Chapter Text
If there was an upside to falling into a well, it had to be being served meals in bed. Being lifted out by firefighters, having to ride in an ambulance or having a tetanus shot in his nether regions certainly weren't perks, that's for sure. In fact, 99% of the falling in the well experience was horrible, but having people bring him meals in bed was nice.
Although to be perfectly honest, the conversation with his father about Derek wasn't all bad. So he'd give a few extra points for that. Falling in wells, 90% horrible, do not recommend. Heartfelt discussions about sexual orientation and crushes on werewolves could probably be handled on an above-ground basis in the future.
Not that Stiles was planning on having another conversation like that with his Dad. He just wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with the knowledge that his crush on Derek had developed beyond ‘whoa, he is seriously cut’ to ‘I wish he was always around’ status. Stiles wasn't even sure how to talk to Derek right now, although that wasn't a problem as Derek had been incommunicado since yesterday. Only the fact that it seemed Scott and Isaac were both still updating their Facebook accounts that Stiles hadn't jumped to the immediate conclusion of major supernatural disaster. So instead of worrying about a new monster, Stiles was just internally worrying about how to interact with Derek in a way that wouldn't out his feelings and embarrass him tragically.
Stiles would almost rather deal with a monster than his own feelings. No, make that definitely. He would definitely want to deal with something supernatural over dealing with his own feelings.
A knock on the door drew Stiles from his thoughts and he looked over, surprised to see his father. "Dad, hey! What are you doing here?"
"I thought I'd give your aunts a break." The sheriff said, coming in with a plate and taking a seat on a chair in the corner. "I told them I'd take care of this cookie delivery."
Stiles eyed his dad who wasn't moving to hand over the plate. "I'm guessing by 'take care of' you meant 'eat all by yourself'?"
"Clever." John affirmed, taking a large bite out of one of the cookies and chewing it with a grin on his face. "I would be more likely to share if I hadn't had an interesting conversation about hidden food with Derek last night."
"What?" Stiles sat up straight. "You talked to Derek? I haven't been able to get a hold of him all day! I haven't talked to him since yesterday. I thought he was busy but... what did you say to him last night?"
"Whoa." John raised a hand. "Tone down the accusatory tone there, son. We just chatted."
"Chatted? You just chatted with Derek." Stiles ran a hand through his hair. "Sure you did. Derek hasn't answered any of my texts today, Dad. He may not be verbose, but he always responds. Did you tell him what we talked about? Did you tell him that I like him? Oh my god, did you tell him that I've been missing him?"
"Hey, hey, hey." John soothed as he quickly came to take a seat next to Stiles on the bed. He reached out and rubbed a hand down his back. "Take a deep breath, kiddo."
"Dad." Stiles groaned after he had taken several deep breaths. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything. Or at least not anything bad." The sheriff passed over a cookie. "We talked about you, about hidden cookies, a little about you falling into a well."
"Oh my god" Stiles flopped backwards onto the bed. "You couldn't even wait till we got home?"
"Like I said, stories like this don't come along every day. But I mostly told Derek because he was concerned about you."
"R-really?"
Sheriff Stilinski gave Stiles a long suffering look before taking another cookie from the plate. "You know, I was upset about this whole Derek situation at first. He's older than you, he's involved in this crazy werewolf situation, he drives like a menace. I was sure that he was going to pressure you into things you weren't ready for...or get you arrested."
"I sense a "but" coming." Stiles arched an eyebrow. "And I totally got Derek arrested first, so obviously I'm the bad influence."
"But-" John tossed a glare at his son. "After living with Derek lately and talking to the both of you, I'm feeling better about this relationship. The two of you are both so emotionally stunted that it'll be years before the two of you move beyond awkward back patting and insults."
"I-I-I" Stiles stuttered, his jaw dropped. "I can't tell if I'm horribly offended on mine and Derek's behalf or astounded by your keen insight. Ugh. I'm both. Give me another cookie."
John laughed and passed him a cookie. "You can be offended all you want, but you know it's true. Did you have any plans on talking to Derek about how you felt?"
"I can safely say that my plans were the opposite of that." Stiles mumbled around a mouthful of cookie.
"To be fair, I don't think he planned on talking to you either."
"Psfth!" Stiles inhaled a bite of cookie and coughed roughly. "I possibly just had a seizure. Are you implying that when you talked to Derek, without my permission, about my feelings that he expressed that he had feelings about me?"
"Yup, that's what I'm saying."
"Positive feelings? Non tearing my throat out with his teeth feelings?"
"I think those are things you need to discuss with Derek." John said. "But no one is getting their throat ripped out. That's just disturbing, Stiles."
"I'm not the- never mind." Stiles crossed his legs and stared at his lap. "One problem there, Dad. Derek isn't talking to me right now. Maybe you got it wrong. Maybe he decided he didn't want anything to do with me or my feelings."
"Or maybe I was just concentrating on driving and not texting a response to you every time you came up with another unfunny dog joke." Derek said from the doorway to room, his jacket over one arm and a fond smile on his face. Stiles just stared in shock at him for several long moments until the Sheriff stood, patting Derek on the shoulder before sliding past him into the hallway.
"You boys have a good talk." John called back to them as he walked away. “I’ll just be in my room.”
Derek waited for Stiles to invite him in but the younger man seemed to be in shock so he eventually came in, leaning against the bed and looking down at Stiles. "Are you okay?"
"Shut up, my jokes are hilarious!" Stiles blurted out and then blushed. "Sorry, my brain is on delay. I'm fine, from the falling-in-the-well thing. Just some bumps and bruises."
"Your dad said you weren't hurt." Derek said, sitting on the bed and peering closely at the teen.
"I'm not!" Stiles held up his hands. "It's seriously just a few bruises. The most pain was when I got the tetanus shot on my...you know what, I'm just going to stop talking right now. In fact, let's talk about something else. What are you doing in Iowa, Derek?"
"When I talked to your dad yesterday he told me about you getting stuck in the well." Derek smirked.
"And you thought you would come play Lassie?"
"Then he asked me how I felt about you." Derek growled. "I told him that I spent a large portion of my time as an alpha worried about you doing things like falling into wells."
"Ha ha, very funny." Stiles pouted, crossing his arms.
"I told him that you annoyed me daily, you never shut up and while it's rarer than when we first met, I still want to kill you about once a week." Derek continued. "I told him that you were the smartest, most loyal person I had ever met and that your ability to keep going in the face of overwhelming odds confuses and inspires me."
"Oh." Stiles breathed out, staring at Derek in shock. "You told him all that?"
"I told him the truth, Stiles." Derek said, moving closer. "I told him that I care about you. When I heard that you had gotten stuck in that well, I wanted to be here with you, even knowing you were fine. I've missed you this week."
Stiles nodded, his eyes trained on Derek. “I did too. A lot.”
“I promised your dad that I would take things slow.” Derek murmured, placing a hand on the back of Stiles’ neck and drawing the teen closer. “He seemed to think that it wasn't going to be a problem.”
“Mmm, we’re stunted.” Stiles whispered, his eyes traveling from Derek’s lips to his eyes and back again. “Emotionally.”
“Yeah?” Derek leaned forward, kissing Stiles gently. “Then we’ll just have to keep doing this till we figure out how we feel about it.”
“I’m so okay with that plan.” Stiles reached forward and grabbed the shoulder of Derek’s shirt, pulling the man closer and claiming his lips for a longer kiss. “Plan kissing is a go.”
Derek pulled back, using his thumb to trace a line down Stiles’ cheek. “You taste like cookies.”
Stiles buried his face against Derek’s neck, laughing brightly. “I’m glad you came, Derek. I've missed you so much.”