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This was fucking pandemonium! Stiles wasn’t going to make it out of here alive, he knew he wasn’t. This was the worst, the absolute worst! He couldn’t believe this was his life right now.
After everything he’d been through... Scott being bitten, Peter’s insanity, the Alpha Pack, the Nogitsune, the Dread Doctors, Chimeras, The Hit List, Hunters, everything! He couldn’t believe this was how he was most likely going to go out.
He did not sign up for this! This was not in the cards!
Holding fast to Derek’s hand, he trusted him to lead them to safety. To get them out of this hellhole. They’d survived worse, they would survive this! They could do it! They co—
Derek’s hand was gone. His hand was gone! Someone had slammed into Stiles and their hands had disconnected!
Derek was gone!
“Oh God, no!” Stiles was going to get swept away in the sea of unending bodies! He was going to end up somewhere far, far away and he was never again going to find Derek! They would be apart forever! They would have to write sappy love letters to one another to profess their undyi—wait!
No wait, there he was.
“Derek!” Stiles shoved between two ladies arguing over the shape of a cabbage and slammed into his boyfriend from behind, wrapping both arms around his middle even as he noticed said individual start to turn at the sound of his voice. “I almost lost you.”
“You did lose me,” Derek said, reaching down to grab one of his hands from around his waist, squeezing it tightly. “Seriously, can you please wait in the car? I don’t want to have to hunt you down through the whole damn store if we get separated again.”
“But I have the grocery list!” Stiles insisted, tapping at his temple.
Derek just sighed and turned back to their cart, one hand still holding fast to Stiles’.
Realistically, they should’ve known better than to hit Costco only two days before Christmas. That was just asking for insanity, and it was wholly and entirely their own faults. But... they’d procrastinated.
Well, no. Stiles had procrastinated. Because it was a thing he did. Procrastinate.
But it wasn’t like it was only his fault! Derek should’ve been on him about the shopping, and he’d been just as complacent, so really, they were both to blame. It was like, fifty-fifty blame. Equal shares of the blame.
“Stiles,” Derek said, voice a little sharp, as if he’d been trying to get his attention for a while.
“Hm?” he looked over at him, then at their surroundings. Oh, they’d moved out of produce. Right. They had other shit to get.
Not that Stiles was necessarily interested in the getting of the other shit. Grocery shopping so wasn’t his thing, but he was the one with the list. Besides, he kind of liked the excursion because it wasn’t often Derek held his hand while they were in public. He wasn’t interested in public displays of affection. Being territorial, absolutely, without a doubt. But PDA? No way.
This was a rare treat. A pleasant surprise. An unexpected turn of events!
So Stiles was happy Derek was holding his hand in public, big deal! It was also why he didn’t want to sit in the car and wait. Sure, he knew that it was more out of necessity, since Derek had been forced to use his little Werewolf nose more than once to find Stiles in the depths of crazy shoppers, but still! He was holding his hand.
Stiles pointed out the various things they needed as they neared the applicable aisles. Derek always left him to guard their cart while he went to muscle his way through the crowds of last minute panicked shoppers. Having a Werewolf boyfriend had its perks, and one of those perks was definitely watching him forcibly displace people twice his size and seeing the dawning confusion on those people’s faces.
One dude had been full on blocking the door to the frozen pizza the two of them were quite fond of—and bought in bulk because Derek didn’t have to worry about his weight and Stiles ran away from things trying to kill him often enough to keep it off. Stiles rather enjoyed the completely dumbfounded expression on the guy’s face when Derek politely asked him to move twice before just moving him himself.
It was always satisfying seeing the look of horror and confusion cross an asshole’s face, because the guy had stared at Derek like he wasn’t sure if that had truly just happened or not while his boyfriend just calmly opened the freezer door he could now access and grabbed five pizzas before heading back to Stiles.
He grinned at Derek’s approach, who just raised his eyebrows at him. Stiles kissed him when Derek reached him once more, pressing his lips lingeringly to Derek’s and then grinning again.
“You’re in a remarkably good mood considering you hate grocery shopping,” Derek said, taking Stiles’ hand again and beginning to push the cart towards the next aisle. Really, Derek’s ability to manoeuver it with one hand was a gift. A talent. Possibly a Werewolf supernatural ability. It shouldn’t be possible, and yet, there he was, defying all odds.
“I can’t be in a good mood?” Stiles asked.
“You’re definitely more tolerable when you’re in a good mood,” Derek teased, smirking at the hard whack those words earned him. “I just know this isn’t your favourite thing to do.”
“It’s not yours, either,” Stiles reminded him. “And it’s crazy busy, which is probably making you have heart palpitations because, you know, people.”
“What’s wrong with people?”
“You hate people,” Stiles reminded him.
“You’re a ‘people,’ I seem to like you just fine.”
“Hardee-har.” Stiles rolled his eyes. “Should get your own show with all that comedic gold coming out of your mouth.”
“Don’t get jealous because I ended up being funnier than you.” Derek leaned over to kiss his temple, almost head-butting him when someone bashed into him from the side, rushing to get to some other part of the store. “Are we done?”
“No.” Stiles peered into the cart to make sure they had everything on his mental list barring their last item. “But I mean, the only thing left is laundry detergent, and we’re not out, we’re just low.”
“Good enough, we’ll get that when the masses are in a food coma on Christmas day.”
Stiles didn’t know if Costco was open on Christmas day. Probably, capitalism and all.
They headed for the checkout, waiting in one of the shorter lines and moving forward slowly bit by bit. Derek was still holding his hand, which had Stiles smiling like an idiot. When they finally reached the conveyer belt, Stiles released him so he could help load things onto it, keeping the bigger items in the cart.
“Here,” Derek said, handing him the keys to the Camaro. “Go wait in the car.”
“You’re just trying to get rid of me so you can look badass carrying everything by yourself,” Stiles insisted, but he obediently took the keys anyway. He kissed Derek lightly before moving around the cash, grinning at the eyeroll the action earned him, even as he saw Derek smiling.
Grocery shopping was the worst. Grocery shopping right before Christmas was even worse than the worst.
But at least he wasn’t alone, and he knew no matter what, if he got lost, Derek would always find him.
END.