Derek – 9, Stiles – 6
"Sit down."
"No! I want to do something."
"I'll tie you to the chair."
"You wouldn't dare."
"Do you really want to test me?"
"Argh! You are so annoying!" Stiles cried, glowering at his jailor, finally giving in and sitting down on the sofa. "I hate you."
Derek – 4, Stiles – 3.
"Of course you do." Derek grinned, throwing the quilt over him and sitting beside him, trapping him on the chair. "You need to sit still to rest or you won't heal."
"I really hate you."
"No matter how many times you say that neither of us will ever believe it." Derek taunted, reaching for the remote. "Now, what are we going to watch?"
"There's a film on channel 4." Stiles announced, snatching the remote and switching it on. "We're watching that."
Derek stared at the screen. It took a few moments of him staring at the penguins singing and dancing on the screen before he reacted.
"What the fuck are we watching?"
"Happy Feet!"
"Happy what?" Derek looked ready to explode and Stiles smiled innocently at him.
"Happy Feet. I'm the one who has to rest, so I get to choose the film."
"Pest."
Derek – 4, Stiles – 4.
Needless to say, ten minutes into the film and Derek was ready to throw in the towel. Not that he let Stiles do any work. No. Instead he forced him let him help him get dressed and took him out.
"This is hardly resting." Stiles was getting the hang of being in the car when Derek drove; the key was to keep your eyes shut and try to hold on as tight as possible. It also helped to try not to listen to the roar of the engine.
"Shush. You're not working, which is the important bit."
"Why do you always have to have an answer for everything?"
"Just intelligent like that I guess."
"You're so full of yourself."
"Would you rather be full of me?" Derek laughed as Stiles started to splutter, eyes wide. He wasn't used to it; Jackson had been so reluctant to ever really be attentive of playful. He'd not even spoken during or after sex.
"I can't believe you just said that."
"Really?"
"Shut up."
"It's too much fun though. You're cute when you splutter like that you know."
"Derek, you are a complete dick head."
"You wouldn't want me any other way." Derek grinned at him until Stiles found it impossible not to mirror it. "See."
Derek – 5, Stiles – 4.
"Where are we going?" It was time for a new tactic; the slanging matches weren't helping him figure out where Derek was taking him.
"It's a surprise." Derek stated primly and Stiles let out a strangled sound, fed up. He hit Derek's arm angrily. It was probably harder than he'd meant it because Derek actually winced at the punch.
"Alright!"
Derek – 5, Stiles – 5.
"We're going to the zoo."
"The zoo?" That was the last thing he expected to hear coming from Derek. How likely was it that the man had ever stood anywhere near an animal and the area it went to the toilet in?
"Yeah. I figured if you liked penguins so much…"
"You might be a dickhead but sometimes you're perfect." Stiles's face lit up in excitement and he relaxed into his chair, grin fixed on his face. He might not be able to imagine Derek liking a zoo but personally he loved animals and it had been a hell of a long time since he went to one.
He should have realised that with Derek there was no such thing as a simple trip to the zoo. He was expecting it to be busy and to have to fight to get close enough to the enclosures to see the animals but Derek had gone a step further than he anticipated.
"Hello Derek." It was official; Derek had a friend everywhere! The man that greeted them was dressed in muddy clothes and greeted Derek with a friendly expression. "And this is?"
"Stiles."
"Welcome Stiles." The man had an accent and a few nasty scars. "Where to first?"
"Uhm…" If there was one thing Stiles hated, it was being confused or caught off guard.
"Penguins?" Derek looked at him, saw his obvious annoyance and sighed. "Stiles this is Jim, he's the deputy groundskeeper here. I called him before we left and he's going to let you go into some of the enclosures. They do a thing for kids where you get to be a zoo keeper for the day. Jim agreed to let me call in a favour and he's going to let you have some fun."
"Are you for real?"
"Yes." Derek's lips quirked into a sexy smirk as Stiles gawped at him and Jim laughed.
"Show off."
Derek – 6, Stiles – 5.
The last time he'd been to the zoo it was a city zoo for a school trip when he was eight, he'd spent most of the day running around shouting with the rest of his classmates and only really paid a little bit of attention when they found the penguins. In short it was a very different experience to the one Derek had made possible.
"Just throw it." Jim instructed as they stood in the centre of the crowd of penguins, the funny little birds had swarmed around them the second they'd stepped into the rocky area next to their swimming pool.
"Like this?" He lobbed it into the middle of the crowd, making the birds scrabble.
He caught Derek watching him as he laughed, and blushed when the man gave him a strangely gentle smile. He was starting to feel a little like he was on a date, and it was possibly the best date he'd ever had.
"Do you want the rest of the bucket?" Jim offered and Stiles shook his head.
"No, I wouldn't be able to hold it."
"He dislocated his shoulder a couple of days ago." Derek supplied in explanation to Jim's questioning look as Stiles knelt down and gently fed the fish to the closest penguin.
He left them to talk, stealing fish out of the bucket Jim was still holding and grinned when he had all of the birds focused on him. They were so cool! He was tempted to grab one and stuff it in his jumper so that he could take it home. A penguin would be the perfect pet.
"That's it." Jim announced when at last the bucket was empty and Stiles stood reluctantly, not wanting to leave.
The cute birds were disbanding, abandoning him as soon as the food ran out. Stupid fickle things. A few waddled over to the small tree that was on the other side of the rock pools and gathered around it, staring up at the branches. Stiles blinked and looked at Jim, who laughed.
"It's what they do. They stand there all day sometimes, it's like they worship the tree or something." The groundskeeper gestured to their exit. "We have a lot to get through so we need to get moving."
"Ah, okay." He trailed after the man, glancing at Derek with a small smile as the man fell into step beside him.
"Like that?"
"You know I did."
"Yeah, but I want to hear you swallow that pride of yours and admit that I did something right."
"Basically you want an ego-stroking."
"Ego-stroking is just as good as any other stroking."
"Pervert."
"Uh huh." Derek grinned when the next enclosures came into sight and Stiles's eyes widened.
"They're huge."
"Giraffes tend to be."
"I've never seen them before." Stiles snapped, walking right up to the fence and staring up.
"They probably seem bigger to you because you're so small and thin."
"Fuck off."
Derek – 7, Stiles – 5.
"These guys can be a little shy but they're late for their feeding so hopefully they won't be too slow." Jim climbed up the stupidly tall fence and started waving a branch of leaves as he began his lecture. "Don't try to touch their heads or neck; it'll scare them. They might live in the zoo but they're not tame by any means."
"He looks very silly up there." Stiles commented, leaning against Derek, who silently wrapped an arm around him.
"This is how they get their attention." As he explained his little finger brushed against the flesh on show between Stiles's jeans and his t-shirt. "Are you okay?"
"In pain. I think I need to take some more tablets." Oddly the gentle tracing of Derek's fingers against his hip was comforting.
"I have some in my pocket." Derek admitted, amused when Stiles looked up in surprise. "Want some now?"
"Uhm, yes please." Stiles wasn't used to someone so attentive, sure they bickered but the second Stiles needed something Derek had it on hand.
Jim took a while getting the giraffes to follow him but when they finally got there Stiles was treated to the experience of feeding the bizarre looking creatures. Jim showed him how to hold the small offering of leaves and branches so that the strange animals could grip them with their tongues before stepping back to talk quietly to Derek.
They were incredible.
Giraffes could very well be his new favourite animal, especially when his memory of them was going to of Derek stepping up close behind him and gently kissing his neck before wrapping his hand around the small branch of leaves Stiles held.
Derek – 8, Stiles – 5.
"I want one."
"What?" Derek looked down at him as Stiles picked another small sprig up.
"I want a giraffe."
"I don't think it will fit in the car."
After that they paid a vitis to the elephants, the big cats, the wolves and last was a visit to the sloth. Jim picked the slowly moving creature up and placed him into Stiles's arms, before stepping back and letting Stiles stare at the creature curling around him.
"Don't even think about it." He hissed when he saw Derek holding his phone up to take a photo of him with the overgrown fur ball.
"Sorry." He wasn't sorry at all" Stupid git!
The flash panicked the sloth and Jim quickly took him back, soothing him with practiced familiarity, half watching as Stiles stalked towards Derek. The kid was still a little intimidating even with the limp and the bruises but Derek was just grinning at him.
"Delete it."
"No."
"Delete it."
"Make me."
"Derek I'm warning you!" He may have hurt his shoulder but that didn't mean he couldn't still kick pretty damned hard.
"Fuck! Stiles alright! I'll delete it just stop kicking me." Derek yelped, trying to back away only to find there was a glass wall behind him.
Stiles waited to hear the sounds from Derek's phone and pulled a face at the man when he held the phone up.
"See. Gone."
"Good."
"You can be such a bitch sometimes." Derek's grumble was stopped sort when he received a text and he didn't get the chance to protect himself when Stiles swiftly stole his phone.
"I hate you."
Derek – 9, Stiles – 5.
The bastard had sent the picture to Marcus.
"Are you still ignoring me?" Derek frowned at his lack of response but Stiles didn't care. After Marcus had replied Erica and Isaac had replied, both amused, and the worst part of was that Isaac's reply included a comment about how the whole wedding party had seen it.
They stayed in the stony silence until Stiles sat up a little straighter, a familiar sea side town appearing on the horizon. They'd had fish and chips there before.
"What are we here for?"
"Oh so now you're talking to me?"
"Derek."
"I don't get you. I bent over backwards today to give you something to do that would take your mind off work and then you just flip out on me!" Derek's voice was rising and Stiles shrunk away from him. He hated it when people shouted at him. "You can't just pick and choose times to act like this Stiles, you're an adult."
"You humiliated me!" Stiles tried to defend him but the words were weak, they both knew he'd over reacted over the photo. "Just like you've always done."
"There you go again."
"Derek, I -"
"This isn't going to work."
"What?" Panic his him and he grabbed Derek's sleeve. "What the hell are you saying?"
"I can't deal with you always waiting to be angry at me. So what if I picked on you when we were kids? Have you ever thought about why I used to do that shit?" Derek was shouting again but the second he saw Stiles's fingers trying to curl around the door handle he stopped dead and caught his hand. "Stiles calm down."
"Please stop shouting at me." It scared him when people shouted at him. Jackson had often taken advantage of that fact.
"Okay." Derek lifted a hand to cup a bruised cheek with a sigh. "I didn't mean that. I'm willing to put up with the sarcasm, the hate declarations and the insults because I've been hanging around and waiting far too long to get my hands on you to give up so easily but you have to cut me some slack Stiles."
"But I…I think. I don't mean to…"
"I know." Derek kissed him, the touch of his lips gentle out of worry he might hurt his split lip. "If you don't want this, tell me, because as unwelcoming as you get I'm not giving up unless you tell me to."
"But I don't want you to give up on me." Stiles whispered, off balance as he registered that he couldn't lie to Derek.
"Good. Now, the reason that we are here is because we're going to get some fish and chips from my favourite chippy and then we're going to spend the night on my father's yacht." Derek announced with a smug look. "Any complaints?"
"Please don't push me in the sea?"
"I'm so teaching you to swim when your arm works again."
"Works for me."
They bought enough food to feed an army and went to the infamous yacht. Stiles could remember hearing stories about the parties that Derek had held on it when they were still in school. He'd never seen it though, despite wanting to for years, and boy it was bigger than he anticipated.
"Careful." Derek guided him along the jetty and onto the boat, the paper bag packed full of food tucked under one arm while the other hand held Stiles's tightly.
"It's big."
"Yeah. Seventy-five feet. Has twelve beds." Derek responded absently, somehow balancing everything, unlocking the door and keeping a hold on his hand. "Go on in, the light is on your left."
Derek fussed around so Stiles located plates and ketchup as well as a bottle of wine. By the time Derek reappeared he had the low coffee table set up with their food and he was fiddling with the radio.
"You didn't have to do that."
"I'm not some bimbo you have to run around after Derek, I can set a table." He retorted, a little sharper than he intended it to be but Derek didn't tell him off, instead he caught hold of him and kissed him again.
"Shut up, stop being a brat and sit down." Derek ordered before he pulled away and sat on one of the two seater chairs.
Stiles grabbed his plate and sat next to him, as close as humanly possible without being on his lap and Derek arched an eyebrow at him.
"Comfy?"
"Yeah. As a matter of fact I am." Stiles grinned up at him. "Thanks for today. I needed a break even if I wouldn't admit to it."
"Eat your chips before I do."
"Don't you dare." He growled when Derek grabbed a handful and shoved them into his mouth.
He stuck one finger underneath Derek's plate and send it flying all over the floor.
Derek – 9, Stiles – 6.