#part i

of "Every Flavor of You"

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“Here,” Stiles said, holding out a folded piece of notebook paper for Derek. “Text me later so I have your number too.”

Derek was two weeks into the new school year, and he had been late showing up on the first day of class. This year was the first year he had driven himself to school, but with the new freedom of having a car came the new responsibility of driving his little sister. Between having to drop Cora off at the middle school and having to find a parking spot in the junior parking lot, he was late showing up to his first class: physics. By the time he got there, there was only one chair left, meaning Derek was paired up with Stiles Stilinski as lab partners for the year.

It wasn’t that Derek had a problem with Stiles. Stiles was a friendly, outgoing guy. But if he had been given a choice, he would have probably picked to work with someone more organized. And less intense. There was something intimidating about Stiles. Not physically. Derek had at least twenty pounds on the guy. Maybe more. It was hard to say for sure since Stiles was always wearing loose flannels. But Stiles had no filter and was good at reading people. And it was like he had no idea he was finding and spilling other people’s private business. A dangerous combination for someone as private as Derek.

So far, being Stiles’ lab partner had been fine. Stiles was clearly trying to get him to open up, but considering that they hadn’t actually had to work together yet, Derek had managed to keep him at arm’s length. He didn’t need to get close to him. Even if he was cute.

“You know,” Stiles said, still holding out the paper. “For our project.”

“Right,” Derek said, grabbing Stiles’ number.

They were far enough into the term now, that their teacher had given them their first big project that would require them to work with their lab partners outside of class. Derek assumed they would just meet up in the library or something, but apparently Stiles thought figuring out their plans over text would be better. Derek was not good at texting. If he had to talk to people he preferred to hear their voices, but even then he would rather not have to talk to other people at all. If he could avoid it.

When Derek was sheltered in the privacy of his open locker a few minutes later, he unfolded the scrap of paper. There, in Stiles’ haphazard handwriting was his name, below it a telephone number, and below that there was a smiley face with an x through it.

Stiles’ scrap of paper had been vexing him all day. He was stuck between trying to discern Stiles’ hieroglyphics by himself, or asking for help, and the only people he trusted to ask were his family. When he, his mom, and his sisters sat down for dinner, he sat there unsure how to broach the conversation until his mom asked him if he was okay.

“I have to work with my lab partner on a project,” Derek finally said.

“Right now?” his mom asked.

“No, but he gave me a note and I don’t understand it.”

His mom exchanged a look with his older sister, Laura.

“Maybe we can figure it out,” Laura said.

Derek didn’t move for a moment. He did want help, but for reasons he wasn’t ready to unpack, he also felt private about the piece of paper Stiles had given him. What else could he do though? He was at a loss and needed help. The note was tucked into the breast pocket of his t-shirt. He pulled it out and handed it to Laura.

Cora propped herself up with her knee on her chair to peer at the note with Laura. Neither of them said anything as they took in the note’s contents.

“What do you think it means?” Derek asked them after the prolonged silence became too much for him.

“Given that it’s above a phone number, I’m guessing it’s a name,” Laura said. “Honestly though it looks more like a curse than a name. Is your lab partner a witch? Do they hate you?”

“What? He’s…” While Derek had been suspicious of Stiles’ prying, he didn’t think Stiles hated him. And he certainly didn’t look like a witch.

“Stiles Stilinski? That hardly counts as a name,” Laura said, passing the paper to Cora.

“Not that,” Derek said. “The x-ed out smiley face.”

“Maybe that’s a curse,” Cora said. “Or a threat. Is he a jock? Or a bully?”

“No,” Derek said. “I mean, he’s on the hurling team, but he’s not like that.”

“Oh,” Laura said, a dangerous smile spreading across her face, her eyes narrowing in on Derek.

“Why does the high school even have a hurling team?” Cora asked. “Why can’t you guys have a football team like a normal high school?”

“Derek,” Laura said with faux sweetness, “what does this Stiles look like?”

“I don’t know,” Derek said, trying to feign nonchalance. “Like a guy. He’s maybe almost as tall as me. Short hair. Long neck. Long fingers.”

Laura just looked at him for a moment before she asked, “And what color are his eyes?”

Stiles’ eyes. They were easy to picture. He had doe eyes with long eyelashes. They were evil things. Looking up at Derek, always trying to trick him into sharing his private thoughts with Stiles.

“I don’t know,” Derek said, “honey colored.”

His mom, who had been silently listening to her children talk, coughed.

“Uh-huh,” Laura said, cocking her head. “And did you give him your number when he gave you his?”

“No,” Derek said. “I was trying to figure out what the smiley face thing meant first.”

“X’s can mean kisses. Maybe it’s a kiss on the face,” Cora said.

Derek felt his cheeks heat.

“Oh my god,” Laura said, “I can’t believe my future brother-in-law’s name is Stiles Stilinski. Derek, when you get married you can’t take his name. He can be Stiles Hale, but you can’t be Derek Stilinski.”

“What?” Derek said, trying to catch up.

“They could hyphenate,” Cora offered. “Derek Hale-Stilinski.”

Derek’s stomach did something violent. He put his fork down on his plate.

“No,” Laura said, “‘Hale-Stilinski’ sounds too much like ‘Hail Stilinski’, like he’s worshipping him or something.”

“All hail Stilinski,” Cora entoned with a mock bow.

“We’re not getting married!” Derek complained. “He’s just my lab partner. He doesn’t even like me like that.”

Derek did not like the look on Laura’s face now.

“Listen to how one-sided that denial was,” Laura said. “No ‘I don’t like him.’ Just ‘he doesn’t like me.’”

“Mom,” Derek said through gritted teeth, “can I leave? I’m not hungry anymore.”

“Derek, sweetie, finish your dinner,” his mom said. “Girls, be nice to your brother. First love is always hard.”

“Mom!”

When Derek finally got back upstairs to his room he pulled out his phone and made a new contact for Stiles. Asking his sisters had been a huge mistake. He was no closer to understanding what Stiles’ nonsensical drawing meant, and somehow his sisters had managed to uncover what he had been trying to hide even from himself over the last two weeks.

The truth was, he knew he was a goner from the moment he was paired with Stiles, but he had been doing everything he could to suppress that fact. The stupid way that Stiles said, “You should sit with me,” like the chair next to his at the two-seater lab table wasn’t the only one in the room. The way that Stiles angled his notes without Derek asking, so Derek could copy down the information he missed coming in late. The way he said, “See you tomorrow, Derek,” as he slung his backpack over his shoulder before leaving at the end of class. And that was just the first day.

Stiles had this annoying habit of making jokes to himself, riffing off of whatever their teacher was saying, and he did it just quietly enough that Derek couldn’t help but lean in to try to hear what he said. Bringing him into Stiles’ space. Close enough to feel the heat radiating off of him. Most of the times that he did manage to catch what Stiles said, it was inscrutable nerd stuff filled with references he didn’t get.

And despite their only contact being physics class, Stiles talked to him like they were lifelong friends. And as nice as that felt, it also felt dangerous. It was too easy for Stiles to make friends and talk to people like he was close to them. In the two weeks they had been partners, Stiles already had come up with at least four different nicknames for him. Der. Der-Der. My petulant partner. Big guy. And why did that last one do things to him? Ugh. But really they all did. Because despite how shallow he knew their partnership must be to Stiles, it felt deep to him. And anytime Stiles referred to him at all–by the name given to him by his parents, or by the ever expanding set of names Stiles’ had come up with for him–Derek felt his traitorous stomach flip as he fought to keep his face unreadable.

Okay. So he didn’t understand the stupid smiley face. Whatever. Since he wasn’t ever going to figure it out there were only two options left: to ignore the smiley face altogether or to try to mirror it.

It took Derek fifteen minutes to compose his fifteen character message. Half of that time, with his finger hovering over the “Send” button, trying to build the courage, the other half deleting the last few characters only to type them in all over again.

Whatever. If Stiles meant it in a mean way, Derek could be mean right back. If he meant it in a nice way, well how bad could it be to be nice back?

Derek: It’s Derek. :X)

I totally missed all the stuff from Tae's trip to LA for the Vogue World event so it's nice to be able to catch the behind the scenes in this vlog.

First thing to note, V travels with a really big team, managers, stylists, hairdressers, make-up artists, trainers, the works. Everyone was involved in choosing the details of his final look for Vogue World.

Yep I think they chose right. The netting one just gave me shades of 1980s Lady Di, not a look for a 21st century global kpop star.

Jimin out there calling JK a big playful puppy but look at the hound dog eyes on Tae here. Jimin definitely has two cute puppies to deal with in the BTS maknae line.

He enjoyed the event, saw lots of old friends and made some new ones.

Here he is with my new favourite Jesus Christ Superstar, Cynthia Erivo.

There was a whole team meal afterwards to relax and celebrate and talk about Wallace and Gromit's trip to the moon.

Loved this sweater. It's such a good colour for him.

Finally something to add to the BTS are everywhere file. Taehyung hyping and eating Jin ramen during his stay in LA.

Part II from Hawaii coming soon