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It had started with a tweet and a post on Instagram. Stiles and Derek had been dating for a month, the pilot had been sent to the CW, along with a 12-episode plan for the first season Stiles and Boyd had worked on, and they had been waiting for them to decide whether to go through with the show or not.
Ever since that first kiss, Stiles and Derek had spent everyday together and slept every night at Stiles’ apartment. A few of their friends and family members were concerned about them moving so fast in their relationship but it felt so natural for them to be together that they had refused to listen to their opinion.
One day, after Stiles had worked on his comic for 10 hours straight, they had settled on the couch and started to watch Sense8 on Netflix. They had heard a lot of positive reviews so they were both ready to binge-watch the hell out of it. After half of the first episode, Stiles was already hooked and decided to post something on Instagram to share with his friends and readers. He took a quick pick of the TV, capturing a still of Nomi and Amanita, and captioned it ‘Finally got to watch #Sense8 and man am I glad I did!’
He had been so engrossed in the story that he had not noticed the reflection on the TV screen where he could be seen sitting on the couch, his phone in his hand and a very manly pair of legs on his lap. Obviously, even if he had seen the reflection he still would have posted it. He’d never hide his sexuality and no one would have known it had been Derek’s legs anyway. What he had also missed was Derek, holding his own phone in his hands to tweet.
Neither of them knew the impact these posts would have in the future.
………
Almost a year later, the first season was done filming and Stiles and Derek, along with a few other cast members and the two producers were on their way to San Diego for the Alpha panel at Comic-Con followed by the premiere of the first episode… and that was just the first day of comic-con. For the rest of the time, Stiles had managed to get a booth at the webcomic part of the convention and Derek was going to have many interviews to promote the show. It was actually the reason why they had filmed everything ahead before airing any of the episodes, they wanted the cast to be available.
It had been so long ago that Stiles had received that email from the CW telling him they were interested in adapting his webcomic into a TV show, back then he had no idea how long it took for a show to be made. A year later, all that the viewers had seen so far was a trailer --a fucking badass trailer if he said so himself-- and in just a few hours they would finally see the pilot. Stiles couldn’t wait to hear the critics, even if it tied knots in his stomach to think about it, but, more importantly, he couldn’t wait for the first season to be done and over with so that he could finally brag about his super amazing hot as fuck boyfriend.
After getting together, they had made the decision to tell the people responsible for the show’s PR and ask whether they should be public about their relationship or not. Not that either of them wanted to be in the closet, but they both knew how it could influence the fate of the show and didn’t want to risk doing something that could potentially put everyone out of a job.
It took a lot of meetings and a few arguments but ultimately the decision was that they would wait for season one to end. That way, it wouldn’t influence the viewers or the Network since they would probably have already decided whether to renew or cancel the show by then, and it wouldn’t look like Derek had gotten the job because of it or that they were using their relationship for publicity.
Back then, it sounded like a great idea. By now, Stiles was ready to just shout it during the panel so that he could finally hold his boyfriend's hand in public.
………
“Wow Kate, you look different than I expected!” The guy presenting the panel joked looking straight at Stiles after everyone had sat down. The cast was confused but some people in the room seemed to get it as a lot of them laughed.
Stiles frowned until Kyle, the presenter, pointed at the table. There were name tags in front of everyone to indicate where they were supposed to sit and Stiles had apparently sat at Kate Argent’s place. True, they had been called one by one and Stiles was the second person called so he should have been two seats away next to one of the producers but they had waited while the others had been called, hugging, shaking hands etc. with one another, before sitting down and Stiles and Derek had instinctively sat next to each other, leaving Kate to take Stiles place while they sat in the middle of the table.
“Oh sh- I’m sorry, I didn’t pay attention.” Stiles said quickly, standing up.
“No no, it’s okay! I like to change things up sometimes. Besides, if it hadn’t been for you, we wouldn’t be here today!” Kyle said enthusiastically.
Stiles sat back down and tried to hide his embarrassment by looking around, pretending to be amused by his mistake. Derek had a huge grin on his face, and was probably going to tease him about it for the rest of their lives, as did Isaac, Derek’s best friend who played the role of Liam. The rest of the cast was smiling politely and waiting patiently for the panel to actually begin, except Kate whose smile looked as fake as her personality and whose piercing glare seemed to indicate that she was picturing ways to kill Stiles slowly.
“So Stiles, we’ll start with you, how did this story come to you?”
………
The panel was amazing, at least from Stiles’ perspective. The audience seemed genuinely excited about the show AND the comic and a lot of them had questions for him. Sadly he knew that some couldn’t ask what they wanted without spoiling the story so they had to be turned down but Stiles had managed to tell everyone that they could come and see him at his booth that evening or during the next few days of the con if they had more questions. It was so breathtaking to have so much people being excited about something he had created, even an hour after the panel as they rested in one of the private lounge before the premiere, he still felt this burst of energy and pride that made him smile like a lunatic.
“Is it awful of me to desperately want to be home in bed?” Derek asked nervously, burying his hands in his pockets.
“Not if I’m in bed with you in that scenario.” Stiles teased as he took a step towards Derek but he stopped before getting to close. The rest of the cast didn’t know about them except for Isaac, and with the murdering looks Kate was throwing his way, Stiles had no doubt that she would use that information to hurt him somehow.
“Always. But seriously though, I had no idea it would be this…”
“Amazing?”
“Overwhelming. I could swear I heard some girls asking me to marry them, what the hell is that about?”
“Yeah, ‘cuz who the hell would want to marry you, right?” Stiles asked sarcastically. They had talked about marriage when they had moved in together a few months back and were both a-okay with getting married at some point, with each other.
“I meant because they don’t know me. They haven’t even seen the pilot yet, it could be terrible and then they’ll hate me and resent me for ruining it.” Derek said in one breath.
“What are you talking about? Why would the pilot being terrible be your fault?”
“Because I’m not good enough. I’m a nobody, I don’t know how to tweet, I can’t take a selfie to save my life an-”
“And since when are those skills required to be a good actor? It’s just stress talking, you need to take a deep breath and relax, okay?”
Derek did as he was told but he still couldn’t stop himself from fidgeting, the reason why he was keeping his hands deep in his pockets.
“Derek, you are a talented actor and I love you. And no matter how the show does today or in a month or a year, I will still love you. Okay?” Stiles whispered softly.
“Okay.” Derek said after breathing out a long sigh. “I love you too.”
“Good. Now get moving the premiere is in 5 minutes.” Stiles smiled at his boyfriend one last time before dragging him out of the lounge.
………
The show being a success was an understatement; 90% of the press from the premiere had been positive, the fans had been blown away and a month later when the first episode aired they had dominated the ratings.
When Derek got recognized on the street for the first time he had ended up stammering more than the starstruck girl who had asked for a picture. It didn’t take long for things to escalate and now he had to wear a cap and sunglasses when he wanted to be left alone. The fans were fine most of the time, but the photographers were a real nightmare.
Soon after the first episode had aired, the PR team had sent a link to both Stiles and Derek that rendered them speechless. It was a post on tumblr, which neither of them ever used, with a picture of them from Comic-con.
At first Derek had not understood the concept of shipping but after Stiles had explained it to him he had laughed for 10 minutes straight. It seemed to be something limited to the fandom, none of the journalists had ever asked anything about it and if the photographers had noticed that they were living together they didn’t seem to care about it.
Since then, Stiles had created an anonymous Tumblr account to follow some of the fans. He loved the fanarts and sometimes read a few fanfictions. Apparently the main ship for the show was Dean/Liam but for the fans of the comic it was Dean/Connor all the way since Connor was Dean’s ex who appeared in the second volume. And that was a new thing too. Stiles had plenty of readers before the show, some that even called themselves fans, but, while there had been a few fanarts, the fanfictions had come with the show. It wasn’t that surprising though since the show had tripled his readership.
Knowing people were shipping him with his actual boyfriend when they didn’t even know they were dating was kind of hilarious and they had started to wonder if they would figure out the truth before the end of season one.
Then the thing happened. One of the fans on Tumblr figured out that the legs on Stiles lap on that Instagram picture could be Derek’s since they had posted about watching the same show for the first time 2 minutes apart from each other.
That day it felt as if Tumblr had exploded to Stiles. Fans of the show and the comic reblogged it over and over again, each with long lines of reaction that went from ‘OMG asdfghjkl’ to fucking essays about that pic and many others of them together.
That’s when the media finally started to ask questions, to pry about Derek’s private life at every interview. Even fans stopped them, both of them, on the street and asked point blank if they were together.
As if Stiles didn’t have enough urges to shout it from the rooftops already. They had promised the network though, so they kept their mouths shut, They answered questions about their private lives vaguely or not at all and stopped going out together in public.
Until today. Today was the night of the Emmy awards and Derek was nominated, actually fucking nominated, for lead actor in a drama series. They had been renewed for a second season but the first season wasn’t even done yet, they still had one episode to air but still, they were going to the Emmy’s. They weren’t going as a couple to respect their promise to the network but they went as a group of ‘single’ guys. There was Derek, Isaac, Stiles, Sam (one of the producers) and Andrew (a 16 year old who played young Dean in the flashbacks).
Still, as they walked up the red carpet, both Derek and Stiles were stopped by different reporters who quickly asked the usual questions of ‘How do you feel’ and ‘Who are you wearing’ before diving right into the ‘Sterek’ rumors.
Stiles got lucky, the journalist interviewing him was obviously gay himself and asked the question as teasing more than really wanting an answer and Stiles couldn’t resist saying “Wouldn’t you like to know?” before the journalist let him go.
Derek was not as lucky. The journalist who had stopped him was a 40-ish woman with the deepest cleavage he had ever seen and who treated the rumors as an insult to him. She even seemed to accuse the fans of being perverted which… well some of them were but there was nothing wrong with that.
“I don’t think it’s wrong for fans to ship characters or even real people together. I mean it’s kind of weird sometimes but in a way they are imagining stories and scenarios that could be great fiction you know and there’s nothing wrong with having a creative mind. I’m not going to tell the fans what they should or shouldn’t imagine, we all have dreams and fantasies right?” Derek answered as politely as possible. He hoped that nothing he had said would sound too bad to the fans in questions but it wasn’t easy to think of something on the fly on such a delicate subject.
The woman didn’t seem to know how to answer to that so she gave a quick polite response before letting him go. He found Stiles and Isaac near the entrance and they walked in together. The Network had taken several rows for their members, one of which was for the people from Alpha. They were also nominated for best drama series but neither Stiles or Derek believed they could win against Game of Thrones.
They were about to sit when Kate appeared with a pretty brunette at he arm.
“Derek! I was hoping to catch you. This is Allison, my niece.”
“It’s nice to meet you Derek. I hope you win tonight, you really deserve it.” Allison said politely.
“Than-”
“We should sit down. Stiles, would you mind?” Kate interrupted him and motioned at Stiles to scoot over.
“I eh…” Stiles tried to find some kind of excuse to say no, Derek couldn’t move since his seat was assigned but Stiles didn’t have to be next to him.
“You can sit beside me, there’s enough room.” Isaac said.
“Thank you.” Allison replied, sitting on the offered seat and dragging her aunt with her.
The seats around them filed up and Stiles gushed about all the celebrities he could spot until the lights were dimmed and the show started.
All through the evening, each show nominated for best drama series were presented with a short video since it would be the last award of the night. Alpha was the first one to be presented and the humorist whose name Stiles couldn’t recall reacted to the video by saying:
“I love that show, I really do, but you know what? I can’t decide what I’m the most curious about: the final episode or Derek Hale and Stiles Stilinski’s secret love affair.”
The entire room laughed as Derek hid his smile in his hand while Stiles hid his blushing face by leaning on Derek’s shoulder. The moment passed quickly and the show went on. When the time came for the award for the lead actor in a drama series to be called, Stiles could feel Derek’s leg tapping the floor repeatedly. When the camera focused on him and his name was called during the listing of the nominees, Derek managed a tight smile and a wave but quickly went back to squeezing his seat with both hands so he wouldn’t bite his nails off.
“And the Emmy goes to… Derek Hale for Alpha!”
It took both Isaac and Stiles poking him for Derek to snap out of it after hearing his name. Before getting up though he made a quick decision in his head, took Stiles’ face in both hands the same way he had for their first kiss and joined their lips together. Then he leaped out of his seat and practically ran to the stage.
The award felt heavy in his hands, the lights were hurting his eyes and he was out of breath yet he had to think of something to say.
“I’d like to thank… everyone at the CW for giving me a chance. My sister Laura for forcing me to audition, my best friend Isaac for coming with me to said audition… I would also like to thank the fans, you guys are amazing and way too perceptive for your own good, keep it up! Finally… Stiles. Thank you... just… thank you.”
Derek took one last look at the crowd before being shown the way off of the stage. His ears were buzzing like mad and he wasn’t sure if he was ever going to be able to catch his breath but the look of pride on Stiles’ face when he joined him back in the crowd was the best part of the evening.
They didn’t win the Emmy for best drama series but at that point Derek didn’t care, all he wanted to do was to take his boyfriend home and use all the adrenaline of that night to show him exactly how thankful he was.