Human is Just a Word 38/?
Chapter 38
Laura and her pack were family. At least to Derek. He was no longer a member of this pack but he had been and that didn't change when he'd become an alpha. Miranda and all the others were still a part of him. A part he had to leave behind but it had left its imprint on him and on Laura's pack. He was welcomed here, he was safe here.
Stiles didn't have that past. To him this was a strange pack he didn't know. It had been clear the second Laura had come out of the house that Stiles had felt wary and not comfortable at all. Stiles was human so Derek hadn't been sure how he would react but he had acted almost like one of his betas. And more.
By now Stacy was happily gumming on Stiles' finger and Stiles was more at ease.
Derek met Laura's eyes and he could tell that she had noticed how uneasy Stiles had been, too. That was probably the reason she wasn't bombarding his mate with questions right now and he was grateful for that. Sometimes his big sister was awesome. Most of the times she was a pain in his ass, though.
"I should put her to bed." Miranda finally broke the moment. "I think she might sleep for a few hours now."
Stiles gave the baby back with a mixture of regret and relief written all over his face which made Laura laugh.
"What?"
"Nothing." She held her hands up in defeat but there was a glint in her eyes. "It suits you, that's all."
"It's a baby, not a shirt." Stiles shot back, the tips of his ears red.
"We should turn in as well." Derek cut in to save Stiles from more embarrassment. Once the ice was broken, and it looked like that had just happened, there would be no holding back for Laura and he didn't want to deal with that this late in the evening.
Derek led the way to his old room which Laura kept for his visits. He would never sleep in Peter's house, only partly because it would remind him too much of the past, but here he felt at home and he was actually looking forward to sleeping in his room again. The bed would be a bit small for two people but a man and a wolf should fit just fine.
"Is this your room?" Stiles asked when he closed the door behind them, giving them the illusion of privacy.
"Yes." Derek kicked off his boots and reached for his jeans. He was beat, the sooner he could slip in his fur and go to sleep the better. "But I rarely slept here. Most of the pack sleeps in the den. Usually you sleep in your own bed only if you want some privacy or if you're sick with something catchy."
"Or you have a baby." Stiles added. So he had noticed that Laura and Miranda had disappeared in different directions.
"Only if the baby is too fussy." Derek threw off the last bit of clothing and he could feel Stiles' hungry eyes on him. "We love having the whole pack close, especially the children."
"So you know they're safe." Stiles nodded in understanding. He stepped closer and put his arms on Derek's shoulders. For a moment Derek thought he would kiss him but instead Stiles just studied his face. "Why don't we do that? I mean, we do that, on occasion, but why don't we do it every night?"
"It comes more naturally to born werewolves." Derek answered not without a ping of longing in his chest. "My betas are all bitten."
"Do you miss it?" Stiles asked and Derek could tell that he was already thinking about schemes to rope the others in to more pack nights.
"Sometimes." Derek admitted. With Stiles it was easy to admit things like this. "But not so much lately."
"Because you have me."
"Because I have you." Derek put his hands on Stiles' hips who came willingly closer, his still fully clothed body pressed against Derek's naked one. Derek usually didn't care if he was naked or dressed but now he was very aware of his nakedness.
Stiles leaned in for a quick kiss and then, with a wicked grin, pressed his hip against Derek's crotch.
"You know that there are people around who will hear us." Derek reminded him which put a damper on things rather quickly. Not that Derek was bothered by the others listening in on them, you can't grow up in a pack without hearing things. It was normal. Not for humans, though.
Stiles pouted and brought some space between them.
"Totally not cool." He said and put another quick kiss on Derek's lips. "But I'm tired anyway. You want first turn in the bathroom?"
Minutes later they lay in bed, Derek in his fur and Stiles in his sleep shirt and boxers, and after some tossing and turning Stiles fell asleep with his arm slung over Derek, holding him close. Derek relaxed into his mate and closed his eyes.
There were noises, the old house was cracking and groaning and of course there were the members of Laura's pack, in a house with seventeen people there were always noise, but those were familiar noises, comforting ones and Derek let himself get lulled to sleep by them.
"Uncle Derek!" A high pitched voice woke him up way too early in the morning. It was followed by a shrieking sound and the staccato of little feet on hardwood floor. Derek had only a second to brace himself for the double impact.
Gina jumped on his back, arms tight around his neck while she buried her nose between his shoulder blades. Jeremy basically just bounced off of where he had hit Derek in the shoulder but managed to grab Derek's ear to prevent himself from toppling backwards.
Both kids were squealing in delight and didn't seem to care that they were abusing him. It felt like Jeremy was trying to rip off his ear but when Derek tried to move his head along with him, Gina tightened her choke-hold on him. He let out a low growl but neither of them seemed impressed by that. Jeremy used his ear to pull himself up to a wobbly standing, the dipping mattress and the rumbled covers under his feet didn't make it an easy task, and then Jeremy hugged Derek's whole head, cheek pressed against his nose and his face so close, it was just a blurry blotch.
"Uncle Derek." He sighed contently and rubbed his cheek all over his face. He giggled at the sensation of fur scratching over his skin and rubbed more firmly.
"I wanted to stay up until you got here." Gina spoke too loud and too close to his other ear. "But Mom said you would arrive too late, that it would be past my bedtime." Her breathless little huffs stopped for what he guessed was a pout.
Gina drew in a deep breath to start talking again, when suddenly Stiles came up from under the covers, hair sticking out in every direction and squinting at the children in his bed as if he wasn't sure if he was still dreaming or not.
Whatever question was on his lips died when he actually noticed that the two kids were tugging and pulling at Derek.
Gina and Jeremy stopped and just stared at Stiles in return.
"Who are you?" Gina asked.
"I'm Stiles." He sat up and ran a hand though his hair in the fruitless attempt to make it obey to gravity.
"What's a Stiles?" Jeremy asked while Gina went for the more important question: "Why are you in Uncle Derek's bed?"
Derek could shift and explain this himself. He could. Instead he made himself more comfortable, as comfortable as one could get with a five year old on his back and a three year old all over his face and with both of them digging their little fingers deep into his fur.
Over Jeremy's head he met Stiles' eye and Derek did his best to transmit This is your turn with his gaze. He probably was a bit cross-eyed from squinting at Jeremy, though.
"I'm Derek's mate." Stiles answered and the natural way the words came out of his mouth made Derek's heart swell.
"Derek doesn't have a mate." Gina told him and tightened her hold on Derek as if she feared that this stranger would take her uncle away.
"He does now."
Jeremy let go of Derek and made his way over to Stiles where he face-planted into his chest.
"He smells like Derek." He proclaimed after a few sniffs. Not one bit shy he grinned up at Stiles who didn't seem to know where to put his hands.
"That doesn't mean he's Derek's mate." Gina pointed out.
"No?" Jeremy asked and looked from Stiles to Gina until his gaze settled on Derek in search for an answer.
"I could just be a pack member." Stiles agreed with Gina. "We slept in the same bed, everybody would smell like him if he slept in the same bed as Derek."
Gina slid down Derek's side until she sat on the mattress with her back against his side.
"Uncle Derek never had a mate before." She said, a calculating eye on Stiles. "Mom said he will never find a mate."
That stung. Derek was pretty sure that that weren't Loreen's exact words but it still stung.
"He had to wait until he found me." Stiles smoothed over it and reached out to scratch Derek behind the ear. "But now he's got me and he won't be alone any longer."
While Stiles was distracted, Jeremy used the chance to grab Stiles' unruly hair with both fists. Stiles grimaced but let him.
"Is that true?" Gina asked and Derek got the feeling that he had to answer that one. He shifted and hugged her closer with his arm.
"It's true." He said, nose buried in her neck. "Stiles is my mate. Be nice to him."
Gina thought about that for a moment, still a skeptical eye on Stiles. Who tried his best to look innocent which was hard with Jeremy plucking at his hair. Since Jeremy was a werewolf, Stiles was in real danger of losing fistfuls of hair but before Derek could reach over to save his mate from getting scalped, Gina tackled Jeremy off of Stiles.
"Uncle Derek said to be nice to him." She said to the squirming toddler in her arms. Jeremy fought her hold and a second later they were rolling between Stiles and Derek, each of them determined to pin the other one down. Gina was older and bigger but Jeremy was a werewolf.
"Should we …?" Stiles threw him a worried look over the fighting children between them but Derek shook his head. They were both still laughing, a little roughing each other up was just part of growing up in a werewolf pack. And he knew that there was a firm rule of "stop means stop" in place so either of them could stop this with one word. Not that they looked like they wanted to use it.
Stiles almost got thrown out of the bed when they accidentally rolled more towards his side and once they noticed, the game was on. Suddenly both children were tackling Stiles, trying to push him over the edge.
"Hey, that's not …" Stiles was cut off by Jeremy smashing into him while Gina used the distraction to grab his foot.
"Derek? A little help?" The wide grin on his face betrayed him, though.
Derek grinned back.
"Okay, you little s..." Stiles caught himself before he said a bad word which was just hilarious. And with that Stiles fought back. A little hesitant at first but Jeremy and Gina weren't cutting him any slack either and were shoving him closer to the edge by the minute.
"I'm not going down alone!" Grabbing both kids Stiles let himself drop over the edge. They went down in a shrieking tangle of limbs.
"Avenge me." Stiles told Derek with his dying breath.
Chapter 39
Masterpost