A/N Posting schedule for now:
"At least the Road to Hell is paved, I'm not good with Stairways" on Saturday
"Gambling Debts" on Sunday or Monday (depending on real life)
"Who?" Stiles asked, only mildly curious. People were asking about him all the time, it was nothing out of the ordinary. He was not the biggest fish in Vegas but he did own one of the larger casinos. Paparazzi and journalists were always looking for a good story.
People trying to find a way into high society wanted to know where they could meet Stiles and what would most likely catch his attention. Derek got frequently asked if he could introduce them.
And lately even the police was interested in Stiles. However, if Lydia deemed this worth her attention, it had to be more than that.
Lydia hesitated for a second, her gaze flickering to Derek kneeling next to Stiles.
"Peter Hale." She finally said.
"Red." Derek said and a second later he sat in the chair next to Stiles. Stiles' hand was still frozen in mid-air where his head had been only a second ago and Isaac made a confused sound but Derek's focus was on Lydia.
"What did he want?" He asked, silently challenging her to comment on him safewording. Which she didn't.
Stiles didn't comment on it either and his hand found its way to Derek's thigh, a comforting gesture but it was a different kind of comfort now than it had been seconds ago. Derek had no idea how Stiles did it but he was clearly comforting his boyfriend now and not his sub.
When Lydia spoke, she acknowledged the change in dynamics by speaking to both of them.
"Peter showed up at Scott's clinic last week." She started. "He had a hurt dog with him and while Scott fixed him up, they chatted. Apparently Peter mentioned that he's an old friend of yours."
Stiles let out a groan.
"What did he tell him?" Derek asked while he still tried to figure out why of all people Peter had picked Scott. He didn't even live in Vegas and Derek had seen him how often? Three times in all the months he'd lived with Stiles? On the other hand, he didn't know how often Scott and Stiles spoke to each other. They texted quite often, he knew that, but he had no idea what Stiles was telling him.
To his surprise it wasn't Lydia who answered him, it was Isaac.
"Everything he wanted to know."
"What?"
"Scott is a little …" Stiles started to explain but Lydia cut in.
"Dumb." She finished the sentence for him.
"I prefer naive." Stiles corrected, sounding mildly offended. "He's my best friend. Best friends don't call each other dumb."
"He's not my best friend." Lydia reached for her glass of wine but didn't hide the fond smile on her lips.
"Why did he tell you and not Stiles?" Derek wondered. Shouldn't Scott tell his best friend when somebody was asking questions about him? What had Lydia to do with this?
"Because Peter told Scott to send his regards and Scott totally forgot to ask for his name. And he's too much of a good puppy to just forget about it. So he called me in hope that I could give him a name."
"How do you know it was Peter, then?" It sounded like something Peter would do but that didn't mean anything.
Now Lydia's expression became hard.
"Because according to Scott the dog he had with him looked like he'd lost a fight with a werewolf. That kind of narrowed it down."
Derek felt his claws sprout and he hurried to curl his fingers but nobody was paying attention to him anyway. Everybody at the table was too shocked.
"That bastard." Stiles was the first to find his voice again and Derek expected a full rant about what kind of sick bastard his uncle was but while Stiles drew in a breath, Isaac spoke up.
"What exactly was he asking about?" Isaac wanted to know in his head of security voice, he was all business now.
"They chatted." Lydia repeated as if she was talking to a five-year old. "Scott has no idea what he told him without even realizing."
Her gazed lingered for a moment longer on Isaac and she chose her next words carefully.
"I might not know what you're doing here, Stiles, but I have an idea." She stood and reached for her glass. "You should ask yourself, what does Scott know? What does he suspect?" She took another sip of wine while she waited for her words to sink in. "Jordan shouldn't bother you any longer. Enjoy your evening. Derek, Isaac." She gave each of them a nod and then turned to leave, her sub following on her heel.
"Thanks, Lyds." Stiles said after her, already deep in thoughts.
"That's a good question." Isaac picked up Lydia's comment. "What does Scott know?"
"Not as much as you." Stiles answered but left it at that, they were in public after all.
Derek had met Scott only a few times. Last time shortly after the bomb threat. He and Stiles had already been together at that point and they had acted like it. It had been obvious even for their waitress but Scott had been totally oblivious. As far as Scott was concerned, Derek was still a charity case.
But even if Peter knew about him and Stiles being together, what harm could he do with that kind of information?
Instantly Derek wished he hadn't thought that.
"So, no real harm done, right?" Isaac slipped into the seat Lydia had just left, sitting now across from them. "Not really how I expected this evening to go. This feels more like work than anything else." He admitted with a lopsided smile. "What now?"
Derek didn't know how much research Isaac had done on his own but he seemed to know what Derek had done when he'd safe-worded. At least enough to realize that things were different now.
Stiles looked at Derek.
"I'm not sure if I'm in the right mindset to continue." Stiles admitted. "But we can stay, see what's going on in the back rooms. If you want."
Instead of an answer Derek unbuckled the cuff around his wrist. The whole evening had been a clusterfuck. First Isaac, then the owner of the club and now the bomb Lydia had just dropped on them.
Suddenly the rope around his body felt constricting and Derek had to fight the urge to rip it off with a full set of claws.
"Get the rope off me." He gritted out from behind too many teeth. When he clenched his fists, he felt claws digging into his palms.
Instantly Stiles' hand was on the nape of his neck.
"Breathe." Stiles kissed him next to his ear. "You're doing good. Just breathe. I'll get you out of that in a second." His voice was soothing and Derek calmed down enough to let Stiles handle this.
"What's going on?" Isaac asked, concern clear in his voice. He was sitting right across from Derek but for a second he had forgotten that they weren't alone. Derek blinked at him, unable to answer. But he didn't have to, Stiles was handling this.
"We need some privacy." Stiles explained. "Go to the bar and get us a key for a private room."
With that Isaac was out of the way and actually helping solving the problem, Derek could stand this for a little while longer.
"I'm here." Stiles was whispering in his ear. "We can go to a room in a moment. I got you."
It felt as if with every breath the ropes tightened around his chest, making it harder to breathe. A bit like a boa slowly suffocating its victim.
But Stiles was here. He wouldn't let anything bad happen to him. Derek focused on the hand on his neck and Stiles' voice in his ear.
"I'm okay." He managed to say. "But I'd really like to get out of this rope. Now."
He knew that he could just rip it off, that made it a little better, but he doubted that it was a good idea to rip off his clothes along with it in the middle of the club. Given what kind of club it was, people probably wouldn't even bat an eye, though. Under different circumstances that thought would have been funny.
But then Isaac was back with the key and a minute later Derek was alone with Stiles in one of the private rooms.
Stiles helped him out of his clothes until Derek stood in the middle of the room in nothing but the rope harness.
"I expected this moment to be more sexy." He said, his chest still too tight but getting rid of the extra restriction of the clothes had helped already.
"You and me both." Stiles muttered. Then he ran down Derek's side with the tip of his finger. "Slice along here and it will come right off. Just don't hurt yourself. Can you do that?"
There probably were scissors somewhere around here for this very reason but using his claws was way faster. Like Stiles had predicted, that one line of cuts did the trick and a second later Derek stood in a puddle of ropes.
"Better?" Stiles asked, already leading him over to the bed that was dominating the room.
Derek took a deep breath before he nodded. He did feel better.
"Lay down, I get the oil."
Derek was already half-way into a lying position but now he threw a glance over his shoulder at Stiles.
"For a massage." Stiles gestured wildly with one hand while he was going through some bottles on a shelf near the bed. "You know, to get the blood flowing again, to get the tension out of your system. A massage. We haven't done that in a while."
That was true. They had started with only massages, nothing kinky or even erotic to it. Lately they had so many other things they wanted to do but a massage was just what he needed right now.
He settled in the middle of the bed so that Stiles had easy access from all sides and pillowed his head on his hands.
But then Stiles was with him sooner then expected and without the telltale rustling of clothes.
"Get naked." Derek said without even lifting his head.
"You know." Stiles let out a quiet laugh but did start to undress. "In this rooms usually the dom gives the orders."
"You're not my dom." Derek said into the mattress while the familiar weight of Stiles settled on his lower back.
"True." With strong hands he worked the oil into Derek's skin. "At least not at the moment."
Then Stiles started to knead the tense muscles of his neck and Derek sank deeper into the mattress. For a moment neither of them spoke.
Then Stiles broke the silence.
"I'm sorry." He said. "This is not how I planned this evening."
"It's fine." Derek mumbled, already dozy. "Next time is going to be better. And I'm getting a massage out of it, I call it a win."
"Only minutes ago you were close to a panic attack." Stiles reminded him. "And earlier you safe-worded."
"Stiles." He twisted enough to look at him. "It's fine. I'm good. Nothing that has happened today was your fault. You did your best to protect me and make this a good date. You know that I didn't safeword because I was at my limits, I needed to talk to Lydia. And after what she told us, we both were in no condition to continue. You did the right thing, you got me out of there."
"It's just." Stiles let out a sigh, his hands working along his spine. "I wanted this to be fun."
"I'm enjoying this." Derek assured him. "Just you and me. We don't always have to do stuff. This is good."
Stiles didn't say anything to that and focused on the massage instead.
Later Derek lay warm and relaxed under the blanket with Stiles in his arms. He didn't know for how long they had the room but at the moment he didn't care.
He was close to sleep when Stiles suddenly said: "We totally abandoned Isaac out there."
