Dylan and Linden Ashby on MTV’s Snapchat
Derek takes them both to ComicCon as a Christmas present to Stiles. It was the only thing he could think to do that would show how well he knew his boyfriend and would mean he could enjoy his company at the same time. John was surprised at his invite, but if they’re going to make a detour to San Diego while Stiles is on break, then Derek doesn’t want it to deprive him of any time with his dad. And Derek and the sheriff have been on good terms ever since they spent so much time jointly trying to help Stiles back when the whole nogitsune fiasco went down. So Stiles and the two men that love him most tackle the heart and centre of Stiles’ nerdiness, and it’s the best few days of Derek’s life.
Stiles loses his absolute mind at everything, and demands that they do this again sometime in full cosplay. Derek is only mildly annoyed at all the werewolf cosplay suggestions.
Derek learns that as well as Star Wars, Stiles has a truly breathtaking knowledge of Star Trek and both Marvel and DC comics, as well as a bunch of video games, the details of which Derek can’t really keep up with. But Stiles is as animated as Derek’s ever seen him. Talking to anyone with similar interests, getting photos with cosplayers and complimenting them like mad, pointing out everything and anything that interests him, explaining it to Derek with his eyes big and bright and happy. Derek’s favourite part of this is that Stiles will sometimes rush through a space to get to something interesting, will race up ahead or get stuck behind as Derek moves through the crowd, but he always circles back to Derek, bounding into him with arms around his shoulders and a kiss on the cheek. He’s like a yo-yo the way he darts out and then returns, but it makes Derek feel nice to be the centre point of all that ecstatic movement.
John, before the end of the first day, has somehow ended up with Woody’s hat and badge from a Toy Story costume, and Stiles laughs his ass off about it. As much as they needle him about it John won’t explain how it happened, but he gets pretty close to a blush. Turns out, John is a hit at ComicCon. Even with the costume items making him look softer his air of authority is clear and the second time he tells a guy off for being lude about a female cosplayer, someone buys him a free coffee and then he’s off, lost into the crowd. Derek and Stiles don’t see him until hours later when he resurfaces, telling them about all the lovely people he’s met. He shows them a photo of a little girl sitting on his shoulders in a Buzz Lightyear onesie and Stiles makes a breathless, choking sound, clutching at his heart as John tells them about it.
Stiles discovers that Derek has a deep and timeless love for obscure sci fi and fantasy novels from the 80s, watches him have an in-depth meta conversation with an artist at a stall selling art for some sci fi series Stiles has never heard of, watches Derek’s face light up when the woman mentions something he’d never thought of before. He determines that whatever gets Derek to have that expression on his face is clearly worth a look, and Stiles decides he’s going to find out what these books are and read them and maybe give Derek a themed birthday party or something. Because the only other times Derek looks like that are when he’s talking about Cora or Stiles, and Stiles wants more of it. He is absolutely delighted when Derek, after talking for close to 45 minutes, ends up with 3 novelty t-shirts with various books’ cover art on them – being out of BH means his shirts have a longer life expectancy – and a web address to join an online fan forum. (Stiles is also ridiculously grateful that this whole trip isn’t just about him, but that his boyfriend is actually enjoying himself, too).
ComicCon is like Disneyland for Stiles and that view of it rubs off on Derek and the sheriff until they’re all walking around with a steady buzz of amazement and low key happiness; and they get to do more tomorrow. Derek has spent a large portion of the day taking photos of Stiles and John, but this one, when they’re dead tired but more relaxed than they have been for a long time, is probably his favourite. He sends it to Cora and Lydia, the former sending him a bunch of sick faces and tongue-out faces which he translates to ‘stop being cute and gross’ and the latter sending back a ‘glad you’re all having a good time’ with two kissy faces. And yeah, that about sums it up.
He also sends copies of the photos to John’s phone, and over dinner John looks at him with the look of a man quietly grateful for his lot in life, and when he claps Derek on the shoulder before retiring to his room, Stiles says, ‘Oh man, you’re really in for it now. He’s keeping you.’
Derek snorts, ‘I’d hope that’s because you’re keeping me.’
‘Well yeah, obviously. But now it’s on pain of death, or just, on pain of disappointing my dad forever otherwise.’
When Derek gets out of the bathroom in their hotel room a little while later, though, he’s pretty sure that Stiles is keeping him forever anyway. Given that he’s dug out one of Derek’s graphic tees from his favourite book series, and is wearing that but nothing else as he reclines on the bed with a smirk.
Derek rolls his eyes, but he also grins and tackles him to the bed, so Stiles counts it as a win.
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Oh god guys, I wrote this on my phone and now my thumbs hurt and I’m late, I was THAT emotional and overcome by this photo. Whoops. I’ve never been to ComicCon so stuff is probably inaccurate but just roll with it, okay? Okay.
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