They were entering the hot phase and Stiles was painfully aware that they had been away for a few days meaning that they were behind schedule. That they were working only half-days this week was not helping either but when Stiles brought it up to Finstock he didn't want to hear anything about going back to full-time.
"Half-days until Friday, I don't want you to keel over on your desk," Finstock ordered and kicked Stiles out of his office. They did know that a boss like Finstock was the unicorn most thought didn't even exist, most bosses would have insisted that they came in the day after they had gotten stabbed, but that didn't help with the behind schedule problem.
But even if they didn't like it, they had to admit that Finstock was right. They were still healing and even if they tried to ignore it, they were still hurting.
So Derek's invitation for lunch came in right on cue and if Stiles was honest, they wanted to see him as soon as possible. Aside from their short exchange last night they hadn't heard from him and those messages hadn't told them much. They wanted to see for themself that Derek was okay.
Turned out that Derek was more than okay. Behind their back, he was already collaborating with Erica. Stiles was doomed.
Derek even laughed at them when Stiles was still grumbling about the cupcake by the time they reached the car.
"They are watching us." Derek sobered up with a tilt of his head.
"What did you expect?" Stiles fought the urge to look up to the window. From this angle, they would not be able to see their co-workers but they for sure had a good view down on them.
"Isaac just said that he likes to see me leave."
"You can hear him?" Now Stiles had to glance up to the window. In a direct line it was not that far away. Still impressive. Freakish werewolf senses.
"Erica agrees with him." Derek made a face.
"Let's give them a reason to watch." Stiles slung their arms around Derek's neck, crossing their wrists behind his head. Their faces were close now but Stiles waited for Derek to make the next move. His eyes flickered over to the building but then a grin spread over his face and next thing Stiles knew was that they were kissing. In a swift move, Derek turned them around and then Stiles' back was pressed against the car.
The kiss was heated and hungry but they were in public so it was over way too soon. Bracing his hands on the roof of the car, Derek boxed them in. They were still standing close and Stiles was not ready to break the moment. They wanted to feel Derek's body pressed against theirs, wanted to keep looking into those intense eyes but after one sweet second, Derek brought some distance between them.
"Erica is complaining that she didn't get the chance to make a video of us," Derek said.
"Of course she is." Stiles shook their head. "Okay, lunch. I'm starving." They clapped their hands. "There's this sandwich shop just a bit down the street, we can walk there."
They had gotten their lunch there every time they had forgotten to bring their own, which happened more often than they liked to admit.
This time they didn't order to go and took a seat instead. They had come in at the end of the lunch rush, the place wasn't that packed and they even got a quiet table in the corner.
"How did things go with Laura after I left?" Stiles asked once they were set up with coffee and had placed their order.
"She needs time." Derek set back in his seat. "But we're good. We spent hours in her bed and then we watched Groundhog Day in the middle of the night."
"The first part sounds mildly disturbing," Stiles said. They didn't have siblings but that sounded like something people in Alabama did.
"We like lying curled together, it's normal." Derek shrugged. "For us. Our kind." He lowered his voice for the last part.
"Oh." Stiles made in realization. "You put on your fur-coats?" They had pictured them in their human form. With wolves, the pictures in their head suddenly became way cuter.
"I haven't seen Laura like that." They only knew her in her human form but now they wondered what she looked like as a wolf. But that was nothing to discuss here.
Their sandwiches arrived and they dropped the heavy topics. For the last two days, Derek had been dealing with the heavy topics, time to cut him some slack.
Stiles told Derek about the problem they had been discussing with Isaac earlier and from there the conversation drifted to other topics. They drew out their lunch for over an hour. Derek left a generous tip for blocking the table for so long and then they were standing on the sidewalk again.
"Any plans for the rest of the afternoon?" Stiles asked. They would be fine with heading back home and hanging out with Derek there but they were willing to follow Derek's lead. They didn't mind either way.
Derek thought about it but then he nodded with an idea.
"How about we check out that gaming store?" He suggested. "Laura is working there right now."
"That is an excellent idea."
It was the middle of the week and early in the afternoon, there were only a few customers in sight when they entered the store.
Laura was standing behind the counter, talking to a co-worker, but when they heard the doorbell, both turned to greet the newcomers.
"What are you two doing here?" Laura blurted out while her co-worker said the usual greeting line.
"Hmm." Stiles made and turned to Derek. "This is a store. What could we possibly be doing in here?"
Derek ignored them and walked up to the counter.
"Is this a bad time?" He asked with a glance at the co-worker who was watching the exchange with interest. A pretty Asian woman, a bit shorter than Laura. She was eyeing Derek closely and Stiles was ready to put a possessive arm around Derek's middle when her face lit up with a realization.
"Is this Derek?" She stage-whispered to Laura but even Stiles who was still a few steps behind Derek heard her loud and clear.
"I am," Derek answered for his sister. "You must be Kira, Laura has told me a lot about you." He gave her a winning smile while Laura tried to murder him with her eyes.
"I hope not." Kira laughed awkwardly and hid her face by tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She fiddled with her hair for a moment longer, she had no idea what to do with her hands, but then she forced her hand down and tried to still it by clasping it with the other one.
"Anything I can do for you or are you just here to see Laura?" She tried to hide behind her professional voice but failed miserably. Stiles felt themself twitch from just looking at her. The poor woman was a bag of nerves.
"He's just here to see his sister." Stiles stepped in. "But I do have a few questions."
She blinked at them, her focus had been on Derek and she'd totally missed the second customer.
"Of course." She threw Laura a glance but then she hurried around the counter. "It was nice meeting you, Derek."
Stiles stepped away from Derek to give the siblings some privacy but they still caught him saying: "So that was Kira."
To which Laura told him to shut up. Derek's teasing tone and the light blush Stiles caught on Laura's face were enough to read the situation.
"Okay, what can I do for you?" Kira asked with new professionalism. Interesting, looked like she was only nervous around the Hale siblings.
"I … well … I don't know." Stiles rubbed the back of their head, they hadn't thought that far ahead. They had just wanted to rescue her before she made a complete fool of herself or died of embarrassment.
"I haven't been in here before," Stiles admitted. "Can you give me a quick rundown of what you have?"
"Sure."
Stiles followed her around the store and they had to admit that they could get lost in here. They could spend hours just browsing the shelves. And they could easily spend quite an amount of money here. Dammit, this was a bad idea.
"You and Laura." Stiles picked up a game at random just to look casual. "You looked cute together when we came in."
"We're not …" She straightened out a few games. "We're co-workers."
She gave them a tight smile and led them down the aisle.
"Don't think she's interested anyway," Kira muttered more to herself than to Stiles.
"Are you kidding me?" Stiles caught up with her in two quick steps. "You're the reason she started working here."
When Laura had told them about the store she had mentioned Kira a few times. That she'd started working here to help her out while they were understaffed, that she couldn't just leave her hanging.
"You should ask her out." Stiles was warming up to the idea.
"No." She let out an awkward laugh at that idea. "Besides, have you seen her brother? That guy looks like he beats up guys who look at her wrong. Don't want to know what he thinks about gay people."
"You did see us come in here together, right?" Stiles asked but then they realized what kind of store they were in. Dudes came in here together all the time but Stiles doubted that many of them were actually together.
"Derek is my boyfriend," Stiles clarified. They weren't sure if they had used that term before but they definitely should use it more often. It felt good.
Kira glanced over to where Derek and Laura were still talking at the counter. Calculating the distance, Stiles was pretty sure that they were in hearing distance for the werewolves but from here it was hard to tell if the siblings were engaged in a conversation or if they were eavesdropping on them.
Kira was looking over to them with thoughtful eyes which Stiles took as a win.
To not just steal her time, they asked some actual questions and soon they found themself deep in a discussion about retro games. Kira knew her way around and she made some valid points.
If Laura and Kira became a thing Stiles would feel sorry for Derek. With three gamers in the family, he would be completely outnumbered.
"I thought you just wanted to browse," Derek commented when they returned to the counter with three games.
"He is so innocent." Stiles shared a look with Laura who just rang them up without commenting on their impulse buying.
"Don't you dare and corrupt him." She handed them the games.
"No promises."
They waved her goodbye and then they were following Derek out of the store.
"You think Kira's going to make a move?" Stiles asked.
"You were very convincing." Derek didn't even try to hide the fact that he had been listening in on them. "Got Laura thinking as well. If Kira isn't making a move soon, she might."
"I bet Kira is going to make the first step." Stiles had a good feeling about that.
"Don't underestimate Laura."
"She's your sister and your alpha of course your money is on her." Stiles pointed out. "Ten bucks that Kira asks her out first."
"You want to part with your money today," Derek said and climbed into the car. "But okay, ten that Laura makes the first move."
Derek drove them back to Stiles' place where they just hung out until it was time for Derek to leave for his shift. Stiles liked that, it had something domestic.
When Derek left, Stiles got out the new games but they paused their game every time Derek texted them about a strange encounter with a customer. It was good to see that Derek was mostly back to his old self and that they could have this easy chatter but Stiles knew that Derek was not over what had happened with Kate. Far from it.
They just hoped that their dad would catch her and bring her to justice. Maybe it would give Derek some closure as well.