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Stiles is trying hard not to feel disgruntled but it’s really not working. He’s pack. He knows he is. He’s been told he is enough times. But he isn’t treated like pack. Well the betas treat him like pack, he has bruises to prove it. Peter doesn’t but Stiles tries to ignore his existence. And so he comes to the crux of the problem. Derek doesn’t treat him like pack.
Derek tries to keep him out of danger. In fact Derek tries to keep him out of everything except the endless research which grudgingly he’ll admit he enjoys. Derek gets angry with him if he gets involved – gets super (red-eyed) angry if he gets injured. Not that it stops Stiles but it does piss him off.
He’s been an outsider all through school. Bumbling along with Scott on the edges of things. He blames his ADHD mostly and being the sheriff’s son for the rest but now he has a chance to be part of something – in the middle of something and he doesn’t like being kept out.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like Derek, in fact the very opposite – he really liked Derek. He was sort of stupidly keen on Derek which made the problem worse. The pack got to spend time with Derek, train with Derek, run and hunt with Derek, touch Derek. He wanted needed to be pack.
So everything was normal, Stiles had been confined to barracks while the rest of them went off to kill something or other. Then, not unusually, he comes across the ideal way to kill it. (‘God’, he moans to himself, ‘anyone would think this was some kind of fairy story: Stiles Saves the Day or some such nonsense’). So half an hour later he’s out the house, super soaker in hand and leaps into the jeep. He knows vaguely where they should be and heads off towards the woods. He finds them eventually and is somewhat surprised by the carnage – most of the pack are down, Derek’s not looking good and the thing is huge. Stiles pulls the super-soaker off his back, pumps for all he’s worth and lets fly a stream of herbal death potion (or at least herbal monster death potion). And that’s that really. The monster is dead.
As Stiles goes over to see if Derek’s alright he braces himself for the shouting he knows is coming. He’s not disappointed, it follows the usual pattern:
“Are you ok?” Stiles starts.
“What are you doing here? You could have been killed!” Derek starts.
“You nearly were! If it wasn’t for me...” And so it continues.
They go at it for nearly five minutes and everyone else is bored and beginning to head off, even Erica who likes a good argument. But this is not a good argument, this is a tired old argument and thankfully Lydia steps in to stop it. Stiles and Derek shut up immediately – no one argues when Lydia uses that tone of voice. “Now hug each other”, she tells them and although they both look at her incredulously for a moment, they do as she says. Awkwardly at first, but it gets better as they find that they both need the comfort. Lydia waves her arms at the rest of the pack and they leave them alone.
“I don’t like being left out”, Stiles says quietly after a while. “I want to be involved; I want to be with you.” “Yes”, is all Derek says in return and hugs Stiles tighter. “Can I kiss you now?” Stiles asks and by way of reply Derek kisses him. ‘Good’, Stiles thinks, ‘they’ll have to change the story now.’