“No, I’m telling you, Der. I need it. It’s perfect.”
Derek rolled over and peered into Stiles lap and laptop to see what his other-half was looking at. It was… Ugly was not the right word. Actually, yes it was. Besides, the entire thing would be completely useless.Â
Firstly, Stiles might have killed two dozen cellphones in his life, but he would stop and put his precious laptop on the floor before he would even consider dismantling the table to use it. Secondly, the whole ensemble would need to be made out of something decidedly more supernaturally potent that pressed pine-chipboard if it was going to do any kind of protecting that Stiles couldn’t simply do with his own fists.
Derek rolled onto his back again and let himself stare at Stiles’ lovely biceps a second before answering the heretofore ignored question.
“No.”
“But, babe. Don’t you want me to be able to protect myself? Don’t you want me to be able to defend myself in the middle of the night?”
Stiles wiggled his eyebrows as he read the description off the website. Derek wondered, again, at the fact that this was the man he’d chosen to spend the rest of his life with.
“Remind me again why I’ve chosen to spend the rest of my life with you?”
Stiles scent deepened and thickened and wrapped around Derek and he didn’t need an answer more than that, but he wanted to hear it anyway.
“’Cause you love me, and I love you, and there is no one better to bind your eternal-wolfy-soul to, and there’s no one better for me to bind my eternal-Stilinski-soul to.”Â
Stiles barely managed to yawn out the last word, then put his laptop on the very normally shaped beside table. A few moments later they were snuggled under the covers and Derek whispered out an, “I love you,” and Stiles muttered something that almost sounded the same, and he was out to it.
Derek thought, as Stiles began to snore, that if he spoke to the right people, he might just be able to get a copy of the weaponized-bedside-table made for Stiles out of rowan.Â
<I>(first I have to tell you that I started playing the video and my cat came to investigate. funniest fucking thing.)</I>
The problem with adopting triplets, Stiles thinks, is that they pick up on each others’ moods horribly well. It’s a sure bet that if one starts crying, they’ll all be crying, and if you didn’t see which one started it, you’ll be playing “Guess Which Triplet Has An Actual Problem,” which is not a good time. Sure, sometimes you can get them all laughing by amusing one. Abby is the easiest target; she thinks everything about Stiles’s face is hilarious. He’d be more offended if she weren’t so dang cute, screwing up her little face and letting out these hiccuping laughs.
The other thing about triplets is you need two adults at least. One person just doesn’t have enough hands to deal with three crying toddlers. It’s incredibly common for someone to be calling for parental backup at all hours of the day. Only, Stiles uses his phone or his words. Every once in a while, Derek howls.
They hadn’t picked it up the first time he did it. But one day, Derek tips his head back and howls, knowing most of the pack is in the Preserve. And little Laura howls back. She’s been crying her little heart out with the other two, but when Derek howls she stops and instead lets out this watery little <I>arrooo</I>.
Derek is thrilled. He takes video of Laura, and then as Abby and Claudia catch on, he records them, too. By the time the others arrive, the room is a chaotic mess of <I>arrooo</I>s and laughter, the original reason for tears long forgotten.
Howling does not count as a first word, no matter what Derek says.
Teen & Up • 16671 words • Derek Hale/Stiles StilinskiÂ
It was Derek’s turn to blink. He nodded and Stiles stepped closer. He opened his arms and Derek slumped into Stiles’ embrace. He pressed his face into Stiles’ neck and even more tension ran out of him. His words were muffled, but Stiles could understand. “I didn’t know. I remember hearing stories as a kid, but I thought they were just stories. I’m sorry.”
theproblemwithstardust 