On Christmas day, Stiles showed up at Derek’s loft with a bag of Chinese take out and an armful of DVD’s.

“Jewish holiday tradition, and my dad always takes the Christmas shift so people can spend it with their families,” Stiles said as he dumped his arm loads onto Derek’s coffee table.

They didn’t mention the holiday for the rest of the day. Derek appreciated it.

It was the best Christmas he could remember having since the fire.

--

Miraculously, the pack makes it through the rest of the year without any new supernatural incident. Unless you count the fight between Allison and Scott, which Derek didn’t. The two had fought about their future together as a couple, having both realized at the same time that they were going to schools on opposite sides of the country. The fight had lasted days, and had put the entire pack on edge. They hadn’t broken up though, according to Stiles. Derek didn’t really pay that much attention.

Surprisingly, at the end of the school year Derek was included in a lot of their graduation celebrations. He even watched the ceremony from the tree line. He told himself it was because Isaac needed a familiar face as he walked across the stage, but he knew deep down that he was there for all of them.

Now the summer was passing with no sign of trouble… Derek was actually getting antsy. He had kind of hoped for one last blast before the pack all moved away. Which was stupid, because he didn’t want any of them in danger, it just seemed like the time they all mostly felt like a pack was when they were.. well, in danger.

This was probably the reason that Derek had all but jumped on the chance that something was happening when the towns electrical grid started having issues. Lydia and Stiles had both looked at him like he was crazy, but dutifully started researching myths pertaining to electricity. Derek had the rest of the pack searching the town’s grid, checking every electrical hub for signs of anything strange.

Nothing was coming up. And after a week of this, his betas were starting to get annoyed.

“Come on, Derek, why can’t we just have a party and get smashed?” Erica whines, sprawling on the couch beside Stiles. Stiles glanced at her before returning to his book about monstrous electric eels.

“We had a party last week.” Derek snapped at her, “I even bought you booze, and let you use my loft.”

“You got us 5 cases of beer and then kicked us all out at 11.” Erica retorted, rolling her eyes, “It wasn’t even laced with wolfsbane! We were all sober and home by midnight! That’s not a party.”

Derek grumbled, but had no reply for that. “Did you see anything tonight? Catch a sent of what this thing is?”

“No, nothing out of the ordinary” Boyd replied for them both, leaning against one of the windows, “I’m pretty sure if this is anything, it’s just a human messing around.”

Derek sighed, taking a seat on the coffee table and kicking Stiles foot to get his attention. Stiles glanced up at him with an annoyed huff.

“I’m not going to find anything if you keep distracting me.”

“So you haven’t found anything?”

“No.” Stiles said, shutting the book and throwing it down beside Derek, “and I’m pretty sure it’s not an electric eel. We aren’t even close to any bodies of water. There isn’t much info out there on the supernatural that affects electricity. Electricity is relatively new compared to the majority of the myths we’re reading.”

Derek nodded. The three all looked at him expectantly, so he sighed and waved a hand. “Fine, you can all go home. Clearly this is nothing.”

Boyd and Erica immediately stood up and left, calling out goodbyes as they made their way down the stairs. Derek was only mildly offended that they hadn’t even pretended to want to stay to hang out.

When he looked back at Stiles, he found the boy watching him with what looked like concern.

“What?” Derek asked, schooling his features into a blank expression.

“I know it’s hard, with half the pack moving away..” Stiles started.

Derek looked away, starting to stand before Stiles hand shot out to grab his knee. Derek looked back with a frown.

“Derek, I’m serious. You’re not the only one feeling like you’re losing something.”

Derek glanced between the hand on his knee and Stiles face. He didn’t say anything.

“I know your fixating on this because you think the packs not going to think of themselves as pack anymore after the summer, but you’re wrong. It wasn’t the threats that made us a pack in the first place, it was us coming together to fight. It was you putting in the effort to get us to spend time together when there were no monsters in sight. We’re not going to forget about that in a few peaceful months.”

Derek wanted to scowl and call Stiles an idiot, but the kid was looking at him with such an earnest expression.. Derek rubbed a hand through his hair, letting his shoulders sag. Some of the tension he had been holding onto bled out of him with Stiles words.

“They’re not all going to move back, after college. Beacon Hills won’t be their home anymore.” Derek said, glancing over at Stiles and hoping he hasn’t read this wrong. Hoping Stiles isn’t going to laugh at him.

Stiles smiled at him, his eyes gentle, “does that make us less of a pack? Scott’s still my brother, even if he’s living in Arizona next year. They’re all still going to come and visit. They will be here when we need them. Or do you only like us because we’re all conveniently close?” Stiles teased.

Derek snorts, “no of course not.”

He smiled at Stiles, and Stiles smiled back. They both realized Stiles still had his hand on Derek’s leg at the same time. Stiles pulled back with a blush, leaning into the couch. Derek cleared his throat, turning away to hide his own reaction.

“I still think this is something. Even if it is a human messing around.”

“Okay, then we’ll keep looking.” Stiles said with a serious nod.

Derek would not have been able to stop the warmth from blooming in his chest if he had wanted to.

—