A/N: So I said this would be the last chapter, but I lied. I'll write a few more, just because I love you guys :)

When I got home from the mall, I was surprised to see my dad sitting at the kitchen table. I had almost forgotten that today was his day off. I hadn't really seen him much since my fight with Derek, so he didn't really know what was going on with everything.

"You're home a little late," he noticed, looking up from his newspaper. No matter how many times I told him he could find the news on his phone easier than on the newspaper, he still wouldn't give it up. "Were you with Derek?"

"No," I answered, sitting my things down in the corner before moving to sit down next to him. "I was with another friend at the mall. Since when do you track what time I do and don't get home from school?" I laughed.

"Since the Hales invited us to dinner tonight," he answered with a slight smirk. "Talia thought it'd be nice for us all to get together, since you and Derek have become such great friends. We're leaving in thirty minutes." He picked up his paper and scooted away from the table, getting up to clean his mug at the sink.

"I never agreed to dinner," I said, slightly nervous because I knew he was going to force me to go no matter what. I said I would talk to Derek tonight, but I wanted it to be on my own terms. I definitely didn't want my dad being there while I was trying to fix my relationship either. This wasn't ideal, but I knew it was unavoidable.

Dad laughed, looking over his shoulder at me. "Why wouldn't you want to go to dinner? I thought you and Derek were good friends?"

"I never said I didn't want to go, just that you didn't ask me if I wanted to," I mumbled, staring at hands. He could probably sense something was wrong, but if he did, he didn't mention anything. He hummed, as if he had something else to say, but thought against it. "Never mind, dad, I want to go. It'll be fun," I said, after a long silence.

That was how, thirty minutes later, we were walking through the door to the Hales house. Talia greeted us with a big smile on her face, leading us into the living room where the smell of her cooking filled the air. Derek's dad and Laura both sat on the couch, but Cora and Derek were no where to be seen.

"Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes," Talia said, moving back towards the kitchen. "Just make yourselves at home!" She disappeared out of view after that, leaving us in the living room to make conversation. My dad easily jumped into conversation with Derek's dad, and Laura was invested in something on her phone. I slipped away without as much of a glance, making my way upstairs where I knew I would find either Cora, or Derek. Someone I could actually talk to.

I stopped at the top of the stairs, listening to the voices bickering back and forth from Derek's room. Cora was angry, or at least it sounded that way. "You really fucked up, Derek. You have to fix this tonight when he comes over!" she was saying.

"Cora, you don't have to remind me," Derek hissed. "I know how much of an asshole I am. I'm going to fix it, I just wish mom hadn't decided to invite him over tonight. We have to sit through a whole dinner before I can actually talk to him."

"I can't believe you, Derek," Cora sighed. I heard her footsteps moving closer to the door, so I took that as my cue to reveal myself. I moved closer to Derek's room, just as Cora opened the door to leave. She paused, eyes meeting mine as I dropped my hand to my side, with no need to knock now. "Stiles, you're here already," she said, glancing back at Derek, who stood there shifting nervously on his feet. "Good, somebody wants to talk to you." She smiled and grabbed my arm, dragging me into the room before excusing herself and slamming the door behind her.

Derek didn't move from where he stood in the middle of the room, and I didn't move from right in front of the door. We were silent for a moment, until it became awkward. "Stiles, I- I'm so sorry," he started, his voice wavering. "I'm sorry that I lied to you. I'm sorry I screwed things up, and I'm sorry that I didn't tell you how I felt about you sooner."

I smiled softly, leaning back against the door as I held his eyes. "Yeah, I know you're sorry," I answered, shoving my hands in my pockets. I didn't know what else to do with them, because I might have grabbed Derek and kissed him and never let him go if I didn't put my hands somewhere else. I wanted to let him talk before any of that could happen. "Tell me more. . . about how you feel about me?"

Derek's frown faltered, almost to a smile. "Okay, yeah," he whispered, stepping closer. A small smile graced his lips as he stopped a few inches from me. "When I first saw you, you were a freshman. I thought you were cute. I wanted to know you, but I was always too nervous to talk to you. When we started hanging out, my attraction to you turned into so much more. I fell in love with you, Stiles. I fell in love the moment you kissed me just so my ex boyfriend would stop being a dick. I dated Brett to get over the fact that you liked Lydia, not me. But I never stopped loving you, and I don't think I ever will. I know I screwed up and lied to you, and I don't deserve your forgiveness, but I love you so much, Stiles, I don't know what I would do without you."

Suddenly, Derek's hands were on my face, holding me against the door as he stared into my eyes, waiting for my response. Honestly, I hadn't been expecting so much from him. I expected an 'I love you' but nothing more. Not that he wouldn't know what to do without me. Not that he fell in love with me so long ago, but I never noticed that he was in love with me. I had missed the signs because I was too worried about Lydia.

"Please, say something," Derek whispered, his thumb tracing my jaw line as the worry took over his face.

"I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner," I mumbled, moving my hands to his waist, slipping them just barely under the fabric of his shirt. "I pushed my feelings for you away for so long, convincing myself that my crush on you was just that- a stupid crush. It wasn't. I was falling in love with you too, Derek. I just didn't want to believe it."

"Don't apologize," he said, shaking his head. "You can't help how long it takes you to realize your feelings. You told me when you were ready, but I- I should have told you sooner. I don't know why I thought Brett would make me forget about you. And when I tried to break up with him-"

"He wouldn't let you," I answered for him, making him pause hesitantly, before nodding. "I talked to Brett earlier today. He told me everything."

"You talked to him?" he asked, confused. "I thought he'd be angry. . . after I broke up with him. I told him I should have done it a long time ago, because I love you. I thought he'd be angry, but he- he told you everything?"

"Yeah, it was weird," I laughed, moving my hands up Derek's chest, still under his shirt to feel the warmth of his skin as he pressed into my touch. "He told me I should forgive you, but I had already decided to forgive you even before he made a case for you." Brett's talk only pushed me to talk to Derek sooner. I knew, no matter what, I would eventually forgive Derek, because I fought so hard to get him in the first place. I gave up on Lydia when I was the closest to getting her all for Derek, because he was the only person I wanted to be with. He may have lied to me, but I knew he would never lie about loving me.

Derek laughed softly, but loud enough for me to feel the rumble in his chest. I was already so close to him, yet I wanted to be closer. "Are we okay, Stiles?" he asked, his lips hovering over mine. "Because I really want to kiss you, but only if you-"

I didn't let him finish before closing the space between us, kissing him feverishly as his hands explored the skin under my shirt, bringing me closer to his chest. I slid my hands down his chest, around to the muscles on his back. Derek's hands finally stopped wandering, instead gripping my hips tight as his tongue pressed against my bottom lip, teasing me. I gasped and suddenly he was exploring the inside of my mouth, holding me against the door as my knees threatened to give out on me. I would have let him do whatever he wanted with me at that point, but the sound of his mom screaming up the stairs about dinner being done broke us apart.

"We can finish this later," he sighed, kissing me quickly before stepping away, pulling me with him so he could open the door. I groaned, but knew we had to get downstairs before Talia came up to get us herself. I followed Derek downstairs where everyone else was already seated at the table. They all stared at us as we sat down, but I tried to ignore everyone's eyes.

Once everyone had their plates, the weird dinner table conversation started. "So, how's school?" Talia started, glancing between all of us kids. We each gave an equivalent answer of "School's fine" and that was that. The conversation was dwindling as Laura finished talking about her extremely hard classes. Talia then turned the conversation towards Derek and I, her eyes suspiciously staring us down. "You two have been quiet," she noticed. "Anything you want to tell us?"

"Nothing comes to mind," Derek answered, matching her stance. They looked so similar, sometimes it was scary. They even acted alike. They were equally stubborn, so if Talia wanted to find something out, she would do everything in her power to do just that.

"Mom, don't pry," Cora chimed in, rolling her eyes fondly. "They'll work it out."

Derek groaned beside me as he dropped his fork on his plate and leaned back in his chair. "Cora, shut it," he threatened.

"Work what out?" Talia demanded, raising an eyebrow. Derek's dad grabbed Talia's arm, a gesture to tell her that she needed to calm down. "Sorry, I'm not trying to pry, I'm just worried. Derek, you've been so distraught since yesterday, I was just-"

"Mom, we're together," Derek cut her off, making her sigh in relief almost immediately. Everyone else stared at us, almost unreadable expressions. "We just decided today that we're dating. . . I mean, I think we are. At least, I want to," he rambled, turning to look at me nervously.

"We are," I agreed with a small laugh, grabbing his hand to reassure him. He gave me a look of relief before looking back at his parents, who both had fond smiles on their faces. My dad didn't even look the least bit shocked when I glanced at him. He smiled too, a proud smile that made me feel better about this whole situation.

"This is great news," Talia sighed happily. "We've been waiting for you boys to come clean. How long has this been going on? Weeks? Months?" she wondered, teasingly.

"Nope, just a couple of days," I admitted, my face red. Talia thought we'd been together this whole time? Thinking back on all of the awkward things she probably walked in on, or that Cora walked in on, maybe it wasn't so strange that she thought that. "Derek and Brett just broke up a couple of days ago, but-"

"Wait," Talia cut me off, confused. "Who's Brett?"

Derek cringed, shifting uncomfortably. I suddenly felt ridiculously stupid. I had no idea Derek didn't tell them about Brett. "No one, mom. Just a guy I briefly dated for a few weeks. It was nothing serious."

"You told me Stiles was the only guy you liked," she accused, a judgmental look on her face. "Ever since you introduced me to him, it's always been Stiles. You never told me about this Brett guy, Derek. Why wouldn't you tell me about this guy?"

Derek looked extremely uncomfortable and I felt really awful that this was all my fault. I guess I shouldn't have talked about Derek's other relationships, but I didn't think about it. "Because, mom," Derek grumbled, shaking his head. "He wasn't important enough to tell you about. He was nothing, okay? It has always been Stiles, I just didn't always think I could be with Stiles," he explained.

"I'm sorry I brought it up," I mumbled, giving Derek a guilty look.

Derek shrugged, pushing his plate away from him. "It's fine," he sighed. "Thanks for dinner, mom," he mumbled, getting up from the table to walk away. Talia tried to stop him, but he was already out of the room.

"I'll go talk to him," I offered, giving Talia a small reassuring smile. I wasn't sure if Derek was mad at me, or his mom, or if it was something else. What I did know was that I had to talk to him and figure it out. I excused myself from the table and ran upstairs, walking into Derek's room without knocking. He was sitting on his bed, his head in his hands. "Hey, what happened down there?" I asked, shutting the door before moving to sit next to him. "Are you mad at me?"

He shook his head, looking at me with tears in his eyes, but he didn't let them fall. "I'm not mad at you, Stiles. I'm just mad at myself," he admitted, in a defeated voice. "I didn't tell my mom about Brett, but it's not your fault that she didn't know. I didn't tell her because I was embarrassed. I've been telling my mom for months how much I like you and how much you mean to me, so I couldn't imagine what kind of reaction she would have if I told her I was dating some random guy I had just met."

I sighed softly, putting my arm around his waist to pull him closer. He rested his head on my shoulder, letting me comfort him. "Don't beat yourself up, Derek. I chased a girl I had no interest in for months because I didn't want to admit I liked you. You dated a guy you didn't care about to get over me. We both did things we probably shouldn't have done, but that doesn't matter now. We finally have each other, don't we? We're together now."

Derek nodded, pulling me with him as he laid down in bed, holding me close to his chest. "I guess you're right," he mumbled, kissing my head. "Can we just stay here forever? Me and you, ignoring the rest of the world?"

I laughed, squeezing him tighter. "Not forever, sadly," I answered. "We do have school tomorrow."

Derek groaned, shaking his head. "I forgot about that hell hole," he mumbled. "Are we going to tell people. . . about us?" he wondered, shifting down to look at me face to face, so we were laying on our sides to look into each other's eyes.

"Eventually," I replied, tracing my thumb across his bottom lip. "Maybe not tomorrow. I have to tell Scott first. And we should probably tell Lydia."

Derek laughed a little, kissing me gently before pulling away enough to look at me again. "Yeah, she might kill me if she found out from someone else first. I'll tell her first thing tomorrow."

"I'll tell her with you," I offered. "She's uh. . . kind of the reason we're together."

"What?" he asked, suddenly confused as he sat up to look at me. "What are you talking about, Stiles?"

"Lydia and I are friends," I answered quickly, hoping I didn't just screw everything up. "When I realized I loved you, I went to her- to get her help. I didn't know if you liked me, so I asked her to help me, the same way I asked you to help me get her. . ." I trailed off, watching the betrayal on his face turn to a sort of amused one. "Why are you smiling? This isn't funny, Derek. It was a serious-"

"Shut up," he laughed, pulling me down to kiss him again, this time by forcing me on top of him so he could hold me hostage. "I can't believe you thought I didn't like you, after all of the hints," he laughed, running his hands through my hair. "And I can't believe you got my best friend to keep all of this from me!"

"We kept it from her," I reminded him. "When it was the other way around."

He laughed again, rolling his eyes. "You used my own game against me," he accused.

"I sure did," I replied, chuckling as he pulled me in to kiss me again. Everything felt right for once