Stiles and Derek were respectively 5 and 8 when they first met. It was in the middle of an inside playground, and Derek had been slightly overwhelmed by all the noise and smells. Talia, his mom had been trying to teach her children to find an anchor in the middle of chaos, and Derek was having a bit of trouble by it. His sisters not so much, but then again they were chaos. Their anchor was probably chaos. Derek thought grumpily.
But he had been doing better so Talia had opted to take them all out to play. Both Laura and Cora had run off into the chaos, leaving Derek standing wide-eyed by his mother's side, holding her hand so tight that Talia had to pry her son's hand of off hers. She kneeled down next to him.
"You're going to do great, Derek, honey." She smoothed down his wrinkled shirt. "Find something to focus on, just one thing. Close your eyes, sweetie." Derek closed his eyes. "Now pick out one sound, one smell and focus on that." Derek tried to, but it was too much, there were kids yelling and screaming and running and falling and giggling and crying, and it was just too much. He smelled fries and soda and blood (Derek winced at that smell, but honestly with falling children blood was a given), tears and his mother's perfume and candy floss. He tried, he really tried, but it seemed as if they had been standing there forever, and he couldn't focus, he just couldn't. When suddenly a soft female voice sounded next to his mother. "Your boy going to be alright Mrs. Hale?" Derek startled and looked up.
There was a woman with brown hair and brown eyes standing next to her, she had freckles all over her skin, and she was pretty. Derek blushed a little as woman focused on him. "He's a bit overwhelmed is all." His mother said, and Derek felt his cheeks heating up even more. "Mom!" He whined, embarrassed that the pretty lady now knew that he couldn't find an anchor.
"Hmm, so it's probably best that Stiles has run off before I had the chance to introduce you both to him, then." His mother laughed, while Derek just frowned. What is a Stiles?
Before he had a chance to ask though, a slightly younger boy came up to them running and yelling. "Mom! Mom! Mom! They have curly fries here! Can we have some?" The boy looked a lot like his mom, he also had brown hair and brown eyes, and freckles all over.
"Speaking off.." The pretty lady said to his mother, before turning to the boy. "Stiles, what did I say about running off as soon as we get to the playground?"
"Not to do it." The boy mumbled. "But this place is so cool, Mom! They even have curly fries here!" His mother fondly shook her head. At least Derek thought it was fondly. Then the boy turned his big brown eyes to him and Derek felt as if he was suddenly looking at Bambi. Derek did not like the movie Bambi. At all, there were hunters in there, and they killed Bambi's mother! But he did like Bambi!
"Who are you?" The boy practically yelled, and Derek winced a little. "I'm Stiles. Well, my name isn't really Stiles, but I can't say my real name, so everyone calls me Stiles." The boy stopped talking, clearly expecting Derek to say something. "Oh, uhm, I'm Derek." He mumbled softly and the boy beamed at him.
"That's a cool name! Not as cool as Batman though, do you like Batman?" Derek nodded. "Of course you do, he's the coolest! Hey, do you wanna come play with me on the slides?" Stiles asked and when Derek nodded again, the boy gripped his hand and tugged him over to where the slides where. "Come on, slowpoke, the slides are really cool!"
They played on the slides for a while, sliding down together, with either Derek between Stiles' legs or Stiles between Derek's legs. But Stiles soon tired from the slides and tugged Derek over to the large climbing construction in the middle of the room. Derek was still a bit overwhelmed, but now it was more by how loud Stiles was, then how loud the room was.
Stiles suddenly noticed that his new friend had become even more quiet and slow, so he turned around, and saw that Derek wasn't smiling anymore. He knew that look, it was when he got to be too much for the other kids, and he was disappointed that he wouldn't get to show Derek the climbing thing anymore. It was so cool!
"Hey, I found a quiet spot when Mom and I came in, you wanna see it?" Stiles asked and Derek nodded shyly.
"It is on the other side of the room though, so do you want to go around the climbing thing, or over it?" Stiles asked, and Derek saw him looking at the thing as if he wanted to go over it. "Over it." Derek said, and Stiles lit up again.
"Cool! Let's go this way, that's the most fun way!" And Stiles ran off again, tugging Derek over to where he could see Laura bossing a few kids around where there were a few cannons that could shoot soft balls at other kids. Stiles ran past it though to where they could climb up the climbing construction by a few ropes that hung over a colourful wooden slope.
"You can watch me first, if you don't know how to do it." Stiles said as he saw Derek watching it.
Derek shook his head. "I know how to do it." And to prove it he grabbed the rope and pulled himself up, keeping the rope between his legs.
Stiles quickly followed him, and when they were both on the construction, he once again grabbed Derek's hand. "Come on, this way."
Derek followed Stiles over the construction and when they were on the other side of it, there was another slide. "I'm going on my belly." Stiles said. "You want to, too? It's really cool, but you have to make sure your shirt doesn't go up, otherwise it hurts!"
"Alright." Derek said and Stiles once again beamed at him, making his belly squirm a little. He couldn't back down now though, he had already said he'd slide down on his belly. As soon as Stiles was down however, Derek hesitated for a bit. But Stiles' big smile made him slide down on his belly anyway.
"That was so COOL!" Stiles yelled out. "You wanna go to the quiet spot now?" He asked and Derek nodded slightly, a bit embarrassed. "Alright. Mom said sometimes some people need quiet time. And that that is alright! Nobody can be as loud as me, she says. So come on!"
Derek grabbed Stiles' hand this time, causing Stiles to give him a big smile again, and he let himself once again be tugged forward. Stiles' quiet spot was under the construction, and even though it wasn't really more quiet down there, it was dark and nobody was under there, and nobody could see them.
"So is this a good quiet spot, or what?" Stiles whispered and Derek nodded. "Cool!" Stiles whispered again.
"Hey, you wanna be my best friend?" Stiles said, as he sat down on the bench that was in the dark place. He patted the spot next to him and Derek sat down.
"Oh no, I already have a best friend." Stiles whispered, and Derek was disappointed. "You can only have one best friend." Derek said and Stiles saw that Derek was frowning slightly. "Okay, so you can't be my best friend, and you can't just be a friend, cause you are so cool, you even like Batman too, so what can you be?" Stiles asked. Derek shrugged, he didn't know. He also didn't want to be just friends, that was lame, because Stiles was also so cool!
"OH! I know!" Stiles almost yelled, and he turned to Derek. "You can be my boyfriend!" Derek's belly squirmed again. "But don't boyfriends have to like, hold hands and kiss and stuff?" He asked and Stiles nodded. "Well, we held hands the whole time already, so now we just have to kiss and then we're boyfriends!"
"Alright." Derek said and Stiles leaned closer. "On the mouth, or on the cheeks?" Stiles asked. "On the mouth, I guess." Derek answered. "On the cheeks is for grandma's and grandpa's and moms and dads."
"That's true." Stiles answered and beamed. Slowly Derek saw Stiles coming closer, and his belly squirms even more. And then suddenly Stiles' lips were on his. It was slightly wet and Derek didn't know how long they were supposed to kiss to make them boyfriends, so he didn't back down. After an eternity though, Stiles pulled back and smiled at him again. "Cool! So now we're boyfriends!"
Derek nodded and Stiles beamed again. "That means we're going to have to get married someday, you know!" Derek said, glad that he'd get to keep his boyfriend forever.
"Oh yeah! That's so cool, then we'll be husbands!" Stiles said and Derek smiled at him and nodded. "Come on, we have to go tell our moms!"
Later that day when Derek had gone home again with his mother, she asked him if he had found an anchor. He started shaking his head before he remembered that as soon as met Stiles, the other noises and smells had quieted down until only Stiles remained.
"Yeah, Stiles was my anchor, Mom!" What he didn't notice was the surprised look on his mother's face. He also didn't know about the conversation his parents had later that evening. The next day however, when Derek and his sisters got another lesson about their wolflihood (as their father called it, which always made the children giggle and Talia roll her eyes fondly) it suddenly included lessons about mates.
After that afternoon in the playground they had a couple of playdates, but when school started up again the playdates happened less and less, and soon stopped. But neither of the boys ever forgot their first kiss or their first boyfriend.
Twenty years later, during the opening dance on their wedding Stiles whispered to Derek. "Told you we'd be husbands someday." Derek laughed softly and captured his husbands lips in reminisce of their first kiss.