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Derek missed nights like this, moments where the seemingly infinite clockwork throughout the town seemed to slow down just for them. When endless time seemed to stop, leaving the hollow arcs of the clock hands just a little bit emptier, and their room just a little closer to bursting with warmth. In these frozen moments, with the snow drifting outside the frost-etched windows and the fire blooming in the hearth, Derek felt the heat in his chest fill his entire body.
It wasn’t the heat of anger, however. He hadn’t felt that in what felt like a long while. The old fury of his life had been swept away by the rivers of gears and heavy metal, a small burden to the great flow of time. He’d learned that the hard way; from the peak of the cycle down to the very abyss he’d felt that anger. But now it only came in flashes, and never because of his past.
Only because of the annoying devil he held in his arms.
Stiles breathed softly, his face buried into the crook of Derek’s neck. The air from his lungs swept across Derek’s skin like a brand, ruffling the fur that crept out from his body. He was still getting used to it, this half-shift. He preferred to keep it beneath himself when he was out in the town, still worried someone would stare, no matter how many nymphs, elves, or other wolves walked around openly.
But when he was with this man – this crazy, stubborn, life-risking asshole – he found his control slipping, and he felt the fangs drop over his bottom as his claws caressed the white fur sprouting from Stiles’ back. He never understood that phrase “soft as snow”. No, he’d had one too many face plants with snow to think of it as “soft”. Stiles’ fur was more like a cloud, only warmer, filled with that same kind of brimming energy that threatened to shock him at any moment. He drug his fingers though it reverently, unable to help his small sigh as his control slipped away with every stroke.
His mind felt blank, focused solely on Stiles asleep I his arms, the man’s back rising with each inhale. He could feel his ears lengthening, the cartilage filing to a point on each side. His nostrils flared, the scent of snow and cinnamon filling his lungs. Holding on to the humanity in his heart, he buried his nose into the hair on Stiles’ scalp, turned white by his transformation. Derek didn’t know which he preferred, the human brown that Stiles wore most of the day, or this side of him that appeared almost just as often. In came more naturally to Stiles, shifting back and forth in the middle of conversations. Derek envied him a little, but he was getting there.
He loved him just the same. So much that it almost scared him, overwhelmed him to the point where his heart picked up speed and his wolf became restless.
Stiles shifted in his sleep. He raised a clawed arm, giant claws, almost like shovels on the ends of his fingers, to curl around the back of Derek’s neck. The man murmured in his sleep, so incoherent that Derek couldn’t hear.
Derek took another breath, and looked into the fire. He could stare at the flames now, unflinching and calm. So much had changed since he’d been thrown off that train. He would never forget, couldn’t forget his family, but he’d found a new one, one that he could keep and be selfish with and hold for as long as he wanted.
Most of them had left earlier, to bring the night to a close in this frozen moment. Derek felt sure that they weren’t on the only ones lost in this space between times, but this was the only place that mattered to him, right now, in front of this fire, with Stiles in his arms.
Somewhere in the town, everywhere, and yet nowhere certain, clockwork chimed. Thousands, hundreds, one – twelve tolls sounded out, hollow and loud and just strong enough to shake through Derek’s chest.
Stiles shifted on top of him. Blearily, his eyes blinked open, brown as whiskey and shining with sleep.
“Sourwolf,” he smiled, and his teeth were sharp in his smirk, a half-grin that stretched the corner of his mouth. “You’ve got no eyebrows.”
Derek smiled back. “Merry Christmas, Stiles.”
Time started again, as Stiles kissed Derek’s cheek and snuggled back down to sleep.