My updates on this may not be as regular because my company made a real cock up which has increased my work and my stress levels tenfold. I may post snippets of this on tumblr though, so you can find some tidbits there. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

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School is due back in a few weeks later, which sucks but Stiles is a senior now, so yay. It's really not yay. He enjoys his last few days of freedom hanging out at Derek's with Lilly; they play games together, makes messes and hang around with whoever Lilly permits to sit with them. Isaac's usually there because somehow Derek managed to get himself registered as Isaac's legal guardian thanks to Danny and his hacking skills, and occasionally other members of Derek's pack, but it feels like Stiles is always there.

On the first day of term Stiles rolls from bed and curses the gods above for the cruelty they have unleashed upon the world. He showers, dresses, skips breakfast and manages to make it on time. He hates the first day back, there's the timetable distribution and confusion, the question over whether subject teachers have changed. The pack is sitting together and usually he flings himself on the edge of their gathering, but he's jostled into the middle. Erica curls a finger under his chin and tips his head up to look at him, her thumb brushing over the bags under his eyes. 'Couldn't sleep?' She asks.

Stiles pulls his head away and turns to Jackson and Boyd, who are already talking Lacrosse. Scott's cooing over Allison and Lydia's fixing her make up. Already. Danny keeps glancing across the room at Matt and Erica's already turned her attention back to Isaac, massaging her fingers over his hands. He wonders what Derek and Lilly are doing, what their plans for the day are. Lilly will dominate Derek's schedule, as usual, but Stiles has noticed Derek's started to leave her with other members of the pack for thirty minutes here and there, but it's Stiles and Isaac who spend most time with her.

Class schedules are handed out while Allison and Scott paint her nails, and Stiles groans loud enough to draw attention from the teacher. He smiles at her glare and shrugs nodding towards his best friend. She rolls her eyes in sympathy and turns to fawn over Danny and Jackson. The day drags and finally Stiles is free to do…huh, he has no plans. 'Can you give me a lift home?' Isaac asks coming out the door behind him.

'Sure.' Stiles says, which is how he ends up sitting across the table from Lilly making cupcakes out of her play dough factory. Isaac and Derek are doing werewolf things and it's just the two of them.

'Stiles?' Lilly says, and it's that question tone that Stiles has come to both love and dread. Her questions are always so interesting.

'Yeah?' He asks setting aside his latest creation. It's a zombie cupcake, blue and green goo coming out of the casing Lilly allowed him to play with.

'Daddy says I'll never see my Auntie Laura again.' She says. It's a question, even if it's not shaped like one. Stiles doesn't know how to respond to that, he's only been hanging out with her a month, and she's one of the most important people in his life, and always will be. She's almost his baby girl too, and he'd face off almost anyone who tried to say different, including Derek. He's never felt this fiercely protective over something before.

Stiles opens his mouth, and then snaps it shut, for once at a loss for words. Lilly looks sad, her tiny fingers pressing into a green blob of the dough. 'I bet your Auntie Laura loved you loads.' Stiles says. Lilly nods.

'Auntie Laura gave me Geezer.' Lilly says as she reaches for the wolf and holds it close.

'See, she loved you loads, and she bought your favourite toy right?' Stiles asks. Lilly nods. 'So even though you'll never see her again she's always with you, looking after you through Geezer.' Stiles hopes it's enough. Lilly gets up and pushes her way into Stiles's lap, resting her head against his chest. He buries his face in her hair, breathing her scent in, wraps his arms around her body. 'You're special.' He says, so low he's not sure she hears it.

'I can hear your heartbeat.' She tells him. He reaches a hand down and runs it through her dark curls. Her fingers twist in her skirt and Stiles takes a moment to appreciate that Derek has to do everything for this little girl, he has to feed her, bathe her and dress her. Sure she's pretty damn cool but she's only four years old and she needs so much care and attention and that's what Derek's devoted his life to doing.

After a while Lilly untangles herself from his lap and goes to find a toy to amuse herself. Stiles tidies away the play dough, and checks his phone. His dad is texting him about dinner and Stiles looks out the back to where Derek's throwing things at Isaac whose trying to duck and avoid being hit.

'Hey Derek, do you mind if my dad comes over for dinner?' Stiles calls. He doesn't particularly want to leave Lilly this afternoon.

Derek turns and walks towards him and Isaac looks grateful for the break, flopping onto his back and gasping. 'Sure.' Derek says, stopping close to him. 'Is Lilly ok?'

Stiles hesitates, wondering if he should talk to Derek about Laura. He tries to find the words to put it to Derek without sounding like he's interfering. 'She misses her aunt.' Stiles says finally.

'Today is Laura's birthday. Lilly remembered.' Derek explains. Stiles nods and shuffles his feet. 'Are you going to cook something?'

'I usually feed me and my dad; a few extra mouths are no problem.' Stiles mutters, shoving his hands in his pockets. Derek looks him up and down for a second then his lips curl. 'Want me to make anything in particular?'

'I remember my parents used to stand here almost every day and discuss what was for dinner.' He says. Stiles doesn't speak, doesn't want to ruin Derek's mood. 'I want that for Lilly. She needs a stable home, parents who love each other, a pack she can depend on.'

Stiles's heart thumps in his chest and Derek frowns at him. 'Two out of three isn't bad right.' Stiles says, turning away from Derek and going back inside. Lilly's curled up on the couch, a doll in her arms. She's telling the doll about Aunt Laura and Stiles heart is hurting so he texts his dad and starts on dinner, settling on a beef stir fry.

On Wednesday Stiles brings Isaac home again, but he has a shit ton of homework already and he isn't planning on hanging around much. Stiles finds Lilly doing homework too, apparently, so he drops onto the floor beside where she's kneeling at the coffee table, her Alphabet worksheet sitting out and three letters in her wobbly handwriting on it. Derek's slumped into the sofa, because Lilly's homework is pretty much parental harassment. It exhausts Stiles and he's seventeen. She coos over Stiles's textbooks when he drags them out of his bag. 'Daddy, you haven't got Stiles his snack yet.'

'Yeah Derek, you haven't got me my snack yet.' Stiles grins innocently at him. Derek gives Stiles a look before getting up and slouching to the kitchen. 'Hey Lilly, what did you do at school today?'

'Kicked ass and took names.' She grins. They high five and Derek snorts from the kitchen.

'Nice one babes, but just remember, we don't say ass in front of Daddy because then I get in trouble.' Stiles warns her, listening for creeper Derek coming to strangle him for teaching Lilly naughty words.

'You won't get in trouble.' She says confidently. Derek returns with cookies and milk for all three of them.

'Can you babysit for me this weekend?' Derek asks Stiles when Lilly manages to finish her work. Derek's leaning over the couch, his elbows on his knees, looking at the sheet on the table, half a cookie clasped in his fingertips.

'Doing something interesting?' Stiles muses highlighting a photograph in his history book. Lilly snags the last piece of Derek's cookie, nipping the corner off it, before stuffing the last of it into Derek's mouth. Derek chuckles, chewing it before going back to Stiles.

'I'm going out with a friend.' Derek says. Stiles ignores the tightness in his chest. Of course Derek will date; he's looking for a good mother for his little girl, for someone who can give him more babies, who can give them a stable future. Stiles just hopes he's allowed to hang out with the little girl as much as possible.

'Anyone I know?' Stiles tries, sucking his cheek between his teeth and biting down a little.

'I'm not sure.' Derek answers and that's it. There's no more added to the conversation because Lilly is barrelling onto Derek's lap with a pink box and tossing a hairbrush into his chest.

'Braid my hair.' She demands. Derek carefully removes the clips that's holding her hair out of her eyes and brushes it until it's smooth. She doesn't whine about tats because he's careful, working them out slowly, and then he's gathering her hair in his hands.

'Pig tails or one braid?' Derek asks as he runs his fingers through her hair.

'Pigtails.' She decides. Stiles watches Derek split her hair evenly, and then his long fingers thread her hair into her demanded style. She chooses two orange bobbles to hold the braids in.

'There we go beautiful.' He says lifting her onto the floor and kissing her head. She grins at them both then skips across the room to her toy box.

'Are you staying for dinner tonight Stiles?' She asks, planting herself on Stiles's crossed legs with Geezer and a rag doll.

'Nah, not tonight pumpkin.' He says. She looks disappointed but he resolutely ignores the feeling in his chest. It's only intensified since Derek's announcement of a date. Stiles doesn't want to think about Derek with someone else, about Lilly with someone else, because Stiles feels like she's a big part of his life now and losing her would hurt him more than he'd like to admit. He's only known her too few weeks, and he's attached more than he should be.

He leaves shortly after that, Lilly begging her Daddy to go play in the forest. She gives Stiles a look that says he should be joining them but Stiles tries to ignore it, tries to focus on something else as he drives home. It's unnatural, this feeling. He's a seventeen year old boy, he should be thinking about dating and sex and having fun, about sneaking liquor out of the house and finding parties to crash. Instead all he wants is this little family to be his family. The revelation frightens him so much he can't eat.

Instead he goes to bed and lies there until he's asleep, and it takes longer than he expects. In the morning he's in yesterday's clothes, and he's starving but the knot in his belly has only intensified. He goes to school, comes home and forgets it's supposed to be dinner with Lilly night until she calls him, growling and demanding he get there immediately. He does, he ignores Derek's angry gaze and Erica's smirk. Lydia arrives with a frown on her face and Stiles wants to tell them all to get lost, apart from Lilly. Lilly balls him out and he feels shit. He shouldn't, a kid shouldn't have this power over him, but she does.

'Forgive me?' He begs, falling to his knees in front of her. He doesn't bother lying to her, she knows anyway. She thinks about it for five seconds before throwing her arms around his neck and kissing his face. It turns into a tumbling match with Stiles on his back and Lilly triumphant on his chest, holding her fists in the air and calling for Derek to come see. Derek cracks a small smile at them. Erica's standing behind him rolling her eyes at Lydia who just shrugs and goes back to the kitchen.

'Lilly you're a little girl, should you really be wrestling on the floor with boys?' Erica asks.

'I wrestled all the time with Laura. How I learned to fight.' Derek tells her, brushing back into the kitchen where the rest of his pack have gathered.

'You're my favourite.' Lilly tells Stiles. 'Come push me on my swing.'

Stiles and Lilly miss the start of dinner because they're counting the pushes and Lilly's up to thirteen and doesn't want to stop now. Derek just leans against the doorjamb watching them with a half-smile on his face and ends up missing the first part of dinner himself. He doesn't seem to care.

Turns out its Erica and Lydia who's going out with Derek on Saturday night. Lilly doesn't seem impressed that Daddy has his 'shiny shirt and smelly stuff' on for them. Stiles isn't either. She pouts at him and Derek takes her aside to talk to her.

'I don't want you to marry Erica.' Lilly says. Stiles is in the living room not eavesdropping. Lilly's just…loud.

'Who says I'm marrying Erica?' Derek asks softly.

'No one but I don't want you to. Or Lydia.' Lilly sounds sad. Stiles has the most uncontrollable urge to comfort her.

'Who do you want me to marry?' Derek asks reasonably. Stiles gets the feeling that whomever Lilly names, Derek will seriously consider.

'My Stiles.' She whispers. His heart lurches at the Stiles part, at the my part. It's like he belongs to her now, like he'll never get away because he's been claimed into her pack.

'I don't know if Stiles is ready to marry me just yet.' Derek whispers to her. Stiles's world falls apart, like Derek will assume Stiles will marry him if he just asks. 'He has to go to college and get a job and all that grown up stuff.' Or perhaps he's just putting the little girl off, delaying this question until she's older and can understand that her Daddy doesn't want to marry Stiles. Stiles realises, as he sits there rolling the hem of his over shirt around his finger that he's never wanted to get married more in his life.

'But he's not a grown up. He's my Stiles. Can't he be like my friend May's mommy; she stays at home all day and plays with her.' Lilly begs.

'Stiles isn't your mommy.' Derek explains.

'But he's my Stiles.' And that, that right there, it explains everything.

Derek still goes out, but he has this look about him that Stiles can't pin. Lilly plans the evening ahead, with food and movies and games and Stiles is sure he's going to be exhausted because this four year old werewolf has more energy than Stiles on sugar. He finally manages to get her to relax on the couch with him (Stiles lies on his back and she uses him as her personal mattress) and they watch Mulan. Lilly's all for girls who kick ass. Stiles tries to ignore the crush he gets on Shang and the fact that he personally identifies most with Mushu. He's not some crazy lizard thing, he's a boy damn it.

He doesn't see the end of the movie, but he does wake to see a relaxed looking Derek peering at them curled around each other on the sofa. 'Go 'way.' Stiles murmurs because Lilly is like a mini hot water bottle. Derek ignores him, bending to scoop Lilly into his arms. She snuggles into his chest, making a little fist in his shirt for a moment.

Stiles sighs and gets up, looking around for his sneakers. 'Stay.' Derek says. Stiles is about to protest but somehow, with one arm wrapped around Lilly, Derek gets his hand on the back of Stiles's neck and guides them both upstairs. He deposits Stiles into one of the guest bedrooms and disappears with Lilly. Stiles face plants onto the bed, struggling out of his jeans and shirt and sleeps half under the duvet in just his shorts and t-shirt. In the morning when he wakes he finds he's all tucked in. He wonders if it happened naturally, or did someone tuck him in?