#princess-dork

"Right. Of course." Stiles nods, walking further into the kitchen. For the past year and a half or so, Stiles had been making some noise about marriage, possibly, maybe, if Derek wanted to as well.

But Derek always turned that down with a wince, saying that while he loved Stiles more than anything, he just didn’t get the whole marriage thing, didn’t see the point of it. And so Stiles always let it go, kept his thoughts on it to himself. Because as much as he wanted to get married to Derek, he wanted to just be with Derek more. He guessed they didn’t really need to be married for that, so. That didn’t change the fact that whenever Derek made comments like those, whenever he teased Stiles about it, it made him tense up, made him weary, unsure. But Derek always assured Stiles that he no desire to get married anytime soon. Just a joke. Ha ha.

"But anyway." Derek smirks. "Just because I don’t like to cook and bake, doesn’t mean I can’t."

"Why didn’t you ever tell me you could cook, huh?" Stiles says, walking over to Derek and poking him in the side.

Derek just shrugs. “Maybe I wanted to surprise you one day, catch you off guard so I could see that look on your face.”

"What look?" Stiles asks.

"That look of shock, of wonder, of surprise and happiness. It makes me happy." Derek murmurs, smiling at Stiles who turns into a big blob of goo at that and leans into the kiss Derek plants on his lips. "Happy Christmas."

"Mmm, you too." Stiles murmurs back, licking his lips to chase the taste of Derek on his lips.

"Everyone will be arriving in about an hour, so you should get ready and everything while I finish up in here.""Okay." Stiles smiles, pecking Derek on the lips quickly before leaving the kitchen and Derek to his flipping of the pancakes in order to shower and get dressed.

=*=

Scott and Allison showed up first, followed by Stiles’ dad and Melissa, who gave Stiles a hug and a kiss on the cheek respectively in greeting. Derek had already set out all the food, and was currently upstairs getting ready for their guests himself.

Isaac, Lydia and Danny showed up soon after, and Stiles led them all to the dining room where plate after plate was filled with breakfast food, such as pancakes, eggs, bacon, omelets, french toast and so on. Derek had gone all out, and he must have got up at the crack-ass of dawn to get it all done.

Stiles felt proud of Derek at that moment, and rewarded Derek with a big sloppy kiss when he came into the dining room, dressed in jeans and a dark red sweater and looking amazing in his outfit as always.

"Mmm, what was that for?" Derek murmurs when Stiles pulls back.

"For being you. You know, perfect." Stiles smiles, kissing Derek again, ignoring the roll of Derek’s eyes. Whatever, Derek might not think he was perfect, but he was perfect to Stiles, so Derek would just have to deal.

"So Derek, you made all this?" John, Stiles’ father asks as everyone sits down, their plates filled with food.

"Yep." Derek smiles, moving over to get his own plate of food, and Stiles has no choice but to follow him.

"Well it’s really good, thank you." And the rest of the table choruses John.

"You’re welcome." Derek smiles, and he kisses the back of Stiles’ head as he walks past, making Stiles blush and smile down at his plate. Derek still, after all these years, gave him the warm and fuzzies. It was ridiculous how Derek made Stiles feel so alive and wanted and loved, and warm, content. Thoughts of marriage flew through Stiles’ head once more, but he shook his head to dispel those thoughts. He wanted Derek more than anything, and Derek never wanted to get married. End of.

Walking over to his spot next to Derek at the table, he let himself get immersed in conversation with everyone, and at one point felt Derek’s hand against his thigh - and Stiles could tell it wasn’t meant to be sexual in that moment, just a comforting, warm hand that Stiles gladly took, interlacing their fingers. Stiles smile widened when he saw Derek’s own smile form on his face.

"So, how’s work, Stiles?" Scott asks at one point.

"Great. We had this robbery case just this week, and we had the guy who did it in lock up when he tried to escape, and on his way out he ended up tripping, knocking his head into the wall and knocking himself out." Stiles snorts as everyone snickers. "Yeah, wasn’t too much of a criminal mastermind." 

"The towns been quiet the last few months. It’s nice." John, who was still the Sheriff - and Stiles sometimes got ribbed on at the station because his father was the Sheriff. 

Beacon Hills had always been a hotbed for disaster, especially after Scott, Stiles and Allison sacrificed themselves their junior year of high school to save their parents. They had only made everything worse, had made more creatures flock to the town, made the risk of them all dying a horrible death even greater than before, but it had been work to save their parents, Stiles had always felt that it was worth it. He didn’t know what he’d have done without his father. He’d probably be the half the mad he was today without him. 

So yeah, their lives weren’t even close to normal, but it was their life. And everyone was used to it. A witch in town? Oh, just another tuesday in the life of the Beacon Hills pack. 

They always fought them, always won. No matter what. 

"Yeah, it is." Stiles agrees with his father, nodding. 

"So." John starts, leaning his elbows on the table as he shifts forward, focuses his attention on Derek. "How’s the editing going?"

"Great. I just finished editing a book, and it should be out in bookstores within a few months."

Conversation continued, and it was light, happy, and Stiles and Derek never let go of each other’s hands throughout the whole breakfast.

Afterward, everyone moved to their living room to exchange and open gifts, and there was laughter, teasing, groans of embarrassment, and Stiles couldn’t be happier.

"Hey, Stiles." Derek says as everyone started to gather up the ripped wrapping paper from the floor, and starts to get ready to leave.

"Yeah?" Stiles murmurs from where he’s wrapped in Derek’s arms on the couch, his head resting on Derek’s shoulder as he smiles contently at all his friends.

"You wanna marry me?" And Derek says it loudly enough that everyone in the room hears it. They all pause as Stiles freezes, tenses up, his eyes going wide.

"What." Stiles chokes out, and he can’t move, can’t find himself to twist his face to look at Derek’s, and he doesn’t really see anything or anyone in that moment, because his brain just short-circuited. 

"Wanna marry me?" Derek repeats, murmuring into Stiles’ eyes, his breath causing Stiles to shiver, to gasp as he finally breaks out of his shocked state and turns his head sharply to Derek. 

"What." Stiles squeaks it this time, his wide-eyes now focused solely on Derek as everyone in the room waits to see what happens on baited breath.

"I said, do you want to marry me?" Derek says with a soft smile, bringing a hand up to Stiles’ cheek and stroking it.

"But-but you’ve always said-" Stiles stammers out.

"I know what I’ve said." Derek murmurs. "But I changed my mind."

"Wh-how, when, why?" Stiles sits up, his legs tangling even more with Derek’s as he does so.

Derek shrugs as he says simply, “I realized that what I want most is for you to be happy, and getting married will make you happy.” 

"But not you?" Stiles murmurs. He doesn’t want Derek to marry him just to make Stiles happy. He wants Derek to want it, too.

"Of course it will make me happy. I’ll be with you the rest of my life, how could I not be happy about that?" And someone in the room "aww’s" and Stiles can’t think straight, can’t believe this is happening.

"Y-you-you’ve always said that a piece of paper and a pair of rings wouldn’t change anything, so what was the point. That’s what you’ve always said." Stiles breathes.

"Yeah, well, I see now that it’s more than that. It’s making a commitment. It choosing each other, choosing who we want to be with the rest of our lives. It’s showing, telling everyone that we’re it for each other, and that there’s no one else. And yeah, we’ll sign a paper, and we’ll get rings - unless you don’t care to - and we’ll have both our names on the deed to this house, and any future house we may have, and we’ll share everything. We’ll be partners. I see that now. And I want all that with you. I love you more than anything in this world, Stiles. And I choose to spend my life with you."

Stiles feels tears sliding down his cheeks, and there are more “aww’s” floating around, but otherwise the room is quiet as they all wait for Stiles’ answer. 

"Fuck, I love you. Yes, yes, of course I will marry you, Derek Hale." Stiles breathes, and surges forward to kiss Derek full on the mouth, throwing his arms around his shoulders. 

Everyone’s cheering and clapping, and Stiles wonders if they knew what Derek was going to do before he did it. But any thoughts go out the window when Derek’s tongue slips past his lips into his mouth, and Stiles moans.

Then everyone groans and grumbles about heading out to leave the now newly engaged couple to celebrate. 

Stiles laughs, breaking the kiss but not breaking eye-contact with Derek. “Shut the door on your way out!”

"Ugh, just remember I don’t want to hear about it at all, Stiles!" Scott calls.

"Yeah yeah!" Stiles calls back, twisting around in Derek’s arms to plasters himself on top of Derek as they situate themselves so they’re laying down fully on the couch.

"Thanks for breakfast!" John calls out, and then the door shuts and the only sounds filling the house are Stiles and Derek’s moans and the smacking sounds of their kisses as they start to shed their clothes.

Earlier Stiles has said he couldn’t be happier, but he was wrong. 

Right then, in that moment, as Stiles and Derek made their way upstairs and fell onto their bed, completely naked, the promise of marriage in the not-so-distant future -