Derek Hale-- Even in the Wind His Hair Is Perfect

Chapter 3

When Stiles looks up to see Derek coming towards him, he lets out an involuntary “eep.” The dude looks like he is on a mission, and although he doesn’t look particularly angry, Stiles is freaking out internally anyway. Maybe someone told Derek about his captions? Maybe he’s thoroughly pissed off at Stiles for embarrassing him in front of thousands of viewers, and he is so going to get fired after he’s yelled at by Derek. Shit. This is so bad.

He tries to get back to work, acting nonchalant like he doesn’t know that Derek is gunning for him, but his gasp of surprise when Derek knocks on his cubicle wall is genuine.

“Uh? Yes? Hi? What’s up?” Oh geez, this is so terrible. Someone kill him now to save him from himself and from getting reamed out by Derek.

“Hi. I’m Derek. Hale. Derek Hale. I am one of the reporters,” Derek says, and he sounds almost as nervous and freaked out as Stiles, which should not be the case. Derek should be yelling and screaming and questioning him by now, right?

“Yeah, hi. I know who you are.” Stiles! No need to be rude to the guy. Get it together. “I mean you know because we met. Once. When you first got hired. Erica introduced you…”

“Oh, right.” Derek looks down, like he’s shy or embarrassed, and this is the weirdest start to a berating he’s ever experienced. Unless Derek isn’t there for that…

“I’m Stiles. Stilinski.”

“Hi, Stiles.”

“Hi,” Stiles almost wants to laugh because Derek is acting so weird right now and he doesn’t know what to do. “Uh, is there something I can help you with?”

Derek shakes his head a bit and then nods. “Yes, sorry. I had a question. Are you the one that writes the captions on the broadcast?”

Oh he knew it. Derek is here about the captions. “I am. Look, about those… I get a little carried away sometimes, and get bored and—“

“Did you mean them?”

“What?”

“The captions. What you said about me in them… did you mean them?”

Stiles’s mouth is agape because that was not what he was expecting Derek to ask. But he can’t tell the guy they were a joke because how mean would that be not to mention wholly untrue?

Slowly he nods. “Yeah. I did. They’re all true. I’m sorry if I embarrassed you. I’ll stop. I just never thought you’d see them or hear about them, and it was dumb I know… but I was too afraid to actually tell you in person.” He looks down at his hands in his lap. Out of his peripheral vision he can see Derek approach him and then kneel in front of him, bending his head to catch Stiles’s eye.

“I liked them. I… wish I had known about them sooner, actually.”

“Oh?” Stiles asks, meeting Derek’s eyes.

“You haven’t been the only one afraid.”

“You too?” he asks, and Derek nods, glancing down at the floor. Stiles starts to laugh, and Derek looks up, confused, before he starts laughing with Stiles too. “We are idiots,” Stiles says after their bout of laughter dies down.

Derek bobs his head in agreement. “Not anymore. Stiles, would you like to get dinner with me after the broadcast tonight?”

The way Derek is kneeling in front of him, it almost looks like a marriage proposal, which is getting so far ahead of himself that Stiles has to take a few seconds to come back.

He smiles at Derek, who returns it, and he was so right when he wrote that one caption about it being made of rainbows because it is a fact. “I would love to,” he finally answers.

Derek’s smile gets even brighter, if that’s even possible, and Stiles kind of melts. Derek stands and tells Stiles he’ll let him get back to work and that he’ll see him later. Then he waves, waves like he’s in a Miss America pageant, and walks away, leaving Stiles happy and elated.

And after that display, Stiles knows exactly what to put on tonight’s caption.