#background scallison

“This place is creepy.”

“It’s a haunted house,” Stiles said. “That’s kind of the point.”

Derek crossed his arms and scowled. “I still don’t see why we had to come.”

Stiles gestured to the rest of the pack, where Erica was excitedly dragging Boyd and Isaac through the front doors, Scott was gazing adoringly at Allison and following her in, and Cora and Lydia were walking just close enough together to secretly brush hands every time they took a step. Stiles didn’t know who they thought they were fooling. “We’re here because they’re here. And since you’re the pack alpha and I’m the pack emissary, we kind of have to be.”

“They’d be fine on their own,” Derek muttered.

Seriously? This whole “pack bonding” thing had been Derek’s idea in the first place. Stiles rolled his eyes. “Do you want to deal with Erica’s sad face when we tell her we’re bailing? Because I don’t want to deal with Erica’s sad face.”

“She’ll understand,” Derek said, but his conviction was wavering.

Stiles stepped closer to him. “Be honest with me. Are you upset because you don’t want to do a haunted house, or are you upset because this won out over your suggestion of going to pick out pumpkins and carve them?”

Derek ducked his head and grumbled, “We could’ve done both.”

That was both petty and unbelievably cute. Stiles would not coo over how adorable it was that Derek would prefer to pick pumpkins than go through a haunted house. 

“It’s just that…” Derek trailed off.

Stiles waited, but Derek didn’t finish. “Just what?”

“We can’t talk in a haunted house,” Derek finally finished. “Everybody will be in their own little groups, and we won’t meet up again until the end.”

And that…okay, Stiles could understand that. Part of pack bonding was, in fact, bonding, so of course Derek would prefer something that would let them do that part.

He took Derek’s hands. “Tell you what. We’ll do the haunted house now, I’ll buy hot chocolate for everyone after so we have an excuse to hang out and chat, and then we’ll do the pumpkin carving later this weekend. Does that sound good?”

“Do you think they’ll want to?” Derek asked.

“Psh, I’m their emissary, they’ll do it.” Stiles squeezed Derek’s hands. “And they’ll definitely do it when they find out how happy it will make their alpha.”

Derek blushed, and Stiles had to resist the urge to kiss his cheek.

“And to sweeten the pot, I’ll hold your hand if you get scared in the haunted house,” Stiles said.

Derek glared at him, but it didn’t have any heat to it. “Is that the only way you’ll hold my hand?”

“Nah.” Stiles laced their fingers together. “I’ll hold your hand the whole time, if you want.”

Derek sighed, like he was so put-upon, but he didn’t let go of Stiles’s hand. “I guess that’ll have to do.”

Stiles laughed and leaned into him. “Don’t even pretend like you don’t absolutely adore me.”

Derek kissed his temple. “Yeah, I really do.”