The envelope had been laid out on the table when Stiles arrived home from school, under a pile of bills and college letters and junk magazines. He immediately spotted the logo on the outside and grabbed for it. This was it, what he had been waiting for for months. The contents of this envelop had the power to decide his fate. He stood by over the table, clutching the sturdy card stock. He couldn't bring himself to open it.
If the letter said no, if he didn't get the internship, he would be devastated. Being offered a chance to apply for an internship at stark industries was something he had never even dreamed of, but being offered a chance to work directly under The Tony Stark, well that just didn't happen. But if he did get it, it would mean he would have to move to New York, leave Scott and Lydia, leave his dad all alone, leave Derek...But they would still be here tomorrow, he reminded himself, and this opportunity wouldn't be. He shoved a finger under the flap and ripped the coarse paper with a swift jerk of his hand.
Stiles had actively been trying to fit the entire contents of his room into a single suitcase for the last three hours, and had finally succeeded, but was now faced with the seemingly impossible task of zipping it up. He was straddling the bright green bag, his right hand gripping the top corner and his left shoved inside the bag to keep his clothes out of the way, and the zipper grasped firmly between his teeth as he jerked his head in an effort to close the bag another inch.
Behind him, he heard the door to his room open. Good, his dad was finally home from work and could help him pack! "A little help here?" he said after he spat out the zipper. When he didn't hear an answer Stiles craned his neck towards the doorway. Instead of his father, he saw the tall, dark form of Derek Hale filling the opening. His heart skipped a beat. Derek was dressed in a simple pair of dark jeans, navy v-neck, and his signature, if not infamous, leather jacket. Stiles had always secretly loved that jacket, It added to the whole "dark and mysterious" vibe Derek seemed to be working so hard to achieve.
Stiles hadn't expected to seed Derek again before he left. He had tried to think up excuses to go see the alpha, but he couldn't come up with anything reasonable. There were no deaths, no wolf crises, nothing that would warrant a visit, no matter how much he wanted to see him. Besides, it's not like Derek would have any reason to want to see him anyway.
Derek looked at the twisted mass of boy and clothes and green on the bed then gave a sad half-smile. "Move" He ordered as he made his way towards the bed. Stiles, who had been stunned into science for a few seconds, regained his composer and rolled off the case.
"What the hell are you doing here? Don't you have better things to do than stalk me? I mean, seriously, if you needed something why didn't you just call one of your pups? I don't live my life solely to serve..."
Stiles drifted off as Derek closed the bag with one hand and sat on the bed. He was looking down at his hands. Stiles couldn't see his face, but he knew something was wrong. The confidence that Derek carried in his shoulders was gone. His posture was meek and withholding, a far cry from the asserting alpha he had grown accustomed to.
"Is something wrong? What happened? Is everyone ok?" Stiles' mind immediately started thinking up scenarios, expecting the worst. Had someone been killed? Was the alpha pack back? Thoughts buzzed around his mind like wasps, resurfacing fears he had pushed down deep into his subconscious. Derek opened his mouth as if he wanted to speak, then changed his mind and closed it again. "what?" Stiles urged, panic rising up through his voice. After a moment, Derek looked up at Stiles. His eyes sad, desperate even. Stiles has never seen him like this before.
"You don't have to go, you know." Derek stated abruptly. "Stay here with the pack, with..." "What?" Stiles said again, only this time it was in disbelief. He stared at the man siting on his bed. Derek had looked so sad and depressed because he didn't want Stiles to leave? Immediately, Stiles felt, immeasurably relieved. Nothing bad was happening. No one was hurt! He let out a deep sigh. But Derek had come in here like the world was imploding and there was nothing anybody could do to stop it, getting Stiles all worked up for no reason. It worried him how quickly he jumped to horrific conclusions lately, but to be fair Derek had ben acting really weird. But why would derek care this much about him leaving?
Derek stood up then, that hard, familiar mask of confidence returned to his face. "Scott and Isaac won't stop complaining to me about it and it's getting on my nerves" Of course, thought Stiles. Derek didn't care, Scott and Isaac were just pressuring him. He couldn't believe he had freaked out so much over nothing. Still...part of him wished, irrationally, that Derek had cared that he was leaving, wished that he had come over and begged him to stay here, with him, forever; that he wanted Stiles like Stiles had wanted him for so long...
"Well, you can tell them to stop bothering me about it. My minds made up. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you would have to be a complete idiot to turn down, which I'm obviously not because I would never have gotten the internship in the first place if I was. Now, you can march your little werewolf ass out of my house so I can finish packing!" During this little speech, Stiles had unknowingly inched closer and closer until only a few inches separated their mouths. Stiles could smell the mint toothpaste on Derek's breath and could hear the slow rhythm of air escaping his chest and then rushing back in, he could feel the heat of Derek's body radiating off him like waves. Stiles' heart began to race, which he knew Derek could hear. This just made him more nervous, crimson splotches appearing on his cheeks. Derek didn't say anything, just looked at him with one eyebrow raised, a look that always made a shiver shoot up Stiles' back.
After a moment, he pushed past Stiles and glided toward the window. Derek gave one last glance back at the boy standing like and idiot in the middle of the room, then disappeared behind the curtain. Stiles stood, frozen in place and gazed at the spot where Derek had stood just a moment before. "Fuck" he breathed to himself, then turned back towards his bed and continued to pack. He made a mental note to yell at Scott later.