Chapter Text
After everything, after so many different things that had happened, after every single thing that could ever go wrong, finding a dead rabbit on his welcome mat was something that Stiles just didn’t look forward to on the cold winter morning. He stared at the sight, the poor thing was bloodied and torn a little and he couldn’t understand what the hell it was doing there. It had been delivered, it had to have been to make some sense because dead rabbits just didn’t show up at his door on a day to day basis.
“What’s going on?” His dad gazes over his shoulder and sees the poor fluffy white rabbit on the welcome mat and just sighs, he doesn’t question it any further, just shakes his head and passes Stiles on his way to the cruiser.
“Clean that up” Sheriff Stilinski shouts from the cruiser before he gets in to start his shift and Stiles just stares at the rabbit some more before sighing, this is really not something he wants to deal with on top of everything else.
“Stupid supernatural bullshit” He mutters, grabbing a bag in the kitchen before he goes to dispose the body, he feels sad for the pour fluffy bunny but he just doesn’t want to think too hard about it, it’s a Monday morning and his Adderall and coffee hasn’t kicked in so he gets to not think for a while.
--
At school Scott isn’t much help, just stares as Stiles tells him about the bunny on the welcome mat, it’s a thing now, how can it not be a thing now?
“What do you mean you got a dead rabbit on your welcome mat?” Scott stares at him and Stiles doesn’t know where to shove his head to just relieve himself from the pure stupidity that the Alpha could be at points.
“I found a dead rabbit on my welcome mat, is there something that I need to know? Are there any wolf business that I haven’t been informed of yet?” Stiles stares at Scott, waiting for his best friend to get to a point where he would remember if there was in fact something but Scott just shook his head.
“No new wolf business that I know of, it’s been quiet and you know it, we finally just get to be normal for a few months, don’t make a mole hill out of ant hill” He tries not to laugh at the poor use of the saying but just accepts it. It must’ve just been an isolated incident, the rabbit got into a freak accident and stumbled onto the Stilinski porch before things became too dire, it happens that close to the preserve.
“Yeah, guess you’re right” He grumbles and watches as Scott smiles at something over his shoulder, shaking his head when he turns to find Allison and Lydia heading their way. It was an odd sensation these days, Lydia being one of his best friends, the girl of his dreams becoming nothing more than a person he could turn to, to save his life and he knew she trusted him too in any dire situations.
Since Scott had been turned things had been good and bad, good in the sense of all of his new friends, all of the people that they had saved along the way. Derek had gone off the straight path at one point when he had turned Erica, Isaac and Boyd but he couldn’t deny the fact that they were now some of his best friends. The three betas had built up Derek’s pack while he had been Alpha but shit happened and Derek wasn’t the alpha anymore but no bitter feelings were being harboured on that side. They were later joined by Malia, Kira and Jordan Parish when they finally figured out what exactly he was. And finally they were joined by Liam, the first wolf that Scott had turned to save his life, it had taken some getting used to but they could finally say that they were pack, finally a true family.
They were a strong pack, a pack with a true Alpha, a born wolf, an Argent Hunter, a Banshee, four turned betas, a werecoyote, a kitsune, a phoenix and a Stiles. Stiles still couldn’t understand his role in the pack but after everything that had happened since Scott had been turned, Stiles had been proven to be essential to the pack, time and time again.
“Is there any lore on anything that leaves dead rabbits on welcome mats?” Stiles asks Lydia as they walk to Calculus and she stares at him for a second, a calculating look on her face, her brows furrowed and he could see her working through every single thing she has read.
“Not that I know of, I could go through the bestiary for you again if you want?” She’s been a lot nicer since everything happened, after the Nogitsune happened and Stiles had almost lost himself she had been there to help him, to get him back on his feet. That had been a dark time for Stiles, everything had happened so quickly and he still got nightmares, even now almost a year later but he always woke up to a stark black wolf at the foot of his bed, blue eyes watching him and he would feel safe.
It had been something that Stiles hadn’t expected from Derek, after the nogitsune had happened Stiles was so sure that his friends would leave him, that he would be left alone, people got hurt that night, Allison turned around at the brink of death and he was just so sure that he would be written off that he had stayed inside of his room for almost a week straight when Derek had broken into his room, finding Stiles mid nightmare. It had been a bad one, one where he couldn’t escape the fox spirit and he couldn’t out run it and it kept hurting the people he loved but when he woke up to Derek shaking him he had broken down in tears and Derek had held him, supporting him while he broke down. It had been something of a shock to find Derek to be the one that had gotten Stiles to interact with the pack again and he was the one that held Stiles when he woke up from nightmares.
When the nightmares finally died down he was sure that Derek would leave but he just didn’t, he still showed up every night to make sure that Stiles was fine and he couldn’t understand why a person would do that, especially someone that had hated him for so long but Derek didn’t talk much and he wasn’t one to actually stay awake while he spent time with Stiles. It was odd and something to get used to when Stiles woke up the first time and found Derek in his full shift and not in his normal human body but when the wolf cuddled Stiles after a nightmare he didn’t care all that much. No one knew that Derek was there for him and they wanted to keep it that way, it was easier that way and that way Stiles didn’t have to explain what he was feeling exactly when Derek showed up at his window every night.
--
The rabbit had not been an isolated incident. That was one thing for sure when he found a bird laying on the welcome mat the next morning, he stared at the pigeon on the mat and he couldn’t understand why it was there. He looked over his shoulder to his dad and the man just shook his head.
“I have no idea and you need to throw that thing away” John Stilinski pointed out, handing Stiles yet another bag and Stiles followed the orders, dropping the bird in the bins out front of the house before he grabbed his bags and made his way to school.
“It was a pigeon this time” He informed Scott, his hand kept fidgeting and he couldn’t understand it, must be the caffeine overload.
“Maybe you have a cat that likes you, have you been feeding the cats again?” Scott asked and Isaac nodded next to him, stupid Isaac and his agreeing ways.
“No I have not been feeding the cats, I stopped like three years ago when that one cat had her litter under my bed.” Stiles pointed it out, Scott had been talking about Allison that day so he wasn’t to blame when he forgot some things like a cat having a litter under his best friend’s bed.
“Maybe throw out the mat?” Isaac tried and Stiles just narrowed his eyes at the tall boy.
“And how is that going to solve the dead animals on my porch?” He asked and Isaac shrugged, shaking his head and going back to reading a novel for his English lit class.
“That’s a swell idea”
--
He threw out the mat and had replaced it with one with a snarky comment on it, he loved it more than what he was going to admit.
--
“Do you know why dead animals keep showing up at my door?” Stiles asked one night almost a week later, Derek had just stepped through the window and he narrowed his eyes at Stiles, almost turning back to the window but thinking better of it.
“I don’t know” He sounded odd, his shoulders tense and he kept his focus on Stiles face, as if reading for his reaction.
“I just don’t get it, it doesn’t make sense that there’s bloody animals on the welcome mat every morning” He mutters before turning to switch off the laptop, he turned back around and found Derek already shifted on his bed, the blue eyes watching him and Stiles ran a hand over the wolfs head, scratching at his hears and he heard Derek growl but it turned into an almost purr so he assumed that he had won that time.
“I wish that it would just stop, I feel bad for the poor animals because I keep having to throw them out” He speaks again, grabbing his pj’s and heading to go take a shower.
--
Things took a strange twist after that, the animals stopped but he found odd items in the fridge, steaks to start with and an odd amount of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in the cupboard but he pinned that on his dad and went on with his life.
But things grew to be more odd. He found wild flowers on his windowsill a few days later and then again the next day and he couldn’t understand the gesture or who would be behind the odd actions.
“I’m getting flowers now” He told Lydia while they did their homework on his floor that evening, she turned her head from the wild flowers to Stiles and it was like something snapped in her brain and she shook her head, laughing.
“Stiles, you’re being courted, werewolf style” She told him and he shook his head at that, to be courted would mean that he was liked by one of the wolves and that just wasn’t something that was going to happen.
“And by whom am I being courted, Lydia?” He asks, amused at her revelation and she shrugged.
“Who would know the most about werewolf traditions? Definitely not a turned wolf” She spoke to him like he was slow and Stiles could be so slow at times and he turned his gaze to the wildflowers and wanted to hit himself when he thought back to the day in the preserve when he was helping Derek with some scavenging and he had picked a few of the wildflowers, he was manly enough to admit that he had liked them a lot and had placed them in his hair as a joke, Derek had just shook his head at him but a smile was there.
“That doesn’t even make sense, how do werewolves court someone?” He asked and she rolled her eyes at him but spoke nonetheless.
“Werewolves much like wolves court in some odd ways but it comes down to showing that they would make excellent mates. They court by showing that they are fit mates by providing for their mates, hence the dead animals, they show their strength and power, you’ve seen him fight how many times, and they care for their mates, well Derek shows it in odd ways but he shows that he cares with the flowers” And suddenly everything made sense and he wanted to shoot himself for not realising things sooner, he could’ve been with Derek a lot sooner if he had known what to look for.
Derek had been showing that he would be the perfect mate for Stiles for so long that he was surprised that Derek kept going after so many long months.
“How do I accept?” I ask her and she shrugs her shoulder.
“There really isn’t an exact way to say yes, I just think you go to him and tell him you agree with him, kiss the living daylights out of him and live happily ever after” Makes sense, he gets up from the floor, grabbing the Jeep’s keys and shouting that he’ll see Lydia later as he rushes to his car, speeding all the way to the loft that Derek calls his home.
He doesn’t even knock when he pushes open the heavy steel door and finds Derek in front of the huge windows but he turns to face Stiles as he opens the door and concern etches its way across his face.
“Courting?” Stiles utters the word and he knows that Derek heard him if the rigid body is anything to go by. He watches as Derek grows concerned, worried that Stiles had figured him out.
“I-“ He tries to start talking but Stiles just shakes his head.
“I’m going to make this easy on the both of us, I like you, like a lot and I can’t believe you find that shocking. The courting is nice in theory but finding dead animals on my porch isn’t but everything else was great, thank you. I don’t know exactly how to accept it but I do if that helps” And it does, it so does, because a few seconds later he’s being wrapped in a tight embrace by Derek, his strong arms wrapped around Stiles and he watches with worried green eyes for Stiles to say something, to break his heart like he’s used to but Stiles just stares up in utter wonderment at the wonderful person that he gets to call his own, well hopefully.
“You can kiss me now” He whispers but it gets silenced by soft lips against his and he sighs at the feeling, it’s amazing, the feeling of finally feeling like he belongs somewhere, he finally feels at home. Derek is careful with him, he kisses him like Stiles could break and Stiles doesn’t know how to process that but he couldn’t care less when he was being held like that, like he was loved.
“You could’ve just told me you liked me” He whispered as they pulled back and Derek shook his head.
“You deserved to be wooed” He stares up at the green eyes and he just smiles at him, hand on the side of his face.
“Well you can stop now and just keep kissing me” He tries for that angle and it seems to have worked because Derek doesn’t stop kissing him for a very long time. He never does.