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When Peter left the loft, Isaac having gone over to Scott’s hours before (something Stiles absolutely wasn’t thinking about thank you very much), he was left alone with Derek, going through some texts that Derek had offered to let him read.
“Is it true you’re only being as tactile as you are with me because I’m a new pack member?” Stiles asked without looking up from the passage he’d been reading and taking notes from periodically for the last hour or so. He didn’t hear Derek reply so tilted his head, glancing back to the sofa and he caught Derek staring at him, confused. “I mean, it’s totally cool, I enjoy it actually,” he mused with a small smile. “But I was just wondering is all, because Peter-”
“What,” Derek started, growling. “Has Peter been saying?” Stiles had the good grace to pause and think on his next words very carefully. Getting Peter into trouble didn’t really bother him; they liked to rile each other up. It was their therapy, so to speak.
“He just said...” Stiles licked his lips, eyes going back to the text. “That your constant touching, scenting, petting... is generally to make new pack members feel welcome, but it can also be two-fold... He didn’t really explain, but I got the impression that it was relevant to me so I did what I always do; I looked it up.”
Derek shifted in his seat, looking at him with a strange hesitant look on his face that just didn’t belong. “What did you find out then?” he asked and Stiles sighed, standing up and walking over to sit on the coffee table in front of the alpha.
“You could make this easy on both of us, you know,” he pointed out, smiling and Derek huffed out a snort of amusement.
“When have you ever known me to make things easy?”
“I’ll give you that, but this doesn’t have to be complicated or convoluted, it could be straight forward, simple. You could say what you mean, I could... say yes.” Stiles was blushing, he coudl feel the heat of the blood rushing to his cheeks, but he forced himself to maintain eye contact with Derek. They needed to be level on this. He caught the near silent gasp from Derek and uncurled his clenched hands so his fingers were knocking against Derek’s knees. “Look... if I’m just a part of the pack, touchy-feely puppy piles, rubbing against each other, scenting and all, I’ll be happy. I’m just happy I’m here, and alive. That’s also a good thing,” he nodded more to himself than Derek.“I know you think that my being human may be perceived by others as my being the weak link of the pack, and in some instances, you’re right, but I’m here. And I’ve done my research, thoroughly...” he licked his lips and cleared his throat before continuing. “And if... what Peter hinted at is true and is possible, I’d say yes knowing full well what I’m going into. And now I’m really hoping I got this right because that would be mortifying, oh god,” he let a hysterical giggle pass his lips and saw Derek’s shoulders lose some of the tension that had been there as the other man smiled.
“This... This isn’t a light decision to be making, Stiles. For either of us. Once,” he paused and decided to just go for it, confident they were still talking about the same thing. “Once I mark you, once I claim you... and once we,” he made a vague hand gesture. “Consummate?” They shared a light grin at the formal wording. “That’s it for me. I - that is - the wolf, we’ll-I’ll be bound to you. Forever. It’s a life time deal and if there’s an afterlife, we’ll be bound there too.”
“Would you want to change me?” Stiles asked gently and Derek was suddenly there, grasping his hands tightly, face barely six inches from his own.
“You’ve stated very clearly that you don’t want to be a wolf, and I’ll respect that. I can’t promise to understand it because I’ve never been without my wolf, but I suppose its the same as me having the chance to become human; I don’t want to change, neither do you. I won’t ever pressure you into making that choice, however...” Stiles raised an eyebrow. “If something happens and there’s no other option, no way modern medicine can help you...” he released one of Stiles hands and reached out to cup Stiles’ cheek, thumb brushing a line just beneath his eye and Stiles felt himself leaning into the touch. “I won’t live without you if there’s a chance turning you would save your life. I wouldn’t be able to let you go even if we didn’t become mate,” he admitted. “You’re pack and I would protect you with my last breath.”
“I can live with that worst case scenario,” Stiles smiled. “And, just to be clear, this mates business, I want it. i want it all. I want to be your anchor, I want to be the one to sleep next to you at night, I want to be at your side when dealing with the politics of running a pack, I want... I want to be with you,” he finished on a whisper and leaned forward until their foreheads were resting against each other. “Pups and all,” their lips twitched.
“There’s only one to speak of,” Derek reminded him, chuckling.
“For now.” They shared another smile and then, shared their first kiss.
An hour later, they were laying together on the sofa (still clothed! Perverts) and Stiles leaned back to look down at Derek from where the other man had been methodically breathing in the scent that was uniquely Stiles. “Hey,” he said, and he heard Derek grunt in response, trying to bury his nose further into Stiles’ neck. “Say,” he continued with a light grin. “So is Pack Mom a real thing?”
And then began to giggle when Derek just raised an eyebrow at him, telling Stiles just how stupid he thought the question was.
It turned out though, that Pack Mom was a thing, unofficial though it was, it was generally recognised as the second to the alpha within a pack, so Stiles was totally gonna take up that mantle.
Sleep first though.