Stiles was proud of his Winter Soldier costume. He spent an absurd amount of money and time making it and as such, he felt ready to show up at Comic Con and win a prize for it. Instead, he was sitting in his car, hyping himself up to go inside Lydia's Halloween party.
Any other day, at any other party, he would not have a problem just going in, getting himself a beer and mingling, but Lydia had made the whole pack promise to show up and that meant Derek was probably inside and Stiles was not ready to face the man.
A few weeks before, Stiles had come to Beacon Hills to visit his father and he ran into Derek unexpectedly. 'Ran into' implied it was accidental, but Stiles had gone to the auto shop on purpose, on a mission to ask Derek out once and for all —Lydia insisted Stiles was delaying the inevitable and Scott agreed. Stiles wasn't convinced Derek was into him at all and that day at the auto shop proved it.
Stiles parked his jeep outside and watched as Derek talked to a customer. It felt like the longest conversation Stiles had ever witnessed and he was not even surprised when the woman gave him her number. Derek smiled at her, then put the slip of paper in his pocket. When she left, Stiles tried to be as nonchalant as possible.
"Did you just get a hot date?" he asked.
Derek looked at him and his smile dimmed slightly. "Maybe. I don't know. We'll see what happens."
"Come on, Derek! Are you trying to imply you, Derek Hale, can't get the date of your dreams?"
"You'd be surprised," he said, bitterly.
That encounter made it clear to Stiles: Derek was not 'pathetically pining' for him like Scott put it, not was he 'painfully single' as Lydia claimed. Derek was open to having fun with women who were not Stiles.
Stiles, on the other hand, was tragically in love with Derek and would be for as long as he lived, so the best thing he could do was to keep his distance.
The weeks leading up to Lydia's party were brutal: he skipped on pack meetings and made up reasons why he had to stay in San Francisco and could not come to Beacon Hills. But some things were truly inevitable and Lydia's Halloween party was one of those. Stiles spent all of his free time making his costume to distract himself from the pain of imagining Derek with someone else, and now he would probably see Derek with the mysterious hot date.
Someone tapped his window and made him look up. If Stiles had been standing up, he would have needed to sit down.
"What are you doing outside?" Derek asked, looking at him as if he were acting weirder than usual.
Stiles lowered the window and stared some more. Derek stood there in a full Superman costume, cape and all, looking at him expectantly. Stiles, momentarily distracted by the tight fabric stretching across his chest, couldn't stop his brain before it said something stupid. "Wow… you look… wow."
Derek rolled his eyes, but hints of a smile were in plain sight for anyone who was paying attention. Stiles always paid attention to Derek, so by now he was well versed in all of his facial expressions and this one said Stiles is being Stiles again.
"Did you know people usually use words to describe other people?" Derek asked.
Oh, Stiles was familiar. He would have used all kinds of words to describe what Derek was doing to him now just by virtue of being Derek Hale.
"'Wow' is a word," he defended. "An expression of surprise or bewilderment as in 'wow Derek Hale is standing next to my jeep dressed in full Superman gear'."
Derek looked like he wanted to reply something to that, but instead, he shook his head. "Are you coming in or not? Lydia has been talking nonstop about this party. You're not gonna leave now, are you?"
Stiles sighed and turned his key in the ignition, grabbed his phone from the dashboard and got out of the car. Once outside, he stood in front of Derek, daring him to say something about his costume.
Instead of speaking, Derek looked him up and down, serious. "Did you make this?"
Stiles straightened, trying not to squirm under Derek's intense gaze. "Yes, I did."
"So this was the thing keeping you away from Beacon Hills?"
"I had things to see, people to do, or whatever," Stiles said, trying to get the awkwardness out of the way.
"I hope not," Derek mumbled, almost desperately. Then louder, "I can't be mad at you when you look like that."
"Like what?" he asked, defensive.
Someone on their way to Lydia's party did a double take and wolf whistled at them. "Sick costume, Stiles!"
Stiles nodded in acknowledgement, then turned to Derek. "Other people seem to think I look cool."
Derek's nostrils flared as he huffed in annoyance. "I never said you looked bad."
Stiles' heart beat faster, unbidden. No, he could not do this. If Derek flirted with him, Stiles might do something stupid like kiss him and never let him go. Instead, he did what he knew how to do best and denied himself the things he wanted the most.
"It's fine, you can say I look ridiculous. Someone has to do it," Stiles said, only partially faking his exhaustion.
"God, you make it absolutely impossible to flirt with you, did you know that?"
Stiles frowned and looked at the man in front of him, all six feet of muscle currently draped in the tightest Superman costume he'd ever seen. He couldn't have said— Derek didn't actually mean flirting, right.
"What?" he croaked.
Derek, for his part, seemed to realize the words he just said and visibly cringed.
"That wasn't how I wanted to tell you," he started.
"Tell me what?"
Derek's shoulders sagged. "Don't make me say it again. I had a plan, but you're being so thick… everything I say goes right over your head."
"Derek you're not making any sense right now. That's usually my specialty."
The man took a deep breath and squared off his shoulders, looking directly at Stiles. "I like you. I. Like. You."
"Wh—"
"And before you say anything, I don't mean as friends or whatever bullshit you're thinking." Stiles' breath caught, his thoughts spinning faster than ever. His hands felt sweaty and his heart was in overdrive. Derek continued as if he could not notice Stiles' reaction. "I mean I'm tired of pretending I'm fine with you living in the Bay area when you could live here. I'm tired of pretending I like whoever you're dating while I'm dying inside. I'm tired of pretending I'm not looking at you when I am. I'm tired of listening to Scott, of all people, tell me I should shoot my shot before it's too late because I know you feel what I feel.
"And I know that I've been a major idiot for not noticing before, but if it's not too late, and I don't think it is, I'd love to spend the night showing you I mean it."
Stiles was speechless.
In his wildest dreams, Derek wanted him as much as Stiles wanted him. But those were dreams, figments of his vivid imagination that were always painful to wake up from. Stiles knew better than to trust himself to know if he was dreaming, so he raised a hand and counted his fingers.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
He could heart his heartbeat drumming in his ears, he looked from his hand to Derek and said, "is this a joke?"
"Stiles—"
"If I'm not dreaming, this has to be a joke. I saw you with that customer the other day! You saved her phone number!"
"What?"
"The day I went to the shop, I asked if you had a hot date and you said 'maybe' all mysterious and shit."
"Dan? I'm not dating Dan. She's trying to sell me one of her cars."
"You were flirting!"
"I was just being nice! I think we've established that you wouldn't know flirting if it smacked you in the face."
Stiles leaned on his jeep, letting it take most of his weight. His mind was reeling. If Derek wasn't flirting with that customer then…
Wait.
Did Derek just said he liked Stiles?
"You like me? For real?" Stiles asked, looking at Derek again.
The man raised an eyebrow at Stiles and took a step closer. "Stiles, what do I have to do for you to believe me?"
Stiles swallowed, taking in how close they were standing, and a thought crossed his mind. His eyes went to Derek's lips, set in a firm line, then back to his eyes, but Derek's gaze was fixed on Stiles' mouth.
He didn't know how, but one moment he was looking at Derek, the next he was grabbing his face with both hands, kissing him with a ferocity he had only ever seen in movies. Derek recovered from his surprise quickly, grabbing Stiles' waist and bringing them closer together, impossibly close yet not close enough. Stiles wanted to climb inside Derek's ribcage and live wrapped around his heart.
When Stiles' back hit the side of his jeep as Derek pushed him back, a dam broke between them. Stiles bit down Derek's lips and swallowed a possessive growl that made heat pool at the pit of his stomach. His hands went from Derek's face to his neck to the neckline of the costume, drawing a shiver out of Derek.
Hooting and cheering erupted from somewhere behind him as they came up for air, and Stiles thought he heard Erica say "I think I saw a porno like this once."
Derek leaned his forehead on Stiles, breathing deeply.
Stiles, who could not stand another second of silence between them, said "fuck. Fuck. You mean to tell me we could've been kissing like that already?"
Instead of replying, Derek smiled, bringing a hand to Stiles' cheek, then he kissed him again, slower this time. Stiles could have sworn he heard his soul sigh in relief. This is it. I am home.
"Get a room!" someone yelled at them as the catcalling died down.
"Now that's an idea," Derek mumbled against his lips.
Stiles pulled away and looked at Derek. "Lydia is going to kill us."
"I'll deal with her."
"No one's going to see my cool costume," Stiles pouted.
"I was aiming to see you without it," Derek said, raising an eyebrow.
Stiles heart jumped. He patted himself down, looking for his keys. "You should've led with that." When he found them, he asked, almost as an afterthought while he opened the door to his jeep. "Hey, why Superman?"
Derek looked down. If Stiles didn't know better, he'd say he was blushing. "Lydia might've told me what costume you were planning. I wanted to match."
Stiles' lips curled in a smile. "Wrong intellectual property, I'm afraid."
"I'm honestly surprised I could find something to wear at all."
Warmth spread through Stiles' chest at the words. Derek liked him. He went through all this trouble for Stiles. Derek had feelings for him. The revelation seemed too big to be anything short of life changing.
"Let's get out of here," Stiles said.
He didn't have to tell Derek twice.