It had been a good day and Derek went to work in a good mood. His shift wasn't that bad either, there was not a lot he could text Stiles, and on his way home in the morning he stopped to get something for breakfast for Laura and himself.

They used to do this whenever Derek's shift aligned with her sleeping schedule but lately, Derek had spent his mornings more often with Stiles. He wasn't sure if he could just go back to this with Laura now that she knew about Kate but he hoped that this hadn't changed.

He still hesitated when he entered their apartment. Laura was up and in the bathroom, he could hear the shower running. Enough time to start the coffee maker and to set the table. Then he was nervously waiting for her to join him in the kitchen. Yesterday at the store they had talked easily but that had been in public and the focus had been more on her and Kira. Derek hadn't meant to but the store had been mostly quiet and Stiles' voice kind of carried. Laura had listened in on them giving Kira dating tips and it had gotten her thinking. Derek had teased her about Kira before but yesterday he'd realized that this could be something serious.

The other thing he'd noticed about Kira was that she wasn't human. It kind of came as a relief, though. It was rare for werewolves, especially alphas, to get entangled with other supernatural beings and with their pack this small it most likely wasn't a good idea. However, a kitsune was hardly a hunter. And if she made Laura happy ...

Laura turned off the shower, pulling him out of his thoughts. Derek wasn't sure who would come out of the bathroom in a second here, his big sister or his alpha. Guilt crept up on him again.

"What's for breakfast?" She asked when she joined him in the kitchen. Her hair was still damp, she was dressed for comfort and not as if she intended to leave the house. Looked like she was counting on a lazy day, most likely with more video games.

"Bagels." Derek poured them some coffee and handed her a cup. "The way you like them."

He ducked his head and avoided looking at her. It was stupid, he knew that but the wolf part of him wanted to bare his throat to her.

"Derek." She cupped his face with one hand. "Don't do that."

Derek rubbed his cheek against her palm but couldn't look her in the eye.

"You don't have to make amends," she said. "You're not on probation for a place in my pack. You are my beta, my little brother. Nothing is going to change that."

"I know." Derek drew in a shaky breath. "But …"

"No buts." Laura cut him off. She gestured for him to sit down which he did, eyes on the cup of coffee in front of him. This had been supposed to be a nice breakfast, how had it turned into this?

"Last night I've been thinking." She took a sip of her coffee, searching for the right words. "I've seen you the last few months. How withdrawn you became. How you locked yourself in your room, how you pushed your body until you collapsed. The insomnia and the nightmares. I thought that I was losing you too."

"That's when you forced me to get a job." He didn't want to think about it but Laura was right, she could have lost him. The only reason she hadn't was because Derek had known that she would have been alone. If she lost him she would have nothing left.

"I understand a lot better now why you were falling into that hole."

"I'm better now," Derek assured her.

"I can see that." She smiled at him. "Stiles is good for you."

"They are."

"Point is." She reached for his hand. "You were punishing yourself for what happened. You've suffered enough. You've suffered more than you should ever have and I'm sorry that I didn't see it earlier."

"There's nothing you have to feel sorry for." Derek cleared his throat, this was getting awkward.

"Same to you." She squeezed his hand. "I don't know what's going on in your head but I won't punish you and you don't have to make it up to me. We're good."

Derek wanted to believe it.

"Okay, enough of that." She straightened up and reached for her bagel. "We should eat and then you should go to sleep, you had a long night."

"Yes, Mom." His voice was a bit too raspy.

She grinned at him and bit into her bagel.

"By the way, I might have a date on Saturday." She changed the topic.

"Who made the first step?" Derek took another sip of his coffee, he wasn't sure if he could eat just yet, his throat felt too tight. "Stiles and I have a bet running."

"Not sure to be honest." Laura chewed thoughtfully. "You know that I heard Stiles so after you left Kira came over and then we just stood there, throwing glances at each other."

Derek could picture that.

"Then I said fuck it and just asked Saturday? while at the same time she asked Do you …?." Laura shook her head, a fond smile playing on her lips. "We kind of said yes at the same time."

"Stiles is going to grill you on who started talking first."

"It's a tie, nobody wins your stupid bet." She grumbled into her bagel.

"Good luck convincing Stiles of that." Suddenly Derek felt good enough to try his bagel. "Stiles' co-workers asked me to join them for some after-work beers on Saturday. Do you want me to stay over at Stiles' place?" He most likely would have stayed over anyway but her answer would implicate things, he was too much little brother to pass up that opportunity.

"You think I put out on a first date?" She glared at him.

"You can do whatever you want." She was an adult, if she wanted to have sex on a first date she could go for it. "But after seeing you two I picture you playing video games all night."

Now it was her, looking everywhere but him.

"We're …" She fiddled with the rest of her bagel. "Well … that's kind of what we've planned?"

Derek burst out laughing.

On Saturday Laura deep-cleaned their apartment. They weren't living in a mess but with both of them working odd hours, Derek spending a lot of time with Stiles, and Laura spending a lot of time with her video games, cleaning had fallen short.

So while Laura was attacking the bathroom, Derek vacuumed the other rooms. She even made him clean up his room even if she assured him that she would keep the door closed.

She even changed her sheets because according to her she'd found wolf hair in uncomfortable places after they both had slept in there. Derek let her get away with that.

Laura bought all kinds of snacks and drinks but decided against cooking. She didn't want to scare Kira away with the inevitable chaos.

"You didn't have those qualms when I brought over Stiles for the first time." Derek pouted but he supported her decision. Not everybody could handle her cooking. The results on the plate? Yes. The disaster in the kitchen? No.

"You told me that it wasn't a date," Laura reminded him. "That Stiles is just a friend." She did make the air quotes.

"At that time we were just friends." Derek played along. He liked this easy banter with her. The last few days had been stiff and awkward, Derek had caught himself walking on eggshells around her but they were getting better. There were more and more moments like this where they could pretend that nothing had changed.

Derek would have loved to loom in the background when Kira showed up, he had heard her comment about him beating up jerks who looked wrong at Laura, but he had to leave early to pick up Stiles from work.

When Derek arrived at Stiles' work, everybody was still busy. Erica hadn't been lying when she'd said that they were in a time-sensitive phase right now.

Boyd waved him in but nobody else paid attention to him. So Derek walked over to where Stiles was sitting at their desk with their back towards him.

From behind Derek sneaked an arm around their chest, hugged them close, and pressed a kiss to their temple.

"Isaac, stop it," Stiles protested but they couldn't keep a straight enough face to deliver the line. They leaned back in their chair and made a kissy face but Derek ignored the demand for a kiss. The whole office was watching them now and he was pretty sure that Erica had her phone ready to not miss the opportunity for a video again.

"Later," he whispered into Stiles' ear, making them shudder.

"Why are you all still here?" Next to them, a door opened and a man with wild hair stepped out. He looked from one to the other, waiting for an answer but then his eyes fell on Derek.

"Who are you?" He narrowed his eyes on him, trying to put a name to his face. "I'm not paying you, am I?"

"No?" Derek wasn't sure what to think of the man. His best guess was that he was Stiles' boss.

"What are you doing here, then?"

"I just here to pick up Stiles," Derek hurried to explain. The man had something wild in his eyes and Derek wasn't sure if he wouldn't call security on him just because.

"Do that, I'm not paying more overtime." With that he dismissed him. "Same for the rest of you. It's Saturday evening, you have better things to do than to stay here."

There was a round of "Yes, coach!" and then everybody started to wrap things up.

"Your boss is weird." Derek glanced back to where he could see the man through the window in the door. He was still in there, working on his computer, while the rest of them was ready to leave.

"He is a bit on the crazy side …," Stiles said to which Erica added: "Understatement."

"… but he's a good boss," Stiles finished the sentence.

The group had a bar not far away they frequented for this kind of after-work gathering. They walked the short distance. Somehow Derek ended up with Isaac walking next to him. Derek wasn't sure what to think about that, so far the man had been openly lusting over him every chance he got but to his surprise, Isaac asked where he'd gotten his leather jacket. Apparently, he knew somebody whose birthday was coming up and it would be the perfect gift.

Derek noticed how Isaac's heart skipped a beat when he said it and he would bet money that there was no such friend, and a leather jacket would be an expensive gift to begin with, but he appreciated the effort. One topic led to another and by the time they entered the bar, they were talking about movies. Derek mentioned that he'd watched Groundhog Day with his sister the other day and it turned out that it was one of Isaac's favorites.

They got a table and the first round of beer arrived.

Derek had feared that he would just sit there while the others were talking about work but after a long week, they all seemed to be sick of that. Instead, they joined his and Isaac's conversation about movies. Movies led to shows and they were all shocked when Derek admitted that he hadn't watched much in that regard.

In the end, Stiles forced him to note down names of shows he just had to watch according to the others. He doubted that he would ever come around to watch them but he dutifully made a list on his phone.

"Don't worry, I'll make him watch them," Stiles promised darkly. "Besides, I have to catch up on a few as well."

"There's always too much to watch," Erica said wisely and raised her glass to that.

Instead of drinking to it, she kept the glass in the air. Derek was about to ask if she was alright when she made an almost comical face.

The glass slipped out of her hand. It bounced off the table, spilling beer all over Boyd who was trying to catch it. He did catch the glass before it rolled off the table but he was too slow to catch Erica when she fell out of her chair.