(So I read a few fics from different people that talked about Stiles and Derek going gray, which started me thinking about my own gray hairs–yes, I found my first two last summer, and now I’m up to three–and so this ficlet happened. Plus, I feel like we could all use a bit of fluffy established relationship, yeah?)
“Derek, look!”
Derek blinked at the head of brown hair suddenly hovering in front of his face. “What am I looking at?”
“Look!” Stiles jabbed a finger at his head. “Do you see it?”
Derek reared back a little, trying to see just what it was that Stiles was so enthusiastically pointing at, but he still wasn’t sure.
And then, among the field of dark brown, he saw it: a lone gray strand twisting up toward the ceiling.
He ventured a guess, and prepared to comfort Stiles if the answer was affirmative. “You found your first gray hair?”
“Yes!” Stiles jerked his head back so Derek could see his grinning face. “Meet Bernard!”
Derek stared at him for a moment, because this was not the reaction he’d been expecting. “Bernard?” he repeated. “You named it?”
Stiles patted his hair. Or perhaps his gray hair, specifically; it was hard to tell. “Of course I named him. He’s my first one.”
So Stiles wasn’t going to have an I’m getting older freakout. Derek relaxed and pulled Stiles into his lap so he could kiss the corner of his mouth. “Mm, I like it. What are you going to name the next one?”
“Not sure.” Stiles nuzzled his beard. “Maybe Harvey. Or Hank.”
“Good choices.” Derek carded a hand through Stiles’s hair, rubbing his thumb over the spot where Bernard lay. “You’re handling this well.”
Stiles shrugged. “Well, I’m not going to tell my dad I’m getting gray hairs, because then he’ll have a heart attack, but…like, it’s the same reason I had a big birthday when I turned thirty last year, you know? For a long time I didn’t think I would make it this far. I didn’t think we would make it this far. And it’s a reminder that we are. Making it, that is.” He cupped Derek’s cheek and kissed him gently. “I’m going to celebrate every single one of these because it means I’m still around to get them.“
“Then I’ll be celebrating every single one with you,” Derek said.
He pulled Stiles back in to another kiss, a little deeper and longer. Their kisses were so familiar to him now, but he loved it, loved the way Stiles’s mouth moved against his, the way he could move here or nip there and Stiles would sigh and sink into him. He loved the way Stiles fit against him, the way Stiles arched his back when Derek scratched it, the way Stiles punctuated his kisses with little nips on Derek’s lips.
Stiles grinned and rested his forehead on Derek’s. “Gonna love you till my whole head is gray and I can’t remember anything but your name.”
Derek kissed him again, tasting all their days together and all the years they still had left. “Me too.”
Going Gray
Published
shealwaysreads 