Note: This is the 14th part of the “Home Is Where the Spark Is” series. To understand better what’s going on, we recommend reading the previous entries. Enjoy!

Fandoms: Teen Wolf, Sterek

Characters/relationships: Stiles Stilinski/Derek Hale, original character

Rating/category: R (explicit), supernatural, post-Teen Wolf, canon and non-canon elements, slash, M/M, Sterek, hurt/comfort, dark, angst, aged up characters, Spark Stiles, Magic Stiles, Emissary Stiles, Emissary in training Stiles, detective Stiles, matured Stiles, Alpha Derek, drama, epic romance, love, magic, soulmates, Mate bond, Emissary bond, werewolves, humor, romantic gesture, road trip to IKEA, family time, bad day, surprises

Summary: The remodeling work on the loft and Derek’s building is in full swing and the Hale has a big surprise for Stiles on the roof before they head out to hunt furniture in the nearest IKEA. Of course, putting recent dark events behind them isn’t that easy, there are bad days – especially for Derek. So when on one of such a bad day the pair returns to the Stilinski home, another surprise awaits them literally on the doorstep.

Disclaimer: This is a product of our imagination and was written only for entertainment and fun. We don’t profit from this fanfiction and we mean no harm or disrespect against any real person, culture or custom that might appear in the story. All original pictures or edits and fictional characters used in the story belong to their respective owners and credit goes to them.

Home Is Where the Spark Is
By Just Jim & Useless-girl

14: Renewal – Part 1

Life was usually full of ups and downs. When something bad happened, some good was bound to come afterwards to balance it. It seemed to be a kind of universal law Stiles believed in, no matter how much Derek grumbled about such ideas. Deep down, the druid knew it had to be the case. Or at least that they can be granted a breather between two shit storms at least.

After all, they were who they were and lived in Beacon Hills, which was a place to be known for being a magnet for trouble. Especially since the area’s Nemeton was awakened from its deep powerless slumber by an accidental sacrifice. That put Derek Hale in the focal point of everything that’s been going on in the town and being the destined mate of the alpha consequently had drawn the younger Stilinski into the middle of everything too. Even before they were mated. Their lives had converged once the lines reached the point where they had to meet. And since then they only entwined more and more. Sometimes Stiles wondered how much more tangled their threads will get? What will they become?

Either way, such heavier thoughts were put aside for now, because it was time for their next “up” in their lives. Stiles found it important to focus on the good too and refused not to enjoy the peace while it lasted.

A couple of days have passed since Derek had his eyesight back and once he readjusted to the world around him, the mates’ plans for the future were back on track.

This time it was the renovation of the loft. It was a big step for their little family and definitely a lot of work, even with the help of the constructor workers Derek had hired to move along the work faster. But it was something they both wanted very much. To really start their lives together. Fixing up that part of Derek’s building was the first step. The first place which they will call their own home. It was challenging but also very exciting.

Especially for Stiles, who has never lived with anyone beside his parents or alone in San Francisco. Deep down he was a bit nervous about it, but mostly just excited and very much energized and ready to tackle this big challenge. (And annoy Derek to no end with his ideas and eager attempts to help as much as possible.)

Of course, they kept an eye on the town and the comings and goings of new people. For now they didn’t notice anything suspicious. Stiles knew that his protective spells needed to wait for their renewal and expansion once the workers were done with the loft because there was a lot of remodeling going on which would only disturb or destroy the magic and intent put in such wards. But he did put up a few protective spells around the Stilinski house and garden. Just to stay on the safe side of things and for them to leave the sheriff and their daughter behind with less worry.

These days were busy with dividing their time between their tasks and family. When Derek wasn’t needed at Stiles’ practices and learning sessions with Deaton, he went to supervise the renovations or stayed with Beth to relieve Noah from his babysitting duties. (The poor man definitely deserved some time off after the last few darker months.) Other times it was Stiles who tried to balance his training and family life, as well as setting up his new position at the Sheriff’s station and keeping an eye on possible outside threats.

But now they were both on their way to the loft in the Camaro. Derek was behind the wheel while Stiles was chewing on the end of his pencil on the passenger seat, going through some construction plans and further ideas, his foot tapping out the rhythm of the rock song playing on the radio.

Derek didn't mind the busy life which had been unleashed unto them, the normalcy of family life. He had his daily therapy sessions which were planned around Stiles and Noah's work schedules, taking care of Beth and even taking her with him to the loft so she could get used to the idea after living with her grandfather for so long. Derek had prepared her for her room being upstairs, along with the guest room. It wasn't that much space up there, the rest was all the roof of the building where Derek was working on making herbal gardens and a greenhouse. An emissary needed all the strains of wolfsbane and he understood that but he didn't want them too visible. So high up on the roof, it wasn't going to be found easily.

Stiles had been busy setting up his new position at the station, with his own little office and desk and even was handed a uniform, which had amused the Hale without end. To see Noah and Stiles in matching clothes, the older man wearing a big grin of pride, it had been a picture moment. Which of course had been printed and was now on the fridge and the two desks at the Sheriff's station. It was moments like those which reminded the wolf why they were doing this: Stiles and Noah grinning as they went to work together, Elizabeth picking colors very seriously as she played with all the color swatches in what was going to be her room and the way she had danced happily when Stiles and Derek had told her they had signed her up for pre-school. It was time to introduce her to other kids, starting with one day a week.

Derek wasn't okay, and there was no pressure on him to be okay. But he had plenty of good days and lesser of bad days, which was an accomplishment on its own considering where he came from. Memories of his time in Hell slowly trickled in, causing new triggers, different kind of behavior and therapy helped him handle it more or less. Today? Today was a good day. They were going to look at the loft's progress and they were going to go furniture shopping.

Never in his life had he gone furniture shopping. The couch and the bed had been ordered online and the furniture in New York had come with the apartment. His ex had picked out all the furniture for him in Washington DC so Derek had never set foot in such stores. But to his own surprise, he was looking forward to doing this with Stiles. To do this together and make it their home instead of only his. For now though, he wanted to take his mate to the roof to show his surprise of the work he had put in.

"Do you have the list of furniture and things we need?"

"In my phone, yes," Stiles mumbled, half-paying attention as he was balancing the papers on his lap and in his hands. He quickly put the pencil sideways into his mouth and fidgeted in the seat to not so gracefully pull said device out of his jeans' pocket. Of course, a few plans and papers slid to the Camaro's floor from that, which resulted in a disapproving grunt and death-glares from the younger man.

Either way, he pulled up the notes application and checked the list. It has grown quite long during their brainstorming and planning sessions. Obviously they took making the loft their own home seriously, but Derek gave more rein in furnishing it to Stiles. There were some nights when Derek had to literally pry the catalogs or the laptop from Stiles' hands to make him go to sleep. Or carry him to their bed when he fell asleep at the kitchen table on top of said ridiculously over-marked catalogs. Well... at least Derek couldn't accuse him of not taking this task seriously.

"Want to add something to the list? I was thinking of a vine rack for the kitchen and a few big pots for plants to bring some extra life and color inside. As much as I love the industrial, simple look, I always kinda missed more nature from the loft. Oh and we'll definitely have to buy a scratching post for Little Red."

She was their new red cat. A stray that had started following Stiles around with a strong interest in the young mage. Maybe it was drawn to his vibes or the magic. He couldn't decide. But it didn't take long for Beth to notice the cat lurking around the house and of course that led to the question if they could keep it. After they made sure it was really a stray and made Deaton check her out and give her some shots, she became their newest family member.

To Derek's greatest delight. That expression and firm 'NO!' when he spotted Little Red in Stiles' arms was just as memorable as Deaton's when they turned up at the animal clinic and the vet realized that Derek had his eyesight back. Stiles will probably always regret that he didn't snap pictures of those moments.

"Yeah, yeah," the wolf sighed at the mention of the latest addition to their family. He wasn't a cat guy, wasn't even that into dogs but they had gotten the Irish wolfhound for Beth to have a companion. And he had to admit it was nice to have a dog around the house, even though it was a deaf one. Cats though? They disliked werewolves, they'd hiss and run off and be genuine assholes at even the scent of the alpha. But of course Stiles had to go and get a cat in their lives. A red big cat who had gotten tired of her unfortunate street life. Which made it harder to say no, because as much as he didn't want animal companions, he also didn't want to tell Stiles to keep it outside like some unwanted thing.

The cat, named Little Red, because Stiles had a terrible taste for names, and Derek had tolerated each other. They weren't fond of one another but there was no drama or hissing either. Of course the stupid dog, the big idiot lug that he was, was pretty happy with a furry friend so Beth's room now had a cat and a dog at night. And Derek had bought a better vacuum cleaner.

"We've got plenty of space in the loft so I was thinking of making Little Red his own cat construction with scratching posts." Secretly the alpha had been browsing Pintrest for suggestions about making a house cat friendly and had found some really nice solutions to make use of the high ceilings. "Also going to make him a grass patch on the roof." Cats needed to be able to go outside in his opinion but living so high up meant no garden unless they would take her downstairs daily. So the plan was to get her own cat door up to the roof to catch her birds there.

There was a side-glance to the very long list of things they wanted. There was no way they could do that in one day but he was confident that they could make a decent sized dent into it. No idea what he wanted to add to it, his wishes were simple and he wasn't into details as much as Stiles was. Making a house a home wasn't what he did, and he trusted Stiles to be the one to know how to make it homely for their daughter to enjoy living there.

"I think I added what I wanted already." A bookcase had been one of his wishes and that had been it. He wasn't very helpful.

"Sooooo then... you asked for the list just to see me drop the papers all over the car in my failed attempt to balance them while picking my phone out of my pocket... I get it now!" Stiles 'accused' Derek with a dramatic sigh but then smirked at his mate happily. "And don't deny it, you are starting to get fond of Little Red. Be careful, your by the way brilliant idea shows it!" he exclaimed, clearly excited about the shopping for their new home. "Oh... old man armchair for Derek..." he quickly typed onto the end of the list, because often Derek did grumble like an old man, in his opinion, and of course Stiles loved to tease his mate with that.

Stiles put his phone away just around the time Derek steered the Camaro in front of the building and spent the last minute while Derek parked to pick up the scattered papers.

"You are also not telling me something. Are you planning something? What's that something?" he squinted his eyes at Derek when he finished. He knew his mate and also had the perk of being able to feel up his emotions (among other things) so he stared expectantly at the wolf, his bow-shaped lips pursed with suspicion.

Derek side-eyed his mate because he had only asked if he had the list, not that he had wanted to see it. The rest of what happened was purely Stiles being Stiles, spazzy, clumsy Stiles. Luckily they arrived at the loft so he didn't need to confirm nor deny what he thought about Little Red, some things were better left unsaid. Honestly though, living with a cat wasn't as bad as he had imagined it would be so he was slowly getting used to the idea that maybe he could learn to like cats. At least the ones like Little Red who tolerated having a werewolf close by.

"You'll see," Derek said as he got out, smirking to himself because he knew the human was probably gaping after him for not even giving a hint. It wouldn't be a surprise if he already told him. As far as Stiles knew, the roof garden was going to be his project. But there was so much to be done and with their already busy lives, it wouldn't be done in time because the time to plant was going to be very soon. Or so he had been informed by Deaton when Derek had gotten an address where he could order seeds for the herbs Stiles was going to need as a druid.

As they entered the building, they entered into chaos. They were working on the elevator so they had to take the many stairs. It had been Derek's idea to fix that one up first before the stairs since those were so much work, the wood rotting in many places. And he had never even bothered to sweep the central stairwell floors. The couple was in a good condition so Stiles wasn't panting too badly from taking all the stairs. Derek of course didn't even break a sweat. And in the loft was more chaos, because they were cleaning the stone walls now that the electricity had been replaced. Just cleaning because Derek liked the industrial look. The kitchen had been finished and the roof window had been fixed. Derek had thrown a tarp over it after Jennifer had burst through it. Upstairs was done, only needed cleaning and furniture.

All along while climbing the stairs, Stiles' mind was circling around the mystery he knew was there and Derek so confirmed it with his short comment. Needless to say, it only added to his excitement and impatience. Especially because no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pull it out of his very annoyingly stubborn mate. That, and because climbing so many stairs (even with a better than human physique) required for Stiles to breathe more.

"Whoaaa! Dude!" Stiles looked around with his mouth hanging open. It was pure chaos still, but he could so see the huge progress the workers have done in not such a long time. Everything was starting to come together and take form like on their plans. It made Stiles literally vibrate with his usual nervous energy as his magic reacted to the excitement and got a bit loose around him. It sometimes happened when he got over-excited about something.

"I can't believe they already finished with so many things!" he walked all over the place to take a better look (and occasionally get in the way of some workers). "If they continue with this pace, we can move in quicker than expected!" he cheered with his hands thrown into the air once he checked the replaced windows too.

Despite everything they had to deal with, his heart felt light as a feather. It was one of his characteristics from an early age to be able to feel happy not just for the big but also the small things in life too. It was one of her mother's early teachings which has accompanied Stiles through his life. Yes, sometimes, when he was in a difficult situation or a very dark place, he had to remind himself on this teaching and it usually worked. Right now too when he knew Derek was still struggling with his memories and had bad days, but they were also both here, sharing these seemingly insignificant moments, which could become important memories in their future.

So with that in mind he turned around and gave Derek a huge happy smile which perfectly reflected what he felt on the inside.

"They still have to install the heating," Derek warned his overly excited and cute mate. There was no heating at all in the entire building but it was pretty complicated to get a heating system going for an entire building. It had required talks with the state and the electricity company to get all the addresses they had been planning on making recognized in case they were going to be lived in. He wasn't going to ask rent but electricity and such had to be paid. For humans heating was important and it couldn't run on gas so the new ways to heat were complicated. Normally he'd say screw it and install a wood-burner but he wasn't comfortable with fire, especially not in the living space. So complicated it was.

Reaching out, Derek pulled Stiles to the side before he'd bump into one of the workers, the wolf apologizing in Spanish. He had hired all Spanish workers and gave them a normal pay instead of abusing their illegal status, because stuff like that was important to him. He nodded to the circular stairs. "Let's go upstairs, it's finished there." Before Stiles would locate Jorge, the man in charge, to display all the new ideas to him. The Mexican man was patient with them, taking changes in stride since the more changes made, the longer they had work here.

So Derek ushered Stiles up the stairs where there was a narrow hallway along the roof window before they'd get to the two bedrooms. It was also where they could go onto the roof but of course the Hale played innocent and showed the two rooms first. They were large and the windows had new glass as well, the wooden floors sanded and oiled. Beth's room had a pink wall, of course, because she had really wanted that so Derek had fixed up one of the rough walls with plaster so it could be painted. It had been Isaac's room but nothing reminded of the beta, his scent long gone and his stuff had been sent to Paris. It needed lamps and furniture and pretty much everything, same with the guestroom. There was no way the current bed was going to fit up the stairs so they had to get one they could put together which meant they were going to go to IKEA today. Derek wasn't a fan.

"If we get more kids, they're going to have to share," he joked. The rooms were big enough to share for sure.

Since lately it was mostly Derek who came over to supervise (and occasionally join) the work, a lot of things were new to Stiles who was walking and looking around with amazement on his mole-dotted, slightly flushed face. He loved what he was seeing, especially upstairs.

Turning around, he stepped to Derek in the middle of their daughter's for now empty room and took his hand so he could lead it around his waist. "When we get more kids, they can. For a while. Then we can redo the other bedroom as a kid room too. Until then it can function as a guest room," he smirked up at Derek, his cheeks coloring a little bit more and his heart did that erratic skipping again which was so characteristic to Stiles when he was all emotional and excited.

That's when he chose to slide his arms around Derek's neck to peck his lips. "I love everything so far. It's coming together nicely, even with my last minute ideas for changes. Poor Jorge... You chose the crew well, my wolf," he praised Derek because Stiles knew that it wasn't easy to find good construction workers nowadays. "I also love the way you talk to him in Spanish. It's hot, even if I understand only a little of it," he admitted and pecked Derek's lips again. "Oh... and you know that once they all are gone and everything is ready and we start furnishing the place, we'll have to... 'consecrate' each room – except for this – to make them our own, right?" he grinned playfully up into the green eyes.

Next part

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