When it rains, it pours.

Bonds

Stiles rushes in before him, and Derek represses an eye roll when Stiles crows triumphantly while they weren't even racing. No, Stiles, we were not racing.

Harry chuckles fondly, but Derek can still smell a little anger burning inside Harry. It was clear that he was furious when Stiles had thrown himself without a thought in the middle of a fight with a hunter and werewolf.

Derek was already a little used to the loyalness that Stiles emitted, but Harry still had a lot to learn. Stiles was never going to back down from a fight. The best you could do was roll with it and have his back. Something Derek fully intended to do.

When Derek saw Stiles freeze for a moment, he thought it was because of the hunter that was now tied to a chair, seeming unconscious. But then a red-haired girl stepped out of the kitchen with Hermione.

''Lydia?'' Stiles squeaked before turning red and scraping his throat. Derek had forgotten that Stiles had a crush on the girl. He didn't know if that was gone completely. But if Derek could believe the looks Stiles kept giving Harry, it would not be surprising if the crush was going away quickly.

''Stiles, I hoped to get a couple of explanations tonight, but then Harry literally popped in with a kidnapped man. So, I really hope you all have an explanation.'' Lydia said with a sharp voice. Making Stiles and Harry flinch.

Harry self-consciously rubbed the back of his neck, and Stiles did what Stiles did best. He started to ramble. Hermione was just watching with a mischievous look in her eyes. She was watching between Harry, Stiles, and Derek. When she saw Derek watching her, she gave him a quick wink.

''Lydia, uh, well, you see, we wanted to ease you into all this, but yeah. Do you know all those stories about mythical creatures and like they are kind of sort of real? And the man, yeah, he, uh, needs to answer some questions, so we asked him to come back with us. And-he, well,-''

Hermione started to giggle, and Lydia's mouth quirked up a little. Stiles turned three different shades of red.

''You're messing with me.'' He deadpanned.

''Duh, you did deserve it, though,'' Lydia said with a sharp look. Stiles flinched and remained silent. Derek was curious about what she meant, but it looked like they would first talk in private.

''Hermione already got me up to speed, and I really, really, really need to process this all, so for now, I'm just going to ignore the kidnapped man. Stiles, we are going to talk tomorrow, agreed?''

Everybody in the room could hear that that wasn't an option for Stiles, so he just nodded.

''Thank you for the story and tea Hermione, I'm going to go home now. I will see you tomorrow at school. I'm very curious about math tomorrow.'' She said with a wink and a wave. Then she was out the door.

Stiles scraped his throat.

''So, can we just ignore my mortification and go on with the questioning of the hunter? Pretty please?'' Stiles said while looking at everybody one by one.

Derek snorted but nodded in agreement.

''I will revive him, and then we can start.''

''Scott and Allison are coming, by the way. They have seen some creature, and they don't know what it was. Maybe you have more of an idea.'' Derek added before Harry would revive the hunter from unconscious.

Hermione and Harry nodded, and Harry waved his hand over the hunter. The hunter jerked in his chair and tried immediately to get out of the ropes that bound him to the chair. Derek stepped forward automatically, Harry let him but stayed by his side, and Stiles stood in between the door and the hunter. Hermione stood at the kitchen entrance.