all you have is your fire

nine

"Wow." Stiles panted as he lay next to Derek, freshly showered and legs tangled beneath cool cotton sheets. "That was..."

"Yeah." Derek sighed, turned to face him and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. "It was."

"Idiot." Stiles smiled. "You didn't even let me finish. What if I was about to tell you that was the worst sex of my life?"

"You weren't." Derek grinned back, fingering the soft curls on Stiles' chest. "Unless your way of showing disgust is to shout my name so loud that the entire apartment complex could probably hear you."

"Okay, I'll let you have that." Stiles ran his fingers up and down Derek's back, exhaustion beginning to seep into his veins. He had no idea where Scott and Isaac were or why it was taking them so long to get a pizza, but he'd never been more thankful in his life.

Stiles kind of understood how Scott felt now - blissfully happy for the first time in what felt like forever. It might not even be that bad for him to move back in. Even with Isaac here, he could bear the banter and teasing as long as he had this to look forward to every night.

Maybe every morning too. And afternoons, and–

"Stiles?" Derek's soft voice pulled him from his daydreaming and he looked up into jade irises that he'd never tire of.

"Yeah?" He snuggled closer into Derek's chest, inhaling the scent of the shampoo and body wash they'd shared earlier. Stiles didn't know how, but it smelled even better on Derek than his usual scent, the combination of bergamot and sandalwood that drew Stiles in on the day they met for the first time.

"I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for all those times I teased you, or insulted you in the past month." Derek reached up to run his fingers through Stiles' fringe.

"Well, to be fair, I wasn't the easiest person to work with." Stiles looked up at him with a smirk. "I'm surprised I didn't completely drive you off with how snarky I was, especially that first week."

"Nah, I guess I knew it would be only a matter of time before you changed your mind." Derek chuckled. "And now... now I don't think there's anything you could say or do to change the way I feel about you."

A deep blush flooded into Stiles' cheeks and he glanced away, suddenly reminded of Deaton's words a few days ago.

"I'll leave that up to you. I figure seven days is plenty of time for you to have that little chat with Derek."

Fear burned under his skin as he considered whether to tell Derek the truth. Things were so good between them - amazing actually - and the last thing he wanted right now was to ruin that.

But if he didn't tell Derek now, if he had to hear from someone else like Scott or Deaton... No, Stiles had to tell Derek. And now, when they were both relaxed, basking in the afterglow of what had just been the best half hour of his life - this was probably the best time to tell him. To start out this new relationship without any secrets between them.

With complete honesty.

Swallowing the bubble of anxiety in his throat, Stiles reluctantly pushed away from Derek's chest.

Here goes nothing.

"So, I've been meaning to tell you... something I realized a few days ago. It's kind of funny actually." Stiles looked up into his eyes for a moment before casting his gaze downwards once more. "You'll laugh about it. We'll both laugh about it."

"Yeah?" Derek rolled onto his and reached out to swirl his finger through the hair on Stiles' chest.

"Derek, stop that... you're distracting me."