The halls closed earlier on Sunday but they had to stay to pack up. By then Stiles was dead on their feet. The last few days were a blur, they couldn't even remember half of them and they were just happy that it was over.
The event had been a success. Their demo had been running without major hiccups, people had fun playing it, and all in all, they had heard positive things about their game. They had to check the reviews later but that had to wait until they could look at a screen again without getting cross-eyed.
Finstock treated them to another dinner to celebrate the successful presentation but Stiles was too tired to appreciate the gesture. They didn't draw it out for too long, though. Stiles and Derek just wanted to get back to their room while Finstock had to catch his plane back to New York.
"That man is insane," Stiles said when Finstock left in a cab. "The office is closed tomorrow, he could get a good night's sleep before he flies back."
"I'm not sure if he ever sleeps." Derek put an arm around Stiles' hip and together they walked back to their hotel.
Checkout was at eleven and they made the most of it. They slept in, had a late breakfast, and around noon they were in a rental with Derek behind the wheel on their way to Beacon Hills.
They had thought about staying in San Francisco for a day or two but in the end, they both had agreed to drive to Beacon Hills right away.
Stiles was looking forward to their visit with mixed feelings, they wanted to see their dad but they had not the best memories connected with the town.
However, Derek's memories were worse and more recent. Stiles threw him a glance in an attempt to read his mood but he just looked tired.
They weren't in a hurry so they stopped for lunch just over an hour into their ride. They had a late breakfast so neither of them was that hungry but Stiles wanted to stretch their legs and use the free wifi to check social media.
Stiles' phone came to life with almost fifty new messages in their group. Worried that something had happened with Erica Stiles opened it.
One of the first messages was a video.
"Why didn't you tell me that we're trending?" Stiles tore their eyes off the screen long enough to glare at Derek. He was their social media guy, it was his job to know about something like this. "Or better that you're trending."
"What?" Derek had been looking out of the window with his untouched food in front of him and he still didn't look all the way there. Right, he most likely had other things on his mind. But this was important.
"Look." Stiles shoved their phone into his face and hit play again. It was a short clip of their booth. It looked like it was intended as a panorama with the camera slowly moving from left to right. There was Stiles, talking to somebody, two people playing their demo, Derek in the background with a water bottle in hand. The camera went over all of them but then it went back to Derek.
"Well, that's a cute gamer," the person behind the camera said. The camera stayed on Derek while he took a sip from the bottle.
"Okay?" Derek said.
"Somebody posted that on Saturday." Stiles took their phone back. "Since then more videos and pictures of you have been posted. #cutegamer is trending. You're internet famous."
Derek stared at them.
"Don't worry, it'll die down in a few days," Stiles assured him, already digging deeper into this. "Doesn't look as if they found out your name yet. Let's hope it stays that way until it dies down." Derek was the one in charge of their website and he hadn't come around to add himself as the new one yet. "But be prepared for some fan-mail and the inevitable hate."
Derek still stared at them and Stiles wasn't sure if he had even heard them.
"Derek?" They snapped their fingers in front of his face.
"I can't be on the internet like this," he finally managed to say. "I can't be trending. I can't. What if …" His eyes were wide with horror and he couldn't finish the sentence.
"This is your fifteen minutes of fame." Stiles grinned at him. "You can't change it so you might as well enjoy it." And it did gain some publicity for them as a developer studio.
"You don't understand," Derek said in a toneless voice. "What if Kate …"
It took Stiles long seconds to get what he meant.
Derek was a werewolf. There were people out there who would kill him on principle alone. He'd been in the news as one of the survivors of the murder of his whole family, even if Kate missed this, other hunters most likely knew his face. He and Laura had kept their heads down the last few months but this might give somebody ideas.
"Derek, take a breath." Stiles reached over and pried his hand off the cup of coffee before he crushed it. "How many hunters do you think will check out a hashtag called cutegamer?"
Derek let go of the cup but he was now crushing Stiles' hand. With a prick of claws.
"Your name is not out there yet and maybe it stays that way. And even if, you don't have any personal social media, they can only link it back to work and Finstock won't give out personal information, you know that. But just to make sure, I'm going to tell him about this in a minute so he's prepared if somebody asks about you."
Which people most likely would. However, most of them wouldn't be out to murder Derek.
"We're going to stay the week in Beacon Hills with my dad, nobody is going to look for you there," Stiles reminded him. "This will have died down by the time we're back in New York."
Derek nodded and loosened his grip on Stiles' hand. His fingertips were humanly blunt again.
"I have to warn Laura."
Derek still looked shaken but the initial panic was gone. For a second Stiles had feared that he would lose control. Not that Stiles was afraid of Derek, they knew that he would never harm them, but they were in public.
"I drive." Stiles snatched the keys out of Derek's hand when they went back to the car. "I don't want to end up in a ditch," they joked but Derek was in no condition to drive.
Derek was not in the mood to talk either so Stiles turned on the radio and just enjoyed the road ahead of him. In New York driving most of the time meant standing or stop and go but here he had the open road ahead and almost no traffic. Here driving was fun. Stiles turned the volume up and drumming on the wheel he just drove. He might be singing along, too.
It took him a while until he noticed that Derek was looking at him.
"What?" Stiles asked with a wide grin and just because he sang the next line off-key on purpose.
"I'm happy that you're here," Derek said. "With me."
"Are you getting emotional?" Stiles asked but couldn't help the fond smile when he noticed the way Derek was looking at him.
"It's all a bit much at the moment," Derek admitted. "I'm just glad that you're here."
Stiles was pretty sure that he didn't just mean here in the car with him but in his life in general.
"Love you too." Stiles reached over and put a hand on Derek's leg.
They arrived in Beacon Hills in the late afternoon.
John was standing in the door before Stiles had even shut off the engine but he couldn't blame the man. Last time they had seen each other, Stiles had been recovering from getting stabbed. He'd assured his dad countless times since then that he was fine but his dad had to see with his own eyes, he got that.
"Good to see you." John hugged him and Stiles hugged him back just as fiercely.
"Good to see you too."
John and Derek carried the bags in, John gave him a stern look when Stiles tried to reach for one of them but he was more than fine with others doing the heavy lifting.
"I'm fine, Dad." Stiles closed the trunk and made sure that the car was locked before he followed the others into the house. "I've just been on my feet for three days straight and I'm fine."
He was looking forward to an early night.
"You're still recovering," John told him. "Who thought that it would be a good idea to send you on that trip?" He was looking at Derek and Stiles was not sure if he was expecting an answer from him or if he was blaming him.
"It was a last-minute kind of thing." Stiles defended the decision. "I had to fill in because Erica, who was supposed to go to the convention, has a tumor in her brain."
It was a dick move, Stiles knew that. But he was fine, the convention had been fun, and this did shut up his dad effectively.
"It smells good." Derek rescued them. "What's for dinner? I'm starving." With that, he followed his nose to the kitchen.
John and Stiles shared a glance, John awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, obviously at a loss on how to deal with the situation.
"I'm just glad that you're here," John said.
It was the second time Stiles had heard that line today.
"I missed you." Stiles leaned more into his dad. They had seen each other not long ago but it felt as if it had been ages.
His dad slung an arm around his shoulders and held him close for a long moment.
"We should check on Derek." Stiles brought some distance between them. "Before he wolfs down everything by himself and doesn't leave anything for us."
"I heard that."
Things became more relaxed over dinner. Stiles told John everything about the convention and that Derek was now internet famous. It was kind of funny and he needed to dig into that later but on the other hand, he couldn't deny that Derek was worried, and rightfully so. The way Derek was poking at his food when Stiles mentioned it was proof enough that it was still bothering him.
"Derek thinks that Kate might find him this way." Stiles became more serious. "To finish the job."
Derek opened his mouth to protest, no doubt, this was personal, but then he thought better of it.
"It's possible," John admitted. "Since we don't know why Kate has picked your family, it's impossible to say what she might do."
Stiles had to bite his tongue to not tell him that he knew exactly why the Hales had become targets.
"We don't know if she spared you or if you were just lucky to not be home when it happened," John said to Derek.
Derek avoided his eyes, clearly uncomfortable with the topic.
John was studying him, now in full sheriff mode, but he did not turn dinner into an interrogation. Instead, he got them a fresh round of beer.
"How did you end up working with Stiles anyway?" John asked, handing Derek a bottle. "Stiles isn't telling me anything these days. You were a driver when I last saw you and now you're a game developer?"
Stiles told him in detail how that had happened with some corrections from Derek when he was exaggerating again. It felt good.
However, he and Derek hadn't slept much the last few days so around ten they said their goodnights to John and then they turned in.
John had kept Stiles' room as he'd left it. With the bed he had as a teenager.
"This would be easier if you slipped into your fur," Stiles said while he tried to fit in there with Derek.
Derek glared at him but moved closer to the wall to give Stiles more space. They would have to spoon but Stiles liked falling asleep like that anyway. And Derek never said no to cuddling.
"I like having my boyfriend in my arms," Derek whispered into his ear when they had finally settled in.
"You have no idea how sexy it is that you can tell."