Sterek One Shots (boyxboy)

The Right Motivation

The Right Motivation by bleep0bleep
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Derek throws another batch of dough onto the counter, sending up a flurry of flour into the air as he starts to knead it. This will be a chocolate braid, he thinks as he works the soft surface, feeling the give. It'll be a good way to use up that batch of ganache he whipped up earlier, but he's not feeling truffles anymore. It has zero to do with the fact that a certain someone may have moaned about his desire for sugary carbs when he walked in this morning, not at all.

"Mmm, yeah, work that bread," calls a voice from the corner.

Derek looks up and sees Stiles in his corner as usual, laptop open, a half-empty cup of coffee from the Starbucks down the street sitting in front of him, and crumbs from his morning pastry on his plate. He has sugar crystals dusted on his lip, Derek notices, and promptly looks back down at his work surface before he starts blushing or something.

"And how many words do you have now?" Derek asks lightly, as Stiles leans back in his chair.

"Three thousand, five hundred and eighty four," Stiles says, grinning at him.

"That's only about a hundred more than you had an hour ago, when I was making the brioche," Derek says, shaking his head.

"Hey!" Stiles scowls. "Those were a beautiful hundred words."

The novelist is the only one in Derek's bakery at the moment-- it's the lull after the morning rush and before people start trickling in around lunchtime.

"Mmhm," Derek says, dipping a brush into the chocolate and painting thick stripes down the dough, then starts carefully separating the dough into segments, braiding the pieces together. It isn't until he finishes when he realizes Stiles has gotten up from his seat and is now avidly watching him from behind the counter.

"Wow," Stiles says, glancing at the finished braid. Derek brushes a quick gloss of egg white to finish it off, and then turns around to open the oven door.

The heavenly smell of the caramel-almond braid wafts into the bakery, Stiles exhales in anticipation as Derek finishes taking out the finished one and sets the new one to bake. Derek feels a warm surge of pride as he watches Stiles' eyes dilate.

Stiles eyes the caramel-almond braid with intent, watching it cool.

"Don't say it," Derek says.

"Please," Stiles counters, and he pouts a little.

"It's hot," Derek protests, even though he knows it doesn't matter. Stiles is already bouncing excitedly, bright eyes looking up at him, and Derek can't say no.

Derek rips off a chunk of the caramel-almond braid and Stiles opens his mouth automatically. Derek blows on it, because he knows Stiles will forget, and gently places it on Stiles' tongue. Watching Stiles close his eyes, his lips just grazing Derek's fingers, that groan of ecstasy-- it's all worth it. Derek is gonna have to chop up the finished bread piece and offer it up as samples now instead of selling it whole, but ... yeah. It's fine. This only happens about once every few days.

Stiles had walked in to Derek's life one rainy day, dripping wet all over his floor and stared openly at Derek pulling out a fresh batch of lava cakes, and said to Derek, "Please just put it in my mouth."

It had taken Derek a few seconds of looking away from Stiles' pink lips to actually ring him up and give him the cake, and then some discreet adjusting of his apron to disguise the effect Stiles' very vocal enjoyment of the cake had on him.

Stiles came back the next day with his laptop, wrote on and off for a few hours. When he wasn't talking to Derek, throwing his arms up excitedly, words flying out of his mouth a mile a minute, he was buying every pastry and trying every cake. Since then, Stiles has been a regular staple in Derek's life -- apparently he can only get work done at the bakery, despite (or maybe because of) its lack of wifi and coffee (which Stiles buys for himself and Derek, anyways). For the last three months, Stiles has been splurging on Derek's croissants and cakes and danishes and cookies, trying each and every batch, offering Derek colorful commentary as Derek bakes, and generally keeping him company.