the_water_clock: abstract painting (Untitled 1958 Coffee and Cinnamon)
the_water_clock ([personal profile] the_water_clock) wrote2012-11-28 11:32 pm

FIC: Hands-On (Stiles/Derek, PG)

Author: Clio
Title: Hands-On
Pairing: Teen Wolf: Stiles Stilinski/Derek Hale
Rating: PG
Summary: It started as a completely practical thing. Then it became a habit.
Warning: (skip) None!
Length: 300 words
Notes: Prompted by this photo on tumblr. A companion piece to "Driving in Cars with Boys."




It started not long after they met. Stiles could be like a coiled spring, tense and jumpy, and he wasn’t great at knowing where his body was in relation to physical space, never mind anyone else’s. So Derek just got into the habit of putting his hands on Stiles’s shoulders whenever he was moving past him. It wasn’t a big deal.

Only, Derek found himself touching them maybe a little more often, maybe just so he could have a little physical contact. Maybe because compared to the rest of his frame, Stiles’s shoulders were remarkably broad and muscled. Maybe because Derek liked to remember how they felt under his hands, to imagine how it would feel to lean against them when he was tired and alone. He kept touching them even after he knew exactly how those muscles moved under his hands when they fucked, when they slept, when he reached around Stiles to steal another piece of pizza.

They were at a cookout at someone’s house, a few months or so after their first kiss, and when Derek came outside he walked up behind Stiles, laying his hands on his shoulders. Stiles scarcely reacted, as though he knew Derek’s touch, and just glanced at him out of the corner of his eye before going right on with his conversation. Derek liked listening to Stiles’s voice when he didn’t have to actually parse what he was saying, when he could just let the deep rumble of it roll through him, so he dipped his head down. Stiles relaxed a little more, leaning back into Derek’s chest as he talked.

“Who knew you’d be so cuddly, even standing up?” Stiles asked, and it was then that Derek looked up and realized that whoever Stiles had been talking to was gone.

Derek wrapped one hand across Stiles’s chest, pulling him closer. ”You did,” he answered, and he could feel Stiles nodding in reply.