Chapter Text
“Derek! Just the man I wanted to see!” Mr. Carol said as soon as Derek entered the office, “I have great news for you. A client wants to do a shoot in Beacon Hills over Christmas. I figured since it’s your hometown I’d put you and Erica in charge of the shoot. Your travel expenses are covered. Here is your plane ticket. You leave first thing in the morning.”
“Thank you, sir.” Derek said to his boss as he walked away.
He scowled at the ticket, it’s not that he didn’t love his family, but the holidays always had so much pressure surrounding them. He’d rather stay in New York than have his mom question him about his love life and deal with Laura’s kids running around and climbing all over him.
It looked like this year he didn’t have a choice, but at least this year he could have work as an excuse. And he would have Erica with him, she’d be a good buffer.
Wait, he’d be going home this year with someone! Yeah, Erica was his best friend, but she could actually be the best buffer.
“Erica please!” He begged after he told her his idea, “You know how much my family gets on my case. I’m the only single one left since Cora got engaged last week. Please pretend to be my girlfriend!”
Erica gave him a calculating look, “You owe me an entire batch of gingerbread cookies.”
“Deal!”
“Damn,” Erica commented, “You agreed so fast. I should have set my price higher. What a waste. Oh wait! I’m adding something! You have to wingman for me with Boyd when we come back!”
“Boyd? On the fifth floor?” Erica nodded, “The guy who never talks?” Erica nodded again, “I like him. Deal.”
And this was why they were best friends and worked so well together. He really could not have asked for a better photographer to be paired with.
When he told his parents that he would be in town for Christmas, they insisted he stayed at home. When he said he was bringing someone with him, his mom got so excited, Derek had to hang up because of all the squealing.
Talia and Sebastian picked them up at the airport and Talia took an immediate dislike of Erica, which made the ride to the house awkward.
“So, how did you two meet?” Talia asked, tightly.
“We met at work,” Erica explained with more enthusiasm than Derek knew she was capable of, “Our company would pair us up on shoots because we both scared away the other options. It turned out we worked together well and then we found out we did other things well together, too.”
She leered at Derek which made him blush. He knew how Erica would be in a relationship (he had heard her stories about her escapades), but he didn’t expect her to be so… that in front of his parents. Talia glared at her until Sebastian forced her into the car. The rest of the drive was spent in stilted silence.
Thankfully, Cora and Laura both absolutely loved Erica. He knew they would get along and would thankfully provide a good buffer between Erica and Tahlia. At dinner, they kept asking Erica questions about their first date and first kiss. He could tell she was having fun with it, so he let her make up whatever she wanted and he just tried to remember as many of the details as he could if anyone asked him in the future. He drew the line when they asked about their first time.
“That is not any of your business.” Derek cut in before Erica could come up with something kinky and embarrassing. He got some sympathetic looks from Jordan and Isaac that told him that the two gossip about their sex lives with each other a lot. If this was a real relationship he’d be worried about that, but this would all be over soon.
Talia was alternating between glaring at the girls and looking at Luna and Artemis, who were much too young to be hearing that kind of talk.
“So, are you two going to help us pick out the tree tomorrow?” Sebastian asked, successfully changing the topic. Luna and Artemis were now talking excitedly amongst themselves about finding a truly magical tree.
“Unfortunately we can’t,” Derek answered, “While it’s nice to be home for the holidays, we do have work to do. We have to scout locations for the shoot.”
Talia muttered something about him choosing her before they heard the sound of a kick under the table and a stern look from Sebastian. What followed was one of the most uncomfortable silences that stayed for the rest of the meal.
“Derek and I can clean everything up.” Erica offered, trying to win the favor of the family.
“What a nice offer,” Sebastian said, “But you are our guest. You and Derek should head upstairs and unpack. We’ll call you down when it’s time to start tonight’s Christmas movie. Erica, you can choose tonight.”
Derek grabbed both of their bags from the entryway and led Erica upstairs. He was about to put her stuff in the guest room when Cora came barging through and pushed both of them into Derek’s.
“If you sleep together in New York you can sleep together here. I don’t care what mom says. Have fun!” She said before closing the door and leaving them alone.
Derek looked over at Erica and could see her fighting back a smile. That battle didn’t last long as a laugh started coming out.
“Oh my god! This is like one of those horrible holiday romances!” She tried to whisper, “If you swung my way I would think we’d end up together by Christmas!”
“Okay, but my family doesn’t know what way I swing.” Derek said as he moved her away from the door and potential listening ears.
“I still don’t get why you haven’t come out to them. But I don’t care. I’m having way too much fun with this whole thing.”
“I noticed,” Derek rolled his eyes, “You made me sound like a love sick puppy.”
“And you would have sounded even more like a puppy if I had been able to regale our first time.”
“And that’s why I stopped you.”
“Do you think your mom knows?” Erica asked.
“Knows what?” Derek’s eyebrows pinched as he tried to figure out what she was talking about.
“The truth about you… about us?” Erica asked, “She doesn’t seem like one who would be easily deceived.”
“If they didn’t find out about me when I was in high school, then they don’t know about me now.” Derek insisted.
That night they settled in to watch Erica’s movie selection: Elf. Derek rolled his eyes because he knows they are going to have to watch it at least two more times because it’s Laura’s kids’ favorite.
When the movie was over, Laura and Jordan brought their sleeping kids to the car and Isaac left as well. Erica and Derek went upstairs to head for bed. Bed, of which there was only one.
“I don’t mind sharing if you don’t.” Erica said.
Derek shrugged and decided it didn’t really matter and the floor was not going to be a comfortable option, so the two of them snuggled into bed together so they could rest up for a long day of work.
“Come on!” Erica yelled, “You’re wasting daylight!”
“It’s not even noon yet!” Derek yelled back. They had just finished trekking through the preserve looking for shoot locations. The client had said they wanted it to look like a holiday dream come true. Their first thought had been winter wonderland but Beacon Hills didn’t really have enough snow to make that possible. Derek made a note to look into fake snow options.
When they emerged back at the house, Erica was making a b-line for the car his family said they could use. Their next stop was to look around downtown Beacon Hills to see if the festive old town look could provide inspiration.
Thankfully Erica had her camera and was taking shots of all the potential locations so that they could compare and contrast later to find the right look.
The only thing that would make downtown Beacon Hills look more christmasy would be snow. There were nutcrackers everywhere, a big tree in the middle of the street, small, locally owned stores all around, and garland hanging on the lampposts.
Erica was already far ahead of him in the crowd of shoppers and he didn’t really have the energy to try and chase her. She’d get the shots they needed and he’d just sort through them later.
Derek was leisurely making his way through the crowd, looking at all the shops he loved to go to when he was a kid. There was old woman Josie’s knick knack shop, Farmer Ted’s produce stand, which in the winter became a stand for festive flowers and wreaths, the Kent family’s card shop, and Claudia’s book and coffee shop. That was where he had spent most of his teen years.
He stopped outside, looking up at the sign, reminiscing about all his time spent there. He was so consumed by it, he didn’t notice the man exiting the shop with arms full of boxes and bags. The man ended up colliding with him, sending them both tumbling to the ground.
“I'm so sorry,” Derek said, “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“No, I’m sorry, dude,” A familiar voice responded, “My packages were stacked too high. I knew I should have listened to Kira and made two trips.”
“Don’t call me dude.” Derek said reflexively. It was then that the familiarity of the voice and his response registered and he looked up at the man for the first time.
He was struck by his big, doe eyes and the moles spotting his pale skin. It was Stiles. Stiles was in front of him. The Stiles. The guy who caused Derek’s sexual awakening and the reason he spent all his time at Claudia’s.
“Stiles-” That was all Derek managed to choke out. He didn’t know what else to say. He was always at a loss for words around Stiles (not that he was very talkative otherwise) and it seemed like the years apart hadn’t changed that.
“Derek!” Stiles exclaimed, “Your family said you’d be in town. Didn’t know if I’d be seeing you.”
“Oh, um, yeah. I’m here.” Well that was eloquent.
“It’s great to see you. I’d love to catch up sometime if-”
“Derek!” Came the squealing of two little girls. The next thing Derek knew, not only was he on the ground, but his nieces were climbing all over him.
“Where are your parents?” Derek asked, but the girls were too busy giggling to answer him.
“Sorry about this,” Derek said, “You were saying something about catching up?”
“I think I got all the shots!” Erica said as she walked up them, not even batting an eye at the chaos of the scene, just simply taking a picture of it.
“Great. We should head to the ice rink next.” That was the last location he could think for holiday magic in Beacon Hills.
“Auntie Erica, can we come too?” Luna asked.
“Yeah! We wanna skate!” Artemis added.
“Let’s ask your parents first, but I’d love for you to join us.” Erica gave them a wink then took their hands to go find Laura and Jordan.
“So, that was… Auntie Erica.” For the first time it seemed like Stiles was as much at a loss for words as Derek was.
“Oh, um, yeah,” Derek responded, “We came here together. We’re staying with my parents.”
“I thought you hated Christmas with your family.” Stiles commented.
“I do. Coming here wasn’t my choice,” They heard a squeal and Derek looked back at Erica and his family where it looked like Jordan and Laura had agreed to let Derek and Erica take the girls to the ice rink. They gave Erica some money to cover the fees for the girls.
Derek turned back to Stiles, “It hasn’t been all bad. So about catching up?”
“Oh um, yeah. Let me give you my number and we can figure out when. I have to get going and finish these deliveries.”
Derek nodded and handed over his phone. This was not something he wanted to miss.
“So who was that?” Erica asked when they were in the car.
“That was Stiles.”
“Wait, the Stiles? The one who…” Erica trailed off as she looked in the back seat and saw two very attentive little girls listening, “The one who you… looked up to in high school?”
Derek raised his eyebrow at her euphemism, “Yeah. That’s the one. He gave me his number and we’re going to catch up.”
“You know, if you catch up, you might want to tell people about how much you like… catching up?” Erica cringed at her sad attempt to find subtle words.
“It’s not going to work out anyway so there’s no point.” Derek retorted.
“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t it work out?”
“He doesn’t like… catching up the same way I do.”
“How do you know?” Erica asked.
“Because all through high school he only wanted to catch up with Lydia Martin. And then he caught up with a girl named Malia. He’s never caught up with a guy before.”
“And as far as he knows you haven’t either,” Erica countered, “You did all your catching up in New York.”
Derek had to admit she made a good point. Maybe that was something they could talk about over coffee. He mulled over that thought as he pulled into the skating rink.
The four of them ended up having a great time skating around and taking pictures. When they pulled up to Laura and Jordan’s house, Luna and Artemis were sleeping soundly in the back seat.