Chapter Text
Once again it was both the best and worst time of the month, at least as far as Derek was concerned.
It was the best because it was the time when Stiles was spread out before him on his bed, wanton and writhing, almost insensible amongst what little remained of the shredded sheets. Sheets that soaked with every sweet fluid that could be wrung out of Stiles, his sweat, his tears, his cum, and the natural lubricant leaking out of his perfect Omega ass that inflamed the senses and heightened the lust of every Alpha who had the- Privilege? Misfortune? Sometimes it was so hard for Derek to decide which it was-to smell it.
Best because of the way Stiles’ hair was beyond disheveled from having both his own and Derek’s hands run through it, and also possibly straight up yanked more than a few times. And then there was the flush that covered Stiles’ body, starting from the top of his head all the way down. It was redder here, and pinker there… depending on the location it either hid or accentuated the moles that dotted Stiles’ skin.
Best because the taste of Stiles was like nothing else in the world. Derek would sometimes try to label and categorize the different tastes as they danced across his tongue. The sweetness from all the sugar Stiles ate would all but explode into Derek’s own mouth when his tongue twined around Stiles’, and the salty and savory taste that overwhelmed him when he licked all the way down Stiles’ lithe body before finally reaching Stiles’ swollen member, leaking with the most exquisite bitterness and salt.
Best because the sounds that Stiles made whenever Derek touched him were utterly unlike anything Derek had ever heard in his entire life. Desperate gasps, throaty moans, beautiful, beautiful keening sounds when Derek was inside him, inside the glorious slickness that said Stiles was made for him. The screams he made as Derek thrust and pounded into Stiles’ wet and perfect hole, the cries of ecstasy that echoed like they were in a cathedral. And sometimes all the other sounds would cease save the occasional soft whimper, all the more noticeable for its relative quietness, such as when Derek would reach up and grasp Stiles’ wrists tight so he couldn’t touch himself, so that it was all Derek for once, just for once it was all Derek. And then at the end when he finally came, the droplets of his relief splattered across both himself and Derek, he would sigh with contentment as Derek filled him up to the brim.
Best because Derek was knotted so tightly and snugly within him, his cock still giving off little spurts and twitches, locked into a wrung out and sated Stiles. When he was able to curl around Stiles, compliant in a post orgasm haze as he never was at any point in his existence, and pull him close and caress him. Every time he held Stiles like that the crazy wish that his knot would never subside, that he could remain interconnected to Stiles like a puzzle piece having found its perfect match forever would flit through his head, only the be dashed once his knot began to shrink and Stiles would start to squirm away.
Worst because if it was the end of Stiles’ Heat that was the end of Derek getting to be this close to Stiles for another month.
Worst because once again Derek was reminded that no matter how much he cared about Stiles, when it all came down to it he was little more than a friend doing another friend a favor, a safe and convenient Alpha cock to ride and fuck and be knotted by to get through Stiles’ Omega’s ‘time of the month’.
Worst because he didn’t want to be convenient, not anymore, not ever really.
Worst because he knew that was all he would ever be, and the idea of depriving himself of even these temporary scraps of Stiles’ complete affections and attentions would take more strength than he had.
*
Every Omega’s Heat was slightly different, but fortunately similar enough that the federally mandated Alpha and Omega Relief and Reprieve Act of 1957, excusing all Omegas, along with either their spouse or monthly designated Alpha Heat partner, from school and work each month for a minimum of three days without concerns of discrimination or reprisals for time off was a good fit overall.
It was a landmark case in the arena of Omega workplace rights, eliminating the last vestiges of official Omega discrimination.
Stiles usually cycled through his Heat fairly quickly. One day of feeling simply aroused and on edge, his scent making any non related Alphas start to walk into walls if he didn’t isolate himself. One day of intense Heat in which he needed to be fucked and bred and knotted again and again and again…And one day of coming off the Heat, when the edge was off and if he chose to he could go without an Alpha’s assistance to get through the last day.
Derek was very familiar with the how Stiles was on the first two days, though not so much on the third. Though every month Derek marked off all three days on his calendar, even knowing that Stiles had never had never needed him on all three, even though he knew that any month Stiles could choose to replace him when he found someone he liked better, someone who he wanted to breed him for real.
It was creeping into the third day and Stiles hadn’t left Derek’s refurbished loft yet. He always went to Derek’s for his Heats, as even though he actually had a single room in his suite at college as befitted his senior status, the walls were thin and students were discouraged from going through their Heats on campus as a courtesy to others’ studies. Heat rooms were provided but were more utilitarian rather than comfortable. And there was no way Derek, even as starved for Stiles’ touch as he was no matter what time of the month, was going to be fucking Stiles in the Sheriff’s house where Stiles still spent his breaks and summers.
Stiles stretched, the little movement just enough for Derek, his knot almost completely receded, to slip out of Stiles’ ass. Derek immediately missed the all encompassing wet heat, but did his best to refrain from giving any sign of it. Instead he tried to focus on the play of Stiles’ muscles as he stretched, parts of his body almost totally covered with sweat and semen in various states of wetness from their multiple bouts, as well and his own lubricant in places other than his ass and thighs. That was mostly due to the fact that Derek may have been fond of using it as an improvised massage lotion when Stiles had complained of some muscle cramping in one of his more lucid moments.
“Ugh. It is so beyond shower time,” Stiles said, struggling to rise to his feet on shaky legs. Derek wanted to help him, wanted to get up and carry him to the bath and wash him off the way a true partner, a true lover, a true Alpha and Omega pair would. His instincts were practically screaming at him to do so. But that wasn’t what Stiles wanted.
Instead he stayed on the bed and said, “You know where it is. Try not to be a jerk and use up all of my stuff again.”
“Aw, but all of your stuff is so fancy,” Stiles threw back even as he gripped the bedpost for balance, his voice rough from all of his uninhibited noise making of his Heat day. Derek wondered if it would sound rough in a different way if Stiles were to ever have Derek’s cock nudging the back of his throat. If Derek were able to look down and see that sweet mouth, always so active and expressive wrapped around him…but that wasn’t really the sort of thing done during a Heat, when an Omega was barely coherent and unable to focus on much beyond their own body and what was being done to it.
And Derek and Stiles never fucked outside of Heats.
“Seriously, raiding your toiletries is like raiding one of the best hotel/spas in existence except I don’t have to stress out about who I’m supposed to tip or not,” Stiles said with a smirk, though he still hadn’t moved from the bedpost. Derek propped himself up slightly on his forearms to see what the holdup was and was greeted by the sight of the last dribbles of his spunk trickling out of Stiles’ ass, down to legs that looked like they were about to buckle completely.
Stiles noticed Derek looking at him and let out a small chuckle even as his face ever so slightly pinked. “Looks like you were pretty, ah, vigorous this month.” Stiles tried to take a step on trembling legs but seemed to think better of it. “A little help, maybe?”
Derek leapt out of the bed, only considering he might look over eager once he had already scooped Stiles up into a princess carry.
“Whoa, I see how ‘help’ apparently immediately translates into ‘Omega damsel in distress’ to you,” Stiles said making Derek pause in his steps.
“You know…you know I’m not one of ‘those’ Alpha’s, right? I don’t think that you’re-”
“Dude, I know, like I would let any of those backwards cavemen Alphas get their knots anywhere near my glorious ass. I’m just messing with you, alright?”
Derek felt the small clench that had gripped his chest at the idea that Stiles thought he was anything at all like the only occasional and getting rarer by the year type of Alpha spouting off on the news about the return to the ‘proper’ Alpha and Omega structure, release.
“How do I always forget that you live to mess with me?” Derek asked, diving back into the borderline obnoxious banter that was Derek and Stiles primary form of interaction outside of Heats. “I bet you don’t even need any help walking, you’re just being lazy.”
“Maybe I am,” Stiles said, letting his head loll against Derek’s chest. “Or maybe I just really wanted you to carry me.”
“Yeah, right,” Derek snorted, though he marveled at how much more sincere Stiles’ faux sincerity was sounding. He settled Stiles onto the small spa bench in the shower and backed up. “You call out if you need anything, got it?”
“What if you’re all I need Derek!” Stiles called out in as Derek walked away to give whatever privacy could be given after you were intimately familiar with the right way to angle in for the best odds of providing prostate stimulation.
He walked over to the kitchen sink to grab a few damp paper towels and wipe off a bit to make waiting for his turn moderately less sticky. As he threw out the paper towels and turned on the coffee maker he replayed all that Stiles had said to him that morning.
He really wished that Stiles’ hadn’t become so accomplished at blurring the line between fake and true sincerity. He couldn’t stand the momentary jolts of hope.
*
The medical advances of the modern age meant that all of the physiological differences that had necessitated the vastly different societal rules for Alphas and Omegas had all essentially been rendered moot and outdated, though of course certain social behaviors were still seen as gauche and inappropriate such as an Alpha touching an Omega who had not given permission for them to do so.
There were yearly Omega birth control injections for proper and well thought out family planning, so the ‘barefoot and pregnant’ was a thing of the past, completely unimaginable for nearly every Omega under the age of fifty.
There were full on Heat suppressants, mandatory for any Omega who had reached sexual maturity under the age of eighteen, and as an option for those Omegas serving in the military or who just didn’t want to be bothered with a monthly Heat.
And as the Alphas only had a ‘true’ Heat where they were completely out of control without meds or a willing Omega or possibly Beta once a year, as opposed to their hormones syncing up with an Omega in Heat, a much more civilized Alpha Omega dynamic had quickly overtaken the old. All of the Betas the world over heaving a sigh of relief that they did not have to deal with being surrounded by super horny friends, family, and coworkers all the time. Intermarriage across the board was now a fact of life rather than the subject matter for sensationalist dime store novels, ‘A Beta Stole his Omega!’ and the like.
It had also become more common for…arrangements like the one that Derek and Stiles had to be brokered. Omegas that suffered from side effects or simply had no desire to take the suppressants past the mandatory age, but still weren’t ready to completely settle down, even with the birth control preventing any children until they were wanted. Derek knew, more or less against his will, that his Uncle Peter served as a go-to fallback Alpha for a number of Omegas that had even less interest in a real romantic relationship than Stiles did.
Though Derek really did not think, for all that discussion of Heats and the way individuals dealt with them were hardly taboo, that Great Grandma Nona’s birthday dinner was really the appropriate place to brag about how many Omegas Peter had helped ‘ease’ through the worst of their Heats.
Derek had known Stiles for years, ever since an ill-advised dare from Laura ended up with Derek egging Harris’ house and getting dragged into the Sheriff’s station. In the hallway where he was left to cool his heels there was a little kid trying to snake his hand up into the vending machine to grab a candy bar that had only partially fallen. The kid had looked at Derek imploringly, having finally found someone with longer arms who wasn’t in uniform to help him out. And Derek figured if he was already going to get it for doing to Harris what every student of Beacon Hills High past and present had no doubt dreamed of multiple times anyway, what could it hurt to make it so one kid would have a more enjoyable night than he was having?
It seemed like ever since then he had been wrapped around Stiles’ little finger, not that Stiles ever seemed to realize that. And then Stiles had come up to him two months after he had turned eighteen, the smell of unsuppressed Omega wafting deliciously from his person and asking Derek to do him a solid. He said he couldn’t deal with the suppressants anymore, that they made him feel like he was wrapped in gauze all the time…
Derek had never been good at saying no to Stiles. And it was even harder to do so when he was confronted with exactly how grown up he was now. A handsome young man practically begging to be knotted by the lucky Alpha of his choosing.
The last year or so before Stiles came to him with his proposition Derek had had to keep reminding himself, even without the full impact of Stiles’ Omega allure, that he was just a kid, just a kid. But as soon as Stiles asked with his scent close to driving Derek mad, if Derek would help him through his Heat, no commitment needed, all thoughts of Stiles being a kid fled his mind never to return.
And so almost four years later and they were still doing the same thing, a favor to Stiles every month, a favor to Derek every year. Except now the mantra in Derek’s head, the thing he needed to remind himself of all the time was; ‘he doesn’t love you, he doesn’t love you’.
*
Derek surveyed the house before him.
“So they want us to give them bay windows but for them to not come away from the house at all,” Derek turned in disbelief to his mother. “Do they even understand what bay windows are?”
“I sincerely doubt it. Which is why I am going to end up spending the next half hour to an hour explaining the difference between a large picture window and a bay window, repeatedly, while you get on the line with Dorn to get the status of the paving stones for the front walk and back patio,” Talia Hale said with grim determination.
“Got it mom,” Derek said as he watched his mother walk over, shoulders squared, to try to convince the home owners that just because the customer was always right, that didn’t extend to certain physical impossibilities.
He leaned up against their van, ‘Hale’s Green Contractors’ painted boldly on the side as the hold music from the masonry supplier tinkled into his ear, a spring breeze ruffled through his hair and dislodged a few flower petals from the dogwood that the homeowners had been vacillating on wanting chopped down.
Derek loved the family business, but damn if some clients weren’t easier to deal with than others.
Five minutes later he had gotten a verbal confirmation on the ETA of the stones the next day, and was debating whether or not going over to add his voice to his mother’s would help or hinder their efforts to get through to whatever small kernel of common sense the clients possessed, when a very familiar blue Jeep rolled up.
“I always thought that being a contractor involved you covered in sawdust and paint, while wearing nothing but some partially unbuckled overalls and a tool belt. And here I find you wearing a boring old T-shirt and jeans ensemble. How disappointing,” Stiles said leaning out the car window.
“You’ve seen me at work before, and anyway you should know not to base your expectations on whatever work fetish calendars they have up in the student lounge, or at least stick to the ones about firefighters?”
“Surprisingly enough I am not the one papering the walls of an educational facility with eye candy, though I am amused that it made such an impression on you from the one time you had to come pick me up because my baby was busted,” Stiles said as he pet his Jeep lovingly.
“So why are you here instead of at your institution of higher learning? Your Heat isn’t for another week and a half.”
“Man, sometimes I think you manage to keep better track of my Heats than I do,” Stiles said with a laugh.
Marked on his calendar, on his phone, in his appointment book…”Or you’re just a flake who would be lost without me,” Derek deadpanned, ignoring Stiles scoff, “So, what are you doing back in town?”
“My dad’s birthday. Last one where I am still a poor marginally employed student and can get away with showing my love with kitsch and handmade cards instead of primo quality fishing equipment.”
“Your dad would never expect-” Derek began, knowing how much the Sheriff loved his son no matter how much of a handful he could be. To the extent that he even went up to Derek at the grocery store at the start of Derek and Stiles’ arrangement, stony faced after years of friendly familiarity, to tell Derek to take care of his son and not fuck it up.
“I know, just I feel like I should be able to give him something back after everything,” Stiles said with a wave of his hand, encompassing all that that ‘everything’ could be.
“I do want to also point out, obligations your dad would smack down aside, you’re being pretty presumptuous about getting something right off the bat that would enable you to afford those high end toys to keep your father in the fish.”
“Says the guy who immediately went to work for his family.”
“And I’m the guy who’s about to be able to buy the entire building once Mrs. Khan fulfills her dream and moves to Mexico,” Stiles gaped at Derek, obviously unaware of the latest developments regarding Derek’s negotiations with his landlord, “It helps when the majority of the family members who aren’t contractors are involved in the financial business.”
“Your dad and Laura helped make your piggy bank grow, didn’t they?” Stiles accused as Derek shrugged, allowing himself a small smile. “So what, is Peter the black sheep of the family?”
“Not for being in city government, no. That can actually come in handy to get plans and permits more quickly, and to be able to get environmental impact reports moving so we know what we’re dealing with sooner restriction wise…”
“Nepotism…”Stiles interrupted with a cough.
“But for other reasons maybe, and that’s all by virtue of being Peter. But as a whole I’d say that family sticking together hasn’t left us too bad off. Support system and all that. Can’t recall if you have any environmental engineers in your acquaintance that you didn’t go to school with though.”
“Well maybe I have my own secret support system. Maybe I have some feelers out already about jobs that would even help me cover grad school,” Stiles said defensively.
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Derek replied, catching his mother throwing her hands up from the corner of his eye. He really should probably go over at some point, but…
“Argh, you are such a jerk,” Stiles said with an exaggerated pout. “Just make sure to swing your jerky ass around my place around 5:30 for a barbeque for my dad, okay? Bring ice or something.”
“You think I’ll just do what you tell me to?” Derek asked, eyebrow raised.
Stiles dropped the pout and shot Derek a wide smile. “I sure hope so.”
With that Stiles drove off with a wave.
Derek stared after the departing Jeep for a moment before slowly starting over the where it was increasingly looking like his mother was getting closer to beating the clients with some back issues of Architectural Digest in the hopes that some head trauma would bring them closer to reality.
As he walked all of the thoughts he had been trying to keep at bay while he talked with Stiles rushed in, his physical presence no longer there to distract Derek from the all the thoughts in his head.
Stiles was graduating, and for all that Derek joked, he did not doubt for a moment that someone as brilliant as Stiles already have something lined up. What if he wanted to go to grad school all the way across the country at Cornell or something? It wasn’t out of the question that one of his professors had given him a glowing recommendation for an internship or entry level job with a lab out there so he could have access to an Ivy League education.
Or even if he stayed closer, he’d still be meeting new people, people whose eyes didn’t start to glaze over when he started breaking down every single reason why ethanol was nonviable as a biofuel, in the most hyper technical way possible. Derek knew that he wasn’t stupid by any means, he had always been pretty well read, and a contractor that couldn’t do math or have good spatial reasoning skills sure as hell wasn’t a very successful one, it was just that Stiles was effervescent in everything he did, and that included when he was talking about his field of study, and he would be around new people, new Alphas who of course would be captivated by him, and would have the advantage of being able to engage with him on every level, not just a friendly face and familiar banter, somebody new and smart and exciting…
Derek had worried about it all through Stiles’ time away at college, but after the first two years he had let himself grow complacent, secure in the knowledge that Stiles had no interest in finding a proper partner for himself, that he was truly there to just focus on his studies. And that even though Derek knew he was just getting table scraps from what he truly wanted, he hadn’t allowed himself to truly think of even that being denied to him.
Derek was confident that he would have at least two of Stiles’ Heats left, one before he graduated and the one almost immediately after that would actually fall at the same time as his own.
As he reached his mother and the clients, despite agitated faces all around, the only thought in his head were that he had to make this last two Heats count.
Because he was almost certain that they would be his last with Stiles.
*
The Sheriff’s birthday party was already well underway by the time that Derek and his mother got there, Talia having decided that even if she hadn’t be explicitly invited it had been implicit, and that she needed some fucking beers after the day she had had.
Derek just hung at the periphery of the yard for the most part, nursing his own beer and trying not to stare too openly at how lush and wet Stiles’ mouth looked as he ate a watermelon slice.
Scott McCall, the one Alpha in existence not related to Stiles whom Derek had never had a moment’s worry about taking Stiles away from Derek for good, and not just because he was completely enamored with his Beta girlfriend Allison, sidled up to him. Scott still had his ID badge identifying him as Dr. Deaton’s intern, obviously forgotten in his haste to get to the party, clipped to his shirt and getting bits of chicken grease dropped on it.
“I do not get you,” Scott said, gnawing on a chicken leg like it was a lover done him wrong. “You know you could go over and indulge in some incredibly sickening PDA with him and no one would care. Well, we’d care about having to watch, but you know, you can be normal about it. Like give him a hug or a peck or something. It’s party time so his dad doesn’t even have his gun on him to stroke menacingly.”
“Scott, why are you talking to me about this? You know that what Stiles and I…Is the lack of Allison really made you that desperate for my company?” Derek asked with a sigh, knowing his change of topic was beyond transparent and sloppy, but it was better than talking about himself and Stiles. “And would it kill you to use a napkin?”
“It’s easier just to clean everything up when I’m done. And yeah, I admit if Allison was here I’d be spending most of my time with her. But dude, Stiles is my brother, and you’re pretty okay too if really grumpy most of the time. I just want Stiles to be happy, and you-”
“Yeah,” Derek said, walking off before Scott could finish, not wanting to hear how Stiles deserved more. “I want him to be happy too.”