[Sterek] Cupboard Love (boyxboy) (complete)

Chapter 5

Stiles is trudging through code trying to find where he broke something when Lydia calls again. He could use a break anyway, so he answers with a vaguely dejected "Hey."

"Spill, Stiles. Did you meet the millionaire recluse?" is the first thing Lydia asks.

"You knew!"

"Of course I knew," she replies with a hair toss. "I googled him. I can't believe you didn't do your own research, Stiles, really. That's sloppy. Now spill."

"Not a chance - I'm googling the shit out of him first."

Lydia rolls her eyes. "You didn't do that before you went over there?" She pauses. "Seriously, what's wrong with you? Are you okay?"

"I left my mom's tupperware in his fridge and I haven't heard back from him yet. I just - what if he doesn't like the food and I never get them back again? Lydia, I, I know it's just plastic tubs but..."

"But they were your mom's." Lydia sighs. "Stiles, listen. He'd have to be crazy - okay, crazier than he probably actually is - to not like your food. And even if he doesn't want more, you can always just call up and tell him you need it back. Trust me."

"Yeah, you're probably right." He doesn't fully believe her, but Stiles tells her everything anyway, because of course he does. He tells her about the private road, the insane driveway, about Derek being a secret volcano god of fire curry hotness living in a huge, empty mansion in the middle of nowhere, eating only protein shakes. And while he tells her about the amazing kitchen Derek has clearly never used and the stupid fountain out front, he digs up a news article from the Beacon Hills Gazette.

He trails off and can't help but half-ask Lydia, "Beacon Hills?"

"Yeah, I knew that name was familiar. Remember? His family lives off the main road back home. I think I met his sister once. They were a few years ahead of us at school."

The Gazette article is short on words and on details. All anyone seems to know is that Derek Hale enrolled at Beacon Hills Community College for two years before he made millions seemingly overnight on the stock market at 20 and moved two hours south, just outside Berkeley. The rest of the Hale family, according to the article, still lived in Beacon Hills.

"That's weird, right? That's not just me? This is a weird story. Did he drop out of school? Who gets millions of dollars and becomes a hermit at 20?" Stiles knows exactly what he'd do with millions of dollars and it starts with making sure his dad's mortgage is fully paid off and that he has enough for a very comfortable retirement and moves on to Stiles waking up hungover in Hawaii.

"Who knows," Lydia says. "People are usually incredibly dumb; it could be anything." Stiles doesn't actually think most people are stupid like Lydia does, but to be fair he has Scott as a baseline. "Anyway, you're going home for Thanksgiving, right? I want pie. And green beans with almond slices. And scalloped potatoes."

Stiles laughs, "Yeah, yeah, okay. I'll make a list and get right on that. If Dad doesn't beat you to everything you can have some of the leftovers."

Sometimes Stiles wonders if he shouldn't have just gone to culinary school instead, but he'd always been jealous of Danny's ability to hack pretty much anything, and once he'd managed to focus for long enough to try teaching himself a few tricks he found he was actually pretty good at it.

Cooking is relaxing, but there's a real satisfaction to finally working out a bug in some code that Stiles hasn't been able to re-create with anything else. He likes finding new ways of making things work. He likes seeing his code compile into something tangible. In three and a half years, if everything goes according to plan, he'll have a Masters in computer science, but if anyone asked him he'd tell them it's half art, as well.

He and Lydia talk for an hour more and by the time he hangs up, Stiles feels ready to tackle his code again, if still anxious about his tupperware.