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The photos Stiles had received during the various stages of development did not do justice to the marvel that was Derek’s house. It parted the woods on the edge of the preserve with a long secluded driveway ushering the way toward it. It was astonishing in size with a two car garage and an in-law suite, and it was the perfect place for a young pack to thrive and a true honor to the Hale family home that once stood there.
Sturdy red brick and rows of tall arched windows stretched across the exterior, and three wide stone steps led up to an arched alcove protecting a black iron door. It still amazed Stiles that Derek had designed the layout himself and took part in the construction from start to finish.
Stiles stood at the front door, flannel over his shoulders and a brown paper gift bag clutched in one hand. Before he could raise the other to knock, his phone pinged in his pocket.
Out back
It was that wonderful time of the year when spring bloomed into summer, and the sun shined bright over the sprawling back yard, a paradise of its own. While Stiles had missed out on the majority of the construction, he’d been there when they had broken ground and Deaton had helped him lay a protective spell over the land against malicious supernatural and humans alike. In lieu of a fence, there were wild rose bushes and thick trees wrapped around the entire property, their branches intertwined like natural guards.
A large patio decked out with outdoor furniture and a covered grill led up to double sliding glass doors into the back of the house. An elaborate wooden play set was erected on one side of the yard, including swings, slide, and rock wall. Toys and not one, but two tricycles littered the lush green grass around it.
In the center of all this life, Derek looked comfortable in track pants and a dark tshirt, with scruff bordering on a full beard and a small curl to the side of his mouth as Stiles made his approach.
Derek was on the other side of his twenties now, but one glimpse of him from across the yard proved that he still had the same allure that had pulled at Stiles before he left for college, maybe since he stood across from him in the preserve and was told to get off his property.
He wasn’t alone.
Eli hid behind his legs. He’d grown, his head full of dark curls half poking out and resting on his dad’s thigh, wide eyes the same pale green. He was much bigger than the last time Stiles saw him in person, right after he started walking and using decipherable human words.
Between the pictures of the house and random things Derek wanted him to see and the ones Stiles shared in return around campus and inside restaurants Derek suggested along with impulsive shots like a pile of empty RedBull cans, a massive stack of books he’d had to buy for his forensic psych class, the scraggly and patchy facial hair he grew over a couple of weeks in his second year before cutting it off, his first meal in the off campus studio apartment he moved into for his third year, a shattered window in the university library where he spent many of long nights, and the most recent picture of his bored face at his graduation ceremony, there had been even more photos of Eli.
His smiling little face and his grumpy one. Him asleep on Derek’s chest. In his booster seat covered in homemade apple sauce and in the bath with a beard of bubbles. In Cora’s arms, Derek smiling beside them. Christmas morning opening a gift Stiles had mailed to them. Sat on Isaac’s shoulders, grinning as the beta grimaced in pain while the toddler used his hair as reins. With Stiles’ dad in the sheriff’s office, a deputy badge sticker pinned to his shirt. His most recent birthday party, cheeks puffed as he blew out a number four candle.
The way the kid stared at him like a complete stranger filled Stiles with a nauseating guilt and judging by Derek’s face, he could smell it on him.
He cleared his throat.
“Hello, Eli. You don’t remember me, do you?”
Eli only cowered behind Derek even more.
“It’s been more than two years, Stiles.”
The words weren’t said with any hostility, just a matter of fact, and even if he was upset, hearing his voice face to face and not over the phone caused a fluttery feeling to rush through him. He refused to identify it as butterflies, because he was a grown man now, not a teenager with a crush that wouldn’t go away.
With heavy course work in the second half of his honors program, an assistantship under a retired SAC, and thesis research that kept him at Columbia during the summers, so much time had passed by so quickly. But no matter how hard he tried to ignore it, there had always been that pull in the center of his chest, tugging him right back here.
“I’m Stiles,” he said, kneeling down, “You may not remember, but I held you when you were a baby. The last time I saw you, you were this big.” He held his hands out and lowered it more than a foot shorter than where Eli currently stood, but it didn’t get him any reaction.
Instead, the boy reached up and tugged at the hem of Derek’s shirt, even as his eyes remained on Stiles.
“Daddy,” Eli spoke quietly, “Not a wolf.”
Derek laid a hand on his head and gently ran it through his hair, unbridled pride evident on his face. “That’s right, he’s not a wolf, but he is pack.”
Stiles looked up at Derek for a moment before he smiled at Eli. “Do you know what I really like?” He asked, like there was an important secret to reveal. “Presents! Birthday presents, Christmas presents, every kind of present! Do you like getting presents?”
Eli’s head popped out fully, and there was the tiniest nod.
Stiles opened the gift bag, pulled out the stuffed animal inside and offered it to the little boy. It was a wolf, of course, sitting on its haunches and covered in black fur, the perfect size to fit snugly in the toddler’s arm.
Only after a little nudge from Derek, Eli slowly crept out from behind him, in adorable denim shortalls over a striped shirt, and extended his arm to take the wolf. He inspected it closely for a few moments, then turned to hold it out for Derek to see more clearly.
“Like Daddy.”
Derek smiled. “But I’m much bigger, right?”
Eli giggled, a sound so sweet and pure, and then pressed the wolf into his chest and rubbed his nose into the soft fur, sending Stiles’ heart fluttering again.
With his son’s attention diverted from him, Derek folded his arms over his chest, attempting to fix Stiles with a look of exasperation, just like he had the first time Stiles gave a toy wolf to his son. But the soft smile that still lingered on his face killed the entire vibe.
“You hungry?”
Stiles stood back up to his level. “You cook for adults now too?”
Derek had studied cook books and watched videos for healthy meals for teething babies and toddlers, had even called to ask for his advice, but he wasn’t sure of his abilities elsewhere. So the urge to tease was strong, always a little too strong.
It earned him an old classic, Shut up, Stiles.
“Bad word, daddy.”
Stiles laughed loudly at the cute chastise.
Derek made sandwiches, which Stiles teased technically wasn’t cooking, as he, Eli, and his wolf waited at the table. Eli apparently had lunch at day camp, where he attended three days out of the week, but Derek talked him into having a snack that would hold him over until dinner. They went back and forth over Eli’s options, arguing between something of substance and pure sugar, and it was like a tennis match that had Stiles’ head shifting from one to the other, unable to choose which side he stood on. He was well versed in these sorts of debates with his own dad.
When Derek set a well stacked sandwich, kettle chips, and a couple paper napkins down in front of him, his hand curved around the back of Stiles’ neck, giving it a soft squeeze. Stiles struggled not to lean back into it, and the lingering warmth from the single touch spread throughout his entire body.
Derek won the debate, sort of, with a plate of thin celery sticks that Eli would only eat with a glob of salad dressing. But there were a few fruit shaped gummies on the edge of the plate. Stiles grinned when Derek wordlessly emptied the rest of the pack of fruit snacks onto Stiles’ plate before he sat down at the end of the table to eat next to both of them.
Eli watched him closely as Stiles asked about Isaac, who stayed in the in-law suite, then about Cora and the gym she had recently opened up downtown. He had missed the grand opening, but he did have a vase of sunflowers delivered in his stead.
Derek, in turn, asked about the grad programs he was considering and he shrugged it off, telling him that he was waiting to hear back from a few other places he applied at and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay at Columbia for his master’s degree.
Eli grew tired of the adults conversing without him, and then he got huffy after finishing his fruit snacks and couldn’t convince Derek to give him more.
Stiles was filled with the overwhelming desire to make the boy smile again, so he held one of his apple shaped snacks in his palm, then he closed his eyes and concentrated, focusing on the size of the candy and how light it was. He also thought about Derek’s brows of disappointment that would certainly be on display when he reopened his eyes, and when he did, the gummy had vanished from his hand and reappeared on Eli’s plate.
It took a few seconds before Eli realized what exactly had happened. He gawked at Stiles’ empty hand, then over at Derek, then back at Stiles who helped him out by pointing down to the plate. Eli gasped before he snatched up the candy and shoved it into his mouth.
Stiles chuckled at the excitement and then at Derek’s brows doing their best to frown at him. But he also looked surprised, maybe even impressed.
Feeling invigorated, he leaned forward and asked Eli, “Do you want to see another magic trick?“
He thought of Scott and getting in trouble for not paying attention and wasting paper in the third grade, thought of the Rubik’s cube he mastered at eleven, thought of Eli’s innocence. Sweat broke out over his brow and when he opened his eyes, he felt them flash bright white for just a second, which happened sometimes when his power soared. With the flick of his hand for good measure, one of his untouched napkins instantly folded into a small paper airplane.
Eli’s mouth hung open before he started clapping wildly. Derek looked even more stunned.
“Ooh, daddy’s eyes! Daddy, do it, please!”
Derek’s eyes turned fire red obediently and Eli screamed in delight as he made to climb the table to retrieve the plane before Derek handed it over. Stiles was so enraptured by the sweet sound, he didn’t even resist when Derek then stole the last fruit snack right out from under his nose and popped it into his own mouth.
While Derek put their plates away, Eli tugged Stiles around on a tour of the rest of the house. He barely came to a complete stop at each room on the first floor, including a dining room with a table twice as large as the one in the kitchen, a guest room, and an office with a wall of books where Derek worked from home editing manuscripts, before he rushed them upstairs. He quickly pointed at one of three and a half bathrooms, Aunt Cora’s room and two more guest rooms down the hall, and then the one that belonged to Derek, and across from the closed door was Eli’s room.
Stiles didn’t have time to be tempted to sneak a peek into Derek’s bedroom as Eli dragged him into his own. A twin bed was neatly made in the corner, a navy blue comforter over it accented with very cool dinosaur sheets and pillowcases.
“Very cool,” Eli parroted and then introduced him to Squirtle, his pet turtle, and was quick to stop Stiles when he attempted to lift the lid of the glass tank set up on top of his chest of drawers.
“Only daddy and Aunt Cora,” he stated diligently.
There was a small desk next to it with a stack of coloring books and a tablet in a green foam case on top. A baseball bat was leaning against the side of it, a ball and brand new glove on the floor beside it. Along another wall was a small kitchenette pressed against a construction work bench. Plastic dishes, foods, and tools were mixed and scattered across both, and Stiles was thrilled that Derek allowed his son to play and learn without restrictions.
His love of dinosaurs carried over into the wooden toy bin at the foot of his bed. He had a figurine of every dinosaur Stiles could name and others that he couldn’t. There was also Buzz Light Year and Woody, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, each of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, amongst others pulled straight out of Stiles’ own childhood. Eli pushed past them all and got to the bottom of the bin where he retrieved a familiar toy.
Stiles was amazed that he still had the tiny brown wolf, the first gift Stiles had ever given him on the very first day they met, when all he did was cry and poop, a still shell shocked Derek in a similar state. It was once half of Eli’s size, but now it fit in the cradle of his hands as he showed it to Stiles.
Stiles was glad that Derek was still downstairs cleaning up the kitchen, because Eli took the old and new wolves and rested them against the center of his pillow, so casually like it wasn’t the sweetest goddamn thing Stiles had ever seen.
After that, they went back into the bin and divided his toys for a battle. Eli talked his way into getting all of the ones he preferred, which often turned out to be the same ones as Stiles (Woody, Bumblebee, Mikey, obviously), and Stiles found it hilarious that Derek had raised a skilled negotiator, one who was so easily entertained and didn’t try to contain his excitement or his smile. It was the same as Derek’s, something most people so rarely get to see, but fortunately, Stiles was no longer one of those people.
He got to witness it again when Derek poked his head in the doorway and made sure they were doing okay. Eli didn’t even look over at him when he huffed yes, daddy like it was rude of him to interrupt, so he left them alone to continue playing.
Play time came to an abrupt end a while later as they laid on their stomachs on the floor, a memory game pulled up on Eli’s tablet in front of them, and suddenly, Eli just face planted onto the rug.
Stiles looked over at him in shock for so long that Derek appeared in the door again, surely having sensed the change in Eli’s state of consciousness.
“Should we be concerned?”
Derek chuckled, deep and warm and it was a perfect sound that should be preserved in the Library of Congress.
“He always wears himself out at daycamp. He usually falls asleep in his snack.”
Stiles worried that his heart was going to explode. This precious little kid, who didn’t remember him a couple hours ago, had fought off sleep as long as he could just to play with him.
Stiles turned over onto his back to lean on his elbows and looked up at the other man. “He’s an incredible kid, Der. Just like this house, I can’t believe you made that.”
“Lie.”
Stiles grinned, caught and not even bothered by it. It wasn’t at all difficult to believe that Derek was so good at this dad thing and spending the past couple hours with Eli was full proof of it. He was far more confident and natural than the first time Stiles saw him in action, right as he was packing for New York, right as it was starting to feel like his feelings weren’t so unrequited.
Derek smiled back at him, and the world seemed to narrow down to this single room and the short distance that separated them as their eyes remained locked. The spell was only broken when Eli made a cute snuffling sound and then tried curling up into a ball.
Stiles watched as Derek entered the room and carefully scoped his son up into his arms. He attempted to place him down on the bed, but Eli clung to him like a baby chimpanzee. It took a few attempts to fully detach him, one limb at a time, and get him tucked under his blanket.
Derek leaned down to press a kiss against his forehead, then he laid the wolves on either side of him, and the sight was almost too much to bear.
“I should get going,” Stiles said. “Have to go see my dad.” Scott had picked him up from the airport, and he’d come straight to Derek’s after stopping to get the jeep. He forced himself to his feet and stretched until something in his back popped.
It didn’t go unnoticed when Derek’s eyes trail down for a moment to the place where his shirt had risen before they snapped back up to him.
“Let me walk you out,” he said, voice quiet and tight, and Stiles grinned to himself as he followed him downstairs.
At the open front door, Derek stood inside the threshold with a hand resting in the door frame, Stiles a few steps away in the alcove.
“You’ve been-“
“Are we-“
They both tried to break the silence at the same time and chuckled at the run in, and it seemed like they realized at the same time that this was the first time they had been alone.
“You go,” Stiles said.
”You’ve been practicing.”
He should’ve expected this, but it still put him a little on edge. He tucked his hands into his jeans pockets. “Yah, but my spark is still unstable.”
“Those tricks at the table didn’t look unstable to me.”
He shrugged. “Deaton’s books have helped with the spells and wards and stuff like that, but I’m having to figure out a lot of this manifestation thing on my own, you know, by trial and error. I’m trying to be careful and I’m trying my hardest to control my emotions, because we still don’t know how far all of this can go.”
Derek looked at him for a moment, and then almost cautiously asked, “What are you so afraid of, Stiles?”
He hesitated, but the earnest eyes he hadn’t been faced with in so long, eyes fierce as always, like they could see right through him, compelled the truth right out of him.
“You remember that window in the library? That wasn’t the first or last time. I was just so sleep deprived, it was the only time I slipped up and texted you.”
Stiles had only told him about that time he’d been studying until three in the morning and accidentally caused a window to crack. But there had also been shattered light bulbs, the poor cactus Scott got him as housewarming present shriveled up and turned brown the night Stiles got sick and missed the deadline to submit a paper worth a third of his grade, and on the morning he had to defend his thesis, he woke up to every alarm in his apartment going off at once, his phone, the oven and the microwave, and the tv and his laptop he’d left open blasted music on full volume.
While his powers had presented themselves in a few small, mostly inconsequential ways before those months he was possessed by the Nogitsune, there was no denying that his spark came to life after that time.
“Every time I lose control is just another reminder that my magic could be rooted in that darkness. I’ve just been so scared since the last time I came home.”
“Me too,” Derek admitted softly. “We were all scared.”
The pack had come together to celebrate Christmas and Derek’s birthday. Things had just started to feel normal again, just when it felt like Beacon Hills could be a safe place even though the pack was scattered across the country, when his dad began to look a little less worried each time he dropped him off at the airport, when Eli could only manage to call him Tie, when he was almost sure that Derek wanted him as badly as Stiles wanted him.
Then Derek had found him asleep on top of the Nemeton.
“But the Nemeton isn’t-”
“Inherently evil, yah yah, everyone keeps telling me that,” Stiles interrupted. “But it can be corrupted, and I don’t want it playing around in my head, finding a way to take control of me again. I thought if I stayed away for a while, I could get a grasp on my power before anything like that could happen, or something worse.”
Sure, he’d kept himself busy with school. But that was the real truth of it, another sacrifice he had to make, not coming home to see his dad, the pack. Eli.
Derek.
Who was quiet as he made that realization for himself. “You should have told me.”
“You had more important things to worry about.”
“Stiles.”
“Derek.”
Those brows were really at work now, and Stiles challenged them with his own. They both knew that if the roles were reversed, Derek would have skipped town the very same night he woke up in the woods on top of the ancient tree. He wouldn’t have gone home with Stiles, crawled into his bed, let himself be held until he fell back asleep. He wouldn’t have waited until the end of winter break, like Stiles did at least.
Derek broke the stalemate. “I can feel it, you know? Your spark. I felt it as soon as you turned onto the driveway. I couldn’t before, which only means that it’s stronger. You are stronger.”
He removed his arm from the doorframe and it moved forward a bit, reaching out almost. Stiles wished it would, but Derek pulled it back down to his side.
“What’s it- what’s it feel like?”
“It’s like that faint hum of energy I feel at the edge of the backyard when I get real close. But with you, it’s something else. Like something I can actually reach out and touch. It…pulls me in. It’s something I’ve never felt or seen before, and yet, it’s so familiar. Whatever it is, I know that it’s good.”
Stiles let Derek’s words seep under his skin and into his veins through to his heart, down into his very soul. He couldn’t be sure if Derek was telling the truth, not like Derek could with him, but he chose to believe that he was. Then he remembered the sight of Eli playing with his paper airplane, and that was nothing but pure goodness.
His phone pinged in his back pocket.
He sighed. “That’d be my dad. You’d think he didn’t just see me at my graduation a week ago.”
“Go see your dad, Stiles. I know exactly how he feels now.”
He rolled his eyes, but truthfully, the comment was so ooey gooey heartwarming. He forced himself to take a step back, then another, one at a time and maybe he’d eventually reach the jeep parked in front of the garage.
“Everything is still on for the party tomorrow, right? My dad won’t shut up about using your fancy grill.”
Derek chuckled. “I’ll have it warmed up and ready for him.”
All at once, the sight in front of him was too much, Derek Hale with a smile across his face, standing in the entryway of the home he built, his son sleeping upstairs.
Derek had always been attractive, but this Derek was something else. He was breathtaking.
“What?” Derek asked, like he knew Stiles’ mind was racing over a hundred miles an hour. But there was no way for him to know that every inch it traveled was filled with thoughts of him.
“I feel like anything I say in response to that could be held against me in the court of law.”
Derek rolled his eyes then. “You’ve spent too much time in New York. You’re not on trial here.” And it was so fond, Stiles lost all of his impulse control and darted forward, closing the short distance he had managed to put between them, and he wrapped him in a hug. They were the same height now and Derek’s beard tickled the side of his neck as his arms secured tightly around his waist, and they just fit. Derek smelled so good, and it was hard to pull away.
Regretfully, he had to when his phone went off again. “See you tomorrow?” He asked one more time, just to be sure.
Derek nodded, the promise already clear in his bright eyes. “Tomorrow.”
The grill was, in fact, warmed up and ready to go when Stiles and his dad, who got held up at the station, were a little late when they rolled in just after five in the afternoon. By then, the temperature was comfortable and perfect for Stiles’ cream colored linen button up, sleeves folded up his forearms, and a couple buttons undone, along with a brand new pair of jeans, both more fitted than he was used to.
String light poles were stuck at the two outer corners of the patio with three unlit strands running across them to the house, where colorful bunting and a big sign that read Congrats Grads! were hung. Melissa and Deaton chatted on the patio chairs around a low coffee table where a few trays of finger foods were lined up. Along the edge of the patio, there was a row of ice chests of sodas, water, and beer, and Stiles turned a blind eye as Liam and Mason pulled out a couple beers, but he knew his dad or Parrish, who grabbed one for himself, would keep them from digging back in too many times.
Three folding tables with chairs were set up in the yard, and Lydia sat at one with Jackson, Danny, and Ethan. It wasn’t clear which of the guys were currently dating, since they went back and forth so much, it was hard to keep up. Stiles found the whole thing amusing.
A game of corn hole was set up between the tables and Eli’s swingset, and Scott and Kira were locked into a serious game with Erica and Boyd.
Laughter, ruckus from the game, and music from a bluetooth speaker filled the yard, and it was so good to have the pack together again.
Scott had been back for a couple years now, after receiving his associates from UC Davis. He continued to work at Deaton’s clinic and had spent most of his weekends in Stanford, where Kira graduated Magna Cum Laude. Lydia had finished top of her class at MIT, and Jackson and Danny had walked the stage together at UCLA a few days before.
Erica and Boyd had both earned degrees from online universities, while they had remodeled Derek’s loft and made it a home for themselves. Boyd helped Cora manage the gym, and Erica was training in the academy and hoped to serve in the Sheriff’s department under his father. Stiles had yet to decide if that would make the citizens of Beacon Hills safer or not, but he kept that to himself.
The fact that they were all doing so well, after everything they had gone through in high school was reason enough to celebrate. It was a testament to how strong they were now, that even distance and so much time away had not weakened the pack nor opened Beacon Hills up to serious danger.
They had made it known that the town was protected by two powerful alphas, enough loyal betas to start a baseball team, a kitsune, a hellhound, and an on-call banshee. Whispers of a powerful young emissary had also begun to spread, and besides a handful of low level rogues that Stiles had instructed the pack on how to bring down without even leaving his apartment, most potential threats heeded their warning.
After making their rounds greeting everyone, the sheriff went into the house to unload some of his special barbecue sauce, extra buns, and a few other items he had bought, though Derek had insisted he didn’t need to bring anything.
Scott tried to pull Stiles into the corn hole game, but he was too busy looking around for two very important things that were missing.
Stiles turned to head toward the house and yelped when Cora suddenly appeared before him. Looking like Lara Croft in a tank and hair pulled back into a loose braid, she smirked at him. They were nearly the same age, but she had always intimidated him, not that he would ever admit it.
“Stilinski.”
“Hale.”
“Not who you were hoping to see, huh?”
“What- no- you-”
She kept on smirking, damn her. “Eli went to get more ice with Isaac, my brother’s inside.”
That was exactly what he had wanted to know, but he wasn’t going to give her any satisfaction by confirming that. So they stared at each other as the others went back to their game.
Cora was the one to break, only so she could yank him into a hug.
“It’s good to see you,” he wheezed.
“Likewise,” she said, squeezing his upper arms before mercifully letting him go. “You been working out?”
“Uh, yah, a bit. There’s a gym on campus.”
“You should swing by my place sometime. We offer memberships and a bunch of classes, and I’ll even give you the pack’s one hundred percent discount. You know, if you’re planning on sticking around.”
“I uh-“
He was saved from answering when Isaac walked around the side of the house with two bags of ice in each hand, and Stiles smiled.
Because atop his shoulders sat Eli in a gray t-shirt with Pizza Planet across the chest. His hands were tightly clasped around Isaac’s forehead, surely to keep them out of his curls, so long they nearly rested on his shoulders too. The beta currently split his time working at the gym and behind the bar at The Jungle. Stiles was sure it was his cherubic face and the hair, not his sense of humor that helped him rack up in tips.
It was immediately clear that Eli wanted to get down. He accidentally kneed Isaac in the gut when he scaled his way down without assistance and then he took off, running across the yard. He bypassed the other pack members who called out to him jovially, passed Melissa who adored him, passed Stiles’ dad who called him little buddy and always helped Derek when he could. He passed them all and ran over to him.
“Hi, Stiles!” He said his name perfectly clear as he squeezed Stiles’ legs in a hug.
Stiles was startled and he could only pat Eli on his head a couple times before the boy let go. He finally spotted Derek making his way over to them, dressed in a denim button up with the sleeves cuffed over a white tshirt. It was the brightest thing Stiles had ever seen him wear, excluding the black jeans. He looked like he could be a respected member of a PTA.
He noticed Derek looking him over too before Eli demanded his dad’s attention, tugging at the flat gift box Derek was holding.
”Daddy, give it to him now? Can we please?”
“Yes, we can,” Derek said as he held the box, a bit wider than a sheet of paper, high over Eli’s head, “but we have to be careful, remember?”
Eli stopped jumping up to reach the box and settled on the ground, waited patiently until Derek handed it over to him.
“It’s a present!” Eli said and raised it up to Stiles. “For congraduation!”
Stiles chuckled. “Do you mean congratulations? For graduating?”
Eli nodded, smiling as he watched as Stiles opened the gift.
Fit snug inside was a drawing set in a black frame. In the center stood a small stick person with squiggles of hair, standing on wobbly lines of grass across the bottom. Next to him was a large wolf made up of a black circle with four stick legs, triangle ears, and red circles for eyes. And on the other side was another person, this one taller with spikey brown lines for hair, and its eyes were black circles, left white in the centers.
Stiles had to clear his throat before he knelt down and asked, “Did you draw this?”
Eli nodded, tucked his hands behind his back.
“Are you sure? I think a professional artist did this, not a four year old.”
“I did, I did! Daddy helped!”
Stiles stood up and looked at Derek who was pointedly looking around the yard.
“This is amazing,” he smiled at Eli. “It’s the best present I’ve ever gotten.”
Eli grinned back.
“He’s been so excited all day,” Cora spoke up. “He helped me clean the yard and hang up all of the decorations.”
“You little Hales did a great job,” Stiles said.
Cora was quick as she moved to whack him, but Derek was quicker. He caught her hand and put it down before Eli could even realize what was going on.
Instead, the little guy gazed up at Stiles, with hopeful eyes, and asked, “Can you slide?”
Stiles gasped playfully, “You bet I can!”
Eli took his hand and started pulling him toward his swingset, but Stiles looked back over his shoulder at Derek and called out, “You coming, daddy?”
Derek made a face and Stiles halted, forcing Eli to a stop too.
“You know what, that felt a bit weird,” he admitted. “I take it back.”
“Oh my god,” Cora cried, looking like she was in pain. “Just go, Derek!”
It turned out that Stiles was too big for the forest green slide, but that didn’t stop him from trying just to please Eli who fell into fits of giggles when Stiles exaggerated the pain of warm plastic skidding against his forearms and back when his shirt rolled up. As they watched Eli illustrate how it was supposed to be done, Derek took the pain away with a slick hand over his lower back, but there really wasn’t much to draw. Though it did make Stiles’ heart trip up a bit, and if Derek noticed, he didn’t call him out on it. The swing was an easier affair, fortunately, and Eli giggled more as they sat side by side and Derek pushed them both without a single complaint.
Eli was eager to start T-ball in a couple weeks, so they brought out his ball and glove for some practice. They stood at a safe distance from the others, near the edge of the yard, and tossed the ball back and forth. Eli never managed to catch the ball in his glove, but when he threw it, Stiles was surprised at the speed. His palm stung a bit every time he received it from him, which made it clear that Derek was going very easy on them, but it also reminded him that this little boy was also a wolf, an apex predator.
When the sheriff announced that it was time to eat, Eli insisted on sitting between Stiles and Derek, which forced Liam to get up and move to the other side to make room for Derek. Eli was ravenous when it came to the hamburgers, which he ate without a bun, and it took some convincing from both Derek and Stiles to get him to use his fork so that he would get more of the special barbecue sauce in his mouth instead of all over his hands.
Stiles also talked him into trying Melissa’s potato salad, but it was an immediate no-go judging by the disgusted grimace that overtook his face and then his bulging cheeks.
Stiles didn’t even think when he held his hand under his chin for him to spit the food out. It was gross, but he didn’t regret it even as he grimaced too. Derek looked over Eli’s head at him like he had done something outrageous, but when the man took his hand and quickly wiped it clean, he regretted it even less, if that were possible. Then Derek handed his son a napkin and reminded him to use that instead of someone’s hand next time, even if they volunteered. Everyone at their table laughed throughout the entire incident, and Stiles’ dad, on his other side, eyed him with a soft smile on his face.
For dessert, there was a couple store bought cakes, Kira’s chocolate chip cookies, and a box of popsicles he didn’t even know his dad brought for Eli. He let Stiles lift him onto his hip and carry him inside to grab them out of the freezer, and it turned out to be the exact same brand Stiles loved as a kid.
It felt as natural to carry him then as it did when he was a baby. It was even more natural to devise a plan with him in the privacy of the kitchen, on what to do with the extra popsicles.
Just a few minutes later, Eli had cleaned up some pocket money. They charged one dollar for each popsicle which he distributed randomly. Lydia even gave him an extra dollar, and when Jackson badgered them on a specific flavor, they charged him three whole dollars, including a service fee, which had him flashing his reptilian kanima eyes at them but Eli just chuckled. When Scott gave them a five dollar bill, Stiles whispered into Eli’s ear and then, with a sly smile like he fully understood what they were doing, the little boy said, “No change, Scotty”.
Derek and his own father stood side by side on the patio, arms crossed, shaking their heads like the party pooping dads they were.
While Eli devoured his own sweet treat before it melted, Stiles felt brazen and buzzed from the couple of beers he had with dinner. So he walked over to Derek and gave him the money to keep safe, by reaching in himself and sticking it into his back pocket.
Who knew Derek Hale could blush.
Scott brought the cards out after that, and Eli brought out his coloring books and crayons. Liam, Mason, and Ethan sat around the patio coffee table scribbling away with the toddler.
The parents, Parrish, Deaton, Jackson, and Boyd took up one table with a regular deck of cards for poker. Stiles wouldn't be surprised if they started placing bets before the end of it.
After some convincing, Derek joined Stiles for Uno, and they ended up seated opposite each other around the crowded table.
Derek was the only one who’d never played before and he quickly became versed in the attack cards and falling victim to them. He growled and flicked at Kira when she used a Skip card against him twice in a row.
Lydia was the first one to get out of the game by playing her last card, which technically meant winning, but it was almost more fun to lose because the gameplay lasted longer and things got more exciting and rowdy the longer the game went on. And they did as Kira played her last card, then Danny. By then, Boyd’s glass vial of purple and silver mixture that he had been adding to all of the werewolves’ drinks was empty. It was one of Deaton’s concoctions to spike the beer that normally would have no effect on them.
Eventually, the excitement drew Eli over. He stood next to Derek’s chair and peeked across the table trying to figure out what was going on. Derek set his cards down and tried to lift him up. But Eli dodged him and walked around the table to Stiles, who still found it a little baffling that he sought him out over the others. He raised his arms and waited until Stiles snapped out of it and picked him up, settling him in his lap, small back to his chest.
Isaac, next to him, sighed. “I can see that I’ve been usurped as his favorite.”
Stiles tried not to look smug, but he was sure he failed judging by the looks he got from Cora, Kira, Erica, and Lydia, all the dang ahs.
Derek looked over at him too, but he couldn’t quite figure out what exactly his intense expression meant. It seemed like a lot of things at once, but he definitely didn’t look upset.
Stiles arranged his cards for Eli to hold and then let him pick which number card he played the next few rounds, since it didn’t really matter as long as the color matched what was on the top of the deck in play.
From one round and the next, the cards suddenly began to droop lower and lower until they rested on his shorts as Eli fell asleep. Stiles realized it too late and then some of the cards fell to the ground under the table. Isaac picked them up for him, not before taking a peek. Once he had his cards back in order, he leaned back in his seat and set Eli more comfortably against him with an arm around his back, his legs across his lap and head resting on his shoulder.
When he turned back to the game, he spotted Derek staring at him, that same look across his face.
Stiles smiled at him.
Derek blinked and then Cora said, “Sorry, big bro” and dropped a Draw 4 on the table. Derek didn’t even react at the betrayal like everyone else had throughout the game. He took the extra cards silently and then Erica put down a 6 in yellow, the new color Cora had chosen.
As the sun set and darkened the back yard, his dad asked if someone would turn the lights on. Scott quickly got up, but Stiles was quicker.
“I got it, Scotty,” he said.
He didn’t have to close his eyes anymore to do this trick. The first time had been a complete accident. Now it was like second nature, like breathing.
He simply inhaled, looked up at the string lights hanging overhead and thought of the light switch he spotted on the wall in the kitchen, exhaled, and then the porch light and the string lights were all ablaze, filling the back yard with a warm glow.
A hush fell over the pack. Most of them had yet to see his powers on display like this. It was easy to forget that there truly was a spark inside of him.
“Alright, Stilinski,” Cora broke the silence coolly, but the awe was clear in her expression. Isaac held his fist up to him for a bump.
As everyone went back into the games, Stiles realized that for the first time, he felt settled into his magic, secure. He did not feel fear. He felt safe. And suddenly, his throat tightened with the overwhelming emotions.
He blinked quickly, trying to force tears away before they could fully form.
Derek looked over at him, brows raised in a silent question, worry perched in the downturned corners of his mouth.
I’m okay, Stiles mouthed, and he knew that Derek would not detect any lie.
The poker table wrapped up with Boyd winning a couple hundred bucks. Melissa came over and asked if Stiles wanted her to take Eli and go lay him down in the house, but Stiles politely declined. He held him until he finished his game a few rounds later, then a little longer after that.
Isaac yelled Uno next and then with one more round, he was out, followed soon after by Cora. Then it was down to just Erica and Derek who had accumulated his own mini deck of cards.
It had gotten slightly chilly, so he finally got up to bring Eli inside.
In the living room, Liam was spread eagle across one end of the large L shaped couch and Mason was snoring on the other side.
Stiles shook his head in amusement and carried on up to Eli’s bedroom.
He turned down the comforter on the bed and tried to lay Eli down, but he clung to him just like he had done with Derek. So one limb at time, he carefully pried the little monkey off of him. After securing the blanket back over him and tucking his wolves next to him, Stiles sat on the side of the bed.
He reached out to gently brush a couple of curls away from his eyes, which fluttered with his eyelashes sweeping against the top of his cheeks, and he hoped that he was dreaming of something as incredible as him.
The air shifted then and Stiles felt eyes on him, and somehow, he knew who they belonged to without having to see.
“You lost?”
“I let Isaac finish my hand,” Derek answered, stepping into the room.
It was comfortably quiet for a few moments while Stiles continued watching over Eli and he felt Derek watching them.
“He’s going to miss you when you leave.”
Stiles took a breath before he turned to face Derek. He leaned back against the desk with his arms folded over his chest. He had a slight flush across his cheeks after a few spiked beers, and he looked younger, carefree, and so gorgeous.
He was still everything Stiles’ wanted, and with the little boy sleeping next to him, he was even more.
“I’m not going back.”
The silence then was unnerving so he kept going, careful to keep his voice down, and unloaded the thoughts that had been racking his brain for the past few months.
“I’ve decided to take a break. I really burned myself out over the past four years, and I’m not even sure if getting a masters is worth it for what I want to do. Even if I decided to go back to school eventually, I could go to Stanford or somewhere close by so I could come back here whenever I want. Because I miss being home. I miss my dad and my friends, and I miss you.”
Derek’s voice was quiet, full of disbelief when he finally spoke. “You’re staying?”
Stiles nodded. “I wanna be here to see Eli grow up. With you.”
Derek’s arms fell to his sides as he stood and moved a step closer, eyes wide.
“You really mean that.”
“Of course I do,” Stiles stood up and took a step closer too. “Derek, I think I’ve been in love with you since the first moment I saw you hold him. Maybe even before that. I don’t- I don’t know if you still want me, if you ever did-“
Derek was suddenly there, hands cupped around the sides of his face, lips firmly against his own. It was the first time, but somehow, it felt like they had done this part before.
“I want you,” Derek breathed, and his eyes were red.
Stiles gripped at the sides of his waist and stared at him in awe, in revelation.
“I don’t think the Nemeton was trying to scare me,” he said, just as breathless, “I think it was calling me back home.”
He hated it when Derek let go of him then, but the feeling dissipated when he reached into his pants pocket and opened his hand out to him.
A golden key rested in his palm. Attached to it was a keychain of a moon.
“Cora said I should have wrapped it, but I wasn’t sure this counted as a gift.”
Stiles took the key carefully, holding it like it was truly made of gold. He traced his thumb across the flat surface of the moon and the cutesy smiling face across it, pink circles for blushing cheeks, not unlike Derek earlier in the evening.
“Did Eli pick this out?”
Derek’s eyes faded back to green. “Obviously.”
Stiles laughed softly. “One day, I’ll be able to tell if you’re lying or not.”
Derek grabbed his face again and leaned in to kiss him again.
“Wait wait wait, I’m feeling very emotional right now, and if you do that again, I might shatter all of the windows in this house.”
“I can buy some new windows,” Derek said, still leaning in. “I can even install them myself.”
“That’s sexy.” Then Stiles was leaning in too.
He learned what it felt like to kiss Derek Hale’s smile. What the words I love you, too felt like against his own. What Derek’s lips felt like against his cheek, along his jaw, and down the side of his neck.
Derek pulled back abruptly and his head darted toward the window which faced the backyard, like a curious puppy.
“Everyone’s cheering and clapping. Your dad just said About damn time.”
Stiles bit his lips to keep from laughing as Derek continued listening, brows pinched before they dropped comically.
“Cora and Isaac said they’re staying at Erica and Boyd’s tonight. And they’re taking Eli with them.”
Stiles laughed, unable to control it. He thumped his head down onto Derek’s shoulder and was pulled into an embrace so tight, it was like Derek never wanted to let him go.
Eli snuffled in his sleep and shifted on the bed, so Stiles quieted down.
But he kept his smile pressed into Derek’s shoulder as he held him back just as tightly.