[ It had come down to this, one summer between years at Berkeley: Stiles needed a job. Period. His dad worked hard and made enough money to keep the two Stilinski men comfortable--not to mention to keep Stiles in school--but he felt bad about asking him for money for games or the copious amounts of Mountain Dew that were getting him through his capstone. So Stiles picked up on a hobby that he'd had back when his mother was still alive and applied for a job in the kitchen of the House of Hale bed and breakfast just outside of Beacon Hills at the beginning of the summer of his freshman year.
It'd been two years since then, two summers of meals and food and getting to know the staff and the occasional common guests. There's Peter, the owner, who skeeves Stiles out every now and then but pays him well enough he doesn't even care, Laura, the eldest Hale child, who does the accounting and is not allowed within fifty feet of his kitchen, Cora, who teaches a class on horseback riding and judges Stiles constantly (but they're friends, he thinks), Reagan, the youngest Hale, who is Stiles' constant companion in the kitchen and the most eager eight year old sous-chef Stiles has ever met and...
And then there's Derek. Derek works a myriad of jobs around the place, even carpentry occasionally, but he's most often at the front desk. Stiles spilled coffee on him the first day he came into work, and their relationship had been rocky for much of his time here because of it, but...in the past summer and this upcoming one, Stiles had started to feel a familiar, achy twinge in his gut at the sight of him, at his name popping up on his cellphone during the off season. This was going to be one of the first times he's seen Derek since last August, and he's weirdly twitterpated at the thought because--okay, he has a big, huge, obnoxious crush on Derek Hale.
Luckily, though, this comes with a distraction, because Stiles' best friend is coming to stay in the House of Hale for the weekend--and he's bringing his girlfriend. Not just his girlfriend, but his soon to be fiancee. It's a huge deal, and Stiles had pep talked Scott through the entire thing on the phone on his drive back from Berkeley; hell, he even helped pick out the rings.
Scott and Kira are in one of the cozier rooms right now, probably asleep; it's six AM, the beginning of Stiles' shift, and before he cooks breakfast for the guests, he makes something for someone else. Sometime last year, Reagan and Derek had started to do the same for Stiles--once a week, he got a pancake breakfast, complete with dinosaur pancakes.
So what better way to tell Derek the Scott-related-news than pancake communication? That seemed to be the only real communication--besides bickering--that they excelled at. Making his way to the front desk, Stiles walks up behind it, sliding into the little alcove and wiggling to make sure he doesn't disrupt his placement before dropping the tray down in front of Derek.
The pancakes are heart shaped, with a delicate tracing of the maple syrup Conall Hale gathers from the trees in the back--seriously, this family--and covered in strawberries and raspberries. Stiles even sets down a cup of coffee, made just how Derek likes it, and steps back, preening. ]
Wakey-wakey, sunshine. Got a big day ahead of us.
[ It doesn't occur to him until about two seconds later that this could be implying something completely different than "big scott related thing today." ]
i have NOT FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS
It'd been two years since then, two summers of meals and food and getting to know the staff and the occasional common guests. There's Peter, the owner, who skeeves Stiles out every now and then but pays him well enough he doesn't even care, Laura, the eldest Hale child, who does the accounting and is not allowed within fifty feet of his kitchen, Cora, who teaches a class on horseback riding and judges Stiles constantly (but they're friends, he thinks), Reagan, the youngest Hale, who is Stiles' constant companion in the kitchen and the most eager eight year old sous-chef Stiles has ever met and...
And then there's Derek. Derek works a myriad of jobs around the place, even carpentry occasionally, but he's most often at the front desk. Stiles spilled coffee on him the first day he came into work, and their relationship had been rocky for much of his time here because of it, but...in the past summer and this upcoming one, Stiles had started to feel a familiar, achy twinge in his gut at the sight of him, at his name popping up on his cellphone during the off season. This was going to be one of the first times he's seen Derek since last August, and he's weirdly twitterpated at the thought because--okay, he has a big, huge, obnoxious crush on Derek Hale.
Luckily, though, this comes with a distraction, because Stiles' best friend is coming to stay in the House of Hale for the weekend--and he's bringing his girlfriend. Not just his girlfriend, but his soon to be fiancee. It's a huge deal, and Stiles had pep talked Scott through the entire thing on the phone on his drive back from Berkeley; hell, he even helped pick out the rings.
Scott and Kira are in one of the cozier rooms right now, probably asleep; it's six AM, the beginning of Stiles' shift, and before he cooks breakfast for the guests, he makes something for someone else. Sometime last year, Reagan and Derek had started to do the same for Stiles--once a week, he got a pancake breakfast, complete with dinosaur pancakes.
So what better way to tell Derek the Scott-related-news than pancake communication? That seemed to be the only real communication--besides bickering--that they excelled at. Making his way to the front desk, Stiles walks up behind it, sliding into the little alcove and wiggling to make sure he doesn't disrupt his placement before dropping the tray down in front of Derek.
The pancakes are heart shaped, with a delicate tracing of the maple syrup Conall Hale gathers from the trees in the back--seriously, this family--and covered in strawberries and raspberries. Stiles even sets down a cup of coffee, made just how Derek likes it, and steps back, preening. ]
Wakey-wakey, sunshine. Got a big day ahead of us.
[ It doesn't occur to him until about two seconds later that this could be implying something completely different than "big scott related thing today." ]