Derek checked his equipment three times before Josh had finally enough and kicked him out of his own apartment.

"You'll be late if you don't leave now."

"I'll still be early." Derek fought the urge to check his bags again but he knew that he had everything he would need, and some, he had just checked.

"Not if you don't get going."

They'd had breakfast together, Derek had bought danishes on his way over from Stiles' place, and now Josh was lounging in his chair, his coffee mug hanging from his fingers and he was watching with clear amusement while Derek was angsting over his job.

This was a different kind of job than he was used to, of course he was anxious. It had been the same before his first photo shooting with a client in BDSM gear and when he'd had his first gig, photographing a show. Derek knew that it wouldn't be as bad as his mind was trying to tell him and that tomorrow he would laugh about his anxiety but right now he was just worried that he would get there and wouldn't have his camera with him. Actually, he had three in his bag but that was not the point.

"Do I have to call Stiles?" Josh asked, only half-joking. He might not fully understand the dynamics of a dom-sub relationship but he had a surprisingly good grasp on how Stiles affected Derek. Stiles could tell him to get going and Derek would answer "green" and he would be out of the door. To his surprise just thinking about Stiles doming him into doing it helped.

"I'm going, I'm going," Derek muttered and grabbed the bags. They were heavy, he had most of his equipment in there, but he carried them to the door without hesitation. "I'll be home late. Or I'll crash at Stiles'."

"I'll survive." Josh made a shooing gesture and with that Derek was out of the door.

His destination was a hotel where his customer had booked a room for the photo shooting today. Tomorrow they would be at a club.

Derek's job was to photograph the assortment of an adult store but they didn't want the usual stock photos, they wanted something more along the lines of complete outfits in a realistic setting. Derek would have three models, two women and a man, to set up scenes in the room. He just hoped that it would work out the way he was picturing the photos in his head.

He was early but not the first. Veronica, his contact and boss for this job, was already there, making sure that everything was ready for them.

"Derek." She greeted him with a little hug. "Come in. Do you like the setting?"

Straight to the point, he liked that. Derek had a look around. The room had big windows which would give him good natural light, the bed was in a good spot to take pictures from different angles and at the side, they had different blankets and pillows so that he could make it look like different locations.

Derek stepped over to the racks to have a look at the clothes and gear he would be working with.

"I can work with this."

Derek went to work and set up his equipment. The lighting was the most important part and it calmed his nerves, working on that.

One by one his models arrived and Veronica introduced them.

One of the women, Nora, was a bit shy and she looked as if she wanted to rather be anywhere else and Derek made a mental note to make sure that she was comfortable with what they were about to do here.

Lindsey seemed more tired than anything else but she had brought coffee for all of them which made her his favorite.

The man, Steve, tried to look confident but the way he was crossing his arms in front of his chest and how he was looking at the now properly illuminated bed told Derek that he had to check in with him as well.

There wouldn't be more people present, a point Derek had stressed more than once over the negotiation for this job. Even Veronica was too much for his liking but since she was the one signing his paycheck she had to be there. But she kept in the background and let him do his thing, so far so good.

Derek picked out the first outfit for each of his models and sent them off to change. He wanted to start them off easy and had picked some latex clothes that were revealing but still on the safe side. They would get to gimp suits and full puppy play later.

The first pose he had in mind was with Steve in the role of the dom and Lindsey as his sub. Derek made him sit on the edge of the bed with her kneeling between his spread legs. The tricky part was to get a natural pose but still a good view on the outfits.

Derek got that part down with a bit of directing but when he wanted to take the picture, he noticed something off.

"Steve, don't look at her like that." Derek lowered the camera. "You're looking at her like you want to bite her head off. You love her, you're proud of her, show that."

Steve gave him a confused glance but the hard look left his face and his features softened slightly.

"And Lindsey, you're not afraid of him, you love him, you trust him. Stop looking at him like a scared rabbit."

It was clear that neither of his models had any idea how a dom-sub relationship worked, Derek pinched the back of his nose.

"This is not about putting somebody down," Derek tried to explain and wished that Stiles was here, he was way better at explaining stuff like this. "Lindsey, you want to please him, you want to be good for him. Not because he asks that from you but because you want to. And Steve, you're proud of her. You guide her, you help her to grow."

It wasn't the best explanation but both of them thought about his words for a moment and when they got back into pose, their expressions had changed drastically.

"That's what I'm talking about." Derek took his first series of pictures.

Except for a short lunch break they worked the whole day. Every change of outfit took time, some things were not easy to get into and even more difficult to get out of, but Derek used the time to rearrange the bed to make it look like a different location. With different angles and some poses in other places in the room, he got a nice variety of locations.

After that first pose, his models got what he wanted from them. When Steve and Nora had their puppy play going with Lindsay holding their leash, they were playful just like overgrown puppies. So far those were the pictures Derek liked the most.

When they were finally done for the day, it was almost nine in the evening. Derek left the hotel tired but with a good feeling.

For a moment he was pondering if he wanted to go back to his place, Haley and Stiles were most likely having a good time right now and he didn't want to interrupt their movie but on the other hand, he wanted to see Stiles. And not only because he hoped that Stiles had saved some dinner for him. Since they had been shooting the photos in a hotel, they had been set with coffee and snacks and for lunch, Veronica had called room service, the server had gotten an eyeful, but they had skipped dinner in favor of being done before midnight. Now he was starving.

So he drove over to Stiles' on autopilot and let himself into the apartment.

"What are you doing here?" Derek stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted Josh with Haley on the couch.

"Stiles asked me to come over," Josh explained and paused the movie. "Wanted me to walk Jack."

Derek felt dread coiling his guts.

"He's not feeling well," Josh continued. "Stiles I mean, Jack is just fine. He's with Stiles." He pointed at the closed bedroom door.

"Get back to your movie, I'll check on him." Derek tried to sound nonchalant but at least Josh had to know that something was up. Which he had most likely known for a while because he had seen Stiles earlier and if things were as bad as Derek feared, there was no way that Josh had missed how bad Stiles was feeling. Derek just hoped that Haley hadn't picked up on it.

"Stiles?" Derek asked in a low voice when he opened the bedroom door.

Stiles didn't answer but Jack who was lying on the part of the lump under the blanket that had to be Stiles' legs, lifted his head. He was looking at Derek as if he wanted to say that finally, Derek was here to take care of things. Jack let out a low whine. Not good.

Derek closed the door and stepped deeper into the poorly lit room. There was only the light coming from the street which was just enough to make out the lump under the blanket. Stiles' chair stood askew at the side of the bed as if he'd parked it there in a hurry. Not a good sign but what really hit him was the smell.

"Stiles?" Derek stepped closer.

This time he got a response. A whimper, muffled by the blanket Stiles had drawn over his head.

"Hey." Gently to not jostle him too much Derek sat down on the edge of the bed. "That bad?"

Stiles had been fine when Derek had left this morning but things had been stressful the last few days. He had some commissions due and even if he tried to play it down, Derek knew that Stiles tended to dive into work and then he forgot to take care of himself. That had gotten better since Derek was around, there were no more Red Bull fueled all-nighters but work did take its toll on Stiles. Plus the discussion of their wedding yesterday. It had been Derek who had broken down crying but he doubted that it had been easy for Stiles either. And then Lydia had put him on babysitting duty.

"Did you take your painkillers?" Derek asked and sneaked a hand under the blanket. He found Stiles lying curled into himself, making himself as small as possible, and when he put his hand on Stiles' lower back, he felt the rock hard muscles spasming under his palm.

Stiles made another noise but Derek wasn't sure if that meant that he had taken his meds or not.

"What do you need?" Derek asked and started to rub soothing circles on Stiles' lower back. "I can run you a bath."

If he was correct about the origin of the smell, Stiles would have to clean up before he could go to sleep anyway. And Derek would prefer to not soil the bed in the process.

"Haley. She can't ..."

Of course, he didn't want the kid to see him like this but Haley would be here the whole night and Derek was not going to let Stiles lie in his waste for hours.

"She won't see a thing," Derek promised. "Only that I carry you over to the bathroom. I'm going to get you a bath ready. Okay?"

The blanket moved in what Derek interpreted as a nod.

"Keep him warm until I've everything ready." Derek scratched Jack behind the ear to which the dog let out another whine but he did settle back down to lie more firmly on Stiles' legs. The warmth and weight of the dog usually helped. It wasn't much but it had to do until Derek got Stiles into the bathtub.

"Is he okay?" Josh was hovering just outside the door and behind him, stood Haley watching him with worried eyes.

With a jerk of his head, Derek moved them away from the door. As far as he knew this was the first time either of them had witnessed one of Stiles' bad days.

"He's not feeling well," Derek explained. "I'm going to carry him over to the bathroom in a sec. A hot bath usually helps. Don't worry, he'll feel better in the morning." The last bit was directed at Haley but it wasn't enough to ease the worried look off her face.

"It's okay, he gets that from time to time."

When Derek carried him over, he made sure that Stiles' face was buried in his chest, but he had to be careful to not bump his legs into the frame of the door, there was no way to hide how stiff his legs where.

Derek breathed easier when he closed the bathroom door and didn't feel watching eyes in his back any longer.

"Let's get you cleaned up, shall we?"