I Needed to Know
The black SUV had barely squealed to a stop when the back door was thrown open and a teenage boy was thrown onto the pavement.
Stiles looked up from where he was lying as the car sped off and turned the corner at the end of the street.
He stood up, wincing as his back twinged from where he had hit the ground, and looked up at his house. The driveway was empty and there were no lights on inside the house. His father must be out looking for him.
He sighed as he unlocked the front door and walked inside. It was pitch black, but he'd lived there all his life and he managed to get upstairs and into his bedroom without turning on any lights or bumping into anything.
He took off his jacket and tossed it in the general direction of his washing basket before throwing himself face down onto his bed. He bunched his pillow up underneath his head and was almost asleep when he heard movement from over near his desk.
He opened his eyes as he sat up quickly and saw the desk lamp was on and someone was sitting in his chair.
"Hey! Who the…" Stiles started to say, but he was interrupted.
"Be quiet Stiles!"
"Derek? What are you doing here? I'm not…"
"Stiles?"
"…in the mood for this right now. If there's…"
"Stiles?"
"…some kind of wolfy emergency then you can go and ask Scott because…"
"Stiles!"
Stiles stopped talking and looked at Derek. He still couldn't see his face, so he was only staring at the back of his head. Slowly, Derek spun around in the chair so he was staring at Stiles where he was sitting on the edge of his bed looking like someone had just kicked his puppy.
With the dim light from the lamp casting shadows across the room, the few bruises on Stiles' face looked a lot worse than they actually were.
Derek stood up and walked towards Stiles slowly so he didn't scare him and sat down next to him.
"What are you doing here?" Stiles whispered, not looking at Derek.
"I…no one could find you after the game. I offered to stay here in case you came back." Derek said, looking at his hands.
"So does that mean my dad knows…"
"Yes, he knows I'm here. You should call him and tell him you're home. He's worried about you."
Stiles nodded but didn't move to pull his phone out and call anyone.
He was quite happy with sitting in near-darkness. It didn't even bother him that Derek was there. In fact, he felt almost…happy.
"Why did you offer? To stay here I mean. I'd expect that from Scott but not from you."
"Scott knows your scent better than anyone. He would've been able to find you before I could." Derek said quickly. He continued rambling about the rest of Stiles' friends and didn't stop until Stiles stopped him.
"I get it. It was the easiest, whatever. I'm home now, I'm…I'm fine, so you can leave."
"I'm not leaving you alone."
"Why not?" Stiles was getting frustrated. He just wanted to sleep.
"Because that's not the only reason I decided to stay here and wait for you!" Derek snapped out before he could stop himself.
Stiles turned his head and stared at him.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Derek shook his head. "Forget I said anything. You should call your father."
Derek went to stand up but Stiles pulled him back down.
"You're not going anywhere until you tell me what you mean."
"The reason I offered to stay was because…"Derek swallowed passed the lump in his throat and looked at the wall opposite him when he continued. "I needed to be the first one to know that you were alright."
He spoke so softly that Stiles thought he had misheard.
"You…what?"
"I was at the game, and when those lights went out and people started screaming, I tried to find you and when they came back on and I heard your father asking where you were…I thought maybe you had come back here. I needed to know before anyone else that you were safe."
Stiles looked up from where he was staring at his shoes and saw there were tears in Derek's eyes.
He opened his mouth to say something but didn't get a chance to before he was being pulled onto Derek's lap and crushed into a hug. Once the shock wore off, Stiles wrapped his arms around Derek's neck and spoke softly into his ear.
"It's okay. I'm safe. I'm okay." Over and over he repeated the same words until Derek's breathing slowed back down and Stiles felt a wet patch on the shoulder of his shirt from Derek's tears.
Without letting go of Stiles, Derek moved backwards on the bed so he was lying down, with Stiles pulled tight against his chest.
He looked down, watching Stiles as he slowly fell asleep.