"Are you all packed?"
"Yeah Derek I'm packed."
"Stiles if you don't want to meet my family then it's okay."
"Of course I do. I'm just nervous." That wasn't a total lie. He was really nervous to meet Derek's family, just for different reasons than Derek thought. They weren't in a real relationship and yet here Stiles was holding his suitcase to go to Derek's house. For Thanksgiving. For eight days. With his whole family. Oh god he needs Lydia.
"I'm just gonna go call Lydia."
"Is everything alright?"
"Yeah! Just she had an exam this afternoon and I wanna see how she did."
"Alright. I'll meet you in the car." Derek pressed a kiss to his cheek and grabbed Stiles suitcase to take downstairs. As soon as the door closed Stiles had dialled Lydia's number and had the phone pressed to his face.
"What's wrong now?"
"I can't do this. I can't go meet his family and pretend like were in this real relationship when I'm nothing but a bet to him."
"Then don't go."
"What kind of advice is that?! I need helpful advice."
"I am helping. You obviously want to go so go."
"This is not helping Lydia. What do I do?"
"Make them love you."
"What?"
"Make his family fall so in love with you that he will have no choice but to keep you forever."
"I'm not property."
"Don't act like you don't want everyone to know that you belong to each other."
"This is not the time. He's waiting in the car."
"So go down there, get in the car and drive to Beacon Hills with the man you love."
"Please don't use the love word."
"Fine. Get in the car and drive to Beacon Hills with the man that causes you to have higher levels of dopamine and norepinephrine."
"I'm not Scott Lydia; you can't confuse me with scientific words."
"Stiles if you don't go get in the damn car I am going to go in to an extremely detailed explanation of how love works in which I will use words that you can't even pronounce."
"Fine I'm going to the damn car. Thanks for not helping at all."
"Welcome. Love you."
"Love you too." Stiles pushed his phone in to his pocket and left his apartment. He could totally do this, he could make Derek's family fall in love with him. Oh fuck he sounds like a crazy person.
The plan was for Stiles to stay with Derek's family the entire holiday. He would have liked to go home but since Melissa moved in Stiles' bedroom had become a game of dibs between him and Scott. Unfortunately Scott always seemed to win, even that time Stiles had called his dad two months in advance Scott had somehow already called dibs. Stiles isn't sure how he does it but he thinks it might be something to do with his dads diet. And if it does then 1 Scott is very sneaky and 2 his dad is an officer of the law and should not be accepting bribes.
"What are you thinking about?"
"I think Scott is bribing my dad."
"That was definitely not the answer I was expecting."
"Heh sorry. Are you sure I'm not imposing on your family?"
"Stiles I live in a huge house believe me you'll be fine."
"What are they like with PDA?"
"PDA?"
"Public displays of affection. Kissing. Hand-holding."
"I know what PDA is."
"Then why ask?"
"Because I'm trying to figure out why you asked."
"I want to know if I'm allowed to kiss you in front of your family."
"Of course you are. You're my boyfriend."
"So? I doubt being your boyfriend would like get me off if I had like sex with your face in front of them."
"Are you planning to have sex with my face with my family there?"
"No! That would be a terrible impression!"
"At least it would be memorable."
"Derek I do not want to be remembered like this."
"It's fine. My mom would just say something like 'Well Derek did bring home the Sheriffs son one day and well he just started doing the dirty with Derek's face right there and then' and then she'd move on."
"Doing the dirty! I will not be remembered as the boy who did the dirty with your face!"
"Stiles calm down. I'm joking."
"How far are we from town?"
"About half an hour, why?"
"Pull over."
"Why?"
"Just pull over."
"Okay." Stiles unbuckled himself and grabbed Derek by the back of his neck and dragged him closer. He kept his hand on his neck and curled the other in to the collar of Derek's jacket then crushed their lips together. He ignored the pain of their teeth clacking together and moved till their mouths could slide together. Derek had one hand fisted in Stiles' hair and the other was a little squished between them but he really didn't care. Derek pulled Stiles' hair and he gasped in to his mouth. They kissed until their lungs burned and then broke apart. Their hands still gripped each other and their breathing was hard as they rested against each other.
"What was that for?"
"I wanted to do that before I had to be on my best behaviour."
"Good idea."
"I do have them sometimes." Derek huffed a laugh and then pressed a chaste kiss to his lips before sitting back and starting the car again.
Stiles' mouth was on the ground as Derek drove up to the house. He'd heard of the Hale House but he'd never actually seen it and holy crap it was huge. The house had to be classed as a mansion and…oh god that was Derek's family spilling out of the front door. Derek pulled the Camaro up behind a black jeep and squeezed Stiles hand before getting out of the car. Stiles took a deep breath then followed him out of the car. He walked round the back of the car to help Derek with the bags but was instantly pulled away by a young woman.
"I'm Laura Hale."
"Stiles Stilinski."
"So Stiles you and my brother haven't had sex yet, why is that?"
"Er…"
"I understand if you don't find him attractive."
"Wha…"
"Just wait till you see his baby pictures! You will never find him attractive again."
"Laura Anne Hale! You better not be scaring Stiles before I've even met him!" Laura waves over to her mom and smiles then leans close to his ear.
"Just so you know she's worse than I am." Laura patted him on the shoulder and left to go and hug Derek. Stiles stood wide eyed as Mrs Hale walked towards him then wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in to a tight hug.
"It is so great to meet you."
"And you Mrs Hale." She pulled back and hit him on the shoulder and Stiles stopped himself from rubbing his arm.
"Call me Talia, anything else and I will ignore you."
"Of course Talia."
"See isn't that better. I can honestly not tell you how happy I am to meet you. I mean when Derek told me everything I didn't know if we'd be seeing you or not."
"Mom!" Stiles jerked back a little as Derek was suddenly at his side, Derek and his mom seemed to have some sort of silent communication going on so he just flicked his eyes between them. Whatever it was they were discussing ended with Stiles deciding that he never wanted to be on Talia's bad side because she looked murderous. She turned to Stiles and smiled at him then grabbed Derek's arm and dragged him inside the house. Stiles stood there in the middle of the garden and looked around at the other members of the family. Most of them didn't even seem to notice that Talia had dragged Derek inside and the others just looked amused. Stiles was about to just forget this whole thing and go see his dad when an arm was slung over his shoulder. He looked to the brunette beside him and smiled at her.
"I'm Cora. Derek's younger sister. So wanna see his baby pictures?"
Derek had really been hoping to avoid this conversation while he was home. He should have known that his mother would never have dropped it. She released his arm once they had reached the library, it was the only soundproof room in the house, and closed the door.
"You didn't tell him."
"I didn't want to ruin thanksgiving."
"How would you have ruined thanksgiving?"
"Because I would have been miserable and really grumpy."
"Derek sweetie, how would that be any different from every other year?"
"Thanks mom."
"I am not about to be nice to you. So what the hell is your plan?"
"Ignore it."
"Ignore it?!"
"Look if I tell Stiles now then he's going to think that everything I did was all for some stupid apartment. So I'm going to wait until the deadline has passed and then pretend it never happened. I'll get a new apartment, Erica and Boyd can have mine. I don't care about it."
"Derek, you have to tell him."
"You can't make me."
"I've never made you do anything and I never will. I trust you. I trusted you when you were 11 and said you could climb that stupid tree. I trusted you when you were 14 and you broke your arm because you said you could ride your sister's bike. I trust you Derek. Even if you make the biggest mistake ever I will still trust you. And right now not telling him is a big mistake."
"Can I at least tell him after the holidays?"
"I think that would be best right now."
"Thanks for caring about him mom."
"He saved my baby; right now I care more about him than you."
"Gee I'm feeling so loved."
"You should. Considering that before you got here your sisters had already strategically placed all of your baby pictures over the kitchen table."
"They did what?!" Derek rushed past his mom and as soon as he opened the door he could hear the faint laughter coming from the kitchen. Oh god this was terrible, Stiles was going to take one look at his ugly baby face and leave. He followed the laughter to the kitchen and his mother was right. Covering the table were all the pictures from Derek's childhood. Laura and Cora were sat on either side of Stiles, curled over themselves as they laughed. Stiles was holding a picture and talking about how cute it was, so obviously not a picture of Derek.
"Derek! Oh my god you were the cutest baby!"
"What are you looking at?" Stiles turns the picture to him and Derek balks as he takes in the picture. He was about seven when it was taken but the important part is that he is completely naked and stood in a blow up paddling pool. It had all been part of his plan. Laura and Jake had refused to let him play in it so he had stripped then played in the water in victory. They'd given him the pool and his mom was too busy laughing to tell him of.
"You are so adorable Derek."
"You're the only person to think that."
"Are you kidding me! These are the greatest baby pictures I have ever seen." Derek sighed and pulled the picture out of Stiles hand to set it on the table. Stiles tried to reach for it but Derek was already pulling him away from the table.
"Nooo. Where are we going?"
"It's late and if you think I was a cute baby then you're clearly sleep deprived."
"I don't wanna go to sleep! I didn't meet your whole family yet."
"Good thing we're here for a while then. We will see you for breakfast in the morning."
"Goodnight guys." Derek grabs Stiles' hand and pulls him away from the kitchen. He knows if he stays any longer they'll start asking why they haven't had sex and he does not need that right now. He takes Stiles upstairs and shows him the bedroom that he will be sleeping in.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"To the guest room."
"You're not staying in here."
"Well I didn't want to assume anything."
"Derek, I want you to stay in here with me."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I know we haven't had sex yet, but erm…I really wanna wait."
"That's fine."
"I mean its j…wait it is?"
"Yes! I'm happy to wait."
"Oh…erm…great!"
"So you don't mind sharing a bed?"
"Do you sleep shirtless?"
"Yes."
"Then I have no problem at all." Derek smiled and closed the door behind him. Everything would be fine; Stiles wanted to wait and as long as they waited until after the deadline then everything would be great.
When Stiles woke up he was boiling. Somehow in the night Derek had moved Stiles further under him and now he was squished underneath a 200lb man who was apparently all body heat because oh my god. Stiles gripped the edge of the bed and pulled himself away from Derek as slowly as he could. Derek didn't move much just snuffled in to his pillow and slept. He kind of reminded Stiles of a dog, probably a good idea to never tell Derek that though. He grabbed some clothes and pulled them on before heading downstairs. It was still fairly early so he didn't really think anyone would be up. Apparently he was wrong because in the kitchen there were two men. They were both taller than him by a couple of inches but one was much older than him with greying brown hair and a beard to match. The other man looked only a few years older than him but he was clean-shaven and his hair was much a darker brown.
"Hey, you must be Stiles? I'm Jake Derek's older brother and this is our dad Anthony." The older man waved a spatula at him and smiled. "Nice to meet you Stiles."
"It's great to meet you guys. Sorry if I'm disturbing you."
"Nah we're just making breakfast. Want some?"
"Yeah I'm starving."
"That's what we like to hear." Jake made up a plate of food for him and set it down on the kitchen counter. Stiles sat in one of the stools and dug in because he wasn't lying he was starving.
"So Stiles what are your plans for the day?"
"I don't know actually. I won't be seeing my dad till tomorrow because he's working, and my best friend and his mom are spending the day together so I was just going to hang out here."
"Well me and dad were gonna do some work in the shop if you wanna come."
"What shop?"
"Derek didn't tell you about our shop?"
"No he hasn't mentioned it."
"Well we own Hale Wood in town. Basically we do custom built furniture."
"What kind of things do you guys make?"
"Anything from bookshelves to beds. Recently we did an entire kitchen for someone."
"Wow that's great. Did you build anything in here?"
"The table, the counters, the chairs."
"Impressive. I can't believe Derek never mentioned it."
"Well honestly the shop belonged to our uncle before he died and Derek doesn't really like to go there."
"Oh. He told me about that. Well I would love to come see the shop."
"That's great! I hope you like manual labour Stiles." Maybe he should stay here.
Apparently in the Hale family once you've agreed to do something you have committed yourself to doing it. This is the only reason that Stiles is stood in a workshop filing down wood. He didn't even know you could do that to wood, although since Anthony and Jake have been laughing at him for five minutes you may not actually be able to.
"Why are you laughing at me? Did you guys lie to me? Is this even possible?"
"Of course it's possible you're just really bad at it."
"This is my first time!"
"It's just a back and forth motion."
"And I don't have the upper arm strength to do this."
"Cora can do this better than you and she hates doing this. Laura is fantastic at doing this. Even Derek who barely comes here can do this." Anthony left them to argue to go and help someone in the front of the shop.
"Derek is really strong. And Laura and Cora grew up with this stuff, I grew up reading Batman."
"Batman? Really? But he's so dark and broody. Huh reminds me of Derek, no wonder you like him."
"I like your brother because he's attractive and funny and a complete a total dork."
"Did he show you his tardis?"
"Is that a euphemism?"
"What would that even mean?"
"Like 'Hey wanna see my tardis?' because its bigger on the inside. So like he's bigger in the inside of his pants."
"That's so gross and I'd rather not think about the inside of my brothers pants."
"No-one's asking you to think about it."
"Can you stop thinking about it?"
"I never think about his pants."
"Sure you don't."
"Hey wanna see a picture?"
"Erm sure." Stiles pulled his phone out of his pocket and bounded over to Jake. He brought up the picture of Derek's split pants.
"This is the only thing I think about when I think of your brothers pants."
"Did he split his pants?!"
"He asked me out then his pants just couldn't take it anymore."
"This is the greatest day of my life. Dad come here!" Anthony walked over to them and they showed him the picture.
"Ah my pride and joy." Anthony does actually teach Stiles how to file wood and Jake helps him build a small bird house. It's not great or impressive but it's the only thing he's ever made so he loves it. Stiles stayed with them all day and he hated them. Well not really hated them because he loved them and that was the problem. They were supposed to love him he was not supposed to love them. And here the bastards were teaching him how to build stuff and making him feel welcome in their family.
"Hey you okay? You're looking a little sad." These people were monsters.
"Yeah I'm just thinking."
"About?"
"Family."
"Do you wanna go see your dad?"
"Nah he's working. I just think I'm really gonna like you guys."
"Of course you will. We're great people."
"Are we heading back to the house?"
"Yeah. My dad's closing up and then we can go." Jake clapped him on the shoulder and Stiles gave him a small smile. Stupid Hale family.
When they got back to the house there was 3 kids running and screaming as they rounded the house. Just as Stiles stepped out of the car another kid ran round the corner of the house with Derek chasing them. Derek beamed at him when he noticed him and jogged towards him. He pressed a small kiss to his lips and then raised his eyebrow at the bird house in his hands.
"You built something."
"It was the only thing I could build. What's with the kids?"
"My cousins kids. They're here for thanksgiving."
"Cool, they look cute. OH MY GOD DEREK SHE'S DRESSED AS SPIDERMAN!" The little girl dressed as Spiderman started running towards him and grabbed his hand to drag him down to her level.
"You know who Spiderman is!"
"I love Spiderman!"
"Do you like Gwen Stacy or Mary-Jane?"
"I like movie Gwen Stacy but comic Mary-Jane."
"Me too. Uncle Derek likes movie Mary-Jane the best."
"Well I have got to break up with him then!"
"You can marry me!"
"I can?"
"Yeah! You can be my Gwen Stacy!"
"I would be honoured to be your Gwen." The little Spiderman wraps her arms around his neck and he lifts her up so that she can press a kiss to his cheek. He looks at Derek seriously and sighs.
"Derek I'm sorry but were over. I've got Spiderman now."
"Casey how could do this to me. Stealing my boyfriend!"
"No Uncle Derek I'm sorry!"
"Nope. I just can't forgive you."
"No! Put me down Gwen, we can't be together anymore!" Stiles put her back on the floor and she took off as soon as her feet touched the floor.
"Do you forgive me?"
"It might take some persuading." Stiles stepped in to Derek's space and wrapped his arms around his waist and pressed a kiss to his lips. Derek didn't react just made his face look disinterested but Stiles could see the smallest twitch in the corner of his mouth. He kept pressing small kisses to his mouth until Derek broke and kissed him back.
"You can't hold a grudge against me."
"It's your big eyes."
"Scott taught me how to do the puppy eyes."
"Damn him. You hungry?"
"Yes. Carpentry takes a lot out of ya."
"Just wait until tomorrow."
"Why? What's going to happen tomorrow?"
"Your arms are going to hurt like hell."
"Derek I played lacrosse in high school I'm no stranger to muscle pain."
"Don't say I didn't warn you. But for now I have been slaving away in the kitchen all day."
"You cooked!"
"I did."
"Yes! I'm not overly excited but dude you make great food."
"Come on. It's just spaghetti and meatballs."
"Just?"
"There's homemade garlic bread as well."
"And?"
"Chocolate mousse for dessert."
"Marry me."
"Maybe after I've met your father and made a better impression than the last one."
"Aw you'd ask his permission."
"I'm a traditional guy."
"No you're not."
"Okay I'm not but I would still prefer for your dad to like me."
"Fair enough. Now food!"
Everything about dinner was amazing. The food was absolutely delicious and the company was great. Stiles had decided that even if he and Derek broke up then he was going to keep in touch with everyone in this family because they were amazing. He loved everyone already and he kind of wanted to stay here forever. Or just come back for every holiday with Derek and then take him to his dad's for dinner. Stiles looked over at Derek and he had this look on his face that sort of looked like he wanted the same thing as Stiles. But he didn't. He would never want that. Derek linked their fingers together and pulled Stiles up with him.
"We're going for a walk."
"Isn't it a little late?"
"Nah I know these woods like the back of my hand."
"Okay I guess." They grabbed their jackets and waved goodbye to his family. Derek pulled him along an overgrown trail and he tripped a few times but Derek always caught him. They didn't really talk as they walked because Stiles was too busy trying to not fall on his face. Derek walked until they came to a clearing in the preserve.
"Why are we stopping here?"
"We are going to lie down. The amount of stars you can see out here is amazing." Derek pulled him to the middle of the preserve and sat down in the grass. Stiles hesitantly sat down beside him and they laid down on the ground. Derek was right there were more stars here than he'd ever seen before.
"This is so beautiful."
"I thought you'd appreciate it."
"Why did you bring me out here?"
"I have to tell you something. I know we haven't been together long and we haven't even had sex yet. And I don't know if you feel the same way but I'm hoping you do."
"Derek what…"
"I think I'm falling in love with you."
Ice. That's what it felt like right now. Like an entire bucket of ice had been dropped on him. He looked Derek in the eyes and he looked so sincere, like he really meant it but Stiles knew it was just an act. So he didn't tell Derek that he felt the same, that he was completely and totally falling for him, instead he said.
"I know about the bet."