This is my first fic for the Sterek Campaign Charity Auction, which was won by elegantlydisastrous, who asked for an AU based on 'The First Time'. This is pre-slash, and it is only the first act of the film (because I don't have the time to do the rest of the movie right now, and I more than doubled my minimum word count already).

The title of this fic comes from Blink 182's 'First Date', because I had to listen to a lot of them while writing this in order to remember what it felt like to be in high school.

Derek really, really didn't want to be at this party.

But no, Laura had bribed Erica and Boyd to have them essentially drag him there, only for the pair of them to disappear into the crowd with a few muttered threats about not going home without at least talking to someone new. They made it sound like he was completely solitary and utterly unable to create human relationships; he totally could do that, he just didn't particularly like it.

Especially after what had happened to Paige three years ago, which was something that Derek still didn't like talking about, even though he thought it was a perfectly viable reason to explain his reticence about dealing with humans.

Besides, he had Kate: beautiful, dangerous, older Kate, who Derek actually sometimes forgot was a human, with the way she seemed so animalistic at times. Maybe he struggled to imagine having a future with her, but she'd been persistent and he, despite popular opinion, liked to feel wanted. So although they had raging fights probably more than they should, and they often clashed about the most inconsequential of preferences, Derek thought he was doing okay.

But Erica and Boyd didn't particularly like Kate, and Laura abhorred her. The three of them were always pushing Derek to go out, to meet new people, probably hoping that he'd find someone 'better', even though Derek knew he was definitely punching above his weight when it came to his twenty-two year old girlfriend.

Not that he was likely to be able to meet anyone at this party anyway: the flashing lights the girl hosting the party had hired felt like fireworks going off right in his supernaturally-enhanced eyes, and although the music was way too loud for his sensitive hearing, he could still hear the sounds of idiotic drunken teenagers vomiting in pot plants and having loud, sloppy sex.

He had to get out of there.

Pushing his way through the crowd of sweaty teenagers, none of whom Derek actually recognised due to the fact that the party host went to Beacon High instead of Beacon North like Derek did, he bailed out the front door and down the block. His ears were ringing so badly that he didn't hear the kid in the alley until he could actually see him: a guy around his age and his height, with shortish dark hair and a lean body that probably held more strength than it seemed.

He was muttering to himself, reading off the page he was holding in front of him as he paced across the alley.

"Your hair is red like the colour of my love for...oh god, that's fucking stupid...your eyes...the way you...fuck me, this reads like something a five-year-old would write...oh, um hi there!" Derek started slightly as the guy's light brown eyes looked directly into his own, cheeks flushing red with embarrassment at being caught doing...whatever it was he'd been doing.

Derek didn't reply, just sized the kid up as he tried to decide whether or not the other guy had some serious problems.

"You come from the party?" The kid asked, jerking a thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of the house. "Oh, shit, I'm Stiles, by the way."

"Derek. And yes, but I just had to get out of there for a little while."

"Well, you're doing better than I am, haven't even managed to get myself inside yet. Though I did have a few pre-drinks at Scott's house, figured it'd be a good idea before I finally try to tell Lydia how I feel." Stiles waved the bit of paper in his hand around a bit, giving Derek the impression that it was some kind of love confession. Before he could say anything, though, the guy was starting to run his mouth again, heart beating almost unnaturally fast.

"I mean, she and Jackson finally broke up- or well, 'took a break', so I figure if there's any time for me to try getting past that jock dickbag, it'd be now. I've just been in love with her forever, y'know? I had this whole, like, five year plan worked out, but of course I go to some weird alternate universe school where the smartest girl is also the most popular girl, so naturally the captain of the lacrosse team is going to snatch away the only girl I've ever met who is smart enough to give me a run for my money...wow, that sounds bad...but honestly...oh fuck, I'm doing it again. Sorry, when I drink I get way too chatty, and it's even worse when I'm nervous, and...sorry, sorry."

"...No problem..." Derek said slowly, still trying to process the barrage of information he'd just received about people he'd never meet and probably would never want to meet.

"Anyway, you don't look to enthused about being here, dude. Girlfriend drag you here or something?" Stiles grinned, but his fingers were nervously folding and unfolding the paper in his hands, which was slowly getting wrinkled beyond all use.

Derek wasn't sure why he answered the question. Maybe it was the way Stiles seemed so naturally comfortable with him- a complete stranger- or the way his scent was so pleasant even under the tang of alcohol, fresh and natural without the sickening stench of Axe that so many teenage boys carried almost permanently.

"It was my friends and my sister who made me turn up. My girlfriend...well, she's older, so I can't see her being too interested in a high school party. Besides, she's a little...never mind." Luckily, Derek managed to avoid spilling everything out about his concerns with Kate, and Stiles didn't seem to want to push.

"Ah yes, the old drag 'n' ditch, hey? Gotta love it, or not. Actually, man, I wanna ask you a question. I get that you've probably never had this problem, but Lydia only sees me as a friend. I mean, we're close, we're really close, just...not in the way I wanna be? And you don't look like you would have any trouble getting anyone you wanted, so do you have any tips you can give me on how to talk to Lydia? I'd really appreciate it, dude."

Derek blinked a little dumbly at Stiles, not quite sure where to go with that. As much as he knew that he was kind of good-looking, most of his (now former) friends had declared him a 'raging douchebag' after the whole Paige thing had made him shut down and stop smiling so much. Of course, they didn't know the whole story: they just thought she'd moved away with her parents, whom Derek's mom had somehow convinced to leave. So no one outside his family really spoke to him any more, except Erica, Boyd and Kate.

Plus he couldn't tell how serious Stiles was when he'd complimented Derek's looks. Werewolves didn't often have strong leanings towards one gender or another, due to the fact that they could pass their heritage and pack lines through the bite; but with the way Stiles was talking about this Lydia girl, he was probably as straight as humans came. He was a cute guy, but not only did Derek have a girlfriend, he knew how a lot of guys his age felt about being thought of as gay, meaning that Derek usually kept his own sexuality-related apathy under wraps.

Stiles was just some kid who'd had way too much to drink, and probably had no idea what he was even saying.

Apparently Derek had stayed silent a little too long, lost inside his own thoughts, and Stiles stepped right up to him, waving a hand in his face. "Yo, dude, you alive in there? Sorry, I know I can be a bit overbearing sometimes, just tell me to shut up if you want to."

Despite himself, Derek felt the tiniest smirk appear on his lips. "it's fine. I just don't think I can help you, my girlfriend was the one who came after me."

"Damn," Stiles said, throwing his hands up in the air, the crumpled paper somehow staying in his grip. "If someone as hot as you doesn't know how to pick up girls, then what hope do the rest of us have?"

Derek's heart skipped a little at that, but he put it down to the quickly-approaching sound of police sirens that he could hear under the last few words of Stiles' sentence. He barely remembered that he shouldn't warn Stiles about sounds no human could possibly hear, quickly shutting his mouth before he could give himself away.

Luckily, it didn't take long for some way too drunk teenager to go tearing past, yelling his head off about cops and provoking everyone inside the house to come rushing out after him.

"Fuck!" Stiles yelled, turning to Derek with wide eyes. "My dad's the goddamn Sheriff, and if he catches me here I'm dead meat. You wanna get outta here?"

Shrugging, Derek took off down the alley after Stiles, only for the pair of them to barely avoid getting hit by a sleek sports car that pulled onto the road beside the alley's end, the vehicle screeching off with a burst of tyre smoke.

Stiles made a low whimpering sound and stopped stock-still, making Derek turn to him. "Was that..."

"Yeah," Stiles replied in a quiet voice as his gaze dropped to the ground. "That's Lydia Martin, strawberry-blonde goddess and all-round genius, sitting in the car of Jackson 'Fuck-Face' Whittemore. Guess they got back together again."

Derek really wasn't sure what the proper protocol was in this situation. Should he say sorry? Make some comment about how there was always next time?

"Hey, you guys are gonna get busted if you stand there all night! Get outta here!" Looking away from Stiles, Derek saw some kid waving at them as he sprinted down the street, and without even thinking he'd taken Stiles' forearm and was pulling him down the footpath at a fast walking pace.

He only stopped when they were far enough away from the party to claim plausible deniability, only then to realise that he was still holding onto Stiles' arm and dropping it like it had burnt him.

"Shiiiiit," Stiles groaned, one hand going to his stomach. "I think my pre-drinks were a bit excessive. I don't feel fantastic after that quick getaway."

Great, this was just what Derek needed. It didn't seem like Stiles was going to throw up, but Derek couldn't in good conscience leave the kid alone on the street. Erica and Boyd were probably long gone, because werewolf senses made it easy to stay away from noisy police sirens, and if Stiles had started drinking before the party, he probably hadn't driven himself there.

"Where do you live?" Derek's question must have seemed suspicious to Stiles, because the guy gave him a weird squinty-eyed look, complete with one raised eyebrow.

Rolling his eyes, Derek explained himself. "You're too drunk for me to leave you out here. If you're close, I can walk you home; if not, I'll call you a taxi."

Stiles' expression immediately transformed into a bright grin, and he rocked back and forth a little on the spot. "I'm only a couple of blocks away. Thanks, dude."

"Lead the way."

As they walked, Stiles barely seemed to take a breath as he chattered away; Derek didn't find much of window to contribute to the conversation, but he wasn't a big talker and Stiles didn't seem to find that a problem.

"Oh man, I can't wait to go to college, hopefully somewhere really far away from this town...I think I'm gonna go into teaching, y'know? Not high school, because fucking hell, I don't think I could ever put up with teenagers every day for the rest of my working life, but, like, early schooling. Kindergarten would be fun, wouldn't it be awesome to get to teach the really young kids? To start moulding them into good human beings, into people their parents can be proud of. I just think that's something that's really important, 'cause I mean, with my dad being the Sheriff I've seen a lot of people go off the rails, and I'd like to think that a good teacher and a good education can maybe stop that downward spiral."

Derek made a noise of agreement, glancing sideways to see Stiles grinning widely at him, his whole face lighting up and looking like one of the most beautiful things Derek had ever seen.

Kate never looked like that. She smiled seductively, cockily, like she knew something no one else did; but she never smiled with pure, unadulterated joy the way Stiles did. But even if she was a bit distant sometimes, she was still Derek's girlfriend and he felt a little bit guilty about comparing her to Stiles, a virtual stranger whom he'd randomly met in an alley.

"-And so then I was like...Oh, hang on, here's my house. Look dude, thanks so much for everything, probably a good thing that my dad didn't see me stumbling around the streets alone."

"Yeah...no problem," Derek nodded, looking up at the two-storey house that seemed to be purely middle class, not too new but not too old. The only car in the driveway was a beat-up blue Jeep, and Derek thought he vaguely remembered seeing it driving around town a few times.

The awkward silence stretched on a little bit, Derek wondering why he wasn't just leaving and Stiles looking like he was debating whether to say something. It was starting to get to Derek, and so he decided that it was probably time for him to go home.

"Alright, I guess I'm just going to-"

"Um...would you mind if I could-"

Derek smiled a little when Stiles laughed at their mutual awkwardness, but it dropped when Stiles took a step closer to him. The boy was almost completely in his personal space now, and if Derek was reading the atmosphere correctly, Stiles was going to try and kiss him.

Derek wasn't entirely sure he wanted to stop that from happening.

Looking up, he met Stiles' slightly unfocused gaze, his heart starting to pound a little from the pure want he could see there. He wouldn't have been surprised to learn that the same look was reflected in his own eyes, a strange shock of feeling after so many years of being numb that was only getting stronger the more Stiles stared at him.

"Can I get your number?"

The question seemed to come out of nowhere, prompting Derek to take a step back as he tried to ignore the way his heart felt like it had dropped into his feet. "Yeah...yeah, just give me your phone."

Grinning again, Stiles started to reach into his back pocket, only to stop short before he could get out his phone.

"Y'know what? My dad won't be back until the morning. You want to come in for a while?"

Derek knew it was a bad idea. He knew that it was terrible for him to enter some random stranger's house, even if that stranger was the son of the county Sheriff.

Even more so, he should have known better than to willingly enter an intimate situation with one of the most fascinating, beautiful creatures he'd ever seen, when he had a girlfriend and when the other boy was drunk.

But, if after a few more drinks and a lot more conversation, Derek ended up falling asleep wrapped around Stiles, his chest to the younger man's back and his mind feeling settled for the first time in a long time, then no one else needed to know about it.

He'd figure out what to do with Kate another day.