Been a long 3 years since I've written fanfiction (I honestly thought I was out) but then Sterek came and bit me in the ass and yeah... here it is.
Cross-posted to AO3 under the same title. Based on this prompt: teenwolfkink. livejournal ?thread=4711667#t4711667
See, here's the thing, Kate wasn't always crazy. She knows this. She gets it. She owns it.
Her Dad was a bit messed up and pressed his very fucked up ideas into her when he couldn't get his claws -hah!- into Chris.
But now she's dead, she really gets it. She's stuck replaying her memories for all eternity and sure, that probably would be brilliant for most people, but her good memories, they're the stuff of nightmares, and with this new hindsight, outsider POV she has, she has realised just how crazy she was. She seduced a minor in order to burn his entire family down - and she feels sick at the pride and satisfaction (and that little bit of disappointment that two members of his family survived) that lingers over those memories - for fucks sake! Like, seriously what the fuck!
Retrospect, huh?
So when the angel, or God, or judge, or whoever the fuck the being in front of those pearly white gates is, offers her a chance to do things over, to change things, she takes it.
"We need an in, a way to get into the family, to know when they'll all be there and how to keep them in."
That's Dawson. She remembers him. She remembers this. This was when they planned how to screw the Hale family over for existing. She remembers the anticipation, the adrenaline, that pulsed through her. Now she just feels disgusted.
"I'll go after the boy, Derek, he won't know what's hit him."
Kate purposefully slips Derek's picture - a sideways one with his eyes closed before a swim meet - under his elder sister's and taps it.
"That's our in, the eldest of the younger generation. She is going to be the next alpha, she'll know the most about it all."
"Didn't know you were into that Katie," Jack smirked, eyebrows wriggling.
She sends him a withering look. "Don't call me Katie. I don't have to sleep with her, just get her to talk."
"But that ruins the fun of it all." Jack honest to God pouted.
She rolled her eyes, ignoring her twisting stomach. "Get out of town for a bit, they can't get suspicious."
She knows they'll leave, they did it before because they refuse to let anything ruin their plan, especially themselves.
And if she cuts the brakes to their car, well who can tell on her?
She doesn't intend to stay in Mystic Falls for one second but something in her gut makes her stay. She gets herself an one bedroom apartment, the bathroom needs a bit of work and the bedroom needs to be repainted but, after a week of DIY, the place starts to feel like home.
Her dad calls asking how the hunt was going and she fed him some bullshit about taking a break in LA before getting around to it. He buys it, albeit with a bit of grumbling and doesn't call back.
The next move was to get a job; she spent a few days biting a pen, circling potential jobs in the area in the paper and generally groaning about attempting to be a normal person. On her third day of looking, a vacancy comes up online at the gym as a personal trainer.
She applies, glad she took a few courses at college before dropping out, hoping that it will work out.
It does.
She begins working the next week, her uniform proudly declaring her name and 'Beacon Hills Leisure Centre' in red thread. It's good work, she gets trained properly and gets to know the Beacon Hills residents.
She can't stand mirrors now.
She was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, the smell of smoke and flesh clinging to her skin, a grin splashed across her face. She licked her lips, pulled her hair out of the ponytail and inhaled the stronger smell that clung to her hair. Her phone buzzed on the sink, flashing the name 'Derek'. She grinned.
She absolutely hates them. She hates seeing the murderer in her reflection. The green eyes dancing as they took in the flames, those beautiful flames, the honey coloured curls that she didn't wash for a week just so the smell of smoke lingered for as long as possible and the tanned skin that relished in the heat that came off the house.
She wanted to be able to look herself in the mirror again, to look at pictures of herself with her fingers twitching to scratch her face out.
So she cut her hair to her shoulders, dyes it a dark red-brown and straightens it. She stops using the fake tan, enjoying seeing pale skin that mimics Allison's colouring. She can't do anything about the eyes but that's ok because there isn't that murderous look in them in this life.
It's her second week working when she meets Laura Hale.
Kate has just finished training a teenager called Harry who was desperate to make first string on the basketball team when the 18 year old walked into the gym wearing a sport's bra and cropped sweatpants. She stiffened, staring at her.
Kate swallowed, knowing that the smell of wolfs bane still clung to her skin even though she hadn't touched the stuff in a month.
She pasted on a smile and approached her as the werewolf moved slowly to the running machines. Kate stood on the immobile one next to her, glad for the half empty gym, and leant on the side of it. Laura began to press buttons on the machine whilst keeping a close eye on her.
"I know what I smell like. I used to be a hunter but I've given it up. Recently. I'm not here to harm you or your pack."
Laura's eyes narrowed on her but she couldn't deny the honesty that rang through the words. She nodded and held out her hand.
"Laura Hale."
"Kate Argent." The girl stiffened again. "Tell you what, I'll tell you the story after you work out over coffee?"
Laura looked undecided before shrugging and then with a smirk said: "yeah, that's cool, I get to choose though. I'm gonna tell you now though, no matter your story, I don't really swing that way."
Kate laughed, "neither do I."
"Damn, if that wasn't your come on then I don't wanna know what is."
She sticks close to the truth, telling Laura about a young werewolf she seduced and how she hurt him and his family before realising just how sick it was and how her father had manipulated her into being his most successful weapon. She just misses out things like his age and the fire and the fact that it was her family that she had obliterated.
Laura tilts her head and appraises her throughout, sipping her tea. She listens and interjects with questions.
She frowns as Kate tries to articulate how disgusted she feels in her skin, how she wakes up in a cold sweat most nights, at how guilty she feels.
"You set it right though, in the end?" Laura asks eventually.
"Yeah, I tried as best I could."
"Then you should let all that go. You've realised your mistakes, you've tried to correct them, now you just need to move on with your life." She covered Kate's hand and squeezed softly. "I can literally feel your guilt and your sadness and I don't get how you've managed to get up each morning because your emotions are making me feel like I'm drowning. I'm not saying that what you did was right or acceptable but we both know you're not going to do it again so move on."
Kate gives her a watery smile and nods.
The thing with Laura, she finds out, is that she doesn't let things go. She keeps inviting her out to do things like go to the movies or bowling. Kate refuses the first couple of times before she gives in and agrees to go see 'I Am Legend' because it seems that they both have a thing for post-apocalyptic films.
They have a tentative friendship, mostly on Kate's part but slowly she lets the younger girl in. Laura turns up at her house in tears when her boyfriend cheats on her, she gets Laura high for the first time - they spend the entire time giggling at the flying werewolves - and eventually, six months after she met the girl, she goes to the Hale house. She meets Jacob and Caroline, her parents, and her 8 year old sister Natalie; her Uncle Peter, his wife Louise and their adorable 2 year old twins Madeline and Adam; her Aunt Jenny and her fiancé Ben and their bump that Natalie had dubbed Tadpole; her Grand pops James and her Grams Diane.
They all welcome her, Caroline asking her if she's ok with lasagne for dinner, Natalie telling her how pretty her hair is, the twins pulling at her jeans until she bends for them to sniff at her neck.
Derek arrives just before dinner, dropping his baseball stuff by the front door, hair still wet from his after practice shower. He starts at the sight of her but smiles, nods his head and introduces himself before collapsing on the sofa, legs thrown onto Laura's lap, with a groan. Laura pokes his calf with an annoyed expression and he digs his heel into her thigh and they end up on the floor in a tangle of limbs.
Kate watches with guilt at how free and happy they are. How normal. She once again curses the crazy version of herself, berating a person who doesn't even technically exist anymore.
"You two, cut it out!" Caroline's voice floats from the kitchen, "dinner is ready so get your furry butts in here!"
Derek scrambles up, sniffing the air and moans at the smell of lasagne. He practically runs to the kitchen, picking up a squealing and giggling Natalie on the way.
Laura's eyes narrow on her, knowing exactly what she was feeling, and stood, offering her hand out.
"Moving on, remember?"
Kate stares at her for a moment before slowly taking her hand.
"Moving on."
Laura pulls her up then throws her arm around her shoulders. "Now c'mon before my animal brother scoffs all the food again."
An affronted "hey!" is barked out of the kitchen, causing the house to dissolve into laughter.
Sometimes Derek will shoot her this grin, where his teeth won't meet and he gets this one wrinkle between his eyebrows to the left and he gets the biggest dimples she has ever seen, and her heart will ache.
Because she stole this from him. This happiness, this carelessness, his childhood.
She thinks of Jenny and the fact that she had burnt a pregnant woman alive, of the twins who loved to draw, play tag and watch Scooby Doo even though they are way too young for it, of Natalie who bugs her and Laura to do her nails or hair.
She makes her excuses, leaves the Hale House quickly and throws up in a bush.
Laura ends up moving in with her when she graduates. She isn't moving away for college - she's studying English Literature at the local college with an intention to be a teacher - but she wants her own space.
So by August, she ends up packing her stuff up and the two of them are moving into a two bedroom apartment a bit further away.
She learns that Laura can't function without a cup of tea in the mornings, that when she can't sleep she paints, that it is definitely not a good thing when girl's periods sync because they're both fiery woman and they practically bit each other's heads off for a few days.
Derek ends up crashing at theirs at least once a week, Natalie every other week, and their fridge is always full of leftovers that Caroline sends their way.
She finally gets the whole conventional family deal. She likes it.
She is pack.
Pack.
Natalie lets it slip in the end, a casual comment about a pack barbeque and asks when Kate will be there. Laura stiffens but then smiles at her sheepishly with a what-can-you-do shrug. Kate can't quite speak for a while, listening as Laura pulls her aside and explains about pack dynamics in detail and just why she has come to be recognised as pack but if she doesn't want to be a part, she doesn't have to.
She goes to the barbeque.
Her dad calls again, the first time in a year. She tells him she's taking a longer break than she expected because she met a guy. She puts on a love struck act, playing on her father's fucked up love for her, lamenting about how he might be the one and
She calls him six months later to tell him she's out of the life for good. He doesn't take it well and after months of arguing over the phone and her driving - with Laura as backup in another car - to meet him in LA to argue face to face before he gets the message. He spits insults, spins promises and generally tries to win her back by any means necessary. He disowns her in the middle of a car park in some shitty diner outside of the city in the middle of the desert and all she can feel is complete and utter joy.
The first time Derek meets Stiles in this life, him and Kate are grocery shopping. He's back from his second year at NYU for the summer and Caroline has sent them out for burgers and hot dogs for their pack barbeque to welcome him home.
The newly turned 15 year old Stiles is attempting - and failing - to balance a pile of groceries in his arms and trips, sending food flying. She runs to get him a basket whilst Derek helps the kid collect the food back into a pile.
When she gets back Derek is both slack jawed and rigid, staring at the awkward, gangly teen in surprise and awe. The teenager is rambling on, gestures and all, about his dad and the need for healthy food.
She spends ten minutes in the car dealing with a hyperventilating Derek who is panicking about the fact his mate is five years younger than him and way underage.
She ends up at a lacrosse game.
After Derek had his little freak out, he had insisted on practically stalking the poor kid around which led to lacrosse. Of course, it's only a friendly 'cause it is literally the end of the season but Derek doesn't care, he just stares at the kid in the number 24 jersey who keeps nudging and talking - complete with gestures - to his friend in number 11, Scott, whilst they keep the bench warm the entire match.
Of course, they are freshmen so it's expected but from Derek's muttering he is just glad that Stiles isn't being tackled into the ground. On behalf of the other team, she's glad because she's been on the receiving end of werewolf claws and they aren't fun.
Beacon Hills wins the match and she catches one of Derek's wide smiles as Stiles jumps, flails and cheers on the final whistle.
He leaves with a grin, a scent forever ingrained his brain and what he describes as a feeling of home.
She leaves with the coach's phone number and the promise of a date.
Derek eventually slinks back to NYU with Kate promising to keep an eye on Stiles.
She gets a call within a day.
She also gets another phone call that day, one that has her stiffening up when she realises that events have started to catch up with the Other Life. It's about estate agents and the school and jobs - all those things that integrated her into Beacon Hills successfully.
Her brother mentions how much Allison misses her and that they're moving to Beacon Hills so they can be near family. Chris makes an offhand comment about their father and how he disapproved of the way he disowned her and that he himself has fallen out with the man.
She manages not to have a panic attack over the phone as Chris details his plan to arrive over the winter break, then breaks down the second he hangs up with a fond goodbye.
Her keeping an eye on Stiles is actually rather easy when he turns up at the gym at the start of his sophomore year.
His cheeks are a bright, and adorable, colour of patchy red as he rambles on about lacrosse and first string and this girl Lydia and her dickish boyfriend Jackson before finally getting to the point of him wanting to join the gym and that he would really appreciate it if she would help him out because Kyle, that kid she had trained in basketball, was now a senior and the MVP in the team.
She agreed with a grin and slipped in that she knew someone who could help him over the holidays with the actual sport if he wanted. He spluttered and flailed but agreed when she told him that Peter - "The Peter Hale, holy mother of God!" he had squealed - would be willing to help out because apparently her surrogate uncle was more of a lacrosse legend at the high school than she thought.
Chris, Victoria and Allison arrive over the Christmas holidays. She helps them unpack and then sits them down to talk. She explains the situation to them, ignoring the way Victoria looks at her with barely restrained disgust and the way Chris frowns, about the pack and the fact she was in it. She tells them that she doesn't want to fight her flesh and blood but if they even thought about harming a Hale without good cause then they wouldn't live to see the next sunrise.
She leaves with a treaty in place and confident of her place in both Chris' and the pack's life.
Laura ends up getting a job as the new chemistry teacher at the high school when it comes out that Harris - and dear God, how did the creep get the job in the first place - was a paedophile who had a thing for 15 year old girls.
Laura shudders and tells Kate how the man had given all the Hales the creeps for years but that they could never pin point why.
Derek calls later that day demanding that Laura keeps him informed and takes over Kate's duty of Stiles spying now she can be surrounded by him every day. She rolls her eyes and teases her brother but agrees.
February 10th.
The day she died.
She wakes up in a cold sweat, her sheets clinging to her skin, her heart pounding against her ribcage, a scream caught in her throat.
She dreamt of blood and screams and fire.
Ironic that she would wake feeling as though the fire had been burning through her skin.
Laura sweeps into her room as her throat begins to close and her breathing becomes laboured. She grabs Kate's hand and puts it on her chest, over her heart then mimics the position herself.
"Just breathe, Kate. Like this, in and out. Okay? That's it. Slowly. Like me, yeah?"
She calms slowly, half collapsing into Laura's arms.
It was the first time she truly wanted to confess to the full crimes of a woman who was her, but not quite, but she bites it down, forces the words away because those horrors don't belong here, in this world she created.
She finally gets what Laura has been constantly telling her about moving on with her life all these years because she hasn't really, she still feels guilty even if she wasn't that woman anymore.
February 10th.
The day she began to truly forgive herself.
It turns out the universe has a sick sense of balance because on February 11th Chris calls her and asks her to come around.
She gets a bad feeling in her gut and turns up with Laura in tow. Her brother answers the door with red rimmed eyes and a pale complexion and barely musters up a disapproving look as Laura crosses the threshold. Laura whispers that she can smell the grief in the air and that she can hear Allison sobbing upstairs as a male teenager tries to comfort her.
Chris breaks down as he tells her that Victoria and Gerard died last night in a car crash when she went to pick him up from the airport. She feels twinges of guilt and grief but nothing like Chris and just wraps her arms around her elder brother as he starts sobbing and hyperventilating. She sends Laura home with a sad smile a few hours later, hands stroking Chris' hair as he finally begins to fall asleep in her lap.
Scott still got bitten in this world.
Admittedly, it was a few months after when he got bit in the other world but he still ended up as a 16 year old werewolf.
The Hales had been hunting a rouge that they had scented the day before when Kate, who had been brought along, stumbled across him. The rouge had turned out to be a half-crazed, rabid alpha who in human form had mental problems and that had just transferred into it's wolf side. It had bit Scott and left the poor kid unconscious on the ground.
She yelled for a wolfed out but in control Laura and between the two of them they got Scott back to the Hale house and watched over him until he woke.
The bite took and, the next morning, she watched from the door frame with resignation as Jacob, Peter and Laura explained what had happened to him. He took it much better than he had in the other life - bar the first hour freak-out - then asked if he was now part of their pack.
Jacob had smiled and put a comforting hand on Scott's shoulder. "Only if you want to, but it would probably make life much easier for you and us."
Scott had just grinned in a way that represented a puppy and nodded eagerly before asking if he could tell Stiles.
Scott, and by association Stiles, had become a much more regular presence in the Hale house. Stiles, already having met up with Peter a couple of times, had grinned and just went through numerous dog jokes with the older man and then suggested a few training ideas to Jacob.
Derek, when he came home during spring break, practically whimpered at the smell of his - still very underage - mate overlaying that of his pack and home. He spent a whole day following the freshest trail of Stiles' scent and didn't stop whining until Caroline agreed to invite the two teens around for the usual welcome-home-Derek pack barbeque.
Laura, Kate and a 13 year old Natalie spend the whole night teasing Derek under their breath, even when Jacob kept sending them half scolding, half amused looks muttering under his breath about how they were in their twenties and still terrorising him - Peter didn't even bother pretending not to enjoy their comments and full out smirked at how Derek's low growls made Stiles jump, even joining in with a few quips about how whipped his nephew is.
At the end of the night as the flames from their fire start to die down and the rest of the pack have migrated inside, she sits down next to Derek on the log and takes his hand in hers.
"That kid in there is not going to know how lucky he's got it because anyone who can say that you are their mate is one lucky son of a bitch."
Derek just shook his head, threw his arm around her shoulders and tucked her body against his. "I'm the lucky one Kate. God, he's," he paused breathing a huff against her hair, "he's amazing and smart and kind and loyal and…"
"And he's yours," she whispered as she took in his two day stubble in the dimming orange light.
He grinned softly down at her with a content look in his face as if he was imagining the future. "Someday, yeah, he will be mine. Just got to wait a few years but the best things are worth waiting for."
They change the subject to her and Bobby's relationship, Derek joking about whether the coach makes her do drills and she shoots back that he's the one doing the drilling in their relationship. She hears the collective shudder and yelps running through the male wolves and a chuckle from the girls as the two head inside to join the rest in a game of cards.
It is not fun when Allison finds out about the werewolf in the closet. She erupts into tears and barbed words and general teenage angst about being kept in the dark. She refuses to talk to Chris and slams her door on Scott but weirdly, seems to confide in her.
Scott turns up, practically scratching pathetically at their apartment - Laura letting him in yelling "Kate, there's a kicked puppy here for you" then laughing at her own joke - begging her to talk to Allison for him.
She turns up at Chris', sweeps into Allison's room and tells the girl to change into something warm because " it's time to quit moping, lets go shoot something".
They end up at the archery range at the leisure centre, allowing the teen to vent her frustration at the poor target before Allison finally breaks down. They spend the night talking about her mom and all the lies and that she can't help but feel weak all the time and she that she is so sick of it.
Kate listens and explains everything to her, telling her how fucked up knowing about the supernatural as a kid can leave you - and dear God, she knows that from personal experience but she is not leaving that crap on her 17 year old niece - and how her parents did the right thing by not telling her. She explains about the wolves and what it means to them as humans - leaving out the fact that she is Scott's mate because that is for the kid to explain - and then tells her how retiring from hunting was the best thing she ever did.
They talk all night, turning the flood lamps off as the dark blues and blacks of night fade into purples and oranges of a sun rise, before they venture home.
Chris greets them with a hopeful smile that turns into a relieved and thankful grin as his daughter slams into his embrace. He waves at Kate to join them and buries his head in their shoulders.
The pack travels to New York for Derek's graduation, watching as he gets his degree and throws his hat into the air.
Stiles is 17 now and quite obviously has a crush on Derek, blushing and stumbling even more than usual. He is the first one to crash into Derek in the crowd, the older man grinning widely as the hyperactive teen collided with him. The pack gave them a few moments, watching as Derek's eyes shut as if trying to commit the moment to memory.
Then Scott darted out, being his usual clueless self, and grabbed the two starting an impromptu pack pile as the rest joined.
Derek chuckled as a camera went off immortalising Kate and Laura kissing each cheek.
Derek moves, rather expectedly - he had been whining about missing the Pack and Stiles for all 3 years in New York - back to Beacon Hills a few months after he graduated, ironically moving into her original apartment. It's weird to enter the apartment that she used to live in and see it as a bachelor pad.
Kate swung her legs taking a sip of her wine as Derek made spaghetti for dinner.
"So kiddo, how's the job going?"
Derek shrugged as he stirred the sauce. "I'm back at the mechanics that I worked at when I was in high school. It's the same as it was back then but now I have a architecture and engineering degree it kinda sucks to know 4 years are being wasted. I've applied for that job in town and hopefully you know…"
Kate nodded and took a long gulp, "I'm thinking of leaving the gym." He looked up at her, eyebrows raised. "Don't look at me like that, I'm pushing 30 Der, I'm not gonna be able to keep up with it all. I've applied to finish my psych degree part time and then maybe get a job at the school as a counsellor or something."
Derek winced at the mention of her degree and the fact that her father had pushed until she left. "It sounds good Kate, real good, though soon half the pack would've invaded the damn school."
She nudged him with her foot as she giggled.
Bobby groaned as her phone went off, mumbling into her bare shoulder. She blindly slapped her hand down on her bedside table, groping for her phone.
"You better have a good reason for calling me Stiles!"
"Bilinski? Damn that kid is fucking stalking me now," Bobby grumbled, tucking his head into her neck, "well at least it isn't Greenberg, the pink-eyed little prick."
"Ew, is that coach? Ew, Kate, you can't scar me like that! There is not enough mental bleach for this situation. Like, ever! Though whoever manages to invent mental bleach will be a-"
"Stiles, it's 1am, what is the problem?"
"I've broken down and my dad is working and it's the full moon so… you're the only one I could call but if you're busy then I'll just… wait it out," he trailed off and she could practically imagine him biting his lip as he kicked at the floor.
"Where are you," she asked as she pulled herself out of bed.
Their whole conversation revolves around him apologising, thanking her, ranting about his jeep and blurting out that he had a crush on Derek. She rolls her eyes and tells him "I know" then watches as he flails and badgers her until she tells him that "no, Derek does not know and no, I will not tell him."
She doesn't like dealing with Stiles at 2am, he is way too awake for her.
Bobby proposes quite unromantically to her. They've just had sex and they're so sweaty that they both wince as he peals his upper body away from hers before blurting it out.
She laughs and before nodding with a grin.
"Yes, you stupid, unromantic oaf!" She pulls him down for a kiss as they grin and giggle.
He is let into the secret and she watches as he splutters.
He narrows his eyes at Laura who had been used as the visual evidence.
"Huh." He paused. "Huh, well that explains how McCall got good so fast. What about Bilinski? He got good pretty quickly too, did you bite him too 'cause I can not imagine how much his hyper ADHD ass terrorises you guys as a wolf! Actually, do you reckon you can bite the whole team, well except Greenberg 'cause let's face it, that kid ain't worth the hassle, because we really could do with the boost. I know we won State Playoffs but we might actually have problems at Nationals." He paused again, eyebrows furrowing. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Jesus Kate," Laura muttered, "you may have fallen for the only person as bat shit crazy as you."
They all hold their breath - bar Scott, 'cause God bless the kid but he is just so oblivious - when Stiles turns 18, waiting for Derek to make his move.
Caroline brings out a cake - the Sherriff later thanking her for making such an effort - after the usual birthday barbeque. Stiles is rambling on about his new laptop, talking about the spec and the RAM and other crap Kate really didn't understand as Derek listened patiently with little to no growling. The two disappear later that night on a walk and they all grin at each other thinking that this was it, this would be the moment the two idiots would stop pining after each other.
They were wrong.
Laura tells her that they don't smell different, that they both reek of want and need and - she shuddered when she said this - arousal so nothing had changed.
They watch and wait for a month before Kate is nominated to be the one to confront Derek.
She plied him with alcohol, Chinese and bad movies before interrogating him.
Derek shrugged, even if he was giving her his kicked puppy dog eyes that show how conflicted and self-pitying he is about the situation. "He's going to Berkeley, Kate. Berkeley! He wants to be a lawyer, I am not fucking this up for him by tying him to this town, to me. He's going to go to university and be someone great."
"But he is your mate Der!"
"And I'm putting his needs before mine!" He snapped, blue eyes flashing. "That is what a good mate does!"
Her and Bobby get married eighteen months later at night, under a half moon, in a retreat a few hours away, by a lake. Chris is the man to walk her down the aisle whilst Jacob swept her into the Father-Daughter dance.
She watches fondly as Derek and Stiles dance circles around each other, both metaphorically and physically. There are only a few inches between the two as they slow dance as, what Stiles blurted out, a 'joke' but anyone can see the tension between the 19 year old and his dance partner. She watches as Stiles ducks his head onto Derek's shoulder, his eyes wet. Derek's hand tightens on the teen's hip, his Adam's apple bobbing. Stiles murmurs something into his neck which causes Laura to stiffen at her side. Derek also freezes, bringing the two to a halt at the fringe of the dance floor.
"Laura?" Kate asks, hand gripping her friend's forearm.
"He told him he loved him," she whispered shocked.
Stiles, with his eyes closed, took a deep breath and pulled his head back only far enough to press a kiss to Derek's lips. They remained there, the young man's hands coming up to cup Derek's cheeks as he remained frozen. They watched as after a few moments of unresponsiveness Stiles tore his lips from Derek and gulped. Derek was frozen, his arms hovering inches from Stiles' body as he stared at the shorter man. Stiles broke Derek's hold with a shake of his head as he stumbled back then ran out of the room. No one else had noticed the two, the wolves were all preoccupied and the few humans drunk.
Kate shut her eyes tight. "Oh Derek." She sighed and gathered the bottom of her dress. "I'll take Stiles, get your brother somewhere to calm down."
Kate trailed down the small hill, heading towards where she can see the kid's silhouette sitting at the end of the dock.
She's quiet as she approaches, bunching her dress to her knees as she sits beside him, letting her feet dangle off the edge. "Hey wolf boy," she whispered, nudging his shoulder.
He swallows wetly, using his sleeve to wipe away the tears quickly, slapping on what should be a convincing smile. "Hey, sorry. It's a wedding, I get a bit emotional at them, you should have seen me at my aunt's, I was in-"
"I saw what happened Stiles."
The boy opened and closed his mouth before his jaw tightened and he looked out at the moonlight lake. They were silent for a few minutes, Kate letting him try to fight the tears that she could see falling down his cheeks.
"He…he froze, Kate. I could practically feel our friendship crashing around us. He just stood there… God, I don't even… I can't even describe it. It was… He just doesn't want me. I love him, Kate. God-"
Kate growled. "You stupid idiots! God, he has been in love with you for nearly four years and I'm pretty sure you're the same. He's all guilty for wanting you when you were underage and he doesn't want to tie you down because you're at Berkeley and should be enjoying yourself while you're here being all insecure and thinking he doesn't love you and we're all watching the two of you pine for the other because you both can't use your words!"
Stiles gaped at her as she breathed heavily. "Wha- No, you're wrong, you-you saw what he looked like when I told him!"
"I saw him freeze because, well I don't actually know but Stiles," her voice went soft as she took his hand, "he does love you."
"I froze because it was literally all I wanted in life," a voice cut in. They both turned to see a slightly dishevelled Derek behind them, approaching warily as if they were an injured animal. "God Stiles, I-"
Stiles stood slowly then strode over and grabbed his face to drag him into another kiss. Derek made a muffled noise and this time actually responded, one of his hands automatically came up to grip Stiles' head, the other fisted his shirt.
Kate slipped away as the two stumbled slightly, going back to the reception. She dragged their photographer Danny, a friend of Scott and Stiles who worked out the secret when Scott wolfed out in the locker room, and got him to take a photo of the two on the dock.
There were three photos in the end, all with the two silhouetted against the moonlight, dark blue shimmering lake. The first had Stiles clutching onto the lapels of Derek's tux, with the back of his shirt obviously fisted in the taller man's hand, as they kissed. The second had their arms relaxed, holding each other loosely as they rested their foreheads against each other. The final had the two sitting at the end of the dock, Stiles between Derek's legs, his head resting on the man's shoulder.
Three years later, when Stiles and Derek move in together - after Stiles finishes up pre-law at Berkeley and decides to study law school closer to home - Kate is the one who hangs those three photos in their lounge, grinning as Stiles kisses her cheek as he stumbles past with a box labelled 'plates'.
Derek ran a palm over her extended stomach, giving her a soft smile as his future godchild kicked against his hand.
"Thanks Kate, for everything."
"Derek, we're family, you don't owe me anything."
They jumped as they heard a crash and a yelp from the kitchen.
"I'm okay! Cheers for the help guys. Thank you Allison, because she is the nice one in this damn pack!"
They both roll their eyes and grinned as Stiles muttered about unhelpful mates and friends.
This should seriously be called the Fic That Never Ended because every time I thought I had finished, because it was only meant to be a drabble, there seemed to be another page written.
But, anyway, I hope you enjoyed it :D