#i will still never forgot his borderline selfishness in refusing to help others because he “doesnt belong there so why should i help”

[aqqleshiqqing-archive]

y'know as much as i see ruby as my son (and I still do) truth is outside of being a selfshipper I actually do kin ruby - and thought id stay to be a ruby kin but my selfshipping tendencies got the better of me LMAO

[sincerly-kate]

Shattered Glass (Malcolm Bright/Whitly x gn!reader)

A/n: This story is inspired by two things; a two-part series by @wreckofawriter​ and also my experience with family . If you want me to remove it (wreckofawriter) then I will, but I don’t mean to copy your amazing work.

Warnings: Angst to fluff, Malcolm trying his best (not really a warning but that needed to be put out there, HE ONLY TRIES HIS BEST), also talk about poor mental health! (Such as Anxiety, description of an anxiety attack (this is based off MY experiences I’m not trying to generalize them!) and slight depression)

Don’t read if you’re not done season one! All spoilers are under the cut just in case (Eve is mentioned, iykyk)

Summary: You and Malcolm have been dating for a few years now, you share with him all of your sides- or so he thought. How will he react when he sees you crying when you think he can’t see you? How will he feel when he realizes that you guys are more alike than he originally expected?

Y/s/n = Your Siblings Name

Y/m/n = Your Mothers Name

y/n = your name (just in case this is your first fic)

Words: Just over 3,000 (😅😅)

I was listening to this song as I was writing this: If the World Was Ending- JP Saxe, Julia MIchaels

You always knew that Malcolm could see the real you better than anyone else, he could see straight through your facial expressions and little habits. It was his job after all as a profiler, he couldn’t just turn it off when he was with you and that was understood between the two of you. The last thing you wanted was for him to change in a world that treated him differently already (no thanks to his father).

But there was one part of you that you tried to keep from Malcolm at all costs, and that was your family.

It wasn’t because you didn’t trust him with that knowledge, but it was just a side of you that you’ve never been able to let anyone see. To see how hurt you were by their words, how little you were respected by them, how small you felt anytime you tried to be yourself around them. You couldn’t tell him any of it, you hoped that he would believe your lies, cause you knew that his family was way worse than yours; so you just kept it all inside for no one except yourself to see. The last thing you wanted was for him to feel guilty for confiding in you after all these years.

You felt him nudge your shoulder, which brought you back to reality. You were a Reporter, and a very god one depending on who you asked, and Malcolm needed you to help him drag out a killer for a case. He was profiled as overly confident and a borderline narcissist, so Malcolm was certain that if you talked about him on the news, saying that they had him in custody that he would contact either you or the station to say you had a fraud. Malcolm was going to be by your side the entire time, just to make sure they wouldn’t go after the most important person in his life-,not again; he wouldn’t know what he would do if you were taken away from him like Eve. He would do anything in his power to make sure that he wouldn’t go after you, since you matched most of his previous victims.

“You alright?” He looked at you slightly worried, he was always concerned when you got too deep into that head of yours, he wasn’t sure what caused you to be constantly thinking that you’re not good enough, but he wasn’t going to press the matter. He rubbed your thigh as he sat next to you, to keep you grounded.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? It’s not like I’m about to be indirectly talking to a serial killer on live television, and possibly get a target on my back for doing so.” You nervously laughed as you looked down at your feet, your leg bouncing up and down to the rhythm of your rapidly beating heart.

“You don’t need to do this; you know that right?” He placed his hand on your cheek, caressing the side of your face with his thumb repeating the motion to calm your nerves. “I can ask Ainsley; she’s done this before-”

“Malcolm, I’ll be alright. I always am.” You gave him a tight-lipped smile; you knew it wasn’t very convincing but that’s all you could muster up at the moment.

He wasn’t convinced, you could tell since he gave you his doubtful that he’s given you on more than one occasion but he was cut off by another voice before he could call you out on it.

“C’mon Bright, they’re about to go live.” Gill said as he lightly grabbed his arm to get him out of the shot, and he complied.

“Live in 3,2,1...” You were given the cue as you took a deep breath and put your ‘TV face’ on as you liked to call it. “Breaking news tonight, the NYPD have confirmed that they have someone in custody who’s been known to the public as The angel of death, nothing has been said by police if this truly is their killer but after the past week of The angel of death terrorizing the city, police are led to believe that this is him.”

You took a pause to make it look like you were listening to someone through your earpiece, that was intentionally visible to the camera, then carried on with the broadcast.

“I’ve just gotten a confirmation from our sources that it has been officially confirmed that they have The angel of death himself in custody and will be setting a court date to be announced later. Now back to Ryan with politics.”

The second you heard the ring that signaled you were no longer on air, you slumped over in relaxation. You crossed your arms on the table in front of you and leaned your head, that now felt lighter than air, on top.

“You did amazing darling, that should get the killers attention for certain.” He said to you as the sound of his shoes got closer to the desk the kissed the top of your head and slowly rubbed your back to release more tension that he knew you were holding.

“I didn’t really- “You tried to correct him as you lifted your head, but Malcolm refused to let you get close to finishing that sentence of yours.

“Nope- you just brought us our killer baby; you did a hell of a lot more than most would’ve in your shoes.”  You loved how he was always able to reassure you, and how he did it without a second beat.

You turned to look up at your loving and supportive boyfriend in admiration and a warm smile slowly painting your features, “Whatever I did in a past life was so worth it.”

“What?” He slightly laughed at your statement, looking at you now with a mixture of curiosity and confusion.

“To deserve someone like you and be lucky to call them mine.” You stood up from your chair and moved closer to him to close the distance between his lips and yours, you could taste the slight cherry flavor of the candy you knew he had earlier. As you two break apart, you can still taste it on your own lips.

Unfortunately, this moment doesn’t last as long as you two wanted it to, because both of your phones go off. His from an unknown caller, and yet yours is somehow worse.

You look down to your phone saying Mom, you sighed at this and then looked at Malcolm, or where he was, already on his phone, most likely talking to the killer himself next to Dani, Giles and JT.

You excused yourself to another room for some privacy that you knew you were going to need. You were only halfway to the quiet room when you answered your phone; you knew that was going to be a bad idea.

“Why in the hell did you think that was a good idea y/n?!”

You sighed and with a tight-lipped smile replied with, “Hello to you too mom, haven’t heard from you in a while.” You then slowly closed the door behind you.

“Don’t give me that lip! I am your mother, I deserved to be treated with respect! I never get this from y/s/n.”

You dropped your head down in defeat, you always considered the problem child, ever since your sibling came into the picture. Before that everything was relatively fine, but you never blamed y/s/n though; it’s not their fault your parents decided that you could fend for yourself at the age of 8.

“Yeah I know, but it was for a case- “Once again, she decided to cut you off.

“A CASE?” she shrieked into the phone, making you pull the device away from your ear.

“Yes- “

“Now I knew were selfish, but I never thought it was this bad. I could tell that it was staged, are you seriously putting yourself in danger so they could contact you for some ink?”

You were absolutely shocked by her words; she thought that you risking your life was selfish? So, you could save others, that made you selfish? You felt the pressure of tears build up as a sickening pit was building in your stomach; she always knew the words to say and never in the good way. “No, that’s not- “

“No, I get it, you’re too damn stupid to see past your own needs. I have no clue where I went wrong with you.”

The minute you heard that, you hung up the phone. You couldn’t care less about what she would’ve said after that.

You hit your back on the wall as you slowly walked backwards and slid down to the floor. You pulled your knees up to your chest and placed your head down.

You must’ve been sitting there for a while as there was a rough knocking behind your back, on the door. ‘They must’ve been knocking for a while’ you thought.

“Y/n! Are you in there?” Malcolm. You must’ve scared him to death, without even thinking you stand up and open the door for him.

Behind the door was Gil, JT and Dani accompanying Malcolm. “Shit guys, sorry if I scared you.” You laughed humorlessly but stopped once you saw all their concerned faces.

“Y/n, you alright?” Gil asked, who was more of a parental figure than your own, but you couldn’t ever tell him that. Not because you were scared it would go to his head, no, he wasn’t like that. You just didn’t want it to become awkward since he already needed to worry about Malcolm, you didn’t need him to constantly worry about you on top of it.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” You said then realized you still had massive tear stains on your cheeks and puffy eyes from your previous phone call, you forgot to wipe them away before you opened the door.

‘Dammit y/n’ you scolded yourself for making the four of them all worry.

“Um you got somethin’ right,” JT then motioned to his whole face, Dani then elbowed him in the side for his unhelpful comment.

“Oh!” You wiped the sides of your face, “I’m fine guys, just got something in my eye.” You smiled at all of them.

Your head then turned to Malcolm, who squinted his eyes at you. You could tell didn’t believe you at all; he knew all your tells. You could tell that he was going to ask later, but you were sure as hell going to avoid it if you could.

Unable to deal with the silence anymore, you pushed by all of them, apologizing as you went, and walked out to your car. You were done for the day anyways, so you wanted to go home to Malcolm and yours’ apartment.

~

Once you got through the door, you let the dam in your mind open. The flood gate of tears rushed, and there was nothing you could’ve done to stop it; not that you really wanted to anyways. Your hands shook from the rush of emotions going through you, but you forced down the inevitable panic attack until you got to the couch. Your hands continued to uncontrollably shake, and you curled up in a fetal position with your favorite blanket wrapped around you like a tight hug. The words of your mother echoed throughout your fogged mind.

“I knew were selfish… you’re too damn stupid to see past your own needs…”

It just wouldn’t stop. It was like a massive wave going over a surfer; nothing could be done about it, you just needed to ride it out.

You heard a muffled noise coming from behind you but being so caught up and immobilized in your thoughts, nothing could’ve dragged you out of this one, not this time.

 A pair of arms grabbed your shoulders, and there was enough fight left in you to push them away and run into the corner of the apartment. You could slightly see a male figure coming near you, and all you were capable of doing was whimpering and curling up in what you had deemed your safety blanket.

“Y/n… talk to me… happened at… were worried…”

You tried to make out the familiar voice- Malcolm; that’s the only person it could be right? It didn’t matter to you right now; the voice of your mother was stronger than your own thoughts, it always had been.

You felt a thud right next to you, and smelt the subtle sent of his cologne, it brought you back to your senses slightly, but not enough to stop your uncontrollable shaking and tears. He nudged himself closer to your body, and you instinctively laid your head on his shoulder. You could feel yourself calm down, but you knew it was because he was here. Yes, he was helping you ground yourself through the small gesture, but it was mainly that you were embarrassed of him seeing you like this and could feel your body force away the attack.

As you begun to trust yourself to speak, you turned slightly towards Malcolm, a numb look coated your features. “Sorry you had to see that; you shouldn’t have had to.” You spoke meekly, looking down at your still slightly shaky hands in your lap.

“Y/n, you have nothing to be sorry for.”

It was once he said that sentence that you knew you needed to come clean about the one secret that you had left from him.

“But I do, I’ve been selfish.”

“How darling?” He said while slowly petting your head, the way you’d comfort a child.

“I didn’t want to tell you, cause you already had so much on your plate, with this case, your family, and I- I just didn’t want to add my family on top of it.” He understood that this must’ve been eating at you for a while, because you normally bottled all your feelings until it broke; unfortunately, that’s why you both got along so well. He never wanted you to feel like that was necessary when you were with him, but how do you bring that kind of thing up?

“What about your family?” he spoke softly. You never spoke about them, hell he’s never even met them but now he felt deep down that he was about to find out why.

“Am I selfish to you? Am I someone you really see yourself with in the long run?” Tears begun to fill your eyes again, and a crack in your voice was evident to Malcolm that you believed in what you were saying about yourself.

He felt a pang of sadness for you in his chest, that was quickly turning to anger at whoever made you feel like you were any less than worth the universe. He composed himself before he responded to your question.

“Far from it, you are the most selfless human being I’ve ever met. There’s now way that a selfish person would’ve done what you did today; going in front of thousands of people and calling out a killer like that, like a badass.” He nudged your shoulder, where he got a slight giggle out of you. It wasn’t a lot, but it was better than nothing.

“And absolutely can I see you with me later on,” He took a deep breath before he continued his statement. “I love you y/n, and if I ever lost you… I don’t even want to think of who I would become. You’re the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”

You immediately rushed into his arms and embraced him so tightly, afraid that this was all some massive cruel dream, and you’d wake up another day without him knowing. You stayed like this for a moment before Malcolm piped up,

“So, you wanna tell me why the most beautiful person to ever walk the earth is currently crying on our apartment floor at nearly 9 pm?”

You both chuckled at this, as you unwrapped yourself from his arms to look him in his beautiful blue eyes. His eyes were still filled with an underlying anger, but mainly held concern towards you.

“You know when we were at the news station today? And you got a call from the killer?” He nodded, encouraging you to continue.

“Well I also got a call, but it was from my mother. We got into an argument, since she saw the broadcast, and words were said.” You knew that the fine details were going to be said eventually, but you couldn’t bring yourself to say it.

“And, what did she say baby?” He answered in a voice that was barely even a whisper, he looked you up and down; most likely looking at your body language to see if you were going to try and lie, but he could tell that you were going to be honest.

“That I was selfish, dumb, questioning where she went wrong with me.” You sniffled and looked to your hands, terrified to see Malcolm’s reaction. Not because he might yell at you, but at what he might do to your mother now that this was his first impression of her.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Was all he said after some silence.

“You have your own family shit to deal with, I didn’t feel like it was fair on you to dump mine on top of it. I didn’t want you to lose anymore sleep than you already do over something that I need to deal with.”

“…”

“Malcolm? You’re scaring me.” You looked up at him to see him looking out the window, his face glowing from all the nightlife neon lights across the street; he looked so angelic, more than he normally did.

“How didn’t I see this any sooner? I don’t care that you didn’t tell me y/n, I don’t care that your family is screwed up as well. I do care about the fact that I couldn’t help you through it.”

“But Malcolm it wasn’t your fight-” you tried to defend your reasoning, but alas he needed to correct you once more before the night was through.

“You’re right; it’s our fight. To hell with our parents, we’re not our parents; we are our own people. So, from this moment on, I promise to be completely transparent with my baggage as long as you are with me. We can break our constantly bottled-up feelings together.” He gently picked up your hand and laid a kiss on top.

“turn them into shattered glass.” You nodded as you spoke, a smile slowly coming back to your face.

“Just like shattered glass.” He nodded back, returning your smile.

And just like that, the two of you sat down on the couch, cuddling and watching movies as dusk carried on into dawn.

A/n: I hope you guys liked this, I always loved Malcolm’s character and Prodigal son, and with my life being slightly hectic at the moment this was a nice change of pace. Hope you have an amazing day or night, depending on where you are! 💙

-Kate

[stereksecretsanta]

Merry Christmas, @blizgori!

Merry Christmas, blizgori! Hope you have a very special one!

*****

The smell of pine in the winter time

“It’s too tall!”

“It’s not too tall!”

“It’s gonna hit the ceiling!”

“It’s not gonna hit the ceiling!”

“Did we seriously need to have one this big!”

“Of course, we seriously needed to have one this big!”

“Would you stop arguing with me like that!”

“Stop arguing with you like what!”

Always having to hide his immense satisfaction and borderline glee at having successfully riled Derek up with his antics was nearly an impossible feat for Stiles. Still, he managed for one very selfish and very important reason. Derek Hale was smoking hot when he was mad!

Luckily, now that they were dating, Stiles got to see this angry side of Derek all the time, though he wasn’t quite sure what that said about the longevity of their relationship. To Stiles, Derek was the sexiest person to have ever walked the earth. Hands-down. But Angry Derek….with his scorching hot glare and that delicious vein on the side of his neck that strained as he turned a furious shade of red, his every muscle tense, even the ones in his eyebrows…well, that was all the Christmas gifts Stiles would ever need.

“Please, for the life of me, just stop talking, I beg of you,” Derek pleaded, pressing his palms together in prayer. “I’ll get your tree up somehow. You just sit there, and look pretty, and shut up.”

Stiles’ already wide grin grew wider. “You think I’m pretty?”

“Of course.” Derek winked then switched his focus back to the tree. “I also think you’re annoying, ridiculous, deranged, obnoxious…”

The list went on and on. Derek was probably dreaming about how good it would feel to put his hands around Stiles’ neck and just wring. Stiles kept bothering him nonetheless, barking out absurd orders as Derek struggled to put up their humongous Christmas tree that Stiles had begged him for. It was their first holiday together as a real couple and Derek had wanted to buy a stupid fake tree, one that would be too small and too easy to set up. Stiles, on the other hand, wanted a real tree, one that was big and fluffy and smelled like fresh pine. And though their relationship was fairly new—they’d only been together for a month—Stiles was discovering that Derek typically let him have his way. Probably knowing that giving into Stiles was well worth the sex in the end.

“Whew,” Stiles puffed and wiped pretend sweat from his forehead as Derek finally got the tree on the stand. “Well, that was a lot of work!”

“You. Did. Nothing.” Derek glared, biting out each word.

Stiles scoffed. “I’m management. That’s like the most important job. Everyone knows the top’s where all the pressure’s at. Supervising is a lot more stressful than manual labor.”

“I’ll show you manual labor,” Derek murmured, a suggestive glint in his eyes as he slid into Stiles’ personal space and pressed their bodies together.

Stiles had all intention of rolling his eyes at Derek’s massive cheesiness but gasped instead when Derek’s hands went under his thighs to hoist him up into the air. Stiles wrapped his legs around Derek’s waist and clung on while Derek walked them towards the couch, nibbling on Stiles’ ear.

“Wait! We need to decorate the tree!” Stiles whined when Derek dropped them down onto the couch.

“We can do it later,” Derek dismissed, running his teeth against Stiles’ jawline.

“No, we can’t do it later! We have to do this now while the Christmas spirit is still alive.”

“The Christmas spirit can wait an hour.” Derek kissed him then and Stiles forgot all about the tree and the arguing and got lost in the warmth and feel of his mouth.

He remembered the disaster that surrounded their first kiss. Derek had a rough encounter with a witch and was cursed by a nasty spell that called for someone to have sex with him or he would die.

Naturally, out of the pack, Stiles was the only suitable option to help Derek with that, and so they went a couple of rounds in bed but didn’t even kiss at all. As you can imagine, it was very awkward later realizing that they’d fucked for hours but hadn’t kissed. Things got even more awkward as they tried to push past it and pretend that the whole situation never happened.

After a few weeks of unbearable awkwardness, they’d finally had enough and made the grownup decision to kiss to get it all over with. However, they hadn’t expected to never want to stop kissing and honestly haven’t ever since.

Stiles whimpered when Derek’s lips pulled away from his then moaned when they continued kissing down his body. He felt a tug as Derek undid his pants and opened his eyes hungrily to watch when he spotted a sorry sight.

He glanced to it and then back at Derek, torn. “Look at it. It looks so sad that it’s still naked.”

“I’m sad that we’re not naked,” Derek griped.

“C’mon.” Stiles pushed Derek off after a long, bruising kiss and stood, buttoning his pants. “I’ll make it up to you later. I promise.”

“You’re exhausting,” Derek sighed but got up anyway.

With such a big tree, they would need a lot of manpower and a ton of decorations. Stiles had brought a bunch of boxes of extra decorations to the loft from his dad’s house, trying to save money, being a poor college student and all. But he wished that they would have invested in some new Christmas lights at least instead of trying to work with ones that were super old and tangled up.

He’d made a big mistake in delegating the responsibility of untangling the lights to Derek. It was a huge job that required one to be patient, level-headed, gentle, and super careful; qualities that neither of them really possessed. He thought Derek would’ve done better with it though, because Derek was a werewolf. Honestly, he thought Derek was supposed to be good at everything because he was a werewolf.

But when Derek started getting so frustrated that he was growling and popping wolfy claws, Stiles had to step in and take them from him before he ripped through the wiring. He gave Derek another task of going through the boxes and sorting the ornaments while Stiles dealt with the lights. That way everyone would be happy. Basically, what being in a management position was all about and why his job was way more important.

It took about thirty minutes and a lot of cursing, but Stiles was actually able to get all the lights untangled and was working on putting them around the tree when he heard the sound of glass shattering from behind him.

“Dude! What the fuck!” Stiles cried when he looked back and saw one of the glass ornaments in a pile on the ground. “I thought I told you to be careful!”

He was waiting on Derek to say something, to apologize, or explain himself, or be his usual asshole self. But Derek was just standing there, completely silent, and staring at this one spot on the floor.

“Derek?” Stiles was less annoyed now and more concerned as he put down the lights and tried to figure out what was going on.

“S-s-s-pider,” Derek stammered.

“Uh where?” Stiles asked, frowning as he looked around and saw nothing.

“Right there!” Derek pointed to the same spot he’d been staring at, eyes refusing to budge.

Stiles moved a little closer and squinted. “I don’t see it.”

“Are you blind?!” Derek snapped, finally looking up. “It’s right there. It’s huge! You can’t miss it!” He looked back over to the spot and paled. “Oh god… it moved!”

“Where?” Stiles searched the floor again but again found nothing.

“There!” Derek swung around, pointing somewhere else. “Fuck now it’s over there! It’s right fucking there, Stiles!”

“Seriously?” Stiles furrowed his brows. He was honestly scratching his head at this. “This has got to be some sort of act.”

“It’s not,” Derek said gravely. “Fuck, it must have come from the tree.”

Stiles rolled his eyes; he should’ve known where this was going. Of course, Derek just wanted an excuse to villainize the perfection that was his real tree. But that still didn’t explain the sheer terror he was seeing on Derek’s face. Or the high-pitch scream Derek let out when whatever spider he was seeing moved again. Or even his running away and jumping onto the couch for safety.

“Oh, I see it now!” Stiles shouted, catching a glimpse of something brown and furry crawling along the floor.

It was definitely a large spider, for sure. One could probably keep it as a pet. But it didn’t look poisonous or particularly harmful in any way to Stiles, at least. Then again, he was no expert. And while the spider was definitely big, they as humans were a lot bigger. So, Stiles still wasn’t understanding why Derek was so scared.

“Why are you standing on the couch?” Stiles asked, watching Derek balance himself on one of the couch’s arms. “Did you not see the size of that thing!” Derek asked incredulously. “It’s gigantic!”

“Yeah, it is pretty big but you’re a werewolf…” Stiles said slowly in case Derek had forgotten.

“Fuck! It’s on my furniture! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

“Would you calm down!” Stiles urged, watching as the spider crawled its way onto the TV stand. “It’s not anywhere near you!”

But Derek did not heed any of Stiles’ advice. In fact, Stiles could see that Derek was done hearing seasonable reasoning completely. He just kept shrieking his head off as the spider crawled over his big screen TV then onto the wall where it remained stationary for a couple of minutes.

“I call bullshit,” Stiles announced then turned to Derek skeptically. “How can you be afraid of spiders? You lived in your old burned down home. You had no roof! All kind of bugs must have been crawling on you when you were asleep!”

“I bought expensive repellent to keep them away.”

“But what about when you lived in the underground train car?”

“Again, no spiders!”

“But you’re a werewolf! All you do is run around in the woods! Basically spider territory!”

“Hey, do I question you about your irrational fear of yogurt?”

Stiles’ hand flew to his heart in utter betrayal. He couldn’t believe that Derek had the audacity to throw that in his face. “That is a very real and rational fear! Not only does it taste disgusting, but it’s alive, and I can hear the screams of young innocent bacteria cultures crying out with every spoonful!”

“Stiles…” Derek said, his breathing laboring in a way Stiles was very familiar with, like he was on the verge of a major panic attack. “Stiles, for once, can you just stop talking and get rid of it for me, please. I need you here.”

“Oh,” Stiles said, now that he was grasping the severity of the situation. “Okay, let me just get a—”

He sprinted to the kitchens and rummaged through the cabinets for something to trap the spider in. He was hoping that this itsy bitsy spider would be cooperative and would just get into whatever container Stiles found without his having to chase it. He wasn’t going to be cruel. He just wanted to catch this spider, take it outside, and order it an Uber ride home. But if things didn’t go as planned, he wouldn’t think twice about giving this spider The Stomp. It had scared the living shit out of his wolfy boyfriend. This was personal now.

“AHA!” Stiles exclaimed and held up a plastic lunch container.

“Not my tupperware!” Derek called out.

“Why not?”

“Because that fucking spider doesn’t pay rent and I need them for meal prep!”

“You can just wash it and use it again,” Stiles tried.

“You think I’m gonna eat out of something a fucking spider’s been in? That’s disgusting!” Derek shouted hysterically.

Stiles could’ve said that there was a chance it was recycled plastic from a dump where spiders had already crawled all over it. But he didn’t because he’d already acted like such a shit boyfriend tonight by not responding to Derek in crisis fast enough. But he kept his mouth shut and put the tupperware back, finding a plastic butter container that nobody would miss.

“Okay,” he said, walking over to Derek, “I’m gonna lure the spider onto the floor. Don’t faint and don’t freak out.”

Fear never made anyone a good listener. Stiles knew he was asking too much in telling Derek not to freak out, but he was hoping Derek could attempt to keep it to a minor one. He worked as fast as he could to get the spider in the container. Derek was counting on him and Stiles couldn’t let him down. He missed catching the spider once, twice, but on the third try, he was victorious. He got the spider firmly under the container on the floor, but must not have realized how much energy he’d been exerting because he was panting by the end of it.

“You ever see that video where the guy catches the spider under a container and then it explodes and has like a million babies?” Stiles asked Derek between breaths. “Right, you probably don’t want to hear about that right now.”

Derek got down from standing on the couch and sank into a seat, covering his face with his hands. Stiles desperately wanted to go over there and comfort him but was worried he wouldn’t be welcome. He took the spider downstairs and released it back into the wild, telling the little fucker never to come again. He also told it to tell its friends never to bother his boyfriend either, because Stiles wouldn’t be so nice the next time.

When he got back upstairs, he was fully expecting for Derek to want some space between them. Stiles had acted like a total jerk and Derek had a right to be pissed. Stiles was pissed with himself too. He’d never wanted to fuck up this bad so early in the relationship on something so important. He enjoyed making Derek angry but never like this.

However, he was pleasantly surprised—more like ecstatic, really— when he opened the front door to the loft and saw Derek still sitting on the couch but holding his arms out for Stiles to come sit on his lap.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you were scared,” was the first thing Stiles made sure to say, that and kissing every inch of Derek’s face. “That was a dick move, and I promise you, I won’t leave you hanging like that ever again.”

“It’s fine,” Derek chuckled, blushing a little in embarrassment. “You didn’t know.”

“I should always believe you,” Stiles said then smiled, shaking his head. “But seriously, who would’ve ever thought that your biggest fear would be spiders.”

Derek snorted. “That’s hardly my biggest fear. Not by any means.”

Stiles slapped a hand over his mouth that he’d just put his giant foot in. Sometimes he was an idiot and forgot that Derek had a terrible past and made such insensitive comments when he should know better. Of course, spiders weren’t Derek’s biggest fear. The guy had lost his entire family in a fire.

Derek seemed to sense Stiles’ inner turmoil and tried to make him feel like a less horrible person by saying, “You know, my biggest fear now is telling someone I love them and them not saying it back.”

“No way! That’s a big fear for me too!” Stiles shared. “Like how awkward must that be. Pouring your heart out to someone and them just not saying anything back. The only thing you can really do after that is crawl into a hole and live out the rest of your days as a crazed mole-person.”

It was quiet then. Too quiet. And while this holiday season was known for its “silent nights” Stiles sensed something was amiss here.

“Um, Derek… are you trying to… imply… something?”

“I figured now would be a good time as any after you just saved my life.”

Stiles cackled. “That wasn’t saving your life, dude. I’ve actually saved your life. So many times in fact. You’ve literally been bleeding to death in my car. This spider incident does not compare.”

“It was a big deal for me. There’s no one I trust more than you. You know that right Stiles,” Derek told him.

Stiles was so touched he couldn’t speak. Honored even. Stiles knew it was early. Some would say too early. After all, it had only been a month. But, they’d known each other a long time and have been through so much together. And Stiles wanted to say it. He wanted to say it so Derek would know he’d do everything he could not to let any of his fears come true. So, he did.

“I love you too,” Stiles said and kissed him, feeling Derek’s happy smile ghost against his lips.

“I didn’t even say anything yet,” Derek sputtered, wide-eyed.

“You don’t have to. I already know.”

They kissed again, not coming up for air for a while. Stiles was perfectly content with staying there all night, but then Derek messed it up by pulling away.

“Come on, let’s decorate your precious Christmas tree,” he sighed, moving Stiles off of him and kissing his brow.

“No,” Stiles whined, pulling Derek’s mouth back to his. “The Christmas spirit can wait an hour.”

“Next year fake tree and no spiders,” Derek said sternly.

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.” Stiles rolled his eyes.

[jugxbets]

Archie's Little Sister: Chapter Nine