Chapter Text
Stiles made it through the door of the loft on his own steam. Mostly. Derek helped. Stiles had time in the car to whisper to Peter that he remembered what he said about a favour. No way Peter was wriggling out of apologising to Lydia. He wasn’t sure what Derek thought of it, but the man didn’t remark on it. Boyd, Erica and Isaac were home, and they’d made a bunch of sandwiches. Stiles fell into the couch and grabbed some, he was still hungry.
“So you got shot,” said Isaac.
Stiles pointed to his leg. “Looks worse than it is. I have healing powers now!”
Isaac grinned. “Is that all? So you can’t zap anybody.”
“Hey give me time.”
“Can you actually heal people?” Boyd asked skeptically.
Stiles shrugged. “In theory. I did it without thinking. I just need to figure out what it is I’m doing.”
Erica walked to the kitchen grabbed a knife, and sliced into her forearm.
“Erica!” Derek didn’t sound happy.
Boyd frowned, while Peter looked interested. Erica strode up to Stiles and sat down on the couch, dripping blood.
“Here you go Batman. Figure it out.” Stiles’ eyes went wide at the blood, and he laughed nervously.
“No pressure or anything.”
Erica shrugged. “I’ll heal it soon anyway. See if you can speed it up.”
Stiles held Erica’s forearm gingerly, trying to focus on the cut rather than the blood. It wasn’t easy. Erica’s cut started to close at the far edges of the wound. Stiles concentrated, trying to feel something. Erica’s arm was warm, her skin soft. The wound felt hotter, wrong. Stiles tried to imagine it closing up, the skin knitting together. The hot stripe down her arm being covered with the coolness of healing.
“It just felt weird,” Erica said.
Stiles put out his finger and drew it carefully down the cut, trying to imagine it cooling and closing. When he moved his finger away, the cut disappeared.
“Did I do anything?”
Erica nodded. “It closed quicker than normal.”
Stiles grinned. “Awesome.”
Derek sighed. “You shouldn’t be using your magic so soon after..” he gestured at Stiles’ leg.
“Just give me some more food, I’ll be good!” said Stiles cheerfully, ignoring the dizziness he was currently experiencing.
Derek reached into the kitchen cupboard and threw a packet of chips at Stiles.
“Thanks!”
Boyd sat down next to Erica, inspecting her arm. Isaac flopped into an armchair with a book. Peter moved to sit on the stairs. Stiles wondered if Peter chose that spot so he could be higher than everyone. Derek sat down next to Stiles, frowning at him.
“No more magic attempts for a while,” he said sternly. “You’ll wear yourself out.”
Stiles shrugged, his mouth full of potato chips. He jiggled his foot, trying to think of something to do, he was bored already. Finishing the chips, he wiped his hands on his jeans.
“You guys should do some fight practice or something.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” said Peter. “You all need some practice.”
Derek glared at Peter, while Erica jumped up. “Oooh can we?”
Derek sighed. “Fine. With hunters about, it’s probably a good idea.”
Stiles moved to join Peter on the steps, to get a good view of the room while Derek and the betas moved into position. Stiles looked sideways at him.
“You’re not helping?”
Derek snorted, from where he was setting up what looked like an obstacle course.
“Peter isn’t familiar with that concept.”
“I’m just allowing the Alpha to do his job,” Peter replied innocently.
“How thoughtful,” Derek deadpanned, walking to the end of the course and signalling Isaac to begin.
Each beta took turns running through the obstacle course and then attacking Derek. Stiles winced as each beta ended up flung into walls, floor or into each other.
Peter smirked. “You can hardly call it training,” he murmured to Stiles.
“If you think you can do better, you should be helping them,” Stiles shot back.
Peter shrugged. “I doubt Derek would accept my help.”
Stiles looked at him curiously. Peter’s tone sounded nonchalant, but he could see tension in the way Peter was holding himself. Stiles stretched and tried to match Peter’s careless tone.
“You know, I bet you have a lot of experience in that area. Watching this must be painful for you.”
Peter shot him an amused look. “You are not very subtle, Stiles.”
Stiles met his look and raised his eyebrows. “I’m not wrong, though.”
Peter made no reply to that, and Stiles decided it was close enough to agreement. He stood up, and tugged at Peter’s arm.
“Derek! Time for you to take a break- Peter is going to teach the betas some things now.”
Derek scowled, but as Stiles approached them with a reluctant Peter in tow, he stood aside.
“Fine.”
Stiles tried not to show the surprise on his face- he had been ready for an argument.
“Right- well why don’t you sit on the stairs with me and leave Peter to it.”
Derek followed him back to the stairs and sat next to Stiles, his side pressed against him. Peter gestured to the betas to come close.
“I can’t address all your issues in one training session, but let’s start with the basics, shall we. You all need to play to your strengths. Boyd, you’re holding back. You are strong, calm in battle, and able to plan- you should be thinking about strategy, and I will teach you some. Erica and Isaac, you both throw yourself into fighting, you need to harness that passion, use it better. Finally you all need to learn to fight together, instead of attacking singly. There is an advantage to pack numbers, but only if you use it.”
Stiles watched in amazement as Peter took the betas through some basic fight formations and had them practice. He could already see a difference, and so could the betas.
“Do you know he could do this?” Stiles whispered to Derek.
Derek looked pained. “I suspected.”
Stiles glanced at Derek’s unhappy face. “You know he has a lot of experience that he wasn’t offering you before. You are doing the best you can.”
Derek sighed. “I know. I just wish...I’m glad you pushed him Stiles.”
Stiles grinned. “Pushy bastard, that’s me.”
Derek watched the betas practice with Peter for a little while, then joined them. Amazingly Peter held back his usual snark and they managed to all practice together without any major issues. Stiles was gleeful on the inside. His stomach started growling, and Derek stopped.
“That’s enough for today, we should get dinner.” Derek looked at Peter. “Thank you.”
Peter smiled. “You’re welcome, nephew.”
“Right so this is happening at least every week!” Stiles announced from the stairs. “We should invite the other wolfies too.”
Derek said nothing, but nodded. Erica grinned and shoulder-bumped Boyd.
“That was fun!”
Isaac yawned. “Can we get Mexican?”
No one objected, and Derek pulled out his phone and started ordering. The others made their way to the lounge area and sprawled on the couches. Peter took an armchair.