The next day brought Eugene and..

"Is that coffee? For me?" Stiles grabbed it and let Eugene inside as he went into the kitchen. Stiles' dad was at work and Stiles had just woken up.

"Why are you here?" He sipped his coffee while Eugene grinned at him. It was a polite smile, but a big smile nonetheless.

Eugene gestured to the chair and when Stiles nodded, the werecat sat down. "I'm here because.. Charlie is asking for you. Or about you." He sipped his coffee. "And Derek is tightlipped and it's making Charlie irritated."

"And? Derek can talk if he wants to. I'm not his keeper."

"I know. But he needs a break. And I think you could be the one to make Charlie let Derek out of sight for more than two minutes. I think Charlie sees you as interesting, normal. Everything we are not."

"Thanks for calling me normal. But.. Where's Scott?"

"He's still at the loft. Letting Charlie getting to know what a pack means. He's the alpha, but Derek is his second. So are you. But you are human. And Charlie needs to learn this and how a normal, healthy pack works."

Stiles let out a small laugh. It sounded as hollow as it felt. "Healthy? U-hu." He looked at Eugene, who eyed him in a get-your-shit-together-way.

"Alright. Just let me put on some clothes first."

-0-0-0-0-

Two days, some Reeces, a whole lot of talking on Stiles' part and a bunch of Marvel movies later, Charlie trusted Stiles enough to let Derek go for and run and shower afterwards without having a panic-attack and shifting as a result of said panic.

Eugene seemed to spend his time watching them, keeping his distance. Charlie trusted him, but only up until a certain point, even if he had helped rescue him from the hunters.

He was a werecat and Deaton had explained, over the phone, that newly turned wolves didn't trust other species easily. Especially if they were kids. It was the opposite of human kids actually.

Stiles had no idea why he would work since he was human but he didn't voice his thoughts. Other pack-members had been at the loft, but none of them could stay long, seeing as Charlie shrunk back and hid until they left. Unless it was Erica. She had been there when he came, even when she wasn't supposed to and that seemed to give her a star in Charlie's book. He also liked Jackson. The weirdo. He took a liking to Isaac as well, but Isaac always left as quickly as he came. Stiles knew it reminded Isaac of his past, living with his father.

He really warmed up after Eugene had decided to go back to his pack, or group. He knew there was nothing else he could help with when it came to Charlie. But he had offered his help when the time came to move forward against the hunters and/or scientists.

So with Eugene being gone, Stiles found out that Charlie liked Thor, was fascinated by the Hulk and loved Batman. He liked chocolate and pop-tarts and always laughed if Stiles managed to be his normal, spastic self. Typical.

But Stiles did not talk to Derek. Not unless he had to.

"Charlie will notice. Soon."

"Shut up, Scott."

-0-0-0-0-

Derek came into the kitchen right after Stiles had arrived that morning. "I think he's ready to see Deaton."

Still pouring his coffee, Stiles sighed. "Are you sure?"

When Stiles turned around, Derek was gone.

"Alright then." He sipped his coffee and put out a bowl and some cheerios for Charlie.

Derek had worked with Scott to teach Charlie control and actually had taught him breathing exercises. Stiles, and probably Derek, had tried to talk with Charlie about Deaton and how he could help him.

Stiles called Deaton.

-0-0-0-0-

"Stiles. How nice of you to come with." Deaton opened the door so they could come into the back of the clinic.

Charlie was whimpering, clinging to Derek while Derek was glaring at anything and everything.

"Oh, yeah. This is great. Cozy." Stiles looked around the room. "Everything is so.. sterile and.. clean. Really warm."

"Stiles. Shut up."

He glared at Derek. "You and your tense.." he waved around, "everything isn't helping either."

Deaton looked at Derek. "Sit down, please." He smiled at Charlie, who hid his face in Derek's jacket. "And relax," he added.

Stiles sat down, pulled Charlie down with him- still aware of possible pointy teeth, and sat them down in the two of the three chairs there. Derek sat down after a minute, stiffly. Like it agonized him to be there.

Stiles rolled his eyes.

Charlie actually giggled, looking between the two.

"Progress," Stiles mumbled and looked at Derek. "Not by the help of you."

Derek glared.

"You're funny," Charlie said. Even clinging to Derek he managed to look like he Stiles was the most hilarious person in the world.

"Thanks. And why am I funny?"

"Because you get Derek's heart-beat to go in weird beats."

"Oh."

Oh. Huh, good to know.

Charlie grinned. "All the time."

Derek glared. At Charlie this time.

Charlie lowered his eyes and let go of Derek's jacket.

Stiles grit his teeth. "Derek. Pull it together, dude. He's ten!"

Derek closed his eyes for a second and swallowed. "Sorry, kid."

Deaton cleared his throat and leaned against the counter. "Shall we get started then?"

-0-0-0-0-

"Jesus H. Christ, it's good to be home." Stiles flung himself on his bed hours after Deaton's weird, but somewhat helpful talk with Charlie. Well, with Derek's jacket, hiding Charlie.

After the appointment with Deaton, they had taken Charlie to buy ice-cream in the MacDonald's drive-through before driving Stiles home.

And now he had plans with a shower, some gaming, maybe a movie and then: sweet, sweet sleep. He felt exhausted.

After a shower and an hour of gaming, he woke up to the sound of someone climbing through his bedroom window.

"I just want to sleep, Isaac. Alright? I'll talk to you in the morning."

"I- I'll come back later."

Stiles lifted his head. "You're not Isaac."

"No."

He sat up and turned towards the werewolf in his bedroom-window. "Derek?"

"Go back to sleep. I shouldn't have come."

"No. I'm wide awake now. So get in here, Sourwolf. What is it? Is Charlie okay?"

"Sleeping."

"Then who's with him? You didn't just leave him, did you?" Stiles sat up and turned on the lamp on his nightstand.

Derek blinked and went to stand fully inside his bedroom. "Erica is there. He's a heavy sleeper."

"But you shouldn't-" Stiles shook his head. "What do you want?"

"The hunters are still.." He stopped, eying Stiles' board. "What's this?"

"Before you got home, we went into the tunnels. We found a room with microscopes and stuff that led us to believe they studied you or something. Maybe tried mixing your blood with Eugene's. Or tried to find the were-gene." He gestured as he pulled on some sweatpants. "We had a lot of ideas."

"You had a lot of ideas."

"Um, yeah. Well, Scott had some ideas. Danny and Lydia helped. Malia, not so much- Anyway, we never actually found any answers. Danny and Lydia is still working on it, but I've been busy with Charlie and stuff so Isaac has been helping them."

"What is this about computers?" Derek asked, tilting his head while looking at the board, his eyes following a red thread. "Why red?"

"Unsolved." Stiles swallowed. "But we'll figure it out."

"The computers and the lab." Derek turned to Stiles. "They wanted to separate Charlie from his wolf."

"I know. But I haven't had the time to-"

"No, but we have a book."

"What? And you're saying this now? NOW?"

"Eugene has it. I've never seen it." Derek looked at him, almost.. soft?

"What?" Stiles looked at Derek, noticing how close they were standing all of a sudden. "I- uh.."

"I'll ask Eugene to show it to you. We managed to take it with us when we found Charlie." Derek stepped back. "Before we killed them."

"Okay. Well.. I'll come over in the morning."

"Derek?"

They both looked over to the windowsill.

"Charlie?" Stiles helped the kid inside. "What are you doing here?"

Big, brown eyes looked up at him, before looking at Derek. "You weren't there when I woke up."

"Where's Erica?"

"I followed your scent." Charlie looked at Derek. "I did good, right? I found you."

Stiles looked over to Derek, who seemed a little surprised and unable to react.

Stiles smiled at Charlie. "You did good, Charlie. But Erica might be worried."

"Oh. I'm sorry." He looked over to Derek, tears threatening to fall. "But you were gone."

"Sorry, kiddo." Derek pulled him into a hug and Stiles kind of, sort of, melted.

A small hand shot out and pulled Stiles into the hug as well. "I'm sorry," Charlie whispered into Derek's side.

"Don't be." Stiles said, looking at Derek. "You did good."

Derek kept his eyes caught in his, and Stiles didn't dare blink.

-0-0-0-0-