Sterek One Shots: Book Two

i feel you in every heartbeat

"Wait, did you just say Derek?" Laura's hand paused the crushing of his, and she stared at him, perplexed. "I never told you his name. You've already met?"

Stiles sighed, letting not-his chin drop down onto not-his very chiseled chest. "Yeah, yeah we have. And Derek is probably throwing a fit right now because he's stuck inside of me."

"Oh," she whispered, dropping his hand at last. The cut off blood flowed into it painfully, and it felt like a metaphor for Stiles' life right then. Laura shifted from foot to foot for a few moments, before finally speaking. "He called me a week ago, upset, because he's fallen for someone. I guess you know that then, right? That he's already in love? It's why he was so nervous for today. There was a big chance he wouldn't be paired with them." Her voice broke when she said love, and he could hear the pity plain and clear.

He slowly moved his gaze from the floor up to her face. "I didn't even know that, I just knew he didn't like me at all. Hates me, actually. I don't even know what I did to offend him."

He couldn't really read the look on Laura's face in reaction to that, and in his melancholy didn't bother trying to.

ii.

Apparently, Laura inherited the Hale family's house when her and Derek's parents died. She lived here with her own mate, who was currently away at work. Their other siblings, of which there were many, had all moved out by this point, either in a home with their own significant others or away at college. Said siblings, as well as uncles and aunts and cousins and Derek himself, came over during holidays or between semesters, and all stayed in the house during these times. It was certainly big enough for that amount of people. Big and light and cozy, and Stiles could see why they all wanted to get together here several times per year.

Down in the kitchen, Laura fed him, and made him explain the situation while he was eating his grilled cheese sandwich.

"So let me get this straight, Derek, who you claim hates you, ended up inside of you—" "You make it sound so dirty." "—while you were doing a math final? Really? That's so rude, Stiles."

"I forgot!" he exclaimed, spraying chewed up bits of melted cheese all over the counter, which earned him a scolding face from Laura. "Have you been to college? Do you know how stressful finals are? Especially since this is my last year before getting my Master's."

She raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow at him. "Well yeah, finals got me in a funk too, but I made sure to plan around my twenty-second birthday. As did Derek, who, as you know, goes to Berkeley as well."

Stiles groaned. "Yes, I know, I get it, I'm really stupid. God, Derek's going to hate me even more now."

Laura put a comforting hand on not-his shoulder. "I'm sure he doesn't really hate you. He's just weary to let anyone close, especially if he likes them, because what if they're his mate? He can't establish a certain type of relationship with anyone, platonic or otherwise, and risk having it all turned over because of the whole soulmate shebang."

Stiles scrunches up not-his nose at that. "Why can't he just ask everyone around him when they were born? That should clear it all up. And yes, I know," he says at the look Laura sends him. "It's like an unspoken agreement in today's society that it's rude to inquire, and that knowing who your soulmate is beforehand can get in the way of living life to its fullest, blah-blah-blah. But not asking and therefore not letting anyone get close to you also gets in the way of living life to its fullest! Seriously, the norms surrounding the whole soulmate situation are bullshit.

The corner of Laura's mouth twitches, and he can almost feel the amusement in the air between them. "I guess you've thought a lot about this?"

Stiles sighs. "Yeah, when I was younger, I had this giant crush on a now good friend of mine, Lydia. It went on all the way into my senior year. I was so sure she was my soulmate, but because of these unwritten rules we have, I couldn't ask about her birthday. So I went through years of hoping, of having this dream occupy my every day, only to find out she's actually a year younger and was only in my class because she's, like, stupidly smart. See, if I'd known this beforehand, I would have never let myself get lost in this fantasy of me and Lydia building a life together, and I would have focused more on school, maybe even gotten into Harvard like she did."