Human is Just a Word 39/?
Chapter 39
When Stiles came up from under the covers to find out what was bumping him in the kidney, he wasn't sure if he was still dreaming or not. He had to because there was a little girl basically riding on Derek's back with her arms tight around his neck and another even smaller child was doing his best to rip off Derek's ear. So dreaming.
Turned out he wasn't dreaming and that Uncle Derek kind of liked the treatment as a substitute jungle gym. Derek did his best to convince Stiles otherwise but the death glare lost its impact with the toddler draped over his face.
However, the girl was kind of hard to convince that Stiles had actually a right to be in Derek's bed. Stiles had never thought that he would have to justify his very existence to a little girl. He doubted she was old enough to go to school yet and still she was the one pointing out that smelling like Derek and sharing his bed didn't make Stiles Derek's mate. At this point Stiles had the toddler almost sitting on his chest who had just cheerfully informed them that indeed, Stiles was smelling like Derek.
For a kid this small the boy was pretty strong and if the sniffing hadn't given it away his strength would have told Stiles that he was dealing with a tiny werewolf.
How that ended with him on the floor, two chuckling kids on top of him, he had no clue. Derek peered over the edge of the bed to make sure that they were all okay but that bastard didn't even bother to look concerned.
Somewhere in the house a woman was calling for the kids and a second later they were gone and Stiles wasn't sure if this hadn't been just one weird dream after all.
"Did they hurt you?" Derek offered him a hand to get up.
"I'm fine." Stiles boosted himself up to sit on the edge of the bed. "I do worse to myself without help on a daily basis."
Derek nodded solemnly.
Only now Stiles noticed that Derek was in his human form, his naked human form. Granted, his lower half was hidden underneath the covers but Stiles couldn't recall if it had been like that the whole time.
"Dude." He hissed, a wary eye at the ajar door. There were noises coming from outside, telling even him that people were up and about. "You can't be naked with little kids around."
"Why not?" Derek had the nerve to ask.
"Why not?" Stiles tried to outburst in a low enough voice so that nearby werewolves wouldn't hear him. "Because it makes you look like a pedophile."
"Maybe we should join the den tonight." Derek said with a cryptic smile on his face and rolled out of bed.
"What has that to do with anything?" Stiles yelled after him.
"Nakedness has nothing to do with sex." Derek told him as if that should be obvious. "I thought you noticed that clothes are more or less optional in a pack."
Stiles had gotten that but in their pack everybody was an adult. But thinking about it, the kids hadn't even seem to notice, at least Gina had been more interested in Derek's mate than in his nakedness.
When they were ready to head downstairs for breakfast, Stiles felt nervous. He was about to meet the whole pack. He could tell that at least the majority of them was already in the kitchen and he wasn't sure if he was ready to face them. This was like meeting the parents and the extended family all at once.
"You'll be fine." Derek slung his arms around him, hands warm on the small of his back. "They'll love you."
"If you say so." Stiles muttered back and ducked in for a good luck kiss.
Stiles had expected that everything would come to a halt when he entered the kitchen, that everybody would turn to him, waiting for him to introduce himself or something like that. This was Derek's old pack, there had to be at least one version of the shovel speech somewhere in his near future.
What he didn't expect was to be ignored.
Nobody looked up, everybody too busy with their breakfast which seemed to include guarding it against the person sitting next to you. Or across from you. Or walking by behind you.
Stiles did a quick head-count. There were three people missing, maybe they had to work on the weekend, but even without the whole pack at the table it was loud and chaotic.
Derek guided him over to the table where Stiles sat down between his mate and an elderly gentleman who greeted him with a smile and a "good morning" before he turned back to his plate of scrambled eggs. Stiles was pretty sure he was human, werewolves didn't need glasses.
The only familiar faces at the table were Laura at the far end and Miranda who was breast feeding Stacy in the middle of the chaos. Next to her sat Jeremy who just went over the table to get some butter for his toast with his bare hands. Miranda plugged him out of the air without taking her eyes off Stacy in her arms.
Gina was sitting next to another woman but Stiles wasn't sure if she was her mother or not.
Looked like he had already met all the little ones. There were three other children, however, he was pretty sure that they would kill him if they ever caught him calling them children. Two, a boy and a girl, looked similar enough to make them siblings and they were close enough in age, around twelve he guessed, that they could be twins but Stiles wasn't sure about that.
The teenage girl leaning at the counter with a slice of toast in one hand and her phone in the other was at least old enough to drive because she had just asked Laura if she could borrow her car today. She was clearly human because there were scratches still visible on her forearm which Stiles would usually associate with cat owners but today his money was on Jeremy as the culprit. Stiles had similar scratches from when the little werewolf had popped claws of excitement in the middle of their wrestling game.
While he had been distracted, Derek had poured him some coffee and was now piling his plate with things he knew Stiles liked. Stiles grinned at him, best mate ever.
For a moment they ate in silence, at least Derek and Stiles were silent, around them the conversations continued as if there wasn't suddenly a stranger at the table. Stiles was grateful for that.
He figured that it would be kind of rude if he asked who was or was not a werewolf so he made it a silent guessing game. The wolf who just came in through the back door and turned into a man to help himself to some coffee was a no-brainer, though.
On his way along the table the man snagged some apple slices from somebody's plate and then sat down and nuzzled the neck of the woman sitting next to him. Stiles wasn't sure if that meant they were a couple.
Other than that Stiles found it surprisingly hard to make out the werewolves. Probably due to living in a pack, everybody had some quirks Stiles associated with wolves. Even the grandpa sitting next to him sniffed his food and the girl who was still texting held her head in that dog-like tilt Stiles had got to know as the universal werewolf I'm listening tilt. He was pretty sure Derek didn't even noticed when he was doing it.
To his surprise Stiles liked the idea that he wasn't able to tell them apart. It was almost as if there was no reason to tell them apart, as if werewolves and humans were equal members in this pack. It was something Derek had tried to tell him since they had met but only now Stiles fully understood it.
More relaxed than he'd thought he would ever be in the middle of another pack, Stiles ate his toast and scrambled eggs. Under the table Derek's hand found his and Stiles gave him a little smile to assure him that he was fine.
The kids became impatient soon and the adults let them off with a collective sigh into the sudden silence. As silent as a room with ten adults could be. There were still conversations going on and the usual clatter of porcelain and silverware but the table had become instantly calmer once the kids, especially Jeremy, were gone.
Now, it looked like, was the time for questions.
"So, you're Stiles." The elderly man next to him spoke up and studied him over the rim of his glasses. "I have to say, I thought Laura was joking when she told us that Derek would bring his mate."
"Believe me, I'm not totally over that shock either." Stiles said honestly. Only a week ago he would have laughed at the idea of being Derek's mate.
It seemed to be the right answer, though. The old man gave him a warm smile and returned to his coffee.
"Are you even out of high school yet?" The girl finally looked up from her phone. "You look like you should sit next to me in class."
Yeah, that was one of the weak spots. Stiles felt all eyes on him now while she arched an eyebrow at him, clearly waiting for an answer.
"I'm still in high school, actually." Stiles told her. "I'm seventeen." At least to Laura this shouldn't be big news and if she was okay with this, her pack could hardly object, couldn't they? Stiles threw a glance at the alpha but she was currently holding Stacy and wasn't looking in his direction.
"Ewww." The girl made and pulled a face as if that was the most disgusting thing she'd ever heard. "Derek, how could you?"
"Megan." The woman with the naked werewolf next to her warned her but the girl didn't seem to care. She pushed herself off the counter into an aggressive stand.
"What?" She challenged the room in general but her eyes were on Derek. "I'm just saying what everybody's thinking. Look at him, he's a kid." She gestured in Stiles' direction and he had to snap his mouth shut to not give her a piece of his mind.
He wasn't part of this pack, he was just a guest. Stiles had learned a thing or two about pack politics and he didn't want to ruin the relationship between their packs with some rash words. Stiles bit his tongue and let his alpha deal with this. Derek should be proud of him. If Derek even noticed.
Derek was holding his ground against the bratty teen and managed to look almost bored but Stiles could tell by the set of his shoulder how tense he was. Under the table their fingers were still laced together so he gave Derek's hand a little squeeze for some silent support.
"Megan." Laura stood at the head of the table, her eyes flashing red. "A mating bond is nothing you can choose, it just happens. You know that."
"Mating bond." She snorted and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Sure."
"Stiles is my mate." Derek said in a dangerously low voice. "We don't need your approval."
Stiles would have liked to hug him for the we but the tension at the table was thick enough to cut with a knife. He was afraid that breathing wrong could tip this over into disaster.
"Whatever you say ..." Her perfect red lips curved into an evil smile. "... Kate."
"I'm not her." Derek growled at her with his eyes red and face half shifted. Megan flinched back.
Laura and both her parents called her name but Stiles' focus was on Derek who was already out of the back door. By the time Stiles reached the door, he only found Derek's clothes scattered over the porch and a shadow of dark fur disappearing between the trees.
Chapter 40
Masterpost