Author's Note: I do not own Teen Wolf or its characters. This is set after season 3b.
Home Making and Other Domestic Efforts
Afterwards, Derek ends up moving in with the Stilinskis. None of the others are in any shape to help the Sheriff with Stiles, and Derek feels safer living with other people. Kate hadn't resurfaced since she revealed herself to him, but no one thought that she'd just disappeared. But with no sign of her either, all that was left to do was wait for her to make her next move.
Stiles was recovering slowly. Physically, he was almost back to normal, though his appetite continued to be poor. But other than that, Stiles was a mess on a lot of levels. He rarely made it through the night without nightmares, and Stiles was still constantly checking to make sure he wasn't still asleep. In addition to that, Stiles' panic attacks were frequent. Crowds of people especially triggered them, so he rarely left the house of his own volition. He wasn't up to school yet, and Derek knew that the sheriff was worried.
It didn't help that all of his friends were in their own stages of grief. Both Allison and Aiden's deaths had hit the group hard, and most of them were struggling to deal with it. Derek got that, but he had to admit that he found they scattered apart to grieve strange. Besides, the fire, there had only really been one loss that Derek remembered in his pack. But when his grandmother had died, the pack had holed up in the house, even the distant cousins to come together and grieve. Even if you didn't necessarily want company, there had been comfort in knowing that the pack was right there to lean against if you wanted it.
Derek just tried to do the best he could. Taking care of Stiles and his dad was something he could do, and it made him feel a little less useless. And he enjoyed it. He'd never really settled into anyplace long enough to really make it a home since coming back to Beacon Hills, and he had missed the simple routines of domesticity.
Cooking had mostly been his responsibility when he and Laura had shared an apartment in New York. Laura could burn water, and Derek had always liked to hang out in the kitchen with their dad. He hadn't really thought about it when he'd taken over the meals in the Stilinski household. It was something he just started doing after watching John make microwave dinners three nights in a row. Besides, his baking had been one of the few things that coaxed Stiles out of his room in the beginning.
And Stiles rambling, perched on one of kitchen counters, while Derek made shortbread was the closest to normal he'd seen Stiles in a long time. They were both struggling get back to normal honestly. Or at least some semblance of normal. John had somehow managed to find a therapist who knew about the supernatural, and he was making both Stiles and Derek go to see her. Honestly, Derek didn't know if it was really helping him or not. He left his sessions feeling wrung out and emotionally drained, though sometimes he did feel better two. Derek had never really been good about opening up to people, even in his own family, and he'd learned the hard way how dangerous it could be.
The sessions did seem to help Stiles though, and Derek did find their post therapy tradition of curling up on the couch and watching old children's movies relaxing. Even John tended to join them if he was around. For the first time in years, Derek actually felt at home. Even the apartment that he'd shared with Laura had only ever felt temporary. And even when he was attempting to start his own pack, it never felt quite as natural as this did. Even with the threat of Kate looming over him, Derek was far more at peace than he'd been in years.
He coaxed Stiles to come grocery shopping with him, dragging him to farmer's markets and little independent markets when he finds them. Stiles was a little skittish with other people around, but he slowly begins to relax and enjoy their trips out. He enjoys keeping up with his homework less, but John had insisted that even if Stiles wasn't up to attending school, he was at the very least going to keep up with his class work. And Derek, because he's home most of the time, gets to be the one to try and keep Stiles on task.
It wasn't easy. At least, some of it wasn't easy. English and history were both subject Derek enjoyed, and he and Stiles could spend hours talking about them. Math and science not so much. Derek could do math, but he didn't enjoy it, and he didn't find most of what high school taught useful. If Stiles needed to learn how to balance a check book, that was another story. Honestly, Derek's pretty sure that Stiles misses school to some extent. And if it weren't for the social component of it, he thinks it might be a good distraction for Stiles.
But Stiles is terrified of facing most of the pack. Neither Scott nor Isaac has been by, though Melissa checks on the Stilinski household on a regular basis. Lydia dropped by once. Derek hadn't stuck around, but he knew that the short visit had been awkward all around. Kira had also dropped by. Her visit had been the easiest for all of them, and Derek had to admit that he'd rather liked the young woman.
Eventually though, Stiles had to go back. It wasn't easy or fun, but it was something that he had to do. Derek found himself with time on his hands when he was home alone that he didn't know what to do with it. The first week, Derek just baked, wanting to do something to make things better when Stiles came home from school silent and tense. But there were only some many baked goods the house could hold, even with the sheriff taking some to work with him. So after that, Derek turned to cleaning.
He didn't know when the last time the house had had a through cleaning, but it wouldn't hurt to give the place a once over. Given all the craziness of the past few months, Derek had the feeling that cleaning had not been one of Stiles or the sheriff's priorities. Derek did check in before hand to make sure that there weren't any places that he should avoid or stay out of. Two weeks later, the house had been cleaned from top to bottom, both the attic and the garage had been reorganized, and the sheriff was leaving flyers about various hobbies around the house.
Stiles just seemed amused. He perched on the kitchen counter grating the block of cheese that Derek had handed him. Derek was working on the white sauce for the mac and cheese he was making.
"So is it some wolfy thing? Preparing the den for winter or something? Because dude, as nice as it is to have a clean house, I think you may need a job or at least something to keep you occupied when Dad and I aren't home. What did you do before you came to Beacon Hills?"
Derek just shrugged. "I was a student mostly. Worked as a barista some, but I'd only just finished my degree when Laura came back here."
Stiles blinked at him, automatically handing the bowl of cheese to Derek when he reached for it. "You have a degree?"
He sighed, "Yes, Stiles. I did actually graduate from college."
"What's it in? We can start looking for jobs in your field."
Derek sighed again as he added the cheese into the pot. He hoped he wasn't blushing. "Um, double major in English and history, minor in foreign language and literature, and a certificate as a pastry chef."
Stiles just stared at him. "Is there a story behind that?"
Derek just shrugged again. "For awhile school was the only thing that made me interact with the rest of the world. Laura would encourage me to pursue whatever caught my interest, and by the time I had the right credits to graduate, I'd sort of accidentally doubled majored."
Stiles didn't seem to have a response to that. But the silence was interrupted before it could get too awkward by the sheriff and Deputy Parrish coming in the back door.
"Is there enough dinner for an extra person? We've got a case that I think might be one of yours."
Derek smiled. "Sure."
He and John had settled into a routine when it came to suspicious cases that might have supernatural involvement. Of course, it also helped that they had one deputy in the know. Thankfully, since the nogitsune, there hadn't been much in the way of the supernatural effecting Beacon Hills' crime. By the time that the mac and cheese was out of the oven, Derek had identified the culprit as just a regular coyote. The discussion around the dinner table turned to other things.
"I mean, I love my nieces, but it's ridiculous," Parrish was saying. "I don't even think I'd know where to start finding young adult supernatural romances that don't star vampires."
Stiles snickered. "There's a section in every book store this days. Vampires are the most popular, but there are also fairies, angels, demons, and of course werewolves."
"But how am I supposed to tell which ones are good and which ones are just trash? Rachel will kill me if I give her kids anything as dumb as Twilight."
Derek shrugged. "I could look into it. It might be interesting to see which ones are completely ridiculous and which ones might actually be written by someone who knows something about the supernatural."
The sheriff just shook his head. "I'm just happy if we can move on to a new pop culture fad beyond zombies. And please don't tell me those are real as well. I want to bask in my ignorance for now."
The idea stuck with Derek though, and he had to admit that it was the sort of project he liked. He'd done an analysis of fairy tale adaptations for one of his classes in college. And he did need something to do during the day when he was home alone. So Derek threw himself into the project.
There were times when he regretted that. He hadn't quite realized what he would be getting into. Eighty percent of the novels were mediocre to awful. Ten percent were absolutely dreadful, and ten percent were really worth reading. Most of the author clearly had no clue about the supernatural, but there were a few that Derek had the suspicion might be in on the secret. The biggest problem Derek found was while there were some really good books out there, none of them seemed to tell the story that Derek was looking for.
He even managed to get into a debate about the genre with Lydia one afternoon when she came over to study with Stiles. It was interesting to say the least. And Derek had to admit that watching Stiles watch them was a great deal of fun. The teenager looked like he was at a tennis match. And as usual, it was Stiles who comes up with the idea. He was the one who encouraged Derek to try his hand at writing his own novel. And Stiles is the one who reads the little snippets and character sketches he starts to produce and offers honest feedback. He's also the one who becomes Derek's go to person for research whenever he needs information for a plot detail or a character's back story.
It probably isn't all that surprising that the main character of his book ends up being a geeky, snarky teenage girl whose best friend ends up becoming a werewolf. Derek did borrow quite a bit from their experiences, but he'd also changed a number of factors. Most people wouldn't be able to tell what the source material was if they read it. Stiles, Lydia, and Kira served as his test audience when he finally was satisfied with a draft. And it was Stiles who spent the summer before his senior year researching publishers and agents.
Of course, Derek spends a lot of his summer researching universities and trying to get a sense of what Stiles is looking for. Stiles had been pretty tight lipped about anything that smacked of future plans, but Derek thinks about what he'd been like when Derek first moved in and knows that Stiles can do this. Of that that doesn't mean that Stiles agrees.
They had several arguments about it. Part of Derek is thrilled that Stiles is willing to yell at him again. In the end, they agree to a compromise. Stiles sent out college applications, and Derek used the pen name that Stiles picked out for him. Oddly enough, Stiles got his acceptance letters the same week that Derek's manuscript was bought. Stiles got a full ride to his top choice, and Derek got a contract that included at least two sequels for his book.
Stiles' senior was relatively quiet compared to some of their past experiences. Kate did try to kill him, but they actually managed to weather that one without too much damage. It ends with Kate's death (again), and Derek can't say he's too upset about that. They made sure that she wasn't coming back this time. Most of the stress came from typical things like college applications, high school in general, and romantic entanglements. Scott's a bit of a mess, but Derek found himself impressed at the way the true alpha manages to pull both himself and his pack together. Derek's never really going to be a part of Scott's pack, but he'd willing call him an ally.
Besides, Derek does have a pack that he feels like he belongs to. It's an odd pack, and he's the only werewolf at this point, but Stiles and John are his pack, are where he belongs. Which is why he doesn't feel out of place at Stiles' graduation party despite the fact that he was mostly surrounded by high school students he didn't know. John was running the grill, and Derek was content to act as Stiles' backrest. He was safe and happy, but then Stiles always made him feel like that these days. If he had learned anything, it was that he was at his best when he was with Stiles. They seemed to compliment one another in a way that Derek wouldn't have expected.
It wasn't really romantic, not really, at least not yet. Derek hadn't been able to think about a relationship with Stiles until he'd turned eighteen. There'd been too many parallels to Kate that he could see, and even with Stiles now being eighteen, he wasn't sure the timing was right for them to really take that step. But there was something there. Neither of them were ready to deal with that though. They both were still healing in a lot of ways, and Derek knew that trying to start something at the moment would be a good way to set themselves up for failure. They had the ability to really hurt one another if they tried. But the potential for something more was there. Home was with one another. Eventually the rest would come, but for now the future could wait, and Derek was going to enjoy the moment. Even if that meant keeping Stiles' fingers out of the cake until they were ready to serve it.