Stiles took a deep breath, steeling himself for what he was about to do. Actually to be completely honest he wasn't sure exactly what he was about to do, the plan had sort of been to wing it considering he had just stumbled across this information about twenty minutes ago and hadn't really had all that much time to concoct a plan.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to do something about it, I mean have you met Stiles? If anything that just made it all the more likely.

He knocked.

His head was spinning a little, in a good way. If there was a good way for a head to be spinning that is, he felt, floaty. Kind of.

Why did nobody ever tell you what awful torture it is to wait for someone to open their god damn door when you want to tell them something? Seriously why? This was really horrible—Stiles' brain threw thoughts from all over.

What would Derek say, what if he wasn't home. Oh god—what if he had someone there. Stiles started to panic taking few steadying breaths before deciding maybe he should leave and come back tomorrow, or never.

The door opened.

"What do you want?" Derek asked, clearly a little annoyed.

Not a lot though so Stiles was going to take that as a good thing.

He opened his mouth to speak but shut it again, frowning.

He didn't really know how to go about this.

Derek stared at him before sighing and gesturing for him to enter. "You do know what time it is, don't you?" he asked.

Stiles shook his head, actually he had no idea what time it was. He had just rushed over—without, wow. It must be pretty late though, considering he had told his dad that he was going to bed around midnight.

"It's three am Stiles," Derek said with his sourwolf face on.

Stiles winced.

"Yeah sorry." He said nervously running his hand through his hair.

"Don't be sorry, get to the point." Derek huffed impatiently.

Stiles nodded, starting to pace around the room a little.

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

"You're sort of an asshole." He said first, "and you're really mean a lot of the time and seriously for the first like three months I knew you I was convinced that you wanted to murder me."

Derek glared at him, starting to say something but Stiles cut him off.

"And you're always in a bad mood, you never tell us what's going on, you use me like a research assistant that gets paid in glaring and bruises, you live in the shittiest apartment known to man and have the creepiest uncle that has ever walked the earth." Stiles ranted, still pacing.

"So you woke me up at three am to tell me I'm an awful person, with a shitty apartment and a scary family?" Derek asked glaring.

"Kind of." Stiles said, frowning. "Those are all the cons on my pros and cons list."

Derek looked a little surprised, "you made a pros and cons list, about me?"

"To be fair I do make a pros and cons list for just about everything, but this specific one took me a really long time." Stiles said, "Mostly because every single time I looked at it and tried to add things to both columns I would almost always have to cross off a con or add a pro."

Derek frowned; he really didn't understand where this conversation was going.

"You're loyal, You have this really fucked up sense of wrong and right where you think literally everything is your fault and you have to make it right and somehow that's a good thing, You care about everyone, I'm almost positive now that you don't want to kill me." Stiles listed, pausing to take a breath before continuing down the pros side of his list. "You trust me, even if you say you don't. You do because you wouldn't have fallen asleep that time in my bedroom if you didn't. You're funny in a sarcastic kind of way, and dude have you even seen your face—I mean what color are your eyes even? I seriously have never seen eyes that color. And no I don't mean the wolfey ones; I mean the freaking fifty shades of green ones that are glaring at me right now."

Stiles frowned, "there are more." He said burying his hands deep inside his pockets awkwardly, "but the thing is—I mean the reason that I came here is because I found one that I'm not sure what side to put it on."

Derek nodded, "and that is?"

"That I'm totally in love with you." Stiles breathed almost silently; face flushing in the dimly lit apartment. "and I can't figure out where to put it, until you tell me that you have absolutely no interest in me and that me being in love with you is stupid, or that maybe—" Stiles paused glancing up at Derek who was staring at him wide eyed.

"Never mind, this was stupid. I should have known, uh I'm just gonna go cause I have to be – anywhere but here really." Stiles said hurriedly, the space around his heart suddenly feeling tight and uncomfortable.

"Stiles."

He paused where he stood, which was currently half way to the door of Derek's apartment. Which also meant he was only a few feet away from Derek himself.

"I'm sorry I woke you up." Stiles said frowning at the floorboards, reprimanding himself mentally for thinking that there was even a fraction of a chance that Derek would be interested in a guy like him.

"Don't be." Derek said—and he sounded a lot closer than Stiles had anticipated.

Like—a lot closer.

As in, inches away.

A theory that was proved when a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around.

"I shouldn't have—I mean it was stupid to think." Stiles blabbered for a moment, only stopping because Derek laughed.

The Derek hale actually laughed.

It hit Stiles like a ton of bricks that he had never heard Derek laugh before. Ever.

He wasn't sure anyone had heard Derek laugh—not since. Well you know.

Stiles stared at him with a puzzled expression, because as much as he was enjoying the fact that Derek was happy, he wasn't sure he wanted to be the butt of some joke.

Even if it made Derek laugh.

Derek calmed down after a moment and took a deep breath to steady himself.

"Stiles, you're an idiot." He started.

"He—"Stiles started to object but found Derek's finger was in the way.

"Shh." Derek warned, "My turn to talk."

Stiles nodded—he frowned, but he still nodded.

"You're an idiot, you have no sense of self preservation, you're a sarcastic little shit, you act like you know everything, you drive me completely insane, you're way too smart for your own good and god you wear way too much plaid." Derek said smirking a little.

Stiles was not smirking, not even a little.

It wasn't like he didn't know those things, but it wasn't exactly fun to tell someone you love them and then have all your faults—well a lot of your faults thrown in your face.

"But do you want to know how many of those things made it onto my cons list?" Derek asked, sticking a finger under Stiles' chin and bringing his attention back to himself.

"none." He said.

Stiles was confused, "but…"

"I don't have a cons list Stiles." Derek said smiling at him, "I have 1001 reasons why I'm totally in love with Stiles Stilinski list, and those are all on there."

Stiles' jaw dropped a little.

"You mean—"he started before closing his mouth and screwing up his face in concentration, "but you—it's not just, are you sure you're not just sleep deprived?" Stiles asked, "or you don't have a concussion, or oh god did someone give you a love potion, are love potions real?" Stiles asked panicked.

"Stiles." Derek laughed, hand settling reassuringly on Stiles' side.

"I'm rambling." Stiles noted.

"It's okay." Derek said, "That trait actually made top ten on my list of things I love about you." Derek smirked.

Stiles grinned, "oh yeah? And what's number one?"

Derek laughed lightly, "Wouldn't you like to know."

"Deerek!" Stiles whined, "you've gotta tell me."

He pouted.

Derek laughed at him but conceded anyway, "the fact that you argue with me, you don't back down even though I'm an alpha. You challenge me, and call me out and without you I'd have died so many times by now." Derek said leaning forward to rest his forehead against Stiles'.

"That's so much better than the number one reason that I had on my list of reasons I love you." Stiles laughed.

"Oh and what's that?"

"He got dat booty." Stiles said giggling, "Though to be fair, I didn't order mine by importance or anything. If I had, "Stiles scrunched up his nose in deep thought, "eh it'd still probably be the same."

Derek rolled his eyes but leaned forward and closed the space between them anyways. Stiles grinned into the kiss making it more teeth than lips but they didn't really mind all that much.

It was special just because it was theirs, and that was really all that mattered.

"But seriously, can I tell everyone I know that your ass is mine. Like property of Stiles, No touchy, off limits to all but me, 100% not theirs?"

Derek laughed, "Whatever you want."

"Does that mean I get to tell people that you're my boyfriend?" Stiles asked excitedly.

"If that's what you want." Derek replied, pressing their lips together chastely for a second.

"Oh yes, it is, very much." Stiles grinned, "Almost as much as I really want you to take me upstairs and sleep with me."

It was Derek's turn to flush, "I don't think—- don't you think that's moving a little, you know, fast?"

Stiles laughed, he laughed so hard that his sides almost split and he had to hold his stomach afterwards to keep from throwing up his dinner.

"I should probably mention that I literally meant sleep." Stiles wheezed, still lightly chuckling. "But god you're so freaking cute."

Derek glared.

"I'm not cute, I'm an alpha." He argued.

"You can be both." Stiles amended.

Derek—well Derek didn't much want to argue, so he just nodded, the mention of sleep suddenly causing exhaustion to hit him like a pile of bricks.

"Sleep sounds good." Derek said smiling fondly.

Stiles yawned, but nodded.

"Carry me?" he said putting his arms out like a child requesting a lift to bed.

Derek rolled his eyes but reached out and threw Stiles over his shoulder.

"Whoa!" Stiles yelled, "Dude I was kidding."

"Don't call me dude." Derek growled.

"Alright, Cutie pie, I was kidding." Stiles jabbed.

Derek didn't make any arguments to the nickname.

"You're not okay with dude but you're okay with cutie pie?" Stiles said resigning himself to his fate of damsel in distress as he was carried up the stairs.

"Oh you can call me cutie pie as long as I can call you sweetums."

Stiles cringed.

"Alright, point taken." He thought for a second, "how about… sweetie."

Derek rolled his eyes, "Seems like false advertising, people might expect me to actually be sweet."

"You are sweet."

Derek scoffed.

"Well you're sweet to me." Stiles huffed.

Derek took a breath and exhaled slowly, putting Stiles down on the bed before nodding.

"Alright, I can deal with sweetie."

Stiles grinned.

"But that means you're dealing with baby."

"I can live with that." Stiles said smiling fondly at his boyfriend from his boyfriend's bed which was in his boyfriend's room.

He was really excited about the whole boyfriend's thing.

"You look like the cat that got the canary." Derek laughed.

"Or the Stiles that got the Derek." Stiles amended. "I think I got the better end of the deal than some stupid cat."

Derek smiled turning to grab a shirt and a pair of sweatpants that didn't quite fit him and throw them at Stiles.

"Thanks." Stiles said grabbing the hem of his shirt and tugging it over his head before Derek had the chance to look away.

Which he did.

After a few seconds of admiration.

Stiles' skin was an expanse of pure white, dotted with moles that he just really wanted to trace constellations into, with his tongue.

But not tonight, Derek reminded himself, turning around to face the wall so Stiles could finish changing.

"Alright I'm done Mr. I'm gonna do the proper thing." Stiles joked.

"More like Mr. I want to keep myself from jumping you." Derek said back, not so much joking.

He smiled, clambering into the bed beside Stiles.

"Your dad's not going to wonder where you are?" Derek asked.

"Probably not." Stiles yawned.

"And if he does?"

"That's what cell phones are for." Stiles said, curling himself around Derek and laying his head on his muscled shoulder.

"I guess you're right."

"I'm always right." Stiles said smiling.

"And so modest too." Derek joked running fingers over the dip of Stiles' hip soothingly.

"Well you know me, always with the modesty" Stiles yawned eyes fluttering closed as he struggled to keep them open.

"Go to sleep baby." Derek whispered soothingly, "I'll be here when you wake up."

"You'd better be." Stiles mumbled into Derek's shoulder.

Derek smiled, "Goodnight baby, I love you."

Stiles cuddled closer to Derek, "love you too." He muttered.

Derek smiled down at Stiles as he drifted off to sleep, he looked so calm and peaceful and Derek couldn't help but feel like he was probably the luckiest person in the entire world because he had Stiles, and Stiles had him and for once everything was perfect.