Santa Claws
One by one the Beacon Hills group wakes up on Christmas to find gifts left for them by Stiles, though no one heard or smelled him come in the night. But as everyone, even the twins, gather together and evening draws near, the big question is: Where exactly IS Stiles? And why is he telling everyone to bring food to his house?
Derek and Cora are here because it's the holidays and no one gets left out.
Except Peter. Who's Peter? Whatever.
...
...
Christmas morning dawned crisp and cool for the citizens of Beacon Hills. There was no snow on the ground, but everyone kept their heaters on and watched their breaths float in the air when they went outside.
Scott's nose tickled as he scurried downstairs. "Mom," he called while he jumped the last few steps, "is Stiles over?"
Melissa looked up from where she was cooking Christmas breakfast, a slight frown on her face. "No. It's still really early. I'd bet he's still sleeping."
Scott snorted as Isaac stumbled down the stairs behind him. "Mom. Come on. It's Christmas," he said. "Stiles still jumps on his dad's bed to go open presents."
Even as Melissa shrugged and nodded in agreement, Scott was sniffing around. He knew he could smell Stiles' scent. It wasn't fresh, but it was enough to make him curious. He slipped into the living room, where a modest little Christmas tree was set up. It wasn't real, but it had served the McCall family faithfully for years. The scent was lingering faintly on three boxes under the tree.
Checking the tag told Scott that all the gifts were from "Santa Claws" which really only told Scott that they were definitely from Stiles.
"Mom!" Scott yelled over his shoulder. "Mom, Isaac, come here for a minute!"
Melissa came into the room quickly with Isaac on her heels. "What? What is it?" she asked.
Scott held up a box. "A gift from Santa," he said with a grin.
His mom gave him a disbelieving look as she accepted the box. Her expression morphed into confusion and then into a grin that matched her son's. "Stiles?"
"Stiles," Scott said with a nod, handing the third present to Isaac.
The other werewolf was looking at his gift with wide, disbelieving eyes. "Can we open them before we eat?" he asked, voice small and hesitant.
Melissa seemed to consider it for a moment, then smiled at the taller boy and nodded. "Remind me to give him a lecture about breaking and entering when we go over to his house for dinner tonight, though."
Snorting, Scott said, "Sure," and ripped his present open.
Inside was a full set of new strings for a guitar. Scott thought about the guitar in the corner of his room, every string on it snapped. It had been broken for years but he had never let his mom throw it out, always insisting he'd use some of the money from his job at the vet to fix it.
His thoughts cut off at the gasp from his mother. "What?"
She was holding the box loosely, reading a letter from inside. Scott glanced in the box and saw a pair of fuzzy house slippers and a bottle of bubble bath oil.
"Never mind about the lecture," Melissa noted absently, eyes still scanning the page, her eyes shining and a small smile on her face.
"Is this a joke? What are these?" Isaac asked, letting his own box fall to the floor. In his hands were two DVDs that he looked back and forth between several times before looking up at Scott.
...
...
When Scott pulled up in front of the Stilinski house several hours later, Lydia and Allison were already there. They were just getting out of Allison's car as he parked his bike.
"Hey," Scott greeted, killing the engine on the bike and waving.
Lydia frowned. "Did he leave you a gift too?" she asked.
Scott's eyes narrowed a little in confusion. "Stiles?" He got two nods. "Yeah. He left gifts for my mom and me. Wait, did he leave you two gifts too?"
"Spa days a town over," Allison said. "They were hanging in the window."
Considering Allison and her father had set traps at every entrance of their apartment since the alpha pack fiasco, Scott was impressed Stiles hadn't been maimed. He lifted his eyebrows and nodded to show his appreciation.
"What did he get you?" Lydia asked.
"Strings for my guitar," Scott informed them. "Stuff to help my mom relax. And he gave Isaac the full stop-motion Christmas classic collection," he finished with a smirk.
Allison lifted an eyebrow for a moment. "I don't get it."
Scott shrugged. "I guess he's never seen them? He was really confused when he saw the DVDs. Mom's watching them with him right now, actually. I left after Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Jack Frost, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
"Well what I want to know is, why pie and cookies?" Lydia asked before beginning to strut her way toward the front door.
"Huh?"
Allison shrugged and motioned to the bag in Lydia's hands before they followed her. "With our spa passes, we both got slips of paper too. They just had Stiles' address on them and said 'Bring cookies,' or 'pie' in Lydia's case."
Scott hummed. "That's odd."
Almost as soon as Lydia finished rapping on the door, it opened to reveal the sheriff. He was wearing old jeans and a loose shirt and no shoes. He nodded but frowned when he saw them.
"Well that means at least some of the guests are accounted for, now we've just gotta find the main cook," he said.
"What do you mean 'guests'?" Lydia half demanded.
The sheriff blinked a few times and then ran his hands over his face while letting out a long breath. "Should've known." He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Stiles wanted to invite you all to dinner tonight, you and your families. He was supposed to tell everyone what to bring."
"That explains the dessert," Allison noted.
"He was also supposed to be home this morning for breakfast, and he's supposed to be cooking right now so dinner'll be ready on time, but the house is strangely empty of boys in danger of a Christmas grounding."
Scott stood at attention. "He's missing?"
The sheriff made an unsure noise, "I wouldn't say that. I did have a text this morning saying he'd be late and to eat breakfast without him, so I don't think he's been kidnapped or anything. Then again, if he's not at your place," he said to Scott, "then I don't know where he'd be."
"I'll find him," Scott promised. "You can count on me, sir."
So though Sheriff Stilinski hadn't meant to start a citywide search for his son, that's what he got. He grabbed his coat and shoes while Lydia put the desserts away, then all four of them piled into the cruiser. Scott got the front seat and stuck his head out of the window, not unlike a dog, to keep a nose out for Stiles' scent.
They hadn't gotten very far when two identical motorcycles slid in the way, causing the sheriff to slam on the breaks. Scott was immediately on the defensive. The twins had sort of unofficially joined his pack after Deucalion ran off, but they were still alphas and new. Scott wanted to trust and accept them, but if they caused problems, he would deal with them in whatever way he had to.
They got off their bikes and Scott got out of the cruiser, throwing "Stay in the car" at the other three inside before he shut the door. Surprisingly, they did.
"Did you need something?" Scott asked as he and the twins stood face to face.
Aiden reached in his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper with familiar handwriting on it. "Yeah. We wanna know what this is about."
Scott lifted an eyebrow. "You'll have to be more specific. What is it?" he asked, though he already had an idea.
"It's Stiles' address and orders to bring a ham," Ethan said. His stance was much less aggressive than his brother's, arms loose at his sides and less growl in his voice.
Stiles had even managed to sneak in and leave something for the twins? Scott didn't even know where they were living. He gaped at them momentarily, until Aiden slowly lifted an impatient eyebrow, then he shook his head.
"That means you're invited to dinner," he explained.
"Dinner?" they said as one, making Scott smile.
Scott felt himself relax easily after that. If Stiles had invited them to dinner, then he was willing to trust them too. Stiles was as good as Scott's second in this rag-tag pack they'd formed, so it was good to know they were on the same page.
Pack. That's what Stiles was doing.
"Yeah," Scott all but breathed out. "It's a pack dinner. Everyone's invited." He pointed at Aiden because he was closest but darted his eyes between the two. "You're in charge of bringing the ham."
Both men shifted on their feet, suddenly looking a little sheepish. At Scott's questioning expression, Ethan pulled off the backpack he'd been wearing and unzipped it. From inside he pulled the largest ready to bake ham that Scott had ever seen. He only held it up for a second before stuffing it back in its cloth hiding spot.
Scott smiled wider. "Great!" He tilted his head to the side. "Now we just need to find Stiles and we can get started on dinner."
Two pairs of sharp eyes, slowly glowing redder, met his. "He's missing?" Ethan asked, voice rough like his brother's now.
Holding up his hands to pacify them, Scott shook his head. "No. No I...I think I know where he is now."
...
...
If this was supposed to be a pack dinner, then every member of the pack should be there. They'd all been present when Scott realized what Stiles was up to except for two, so that meant Stiles had to be at Derek's loft apartment with Derek and Cora. That was why, only a short while later, the sheriff's cruiser and two black motorbikes parked outside the apartment building and six people began riding the elevator up to Derek's floor.
It was Scott who raised his hand to knock. However, the door was pulled open before he could land one hit, and it only opened far enough to show Cora's body and nothing else.
"Jeez, did you all have to come?" she asked in a half-sneer, taking in the whole group. She sniffed. "You can come in, but you have to stay quiet."
"What-"
"Quiet," Cora repeated harshly, but in a quiet tone.
Curious, they all followed her into the loft. Allison shut the door once everyone was inside.
The loft was the same as always, with wide open space and a half broken wall on one side. Derek's single table was still by the window and there was only one couch, though a comfy looking chair had been added since Cora started living here too.
The TV was new.
Derek was sitting on the couch and across from him was a large flat screen TV playing one of the Home Alone movies. The sound was down so low that, if Scott hadn't had super hearing, he wouldn't have been able to make out the dialogue. Before Scott could ask why the TV was basically on mute, he saw Stiles.
He was wearing fuzzy red pants with white bands at the bottoms, a Santa Claus jacket that was unzipped and barely hanging on one shoulder, and a red t-shirt with a picture of Santa Claus on the front that read "Be Jolly My Friends." He was also fast asleep and laying with his head pillowed on Derek's shoulder.
"Derek caught him trying to sneak in with that TV set this morning at five," Cora told them all quietly. Derek barely cast her a glance before focusing on the movie again.
Aiden snorted quietly. "He actually thought he could sneak in a giant TV?" He shook his head. "He may be dressed like a rebellious teenaged Santa, but he's not magic."
Scott decided now wasn't the best time to suggest that maybe Stiles kind of might be magic, a little bit, according to Deaton.
"He's been here all day?" the sheriff asked quietly, taking a step closer to his son. It was nearing dinner time now, so that meant Stiles had been here all day.
Cora shrugged and moved toward the exposed kitchen, where there was a collection of chicken nuggets and Chinese food on different plates. "He and Derek got into a lover's spat over whether or not we were gonna keep the TV, until I claimed it and told Derek he could deal with it or leave."
A low growl carried over from the living room, but cut off abruptly when Stiles made a noise like he might be waking up. Everyone waited until he'd settled again before the conversation continued.
"He made us breakfast and we set up the TV, started watching some old Christmas movies with him, but he fell asleep a couple hours ago," Cora continued. "Figured we'd let him sleep."
"He has seemed kind of tired lately," Ethan noted. Aiden gave him a look like he was surprised his brother had noticed something like that. "What?"
Lydia shook her head. "That's because he hasn't been sleeping at night," she stated like it was obvious. "Honestly. Do none of you have eyes?"
Scott and the sheriff adopted guilty expressions while the others looked a little wrong-footed. Aiden and Ethan were still getting used to the idea that the problems of this pack were now their problems while Scott and Stiles' dad were berating themselves for not noticing, since they were closest to Stiles. Lydia rolled her eyes but seemed to decide they were all lost causes and didn't elaborate.
Allison clasped her hands together and gave a small smile. "Well at least he's found somewhere he could rest for awhile."
"Maybe we could have dinner here instead," Scott suggested, still keeping his voice down. "The ham is already here, and so are most of the dinner guests. I could call my mom and have her and Isaac bring our food here instead of to the house, and someone could go get the rest of the food from Stiles' house and bring it here too."
He looked to Stiles' dad for confirmation. The sheriff frowned and crossed his arms, staring at the floor while he thought. His eyes glanced over to the couch, at his son snuggling closer to the warmth radiating from Derek's arm and side. After a small sigh, he nodded.
"Sure. Sounds like a plan."
Allison went back with him to get the food, since Lydia claimed she'd already done her part by bringing the stuff to Stiles' house in the first place. Ethan worked with Cora to start the stove and heat up the ham he'd brought and to clean up the leftover Chinese and chicken. Scott, Lydia, and Aiden settled in around the TV to watch along with Derek, though Lydia was more interested in Aiden than the movie.
Half an hour later the movie had been switched to The Santa Clause. Melissa and Isaac had shown up during the credits of Home Alone and started cooking with Ethan, Cora choosing to come watch movies instead of work in the kitchen. A few minutes after that, Allison and the sheriff returned. Allison joined the cooking team while the sheriff stole the unused chair in the living room.
There was a moment of tension when Allison's father showed up, answering the 'your families are invited to' call. "I didn't bring a gun," he'd said instead of 'hello.' "Besides, it's Christmas and I figure we can at least get along for one evening, right?"
Lydia's parents didn't make an appearance, though she didn't seem surprised by this. It also mean that no one had to hide the supernatural parts of themselves, which was nice. Derek shot angry glares and short growls of warning at anyone who got too loud, which worked for about another hour. Then Isaac dropped something in the kitchen that made a loud banging sound when it hit the floor.
Stiles jumped awake, flinging himself away from Derek and nearly colliding with Scott on his other side. "What? What is it? What's-" He finally seemed to take in the room around him and frowned, pointing at everyone as he counted. "What's...everyone doing here?"
"Apparently it's a pack dinner," Aiden replied.
"But-," Stiles started, but immediately stopped. He kept looking around, confused, even as the cooking continued in the kitchen - now louder since Stiles was awake anyway. "This..."
His dad stretched in his seat. "Sleep well?" he asked.
For a moment, Stiles just stared at his father. Then he nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I-Oh my god!" He flipped to face Derek, who gave him an unimpressed look in return for his panic. "I fell asleep on-and you-Did I drool on you? Please tell me I didn't drool on you, that would be so embarrassing."
"No," Derek said, voice vaguely amused. "No drool."
Stiles put a hand to his chest and let out a deep sigh of relief.
"Fondling, though," Aiden piped up. "There was a bit of fondling."
"Of his pecs," Ethan added from the kitchen.
"And kisses on his shoulder," Isaac jumped in eagerly.
"Not to mention promises and love declarations," Cora said in monotone, turning the volume up on the TV just a bit to make up for the added noise in the room. "It was so cute I thought I was going to hurl."
The horrified look on Stiles face was enough to make his father's lips quirk up and Scott laugh. Stiles cast a look at his best friend and then glared at everyone in turn. "You are all terrible people. All of you. Horrible. I don't know why I thought putting you all in the same room was a good idea. Obviously I've lost my mind."
"You lost that a long time ago, I think," Sheriff Stilinski said in remorse.
Stiles' jaw dropped. "Traitor," he said, even sounding betrayed. The sheriff just shrugged and focused on the TV like Cora was. "I hate you all."
"Stiles, could you come help me finish these mashed potatoes?" Melissa called easily.
"Except you, Ms. McCall," Stiles sang as he threw himself off the couch. He was almost tangled up in his own jacket for a moment but recovered and stumbled into the kitchen.
Scott looked at the sheriff and found him smiling toward the kitchen. When he saw Scott looking, he shrugged. "I'm okay with that." Then he stood up and went to stand at the bar, leaning over to talk with Stiles and Melissa while they cooked.
Chuckles were heard around the room and then replaced by easy chatter. Scott looked around at his pack and smiled. Everyone he cared about was here in one room, getting along. Soon they would share a meal and wishes for the holidays. Feeling the calm in the room, Scott couldn't help but hope every day would be like this. But this was Beacon Hills and there was always something supernatural happening. However, that wasn't today. Today his pack was whole and happy and bonding. Even Derek smiled at Stiles' chatter from the kitchen. For now, Scott could easily say he was happy, and that this was possibly the best Christmas he'd ever had.
He'd have to get another gift for Stiles to say thank you to 'Santa Claws.'
...
...
fin.
Merry Christmas!