Derek had slept in a pack pile with Stiles before, when he'd needed it after John had interrogated him for the first time, but back then Stiles hadn't been pack. Now they were. Now it felt right.
Without even noticing Derek crawled on top of Stiles over the night and they draped an arm over him, holding him close even in their sleep. Not that that was something new. Asleep Stiles became a koala.
Laura was lying pressed into Stiles from the other side and when Derek blinked his eyes open in the morning, she was already awake.
She let her tongue loll out in a wolf laugh when she noticed that he'd noticed her looking at him and Stiles. Derek growled at her but low enough to not wake Stiles who was still hugging him.
He probably should get up before Laura started to take pictures but he was too content like this. So when Stiles slung their other arm around his neck as well, Derek lowered his head in defeat and closed his eyes for another five minutes.
"I'll get the coffee going," Laura said and ran a hand through the fur between his shoulders. When she reached one of Stiles' arms, she just continued until she gave their shoulder a little squeeze.
"Did I hear coffee?" Stiles blinked their eyes open. Unfocused at first they looked up at Laura.
Derek could tell the exact moment when Stiles realized that she was sitting next to them naked. Their eyes widened comically before they tried to draw the blanket over their head with a yelp. Since Derek was lying on top of them and the blanket, Stiles only managed to cover themself up to the chin which gave the weird impression that they were the one caught naked.
"Humans are weird," Laura observed while Stiles covered their eyes with their arm. She gave their shoulder another pat before she left the bed to get the coffee going. On the way out she grabbed some clothes so there shouldn't be more surprises over breakfast.
"Is she gone?" Stiles dared to peek out from under their arm.
Derek rolled off them and shifted to his human form.
"You want first shower?" He asked.
"Don't get me wrong, sleeping with two wolves is beyond cool …" Stiles started but stopped, making a face. "That sounds just wrong."
"You have a sick mind."
"I'm kind of used to waking up to you being naked." Stiles ignored his comment. "But Laura …"
Stiles sat up and had a look around. If they were just taking in the room, they had been basically asleep when they'd come in here yesterday, or if they expected Laura to pop up from somewhere, Derek couldn't tell.
"If it bothers you she'll change in the bathroom from now on," Derek offered. He would bring it up later but he was pretty sure that she'd heard Stiles' comment.
Stiles thought about it for a moment but then they shook their head.
"I just need to get used to it, I guess." They leaned over to steal a kiss. "This whole pack thing is still new to me."
They got ready for the day and by the time they joined Laura in the kitchen she was not only dressed but had coffee and breakfast waiting for them as well.
Laura had a late shift at the store but Stiles and Derek had to hurry to not be late.
"Have fun at work." Laura rubbed her cheek against Derek's. "I'm having an online date with Erica in a bit."
"You have no idea how much I hate you right now," Stiles muttered.
"Hope she won't be too exhausted after your gaming session, Stiles and I wanted to see her after work," Derek reminded her. Knowing Stiles it would be a short visit. If they remembered by then that Derek had promised them an occasion tonight.
"No promises." Laura gave him a feral grin.
She reached for Stiles to say goodbye to them as well but then she hesitated with her hand in mid-air.
"It's okay." Stiles closed the gap between them and caught her in a hug. "We're pack now."
They offered their neck for Laura to scent them.
Derek felt his chest tighten at the sight of them. His pack. He'd never thought that he could have this. He still wasn't sure if he deserved it and he was kind of waiting for the universe to take it away but for now, he took it.
At work waited another surprise for him. Boyd was sitting at his desk.
"Blame your sister," Boyd told him when he noticed Derek. "They are having a morning gaming session and Erica kicked me out for that. Might as well go to work." He shrugged.
"Is she going to be okay?" Stiles asked. "If she's having another seizure while she's home alone …"
"She had a few minor ones until they figured out the right medication but she didn't have one since last week," Boyd assured them but Derek could tell that he was worried. "They are using TeamSpeak, Laura should notice if something's wrong. And I won't stay out for long, maybe two or three hours." He glanced over to the clock on the wall.
"How is she?" Derek asked. He hadn't seen her since their trip to Beacon Hills and he wanted to know. And not just because Laura was going to offer her the bite. Somehow these people had become important to him. They were his friends and he cared for them.
"Good. I guess," Boyd said. "The seizures are under control. She gets headaches. Sometimes real bad ones. She gets exhausted quickly and she often takes naps but otherwise, she's fine."
For now, was the unspoken part here. Derek got it. Boyd was waiting for her to get worse. Maybe not today or next week but soon. Very soon Erica would get worse and then she would die.
It was hanging like a dark cloud over Boyd and Derek could see it on Isaac's face as well. Who looked more optimistic was Stiles, though. They knew that there was another option.
Derek wanted to tell Boyd that Erica would be fine but it was not his place to tell him. So after an awkward moment, they all went back to work.
Having Boyd around was weird, though. Derek was used to working with Stiles and Isaac, Boyd felt like an intruder. It didn't help that the others were used to working with Boyd which made Derek feel like he was the intruder.
Boyd didn't even stay until his lunch break and Derek was a bit ashamed to admit that he did breathe easier once the other man had left. He liked Boyd, no question about that, but the whole atmosphere in the office had been different. And not just because Derek and Boyd hadn't been working together before. Boyd had been a reminder of Erica and it had not only been Derek who hadn't felt quite at ease around him.
"You think he's going to be fine?" Isaac asked when they were sitting together for lunch. Derek had gotten them sandwiches from that place down the street again.
"Dunno," Stiles said but shared a look with Derek. "It's not easy. For both of them."
Over the afternoon two things happened. Stiles remembered the on occasion promise and they couldn't stop glancing over to Derek while they were getting hornier by the minute. Derek just waited for them to ask if they could ditch Erica and go straight home after work. Just to let them squirm for a little while longer Derek intended to say no to that idea but so far they hadn't asked.
The other thing Derek noticed was that Stiles was drifting into she territory. He doubted that Stiles had even noticed yet but they were holding themself differently and it was seeping into their gestures and even into how they talked. It was very subtle and Derek was sure that neither Isaac nor Finstock would ever notice, even if the latter had just spent half an hour with Stiles in his office, heads stuck together over something.
By the time they were ready to leave the office for the day, it was clearly in Stiles' scent as well. Like a special kind of emotion.
What was weird, though, was that Stiles' horniness had abated over the last few hours. When Derek left the office with Stiles, she seemed to be almost desperate to visit Erica.
Erica welcomed them both with warm hugs but it was obvious that the day had sucked the energy out of her. Derek blamed Laura and the gaming session for that.
It hadn't been obvious before but now Erica did smell sick. Derek caught that foul scent he associated with cancer on her along with the chemical smell of her medication. The cancer was not prominent and if he hadn't been looking for it, he might have missed it but it was undeniably there.
Erica had shadows under her eyes and the way she was holding her head, Derek could tell that she was having one of those headaches Boyd had mentioned.
Nevertheless, she seemed happy to see them and she wanted to know everything about the convention, hashtag cute gamer came up again, and their vacation afterward.
"Heard you met Stiles' dad." Erica elbowed him in the side. Derek wasn't exactly sure how and why but he'd ended up sitting on the couch next to Erica while Boyd and Stiles had taken over the chairs.
"Dad didn't even try to shoot him," Stiles piped up. Then she launched into the story of how her dad had caught Derek naked. She had to modify it a bit to leave out the werewolf part and it became a story about how her dad had caught them chilling on the couch in a post-orgasmic daze.
"Derek has no shame." Stiles almost smacked Boyd in the face with that exclamation. "Like at all. Dad needed brain bleach."
Erica laughed at the story but it wasn't full-hearty and Derek felt her sinking more into him when she struggled to sit upright any longer. Under the guise of supporting her, he slung an arm around her shoulders. She was wearing a t-shirt and he let his fingertips brush over the bare skin of her arm. He made sure to keep his arm out of sight from Boyd and a second later, Erica's pain crawled up his arm in black lines.
It was risky. Stiles had found out about werewolves exactly this way but Derek could not just sit next to her and feel the pain radiating out of her. Especially since he knew that she might become pack soon. The wolf part of him already thought of her as pack and it was not happy with seeing her suffer.
Erica let out a sigh and leaned more into him.
Stiles gave him a knowing look and did her best to keep Boyd distracted.
Only a few minutes later Erica was fast asleep with her head on Derek's shoulder. Derek kept the pain drain going for a moment longer but the headache had eased off and she was sleeping peacefully now.
When Boyd finally noticed, Derek was worried about what the other man might think. Erica was Body's girlfriend and she was sleeping with her head on the shoulder of another man. But Boyd's eyes became soft when he noticed how deep she was sleeping.
"She hasn't gotten a good night's sleep lately," he said in a low voice to not wake her.
Together they helped Erica into a lying position and Boyd tucked her in with a blanket. Derek's throat tightened when he saw how gentle he was with her, there was love in every touch. She didn't even stir from the manhandling.
"Thanks for coming by," Boyd said when he saw them out.
"Anytime," Stiles hurried to say. "If you need anything …"
They promised to come by again soon and Derek reminded him of the invitation for dinner on Saturday. He and Laura had been debating if they should clue in Boyd as well but there was no point in trying to keep him in the dark. Boyd and Erica were a package deal, what Derek had just seen was proof of that.
On the way home, Stiles fell quiet. Derek thought that her mind was still on Erica but when he parked the car at Stiles' place, she took a breath and asked: "Raincheck on the on occasion?"