Gambling Debts 34/?
Chapter 34
"You know what I don't get?" Stiles said while they were on their way to … Derek didn't even know. Today their schedule was so packed that they had to do most things separately to get them all covered and by now Derek had lost track of their schedule. And he had been the one who had made it.
"What?"
"Peter." Stiles said, whipping on the balls of his feet while they waited for the elevator. "I mean the other day, why was he even here?"
"He wanted to get me back." Derek said, an icy fist clenching his guts just from thinking about what Peter had wanted him back for.
"It wasn't even eight in the morning." Stiles pointed out and stepped in the for once empty elevator. "If he wanted to talk to you he could have called. Or he could have made an appointment with me to discuss our arrangement. But no, he showed but just on a hunch? Did he see it on the news and thought: Hey, there's a bomb threat at the Red, I should go there, maybe I'll find Derek standing around on the sidewalk. That doesn't make sense."
Derek hadn't thought about that but Stiles had a point.
"Maybe he wanted to make sure that I was okay?" Not that he really believed that. But on the other hand, Peter was his alpha and Derek was the only pack he had left.
"Then he's shit at showing that." Was Stiles' comment on that. "Oh, before I forget. Scott called earlier."
"What does he want?" Derek was still not sure what to make out of Stiles' best friend. He seemed nice and more or less harmless but a little naive.
"He's mad that I didn't tell him about the bomb threat we got."
When they got out of the elevator, Derek had to check the signs at the doors to orientate himself but then he remembered their meeting with somebody from PR. They even were a few minutes early.
"You had other things on your mind." Derek set up his notes at his place. They were planning a Fuck You party as Stiles called it for the weekend to show the world that they didn't scare that easy. They just needed another name for it and something else than a middle finger to put on the invitation. Derek had never before been so glad that they had a PR department to manage the promotion for such events. If Stiles were in charge …
"Exactly." Stiles pointed a finger-gun at him. "Besides, it's not my fault that he doesn't watch the news. The only reason he knows now is because Lydia mentioned it to him."
Derek had no idea why Lydia and Scott had been talking in the first place, he hadn't known that they even knew each other, but he didn't ask. Instead he just nodded to indicate that he was listening.
"Point is, we're going to have dinner today." Stiles dropped in his chair. "He needs to see me, otherwise he won't believe that I'm alright."
"You haven't seen him in a while." Since Scott had stormed into the playroom to be exact. "You two have some catching up to do. Are we going to meet up later for the floor or do you want to skip that today?" Or do you want me to go alone? Was the question he didn't dare to ask. Having dinner all by himself in the suite would be strange, they always had dinner together, but he was okay with it. However, hitting the floor was still his least favorite thing to do even with Stiles. But alone?
"You don't want to join us?" Stiles sounded almost hurt.
"He's your best friend."
"Yeah, but you're my boyfriend."
"I'm … what?" Derek was glad that he was already sitting.
"Is this too soon?" Stiles immediately tried to take it back. "I know we do things out of order and we only had one date so far but I thought … forget what I thought, it's stupid."
"It's not stupid." Derek said quietly while he still tried to wrap his head around the fact that Stiles saw them as boyfriends. But he had said the three big words just a few days ago and even if Derek hadn't said them back, yet, he felt the same. Boyfriends. It sounded right.
Stiles didn't seem to hear him and kept on babbling: "I always rush in too fast. I've screwed things up like this before, I'm sorry, I don't want to screw this up. Please, just forget what I said. I didn't …"
"Stiles?" Derek interrupted him. "Shut up."
And then, because Stiles opened his mouth to say even more, he leaned over and kissed him. It was a very effective way to shut him up and quite enjoyable. Especially when Stiles' eyes went wide and he was all flustered before he deflated and started to kiss back.
"So, you're going to have dinner with us?" Stiles asked when they parted. Derek had his hand on his cheek and their foreheads were almost touching and if he weren't hearing the PR guy approaching right outside the door, Derek would dive back in and kiss him until they were both light-headed.
"Okay." He said instead and gave Stiles a quick peck on the corner of his mouth and when seconds later the door opened, they were both engrossed in their notes for the meeting.
However, Derek didn't pay much attention to what they were talking about, his mind was still circling around the term boyfriend.
They needed to have a discussion about how open they wanted to be with this, Stiles had a reputation to uphold and making them official kinda defeated the purpose of their arrangement.
One thought led to the other and soon Derek was back to pondering what to do with their Wednesdays. They had crossed over into sexual a while ago and since they were boyfriends now it wouldn't be no strings attached sex any longer. But that meant they needed to talk about it and most likely another survey. Derek doubted that Stiles would go with a half-ass discussion right before a session again.
Thinking about all the new possibilities Derek felt his dick twitching in his pants and when the meeting was finally over, he had to subtly adjust himself and could only hope that his semi-boner was not that obvious.
"You kinda zoned out there." Stiles whispered when they left the room. "But it looks like your mind went nicer places than the guest list."
Derek just glared at him.
"Or were you fantasizing about somebody on that list?" Stiles teased. "It's Lydia, right? Don't be ashamed. I've been there. Man, the fantasies I had about her."
"She's one of your best friends." Derek shuddered in only partly fake disgust.
"She knows that I had a massive crush on her." Stiles shrugged but then a sly smile crept in his face. "Besides, I've somebody else I have fantasies about now." He bumped his shoulder into Derek's.
Stiles had fantasies about him? They had sex and scenes together, sure, but the idea that Stiles was thinking about him like this was still strange. Derek felt the heat in his cheeks and Stiles' confession did nothing to calm down his dick.
"I was thinking about our Wednesdays." He admitted. Two could play this game. "About what I would mark down if we did a full survey."
"You mean?" Stiles stopped walking, his arms caught in a wide gesture and Derek didn't need to turn around to know that he was gaping at him.
When Stiles caught up with him at the elevator, he was emitting waves of arousal and if Derek wasn't mistaken he smelled precome on him as well. His mouth watered at the thought of going down on Stiles in the elevator but even if they were alone in here, which they weren't, there were still cameras. Isaac would throw a fit if he caught them on tape like that.
The rest of the afternoon Stiles was throwing glances at him and he constantly smelled horny. Derek didn't really want to know what was going on in his head. But they were busy enough to not dwell on that too much.
In the end they had to hurry back to the suite to get dressed for dinner with Scott.
By now Derek was so used to wearing a suite that it didn't really bother him anymore but he still enjoyed every time he could just put on jeans and a Henley. Stiles came out of his room dressed equally casual, not caring that they would have dinner in one of the Red's restaurants and people would see him.
Scott was already waiting for them at a table and if he was surprised that Derek was there as well, he didn't let it show. He had only eyes for Stiles anyway. The second he saw him, he was out of his chair and had Stiles in a bear hug.
"I was so worried." He mumbled into Stiles' shirt.
"You heard about it two days late, you knew I was fine." Stiles pointed out but returned the hug just as fiercely.
"You should have called." Scott let go of his friend but only reluctantly. Out of the corner of his eye Derek saw a waitress, watching them with a fond smile. When she noticed him watching her, she rolled her eyes at the two idiots and Derek couldn't help but do the same.
"Derek." Only with a delay Scott greeted him. They shook hands and then sat down.
The waitress came over to take their drink order and hand them the menu. She greeted Stiles with name and Scott didn't seem to be a stranger either. Only Derek seemed to throw her off a little but after their shared moment earlier he felt like they had some kind of connection.
Scott and Stiles were already engrossed in a conversation, Stiles had to tell him every detail of the evacuation, and Derek kind of felt like a third wheel only minutes into their dinner. He wondered if it had been a good idea to come here in the first place.
"Don't worry." The waitress, her name tag read Mary, said in a low voice that was lost on Scott and Stiles. "They'll calm down in a bit."
So they were regulars here. Derek gave her a grateful smile and took a sip of his water.
Derek ordered the Spaghetti Carbonara, he had liked it before but it had been his first meal with Stiles so it was somewhat special to him now. When he had his first bite, he realized that this must be the place Stiles had ordered it from.
For a moment Derek sat there, almost fighting the tears when the flavor filled his mouth and nose. He was just glad that Scott and Stiles were still too engrossed in their conversation to notice that he was having a sentimental moment over pasta right next to them.
By the time Derek had himself under control again and was just enjoying a good meal, the others were done with catching up and now they included him in the conversation as well.
"Stiles told me that you're slowly taking over the Red." Scott said to him and for a second all Derek could hear was Lydia's voice, accusing him of playing some kind of con. But Scott's posture was open and there was a glint in his eye, telling him that he was joking.
"I don't know how I survived without him." Stiles stepped in.
"Me neither." Derek muttered. "You don't even have a secretary."
"I had secretaries before." Stiles defended himself with a pout.
"Yeah, they just never stayed for long." Scott leaned over with a conspiracy whisper. "He scared them away."
"It's not my fault they didn't have a sense of humor." The pout deepened.
"They couldn't deal with your erratic behavior." Scott corrected and Stiles didn't object. "You constantly change directions and you sprout new ideas every other second. Nobody can keep up with you and that's frustrating. So they leave." He glanced over at Derek and for the first time today the doubt was back in his eyes. "I'm surprised that you're still here."
"I don't know what the problem is." Derek turned his attention back to his plate. The spaghetti were to good to let Scott ruin his mood. "Stiles is Stiles."
Chapter 35
Masterpost