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See ya!
After a quick breakfast, Derek helped Gadget get dressed and left him on the floor with a coloring book and crayons that Melissa bought him yesterday. Derek wasn't exactly sure who told Scott's mom, or when in fact she actually dropped the book and crayons off, but it kept Gadget busy, so Derek was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
He quickly got dressed, texted a quick message to Deaton telling the vet he was on his way, and turned to Gadget. "Ready to go, buddy?"
"Where are we going?" Gadget asked curiously, his eyes still on the coloring book.
"To see Deaton," Derek replied moving across the room, grabbing a small, gray hoodie off the back of the couch.
"Do we have to?"
"Yes."
"Can I just stay here?" Gadget looked up his eyes wide, a perfect imitation of a puppy dog look, pouting slightly.
"You're becoming more like Stiles every day," Derek stated with narrowed eyes.
"So is that a maybe?" Gadget questioned with a sheepish grin. Shaking his head, Derek waved the gray hoodie at the small boy. With a heavy sigh, Gadget closed his coloring book, stood up, and took the sweatshirt from Derek. "Can I at least have a drink first?"
Two drinks, three snacks later, and one bathroom break later Gadget was finally loaded into the back of Derek's Toyota. As Derek tried to work the stupid child seat, Gadget complained, "I don't like this seat. It's conforming."
"Confining," Derek corrected trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.
"Yeah that," Gadget agreed nodding. "Though, in a way, it is conforming. You're conforming to the rules of the road, Daddy Derek."
"We shouldn't have let Erica find out about you," Derek commented finally getting the seat's buckle to work.
"I didn't learn that from Erica," Gadget replied with a smug grin. The kid had a point. Erica hadn't exactly spent a lot of time around him since finding out. The only other people, besides himself and Stiles, to have any lengthy contact with Gadget had been the sheriff and…
"Isaac," Derek murmured shaking his head, backing out of the backseat. He shut the door on Gadget's continued chatter, moving towards the driver side door. He opened it, slid into the car, and listened to Gadget as he started the vehicle.
"Can we do numbers again?"
"Not while I'm driving."
"Can we just say them then?"
"Go ahead," Derek consented glancing back at Gadget in the rearview mirror.
"Okay." The little boy closed his eyes, his face scrunching up in concentration, and finally he recited, "One, Two, Three…"
"…Four, Five, Six…"
"…Seven, Eight, Nine…"
"What's the next number?" Derek asked curiously, a small smile on his face.
Gadget's eyes popped open and he excited exclaimed, "TEN!"
"Wanna do it again?"
"Yeah, but this time don't help me."
"Okay." Derek raised one hand, telling Gadget he wasn't going to say anything, and listened closely as the kid began counting again. It was cute the first two times, but after listening to Gadget count all the way to Deaton's office, Derek was about ready to pull his hair out.
"…seven, eight…." Gadget trailed off when Derek pulled up to the vet's office. "What's anniemal mean?"
"Animal," Derek corrected softly, turning his car off.
"Okay, but what's it mean?"
"It's like a dog or a cat," the alpha responded glancing up at the sign that read: Beacon Hills Animal Clinic. "Did you read that from that sign?"
"Yup." Gadget nodded, his dark hair falling into his eyes. "I 'member the letters you showed me this morning. A-N-I-M-A-L. I can read the other letters, too. Do you wanna hear?"
"Maybe later buddy," Derek replied softly, opening the back door. Taking Gadget out of the seat was far easier than placing him in the seat, and soon they were heading into Deaton's place. Gadget clutched tightly to his coloring book, after insisting he bring it, crayons sticking out of his pocket.
The bell above them rang as the door opened, Deaton appearing around the corner a moment later. Gadget looked up at him and curiously asked, "Are you Deaton?"
"Yes I am. You must be Gadget." Deaton smiled softly, opening the swinging door separating the back from the front, effectively breaking the mountain ash barrier.
"That's what they call me," Gadget deadpanned, jerking his thumb back at Derek. "Though, to be perfectly honest, my daddies keep 'paring me to each other, so I guess I could be called Sterek or something."
Deaton chuckled softly, beckoning for both Derek and Gadget to follow him. The moment they were in the back, Gadget caught sight of the back room, the familiar sound of yips coming from inside. He furrowed his eyebrows, eyeing the room cautiously, and asked, "What's back there?"
"The animals," Deaton replied easily, crouching down to Gadget's height. "Would you like to go and see them?"
"Can I?" Gadget looked up at Derek, his eyes practically pleading. With a sigh, Derek nodded and Gadget practically ran towards the room, Deaton pushing himself up and slowly following him. Once in the room, Gadget exclaimed, "PUPPIES!"
Derek face palmed himself, wondering why in the hell he let the kid go back there, and then called, "We are not getting one!"
"Oh, you're no fun," Gadget protested wriggling his finger in one of the cages. "Can I play with one?" The small boy looked up at Deaton, flashing the vet the same pleading look, but Deaton, who seemed to have more willpower than Derek, merely shook his head and replied, "Perhaps later. I need to speak to your…" the vet hesitated for a moment before continuing, "…father for a moment. Did you bring something to do?"
"My coloring book," Gadget replied holding it up.
"Okay, you color while we talk and then maybe later I'll let you play with the puppies." Gadget looked like he wanted to argue, but he sighed and nodded, following Deaton back towards the front room.
As Gadget took a seat on the floor, Deaton moved over to Derek and softly said, "I've been collecting books since last night. I think if we split the research we should be able to figure out the counter-charm."
Talking about this did nothing to ease his physical need to keep Gadget. He remembered something his mother once said, about an Alpha bounding with their children. Though, he had a feeling it meant throughout their life, not in four days, but he couldn't quite help it.
"Okay," he forced out with a stiff nod. Deaton eyed him cautiously, a smidgeon of sympathy in his eyes, but before he could say anything a puffy, ratty looking dog raced past them, barking happily as a Saint Bernard puppy chased after it.
"Crap," Derek whispered as the two men turned towards the animal cages, spotting Gadget standing in the middle of the room, his shoulders hunched up and an innocent smile on his face. "I didn't do it," he exclaimed. Derek sighed, his doubts about Gadget having any type of magical ability all but shattered.
TW
After apologizing profusely to Deaton, and helping him round up the escaped dogs, he gathered the research material and his kid, ushering the latter out to the car. Gadget was being moody, no doubt an aftereffect of Derek yelling at him.
"Look, buddy, you can't just go around using your abilities like that," Derek explained, trying to find a shred of patience, working on the car seat buckle again. "It's dangerous, and if anyone not aware of your magic found out…" the alpha let the words trail off, not wanting to think about it himself. "You need to be more careful."
"I'm sorry," Gadget grumbled crossing his arms. "I just wanted to play with the puppies."
"I know, but Deaton also told you no and you needed to respect that." Had this been a year ago, Derek would have seriously questioned his decision to give Gadget a lecture about respect. Back then, Derek barely respected himself, let alone anyone else, but right now he actually felt pretty confident in the words he was saying.
"I'm sorry," Gadget repeated, seeming to burrow deeper into himself.
"It's alright." Finally, Derek got Gadget strapped in, doing a little victory dance in his head. He almost heard Stiles say, 'Ha ha, suck it puny car seat. I am your god now.'
With a snort, Derek closed the backdoor, wondering when he actually started hearing Stiles' voice in his head.
"Can we go to the park?" Gadget asked curiously when Derek slid into the driver seat.
A part of the alpha knew he should probably punish Gadget for releasing the dogs, something a bit more than a lecture, but a second, bigger part, didn't feel like spending all day inside, doing research (and, okay, it might also have something to do with not wanting to let Gadget go), so he heard himself agree.
"Don't use your magic again," Derek said over Gadget's celebrating. He then started the Toyota, pulling out of the parking lot. He figured they could spend a few hours at the park, maybe get some lunch, and then he could spend the day researching. It was a great plan, and he had the rest of the week to look for the spell if he didn't find it today.
Everything was going to be fine.
TW
Time was a funny thing. When someone is bored or doing something they don't particularly like, the clock seemed to drag on and on, making that person feel as if they were in purgatory or a very, very, very Office Space like version of Hell.
But when there's fun involved, or, say, an alpha is subconsciously trying to put off research he doesn't particularly want to do, then time really had a way of creeping up and bonking someone on the head.
Gadget and Derek didn't get back to the latter's loft until three-thirty. No big deal really, he still had a week's worth of research to do, but how was he going to explain to Stiles that the reason he was so late was because he decided to take Gadget to the zoo after the park? Or that he stopped by the sporting goods store and bought a tiny, baseball mitt so he could teach the kid how to throw? Or that they stopped for lunch at Chucky Cheese for reasons Derek just did not understand, and both boys gouged themselves on pizza.
"Okay, you go color," Derek said to Gadget, moving towards the couch. "I need to research, okay?"
Instead of answering, Gadget left his coloring book open on the floor and waited until Derek was sitting down before crawling onto the couch, snuggling in the alpha's lap. It was hard to research with a child in his lap, but Derek tried anyway, only to give up when he realized he was reading the same sentence over and over, his eyes drooping. This is what happened when he was awoken before dawn.
He placed the book on his coffee table, leaning back into the couch, his eyes slipping closed. He just needed a few minutes, just to let his body settle. He was an alpha, he suffered through worse than a tiring day with a toddler, had less sleep before, too, he'd be good a new in no time.
TW
Stiles let himself into Derek's apartment after school, stopping in the doorway when he spotted both Derek and Gadget passed out on the couch, the latter resting on the former's chest, one of the Alpha's arms wrapped protectively around the small boy. On the coffee table, several books lay opened, evidence of Derek's researching. Moving closer, Stiles noticed a dinosaur coloring book sitting next to a box of crayons on the floor, opened to a partially colored picture of two Stegosauruses.
Trying to forget about his blowup at lunch, and the way his heart clenched at the scene before him, Stiles kicked his shoes off, walking slowly towards the couch. He carefully crawled onto the couch, trying hard not to disturb either slumbering party, and settled his body on top of Derek, resting his head against Derek's chest, curling almost protectively around Gadget.
He felt an arm wrap around his shoulder, a nose burrow itself in his neck, but otherwise Derek didn't awake. Gadget seemed to edge closer to Stiles, but he too continued to sleep. Closing his eyes, Stiles listened to Derek's steady heartbeat, counting the beats until he fell asleep.