Archive of Our Own ^beta

It wasn’t uncommon for Stiles Stilinski to wake up shivering cold. Even with his multiple blankets, two layers of socks, and a plethora of pillows, he would still wake up in a cold spell. Especially in the pack house. Anytime the poor human of the pack would take a small snooze on the couch or in a guest room, he’d wake up freezing as if he’d been sleeping on an ice cube. Today was no different.

After two sleepless nights and many arguments to just lay down, Stiles had been pulled into a guest room and forced into the bed. Multiple blankets fell into his arms and the door shut leaving him complete silence. With all of the right ingredients, it was a recipe to get Stiles to sleep quick. But an hour later, he found himself blinking awake, still stuck between consciousness and deep sleep. A shiver ran down his spine. Groaning, Stiles slowly sat up and wrapped the thinnest and longest blanket around his shoulders before blearily moving towards the door in search for warmth.

Stiles knew in his sleep idled mind that warmth was the only solution to his unfortunate dilemma that, now that he thinking about it, should definitely go see a doctor about it. So his weak knees slid his socked feet across the hardwood floor as he makes his way towards the front of the house and into the living room where three werewolves lounged with different activities.

Erica sat in the one recliner they had with her phone plugged into some headphones and watching a video. Isaac laid on the rug in front of the unlit fire place with a notebook and pen, writing and not once looking up. Then Stiles’s eyes slid over to the third wolf, Derek, who was laying on the four seater couch, sprawled out with a book. If he was more coherent, Stiles probably be able to read the title of book and poke some fun but the only thing on his mind was warmth and sleep.

Stiles weighed his options. He could either hackle Erica into cuddle sesh on the one seater, which he knew she would be down for, but he also knew they would both get uncomfortable almost immediately. He ruled Erica out. The floor didn’t like as appealing as Isaac made it look and he really didn’t want to fall victim to another one of Isaac’s artistic choices in drawing dicks on a sleeping person’s forehead. So he turned towards Derek with no thought other than a personal furnace and a couple hours of shut eye.

His presence must’ve caught the other two wolves attention as they eyes caught onto the human, watching him make his way towards their Alpha. Isaac, opening his mouth to greet Stiles, promptly snapped his jaw shut as he and Erica watched Stiles practically drape himself over Derek, settling between open legs and using a warm chest as a pillow.

Distantly, Stiles could feel the way Derek tensed up underneath him and threw his arms in the air to avoid the human from laying on his overly interesting book, but Stiles didn’t care as warmth slowly seeped back into his bones and sleep carried him away.

-

Derek didn’t know what to do. One second he was minding his own business, reading his book in peace and quiet, and the next he had an armful of sleeping Stiles and blanket. The boy was cold, he could tell in the way that his body shivered every now and then before settling completely and relaxing.

Derek looked up at the two betas in the room who also seemed to be just as shocked about the sudden predicament.

“Is he good?” Erica asked quietly, almost a whisper. She had taken her earphones out and paused whatever video she had been snickering at just moments ago. She raised an eyebrow as she looked over sleeping boy.

“Uh-“ Derek took a quick look down at Stiles before looking over at Isaac then back at Erica, at a loss. Was Stiles okay? The Alpha quickly marked his page before setting the book down on the side table behind his head. He put the back of his hand against the boys forehead, trying to gauge if he had a fear. Derek wouldn’t doubt it considering how many hours Stiles had spent staring at his computer screen and having to be reminded to eat, sleep, and (a couple times) use the restroom. “He’s a bit cold?” He ended up saying after some silence.

Erica and Isaac both snorted. “He’s always cold. Doesn’t help when we keep the a/c running at like 60 and below.” Isaac commented, looking back down at his notebook and writing a couple sentences.

“Kinda need to, sweetheart. Werewolves.” Erica grinned sharply.

“Duh, I know! It’s why I’m not bothered.” Isaac shot back, not tearing his eyes away from his notebook and continuing on writing.

Erica scoffed before standing up and making her way out of the room, mumbling about how Isaac wasn’t fun anymore now that he gained a backbone. Derek would find the situation a little funny if he wasn’t still slightly freaking out about Stiles potentially getting sick or something having happened to him when nobody was looking. The boy could get into some pretty sticky situations all on his own so Derek wouldn’t put it past him.

Isaac sighed after five minutes of tense quiet and sat up, gathering his notebook and pen. “He’s probably just tired and cold, Derek. We’re practically furnaces so it makes sense his sleep idled mind went straight to the source. Not like we keep the fireplace lit.” He said as he made his way out of the living room and up the stairs into his own room.

Many thoughts flew in and out of Derek’s head as he tried to figure out what to do. He couldn’t just push Stiles off of, the boy came to him without being fully conscious about it so maybe Stiles found some comfort in the Alpha. Warmth flooded through the still developing pack bond with Stiles at the thought. Derek shook his head.

Focus.

There was no fever or any smell of sickness so Derek through that out of the window. Magic tended to have an underlying scent of rot and decay if it was used maliciously but there was no hint of it either. If Derek was going solely based off of chemosignals, the first would be exhaustion. Followed quickly by irritation but that seemed to be flooding away and fast, being replaced by comfort and peace.

Maybe Isaac was right and the human was just cold and tired and needed a warmer environment. Derek sighed and let himself relax, pulling a throw blanket off the back of the couch and putting it over both Stiles and himself. Two blankets and a werewolf should hold the cold at bay for now so Derek reach back behind him and grabbed his book, opening to the page he’d marked and settling his arms down on Stiles’s back and continued to read.

Eventually, the weighted feeling on his chest began to tug at his mind, lulling him to sleep. Derek tried to fight it off but try as he might, he knew it was a losing game as he once again marked his page and dropped the book to the ground. He wrapped his arms around the human just as sleep roped him in and took him down.

-

Stiles woke up slowly and comfortably. He was warm, almost too warm to the point of nearly sweating but he welcomed the feeling, wanting to sink deeper into it. He never wakes up warm so he wanted this to last. He blinked his eyes open and stared unseeing at the fireplace as he revelled in the warmth. It was like waking up on summer day as a kid, hearing the birds chirping outside and the occasional car pass by. He felt safe.

Closing his eyes again, he let himself drift off once more.

Opening his eyes again, Stiles felt more awake and alert than he did the first time. He knew he woke up once or twice, even remembered moving himself to a different location but he didn’t quiet know where he ended up. So he took stock of the room, eyeing the fireplace across from him and immediately clocking that he had traveled to the living room in his search for anything warm to lay on. It seems he’d found the source and was about to thank whichever beta let him use them as pillow and a personal furnace but stopped short as his eyes caught on Derek Hale sleeping peacefully. Stiles almost couldn’t look away. No way he’d found himself on top of the Alpha and said Alpha letting him stay? The arms around him gave a different story.

Stiles tried to control the butterflies that erupted in his stomach and held back a manic laugh. There was no way he could slip out of Derek’s hold, not like he wanted to. He was too warm and cozy and didn’t want to risk waking the sleeping wolf. If Stiles needed a full day of sleep, the poor wolf underneath him deserved a lifetime of sleep and rest considering all the shit he’s been through.

So Stiles made a choice, he put his head back down and closed his eyes. He could use a couple more hours of rest if it meant being held by Derek Hale. Fuck, 16 year old Stiles would be creaming his pants right now.

With that thought and a soft chuckle at himself, Stiles drifted back to sleep. Yeah, he could definitely get used to this.