You mean decking? Iâm pretty sure you mean decking.
âYou punched me.â Derek looked shocked about this development from the dirty concrete floor. He wiped at his jaw and looked at his hand like he was expecting blood, but itâd only been a punch, and a human punch at that. Then the confusion turned to indignation. âYou punched me?â
The surprise and outrage were almost more offensive than the original offense.
âWhat, never been punched by a human?â Stiles asked shittily, mockingly, shaking out his right hand. âFirst time for everything, you absolute douche.â
Derek rolled his eyesârolled his eyes. âPunched, yes, suckerpunched, no.â He dabbed at his jaw again for some reason. âHave you been taking classes?â
That was probably rhetorical, but Stiles was feeling smug about decking an alpha werewolf, so he leaned into it.
âYes, actually. With Lydia. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the instructor thinks Iâm an absolute delight.â At least someone did in this stupid town of hellhounds and werewolves. Douchebag werewolves. Who said insulting things to humans in a misguided attempt to get them to storm away from dangerous situations, and leave said douchebag werewolves to deal with danger and impending death alone. âDid you really think that would work?â
Derek dabbed at the inside of his lip with his thumb and it came away bloody, but the open wound had probably already healed before he hit the floor.
âHonestly? I was hoping it would.â He stood and brushed off his palms. âSelf-defense classes donât give you supernatural healing.â
He really wasnât helping himself out much.
âItâs MMA,â Stiles corrected flatly. âAnd supernatural healing only gets you so far.â Heâd personally see all kinds of horrific shit beat out supernatural healing, only to be fixed by good old human ingenuity, so Derek could take that old excuse and shove it up his human-rescued-at-least-fifteen-times ass. And that was all before theyâd started doing whatever the fuck they were doing, so it was honestly ridiculous that he thought that old shtick would work now that Stiles had real skin in the game.
Derek sighed, tired. âStilesââ
âNo,â Stiles interrupted immediately, because he knew where that tone of voice was going and it only pissed him off even more. âIf you think you can trick me into leaving you here to fight off two-headed vampires on your own, then you are actually even stupider than I thought, and I say that remembering that you didnât know what Neosporin was.â
Cheap shot because he knew that Derek had never needed to use a first aid kit in his entire life, but he punched his kind-of-sort-of-not-really-boyfriend in the face not minutes ago, he was playing dirty. âI am not going to walk away while you march into assisted suicide in some stupid throwback to your brooding martyr days, okay, you have a house nowâyou have plants!â
[it has been so hot for so long that I donât even believe that coldness exists anymore; last night I was watching The L Word and I legitimately got mad about how much clothing various characters were wearing, because looking at them made me itchy. I have⊠all kinds of problems.]
âItâs not heated,â Derek says.Â
âGreat.â Stiles tugs his shirt over his head, shameless. A few years ago he would have hesitated, maybe leapt in fully clothed and pretended he was too hot to wait, but heâs mostly over comparing himself to his wolf-built packmates. Heâs pale and skinny and splattered with moles, and itâs been ninety degrees in the shade for a week now, and he is done caring about everything except sweet, cold relief.Â
âYou might notââ Derek says, but the rest of his sentence is lost as Stiles plunges headfirst into the water, heedless and thrilled. It is cold, chilly enough that his lungs tighten instinctively at the suddenness of it, his skin tight and goosebumped all over. He surfaces gasping, grinning, throwing his head back to feel air move against his skin, no longer stifling and still.Â
âThis is amazing,â he says.Â
âYouâll get cold in a minute.â
âGreat. Fantastic. Sounds like a dream.â
Derek is sitting on the ledge near the shallow end, dangling his legs so that the water comes midway up his calves. Heâs still fully clothed and somehow not sweating, which seems improbable, for a werewolf in this heat.
âYouâre not gonna join me?â Stiles does feel a little bit self-conscious, now, rude or gluttonous. The chill of the water has shocked him back into his senses. He treads water and watches his distorted fingers, all five, as they move. âOr. Are you busy.â
âIâm not.â Derek kicks a little spray of water up, the shimmer of it catching and refracting the fading western light. âBusy.â
âOh.â
Derek frowns and sighs. He looks for a moment like he did when Stiles first knew him: private, guarded, grumpy. Stiles swims over and gets his feet under him. He doesnât realize until heâs too close that heâs standing between Derekâs knees, bare-chested, dripping, that heâs imagined a lot of moments that start something like this. He hopes that chlorine will cover him as he reaches up and offers his hand. âC’mon,â he says.
Derek reaches back, tentative, and his skin is so hot itâs unbearable. Stiles feels blood rushing in him, to the surface, making him prickly with want. He tugs with all of his strength and canât help thinking that still Derek must have wanted to come with him, his body sliding forward helplessly, the clear high peal of his laughter drowned in the splash he makes when he falls all the way in.Â
Iâm rewatching the 1st season of Teen Wolf. And nostalgiaâs got me, so hereâs sterek sketch with pink contour just like in the good old days :Đ·
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Vernon Boyd/Erica Reyes
Characters: Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski, Vernon Boyd, Erica Reyes, Isaac Lahey, Ennis (Teen Wolf), Papa Lahey, Sheriff Stilinski, Jordan Parrish, Julia Baccari, Claudia Stilinski, Brief Lydia Martin, Brief Scott McCall
Additional Tags: Wolf Derek, Drifter Derek, half-fae stiles, Families of Choice, Magic!Stiles, Pack Dynamics, gratuitous princess bride references, basically a repository for all my feels tbh, Slow Burn, mainly POV Derek, but some POV Sheriff as well, Alpha Derek, isaacâs dad is an abusive dick, Just like in canon, Hale Pack 2.0, who are beautifully dysfunctional and at times a little bit incompetent but basically still kick ass, Vernon Boyd & Isaac Lahey Friendship, BAMF Stiles, happy ending!, Derek Hale Deserves Nice Things, and so does stiles
Summary:
âWhatâs your name? I canât keep calling you Balto.â
âWhatâs yours?â
âStiles.â
Derek raises an eyebrow. That isnât his real name. Thereâs no way. But now he thinks about it, he has a vague memory of someone, probably Uncle Peter, telling him that with the fae, names have power. âIâm Miguel,â he says.
âLie.â
âAre you trying to tell me your real name is Stiles?â
Stiles runs his tongue across his teeth and considers Derek carefully. âFair enough,â he says, âMiguel it is.â
Grabbing his groceries and pocketing the change, Derek turns to leave; heâs nearly at the door when Stiles calls out, âBy the way, Miguel, if youâre interested, itâs two for one on bags of kibble at the pet store down the street.â
Derek doesnât look back, doesnât hesitate, just raises a hand and flips him off on the way out.