Human is Just a Word 27/?
Chapter 27
Derek had to leave early in the morning to catch his plane and Stiles missed him the second he was out of the door. It was pathetic.
He wanted to blame that on the bond but Derek wasn't even at his car yet and the beacon in Stiles head was still strong.
It stayed strong for longer than he had expected, though. He felt Derek moving away but he could still feel him at a point where he already would have lost one of the betas.
"I don't like it." Isaac said who had stayed with Stiles. Boyd and Erica were downstairs to get ready for work at a location across town which meant he would lose contact with them soon, too. At least Stiles' school and the college were in pack sensing distance so Stiles wouldn't feel totally alone.
"Hmm?" Stiles made absently, he was focused on the fading sense of Derek in his mind.
"Not feeling him anymore." Isaac answered and held up the coffee pot with a questioning look at Stiles' mug.
"I can still feel him." Stiles said with a frown. The feeling was almost gone but still there.
"I lost him a few minutes ago." Isaac poured them some coffee but when he looked back at Stiles, his face was unreadable.
"And." Stiles drew out the word. "He's gone."
That feeling wasn't that much different from what he experienced with the others almost every day just more intense.
Isaac studied him over the rim of his mug for a long minute.
"What?"
"Nothing." Isaac hurried to say. "You're human, maybe that's why your connection to him is stronger.
If he was a werewolf, Stiles would have heard the lie in his heartbeat, he was sure of that.
However, Isaac deflected farther questions with a story about one of his professors and Stiles let him get away with it. He didn't need to hear that claimed humans were bounded more tightly to the alpha. It sounded too much like slave or pet to him.
It was Friday so they had to leave for school and campus but Isaac promised that they would have another pack night so nobody would feel alone.
"Don't try to argue." He warned with a smug grin. "You can't win against Erica."
"True." Stiles had to agree. Not that he wanted to fight her on this. The thought of staying the night alone in the loft sent shivers down his spine. Since he had become part of Derek's pack being alone had lost its appeal.
The physical loneliness wasn't the problem, though, it was the empty feeling in his head where his alpha should be that made him really uncomfortable. And Derek wasn't even on the plane yet. Soon he would be on the other side of the country.
Stiles remembered the group hug the pack had given Derek when they had come back from Beacon Hills. Back then Stiles hadn't understood why the werewolves needed to reconnect. Now he did.
However, this was the chance to sort things out with Sean a bit more.
"Hey." Stiles caught his almost friend at the lockers. "Derek's out of town for the weekend. Want to hang out at my place for a change? Tomorrow?"
He tried to make it sound nonchalantly but he really needed this slice of normality. He stood with his back to the hallway so he didn't have to see the looks the other students were still giving him.
"I don't know." Sean chewed on his bottom lip while he tried to look busy sorting through his locker.
"C'mon, man." Stiles almost pleaded. "I can snag Isaac's PlayStation and I know where Derek hides his beer." He had no idea why the werewolf even had beer, he couldn't get drunk but maybe he just liked the taste, however, Stiles knew where he kept it. Not that right next to the case with coke counted as a hiding place but whatever.
"Are there going to be other …" Sean hesitated. "… members of the pack?"
"Werewolves." Stiles emphasized the word. "You can say it, they don't bite." He gave him a grin but Sean didn't seem to appreciate the joke so he just smoothed over it. "I live with Derek, the others have their own places a floor beneath us. They won't bother us, I promise."
It might have been more out of curiosity than anything else, when did an ordinary human get the chance to see the insight of an alpha's den, but in the end Sean said yes. He might get disappointed, Stiles thought but didn't say it out loud.
Isaac let him have the PlayStation and promised no surprise visits while Stiles had his friend over. Boyd and Erica would have to work till morning, it was the weekend after all, so Stiles had the loft werewolf free for the evening.
When Sean finally knocked at the steel door Stiles was already pacing the living room, phone in hand, considering if he should call him or not.
"Sorry, I'm late." Sean said as a greeting and Stiles could picture him sitting outside in his car, debating if he should come upstairs or not.
"I'm glad you made it." Stiles said with a broad grin, not showing how anxious he had been just seconds ago. He wasn't sure what he would have done if Sean hadn't shown up. He was the closest thing to a friend Stiles had around here, not counting the pack, and he doubted their fragile friendship could have taken such a hit.
"So." Sean made a point of looking around. "This is where you live?"
"Home sweet home." Stiles made a wide gesture over the floor. The advantage of having no walls was that they had a good look at the kitchen and the living room right from where they stood. The disadvantage however was, that everybody could see the dirty dishes if Stiles was too lazy to put them in the dish washer right away. Today the kitchen was spotless, though.
"My room's upstairs." Stiles gestured at the spiral staircase. "Let me show you."
Sean followed him up the stairs.
"This is Derek's room, don't go in there." That had been the only restriction Derek had left him with. It was fine if Stiles or another pack member entered his bedroom but there was a strict no strangers in my bedroom policy.
"The bathroom is over there and this is my room." By now Stiles had most of his stuff here and Stiles had bought a few things for himself as well. He had his posters on the walls and his books on the shelf and by now it actually felt like home. It wasn't his childhood home and he still missed his dad but it was home now.
Stiles offered Sean the chair before he sat down on his bed.
"See?" He said with a grin. "Just an ordinary teenager's room."
"I did expect more, I don't know, wolfyness?" Sean rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.
"I told you, it's not that different."
"And Derek sleeps in a real bed?" Sean blurted out the first question on his mind.
"Most of the time." Stiles answered the indiscreet question easily. He knew what was on Sean's mind. "Sometimes, however, we do sleep in a pack pile in the living room."
"You too?"
"Yep." Stiles let the word pop. "Human little me in the middle of four grown ass wolves."
Sean stared at him, clearly trying to picture that in his mind. "Aren't you scared of them? I mean, they're wolves. I wouldn't get a minute of sleep like that."
"They're werewolves." Stiles corrected. At least they were talking about this. Assumptions were always worse and never correct, he'd learned that lesson. "They're still aware of everything and in total control."
"Even at the full moon?" Sean sounded doubtful.
"I only had one full moon with them so far." Stiles admitted. "We went for a run in the woods and then slept together in the den till noon."
"And they didn't attack anyone? Or anything?"
"Like what? A fluffy bunny?" Stiles laughed at that idea. "No, no bunnies were harmed." He thought that as wolves they would like to case and maybe even eat a bunny from time to time but so far he hadn't seen it and he really didn't want to scare Sean off.
"Okay, enough werewolf 101." Stiles clapped his hands. "Let's go downstairs and see what games Isaac has."
Sean noticed the wolf hair on the couch and sat down only touching the edge.
"Dude, it's just hair." Stiles made a point on flopping down next to him, not caring about getting hair on his pants. He was beyond that point. "It's like having a dog, you just can't get rid of all the hair."
Stiles was pretty sure that he could predict a werewolf household by their vacuum cleaner alone. But even with the best cleaner, the hairs were just everywhere. And with Derek joining him on the couch in his fur quite often lately there was hair on the couch, deal with it.
"Won't he smell that I was sitting here?" Sean asked, still more hovering over the couch than actually sitting on it.
"He can smell that you've been in the loft." Stiles pointed out. "But he doesn't mind people sitting on his couch. That's what a couch is for. To sit on it."
Despite the rough start, they did have fun. After Sean had gotten over his initial fear of upsetting Derek by existing alone, he got engrossed in the games they were playing. When Stiles brought the beer out, everything else was forgotten and Stiles instantly became Sean's favorite person.
They ordered pizza for dinner and made a mess of the coffee table.
"You will help cleaning this up." Stiles promised darkly when he kicked the empty boxes to the floor so that he could put his feet on the table.
"Sure thing." Sean agreed easily.
It was good. Not as good as it had been with Scott, though. And Stiles' evenings with Isaac had been way more relaxed than this one but it was good. Maybe if they did this more often, Sean would lose his fear of werewolves and they could become real friends.
It was close to midnight when there was a knock at the door. Stiles had totally forgotten the time and so had Sean who had a panicked look at his phone.
Stiles paused the game and went for the door. Boyd and Erica were still working and out of pack bond reach so it had to be Isaac at the door.
"Hey." Stiles opened the door to let the werewolf in. Mentally he was cursing at him and Stiles hoped his expression translated his feelings because he could actually feel Sean tense up behind him. He had promised a werewolf free environment, dammit.
"Sorry to bother you." Isaac said, looking over his shoulder at Sean who was probably trying to melt into the couch behind Stiles' back. "I was just wondering about tonight." He left it rather vague with a pointed look at Sean.
"We kinda forgot the time." Stiles had to admit
Since Boyd and Erica would work until morning it was only him and Isaac for now and neither of them wanted to sleep alone, they had established that.
"I'm not tired yet." Isaac said in a low voice. "But in an hour or two?" He looked at Stiles with the most adorable puppy dog eyes Stiles had ever seen and he had known Scott.
"Of course, just come here after Sean has left." Stiles said in an equally low voice. The way Isaac's nose twitched he wanted to bury it in Stiles' neck to scent him but that had to wait, he really didn't want to freak Sean out.
"Who was that?" Sean asked when Stiles plopped down next to him on the couch.
"Isaac." Stiles explained. "He's pack."
"He's so young."
"Dude." Stiles smacked him in the shoulder. "He's older than me and you thought I was a werewolf."
Sean left half an hour later with a very thoughtful expression on his face.
Chapter 28
Masterpost