Derek spins around several times in the computer chair across the room. Stiles eyes him critically while absentmindedly picking at a loose thread on a comforter he doesn't recognize. He looks around. The walls are bare except for the random pinned drawing or piece of artwork. The computer desk is a mess. A stack of books teeters precariously on the edge next to a cup of overturned pens, and there are several notebooks scattered about the surface next to an unfamiliar laptop.

Stiles walks over to the cluster of sketches pinned next to the window in a collage. Some are of Stiles and Scott, others of random wildlife and places. He looks to the biggest one in the center of the cluster. It's older, the edges curling in on themselves, but the scene displayed is still crystal clear. Stiles and Lydia sit smiling with their arms around each other. In the bottom right corner, Stiles spots the looping 'L' of the beginning of Lydia's initials. He looks closer at the rest of the drawings. All of them bear her initials.

Derek gets up to examine the sketches, his eyes lingering on the one of Stiles and Lydia. His fingers brush over the back of Stiles' neck, easing a tension he hadn't realized was there. Stiles cranes his head around taking in more of the room. It isn't anything like his was. None of the books on the shelves have anything to do with the supernatural. The walls are missing the red tape of his research, and the floor is entirely too clean. The clothes in the closet are not his usual mix of graphic tees and flannels, but instead more trendy pieces with dark colors and strange fabrics. He figures Lydia is responsible for them.

A thick layer of dust has settled over the entire space. When he runs a finger across the window seal, it collects thickly on his finger causing him to grimace. He wipes it onto his jeans. He knows it must be irritating Derek's nose by the way the man tries to cover a sneeze behind him. He steps back into the warmth of Derek's chest and allows the scents of the room to over take him.

Underneath the dust he can smell the half empty bottle of Adderall lying under the bed. Unwashed lacrosse gear hides in the closet beneath several pairs of worn out sneakers. Then there is the scent that is ingrained into the walls and the very being of the house. It is much milder than his own scent, not nearly as sharp or spicy, but more soft. It reminds him of rain, caffeine, ink, and old books all melded together.

Derek moves away, leaving the skin of his back cold and bereft. He hears the swish of the covers as he falls across the bed and the inevitable sneeze caused by the dust cloud that rises in his wake. Stiles opens the window, allowing the morning air, and the smell of fresh cut grass to rush in. He kicks his shoes off as he trudges over to the bed.

Derek tugs on the hem of his shirt. Stiles follows the pull, fitting himself into Derek's side with a sigh of contentment. He rests his head on Derek's chest. The Alpha grumbles good naturedly and wraps his arms around him. Goosebumps flitter over Stiles' skin, but he doesn't know if that is due to the cool air swirling around the room or Derek.

"I don't think we had much in common," Stiles says after a few moments.

The realization that his counterpart's friendships were so different is a shock to Stiles. He could have never imagined a universe where he wouldn't have told Scott everything or dragged him out at all hours of the night for adventures that inevitably changed their lives forever. He certainly couldn't have imagined a world where Lydia was the one he confided his deepest darkest secrets to.

Cora had told them how Scott and Stiles had both gotten really good at Lacrosse by freshman year. She had said that if anyone had ever needed to find Scott, Stiles, Jackson, or Danny they just had to go to the field. Jackson was still an ass according to her, but Danny, Stiles, and Scott seemed to have more of a tolerance for his bullshit. They were close.

"He definitely didn't smell anything like you–aside from the Adderall addiction," Derek admits.

"By the amount of books on his desk, he probably had better grades than me too."

"He wasn't dealing with a psychotic, supernatural, murdering monster every Thursday either."

"Valid point, but from what Cora tells me and what I can see in here, Lydia was his best friend, which means he had an all access pass to her brain of vast and unconceivable knowledge."

Fingers card through his hair as Derek makes that adorable humming noise of agreement that makes Stiles' stomach do funny flips. "There are other scents in here. I don't know if you can detect them, but they're still lingering from years of visits."

Stiles listens to the high pitched chirps from the birds outside their window. Beneath him, Derek is breathing deeply with his nose buried in Stiles' hair to keep out the smell of dust, if Stiles is to venture a guess. He thinks back to his and Scott's younger years. The two of them had dozens of sleepovers and video game marathons. Just them. He's having a hard time picturing more than just Scott piling onto his floor or the couch with tons of junk food and energy drinks.

"I know it's odd, but the two of you being so different is a good thing. People won't try and connect you now. Having your own identity will be easier," Derek finishes.

Stiles nods in agreement, his cheek rubbing against the soft fabric of Derek's sweater. Fingers continue to massage his scalp as they lay there in silence, content to just be in each other's space.

"You're much more relaxed here," Stiles comments after another moment. "Do you think you will miss being at the Hale house?"

Derek is quiet for a long moment. When he finally arrives at an answer, Stiles has started to drift off.

"No," he says. "When they look at me, I know that a big part of them see the Derek they lost, and I can't be him. Besides, two Alphas under the same roof is asking for trouble. You're my pack now, and, of course, Scott, too, providing that is something he wants. Weekly pack dinners will be enough for me with all the time we will be training Scott on the preserve, and, if I ever need advice, Talia is only a phone call away."

Stiles smiles softly against Derek's chest. He misses Scott and his dad. He misses the way Lydia use to look at him, judging him to his very core for whatever dumb thing he had said to piss her off. He misses the way Liam would tag along with him and Scott, and the way the kid used to look up to them. He sees bright colors and funky patterns in Cora's room and thinks of Kira's awesome fashion choices.

He knows he'll never stop missing any of those things, but he still has Derek. He still has Derek's broody looks, and his special smiles. He still gets to laugh at the way his hair sticks up in every direction in the morning and how he trips over his feet when he is extremely exhausted. As long as they are together, the grief is bearable. Stiles can breathe with Derek and know that one day they will have a new pack. Maybe it will be with the counterparts of their old one, or maybe this new universe will bring new wolves. Only time will tell.

"I feel more comfortable here than with the Hales, but it still feels weird being in here. I feel like we're intruding in his space. Maybe if everything wasn't so different it wouldn't be so strange," Stiles says.

"We could always find our own place," suggests Derek. "You only have to live here on paper until you graduate. We could build a place, or we could rent a house somewhere close. "

"Dude, I don't know about you, but my bank account isn't as full as it used to be, considering I left all my savings in another universe."

Stiles was never used to having much money– if anything he was used to copious amounts of debt–but when they showed up here not having anything at all was awkward. Talia and the rest of the Hales had be very accommodating, seeing as neither of them could simply go out and find a job at the time. Still, having someone go out and buy him all the necessities like clothes and toothpaste made him feel kind of like a bum.

Derek laughs softly. "About that…"

Stiles sits up to look at Derek with a questioning glare. "What haven't you told me?"

"Talia thought that you and I should be reimbursed for what we lost. She gave me a pretty generous check before we left this morning."

Stiles quirks an eyebrow. "How generous, Derek?"

Derek shifts sideways and pulls out his wallet. He hands Stiles the folded check. Stiles glances once more at Derek and then unfolds the slip of paper. His jaw drops.

"Holy. God! Derek, that is a lot of zeros. We can't take this!"

Derek raises his hands in defense.

"I told her it was too much, but she used her Alpha voice, and it would have been disrespectful to refuse it. She wanted us to be able to take care of our pack."

"You realize we will never be able to miss any of our pack dinners with the Hales, like, ever right?"

Derek laughs . "Yeah, I realize. So, do you want to stay here, or...?"

Stiles thinks about having a house of their own–somewhere their pack could always go to feel safe and welcomed. He thinks about Isaac having his own room where he doesn't ever have to worry about being screamed at or beaten. A place where Boyd and Erica would have a sense of family. Most importantly he thinks about having a home that he and Derek can build a new life.

"What if we build a pack house? I know it might take a while, but I think us staying here during the construction will help the Sheriff."

"I'll talk to Talia about buying some land in the preserve. We don't want to be too close to their house, but being close will be convenient when dealing with threats."

"We'll be able to back the other up if one of our packs is ever attacked," Stiles deduces.

"Exactly."

"You're are an amazing Alpha, Derek. You know that, right?" The tips of Derek's ears reddened. "In the beginning if I would have made half the effort to learn about you, and why you were the way you were, as I did the supernatural, things would have gone very differently."

"What makes you think that?" There is a smile lingering on edge of Derek's tone that causes Stiles' heart to warm and shift closer to him.

Stiles knows Derek better than anyone now. He watches how his eyes crinkle just slightly from his smile, knowing Derek firm in believing that the past isn't something to dwell on. That particular lesson had been hard for Derek to learn, but eventually he caught on. He evolved into one of the best people Stiles has ever had the pleasure of knowing.

"Scott and I were always a team," Stiles says softly. "We were a packaged deal. That means if I would have trusted you, Scott would have too. Maybe we could have managed to save a lot more people if we could have worked together in the beginning."

Stiles' hand tangles itself in Derek's sweater. Shivers run up his arm when the pads of Derek's fingers traces over the tattoo curling over the skin there. Stiles thinks about meeting Derek in the woods that first day. He knew who he was, knew that he lost his family, and he wishes he would have tried to get closer to him instead of running full speed in the opposite direction.

He remembers being loyal to Scott, always putting him first. He misses him more than anything, but Scott didn't make the best decisions in the beginning. His mind was too clouded with Allison to see reason most of the time. Stiles thinks back to the night at the pool with the Kanima. Derek pushed him out of the way, getting himself paralyzed to keep him from getting his entrails ripped out. Looking back, he realizes how self sacrificing Derek was when it came to others. They saved each other that night, with Scott coming through at the last minute like always.

Of course, there were other times that Derek's motivations were obvious and he just didn't see it. When Kate shot Derek with the wolfsbane bullet he went to the school looking for Scott, because Scott was the only person Derek had to turn to for help. Scott had asked him why he should help, and Stiles remembers Derek's response with perfect clarity.

"Because you need me."

After Kate the only person Derek had left was Laura and then Peter cut her in half, leaving him on his own. He was an omega with serious trust issues, and not without good reason. Derek, in his own way, was just trying to help Scott–just looking for a pack to be a part of again. He had two options when the chance to kill Peter arose: Let Scott kill him and return to human, or take the Alpha power and build his own pack. Stiles understands why he chose the latter. Had he been in Derek's position he knows he would have done the same.

Derek squeezes his wrist, drawing his attention from his thoughts.

"Or maybe it would have torn the two of you apart," he says, eyes serious, "and we would have all died a lot sooner. We can't change the past, Stiles. We trust each other now, and that's what is important."

Stiles traces patterns across Derek's shoulder. "You realize that we're the packaged deal now, right?" he moves to hover fully over him. His eyes look down into Derek's, and he realizes he has never quite been able to distinguish the color of them. "Where you go, I go. It isn't negotiable."

Derek smiles up at him, a devilish twinkle in his eyes.

"Does that mean I have to follow you to school? Because I'm pretty sure I'll get arrested for stocking the youth of Beacon Hills."

Stiles slaps his chest, a little shock of magic coming out that makes Derek jerk and glare. Stiles simply grins, resting his head back against the warm expanse of Derek's chest. Cuddling with Derek like this has rapidly become one of his favorite things about this universe. Before, the closest they came to this sort of interaction was when Derek was curled up somewhere relatively close in his full wolf form. As much as he misses the foot warming effect of Derek's thick fur, he thinks he can live with this.

There are certain things about Derek that Stiles has come to notice in the time since they have been in this new universe. He has quickly come to realize that Derek's smiles are important and mostly aimed at him these days. Laura, Cora, and Talia only glimpses one here and there on rare occasions. Derek doesn't let people see him smile unless he trusts them.

It is almost like he sees it as a weakness that will be taken advantage of, which explains all of the scowls when they first met. Peter Hale has yet to see Derek crack so much as a grin in his direction. Stiles, on the other hand, gets to see the way his front teeth stick out just a little bit too far and how his eyes crinkle just slightly at the corners when he laughs. His laugh is so utterly amazing to his ears.

Another thing is that Derek is severely protective when it comes to people touching Stiles that are not Derek. He has this way of simply glaring at anyone willing to try, causing them to immediately withdraw whatever limb that dared to venture too close. It amuses Stiles to no end, not so much Scott and Cora however.

"You could always come as my seeing eye dog. I would be down for that," Stiles says. "I'm not looking forward to being away from you for eight hours. I'm going to be on edge after the first class."

"I'm not going to be much better," Derek replies. "I've agreed to do patrol with Peter in the morning so that I can be productive while I stay within running distance of you. I'll be able to get there quickly if something goes wrong."

"Well, despite the universe, this is still Beacon Hills. That means something is definitely going to go wrong at some point."

"Your faith in the universe is outstanding."

Stiles hums.

"Yours isn't much better, big guy."

Derek rumbles in agreement.

"I had a talk with Talia before we left. She said we should be starting to think about building our pack sooner rather than later. Before, no one really knew we were here, but now that the Sheriff's nephew has shown up out of the blue with a Hale, nonetheless, other packs in surrounding areas will wonder. They will hear that we are looking to build a pack on her land. Omegas will come looking for me. They will try and prove themselves to earn a place in our pack. Others might see me as an easy target."

Stiles shifts over so that he can look at Derek again. He toys with the neck of his sweater for a moment. He knew the rogue Alpha wasn't going to be their only problem. That would be asking way too much with their entirely horrible luck.

"Talia is going to be questioned for sharing her territory with us," Stiles deduces, "and, while some packs may respect her decision, others will view it as a weakness. They will try to challenge us both."

"Exactly. You will be the one they seek out first, because they will assume you're human, and they will think they can use you against me. Some of them might recognize the scent of your magic, but, as a rule, most of them won't. We will have the upper hand."

"The danger is the Omegas joining the rogue Alpha," Stiles says. "I'll speak to Scott at school in the morning and see where he stands with us. Then I'll look for Isaac."

"We are going to go about this right this time," Derek says. "The full moon is in a few days. We will introduce ourselves now, and let him get to know us. Then, if he wants the bite I'll give it to him after the moon."

"That will give us a month to help him learn enough control before the next moon. Smart idea. What about Erica and Boyd?"

"Same tactic. They want family and friends above anything else. We can give them that first, and let the power be an afterthought. Scott said their situations were pretty much the same in this world as in ours. Maybe this is where we are meant to be of help."

"It's certainly a theory I am willing to consider. First thing first though, we keep them safe from the rogue Alpha."

Derek nods firmly and pulls Stiles back down to his chest, arms winding tightly around him. Stiles allows his eyes to close in the light of the morning sun. Derek is his to protect. His Alpha, his friend, and above all, his family. He drifts off with Derek fingers moving in comforting circles between his shoulder blades.