A/N: This chapter was probably my second favorite chapter to write. It's kind of ridiculous but I loooove writing about this chapter (I'm not going to ruin the chapter by telling you what happens).
WARNING: Graphic descriptions of self-harm and gay sexual situations.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Teen Wolf or the characters. Just the plot.
ENJOY!
Chapter 16
There was a bright light behind Stiles' eyelids pulling him from his sleep. He grumbled a bit and turned over, pressing his face into something warm and solid. He sighed contentedly before it registered in his mind that there was something warm and solid in his bed. Jolting backwards Stiles flailed only to be held down by a heavy, warm grip. Finally he thought to open his eyes and stared right into Derek's eyes and relief poured throughout him, slumping forward to press his forehead against Derek's chest.
"Holy Hell you scared me. I'd thought…" he didn't finish his sentence.
"I'm still here."
Derek's chest rumbled wonderfully against his ear and Stiles sighed again this time in relief.
"What time is it?" he groaned after a bit of soaking in the Derek-ness.
"Probably around noon sometime. I didn't want to leave you."
"Not even to eat or go to the bathroom?" Stiles asked as if it was out of the question not to but really he was delighted that Derek hadn't left.
"Not even for a second." Derek confirmed.
Stiles made a content noise and burrowed into Derek, wrapping his arms around his torso. He stayed like that for a while completely ignoring his morning wood which he promptly kept at bay since he didn't know if he could trust Derek with that again just yet. There was a click then Scott suddenly came bursting through his door without so much as a knock, not that he has ever before.
"Stiles, man, it's almost time for lunch and you have nothing! We should…uh…you're…Derek…still in…bed. Uuuhhh…" Scott awkwardly trailed off.
"You'd think that after seeing us in the same bed so often that he'd be used to it." Stiles quipped, a little irritated at Scott.
Derek made a noise of agreement while Scott huffed indignantly.
"Well! I know about this…think you two have going on but that doesn't mean I'm gonna be used to it!"
Stiles snorted and shook his head, giving another quick squeeze around Derek's torso before letting go and sitting up, draping his legs over the edge of the bed. His jeans were bunched up weird and his legs had painful little imprints in them from the denim.
"Ugh, last time I sleep in jeans." He mumbled before getting up.
Stiles went over to his drawers and pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a graphic t-shirt.
"You aren't going to get undressed, like naked…are you?"
"Scott, get out." Stiles grunted as he worked the button of his jeans open.
"Have you two, um, done it yet? Not that I'm against it! I just…"
"Scott! Out!" Derek interrupted his awkward rambling with a yell.
The door slammed behind Scott just as Stiles dropped his pants. Stiles kept his back to Derek since he did not need that temptation right now while he was still trying to get back on his feet and trust him again. That didn't mean that he was going to leave while he dressed though. It was his room after all and when he glanced over his shoulder as he shucked his shirt he saw Derek's intense gaze locked on his pale skin. He felt a shiver of arousal but quickly damped it down out of habit and pulled his clothes on quickly.
"Ok! Let me clean up a bit then let's go get food for the starving wolves!" he said a little too loudly and quickly cleaned up his room so he had something to do while he waited for his erection to go away.
Once he was sure that he was flaccid he turned to look at the slightly rumpled Derek, which definitely didn't help.
"You getting up sometime today?"
"I was just watching you for a bit." Derek said as he climbed out of the bed and quickly made it up neatly.
"You could've just left that, I never make it anyways."
"That'd be rude." Derek said, his voice was gruff but there was a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Stiles just shook his head with a small smile and opened his bedroom door. His father had long since left for work so he made sure that he had his phone before he left his room. On his way down the stairs with Derek trailing a step behind him he punched in his dad's number.
"Stiles? Is something wrong? Who's with you today?"
"Nothing's wrong dad. Derek and Scott are with me today. Isaac had to work. I called because we're running low on groceries again."
"I just went to the store last week!"
"Yeah, and we ate it all."
There was silence over the line for a while until Papa Stilinski's static-y sigh filtered through.
"Ok, you guys can go to the store but only to the grocery store and back. No stops along the way. Straight there then straight back. They're to stay with you the entire way. In the car, in the store, then back in the house, got it?"
"Yeah dad, I got it. Going a little overboard on the protection aren't you?"
"When it comes to you, never."
Stiles felt his heart inflate a little at the words. "Ok dad, thanks. I'll call you once I get back home."
"Make sure you do. Be safe. I love you."
"Love you too dad. I will."
Stiles hung up and went into the kitchen to pull out the grocery money hidden in a tiny, old tin in the back of the breadbox next to the fridge.
"I'm sure you both heard all of that so let's get to it." Stiles said and pushed his feet into his shoes next to the front door. "Oh wait, I forgot my keys."
"We'll take my car." Derek said from directly behind him.
It startled Stiles a little at how close he was since he'd been trying not to look at him.
"Right then. Scott, you coming?"
"Yeah, I'm grabbing my shoes from your room."
There was pounding on the stairs as he ran up them.
"I think Scott's been skipping out on too many of the stealth training sessions you've been holding." He mumbled to Derek who gave a grunt of agreement.
"I heard that!" Scott yelled as he pounded down the stairs again. "Why would I need to be stealthy in your house? I grabbed your house key too."
Stiles just shook his head and held out his hand for the key as he opened the front door. The sunlight was glaringly bright and he could barely keep his eyes open long enough to lock the door after Scott. He simply followed the familiar curve of his driveway from memory before having to open his eyes again to find Derek's car parked against the curb. Once he climbed into the passenger seat he carefully blinked his eyes over and over again to adjust to the light.
"Jeez, who's idea was it to make the sun so freaking bright?" Stiles muttered as he buckled into the seat.
"If you'd woken up in the morning like you should've then there wouldn't have been a problem." Scott said unhelpfully from behind him as Derek climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine.
"No, because I wouldn't have gone outside during that time." Stiles said with a 'duh' implied at the end.
They drove to the store in silence since there wasn't really anything to talk about but it was a comfortable silence. Derek never turned on his radio so Stiles didn't want to just take over and mess with his stereo without permission. Once Derek had parked in the closest available spot at the store they all jumped out and Derek and Scott flanked Stiles' sides. Scott grabbed a cart and Stiles couldn't help but feel like they stood out. Three guys going grocery shopping wasn't exactly normal. Two maybe but three was a little weird. Whatever, he was concentrating on what he needed to buy.
"Let's start over in the bakery, we need bread."
"And cookies. Can we get cookies?" Scott piped up.
"You paying for them?"
Scott frowned and his shoulders slumped.
"Yeah, didn't think so."
They continued on to the meats and cheese section and Stiles threw a pack of mixed shredded cheese in the cart along with a block of cheddar and a block of mozzarella. Next he threw a package of sliced ham and a package of sliced turkey into the cart. He debated on whether or not to get hot dogs but decided against it since he didn't really like them and his dad didn't need to be eating them. Next he got a couple packages of bacon for him and turkey bacon for his dad.
"Are one of those packages of bacon for us?" Scott asked, excited.
"Yes, only one though."
"Yes!" Scott looked as happy as a puppy at the confirmation.
Stiles rolled his eyes and looked over at Derek to see that he looked only slightly excited at the notion of bacon. Huh. Stiles shuffled that bit of information away for next time he was shopping.
Next they wheeled their way over to the fresh produce section and Stiles got a head of lettuce and a bag of salad and threw them into the cart. Carrots, green, yellow, and red bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, and finally some onion were all tossed into the cart. He moved on to the fruits and grabbed a small bag of apples, a bunch of bananas, a few oranges, a bag of plums, and a small box of strawberries.
In the back of the store was the red meats section and he stopped to debate between two packages of ground beef.
"The left one is fresher." Derek said.
Stiles nodded and put the other one down and tossed that one in.
"What about chicken, can you smell the freshness of those?" he asked and picked up two packages of chicken thighs.
"Left one again."
That one went in the cart. He held up two different steaks.
"They're both good plus the one right next to them."
He tossed all three into the cart.
"Thanks." He said and brushed his fingers down Derek's arm.
There was no answer but when Stiles looked over at him the very tips of his ears had turned a nice shade of red. It made him smile but he didn't say anything, not wanting to embarrass Derek in the middle of a store. That would not be cool.
Next they started going up and down aisles. Stiles put in a jar of pickles, mayonnaise (for him), mustard, barbeque sauce since he knew they were almost out, several boxes of Reese's Puffs, two boxes of Raisin Bran (for his dad, he hated the stuff), peanut butter and jelly, a can of coffee grounds, some boxes of random pastas, and a jar of spaghetti sauce.
"Should I even get any tuna?" Stiles asked once they reached the canned food aisle.
"Nah man, that stuff stinks and your dad shouldn't eat it since you almost never do." Scott said, shaking his head.
Stiles nodded and looked at all the canned stuff. He really didn't need any of that stuff so he switched aisles which led into the freezer aisles that separated the junk food aisles from the normal food aisles. He grabbed two frozen pizzas, a box of pizza rolls, about 20 frozen bean and cheese burritos since it was 2 for a dollar, a box of chicken nuggets, a meat lasagna (Scott smiled widely when it was put into the almost full cart), a tub of Neapolitan ice cream (not for his dad), and some sugar free ice cream bars for his dad. After that was the refrigerated sections and he grabbed a two gallon jug of milk and some French Vanilla creamer.
"Should I get yogurt?"
Derek shrugged but Scott looked like he was thinking.
"Are you or your dad going to eat it? I certainly won't."
"I don't really eat yogurt." Derek said.
"Ok! That answers that! Moving on!" Stiles said quickly and wheeled away from the cold section.
Finally they got to the junk food aisles and Stiles sighed.
"Ok Scott, you can pick two bags only. Derek, do you want anything?"
Scott immediately ran down the aisle, leaving the cart behind to frolic towards the chips. Derek frowned and looked at the full cart before shaking his head.
"Seriously, you can get something. There's plenty of money for you to get a couple of things."
Scott came running back holding a giant bag of Fun Yuns and another of Sun Chips Garden Salsa flavor. Stiles looked pointedly at Derek who sighed and walked down the aisle as if he really didn't want to.
"Can we please get some cookies?!" Scott pleaded.
Stiles frowned but sighed and waved his hand in the direction of the bakery.
"Fine, grab a bag of cookies and come right back. Nothing else!" he scolded but Scott was already running off.
Stiles rolled the cart over to where Derek was glaring at the chips like it was their fault for having so many options. Stiles reached past Derek and grabbed a can of Salt and Vinegar Pringles.
"You know, even though I can't stand the smell of them these things make my mouth water. They're my favorite flavor. I just hate how it burns when the edges cut the corners of my mouth. It totally sucks 'cause then there's salt and vinegar in the cuts." Stiles let out a small huff of laughter.
"I can't stand how they smell either." Derek grumbled and finally reached out to grab a bag of Barbeque Lays.
"Good choice. I love those." Stiles nodded in approval.
Scott skidded to a stop next to the cart and put a bag of chocolate chip cookies on top of everything else. Good thing the eggs and bread were in the small seat of the cart because Scott was anything but careful. Stiles just rolled his eyes and continued to push the heavy cart. He grabbed a bag of normal, lightly salted tortilla chips and some chunky salsa and then they were moving on.
"Ok, last we've gotta grab the beverages."
"This is a lot of stuff. Where's the drinks going to go?"
"On the bottom. I'm not grabbing individual drinks."
Scott nodded like he'd already thought of that and hadn't just asked a stupidly obvious question.
Once they got to the beverages Stiles reached out to pick up the heavy 24 pack of water bottles but Derek quickly stepped forward and heaved it onto the bottom of the cart before Stiles could even touch it. Stiles just raised an eyebrow and gave him a small, sideways smirk.
"Scott grab a pack of whatever soda you want. Derek you can too if you'd like."
Scott ran off again but Derek just shook his head.
"Water's good enough for me." Derek said and Stiles just nodded, not pushing it.
"I'm going to grab a couple boxes of tea bags and some Crystal Light or something to go in the water. My dad really likes the Peach flavored ones which is weird 'cause he hates peaches." Stiles shrugged and wheeled over to the dry goods part of the beverage section.
"Apple cinnamon tea is my favorite." Derek said quietly next to him.
Stiles smiled and grabbed a box of those along with some earl grey and mint medley. He tossed those in the cart before grabbing the small box of peach Crystal Light flavoring. Scott came back after that holding a box of Mountain Dews.
"Can you grab a box of Canada Dry and Coca Cola too?"
Scott nodded and hurried off.
"You sure you don't want anything else? I can go back to the meat section and grab you a package of bacon all for yourself."
Derek's face scrunched up as if he wanted to smile and frown at the same time. It wouldn't surprise Stiles if he could actually do that.
"No, I'm good. I have food at home."
Stiles shrugged and pushed the cart down the aisle where he reached Scott who was just about to hurry back with the requested boxes of beverages. He slid them onto the bottom rack of the cart and scootched Stiles over so he could take the cart again.
"Well, I think we're done. What do you guys say?"
"I say that we should grab another bag or two of chips for Isaac. He likes cheesy popcorn and the Chicken and Waffles flavored Lays."
"Those are, like, the worst snack foods ever. They taste nasty, they smell nasty, they just are nasty." Stiles said with an 'ew' face.
Scott just shrugged. "I think putting Red Hot hot sauce in Macaroni and Cheese is nasty but I don't care that you eat it."
"No, that is the most delicious thing ever." Stiles said, pointing at Scott and waving his finger around.
Derek made a small noise and Stiles looked over at him to see that he was pulling an 'ew' face that Stiles had just seconds before. Stiles just harrumphed and let it go since everybody had different tastes.
"Go ahead and grab the snacks for Isaac but make it quick. I'm sure my father is starting to wonder why I'm not back yet."
Scott rushed off and Derek took over the cart this time and they started wheeling towards the checkout lines. Stiles was content with brushing his arm against Derek's every other step until Scott got back and he took a little step away so Derek wouldn't be uncomfortable with the miniscule public display of affection. The checkout lines were short despite it being a Saturday afternoon and they got through the checkout process as fast as could be expected of a bored, underpaid employee working on a Saturday scanning a hundred or so items. With the cart now full of bagged groceries they wheeled outside to Derek's Camaro.
"So, are you both staying all day?" Stiles asked as they loaded the trunk with all the goods.
"I'm staying." Derek surprised him by saying first.
"I already volunteered the weekends so I'm fine with staying."
"Well, I mean if you don't want to be here, like, if Allison is waiting for you or you want to go play video games or whatever that's fine." Stiles shrugged, putting the eggs and bread off to the side so they didn't go in the trunk.
Scott was strangely silent and Stiles looked over to see a contemplative look on his face.
"You can go Scott." Stiles said and smiled when Scott tossed him a weird look. "I'm serious. I know you already have plans for the weekends."
"You do?! How though? I never…told you… You were just guessing, weren't you?"
Stiles let out a small laugh that wasn't nearly as humorous as he made it sound. "Yeah, I know. You always hang out with Allison on the weekends since you guys don't have time, even if you relationship is pretty platonic at this point."
"Well, I mean, Kira kinda left after the whole…thing went down so I was kinda hoping that she'd…take me back."
"It's ok to call that 'thing' what it was. I was possessed by the Nogitsune." Stiles said nonchalantly as if just the name of the thing didn't hurt him to say. "You should take any chance you get with her. I must say, you two are certainly meant for each other." He said with false brightness.
Derek growled beside him quietly and Scott gave him a strange look but didn't say anything. Stiles just finished loading the trunk before slamming it shut and grabbing the eggs and bread from the cart.
"Here, put this away." Stiles said and quickly climbed into the passenger's seat signaling the end of the conversation.
They were quickly on their way back to his house and again the ride was completely silent, though a little more uncomfortable. It was a relief when they turned onto his street and pulled up to his house. They made quick work of bringing in the groceries since real men only made one trip from the car or died trying. Luckily having two werewolves with supernatural strength carrying groceries made it less stressful for Stiles since they took most of the bags in.
Scott carried everything directly to the kitchen as soon as Stiles let them in the house with Derek following so that Stiles could lock the door again with his one free hand. There were bags on every surface and Stiles felt a bit accomplished with having gotten this much. It meant there wouldn't be another trip to the grocery store within the next week or so.
"I gotta call my dad real quick. Go ahead and put things away where ever you think they go." Stiles said and dialed his dad's number.
"Thank all that is good in heaven." Was the first thing out of Papa Stilinski's mouth.
"Yeah, it just took longer than I thought it would. You wouldn't be angry if I told you I just spent about 300 dollars on groceries would you? I mean, now we won't have to go grocery shopping every single week! And werewolves eat a lot so I had to get a bit more meat than usual. And chips. And soda. Not for you though. I did get you some dessert though!"
"Stiles it's fine. I put that money aside specifically for groceries. As long as you didn't splurge on a bunch of junk food. If I have to suffer then you do too."
Stiles felt a bit of tension release at the sound of his father's laugh. He didn't get to hear that often enough and it pained him to know that he was the main cause of that.
"You know that I'm fine with whatever I eat. Unless it's lima beans. Those are a monstrosity to food kind. Oh and Brussels sprouts. Ugh."
"I agree with you there kid. You didn't make any stops along the way did you? Who am I kidding, Derek! Did my son abide by the rules?"
Stiles squawked indignantly as Derek pulled the phone from his fingers.
"Yes sir. There was no rule breaking." There was a pause as his dad talked and Stiles crossed his arms and made a show of tapping his foot in mock frustration. "We've locked everything already. Scott has to leave in a bit though." Another pause then a nod before Derek remembered that his dad couldn't actually see him nod then, "Yes sir. I'll watch over him." Pause. "Always within eyesight, got it. Alright, have a good day sir." He held the phone out to Stiles. "He wants to talk to you again."
Stiles took the phone back and before it'd even reached his ear he was talking. "Don't trust me at all do you old man?" There was a huff on the other side that made Stiles smile. "I'm just kidding dad. You're not old yet."
"As if. I'm in my prime." Stiles actually gave a small laugh at that. "Alright son, make sure not to do anything stupid and stay next to Derek at all times."
"Got it dad. Now get to work and make sure not to stress yourself out too much and give yourself a heart attack."
"I won't as long as you stay safe."
"Ok dad. I'll talk to you later."
"I'll call you sometime around 10 tonight. Talk to you later son."
They hung up and Stiles felt his small smile melt away with worry for his dad. He really hoped that whatever was out there wasn't targeting things other than his numbered victims. Even that wasn't good but still, he didn't want anything near his father.
"He'll be fine Stiles. Come put stuff away since you actually know where everything goes." Derek said and Stiles heard him shuffled towards the kitchen.
"Right."
They spent the next twenty minutes or so putting everything away in its proper place. A lot of stuff went into the freezer in the garage when the kitchen freezer as filled to the brink. Usually they never used that freezer since it was just his dad and him and they didn't need so much food. When he was out there he found several forgotten about boxes of fish sticks and pot pies. Cool.
When Stiles came back in from putting everything away in the garage Scott was already gone and Derek was lurking right next to the door, waiting for him to come back in.
"Scott got a call from Allison and rushed off." Derek informed him.
Stiles nodded and shut and locked the door behind him. "Yeah, I figured he'd take off quickly. Did he take his chips with him or did he leave them?"
"He left them."
"Good. I'm eating those first." Stiles said and stalked to the kitchen and pulled Scott's chips off the shelf in his full pantry.
Derek just gave him an amused look when he pulled open the bag and crunched haughtily on several chips, reaching in and grabbed a handful himself and crunched on one. Stiles smiled at that and gave a small snort and a nod.
"Good, you help me devour them so we're both to blame."
They took the chips up to Stiles' room since there wasn't anything to do downstairs and pulled Netflix on his laptop as they climbed onto the bed and settled in.
"Ok, Batman or Superman?"
"Are those the only two choices?"
"Unless you want to watch An American Werewolf in London." Stiles snickered.
Derek growled for half a second but his face wasn't angry. "Batman then."
"Bruce Wayne it is!" Stiles crowed and clicked the play button.
The movie was a good distraction from everything that was going on, from all the shit in their lives and they could just forget it all for the couple of hours watching Bruce Wayne kick ass and have his ass kicked.
"You know I think Morgan Freeman is my favorite character." Stiles said as the credits started to roll.
"You mean Lucius Fox?"
"Aw! You were paying attention! For a while there I thought you'd fallen asleep."
Derek scowled at him. "I pay more attention than you probably give me credit for."
"Probably." Stiles accepted and stretched, feeling his shoulders and knees pop. "What do you want to do now?"
"We should research more on this creature."
Stiles groaned and flopped back onto his pillow. "I knew you'd say that. I just want one normal day. Is that too much to ask?"
Derek gave him a frown that said 'really?'. "The sooner we figure out what this thing is the sooner we'll have more 'normal' days and the sooner your father will be out of danger."
Stiles groaned longer and deeper. "I hate it when you make sense."
He didn't argue more than that and quickly exited out of Netflix to pull up the parts of the bestiary already translated.
"Ok, so, I've already keyed in all of the obvious key words such as rape, which, by the way, had way too many results, vanishing, number killer, methodical killings, etcetera. There are either too many results or results that just don't fit with the killings. We need Lydia to translate the rest of the bestiary as fast as she can. I want to catch this thing before it kills anyone else and if that's not an option at least before it kills me."
"I am not letting it kill you." Derek's growl is louder than Stiles expected and he jumped.
"Well, if it does at least then you'd know what it was and would be able to catch it before it kills anyone else." Stiles reasoned.
This time the growl was right in his ear as Derek moved closer, putting his face right into Stiles'.
"You are not dying." Derek enunciated every word slowly as if Stiles didn't understand.
Stiles just shrugged and looked away from Derek. "I'm just saying…" he mumbled.
"There is no 'saying' Stiles. It's not happening. End of story."
Stiles just sighed and closed out of the bestiary. He shut the laptop, putting it into sleep mode, and set it off to the side on the ground next to his bed.
"I'll go call Lydia." He said quietly and slid off the bed with his phone in hand and walked from his room to the bathroom.
Quickly he dialed her number and waited as it rang. And rang and rang. Her voicemail sounded in his ear and he sighed pressing end and redialed. Again he only got the voicemail so this time he left her a voicemail telling her a brief summary of what was going on and that once again they were in need of her amazing dead language skills. He called Scott and wasn't surprised to get his voicemail and left a message telling him that he didn't need to come over tomorrow either since Derek would be there and to have fun with Allison.
He took a few minutes to himself, pretending that Derek wasn't just on the other side of the door, and sunk to the floor. He felt so overwhelmed with what was happening. Another killer was on the loose; once again he was a target of something that would most likely kill him; he didn't know what was going on between him and Derek; his dad was out there putting himself into unnecessary danger; and Stiles was once again helpless to stop it all.
There was a knock on the door after about fifteen minutes of wallowing followed by, "Stiles, are you ok?"
"You'd know if I weren't wouldn't you?" Stiles meant the words to come out snarky but they fell flat and sounded tired and beaten instead.
The door opened and the frame was filled with Derek's figure. "Yeah I would and I can smell your grief. Instead of sitting in here and swimming in your negativity you sit with me on the bed and watch another movie. Superman this time."
Stiles stared at Derek's face as it tried to look encouraging and instead looked like he'd smelled something that should have been thrown out weeks ago and was rotting in the bottom of his fridge. It made Stiles smile at least and he simply nodded and took Derek's hand when he offered it.
"Alright." Is all he said and let himself be pulled back into his room.
They sat and watched movie after movie on Netflix until the green numbers on Stiles' bedside clock read 10:13 and he realized that his dad hadn't called yet. He jabbed the pause button on Men in Black II and grabbed his phone, lighting up the screen with a press of a button. The battery was still more than half full and there were no missed calls.
"My dad said he'd call by 10." He said in response to Derek's startled sound. "He's never missed calling me when he said he would." Stiles fingers were flying over the buttons, dialing his dad's number even before he'd finished talking.
The phone rang and rang in Stiles' ear making his heart pound harder and harder with each ring. On the sixth ring the sound cut off and was replaced by "Stiles?"
Stiles' breath whooshed out of him and he slumped against the closest thing which happened to be Derek. "Hey dad, I saw that it was past 10 and knew that you were gonna call around that time so I figured you know…why not call you first?" his voice cracked on the last syllable.
"Is it really that late already?! Oh Stiles, I'm so sorry. I got caught up in looking over evidence that I completely lost track of time. I thought I still had at least half an hour left before I had to call. Are you ok? Everything still good there?"
Stiles was trembling with relief that was almost painful. "Yeah dad, just…gave me a bit of a fright. You've got to watch the clock better during these times ok?"
There was silence for a bit followed by a long sigh. "I'm sorry son, I really did just lose track of time. I'll be getting off in about an hour or so."
"Want me to call you again to make sure that you actually get off on time?" Stiles tried to joke but the fear was still too fresh and his voice trembled.
Derek's arm came up and circled hesitantly around Stiles. Stiles looked up at him and gave him a watery smile and relaxed further into Derek.
"No, no. I'll be sure to watch the clock this time. I want you to get some good sleep. I know you haven't been sleeping well so every minute counts."
"I'm totally fine dad," Derek's chest rumbled against him at the lie, "you don't have to worry about me. I'm in good hands. Just focus on staying safe. Tomorrow I want you to tell me everything you've found out about the case. We're still having breakfast right?"
It was a Stilinski tradition to have Sunday breakfast together every week and Stiles had only missed a handful of those in his life. It was sad that most of those had been within the last couple years.
"Yeah, I'll be home for that. We can talk over waffles and pancakes. You get some sleep now Stiles."
"I'll do my best. Stay safe dad."
"I will. Good night Derek."
"Good night sir." Derek said, leaning forward so that his voice could be heard too.
"Night dad." Stiles said and the line went dead in his ear.
Stiles sighed and pressed the end button and clutched the phone in his hands for a few more minutes.
"You really should sleep. He was right about you not getting enough sleep even if last night you did sleep for 12 hours straight. You've got dark circles under your eyes."
"I think sleepless nights come with the job." Stiles said and set his phone down onto the bedside table on full volume so if it went off it'd wake him if he fell asleep. He plugged it in then turned back to Derek. "Well, you want to call it a night and try to sleep? Or do you want to finish this movie?"
"I'd much rather sleep than watch another minute of that movie."
Stiles gave an exaggerated gasp, clutching at his chest in mock hurt. "How dare you! Those movies are classic! They're marvelous!"
"They're irritatingly fake with a repetitive plot every movie. Also, aliens don't exist."
"How would you know?" Stiles asked as he powered down his laptop. "Have you been to space? Have you explored the universe and determined that there are indeed no other life forms on other planets?"
"No, but if they'd landed on Earth and lived among us I'm positive I'd have heard of it. Now get into your pajamas, I'm turning out the light."
Stiles blew a raspberry at him before following directions and picking up the flannel pajama bottoms and t-shirt he usually wore to bed up off the ground where he'd tossed them a couple nights ago. The lights went out before he could pull his pants off all the way and he stumbled blindly for a second before managing to wrestle at least one foot free so he didn't face plant.
"Not funny! I almost broke my face!"
"I didn't laugh."
"I could hear the amusement in your silence." Stiles grumbled and managed to wrestle free his other foot from his sweats.
He tugged off his shirt so that he stood there in only his boxers and briefly contemplated just going to bed like that. The thought itself sent a shiver of arousal through him but he quickly shook his head and jammed his feet into the pajamas and jerked the shirt over his head. He didn't need to make things awkward between him and Derek again when things finally seemed normal-ish again. Quickly he climbed into the bed next to Derek who was already under the covers.
"Oh, did you want some pajamas to sleep in too?"
"Nothing you have will fit me."
"Oh yeah, well, I know from experience that jeans are not comfortable. I'm sure that my dad wouldn't mind me grabbing a pair of his sweats and a t-shirt."
"I don't want to smell your dad's scent while I lay next to you." Derek growled.
Stiles made an ick face at the thought. "Ok fine, suffer in your denim prison. No skin off my legs."
Derek huffed and there was shuffling behind him, the bed dipping oddly for a bit before Derek pressed against his back again. Stiles pressed one bare foot backwards against Derek's leg and gave a small start at the bare skin he felt.
"That…that works too." Stiles said and clamped down viciously on the tendril of arousal that threatened to climb to the surface.
"If that's ok with you."
"Totally fine. Now go to sleep." Stiles huffed.
Derek's chest rumbled against his back as he gave a short laugh and Stiles felt a small smile grace his lips before he shut his eyes and actually tried to sleep. It took a while, a long while, but soon his mind got fuzzy and those restless, never ending thoughts buzzing around in his brain slowly faded away and he too faded into unconsciousness, pressed against the safety of Derek and feeling warmer than he had in weeks.
A/N: I REACHED 300 PAGES! It's so exciting! I write everything in a word document then transfer them to individual documents per chapter and I just reached 300+ pages not including the author's notes. I'm so happy!
Also, grocery store trips are one of my favorite things to write about except the actual porn part of it. I don't know what it is about grocery shopping but I loooove writing about it!
Oh, and, the actual porny part of the fic is still probably a couple of chapters away. I might have a little smut in the next chapter but I won't get down to business until the creature is found and eradicated. So if you're impatient for that part sorry! Go ahead and feel free to yell at me and tell me to get a move on. ~hearts~