Stiles knew that when Isaac and Scott found out about his "little" crush on Derek, he would never hear the end of it.

Which was why he avoided telling them for as long as he possibly could? Which lasted all of three weeks and four days because while Scott was oblivious and sometimes stupid. Isaac was not, and therein lied Stiles' downfall.

Stupid curly haired- puppy eyed- asshole.

"Hey Stiles, how's Derek?" Isaac asked sliding up beside him at the lunch table.

This sucked eggs.

"I wouldn't know, you live with the guy." He replied, reminding himself that all they were looking for was a reaction. That these were his friends, regardless of their tendencies to be jackasses.

"I'm sure he misses you, you haven't showed up to pack stuff in like, two whole weeks. That's got to be a new record for you." Isaac laughed.

Stiles—did not laugh.

"In case you missed it, I am not part of your little werewolf after school club." He said picking up his tray in a huff, "and don't think I won't hesitate to shoot you."

Isaac rolled his eyes, "it wouldn't kill me anyway." He said to Stiles retreating form.

"But it would hurt like a bitch." Stiles muttered, loud enough that Isaac would certainly hear him.

Stiles thought, after that, maybe it had ended.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

Saturday morning he got a text message.

Stiles

I love you with all my heart.

Marry me?

-Derek

Stiles had the urge to shoot someone. Because first of all, Derek didn't talk like that. Second of all, he obviously had Scott's number and he wasn't going to be stupid enough to believe Derek took his phone just to text Stiles off of it when Derek had his own. And third of all, his friends were assholes.

And so he did, shoot someone; and by someone, I mean Scott.

Multiple times.

In the chest.

"You're a jackass." he said lowering the gun after emptying the barrel...

"You just shot me and you're calling me the jackass." Scott said, offended.

"It won't kill you." Stiles said shrugging. "Though I was sorely tempted to pop a wolvesbane bullet into this baby." He said with a smirk.

"You are evil." Scott said staring down at his shirt, torn to shreds, bullet holes and blood on every surface. "This was one of my favorite shirts." He said frowning.

"Maybe now you'll shut up about the whole Derek thing."

Scott grinned, "no way man it's too funny." He said laughing and grabbing his lacrosse bag, "so if we're not really here to practice and you just called me out here to shoot me in the chest multiple times I'm gonna go hang out with Isaac, later man." He said walking away at a pace that still astounded Stiles.

Stiles hated this, every single last second.

And he would like to say that it ended there.

But it didn't.

Stiles really should have stayed away from Derek's apartment. Except he really couldn't help himself, this whole werewolf thing. It was fucking cool and he wanted to know as much about everything as possible. Sure the internet could tell him some things, and it was great for like research and porn but there was no substitute for the bestiary. That thing was a treasure trove of information.

Problem was, it lived in Derek's bedroom.

And never left Derek's bedroom.

Which is how Stiles ended up stumbling out of said bedroom at one in the morning, sleep clouding his eyes, hair tousled and clothing crumpled.

He would say it wasn't his fault, but he fell asleep on the chair a few hours before and well, there was really nobody to blame but himself. It wasn't until Derek wandered into his room at the wee hours of the morning that Stiles even realized he had dozed off.

He should have gone home at eleven, if he had he wouldn't have stumbled into Isaac in the hallway that morning and would have avoided the worst conversation to date.

"Nice going Stilinski, I knew you were going to tap that someday." Isaac said with a wink.

Stiles yawned, "what…oh Derek." He said realization washing over his face, "no—no, no, no. I just fell asleep reading the bestiary. Derek kicked me out when he got home."

"But he smells like…" Isaac started.

"He smells like what?" Stiles asked lips turning down slightly at the corners.

"Nothing. He smells like Derek, just Derek nothing odd or anything." Isaac said, flush rising in his cheeks.

"Isaac" Stiles warned.

"He just, he smells like sex and I assumed."

Stiles' heart crashed into the pit of his stomach like an anchor on the ocean floor.

"Yeah I mean, that makes sense." He said frowning, "listen I'm just gonna go home now. Tell Derek thanks for the bestiary and ill uh, well maybe I'll see you at school sometime."

It wasn't until Stiles was outside when he murmured something about never returning to the hale house again; that Isaac realized maybe Stiles' little crush wasn't so little.

Stiles was almost sure that Isaac and Scott had stopped after that, there were no mentions of alphas, or kinky things he might like in bed, nothing about gay sex or "why not Danny" or anything along those lines for two whole weeks.

And then out of nowhere.

"Are you really in love with me?"

"OH MY GOD!" Stiles yelled, jumping nearly a foot in the air.

"WHAT THE FUCK MAN!" Stiles screamed whipping around, tripping over his feet in an attempt to assess the treat of a random man sitting on his bed, in his bedroom, which might he add, was in his locked house. "You- can not- just sneak up on people like that." He reprimanded, heart still pounding out of his chest.

"Jesus, how long have you been sitting there anyway. Just waiting, man that is like… Edward Cullen levels of creepy- thank you very much." He said hand still grasping at his heart.

"You didn't answer my question." Derek replied.

"You didn't answer mine." Stiles countered.

"I asked first." Derek retorted.

"My room." Stiles argued, eyebrow quirked.

"Ten minutes tops." Derek said grimacing.

"So like… two hours?" Stiles guessed.

"yeah." Derek said frowning. "Now answer my question."

Stiles frowned, "what was the question again?"

"Are you really in love with me?" Derek asked.

"And what would give you that impression?" Stiles asked nervously, hoping maybe he could tiptoe his way around the subject.

"Isaac."

"Mother fucker." Stiles cursed.

Derek stared at him expectantly.

"I don't know man. Can it really be love if the other person doesn't even like you; I think maybe it's more of an infatuation, a really long lasting crush or something like that. No big deal, nothing to worry your little alpha head about." Stiles said nervously.

"I like you." Derek replied almost instantaneously. "Why do you think I don't like you?"

Stiles rolled his eyes, "oh I don't know, maybe it's the death threats or the physical abuse, maybe the verbal abuse, the "Stiles I hate you" vibe you always give off in waves. Take your pick man."

Derek grimaced, "I don't hate you."

Stiles laughed, "Glad we got that cleared up. Will you get out of my room not, I need to re-load my gun I have a beta to shoot. And possibly an omega to re-shoot."

Derek raised a bushy eyebrow at him.

"And maybe an alpha too if he doesn't leave." He said only half joking.

"So by your definition, you can only be in love if the other person is interested back correct?" Derek asked from his spot leaning against Stiles' window.

"yup." Stiles replied.

"And you are in fact interested in me right?"

Great, now he's gonna add insult to injury.

"Right" Stiles sighed; rolling his eyes at the werewolf's shameless fishing for compliments.

"Well in that case, I love you too Stiles." Derek muttered before ducking out the window and disappearing into the night.

Stiles rushed to the window, staring out at the blob that grew increasingly smaller as it ran away.

"You can't just say that shit and run away!" he yelled, smile on his face.

And if he heard a howl ring out moments later, maybe it was just a coincidence.

And maybe, he was kind of glad his friends were such meddling assholes.