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Chapter Text

He got home to see his dad sitting at the dinner table with a plethora of files and papers and a half-empty bottle of Jack.

“Rough day, dad?”

“Huh? Oh, Stiles you’re home. Have fun at Scott’s?”

“Yeah we have this project we’re working on and then some games, the usual. What about you? Big case?”

Stiles asked as he took a seat at the table, subtly trying to look at the files.

“Put down the file, Stiles.”

Subtlety, thy name is certainly not Stiles.

“I’m just looking Dad.”

“You can’t ‘just look’, this is a federal case.”

“Federal case? Those bitches don’t come in unless it’s huge.” He realized his mistake as soon as the words were out but his dad was already looking at him with raised eyebrows.

“Big cats, I meant big cats.”

Sure, creepy smile will help convince dad! But it did actually, his dad ducked his head and chuckled like he does when Stiles makes a fool of himself. He liked seeing his dad smile like that, laugh even sometimes. Even if it was a joke on his expense, at least his dad was happy for a moment. Stiles found his creepy smile turning into a genuine one of happiness and contentment.

“Very subtle, son.”

“I’m working on it. So anyway, what’s the case about? You can at least tell me that.” The Sheriff sighed because he knew his son wouldn’t give up till he gave him something. Damn detective genes.

“There’s been some robberies here and there. They seem random but there was a big one recently at the Mayor’s office. Looks like it’s all connected.”

“The Feds don’t come in sniffing unless there’s a serial killer or like bomb threat or something so why do they care about the hardware store being robbed.”

“How do you know about the hardware store?”

“Uhh, you told me.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You did, last night.”

“Stiles”

“I saw Deputy Thompson earlier, he mentioned it. Please don’t tell him you know, he made me promise I won’t tell you.”

“How many times have I told you not to go snooping around the station?”

“I didn’t. I saw him parked, out on the Preserve route.”

“What were you doing on the Preserve route?”

Oh god, shit. Fuck. Why didn’t he take his Adderall today? If he had, he’d be making excuses left right and centre and his dad wouldn’t even know. Now look at him, trying desperately not to get caught about planning to smoke pot in the Preserve. And why? Because he mentioned the Preserve himself. Smooth Stiles, really smooth.

“I told you about the project right? It’s about water sources so we went there to get a sample from the lake.”

There, that sounded plausible. Right?

“Just be careful when you go in there. Take Sam with you if you need to go again or whoever’s parked out there.”

“Yes, sir. So anyway, Mayor’s office got robbed?”

“Stiles you know I can’t tell you, it’s police business.”

“Yeah yeah okay.”

“Make me a drink would you?”

“Yeah, here you go.”

Stiles looked on with a nervous glint in his eye as his dad downed two full glasses.

“I’m going to the lowest circle of hell for this.” He muttered as his dad’s eyes started to droop and his hand worked slower.

“You say something?”

“No, no dad. You were saying about the robbery at the Mayor’s office?”

“Yeah terrible, terrible job. Why would someone raid the third floor when the accounts and lockers are on the second floor? I don’t get it.”

“What’s on the third floor?”

“Just conference rooms and lounges.”

“Huh.”

“And an old shitty closet that used to be the records room.”

“Records room? Do they still keep records there?”

“No, everything’s computerized now. It’s just a dingy, old room.”

“So they why do the Feds want to come sniff?”

“They think it’s all related. Two months ago the same thing happened in another town down south. Not far from here. And there was another one last year. They think there’s a connection.”

“Connection between what? What happened in those towns?”

“Meaningless robberies and then the main event.”

“What main event? Dad?”

“Unnnghh.”

“Dad?”

The Sheriff was already in a deep sleep with hardly a chance of getting up. So Stiles took it upon himself to find what his dad meant by ‘main event’.

Apparently, Dixie and another town called Woodlake had had a similar chain of events and then about a week later the Mayor and some other high-ranking Corporation officers from both towns quit.

Huh.

Blackmail?

“Stiles” He started as his dad’s voice broke him out of the trance he was in. His dad was looking at him with worried eyes, he really didn’t want to hear what was coming next. It was never pretty when his dad looked like this.

“Yeah dad?”

“Scott’s father is coming to town.”

See? It’s never pretty.

“I told Melissa today but she wanted you to tell Scott.”

“I—“

“I think it’s better too if you talk about it with him.”

“I, uh yeah yeah okay. I’ll talk to him.”

“You’re a good son.”

“Lowest circle of hell.” He muttered as he got up from the table to go upstairs to his bedroom.

“Good night, Stiles.”

“ ’Night, dad.”

So now he just had to figure out a way to tell his best friend that his bastard dad was coming back to town as a Fed. His dad who had walked out on them when Scott was six.

He got little sleep that night.

***

Derek stood outside the gas station waiting for Isaac to come out. He’d sent the boy in to buy him a blue Gatorade. The lady at Halloway’s ran out of blue ones and Derek liked only that flavor.

He wouldn’t have had to come all the way here to buy it if that kid hadn’t snatched the bottle from his hand. Why would he do that, anyway?

Everyone in town was scared of him. He had never given them any reason to be but they just were and then Derek had started liking it. Now, he took pleasure in his status as the town baddie. To see the intimidation and fear in people’s eyes when he so much as looked at them, it gave him power. Strength. A reason to wake up everyday.

So then why had a high-school kid looked him straight in the eye and more or less told him to go fuck himself?

Didn’t he feel intimidated by Derek? Wasn’t he scared of him?

“Here” Isaac broke him out of his trance.

“You look like you’re either deep thinking or taking a shit.”

Derek raised his eyebrow at him, that was usually enough to remind Isaac who was boss. In the two years that he had known Isaac, the kid had formed than an emotional bond with him. He treated Derek like his word was holy. He liked it, enjoyed having the respect of someone and not out of fear.

Derek had helped Isaac get away from his dad when he had caught the man beating his son to a bloody pulp in the Cemetery one night. Derek was there to see his family when he heard loud noises and had to get physical to save Isaac. He had driven him to the hospital and the people there had automatically assumed that Derek was the one who beat up Isaac.

So for helping a kid get away from an abusive parent, Derek had had to spend a night in a cell. The sheriff was a just man but even he couldn’t do anything till Isaac woke up and gave a statement. He remembered sitting in the cell thinking Isaac would never go against his abusive dad, so he might just have to spend a couple years in prison for helping a kid.

But Isaac had woken up the next day and given a statement about how Derek had helped him get away from a mugger. That got him out of the station and he vowed never to help someone else. Not if he ran the risk of being accused of hurting people just because the town didn’t like him.

Isaac started coming around to his loft after that, he started coming around after school and stayed till late. He started hanging out with Derek and everyone assumed that it was because the kid had developed an unhealthy Stockholm syndrome. Because, yes they still believed that Derek was the one who had beat up on the poor kid and the mugger was just a story Derek had forced Isaac to make up.

Derek had given up trying to be good for these people. He had given up justifying himself long ago so he could care less if they thought he was still hurting Isaac. Which he wasn’t, just for the record. He had to keep reminding himself that just because these people thought he was a violent lunatic and would just snap any second and mass-murder the whole town, didn’t mean that he was actually.

So then Isaac’s dad had died in a mugging about a month after Isaac was attacked and then everyone suspected him of course. He was the town ‘mugger’ for quite a while there. But the Sheriff had been very thorough in his investigation and despite town people protesting that Derek was out and not detained, Sheriff had told everyone there wasn’t enough evidence and he wouldn’t detain an innocent man till he found any.

And thank all deites, Derek was in New York on the day of the mugging and his lawyer could prove it otherwise he’d be in prison right now. They never found any evidence so it wasn’t a long-shot to say that there were still people who thought it might have been him.

But somehow they had gotten past the ‘number one suspect for murder’ stage. Actually, he now remembered seeing Stiles at the time of the investigation. He hadn’t realized before but now he could see it, the goofy kid he’d seen at the Station during one of the interview sessions. The only one who hadn’t looked at him with accusation in his eyes. He remembered it, now.

“Derek, tell me you’re not taking a shit.”

“Get in the car.”

He started driving toward the loft as his mind wandered back to Stiles. That night at the station years ago, just for the briefest second their eyes had met and in that one second Derek could see that Stiles had looked at him with a curious look. Curious but not even a bit judging. Not even a hint of fear.

“Do you know that boy from the Halloway’s?”

“Who? Stiles? Yeah, I have Chemistry with him. Why?”

“He seemed very…”

“Yeah, he has a bit of a mouth filter problem.”

“Mouth-filter?”

“He told the coach his brain-to-mouth filter didn’t work well. He keeps arguing with everyone.”

“He plays Lacrosse?”

“Yeah, he’s not first-string yet but he plays well. Coach said he might make first-string this year.”

Really? Someone like Stiles could be first string? Derek didn’t doubt it because of ability because it might have been years ago but he still remembered Stiles and even back then he was someone who got what he wanted if only by sheer effort and determination. He was surprised because the flailing and unco-ordination that Derek had assumed Stiles would outgrow was still very much a part of his seventeen-year old self. How could someone who couldn’t even walk unhurt play lacrosse?

“What about the other boy?"

“Scott, he’s Stiles’ best friend. They are always together.”

Derek was too caught up in his thoughts to catch the disappointment coming off in waves off Isaac when he talked about Scott.
He was thinking about eight years ago, when he knew Stiles. He remembered Scott was Stiles’ friend back then too. He remembered Stiles talking about that kid all the time back then too. So they had remained friends all this time then. Okay.

“You okay?”

“What? Yeah, I’m okay.”

He did not think about Stiles that night. He certainly did not think about Stiles all the time after that day for the next three days. He didn’t.

***

Stiles drove to school worrying about telling Scott. And the moment he saw him waiting outside the door for him, he felt a dull pain in his stomach.

His body was great, okay? It knew when Stiles was about to get in trouble and without his conscious thinking, it made up a disease. In mild cases, his neck and face became red like fire engine red to warn people off him. In slightly extreme cases, he started sweating and some part of his body started hurting, usually his stomach. And in extremely extreme cases, he had panic attacks on a scale of Mild to Intense.

So anyway, his stomach was hurting now but he decided to man up and just tell Scott so he made his way over. As they walked to their lockers, Stiles was chewing on his nails and was about to ask Scott to go with him to the library so they could talk. But then Allison walked up to Scott and there goes that conversation.

Stiles resigned himself to silence for the rest of the day. He felt miserable keeping this to himself and even more so when he saw Scott being his usual oblivious, happy self. Stiles knew he had to tell Scott and that it would crush him but he had no other option. So after torturing himself for the whole day, Stiles told Scott to come over to his place.

On the way over as Scott sat looking out the window and tapping his fingers to the music coming off the radio, Stiles was still chewing on his nails and frowning. He felt like he was a predator luring prey into his den with a false sense of security. And then when Scott least expects it, he will pounce. Stiles winced as he thought about the analogy he was using. Scott looked over at him with a confused expression on his face but the growl of an engine from Scott’s side of the jeep startled them both into attention.

Scott was now waving at someone and smiling happily. Stiles sat forward to see Isaac Lahey waving back looking like even more of a puppy that Scott did. Stiles frowned. But then his eyes landed on Derek Hale who was looking straight at him.

Stiles’ eyes widened when he realized that Derek was looking at him. He squeeked a bit and sat back down so Derek couldn’t see him anymore beyond Scott. But the damn light wouldn’t change and freaking Scott moved about so Stiles had to shift and when his eyes swept across and into the other car, he found Derek still looking at him.

What was his problem? Why did he have to stare at Stiles?

The loud growl of the engine made him look over once more as Derek put on a pair of aviators and with a positively predatory grin, he took off. The car left a thunderous skid of tires and dust behind it.

“Stiles, the light’s green. Go.”

“What? Oh yeah.”

For just a moment there, he had forgotten about Scott. But now as his brain came away from thoughts of Derek, he remembered Scott and the terrible news he was about to deliver to him.

He was worried sick but he still couldn’t help thinking of Derek over and over. So he had been thinking about him since last night, but that was just because he hadn’t talked to him for years before yesterday. No other reason. And then today he saw him again in his sleek, black Camaro that he had only seen around town and in theory known that it belonged to someone he had once known.

But today he was looking at Derek while he was in the car and looking back at Stiles. This was different. His predatory smile was stuck in Stiles’ head. But the thing is he wasn’t scared, no it was odd thrill he felt when his mind went back to how dangerous Derek had looked. And the truly baffling part was how calm it made Stiles feel.

He had been worried all day to tell Scott about his dad, he had almost chewed his fingers off and one look from Derek Hale had him calming down – slow heart, easy breath and all. It was like Derek had told his heart to slow the fuck down and his heart obliged.
It never obliged when Stiles told it to slow down. Apparently even internal organs weren’t above shallow panting after beautiful people.

“Stiles?”

“Yeah buddy?”

“What’s up with you? I just asked you if you wanted pizza?”

“What’s wrong with you? Of course I want pizza? When have I ever said no to pizza?”

“Point.”

“But hey, Scott I need to talk to you about something first.”

“What is it?”

“Listen buddy, you wanna sit down?”

“No, Stiles I don’t wanna sit down. What’s wrong you’re scaring me.”

“Oh god, okay. So right I’m just gonna say this. You know the robbery at the hardware store and the Mayor’s office? Turns out they’re related. Dad told me it’s a federal case. And uh, your uh your dad’s coming to town.”

Silence.

“Scott?”

No answer.

“Scott buddy, you okay?”

“Yeah, I uh. Does my mom know?”

“Yeah, my dad told her. She wanted me to tell you.”

“Stiles?”

“Yeah buddy?”

“Thanks.”

“What for?”

“Just, is this why you’ve been sweating all day?”

“What? I’m not—“

“Go take a shower, you’re gross.”

“You’re gross.” Stiles mumbled as he smelled his hoodie and yes he was smelling pretty bad.

“Scott, you’re okay right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just, need a second. And Stiles, don’t worry I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, I’ll go take a shower. You order the pizza.”

“ ’kay.”

Stiles made his way up the stairs and when he stopped on the top step and turned around to check on Scott, he was already flipping through the channels on the tv. Turns out, he’ll be fine. Stiles and his dad were just worrying about nothing. Scott turned to look at him and smiled. Things were okay.

Okay, not entirely. While he was scrubbing himself red, his mind wandered off to earlier. Stiles tried to think about other things like lacrosse but for some reason his stupid brain kept on playing the fifteen seconds of interaction with Derek today, on a continuous loop. Those stupid aviators and that stupid stubble and that stupid grin, that’s all he could think about. Why did he have no control on his body whatsoever?

*****

“Did you have dinner yet?”

“I told you not to come on school nights.”

“It’s okay, I couldn’t sleep anyway.”

“Not taking your meds?”

“I am taking them, I just couldn’t sleep. Now, stop deflecting and answer my question.”

“‘Deflecting’, that’s a big word for a ten year old.”

“Will you just tell me already?”

“Yeah I had dinner, why?”

“I was just going to say how about we go to Joe’s diner.”

“Stiles, have you eaten?”

“I did I’m just hungry again.”

“What did you have?”

“Food.”

“Stiles”

“No, okay. I haven’t eaten. I just, I didn’t want to eat alone.”

“Where’s the Sheriff?”

“He’s on a convention for two days.”

“Did you eat all day?”

“Yeah, I had cereal.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Why didn’t you tell me, you could’ve come over. Mom made lasagna.”

He didn’t say anything to that because he had nothing to say to that. What could he possibly say?

“Stiles?”

Tears spilled out of his eyes and blurred his vision. He felt hands on his wet face but he didn’t open his eyes.

“What happened?”

“My mom, she…”

He felt an arm wrap around his shoulders and pull him a little into hot, seething warmth that was a contrast to the chilling air blowing across his face.

Derek didn’t say anything, he didn’t ask him anything and he didn’t look at him with pity like other people did when he talked about his mom. She had died about a year ago but he and his dad had still not gotten used to it. They still sometimes forgot that she wasn’t there anymore and started talking to her only to stop mid-sentence and realize that she was gone.

Derek never looked at him pitifully or tell him that she was in a better place. He just listened to whatever Stiles had to say. Him just being there made Stiles forget some of the pain. Now, as he held him close to himself, Stiles thought about how his mom used to hold him in her lap on the couch, all wrapped up in blankets while watching scary movies.

“She always made us eat dinner together and now she’s gone and my dad’s always sad. The doctor said he has a weak heart, what if he--. I can’t lose both parents, Derek. I can’t.”

“You won’t. It’s okay, you won’t I promise. We’ll just make your dad eat healthy food. My dad has a heart problem too, he told me years ago and he’s fine. You just have to make him eat lots of vegetables and less junk food. That’s all.”

“I can’t lose him too, Der.”

“Hey, hey you won’t. My dad’s fine isn’t he? He’ll be fine too.”

“I’m sorry I’m being such a baby. I just, I miss her. And I didn’t want to be alone at home.”

“You’ve got me, it’s okay. So you want lasagna or burger and curly fries?”

Stiles just looked at him with what he hoped was an angry look.

“No, you’re right. Sorry, shouldn’t have asked. Curly fries it is. C’mon let’s go.”

Derek sat across the table from him and talked about his new cousin. His uncle Peter and aunt Sarah had just had a new baby and Derek told him how she never shut up and the whole house was getting used to the new sounds. Derek just sat there looking at him while he ate. He sounded so happy when he talked about the new baby and how he was going to teach her everything. His happiness rubbed off on Stiles. His smile was contagious, Stiles was laughing with him and at him.

By the time he finished eating, Stiles didn’t even remember that he was sad. Derek had made him forget it just by being there. Stiles thought how lucky he was to have friends like Derek who could make him forget his pain so fast. Scott wasn’t in town or else he would’ve helped too.

Derek walked him home and stayed there watching a movie till Stiles fell asleep on the couch. He woke up hours later buried under blankets with all the lights off. Derek wasn’t there anymore, he had left while Stiles was sleeping.

He should get up and go upstairs to sleep in his bed but he was so warm and comfortable here on the couch with all the blankets and pillows that Derek had set around him. Ever since he was a kid, he had learnt to associate warmth with care and affection and love. As he laid back down in his little cave of blankets and warmth, he realized that even if his mother was no longer there, he still had many people who loved him.

*****

Derek turned the car off as Isaac picked up his lacrosse gear and bag to go in. But Derek found himself unable to move, he sat there for god knows how long while his stubborn heart refused to slow down and his brain kept going back to Stiles. How flushed he had looked when he saw Derek in the car today. How he looked like a fish with his mouth open, exactly how he used to look as a kid.

He used to look at Derek like that, with a look of amazement and disbelief in his eyes. Like Derek was the coolest person, which he was back then. But now, the only looks he got from people were of fear and judgement. It had been a long time since someone had looked at him in awe.

Isaac did but that was more of a younger brother looking up to his cool, older brother. There was something different in how Stiles looked at him. There was desire there. Perhaps. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking.

Was it?

***