#dearesthale

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The first time he sees Derekat the library his breath catches in his throat. It’s not like he thought Derekdidn’t visit the library, because Derek looks like and is one of thosegoody two shoes ‘I submit every paper a month before the deadline’people. In Stiles’ opinion, it makes him even hotter.

At first, he’s breathlessbecause Derek is wearing Stiles’ favorite sweater – the dark green one thatmakes his eyes seem dazzlingly blue – but then, Derek glances up at him with a smallsmile on his face and oh. Oh. Isn’t that the most adorable thing Stileshas ever seen.

Stiles smiles back and waves,his heart pounding in his chest as he notices that the tips of Derek’s ears arered and shit, Stiles wants to ruin him.

Instead, he sits down at theopposite end of the library because he actually does need to finish his paperon Human Behavior. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t pick a strategically placedchair that lets him glance at Derek every so often without fear of being seen.

Derek’s immersed in hiswriting as usual – the nerd, Stiles fondly thinks before he catcheshimself and turns back to his paper. Right. Sociology. Very interesting.

Not as interesting aswatching Derek though, his brainunhelpfully supplies and halfway through Stiles just gives up all pretense andstarts watching Derek like the true creeper he is.

Derek’s not typing on hislaptop anymore and the sight makes Stiles frown. Has Derek given up on writingas well? Because Derek definitely doesn’t seem like the type to just give up ona paper when things aren’t going his way.

That’s when he notices thelittle notebook Derek’s writing in. It looks like moleskin though, so maybehe’s drawing? Stiles doesn’t care – as in, it doesn’t really matter because hedefinitely does care – because his eyes are transfixed on Derek’s face.

Derek’s smiling softly tohimself, his mouth open in concentration and eyes soft. Stiles doesn’t thinkhe’s ever seen a more beautiful sight. Then Derek reaches up to wipe one ofthose curls behind his ears and Stiles just about has a heart attack.

He’s sure his ownmouth is hanging open right now; Derek’s face is a mirror of what he’s writing– or drawing – frowning before smiling again, the little lines in his skinshifting. Stiles wants to trace them with his fingers – or his tongue, maybe.Anything Derek would give him, really.

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It becomes part of Stiles’routine after that, watching Derek in the library. It’s probably less romanticand more creepy than Stiles thinks it to be, but he can’t stop. Derek’sjust so cute with the sweaters and the blushing and the glasses and the hair.

Stiles has never really hadan obsession with someone’s hair before, so it’s kind of a first. Sure he’dliked Lydia’s hair, but with Lydia was more of a general thing. He’d neverbeen able to pick out any special things about her because everythingwas special.

With Derek though, he has awhole catalogue in his head. He can see the way Derek pushes his glasses up hisnose if he closes his eyes, the image imprinted in his brain. He’s done studieson Derek’s hands, broad palms with long, capable fingers.

And he’s totally stared atDerek’s ass before. Hey, he’s technically still a teenager. Might as well takeadvantage of it for as long as it lasts.

It’s only when Scottconfronts him about how much time he spends in the library that he decides tochange things. Because if Scott ‘I’m oblivious to everything except Allison’McCall notices something is up, things are getting kind of extreme.

So here Stiles is, standingin the door way to the second floor of the library. He knows Derek’s here - sohe memorized Derek’s schedule, sue him - and he takes a deep breath to steadyhimself before he walks in.

As expected, Derek is sittingin the back near a window. Too much artificial light probably hurts his eyes,with the glasses and all, and Stiles resists the urge to whimper because damnit, why is Derek such a cute nerd?

Derek’s wearing a brownsweater vest, and it makes him looks so soft and cuddly that Stiles has troubleresisting the urge to run over to him and hug him. He looks like a giant teddybear.

Instead, he forces himself towalk over slowly, because the longer he can keep Derek’s attention off him theless nervous he’ll get. He thinks. Or hopes.

Derek’s writing again,probably a paper for EH. His wrist moves precisely as he deftly presses keys.Stiles takes a minute to stare; the tendons of Derek’s forearm flexing, hisfingers moving as he pushes his glasses up his nose.

“Hey! Are you a hobby writer,or something?” Stiles asks, trying for casual as he leans onto the table rightnext to Derek’s laptop. His proud that his voice doesn’t tremble. Derek raisesan eyebrow. “I’ve just seen you writing in a notebook?”

“Oh,” Derek says, the tips ofhis ears growing red as he pushes his glasses up his nose. “I didn’t thinkanyone had seen me use my notebook.”

“I did,” Stiles says, maybe alittle too fast, he thinks as he watches Derek’s eyes widen. “You don’t have toanswer or anything, I was just curious. I can go if you want me to?”

Honestly, going is the lastthing on Stiles’ mind right now because he’s finally worked up the courage totalk to Derek – maybe ask him out on a date, he doesn’t know. And wow, hereally didn’t think this through, did he?

“No, no,” Derek says. “It’sokay, I don’t mind.”

“Okay then,” Stiles says,smiling. He sits down in the chair next to Derek’s, willing his heart rate toslow down. “So are you?”

“A hobby writer?” Derek says.Stiles nods in confirmation. “No. I like to draw, sometimes.”

Which, Stiles had given itsome thought, sure, but he’d really thought that Derek was more a writing kindof person. Though Stiles has to admit that he based that on stereotypes, so itwasn’t exactly accurate. Derek just looks and acts like a writer, withthe goodie two shoes and blushing and all that.

“Oh cool,” Stiles says,smiling. Derek nods, eyes wide. Stiles wonders if he’s maybe feelingoverwhelmed or something. “What do you draw?

“Nature, mostly,” Derek says,rubbing at the hair behind his ear. Stiles zones out for a moment – becausethose curls are so freaking adorable – before he narrows his eyes, recognizingthe gesture for what it is; Derek’s lying.

“Cool!” he says, plastering afake smile on his face. It’s none of his business anyways, so he isn’t gonnacall Derek out on it. “Can I see? I mean, if you don’t want me to that’s fine.I’m just-”

“Curious,” Derek finisheswith a small grin. Oh god, are those bunny teeth? Stiles thinks he might die.“It’s okay, you can see.”

Derek leans down to grab hisnotebook from his bag and Stiles resolutely does not look at the way itmakes his sweater stretch over his broad shoulders, highlighting the play ofhis muscles underneath his skin. God, Derek is fucking beautiful.

Derek makes a noise ofvictory, putting his notebook on the table with the utmost care. Stiles thinkshe might be a little bit in love; Derek handles books in general like they’rehis babies. And now he’s thinking about Derek with a baby, a tiny smile on hisface as he cradles them against his chest.

Dear Jesus, he needs to stop.

When Derek draws back thestring and opens it, he glances at Stiles from the corner of his eye but Stilesis too preoccupied with Derek’s drawings because oh my god. Derek couldlike, make money off of this.

The first drawing he sees isa watercolor of a waterfall, and it looks so real that Stiles is convinced it’sa picture before he looks closer and sees the grain of the paper under it butother than that it’s absolutely perfect.

“Wow,” he breathes, watchingas Derek flips a page. “Derek, these are really good.”

“Thanks,” Derek says, andwhen Stiles manages to tear his gaze away from the paper he sees a red flushspreading over his cheeks. “This one’s my favorite.”

Derek skips a few pages,until he comes across one that has a small crease in it, but Stiles holds hiswrist, stopping his progress. It couldn’t be, Stiles thinks, swallowing. It couldn’t.But that drawing looked like-

“Is that-“ he says before hecan stop himself. The line of Derek’s shoulders tenses. “Was that me?”

He softly turns the pagesback to the one he glimpsed, careful not to tear any of them. There, staringback at him, is his goofy face in about a dozen different positions from adozen different angles.

He turns a page, transfixed.Derek’s drawn him with light pencil strokes, softly shading his jaw and makinghim seem more delicate than he is, long eyelashes and curved lips. Derek’sfavorite - judging by the worn feel of the paper - is one of him where he’ssmiling, eyes lit up.

“I’m sorry,” Derek whispers,firmly keeping his eyes fixed on his palms, his entire face red. “I’ll stop, ifyou want me to. I realize it might be a bit creepy but I just – I couldn’t helpmyself.”

The last part is said sosoftly that Stiles almost doesn’t catch it. Stiles kind of wants to cry; that’sso far from what he wants that it’s sad. He reaches out to put a hand onDerek’s shoulder before he stops himself. He’s not actually allowed to do that.Shit. Derek flinches.

“No!” Stiles says. “No, oh mygod, it’s so fine! It’s more than fine, I’m actually kind of honored. It’s just– well, I might’ve come over here to you ask you out? On like, a date?”

Derek’s heads shoots up, hiseyes wide. Stiles’ heart is pounding; he’s pretty sure it’s kicking intooverdrive. Derek’s doing nothing but stare at Stiles, gaze flickering fromStiles’ eyes to his lips to his again.

“You would-“ Derek starts,swallowing before he continues. “You would want to go on a date with me?”

He looks so small, curled inon himself with his hands fisted in his sweater that Stiles feels kind of badfor him. He wants to wrap Derek in a hug and drape himself over Derek like asafety blanket and just kiss him and tell him that yes, I want to go on adate with you.

“Of course!” Stiles says,motioning towards Derek with his hand. “Have you seen you? You’re freaking adorable.”

Derek suddenly glowers,pushing his glasses up his nose as he straightens his spine. Stiles knows it’sall play though; he can see the way Derek’s cheeks grow redder. Like Stilessaid: adorable.

“I’m not adorable,” Dereksays, eyebrows drawn down. He looks like a pouting puppy. Stiles bites his lipto stop himself from bursting out into laughter.

“Of course you’re not, bigguy,” he says and he does slap a hand on Derek’s shoulder this time. “So isthat a yes to the date?”

“Yes!” Derek says, eyes wide.Stiles grins at him, his heart pounding when Derek smiles back.

“Cool!” he says and Dereknods shyly. The blush has spread down to his neck now and Stiles has to swallowhis way past the sudden urge to bite.

“Cool,” Derek echoes, pushinga curl behind his ear.

“Adorable,” Stiles murmurs,and he laughs when Derek punches his shoulder. The librarian glares at them andtells them to shut up and Derek immediately apologizes, turning bright red.

Adorable indeed.

A/N:

Yay, more nerd!Derek ficlets ^^ Exactly what the world needs :p Thanks to @ladydrace for looking over this

Anyways, I hope you liked it? Please tell me what you thought!