Archive of Our Own ^beta

Scott continued to scowl as Stiles and Derek continued to set up and organized the papers and notes they had collected over the summer about the Alphas and Boyd and Erica’s disappearance. It was the first time he had stepped foot into Derek’s new loft.

Too bad he couldn’t say the same about Stiles.

“Seriously? You’re still upset?” Stiles asked as he finally noticed Scott’s annoyance with him.

Scott sighed and rolled his eyes, “You should have told me you were helping Derek. Especially since there’s an Alpha pack involved.”

Stiles bit the inside of his cheek; he looked conflicted and a bit guilty.

‘Good.’

Stiles ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, “Look, you said yourself you didn’t want any distractions this summer. No weird things, no werewolf problems. Derek just wanted you to be a teenager.” He paused for a moment, “Just like you wanted, right?”

“So you just agreed with him then? You just let him keep this from me?”

Stiles let out an incredulous laugh, “I let him? Dude, he didn’t give me a choice. And neither did you.”

Before Scott could reply Stiles cut him off, “Your words not mine.”

Scott shook his head and looked at the notes and papers in front of him. He realized some were photo copies of police reports. He picked up a case file, “Did you steal this from your dad’s office?”

Stiles snatched the paper right back, “No! Of course not. He has the original; I just borrowed it to make copies. Stealing was not involved.”

Leave it to Stiles to find a loop hole in anything and everything.

“So how did you get involved?” Scott asked glancing at the table before focusing on Stiles again, “How did Derek convince you to help out?”

Stiles looked smug for a moment, he crossed his arms and bounced a bit on his toes, “Well I don’t want to give the whole story away or anything, much of it involves Derek sadly begging me for my help.”

“And other part involves Stiles annoying the crap out of me for answers.” Derek voices spoke out sharply from behind them.

Scott eyed Stiles for a moment, wondering why the other boy didn’t jump or at least get startled at Derek’s brisk entrance.

“How long have you two been working together?”

Stiles fumbled over his words, obviously he wanted to lie. And obviously he couldn’t.

“Every day while you were at summer school.” Derek told him stoically as he set his laptop on the table and opened it, ignoring the sharp glances from Scott and Stiles desperate attempt to ignore the building tension.

“So you went behind my back?” Scott’s voice was filled with hurt and confusion. He looked idly at how close Derek and Stiles were standing over the computer now. Clearly they had been partnering together. They were never this comfortable around each other before.

Derek raised a brow at him, he didn’t look annoyed or impatient or even upset like he usually would. He looked understanding and actually calm.

‘Maybe Stiles is rubbing off on him?’ Scott thought, the idea that his best friend and Derek were becoming allies- friends?-didn’t sit too well with him.

‘If it were Isaac, maybe?’

“Scott, Stiles didn’t go behind your back. I did ask him for help.”

“Ha!” Stiles pointed to the older man and grinned victoriously. “So you admit you did beg me?!”

“No, I didn’t.” Derek said sharply as he pushed Stiles aside to get a stack of papers that were in front of him. “I asked you for help for one thing and you wouldn’t stop pestering me for weeks.” he clarified as he typed and clicked away on his laptop. He looked back at Scott for a moment. “I didn’t want him to get too involved either, but he wouldn’t leave us alone. So I let him stick around.”

Scott looked back at Stiles, who smiled sheepishly. “So you two are like what now? Batman and Robin?”

Scott reveled in the joy of Stiles looking so stung at the comparison of him being the Robin in this dynamic duo comparison. But before he could open his mouth to retort that, Derek blurted out “More like Wolverine and Deadpool.”

It was dead quiet for all of two second before Stiles let out a loud “I knew it!”

Scott looked beyond shocked; his eyes were as wide as saucers as he looked between Derek and Stiles for the punch line. “Everday, huh?”

Derek groaned as he pinched the bridge of his noise and sunk down on the closest chair by him. “Can we just pretend that I didn’t say that?”

Stiles looked beyond ecstatic as he clamped his hands around Derek’s shoulder. Something Scott knew Stiles would never consider doing before, “Nope, no, never going to happen. You’re stuck with me now Wolvie.”