Chapter Text
Derek looks down at his ticket and back up at the board behind the flight attendants for what is probably the tenth time.
Destination: Paso Robles
Departure: 10 minutes
No change. Derek has been standing at the gate for the past 30 minutes and multiple other lines throughout the airport for the past hour. In other words, Derek is bored. He lets his gaze wander around the long hall; taking in bathrooms- both human and animal, concession stands with ten dollar water bottles, and a man taking off from an escalator at top speed. The man has only one arm through his jacket, the other through a backpack strap, pulling a suit case behind him, shoes tucked under the other arm trying to grab something out of his back pocket without dropping them or stopping to breath. Passing by Derek in a whirlwind, the curious stranger lets out a small grunt of triumph as he finally gets the paper loose- his boarding pass, Derek assumes- as when he looks down at it and up at the gate numbers he skids to a stop and begins walking backwards until he is lined up with the board Derek has been standing in front of.
The man turns to Derek with a concerned look on his face. “Please tell me you're waiting for the 10:30 to Paso Robles and this isn't some cruel second flight that I wont be able to get on?”
“Still waiting for the 10:30.” Derek informs him, starting to feel bad for openly starring at the guy for the past few minutes.
“God bless delays.” The man lets his backpack drop to the floor with a sigh.
“Speak for yourself.” Derek says, felling less bad. “That sign has said 10 minutes for the past half hour.”
“I get that that sucks for you," he says, twisting at at an odd angle to force his arm through the other jacket sleeve, "but I really needed this. Im going to a wedding that starts like 2 hours after we land.”
Wait, Aelin’s welcome dinner is meant to begin- Derek looks at his watch- now an hour and a half after the flight lands. The dinner that Erica forced Derek to go to, demanding to be his plus one because ‘fall weddings are beautiful’ and then bailed on at the last minute. Of course this wild stranger is going to this godforsaken wedding in the middle of nowhere. He told Erica he was not going enjoy or be any good at mingling with these types of bubbly personalities.
“Aelin and Rowan's wedding?” Derek asks hesitantly.
“Yea! You too? I’m seat…” The man takes a second to flip his ticket over and then turn it right side up. “24B!” The guy seems genuinely pleased with the coincidence. How is that possible?
“Yep” Derek holds back an audible sigh. “24C.” Damn, and he was hoping to at least get a little quite time on the plane to charge up for the day ahead.
“No way, whats up man? I'm Stiles.” The man- Stiles- reaches out to shake Derek's hand with the arm still holding his shoes, and consequently drops them. “Ah shit.” Stiles looks down, shrugs like he's deciding thats where they were going anyway, and offers his hand again.
Derek shakes Stiles’ hand. “Derek.”
Stiles’ frenetic energy died down a bit once they settled in on the plane, and, aside from the constant squirming next to him, Derek almost didn’t mind his presence. Besides who is he kidding, sitting next to a good looking man is never torture. Especially when said hot guy strikes up a surprisingly nihilistic conversation on passengers’ irrational reactions to turbulence that Derek was not expecting. Maybe he judged this guy too soon.
“Where are you staying?” Stiles asks as they step off the plane.
“The Inn on Vine”
“Me too!” Stiles bounces on the balls of his feet. “We're hotel friends!”
Maybe not.
Stiles and Derek arrive at their hotel and check in with the front desk. Stiles goes first and waits for Derek off to the side.
“So are you a friend of Aelin or Rowan?” Derek asks as the walk together to the elevators.
“Technically Rowan,” Inside the elevator Stiles presses 3 which of course is Derek’s floor too. “but he was really more Scott’s friend in school. We’re a package deal though so we both got the invite and we were going to go together and have a bro’s weekend but Scott had to bail at the last minute and everything was booked already and non refundable, so here I am, all alone, trying to turn a bro’s weekend into a ‘self-retreat.’” Stiles makes exaggerated finger quotes. “Which if you knew me at all, you would laugh at the idea.”
Derek thinks he is already starting to understand why that idea would be laughable. “The same thing happened to me.” Derek offers as they exit the elevator and start down the hallway. “My friend Erica stole my mail and sent my rsvp herself because she knew I would never go to a coworkers wedding otherwise. She promised to be my plus one but now she can’t go and I can’t back out because apparently” Derek imitates Stiles’ finger quotes, “‘that would be rude’ and I ‘still have to work with these people.’ My plan is to just put my head down and get through this with the minimal amount of interaction possible.”
Stiles throws his head back and laughs. “Your friend Erica sounds great.”
Derek just shakes his head. “She’s something.” Erica is great, but she’s also a menace. He stops at room 312 and sees that Stiles putting his key card into the very next room. Derek isn’t even surprised anymore. “Well, I’ll see you at the dinner.”
“Yea see you.”
Derek enters his room and looks around. Its bigger than he thought it would be, with a couch against the left wall, facing a large television, and a bed further into the room across from a desk. Derek throws his bag down on the desk and opens it to begin looking for the outfit he packed for the night. Suddenly he hears what sounds a door hit a wall followed by, “Woh this isn’t my closet.” Derek turns around to see Stiles standing in a now open doorway next to the couch.
Stiles takes in the room, looks at Derek and says smiling, “Hey man we’re roommates.”
“Or you could close the door and we won’t be.”
Stiles laughs and walks back into his room leaving the door open. Derek sighs drops the shirt in his hand and walks towards the door to close it only for Stiles to saunter through now holding a phone and a water bottle.
Stiles throws himself down on Derek’s couch “So I’ve been thinking.”
“You mean in the minute we’ve been apart?”
Stiles brushes the the comment away with a wave of his hand. “We should be like wedding teammates.” Derek raises an eyebrow at that. Stiles plows on gesticulating with his hands. “I’m practically incapable of doing these types of things on my own, and if you’re with someone you’ll get approached by way less people, and I can talk to them for you. I know we just met, but I feel like that is very important to you.”
Derek can’t believe he’s actually considering this proposal, but Stiles isn’t far off with his assumption. “Well, I know hardly anyone going to this thing and the few people I do know I actively dislike, so…”
“Does that mean your in?” Stiles excitedly sits up straight.
“I’m in.”