Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Stiles is thrilled when Merrill is finally brave enough to venture outside on her own. She's about five months old now, and on the days where Stiles sit on the porch or inside with the door open, she'll come up to him, run against his leg, meow once, and then Merrill is once again off exploring.

And then puberty hits.

Merrill reaches maturity just before she turns six months.
It’s hell.

Since Stiles isn’t feeding her any birth control pills (he refuses to do so because of the high risk of cancer), and wants her to have a litter (just not quite yet) before he takes her to Deaton to get her sterilised, Stiles decided to keep her inside until she’s better.
Even though he knows it could take days and even weeks before it ends.

It ends after four days. Four miserable, painstaking days.

Up until that point it sucks, for his dad, Derek and himself.
Merrill meows constantly, often sharply and she seems so forlorn that Stiles almost can’t look at her because it makes him feel like a bad person for not letting her out even though he knows it’s for her own good. (Also there is no way he can afford feeding a litter of kittens in addition to Merrill herself)

As an apology, and to make sure she’s activated, he buys her some new toys: a pack of three stuffed mice and a tiger-striped fluffy ball with a tail and something inside that makes a noise.

Stiles freaks out the first time he finds one of the mice in his bed, because it looks too life-like. (He’ll never live down the shriek that escaped from his mouth at the sight, followed by Derek barging into his room wolfed-out and ready to protect him.)

Merrill often looks at him and meows, high-pitched and pitiful, and Stiles’ heart breaks every time and he can’t not look at her.
Her eyes seem like magnets, drawing him in, making him feel sorry for her and mad at himself.

Stiles tells himself every time that it’s just for a few more days, he can do this for just a little while longer. (He can’t.)

It makes it harder to leave her alone, even for an hour, because then she’s all alone and meowing and not understanding why she’s suddenly shut away from what he and Derek strove so hard to make her like.

Stiles struggles even more because he can’t do anything to comfort her, and she stands outside his door at night meowing for what feels like hours before he caves and let her in, let her curl up by his legs and sleep until around four in the morning, when she wakes him by sniffing at his lips or neck; checking if he’s still breathing.

Then the day breaks and everything is back to as it was the day before; high-pitched meows and large, sad eyes staring into Stiles’ soul and leaving him feeling like a withered husk.

But then, on a Monday afternoon, it’s finally quiet.

When Stiles comes home from school, Merrill greets him in the hallway as usual, but she’s quiet now, except for the deep purring when he scratches her under her chin.
Stiles feels as though he can breathe again when hours pass without any of the sounds or looks that have haunted him for the past four days.

---

Stiles decides to celebrate the end of the misery by trying out a new recipe he found online (thank you BuzzFeed!) that he’s been saving.

Pasta, broccoli, pesto, feta cheese, garlic, basil, lemon juice and sun dried tomatoes; healthy, but not as healthy as it could have been as he decides to use regular and not wholegrain pasta for once.
He hopes his dad will appreciate it, although how his dad can even taste the difference between “normal” and “healthy” pasta (as the Sheriff refers to it) is not something Stiles comprehends; it all tastes the same to him. The recipe says oven baked tomatoes, but Stiles found these really tasty sun dried ones and got hooked.

He even adds some leftover turkey he found in the freezer, as a kind of apology to his dad for Merrill and her “coming of age”.

Stiles briefly considers inviting Derek over for dinner, but decides against it, wanting the evening to be about family. Not that Derek isn’t family (sort of), it’s just that both Stiles and his dad deserve some them time, not Sheriff and Stiles and Derek time.

Dinner turns out to be a success, and Stiles makes a mental note to make this more often; especially as it was cheap, easy and quick to make.
When his dad comments on the fact that he used regular pasta this time, Stiles just shakes his head and wonders how it’s even possible.
The Sheriff just grins.

---

It happens again, later on. Because of course.

This time she’s not acting like it constantly, just in the evenings. And it makes Merrill act extremely cuddly, and Stiles is finally allowed to pet her stomach without risking claws and teeth.
So he strokes and scratches her stomach while she lies nestled in his left arm, on her back, and she makes these kinds of odd meowing/mewling sounds while purring.
In addition she rubs her head against his chest or hand, or buries her head in his hand, wanting, needing to be scratched there as well, preferably at the same time as Stiles pets her stomach.

That is the positive thing.

The negative thing is that she constantly nags him in order to try to trick Stiles into letting her out at night (which won’t happen), so instead he endures hours where she once again meows accusingly at him, while at the same time constantly rubbing against him.

When Stiles tries to fall asleep, he can’t decide if having her in his room is the better alternative. Shutting her out of his room results in meowing, but letting Merrill stay in his room is worse, he finds out.
She’s restless, sits in his windowsill to keep watch, or wanders about his room in search of a way out, so Stiles ends up keeping his window shut when she’s there in fear of her trying to squeeze her way out.

When he wakes up in the mornings, he finds her just outside his door when he keeps her out, or in his bed when she calms down enough to be let back in.

But the absolute worst part is that Stiles has two important tests on that Thursday and Friday, and of course Merrill starts acting this way Wednesday night, and again the next two, causing Stiles to miss out on precious sleep.

The following Saturday he walks around like a ghost and ends up taking two naps; one alone and the other with Derek and Merrill, after Derek kindly took Merrill away for a round of tag at his house.

Going to bed on Saturday is easier, because Merrill has shown no sign of “acting up” at all that day, and Stiles falls asleep easily despite taking two naps that day. It might also have something to do with the fact that he’s catching a cold, so he spends Sunday in bed with Derek, his own “personal heating pad” as he jokingly refers to him as, snuggling closer and sighing in content as he heats his freezing feet between Derek’s thighs.

Falling asleep, Stiles wonders how much more of this he can take, although the positive thing about losing sleep at night means he gets to cuddle up with Derek more often.

“Love you,” Stiles mutters as he drifts off, earning a hum from Derek and a meow from Merrill in return.

Chapter Text

“A dog? REALLY Derek?”

Stiles just gets a level stare in reply, as he should have expected of course.

“So?”

“You’re a WOLF with a DOG. Doesn’t that seems kind of odd?”

“And you’re a person with a CAT dating a WOLF, with a DOG, and yet I’m the odd one?” The deadpan snark isn’t lost on Stiles, and since he doesn’t know whether to laugh or scoff, he ends up making a strangled noise and almost choking on the sound. Typical.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. But still. What if Merrill and your dog don’t get along?”

“Don’t worry Stiles, I’m sure he’ll love her and vice versa.”

---

Derek shows up with his dog the next day and Stiles sees it’s a match made in heaven.

The dog – nameless thus far – is a husky (the Siberian type, Derek points out), and thus have the same resting I-will-murder-you-without-a-thought face.

(Another thing is that he’s got eyes the same colour as Stiles’, which is a bit unnerving. Stiles doesn’t comment on it though.)

So of course Stiles thinks to name him Fenris, again after a character from Dragon Age 2. (Stiles vows to himself that he’ll call the husky Fenris no matter what Derek decides to call him.)

“Thought of a name yet?” Stiles asks, dying to start calling the dog Fenris already because it’s such a perfect name and there is no way he’s letting Derek get away with naming him anything else.

“No. It’s harder than I thought, actually,” Derek replies, sounding as though he’s all the time in the world to find a name.

Fenris is well behaved and listens to Derek’s every command (maybe because of the fact that Derek’s an alpha, although Stiles can’t be completely sure), but Stiles worries about the effect Merrill will have on him.

She’s still young and playful, and this is the first other animal she’s encountered as far as Stiles knows.

It turns out he’s got nothing to worry about however.

Merrill is curious and wants to play with Fenris, but he just lies there on the floor by Derek’s legs on the back porch.

“He’s quite well behaved,” Stiles states, somehow making it sound like a question.

“Yeah, which is why I don’t get what happened to him,” Derek starts, and his voice suddenly sounds harsh and unforgiving. “I got him from Deaton, actually. His previous owners came in to have him put down, because – according to them – he acted out on the last full moon and bit someone.”

“You don’t believe them.”

“No, I don’t. Look at him Stiles; I know he’s only just over a year old, but he’s gentle and listens to the smallest command. I guess I should be glad they took him to Deaton instead of just dumping him somewhere. Sure, he looks like he’s ready to murder everyone he sees, but that’s how the race looks.”

Stiles can feel himself get angry at the people who owned Fenris before. The fact that such a young dog is so well behaved (not that Stiles knows much about dogs) seems so contradictive to what the previous owners claim.

“I know what you mean. Like, you look that way most of the time too, and yet I’m still here with you.” The teasing tone in his voice earns him a small smile.

While Derek goes in to get a bowl of water for his newest pack member, Stiles decides to test something, as Fenris still lies by the chair Derek occupied only seconds before.

“Hi Fenris,” Stiles says, looking at the dog’s face for a sign of a reply of any kind. He doesn’t expect anything, and can’t even be sure what it’s in reply to, but the dog honest to God smiles at him, tongue out and fangs showing.

“Derek!”

“What’s wrong?!” Derek comes running outside, water splashed on his shirt and fur growing on his face.

“Fenris smiled at me!”

“Fenris?!”

“Oh, yeah. I thought he looked like a Fenris and then I called him Fenris to see if he reacted and then he smiled at me.”

Derek simply lifts an eyebrow and crosses his arm.

“You named our dog after an angry, elven former Vint slave?”

“You know about Drag… Wait. Did you say OUR dog? Is Fenris OUR dog?!”

The fur is gone from Derek’s face and his ears – still slightly pointed – turn red. Stiles thinks he looks embarrassed, and wonder if maybe he overreacted, that Derek hadn’t meant to say ‘our’ at all and now…

“Yeah. I mean, if you want to. Merrill already feels like she’s ours, as in us two, not the pack, so I figured…”

Stiles shuts him up by kissing him and mouthing “yes” against his lips.

---

When the Sheriff comes home that night he finds Derek on his back on the couch, with Stiles on his chest, and Merrill curled up by Fenris at the floor besides them, all asleep.