Stiles fidgeted anxiously as he endured a torturous lunch with his father. Normally he would be happy to spend a rare moment of time with the overworked sheriff but he was itching to go out and try out his new werewolf ninja skills. Sour wolf stayed until he woke up, with eight thousand new things to investigate, but had to be restrained by Scott before he flattened his new beta. Once Derek left, threatening to kill him if he asked one more stupid thing about werewolf sex, Scott sat up with him through most of the night, answering question after tiring question about every little change he felt in his senses. Unfortunately an irate call from his mother dragged Scott out of the house at oh dark thirty and Stiles had been practically vibrating with energy ever since. Whatever his mother was chewing him out for must have been epic because Scott didn't manage to text him for almost six hours. After lunch he was supposed to meet Scott at Derek's for training and he was having trouble not snatching his father's food and dumping it in the trash just to end the charade.

"You have somewhere to be, son?"

"Um, no?"

The sheriff smirked, watching Stiles try and build another excuse in his rapid fire mind. "Tell Scott I said hi."

Stiles stopped in the middle of forming a response to replay the words in his mind. "Thanks, see you tonight." The teenager was out the door before his dad had a chance to tell him goodbye. He sighed, looking heavenward and wondered, not for the first time, if he was going to survive the rest of Stiles' high school career.

.


.

Scott started to notice odd things happening in the week and a half after he finally gave in and accepted Derek as his Alpha. Food started appearing in his fridge or pantry that neither he nor his mother bought, though he let her think he did the shopping. Worn out lacrosse gear would suddenly be replaced before he had a chance to buy it himself. When he noticed overdue notices mysteriously disappear from utility bills, Scott approached the brooding Alpha figuring him for the most likely culprit. Derek just shrugged and told him pack takes care of their own. When further inquiries brought a warning growl, Scott let it drop and told his mother that the raise at the clinic gave him more cash to help out around the house. They argued for days about Scott saving the money for college, which in reality he was, but she eventually gave in when he reminded her that she hadn't had more than a day off in three months and he didn't want her dying of exhaustion before he ever made it to graduation. His impassioned plea made her cry when Scott told her that he wanted her to have a social life too and that it wasn't fair to her to be suffering just because his father was too vindictive to bother with child support.

He was positive Derek was eavesdropping on that conversation, because less than a day later a check showed up by courier from one Henry McCall covering a third of the child support payments he missed over the last nine years. He refrained from asking his Alpha about that particular instance, because frankly he didn't want to know anything about his father. Any man that would use his wife and ten year old son for target practice wasn't worth the effort.

For the most part, Scott kept his mouth shut and accepted the fact he couldn't tell Derek to stop doing things for him, because it was apparently against his nature as an Alpha not to provide for his pack. He rolled his eyes when he came home from practice and found that the front steps on the porch had been fixed. He sighed and shook his head when the faulty air condition was suddenly working. When the new computer showed up in his room, however, Scott lost his cool, mostly due to the fact he spent six hours trying to convince his mother that he wasn't a drug dealer and no he didn't steal any of his new clothes or electronics. Once she finally calmed down and went to work, Scott took off like a bat out of hell and followed the familiar scent of his Alpha.

"Will you knock it off?" Derek turned from his training session with Isaac, appearing annoyed with the interruption.

"Knock what off?"

"My mother is convinced I am a drug dealer!" Scott snarled at the slight upturn of his Alpha's lip. "This isn't funny, Derek. She's seriously convinced I am doing something illegal." He crowded the older man. "And that means she's suspicious. She is watching everything I do, including sneaking out for the full moon."

Derek snarled and watched Scott back down with satisfaction. "Then tell her it's from your father."

Scott groaned and dropped down on the floor of the station. "Won't work. She knows I would never take something like that from him. I won't even talk to him." He rubbed a tired hand over his eyes. "Besides, I'm pretty sure she called him first to chew him out."

Derek signaled for Isaac to get lost and squatted in front of his high strung Prime. "So I should send back the car then, huh?" Scott let out an undignified whine and flopped back on the dirty cement. "Relax. I'm kidding." Derek smirked at his discomfort and sat down next to him. "Pack takes care of pack, Scott."

The teen rubbed at his temples, trying to alleviate the headache forming behind his eyes. "Does it matter you are actually making things harder for me?"

Derek sighed. "Yes, but it won't stop. It's a compulsion. If I see you need something I'm going to take care of it because it's the Alpha's job to provide for their pack." He shrugged unapologetically, not mentioning that the fact Scott was his son made the need much stronger. "It's worse because you don't live with me. Most packs live under the same roof and things are communal."

"So if I lived with you it wouldn't be as bad?" Scott gave him a disbelieving look.

"Yes."

"Forgetting the fact that I am only sixteen and that isn't going to happen while my mother is still breathing, you live in an abandoned subway depot, Derek." Scott sat up, once again wanting to rail against the horrible sense of humor of the man upstairs. Pack dynamics were going to give him a heart attack.

Derek rolled his eyes. "It's only temporary. I had to find a place inside Hale territory that was isolated and safe from hunters."

"Had to? Meaning you found one?" The Alpha nodded. "When are you moving?"

"I sign the papers in three days. It's a cabin up on Greyson's Bluff big enough for all of us."

There was a moment of silence while Scott tried to work around the rules. "I can't live with you, at least not before I graduate, but I think we can come up with a compromise." Derek waited stoically for his son to present his argument. "If I had a room there, stayed there on weekends instead of Stiles' house and when Mom works doubles overnight, would that be enough to keep you from messing with the house?" Scott picked nervously at his shoe lace. "Anything you feel I absolutely need can be left there, out of Mom's paranoid sight."

The elder's jaw clenched as he battled with the wolf. "We can try it for now, but I'm not promising anything."

Scott relaxed a little, happy to have a somewhat peaceful resolution to his first major clash with Derek. "Summer vacation starts in two months, and aside from my shifts at the clinic I will be free to be around more. That should help." Derek nodded, still unhappy. "I'm trying, Derek, I really am."

His elder sighed and nodded. "I know." He got up and walked into the train car mumbling about teenagers being the death of him.

Scott stayed on the floor, examining the decrepit ceiling before propping himself up on his elbows and shouting into Derek's sanctuary. "Does this mean you expect me to help you move?"

"Get out of here, Scott."

He bit his lip, knowing his next question proved that he spent way too much time with Stiles. "This one has running water, right? It's not a fixer upper?"

"Scott!" The Prime hopped to his feet, hurrying up the stairs with the sound of Isaac's laughter following him.