Title: animal magnetism
Rating: g/pg
Pairings: Derek/Stiles
Warnings/Notes: using the trope weirdness magnet where derek is the magnet and stiles is the weirdness. super loose interpretation of the trope lol. also literally everyone is alive.
Word Count: 1443
It starts on a Tuesday.
Derek drives in to town that morning, reusable shopping bags in the seat next to him and a folded up grocery list in his back pocket. He fills his cart with fruits and veggies and twelve ears of corn cause they're 6/$1.00 and sometimes he likes to throw them on the grill. He grabs the ingredients for homemade pizza and spends five minutes debating between strawberry ice cream and Rocky Road before finally settling on both. He stocks up on toothpaste and buys the mega pack of paper towels because they're on sale and saves $7.50 in coupons when he checks out.
All in all, it's a pretty normal shopping trip.
Until he starts to load the groceries in the back of his car. It doesn't take him long to toss the paper towels in the back before loading the cases of water in front of them. He's grabbing his bags two at a time when he realizes his mistake. He hears the footsteps as soon as he lifts and it's already too late to turn toward the shadow he can see out of the corner of his eye.
He flinches when he sees the long fingers sneaking in to his field of vision, but before he can even turn around to snarl at the person, a quick "Hey, dude, let me help!" is muttered to the back of his head.
Stiles lifts a bag, grunting at how heavy it is because Derek never knows how to tell the bagger not to fill it so much. "Jeez, dude, what did you buy?" Stiles asks, setting the bag down in front of the case of water.
Derek just grunts before grabbing the last few bags and placing them carefully in the trunk. "Thanks," he mutters and he can see out of the corner of his vision when Stiles just shrugs and says "No problem."
Stiles doesn't even say goodbye as he turns away and heads into the store, but Derek still has a hard time not watching him walk away.
He tries not to find it weird that Stiles just willingly helped him out for no reason.
The next time is a Friday night. The whole pack is over for what Scott is calling a Bonding Extravaganza. Really it's just an excuse for all of them to stay out past curfew and eat pizza and chips while watching several movies in a row. This week it's Erica's turn to pick and she's continuing with her Ryan Gosling theme, much to Jackson's chagrin. She has a smug grin on her face as Boyd puts the DVD in and Stiles is laughing even as Jackson pushes his feet off the table.
Derek loves these nights, even if having the whole pack together turns into a disaster. It means that at least they are together, that they made it through their last big catastrophe whole and relatively unscathed.
He can't even be mad at the massive amounts of romantic comedies they end up watching.
Derek settles into the couch, allowing himself to relax into the cushions and tries to contain his smile as Cora plops down into the seat next to him. He tenses up slightly when Stiles sits on the other side of him, but only because he still can't figure out why Stiles stopped to help him at the grocery store the other day.
Eventually, though, he lets himself slip further into the couch cushions and Ryan Gosling's dreamy blue eyes. He feels more than sees Stiles twist his body around and fling his arm over the back of the couch and can hear him rustling around in the backpack he'd stored back there. Derek goes back to ignoring him in favor of admiring Rachel McAdams but it's not long before a large, rather appealing Chocolate Chip Cookie is waved under his nose.
He glances out of the side of his eyes to Stiles who still hasn't taken his own eyes off the television. "What?" he says and is immediately shushed by Kira.
"Had some extras," Stiles whispers under his breath, waving the cookie again. "Brought you some."
Derek slides the cookie from Stiles' fingers and tries not to focus on how warm the boy's hands are. "Thanks," he mutters and watches as Stiles grins without ever looking at him.
It's not until after everyone has left that Derek realizes Stiles only had enough cookies for himself and Derek.
It happens again, this time early on a Sunday. Derek's just returned from a run when he finds Stiles sitting on the steps in front of his apartment. He usually does his stretches on the exact step Stiles happens to be on but he can't bring himself to make him get up.
He wipes up sweat as he stops in front of Stiles.
"Morning," Stiles says and Derek thinks he's far more chipper than he'd expected him to be on a Sunday morning. "Brought you breakfast."
Stiles holds up a brown paper bag, grease creating splotches along the bottom crease. "And Gatorade."
"Why?" Derek asks, but he takes the bag anyway because the smell of the sausage biscuit is making his stomach rumble.
"Why not?" Stiles questions as he stumbles up the stairs after Derek. "I knew you would be on your run and I wanted to do something nice. So I brought you breakfast. And Gatorade."
Derek just stares at him as he sets the bag on the kitchen counter, washing his hands with the pomegranate soap Lydia made him buy.
"I hate Gatorade," he finally says, turning to grab two plates out of the cabinet.
"Noted," Stiles says with a laugh and Derek tries to ignore the way his heart flutters at the sight of Stiles' blush.
It continues like that for a few months. Stiles being weird and helpful and nice. Derek doesn't call him out on it again, but that's mainly because he realizes Stiles is doing nice things for all of the pack. He starts to think maybe he was reading too much into the acts of kindness.
Until the day he comes home to find Stiles sprawled across his couch. The thing is loud and ugly, a burgundy and burnt orange color that Laura found at a garage sale and that Isaac had painstakingly cleaned. But it's comfy as hell so there's usually a fight over who gets to sit in it.
And right now, Stiles is fast asleep on it. Derek doesn't even question how he got in his apartment. In fact, all he can think about his how peaceful Stiles looks, finally at ease in his own skin. Derek decides to let him sleep for a bit and goes upstairs to change. By the time he comes back into the living room, however, Stiles is awake and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"Hey, when did you get back?" he asks and Derek's stomach flips when he hears how gruff Stiles' voice is.
"Not too long ago. What are you doing here?" Derek hopes the question doesn't come out as rude as he thinks it did.
"Oh, I, uh, I brought you something," Stiles stutters before digging into his backpack. He grunts slightly as he tugs out a thick, leather bound book before setting it on the couch between them. "I found it at that new shop on the corner. You know, the one that always smells like frankincense and the cashier is always trying to flirt with Allison?"
Derek nods in understanding as he picks up the book, an ancient text with fragile binding and paper thin pages. It's exactly like one his parents used to have. An entire book of legends and werewolf history.
Derek swallows hard.
"Stiles," he starts, but he has to stop to swallow again. "Why do you keep doing this?"
And that's the exact opposite of what he wanted to come out of his mouth.
"I-" Stiles says and then winces. "I can take it back," he says and Derek's heart hurts with how sad he sounds. "I just wanted to get you something nice."
Derek can't help himself, he has to know. "But why?"
He doesn't want to be cliché, but it's like time stands still as he waits for Stiles to answer.
"Because I wanted to, idiot. Because you deserve it. And because I like you."
Later on, Stiles will tell him that the grin Derek lets grow on his face could have powered the sun.
"I like you, too."
Stiles continues with his trend of surprising Derek with unique and sometimes useful gifts, even after they start dating.
Derek no longer finds it weird.
Tropes Generated:
samurai cowboysmoking hot sexeleventh hour rangereleventh hour superpowerweirdness magnet