Three years later, 30th of Hearthfire, Turdas

Stiles awoke in an inn him and Derek were staying in for a mission, he smiled to look over to see man still slumbering. It was Stiles and Derek's 2 year marriage anniversary. Derek had asked for Stiles' hand in marriage roughly a year after they had finished what Stiles refers to as 'the wolfy trials'. The 21 year old's mind flashes back to the day Derek had asked him to marry him, he found the boy acting weird throughout the day.

**Flashback**

Scott and Stiles had just returned from a mission in the morning of the 20th of Hearthfire. The boys were well rested from camping out before returning to Whiterun. Stiles was excited because he hadn't seen Derek in days, and they both had been on missions, so he was hoping that they both would get some down time to spend time together. He was snapped out of his daydreaming when he almost trips over Scott because he was not looking where he was going. "Watch it Stiles! I know you haven't seen Derek in a couple days, but try and watch where you're going. You will have plenty of time later to spend with him, and by the gods please go to an in if he is going to bed you. I don't think my ears can take a repeat of last time, how could you not know the muffle spell would wear off before you...finished.." Scott says letting out a shiver of nervousness. Stiles face heated up and turned scarlet. 'Scott would never let him live that one down would he?' He thought to himself. "That was one time! May I also remind you the plenty of times you were on missions with me and met with Allison. You may think you were far enough away for me to notice, Well I did. I also almost was scarred for life and died of laughter when I heard you refer to your 'tool' as 'The Blade of Woo'. Haha I had to shove my face in my sleeping roll trying not to burst into tears!" Stiles says starting to laugh hysterically.

The alpha glares at Stiles and hits him in the arm. "You don't breathe another word of that to anyone unless you want to meet an early grave, or I'll have to remind everyone of how desperate you sounded for Derek to...how did you put it? Oh please Go harder, please Der sho-" Scott is cut off by Stiles covering Scott's mouth. Stiles promises not to tell anyone, if Scott promises not to bring up Stiles' sexcipade. The two boys reach Jorrvaskr and are met with Allison, who had recently joined the Companions, not accepting the bite, but not wanting to be associated with the Silver Hands anymore. Scott leaves Stiles' side to go unpack his stuff and catch up with Allison. Talia was a little paranoid about Allison at first, but she had proven herself and was not apart of Scott's pack. Stiles is now taken into a hug, the familiar scent was soothing, it was one of his closest friends now. Stiles was happy, he now had more than just one friend. He had very close friends that he considered to be family. Erica lets Stiles go and tells him that Derek recently got back and was speaking with Talia. Stiles nodded and smiled at Erica when she returned to Boyd. The two had gotten married a couple months prior and had asked Stiles to give her away since they had became so close. Derek on the other hand was Boyd's best man. The ceremony was amazing.

Stiles made his way to Derek and Stiles' now shared room. They had started sharing when they figured they were past certain relationship levels, considering that they were mates and such. As soon as he walks through the doorway Derek walks to him and kisses his lips. Stiles finds it weird because Derek is usually a calm person and right now his heart is pounding a mile a minute. He ponders if it's because the mission may still have his wolf riled up? But he decides against it because he is always calm in battle. "Hello Der. Are you okay? I can hear your heart beating fast." Stiles says, bringing Derek into a hug and resting his head on Derek's chest. Derek's heartbeat seems to calm down when Stiles does this. He loved being able to have such a positive effect on his mate. "I'm fine Stiles. Just have a lot on my mind" Derek replies, trying word his statement in such a way that it wouldn't be a lie. Stiles had gotten really good at determining lies with people's heartbeats. Stiles just nods at Derek and he unpacks his own things.

Derek surprises Stiles by telling him they're going to the Bannered Mare to eat. Stiles just think this is a treat for not being able to see each other for a couple days. Even then it is a little out of character for Derek, but Stiles just chalks it up to Derek getting paid a good amount for his mission so he wanted to be fancy. When they enter the Inn one of the owners Saadia greets them and says she's been expecting them and has a place ready for them. Stiles looks at Derek with a confused face, usually they just come to the inn sometimes to drink and get food occasionally, but they always com unannounced. 'Had Derek made a reservation?' Stiles thought to himself. The half Breton follows his mate and the woman upstairs where they are led to one of the rooms. When she opens the door Stiles sees a lone table with two chairs, candle in the middle, the rest of the room looking like a normal in room. Saadia tells them to order whatever they want and she will make it happen, Stiles goes to sit down but Derek takes the chair and motions for Stiles to sit. He does and Derek pushes his chair in for him, then proceeding to take his own seat.

The whole time Stiles is there he has a slight tinge of pink on his face. This was one of the most courtly romantic things Derek had ever done for him. When the they decided what they wanted Derek told Saadia, but also nonchalantly slipped her an envelope. Nothing peculiar went through Stiles' head because he just thought he was paying her in advance or something because they usually didn't do this one room serving type of thing. Stiles and Derek made idle conversation while they waited for their food to be prepared. They told each other about how their missions went or talked about popular subjects. One of the subjects being how much more courting Liam and Isaac are doing. Stiles jokes about wondering when Isaac or Liam would finally ask to marry, and Derek turns pink, heart racing again, but he plays it off and makes a joke that Allison would ask Scott before Scott would ask her.

When their food came Stiles let out something close the wolf equivalent of a purr. The food smells extremely delicious to him. Derek chuckles at him and begins eating. Stiles tries to be civil when eating, but he kind of eats like his wolf would eat. After they finish eating Derek informs Stiles that Derek has got the room until tomorrow morning, and that he has a fun day off planned for them. Stiles smiles and hugs Derek.

Stiles and Derek go for a run in the forest, shifting into their wolves, Derek knows Stiles likes this. He likes running and the freedom that comes with running in his wolf form, the breeze that runs through his fur. Derek likes being able to do this with Stiles, he likes nipping and being playful with him while running around. Doing the things that mated wolves do. They run for about an hour or two before returning to Whiterun, Derek pulling Stiles by the hand to the Temple of Kynareth. Stiles wonders why he is there, but when Stiles is stood in front of his parent's resting place he is at a loss for words.

Derek had gotten tons of flowers to decorate the coffins, and several offerings. "I thought you would like this, I know you haven't been here in a while to visit them." Derek says wrapping his arm around Stiles' waist. He wondered why Derek was doing all these nice things for him, it wasn't a special occasion, or at least he didn't think so. Stiles took to talking to his parents, telling them how their year was going. Then he lit a candle for them, about to leave before Derek said he needed to ask them something, or rather in front of them, but he makes Stiles plug his ears for some reason. Derek said he would explain it all later, but he had to be there when Derek asked his parents. Stiles obliged and plugged his ears.

The Hale boy waits until he is sure Stiles cannot hear, or at least cannot make out his words, and then proceeds to speak. "Uhh..Hello Claudia and Jon. You've met me before, I'm Stiles' mate. I have something to tell you and I wanted to ask formally and hope to think you would approve. I-I'm going to ask for Stiles' hand in marriage later today, and well, I wanted your blessing to marry him." Derek says, getting slightly emotional. When Derek feels he's let his words sink into the air he lets Stiles unplug his ears and they depart the hall of the dead.

Sometimes when the weather is nice, and there is a slight breeze, Stiles likes to just sit in the upper circle and watch the skies. Stiles would laugh when Derek would pull out the guard's typical warnings to 'watch the skies traveler'. Stiles thinks sometimes he is kind of lucky he hasn't encountered a dragon before, but he knows if he ever did he didn't need a dragonborn to defend himself. All he needed was his pack to take a dragon down. He didn't need to shout when he had the ability to shift. He also thinks if he were dragonborn, it doesn't suit him, he wouldn't want that life. Dragonborns were held high and had many responsibilities, and Stiles didn't want that. He just wanted to be with his pack now.

Derek is nudging Stiles saying he is zoning out looking at the skies. There is also a joke about a dragon swooping down and kidnapping him without even notices he lets out. It is almost approaching nightfall by the time the two are done sitting around watching the skies. Derek takes it as a better time than any, he had been going to speak and ask the question, but when he tried no words came out. Derek pads over to where the Talos worshipper usually does his banter, and he gets up on the stone stool. Then he proceeds to whistle, getting the attention of some people. "Can I please get an audience, I have something I would like to say." Derek says hoping that someone from Jorrvaskr could hear, considering the circle was fairly close to their home.

Derek's pack and Scott's are now outside, along with a couple of Derek's family members. Laura, Cora, and Peter are now heading to stand with the group of people forming around Derek. The group of people is pretty big, but it doesn't surprise Derek because he is a Companion, and they are held high to the city folk, and so it only makes sense they would want to hear what Derek has to say. Stiles on the other hand is genuinely confused, this whole day has been great and really sweet of Derek to put together, but he has been acting weird.

Stiles' mate motions for him to sit directly in front of the stool Derek is about to speak from. When Derek guages that there are enough witnesses he begins to talk. "Hello citizens of Whiterun. You may know who I am, or may recognize me as a member of the Companions. I am Derek Hale. You may also recognize him Derek points to Stiles. He is the former head Guards son, Stiles Stilinski, Genim Stilinski if you have a death wish Derek chuckles a little. He is also a member of the Companions. I am unsure if any of you outside of the Companions know of us yet, but for the past year we have been courting. Over the past year Stiles has been nothing but great, a magnificent partner, he is sweet, caring, very talkative as well as protective towards me and my shield brothers. I just wanted to say to any of the general public that may have ever called him weak or a liability to the Companions, that he is one of our strongest. He also is the person who makes me the happiest. I am not one for many words, in fact taking the time to get up here and say all this in front of you all is taking all my effort. I guess what I am trying to say is I have something to ask Stiles and I wanted him to have an audience and have a great moment of happiness. So Stiles, will you please do me the honor of letting me have your hand in marriage?" Derek says, heartbeat skyrocketing through the roof.

Stiles doesn't know when he started crying, but he did, and Isaac was now behind him with his hand on his back. Derek waits there silent waiting for Stiles to answer when he finally clears his tears out of his eyes. "Yes of course!" Stiles cries out while smiling and a slight laugh. Stiles doesn't care about the amount of people seeing him cry, it was his moment and he could have any emotion he wanted right now. Stiles then runs up to Derek, and Derek embraces him while kissing him like his life depended on it. There are cheers and congratulations around them. This goes on for a while before the crowd starts to disperse.

The rest of the night goes by fairly nicely, Stiles and Derek just return to the inn and 'celebrate' their engagement. Derek tells Stiles that he has contacted the Temple of Mara and they have the option to have their wedding as soon as the 30th of Hearthfire if Stiles accepted. Derek just had to send a courier to Riften to the temple informing them they had indeed became engaged. Stiles was ecstatic and couldn't wait to be wed to Derek. Besides 'celebrating' Stiles and Derek spent time planning how the marriage was going to go as far as who was sitting where in the temple, as well as the name situation. Traditionally with a male/female relationship the woman takes the man's surname. Frequently with a male/male relationship in skyrim the one who is asked takes the askers name. Derek and Stiles decide to go against it and they would both take each others making them Derek Hale-Stilinski, and Stiles Hale-Stilinski. They liked this idea because it meant they both could keep their names and it also created a new name, so they had something unique going for them.

10 days later, 30th of Hearthfire

Stiles is a ball of nerves, Laura was in the side room with him in the Temple of Mara trying to calm him down and give him the typical Hale threat "if you heart my brother I will rip your throat out...with my teeth." Laura had been the one to give Stiles some nice looking clothes, Stiles thought she secretly liked Stiles as Derek's partner, but she never would admit it.

Meanwhile Derek was in the other room with his brother and Scott. He also was dressed up in very nice royal looking clothes. Vilkas was getting kind of annoyed at how nervous Derek was getting. "Brother, I am happy for you and all, but your heartbeat is literally giving me a headache. So please stop being nervous, today is a happy day you're getting married, well human married, technically you're already mates so it shouldn't be a big deal. But I may say that I thought you liked this kid back when we were children. Don't be nervous, the town idiot could have seen this pairing coming." Vilkas says, patting Derek on the back.

The time came for the ceremony to begin, Them agreeing to both leave the rooms at the same time and meet in front of the priest. Stiles and Derek had not seen how one another looked yet, and when they exited the rooms and gazed at each other, they were mesmerized by one another's beauty. The priest started the ceremony and began saying the various things about Mara. Once the priest had finished, he said that they could kiss, and boy they kissed. Scott cleared his throat fairly loud so they would catch on. They looked down at their bands of matrimony and smiled, holding hands to leave the Temple to celebrate with some mead at the local in. Derek and Stiles chalk the day up to one of the happiest in their lives.

**End Flashback**

Stiles has been sitting looking at his husband sleeping for a while now. They were on a mission to investigate various accounts of people saying that the 'nice' old lady running the orphanage here is abusing the children. Stiles took this to heart, because even if he had almost been an adult when he was orphaned, he still wanted to make sure that these children were not being mistreated. Isaac also conveyed his passion about this to Stiles and told him to make sure if the rumors were true, that the old lady payed for her actions.

Derek finally woke up and there were about to go and meet with the lady, Grelod the Kind. "Stiles you cannot drag her intestines through the forest if she has been doing this to these kids, we will hand her over to the authorities, and you call me the violent one." Derek says hugging his mate, his husband.

Stiles and Derek are met by Constance Michel, who is Grelod's assistant, she seemed to check out and be nice, and while Grelod was out she was the one taking care of the children. Stiles and Derek actually take time to play with the children while they wait for Grelod, telling them stories of the Companions that had the children captivated. They were smiling and giggling, very intrigued by their stories of heroes. All of the cheer ran stale when the door to the orphanage slammed, indicating that Grelod had returned.

The interrogation of Grelod goes fairly bad. She is a grouchy old lady who denied any accusations Stiles said, but there was no denying it now that she had been abusing them, because of their werewolf hearing. There was nothing they would do right now, considering they couldn't just say their werewolf hearing knew she was lying, but they came up with a plan. If Stiles convinced one of the guards to come with him to the orphanage and stakeout with an invisibility spell cast, then the Guard would have enough authority to put Grelod away for a long time.

So that is just what they do. Stiles uses the 'Companion Card' and gets the guard to agree to his plan, although he doubted such an old lady could do such a thing. The guard was wrong though, because when they were casually sitting quietly in the Orphanage to see how Grelod was behind closed doors, it shocked Stiles and made him sick to his stomach. They were sitting on the far side of the room, invisible, quiet when they seen Grelod enter the room to speak to the children. "Okay which one of you little useless brats ratted to someone on me? Those Companion snoops could convince them that I am not as kind as I lead on to be. I will not have this kind of behaviour, now who was it?' Grelod says, looking each one of the children in the eyes. One of the children speaks up and says that they don't know what she is talking about, and that they just thought that the Companions were looking to adopt. Grelod lets out a fairly evil sounding laugh. "Hahaha There will be no talk of adopting going on tonight, now get to bed brats. And what do you say to me for being so hospitable to you all?" Grelod says, waiting for the children to respond. Most of the children respond with the phrase 'Thank you Grelod for your kindness.', but one of them responds 'You're terrible and mean, you should be put away.' Gerlods face goes dark, and she grabs a fairly large stick. "Guess you need a beating stupid brat." She says, proceeding to hit the child once, across the face, not the usual place one would discipline a child. That was all the Guard needed before he whispered to Stiles to release the spell.

Stiles releases the spell and it shocked Grelod. The guard tells her the under 'under the order of the Jarl' words before taking her away. That meant that Constance was now in charge of the Orphanage, which made Stiles happy because he could tell she was a good person. Stiles meets with Derek who has taken to notify people that the orphanage has been ridden of the nasty woman. They spend one more night in Riften to make sure things go smoothly at the Orphanage and decide to do one more checkup tomorrow before they leave.

Constance lets them in before they usually unlock their doors, and she leads them into her new room/office. She explains to them how Grelod had been able to keep her quiet for so long, and also explains how she is going to make sure the Orphanage is ran the way it should be and the children treated the right way. Stiles smiles, and Constance shows Derek to the children who had just awoke. Derek wanted to tell them a couple stories before he left, and Stiles found it adorable how Derek was playing with children, playing hide and seek and other games as well. He thought how Derek would be a great father, Stiles too, since they both loved kids. Stiles snapped out of his daily zone out moment and noticed Derek had packed up and was ready to go. "I'll be right there dear." Stiles says, swiping one of the forms off the table that read 'adoption form' and pushes it in his bag. "What has got you so jittery and happy" Derek says on their walk home. Stiles just smiles and tells him he would find out soon enough.