Human is Just a Word 12/?
Chapter 12
When they slept in the den it was normal to wake up with the head resting on somebody else, half under another pack member and maybe a paw to the belly if Isaac had one of his restless nights. What was not normal, though, was a human arm around his neck, a human leg around his lower body and a human everything pressed against his back, effectively making Derek somebody else's teddy bear.
Confused Derek blinked his eyes open and tried to figure out what was going on.
Stiles, he realized and didn't dare to move. Stiles was still sleeping and not aware that he was abusing Derek as his favorite stuffed animal.
He glanced around and found Isaac and Boyd still sleeping but Erica was up and had changed to her human from. Apparently she needed opposable thumbs to operate the camera on her phone.
When she noticed that his eyes were open, she shot him a grin followed by the sound of a picture taken. And then another one and one after that. For good measure, he guessed.
Derek almost shifted, opposable thumbs were good for snatching phones, too, but he stopped himself at the last second. Stiles was still clinging to him like a koala which meant he would cling to his human form the same way. His very naked human form. Usually they didn't care about nakedness among pack, they had shifted back and forth lying in a pile like this countless times but Stiles was still new to this.
So the only thing Derek could do was to glare at Erica and to growl deep in his throat but low enough to not wake the others. Erica just took another picture.
"I have coffee started." She informed him. "And I was thinking about pancakes."
Derek licked his chops at that thought. Erica couldn't cook if her life depended on it but she made some mean pancakes.
She laughed at him and took one last picture before she disappeared in the direction of the kitchen.
"Did I hear pancakes?" Isaac sat up and somehow managed to slip out from under Boyd without waking him. He rubbed his eyes and then had a look around.
"Oh." He made when he spotted Derek and his little predicament. "He likes you."
Derek glared at him but it somehow lost its power when Stiles sighed in his sleep and cuddled closer.
"Boyd." Isaac nudged the still sleeping werewolf in the shoulder. "Wake up, man. You have to see this."
With a disgruntled expression, how Boyd did that with a wolf's face Derek had no idea, he lifted his head and huffed at Isaac. But his eyes went soft when he spotted his alpha and the new pack member.
Enough was enough. Derek started to wiggle his way out of Stiles' clutches.
"No, don't go." Stiles held on tighter and buried his face between Derek's shoulders.
There was stifled laughter from his betas.
Derek stood up, dislodging Stiles in the process, who woke up with flailing limbs.
Waking up face to face with a wolf didn't seem to be part of Stiles normal morning routine because the second he realized what was standing right in front of him, he let out a scream and tried to get way from Derek.
His legs were tangled in a blanket and his hasty escape was stopped by Boyd when Stiles crashed backwards into the still very wolfy beta.
Derek hurried to change.
"Calm down." He said, hands raised in a calming manor.
"Oh my god." Stiles had found his words again. "Now you're naked. And you too." He pointed at Isaac while at the same time he tried to get farther away from the also naked but currently wolf Boyd.
"We'll get dressed in a minute." Derek promised, more worried about Stiles obvious fear of wolves.
"How did you sleep?" Isaac asked, sitting with his legs crossed but he had the decency to drape a blanket over his lap. Derek hurried to do the same at which Stiles visibly relaxed.
"Fine. I guess?" Stiles answered, sounding not sure at all. "Not exactly what I had expected."
"What did you expect?" Isaac asked and Derek was almost afraid of the answer.
"Dunno." He shrugged, clearly embarrassed. "Less puppy pile and more, I don't know, blood thirsty predators? Not that I mean that werewolves are blood thirsty predators, but you kind of are, predators, I mean." Realizing that he was just putting his foot deeper in his mouth, Stiles snapped said mouth shut.
He was saved by Erica who shouted: "Five minutes, get your asses covered and over here."
"Let's cover our asses, then." Isaac stood up, shaking said ass before he went in search for his clothes. Stiles almost choked but Derek couldn't tell if it was because of laughter or shock, maybe both.
They managed to be at the table in time for the pancakes, everybody decently dressed.
"These are good." Stiles moaned around a mouthful, his lips shiny with butter, and Derek hurried to focus on his own plate. Seriously, how could somebody sound this pornographic over food on a regular basis? Chips and pancakes, that wasn't even something special, just all day stuff. He kind of dreaded what life with Stiles would be.
Erica gave Stiles a warm smile and loaded more pancakes on his plate.
"I think I love you." Stiles tried to stuff half a pancake in his mouth, he almost succeeded.
"Too late." Boyd spoke up and slung his arm possessively around Erica's hip. She leaned in for a kiss, all butter and syrup, and Derek honestly wondered what he'd done wrong that his peaceful breakfast had turned into porn.
After breakfast the betas left. It was Tuesday so in Boyd's and Erica's case it meant work while Isaac should probably show up on campus at some point.
Since Derek worked at home he didn't need to go anywhere and being his own boss he could start late today and make some time for Stiles first.
They did the dishes together and then they took the den apart.
"The blankets go in the chest over there." Derek pointed at said chest which Erica associated with pirates for some reason. She liked to hum a certain song every time she got the blankets out or put them back in. "The pillows, too."
"So, I'll take last night was the exception rather than the norm?" Stiles folded the last blanket and then sat down on the chest. "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest ..." The words faded into nothingness but he too was humming that stupid song.
"We usually sleep in beds." Derek ignored the humming. "In our own beds." He pointed out to prevent more misunderstandings. He wasn't sure if Stiles believed him by now when he said that he had no obligations towards him.
"Not that I mind the puppy pile." Stiles stood up and put his hands in his pockets. "Because I don't. I really don't. Earlier that was just ... unexpected. I wasn't quite awake and there was a wolf standing right in front of me. Which is cool, man, you have no idea how cool this is, but yeah, unexpected."
"You'll get used to it."
They stood there, the last traces of the pack night gone, with no idea what to do next.
"So, what do you do all day?" Stiles asked, sauntering over to the bookshelf. "Are you a full-time alpha or do you work?"
"I work." Derek said. "What about you? Are you still in school?"
"Dude, it's summer, nobody talks about school." Stiles said, his shoulders tense and he was suddenly very focused on the books. "Guess I'm a dropout now anyway."
"Why?" Derek asked. "You don't want to finish school?"
Stiles turned around and glared at him as if it was somehow Derek's fault.
"I'd love to but ..." He gestured between them.
"You can go to school here." Derek said still not seeing the problem. Of course it sucked to switch schools but that was no reason not to.
"You claimed me, it's not that I can just leave for school. Or college for that matter." His voice rose with every word until he was almost yelling at Derek.
"Isaac goes to college." Derek pointed out. "And Boyd and Erica are running their own security company at the other end of the city. Sometimes I don't see them for days."
"They are werewolves." Now Stiles did shout at him.
"They're pack." Derek corrected, finally understanding what Stiles meant. "Just like you."
"I'm the human here."
"But you're still pack." Derek let out a sigh and sat down in a chair, gesturing for Stiles to do the same. "Pack is like family, only more. Your dad hasn't stopped being your dad just because you don't live with him anymore. Pack are the people who will always be there for you, pack is the place you can go to when you don't know where to go to." He paused not sure how to explain a concept he just understood to somebody who wasn't wired that way. "You need to stay close to me until the bond is fully developed. Aside from that you can do whatever you want. You can go to school, college. You can find a job if that's what you want to do. Your life isn't over just because you're in a pack now."
"And what if I want to go to college in New York?" Stiles asked, the challenge clearly in his voice.
"That can be arranged." Derek shrugged. "A lot of young pack members study far away from home. There are things that have to get arranged ahead but you can go to college in New York if you want. Or in France."
"But the territory." For once Stiles was at a loss for words. "It thought we have to stay in the territory of the pack."
"I have to stay here." Derek said and leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. He looked Stiles straight in the eye. As a human Stiles couldn't hear his heartbeat but he hoped that Stiles could read the truth of his words in his eyes. "The members of a pack want to stay close to their alpha and they feel safe in their territory but they can leave for longer periods of time without any problems. Body has spent half a year in Cleveland and was home only once or twice during that time and he was totally fine with that."
"I bet the pack nights when he was here were epic." Stiles couldn't hide his grin at that thought.
"You're not a prisoner, Stiles." Derek said to drive that point home. "There will always be a place for you here but you don't have to live under the same roof with the rest of us if you don't want to."
"I have to think about that." Stiles said, rubbing his palms on his jeans.
They sat there in silence for a moment, Derek could almost hear the gears turning in Stiles' head.
"So what do you do for a living?" Stiles came back to his initial question.
"I'm a translator." Derek answered, grateful for the change of topic. "Spanish to English."
Stiles blinked at him. "Totally not what I've expected, man. What do you translate? Let me guess, cheesy romance novels? Admit it, under that rough shell beats a romantic heart."
"Scientific publications." Derek answered dryly, fighting really heard to keep a smile off his face.
"Scientific ..." Stiles mouth hung open while he tried to wrap his mind around that concept. "Don't you have to know, you know, know about the stuff you're translating to get it right? I mean it's science, you can't just fuck around with science. You don't fuck around with science, don't you?" He sounded almost desperate now. "Please tell me you don't fuck around with science."
"I have to read up on the topic." Derek agreed. "Usually I work closely with the author and use his source material."
"I was wondering about your weird taste in books." Stiles pointed with his thumb at the bookshelf behind him. "I thought I was the only one with such a broad spectrum of interests."
"Those are just to make me look more intellectual." Derek answered with a straight face.
"Did you just ...?" Stiles gaped at him. "That was a joke, you made a joke."
Stiles burst out laughing.
Chapter 13
Masterpost