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When Stiles’ phone rang, he quickly threw Mrs. Wisley’s cheap storebought cheesecake (she thought his dad was looking a bit peaky, which, whatever, his dad was healthier than ever and definitely did not need cheesecake, thank you Mrs. Wisley) in the fridge and pointed at his dad, saying, “Don’t even think about sneaking any of that,” before he answered. “Yeah, what?”
“Stiles,” Scott said. His voice was strained and high. He sounded kind of panicky.
“Oh God, what’s wrong?” Stiles said. His dad glanced over at him from the sink, his forehead creasing.
“Erica. I’m at Derek’s and she—it’s just really—”
“What happened?” He squeezed past his dad, who was absently scrubbing at a plate from lunch—unsubtly eavesdropping, as if he ever did dishes without an ulterior motive—and went to stand by the window. “Is she okay? Do I need to come over?”
“Oh God, yes, please, what if she’s sick? Maybe she’s got the werewolf flu, Derek told me about that once and I—I’ve gotta go.” Then Scott hung up.
“Everything okay?” his dad said.
Stiles scrubbed his hands over his face and then shoved his phone into his pocket. “Apparently there’s something wrong with Erica. I’ve gotta go over to Derek’s, so you’re on your own for dinner.” He grimaced at his dad.
“You know what’s wrong with her?” his dad said.
“Scott didn’t say.” He shouldered on his jacket and said, “No takeout.”
His dad flicked soapy water at him and said, “Try and stop me.”
Stiles glared at him and went to the fridge. “Just for that, I am taking the cheesecake with me,” he said as he fished his wallet out from a pile of case folders on the table. “And seriously, no takeout, okay?”
“You know,” his dad said drily, “you aren’t actually my mother.”
Stiles felt a tug in his gut because Erica was the only one who made mom jokes, not to mention that not talking about Mom was practically a Stilinski tradition. “Somebody’s got to look out for you,” he muttered as he tucked the store-bought cheesecake under his arm. “I’ll be back later, okay?”
“Be careful,” his dad called out.
“I will,” he said as he left.
--
“So what I hear you saying,” Stiles said, holding the cheesecake in one hand and flailing at Scott with the other, “is that she came home in sweatpants and slammed the door, so you thought it would be a good idea to call me and make me think she was, like, dying, when really she could be completely fine. Scott. I broke like twelve laws on my way here. I could have flipped my Jeep!”
Scott looked kind of embarrassed. “I mean, she smells kind of stressed and—you know, like she’s in pain? And when I asked her what was wrong, she flipped me off.” The tips of his ears went a bit pink. “Which is actually kind of normal but she definitely seemed weird.”
He was saved from Stiles calling him a moron because at that moment, Isaac catapulted down the stairs and said, “Is that cheesecake?”
Stiles really needed better friends. Sometimes he got the feeling that the entire pack was using him for his food. He could have spent the spring break of his senior year in Mexico or something, but no, he had elected to spend it in Beacon Hills with a bunch of werewolves, and really, what the hell was wrong with him?
“Yes,” he said. “And it’s not for you.”
“I’ll take it,” Derek said as he appeared out of the shadows. Typical. Stiles had learned years ago that some habits were hard to break, and you couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks—new tricks like not being a total creep.
When Derek reached for the cheesecake, Stiles slapped him away. “Not for you,” he said, clamping down on the box. “Scott. You’re an idiot. My dad is probably going to order a mountain of greasy noodles now, and it’s all your fault. Also? To me it sounds like Erica’s just really tired. Which is understandable when she has to contend with you three on a daily basis.”
Derek frowned at him. “We aren’t that bad.”
Stiles sighed. “Did anybody try talking to her before calling me?” Scott looked down at the ground while Isaac and Derek just kind of glanced over his head, avoiding eye-contact, which was so mature, really. “This is ridiculous. Why not?”
“I figured she would punch me,” Scott said, shrugging.
“She’s kind of scary when she’s angry,” Isaac said.
“Well, yeah, but you’ve known her for, what, six years? You should be used to it by now.” He kicked at Derek’s shins when the guy tried to take the cheesecake again. “And you, you’re the Alpha, don’t be such a pansy about talking to people.”
“I was out when she got home,” Derek said, raising his eyebrows. “Not my fault.”
Stiles stared at him and frowned, his nostrils flaring out. “Okay, you know what, I’m here so I may as well talk to her. Because that’s what reasonable people do. They talk when they have a problem.” He raised an eyebrow at the three other guys.
Derek sighed and quirked up one side of his mouth. “Like I said, wasn’t here.” He nodded his head at the cheesecake and said, “I’ll put that in the fridge.”
“No, you will not,” Stiles said, ducking around him. “I can see right through you. You’re just going to eat the whole thing the instant I’m not looking.” He grimaced at Derek over his shoulder and walked to the stairs. “And you know I’m right, don’t even pretend,” he said as he started up.
“Stiles, wait,” Derek said. Stiles turned around to look at him. Derek rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at Isaac. “Are you, uh, staying over?”
Isaac started giggling, because he was a horrible person. Scott actually gagged.
Stiles broke into a grin and said, “Sure, why not.”
“Okay,” Derek said, having the audacity to look almost shy. Not fair. Not fair at all. Even after four years together, he still got kind of flustered and twitchy whenever Derek sprung adorableness on him.
“You guys are so cute,” Isaac said. Stiles flipped him off as he walked up the stairs.
He went down the hall, past Isaac’s door to Erica’s, which was painted electric blue. Derek absolutely hated it, which was probably why she’d picked it in the first place. “Ericaaaaa,” he said, leaning his head against her doorframe. “Scott thinks you’re dying, are you okay?”
A few seconds later she opened her door and stared at him. “Is Scott on crack?” she said. “I’m fine.”
“Yeah, I figured,” Stiles said. “Can I come in? I brought cheesecake.” He held up the cheesecake and grinned when her eyes went wide and shiny. He followed her in and closed the door behind him. “You sure you’re okay?”
She sighed and collapsed into a bright purple papasan chair, swinging her feet back and forth in the air. “I mean, I’m kind of tired, but other than that I’m basically the same.”
Scott had definitely gone a bit crazy with the dramatics. The way he’d been going on, Stiles had almost expected her to be on the brink of death.
“Yeah? Why’re you so tired?” he asked, settling on her bed. Every time he went in her room, he was still kind of surprised by the fact that not only was her mattress on the floor, but she didn’t even bother putting sheets on. It was just a nest of clashing neon blankets.
“Well,” she said. “Let me put it this way. Full moon plus period—felt more or less like that time Derek screwed a brace into my head. But in my uterus.”
Stiles squinted and said, “Want some cheesecake?”
“I love you,” she said, reaching out for the box. He handed it to her and she popped it open.
“So I vote we just dig in, total free for all,” he said. “I didn’t have dinner, and I’m really hungry. You cool with that?”
She grinned at him, her eyebrows rising in a way she’s clearly learned from Peter. “Only if this free for all involves us watching at least five episodes of Deadliest Catch,” she said. “My one condition.”
“Okay, yeah, let’s go,” he said. Erica grinned and vaulted out of her chair. She set the cheesecake next to him on the mattress and went to set up her DVD player while he slid back to sit against the wall. She picked two spoons out of a drawer and said, “I think these are clean. Do you care?”
“Not really,” he said.
She grinned and as soon as she pressed play, she leaped onto the mattress and snuggled in against his side.
“Sometimes I think it would be so cool to just drop everything and join up with a crabber,” she said. “I mean, it would probably suck during the full moon, but whatever.” She picked up the cheesecake box and set it on Stiles’ lap.
They watched the first episode mostly in silence, munching their way through half of the box, and Stiles took a moment to feel kind of hypocritical since he’d accused both his dad and Derek of wanting to eat all the cheesecake. When the second episode started, Erica said, “Do you ever find yourself, like, weirdly attracted to Junior?”
“Um,” Stiles said. “Not really?”
She shrugged. “You have your man, I have mine.”
“Oh my God, Erica,” he said. “No. I am putting my foot down. You are not running away to be with some shaggy man who catches crabs for a living. No more cheesecake for you.” He closed the box and shoved it as far away as he could reach.
“Nooooo bring it back,” she said, crawling over him. She sprawled on his legs and opened the box back up, promptly shoving a massive spoonful of cheesecake into her mouth. “This is seriously like the best cheesecake ever,” she said. “Derek won’t buy anything unless it’s in bulk. When are you moving in? And by that I really mean, when will this cheesecake be in my life on a daily basis?”
Stiles choked. He spluttered for a moment before saying, “I—well, we haven’t talked about that in a—we haven’t talked about that since we renovated the house.”
“Sometime this summer?” she said, looking up at him over her shoulder.
“Maybe. We never talked specifics, but I kind of figured it’d be after I graduate and—well, I still have a couple months of college left so I guess we have a bit of time to figure it out.” He tapped his fingers on the small of her back and bit off a chuckle as one of the guys on the ship got a crab stuck on his hand. “And this is why you don’t want to deal with crabs, Erica.”
“I don’t think werewolves can catch crabs,” she said through a mouthful of cheesecake.
“Are we talking about the animal or the disease?”
She turned her head and rolled her eyes at him. “The disease, dipshit, werewolves are probably the best at catching crabs-the-animal. Because we’re awesome.”
“Oh, yeah, you guys are the best,” Stiles said. “Cheesecake me.” She scooped out some cheesecake and transferred it to his spoon. He glanced at the half-empty box. “Aw yeah, the home stretch. Should I be disgusted?”
“I will only be disgusted with us if we don’t finish this whole thing,” she said. “There is no honor in half-assedly pigging out on cheesecake.”
“This is why I love you,” Stiles said. “You understand me so well.”
When someone knocked on the door, both of them said, “Yeeees?” The door swung open and Derek poked his head in, eyebrows drawn low. He would’ve looked threatening except for the telltale quirk in the corner of his mouth.
“I don’t think I’m okay with this,” he said. “It’s like you’re becoming the same person.”
“You’re just jealous that we didn’t invite you to watch Deadliest Catch and eat stupid amounts of cheesecake,” Stiles said, waving his spoonful of cheesecake and tilting the box so Derek could see the damage they’d done. Derek looked kind of grossed out.
“Stiles, that’s disgusting,” he said.
“And you can’t have any,” Erica sang, grabbing more cheesecake. “We were just talking about when Stiles is moving in. You should probably ask him again. He seems kind of uncertain because apparently you haven’t talked about it in a while.”
Derek’s face shut down and he almost looked like the blank-faced Derek Stiles had known in high school. “Oh?”
“I mean, as long as our agreement still stands, we really don’t have to—yeah,” Stiles said.
Derek blinked. “So, that’s settled then,” he said. He started to back out of the room.
“Wait, hold on,” Erica said. “Do you want to cuddle and eat cheesecake and watch hairy guys catch crabs with us?” She waved the box at him and Stiles could almost hear her eyebrows waggling. “You are totally invited. I will even vacate Stiles’ lap for you.”
“That’s okay,” Derek said, inching back. “Just wanted to make sure you guys were all right.”
“Oh, yeah, we’re totally fine. Also, you should tell Scott that he sucks at dealing with things,” Erica said. “And for the record, so do you. I mean, since this communication fail got me cuddles and delicious dairy products, I’m basically fine with it, but in the future? You should consider just asking me what’s up.”
The look on Derek’s face was actually the funniest thing Stiles had ever seen—it was a mixture of emotional constipation, extreme discomfort, and I’m-the-Alpha. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, glaring as Stiles cracked up and folded in half over Erica.
Once Derek had closed the door, Erica took Stiles’ spoon and scooped up another bunch of cheesecake for him.
Eventually, she crawled off his lap and curled up next to him again. The cheesecake was almost gone. “It doesn’t really bother me so much anymore,” she said, totally out of the blue. She leaned her head onto his shoulder. “You know, being the only girl. It was bad when we were still living in rentals, and no offense but living in your apartment kind of sucked—it was fun, don’t get me wrong, but there were just so many of you guys.” She twisted her fingers into the hem of his t-shirt, and he realized how weird it was that he didn’t find that weird anymore. She sighed and said, “But once we got the house finished it was a lot better. And for the most part it’s awesome. I mean, Isaac and Boyd are great, and Derek tries really hard and he does a pretty good job.” She paused. “Actually, Peter’s still creepy as hell, nothing’s changed there. But I really love the others, you know?”
Stiles munched on his cheesecake and raised his eyebrows. He loved when Erica got talking because, like him, she could just go and go and go. One time she’d actually spent an hour just spouting off comic book references while he laughed. It had been kind of a weird day. But, sometimes it was nice to have someone else fill the silence.
“Sometimes they’re just so stupid,” she said. “Like, what, I skip makeup for one day and I’m having a breakdown? Guys are so stupid.”
“I want to be insulted by that, but it’s actually kind of a fair assessment,” Stiles said.
“I didn’t mean you,” she said. He raised his eyebrows again. “Okay, sometimes you. But you’re way better than the rest of the pack.” She sighed heavily. “Sometimes I wish I had friends. Friends outside the pack, yeah?”
He thought about it. “I get it. Whenever Derek is an idiot, I just go back home and force my dad to eat some celery. I guess it’s kind of nice having a getaway.”
Erica nodded and then tilted her head like she was listening for something. She said, “Come on, Izzy, stop skulking out there and come in.” After a few seconds, Isaac stepped in and smiled hesitantly. “You know I love you, now get over here and eat some cheesecake,” she said.
He bounded over and threw himself down next to Stiles. “What’re we watching?” he said as he stole Stiles’ spoon and helped himself.
“Deadliest Catch. Do you think Junior’s attractive?” Erica said.
Isaac paused with the cheesecake halfway to his mouth, frowning. “Who?”
“No, stop, I put my foot down,” Stiles said. “This is not okay with me. New subject.”
“Why do you want new friends?” Isaac said, peering around Stiles at Erica.
“I don’t want new friends, I want more friends. Female friends. Friends who will listen to me when I complain about things like boys and cramps.” She squinted off into space.
“But you have Boyd for that,” Isaac said.
“You what?” Stiles said. “Since when does Boyd gossip about boys?”
Erica snorted. “He doesn’t. He just actually listens when I want to talk about girl stuff.”
“It’s because he’s in love with her,” Isaac said. Erica leaned over Stiles and punched Isaac hard in the side. He yelped and swatted back at her. Eventually Stiles got sick of being in the middle and pushed both of them off the mattress.
Laughing softly, Erica crawled back up. She said, “It’s actually just because he’s a nice guy. Anyways, back to the real conversation here. Maybe I should ask Allison if she’d like to go for coffee sometime. Allison’s cool, right?” She looked at Stiles, her forehead wrinkled. “Isn’t she into self-defense or something? Has she stopped being such an idiot about Scott yet?”
He laughed. “Yeah, Allison’s awesome. You’d like her if you got to know her, I bet. She practices martial arts and stuff on Scott sometimes, and it’s beautiful. The summer she kept knocking him out was the best summer of my life.”
Erica let out a huge laugh at that, starting loud and low and trailing up into a high-pitched giggle. Those laughs were Stiles’ favorite because even after knowing her for years, it still always surprised him to hear her actually guffaw. It’d probably taken her two years before she’d actually started to let loose in front of him.
The laugh died down into a contented hum and she knocked the top of her head gently against his chin, curling further into his side.
“When Stiles moves in, we should have pack movie nights,” Isaac said suddenly. “Also can I finish this off?”
“Please do,” Stiles said. “If I eat any more I might vomit.”
“No, no vomiting in here,” Erica said, shoving Stiles off the mattress with one arm. He squawked and flailed as he fell.
While he climbed back onto the bed, Isaac inhaled the rest of the cheesecake, which was kind of gross but whatever, it just meant Stiles didn’t have to take any home to his dad. As soon as he thought of his dad, he pulled his phone out and typed “everything is fine, Scott is an idiot. I’m gonna stay the night see you tomorrow for frittata?!?!”
Isaac slid down the wall until his shoulder bumped against Stiles’ elbow. He looked up and grinned, and, well, Stiles really would never get over that kid’s smile. He buried his hand in Isaac’s hair, scratching his scalp. It was kind of ridiculous how much Isaac was actually like a puppy sometimes.
A couple minutes later, he got a text saying “okay good night. PS why are we so excited about frittata?!?!”
“Your dad is adorable,” Erica said, reading over his shoulder. “But actually, why are you so excited about frittata?”
“I’m not,” Stiles said. “I just like having breakfast with my dad.”
“Oh my God, get out of here, you’re too cute,” Erica said, shoving at his shoulder. “Also I will not be offended if you want to leave us for Derek. I have Babycakes here to keep me company, and you have already fulfilled all my cuddling and dessert needs. Go let Derek fulfill some of your needs. Or at least distract him for a bit. He’s been so annoying ever since he started that Masters program.”
“Wait, why am I Babycakes?” Isaac whined. “Also, ew.”
“You just are,” Erica said. “Wanna watch Shakespeare in Love and cry about how pretty everybody is?”
Isaac pursed his lips for a second and then said, “Okay, I’m in.”
“Aaaand I’m out,” Stiles said. “I want no part in this. I have much better things to cry about, like the fact that I am dating an actual Greek god.”
“Ew,” the betas said.
“Whatever,” Stiles said as he heaved himself up from the mattress. “See you guys later.”
“Night, Mom!” Erica yelled at the top of her voice.
“Ericaaaa,” Isaac whined.
“I hate all of you,” Stiles said as he closed the door behind him. Then he grinned and ran to Derek’s room. He threw the door open and took a running leap onto the giant bed. “Hi,” he said as he landed half on top of Derek.
“Ow,” Derek said.
“Oh, please.” He grabbed the book Derek was reading and scanned the cover. “Ew, gross, why are you reading about narratology? Stop bringing literary theory into the bedroom, I get enough of that shit at school.”
“Hey, give,” Derek said, reaching for the book. “Stiles, I need that for my class.” Stiles scrambled back out of his reach.
And when Derek almost busted a rib laughing after Stiles fell off the bed—well, he really couldn’t blame him.