Derek had been here before so he knew the layout. It was a modern cabin with two bedrooms on the upper level. For just the two of them, it had been too big, he and Laura had slept as wolves in front of the fireplace and had barely used the bedrooms but for five people it was almost too small. Boyd and Erica got one bedroom while the rest of them would share the other but if the room turned out to be too small for a pack pile they would just fall back to sleeping downstairs again. If they go much sleep over the weekend, Derek had doubts about that.

But for now, he brought their bags into one room and directed Boyd over to the other one.

Downstairs Laura made some quick sandwiches for dinner but Stiles was the only one eating with appetite. They were a stress eater after all.

"So." Erica plucked at her sandwich. "How are we going to do this?"

"I'm going to bite you in the neck." Laura gestured over her own neck to indicate the spot. "Then we wait if it takes. We should know by morning."

"I have everything for s'mores," Stiles said with their mouth full. "Saw a fireplace out in the back. We can sit around the fire and tell ghost stories while we wait."

Derek knew that that was not how Laura had pictured the evening but since she couldn't come up with a better idea, it was settled.

"Okay, let's do this." Laura visibly psyched herself up before she pushed her plate with the almost untouched sandwich away and stood.

"Woah, not so fast." Erica stopped her. "You're not going to bite me with lettuce between your teeth."

Laura blinked at her and for a moment she just stood there.

"She's right, that's unhygienic," Boyd agreed.

"Actually, the human bite is one of the most unhygienic ones on the planet," Stiles spoke up. "You can brush your teeth all you want I would still rather get bitten by a dog than a person."

"Where does a werewolf fall in there?" Boyd wondered while Laura threw up her hands and went to brush her teeth. When she came back, Laura didn't make a big deal out of it. She just marched up to Erica, grabbed her by the shoulders, and looked her in the eye.

"Yes?" Laura asked.

"Yes."

Erica closed her eyes and bared her throat for Laura. For a second it looked as if Boyd wanted to intervene but Laura had sunken her teeth into Erica's neck already.

Erica bit back a cry but Laura clammed down for a few seconds longer, just to make sure. When she let go of Erica, Boyd was at her side immediately. He guided her back to her chair. She didn't look as if she needed the assistance but Boyd did, Derek guessed.

"Those are some impressive bite marks," Stiles observed while they were chewing on another sandwich. Laura's it looked like. "Do we need first aid or something?"

"How do you feel?" Laura ignored Stiles and focused on Erica. "Are you in pain?" Without waiting for her answer she took Erica's hand but there was not much pain to take, there were almost no black lines crawling up Laura's arm.

"I'm fine," Erica assured her and leaned more into Boyd who stood close to her. "A bit dizzy."

Laura had everything ready to treat the wound, she just washed off the blood and covered it so that Erica wouldn't bleed into her shirt. They didn't have to think about infection.

"What now?" Erica asked. She had composed herself but she was still pale with shadows under her eyes and she was leaning into Boyd for support. She needed more emotional than physical support it looked like. However, Derek wasn't sure if Boyd wasn't the one who needed the support here.

"Now we wait." Laura brushed her hands on her jeans.

"I think I can feel it," Stiles spoke up. "Something is different. In here."

They tapped their temple with a finger. Derek felt it too but it was too faint, too weak. All they could do was to wait and hope that it grew into something.

Stiles hadn't been lying, they did come prepared with camping snacks.

"I hope this is okay for you," Stiles said and snuggled closer. It wasn't summer any longer, the evening was a bit chilly, but they were all set with blankets and the fire was warming them up as well.

"The fire, I mean," Stiles explained when Derek raised a questioning eyebrow at them.

"A bit late for that question, isn't it?" Laura piped up. She and Boyd had taken Erica in the middle on the other side of the fire.

"It's fine," Derek assured them. "I would have said something before if it weren't okay."

Some things stirred up memories but the bonfire was not a burning house, it even smelled differently. It was okay. Over the flames, Derek looked at Laura but her attention was on Erica.

For now, she seemed to be fine, she didn't show any signs of rejection so when Stiles handed out the first s'mores and urged the others to make their own, everybody dared to relax.

They didn't tell ghost stories but they talked. Stiles knew how to carry a light conversation but everybody threw in a little story or a fun anecdote. Naturally, growing up in a pack of werewolves came up and Laura started to talk. She was looking into the flames with misty eyes, from the smoke, of course, but her voice was steady when she talked about all the little things. How Cora used to slip into her fur to get out of bathing time when she'd been little. How Laura had sneaked out of the second store window to go out with friends.

"I'm pretty sure Mom knew about that," Derek said.

"Maybe." Laura's face softened.

"You can just jump out of windows?" Erica was more interested in the practical stuff.

"Sure." Laura shrugged but then she shared a glance with Derek, a mischievous smile on her lips. "Watch this."

Derek knew what was coming, she'd had to get back into the second store window somehow so he kept his eyes on Erica.

Laura sprinted the short distance to the cabin and jumped. She grabbed the window sill of one of the upper rooms with ease and used that to catapult herself even higher. The next second she stood on the roof with her arms spread in a tada pose. She looked very proud of herself.

"I want that," Erica decided.

"You'll get it," Derek promised. "That and so much more. We're going to take you on a run in the woods tomorrow." He looked up at Laura. "You can come down now."

Dramatic bitch she was, she did a back-flip off the roof.

"I have to admit, that is cool," Stiles said.

"Tempted to get the bite as well?" Derek leaned over.

"Not really." They shook their head.

Derek slung his arm around their shoulders, holding them close.

"Hope, that's okay," Stiles added after a moment. "You said I don't have to become a werewolf to be with you. Boyd is not going to become a werewolf either."

If the bite took and Erica became pack Boyd would join them as well, they had talked about that. If the bite didn't take, Derek didn't know what Boyd would do. Not joining the pack, that was for sure. He probably would cut all ties with them.

"Do you want me to become a werewolf?" Stiles asked.

"It's your decision," Derek assured them. "I like you either way."

To make his point he kissed them on the cheek.

"We're not that sickly sweet, are we?" Erica stage-whispered to Boyd.

"You are." Laura set down next to her again and was now fighting for a corner of the blanket. "Every time we're waiting in the lobby, you find a way to bring up Boyd. At least you keep that out of the actual game."

"Just to counter you and Kira sweet-talking," she defended herself and pointed her stick with a half-roasted marshmallow at Laura.

"They are even more in love than those two," Erica said to Boyd and turned the stick to Stiles and Derek.

Stiles stuck their tongue out at her and because they were Stiles, they stuck that tongue into Derek's mouth next. Surprised by the kiss, he had been busy with assembling a s'more, Derek almost fell backward off the log he was sitting on. The s'more did fall to the ground, though.

When he came back up, Derek found Erica looking at him with a satisfied smile on her lips as if that had proven something. Or she was just enjoying the show, with Erica he never knew.

"Speaking of Kira," Boyd changed the topic. "Are you going to ask her if she wants to become pack as well? I mean, it would be weird if your partner of all people would not be pack."

Derek had wondered the same, especially when Stiles had become pack but he got that it was a bit different with Kira. Other supernatural beings were not exactly common in werewolf packs.

He'd met Kira exactly once so he didn't really know her but with what he got from Laura he had the feeling that they were taking it slower than he and Stiles. Besides, joining a pack was a big deal, that was nothing an alpha offered lightly.

"We spoke about it." Laura was back at looking into the flames. "About what we want. She's thinking about it but we agreed to wait until you two are settled into the pack." She glanced over to Boyd and Erica next to her. "But yes, I want her to be pack."

"You already told her about werewolves?" Stiles wondered. "How did she take it?"

"She didn't have to tell her," Derek spoke up. "Kira already knew."

"Don't tell me she's a werewolf too." Stiles smacked him in the face when they turned too quickly to look at him. "How many of you are there?"

"She's not a werewolf," Laura corrected. "She's a kitsune."

"Oh," Stiles made and Derek could almost hear them rifling through their brain in search for something to connect to that word. But they came up empty.

"What the hell is a kitsune?" They asked.

Laura explained it to them which lead to the question of what else was out there. Since Derek was the one who knew more about the supernatural world, it was him answering the questions. While Laura had been busy gaming, he'd preferred to read and he'd spent endless nights with Uncle Peter in their library over old books. To his surprise, Derek liked talking about this and he could almost hear Peter's voice, adding a detail here and there.

Around midnight the fire had burned down and the light breeze had gotten a bite to it. While Derek talked about the monsters out there, Stiles had snuggled close in search of some warmth but they were shivering now.

"I think it's safe to assume that there won't be a rejection," Laura decided. "We all had a long day, let's turn in."

They packed up and Derek made extra sure to put out the fire. It hadn't bothered him to sit at the fire but he was not taking any risks. Next to him, Stiles gathered the leftover snacks they had brought.

"We did end up with ghost stories around the campfire after all." They elbowed Derek in the side.

"I haven't mentioned ghosts," Derek corrected. Mostly he'd talked about the more gruesome things out there, he had to admit, but it had seemed appropriate.

"Are they real?" Stiles asked. "Ghosts I mean?"

"Don't know." Derek had one last look around. "Never seen one."

"So they might exist."

"Maybe."

Over the last few hours, that little something in Derek's mind had grown. It was not fully there yet but when Derek went to bed with Stiles that night, he was sure that by morning Erica would be a werewolf. Laura stayed with Boyd and Erica in the other bedroom, just in case.

Derek fell asleep, spooning Stiles from behind and with his nose buried in their neck.

He woke to something crashing into a wall.