"Ma." A voice said from below the taller woman. The child held onto her hand, an orange lollipop in his other. He tugged on her finger multiple times, struggling to draw her attention, but the woman was busy looking over the various brands of cake mix there were on the shelves. She picked one up- double chocolate- then put it back down, biting her lip in thought. The boy tugged on her finger once again, and looked around, focusing on the flavor of his candy. He was a small thing, with pale skin and big brown eyes and short brunette hair, looking in the aisle. The scent from his candy wafted towards his nose, and he made a small sound of pleasure, everything was so big as he looked around.

"Ma." He said again, grudgingly taking the sweet from his lips and tugging on her finger once more. "What're you gettin'?"

The brunette woman fiddled with her long hair for a second before turning to look at her son. She smiled when she saw the stickiness covering his cheeks. Her hazel eyes ran over her choices once more before she sighed in defeat and turned to look at her child once more.

"Well, sweetheart, we've got some new neighbors moving in and your father suggested I make a little something to introduce ourselves."

"How 'bout you get them a lollipop?" The boy said, holding his own up for his mother to view in pride before quickly returning it to his mouth, his garbled sentence spilling from his lips. "This owange wun is pwetty good."

She laughed, and her voice was sweet. It rang nicely above the noise of the supermarket, above all the conversations and the cashier's and the business, it melted and fell so easily on his ears. He had always liked his Ma's voice, and the way she smelled, like those pretty purple flowers he had seen on the dinner table.

"Alright Stiles." She said, picking up two boxes from the shelf and bending down to meet his gaze. He kept his lollipop in his mouth, fervently sucking away. He would have bit it a long time ago, but this one tasted really good, and he wanted it to last as long as it could. But in the back of his mind he was scared that it would last forever, and he would never get another lollipop again, which made him sort of sad. He cut off his train of thought when he looked into his mother's eyes, and saw a playfulness in her gaze.

"Since I can't decide for myself, you'll be a big boy and choose for me. Lemon cake, or chocolate cake?"

An immediate look of thought settled upon his young features. He stopped his attack on his sweet and ran over his choices. Lemon cake was good, but Ma always let him help make chocolate cake. And it was super yummy when she let him lick the bowl, even if his stomach hurt afterwards, it was totally worth it. And sometimes she let him put chocolate chips in the chocolate cake to make it super double chocolaty and he loved when she did that. And he never met someone who didn't like chocolate; like that one time he gave Scott a piece of chocolate and then Scott promised they would be best friends forever and then he-

"Stiles, you still there sweetie?" The woman asked, smiling at him. He looked at her for a moment after she interrupted his childish rambling.

"Chocolate." He said, smiling with finality.

"You sure?" She asked, standing to put the lemon cake away.

"Super doubl-dy sure." He said. He waited for her to turn around and raised his arms towards her. She smiled and picked him up, cradling him on her hips as she walked down the aisle. He laid his head on her shoulder and breathed in the smell of those flowers.

"Ma?" He asked.

"Yes?"

"The flowers on the table, what are they called?"

"Um. Which ones, love?"

"The purple ones."

"Ah- lavender. They're my favorite." She said, a slight pickup in her voice. He repeated the word and felt it roll from his lips, let it settle in his mind, and he made a mental note to make lavender his favorite flower and smell too, because Ma always smelled like it and it was good. He liked roses before but they always had those prickly thorns that hurt him so it was okay to get a new flower. He settled into the warmth of her form and cuddled into her neck(her skin was super soft, almost softer than the teddy bear that Scott brought to show-and-tell that one day) as the rhythmic sway of her hips lulled him into a gentle rest. But before he closed his eyes, he bit down hard on his lollipop and crunched all the small pieces, effectively making sure that he would get another lollipop soon enough. He stealthily dropped the white stick as his Ma was walking, gazing up to make sure she didn't see, and wrapped his arms around her, his sticky hands coming to rest on the back of her neck. His equally as sticky cheek nestled against her shoulder, and he felt the slight rumble in her voice as she laughed, and he fell asleep.

XoOoX

"Papa! Papa!" Stiles yelled, bursting through the door as his mother opened it for him.

"In here!" A voice yelled, and Stiles ran into the living room, jumping on his father's lap, his cheeks raised in happiness. He embraced the boy and kissed him on his head, Stiles enjoyed the deep rumble as his dad chuckled.

"How's my big boy?" He asked, smiling at his sons candy coated face.

"Papa, did you get any bad guys today! Did you see superman? Did you help superman beat up a bad guy because that would have been super cool. OH MY GOD! DAD! ARE YOU SUPERMAN? Papa if you're superman why didn't you tell anyone? Is it because you don't want the bad guys to come to our house? Is it because you did-"

The child was stopped in his frantic rant by a warm towel over his face. His mother chuckled as she wiped away the candy from his cheeks and hands. Papa looked up at her, and his eyes went soft. Stiles was quiet as they looked at each other, he thought it was weird that they always stared at each other forever, and they always got this weird look in their eyes when they did it. He thought it was because they 'loved' each other like Papa was always saying but he was beginning to think it was just because they were weird. Or maybe because Papa was actually superman and he was talking to Ma in his mind and he just couldn't hear them talk, or what if they had their own secret language and he couldn't tell what they were saying?

"Hey, sweetheart." Ma's voice said, she leaned down and kissed him on the lips, which Stiles thought was gross but they did it all the time, and he smiled back at her. They just kind of stood there for a while, looking at each other with smiles on their faces.

Stiles soon enough had had enough of it. "CAKE TIME!" He yelled, jumping from his father's lap and running into the kitchen, going to the refrigerator. Ma gave a quick sigh before running after him.

"Stiles, do not open the eggs, I will not have a mess like last time." She said, walking into the kitchen and picking him up from behind. He flailed his legs, but he was set down atop the counter, and swung his legs over the edge while he watched his mother take out all the ingredients.

"Is it cuz you don't want us to get that fish stuff?" He asked. She looked at him with a raised brow, but soon enough she interpreted his question and let out a chuckle.

"I don't want you to get Salmonella. That's a disease. Salmon is the fish stuff."

"Whatever." He said. He scooted over the counter to where she stood, looking into the bowl. "Can we put chocolate chips in it to make it super awesome doubl-dy chocolate?"

She smiled. "No chocolate chips this time. We don't even know if they like chocolate."

He pouted and crossed his arms as he watched his mother break eggs into the bowl. "I don't like these people."

"Now you stop that. Look at me." She commanded. He looked at her, expecting anger in her eyes, but they were soft and loving. "They have a little boy who I think is close to your age. Maybe a year or two older."

"Wow, he must be super old." Stiles dragged out, eyes wide and arms flailing.

She chuckled. "If he's super old, what am I? He's not that much older. You're four, so… what, six, seven tops? I actually think you have the same birthday."

"No. Way." Stile said, his eyes even wider and mouth agape. "He must be super cool. Same birthday?"

She smiled as she mixed the batter, dropping in a little sugar. "His name is Derek. Be nice to him okay?"

XoOoX

"Hi! I'm Stiles." Stiles said, greeting the older boy with a smile. He had to look up slightly as he spoke; Derek was a few inches taller than him. They had arrived with cheerful faces and Stile had quickly made his rounds and approached the dark haired boy, he was a bit intimidated by the frown he wore, but he had never let a frown stop him before.

"Hn." Was Derek's response. He seemed utterly uninterested in Stiles' friendship, and that hurt a little, but if Stiles was anything it was persistent. His frown almost deterred him, as did the glare was giving the younger child.

"Your name's Derek, right?" Stiles asked. "I know that cuz my Ma told me, and ya know what else, we totally have the same birthday! Isn't that super cool, I've never met someone who has the same birthday as me, and that means we'll be best friends or something like that, I mean I already have a best friend, his name's Scott and he's super cool but that's totally okay because I think we can be best friends too. Oh my God! Is it against the rules to have two best friends? I hope I don't get arrested or anything. Did you know my dad's a cop and he beats up bad guys and he might be superma-"

"Shut. Up." Were the words that came from Derek's mouth, but they didn't sound normal. They sounded deep and angry, like a dog's growl, and it scared him for a second because he also saw something so not normal go on with Derek's eyes, but he was quickly over his fear.

"Can you teach me how to talk like that? That was awesome, and that eye thing you just did was awesome too."

Derek sighed. "I don't want to be friends with you."

Stiles stopped his impending sentence and looked at the older boy with a hurt gaze. He took the anger he spat out at first, but the bluntness of his statement hit him hard. He closed his mouth and looked down, toying with his feet as he felt a weight in the bottom of his stomach.

Derek watched the boy sulk in his mind, dejected as he tried to find a way to occupy himself. It wasn't his fault he said it. The kid was talking like there was no tomorrow, and it was starting to annoy him. His parents had long given him the talk about how to act around humans, but this kid was not pack. Derek sniffed the air, he could plainly sense the disappointment radiating from the child, but he also smelled something else, something flowery and clean. It was nice. He took a deep breath.

"I have some video games in my room. Wanna play?" He asked after a moment of contemplation, immediately regretting his decision when the boy looked up, wide eyes bouncing with happiness.

"Oh my God, yeah!" He said, grabbing Derek's hand and running towards the stairs, walking up quickly.

"You don't know where my room is." Derek pointed out. Stiles stopped in his tracks, and looked back at the dark eyed child.

"Um."

He rolled his eyes and took the kids hand, catching a whiff of that flowery scent again. He led them up the stairs and growled with annoyance as he walked to his room.