1
Derek can honestly say that he’s the happiest he’s been since the fire. He has a draconic mate who thrives on making him happy and a pretty okay pack.
There’s certainly more teasing than he thinks is strictly necessary but he bit a bunch teens who turned out to be unruly and sassy. So, basically, he turned a bunch of teens.
He only has himself to blame.
Being with Stiles has mellowed him out. But he tends to stay guarded when others are around, even if it’s just the pack.
It’s partly just his personality but also because he knows that his pack enjoys having a gruff older brother figure they can tease about being grumpy. It gives them a sense of security because they know he takes them seriously.
Last… he simply likes saving his smiles for Stiles and Stiles alone.
Everyone always comments on how Stiles is the ‘chillest dragon to ever dragon’ but that’s mostly because they’ve never seen the avaricious gleam in his eyes when Derek smiles. Never seen the gleam of fierce possessiveness.
They’ve mostly given up on finding out what Stiles is hoarding. The only time he starts getting less chill is when they push him too hard about his hoard.
Maybe keeping his hoard a secret was a mistake. Hard to tell in hindsight.
But it would’ve prevented the Great Flaming Erica Incident.
+
The pack is hanging around doing whatever when Stiles does something ridiculous and Derek barks out a laugh.
Laughing usually involves smiling.
It freezes Stiles (as it always does).
No one notices because the sound of Derek laughing is rare. So is the sight of a wide smile on his face.
“Oh my, god! I didn’t even know his face could do that,” Erica says, reaching out to poke at Derek’s face.
It’s like a cheesy action movie’s slow-motion scene:
Erica’s finger inching towards his face.
The avaricious gleam in Stiles’ eyes turning instantly furious and glowing with the deep violet of the hottest fires.
A stutter frameskip and Stiles is right there gripping Erica’s wrist.
He tosses her and his hissed ‘mine’ sends a stream of fire that singes her hair right off.
It happens so fast and Stiles’ actions are so extreme that everyone is frozen, unsure what to do.
Derek just pulls Stiles into his lap and tries to soothe his fury.
+
Everyone concludes that Derek is part of Stiles’ hoard.
It’s close enough to the truth and it helps them avoid stepping on Stiles’ instincts.
It doesn’t avoid incidents altogether since wolves are a tactile bunch and while Derek was never the most prolific, he still needs to scent and be scented.
The pack is confused when Stiles allows this without complaint.
2
Stiles loves his hoard. His hoard is the best hoard in the world. No hoard is better.
He’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.
And he’s a dragon. He’ll win that fight.
The thing is, Stiles doesn’t hoard all of Derek’s smiles.
Because not all of Derek’s smiles are good smiles.
Sometimes Derek fake smiles to charm someone when he needs information. Stiles hates those smiles. He doesn’t care about the fake flirting. He does care about the discomfort he can taste in the air when Derek does it.
His least favourite smile, though, is when Derek smiles because some person is hitting on him and he desperately wants them to leave him alone.
Derek usually doesn’t bother. He’s a grumpy dude who scowls and he owns that. He also rarely cares about being polite.
Sometimes, though, a woman with blonde hair and a sharp smile will aggressively hit on him.
He’ll smile nervously. In discomfort. In fear.
Stiles can taste it and the urge to destroy anything and everything that causes Derek to smile like that is nearly overwhelming.
He doesn’t think he can be blamed, then, for what happened when he and a few pack members go shopping together.
+
Stiles is stalking his prey.
He managed to evade him but Stiles is the most apex of apex predators. No prey shall ever escape him!
He tastes the air and knows his prey is near.
Probably in the produce section because he told Derek they needed some fruit.
But Derek’s been gone too long!
Stiles goes momentarily still when he enters the section and sees Derek practically pinned against a display.
He’s smiling that awful, horrible smile and desperately trying to avoid being touched by the blonde woman in front of him.
The next moment he’s hip checking the bitch (hard) and yelling, “Bitch, stay away from my man! He’s mine and I’ll claw your eyes out if I ever catch you looking at him again.”
He can feel Derek relaxing at his back and Stiles vehemently does not care that he must look like a wild, possessive boyfriend.
Does. Not. Care.
+
This only further cements the pack’s opinion that Derek is part of Stiles’ hoard.
3
Stiles doesn’t actually care if Derek only smiles when he’s around. He doesn’t own Derek. He, in fact, wants Derek to smile as often as he feels like it.
Would love it if Derek smiled every single moment for the rest of his life.
Not just because it increases the size of his hoard, but because it would mean that Derek is happy basically all the time.
Stiles would love that.
Would certainly hate all the smiles he wouldn’t be adding to his hoard.
Actually, he already hates the smiles he misses and can’t hoard.
They’re his damn it!
Anyway…
The point is, he wants Derek to be happy for always and forever.
The sad reality is, this is unlikely to happen. Derek’s lost too much and experienced too much trauma.
Each of his smiles is treasured by Stiles. All of them. But their value isn’t increased because of the relative scarcity.
If he only had ten each would be worth just as much as they would if he had a million.
They’re valuable for themselves. And they’re his. And he loves them.
On days when it’s his brother’s birthday or his parent’s anniversary, Stiles works extra hard to ease Derek’s pain. To bring him what comfort and joy he can.
Derek being Derek hasn’t given a list of important days. But Stiles looked into the fire. Looked at all the victims. He has memorized their birthdays and any other significant dates he can. He watches for days when Derek’s melancholy tastes particularly strong.
He starts wondering if maybe he should tell the pack what he’s hoarding because as the great Jackson Always Takes Teasing a Step Too Far incident demonstrates, it might actually be deadly for the pack not to know.
+
It’s a bad day. Derek hates that he has so many bad days.
Stiles, though, makes those days easier. Adds a little light and warmth. It’s why Derek has come to love him so much.
He notices and he cares. He does what he can to help but never makes a production out of it. Understands that Derek hates drawing attention to it.
Derek does wish his pack would pay more attention to his chemosignals, though. Weren’t the self-involved teens that they were on those days.
As Stiles hands him a hot chocolate, Derek gives him a soft smile.
He appreciates these gestures so much and this is the best way to show it.
Stiles goes still and breathes out in pleasure.
It’s a nice moment until, “I like how you’ve turned the big, bad dragon into your little bitch,” Jackson sneers.
The smile drops from his face. Stiles’ eyes go deep violet in fury and he breathes out dark smoke.
No one has time to react before Stiles has Jackson pinned to the floor, claws digging deep into his throat. Jackson is already choking on blood but isn’t struggling. He’ll tear his own throat out if he does.
Stiles is breathing heavily, smoke is filling the room.
Derek is up and wrapping his arms around Stiles, “It’s okay, Stiles. I’m okay. Let him go. You know he can’t help being an asshole.”
“He stole from me,” Stiles hisses.
“I know. I know. But you still shouldn’t kill him,” Derek says in a soothing tone.
It takes long, long moments. But Stiles relaxes by slow increments, his claws finally retract and Jackson scrambles away.
+
The pack is confused. None of them understand what Jackson stole.
But the way Stiles reacted means that he somehow managed to steal from Stiles’ hoard.
It obviously wasn’t Derek.
4
Magic doesn’t usually affect dragons. They’re made of magic so it normally just does nothing.
This witch, somehow, managed to find a spell to wipe Stiles’ mind.
She wants to control him. Have her own pet dragon.
Derek doesn’t get to Stiles first, it’s Scott.
Stiles is obviously confused and hisses at Scott. His scent is filled with panic and fear.
The witch is cackling and it’s pretty much chaos.
Stiles looks wildly around him and freezes when he sees Derek, “I know you. Who are you? Why do I know you?”
The witch stops laughing because Stiles shouldn’t remember anything. She moves fast and puts a knife at Derek’s throat.
“I’ll kill him if you don’t cooperate, dragon,” she threatens.
Stiles is still confused but Derek knows how to prod him into action.
He gives a shaky smile and says, “It’s going to be okay.”
As soon as he smiles, everything about Stiles sharpens.
No magic in the world can make a dragon forget his hoard.
Stiles doesn’t know the man’s name. Doesn’t know his own name.
It doesn’t matter. The man is essential to his hoard. That smile belongs to him. Not the most beautiful addition to his hoard. But it’s genuine and real. And that’s all that matters.
Because this man truly believes that it’ll be okay. Trusts him to help.
Stiles has moved and torn out the witch’s throat faster than she can react.
Only a fool tries to steal from a dragon.
+
The incident confuses the pack. Yes, Stiles recognized Derek even when he remembered nothing.
But he hadn’t acted until Derek spoke.
His hoarding instincts hadn’t been triggered until that moment. It was confusing.
Lydia, though, smiled to herself.
She was beginning to see a pattern.
5
Lydia has a formidable mind. She also has a hypothesis to test.
It isn’t going to be easy. It’ll take careful planning. Mostly because she doesn’t want to get anyone hurt.
And she’ll be treading some very dangerous ground.
It takes time and Lydia has to wait until Christmas.
She gets Derek a carefully calculated present.
+
Derek is opening his Christmas presents when he gets to Lydia’s. It’s surprisingly large. He likes Christmas mainly because the pack does. He likes to see them happy.
He doesn’t care much for the gifts. Few of the gifts are anything he needs or wants. It’s also a depressing reminder at how little his pack knows him.
It isn’t their fault. He’s a guarded person.
So he isn’t expecting much from Lydia’s gift.
Not until he opens it and the smell of Laura hits him. Inside is a quilt from their apartment in New York. There’s a few pictures and stuff, but its the scent that matters in this moment.
Her death is fresher than the rest of his family’s. It hurts.
In this moment, though, he closes his eyes and smiles as he lets the scent wash over him. Focusing on the good memories, for once.
Across the room, he hears Stiles whisper ‘mine’ and he’s suddenly there. Touching Derek’s lips. Placing a gentle kiss on his smile.
This usually only happens when Stiles has a brand new kind of smile to add to his hoard. Or, at least, he’s able to restrain himself in public from doing this every time Derek smiles.
The pack is silent around them.
+
Lydia grins because she was right.
There’s confusion because not many people had been paying attention to Derek (they open their presents at the same time because no one wants to wait).
Lydia had been watching and waiting.
Stiles’ back is blocking everyone from seeing what’s happening. She doesn’t need to know.
She’d seen Derek’s face and heard Stiles’ whisper.
Got a flash of the awed, reverent, and greedy look on Stiles’ face before he moved.
This her Christmas present to herself. Because Lydia likes few things more than knowledge. Unless it’s knowledge she has that others don’t.
+1
The pack is gathered for a meeting.
Stiles’s entire body is coiled tight with tension because he does not want to do this. Agrees that it’s necessary. But hates it all the same.
Derek begins, “After recent… incidents, I’ve finally gotten Stiles to let me tell you what he’s hoarding. It’s for your safety. He doesn’t actually want to hurt anyone but he’s a dragon and his hoarding instincts are the strongest ones he has. So, um…” Derek pauses because it’s a little embarrassing to say out loud.
“Just tell us already!” Erica yells.
“My smiles. Stiles hoards my smiles,” Derek says with a slightly pained expression.
Everyone just looks slightly confused. Trying to piece what they’ve witnessed with this bit of information.
“The pattern is easy to see, if you know what to look for. The first incident happened when Erica tried to touch his smile. The second happened when Derek was giving that cougar a fake smile. The third was when Jackson made a comment that caused Derek to lose his smile. The fourth was the witch and Stiles only acted after Derek smiled. The last, was me testing a hypothesis. I gave Derek a gift I was sure would make him smile and Stiles literally said ‘mine’ in front of all of us. It’s embarrassing none of you put it together,” Lydia said as she flipped her hair over her shoulder.
Stiles laughed, “Well, if anyone was going to figure it out, it’d be you Lydia. I do thank you for that last smile, though. I’d never seen one like it before. I’ll get you something nice as a thank you.”
“His smiles?” Jackson started to scoff but abruptly stops when he sees Stiles’ eyes begin to glow.
“How does that even work?” Isaac wonders.
“Dude, leave it to you to have the weirdest hoard,” Scott laughs.