Derek was awake.

Again.

He rubbed his forehead with his hand and took a glance at the clock on the table next to him. 3:53 am. He was waking up at bloody 6:00 am to go to work, he needed some sleep.

"Just one more chapter…" he muttered to himself, turning the next page of 'The Catcher in the Rye'. He liked to convince himself that he was reading it because it was a good book, but he knew deep down that there was another reason. Stiles had read 'Catcher', and the next time he saw him, Derek was going to have a veritable wealth of J.D Salinger knowledge to draw upon to make him seem intelligent. And no, he wasn't going to admit that to Erica.

He didn't know why he was even bothering. Derek hadn't seen Stiles walk into his shop in at least two weeks, and it was getting him down. Erica saw it as well, and had even gone as far as to organise him a 'blind date' with her friend, Danny, but that hadn't gone too well. I mean, Danny was HOT and everything, but he didn't make Derek's heart thud against his chest, didn't make the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, didn't have a face covered in very lickable moles. He tried to explain this all to Erica, but he didn't have to.

She got it.

Danny just wasn't… well… he wasn't Stiles…

Derek sighed and put the book down. He was being ridiculous, moping around like some love-struck teenager. For all he knew, Stiles could be recovering from a shitty breakup, or he could be straight, or he could have signed up to a life of abstinence by pledging to become a Catholic priest.

Anything was possible.

Now, though, Derek needed some sleep…

He lay down on his bed, still in his work clothes, and switched off the light.

"DEREK!" yelled Erica from outside the shop, "STOP MOPING AND GIVE ME A HAND WITH THESE FLOWERS!"

Derek let out a huff of air, and pushed himself up off his chair. He'd only just got into work, and he was already exhausted. Naturally, he blamed Stiles. That cute, skinny-jean wearing, novel-reading bastard had been keeping him awake for nights.

"OKAY I'M COMING!" he yelled back, dodging hanging baskets and bunches of hydrangeas and making his way out of the front door to see Erica struggling to carry a large bundle of geraniums out of the back of a lorry labelled 'Fresh Plant Delivery'.

"Here, let me give you a hand with that, you can take those…" he muttered, taking the geraniums from her and gesturing to a considerably smaller pile of forget-me-nots.

"You know, I appreciate the chivalry, sweetheart," Erica quipped, "But I'm pretty sure a bunch of geraniums won't break my back in two…"

Derek snorted, and nodded, "Yeah, what can I say? My mother brought me up well…"

"She sure as hell did," replied Erica, following Derek into the store with the forget-me-nots, "So, any news from lover-boy?"

"No," Derek replied simply.

"Shit, sorry man…"

"Don't worry about it, honestly," Derek said, placing the geraniums on a large shelf, and checking them off his clipboard, "I'm good."

"How much sleep did you get last night?"

Derek didn't answer. Erica sighed and sashayed past Derek into the storage room, sliding the bundle of forget-me-nots next to the fuscias and felicias.

"You need to get him off your mind, Hale." She stated simply, "What about Danny? That guy I introduced you to? He liked you."

Derek smiled at her, shook his head, and sat down on the spinning chair behind the counter "No, he wasn't my type."

"And by that you mean 'Can't discuss symbolism in 'The Catcher in the Rye' and has never made you practically shit yourself by ordering white roses'?"

Derek said nothing, and Erica smiled conspiratorially.

"Stiles, Stiles, wherefore art thou, Stiles?" She sang.

"Actually, 'wherefore' means 'why', not 'where'."

Both Erica and Derek jumped and spun around to face the intrusion. There, sillhouetted in the light of the doorway, was Stiles. Skinny jeaned and messy haired and as gorgeous as always. He was leaning on the doorframe, with one leg slightly bent and hips protruding in a way that Derek didn't even want to think about.

Erica hummed to herself, and walked away, winking secretly at Derek before she dissapeared into the back of the shop.

"Uhmm…" Derek started to say, but his tongue caught in the vack of his throat, so he coughed and tried again, "How... How much of that did you hear?"

Stiles laughed. A sound that went straight down Derek's spine.

"I only heard the last sentence, unfortunately. Why? Did you declare your undying love for me or something?"

Derek froze, then looked nervously at Stiles. There was a cheeky glint in his eye.

"And I never caught your name." Stiles continued, thankfully preventing Derek from having to answer his previous quiestion.

"Derek. I'm Derek."

Stiles sauntered into the shop and perched himself on the corner of the counter, picking up a plant care leaflet and flicking through it absent-mindedly.

"Derek," he said, trying out the name, testing how it sounded on his tongue.

Derek was struggling to hold himself upright.

"Nice name," Stiles continued, "I figured I couldn't keep calling you 'hot bearded florist' in my head. Derek is good. It suits you."

Derek could swear that he heard Erica snort from the inventory, and added kicking the shit out of her to his mental list. That was once he had got his heart back to a normal rate.

"I… um… did you want some flowers?"

Jesus, Derek, pull yourself together you are a grown man.

Stiles actually laughed at that. A full on belly-laugh.

"I'm sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable?" Stiles continued, the look on his face making it obvious that he was not sorry. Not at all.

"I don't suppose you have any cherry blossom? My sister is getting engaged next week and I want to get her something…"

Cherry blossom. Did they have any cherry blossom? Derek glanced at the clipboard in his hand, trying to stop his hands from shaking because had Stiles really just called him hot? Chrysanthemums, Coreopsis, Cherry blossom, there it was.

"Yeah, yes we've got cherry blossom… let me just give it to you… I mean… get it for you…Shit."

And with that, Derek scurried off into the storage room, sweat running down his back. Erica was stood there with a cherry blossom sapling in her hand, ready for him. He mentally checked kicking the shit out of her off his list, because holy hell, he appreciated the shit out of that.

Grabbing the cherry blossom and mouthing a heartfelt, "Thank you," he rushed back into the front of the shop to see Stiles sat in his office chair with his feet rested up on the desk.

"Cherry blossom." Derek said stupidly, holding the baby tree up.

"Yes. I can see that." Stiles answered, the top of his mouth quirking up in a half-smile that made Derek's heart stop in its tracks. Stiles stood up and walked towards Derek, almost predatorily, and Derek found himself nervously taking a step back, knocking his foot on a vine on the floor, and falling headfirst into Stiles' chest, cherry blossom and all.

"Fuck." He muttered, uprighting himself, and refusing to look directly into Stiles' eyes. He was positive that his face was burning as red as a tomato.

Finally bringing himself to look up, Derek saw that Stiles was holding in laughter, his shirt, this time blue, covered in cherry blossom petals.

"And I really liked this shirt…" he muttered, finally breaking into a beaming smile and looking directly at Derek, his brown eyes staring deep into Derek's green.

"Shit, I'm SO sorry!" exclaimed Derek, picking the blossoms off Stiles' torso, and trying in vain to not notice how goddamn HARD that guy's chest was. Holy hell.

Stiles chuckled, and joined in, picking off the small pink petals, "Don't worry about it, Derek, honestly…"

Derek didn't respond, he simply continued to pick off all of the timy little petals now clinging to the younger man's upper body.

"Just let me de-flower you and then I'll continue our conversation."

He felt Stiles stiffen under his touch, and inwardly cursed himself.

Why the fuck did he say that why the fuck did he say that holy shit Derek get your bloody head in the game good lord.

"Is that a promise?"

Derek froze, then straightened himself up and looked straight into Stiles' eyes.

"Only if you want it to be."

Okay. Okay this was happening. Calm down, Derek, calm down.

Stiles broke out into one of his blinding grins, took the pot of cherry blossom from Derek, placed it calmly on a shelf behind him, then took a step forwards, so their chests were touching, and brought his lips to the taller man's.

Derek stepped back in surprise, his broad shoulders crashing into the shelf behind him, and knocking over the pot of cherry blossom, sending it crashing to the floor.

"Fucking hell…" he muttered, and Stiles laughed, shaking his head.

"If you didn't break anything during our first kiss, I wouldn't believe that it was really you, Derek."

Derek let out a smile, one that finally reached his eyes.

"Well now we're going to have to get you another cherry blossom…"

Stiles' eyebrow quirked up in confusion.

"You know..." continued Derek, "For your sister's engagement."

Stiles barked out a laugh, and weaved his hand around Derek's neck, making the hairs stand on end, and took a step closer, pushing Derek's back into the wall.

"I haven't got a sister." He whispered.

"But, but it was her birthday… and you said that she-"

"I made her up to come and see you, you idiot." Stiles explained, "The purple lilies sat on my bedside table for two weeks until I could pluck up the courage to come and see you again."

Derek's eyebrows raised in surprise.

Oh.

Stiles leant in for another kiss, and this time, Derek was absolutely sure not to break anything.