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Derek did not like Stiles Stilinski. At all.He didn’t like all those brown moles that stood out on Stiles’ pale skin, and he didn’t want to seek out every single mole on his body and map out all the little constellations that they formed.He didn’t like his clumsiness that some people might call endearing. Derek certainly wouldn’t. He didn’t care if Stiles got hurt when he was playing lacrosse or whenever the pack was fighting whatever monster was drawn to Beacon Hills that time.He didn’t like how smart he was and how he could figure out everything using his brain and a bunch of multicolored strings on a board. How he could jump from subject to subject in a manner that only he could understand. How he could even outsmart Peter.And he absolutely didn’t like the incredible loyalty that he showed to his father and Scott. And the pack. And even Derek himself, when Derek didn’t even like him.He didn’t.The worst part was that while Derek didn’t like Stiles, his wolf did. His wolf thought that Stiles of all people was the perfect mate for him. It was getting harder and harder to resist the wolf’s desire to just run over to the Stilinski house and bathe in Stiles’ supposedly glorious scent.It didn’t matter. Derek wasn’t going to bend to the wolf’s desires and that was final.Because Derek did not like Stiles Stilinski. Not one bit.That was his story and he was sticking to it. If he kept telling himself that, he just might believe it.**********Derek preferred to do his grocery shopping late at night, when the most of the citizens of Beacon Hills weren’t around to either be suspicious of him or to ogle him. He still hadn’t decided which one was worse. At nearly closing him, the grocery store was quiet with only a few other shoppers there, while the employees were starting to clean up the store. Nice and peaceful, just how Derek liked it.Having a hungry pack made up mostly of freshly graduated teenage werewolves meant that he went through food way too quickly. He must have spent at least a hundred dollars on meat alone during the several meals a week they all shared together. Not to mention how often Stiles spent over at the loft to help figure out supernatural problems or, much more often, just to bother him.He finished selecting the vegetables that he needed, because Stiles would scold him endlessly if he didn’t feed the pack healthy food, too. He continued moving his cart down the aisles, plucking the things he needed off the shelves. He was quick and efficient with his shopping, like he was with most things in his life. The pack, mostly Stiles, had even eaten all the snack food that he’d had in the loft. Derek needed to stock up on snacks again, particularly those cheese-flavored chips that Stiles liked to eat. Nothing wrong with that. He was the alpha and he had to provide for his pack, even annoying little motormouths that came into his loft uninvited far too often.As he turned into the snack aisle, he stopped cold in his tracks. There was Stiles, the bane of his existence, just standing in front of the potato chips and staring at the different varieties, muttering softly enough that Derek‘s advanced hearing couldn‘t tell what he was saying.Before Derek could turn tail and head to another aisle before the human could spot him, Stiles turned his head and beamed when he saw Derek. Why did he have to look so happy whenever he saw Derek? And why did it make Derek’s heart flutter when he saw that smile? “Hey, dude! Going shopping in the dark like all the other scary creatures of the night?” Stiles asked with a cheeky wink.Derek merely raised an eyebrow. “Like you?” he asked, looking Stiles up and down.Stiles gasped in mock shock. “I am not a creature of the night. I am merely an awesome sidekick!” he said, then quickly amended, “Well, it would be nice to be the hero for once, though I want to stay human--”“What are you doing here, Stiles?” Derek interrupted before Stiles could really get going. Stiles would make an amazing hero, and if Derek actually liked him, he might try to help him out.“I was going for a snack run,” Stiles said, finally reaching out and grabbing his favorite chips, the kind that Derek needed to buy. For the pack. And if Stiles just happened to be part of the pack, it didn’t mean that they were necessarily for him.Derek snatched the bag of chips out of Stiles’ hands, then took another bag for the loft and stuck them both in his cart. Stupid wolf making him do that to provide for his mate.Stiles stared at him open-mouthed. “Are you really buying those for me?” he asked.“I’m already buying one, so I may as well buy another,” Derek grumbled, trying to hide the wolf’s pleasure at making his mate happy.“You’re the best, Sourwolf!” Stiles beamed.Derek didn’t turn the slightest bit of pink. “Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled, not feeling pleased at all.**********Derek found himself climbing up to Stiles’ room a few times a week when the Sheriff wasn’t home. Stiles did most of the research for the pack, though Lydia did help when Latin or other obscure languages were involved. And more often than not, research wound up turning into movie watching. It wasn’t like Derek actually liked watching movies with Stiles. He talked a lot during them, providing commentary that he clearly thought was witty. Derek couldn’t stand listening to his theories and other thoughts. They were usually more amusing than the actual movies they watched.“Come on, Sourwolf, let’s watch something,” Stiles cajoled. “I’ll even let you pick the first movie.”Derek rolled his eyes at the ridiculous nickname that Stiles liked to call him and chose one of Stiles‘ superhero movies. He had nothing better to do and didn’t feel like going back to the loft. He sat down beside Stiles on the bed and laid back to watch the movie.**********Derek slowly opened his eyes, not sure at first where he was, but he knew it was somewhere safe. After a quick whiff of the room, he realized he’d fallen asleep while sitting in Stiles’ bed. With his head resting on Stiles’ shoulder. The menu screen for the movie was still running.He jerked away from Stiles, hoping that wouldn’t cause him to wake up. Thankfully, he just snored and his head fell over without Derek’s head there to rest his head on. He continued snoring to Derek’s immense relief.He carefully turned off the laptop and snuck out the window. Stiles could never find out that the wolf liked him and found it easy to sleep next to him.Only the wolf. Certainly not Derek.**********Stiles and the rest of the pack disappeared off to college in August. The ones who remained in California for school did occasionally come back to Beacon Hills for weekends, so Derek wasn’t entirely packless, or Stiles-less, during the school year.Eventually, the leaves changed colors and fell off the trees, and then winter arrived, along with the holiday season. Derek found it harder and harder to resist the wolf’s desire to provide for Stiles and bask in his scent ever since he wasn‘t around as much. He didn’t really miss Stiles. It was all the wolf’s feelings, which he didn’t share.When he found himself at the mall looking for something to give to Stiles for Christmas, he finally admitted to himself that he actually liked Stiles Stilinski. Not just liked, but had feelings for him. He actually found himself feeling a little bit lighter in spirit once he acknowledged his feelings.But now it was time to admit them to Stiles.**********When Derek arrived at the Stilinski’s house, there were no heartbeats in the house and both Stiles’ Jeep and the Sheriff’s police cruiser were absent from the driveway.Derek could hear Stiles’ voice in his head saying, “Old habit die hard, huh, Sourwolf?” as he climbed up to Stiles’ second floor window. He opened the cracked open window and slipped inside.He took a deep breath and just breathed in Stiles’ scent. There were layers and layers of Stiles’ scent from all the years that he’d lived there, but there was a fresher scent of a more mature Stiles laced with the aroma of too much coffee while studying.Derek waited in Stiles’ room until he faintly heard the sound of the Jeep’s motor as it approached the house. It pulled up into the driveway before the engine turned off and a door slammed shut. He heard footsteps before the front door opened. But Stiles didn’t come up to his room right away. Derek could hear him puttering around downstairs, probably getting something to eat. But Derek continued to wait patiently and was rewarded by Stiles finally entering his room and yelping in shock when he laid eyes on the werewolf.“God, Derek!” he cried, holding a hand over his rapidly beating heart. “You’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days! Give a guy some warning, please!”“But that’s not as much fun,” Derek smirked.Stiles narrowed his eyes. “While the fact that you have a sense of humor is awesome and totally needs to be cultivated so you can reach my perfect level of sarcasm and wit, what is it that you need this time? Is there a new monster in Beacon Hills or something that you need my help with? You’d think they’d give us a break with the holidays coming or something. But they probably don’t even celebrate,” he concluded, grumbling.Derek took a deep breath. “Actually,” he said, pulling a carefully wrapped present out of his jacket pocket, “I came to deliver this.” He hesitantly held it out to Stiles.Stiles took it, open-mouthed in shock. “For me?” he asked. “A present for me? From you?” He stared at him in awe.“Yes,” Derek said. “For you.”“Can I open it now, or do I have to wait?”“You can open it now.”“Awesome!” Stiles grinned as he tore open the paper to reveal “I Was a Teenage Werewolf,” a silly B movie that they had watched together. “I… heard that it’s not going to be on Netflix for much longer, so I thought that you might want a real copy that you can watch whenever you want,” Derek said softly while watching Stiles for his reaction.Stiles, for his part, looked even happier. “It’ll be our movie from now on!” he proclaimed, then looked uncertainly at Derek. “If you want it to be, I mean. Sometimes I’m never even certain if you like me, but I like you, probably way, way more than I should. I don’t want to force--”“I like you, too,” Derek interrupted, overflowing with relief knowing that Stiles did feel the same way. “I just didn’t want to admit it at first.”“But now you do?” Stiles asked hopefully.“Now I do,” Derek affirmed, taking Stiles’ hand and squeezing it gently.“Awesome,” Stiles beamed.As their lips met in their first kiss, Derek’s last coherent thought was, Yes, it is.