HIWTHI readers:

So I haven't disappeared off the face of the planet, as I know readers of HIWTHI must be thinking. I can only apologise for life getting in the way a little bit. Good news though! Chapter 10 of HIWTHI is at the moment being beta'd so it shouldn't be long before that is out. I am also part of the way through Chapter 11 and am passionate about the story again, not to mention I've started another Drarry that I am going to build a couple of chapters of before I decide to start posting it. My main focus is HIWTHI though.

Everyone else:

This kind of came out of no where. I've been reading a lot of Sterek and I was listening to Snow Patrol - Crack the shutters and I thought it was kind of a perfect match. If you haven't heard the song I suggest you listen to it while you read this, all ideas have come from there and this is pure fluff. Hope you enjoy it.

Crack the shutters open wide.

Day has only just broken when Stiles feels the bed shift around him, waking him from his sleepy slumber. He doesn't know that daylight is skimming the top of the trees of the forest outside, the room, Derek's room, is bathed in darkness thanks to the shutters on the window, just the way they both prefer it. He turns into the space that's left, soaking up the heat and the scent left from Derek's skin, curling in on himself and heaving a sleepy sigh, prepared to slip back into his dreams.

Within seconds he is asleep again, curled into a ball, the sheet wrapped tightly around his waist, his torso bare but flushed hot from the heat Derek left behind. Derek comes back into the bedroom, from being at the toilet and smiles at how Stiles had taken his place so quickly. He stops by the broken radiator on the wall next to the door and rests his hands on it, cooling them instead of warming them.

He watches Stiles silently, his shoulder rising and falling with every breath, his heart beat is loud in Derek's ears but calming and relaxed in sleep. Stiles' mouth is open slightly and Derek is sure he is probably drooling over his pillow, but he doesn't care, he's grown used to it.

Derek steps back over to the bed and sits down on the edge and lays a hand on Stiles' exposed shoulder, down his ribs, counting each one as he presses his freezing hands all over Stiles' soft pale skin. Stiles stirs, Derek's rough but unusually cold hands immediatiely wakes him and he burry's his head further into Derek's pillow.

"No. Sleep time," Derek hears him mumble into the pillow, and if he hadn't had the power of exceptional hearing, he wouldn't have heard him at all, the feathers soaking up most of the sound.

Derek climbs over Stiles, into the space on the bed, under the window, that Stiles had been in before Derek had gotten out of his own side. He runs his hands around the back of Stiles' neck and he shudders underneath his touch and Derek hears his heart beat stutter.

Stiles turns onto his side and opens his eyes to take in Derek. Derek moves his hands down Stiles' chest, slowly, his hands still cold, growing rapidly warmer the more they take Stiles' heat and his wolf genes kick in and he leaves a trail of goosebumps in his wake.

Stiles shivers but smiles and brings his hand up to wind his fingers around Derek's wrist, guiding his hand now, up to his neck and leaving it there. Derek smiles back and rubs his thumb over Stiles' jaw in small stroking motions. Stiles' leans into the touch, as if he were some kind of cat and his eyes flutter closed again.

They sit like this until Stiles' heartbeat has slowed back down to the gentle beat of sleep and his fingers loosen and his hand falls with a small thump on the mattress they lay on. Derek stays awake, watching every inch of Stiles while he sleeps, the only time he's ever really still enough for Derek to take in every detail of him.

Derek can feel his pulse under his fingertips where he is still caressing Stiles' neck and jaw and can even see it where it beats against the thin skin of Stiles' neck. His breath is coming out in short puffs and Derek can feel them brushing over his face and lips. His eyelids are flickering as he dreams and there are even small twitches in his facial features, he's slipped that far into his slumber.

Derek's hands are warm again now and so he sweeps them over Stiles' shoulder and down his arm, slowly feeling every inch of Stiles' skin. His nose is filled with Stiles' scent as it is and the slow touching contact is intensifying it so much that his head is almost swimming in the earthy, eucalyptus scent the one that he has grown to love and be able to detect a mile away.

Eventually, Derek falls asleep again himself, his arm curled around Stiles' hip, their faces only inches apart.

Stiles wakes again to the room bathed in sunlight this time and squints over in the sudden brightness at Derek splayed on his back, his face turned towards the window, eyes blinking up at the clear blue sky. Stiles often wakes to Derek having opened the shutters but he's rarely ever still in bed with him.

Stiles smiles as he takes in the sight of Derek and the way the sunlight is streaming over the pair of them. The room is bright but the only part that the sunlight properly fell was from their hips, up onto the wall behind their heads. Stiles can see Derek's eyes from where he lays and the sun is making them look glass like, swirling amber glass orbs, his pupils small due to the brightness.

Derek turns his head at the sound of Stiles' stuttering heart beat and smiles, his eyes growing dark at the sight of Stiles sleep ruffled, his own heart stuttering. Stiles rests his hand over Derek's that was splayed casually over his chest.

The sun cascades over Derek's face and now that it's turned towards Stiles, there are shadows ghosting the skin in indescribable ways that makes Stiles' stomach clench and his heartbeat quicken. Derek smiles at the reaction that Stiles is having and the way his face is caressed by the sun.

One side of the shutters creaks in the slight breeze and knocks against the wall but neither of them start at it, almost expecting it and too caught up in each other to notice much else around them. Stiles wonders idly what time it could be but doesn't necessarily care all that much, he has no where to be and would quite happily lay with Derek for days on end.

Derek turns his face back to the window and sighs heavily, contentedly. Stiles watches him for another few minutes before he leans forward and places a small kiss on his shoulder, and then another, and another. Derek's stubble brushes his forehead as he turns again and he nuzzles into Stiles' hair, burying his nose deep against the scalp and his head swimming with the Stiles' scent again, almost making him dizzy.

Stiles shifts until he is almost completely on top of Derek, flush against one half of his body, his lips trailing up Derek's shoulder, across his collar bone, to his neck and then his jaw, making a path to his lips. Derek's hand skims over Stiles' shoulder blade, the bone just about sharp enough to pierce through his skin, and travels down his spine, his fingers dipping into the back dimples, just below the sheet still wrapped around them.

Their lips meet and their tongues dance. Derek's traveling hands shake as he takes in the taste and another inhale of Stiles. Derek smells warm and sun kissed, the most that Stiles' human nose can smell, nothing like the detail that Derek can but enough for him to feel consumed by it.

Their kisses deepen before turning into soft, gentle, slow pecks. They stop and stare at each other, Derek's eyes are the light swimming amber again and the way Stiles' head is angled, his almost sparkle, little flecks of amber in a sea of brown glinting in the sun. Stiles smiles lazily and forces his hands around Derek's back, holding them together as tightly as possible before settling his cheek against Derek's chest and staring out of the window. Derek leaves one hand on the base of Stiles' back and brings the other to brush through Stiles' hair.

"You don't plan on getting up at all today do you?" Derek asks softly.

"Nope. Hope you don't mind," Stiles says. His tone shows Derek that even if he did have a problem with staying in bed with Stiles all day, he had no choice in the matter. Even though Derek was the werewolf, Stiles was the one that always managed to get his own way. No matter what.

"Wouldn't dream of spending my time anywhere else," Derek says and tugs on Stiles' hair a little. Stiles nuzzles his cheek into Derek's chest and tightens his hold.

"And let it be known, if your pack decide they want to crash in here and steal you away, they'll have me to answer to," Stiles threatens and Derek stifles a laugh by burying his mouth in Stiles' hair.

"Uh-hu," Derek finally agrees and Stiles knows that he was trying not to laugh, he heard him fighting it, but he doesn't call him out on it. He likes that about Derek, he humors him. In fact he likes nearly everything about Derek. Right now, his ear pressed against his chest, hearing the soft thud of his heart in his ribcage, he can't think of one thing he doesn't like about his boyfriend.