Derek Hale ran a hand down his face and sighed. There were about a hundred different things he could think of to do at 10:30 on a Friday night that would be a lot better than what he was doing right now.

About an hour ago, just as he was headed out of the house to shift and go for a run, a frantic knock had sounded at his door. He paused and sniffed the air, instantly recognizing the scent. It was usually almost smothered by that of some cheap, spray on deodorant, but it was always the same. It smelled like cedar trees and cold winter wind. Stiles. He groaned and walked to the door

"This better be life or death Stilinski!" He shouted as he walked. He opened the door to find the teenage boy's fist lifted to knock again and a shocked look on his face.

"How'd you know it was me?" He asked.

"I'm a wolf, dude." He said flatly, trying not to smile at the sight of him. Something about Stiles made the normally taciturn alpha feel...playful. "What do you want?" He half growled.

"Right." Stiles said, blinking slowly. His long eyelashes practically casting shadows on his cheeks. "Um...we sort of lost Erica."

And with that, Derek found himself riding in Stiles's Jeep on his way to a nearby city with Scott and Isaac in the back.

"Tell me again how you three idiots lost an entire person?" He asked.

"We didn't really lose her exactly; she just sort of...wandered off." Scott explained.

"Scott's right, one minute she was dancing with some guy and the next time we looked she was gone." Isaac cut in.

"The guy too." Stiles added.

Derek's eyes slid closed. "I'm going to kill her." He muttered.

Once they got to the club it didn't take Derek long to find Erica about three blocks away in a bar and drag her out by her ear.

"Oh my god, what are you my dad?" She hissed as she half stumbled out the door

Derek's eyes narrowed as he advanced on her, backing her against the wall as the other three stood sheepishly to the side.

"Hardly, but I am your alpha and I would prefer it if my wolves didn't go around whoring themselves out to random strangers." He growled. "You could have gotten yourself killed."

"I don't see you saying any of this to them." She said, gesturing to the three boys.

"Um...I'm not a wolf." Stiles said lamely taking a step back, his eyes fixed on Derek.

"Whatever, I can take care of myself." Erica said.

"Yes, well try to actually do it sometime." Derek said and walked away toward the jeep.

It was a tight fit for Erica, Scott, and Isaac on the way back as Derek refused to give up an inch of the front seat but about 30 minutes into the hour and a half drive, once Erica finished verbally abusing the two boys, Stiles looked in the rear view mirror to find all three of them sound asleep. Must be a wolf thing, he thought. Like a puppy pile.

"Why do you do that?" Derek asked, causing Stiles to jump and nearly swerve.

"Do what?" He asked.

"When we're out anywhere you keep everyone in front of or beside you and if you can't you constantly look back." He said.

"I don't know." He replied honestly. "I guess I like knowing their safe."

Derek didn't say anything to that for so long, Stiles began to think that was the end of the conversation but finally he reached over and squeezed his shoulder and said "You wouldn't make a half bad alpha, kid."

The corner of Stiles's mouth quirked up at that. "Yeah?" He asked.

"Yeah." Derek replied and his tone caused Stiles to glance over at him. For a brief second he saw some sort of unidentified emotion in Derek's eyes but it was gone quickly.

"Just take us to my house. We can all stay there tonight." He said. "That will save you an extra 20 minutes of driving at least."

"Okay." Stiles said softly and the rest of the drive was made in silence.

It took almost 15 minutes to wake the three werewolves and get them all inside where they immediately went to sleep on the oversized bean bag chair in Derek's living room. Stiles dropped onto the couch and turned on the TV and without another word, Derek dropped down next to him. They spent a good hour watching some stupid comedy movie but then they too fell asleep.

Stiles woke up some time later. He had no idea when he'd fallen asleep or how long he'd been that way but what he did know was that somehow he was now stretched all the way out on the extra-long, extra wide couch with Derek Hale clinging to his side like lichen. The alpha had one leg and one arm wrapped around Stiles's body and his head was on Stiles's chest.

He carefully tried to extricate himself but Derek merely growled in his sleep and held on tighter. With a resigned sigh, Stiles relaxed into the vice like embrace, sliding one arm around Derek's shoulders, and the other across both their bodies to curl around Derek's side. Once this was done Derek let out a pleased sigh and actually nuzzled Stiles's chest. The younger boy struggled not to laugh for a few minutes but gradually became drowsy again. His last thought before he fell asleep was that this was probably the most relaxed and certainly the safest he had felt in a long time.