Ignite

Stilinskis

Officer Stilinski’s house was bigger than it needed to be for two people, so there was plenty of room for the Hales. Officer Stilinski worked on writing up reports at the dinner table while Laura and Derek settled Cora onto the couch, where she curled up like a cat. They watched television and ate popcorn out of the bag, and for once things felt almost normal again.

An hour later, Stiles arrived, bouncing in through the door with his usual lighthearted grin. “Dad, I’m home!” he called, dropping his keys into the bowl by the door. He entered the livingroom and caught sight of Derek, Laura, and Cora sitting on the couch in front of the television. He froze for a moment, taking in the scene perhaps, before bouncing over and dropping down onto the floor in front of the couch. “What’re we watching?” he asked, like this was something they did every day.

“I think it’s called ‘Sharktopus’,” Laura told him, looking at the screen with a mixture of amusement and disinterest. “Cora gets a kick out of SyFy movies.”

Cora wiggled her toes in response.

Stiles grinned. “As she should,” he said, gesturing at the television. “These are some quality films brought to us by the hardworking ladies and gentlemen of the SyFy channel.”

Cora giggled, and even Laura cracked a smile. Stiles glanced up at Derek and winked before turning his attention back to ‘Sharktopus’.

 

✦ ✦ ✦

 

Officer Stilinski ordered near obscene amounts of Chinese food for dinner that night, and they sat at the dining table like a real family. It felt strange, Derek thought, but he liked sitting between Stiles and Laura, listening to Stiles chat about school that day, and anything else that came to mind. Officer Stilinski took a while, but about halfway through the meal he seemed to settle, and he and Laura started talking like they’d known each other for years. Derek just watched, settling himself into the conversation and smiling whenever anyone caught his eye. If he was being truthful, he was glad they’d had to come to Officer Stilinski’s house instead of staying in Peter’s apartment. It would have been too easy to fall into misery locked up in his apartment all by themselves; it was hard to be sad when Stiles was around, cracking jokes and doing everything he could to keep things light. He silently hoped the keys were lost, and they could stay at the Stilinski house for good.

Officer Stilinski looked at his watch with a small frown. “It’s eight now,” he said, looking up at Derek and Laura. “I can take you to get the keys now, if you really want…” His eyes flickered to Cora’s face, which had gone from amusement at Officer Stilinski turning her napkin into an origami frog to dismay at the concept of leaving. “...or you could stay here the night. We’ve got the room.”

“Yeah,” Stiles said, not missing a beat before he was on the bandwagon. “We’d love to have you guys stay over.”

Derek was sure that Laura would decline, citing that they didn’t want to intrude, and they should really get to Peter’s place. But when he looked at her, she was nodding, a smile creeping its way onto her face. “That’d be great, Officer Stilinski,” she said. “Thank you.”

Cora’s frown vanished like a magic trick. She handed Officer Stilinski another napkin, smiling her wolfish little smile. “Can you make a butterfly?” she asked sweetly.

Officer Stilinski chuckled and took the napkin. “Sure.”

Derek volunteered to do dishes, and after a little coaxing Officer Stilinski agreed, settling down on the couch with a newspaper and reading with a frown. Laura slinked over to join him, and curled herself up in an armchair. Cora was less picky, and flopped herself down on the floor, dozing off after a few minutes surrounded by her napkin origamis.

Stiles came into the kitchen and started helping Derek with the dishes without asking, drying while Derek scrubbed for a while in silence. “The guys have been asking about you,” he finally said, quietly enough that Derek could pretend not to have heard him if he wanted.

Derek raised his eyebrows. “Oh?” He put another plate on the pile of clean dishes.

Stiles nodded. “I didn’t tell them anything. Figured you guys needed your privacy.”

Derek nodded. “Thanks.” The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, but he felt the need to keep talking so he wouldn’t fall back into sulking. “How are things at school?”

Stiles shrugged. “Boring. You haven’t missed much, honestly. We’re almost at break, so there’s not much work to do anyway.”

Derek nodded slowly. “How’s lacrosse?”

Stiles made a face. “Coach is his usual awful self. He gave this big long speech the other day, and I swear by the time he was done half of us were asleep.” Derek cracked a smile, and Stiles seemed satisfied. “We are as always incapable of winning games, but we’ve done our best.”

Derek smiled. “I’m glad.”

He didn’t get to say any more. Laura came over, resting a hand on Derek’s shoulder and looking at Stiles. “Your dad said you could show me where the linen closet was?” she prompted, raising her dark eyebrows.

Stiles put down the plate he’d been drying. “Yeah, right this way,” he said, and bounced towards the stairs. Laura smiled at Derek before following.

Officer Stilinski enforced a somewhat strict lights out around 10pm, and sent Derek and Laura to the two guest rooms he’d hastily cleared for them. Cora grumbled like an angry cat when he attempted to coax her off the floor, and instead ended up carrying her up the stairs while she continued to drift in and out of sleep.

“I know they’re not great rooms,” he said apologetically. In truth, the rooms were better than Derek could have imagined; there was stuff all over his room, but there was a bed with clean sheets and a window with a ledge big enough to sit on. Laura and Cora shared the larger of the two rooms, which looked like it had been a craft room long ago, but had long since been abandoned for that purpose. A queen-sized bed had been jammed in the corner and outfitted with all new sheets of a well-worn lilac color.

“They’re perfect, Officer Stilinski,” Laura said quickly, and it was probably the first thing she’d said to him that she genuinely meant.

He seemed to realize it too, and smiled at her before depositing Cora on the bed. “Bathroom’s just down the hall,” he told them, pointing to it. “I’m at the end of the hall, and Stiles is across the hall if you need anything.”

“Great. Thanks.”

They all parted ways without saying anything else, retreating into their rooms and settling down for the night. Derek shuffled around uncertainly for a minute, getting his bearings of the place before settling down onto the bed. Stiles had left him a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt to sleep in, and he smiled.

“It’s just like a sleepover,” he told himself, changing into Stiles’ clothes. They were a little small on him, but not uncomfortably so. “Just like a sleepover.” He climbed into bed and tried to settle his mind. He couldn’t pretend everything was normal, that it was going to be alright, because it wasn’t. He hugged his pillow in the dark and tried to keep himself from crying. He’d kept himself together in the hospital, but being in Stiles’ house made the whole thing seem real. He squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as he could and waited until exhaustion overtook him, and he settled into an uneasy sleep.