Chapter Text
Over the last few years, Stiles had been through a lot of shit. That lot of shit having not been his fault, nor really been his problem, but he went through it. He went through it because he was a freaking amazing friend and deserved a hell of a lot more credit than he got. First, his best friend got bitten by a werewolf. A werewolf! So he had that to deal with. Scott, bless him, may be a great Alpha and he really had come a long way, but to start off with he was just a puppy with no idea what to do. And who helped him you ask? Oh, that’s right, Stiles did! So yeah, amazing friend.
Then there was the whole thing with Peter. He was the psychopath who kidnapped Stiles and used him to get to Scott! Yeah, that guy. Great, really. So great. Anyway, so that got dealt with. Then there was Jackson becoming a freaking Kanima, which wasn’t great. Being paralysed was not an experience he’d like to repeat. Even the whole pool scenario, getting up close and personal with Derek, was not an enjoyable experience. He didn’t really get a chance to appreciate their proximity when they were drowning in 8 feet of water. So that year wasn’t so great either. Peter coming back from the dead, and Stiles being punched in the face repeatedly by an old man weren’t exactly fun either.
The alpha pack was pretty crappy too. They were all seriously bad ass and Stiles had to appreciate their style, but they killed Erica and Boyd so they got 0 points for it. Stiles felt like a crappy batman right then. Scott’s new alpha-ness was a pretty surprising turn of events. Not that he was complaining, it was great to have a best friend that you could use as a threat. ‘Yeah, that guy right there? Alpha werewolf. So don’t fuck with me.’
As for Derek, well, where does he start with Derek? At first he was a terrifying creeper who slammed Stiles into things, threatened him, and didn’t respect personal space. Then he proved he had good intentions. Totally not a murdering psychopath like his uncle! Turns out the apple does fall far from the tree. Who knew, right? Stiles could appreciate a hot bod when he saw one, and being an out and proud bisexual meant a big gay crisis wasn’t on the table. The big crisis was that he wanted to sleep with the big bad wolf. Who was what, 25? So getting down and dirty with Derek probably wasn’t an option.
However, Stiles refuses to admit to any actual feelings for the guy. He was still kind of a dick. So Stiles purely wanted his dick. Or for him to touch Stiles’ dick. Or for their dicks to touch. Or… Okay, he should probably stop talking about dicks.
He was interrupted from his train of thoughts when Scott’s voice pierced his ears.
“Stiles! Stiles!” He ran up to him like a puppy with a ball. Stiles smirked at the pun, and continued to open his locker. He pulled a book out of it and waited for Scott to start whatever story he was dying to tell.
“So, Isaac and I were watching this movie,” He started, a small smile on his face, “And then-” He stopped with a laugh- “Then he went to reach for the popcorn, flipped it up instead, juggled it for a few seconds, then totally dropped it all over himself.”
“You texted me this.”
“Yeah,” Scott sighed, “But it’s still funny.”
“You also didn’t film it, though, so really you’re an utter failure of a friend and I’m ashamed of you.”
“Even if I had,” Scott raised his voice when Stiles opened his mouth to say something, “I wouldn’t send it to you because it’d end up on twitter.”
“I would not do-” Scott raised his eyebrows- “Okay, you’re right.”
Stiles slammed his locker shut and stared at the front of it, zoning out for a moment. Suddenly he was back in the basement, watching Gerard’s fist come down.
“Stiles?” Scott asked, voice full of concern.
“Hm?” Stiles automatically answered, then shook himself out of the memory, “Oh, sorry. Um, chemistry?” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder, and Scott gave him a calculating look before nodding and leading the way.
The whole school day was laborious and pretty fucking boring. In chemistry he just tried to slump as much as possible in his chair to try and stay under Harris’ radar. Of course, it didn’t work, and Harris said, “Mr Stilinski, sit up straight if you don’t want to stay behind after class and clean every board on this corridor.”
Mr Harris was an arse hole.
Stiles couldn’t even remember what the rest of his classes were, so they must have been really freaking boring too. At the end of the day, he came out of the front doors expecting to just be able to walk over to his Jeep with no trouble. But no, the world decided that today was the day to fuck him over just that little bit more. Derek was stood by his Camaro in his signature sunglasses and leather jacket. Stood next to him were Lydia, Jackson, Scott, and Isaac. He stomped over, trying to show as much of his displeasure as possible. Of course, a pack meeting had to be today. Of course!
“Glad you could join us,” Derek snarked when Stiles was a few metres away from them.
“So happy to see you,” Stiles deadpanned back. Derek smirked and opened the car door he was leaning on. Lydia sighed and inspected her nails.
“What about Allison?” She said, feigning nonchalance when the tension in her jaw gave away how she really felt.
“Her dad said she isn’t allowed to come to pack meetings anymore,” Derek replied simply, and without even seeing his eyes Stiles could tell they were trained on Lydia in a challenging stare. She met it steadily, but didn’t show any reaction to the news that Alison wouldn’t be coming.
“That sucks,” Isaac spoke up from beside Scott, where he was playing with the boy in question’s fingers. Scott nodded in agreement.
“She didn’t tell me.” Lydia added suspiciously. Jackson put his arm around her shoulders in an attempt of comfort, Stiles guessed.
“Yeah? Well he didn’t tell her. Now get in the damn car.” Derek climbed in the driver’s seat and slammed the door. Stiles looked over at his jeep mournfully. It would probably be fine here for the night.
“Shot gun!” Stiles called and ran around the other side of the car.
“Nobody will fight you for it, Stilinski,” Jackson shouted from where he and Lydia headed off to his Porsche.
Derek gave him a look that Stiles couldn’t read when he climbed in the passenger seat, so he just smiled back, trying to look as innocent as possible.
The drive there was mostly silent, apart from Isaac and Scott whispering to each other in the back. Stiles tapped his hands on his thighs and smacked his lips. He was only really doing it because every time his mouth made the satisfying ‘pop’, Derek’s jaw would clench.
When they pulled up, Derek pulled the keys out of the ignition and slammed out of the car before anyone had a chance to undo their seatbelts.
“He seems happy,” Stiles said to the car as a whole.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him happy,” Scott replied from the back. Stiles frowned. He knew Scott was joking, but when he tried to think of the last time he heard Derek laugh, he came up empty.
They all climbed out at a slightly slower pace than Derek set, the show off. Jackson and Lydia pulled up beside the Camaro and got out to meet them at the door.
“What did you guys do to piss Derek off?” Jackson asked, looking at Stiles specifically.
“He’s always pissed off,” Isaac replied, and Stiles shut his mouth because he was about to say the same thing.
“Are we all just going to stand here or are we actually going to go up there to see why we have to have a pack meeting straight after school?”
“Race you to the top!” Stiles shouted, and started running up the stairs two at a time.
“I’m an Alpha, you can’t beat me!” Scott replied, zooming past, and shooting up the remaining steps.
Even though he instigated the race, Stiles still felt the need to complain about his fatigue.
“You need an elevator, Derek, my man. Or maybe one of those old people seats that you can just chill out on while they carry you up. I mean, I don’t know how much more of this abuse I can take.”
Derek shot him an unimpressed look from the kitchen where he was leaning on the counter, waiting for everyone to gather round. Even though he wasn’t the only alpha, he still took on the leadership role of the pathetic excuse for a pack that they had. Scott wasn’t exactly up to scratch.
“I’ll get an elevator the day you wear something other than flannel.”
“Touche.” Stiles replied, making his way over.
“So, what’s all this about?” Lydia tapped her nails against the counter impatiently. She was on edge, Stiles guessed, because she wasn’t in the know. If there was something Lydia was never lacking, it was knowledge. As soon as she had the information and could start thinking of a solution, she’d be in her element. Right now, she was pursing her lips, clearly trying not to shout at Derek to hurry up.
“As a pack, we will have to protect our territory and respect other’s territory.”
“Obviously,” Jackson huffed. Derek stared him down until Jackson lowered his gaze first. Freaking amateur. Stiles could hold Derek’s gaze for days. He looked at the man’s eyes, trying to count the amount of colours in them, and was so distracted he almost missed what Derek said next.
“Because there are other territories, very close to ours, we have to make good impressions to keep them away. Or at least, make them not want to take it.”
“How do we make a good impression?” Isaac asked, standing up straight with his hands in his pockets. Business mode, Stiles thought.
“A pack wants to visit us. That’s how,” Derek looked around to gage everyone’s reactions. Stiles knew that he had a huge smile on his face.
“A visiting pack! That’s amazing!” Derek raised his eyebrows, “I mean, that’s amazing, right? Connections and all that shizzle?”
“Not if we don’t seem like a very impressive pack, I wouldn’t think,” Scott mused from Stiles’ other side. He leaned slightly into Isaac’s side, something he had started doing since they’d been together as a comforting gesture. Stiles felt a pang of jealousy. Why didn’t he have anyone to lean on?
“Exactly. We need to seem impressive. Obviously, we won’t be impressive by then, but we can act like we are,” Derek stood up straight and crossed his arms. He was closing off, and Stiles narrowed his eyes at him.
“Alright, so we hold our heads up high and act like we’re awesome. Is that it?” It sounded too easy even to Stiles, and judging by Derek’s facial expression, he thought so too.
“Not exactly. This pack finds in unimpressive if the Alpha, or Alphas, don’t have a mate.”
“Man, I knew your bad social skills would damn us one day,” Stiles said rubbing a hand over his face.
“Shut up,” Derek didn’t even look in his direction, “So this means that someone is going to have to pretend to be my mate.”
“Derek, are you okay? You look in pain,” What a kind heart Scott had. Stiles was not so kind.
“Isn’t that just his face?” Derek smacked him upside the head.
“Pack politics isn’t funny, Stiles.”
“I know that. So, who is it going to be?” He rubbed the back of his head, and winced. Lydia sighed and placed her hands on the table. Now she was in business mode too. In her element.
“Well, Jackson and I are mates so clearly it can’t be either of us. And don’t bother saying you wouldn’t be with a guy, pretty sure we all know your sexual persuasion,” Stiles did not, thank you!
“I wasn’t going to,” She gave Derek a look and continued.
“As I was saying, neither Scott nor Isaac can because they are also mates. That leaves Allison and-”
“Me! Are you kidding?” Stiles was not ashamed to say he squealed. Derek winced, but he presumed it’s because of how much he would hate to be with Stiles. Stiles wouldn’t hate it, but it would be kind of like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey. Show them what they can’t have. Torture! That is just torture!
“Oh, this is great.” Jackson smirked, looking between Stiles and Derek. Derek’s face was almost carefully blank.
“I’ll call Allison, give me a sec,” Lydia walked away without waiting for a reply.
“You guys can’t be serious. I would be a horrible, horrible fake mate.” Stiles pleaded, looking between every face. Isaac looked like he wanted to laugh, Scott looked halfway between amusement and friend-pity, Jackson looked incredibly smug, Derek looked… Well Derek looked kind of hurt.
“You wouldn’t be,” Derek’s tone was slightly soft, but it lost it when he said “It’ll probably be anyway. She’s more mature than you.”
“Wow, Derek. Way to steal my heart,” Stiles mock held his chest and sniffled.
“It really isn’t that bad. How long are they visiting for?” Isaac asked, looking at Derek.
“A week at most, probably in around a month.”
“In a month?” Lydia shouted from across the room where she was talking to Allison on the phone.
“Yep!” Stiles shouted back. She turned back around and continued talking in a hushed voice.
“I am loving every second of this. I can smell the tension in the room,” Jackson remarked, voice filled with glee.
“It’s probably because Derek wants to murder me,” He didn’t even bother looking at Derek’s reaction.
“Well-” Jackson started, but was interrupted by Lydia coming back, having finished her phone call.
“Allison has family visiting all of next month, I’m afraid. Her dad would never let her pretend to be Derek’s mate anyway. Looks like we’re left with you, Stiles.”
For the first time in his life, Stiles was speechless. Him? He was going to pretend to be Derek’s mate for a week? How could he hide his attraction for so long? He was screwed, and not in the good way.
When he looked in Derek’s direction, he looked like he had some trapped gas, but when he noticed Stiles’ gaze his expression went blank. What was with that?
“You hear that honey-bear? We’re mates!” He swung his arm around Derek’s shoulders and grinned as big as he could. Everyone looked like they were going to burst out laughing, apart from Lydia who looked incredibly unimpressed. If Stiles had to be a mate, he was going to be the best mate in the whole werewolf community.