"…off me," he growled.

Stiles woke up to the uncomfortable sensation of falling, yelping as he landed on the unforgiving hardwood floor. Derek sat up, fixing him with a half-hearted glare as Stiles tried to figure out what exactly had happened.

"The hell?" he demanded groggily, sitting up, rubbing his sore back.

"You wouldn't move," Derek said, sounding almost apologetic.

"What?"

"You were all…" Derek frowned, miming with his arms.

If Derek were to ever be a mime, he would fail because with the gestures he was showing, Stiles quickly put together that he had been attempting to snuggle the other man. And at some point last night, he had evidently thrown his arms around Derek and latched on, refusing to let go when Derek wanted him to.

"You didn't have to throw me off," Stiles snapped, getting to his feet. "You could've just shook me awake or something!"

He could have at least looked apologetic or something, Stiles thought to himself as he grabbed his clothes from yesterday and slammed the door behind him. He marched over to the bathroom, changing quickly. Well he wasn't going to stay here for a minute longer.

He didn't care about Derek or his stupid plan. His father was probably still worried sick about him, no matter what he said on the phone, but his father would at least be comforted knowing that he was alive and okay as of yesterday. But that was no guarantee for anything. Derek could do whatever the hell he wanted -and if he needed a hostage so badly, he could pick someone else. Like Allison maybe. Stiles hid a grin at that. If he could even get to her without her killing him, or Chris killing him, let alone taking her out to the wilderness and keep her from killing him in addition to Chris tracking him down… Melissa would be an option, but she probably wouldn't be any happier about the situation and Scott would go crazy.

He walked out the front door, letting the door swing shut behind him as he marched off determinedly through the foot and a half of snow that had fallen overnight.

"Stiles! Stop!" he heard Derek yell from behind him.

"No! I am going home -I don't care about this stupid plan anymore! Why should I even help you?! This isn't my pack!"

"Because you're their pack -their glue. And they need this in order to survive," he explained rationally.

"They were doing fine before you kidnapped me!"

"When the Alpha Pack comes, if they find my leadership… to be lacking, they won't leave. And some of them are older, traditionalists -they have different ideas on how to treat humans. They don't care about killing people, Stiles. The odd human every now and then makes a good snack, keeps the people on their toes and out of strangers' ways.

"You don't think they'll care about you? You spend so much time with Scott, you smell part werewolf. Your place reeks of it too! Sometimes they like keeping human pets, if you're lucky that's what they'll think you are. If you're not so lucky, they'll tear down the walls and kill you. And your father."

Stiles stared at him for a moment before turning and walking away. Knowing that might have been handy to know earlier -his father could end up being drawn into this whole mess? But then again, he already had been so many times earlier… This whole thing was a gigantic mess and he could place most of the blame at Peter's feet for turning Scott. What had happened, had already happened though and now what the hell were they supposed to do?

"Where are you going?" Derek demanded exasperatedly as he stomped through the snow, towards Stiles.

"Home!" he shouted. "I don't want to be here anymore."

"You can't," Derek said again, sounding for all the world very confused.

"I can and I am!"

"Stiles-" Derek said, reaching out and grabbing him by the arm.

For the life of him, Stiles would wonder why he did it. The best explanation he could come up with was that Derek was a very good teacher and the reaction was, at best, instinctual. He moved into Derek's body, shifting his arm so that it lined up with the gap between Derek's thumb and forefinger and in one easy movement he jammed his knee up -and jerked his arm back.

"Fuck," he heard Derek groan, his eyes flashing red momentarily.

And shit, that had not been the brightest thing to do, had it? Stiles turned quickly intending to run and get away from the pained and furious werewolf behind him, but he was too slow and he didn't really stand a chance. Derek leapt, dragging Stiles down into the snow, his body weight fully resting on Stiles -and he should feel really grateful that he had been turning to glance over his shoulder because he wasn't face-first in the snow this way.

Stiles opened his mouth to say something but was silenced by Derek's warning growl, the red flashing dangerously again, so Stiles shut up. It shouldn't have been so easy to forget how dangerous Derek was.

"Let me go?" he asked, almost hopeful.

"No," Derek growled, shifting as the red in his eyes receded.

"Then get off me?" He pushed at Derek hopefully, only encountering hard and unmoving muscle.

"No."

"I hate your stupid face," he grumbled, letting his hands fall into the snow and trying to not remember how the muscle beneath them felt.

"Good. Now stop being irrational." It was practically an order, but Derek didn't seem to care. In fact, he seemed almost comfortable pinning Stiles to the snow in below zero weather.

Stiles fixed him with his best glare for no other reason than how uncomfortable and cold this was getting. A voice in the back of his mind helpfully reminded him how much warmer Derek was and that there was only a thin layer of t-shirt blocking his access to that hard, muscular body -and this was not the time or place for those thoughts. Stiles wiggled himself a little deeper into the snow.

"Are you going to stop running?"

Stiles nodded reluctantly as the cold started to really bite into his skin.

"Are you going to come inside?"

Again, he nodded. At least inside it would be warm and they wouldn't be in such quite close-quarters and he might stand a chance to get warm and not be thinking the same things.

"You promise?"

"Yes," he ground out, scowling at Derek.

Derek moved off him, getting back to his feet. He didn't offer Stiles a hand up. He frowned, getting to his feet, quickly rubbing his hands on his pants to try and get rid of the snow only to find that there was snow melting and he was freaking cold.

"M'cold."

"Of course idiot," Derek said - was there a note of affection to that? -and he grabbed Stiles by the wrist and hauled him back in the direction they had come from. "You're human, you can't run around in the snow in a t-shirt and jeans and expect to stay warm."

When they were back, the cabin felt no warmer than it had earlier. Danny was already up, bustling around the kitchen a little clumsily as he looked for ingredients to make breakfast of some sort. Stiles thought he heard Derek sigh as he pushed Stiles towards his room and the bathroom.

"Go shower, get warm, you can wear something of mine while your stuff dries."

"Okay…" From Derek's tone, he got the distinct feeling that there were not going to be arguments allowed. Feeling like a scolded child, he obediently followed Derek's orders.

It was to his immense relief that he found it was good advice as he slowly began to warm up. His clothes were down the laundry chute -and it was a weird image to think that Derek was downstairs and setting them to dry. He dug through the drawer in Derek's room, finding a shirt that wouldn't be unbearably large and he just gave up on the pants, pulling out some sweats and throwing them on. He tied an extra tight knot in them and took a few cautious steps around the bedroom, grateful when they didn't just fall off.

He entered the kitchen, where Danny was chatting with Caden as he served pancakes. Derek sat silently at the table and Stiles had to stifle a grin at how Danny and Caden continued on as though he wasn't there. But they had served him, it was just that they were so wrapped up in each other that it wouldn't have mattered if it was a roomful of rowdy people -those two were head over heels for each other. The pancakes were good, delicious even and Stiles wondered if Danny was just naturally perfect at everything.

Of course that was an absurd thought, but nonetheless. After breakfast, Danny and Caden hugged them both goodbye and headed out for their car. They thanked them for allowing them to stay the night and promised again, that they would say nothing of having met them. After washing the dishes, Stiles sat down and tried to find something to do. But there was nothing. At all. And although Derek's suggestion of "training" would help pass the time, it would not be entirely entertaining. Stiles would have killed for a tv or a computer or even his phone, within the fifteen minutes of dead silence and boredom.

"Do you do anything other train?" Stiles asked when Derek finished stoking the fire.

"You can never be too prepared." And that was more evasive than he would have thought.

"But there's so much more to life than that. You could read a book, or go out and see a movie or go on a date with someone…" Derek just looked at him. "Oh god, you've never considered having a life, have you?"

"This is life…?"

"When was the last time you went out on a date anyways?"

Stiles watched as the frown and a dark shadow passed over Derek's face. Wow.

"That long, huh?"

"Laura tried to get me out," he said quietly, shrugging. "It didn't work out well."

"That's it! When we get back I'm helping you get a date, because although I thought my life was sad, it isn't as sad as yours."

Derek pierced Stiles with a very bored expression. Stiles let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding in, sticking his tongue out in retaliation. Derek rolled his eyes, shaking his head he walked away. Despite the warm fire, it was still a little chilly so he got up and grabbed one of the blankets for the bedroom, sitting back down, comfortably wrapped in it. Stiles actually listened to the ticking of the clock, counting the agonizing seconds and then calculating them into the minutes it took for Derek to shower, walk across the room clad in only a towel to go and change before finally coming back to save Stiles' from the approaching insanity.

Derek checked the fire once more, adding another log. "Do you count camping as being a part of the regular activities that make up some part of what you consider a fulfilling life?" he asked absently.

"Do you do it with other people?"

Derek paused for a moment, turning away from the fire. "I'm doing it with you."

Stiles smiled at that. "To be fair, you did kidnap me. But yes, this counts. A part of me wants to ask you about your sex life, but I don't need to know that much about you."

"Why does my sex life matter?" he asked with a sigh.

"Well if you haven't been out on a date in years, I doubt you've had sex recently."

Derek scoffed. "And if I have?"

"Well how would you even know how to seduce people? Or do you just stand there all brooding and threaten them with angry eyes? I have a hard time believing you could even seduce one person."

"You wouldn't know seduction if it hit you upside the head."

"What makes you think that?"

Derek arched a skeptical brow. "Ever slept with anybody?"

"Well no. But I've watched enough porn to know that your personality does not suggest you can be seductive."

Derek laughed. It was… weird, to hear him laughing and a bolt of appreciation shot through Stiles. Until the laughter continued on, and on and it was clear that Derek was laughing at him. He frowned petulantly and threw a cushion at him. Of course the werewolf deflected it, still chuckling as he straightened.

"You're about as seductive as a rock," Stiles specified, shooting a glower at him.

"Really, Stiles?"

"The best you do is stare at a person until they stop talking, unless you're hitting on them for your own benefit and then you're all nice and smile-y and they're pretty much dropping their pants for you. And since when does "hi" even constitute a pick-up line?"

"It's all in how you say it," he replied with that smile of his, and those wickedly amused eyes, and that mouth-

Stiles gave a scoff and rolled over, hiding his face under the blankets. Derek was not starting to grow on him. Not. At. All.

"Aw, something wrong?" he teased.

"Nothing, jerk," he mumbled.

"Jerk? How am I a jerk?" He poked Stiles' exposed ankle.

How was he not a jerk? "Do you really want me to list the reasons?"

"I let you talk to your dad, I let your friends stay, I'm teaching you how to fight, I gave you my clothes and I cooked breakfast for you… I don't see how that makes me a jerk unless you're still hung up on the kidnapping thing."

"I was all willing to go with you and you knocked me out! And if you really want you can have your stupid clothes back!"

Angrily, Stiles wiggled out of them, throwing them out from under the blanket.

Derek blinked, smiling wryly before turning to look at Stiles. "Well. I don't want the food back."

"Ha-ha, very funny," he drawled sarcastically.

Derek gets up, picking up the clothes, he walks to the kitchen and sits down at the table, dropping the clothes next to his chair. He dug in his jacket pocket, pulling out a small book as he sat down, flipping it open to a random page and he started reading. Stiles looked down the length of his body, grateful he still had the blanket as a blush rose up to his cheeks. The clothes were all the way in the kitchen… but there was no way he could let Derek think he won.

Steeling himself he got to his feet, securing the blanket around him. He wouldn't let the 'wolf think that he had won -there was no way that was going to happen. He walked steadily out to the kitchen, past Derek and past the discarded clothes, to the cupboards. He grabbed a glass and walked back over to the sink, stubbornly ignoring Derek as he filled it with water before walking back to the couch and sitting down.

He was not going to lose this battle, that was for sure.

There will be payback. Haha, and things will start to pick up next chapter between them. I'm thinking about changing a few ideas I had established a little bit back.

And wow, again, thank you so much for all the feedback. I am awed and amazed. I hope you all enjoy where this goes. If you had any ideas on where you think it might go, or something you're kind of hoping to see happen, please let me know. I really like incorporating that into my writing :)

Happy Easter everyone!