Prelude

Chapter 19: Forget The Birds And The Bees, Tell Me About The God Damn Werewolves

"So you're a werewolf," Guinevere said as she walked down the supermarket aisle next to Derek while Stiles pushed a cart in front of them and pulled things from the shelves. He had been telling her the basics, Stiles yelling his input every once in a while. Derek nodded. "And everyone except for Scott is a Beta," he nodded again, "because Scott is a True Alpha. Which means he's a good guy." 

"Yeah, pretty much." Derek confirmed. 

"Okay." Guinevere said slowly. "I think I can get this but I'm doing it my way." 

"Of course." Derek nodded. 

"Just to be clear," Stiles spoke up, "what is your way?" He glanced back at her as he grabbed a bag of bagels. 

"I need a chalkboard and I need to know everything." 

"I volunteer!" Stiles said, raising his hand in excitement as Derek rolled his eyes.

"He'll tell you anything you want to know but we're all here for questions or anything else." Derek said, looking down at her. Their height difference was almost comical. 

"Got it. Thanks hot stuff." She gave him an appreciative smile and Stiles had to hold his breath so he wouldn't laugh out loud at the face Derek made when Guinevere called him "hot stuff". 

"Hot stuff?" He questioned, making Guinevere look up at him with her head tilted. 

"Yeah." She said easily as she looked at the fruit they had. "Objectively speaking, you're ridiculously hot. Like, I'm scared to touch you in fear that you'll burn my hand." 

"That's Jordan." Stiles called distractedly as he looked at the selection of yogurt. 

"You guys really eat all this for breakfast?" Guinevere asked as she looked at the amount of food in the cart, even the thought of eating a fourth of what was in there making her queasy. 

"Teenage werewolves eat more than regular teenagers which means it's pretty much a buffet at every meal with snacks thrown in through out the day." Stiles explained, grabbing a box of fruit snacks and not saying anything when Guinevere added another, this one with smiley face gummies. "What kind of fruit do you want?" Stiles asked as he stopped in front of the fruit section. "I don't like buying from here because it's all sketchy and way too sugary but it'll work for one breakfast."

"Maybe I'll only buy my fruit from here just to spite you." Guinevere teased, making Stiles smile a little and raise his brow at her. 

"Really?"

"Yep. I'm full of grudges like that." She picked up a few kiwis and dropped them into the plastic bag Derek held out to her. "Thank you." She smiled up at him before looking over the fruit again and selecting a bag of grapes and a carton of strawberries before she grabbed a pineapple as well. "We bought our fruit from local places in Washington, family friends and people we knew through dad's coworkers. I'm a little bit of a health nut. But only a little bit." She gave them emphatic looks and Stiles nodded. 

"Of course. Yeah. Only a little bit." 

"I enjoy milkshakes and chocolate too much to be completely healthy." Guinevere said. 

"You went out with Isaac for milkshakes, right? During our free period." Stiles recalled as he looked over the refrigerated meats for some sausage and bacon. 

"Yep. He wanted to get vanilla and our friendship almost ended right then and there." Stiles smiled and Derek tilted his head to the side a bit as he walked behind the two. It had been a while since he had seen Stiles smile so casually and genuinely. 

"Vanilla milkshakes are only good when they have espresso shots dropped into them." Derek was giving him an intimidating look, crossing his arms and raising a brow as Stiles glanced at him. "Or so I'm told because I'm not allowed to have espressos." Guinevere smiled with amusement. 

"The last time you had one, we had to get Melissa to knock you-"

"-me out with propofol. I know, I know." Stiles finished Derek's sentence for him, rolling his eyes and sighing as he continued down the aisle. "I wasn't even that bad." Derek glared. "Okay, I didn't do anything I wouldn't have done eventually if I hadn't had the bean juice." 

"Really?" Derek said incredulously. "You would have broken into three houses, kidnapped two people and emailed a ransom note to the police department without drinking an espresso?"

"Absolutely." Stiles nodded, smiling at Derek and getting an eyeroll in response. "What else do we need? Lunch?"

"Snacks, no lunch." Derek answered, looking over the shelves with a bored look. 

"Snacks I can work with." Stiles said as he pushed the cart with intent. Guinevere trailed along, pretending like she wasn't staring at Derek's butt as she followed them down the aisles. After they finished their trip and Guinevere shamelessly watched Derek carry a downright impressive armful of grocery bags into the house, everyone wound up sitting in the living room with various plates of food in front of them as they spoke, Guinevere standing in front of them all with a big black board that magically showed up at Lydia's house roughly an hour after they got back. She scribbled down different things as they all offered information and answered her many, many questions. After an hour of doing this, Liam spoke up.

"What about the whole soulmate thing?" He asked through a mouthful of waffles, oblivious to the glares angled at him from everyone except for Guinevere. "What?" He asked in confusion. 

"Don't jump on him. He's not really involved." Scott sighed. 

"Yeah. Don't jump on me." Liam said, pouting a little bit as he glared back at everyone, more confident now that his alpha was backing him. 

"Another fact about werewolves," Scott sighed, not quite meeting Guinevere's gaze, "they can smell their soulmates."