Chapter summary; Stiles is greeted by Derek before he leaves for school, and is presented with a rose. After school, Stiles returns home where Derek is angrily waiting. The two get into a fight and harsh words are said and then regretted. Derek leaves in a frenzy. Stiles falls asleep and when he awakes it's the middle of the night and he fights with himself about whether or not he should check his windowsill for a rose from Derek. (Last chapter. Was originally longer, my original got deleted.)

Stiles awoke the next morning to find he had school. He hardly cared to show up on time, so he took his morning routine at a slow pace. Besides, he wasn't looking forward to hours of boredom and torture from Mr. Harris. He wasn't happy with being awake so early, he didn't even feel awake but washing his face seemed to wake him a bit.

He returned to his room to find Derek standing near the opened window. Letting his eyes droop, he gazed at the sight. Since when was it legal to look that attractive? The morning golden sun shoved its way through the window and wrapped its creamy rays around Derek's body, complementing his figure and softened eyes.

Stiles walked up to him and rested his arms on the mans hips, smiling.

Derek pulled his arm out from behind his back and presented a rose to Stiles.

It was by far the prettiest of the bunch. It's stem was thick and firm, preventing it from falling over by its own weight and its silky petals were a bright crimson color.

"You know mister, if you keep giving me roses, I'll have about 2 million of 'em" Stiles laughed, sticking the stem into his mouth, looking playfully at Derek.

Derek smiled back, "Two million and more." He bent over and kissed Stiles on the lips, kissing part of the stem as well.

Hours later Stiles walked into his room, tossing his book bag onto his bed. He turned and slightly jumped, startled to see Derek sitting at his desk chair. "Hey man, what're you doing?" He asked happily, like a boy who came home to greet his new puppy.

Derek stared back with narrowed eyes, "Nothing." He sternly said.

Stiles approached the man, "What's the matter? Are you oka-"

As soon as he placed a hand on Derek's shoulder, the man lept from the seat and pointed an outstretched finger into Stiles' face, "You still like her, don't you?" He shouted.

It's been a long time since Stiles has been afraid of Derek, but his tone of voice was enough of a warning to inform him to be careful. "Like her? Derek, what are you talking about?"

"Like you don't know!" Derek hollered back. With a confused expression from Stiles in return, Derek angrily said, "Lydia!"

"Lydia?" Stiles mimicked, still confused. "Why would you say I like Ly-" he started, shortly being cut off by Derek.

"I saw you two today!" He sounded upset almost, it was hard for Stiles to be sure, but he knew for sure Derek was mad.

"We're friends, Derek! What, just because I met you, you want me to toss her aside and treat her like shit?" Stiles knew he did nothing wrong and was prepared to defend himself.

Getting frustrated, Derek narrowed his eyes further, Stiles practically felt the gaze and gave a sharp look back, standing his ground. "You're also friends with Scott, and I don't see you tripping all over him!"

"Look Derek, you can't tell me who I can and can't be friends with." Stiles protested, growing angry.

Derek looked back and his softened. "Okay. Okay." He said, his voice going slighty higher, he sat back down in the chair, "You're right, I can't tell you who you can be friends with. You can be friend with who ever you'd like, heck, have friends with benifits too! I just won't be one of them."

Stiles looked back, hurt, "Friends with benefits. That's what you think her and I are?" his voice calmed to match Derek's, although Stiles' was a bit shaky. Hardly noticeable, or at least he hoped not.

"What else could I make out of what I saw?" Derek responded.

Stiles couldn't tell if Derek was still furious. He wasn't showing emotion, maybe he was hurt? Stiles couldn't quite piece him together. "What do you think you saw?"

"I saw," Derek began, sure of his answer, "you two pressed into each other, you tucking her hair behind her ear and touching foreheads. Her hands were all over your chest too, I should add."

Stiles huffed a sarcastic laugh, "Pressed into each other huh? Yeah, you see, that's a thing that people do sometimes, they call it a hug." He spoke to Derek as if he were a child.

Derek wasn't pleased with the tone of voice, "Look, Stiles," he shouted, springing from the chair again in anger, "I know what I saw!" His breathing was long and deep, "Her hands! Explain those."

Stiles didn't move, even when he felt Derek's breath warming his cheeks threateningly, "Oh come on, get over yourself, that's what Lydia does! She's a touchy-feely kind of girl! She had a fight with Jackson and I helped her to take her mind off of things."

"Did you now?" Derek's brows raised, "You helped her take her mind off of things." He mimicked Stiles, making it clear of how much of a sexual innuendo the sentence had.

"No! That's not how I said it!" Stiles shouted to defend himself.

"Is that how you meant it?" Derek leaned into Stiles' face daring him to answer.

"No, Derek. Stop it with the mind tricks! Yes, I liked her for years, almost eight years. You can't just stop liking someone, it's never that easy. I can't snap my fingers and forget all the feelings I've once had." He looked to Derek and would like to believe he saw his eyes soften a bit. "You can't forget people as easily as you'd like to. Wether you want to forget them because you hate them, because you found someone else, it doesn't matter, whatever reason! Did you have lingering feelings for Kate after she burned your family?" Stiles shouted. bad idea. He regretted the example the moment it slipped. He wanted to throw up. Scratch that, after he saw Derek's hurt face and watery eyes he just wanted to disappear.

"No. No no no." Stiles said in a pleading tone, "I didn't mean that, I swear, Derek, I didn't mean that."

Derek stood stiff as a board, looking into Stiles' eyes. "Really, Stiles?" He whispered so quietly that Stiles hardly even heard him.

Stiles knew he had no right to bring Derek's family into things, he was just so angry with him for his accusations that he immediately said what entered his mind.

Derek turned his back to Stiles and slowly motioned for the window.

"Derek! No! Stop!" Stiles screamed, reaching his arm out to grab the man by the shirt.

As soon as his shirt was grabbed, Derek spun around, quickly, "Let go." He hissed.

Stiles noticed long fangs taking up space in Derek's mouth, making his words slightly muffled. Stiles was crying by this point, tears filled his eyes and one by one took turns sliding down his cheeks. With Derek's teeth bared, Stiles knew things got really bad. He normally would have froze at the sight but he didn't care about what happened to him at this point.

Derek began climbing out of the window, trying his best to ignore the hands frantically gripping at his clothing and skin. He turned his head and growled deeply in his throat, letting Stiles know he was serious. It was honestly hard for him to ignore the boy's pleas, but with a angry snap of his teeth at the empty air between their faces, he turned and left.

Stiles called out the window for Derek to come back, and apologized about a million times but it was no help. With tears still pushing their way out of his eyes, his nose beginning to run and a sore throat, Stiles lowered himself to his bed.

Burying his face in his pillow he told himself he shouldn't be crying, until the look he saw on Derek's face entered his for the thousandth time, that's when he'd make a tiny weeping noise as he could only think of how much he regretted the whole day.

Stiles sat up in his bed a few hours later, noticing the sun had set and and moon was smiling in the sky. He propped himself up on his elbows and wiped his cheek with his hand. His face was sticky from the dried tears. Groggily looking around his room, he caught a glimpse of the vase on his night stand, housing his roses.

Sitting up he grabbed the flowers all at once. He separated them one by one and lay them out nicely on his blanket. Staring at them only brought thoughts of Derek, which saddened him all over again, knowing he had left.

Stiles took each rose in his hands before examining them closely. He then tried laying them out in the order he received them. Once he had that done, he looked to the window, the moon still owned the sky. It was about the same time he normally ended up checking the windowsill, but he pondered if he should even bother tonight. He decided he shouldn't, having a gut feeling there would nothing there.

Stiles later found himself unable to sleep. He would have thought it was the fact that he had taken a nap earlier, but he felt tired enough to sleep, he just felt like there was something missing. Multiple times his brain told him he should check the window, but every time his heart debated that it'd only upset him further.

That's what he did for a other half hour. Told himself reasons he should approach the window, and argued with reasons he shouldn't. Until finally he grew so tired and and frustrated with the insomnia that he brought himself to crawl from the warmth of his bed and near his window.

He stood in front of the window a moment. Far enough that he couldn't quite see the sill but close enough that the light of the moon threatened his eyes. He stood for a moment, revisiting thoughts of the fight and wondering how badly Derek was affected. With a shaky hand he lifted the window, slowly looking down to find a single red rose waiting patiently to be brought inside.

Stiles lifted the rose, realizing a tear was struggling to fall from his eye. It wasn't until he reached to shut the window that he noticed a small folded piece of paper. Unfolding the paper he realized the writing was too dark to see in his room. He Leaned his torso out if the window and used the moon as a source of light.

Stiles, I'm sorry. I was unfair to you and I hate that it took an argument for me to realize that. Hopefully you'll be able to forgive me? Goodnight, I'll see you in the morning.

Stiles grinned, still hanging out of the window. He stayed still for a couple of minutes, elbows leaning on the sill, torso and face being cooled by the night.

Okay, so he and Derek had a fight. That'll happen. They'll fight and make up then repeat. But Stiles knew one thing, they can make it work. What ever life problems (human or werewolf) get thrown their way, they would sort through it. One rose at a time.