Road trips with your friends were never boring.
You had been on two before, and on the first one when Stiles almost crashed his Jeep after swerving to miss an animal you don't think you've ever laughed so hard while being so terrified at the same time.
This particular trip consisted of yourself, Stiles, Derek, Scott, Lydia and Liam. You were in Stiles' Jeep with Stiles (obviously), Derek and Liam, while Lydia and Scott travelled behind you guys in Lydia's car.
You'd only been travelling for an hour, and you've already had a sing off with Stiles and Liam, while Derek remained quiet.
You supposed he was always like this, more distant than the rest of your friends, but you do wish he'd be a little more invested sometimes; because right now a classic One Direction song was starting to play and you kind of wanted to know if he knew the words.
With a sigh, you turned back to Stiles and began to belt out the words with him.
"You're insecure, don't know what for. Your turning heads when you walk through the door..."
(You totally let an even bigger smile etch its way onto your lips when you caught sight of Derek quietly mumbling along to the song to himself when you turned around to sing along with Liam).
-
It was a few hours later when Stiles finally pulled into the hotel you were staying at for the night. You could just about cry in relief, legs cramping and butt hurting from sitting for so long.
While the rest of you gathered things from the cars, Lydia went to book you all in. When she returned, she seemed to have a strange look on her face.
"It seems that the hotel has mixed up our rooms," Lydia explained. "Everything else has been booked out so two of you are going to have to bunk together in a room that only has one bed."
Before you even had time to process Lydia's words, Stiles, Scott and Liam were demanding it wasn't any of them. Lydia quickly added that as she was the only girl she deserved her own privacy, so that left Derek and yourself.
Much like when Lydia had first explained the problem, Derek and yourself barely got a second to breathe before Lydia was shoving the room key into your hand and your four friends were rushing off to their rooms.
You glanced down at the key in your hands, letting out a sigh, "Well I guess we don't have much of a choice."
Derek shrugged in return, picking up his backpack as you do and begins to follow you up to your room.
Just as Lydia had said, there was only one bed; and to make matters worse, there wasn't even a couch one of you could crash on. Derek seemed to notice too, judging by the quiet sigh that left his lips as he walked into the room.
You both dumped your backpacks onto the ground, and you made a beeline for the bathroom. After spending so long cramped up in a car, you really needed a good shower to freshen up.
A while later as you exited the bathroom, you noticed Derek setting up cushions and a spare blanket on the floor.
"What're you doing?" You asked, and he glanced up from his makeshift bed.
"I didn't think you'd want me sleeping with you," He shrugged. "And I thought I'd be the good guy and let you have the bed."
"Don't be ridiculous," You mumbled, shaking your head. "You can sleep in the bed with me. I don't mind."
"Are you sure?" He asked, and you couldn't help but roll your eyes.
"I wouldn't be offering if I wasn't sure, Derek."
He smiled at you, nodding while beginning to put away the cushions and fold the blanket back up.
You had settled in the bed while Derek showered, messing about on your phone until he resurfaced again. You could tell he was hesitant as he made his way over to the bed, but he climbed in anyway, leaving a decent sized space between the two of you.
"You don't have to lay so far away," You mumbled, giggling gently. "I don't bite."
"I'm scared." He mumbled in return, and you had to take a second to think over his words.
Derek Hale, scared? Those three words just didn't seem to fit together. Surely your quiet and moody and usually mean friend wasn't scared. Besides, what was there for him to be scared of? It wasn't like a demonic creature was going to crawl out of the walls.
You turned on your side, looking over at him. He was lying on his back, eyes glued on the ceiling. With furrowed eyebrows, you voiced your thoughts, "What are you scared of? Lydia said this was a pretty safe hotel-"
"Its not the hotel," He cut you off, bringing his hands up to run them over his face. "Its not the hotel. Or this room. Its... Its you."
"Me?" You mumbled in confusion. "Why are you scared of me?"
He shuffled around so he was lying on his side too, facing you and you got a glimpse of worry in his eyes as he began to speak again, "That came out wrong. I'm not scared of you. Its just‒I'm scared of my feelings toward you."
And okay, that's something you definitely never expected to hear him say. You began to grow curious, and without even having to say something he was beginning to explain further.
"For a long time now, I've slowly began to grow feelings for you. I get jealous easily when you have sing off's with Stiles or when Liam gets close to you and I'm not generally an emotional person so feeling like this is weird to me. I've wanted to tell you for the longest time now but I've just never found the right time, so I figured now, sharing a bed with you in the middle of no where, was a pretty good time."
You laughed gently, nodding your head, "Well, I'm glad you told me because I feel the same way, Derek. And for the record, I've always wanted to have a sing off with you, but you've just never seemed interested."
He shrugged, "I guess I'm not really, but you look so cute singing One Direction songs and although I don't know all the lyrics like Stiles does, it looks fun."
"Well then, now that I know I'll be sure to have as many sing off's with you as possible on the car ride to our next destination."
He grinned, nodding. There was a brief moment of silence, a comfortable one, that was suddenly interrupted when Derek decided to speak again.
"Can I, um," He paused, then he sighed. "Can I kiss you?"
You blushed at his request and when you nodded, he slowly shifted closer to you until you were both face to face. He hesitated, then seemed to find his confidence and pressed his lips to yours.
When you both pulled away, neither of you said anything. You didn't feel the need to speak, the kiss saying more than any combination of words could. You were still blushing, and Derek was smiling as he fell back down against the bed.
He was lying closer to you now, but you both still had your space. All these feelings were new and neither wanted to push it too far in one night so you settled with your hands interlaced underneath the covers and that was enough.
Both of you fell asleep with smiles on your faces.
The next morning when Derek was inexplicably happy and more talkative that usual, every one (except for you, of course) was confused, but no one bothered to comment on it.
Instead, they enjoyed their friends unusual peppiness while they could but you were sure you enjoyed it just that little bit more. Especially when you were sat in the back seat of Stiles' Jeep with him and he interlaced your hand with his and properly sang along to the songs that streamed out the speakers.
Sure, the other two times you went on road trips with your friends were great, but nothing was ever going to compare to this one.
