They did everything together. Derek was there for Stiles when his mom died, taken away so suddenly by a drunken driver, the man Talia put away for John when he could barely pick himself up from the weight of his grief. Stiles will always remember the way his father’s head had slowly risen when Talia walked in from court that day, the small nod she exchanged with his father, the realization that although this man was away, it still hadn’t brought his mother back… Nothing could. There was no victory in her eyes, only loss and heartbreak, no closure, only a sense of finality, a sense that this was what they were left with, the killer in prison, and the hole he had left in their hearts and homes, never to be filled again.

When Derek’s father never came back out from the house fire, never returned with the little girl he was trying to save from the smoke, Stiles was there for Derek, a shoulder to cry on, a pillow through sleepless nights, and sometimes, in his worst moments, the punching bag to let his frustrations out on, the one person that would take his anger and pain and grief, and understand exactly where it was coming from. His stood next to him at the side of the grave, the priest droning on about a man he had never met, somehow cold inside, empty and hollow, despite the blazing June sun in the sky above.

Derek was Stiles’ person, as Stiles was Derek’s. They helped each other heal, acknowledged that the holes in their chests may scar over in time, but they would never fade completely. Derek was the first one the see Stiles smile again after his mother’s death. Stiles, the first to make Derek laugh after they lowered an empty casket into the earth. Through middle school and the first 3 years of high school, they became the people they were meant to be, through the help of each other’s friendship, and each other’s love. They always found one another when the other was lost, brought each other back to reality when they slipped too far into the past.

They had always found each other, no matter what, which was why Stiles was so incredibly frustrated that, for the past 2 weeks, Derek had been unreachable to him. He hadn’t disappeared, in fact, he was right across the cafeteria, directly within Stiles’ eye line, but no matter how much Stiles tried, in the hallways, in class, through text messages, Stiles couldn’t get Derek to respond to him, to speak to him, to say anything. And after 2 weeks of this frustration, Stiles was determined to find out why.

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, and the 6 minutes until the next class period started, and Stiles reacted quickly, knowing he didn’t have much time. He rose from the bench, grabbing his tray and rushing towards the trash can, dumping everything quickly and tossing the tray onto the return pile, then jogging after Derek’s retreating back, dodging people in his way. He made it out into the hallway safely, turning corners quickly, hesitant to lose sight of his best friend, finally catching up when Derek had to stop at his locker.

“Der!”

He could see his shoulders tense and picked up his pace as Derek yanked his book out, slamming the door shut and turning away towards his next class. He finally made it to him, practically sprinting down the hallway, and grabbed Derek’s arm firmly, tugging him into the still empty class-room to their right. Derek yanked his arm out of his grip, edging back towards the door, till Stiles blocked it with his body, closing off his exit.

“Stiles, move, I have to get to class, Harris will kill me if I’m-“

“I’ll move once you tell me what the hell is going on with you!”

Derek flinched, eyes locked on the wall to the left of Stiles’ shoulder, mouth pulled into a tight line.

“It’s noth-“

“I swear if you say ‘it’s nothing’ right now, I’m going to be so mad at you! What the hell is going on!?!”

“NOTHING, okay?”

Stiles’ mouth snapped shut at the outburst, his eyes widening in shock. Derek hadn’t yelled at him like this in years.

“Der-“

“Oh my God Stiles, just shut up and leave ME ALONE!” The warning bell rang, signaling they only had 2 minutes to get to class. “Go talk to Lydia about her prom dress or something else stupid, just leave me the hell alone.” He shoved Stiles to the side, pushing the door open and storming out into the hall, never looking back to see the shocked, hurt expression on Stiles’ face.

The final bell rang, forcing Stiles into action, and he hurried down the hall, the floor tiles blending together through the tears in his eyes, slipping quietly through the door into his English class and into the seat next to Lydia, her concerned eyes locked on him. He could see her open her mouth out of the corner of his eye and he shook his head sharply, making her mouth close back up, and her body lean back in its seat. She stared at him for a few more moments, then nodded, and, when their teacher became distracted again at the whiteboard, she leaned forward, slowly penning out “later” onto the edge of his notebook paper. He sighed, staring at the word, then nodded, seeing her body relaxing completely, her attention focusing on the lesson, his following shortly after

***LATER***

He was curled up on Lydia’s bed, his head in her lap and her hands petting through his hair, his body shaking slightly as he finished stuttering out what had happened in the classroom with Derek after lunch. Her hands paused slightly when he mentioned to comment about her and prom, brain running through the past conversations with her and Stiles about prom.

“Wait, he told you to talk to me about my prom dress? That doesn’t make any sense, why would you care about my prom dress, I mean, I’ll ask your opinion on it, but why would he…” Her voice drifted off as the pieces started to click, and Stiles, glanced up, lifting his head from her lap and sitting up when he saw her face.

“Lyds?”

“Stiles, was Derek ever around when we were talking about our plans for prom? Did he read any of the texts I sent you or hear you on the phone with me?” It wasn’t an unlikely situation, Derek and Stiles spent so much time in each other’s pockets until 2 weeks ago, and he knew Stiles’ phone password.

“I don’t know, I don’t think… Oh God, do you think Derek knows? Do you think he knows I was going to ask him to Prom, that you were helping me figure out how, Oh my God, he’s probably disgusted with me, no wonder he’s been avoiding me, his best friend has a crush on him, his best friend who he thought was straight, and Derek’s straight, of course he’s straight, of course he doesn’t feel that way about me, oh God, he knows, that’s why, that’s why he’s been avoiding me, that’s why he won’t talk to me, he knows I’m in love with him, oh my God, Lydia!!” She grabbed his face in both hands, forcing Stiles to look at her. His face was a mess there were tears running down his cheeks and his eyes were red and puffy, and he was gasping for breath, and she knew she had to calm him down before he freaked himself into a panic attack.

“Stiles. Stiles! STILES!” He finally froze, holding his breath and staring at her. “I don’t think he knows you were going to ask him to Prom, otherwise he wouldn’t have said anything about me and you! I think… I think Derek thinks we’re going to Prom together, I think he probably heard us talking or saw a text message or –“

“The suit.” She tilted her head, surprised and confused at her interruption. “He must have seen the text you sent me about how I looked in the new suit you got me, he must have thought I was going with you to Prom, that I…” He trailed off, and she watched as realization swept across his face, followed closely by anger. “That… That… That JERK!! What a- ugh!! Who does he think he is, getting all mad at me for- oh he is going to pay for ignoring me and yelling at me and… What an asshole!” He shoved off of her bed, stomping down the staircase, and slamming out the front door, and she listened as his car came to life and sped off down the road. She smiled slowly, reaching for her phone and typing out a text, giggling when she hit send.

“Oh, this is going to be good.” She sighed gently to herself, smiling down at her screen.

A few minutes away, in the heart of the Beacon Hills preserve, Laura Hale’s phone dinged with an incoming text message, and she opened it, her sister and her both leaning in to read “Prepare for the ultimate blowup.” She and Cora frowned at each other questioningly, staring back down at the text, and she began to type back a question mark when, distantly, they could hear the sound of a familiar engine roaring down the road.

They grinned at each other, glancing up when they heard the thud that had been continuous for the past hour and a half from their brother’s room upstairs, Derek throwing his hacky-sack against the ceiling. It stopped when the car started up the driveway, the bed creaking with someone sitting up quickly, the muffled thumps of footsteps to the window overlooking the woods, timed perfectly with the car screeching into their driveway, engine noise quickly extinguished.

A car door slammed, quickly followed by footfalls up the porch steps and across to the door, Stiles not even knocking before bursting in, red faced and breathing harshly, storming past the sisters on the couch and up the main staircase, front door left swinging open.

Derek turned from the window when the door to his room banged open, Stiles, an extremely pissed off Stiles, standing in his doorway, huffing.

“Stiles-“

“NO!” Derek stepped back in shock, silenced by the power in his best friend’s voice. “You did all your talking earlier today, now it’s my turn to speak.” He nodded slowly at Stiles’ accusing finger, edging to lean against the windowsill. “How DARE you!” Derek shot back up to standing, mouth opening on a retort, but closing again quickly when Stiles walked forward towards him, slamming the door to his room shut.

“How dare you ignore me for two whole weeks Derek! How dare you yell at me like an angry, petulant child today, when all I was doing was asking you if you were okay, asking you what was wrong, and HOW DARE you dismiss me like a little annoyance, telling me to go talk to Lydia, and to stop bothering you! I am your best friend! YOU DO NOT GET TO SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT!” Derek wisely kept his mouth shut as Stiles advanced across the room at him.

“I am a person Derek, I am your best friend, I have feelings and I deserve to be treated with respect, but most of all DEREK, how DARE you make assumptions about things you have no idea about! You have no idea about me and Lydia, you have no clue why she sent me that text about the suit I bought, and you certainly have absolutely no sense about what is going on with Prom!”

“I know you’re taking Lydia!”

“I’m not taking Lydia to Prom you idiot, I was going to take YOU!!!” Derek falls back against the window with a muffled thump, his mouth falling open in shock.

“That’s right, Derek, the text message about the suit? It was a suit I rented to take you to Prom! The corsage? The corsage wasn’t for Lydia, she made a joke that if I took you, I should get you one, so she could take embarrassing pictures of me putting it on you! The comment about my tie color was because she wanted us to coordinate with the rest of the group! The flower suggestions were for you, the dinner suggestions were for you, the ho- the hotel suggestion was for you.” He trailed off quietly, Derek’s eyes locked on his face, shock still the prominent emotion, but Stiles was beginning to see other ones. Happiness. Excitement. Awe. The anger was draining from Stiles’ body, being quickly replaced by nerves and excitement.

“This entire time Lydia has been trying to help me prepare to ask you to Prom, to ask you to finally become something more than just what we’ve been these past years, to ask you to be my- my boyfriend.” Stiles had moved forward till there was only a foot of room between them, Derek standing, staring at Stiles, the beginnings of a smile on his face.

“You don’t want Lydia?” Derek’s voice was soft and rough, his eyes shining with hope.

“I don’t want Lydia. I never wanted Lydia. I just want you. I lo-“

Stiles was cut off by the lips against his, so gentle but firm, soft and warm and so, so sure of what they wanted. What they both wanted. His hands locked around Derek’s neck, and he sighed into the kiss, body melting slowly, coming to rest against Derek’s chest, the arms around his waist pulling him in tighter until there was no room left between them. They kissed slowly, gently, easing themselves into this new version of them, the version that had always been waiting, ready for them when they were ready for it. They kissed until they ran out of breath, until their heads turned dizzy, and their lips tingled. And when they pulled back to breathe, it was to breathe each other in, gasping quietly, staring at each other in awe.

“Derek Hale, I love you. Will you go to Prom with me?” Stiles smiled against Derek’s lips, laughter escaping when the answer was whispered against his.

“Yes”