Payment (revised)

Chapter 25

Thanks for reading

edited: 5/14/20

edited: 9/5/23

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Stiles observed Derek as he dropped another log on the fire. A flare erupted from the point of contact, shooting red sparks and soot into the air. Watching Derek was enticing; his muscles flexed as he fed the flame, and fire danced up his forearm as if to seduce him with its heat.

The Alpha gnawed mercilessly at his full bottom lip, but only when he thought Stiles wasn't looking.

Derek was worried about them.

Worried about the conversation they had both tried so hard to escape.

Derek unfolded his body from where he had knelt before the flame, resolute. Stiles committed to memory the way the man wiped his face clean of feeling, his bones remolding until he was unrecognizable.

"Don't," Stiles pleaded.

Derek's attention snapped to the boy sitting in the lounge chair. The Alpha had been fighting to distance himself from Stiles in case this all went downhill. But the moment the boy had called out to him, gravity pulled Derek in like Stiles was the sun and he was an unruly planet.

"Don't close yourself off from me," the boy insisted, "it will only make this worse."

Derek's jaw clenched, and angry butterflies beat around in Stiles's stomach. But instead of any habitual outburst, Derek pulled up his own chair and sat.

Stiles relaxed when he once again could pick out the complex worry and responsibility written into the lines of Derek Hale's face.

The room fell silent. The only sound was the crackling of the fire which seemed to dim as the seconds ticked by, sucking the life out of the room as it went. Stiles bit his lip, trying to keep his chattering teeth to a minimum.

"Why were you hovering outside the door?" Derek asked when he couldn't stand the hold out any longer.

The boy could tell he was trying to open with an easy topic, but Stiles could too readily recall the dread he felt in the hallway.

It kept him from divulging fully.

"Why weren't you in bed this morning?" Stiles countered, answering Derek's question with a question.

Stiles regretted it almost immediately. Hadn't he just asked Derek to be open with him? It wasn't fair for him to hold back in turn. The more they played this game the more it felt like they were continents drifting further and further away from each other.

To his surprise and anticipation, Derek was there to reign them back in.

"If there is one thing you've taught me, Stiles, it's that if something is challenging or uncomfortable, it's something that needs to be talked about," Derek said, peeling through layers of Stiles's defenses like it was nothing.

Derek put his elbows on his knees and leaned forward.

There was a reason Stiles loved him through it all.

"I wasn't in bed this morning because I was scared."

Stiles quirked an eyebrow at the admission.

He had been under the impression he would have to fight tooth and nail to get Derek to talk, and the boy quickly tried to cover his shock so as to not give Derek reason to close up again.

It seemed that was one worry he could let lay.

Derek huffed a laugh at Stiles's failure to remain neutral.