Now that all the pack members were linked, the pack bonds were stronger than ever. Derek’s wolf preened every night before bed, feeling along the lines of the pack he had made. They were all happy, content, and Derek had never felt more proud as the Alpha.

So of course, that’s when everything went to shambles.

Not supernaturally, everything was fine on that front. The trolls they had dealt with at the beginning of the year had been shipped off to Canada with the help of Chris Argent. The creatures would have more space to roam free up there, and Derek had made sure they were placed far away from any packs. Nothing had come up since the trolls left.

No, it was the personal lives of all his teenage packmates that Derek was finding disturbing.

As soon as winter break hit the high schoolers, they all started talking about the colleges and universities they had applied to. Lydia had already been accepted to all Ivy League campuses across the country. Scott had applied to all schools that had vet programs across the country. Allison had applied to schools in the East Coast, and even a few in Europe. Jackson had only applied to schools in Europe.

The only packmates Derek was not anxious around these days were Stiles, Boyd, Erica and Isaac. Stiles and Boyd had only applied to schools in California. Isaac and Erica both decided to find jobs instead of going to school.

Everything was changing, and Derek hated it.

--

Derek was hiding in his loft after a holiday themed pack meeting. The teens had spent the evening either talking about family Christmas dinners or college applications. Both topics Derek generally avoided for obvious reasons. Derek had spent the evening avoiding all such conversations… which meant he mostly spent it sitting by himself in the kitchen sulking.

He wasn’t surprised when they all left to go skating at the rink Boyd worked at. It was a Christmas themed pack night after all. He was surprised when he found Stiles sitting on the couch playing on his phone when he wandered back into the living room though.

“Hey,” Derek said, walking into the room with his mug. “I didn’t know anyone was still here. I was making myself some tea, did you want some?”

Stiles didn’t look up, so Derek nudged his shoulder on his way to one of the chairs. Stiles immediately looked up with a smile, making Derek wonder how he had ever thought that Stiles didn’t like him. Ever since Derek had figured out the whole hard of hearing thing, their friendship had grown surprisingly fast. It had only been two months of building the bond up, but Derek could already feel it thrumming alongside the rest of them, they were all stronger than ever.

“What’s up, wolfie?”

Derek shoots him a glare, though it has no heat behind it. “Why aren’t you out with the rest of the hooligans?” Derek asked, setting his mug down on the coffee table.

Stiles shrugged, “I’m not really into the whole Christmas thing.”

Derek raised a brow, that was surprising. “Strange, I pictured you wearing santa hats and putting up obnoxious decorations.”

“Nope,” Stiles said, popping the p at the end, and shoving his phone into his pocket. “No Christmas anything at the Stilinski household.”

“Then what are you doing for Christmas?”

Stiles shot him an amused look, “being Jewish?”

“Oh! Oh. Sorry...Tea?” Derek stammered, quickly making his way back to the kitchen. He felt foolish, not knowing yet another thing about Stiles.

“Yeah sure,” even with his back turned, he could hear the smirk in Stiles’ voice. “You know, Derek, I’m starting to think you really don’t know anything about me. I’m hurt, man.”

Derek glanced back at him to see Stiles dramatically clutching his chest. Derek shook his head in fond exasperation. When Derek walked back with Stiles tea a minute later, Stiles was smiling up at him from the couch.

“No actual hard feelings, dude, I don’t know much about you either.”

Derek didn’t respond. He set down Stiles tea before picking up his own and settling down on the more comfortable of the two chairs. His furniture was shit, but that’s what you get when you let teenagers decorate your house via craigslist. Finally he turned back to Stiles, who was watching him over his own mug of tea.

“So what should we do about this?”

“Do about what?” Derek asked.

Stiles rolled his eyes, “about our predicament! You clearly don’t like it when you don’t know things about me. And I’ve been trying to dig up dirt on you since you got here, with very little luck.”

“What?” Derek growled. Stiles ignored him.

“I think we should play a game!” Stiles proclaimed, waving his hands out in excitement.

Derek sighed. This was probably better than sitting alone reading and drinking tea, which is what he thought his evening was going to be like. “What game?”

“I don’t know, 20 questions isn’t like.. Personal questions. Question for a question? That’s not actually a game, I guess. But like, one of us could ask the other a question, and then if they answer you get to ask a question. And we switch til we’re bored.”

Derek fidgeted in his seat, this was sounding like it could get really personal, “what if I don’t want to answer a question?”

Stiles thought about that, sipping his tea. “Well I guess you don’t have to answer, this isn’t an interrogation. I could ask questions until I get to one you want to answer?”

Derek thought about that, searching Stiles face. The kid looked sincere.. And Derek did want to know more about Stiles. “Okay.”

“Alright!” Stiles did a little fist bump in the air, “who should go first?”

Derek shrugged, “you go, it was your idea.”

Stiles nodded, before leaning back against the couch cushion in thought. Derek fought back a smile at Stiles serious expression. At least the boy was taking it seriously.

“How many people have you had sex with?” Stiles asked. Okay, maybe not as seriously as Derek thought.

Derek thought about it for a second, “eight.”

Stiles eyes widened, “and were they-”

“No. My turn.” Derek said with a grin. Stiles frowned, but then waved a hand in a ‘go on’ gesture. Now that it was his turn though he wasn’t sure what to do. Stiles hadn’t started serious, maybe he shouldn’t either? What did he want to know that wasn’t serious? He thought about that, and settled on something he had been wondering about that might affect the pack dynamics.

“Do you still have a crush on Lydia?”

“No,” Stiles answered, so quickly that Derek would have thought he was lying if he couldn’t hear his heartbeat. “Were all the people you slept with women?”

Derek leaned back, surprised by the question, “no. Three were men.”

Stiles nodded, satisfied with the answer for some reason. Derek decided to play off that for his own question.

“Why? Are you questioning your own sexuality?”

Stiles laughed, throwing his head back against the cushions, “technically that’s two questions. But no, well, kinda? It’s not like I’ve ever done anything with anyone.. Not really. I’ve just recently discovered that bisexuality is even a thing, and I’m pretty sure that’s how I’ve always felt anyway.” Stiles nodded to himself, sipping his tea.

Derek nodded as well, accepting this new information easily. It wasn’t actually surprising information, if he thought about it at all. He finished the dregs of his own tea and put his mug down on the table while he waited for Stiles, who seemed to be seriously thinking about his next question.

“Do you hate Scott and me for digging up your sisters dead body?” Stiles finally asked.

Derek froze, still leaning towards the coffee table. He was glad the mug was out of his hand, because he probably would have dropped it. Slowly he sat back into the chair, his eyes focusing on Stiles face. The boy looked guilty, and the air now had a tint of sorrow in it. It took Derek a moment before he was able to reply.

“No. It was a hard time for everyone, I don’t blame you for trying to figure out what was happening..” Derek sighed, running a hand over his head, “it was hard though. It had been bad enough having to bury her the first time.”

“I’m sorry.” Stiles said, his face look pained.

Derek nodded, “I know. It’s okay.”

They sat in silence for a minute, each in their own thoughts. Then Derek decided to ask real questions, since apparently they were doing that now.

“Have you always been deaf in your left ear?”

Stiles didn’t look surprised by the question, instead he sighed dramatically, “man, if these ears could talk.. actually that would be weird. People are always asking me about my hearing, though. It’s really not that interesting.”

Derek raised his brows, “is that a pass?”

“No, no,” Stiles waved his hands, “I’m answering.” He sighed, rearranging himself on the couch until he got comfortable. “My dad’s side of the family has hearing issues, and I was a few week premature, so my parents weren’t surprised when I was born with underdeveloped ears. It meant that I would only ever have partial hearing in both ears. Luckily my dad already knew ASL, cause of my Nana, so he taught my mom and they both taught me. And I picked up the lip reading and body language thing on my own,” Stiles added with a shrug, like that was no big deal. “I used to wear hearing aids in elementary school, but I hated them. They made my ears itchy, and all the kids thought I was weird. I was fine with how much I could hear without them. It was good… Until, when I was seven..”

Stiles trailed off, before leaning forward and putting his mug down. He leaned back with a deep breath.

Derek frowned in concern, “we don’t have to talk about this.”

Stiles flashed him a small smile, “it’s okay. It’s just still hard to talk about. Um, so when I was seven, my mom was diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia. It’s uh, not a pretty way to die. It involves a lot of hallucination, and confusion, and doctors… and time.” Stiles looked down, started to fiddle with a loose string in the couch. Derek made a noise he hoped conveyed his sympathy, he had never known what had taken Stiles mother away so young.

“When I was eight, and my mom was spending most of her time in the hospital, I was spending most of my time… kind of just around. My dad was either working or with my mom. I spent a lot of time hanging around the station, or at Scotty’s, or sitting beside my moms hospital bed. Anyway, point is, it was a shitty situation, and it wasn’t anyone’s fault, but I got sick and no one really noticed?” Stiles sighs again, fidgeting with the seam.

“I mean, my dad gave me kids tylenol to help me sleep, and the nurses all motherhenned me for a day or so, but I wasn’t really the important patient at the time, you know? It was only when my dad came in one morning to wake me up for school and found me with a raging fever that people started to worry. He called Melissa, and she told him to put me in an ice bath, and I didn’t know what the big deal was because I had had a fever for days and no one had seemed to care, so I thought it was fine. Not that I even remember the whole ice bath thing… anyway, yeah, after I got better we realized I had completely lost my hearing in my left ear.” Stiles shrugged again. He was looking anywhere but at Derek.

Derek felt horrible for asking the question now. In hindsight, he wasn’t sure what he had been expecting. People don't really lose their hearing in a happy way, do they? It’s generally a traumatic experience. He rubbed a hand over his face, feeling frustrated with himself. And Stiles had lost his hearing and his mother at around the same time. It was a wonder the kid wasn’t as bitter as Derek.

They sat in silence for a few more moments before Derek realized he was going to have to be the one to break it.

“I’m sorry,” he said, hopefully loud enough for Stiles to hear, since the kid was still looking down.

Stiles shrugged again.

“It’s your turn, if you still want to play..”

Stiles nodded, he looked to the side and scrubbed a hand over his face, but by the time he turned back to Derek he looked fine. Composed, like he always did. Derek wondered how much he was hiding behind that mask. A mask he hadn’t even been aware of until now. He wondered if he would be able to see Stiles without the mask again.. he wondered why he wanted to.

“Why New York?” Stiles asked, pulling him from his thoughts.

Derek blinked. “It was the farthest away we could get without leaving the country, which we weren’t allowed to do when the fire was still under investigation. Laura always wanted to be a singer, or something. She actually got a few gigs. I went to NYU.”

Stiles looked pleased by that, “what did you take at NYU?”

That was two questions, but Derek let it slide, “mostly mythology and history. I had plans to study abroad in Europe for a while.. before..”

Stiles nodded, “I thought about going away, but I can’t picture myself anywhere else. I couldn’t stand being far away from my dad either. Or, you know, you guys.”

Derek shot him a small smile. Stiles had just given him the answer to his next question for free, and Derek felt a warmth spread through him. He wanted to find out more about Stiles this way, not through some game.

They spent the rest of the night talking, and eventually laughing. Somehow they both ended up on the couch, watching reruns of That 70s Show. Stiles apparently thought Hyde was the stoner version of Derek. Derek strongly disagreed.

If both of them woke up the next morning slumped against each other in a semi-cuddle, neither of them said anything about it.

—