Stiles discovers cats outside his dorm room - seven of them! - and decides he must help them. And the means finding their owner! According to Derek anyway...
Written for Day 1 of Sterek Week 2019 - Mystery
Wandering Cats
The cats appeared out of nowhere really. Stiles just walked out of his dorm and, well, there they were. Six black cats and one orange ball of floof that he was fairly positive was also a cat. Fairly positive. Might have been a fox. Maybe a ferret? Did ferrets come in orange?
Anyway. Cats. Seven of them. And it was October.
"This is not a safe place," Stiles pointed a finger at the largest cat, the orange one. The black cats were all curled in around the floof ball. "People are assholes, like certifiable. They do weird shit to cats." He gestured to the black cats, "Black cats especially."
The orange cat finally lifted its head to look at Stiles. The cat yawned, jaw nearly unhinging as it spread wide. Stiles huffed. The cat snuggled back into the pile of felines.
"You're very frustrating." Stiles pulled his phone out, ignored a few raised eyebrows as he continued to chew out the cats for their lack of action. He skipped straight to his messages and clicked on the one labeled 'Sour Patch Kids.'
Anyone know anything about cats?
It dinged immediately
They smell bad.
Psychotic balls of sass.
They're carnivorous.
Werewolves. Always helpful.
The phone started buzzing before Stiles could write out a scathing review of their responses. Derek's grumpy mug flashed on his screen.
"Der-bear!" Stiles answered in the most sugary sweet voice he could manage. "Do you happen to know anything about cats?"
"Stiles," Derek sighed and Stiles grinned at the mental picture of the man pinching the bridge of his nose. "Why do you have a cat?"
"Cats! Plural!" Stiles pointed at his phone as he crouched closer to the stack of cats, "See what you've reduced me to? Asking a werewolf for help." The orange cat shifted to glower at him. "You brought this on yourself."
Derek growled, "Stiles!"
"Right," Stiles plopped onto the ground, legs crossed, "There's seven of them. I found them outside my dorm." Stiles puckered his lips, "Most of them are black cats and you know how people mistreat them!" He leaned forward again to whisper, "Barbarians! The lot of them!"
"You found seven cats… a week before Halloween." Derek was definitely pinching his forehead now. "I'll be there in an hour."
Stiles shrugged as the call clicked off. He shoved the device back into his pocket, "Class is overrated anyway." He spent the next hour attempting to acquaint himself with his new feline charges.
"I've named this one Pumpkin!" Stiles held the orange cat up to Derek's face when the man arrived. Derek immediately sneezed. Stiles gasped in horror and held Pumpkin close to his chest. "How dare you?! You're offending him!"
The cat in question continued its impersonation of a limp towel. The black cats had taken up positions around him, three of them curled into various parts of his body while the others were pawing at his shoes in fascination.
Derek stared at him blankly, mouth pressing into a firm line. Stiles looked from him to Pumpkin, "Do you two know each other?"
"The probably belong to someone Stiles," Derek took a few steps closer. His ankles were immediately attacked by balls of energy. One of the black cats climbed up his leg, fur blending in with his dark jeans. Bright blue eyes stared up at Derek, "Except for this one."
The blue eyed cat squirmed as Derek plucked her from his leg to hold in his arms. He paid zero attention to the continued assault on his ankles.
"I like this one."
A hiss brought both Derek and Stiles' attention to the orange cat. Pumpkin's back arched as he stood in Stiles' lap. He hissed again, teeth bared as he glowered at Derek.
"Or not." Stiles raised a brow. His hands gestured out and he leaned towards Derek with a grin, "I think Pumpkin is their alpha."
"We should find their owner," Derek set the blue-eyed cat back on the ground and all the black cats ran off to take defensive positions around Stiles. Ears alert and tails still.
Stiles puckered his lips in a pout, "But they like me!" Derek took one more step closer and all seven cats started hissing. Derek raised a brow. "Okay, I admit, that is an issue."
"You also live in a dorm." Stiles groaned and fell backwards. One of the cats had to jump to avoid him.
With wide, trembling eyes, Stiles looked up at Derek from the ground. "You have a house." Derek scowled and the orange cat groused loudly. "We could be cat-dads, Derek, cat-dads!"
Derek took the final step into Stiles' personal space. His feet were now an inch from Stiles' shoulder as he looked down at the younger man. The cats yowled and hissed. Derek raised another eyebrow.
"Okay…" Stiles pouted as Derek took a step away. The cats calmed. Stiles sat up and blew out a breath, "So how do we find the owner then? Fliers?"
"Seven cats, six of them black," Derek crossed his arms with a snort, "And they find their way to you? If these belong to anyone but a witch, I'll - "
"Eat a hoho?" Stiles lips quirked into a grin.
Derek rolled his eyes, "Sure. If they don't belong to a witch, I'll eat a hoho." There was some muttering about Stiles' sugar addiction as Derek walked a few more steps away, the phone came up to his ear as a scowl settled onto his face.
"He's just an overgrown grumpy cat," Stiles whispered into Pumpkin's ear. The cat groused. A low rumbling of complaint at the comparison. "Puppy?" Pumpkin snuffed, but started pawing at his lap before flopping down to sleep.
When Derek returned Stiles beamed up at him, "Why are you smiling?" Derek's brows knit together. "That's very disconcerting."
"I'm thinking we could try a locator spell," he held up Pumpkin, "We use our alpha here to help us find the witch." Derek narrowed his eyes. "It might require you to help me wrangle all seven of these guys into your car."
Eight growls greeted Stiles' smile.
It took half an hour, and a lot of swearing, but they got all the cats into Derek's car. Neither the cats nor Derek was pleased about this.
"According to my locator spell app," Stiles held up his phone, "We need to drive north."
"Locator spell 'app?'" Derek did not both to keep the derision from his voice. The orange cat in Stiles' lap made a similar sound, low in his throat. His tail swiped at Stiles' phone for good measure.
Stiles ignore them both, "I developed it myself!" He rambled on about coding and app development before finding himself muttering about banshees who don't turn on their GPS tracking. "I mean, really?! If you're consistently finding yourself in unknown locations, why wouldn't you keep your GPS on?!"
Derek shook his head. He glanced at Pumpkin. He too had a blank expression on his face. Stiles looked between the two of them.
"Are you…commisserating with the cat?" Stiles huffed. His jaw dropped open and he began gesturing with his hands wildly. Derek reached over to pat the cat's head.
"I know. He never stays still." Derek sighed as his eyes twinkled, "A very uncomfortable pillow."
Stiles slapped at his shoulder, "Traitor!"
Pumpkin groused, paw swiping at Stiles arm. Derek grinned as Stiles crossed his arms. "I thought you wanted me go get along with the cats?"
A cat jumped up onto the center console. Blue eyes blinked before she crawled into Derek's lap. Derek's jaw clenched. Stiles immediately leaned over with a smirk and poked his cheek. "You catchin' feels over here, Der-bear?"
"Shut up," Derek shoved him lightly. Stiles kept on smirking.
"Turn up here!" Stiles yelled, eyes suddenly glued to his phone. Derek slowed and eyed the dirt road warily before turning dutifully into a stereotypically creepy forest.
Derek grumbled, "Just once, couldn't they live in the suburbs?"
"The Argents lived in the suburbs." Stiles said, head ducked over his phone as his thumbs slide over the screen in quick and stunted motions.
"Creepy road it is then," Derek cleared his throat. He eyed the tree branches that hung just a little low for his taste. "We should have taken your jeep."
Stiles snorted, "You just don't want to scratch your precious car." He looked up to roll his eyes dramatically, "And my jeep is in the shop right now anyway."
The house at the end of the road was no less creepy than the road. It was a small cottage, vines climbing all over it, and the trees were so close that Stiles felt more than a little claustrophobic as they parked.
"Go!" Stiles opened the passenger door with a flourish, "Find your mama!" None of the cats moved. Stiles deflated. Pumpkin yawned as he stood. Blue eyes pounced onto his back and then stepped gracefully over his head to jump out of the car.
Derek shoved open his door and stood. He took a few deep inhales. "There's no one here." He ducked his head back inside to see Stiles attempting to encourage Pumpkin out of the car. The other cats were lying in a sleeping heap in the backseat. "You sure your 'app' is working?"
"Of course its working!" Stiles scowled, "This is the cats' home!" He gestured towards the cottage. Derek pursed his lips. "Oh~ Peibably should have set it for owner huh?"
Derek raised a brow. Stiles started messing with his phone again. With a huff he stood straight and started towards the cottage. Blue eyes was scratching at the door, yowling and mewling with determination. Derek tried the knob, it turned.
The second the door was open the cat rushed through. Derek sniffed the air again, checking, and then pushed the door open further. He followed the cat through a cozy living room into the kitchen where he found an honest to god cauldron. A cauldron that, size-wise at minimum, would not be amiss in a fairytale.
"Derek!" Stiles stumbled into the house with a twitching brow, "The app is still giving me this location!" He huffed and pocketed his phone. He glanced around, "Are we breaking and entering?"
"The door was unlocked," Derek shrugged. Blue eyes pawed at his ankles and he glanced down at her. She meowed. He watched her stalk towards the cauldron to paw at it next.
Stiles raised a brow and grinned, "Is the cat asking to be cooked?" Blue eyes groused. Pumpkin bumped their legs as he stalked into the room. He continued towards the back where a table sat, cluttered to the brim with books.
"Why don't I like where this is going?" Derek sighed, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as Stiles began to oo and ah at the books.
"Because werewolves have good instincts?" Stiles held up the top most book, which was open. The page was a recipe, with lots of hand-written notes on the edges. Along the top were the words 'Transfiguration.' "It's potion-brewing time!"
The sing song voice in which Stiles said it brought Derek no comfort. Three hours later Derek was looking into the bright blue eyes of a young woman with ashen hair and a redhead who claimed to be her brother.
"What about the other cats?" Derek gestured toward the living room, where five cats were sleeping in various states of gravity ignorance.
"Oh!" Blue eyes smiled at him, eyelashes fluttering, "They're real cats."
The redhead snorted, "And mine, so don't get any funny ideas wolfie." Stiles chuckled as Derek scowled.
"Be nice, Hansel!" Blue-eyes smiled at Derek again, lips quirked up as her face lowered. She looked up at him through her lashes. "They did help us get back into our human forms after all."
Stiles appeared between the woman and Derek in record speed. Derek smirked as Stiles began to speak emphatically about how little trouble it all is.
"Stop flirting, Gretel!" The redhead rolled his eyes and crossed her arms. He turned to face Stiles, "Thank you for all your help, but really, we have things to do, so if you could show yourselves out…"
"…and never come back?" Derek offered as Gretel smacked her brother's arm. Hansel nodded. "No problem." Derek grabbed Stiles' arm to drag him out of the cottage.
Halfway back down the dirt road Derek looked at Stiles expectantly. "What?" Stiles let his head fall back and his lips quirk down.
"You owe me dinner." Derek looked back at the road, smiling, as Stiles launched into a tirade about 'broke college students' and 'reasonable decisions.' He knew a diner a few miles from there. If he kept Stiles ranting, the man wouldn't even notice when Derek didn't make him pay.
Thanks for reading! Reviews Appreciated!