When there food arrived they finally pulled their hands away, just to eat. They don’t speak as they eat, they don’t need to. Stiles scent and pancakes fill his nose and he knows he made the right choice in telling him some of his past, Stiles scent comes off differently every few moments, from surprise, to happiness, to excitement. They both know they are making progress and it gives them both hope.
One thing, that doesn’t change in Stiles scent, is the scent of love. It’s warm and strong and like honey, warm and slick, Derek was drowning in the scent.
Once they had finished eating, Stiles was again closing his eyes he was falling asleep, Derek rolled his eyes at the teenager as he paid the bill and got up, pulling Stiles along until he is back in the passenger seat sleeping off the two rounds of chocolate pancakes he ate. Derek got into his seat and started the car and pulled out his phone calling Serina’s phone.
“Hello?” A young women answers the phone, not the right female though.
“Arielle?”
“Derek? Hey, Derek.” Arielle answers him and he can always see her smiling “We hear you are on your way back, which is great I miss you already.”
“No you don’t, you miss driving my car, Arielle.”
“Ahhh, you got me! You almost here?”
“We’re just along the borders of Utah we may be there later tomorrow.”
“Mmm, OK, wait- we?”
“I’m bringing a friend with me.”
“Oh, hey that’s cool. Wolf?”
“Human,”
“Like me! Oh snap!”
Derek laughs at the young woman but smiles “Yes, like you.”
“Well then hurry up and get here! I know like no, humans who know about the super natural.”
“You too will get along very well I’m sure of it.”
“Hmmm. Well alright Derek I’ll see you soon, you want to talk to Serina?”
“That’s why I called,” Derek says
“Mama!” Arielle calls away from the phone, “Derbear wants to talk to you.”
“Why did you answer my phone, Elle?”
“Der was calling! I miss him!”
“You just miss his Camaro.”
“Is that all you two think of me?!?” Arielle says her voice slowly fades and her mother’s fills Derek ear.
“Hello Derek,” Serina says and even over the phone, Derek can hear the power in her voice and the way she speaks
“I know I should have asked you before, but I’m bringing a friend along with me, his name is Stiles, I’m really hoping it’s OK that I bring him along.” Derek says, getting right to the point, it was wrong to just bring Stiles along without asking the Alpha first, disrespectful, and Derek was only now thinking like a Beta.
“It’s quite alright Derek, Cora tells me a lot about this Stiles of yours. Seems that he helped save Cora, you, Scott McCall, and even Lydia. He seems to be asset to your pack.”
“He’s a good guy.” Derek says a little flatly he’s not alpha anymore, he should correct her, but sometimes he misses the idea that the whole pack was his… even if they weren’t his friends, they were pack and that meant more, esically for Stiles, he liked the spastic kid.
“What is it, Derek?” Serina says her voice drenched in concern that reminded him so much of his mother, Taila, he wanted to stop driving, curl up in a ball, and cry. But he couldn’t do that, not with Stiles right there next to him and he needed to be strong.
“It’s just, he’s been through a lot, there has been so much uncertainty in his life I’m not sure if I want to bring him into this and into my life because that is exactly what my life is; uncertain, hell, I couldn’t even stay an Alpha for more than six months.”
“Because you saved your sister, a sister, which made it out of the fire that you was gone forever. You thought you had lost her but instead you got her back and you were not going to lose her because of some sickness when you could do something to help. As much as you hate to admit it Derek, you’re a nice young man, a really smart man who tried since he was sixteen to be an adult and be dependent. It’s OK Derek. Plus, uncertainly is exactly what his life is, maybe now, the uncertainly will be how to save the DIA and not how to save himself or his friends, he probably needs this little break, Derek, you a probably helping him more than he’s helping you.”
“He’s not helping me,”
“Shut up, Derek, of course he is, if he wasn’t he wouldn’t be on this trip with you, if you really didn’t want him to come along you would have stopped him.” Serina says and he can envision her crossing her arms and raising a thick eyebrow at him.
Derek scoffs but doesn’t say anything.
“This will be good for both of you; you weren’t supposed to go back to Beacon Hills anyway.”
Derek stays silent.
“Looks like I’m not going to get anywhere with you now, but think about what I said alright Derbear?”
“Yes Ma’am.” Derek says easily
“I love you Derek, drive safely in that Camaro, remember, you have a human in that car.”
Derek laughs easily “Alright.”
“Love you,” She says and hangs up, and Derek smiles down at the blank screen, his family is something he never spoke of in Beacon Hills because he didn’t want to cause some type of weird death because he spoke their names, they had all thought he was alone but they were always there in his back pocket, and Derek was not going to dare to bring them into it, even when he thought he couldn’t make it without them Scott, Isaac, and even Alison had helped him, it meant a lot to him, and even when he couldn’t stand them, Derek still thought of them as pack and family a little more than he cared to admit.
And now, he’s on the road making his way back to Detroit and was letting Stiles meet his family, and Derek scoffed when he came to the realization that meant he was bringing Stiles home to meet his family, like they were together or something.
Stiles would get a kick out of that, or maybe a fierce blush.
Derek scoffed again but looked over at a sleeping Stiles and smiled anyway.
When did he become such a softie?
“Yeah, OK, it’s time for me to take some Adderall.” Stiles says and begins turning around for his bag, but Derek’s arm stops him from it and he turns to him.
“What?” He ask then sees that Derek has already got it in his hands and a bottle of water.
“Oh, hey, thanks man,” Stiles says and throws the pills in his mouth, then opens the bottle and tries to glup them down, it takes a couple of tries but, score for Stiles, because he got it in less than five minutes like he usual does. When Stiles puts the bottle down he makes eye contact with Derek, who has an amused look of his face.
“What?”
“Why do you take your meds like that?” Derek asks, finally looking back to the road and pulling off the freeway, it was dark by the time Stiles had woken up so he had to have been sleeping for more hours than he would like to think, but surpsingly it had been the best sleep he had gotten in a long time. In a freaking Camaro.
“Because, I’m bad at it.” Stiles says simply “And I took like three.”
Derek raises an eyebrow “I thought you only took two.”
“Well I haven’t taken one in a while which means my whole body gets weird if I don’t even it up somehow.”
“Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen if you ask me.”
“I didn’t.” Stiles says and sticks out his tongue “I’m always fine.”
“You’ve done this enough to know that your body will be fine with taking more medication than you’re supposed to?”
“You sound like my dad.” Stiles musses running a hand through his hair, which needs to be cut again, or at least tamed, Stiles doesn’t really understand why Derek keeps this going so much, it’s like he-
“It’s because we care.”
That’s the word Stiles was just about to use. Stiles eyes widen and he puts a hand over his heart, he’s smiling wildly when Derek looks over at him again.
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, AWWWW Derek! You care, that’s so nice!”
Derek rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t glare at Stiles so Stiles counts this as a win “I can still throw you out of my car leave you here in Utah.”
Stiles rolls his eyes in return “My dad would kill you, he knows you’re a werewolf now, he can get wolfsbane bullets form Alison’s dad, or mercury.” Stiles says leaning back into the leather seats and stretches out his body, he can feel Derek’s eyes on him but he doesn’t look at him, he doesn’t want to see another glare on the man’s face.
“You know about Mercury? The hunters don’t even use that anymore.” Derek says and then looks back at the road, there in a town now, it has to be a small one, by the way the stores look close together on the streets, but all are alive and people are walking down the sidewalks, it looks old fashioned and beautiful and Stiles can only stop looking out of the window for only a second to change the radio station off that god-awful jazz music.
Derek swats his hand away from the radio but leaves it on the new station.
“Oh Derek! Look! There’s a Dairy Queen down the street! Can we stop? I want Dairy Queen!”
Derek looks over at Stiles with a sly smile “You sound like a child.”
“Dairy Queen can do that to a guy! Let’s go! Please? PLEASE?” Stiles says and pulls on Derek’s jacket sleeve and pouting, he stops short of putting his head on Derek’s shoulder looks at his profile, because more than he cared to admit he still has a little fear about Derek ripping his throat out.
“Derek I swear if you pass it I’ll cry.”
“No, Stiles.”
“Pleaseeeee?”
“No.”
“Derek!”
“Stiles.”
Stiles makes tears form in his eyes as he shoots away from Derek and pouts in his own seat, he hopes he smells like sadness and anger, because damnit if Stiles wants Dairy Queen he should get it, and yet as they get closer and closer to the walk-in Dairy Queen (Stiles has never actually been inside a Dairy Queen, just the drive through ones and the ones where you order from the window) Derek just keeps driving and Stiles can’t help but shout out at his profile.
“WHY? Why do this to me!” Stiles starts bouncing his leg and glares into Derek’s profile, because the douche won’t even look at Stiles.
“I see that Adderall is kicking in.” Derek comments and Stiles can’t even help his next motion.
He smacks at Derek’s shoulder and yells “JERK!”
And Derek- who’s face that had been calm during this whole shouting match staring Stiles and Stiles only changes and he snarls- slams on the brake letting out “shit.”
Stiles lurches forward and sucks in a breath, before he could do anything and his head slams onto the Dashboard, well… his nose.
A sharp cry falls from Stiles lips and instantly he moves himself back and touches his nose and regrets it immediately the pain that shoots through him is ridiculous and he can feel blood falling from his nose.
“You jerk. You are an awful person Derek Hale.” Stiles turns around in the car and grabs his bag, throws it open, pulling on a t-shirt and holding it under his nose to catch the blood, his stomach feels a little queasy.
“You’ll be fine.” Is all Derek says as he grabs Stiles hand and start taking the pain away, it soothes Stiles in a way, he should be pushing Derek away and yelling at him, but his hand is warm and the pain is indeed fading, so Stiles guesses he doesn’t mind too much.
“That sounded like it hurt.”
“Fuck off man.”
Derek- AKA Werewolf from Hell- chuckles and continues to drive with one hand in Stiles’ even though he stopped taking the pain away, Stiles pretends that it isn’t his doing when their fingers intertwine. Suddenly Stiles is tried again.
When the car stops, Derek pulls his hand away and walks over to the other side of the car, opening Stiles door and Stiles doesn’t know if he should smile or punch Derek in the face when he sees where they are.
“NOW YOU BRING ME TO DAIRY QUEEN BECAUSE YOU BROKE MY NOSE.”
Derek is smiling and he pulls the T-shirt away from Stiles mouth, he examines Stiles nose and then sighs, the smile finally fading. “It’s moved out of place. Do you want me to put it back?”
Stiles snorts “No, I totally want to keep my nose in the wrong place, I can say I got into a bar fight with you in Utah, totally.” Stiles rolls his eyes “Put it back, it’s your fault that is out of place and whatever.”
Derek sighs and looks into Stiles eyes, honey brown meeting green hazel, and Stiles feels the last of his anger slip away looking into those eyes, the ‘I’m sorry’ is written there, and Stiles thinks this is the look Derek had on his face when Isaac told Stiles about Derek being lonely, and if there was any longer lasting anger in Stiles it’s definitely gone now.
Derek places his hand on Stiles nose and he tries not to wince, and instead let’s out a little whimper and he doesn’t even care that he sounds like a little puppy that has been denied his favorite treat.
“This is going to hurt.” Derek says and before Stiles could even think of moving away Derek moves Stiles’ nose back in place and Stiles jerks away from the pain, but it’s already been done and it follows him.
“Holy crap!” Stiles lets out and he moves back against the car and cradles his nose “Well, that, that really, really, really hurt. Thank you so much for the experience but now it’s time to go home because ouch. Your mean, I don’t know why but you are and you must get off on giving me pain.” Stiles continues to ramble and Derek just watches him, he doesn’t try to touch Stiles or take away his pain, he just watches until Stiles is tried and needs to shut up. He finally gives Derek a look.
“So… ready to go in?” Derek asks him.
“Yeah,” Stiles says and moves towards the door and touches his sore nose “What was the point of stopping the car man?”
“There was a cat in the street” Derek says looking down at the ground while he opened the door to Dairy Queen and Stiles steps inside not daring to look away from the older man.
“Seriously?”
“I didn’t want to run it over.”
Stiles stops and looks at Derek who continues to look down at the ground and Stiles sees the top of Derek’s ears turn pink.
Holy crap, he’s blushing.
And because of that Stiles turns into the actual awkward teenager he is and looks away.
“Well… then I guess I can give you a free pass then dude, for letting the creature live. Hey, I thought you didn’t like cats.”
Derek stops “I’m not a dog, Stiles.” Then he moves toward the counter were an older woman had been watching the conversation go down, Stiles follows Derek and stands next to him, the woman smiles, which surprises Stiles and then she hands over a tissue.
“My son use to get roughed up all the time, he played too much.” She smiles again then looks at Derek “What can I get you boys?”
“I want a large ice cream cone, chocolate with sprinkles.” Stiles says, smiling widely “And thank you for the tissue.”
“Not a problem baby,” she says sweetly “What about you mister?” she ask looking at Derek.
“An Oreo blizzard for me please,” He says
“Large?”
Derek nods.
“Okay,” the woman says, giving them the price and runs into the back to shout the orders at someone Stiles can’t see, as soon as she is gone though, he takes Derek’s hand.
“Take the pain,” he states and Derek raises an eyebrow and intertwines their fingers but does as told.
Stiles lets out a sound of pleasure and relaxes when the throbbing subsides, but things with Derek are still touchy and awkward so Stiles squeezes his hand and says “You’re lucky I’m not mad at you, I’m not very fun when I’m mad.”
Derek just looks at him for three long, everlasting seconds before he gives off a small smile and squeezing Stiles hand before he lets go.