fixing things (shouldn't be this complicated) [Teen Wolf]

Fourth Step, Or, Something Wicked This Way Comes [1]

"Stiles? You okay, man?" Derek asks.

Stiles looks up to see Derek peering at him in concern, his hand half in the air as if to reach out to Stiles. It's the unbelievable nature of that and nothing else that has Stiles snapping, "Don't you have homework to do or something?"

As unsettling as the look of concern on Derek's face is, the annoyed one that replaces it is familiar. Stiles feels like he's on steadier ground already while Derek leans back in his chair. "Yeah," he says, slouching in his chair. "But I don't want to do it. S'just math, math is useless."

"Sucks to be you, dude," Stiles smirks, reaching to clap a hand on Derek's shoulder in mock-sympathy. His smirk only grows sharper when Derek looks at Stiles's hand, back to Stiles. Yeah, this is familiar all right.

(The first time Stiles met Derek in this timeline, he was completely unprepared for how young Derek would look.

"This? This is Derek?" he blurted. It couldn't be - he didn't even recognize him!

"Uhm," Derek said, raising both eyebrows and taking a step back. "Yes? Something wrong?"

Stiles looked Derek up and down. Wow, talk about good genes and growing up hot, because right now Derek was kind of sickeningly sweet and dorky handsome rather than the devastatingly drop-dead gorgeous Stiles was used to. Skinny as a beanpole with ears that stuck out, a neck that made Derek look like a giraffe, and blue eyes that popped wide open like a baby bird's - no, he would not have known Derek if he'd seen him on the street.

"No, nothing wrong, just not what I was expecting, I guess."

He grinned because this was total blackmail gold - he knew that Derek looked like a normal person once! With pimples and unfortunate gangliness! Knowing this had totally reduced Older Derek's intimidation factor by like a thousand. No way was Stiles ever going to think of Derek glaring without also thinking of him as a baby bird, and oh this shit was priceless.

Derek took another step back and generally looked terrified. Aw, that's cute, Derek was scared of little old Stiles. He was going to have a lot of fun with Younger Derek, he could just tell.)

Stiles realizes he's grinning maniacally by the way Derek's looking at him askance. His grin widens. Too bad Derek got assigned to Stiles to act as his watcher after the whole "wandering off by himself" incident. He seriously did not expect everyone (and by everyone he means all the adults) to freak out that much about him showing up looking like hell. It's not like he's going to do it again (okay that's a total lie, but Stiles had to go look, he had to), and anyway he came back and hasn't made a noise about going off since.

At least his watcher isn't Caleb, he feels really badly for the dude as it is.

"How's Caleb, by the way?" he asks out of the corner of his mouth, while he's thinking about it.

Derek blinks up at him from where he was poking at his open textbook. (Geometry, so Stiles guesses Derek's a sophomore at Beacon Hills High, if the curriculum hasn't changed between now and Stiles's time. He sincerely doubts it has.) "Caleb?"

"Yeah, Caleb? Mr. Ha - your dad was pretty steamed at him. Was wondering how he's faring with his punishment." Stiles thunks his pencil against the table in rapid succession.

"Yeah, Dad was. Am I ever gonna know what he did to piss Dad off so much?" Derek leans forward in his seat again, eyes big in his face.

"But to demote Caleb to the level of beta on the same rung as your baby sister? Seems pretty harsh," Stiles says as if Derek hasn't spoken.

Looking sulky, Derek sits back and crosses his arms. "Mom and Dad are pretty fair when it comes to punishments. Whatever he did, he earned it."

"Really? He earned being stripped of being Second? And then having Laura be put in his place? Dude, that's humiliating, right? Like the older sibling shown up by the younger one?" Sure, humiliation seems to be a part of wolf behavior when it comes to punishments, but only as a last resort. Stiles feels like he's missing something here.