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Stiles kicked his shoes off and tossed his keys onto the side table next to the door. His mind hadn't stopped reeling from the kiss. He had liked the kiss, a lot. Too much. He found himself wanting to lean in again and the idea terrified him. Was he really so desperate for affection that he'd settle to get it from Derek Hale? Or was he starting to feel something for his boss?

The ache in his chest told him that it was the latter, but he refused to believe it. Surely not. It hadn't even been a week, there was no way he was already falling for Derek.

He pulled out his wallet and phone and saw a missed call from Scott.

Without bothering to listen to the voicemail he hit the call button and pressed the phone to his ear as he put his wallet away and made his way to his bedroom.

"Hey man," Scott answered after the third ring.

"Sorry I missed your call, I was...on a date," Stiles closed his eyes at the absurdity of that sentence.

"Yeah, I heard. It was the talk of the office," Scott snorted.

"What? Why?"

"Derek Hale left work early. To go on a date. With you."

Stiles bit on his lower lip. Hearing it out loud did sound insane.

"It was mostly just him wanting to get away from Elijah," he answered dismissively, as if it wasn't a huge deal.

"Well, I'd watch your back because I'm pretty sure Elijah hates you now," Scott laughed but Stiles heard the underlying concern in his best friend's tone.

Stiles ran a hand through his hair. He had hoped to avoid Elijah's wrath. He had been sure it wouldn't be a concern as he seemed to be over Derek.

"Why?" he dared ask.

"Apparently Derek has never agreed to leave work early to go on a date with Elijah despite him asking multiple times. He's under the impression that you're something special and Lydia thinks he now views you as a threat."

"A threat?" Stiles squeaked.

"Lydia has theories, which I'm sure she'll fill you in on tomorrow. But dude, you went on a date with Derek Hale, how did that go?"

Stiles started to pace his bedroom, stepping over the discarded clothes he'd tossed about in his earlier panic to get ready.

"It was...strange."

"I can imagine. What did you do?" Scott pressed.

"I uh, I tried to treat it like it was a real date, but I hardly know the guy. I took him to Wine and Design."

Scott laughed loudly at that.

"Yeah, I don't know, I thought the alcohol might help."

"Then I called in a favor with Kai. That actually was a good decision. Turns out he loves baseball. Then I finished the date with dinner at the Trapp Door. He seemed to enjoy it, but I can't read him. He gives me mixed signals. One second I'm sure he hates my guts then the next second he's saying that he didn't mind spending the evening with me. I don't know how to date someone I'm not...ya know...dating," Stiles rambled as his pacing continued.

There was a moment of silence on the other end.

"Scott?" Stiles glanced down at his phone to make sure the call hadn't been disconnected.

"You know...a few people have made comments about Derek having feelings for you," Scott finally spoke up, his tone almost timid as if he were uncertain about his own words.

Stiles rolled his eyes despite the fact that Scott couldn't see, "You mean Ethan has made comments."

"I mean, sure we all joke about it but...what if there's some truth to it? I mean, Ethan made some good points. Derek puts up with a lot from you. No one can talk to Derek the way you can and get away with it. Remember the time that model told him he should learn to tell time when she was an hour late to a shoot? He 'bout took her head off."