Work Text:
They had it all planned out before they even left Derek's house. A pack camping trip, to get back in touch with nature and just spend time with each other. It was perfect. Sleeping arrangements had been made and agreed to the night before- Scott and Stiles, Erica and Kira, Lydia and Jackson, Isaac and Boyd, Derek and Cora. It was meant to be perfect.
A few hours later and they had been walking up the mountain side for hours and Stiles and Lydia were steadily getting more and more cranky. The weres decided it was probably best to stop and set up camp for the night. It was a picture-perfect scene, they had unpacked all the camp furniture and placed it in a circle and a little fire was burning away; they were laughing and roasting marshmallows.
It was getting dark and Lydia and Jackson had already retired to their tent; Lydia sleepily saying goodnight to everyone and Jackson threatening homicide if they were too loud. Stiles slowly walked over to where Scott and Kira were unpacking and noticed Kira with the instructions out. He walked over to them with his huge backpack and plopped it down next to them.
"Hey, you don't have to help us! We've got enough brain cells between us to pitch a tent." Stiles jokingly chided Kira and went to start unpacking his bag next to Scott's.
"You didn't tell him?" Kira yelped from the side, looking at Scott worriedly.
"Tell me what?" Stiles looked to Scott confused.
"Oh, uh, sorry dude. Me and Kira are gonna share a tent tonight instead." Scott grimaced and spoke timidly. Stiles felt a pinprick of hurt in his stomach but payed it no mind.
"Oh, okay! Guess I'm sharing with Erica." Stiles chirped, he turned to see Erica and Boyd already halfway through raising a tent.
"No can do, Batman." Erica sang and turned back around. Stiles looked helplessly at Boyd, not even bothering to get his hopes up.
"Sorry, man." Boyd muttered and shook his head before carrying on. The pinprick turned into a steel nail slowly getting hammered into his chest.
"Okay... Isaac?" Stiles dragged his bag along the forest floor towards him.
"No way." Isaac gently scoffed and the nail morphed into the edge of a knife, slicing away at any sense of amity that was there like those soap carving videos Stiles loved so much. "Just sleep with Derek."
"Yeah! I'll share with Isaac." Cora piped up from beside them. Her smile not as innocent as she must've thought it was.
"Isaac just let Stiles share your tent." Derek seemed to be using his alpha-voice but it barely had an effect on them. Derek not wanting to share with Stiles so adamantly made the hurt-anger-sad feeling in his stomach slowly rise up his throat. Stiles clenched his teeth and breathed heavily through his nose trying to feel sick with anger.
"I don't wanna share with twitchy though!" Isaac whined, waving Cora over to him. She stalked towards him and unpacked her things next to his.
"Hey!" Stiles barked, offended. If there one thing on this earth Stiles hated the most it was people talking about him like he wasn't there. Countless of hospital appointments and parent-teacher conferences made it a sore spot.
"Let's just switch, Derek. Besides, you snore!" Cora crossed her arms and looked a few seconds away from stomping her foot in true little sister fashion.
"I do not." Derek muttered in vain.
"Forget it. I'll just sleep out here." Stiles said dejectedly, pulling his pillow from his bag and sitting down on a camp chair.
Derek growled and picked up Stiles' bag and dropped it next to his things and pointed to the already upright tent- that was far bigger than it needed to be in Stiles' opinion- motioning for Stiles to go in. Stiles didn't move, unaware if Derek was being serious or not.
"Get in the tent, Stiles." Derek snarled slightly and growled out. Stiles hopped to his feet and quickly scurried over to the tent.
"Why does this feel like a punishment instead of an act of kindness." Stiles said under his breath, knowing full well the weres would hear him.
He ducked into the large tent and pulled his sleeping bag out. Grumpily laying it out and burying himself in it, wanting the day to be over.
It was steadily getting colder and Stiles couldn't get warm or comfortable. He rolled and fidgeted his legs, rubbing his hands up and down his arms, sighing and squeezing his eyes shut.
Did Derek seriously still dislike Stiles that much? Why did no one in the pack want to share a tent with him? Stiles knows he can be loud and he's pretty fidgety but he's saved every single person's ass. More than once, might he add. Surely that balances out the fact he talks too much and hates sitting still.
Derek was breathing slowly, his face completely relaxed. Stiles stared at him and thought longingly about a parallel universe where they meet at a library or something and Derek falls head over heels for Stiles and they go on dates and sleep next to each other every night. He thinks about waking up next to Derek more often than he'd like to admit. Softly trailing his fingers over the planes his face, tracing the contours and drawing aimless patterns until Derek smiles and wakes up.
"Shut up, Stiles." Derek's voice suddenly sounded from beside him. Stiles jumped and panicked.
"I didn't even say anything!" Stiles was sure he didn't say all of that out loud.
"You're thinking too loud." Derek said succinct as ever.
"I didn't realise being psychic was also a werewolf trick." Stiles snarked and rolled over, his back to Derek now. Huffing he wiggled a little trying to warm up subtly. He heard movement from behind him but tried to refuse his urge to turn around and see what Derek was doing.
"Stiles." Derek said lowly. Stiles broke and looked over his shoulder to see Derek with his sleeping bag wide open and waiting. Stiles couldn't move. Was Derek inviting him in?
Derek got bored of waiting and growled a quick "Get in." Stiles jumped slightly and shuffled out of his bag and into Derek's.
Stiles' heart was beating hard and he cringed knowing Derek could easily hear it being to so close to him. He didn't realise how cold he actually was until he lay next to Derek, the heat radiating off of the werewolf like he was a walking furnace. Stiles wanted to hold his hands up to Derek's chest like he was the campfire but decided against it. He did want to keep his hands, after all.
Derek shifted them both and moved Stiles easily. Wrapping him up in his arms, folding Stiles' arms up and pressing them against his stomach, Stiles' head was pillowed more on Derek's upper arm than the actual pillow and Stiles was a little surprised at the softness of the other man's arm considering how often Stiles has seen the man working out.
Derek sighed heavily and rested his chin on the top of Stiles' head. Stiles felt oddly calm and didn't need to move to get comfortable.
"What are you doing?" Stiles spoke quietly into the tense air.
"Warming you up and stopping you from moving so much." Derek replied.
Stiles' thoughts went a mile a minute, everything from the mild sexual connotations of 'warming someone up' to the sincerity in Derek's voice, like he had no ulterior motives and he just seriously didn't want Stiles to be cold so they could sleep.
"Well, uh, thanks, dude." Stiles stammered, his hands slowly heating up from where they nestled against Derek's torso.
"Don't call me dude." Derek rumbled, twitching slightly as Stiles moved his fingers. Stiles happily stored away the knowledge that Derek was ticklish and spoke again.
"Okay. Thank you, Sourwolf." Stiles smirked to himself and poked Derek in the stomach. Derek jerked and huffed through his nose a sound like was almost similar to a laugh and muttered "You're welcome."
Stiles nearly got used to the feeling of Derek's arms around him. Suddenly the memories of a few hours before came flooding back into his mind and Stiles came crashing back down to Earth. His scent must've soured in some way because Derek huffed roughly and moved to look at Stiles' face.
"What's wrong?" he asked, surprisingly gentle and quiet.
"Why didn't anyone wanna share with me?" He was going to say a mild "Nothing." but Stiles couldn't stop the words from rolling off his tongue and bit his tongue as an afterthought. Not daring to look up at Derek's face he looked at Derek's neck. In the dark of the tent he could just about see some hair peeking over the top of Derek's shirt collar. He tried not to let the sting behind his eyes turn into tears so he closed his eyes and sighed.
"I think it's because they know I'd probably break their arms a few times over." Derek said airily.
"Why the hell would you do that?" Stiles sat up hastily to look at Derek, waiting for the punch line.
"Because I like you, idiot." Derek shifted and Stiles lost control of his jaw and felt it drop.
"No, you don't! You hate me!"
"No, I don't! I just-" he paused. "You're the first person since Paige that has made me this nervous. I feel like a school kid again resigned to pulling your pigtails." Derek spoke quickly and sighed, frustrated.
"You like me?" Stiles said, smiling but still disbelieving.
"Less and less by the second." Derek murmured, he brought his arm up to covers his face in the crook of his elbow but Stiles pulled it off and smiled widely.
"You like me." he was giddy and struggling to talk quietly.
"I take it back." Derek said deadpan.
"Nope! No take backs!" Stiles laughed happily and sighed. Derek was smiling slightly and Stiles' heart stuttered and his cheeks went warm.
"It's great you got your head out your ass but some of us are trying to sleep, Stilinski!" Jackson's voice angrily sounded from outside and a few sniggers were heard too. Stiles snorted into Derek's chest, both of them chuckling and shushing each other. When they calmed down Stiles looked at him as best he could in the dark and gathered the courage to speak.
"I like you too." he said quietly. He leant down slowly, and pressed a gentle kiss to Derek's warm lips. They kissed slowly and gently until Stiles was lightheaded and had to pull away. "I'd love to continue but we really should go to sleep."
Derek smiled and nodded, rolling onto his side again, putting Stiles back in the position he was in before. He kissed Stiles' hairline and whispered into his hair.
"Goodnight."
"G'night." Stiles whispered back.
Almost effortlessly Stiles drifted off to sleep, letting the gentle waves of Derek breathing and the warm lull him to sleep.
~ epilogue ~
The next day when he woke up Stiles didn't want to move, he was unnaturally warm and cushioned from every angle. The memory of yesterday dawned on him and he whipped his head up to see Derek, still asleep, mouth slightly open, breathing heavily.
He seriously didn't look cute by anyone's standards but Stiles had to stop himself from cooing and instead shifted an arm out of the bag to lightly run his fingers down the slope of his nose. He traced his thick brows and swirled his fingers in the hollow of his cheekbones, drawing circles and swirls on the apples of Derek's cheeks. Derek smiled slowly and Stiles pulled his hand away flushing slightly.
Derek frowned and whined nasally, Stiles chuckled and brought a finger back to the bridge of his nose. He doodled on Derek's face for a few more minutes before his arm got tired and he stopped.
"That was nice." Derek slurred, sleepily.
"I've got something to tell you." Stiles said seriously. Derek opened an eye and squinted up at him, curious.
"What's up?"
"You totally do snore." Stiles grinned slowly and giggled when Derek growled and pushed him away. Stiles kissed Derek's nose and lips and melted back into his embrace. It was perfect.
"I think I could stay here forever." Stiles spoke into Derek's neck, nuzzling into the warm.
"Me too." Derek replied. He was playing with the small hairs on Stiles' nape and Stiles was nearly falling asleep again. They suddenly both jumped at the sound of a voice.
"Come on, lovebirds. We've got hiking to do!" Lydia ordered. The looked at each other and chuckled.