Uneven Odds

Chapter the Twenty-Ninth

Derek can't say he's surprised when Elizabeth is already at Stiles's when he gets there on Saturday, but he isn't quite expecting the girl to answer the door when the doorman lets him up.

"So, you're Derek" she says in a brisk tone, and he arches an eyebrow at her, not quite liking her attitude.

"And you are…" he starts, as if he doesn't know who she is, because there's nothing more annoying to someone like Elizabeth than not be known.

"A friend of Stiles's" she answers with a sweet, and a bit scary, smile, "You know, the one his brother actually likes" she adds, stepping away to let him in.

Stiles is just coming down the hallway, with a big smile on his face.

"Hey, you made it!"

Derek smiles at him, deciding to ignore the girl, who is still staring at him.

"I told you I would. So, what's the plan?"

"Just some stores and stuff" he answers, shrugging, just as the blond guy, Harvey's boyfriend, comes into the room.

"So, you three off to some shopping?" he asks cheerfully, and Stiles turns to him, looking suspicious.

"Harvey is still in the shower, right?"

"Yes. So you should, you know, go. Fast. Now."

Stiles nods, and kind of pushes Derek out the door that Elizabeth has just left through, and Derek looks a bit confused.

"What just happened?"

"Well, Lizzie warned Mark that you'd be coming after her, that's why he let you in without buzzing up, and when he warned us you were in the building, Mike convinced Harvey to take a shower, so he wouldn't be there to interrogate you."

"Your brother doesn't like me" he states, knowing it was the truth, because, well, Harvey told him so.

Stiles just shrugs a bit as an answer.

"I can take him, you know. It's not like I'm a defenseless person, Stiles."

Lizzie snorts at that, and Derek turns to her, who is staring at him, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

"You do realize that Harvey is one of the major partners in the biggest Law Firm in New York. You can have as many muscles as you want, he could end you in ten sentences or less. You should thank us for not letting him have at you as you clearly deserve."

"I don't-"

"Ah ah ah" the girl interrupts, shaking a finger at him, "The guy who breaks up with his underage boyfriend when his father has just died does not possess the right to argue with the best friend."

Derek's eyes widen, as Stiles looks at her with his eyes narrowed.

"You're not his best friend" Derek mutters back, and Lizzie just smiles at him, sweet and scary again.

"We'll see."

The afternoon isn't exactly smooth, but Derek manages to survive between a very awkward lunch – where Elizabeth keeps making quips about him being below Stiles's status now – and the shopping they have to do.

"This is just not the right hue" the girl tells the saleswoman, who looks ready to cry, "I'm not very sure if you just don't understand what I'm saying or if you are actually trying to annoy me."

"Lizzie, there's no reason for you to talk to her like that" Stiles scolds, as Derek stands back and glowers at the rude girl, "I'm sorry" he apologizes to the saleswoman, who smiles a bit and says it's okay.

"Why don't you go with her, Stiles? You know what color I'm talking about, and this has to be the perfect blue, because we are not going white again."

"It's a Winter Dance. White is expected" Stiles says, and Elizabeth smiles at him.

"Which is why we are not going white again. Please, just go and help her find the right shade of light, metallic blue, okay?"

Stiles looks at Derek, probably to invite him along, but the girl arches an eyebrow, and Stiles leaves to the back with the salesgirl.

"You are coming with him to the Dance" she tells Derek suddenly, her voice quiet and her face serious.

"If we—"

"There is no if. You two are clearly a couple, even if you were a jerk, but I'm sure you made him think you had your reasons. I'm not convinced, but, unfortunately, I can't quite manage to order Stiles around, which is why I think of him as a friend, and not a minion. You are stuck right now, in a stage where you are going to try and spend a lot of time with him, and he'll love it, and you two are going to dance around each other for the longest time, and either you are going to lose a whole lot of time you could actually be together, or you'll be so stupid you'll ruin whatever it is you could have" she takes one step closer, and Derek takes a small step back – for such a small person, she takes up a lot of room when she's trying to be threatening, "It's called a Grand Gesture. I'm sure you've heard of it. You go to his brother, because so help you God if you don't clear this with him first, and then you ask Stiles to go with you, and you confess your undying love at the dance, and then we can focus on more important things than deciding if you two want to be together, when it's obvious you do."

Derek stares at her for a moment, looking at the counter behind which Stiles disappeared before speaking.

"You don't like me. Why do you want me to be with Stiles?"

"Because you won't drag him down. You want to see him succeed, you want him happy."

"Why do you care?"

"Because I want him happy. Ever thought of that?" she asks, and turns around just as Stiles comes back, with yet another sample of fabric that is not what they want.

"They really don't have the color, Lizzie, let's just go."

"Fine" she agrees, leaving. Stiles stays behind, apologizes to the salesgirl again, but she just looks relieved at seeing Lizzie leaving, and not offended, so they leave too.

They manage to get all of the fabric that will be used as table cloth and other pieces of decoration to Stiles apartment, who promises Lizzie he'll get all of it to the people responsible to turning the fabric into decoration, and then the girl leaves – but not before mouthing 'Grand Gesture' at Derek.

"She is…" he starts, and Stiles smiles at him, clearly thinking this is funny.

"She is something, isn't she?"

"When the guys mentioned her to me, I kind of thought of a meaner version of Lydia."

Stiles is already shaking his head.

"No, they are two different brands of mean when they want to be. I'm not replacing anyone, she's just… She was actually the first person in the whole school who actually took notice of me when I first started, even if it was to tell me I wouldn't catch up. The challenge kind of made me snap out of my misery bubble to try and win her over."

Derek nods, thinking that maybe she isn't the worst kind of friend to have – if only she wasn't so determined to dislike him.

Before he can say anything else, though, Harvey shows up in the living room, in sweatpants and a hoodie – which somehow doesn't make him any less intimidating.

"Derek, I thought I heard your voice" he greets, offering his hand, which he shakes, already on alert.

He is a werewolf, after all, and every single instinct he has is screaming at him that this is a trap.

"Did you three have fun?" he asks casually.

"Yeah, as you can see by the pile of fabric, it was a very productive afternoon. Derek was just leaving, right?"

"Are you sure, Derek? Why don't you stay for dinner?" Harvey asks, with a huge smile, and Stiles pales a bit and turns to him, a warning in his eyes, and Derek knows he could just say no and vanish, but that will just tell Harvey that he is intimidated by him, and this game has to turn around at some point. It's not in him to just run away – he did that once and look how that turned out.

"I'd love to stay if it's not any trouble" he answers, with his most charming smile, and is deeply satisfied when Harvey looks surprised.

"That's great. I'll go call Mike and tell him we'll have a guest for dinner."

He leaves the room, and Stiles grips Derek's arm tightly.

"Are you sure? You don't have to stay if you don't want to."

"I want to. I wouldn't have said yes if I didn't. It'll be okay" he says, trying to project calm and confidence.

The teen doesn't look really convinced, but oh well.

He'll just have to prove that it'll work, right?

X

It's kind of like a train wreck, really, except it's not that he can't look away, is more like he absolutely must not look away, lest something goes wrong, and he ends up with no boyfriend or no brother.

Derek wouldn't eat Harvey, right?

If you stop to think about it, Harvey is kind of an Alpha Male. He imposes his presence, he's always the center of attention, he manages to always seem to be controlling the situation – the thing is that Derek is an actual Alpha werewolf, and for some reason, Stiles doesn't think that will mix very well.

Harvey is back a few seconds later, and Stiles and Derek are sitting on the couch.

"Would you like something to drink, Derek? Scotch?"

"No, thank you" Derek answers, frowning.

"Not a fan of it?"

"I have no taste for it, and I can't get drunk either, so really, there's no point."

"So, Derek, what do you plan to do now? Or is being an Alpha your only job?" Harvey asks as he sits down too, on the one armchair that has a slightly higher seat than the couch, so that Derek will have to look up to look at him.

"I'm getting in touch with a few old colleagues to get back into business, as I was before the fire. I'm an engineer" he answers, very politely, and Harvey nods.

There's a stretch of silence after that, and Stiles wants to break it, but at the same time he really doesn't, because, well, what if he talks and makes everything worse?

"You didn't work, though, in Beacon Hills, did you?"

"We were a bit too busy running for our lives for him to find the time to work, I'm sure" Stiles intervenes, "Can I talk to you for a moment, Harvey?" he gets up and goes to his room, which the furthest from the living room, even if it won't make much of a difference, because of Derek's hearing. If he wants to listen in, he will.

His brother follows him in, and he closes the door with a scowl on his face.

"Look, I'm… incredibly grateful for everything you've been doing for me. I love you with everything I have, because you are my brother, and I care a whole lot about you, and I never thought I would, but you have to stop prodding him like this, because Derek doesn't deserve that. Crap from me, yes, he deserves, but not from you. Especially because I know how far I can go before I hurt him, and you don't. Stop it. I know you're doing the older brother routine, but stop it. Either you accept him or you don't, but don't toy with him like you're doing, because you're toying with me too."

Harvey looks disappointed at this, and Stiles steels himself for whatever answer he's going to get.

"What if I said I didn't like him at all, that I think he's no good for you, and I want him gone from your life?"

"I'd…" Stiles stops, takes in a deep breath, thinking over what he wants to say, and realizing that, yes, this is what he would do, "I'd wait till I was eighteen, and then I'd look for him. Because whatever it is I feel for Derek isn't going to go away, and I don't know if it's the saving each other's lives thing, if it's him, or whatever it is, but I… can't let him out of my life. I'm aware I'm sixteen, but I don't feel sixteen, Harvey. And he is possibly the one good thing I can actually keep with me from Beacon Hills, because as much as I love Scott and Allison, they'll never be here with me, and he changed his whole life again for me. So I'd wait, because you're my brother, and I love and respect you, but we'd be together eventually, and we would be in for some really uncomfortable Christmases and Holydays in general, because I'm not leaving you either."

Harvey stares at him for a minute and then sighs with great suffering.

"Fine. Let's go back before he pees all over the furniture."

"No dog jokes either!" he screams as he follows Harvey out of the room, and hears the man chuckling.

He just can't win with these people.

With Harvey not trying to antagonize Derek, and Stiles being a bit too nervous to say anything coherent, the conversation is quite limited to Stiles's school as they wait for Mike to get back.

"I just can't believe you're organizing dances. It just… doesn't seem like you" Derek comments when Stiles comments how hard it was to find all the right colors in fabrics.

"I know, but I kind of like it. I mean, Lizzie does all of the major planning thing, but the… constructing a visual, you know? Planning the actually decoration, for example, that's loads of fun. It's going to be really beautiful, and even if it would have been loads easier to just go with silver and white, the whole all-blue thing is going to have an amazing effect with the lightning we chose."

"You know, if you really enjoy this, maybe this is something you can pursue later" Derek says, looking at him intently, "I mean, I know we never really talked about your plans for college, and that you were planning on some kind of Folklore Major, because, of, well, everything, but we don't need that anymore, you don't have to do that anymore."

"You mean become a party planner? Derek, I'm not that gay."

"Hey, stereotypes" Harvey calls from his armchair, and Stiles shakes his head.

"I don't mean it like that, just that… I don't like planning the thing. I just liked the… putting things together? I don't know, seeing something we designed take shape, you know? That's nice."

"Maybe you should look into Architecture. It's a broad field, you wouldn't be stuck or out of options when you graduate."

He's saved from having to answer by Mike returning with the food. The wash up and sit in the kitchen to eat – technically, they have a dining-room, but they never eat there, mostly because it's always filled with books and files over the table, because it's the biggest table of the house, so Stiles and Mike use it to study, and Harvey uses it for his big, scary cases that he sometimes brings home (to ask for Mike's help, but he doesn't say that out loud, and they pretend they don't know).

It's mostly quiet for a while, as they start the meal, and then Derek's phone beeps, and he takes a look at it, frowning a bit.

"Everything okay?" Stiles asks, a bit concerned.

"Just… Peter letting me know Cora got home. I asked him to warn me, because she, well, doesn't."

"How's that going?" he asks, and Derek sighs deeply, putting his fork through a piece if steak with a lot more force than necessary.

"I don't think she'll stay any longer than the Holidays, really. She's not…" he struggles for a word, and Stiles winces in sympathy.

"Pack?" he completes, and Derek nods, taking a sip of his water.

Stiles is suddenly hyper-aware of the fact they're having this talk in front of his brother, someone who doesn't even like Derek, and who Derek isn't really very fond of either, so he decides not to press the issue, waiting for when they are alone, but Mike surprises him.

"I heard you saying that before, but I get a little lost, and I didn't want to ask Stiles, because, well, he's not…" the blond trails off, and Stiles shakes his head, a bit amused.

"A werewolf?" Derek asks, and Mike nods at him. Harvey's eyes are glued to Derek, showing that this is something he and Mike must have talked about together on more than one occasion, "He doesn't have to be. Actually, he'll never be, because I wouldn't risk it. But you don't have to be a werewolf to be pack. When my mother was the Alpha, there were a lot of humans in our pack. Peter could have left the house unharmed when the fire started, but he tried to stay and help a few of the humans who were trapped. He only left when he truly couldn't save anyone else. It's one of the reasons I kind of… trust him, to some extent, even with all he's done. Losing a member of your pack is like losing a limb – you can actually feel their pain, and you ache afterwards, because a part of you is actually missing. And that is only if you are a normal werewolf bound to a pack – as an Alpha, I don't even want to think what that must feel like. The connection I have with my pack is what lets me know Jackson is okay even though he's not even in the country, is what lets me know Scott is fine, because we share a bond even if he's his own Alpha now, is what let me find Stiles so quickly that day he ran away" he stops talking, and looks downright defeated for a few seconds, and Stiles reaches out and squeezes his leg reassuringly, "I don't feel Cora. She's not my pack, even though she's my sister, and I know she wants to go back to her old pack, sooner rather than later. Her human nature is making her stay for a while longer, maybe to see if we can make it work, but she's not really trying. It's been too long. I love her, and she's my sister, but she's not my pack, and I can't change that. God knows I've learned my lesson with Scott about trying to make someone be my pack."

Stiles snorts, and Mike and Harvey don't say anything else on the subject, letting it go, for what Stiles is very grateful.

The rest of the dinner goes as well as can be – no jibes from Harvey, and a calm conversation between Mike and Derek, about the differences between NYU and Columbia.

Dessert is consumed, and Harvey insists on walking Derek to the door. Stiles says goodbye, and he and Mike start tidying up the kitchen.

It could have been a lot worse, really.

X

Harvey walks Derek to the door, gets out with him, and closes it behind his back, leaning against it.

"Thank you. For sharing that information with us. I know you didn't have to, but I did wonder what this pack business was about, and I also wondered if Stiles ever asked… you know."

The man shakes his head at him.

"He never wanted that. Peter offered him, when he was the Alpha, and Stiles refused. I would never ask him to do that, you don't have to worry."

Harvey nods.

"Is he safe? Being with you?"

"As safe as he would be with anyone else. I'm trying the normal thing here, Harvey. I want this to work."

The lawyer nods again, and sees that the man is trying to gather courage to say something.

"I'm glad you came with me. I wanted to ask you something before I ask Stiles, because I don't want to get his hopes up if you say no."

"Oh God, please, don't tell me you're asking him to marry you."

"He's sixteen" Derek deadpans, arching an eyebrow at Harvey, and he feels stupid for jumping to that conclusion, but well. It's been a really weird day. Week. Months, really.

"What is it then?"

"I want to take Stiles to his Winter Dance. I know it's stupid, but it means something to him, and I want to be there."

"Are you sure you just don't want someone else taking him?"

"Well, yes. That'll save someone from having their throat ripped out with my teeth."

The most intriguing thing is that Harvey can't tell if the man is joking or not.

"You can take him. But you pick him up here, you go to the dance, and you come back home. My home. Got it?"

Derek nods, smirking at him.

"I wouldn't even think of taking Stiles to my home, seeing as Peter and Donna might be there. Let me just tell you, your secretary is loud."

And with that he disappears into the elevator, smirking away, making Harvey want to bleach his brain.

Now, that is something he never needed to know about Donna.