Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf.

Author's note: Thank you so much to my beta, Rachel!

After finding Scott's number in his cell phone and calling to find out where he was, Stiles and Derek made their way to the animal clinic where their alpha was working. Stiles talked non-stop about nothing important as they walked, in an attempt to prevent them from falling into any more awkward silences. Derek knew exactly what Stiles was doing, but couldn't bring himself to make the younger boy shut up; in truth, he was grateful for the distraction from what the witch had told them.

They both knew that they couldn't avoid having a conversation about everything that the witch had spoken about, but the entire situation felt too raw and uncomfortable. Pushing it all to the back of their minds in favour of finding out more about this new life seemed like an easier option, so they were going with that.

"Do you think Scott's gonna notice we're different straight away?" Stiles asked as they approached the clinic.

"Yeah, I think so," Derek said nodding. "Even if he hadn't been our alpha for years in this world, you two have been inseparable since you were kids so he'll pick up on the fact that you're not the same right away."

They'd told Scott on the phone that they had something serious to speak to him about, and Stiles had made his best friend promise not to freak out, but Stiles was still nervous about how Scott was going to react.

Stiles hesitated at the door of the clinic, his hand hovering over the door. He considered telling Derek that he was tired and that they should just come back later, but then Derek's hand was pressing gently between his shoulder blades.

"It's fine, Stiles. Even in this world, he's still Scott."

Derek was right, Stiles knew. It wasn't something he thought often but in this case he knew that Derek was correct. In any world, at any time, Scott would always be Scott. It was the comfort provided by that thought that had Stiles pushing open the door of the clinic and calling out.

"Scotty boy, are you in the back?"

Scott popped his head out from the back room to greet them.

"I'll just be a second I'm just finish-"

The words died in Scott's throat and the smile on his face faltered and turned to a look of deep confusion as he sniffed the air in front of him.

"What's going on?" Scott asked, his eyes narrowing slightly as he stepped fully into the front area of the animal clinic. "You don't smell right. I mean, you still smell like yourselves but yourselves from before. Your scents aren't mixed. You haven't smelled like this since before..."

Scott's voice trailed off as he waved a hand between Derek and Stiles. Derek looked to Stiles, thinking that Scott would take the information they were about to give him better if it came from Stiles. Sure, he and Scott were getting closer, and in this world it seemed like they had a good relationship, but Derek understood that Stiles and Scott gained a great amount of comfort from each other because their lives had been so deeply entwined for so many years.

"Well, that's what we're here to talk to you about. We kinda need your help, buddy."

"Is everything okay?" Scott asked, his voice and expression now laced with concern. "Are you in danger?"

"No," Derek answered. "We're not in any sort of danger, we're both fine."

"We've just found ourselves in a bit of a shitty situation," Stiles clarified. "Is there anywhere we can sit down and talk?"

Scott led them through to the room that he took his breaks in, and the three of them sat around the small rectangular table in the middle room.

"So, what's going on?" Scott asked, settling his arms down on the table in from of him.

Stiles went over everything that had happened to them since the witch had cast her spell upon them and answered all of Scott's questions (yes, we will be going back to our own world; I don't know where your Stiles and Derek are – I'm sure they're okay; no, Scott, me and sourwolf here are definitely not in love; yeah, you and I are best friends in my world – duh).

"So, basically what we need from you is to keep all of this a secret and for you to fill us in on what our lives are like here."

Scott looked completely overwhelmed by everything that Stiles had told him, but he nodded and promised to help out as best as he could.

"Where do you guys want me to start? There's kind of a lot to tell you about," Scott said.

Derek spoke up first, "Start with how me and Stiles ended up dating."

"Oooh, yeah," Stiles agreed. "I need to know how on earth that could have happened."

Scott grinned and nodded his head vigorously, "It's actually a really great story. I mean, it wasn't funny for either of you two at the time, but you ended up being able to laugh about it and it was pretty hilarious to the whole pack right off the bat."

"Get on it with it, Scotty!" Stiles urged.

"Okay, well it all started because you two had been fighting. Like, a lot more than usual, you know?"

Stiles and Derek both frowned and looked anywhere but at each other as they both realised that the beginning of Scott's story sounded exactly like the beginning of their own story but without the witch.

"You guys were driving us all crazy; it was making it really difficult to get anything done. So, the rest of the pack all met up in secret and came up with a plan to force you two to have to work together. We didn't expect you would end up a couple, at the most we thought you might become friends, but really we were just hoping that you would learn to tolerate each other a little. So anyway, every time we had to get something done, I would insist that we all split up into pairs and we all kept pairing up really quickly and leaving just the two of you."

"You are all terrible people," Derek deadpanned while Stiles nodded vigorously in agreement.

"I can't believe you would do that to me, Scott!"

Scott laughed, his eyes crinkling happily as he took in Stiles' outrage.

"I'm sorry, but it had to be done. And it all worked out well in the end, in fact, you or I guess the other you actually thanked me when you were wasted one night."

Derek watched as Stiles flushed red at what Scott had said. He couldn't help but imagine a happy, drunk Stiles slinging an arm around Scott's shoulders and thanking him for being a terrible friend because it had brought him and Derek together. An emotion that he couldn't quite identify twisted and tied his insides up in knots at the thought.

"A few weeks later," Scott continued. "Stiles turned up on my door absolutely reeking of you, Derek. And I knew what it meant before he even told me but I just couldn't make myself believe it until the words were out of his mouth, you know? He just blurted it out right there on my front step, 'I just lost my virginity to Derek,' he told me." Scott looked at Stiles, "You looked terrible, man."

Both Stiles and Derek were staring wide eyed at Scott.

"How the hell did it even come about?" Stiles questioned.

"Hey, I'm the story teller," Scott admonished. "Let me tell it how I want, don't make me bring out my alpha eyes."

Stiles snorted at Scott, who was now grinning crookedly to show he was joking about the alpha eyes. He was pleased and not at all surprised that his best friend hadn't become some power hungry alpha.

Derek rolled his eyes, "Hurry up and get on with the story."

"I sat Stiles down on my living room couch and he cried so much and told me that the two of you had been bickering and that he didn't know how it happened but you ended up kissing. I asked if he was crying because it was bad or if he regretted it and it was really hard to understand over all the tears and snot but he kind of wailed, 'No, it was so hot,' at me. That made me feel kinda sick, I'm not gonna lie," Scott admitted with a laugh. "I was really confused at that point so I asked why he was crying if he had enjoyed it so much and he said you thought he might like you and that he didn't want to like you."

"Are you serious?" Stiles demanded. "I was crying?"

"Yeah, dude. You were really upset. After you told me why you were crying I got why you were so upset, it must have been super confusing for you."

Scott turned to Derek, who was leaning back in his chair and smirking at the story and Stiles' embarrassment.

"I don't know why you're looking so smug, Derek; you sulked in your loft for a full week after it happened because Stiles didn't get in touch with you and you thought he hated you."

Derek swore under his breath as his cheeks began to burn and Stiles turned to cackle in his face, glad that he hadn't been the only one to behave embarrassingly.

"Anyway," Scott began. "You both kind of hibernated in your houses and moped over the situation. The rest of the pack and I visited you both at different times over that week and we put all the information we'd gotten from you both together and realised that you both liked each other and thought that the other didn't feel the same because neither of you had bothered to speak to each other. Then, basically, we told you both you were being really dumb and I convinced Stiles to go to the loft and you sorted things out and that's pretty much it."

"Huh," Stiles answered, not really sure what to say. Although he knew the things in the story hadn't really happened to him, it was still strange to hear all of that about him and Derek. He looked at Derek out of the corner of his eye and tried to imagine it all happening – the kissing, the crying, and the making up. The images made Stiles' stomach flip in a way that made him feel uncomfortable.

"So what?" Derek asked, finding it difficult to believe that he and Stiles could have adapted so easily to being in a relationship. "We just lived happily ever after?"

Scott smiled, "I wouldn't say that, exactly. It took a while for you both to get used to the whole dating and falling in love with each other thing, so you argued a lot at first. I remember asking Stiles why he bothered to stay with you since you both seemed mad at each other all the time, and he smiled so goofily and said, 'It's just growing pains, Scotty, it's a lot to get used to. Me and Derek, we're hopeless but we're happy and we're getting there.' And you did get there, you're great together. Don't get me wrong, you still drive each other crazy, and you can make each other mad like no one else ever could, but you love each other more than you could ever love anyone else too, and I guess that makes it all worth it."

Neither Stiles nor Derek would ever admit it, but they couldn't help but think how awesome what Scott had described sounded. Who wouldn't want to be loved that much?

Scott watched on as his two pack mates tried to digest everything he had told them. He understood how difficult it must have been for them to hear all of that; after all, he remembered when his Stiles and Derek were still like the ones in front of him, when the idea of them even being friends was still ludicrous. But he had faith in the pair sitting in front of him; although they hadn't gone through everything that his Stiles and Derek had, they were still Stiles and Derek through and through. It was in their scents and their demeanours: they were his Stiles and Derek, they were just a little behind, but Scott was sure that they would catch up soon enough, because he had come to believe that Stiles and Derek were meant for each other. Scott would bet money on the fact that they were meant to be together in any world.

"So," Scott said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. "What do you want to know next?"

Scott filled them in on every aspect of their lives in their current world. He informed them that Derek had taken a job at the Sheriff's department and that he had settled in really well. Stiles and Derek listened to stories about how well Derek and Stiles' father got on and about how they loved to gang up on Stiles and annoy the living daylights out of him at family dinners.

Stiles was excited to hear that he had just finished his second year at UCLA, studying history. Scott told him about how he had been there when Stiles opened his acceptance letter, and how they'd jumped up and down like hyperactive kids and hugged each other. Scott's obvious pride in him made Stiles' heart ache in the best way.

"I decided not to go to college because Dr. Deaton decided to move out of state. He trained me up and now I run the clinic, which I love doing, plus, it means I'm pretty much always in Beacon Hills, so I can take care of my alpha duties."

"You run this place?" Stiles asked. "That's fucking awesome, Scott. You're like a real adult now!"

"That's really great, Scott," Derek agreed. "You've settled into your life as an alpha and as a man so well."

Scott smiled and ducked his head, his cheeks heating up at the praise.

"Thank you, guys. That means a lot. I wouldn't have handled everything nearly as well if it hadn't been for both of you and the rest of the pack though."

Scott went on to tell Derek and Stiles about how Jackson had come back to the US for college, explaining that learning to be a wolf in a foreign country had humbled and grounded him, and that he wasn't the same idiot he had been before he left.

"He's still an ass sometimes, don't get me wrong," Scott chuckled. "But he's definitely earned his place in the pack and Lydia's been so much happier since he came home."

They found out that Allison, Isaac and Cora had all started studying at Berkeley and were having the time of their lives.

"They've definitely taken well to the college party culture," Scott snorted. "Cora most of all, she's the life and soul of every party."

A small smile pulled at Derek's lips at the mention of his sister. "I can definitely believe that."

Scott informed him that Jackson, Lydia and Danny were studying at NYU and that Danny had been let into the loop and had helped the pack out more times than he could count and that he was now an important member of the pack.

"He was a part of the pack before, but when Jackson came home, that's when he really settled in. I think having someone who was his made him a lot more comfortable."

"Isn't it difficult being the only one left in Beacon Hills?" Derek asked Scott.

"I'm not the only one," Scott told him, looking at him as though he was an idiot. "You're here too, and we spend tons of time together, it's been really great getting to spend time just us. Also, every other weekend someone comes home to visit, and I go to the different colleges to see the pack. Obviously, I go to Berkeley most of all so I can see Allison, but I manage to see everyone else pretty regularly as well. And Derek goes to UCLA to see you a lot, because you're on your own up there and it's easy for him to get the time off, since his boss is pretty much his father-in-law."

Derek didn't need to be a werewolf to know that Scott meant it when he said he liked to spend time with him, his voice was laced with sincerity. He hoped that he and Scott would have that kind of relationship in his own world someday. Having a pack that he was close to was so important to Derek, and it was something that he'd missed more than anything since he had lost most of his family.

Scott's eyes widened suddenly and his arms began to flail, "Oh my God, Stiles, I can't believe I forgot to tell you that our parents got together!"

"You better not be shittin' me, Scott," Stiles warned, his eyes huge with excitement.

"I'm serious, man. We're one step closer to being real brothers!"

"HELL YES," Stiles exclaimed. "I knew that they liked each other. YES!"

Derek snorted fondly at how excited Scott and Stiles had become. He was sure that no matter how old they got, they would still behave like a pair of ecstatic children whenever they got together. Sure, they got on his nerves sometimes with how ridiculous they could be, but deep down he was glad that they hadn't lost that innate joy after everything that they had been through.

Once their excitement had simmered down, Scott explained that everyone was home for summer vacation now, and that Stiles was pretty much living with Derek whenever he wasn't at college.

"Last summer, the pack spent a lot of time together to make the most of being all together for more than just a few weeks. It was a lot of fun, and we've been pretty much doing the exact same this year. I know it'll be difficult for both of you to keep the spell a secret from everyone, but I promise I'll help as much as I can."

"Thanks, Scotty boy," Stiles said, thankful that every version of Scott seemed to have his back.

After Scott had told them everything he thought might be important, he had to get back to work.

"Sorry, to kick you guys out, but I have a lot to do now that it's just me."

"We understand," Derek said. "We should probably go back to the house and try and settle in there, anyway."

As they walked away from the clinic, Stiles purposefully kept looking ahead while he said, "The witch was right; we do have kind of a nice life here."

"Yeah," Derek agreed quietly. "It's not so bad."

-/-/-/-

The Hale house was empty when Stiles and Derek made it back there. Cora had left a note on the kitchen worktop, letting them both know that she had gone shopping with Lydia to pick out something to wear for the barbecue.

Stiles hovered awkwardly in the living room for a while, not quite sure what to do with himself, before he finally blurted out what was bothering him.

"I don't really know what to do," he admitted. "I mean, I know being back in this house must be weird enough for you never mind being here with me, so do you want me to get out of your hair? I can go stay at my dad's if you want me to."

Derek shook his head no and sat down on the couch, motioning for Stiles do the same.

"Sit down, Stiles," he demanded. "Your fidgeting is making me uneasy.

"Right," Stiles said, flailing a little before flinging himself down on the other end of the couch. "Right, sorry. You don't want me to go?"

"No, it'll make everyone suspicious and have them asking questions that will be too much of a hassle to answer."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Stiles agreed, running a hand through his hair, causing it to stick up in all of the wrong places. "Are you okay with me sharing a bed with you? Because Cora will wonder what's going on if we start heading to separate bedrooms at the end of the night."

Derek shrugged, "It's a big bed. If you're not comfortable with it, you could sneak into one of the other rooms once Cora falls asleep."

"I'm sure I'll survive. Just as long as you don't hog the covers," Stiles joked, flashing a grin in Derek's direction.

Stiles was sure that he seen Derek's lip tug upwards slightly as he nodded in reply.

-/-/-/-

They spent the evening preparing dinner for themselves and Cora, and were both surprised at how easy it was to get along with each other when they had to. They didn't talk much except for to ask quick questions about the meal they were cooking, but the silences between them were companionable rather than awkward, which was a relief to them both.

After dinner they declined Cora's offer to watch a movie with her; they were both exhausted from everything they had learned during the day.

"Having an early night, huh? Just keep it down up there, yeah?" Cora jibed good-naturedly, causing them both to flush hot with embarrassment as they made their way upstairs.

Once they were in the bedroom, Stiles caught the pajama top that Derek tossed him from the dresser he was rummaging through.

"There aren't any bottoms in here that smell much like you," Derek told him, twisting his body round to look at Stiles where he was standing by the door.

"Oh, I usually just wear boxers and a t-shirt," Stiles explained "But if you want me to I can get-"

"It's fine, Stiles," Derek interrupted.

"Right, okay," Stiles said, rocking back and forward on the balls of his feet slightly. "I'm just gonna go for a quick shower."

While Stiles was gone Derek stripped down into his boxers and pulled on a pair of soft, worn sleep pants before climbing into the bed that smelled strongly of him and Stiles. It wasn't their separate scents, it was both of them combined to make a new one, and it reminded Derek of his parents and the way their bedroom had always smelled when he was a child. It reminded him of family and security, and Derek couldn't resist burying his nose in the sheets and breathing in deeply.

Derek watched Stiles as he returned to the bedroom looking small and unsure in his thin sleep top and boxers. He noticed the way his eyes widened slightly and his throat bobbed as he took in Derek's bare shoulders that weren't covered by the sheets. Derek waited until Stiles was settled in the bed next to him before switching off the light on the bedside table.

"Night, Derek," Stiles said quietly.

"Goodnight, Stiles."

Derek lay staring at the ceiling in the dark room and waited until Stiles' breathing evened out and his stiff posture relaxed before allowing himself to drift off into a deep sleep.

And then the dreams came.

A/n: I hope you all enjoyed that! If any of you have tumblr my url is warriorhale!