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Stiles opened his eyes and he realized immediately that something wasn’t fine; he couldn’t see clearly, everything was blurred, and the colour of his room’s ceiling wasn’t light green.
“What?” he mumbled sleepily when he noticed that someone was beside him, snoring like a lumberjack.
“What”
Stiles tried to look at the stranger but all he could see was a vague blurr that might be a man in his sixties or seventies. For some reason, Stiles didn’t feel afraid at all.
“What” he said again, realising that his own voice was much lower and softer.
The old man beside him moved, and clearly was waking up because the snoring stopped and a voice gurgling voice asked “What time it is” and oh shit, that sour voice only could belong to Derek.
There was a moment of silence when Stiles couldn’t move a muscle because of the weirdness of the situation, until Derek snapped to sit up, groaned and fell back to bed.
“Why does my back hurt so much?” he asked, a little bit panicky, and Stiles finally found his voice.
“I-I I don’t know Derek I don’t know I can’t see well I can see blurry blothces oh my god you are Derek are you I’m not talking to a total stranger?” Stiles blurted and realised that his hands were shaking, way too much for his to be panicked about some supernatural-shit-of-the-week.
“Stiles?” Derek asked surprised and now he was rising up, slowly this time, minding his back.
“What are you doing here - where are we? What has happened to you?” Derek asked, sounding more and more confused at the end.
“I don’t know what do you mean? What has happened to me? Why do you sound so old?” Stiles asked and rose up himself, a dull pain in his leg making sitting up a little bit difficult. He tried to look around, and saw a vague shape of something that might be glasses, so he made a hand at them and after a little fumbling got a hold of them.
He didn’t know what he expected when he put the glasses on, but suddenly the world was clear again and oh my god, Derek looked old, so old, but he definitely was a dilf or something that you could say about people who were as old that they could be your grandpa and now his thoughts were on the wrong rail again.
“Jesus you look old” he said and started to cough, it felt like a cactus was coming out of his throat.
When he stopped coughing Derek had gotten up from the bed and Stiles tried to stop snorting because Derek was wearing a pajama which had little wolves playing around on it.
“What do you remember about yesterday?” Derek asked and walked to a little drawer, watching what seemed to be rows of little photos in their frames.
“I… I remember, kinda, that we… pissed off some witch, I think?” Stiles said and slowly moved his legs off the bed. There was a cane resting against a night table, and because he had to use glasses from the room he didn’t start to ponder if he should or not use the cane.
Grabbing it Stiles stood up and yes, without the cane his left foot would have made him fall down in a second.
“What do you remember?” he asked and started to wander towards Derek, watching around in the room as he did so.
“Withces, nothing more much” Derek answered, still looking the pictures.
“Whats up?” Stiles asked, because as far as he wasn’t bleeding or anything else nasty, he was okay with being old.
“I think that we are married and have children and hoards of grandchildren” Derek said, his voice somewhat stunned, and pointed at a picture on the middle of the drawer-top.
Stiles looked and oh, there was a picture of him and Derek, on their thirties or something, smashing wedding cake into each others faces, laughing. And then there was a picture of children, five of them, three girls and two boys from ages three to fifteen, everyone sporting either Derek’s eyebrows or Stiles’ moles. The three oldest looked very embarrassed, and Stiles guessed why; they all had t-shirts with a text “i have monthly problems”.
Oh god those were his kids.
His and Derek’s kids.
And then there was more pictures, of graduations and school plays, weddings and birthdays.
More people came along, husbands and wives and grandchildren.
Stiles could feel himself smirking because the moles continued to appear as well the eyebrows.
Stiles turned to look Derek, who had a picture on his hands and Stiles choked a little bit because they were there, holding a sleeping baby. There was written by a ballpoint-pen ”Talia Hale, February 3rd 2023”.
“Derek…” he whispered and Derek blinked and put the picture back.
“We. We should go check the rest of the house” Derek said, his voice rough.
All Stiles could do was nod.
—
The rest of the house was also filled with pictures, but now there was more about the every-day-life and friends.
“This is so weird” Stiles whispered when they walked around the house. The house was a weird mix-match of Ikea furniture and antiques, and in the living room there was the same couch Stiles had dragged to Derek’s place last week. It was ratty and patched many times but there was no doubt that it was well loved.
“Everything smells like… us and… and something from us” Derek whispered back. He was rubbing his back when they got to the kitchen and made a full stop, making Stiles bump into him.
“What now?” Stiles asked worriedly, looking at the fridge, noticing how it was covered in children’s drawings, stick people running with stick wolves was a winning theme, and then there was a drawing of Stiles.
If Stiles’ eyes could be more wider his eyes would drop off, because the drawing was very old, sun kissed and everything.
“I just started to draw that” Derek muttered and walked to see the drawing closer.
“Wait what, why are you drawing me?” Stiles asked and followed him “Can you even draw?”
“I was just doodling around and you were texting me about the witches and I just” Derek mumbled and made vague gestures towards the drawing.
Before Stiles could ask more, they heard a car pulling outside of the house.
They exchanged a look and went still.
The door lock was turned and someone stepped in and said “Dad? Are you folks up yet? I brought Samantha over as I said yesterday, the pipe in her day care center is still broken so the place is closed” and then there were squeals as a little flurry ball of energy ran to the kitchen and clung to Derek’s feet, talking miles in a minute about dinosaurs.
A woman appeared to the kitchen and smiled when she saw them and Stiles had to keep his breath even because the woman looked a lot like his own mother until she wasn’t, because that scowl was learned from Derek for sure.
“Haven’t you even started your breakfast yet? Dad I swear this one time that if you both don’t keep up with your meals your medications will be messed up - and before you say that you don’t need them we both know the stories you told about grandpa and I don’t fear to use the vegan diet on you both” she said and walked to open the cupboards, taking out two pill dispensers.
“Your leg will love it and I will love you and shit I will be late now bye” she said and run outside.
“Mom said SHIT” the little girl, Samantha said and gave Derek a toothily smile.
“Uhhuh, she did” Derek said, a little bit dazed.
—-
It seemed that some things definitely were hereditary; the kid talked as fast as Stiles in her age, not caring much if the two adults, her grandpas, were really listening or answering.
She talked about everything while Stiles and Derek went through countless photo-albums, Stiles’ handwritten beastiaries and Derek’s drawing books.
When she went to take a nap, the men sat down and talked.
But they didn’t get to talk for long, because their older bodies and minds withered to sleep on their own without permission.
—
Stiles woke up and he recognized the ceiling of Derek’s current loft.
He was sleeping on the sofa, Derek on it’s other end, Stiles’ feet tugged up on his lap.
“It’s somewhat bizarre to know that in few years I will have an injure on my left foot and it won’t really heal ever” Stiles mumbled on the cushion.
“It’s more bizarre to know that my adolescent daughter will accidentally crack my spine on her first fullmoon and it will be a problem only years later” Derek sighed.
Stiles hmm-ed and snuggled to the decorative-pillow behind his head. A comfortable silence fell on between them.
After a few minutes Derek surprisingly started to talk “Talia will born in six years” he said.
“I love you too but let’s talk about that after I’ve moved to live with you” Stiles said and turned to look at Derek and gave him a little smile.
Derek smiled back.