Jackson grudgingly slipped his shirt back on as they made their way out of the park, heading back for the van. The heat of the day had picked up considerably by nine, all the boys but Derek – who was still in a slight mood – taking their shirts off to get some colour, the girls laying out on the grass (which Lydia did with a resigned sigh – she was already two chapters into her hidden book).
"Goodbye, Sacramento." Stiles said wistfully, sticking out his bottom lip and widening his eyes as he looked around the street the van was parked on. It was a completely unremarkable street, but it was special to them.
"Get in or we're leaving you behind." Derek said with a tiny smile on his face as the engine came to life, resisting the urge to laugh along with Scott and Allison as Stiles tripped over his own feet in his hurry to get inside – he wouldn't have put it past Derek to actually leave, just to teach him a lesson.
"Bye, bye, tree town, beautiful city of greens. Forever will you be marked as the start of our journey!" Stiles reeled off a spontaneous monologue about how wonderful Sacramento was as they drove through the streets, sighing theatrically when they drove under the towers of Tower Bridge.
"Stop! It's lifting!" Allison screamed excitedly, looking back at the bridge, sticking her head out of the open window. Cries of 'stop!' from Allison, Scott, and Stiles – especially Stiles – bombarded Derek's ears until he pulled over at the side of the road, slamming his door just a little too hard as everyone but Lydia got out to see a boat pass underneath.
"Smile!" Stiles told Scott and Allison, turning the camera to them after he had snapped at least twenty shots of the bridge. He got a good one of Jackson flexing with the bridge in the background, and even one of Derek gazing into the distance, looking like the principal character of a nineteenth century romance novel from his serious, deep stare.
The journey to their next destination, Point Reyes National Seashore, took longer than expected because of traffic, but Stiles attempted to keep everyone entertained along the way, only allowing the van to lapse into comfortable silences for a few minutes before he was off discussing another topic, or commenting how they should stop here and here and here, his cries for the van to stop being met with deaf ears as they drove near the San Pablo Wildlife Refuge and past - unremarkable to everyone but Stiles – sights on Route 37.
"The plants just look so nice, can't we go for a walk?" Stiles asked, trying to mask his pleas to stretch his legs with the excuse of wanting to experience nature.
"For the fifth time, no." Derek said quietly as he grabbed Stiles' iPod – which was plugged into the stereo – and flicked through the songs, trying to find something that didn't make him want to tear his eardrums out.
"Hey, that was good!" Stiles complained as Derek skipped past one of his favourite songs. "And that!" He complained as another song was skipped.
"Drivers trump card, remember?" Stiles fell into a sullen silence, settling back into his seat as Derek drove, glancing behind him for some real conversation and finding Scott and Allison asleep in each others arms, and Jackson having a quick beauty nap, his head hitting the window repeatedly.
"Are you having fun?" Stiles cleared his voice as he asked Lydia.
"Yes." Her eyes glanced up for only a second before they dropped again, onto the invisible-to-Stiles book in her bag. He began a soft whistling instead, though he was quickly silenced with a punch to his arm from Derek.
Point Reyes Station, the tiny town that served as one of the gateways to the National Park, was a shock to the system after Sacramento. Stiles absently mused that it looked like the kind of close knit, small town that a horror movie would be set in. Everyone talked excitedly amongst themselves as Derek drove the van to the starting point of their hike.
"No one told me we were hiking!" Lydia gasped as she focused half her attention on the conversation and half on her book.
"It was on the itinerary." Jackson laughed. The trail Stiles had planned for them was an easy one, well, as easy as any hike could be. The full details were written down on the itinerary he had personally delivered to everyone a few weeks before the trip. It was 10 or so miles with the famously stunning beach at the end, but no one mentioned the distance to Lydia. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her; maybe just the soles of her feet.
"Right, everyone out." Derek pulled his bag, which was strapped to the top of the car, down, swapping his shoes for hiking boots and throwing Stiles his own boots which he had shoved in Derek's bag before they left, his own bag being too full to hold them. Everyone but Jackson and Lydia had brought the right footwear.
"Are you guys dumb?" Scott laughed as he laced up Allison's top of the line boots; the Argents knew all about hiking – they tracked (oh, and killed) werewolves after all.
"They're not fashionable." Jackson and Lydia said at the same time, looking down as the rest of the group glanced at each other before they burst out laughing. Derek swapped his leather jacket for a black hoody so he could move around better, while Allison and Scott shrugged into waterproofs.
"I might stay here..." Lydia looked around a cautiously at the wide open space in front of her, wondering how many bugs were hiding in the dirt and could crawl into her clothes and hair. Jackson was doing the exact same thing, but he was determined to prove his masculinity.
"You can't!" Stiles begged; he wanted everyone to experience the trip together.
"You're coming." Derek growled, siding with Stiles. Lydia's mouth opened, ready to argue back, but Derek's growl sent her packing – literally – she began loading water and energy bars into her purse. The trail was a beginner one, and luckily wasn't too packed – they seldom passed other hikers, only the occasional few who they stopped to talk with for a few seconds, most of them glancing at Jackson and Lydia and shaking their heads at their obvious inexperience.
"An elk!" Stiles screamed as he saw the creature through the sparse trees, grazing in a patch of green among the yellow.
"Shut your mouth!" Derek grabbed Stiles by his collar, almost sending him over the edge of the rocky path. "You'll scare it off." Both thanking and cursing Derek, Stiles fished the camera from his backpack and started to snap pictures of it while everyone ducked down low and tried to get a good look at it.
"Beautiful..." Allison mused, suddenly feeling very romantic and grabbing hold of Scott's hand.
"Isn't it?" Jackson did the same to Lydia.
"We're going uh – ahead." Allison and Scott giggled as they ran forward along the trail, both experienced joggers and athletes respectively, well able to handle the hike at a jog.
"Hey come back!" Stiles got another punch from Derek, who was still gazing at the elk, as he shouted to the shrinking figures of his two friends.
"We're staying here for a while. Go on now." Lydia smiled sweetly, rubbing her hands along Jackson's biceps.
"Aw man! You have to be kidding me, we're supposed to be doing this together and now you guys are gonna hook up in the middle of a National Park?! What about the poor elk, he doesn't wanna see that kind of thing!"
"Come on." Stiles ramblings grew fainter as Derek dragged him along the trail, on the one hand happy to be rid of the two least experienced walkers but on the other irritated that he was stuck with Stiles.
"They better watch out for poison oak." Stiles grumbled when he noticed the slightly shiny looking leaves springing out all over the floor amongst the nettles, glad to be wearing jeans. Continuing their hike – Stiles happily pointing out the wide array of flowers, bugs, and different animals that they saw, of course taking pictures of each one – Stiles let the resentment he was harbouring towards the others disappear, trying to enjoy himself with Derek, who was slowly becoming slightly more conversational as they passed the hour and a half mark and stopped on a little cropping of rocks to have a five minute rest and an energy bar.
"It really is a nice place." Derek told Stiles as he looked out to the ocean, the waves could be heard crashing on the rocks hundreds of feet below them. It was strangely calming.
"Were you expecting anything less? I did pick it after all." Stiles joked, energy bar falling out of his mouth and onto his lap.
"I don't know why you joke about being self centred all the time, we all know you're not." A flush crept up Stiles' neck at Derek's observation.
"Perceptive..." He tried to laugh his comment off as they continued along the trail, walking in an oddly comfortable silence for the two of them, Derek thanking whatever were-gods he worshipped for keeping Stiles quiet for almost an hour. The boy who was having prayers cast because of him was silently – odd, I know – thinking about how strange Derek was. When there was no one else there he seemed to open up much more, even if it was involuntary at first. Maybe Derek wasn't as bad as he thought after all.
By two o'clock Stiles had began to sweat under the hot summer sun, removing his hoody and hoping they got to the beach soon so that he could go cool off in the ocean.
"I'm so hot!" He complained, breaking Derek's wish for silence, though he didn't frown for a change, he had actually began to miss the sound of Stiles' voice.
"We'll be at the beach soon. You can go swimming." Stiles recoiled slightly in shock at the way Derek said it, one eyebrow raised slightly, his smile crooked.
"Uh – okay – I hope you're not as horny as everyone else because, well, there's only me for you to choose unless someone's willing to share and, no offence, but that would just be weird."
"Shut up Stiles." Derek shook his head, tightening the straps of his backpack and striding forward so that Stiles couldn't see his devilish smile.
"Well that was a weird way of telling me I'm crazy..." He whispered, forgetting that Derek could hear him.
"You can relax – there's Scott and Allison." Derek pointed to two small figures frolicking around on the sand of Drake's beach. Even from this distance Stiles could see they were pretty into their make out session, Scott had his t shirt off and Allison was in just a bikini. "Let's leave them." Grabbing Stiles' arm, turning his body in another direction, the two of them set off a little away from Scott and Allison, who hadn't noticed anyone.
"It's so beautiful..." Stiles said without a trace of sarcasm or overblown dramatics as he and Derek stood in the sand, watching the huge white stream of small waves as they hit the shore and broke up into smaller ones.
"Good choice." Derek commented quietly, breathing in the sea air, enjoying the peace of the almost empty beach. He felt like he was back in time, he couldn't explain it, the place was mystical, magical even. He understood why Scott and Allison were willing to brave the rather cold winds to get some skin on skin contact, it was a romantic spot.
"I don't think I'll go swimming though." Stiles said quietly, putting his hoody back on and sinking to the floor. The winds were strong, but they didn't take away from the beauty of the place or ruin the experience at all. He could still see Scott and Allison practically grinding into each other a few hundred feet away. Both Stiles and Derek were feeling pangs of loneliness at the same time, clearly Scott and Allison were enjoying each other, and it was fairly obvious that Jackson and Lydia were doing the same thing somewhere just off the trail.
"I think I need you to choose me to get over your horniness..." Stiles said, almost to himself, as he laid back in the sand, his face screwing up as he realised what he said. "I didn't mean to say that, I swear." He jumped up hurriedly, ignoring Derek's cocky smirk and almost running off down the seemingly endless expanse of beach. It was invigorating running along in the sand, if not a little difficult, and soon he was running not to escape Derek's amused looks, but just because he wanted too, because he was enjoying it, was enjoying everything.
He didn't let his own comment to Derek get to him, but he couldn't help but wonder if it was some part of his subconscious taking over and saying what he really felt... No way, it was just Derek!