for bitty

[triskehale]

Derek knows that Bitty and Jack have been a thing for awhile now, maybe about a month. But then Bitty lost his friend, and Derek isn't such an asshole that he'll mess with Bitty right away. But then Bitty comes into work humming and grinning and smelling so much like sex that Derek can't help it. He just can't.

There's the fact that Derek himself is also in a good mood, and also reeking of morning sex. But Bitty can't smell that.

He waits for Bitty to join him in the back, whistling and swishing his hips all the while, and Derek raises an eyebrow once he gets close enough. "Looks like someone woke up on the right side of the boyfriend this morning."

Comments

[puckandpie]

"Oh, I think Barry is a bigger part than maybe you wanna say," I argue and it doesn't even really hurt to say it. Not like it might've all those months ago. Now it just feels like a truth, something easily acknowledged, at least on my end. "You've had good friends here for a long time as far as I can tell. Lots of them long before I ever turned up. But in all the time I've known you, which is comin' up on a year here real soon, I've never seen you smile so much."

Wandering over to the fridge, I grab two eggs, glancing back at Derek over my shoulder as I go. "I may not have some superhuman sense of smell, but I can see things just fine, Mr. Hale. And I know people. I know my friends real well, in particular. And I'm just glad someone could finally make you as happy as you deserve to be."

[triskehale]

"Here I was trying to give you a compliment, and you couldn't just graciously accept it," Derek shoots back, but his teasing smile softens at Bitty's genuine words. He reaches over to sling an arm around Bitty's shoulders once he's close enough, pulling him in for a quick squeeze. "Thanks, Bitty. I could say the same for you, you know."

[puckandpie]

"Yeah, yeah," I tease, trying to brush it off even as I feel my cheeks go warm. I give him a nudge with my elbow, just a little thing because I really don't mind him touching me at all. It doesn't feel like it used to, at least not entirely, but I've always been a pretty tactile person and, if absolutely nothing else, Derek with his broad shoulders and miles of muscle, is a comfort.

And, honestly, he isn't wrong. Even if Derek couldn't smell it on me, there's a good chance people can tell how happy I am just from the way I've been smiling lately. And it's all Jack.

"I guess now we're both just hopeless," I tell him, flashing him a grin. "It's a good feeling, though. Hopefully nothing happens for awhile to take it away."

[triskehale]

"Hopeless," Derek agrees. He's been hopeless before, in the most sorrowful and devastating of ways, but when it comes to his feelings about Barry, hopeless isn't so bad.

Bitty reminds him that he could lose it all at any moment, just like he did with Stiles, and he feels a flash of panic in his chest. Stiles was so incredibly important to him and Derek doesn't want to sully his memory, but Barry is-- Derek never knew that he could have someone like Barry, someone who could care so much about him. With Barry, it's mutual in a way that it never seemed to be with Stiles.

He barely survived losing Stiles. He has no idea what he would do if he lost Barry.

His throat tightens and he takes a breath, color returning to cheeks gone pale as he gives Bitty a small smile. "Yeah, let's hope."

[puckandpie]

It's not hard to miss the way Derek goes quiet and I look over again to find him staring down at the countertop, his face pale. My heart thuds for a second, tripping into a flash of panic, but he only swallows and takes a breath before trying for a smile.

I want to tell him everything will be fine, but given what I've seen of Darrow in the past year alone, I know I can't. Nothing is certain here. Nothing at all. As happy as we both might be right now, it could all slip away in a second and we both know it.

So instead, I only give him a nod in return and try for my own smile. "I'll hope hard enough for the both of us," I tell him, knowing optimism isn't really his strong suit. "And until then, you just work at keeping happy, alright?"

[triskehale]

"That sounds like a good plan," I tell him, reaching over to ruffle his hair. "I'm pretty new at it, you know. I need to focus."

He winks at him and then goes back to doing his own food prep. "Now come on, pup. We've got drunk people to feed."