Stiles Stilinski + Derek Hale

awkward encounters

A/N: HOW DOES THIS HAVE SO MANY READS???? THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE TO ME. THIS IS JUST SOME BULLSHIT I DO IN MY FREE TIME???

Have you discovered a new hobby during quarantine? Are you guys still in quarantine?

Nearly three months after the breakup, Derek finally felt good again. He had moved in with his older sister, Laura, as a temporary solution for when he was looking for a new apartment. He'd actually found an apartment to move into, but he wasn't due to move in for another month or so. While it was a bit sad to tell people that he lived with his older sister, Derek was actually happier than he had been in a long time. He was lucky with how close he was to his sisters. Laura gave him incredible advice and wasn't afraid to call him out on his bullshit, which he definitely needed towards the end of and after his relationship with his ex. The best part was that Laura's apartment was that Cora's job was only a ten-minute walk away. More often than not, the three siblings spent their evenings in Laura's apartment, drinking wine and watching a movie while talking shit about coworkers. Derek often muttered that he'd prefer if Laura stocked up on some beer in her fridge, but Laura would roll her eyes and order him to pour her another glass of Chardonnay.

On one of their typical evenings, Derek liked to meet Cora at her job and walk with her back to Laura's apartment. They both knew that Cora could easily walk to Laura's on her own, but this small walk had started as a way for Laura to get Derek out of the apartment and stuck as a habit.

Derek stood outside of Cora's office building, waiting for her to exit the glass doors. He shoved his hands in his trouser pockets and kicked at a pebble next to his foot. Normally Derek would listen to some music but he'd realized too late into his walk that he'd left his earbuds in his room instead of in his jacket pocket.

At one point the small piece of rock got too far for Derek to reach from his position leaning against the marble building. So instead of going after it, he resorted to glancing up and studying the passing pedestrians.

He observed a purple-haired woman bobbing along to the music playing from her earbuds, a tall man rolling his eyes aggressively at someone over the phone, but what Derek did not expect to see was Stiles exiting the coffee shop directly across the street.

Derek winced, expecting to feel a tinge of pain from seeing his ex, but instead, he just felt somewhat embarrassed. He wished desperately for Cora to hurry up and come down the elevator and out the double doors so that they could head home. It didn't matter that Stiles was his ex, seeing anyone Derek knew in public made him want to dig a hole and die.

Instead, Stiles must have sensed the waves of embarrassment pouring off of Derek and glanced up from his phone. It didn't take long for him to spot Derek standing across the street. He stared at Derek for a few seconds, his eyes going wide and his cheeks going so red that Derek could see it from across the street.

Derek fought the urge to wave and instead feigned an expression of disinterest and leaned back into the marble wall of the office building.

Stiles recomposed himself and his eyes darted back to his phone, and his fingers danced across the screen. Less than five minutes later, another man exited the coffee shop with two drinks in hand. He stood tall with turquoise hair and light stubble on his cheeks. Derek allowed himself to briefly acknowledge the man's attractiveness (quickly deciding that he wasn't Derek's type) before watching him approach Stiles. Startled, Derek watched as the man handed Stiles one of the two drinks and draped his newly freed arm around Stiles's shoulders.

Stiles appeared to forget Derek's presence and tilted his head back to accept a kiss from the other man. He moved from the man's embrace and interlocked their fingers together before walking in the direction of Stiles's apartment, the one Derek used to share with him before they broke up.

Derek furrowed his eyebrows. He couldn't figure out what was off about Stiles, but he knew something was weird. It wasn't the new boyfriend because no matter how much Derek tried to convince himself, he didn't actually care that Stiles had moved on. No, it was something else.

Maybe it was something about the way Stiles looked. But he looked the same as always, right?

Derek let out a frustrated breath of air. What was so weird about how Stiles looked? Sure, he was happy, but Derek had seen Stiles be thousands of times before, so that couldn't be it.

The sweatshirt, Derek realized. He recognized it from somewhere. It was black and worn with faded writing on the back. Derek shrugged it off, assuming that he'd probably seen Stiles wearing it before when they were dating and just didn't have specific memories of it.

But something about it irked Derek.

Just moments later, Cora appeared beside Derek. She was dressed in a grey pantsuit and carried a tote bag that held what Derek assumed to be a change of clothes.

"My main man!" She called.

Derek rolled his eyes, "My main pain in the ass."

Cora poked Derek's shoulder several times, waiting for him to swat at her hand before asking, "Ready to go, Brotato Chip?"

Derek grimaced before nodding, "That's even worse than Brotown."

Cora grinned and lightly punched Derek's shoulder, "Well someone has to be creative in this family. And we both know it's not Laura."

Derek let out a hearty laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. He pushed himself off the wall and followed Cora in the direction of Laura's apartment. He liked to listen to the clicking noise her shoes made against the pavement.

"Something bothering you Der Bear?" Cora called over her shoulder.

Derek shook his head. For the first time since breaking up with Stiles, seeing him out in public didn't bother him anymore. In a way, he was relieved. Much like Stiles, Derek was finally ready to move on.

"No. I'm good."

Derek jogged up to Cora's side and the two quickly engaged themselves in rapid conversation while trying to see who could shove each other the hardest without hitting other people.

It wasn't until much later in the evening, after their movie and Derek had dropped Cora off at her own apartment, that he had realized why Stiles's sweatshirt had bothered him when he had seen him outside of Cora's office. The reason being that it wasn't Stiles's sweatshirt at all. Instead, it was a sweatshirt that Stiles had borrowed from Derek when they were dating. In fact, it was the sweatshirt that Derek had spent twenty minutes looking for nearly a month ago.

Eventually, Derek realized he didn't care, after all, he hadn't noticed that the sweatshirt was missing for a while and instead turned the music up slightly louder in the Camaro, rolled down the windows, and sang along to Shake It Off by Taylor Swift alone in his car.