See chapter 1 for all warnings.
Embracing Your Inner Bunny
07 – Derek
Having cleared up whatever business had taken him out of town, Derek is now ready for his bunny cuddling session. I've come to the Hale-Lahey residence and it's just Derek. There's no one else here but me.
Peter's cooked and it's sitting on the side waiting to be shoved in the microwave after our snuggling.
Turning rabbit I hop over to Derek and he stares down at me, I have to lean up his leg to ask to be picked up. He bends down and I hop into his arms, I get taken to the sofa and he sits down cradling me gently.
For the entire time he doesn't talk, but his fingers stroke me and I sprawl out in his embrace enjoying the way he finds just the right spots, my back foot drums at one particular spot and my teeth are grinding continuously as he turns me into a bunny shaped pile of mush.
I barely hear the alarm go off and try to ignore him when he clears his throat trying to get my attention. "Stiles, Stiles you have to turn back now."
I really don't want to and I nudge the fingers closest to my head to encourage him to play with my ears some more. I get a few huffs from him and then he says, "Stiles, rabbits don't eat steak."
Steak?
That's what Peter cooked for us?
Changing back while I'm still on Derek I end up flailing and he only just catches and stops me killing myself on the coffee table. The next thing I know he's helping me to my feet and I honest to god almost swoon as the blood rushes to my head and my jelly like legs won't hold me up, "Oops," my legs do give out and I start to fall, his arms hold me up and I pretend not to be embarrassed, "Wow Derek you give amazing cuddles, totally noodly," I tell him like that even makes sense.
He then walks me to the table and he helps me sit, I feel so damn emasculated right now, still it was an awesome cuddle session and no one needs to know what happened next.
Derek was right it really is steak and I tuck in, it's not the same after it's been microwaved, but Peter's a good cook so I devour the food, cuddling makes me hungry.
"So what did you get up to out of town?" I pry, I'd go for subtle but it never works, I've found direct sometimes does, "Was it super secret Alpha stuff? Hey if you do have super secret Alpha stuff do you have special handshakes? Or do you have pee and they smell it to tell you're an Alpha?"
His face has screwed up, "No, I went to see about the insurance now that Peter's miraculously alive and unscarred, and some personal stuff," he cuts his steak and takes a bite.
Personal stuff.
"What kind of personal stuff?" The thought of him wandering into a bar to find some personal stuff shouldn't upset me, we're not dating, and yeah I have ignored the way he makes me feel when I think about stuff with him, but he's my Protector, not my Guardian.
He's pushing peas around on his plate, and then he mutters something and scoops up a mouthful of peas. "Sorry didn't hear that," I paste a smile on my face and munch on my own peas.
"I went to enrol for online college courses," he grits out, "I didn't want Peter knowing about it," and I can understand that. Most us don't want Peter knowing either, the man makes me look uninterested and uncurious about the world, plus he is creepy as hell and I'm sure he just spends his time following us around to find out what we're getting up to.
"Cool, what are you majoring in?" I chase the last of the potato around the plate and corner it with a triumphant whoop. Munching on it I look up to find him watching me thoughtfully.
"I'm tailoring it so I can mostly do palaeontology with some modern biology," he says and gracefully gets his potato, I think it's more that he has werewolf reflexes that he can do that, not that I may suck at using a fork at times.
"Awesome, you read about dinosaurs all the time, it makes sense," I snag some more steak and stare at it, "I have no idea what I want to do, there's so much out there to learn about, and I'm sure they don't have a supernatural section to specialise in. I mean I like most subjects, even Chemistry and Mr Harris is a total dick, so I have to like it if I can enjoy it and he's the teacher, but then there's History and English, the Sciences of all types, plus Math. How the hell am I supposed to know what I want to do with my life? What kind of experience do I have to choose something that important?" I eat the steak and chew it annoyed that I have to choose one thing over another.
"I didn't know what I wanted to study in college either," Derek offers and I glance up to find him watching me, he's more relaxed than I've ever seen him, "Sometimes you have to decide what you don't want to do first."
Turning that over in my head I nod and let him clear down the table. He comes back with homemade cheesecake, seriously if Peter wasn't so Petery he'd be perfect from the cooking alone.
Over the cheesecake I learn more about Derek's upcoming college stuff and he's excited about it in a stoic Derek way, "I got my GED in New York, but I couldn't afford college then." He frowns and spears some cheesecake, "now that the insurance have been forced to pay out properly I want to go," he stares at the dessert on his plate, "But I'm the Alpha, I have to stay here, online seemed best."
He's going broody again, "Dude, it's dinosaurs, it's going to be awesome," that gets me a smile, not his fake one where he flirts to make people do what he wants, this is his real smile.
Evidence has proven Peter right about the energy drain from going bunny, damn him, and I get ready to take a nap on the sofa, the soft blanket is on the side waiting for me and I close my eyes as Derek starts on the washing up, "You need a hand?" I foolishly volunteer.
"I've got it, go to sleep Stiles, I'll wake you in a few hours," the sound of him being industrious chases me down in dreams. He's as good as his word and I get woken up a few hours later feeling much better.
Then I badger him into showing me a few of the leaflets he's smuggled into his room and out of Peter's sight. We sit on his mattress, because it's the only furniture in here.
"Derek, you need to get a bed or something," I read about online sources, and how you can do IM with your tutor, as well as Skyping and other ways of communication.
"No, this annoys Peter," he says and leans in to point out a few bullet points, "I'm going to use the public library computers to do most of it, the librarian there said I could use a small flash drive, but as those computers can be used by anyone I might get infected with a virus, so she said that I should back up online?"
I spend ten minutes explaining the online things he can do to back up or even start out storing his work online he nods and while he doesn't look like he's taking it all in I know he is.
"Thank you," it's quiet and it's one of the few times he's ever said it.
"Any time Derek, any time," I lever myself to my feet and stretch out my back, "I should get back before dad freaks out and builds a tower to sequester me in," I pat Derek's shoulder, "Thanks for the awesome cuddle session. And we have Wifi at my house if you need it, don't worry I won't tell Peter, but I wanna be there when you graduate, we'll throw a party and you can grumble at people and glare at them."
Going home I'm really pleased with how this one went, I was a bit worried it would be terrible because Derek is growly and grumpy, but it was good. Plus I got Derek to talk about himself a bit, he's all so dark and mysterious that I just wanna poke at him until he spills all of his secrets.
Parking up I go inside to enjoy more of my summer, nothing like locking yourself away from the sun and doing a few raids with my guild, it won't be long until I have to go back to school and maybe I should get some studying done, but screw it, I'm determined to have fun.
A/N: Sorry for any and all mistakes, I've tried to catch those I could, but I'm only human.
