what she’s up to. Can I count on you for backup?”
Scott fucking laughed. “Dude I love you - but you are so on your own with this one.”
“Asshole.”
---
The Stilinski men spent Christmas in the usual way: eating too much and napping. Mrs McCall came over for a couple hours around lunch time while Scott and Isaac were busy spending time with the Argents. They didn’t actually kick him out, but watching his own father try to flirt was painful, so Stiles chose to duck up to his old room for a bit so his dad and Scott’s mom could have a little privacy or whatever.
Stiles was ten minutes into trying to find something to watch in his Netflix queue when his phone rang. Glancing at the caller ID, he sighed before he answered.
“Merry Christmas,” he said.
“Hey,” Cora said back. “The pack’s doing a thing tonight.”
“I heard.”
“You’re coming, right?”
“Allison would literally break both my pinkies if I broke Isaac’s heart,” he confirmed. He was pretty sure Isaac was the only one truly excited about the idea of a Pack Christmas Party.
“Get here a little early. We need to talk.”
Stiles let out an exaggerated groan. “Cora - we’ve talked about those words and not putting them together…”
“Whatever. Get here at four.” She hung up before Stiles could agree or disagree.
He never should have gotten himself involved with a Hale.
---
The new Hale House was about a quarter the size of the old one. There was a weird part of Stiles that almost missed the ruins. Mostly, though, he was proud of Cora and Derek for coming back and building something that could be theirs.
Cora’s car was the only one in the driveway when he pulled in (at 4:10 - just to spite her). She was waiting for him on the porch when he hopped out of his Jeep. Stiles tried not to act too surprised when she hugged him it was just that, even when they’d dated, she’d never been all that fond of snuggles.
“Heyyyy…” he said, feeling awkward when they stepped apart.
“Come on; there’s coffee.” That was all he needed to hear to follow her obediently to the kitchen.
Stiles parked himself at the breakfast bar and waited while Cora poured mugs of coffee for them both. As abrupt as she could sometimes be, Cora never spoke until she was ready.
“I’m glad you came,” she said sincerely as she leaned against the counter across from him.
Stiles smiled. “Me too,” he admitted. Whatever else they’d been to each other, they’d been friends the longest. “How have you been?” They texted on a fairly regular basis, but some things only came out face-to-face.
Cora shrugged a little as she sipped her coffee. “Not bad; I might actually pick a major by the end of the year.” Stiles wasn’t going to hold his breath on that - she’d changed her mind five times just since August. He figured it had a lot to do with the fact she hadn’t even wanted to go to school - it’d taken a year of Derek guiliting her before she’d given in. “I have another date next week with that guy I texted you about.”
“Oh yeah? What was his name? Dick?”
Cora rolled her eyes in true Hale-fashion. “Nick,” she corrected. “You set the bar pretty high, but he’s holding his own.” Stiles barked out a laugh at the incredulity of being someone’s bar. “You know when we were dating I was pretty messed up about Boyd, right?” Cora asked, suddenly setting the tone to serious.
It took Stiles a second to fully the process the shift before he managed a soft, “Yeah.” They’d all been pretty fucked up, actually.
“It’s like at least 90% of why we didn’t work out,” Cora went on. Stiles had figured it was closer to 80%, but he’d take the ninety if it meant he’d been a better boyfriend. “But even though I was pretty fucked up - even though we were fucked up - being with you...helped.” Stiles gaped at her until Cora rolled her eyes again. “You’re just...you were there and you wouldn’t let me close myself off or shut Derek out and you were really, really good at that one thing with your hands…”
Stiles coughed to cut her off before she could go into detail. He wasn’t so sure Cora would stop speaking even if she heard another pack member approach. Cora sighed and switched gears. “Derek’s a mess,” she said, seemingly out of nowhere. “I mean, you know him - he’s kinda always been. But with most of you gone and the tenth anniversary of the fire’s coming up, you know?” Stiles did know; he’d marked the day on his calendar every year since he’d been thrown into all the madness.
“He seemed kinda off when I ran into him the other day,” Stiles admitted, thinking of the encounter in the grocery store. Cora just kept staring at him like she was expecting something. Stiles frowned back at her, confused until, suddenly, his eyes widened and his mouth dried up because he knew.
“You want me to fuck your brother!” he blurted out. He quickly slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes searching the kitchen to make sure no one had snuck in.
Cora sighed loudly and took a very measured sip of her coffee. Her voice was calm and steady when she set the mug back down. “Look: the hard-ons you two had for each other back when we were still in high school were never a secret.” Stiles just blinked at her because he was pretty sure they had been. He definitely had never known “for each other” was a thing. He’d thought it’d just been him and his solo awkward-boner for the unattainable Alpha of Doom. He’d liked Cora for her own merits, but he couldn’t deny that there’d been a part of him that’d been thinking about a different Hale.
Speaking of Cora: she was still speaking. “I just think it would be mutually beneficial for you two to have some shared orgasms and some cuddling or something. For the good of the Pack and shit.” God, Stiles really hated her sometimes. That other 10-20% of why they hadn’t worked out was painfully obvious.
“I could be gorging on leftovers and watching terrible Christmas specials with my dad right now,” he muttered to no one in particular.
“Stiles…”
Stiles held up a hand to stop her. “You get that you can’t just tell people to fuck because one of them’s unhappy, right?” he asked because he honestly wasn’t sure if she understood that. “Sex can’t actually fix things.”
Cora let out a tiny growl of frustration that Stiles had even heard Lydia make once or twice, so he knew it wasn’t a werewolf thing, just a Stiles-is-an-idiot thing. “Will you just talk to him!” she finally said (it definitely wasn’t a request). “He’s pretty much the most pathetic thing ever when he mopes and this is some Epic Level Moping.”
“I’m not going to sleep with your brother!” Stiles shouted.
“Whoa!”
Stiles groaned as he twisted to see Allison and Isaac standing in the kitchen doorway. Isaac’s eyes were huge; Allison was smirking. Scott came up behind them and frowned. “What’d I miss?”
---
Everyone was early for a change. Even Lydia and Jackson managed to show up on time. Derek was the last to arrive, bags of Chinese food in tow. Stiles was very careful to avoid making eye contact with the other man and subtly put as many people between them as he could.
The pack hadn’t all been together since the summer so personal space was a bit of an issue as everyone piled together around the food. Stiles stuck to the edges, slightly out of practice with being around a crowd. He was a little too preoccupied to socialize, anyway.
“You’re suspiciously quiet tonight,” Lydia commented when Jackson got up to fetch her another beer.
Stiles glanced around the room to satisfy himself that everyone else's attentions were elsewhere. “Cora’s trying to set me up with someone,” he muttered. He winced when Lydia’s eyes immediately drifted to where Isaac and Derek were talking across the room.
“You’re her backup, aren’t you?” he groaned.
Lydia smiled sweetly. “We may have discussed it a time or two,” she admitted. He knew he should have tried harder to keep Cora and Lydia from becoming friends. Lydia gave Stiles one of her freakishly considering looks. “Is there a particular reason why you’re not running with the suggestion?”
Stiles stared at her. “You’re kidding, right?”
“What are you kidding about?” Jackson asked as he reclaimed his seat on the other side of Lydia. Lydia gave a significant look in Derek’s direction. “Oh. That.”
“What do you mean, ‘Oh that?’ Is this like a thing you people just sit around and talk about!?” Stiles realized he was shouting about the time the room fell silent, everyone’s attention on him. “I, uh, need some air.”
No one tried to stop him when Stiles stood and grabbed his jacket. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
The new house had a nice, big deck on the back. It was great for summer cookouts and general gathering-together. In the winter, it was a bit chilly, but it made for a decent escape. Stiles sat on one of the steps, twisting so his back rested against the railing as he stared out toward the edge of the Preserve. He’d go back into the pack before too long, he just needed a minute or two to himself. The Derek thing was rattling around in his brain and space was a necessity.
So of course when he looked up at the sound of footsteps a few minutes later, Derek was the one standing just a few feet away. So much for space.
“Needed a break too, huh?” Stiles asked him. As good as Derek had gotten with Pack after that first year-ish of awkwardness, he still had a tendency to disappear in the middle of gatherings.
Derek didn’t actually respond to Stiles’s question; he just moved to sit across from Stiles, his back to the opposite railing. After a moment, Stiles realized he was staring at Derek and quickly looked away, focusing on the trees again.
Their silences had moved from tense to companionable before Stiles had even graduated high school. But now, thanks to Cora and that awkward encounter in the grocery store, Stiles found himself feeling the tension again. Derek was a gorgeous, gorgeous man and Stiles had always had a thing for people way out of his league. Lydia had been excellent practice so by the time his little thing for Derek had started to develop he was already pretty good at ignoring his attraction.
Until goddamn Cora put the bug in his brain.
“How’s school?” Derek asked quietly after a few minutes.
The question surprised Stiles if only because Derek was the first to speak. Stiles shook off his surprise to answer. “Good. I’m thinking about adding Astronomy as another major.”
Derek raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you already have two?”
Stiles shrugged. “I tested out of half the language requirements for the Classical Studies major. All that translation experience apparently paid off.”
They lapsed into silence again until Stiles couldn’t take it anymore. “Sooo...your sister thinks we should sleep together,” he said around a weak laugh. He wasn’t expecting all the color to drain out of Derek’s face.
“I...I’m sorry,” Derek muttered, staring very intently at the ground.
“What the hell are you sorry for?” Stiles asked, honestly confused. “I think we all knew from the start you have zero influence over Cora. For a while, it was actually part of her charm.”
Derek’s jaw clenched as he lifted his head to stare out at the trees. “She misses you,” he said quietly after a moment.
It was the same thing Derek had said in the market, but Stiles decided not to call him on it. “What’s not to miss?” he joked instead. He sighed. “I miss all you guys, too.” Stiles frowned when Derek didn’t say anything else. “What about you? How are things?”
“Fine,” Derek replied after a long hesitation.
“Wow. That was so convincing,” Stiles said, monotone.
Shooting him a glare, Derek stood and turned back toward the house. Stiles scrambled to his feet. “Derek wait.” Stiles reached out to grab his arm and suddenly found himself pinned to the deck railing. “Heh. Just like old times,” Stiles chuckled weakly.
Derek backed off, his expression way more complicated than usual. “I’m sorry Cora dragged you into this,” he grumbled as he took another step back.
Stiles frowned at him. Communicating with Derek hadn’t been this hard in years. “It’s not like I’m offended by it or anything,” he said. He started to move forward but froze when Derek winced. “Wait, are you offended by it?” Something flickered across Derek’s expression and Stiles felt his mouth fall open. “Holy shit you’re totally into me.”
There was that Stiles-is-an-idiot growl. No one did it better than Derek. The Alpha was suddenly in his space again. Taking a deep breath, Stiles grabbed hold of Derek’s sweater to drag him in close. He’d never thought it was possible to scowl through a kiss, but Derek apparently seemed determined to prove him wrong.
Stiles pulled back with a frown. “In case you didn’t realize,” he said. “This is me telling you I’m totally into you, too.”
Neither man moved for a long moment. Derek’s gaze kept drifting from Stiles’s eyes to his mouth and back again, looking more uncertain than Stiles had seen him in a long time. “This isn’t because Cora asked you to?” he asked eventually.
Stiles rolled his eyes and pulled Derek closer. “I have done a lot of crazy shit because of your sister,” he admitted, wrapping his arms around Derek’s waist. “But her telling me we should sleep together for the sake of our mutual happiness definitely wasn’t something I hadn’t already considered before.”
“Yeah?” Derek whispered.
Stiles smiled, warmed by the spark of hope he thought he saw in the other man’s eyes. “Yeah.”
The second kiss was blissfully scowl-free, Derek pulling Stiles close even as he backed him against the railing again. Stiles let out a happy sigh when Derek’s mouth eventually drifted away from his lips to nibble along his jaw.
“You really think my magical cock is gonna make you happy?” Stiles teased as his hands wandered under the back of Derek’s sweater.
Derek leaned back and gave the bulge in Stiles’s jeans an assessing look. With a shrug he said, “Worth a shot.”
The deadpan delivery was ruined by the upward tic of Derek’s lips as he moved back in for another kiss.
/end
RATING: PG-13
CHARACTERS: Derek/Stiles, past-Cora/Stiles, Scott
WORD COUNT: ~3200
WARNINGS: Language. Spoilers through 3x07, slightly canon-divergent after that.
SUMMARY: In which Stiles's ex wants to play matchmaker.
AO3 Link | Master Fic List
Disclaimer: What is belonging? I wouldn't know, because none of this belongs to me.
Author's Notes: So this is the first thing I've actually finished and "published" in well over a year (try March 2012...). Also, it's my first time playing with Teen Wolf, so please be kind. I started writing this back in July, just after "Currents" (3x07) aired, so it's slightly canon-divergent from there. It's also set a couple years, vaguely, in the future.
Here's hoping this opens the floodgates and I start finishing more fic...
----------------------
“Hey remember that one time we tried dating and it was really good until we totally fucked it up?”
Stiles blinked and slowly pulled the phone away from his ear to double-check the caller ID. “...Cora…?” he said cautiously.
“Who else, dumbass?”
“Uh…”
“You’ve got a break coming up, right?” she plowed on.
“Yeah…”
“You coming back to see your dad?”
“It’s Christmas…”
“You’re coming over for dinner.”
“...okay.”
“Good. Call me when you’re back in town.”
Stiles stared at his phone for a long moment after she’d ended the call. At one point, he’d somehow found her charming. For three, long months, apparently.
Could’ve had something to do with all the crazy sex and teenage hormones.
Stiles shook himself out of his memories and forced himself to focus again on studying for his Astronomy final.
---
His first night back in Beacon Hills since August and his dad immediately sent him out to pick up some last minute groceries. Stiles hadn’t even managed to take his bags up to his old room before his dad had shoved him out the door with a list and some cash.
As he pushed his cart down the baking aisle, he tapped a text to Scott to let him know he’d made it back to town. About the time he hit ‘SEND,’ his cart crashed into someone else’s.
“Shi...Derek!” Stiles said with surprise as he looked up and recognized the driver of the other cart. Derek looked just as surprised to see him, though it translated as a single raised eyebrow. “Heyyy.” Derek’s expression didn’t even flicker. “Um...how are things?”
“Fine,” Derek grunted. His eyes shifted to the surrounding bags of flour. He grabbed one before he even glanced back at Stiles. “Cora said you’d be back for the holiday.”
“Uh, yeah. I’m supposed to have dinner with her sometime before I head back.”
“Good. She misses you,” Derek said in a clipped tone, staring intently at his own cart. They hadn’t been the best of friends, but they’d at least been amiable by the time Stiles had graduated high school. Stiles wasn’t quite sure which one of them was to blame for the sudden awkwardness between them, but he felt like Derek was a safe bet.
“Yeah; I miss her, too,” Stiles admitted. When Derek kept on staring silently at his groceries, Stiles cut in with a “Well, gotta grab the rest of this list so Dad can start baking. See ya later, man” and ducked out of the aisle before things could get any weirder.
---
By the time he went to bed that night, he’d received texts from half the pack regarding what was apparently going to be the Best Pack Christmas Party Ever. Considering the last Pack Christmas involved an Emergency Room and a dozen stitches in Stiles’s knee, he figured they weren’t actually setting the bar too high.
He sent texts back, assuring everyone he’d be present, and told Siri to remind him to double-check the Jeep’s first aid kit next time he left the house.
---
Christmas Eve, Stiles headed over to the McCall house for some quality Bro Time while his dad worked a half-shift at the station. Allison had dragged Isaac out for some last-minute Christmas shopping so, for the first time in what felt like forever, Stiles actually got some one-on-one time with Scott.
Halfway through their traditional viewing of Gremlins, Scott turned to him and asked abruptly, “Are you and Cora back together?”
Stiles blinked dumbly at him for a minute before he said, “Uh...no?”
“You really don’t sound positive, dude.”
Stiles tried not to wince. “I mean, she called me the other day, but I’m pretty sure it was just friendly.”
“Uh huh.”
“Why do you ask?” Stiles asked, even though he figured he’d probably regret it.
“She texted all three of us to make sure you make it tomorrow night.”
Stiles sighed. “Yeah man; I have no clue what she’s up to. Can I count on you for backup?”
Scott fucking laughed. “Dude I love you - but you are so on your own with this one.”
“Asshole.”
---
The Stilinski men spent Christmas in the usual way: eating too much and napping. Mrs McCall came over for a couple hours around lunch time while Scott and Isaac were busy spending time with the Argents. They didn’t actually kick him out, but watching his own father try to flirt was painful, so Stiles chose to duck up to his old room for a bit so his dad and Scott’s mom could have a little privacy or whatever.
Stiles was ten minutes into trying to find something to watch in his Netflix queue when his phone rang. Glancing at the caller ID, he sighed before he answered.
“Merry Christmas,” he said.
“Hey,” Cora said back. “The pack’s doing a thing tonight.”
“I heard.”
“You’re coming, right?”
“Allison would literally break both my pinkies if I broke Isaac’s heart,” he confirmed. He was pretty sure Isaac was the only one truly excited about the idea of a Pack Christmas Party.
“Get here a little early. We need to talk.”
Stiles let out an exaggerated groan. “Cora - we’ve talked about those words and not putting them together…”
“Whatever. Get here at four.” She hung up before Stiles could agree or disagree.
He never should have gotten himself involved with a Hale.
---
The new Hale House was about a quarter the size of the old one. There was a weird part of Stiles that almost missed the ruins. Mostly, though, he was proud of Cora and Derek for coming back and building something that could be theirs.
Cora’s car was the only one in the driveway when he pulled in (at 4:10 - just to spite her). She was waiting for him on the porch when he hopped out of his Jeep. Stiles tried not to act too surprised when she hugged him it was just that, even when they’d dated, she’d never been all that fond of snuggles.
“Heyyyy…” he said, feeling awkward when they stepped apart.
“Come on; there’s coffee.” That was all he needed to hear to follow her obediently to the kitchen.
Stiles parked himself at the breakfast bar and waited while Cora poured mugs of coffee for them both. As abrupt as she could sometimes be, Cora never spoke until she was ready.
“I’m glad you came,” she said sincerely as she leaned against the counter across from him.
Stiles smiled. “Me too,” he admitted. Whatever else they’d been to each other, they’d been friends the longest. “How have you been?” They texted on a fairly regular basis, but some things only came out face-to-face.
Cora shrugged a little as she sipped her coffee. “Not bad; I might actually pick a major by the end of the year.” Stiles wasn’t going to hold his breath on that - she’d changed her mind five times just since August. He figured it had a lot to do with the fact she hadn’t even wanted to go to school - it’d taken a year of Derek guiliting her before she’d given in. “I have another date next week with that guy I texted you about.”
“Oh yeah? What was his name? Dick?”
Cora rolled her eyes in true Hale-fashion. “Nick,” she corrected. “You set the bar pretty high, but he’s holding his own.” Stiles barked out a laugh at the incredulity of being someone’s bar. “You know when we were dating I was pretty messed up about Boyd, right?” Cora asked, suddenly setting the tone to serious.
It took Stiles a second to fully the process the shift before he managed a soft, “Yeah.” They’d all been pretty fucked up, actually.
“It’s like at least 90% of why we didn’t work out,” Cora went on. Stiles had figured it was closer to 80%, but he’d take the ninety if it meant he’d been a better boyfriend. “But even though I was pretty fucked up - even though we were fucked up - being with you...helped.” Stiles gaped at her until Cora rolled her eyes again. “You’re just...you were there and you wouldn’t let me close myself off or shut Derek out and you were really, really good at that one thing with your hands…”
Stiles coughed to cut her off before she could go into detail. He wasn’t so sure Cora would stop speaking even if she heard another pack member approach. Cora sighed and switched gears. “Derek’s a mess,” she said, seemingly out of nowhere. “I mean, you know him - he’s kinda always been. But with most of you gone and the tenth anniversary of the fire’s coming up, you know?” Stiles did know; he’d marked the day on his calendar every year since he’d been thrown into all the madness.
“He seemed kinda off when I ran into him the other day,” Stiles admitted, thinking of the encounter in the grocery store. Cora just kept staring at him like she was expecting something. Stiles frowned back at her, confused until, suddenly, his eyes widened and his mouth dried up because he knew.
“You want me to fuck your brother!” he blurted out. He quickly slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes searching the kitchen to make sure no one had snuck in.
Cora sighed loudly and took a very measured sip of her coffee. Her voice was calm and steady when she set the mug back down. “Look: the hard-ons you two had for each other back when we were still in high school were never a secret.” Stiles just blinked at her because he was pretty sure they had been. He definitely had never known “for each other” was a thing. He’d thought it’d just been him and his solo awkward-boner for the unattainable Alpha of Doom. He’d liked Cora for her own merits, but he couldn’t deny that there’d been a part of him that’d been thinking about a different Hale.
Speaking of Cora: she was still speaking. “I just think it would be mutually beneficial for you two to have some shared orgasms and some cuddling or something. For the good of the Pack and shit.” God, Stiles really hated her sometimes. That other 10-20% of why they hadn’t worked out was painfully obvious.
“I could be gorging on leftovers and watching terrible Christmas specials with my dad right now,” he muttered to no one in particular.
“Stiles…”
Stiles held up a hand to stop her. “You get that you can’t just tell people to fuck because one of them’s unhappy, right?” he asked because he honestly wasn’t sure if she understood that. “Sex can’t actually fix things.”
Cora let out a tiny growl of frustration that Stiles had even heard Lydia make once or twice, so he knew it wasn’t a werewolf thing, just a Stiles-is-an-idiot thing. “Will you just talk to him!” she finally said (it definitely wasn’t a request). “He’s pretty much the most pathetic thing ever when he mopes and this is some Epic Level Moping.”
“I’m not going to sleep with your brother!” Stiles shouted.
“Whoa!”
Stiles groaned as he twisted to see Allison and Isaac standing in the kitchen doorway. Isaac’s eyes were huge; Allison was smirking. Scott came up behind them and frowned. “What’d I miss?”
---
Everyone was early for a change. Even Lydia and Jackson managed to show up on time. Derek was the last to arrive, bags of Chinese food in tow. Stiles was very careful to avoid making eye contact with the other man and subtly put as many people between them as he could.
The pack hadn’t all been together since the summer so personal space was a bit of an issue as everyone piled together around the food. Stiles stuck to the edges, slightly out of practice with being around a crowd. He was a little too preoccupied to socialize, anyway.
“You’re suspiciously quiet tonight,” Lydia commented when Jackson got up to fetch her another beer.
Stiles glanced around the room to satisfy himself that everyone else's attentions were elsewhere. “Cora’s trying to set me up with someone,” he muttered. He winced when Lydia’s eyes immediately drifted to where Isaac and Derek were talking across the room.
“You’re her backup, aren’t you?” he groaned.
Lydia smiled sweetly. “We may have discussed it a time or two,” she admitted. He knew he should have tried harder to keep Cora and Lydia from becoming friends. Lydia gave Stiles one of her freakishly considering looks. “Is there a particular reason why you’re not running with the suggestion?”
Stiles stared at her. “You’re kidding, right?”
“What are you kidding about?” Jackson asked as he reclaimed his seat on the other side of Lydia. Lydia gave a significant look in Derek’s direction. “Oh. That.”
“What do you mean, ‘Oh that?’ Is this like a thing you people just sit around and talk about!?” Stiles realized he was shouting about the time the room fell silent, everyone’s attention on him. “I, uh, need some air.”
No one tried to stop him when Stiles stood and grabbed his jacket. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
The new house had a nice, big deck on the back. It was great for summer cookouts and general gathering-together. In the winter, it was a bit chilly, but it made for a decent escape. Stiles sat on one of the steps, twisting so his back rested against the railing as he stared out toward the edge of the Preserve. He’d go back into the pack before too long, he just needed a minute or two to himself. The Derek thing was rattling around in his brain and space was a necessity.
So of course when he looked up at the sound of footsteps a few minutes later, Derek was the one standing just a few feet away. So much for space.
“Needed a break too, huh?” Stiles asked him. As good as Derek had gotten with Pack after that first year-ish of awkwardness, he still had a tendency to disappear in the middle of gatherings.
Derek didn’t actually respond to Stiles’s question; he just moved to sit across from Stiles, his back to the opposite railing. After a moment, Stiles realized he was staring at Derek and quickly looked away, focusing on the trees again.
Their silences had moved from tense to companionable before Stiles had even graduated high school. But now, thanks to Cora and that awkward encounter in the grocery store, Stiles found himself feeling the tension again. Derek was a gorgeous, gorgeous man and Stiles had always had a thing for people way out of his league. Lydia had been excellent practice so by the time his little thing for Derek had started to develop he was already pretty good at ignoring his attraction.
Until goddamn Cora put the bug in his brain.
“How’s school?” Derek asked quietly after a few minutes.
The question surprised Stiles if only because Derek was the first to speak. Stiles shook off his surprise to answer. “Good. I’m thinking about adding Astronomy as another major.”
Derek raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you already have two?”
Stiles shrugged. “I tested out of half the language requirements for the Classical Studies major. All that translation experience apparently paid off.”
They lapsed into silence again until Stiles couldn’t take it anymore. “Sooo...your sister thinks we should sleep together,” he said around a weak laugh. He wasn’t expecting all the color to drain out of Derek’s face.
“I...I’m sorry,” Derek muttered, staring very intently at the ground.
“What the hell are you sorry for?” Stiles asked, honestly confused. “I think we all knew from the start you have zero influence over Cora. For a while, it was actually part of her charm.”
Derek’s jaw clenched as he lifted his head to stare out at the trees. “She misses you,” he said quietly after a moment.
It was the same thing Derek had said in the market, but Stiles decided not to call him on it. “What’s not to miss?” he joked instead. He sighed. “I miss all you guys, too.” Stiles frowned when Derek didn’t say anything else. “What about you? How are things?”
“Fine,” Derek replied after a long hesitation.
“Wow. That was so convincing,” Stiles said, monotone.
Shooting him a glare, Derek stood and turned back toward the house. Stiles scrambled to his feet. “Derek wait.” Stiles reached out to grab his arm and suddenly found himself pinned to the deck railing. “Heh. Just like old times,” Stiles chuckled weakly.
Derek backed off, his expression way more complicated than usual. “I’m sorry Cora dragged you into this,” he grumbled as he took another step back.
Stiles frowned at him. Communicating with Derek hadn’t been this hard in years. “It’s not like I’m offended by it or anything,” he said. He started to move forward but froze when Derek winced. “Wait, are you offended by it?” Something flickered across Derek’s expression and Stiles felt his mouth fall open. “Holy shit you’re totally into me.”
There was that Stiles-is-an-idiot growl. No one did it better than Derek. The Alpha was suddenly in his space again. Taking a deep breath, Stiles grabbed hold of Derek’s sweater to drag him in close. He’d never thought it was possible to scowl through a kiss, but Derek apparently seemed determined to prove him wrong.
Stiles pulled back with a frown. “In case you didn’t realize,” he said. “This is me telling you I’m totally into you, too.”
Neither man moved for a long moment. Derek’s gaze kept drifting from Stiles’s eyes to his mouth and back again, looking more uncertain than Stiles had seen him in a long time. “This isn’t because Cora asked you to?” he asked eventually.
Stiles rolled his eyes and pulled Derek closer. “I have done a lot of crazy shit because of your sister,” he admitted, wrapping his arms around Derek’s waist. “But her telling me we should sleep together for the sake of our mutual happiness definitely wasn’t something I hadn’t already considered before.”
“Yeah?” Derek whispered.
Stiles smiled, warmed by the spark of hope he thought he saw in the other man’s eyes. “Yeah.”
The second kiss was blissfully scowl-free, Derek pulling Stiles close even as he backed him against the railing again. Stiles let out a happy sigh when Derek’s mouth eventually drifted away from his lips to nibble along his jaw.
“You really think my magical cock is gonna make you happy?” Stiles teased as his hands wandered under the back of Derek’s sweater.
Derek leaned back and gave the bulge in Stiles’s jeans an assessing look. With a shrug he said, “Worth a shot.”
The deadpan delivery was ruined by the upward tic of Derek’s lips as he moved back in for another kiss.
/end