Looking at Scott, he looked less pale and he gave a grateful smile to his friend. "Thanks, man, it was a close call. And I don't know why it hit me so hard. I know it's stupid since we've been bonded and thus 'married' in werewolf terms for like 9 months! Nothing will really change between us. Sure, it'll be official in human terms too and also legally and financially, but what matters is that we'll love each other just the same..." Stiles explained and perhaps he was talking more to himself to persuade his stupid self to chill the fuck out. "And yet... nothing will be the same. A chapter of my life will be fully closed and a new will begin and I guess that's what hit me hard now. I'm not planning on running out on him before the ceremony, though," he giggled a bit still nervously but a lot calmer. "Although it'd be kinda funny because he'd be able to track me down and I imagine drape me over his shoulder fireman style to drag me back and do it anyway..."

"I don't know man, it's Derek, he'd probably look for a spot to go into a corner and hide there because you don't want to marry him. So you have to do this, because I don't think he can do more angsting," Scott beamed, at them both for managing to stave off what no doubt would have been an epic panic attack. But Stiles still smelled like he took a bath in nerves so it could be happening still.

It hadn't even occurred to Scott that if Stiles would marry Derek, they'd be together financially as well and honestly, that was pretty awesome. They both had enough while growing up, never suffering from being poor but he knew about his mom and the Sheriff both worrying about bills, even now. So Stiles marrying the local rich dude was well-deserved. Assumed rich dude, since Derek had said he owned the entire Loft building and that was enormous so the True Alpha figured there was a lot of money.

"I have no idea what you're even talking about with this familiar stuff but you can explain it to me in the car, okay? Let's get out of here. I want to see your new home and meet Derek's daughter. Which is so trippy. Derek having a daughter," Scott hugged Stiles tightly since there was easy access on the bench. "Did you guys even have a bachelor party? If not, we should do one tonight, like at the loft."

"Okay, fine, let's get going. You drive just to stay safe," Stiles said as he got up and they walked towards the exit with Scott pulling his bag behind him. "No, we didn't have a bachelor party so I guess a small party could happen with you and Beth. We also have a big deaf hound dog named Fenrir, who's Beth's, and a big red cat called Little Red. She's basically mine but she was the one who chose us a while back," Stiles explained as they reached the Jeep and he unlocked it before handing the keys to Scott and moving towards the passenger's seat.

"Beth, our daughter, is a sweetheart. Such an energetic and curious little girl. I love her dearly. She's nothing like Derek aside from looking like a mini copy of him and that sometimes she can pout like her dad. Currently she's very much into Disney princesses," Stiles said as he put on his seat belt.

"Oh and you were curious about how Derek proposed. He did it with luring me to that spot in the Preserve where you and I met him for the very first time. He even wore the same clothes and put out that wolfsbane spiral from candles. He also said the same words like back then before going on one knee to pop the question. It was so epic! I cried like a baby," Stiles chuckled, his panic fully receding by then. Thank fuck!

"But what about you? What have you been up to lately?" Stiles asked as the Jeep came alive under them at the first try. "Oh yeah, Derek had replaced a lot of things in Roscoe so now she's safer and healthier."

Scott was blessed with a near lifelong experience when it came to Stiles and his rapid way of talking. He had no problem following along, though he didn't expect to hear about pets. Derek didn't seem like the guy who was into those and Stiles never had any either because the Sheriff worked too much and didn't want one in an empty house.

"I've finished college as you know and I stuck around in LA because the vet clinic I was doing my internship at offered me a steady job. Malia is park ranger at the Angeles National forest but we might be moving since she got offered a better position at Yosemite National Park. LA's pretty expensive to live at. And we'll be closer to Beacon Hills, and I'm hoping to work as vet in the park, and we can rent in the towns close by. Which is kind of like the best place for a werewolf and a werecoyote, right?"

The young alpha was excited about that, the city was pretty taxing on them. "I haven't even thought about proposing to Malia. I don't think she wants me to. But maybe someday and then I'd be family to Derek and kind of to you? That would be awesome, right?! We don't have pets, we work too much for them. I can't believe you're the settled one out of us both, man!"

"Yeah, it's still a bit hard to wrap my mind around that," Stiles chuckled as he agreed with a nod too, taking glimpses of Scott while they were on their way back to their hometown now.

"But it's good to hear that you and Malia are still together. How many years have it been? Frankly, I'm surprised but also pleased that the two of you work so well together," he said. Frankly, it was still a little bit strange for Stiles that his best friend had found what he was looking for in Stiles' fierce ex-girlfriend, but who was he to say anything about that? After all, he too fell deeply in love and got engaged to the most unlikely man from their past.

"I love that you two are both working close to nature and with animals. And I think your choice of work suits you both. Not that I ever doubted that you'd be an excellent vet one day. You wanted to become one for as long as I can remember. And speaking of animals... You asked what a familiar is. It's usually an animal companion of a warlock or witch. Well, I'm technically not that, though. I'm a Spark. A rare kind of druid. The strong ones can have familiars too. They are usually a smaller kind of animal, like a raven or owl or cat. But of course I had to go big in this too and I snatched myself a big and powerful alpha werewolf, namely Derek," he chuckled, rubbing the scars on the back of his neck. His favorite scar on his body because it was Derek's claiming bite.

"A familiar has magical powers of their own, but also stores a lot of magic for their mage. That magic can be tapped into in case the wielder needs it. So the familiars can function as kind of a 'power storage' too."

"We've been together for seven years, almost. We just make sense. She’s pack and it feels good. I really love her and she really loves me. It would be kind of weird to be with somebody who hasn't been through everything we have. Like, sure it's a fresh start but they would never get it. I don't want to drag anybody into our world either. Malia is part of our world." And she was just as clingy as Scott was, probably even more so. She wasn't into romantic gestures like he was, but it worked out like that. Sure it was weird that she had been with Stiles like a really long time ago, but that was so long ago that it didn't matter.

"I'm truly happy for you, guys. It's amazing when you find that one person who completes you, so I get it. It's just a bummer that she couldn't come with you to the wedding. I'd have liked to have her around too," he said.

"She couldn't take off from work. We just had our vacation so no free days. They're not so lenient as my boss is," Scott shrugged because it kind of sucked but they could always come visit Beacon Hills another time. He was pretty sure Malia would love to see Stiles again, since they had remained good friends after the messy breakup. And she wasn't in contact much with Derek besides rare phone calls once or twice a year. At least Scott got a few more a year, but he was usually the one actively seeking contact with Derek.

"It's okay, I understand why she couldn't come. And you are always welcome to visit us. We're planning on renovating more of the loft building to have apartments for our future pack members and also occasionally for hosting guests," he shrugged. "You can stay there too in case you don't want to bother Melissa and Chris."

"I told my boss my two brothers were getting married. And dude, I didn't realize how that sounded when she wondered if it was a double wedding and I said you two were getting married to each other. I told her I was best man to you and Derek and that I grew up with you. And she let me go." Scott was pretty sure she did because she was an active supporter of the LGBTQ community and when she heard it was a gay wedding, she had been all for it. And to take pictures. "I was told to bring back pictures."

"Your boss sounds awesome, dude! And sure, you can show her some pictures once you get back. You're lucky that you found an understanding boss again. But hopefully she's no Deaton 2.0 with all the cryptic mumbo-jumbo!" he giggled, thinking back how long Deaton pretended not to understand what's going on then once he revealed himself, he continued with being very lenient with Scott not going to work and such.

Scott drove the Jeep, not needing directions to get back to Beacon Hills since it was a very familiar road by now for all in Beacon Hills wanting to go to the nearest big city. He glanced to Stiles from time to time, who seemed to be doing better and not on the brink of a major panic attack. Maybe talk of the wedding should be done when they were with Derek, or not mention it much at all.

The whole familiar talk was complicated, making Scott furrow his brows. Rare kinds of druids had magical animals and Stiles had managed to get Derek as his. Right, sure, that he could follow. "So Derek is your magical Power bank. Only one that you can't fit in a bag. But how does that work? You give him your magic and he puts it somewhere in him? Where does he keep it?"

Instead of letting himself think too much about the following day, Stiles latched onto the familiar topic. He even laughed a bit on how Scott phrased it.

"Yeah, well he's a bit too big for a pocket or a bag. In other ways too, if you know what I mean..." he wriggled his brows with a dirty smirk. It's been such a long time that he could just joke around with Scott and sitting right next to him reminded him how much he had missed having his friend around in the flesh too, not just through phone calls, texts or emails.

"It's not easy to answer that question. In my case it's easier. I store the magic within my Spark, which is like a flame deep down in me in a weird kind of space. Like a different dimension. I guess it's the same for Derek? Dunno. It's... we have these runes on our arms," he pulled the sleeve of his henley up to show Scott the rune. "We press them together and do a balancing ritual. Back at the beginning it required a constant chanting and concentration from me, but by now we just have to press the runes together and want the connection to be established. I guess it's because we've evolved a lot since then. And we let the magic flow between us until it's balanced out. When – for some reason – I give him more, he feels a bit strange for a day or two, like his skin is too tight, before his body gets used to it and the magic settles. And normally it doesn't show much on him that he is storing magic for me. He only smells a bit like ozone most of the time. But that can be explained with being mated to a Spark too," he shrugged at the end of his explanation. "When I'm doing a bigger spell and I need more magic, I just tap into the reserve he has stored in him and use from it."

Scott dutifully made a face when Stiles had to mention how big Derek was, because he had seen that when Derek had decided to not wear clothes and go full wolf in Mexico. And he didn't want to be reminded. He rather focused on the rune Stiles uncovered on his arm, first evidence that Stiles was doing magic. He had seen it, with the mountains ash, but this was probably way more evolved than that.

"Dude, why does it all sound so dirty?" Scott gave a cheeky grin at daring to make any kind of lewd remark. In his case, this was about as lewd as it went.

"And oh my god! I never thought of it sounding so dirty!" Stiles outright burst out in a fit of giggles. "I'll have to tell this to Derek too! This is hilarious! He'll totally not appreciate it, but too bad for him! He chose to want a future with me, so he has to suck it up with such brilliant humor!" he said then calmed down a bit and looked back at the road ahead.

"It is amazing though, that we finally managed to find the people we were meant to be with... I'm so happy, Scott. I never thought I'd ever feel this way," he confessed on a softer tone. "He makes me feel so... complete. A part of me still tries to comprehend that. Are you happy, Scott?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah, I am." Scott concentrated on the road for a long moment, since he needed his attention with how busy it was on this particular stretch of highway. It also gave him the time to try and explain it.

"I think it's easier to be happy now than it was back then. Like, we tried to be normal kids as much as we could and we tried to have fun but we were always living in fear of what was going to happen next. I'd look around the school and I knew that not everyone was going to be there in a year. And the only times I felt like it could be like I thought it was supposed to be, was when I was with my girlfriend. Being with her was an escape, a moment away from everything. We had happy moments, sure, but we didn't know happiness."

There was a sad little smile when he glanced at Stiles. "It took forever to be able to sleep at night and not jump out of bed at every little noise, thinking it was another emergency. We were like soldiers living in constant war. We weren't living, we were surviving. And now we all finally get to like... breathe. You know?"

Stiles mulled over how to respond to that because he only partially agreed with Scott. Then he decided that there was no need with Scott to sugarcoat things. After all, their friendship had come over a lot of things already and proved to be strong and stand the test of time. Even if they were living in different places and they weren't attached at the hips anymore like years ago. Which was healthier, to be honest. It took Stiles quite a while to not feel abandoned by Scott but understand that it's how their lives were supposed to go.

"Yeah, we were teen soldiers, trying to save the day. The difference between you and me is, though, that I'm still like that on Derek's side. We keep doing the same thing with being the protectors of the Nemeton and the town now. You and Malia got out when you two moved away and started a new life. For a while I had that too in San Francisco, but there was something missing from my life. And once Derek was back and we got together, I took that as the first chance to come back to Beacon Hills. First I thought it was only because of Derek, who settled back with his daughter. But I think it was because I was always tied to this land and a part of me missed it too much. So that might be part of the reason why I never hesitated to leave my life in San Francisco behind. To both start fresh with my relationship with Derek, but also to continue what we'd started doing as teens... We are living now too, but also many times surviving with my mate," he looked at Scott seriously.

"There have been some nasty things going down lately, but yeah, we can breathe a bit. For a while, at least. Before the next threat. So in this regard my life is kinda the same, even if some elements of it have changed. Like, we're building a life together with him now and tomorrow will be an important landmark in that. I guess, that's also why I freaked out a bit about it at the airport..." he hummed at the end, looking through the windshield again, a bit lost in thought.

"Yeah but you got out. You know what it's like to not live in Beacon Hills, and I'm not saying it's all without problems because it's totally not but it's not like the town we grew up in. And you made the choice to go back. You could just… not live in San Francisco."

Sure, he got it, the whole protector of the town thing. He had been that, he had pulled his weight. And if he had to, he'd do it again. But Derek was there now so Scott got to be selfish, he had the luxury to not live in a town that was a supernatural beacon. Where the death rate was about as high as in major cities. "You guys could move away. I mean, your dad is getting to the age where he can retire. Derek's done it before, to leave and go out there to make his life." That's what they had done when they had gone off to college, Scott left it to Liam and his pack to protect the town and when Liam left for college, Derek had been back so it all evened out. Liam might return, so there was always going to be a protector.

"It doesn't have to be you guys. It's never too late to get out."

"But that's it. We don't want to move away. And you're not listening, Scott..." Stiles smiled lightly shaking his head. "I'm pretty much bound to the land. I mean... I can leave, sure. But I'll always feel the pull of the Nemeton. More than you or Allison ever could. I'm a Spark. This is the land I belong to. I'm starting to realize that more and more. It turned out that my mom used to be a Spark too, but she wasn't as powerful as me. We found some of her stuff and other family heirlooms in the attic the other day. We still have to examine them further but I have my mom's journal and an old spell book that was in the Polish side of my family for hundreds of years. It's pretty crazy, to be honest. But there's been so many things going on lately with an attack against us and organizing the wedding and honeymoon that I didn't really have the time to dive deeper into these things."

It was still baffling Stiles how he didn't know anything about his real heritage and the fact that if his mom hadn't possessed Derek, he wouldn't have known about it for much longer.

"Besides Derek had told me at the beginning of our relationship that he wanted to settle in Beacon Hills with Beth, because it's been the land of his pack. Now our pack. I wouldn't ask him to leave his roots behind."

Maybe Scott didn't fully understand it, but he did understand wanting to have a place to settle and make a home. For a long time it Beacon Hills hadn't been Derek's home and it had been Scott's. Now it was the other way around, Stiles always considered it his home, even when he landed himself a job as detective in San Francisco. "I've seen the pictures of your apartment in San Francisco, you never made it your home so... I guess it makes sense."

They were finally out of the city and on their way to their town, mostly dealing with highway for the next hour. The young alpha sniggered. "I remember when you first told me you had a crush on Derek. I thought you had like serious brain damage. I should have known it was way more serious. You totally never have brief crushes.”

"Yeah. I tried to 'run away', to start a life somewhere else, but a part of me could never settle and commit to that life. Or to any other partners I had. With them it was mostly just physical, some fun times, you know. And I'm convinced that belonging to our hometown and Derek were the reason for that and a lot of other things too," Stiles nodded. It was quite clear in his mind, but he knew that he usually had to explain things in detail to others. Sometimes Derek understood him without having to do so, but being his mate didn't mean he always knew what was running through Stiles' busy mind. Hence the occasional misunderstandings and such. With Scott Stiles knew how to explain things since they've been friends for most of their lives.

"Yeah... as it turned out, Derek is IT for me. He'd told me that he knew nearly from the very beginning that I was a potential mate for him. But you and I were too young so he decided to ignore that and acted like an ass towards me to keep me at arm’s length. God, he knew quite early at least that I desired him. Not about the crush, but chemo signals and all that... Kinda embarrassing," he chuckled then shrugged.

"Stiles, we all knew you had the hots for him. All the werewolves could smell it on you because you'd smell aroused the moment you were around Derek. It was like... somebody opened up a can of porn smells. It was pretty bad." It wasn't like Scott had that problem, he hadn't liked Derek much at first, it took time to see him as a friend. Sure, he was handsome but no way. It was why he so couldn't understand at first why Stiles crushed on him. Had to be some kind of physical thing only, seeing a hot guy and be into it. But they all had been so wrong about it. And Derek.

"Oh, god. Hearing this from you too makes it even more embarrassing," Stiles chuckled with a slight blush then shrugged it off at the end. "Oh well, it played out on the long run. And prepare yourself, because when I'm around Derek I still smell like that. If not worse..." he wiggled his brows.

“Wait...” It took a moment to land but Scott finally did catch up. "What attack against you? Are you okay? I mean you look... kind of skinny and nervous but okay."

As Stiles averted his eyes from the traffic, he snorted and glimpsed at the other young man.

"I'm fine. We're fine. We dealt with it. Mostly diplomatically..." he said as if it wasn't a big deal then summed up the situation with Zepar and the Druid Council and the potentially lethal tests to the True Alpha. After all, he was entering a now peaceful territory, but it never hurt if he, as an alpha, was clear with the current situation in said territory. Once he finished with the summary, he shrugged again.

"I'm skinnier because the magic takes a lot out of me and Derek's 'fattening up diet' haven't kicked in that much yet. And believe me, he takes it seriously. I always ate a lot when I didn't forget in case I've got too distracted by something. We'll have to consult with Deaton soon about me burning calories too much with the magic and constant sex," he babbled on. "Maybe he can figure something out or knows a potion or something I could make to keep my body in balance better."

"I can't believe there's like an alpha pack of druids, that's insane. And they better leave you alone or you should call me. I mean, Derek dying would suck and even more if you'd die too so that's not happening again. Yeah?" There was a brief pause because some of it he so wished he didn't hear. Like the reason Stiles was skinny was because of too much magic and too much sex. Not something he wanted to know, ever.

"Or maybe you should have less sex for a bit." Who was he kidding? Stiles was way too active for that. "Never mind, that's not an option." It was pretty stupid to even suggest it.

Stiles snorted loudly from that suggestion and vehemently shook his head. "No, that's definitely not an option! We're like bunnies around each other. I made Derek addicted to me and sex with me!" he grinned, knowing how much this topic pained Scott, but he always loved to troll him like this. "We're mates after all! You should know it if you are mated with Malia. If not, then one day you'll understand. Your mate is like the hottest, most alluring being for you. And you're barely able to keep your hands off them. I feel like that about Derek and that feeling is mutual. So no, less sex is impossible!" he chuckled. "Especially since our honeymoon is coming up soon too..."

"No sex when I'm sleeping in the loft, that's just weird!" This whole conversation was weird but he tried his best to be supportive and listen to this, even when it was about having sex with Derek. At least it wasn't as detailed as it could have been. 

Luckily the rest of the drive was Stiles telling stories about things Elizabeth had done and the antics of the new family. The adventures that happened, but they weren't new, those had been mentioned. It didn't make it all not any less horrific and the idea of Hell being an actual place was really not that great of an idea.

They passed the sign of Beacon Hills before they even knew it, and it made Scott happy, knowing that despite the lack of seeing each other, the changes they both had went through, it was still like no time had passed at all.

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