Derek looked out the window, wondering why he'd let Stiles convince him to get on the bus to go to Albuquerque. They could have bought a used car in Durango, but Stiles had had some long-winded argument in favor of going to Albuquerque, and Derek hadn't argued. Or really listened that closely.

He still couldn't quite get over the fact that Stiles had come to help him. He wasn't even sure why the kid had been texting him while he was away in the first place. He'd thought it was because Malia had wanted to be kept in the loop about her mother, but apparently not. Malia had gone to ground again, and once again the only Hale Derek had to go to for help was his crazy uncle, and he'd finally been put away where he (hopefully) couldn't hurt anyone.

It was no secret that Derek and Stiles didn't exactly get along, but he couldn't deny that Stiles was actually a pretty great person. Even when he'd hated Derek he'd still been there to help him and save him and even comfort him. He didn't feel like a brother, not like Scott did, but that was probably because he was a human not a wolf.

Yeah, Stiles was weird, but he was important to Derek. Even though Stiles was younger than he was, Derek had learned things from him over the years. He was wise, somehow, behind the wisecracks and the insecurity. He'd dealt with tragedy, but it hadn't made him bitter. It had made him completely dedicated to the health, safety and happiness of the people he loved—more so that anyone else Derek had ever met.

He hadn't realized that he was one of those people that Stiles was dedicated to; he hadn't realized that if he needed help Stiles would leave home without a word and do his best, maybe even at the risk of his life, to help him. And considering that Stiles' best generally was a really big part of saving the day, his best was pretty darn good.

It was more reassuring than he had imagined it would be. Not that he'd imagined being special to Stiles. Not that he was special to Stiles. Just…it was nice to have someone he knew wouldn't betray him. And no one could ever doubt that Stiles was loyal. He hadn't batted an eye when his best friend had become a monster and tried to kill him. He'd even stuck up for Scott to everyone from Derek to Gerard Argent.

And he would do literally anything on earth to protect his dad.

He'd always kind of felt this pull of pain and envy in his chest when he saw the way Stiles hugged his father. Derek hadn't been close with his father—he'd been kind of a spoiled brat before the fire and hadn't really given the man a chance. He wished he'd had the chance to have the kind of relationship with anyone that Stiles had with his father—or even the kind of relationship Stiles had with Scott.

So maybe that was why he'd let Stiles convince him to take a bus to Albuquerque. Because he felt kind of lucky to be with Stiles at all.

And the funniest part was the he was pretty sure that Stiles felt the same way, only he looked at Derek like he was one of the cool kids was noticing him for the first time, or the way Cora had looked at him when she was still a little girl and he'd deigned to play with her. It made Derek feel kind of bad. In their shared history he'd said more mean things about Stiles than was strictly necessary…but Stiles was undeniably annoying, and he'd done some pretty rude things to Derek over the years.

And he had no filter whatsoever. Whatever he was thinking just came right out of his mouth.

Which made him a nice change from Peter, who never said anything that wasn't calculated.

Derek found it disconcerting that he was suddenly finding it difficult to find Stiles all that annoying anymore. Stiles had recently grown up, filled out and gotten over his jittery energy and seemed almost unnaturally still sometimes. Not Nogitsune still, but not so energetic you were constantly trying not to instinctively duck flailing hands, either. Not for the first time Derek wondered how the Nogitsune had changed Stiles—the scars it had left that Stiles didn't let anyone see.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Stiles looked at him oddly, and Derek smiled what probably looked like a pretty awkward smile. "I mean, Malia, the Nogitsune…berserkers…it's been rough. How are you doing?"

"Well, I stopped thinking that therapy was an option when the only councilor I knew who was clued into the supernatural literally told me to kill myself and gave me the drugs to do it, so it's possible I've been keeping things bottled up inside," Stiles said.

He wouldn't want to worry his father with is problems. This was about as obvious as one of his brightly-colored hoodies. "What about Scott?"

Stiles' mouth flattened into a line and he shrugged. "He's been kind of busy lately. We all have been. Senior year. And before you ask, Lydia is not doing well. Actually when we get done this, maybe we should go see that other alpha you know and see if he knows any way to help her. She's just getting flashes of deaths. Our deaths. Not premonitions, because they're different all the time. It's like she's getting warnings of ten different futures at once. She even warned me I was going to slip and fall in the shower and break my neck once."

"You sure that wasn't a prediction? You are kind of clumsy," Derek said.

"Helpful," Stiles muttered.

"No, I mean, of course we can ask him about Lydia. Maybe he even knows a banshee we can talk to about her powers. It would be nice for her if there was some way to turn her powers down or, you know, temporarily, off."

"I tried to get her to meditate, but that girl is high strung. Meditation does not come naturally to her."

"You know, you can talk to me, if you want. I won't be a dick about it," Derek said.

"Yeah. No. I'm good. I mean, I'm okay right now. Back home I wasn't doing so great. I just…I guess I just felt it all closing in again. Another threat. Another problem. I just had to wait for it to come for me. I'm not so good with sitting around and waiting for the bad guys to show their hand."

"So you decided to come find me and help me fight off an assassin, because that sounds so relaxing and awesome?" Derek asked doubtfully.

"I know there's a problem. I know who's causing the problem. I can find ways to solve the problem. That's very different than what's going on in Beacon Hills right now."

"Are you sure you don't want to tell me what's going on there?"

"No, let's deal with one problem at a time."

They got a crappy car that seemed reliable enough to get them to Vegas and wherever else they had to go. When they were driving, Stiles behind the wheel, he abruptly turned to Derek. "So do you think wolves can be gay?"

Derek glanced at him. "Haven't studies proven that almost all animals can be gay?"

"Really?"

"I thought you knew everything about everything."

"Yeah. I guess I never thought you would know that."

"Wait a minute, what the hell are we talking about right now?"

"I don't know. Can werewolves be gay?"

"Of course," he said. "Wasn't one of those creepy alpha twins gay?"

"Yeah. Well, what about bisexual?"

"Of course werewolves can be bisexual. What do you think we are? We're human, too. It's not like we're entirely different species or something," he said.

"Would you ever…"

"What?"

"Go out with a guy. I mean, obviously you're not gay, but maybe you're not completely straight, either," he said.

"Are you trying to set me up with someone?"

"No! It's just completely idle curiosity," Stiles said.

"I don't know. I have trouble trusting people. The fact that half of my girlfriends have turned out to be serial killers doesn't help," Derek said.

"I shouldn't have joked about that," Stiles said.

"Anyway…I guess what I'm saying is that…you know…if there was someone I could trust and I liked them and they were not trying to use me to murder anyone…I guess it wouldn't matter if they were a guy or a girl. I think I'm more drawn to women, but like, that doesn't mean I would never consider other possibilities."

"What about Braeden? Aren't you two together?"

"If I knew where she was right now…if I didn't just suspect she ran off somewhere to protect herself…but then I guess we can't be all that close, if I don't trust that that is what she's doing. I mean, it was pretty new. And I don't know what I meant to her. Maybe I was just a hook up. I'm not too worried, either way. I like her, and she helped me deal with the fact that I had no powers at the time. If that's all it ever is, that's okay," Derek said.

Stiles shot him a look. "Sounds like friends with benefits."

"Yeah. Well, what about you? I mean, would you ever, with a guy?"

"Yeah sure. I mean, I was trying to get Danny to fool around for years. I didn't have a crush on him, but he was hot," Stiles said. "I don't know if I'm bisexual or just curious. Or just very interested in having sex in general."

"Where is that guy?"

"He moved back with his mom. She lives in LA," Stiles said.

Derek tried to get his mind back on the task at hand, but he kept on kind of picturing Stiles and Danny doing…things. A few years ago he would have cuffed Stiles in the head for making him think like that, but frankly it was dangerous while they were driving.

"Why were you asking me all that, anyway?" Derek asked.

"Oh, I was just wondering if we could use your skills as a seducer equally on men and women, or if you'd only do it with women," Stiles said.

"It?" Derek asked indignantly, reconsidering smacking him.

"Flirting! Geez, I'm not trying to pimp you out, man."

"See that it stays that way," he said.

"But see, you got mad at me when I made you take your shirt off in front of Danny, but you didn't mind flirting with the desk clerk at the police station," Stiles said.

"Yeah, and if you'd told me he was gay and asked me to flirt with him, maybe I would have been okay with it. You paraded my half-naked body around for a high school kid. That's kind of different than me making the choice to flirt with someone fully clothed. And it's a little gross," Derek said.

"Okay, you've got a point, I guess," Stiles conceded. "But you have the body, man. You could make bank as a stripper."

"So who do you want me to flirt with?" Derek asked, trying to ignore the stripper comment.

"No one, yet, but it's always good to have something like that in your back pocket just in case," Stiles said.

"Why wouldn't you just flirt with whoever it is? You're not a geeky kid anymore, Stiles. You look manly. Good. You carry yourself differently. A lot of people would rather be with a guy like you than a guy like me," Derek said.

Stiles shook his head. "You really don't know how good looking you are, do you?"

"No, I pretty much do. But you haven't figured out that you're really good looking, too. It doesn't surprise me because you only got really good looking in the last year. You grew into your looks, I guess. I mean, we're different. You probably couldn't be a stripper or anything. But you're striking looking, and you've got charisma and…that sharpness…that look of intelligence in your eyes. And you're dynamic and can make conversation with anyone about anything."

"Derek, are you feeling alright? Because I would have thought you'd have to be near death to tell me something like that," Stiles said.

"I know we tease each other. It used to be kind of borderline cruel banter. But it's just teasing now. I don't…dislike you. I mean, you must like me, too. You came all this way to help me," he said.

"Of course I like you. I've always liked you. I just was annoyed with you because you always kept secrets for no reason and did all these questionable things and just said 'deal with it' instead of telling us why and it made things so much more difficult. I could have helped if you'd only told me the whole story. And you never believed me that I could do things or that I was as useful as Scott," Stiles said.

"Well, how was I supposed to know that you were…"

"What?"

"You," he said.

"What? Are trying to say that like it's a compliment?"

"Well, you're not exactly like other people. But other people suck, so yeah, that's definitely a compliment."

"I think we're spending too much time together, Derek," Stiles said.

"Why do you think that?"

"Because you're starting to make sense to me."