#supersterek

“You can’t be serious,” Erica Reyes – hispartner on the force and first friend in Metropolis – said flatly.

“I’m completely serious,” retorted Stiles, as hedid yet another spin in his office chair, the chair he was laid outon, head tilted back against the headrest and a pencil balancedbetween his upper lip and nose. “I’m so bored, this,” hegestured to himself pointedly, “is what I’ve come to forentertainment.”

Erica snorted, and Stiles glanced her way. She wasstill sitting by her own desk, phone in hand and thumb movingabsently over the screen. Her eyes were on him though, watching himwith amusement.

The police station was as loud as it always was;phones ringing and officers talking among each other, and Stiles hadbeen spinning around in his chair and had resorted to findentertainment from his desk utensils for the past hour.

It was, to say it nicely, absolute hell.

Boredom, however, was bound to come to an end inMetropolis. For at least a little while.

Stiles was on his hundredth spin in his chair, aball of paper falling back into his hands, when commissioner Corporoncame stalking out of his office and said, with his voice booming likeit did every day, “Stilinski! Reyes! Bank robbery in New Town.Handle it.”

Stiles flew out of his chair in the wink of an eye,only just yelling out, “Finally!” before he stormed out of thestation, leaving Erica to gather a few other officers with a roll ofher eyes.

Truth to be told though, he didn’t just rush out ofthere because boredom was eating away at his brain. That was onlyhalf the reason. The other half was the exact same reason he hadmoved to Metropolis in the first place, the reason his job had becomeboring rather than exciting like he had thought and hoped it wouldbe.

Superman.

Stiles only just got a foot out of the policecruiser when Erica slammed on the breaks by the bank currently beingrobbed, before there was a sudden rush of air flying past him, and hespotted a red cape flapping in the wind and disappearing into thebuilding.

Hand on the gun by his hip, he turned to look atErica, assuming she was on her way out of the other side of thecruiser. She wasn’t. Instead, she was still in her seat and lookedunbothered and completely disinterested.

“Seriously?” he questioned, giving her a look ofdisbelief. “You’re just gonna sit there and let that jackass do allthe work for you?”

Without taking her eyes off of her phone she hadfished out of her pocket, Erica said, “Yep,” pooping the p.

Stiles groaned and rolled his eyes. With a shake ofhis head, he rushed toward the bank entrance, gun in his hands eventhough the alarm had stopped and there were no sounds of fighting orgunfire anymore. He knew what had happened, of course. He had seenSuperman fly in there after all, but he was still going to do hisdamn job.

Even if lately, there hadn’t been much of a job todo. Not for him, at least.

Because Superman was always there to save the day,no matter how big or how small the amount of trouble he was in was.And apparently, Stiles was the only one at the station who couldn’tdo his job. Apparently, Superman didn’t go around saving every otherofficer in Metropolis, just him. Always him.

Frankly, it was annoying, and Stiles was gettingreal tired of it.

Appreciated it, sure, but he didn’t go throughmonths of hard work at the academy to just have some superhero do hisjob for him every. single. time. Honestly, didn’t the guy havesomething better to do, like fight other aliens or meta humans orthrow some punches with the bat over in Gotham?

And surprise, surprise. Just like every other time,Superman had managed to knock out the criminals and was walking backoutside by the time Stiles had taken maybe ten steps toward theentrance. Stiles sighed heavily as he shoved his gun back in itsholster.

“Saved the day again, huh,” he said, not eventrying to keep the annoyance out of his voice or off of his face thistime. Not that Superman seemed to notice anyway, because he just sendhim that stupidly kind smile, that had Stiles’ knees going weak andhis fanboy heart pounding the first few weeks of this.

Now, he just glared in return.

“Looks like it, yeah,” said Superman, the smilenot faltering as he turned to watch the other officers – Ericaincluded, the smirking bastard – rush into the bank with handcuffsready.

Stiles hummed noncommittally. He turned, ready tofollow his partner into the bank, but then Superman spoke up again.

“So,” he said, stepped closer. The smile wassofter now. “What have you been up to lately?”

Lately, Stiles guessed, meant the last seventeenhours where they hadn’t seen each other. Seventeen hours since thelast call that Superman had saved Stiles from. Or rather, interruptedhim in the middle of.

“Oh, you know,” Stiles said with a shrug, tryingto be as obvious as he possibly could be that he was done with theconversation via body language. Superman was an alien, though, and heprobably didn’t catch on. Scratch that, he definitely didn’t. “Justthe usual. Becoming a pro paper ball player. Managed to dunk it inthe trashcan from my desk on only the seventh try. New record.”

Superman laughed and opened his mouth to saysomething else, probably something flirty because that was what hedid occasionally, but in the wink of an eye, his entire face changed.His jaw clenched as his head whipped around, shoulders tense andhands curling into fists.

After months of this, Stiles was able to recognizethat look. It was the look Superman always had whenever he heardsomething Stiles’ human ears would never be able to pick up.

“I have to go,” Superman announced. He bend downin his knees and then jumped, flying up into the air and leavingStiles to watch him soar across the city.

Stiles only watched after him for a second too long,before he scoffed, muttered, “Dick,” to himself, and headed forthe bank to help his fellow officers.

*

It wasn’t all bad in Metropolis, if Stiles was beingcompletely honest. He had a great partner, lived in a decently sizedapartment on a somewhat quiet street, had a few acquaintances hereand there, and, of course, the dorky reporter that had taken claim ofhis heart the second Stiles had laid eyes on him.

Derek Hale, reporter at Daily Planet. He was by farthe best part of all of Metropolis, and Stiles was completely andutterly smitten with him and his dorky glasses and nerdy personalityand social awkwardness and tendency to blush at pretty mucheverything Stiles said to him.

There was just one problem; Erica was Derek’s bestfriend, and Stiles wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse.

It was a blessing because Derek visited her at thestation a lot, which meant Stiles got to see him too, and there was anearly daily opportunity for the flirtations that Stiles seized towhenever he could. Just to see that adorable flush Derek always did,the way he stammered out an uncertain response, and the way he almostalways nearly bumped into something or someone on his way back out.

A blessing because Erica was an insight to Derek,but a curse because Stiles was definitely not subtle about his crush.He knew Erica knew and if Erica and Derek were anything like Stilesand his best friend, then they told each other everything.

Which meant Derek most likely knew how he felt. Andconsidering the lack of flirting back, that meant he wasn’tinterested or he was taken. Or straight, but god, Stiles reallyfucking hoped not.

That would just be typical though, wouldn’t it? Moveto a new place, fall for a straight boy. Perfect.

Worst of all, Erica refused – always refused,no matter how much he begged and bribed and pleaded – to tell himanything about Derek.

Case and point; exactly one hour after they hadreturned from the scene of the crime back at the bank, the criminalsbehind locked bars.

“Heads up,” Erica called out, pulling Stiles outof his report writing zone. She stood up from her desk with a grin onher lips and her brows waggling in a teasing and suggestive way. “Theman of your heart is about to be here, and you look like you’ve justrolled out of bed.” She turned toward the front of the station,calling out over her shoulder, “And not in the sexy way!”

Stiles scrambled, the pen immediately flying out ofhis hand. His hands flew to his head, and he tried to fix hissupposed bedhead as quickly as he could. Quickly, because he couldsee Derek coming in through the front doors, already smiling at Ericaand shifting his messenger bag out of the way to greet her with ahug.

By the time Derek and Erica stepped fully into thestation, Stiles was leaning back on his chair and tried to look ascasual as he possibly could. Which, judging by Erica’s quirked andjudgmental brow, wasn’t actually working. Not even a little bit.

“'Sup, Derek,” he greeted him, grinning lightlywhen Derek met his eyes and blushed just a little, ears going red.“Looking good today.”

And he did. With his pale plaid shirt perfectlyfitted across his chest – honestly, how could a person this big ofa nerd be this well in shape, Stiles would never be able tounderstand it, but he very much appreciated it – and dorky glassesin place and that dumb messenger bag he always carried with him.

He was adorable, and Stiles threw a wink after hisstatement, beaming in delight when he saw Derek’s ears burn brightred.

“Hey, Stiles,” Derek greeted back and fidgetedslightly with the strap of his bag.

Erica looked between the two of them for a second,then rolled her eyes and sighed heavily as she moved back to herdesk. “You two are ridiculous,” she muttered quietly.

Stiles only just heard her because she was closer tohim now, and apparently Derek heard her too because he ducked hishead and his ears burned.

“Fuck,” Stiles let out in a lowered breath, eyesfirmly glued to Derek. And when Derek looked back at him through hislashes, Stiles cleared his throat and looked down at his report.

“Anyway,” he heard Erica say, her chair whiningas she spun around. “Derek, you wanted that statement, right?”

Stiles immediately snapped his eyes back up to seeDerek nodding and moving over to Erica’s desk. “Oh, you’re writinga section on the robbery?”

Derek looked at him and said, “Yeah, boss wouldusually have me writing the sports section and put Jimmy on theSuperman front, but Jimmy’s taking a trip to National City, so I gotput on it.”

“Well,” Stiles drawled, turning his chairslightly. “If you want, I’ve got my report right here,” hepointed down at it. “You could take a look at it, and I can tellyou all about it.”

Derek smiled at him and slowly shuffled over. “Yeah?Thank you, Stiles.”

“Anytime, Derek,” Stiles replied easily,returning his smile.

Derek stood and took notes, as he intently listenedto Stiles going over the robbery and how Superman saved the day,again. He tried not to let it slip that he found it a littlebit (read: a lot) annoying, but it just, y'know, slipped, and Derekfrowned at him for a second, before he continued to take notes.

When he was done and finished, Derek left with ahalf hug from Erica, and Stiles sighed dreamily after him.

He was silent for all of two seconds, before heturned to Erica and asked, “Dude, is he single? And very notstraight?”

The snort that escaped from Erica was stupidlyridiculous and long and, honestly, gross, and the snort developedinto a loud laughter, as she rose from her seat and sauntered away.

“That’s not an answer, Reyes!” Stiles yelledafter her, and her laughter only got louder.

*

“Fuck,” Stiles grunted as his back slammedagainst the concrete wall. His gun was tightly clenched in his hands,and gunfire sounded all around him.

He looked to his left where two officers coweredfurther to one side, bullets ricocheting off of the other side. Helooked to his right, where Erica was flinching each time a bulletwent anywhere near her, and he cursed quietly to himself three timesin a row.

What had been a seemingly simple store robbery hadbecome a shootout the second they had showed up to interrupt therobbers, and they were pinned down. The robbers were bound to run outof bullets sometime, but a lot could happen until then.

For instance, they could get away and Stiles wasn’thaving that. This was the first time it looked like he was going tobe able to do his job in months, after all, and he’d be damned if hewasn’t going to do it right.

Panting, Stiles reached for his radio and brought itto his lips. “211, requesting backup!” he yelled over thegunfire. He opened his mouth to repeat it, when there was a rustle ofwind and something- someone landing to his immediate right.

“Okay, never mind,” he breathed into the radio,eyes on Superman giving him a reassuring smile.

Stiles watched as Superman turned to the robbers,bullet ricocheting off of his chest and landing on the ground aroundhis feet, and he watched as Superman’s eyes shot lasers at therobbers. He watched as Superman took in a deep, deep breath and blewa massive amount of wind toward the robbers, and he listened as theshooting stopped and the robbers yelped and were knocked out asbodies thumped against concrete.

Heaving a sigh, Stiles slumped against the wall andlowered his gun, while Erica and the other officers stormed out fromtheir cover spots and ran to the knocked out robbers. Meanwhile,Stiles took a second to breathe before he stood up and turned toSuperman, who was giving him that stupidly perfect smile.

“Thanks, Supes,” he said, keeping his expressioncarefully displeased. “Really saved our asses right there.”

But Superman’s smile just widened as he nodded andsaid, “I’m just here to help, officer Stilinski.”

“Yeah,” Stiles said, and even to his own ears hesounded bitter. Just a little bit. “You sure did.”

The thing was, Stiles suddenly didn’t find Supermanthat annoying anymore. The guy did just save their lives, after all,but he also prevented him from doing his goddamn job yet again, sono. Stiles wasn’t going to be like the rest of the damn city and kisshis ass or drop to his knees in thanks.

Guy wasn’t all bad, though.

Superman smiled at him, looked over at the otherofficers, and then flew off. And Stiles looked after him for a fewseconds too long, before Erica pointedly cleared her throat.

*

Stiles rubbed his hands together and grinned down atthe sandwich laying on the plate in front of him. “Fuck, you guys,I am starving,” he told his lunch companions, before he reacheddown and wrapped his hands around the sandwich, carefully picking itup.

Erica snorted to his left, while Derek huffed to hisright, but he paid them no attention and just started devouring thesandwich. His teeth sunk into it and he practically moaned as thefirst bite landed in his mouth. He knew he heard Derek clear histhroat, saw him squirming in his seat, and Stiles probably havegrinned widely and winked at him, but he was a little preoccupied.

“Fuck,” he moaned as he chewed. “I’m gonnacream my pants, this is so fucking delicious.”

“Do we need to leave you and the sandwich alonefor a minute?” Erica teasingly asked, and Stiles glanced at her.She was grinning widely back at him.

Snorting, he said, “Please. I don’t finish in aminute. I’d need, like, a whole day to make sweet, sweet love to thisone.” Except his words were muffled by the huge bite of sandwich hehad taken a second ago, and what he said was barely audible.

That didn’t stop him from looking at Derek andthrowing him a wink, though.

Derek flushed and rolled his eyes at him, shakinghis head lightly. “Doubt you’ve got the stamina for that,” hemuttered quietly, almost too quietly, but Stiles caught it.

Stiles turned to him and gaped, uncaring of thechewed sandwich bite still in his mouth. Erica called him gross, andStiles said, “You are a fucking asshole, Hale,” but there was agrin on his lips and amusement in his voice. “Be careful or youmight taint your perfect Good Guy image.”

“Maybe it could use a little tainting,” saidDerek, and Stiles could have sworn there was a bit of flirtation inhis voice. The look Derek was giving him, however? That wasdefinitely flirting.

Stiles sunk his front teeth into his bottom lip andlooked back, sandwich momentarily forgotten. Derek was so much betterthan an orgasmic sandwich, anyway.

Erica clearing her throat pointedly startled theboth of them out of their prolonged eye contact. “So Stiles,” shesaid with a sweet smile when they both turned to look at her. “Whatare your thoughts on Superman?”

If Stiles had looked at Derek, he would see himglaring daggers at Erica, silently telling her to shut up. But he waslooking at Erica, so he didn’t see.

He groaned loudly and threw his head back for amoment. “Oh my God, he’s so annoying!” he complained loudly. “Andhe’s so boring too. Like, the dude’s too perfect, ya know? He’simpenetrable and immune to everything, I’m guessing. He’s superstrong and has fucking laser beams for eyes and can make a hurricanewith his mouth and fucking fly and all that crap, and itjust,” he shrugged, “it gets so boring, doesn’t it?”

Erica hummed noncommittally, Derek was quiet, andStiles continued. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Superman’s probablya super nice guy, but it’s infuriating! He’s so flawless, it’sannoying. The bat in Gotham, though? That guy is interesting.”

Erica hummed again and asked, “So you don’t likeSuperman?”

Stiles lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “He’sokay, I guess. Just really annoying, that he constantly swoops in andsaves the day. I haven’t been able to do my job in months! I didn’twork my ass of at the academy to have some alien asshole do it forme,” he finished and leaned forward in his seat with a huff.

He picked his sandwich up and moved to take a bite,when his eyes moved to his right and saw Derek frowning down at hislunch. Which was when it hit him.

“Oh shit,” said Stiles, lowering his sandwichand looking apologetically at Derek. “Fuck, I just totally insultedyour hero. I’m so sorry, Derek, I’m sure he’s a nice guy and all-”

“He’s not my hero,” Derek said sharply,interrupting whatever Stiles was going to say next. Without lookingup, he stood up and grabbed his messenger bag. “I’m gonna go backto work,” he said and left before Stiles could utter a single word.

A worried crease appeared between Stiles’ brows ashe watched Derek storm off. He really fucked up there, didn’t he?

“Shit,” he muttered quietly to himself, thenturned to Erica. She was frowning too, looking after Derek with aworried look in her eyes. “Did I just hurt his feelings?”

Erica looked at him, took a second, then shrugged.She said nothing though, and Stiles was left feeling like the totalasshole he probably was.

*

Balancing the plastic tray over-filled out withtake-out coffee cups, Stiles slowly pried the door to the policestation open and slipped inside. He was careful not to spill thecoffee, flashbacks to the time he actually did and ended up scoldinghimself and another officer playing in his mind on repeat.

“Careful,” he muttered quietly to himself andlet go of the door after it closed, so he could grab the tray withboth hands. The tip of his tongue stuck out between his slightlyparted lips, as he maneuvered further into the station, eyes firmlyon the tray as he walked.

Which, retrospectively, probably wasn’t a good idea.He should probably be looking where he was going, but he didn’t.

He did, however, make it inside without trippingover himself and his own dumb feet or bumping into anyone or spillingthe coffees, so he took it as a win either way.

It was when he was just ten small steps into thestation, that he lifted his gaze and looked up, instantly spottingDerek standing by Erica’s desk. The two of the were talking in hushedvoices, and Derek looked nervous or maybe scared or maybe both, whileErica was fixing him the You’re An Idiot look, that she had givenStiles plenty of times in the past.

Slowly, Stiles walked closer and caught the tail-endof their conversation.

“Honestly, you should just tell him,” saidErica.

“Are you insane?” Derek almost exclaimed, but ina hushed voice. “I can’t just tell him, he’d hate me!”

Curiosity got the best of Stiles right then andthere, and he walked over and interrupted with, “Tell who what?”

Immediately, the atmosphere changed. Derek’s faceclosed off as he stood back up after having hunched down to thehushed conversation, and Erica shot him only a quick look, before shereached out for her coffee.

“Nothing,” was Derek’s quick reply. He scratchedthe back of his neck – a nervous habit that Stiles had noticed –and his eyes flickered around almost nervously. “I, uh… I’m gonnaget back to work,” he decided with a nod.

Stiles frowned, just slightly. “Are you sure? Imean, you’re not still mad at me for thinking Superman is lame, areyou?”

Erica huffed into her coffee, and Derek shook hishead, a little smile tugging at his lips. “No, I was never mad atyou for that, Stiles. I should get back to work, though. I’ve got asports section to take care of.”

Stiles nodded, a quick few bops of his head. “Yeah,okay,” he said with a half shrug. “See you around, then.”

Derek nodded back at him, shared a look with Ericathat Stiles guessed was significant and probably a silentconversation, and then he left. But not before nearly bumping into anofficer coming walking past him, and Stiles smiled fondly.

There was the Derek he knew and liked so much.

“What was that about?” Stiles found himselfasking, as he turned to Erica.

Erica glanced his way only momentarily, before shesighed and said, “It’s not my thing to tell, Stiles. If he wantsyou to know, he’ll tell you eventually.”

She turned away then and sat down at her desk,taking a sip of her coffee. Stiles frowned, confused and worried thatwhatever Derek wasn’t telling him was something bad. But he shook itoff and moved around to sit at his own desk, turning to Erica.

“So hey, guess what,” he started, putting on acrooked grin. “You know how Superman always shows up to do my job,right?” Erica looked up, interested. “I finally figured out why.Well, at least I think so.”

“Oh really?” she drawled and leaned forward. “Dotell.”

“Isn’t it obvious? He’s got a crush one me!”

Erica was mid-sip when he said it, and she chokedand spluttered, coffee going everywhere on her desk. And splutteringand coughing turned into laughing – a laughing that just would notstop, tears prickling at her eyes.

“What’s so funny?” Stiles asked in a raisedvoice, because her laughter was just so loud. “I’m being serious!”

“Oh God, stop,” she wheezed, waving a hand infront of her. “You’re gonna kill me.”

“Stop laughing at me, I’m serious!”

Her laughter subsided just a little, and she wipedcarefully under her eyes. “God,” she let out in a chucklingbreath. “I know you’re serious, that’s what’s funny.”

“What, so you don’t think Superman has a crush onme?”

And the laughter started again, and Stiles threw hishands up.

*

Days off were both a blessing and a curse.

A blessing because Stiles got to laze around in hissweatpants and baggy tees, skip his shower and morning run. Ablessing because he could catch up on the sleep he had been missingfor the past couple of months since his last full day off, and catchup on shows he had been putting off watching and been avoidingspoilers like the plague about.

But days off were a curse, because he so often gotbored with just lazing around and doing nothing.

Not this time, though. No, this time he didn’t getout of bed until ten am, ate cereal in his underwear on the couchwhile watching children’s cartoons, and then spend the rest of theday not moving his ass from the couch.

Only for a few minutes to put on some sweatpants,brush his teeth, and get some more food.

There was a bowl half filled with cooling pasta andsauce on the coffee table and Stiles was spread out on his two personcouch, when there was a series of rapid and determined knocks on hisdoor. Craning his head around, he glanced at the door, then sighedand threw his head onto the arm of the couch.

The knocks came again a minute after, and Stilesfinally pulled himself up from his laze position with a groan. “I’mcoming!” he called out, when there were another few knocks, softerthis time.

He stretched his arms over his head on his way overto the door, back and shoulders popping and a groan escaping him.Being on the couch all day; not such a good idea, after all. Thoughtwas good, but reality? Not so much.

Rolling his shoulders once or twice, he reached outfor the handle and opened the door, faltering only slightly when hesaw who was on the other side.

“Derek,” he said, offering said reporter aslightly hesitant smile. “Hey. What are you doing here?”

Derek’s face was hard and guarded, not an expressionStiles had ever seen on him. His brows were furrowed and only justpopped up behind the frame of his glasses, his eyes full of…something. Nerves? Yeah, the guy looked nervous as all hell, soStiles said nothing and waited.

“I have something to tell you,” Derek finallysaid, chest rising and falling as his breath quickened.

Stiles nodded and stepped aside, gesturing for himto come inside, which Derek did. There was no dumb, nerdy messengerbag slung over his shoulders, but the outfit was still the same as italways was. Nerdy and dorky and so Derek, that his facial expressioncompletely threw Stiles off.

“So, what’s up?” Stiles asked and closed thedoor behind them, before he followed Derek further into the smallapartment. There really wasn’t much to it. The kitchen and livingroom were between the same walls, and it were only the bedroom andbathroom that got their own doors. At least it had nice lighting andgood wi-fi.

“Well,” Derek started with a heavy sigh, hishead ducked down slightly but eyes on Stiles. Bashful. “There’s noeasy way to say this, so I’m just going to get straight to thepoint.”

“Okay,” said Stiles slowly, nerves spiking inhim as well.

A silence followed, before Derek took in a deepbreath and said, “I’m Superman.”

Stiles blinked. Then blinked again. “Um, what?”

Derek ducked his head, clearly hesitated, thenbrought his hands up and slid off his glasses. And when he lookedback at up, he repeated himself, and Stiles stopped breathing andstarted gaping, eyes widening.

“Holy shit,” he let out in a rush of a breath.“You’re Superman.”

Panic replaced the nerves that had previous rushedthrough him. Not because he was afraid of Superman, but because-

“I insulted you!” Stiles exclaimed in a squeak,hands flailing. “To your face! Multiple times!”

Derek’s face went from guarded and hard to fallinginto an almost sad one, and he lifted a shoulder in a half shrug.“You didn’t know.” He paused for a moment, taking in a deepbreath. “But now you do, so I’ll just leave you alone from now on.”

Derek made it exactly three steps past Stiles,before Stiles flew out of his freaked out state, grabbed his elbow,and pulled him back. His hands flew to his glasses-free face, and hehauled him in to kiss him. Square on the mouth, no hesitation.

And Derek, after letting out a surprised noise,kissed him back, arms circling around Stiles’ middle as their lipsslid together.

The kiss was great, almost exactly how he imaginedkissing Derek would be, and Stiles sighed into it. It was great butshort lived, when Derek pulled back and said, “Wait, wait.”

Stiles whined and leaned in to kiss him again, butDerek just leaned further back. “You don’t hate me?” he asked,brows furrowed with confusion but eyes shining with happiness.

Stiles rolled his eyes and snorted. “No, dumbass.”He leaned in, pecking Derek’s lips quickly. “But you really need tolet me do my damn job, or else this isn’t going to work. At all.”

Derek’s smile was almost blinding. “Okay,” hesaid in a lowered voice, then leaned in to kiss him again, and Stileskissed him back.

It wasn’t for long this time either, however,because then Derek’s arms tightened around Stiles and Stiles wasreminded of his inhuman strength.

“Oh my God,” he breathed as he pulled back, eyeswide and lips pulled back in a wide grin. “You could totally justpick me up and fuck me against a wall, couldn’t you?”

Superman’s hands fell away from his shoulders after giving one last squeeze, and Stiles suddenly felt very cold. He needed to do something about that.

He looked up at Superman, finding a bit of confidence, and chose his words carefully. “Next time...” He licked his lips. “Let’s really hang out.”

Superman raised an eyebrow, his smile twitching like he was holding back something. Stiles gave him a significant look, and Superman nodded.

Laura practically pushed Stiles out of the way, then, to pull Superman into a hug, squeezing him so tight that Stiles thought he saw Superman going blue for just a second. Though maybe that was for show, as Cora giggled at the sight.

Stiles stepped away, giving the family their moment. Before he got far, he caught Superman’s eyes, and Superman winked at him, forcing a blush across Stiles’ entire body. He had not been prepared, at all. 

Between one blink and the next, he was gone. Laura turned back to her work, subtly swiping at her eyes. Cora squeezed his arm before flying out of the DEO herself. Something to do with work. Stiles wasn’t really paying that much attention, his mind stuck on something else. 

Suddenly, his phone started ringing, loudly, echoing throughout the building. Laura shot him a glare, and Stiles scampered away, calling out his apologies as he burst into the hallway. 

The number was one he hadn’t seen before, but he had an inkling, a flash of hope, as to who it was.

He picked up on the third ring. “Hello?”

“Stiles.”

Stiles almost melted into a puddle hearing that voice say his name.

“Hey, Derek. Forget something?”

“Sort of. Are you thinking Chinese for dinner? Or pizza?”

Stiles couldn’t force back the grin that practically broke his face. “Why Mr. Hale, is there something you’d like to ask me?”

“I figured the time for questioning is over and done with, considering how we spent the last few days.”

Stiles’ face burned, remembering vividly. That suit did not lie, Derek’s ass was just as bubbly as it appeared. Unfortunately the Big Bad of the Week had cut their time together short, and when Derek hadn’t commented on it Stiles figured that Derek didn’t want anything else with him.

And he was fine with that. Or he would make himself fine with that. Maybe in a decade or so. 

“I...” Stiles was left a little bit speechless. 

Derek’s soft voice responded, “You said we should hang out. I didn’t really want to wait.”

Stiles felt his breath forced out of him by the blow those words dealt upon him. “Me either,” he breathed into the phone’s receiver, cupping it reverently in his hand. “But what about Metropolis?” 

“Stiles.” Derek sounded amused. “I can fly. The distance won’t be a problem for us. And you understand. So if I have to leave...”

“Okay,” Stiles said once Derek trailed off. “I would like this. With you, Derek. We can talk more, um, later?”

“Tonight, over dinner. So, Chinese or pizza?”

Stiles grinned and felt a shiver course through his entire body at the thought of spending an evening with Superman. A date with Superman. With Derek Fucking Hale. 

“Surprise me,” Stiles requested, hand digging into the pocket of his pants to search for his keys. He wasn’t going to waste another second of the day sitting idly by in an office. He was going home to prepare.