Author's Note: I do not own Teen Wolf or its characters. This is set in an alternate universe where alphas compete for omegas by building them houses to show how well they can provide for the omega. Omegas have the final choice in who they chose as their mate.

Build Us a Home

Stiles will never forget the way his mom talked about her courtship of his father. They had known one another vaguely from school but hadn't really been friends. What his dad hadn't known was just how impressed his mom had been by him. At a time when omegas tended to stick with careers that didn't involve physical later, his dad was bound and determined to become a cop and proved himself as capable as any alpha or beta officer.

It probably helped that John Stilinski had put off his tour for the first two years. Omegas started their tours at seventeen, but they didn't have to make a decision until they were twenty-two. It had given his mom more time to build their house. And when he'd visited it, his dad had been blown away. There had been built in gun safes in several places, room for a home gym in the basement, and an unfinished nursery. When he'd asked Claudia why the nursery was unfinished, she'd told him it because that was something for them to build together.

It's not a story he shares though. The only one who knows about it is Scott. Their other omega classmates just care about how big the house was and what luxuries and toys were inside. Besides, it's not like Stiles has people lining up to put there names on his tour list. He might be an omega, but he was still awkward and strange and talked too much for most people. And it just made sense to put off his tour his first year since he was dealing with helping Scott adjust to the fact that he'd just presented as an omega.

Everyone had thought that Scott was beta. Then shortly after his seventeenth birthday, he'd presented as an omega. It had thrown everyone for a loop, and Scott had been assigned a mentor to help him through everything. Unfortunately, the only person in Beacon Hills who had any similar experience was Derek Hale. Derek and Scott got along about as well as oil and water.

Like Scott, everyone had assumed that Derek was beta, but after the fire that killed most of his family, Derek had presented as an alpha at age sixteen. His sister had taken him to New York afterwards, and Derek had only returned to Beacon Hills recently.

To be fair, Derek had tried to help Scott. But their personalities clashed badly, and Derek and Stiles had probably spent most of those meetings snarking at one another more than actually helping Scott. It didn't help that Scott was obsessed with a new alpha at school, one Allison Argent, whose aunt had been responsible for the Hale fire. Naturally, it was a bone of contention between Derek and Scott.

But eventually they got Scott through it. And during his eighteenth year, Scott took his first tour and immediately moved into to the house that Allison had built for them. Stiles was happy for his friend. He knew that being with Ally was all that Scott had really wanted. And with his best friend happily moving on with his own life, Stiles really needed to think about his own future.

He put off his own tour another year, wanting to at least get the first year of college under his belt before he had to worry about making a relationship work and figuring out how to balance his new home life too. And honestly, Stiles wasn't expecting much when he announced he was ready to make his tour. He'd never exactly been one to attract alphas in high school, and it didn't feel like that had changed in college. So he's completely blown away by the fact that there are a dozen names on his tour list, including Derek Hale's.

The tour itself is rather predictable. Stiles and his dad go around to the various houses with his tour coordinator and her assistant who take pictures and make notes. Each alpha is waiting at the house to give Stiles a tour. Afterwards Stiles will compare notes and make a decision whether he's accepting one of the alphas or trying again next year. It honestly turns out to be pretty boring. There's not much difference between the houses other than color schemes at times. Even the houses' layouts seem to be all the same. Nothing really speaks to Stiles that this could be his home.

Then he gets to Derek's house. It doesn't take Stiles long to figure out that it's their next stop. No one else in Beacon Hills lives out this far, but while Derek had on more than one occasion talked about rebuilding his family's home, Stiles didn't know he'd begun work on it. The house doesn't look like the old Hale house, but that's fine with Stiles. He doesn't want to live with ghosts. It's clear that his tour coordinator didn't think much of the house, but Stiles couldn't help but smiling when he noticed room on the walls for his pictures to be added to Derek's. The library that was half empty with Derek's collection of books already on the shelves. There's an unfurnished study that Stiles could move into. And there's an empty room that could easily be turned into a nursery. It's not Derek's house. It's a house made for a couple with space for them both.

It also makes all of the other houses pale in comparison. Sure some of them might have taken his wants and needs into consideration, but none of them really had room for him. They would need more bookshelves for his own book collection or to make room for Stiles' study. And just about every one of the other houses had a picture perfect nursery already set up. They were nice enough nurseries, but they weren't personal in any way. It was like someone had taken a magazine picture and translated it to real life. Actually, most of the houses felt that way to Stiles.

He was completely exhausted by the time that they finally returned home, but Stiles couldn't just go collapse in bed. No, his tour coordinator wanted to talk about the houses they'd visited.

"We'll take Derek Hale off the list of course. I don't know what he was thinking showing you that half finished mess."

"Don't," Stiles said. "I liked Derek's house. There was a lot of thought in the places he left for me to fill in. There was room for my books and an area I could turn into my workspace. But at the same time there weren't unrealistic expectations. He had the kitchen done to his tastes and completely outfitted with what he would want since Derek knows that I'm not much of a cook, but he's a great one."

His tour coordinator frowned. "If that's what you want. Now, is there anyone who you want to eliminate right off the bat?"

Stiles did. The two alphas' whose home had looked like they were completely copied and pasted from magazine were off the table. He wanted at least a little originality in his mate.

"All right. I'll leave you with the remaining profiles and picture. You've got a week to think about things, and I'll be back next week to see if you want a second visit at any of the homes."

Stiles sighed. To be honest, besides Derek's home, none of them had really called to Stiles. Even the ones that had personal touches from their alphas really hadn't felt like a home for Stiles. There hadn't been a place for him there. Oh, there was a place for an omega, but not Stiles specifically. Those houses could be home to just about any omega. And he was also still wrapping his head around the fact that Derek had put his house on the tour. Stiles knew that the older man hadn't planned on joining the tours. Given Derek's romantic history, Stiles wasn't all that surprised.'

And Derek's house was so clearly a labor of love. Stiles knew that one of the reasons why he'd put off rebuilding for so long was all of the memories that were held in the old home. But Derek clearly had rebuilt, and he'd done so with Stiles in mind which was mostly what had caught Stiles off guard. Yes, he would consider himself friends with the alpha, but Derek had never really done anything to indicate he might be interested romantically in the omega. Then again, they had met when Stiles was still underage when they first met, and since Derek had been taken advantage of by an older woman when he was a teenager, Stiles could understand why that might be an issue.

Still the fact that Derek Hale was interested enough in Stiles to build a house with him in mind was really throwing him for a loop. He'd been attracted to Derek for a while, which was something that Stiles had only ever admitted to himself. But he'd never really thought he'd have a chance with Derek. Not when Derek been betrayed and lost his family the first time he'd attempted a relationship with someone. As declarations of intent go, building Stiles a house that was suited to them both was pretty clear.

So Stiles did his best not to think about the whole thing for several days. He knew what he wanted, but now that it was actually in his grasp, it was kind of scary. Choosing Derek didn't mean it was going to be easy. Stiles was well aware that they both could be difficult people and that making a relationship between them work would take time and effort. It wasn't like he could choose someone and poof they had a perfect relationship. But Derek's house was a home that was built for both of them. And that was something Stiles was willing to work for.

But that didn't keep Stiles from looking to his dad for advice. He'd heard his mom talk about their courtship so many times when she was alive, but he'd never heard his dad say what had told him that his mom's was the right house to pick. And the day before his tour coordinator is supposed to come back, the two manage to eat dinner together, so Stiles figured he'd ask.

"How did you know that mom's house was the right one?"

There was silence, and for a moment Stiles worried that they would lapse back into that awkward tension that always came up just after his mom had died. Then his dad grinned.

"It wasn't the house. Not really. It was mostly your mom that was different. All of the other alphas built a house for an omega. You mom built a house for me because I was who she wanted not what she wanted. You thinking about Derek?"

"Yeah."

His dad smiled. "The best advice I can give you is trust your instincts. Don't let your coordinator tell you what you should want. Choose the person you want because in the end, you could always move or change the house. It's who you're sharing the house with that's important."

It's two weeks later when Stiles moves into his new home. The house doesn't look so unfinished with Stiles' things sitting beside Derek's, though they had a ways to go before their library was actually full even with all of Stiles' books. But his favorite part is actually snarking with Derek as they unpack the books, arguing about favorite authors and how to organize their combined collections. The house might not be their home quite yet, but they've got a good start, and as long as he has Derek to build it with, Stiles thinks they'll be fine.