Stiles sat on his bed staring into space, "I love you." He whispered, testing out the words. They felt strange rolling off his tongue, they even sounded strange in his voice.
He let out an annoyed sigh as he dropped his head, staring down at the ground, "I love you." He tried again but it sounded no different than the first time he said it.
He let out an awkward cough then said it even louder hoping that it would sound less weird if he spoke it in his normal tone of voice, "I love you."
At least I'll never have anyone to say it to, he thought to himself as he noticed someone walking towards him. When he was staring at the floor all he saw were black shoes and a pair of legs that were covered in dark jeans but as he raised his head he saw a leather jacket that belonged only to one person and then of course he saw the face of the person he knew it had to be.
"Derek." He mumbled, "When are you going to learn to knock?" He asked raising his eyebrows at the man.
"Were you talking to yourself in here?" Derek asked ignoring everything Stiles just said.
"No, I was talking to, my uh, fish." He said pointing at the fish tank that he had just gotten the other day from his Aunt who came to visit.
"Hmm." Derek mumbled out as he tilted his head to the side staring at the boy. "It sort of sounded like you were saying I love you," he shrugged his shoulders, "I must have heard incorrectly, my wolf hearing isn't always perfect." He said sarcastically, a smirk forming on his lips.
Stiles rolled his eyes, "Fine, I was practicing," His eyes widened at the suspicious look on Derek's face, "Not that I need to practice or anything." he spoke quickly as he stared down at the ground.
"Why would you need to practice saying I love you?" Derek asked still not understanding, "It's just three words."
Stiles huffed out air, "You see?" He asked and then seeing that Derek didn't 'see' continued, "It's so easy for you to say those three words, you say them like you've said them every day of your life but I haven't said them since…" Stiles suddenly cut off as he looked away from Derek.
Derek stared at him, he didn't know how to make the boy keep talking. He wasn't very good at making people feel better so he just stared hoping that the silence wouldn't last for too long.
"I just haven't said it in a really long time, Okay?" Stiles said as he turned back around to look at Derek, "And I never said it to a girl or anything."
Stiles laughed with no humor as he shook his head, "But we all know I'll never have to say it to a girl seeing as they want nothing to do with me."
Derek's mouth dropped open, "You've never had a girlfriend?" He asked, he sort of expected for Stiles to correct him. He knew the boy might not be what the girls were all over but he was sure at least one girl would want to date him.
"Never." He whispered, "And I love Lydia but she's in love with someone else so there's no way I'll ever have a chance with her so I should just try to move on right?" He asked the man standing in front of him before quickly shaking his head, "I'm Sorry, Derek, I know I'm asking the wrong person for relationship advice."
"Practice on me." Derek said staring Stiles in the eyes.
Stiles tilted his head to the side confused by what Derek had said, "W-What do you mean practice on you?" He asked even though he had an idea of what the man meant.
"Saying I love you," Derek shrugged, "I'm only offering once so you better go for it."
Stiles nodded but quickly asked, "Why do you want to help me?"
"Because I love you." Derek said which caused Stiles' mouth to drop open, The words sounded so meaningful coming from Derek, at first he thought he was being serious but quickly realized he was just trying to help him practice saying the words.
Stiles stared down at the ground as he began to speak, "I…" he glanced back up at Derek, "Love you too." He was shocked by the way the words sounded coming from him.
Derek smiled, "You got it."
Stiles just stared at him in disbelief, he quickly looked away too embarrassed to stare at him anymore. "Derek.." He whispered as he turned back around to face him but Derek wasn't anywhere in sight.
Derek was running, just like he always did when he began to have those sort of feelings for someone. His feelings for Stiles didn't just start that night, he had been aware of them for awhile but he pushed them away and pretended they didn't exist. But some how, standing in Stiles' bedroom and saying the words 'I love you' to the boy even if he wasn't supposed to mean them managed to make him realize how much he really did feel for the boy.
"Dammit." Derek yelled as he kicked a tree trunk in order to get his anger out. He ran to the forest knowing that he wouldn't run into anyone out there.
It had been a really long time since Derek allowed himself to feel this strongly for anyone but this time it didn't matter how many walls he had built up because it didn't matter if he allowed himself to have feelings for the boy, he just did.
There was just something about Stiles that he couldn't resist. At first he thought he just cared about him, just like all of Stiles' other friends cared about him. He allowed himself to care about the boy but told himself he wasn't allowed to do anything but care.
At first he saved the boy's life because he cared but eventually his feelings for the boy were the reason he saved him. His feelings came out of no where, and at first he blamed Stiles for making him feel this way again.
He knew it wasn't Stiles' fault that he had feelings. He knew his feelings were just the human part of him but he also knew strong feelings got in the way. He knew that he could never act on these feelings he had and he knew he could never do anything to see if Stiles had the same feelings he did.
He slid to the ground, resting his back against the tree as he stared out at the night sky. The stars were starting to come out and they looked beautiful but the only thing he could think about was Stiles.
"I love you." He mumbled, testing out the three words just like Stiles was doing in his bedroom.