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Derek wasn’t entirely sure how this had become his life. If you asked Laura - and come to think of it, every other member of his family - it was a result of the whole Kate ordeal.
Derek, however, blamed it on his sense of wanderlust that he was currently standing behind the counter of his very own ice cream store in New York while a snot-nosed kid dripped a triple scoop all over the floor.
Derek resisted a growl as he called to Boyd from the back, asking him to bring over a mop.
“Don’t you just love the little ones, boss?” Erica asked. He scowled at her but was blatantly ignored as she continued to file her nails behind the register. For the millionth time, Derek mulled over the idea of firing her. It was quickly nixed when he remembered, also for the millionth time, that she didn’t actually work there.
“Erica!” Derek barked. “You’ve been here for hours.”
“I know,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “However I think you forgot to book Jackson in today. There was no one at the register when I got here and people were just walking out with their ice cream.”
“Seriously?” Derek yelled, whirling around. A group of teenagers laughed as they walked out the door and down the street.
Erica smirked.
“It is way past time you put her on the payroll, baby bro,” Laura commented, walking out from the back. She had followed him all the way to New York when he moved out here three months ago. Her excuse was that she had always wanted to open a yoga studio and apparently right beside Derek’s ice cream store was the perfect place. Something about people feeling guilty and signing up in their moment of weakness.
“She spends all of her time here anyway,” Derek grumbled.
“It couldn’t hurt for me to get paid,” Erica piped up. She had moved on from filing to brushing her nails with a bright red polish.
“Do whatever you want,” Derek relented, and Laura’s bright laugh rang against the walls of the shop.
“Good,” she replied, smiling wolfishly. “I’ve secretly been paying her since she started showing up. I just thought it would be nice for you to finally figure out where that extra five hundred a month has been going.”
“Dammit, Laura!” Derek growled, throwing his hands up in the air. “Just for that, I’m making you fire Jackson. Let him know that we have a different token hot blonde now.”
“Is that enough to sue you for sexual harassment?” Erica mused, capping the bottle of polish and blowing on her nails. “I need a new laptop.”
“Use the money my sister has been extorting from me,” Derek shot back, throwing Laura a dirty look. He didn’t get to see her reaction, choosing instead to turn around and start wiping down the counter. Things were winding down for the night, and soon he would need to transfer the ice cream from the chilled display up front to the deep freezer in the back.
“Do you want me to lock up, boss?” Boyd asked, wiping sweat off of his forehead. He had finished mopping and had even wiped down all of the tables without being asked. Derek checked the clock and realized that they should have already been closed for five minutes.
“Yeah, sorry. I got distracted by my sister and your girlfriend.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Erica leered, appearing behind Boyd and wrapping her arms around his stomach. The two of them walked like a jungle creature to the front door, staying squished together the whole time. Derek rolled his eyes and silently wished for them to slip on the wet tile.
“Bitter?” Laura asked innocently from where she was perched on the counter. “I know Kate never did cute stuff like that with you."
“Laura,” Derek growled, flashing his eyes blue. She sighed in return, not even bothering to turn hers gold in retaliation.
“Forget I mentioned it. There’s something else I want to talk to you about,” she replied.
“What?” Derek asked warily. Laura didn’t ask him for favours very often, and it never turned out very well when she did. Derek still had glitter and unidentified stains on his second favourite pair of black jeans.
“You know how I’m starting to run those new Zumba classes next week?”
Derek had a vague recollection of her mentioning something like that over Indian food a few weeks ago. Derek had pointed out that there would be a bunch of old ladies with bingo wings jumping around in spandex, and Laura had opened registration the next day. Apparently their ideas of fun were vastly different.
“I interviewed people to take over teaching some of the yoga classes today?” she urged.
“Yeah,” Derek recalled, snapping his fingers. “I wished you good luck this morning.”
“And it payed off,” she said happily. “There’s this guy named Stiles. He’s so energetic and the women at the studio all loved him. Dolores pinched his cheeks and everything.”
Derek paled and Laura immediately waved him off.
“The ones on his face, I swear. She hasn’t touched anyone inappropriately since she smacked your buns of steel and hurt her hand.”
That had been one of the single most embarrassing moments of Derek’s life. Laura still made him give Dolores free ice cream every time she came in, even though he figured it was karma that she had had to wear a wrist brace for two weeks.
“So you hired him?” Derek asked.
“Tried,” Laura said ruefully. Her eyes began to widen the slightest bit, and Derek knew that he was about to come into the plan wether he liked it or not.
“If he applied, then why wouldn’t he want the job?”
“I’m glad you asked,” Laura said. “He can’t find anyone to watch his daughter.”
“And why are you telling me this?” Derek asked. “You know I work.”
“I know,” Laura conceded. “I just figured you might take pity on this poor twenty-three year old single father and let his little girl sit at your counter every Tuesday and Thursday.”
“I would be taking pity on my annoying, bossy older sister. Not him,” Derek clarified. Laura threw daggers at him with her eyes and he couldn’t help but feel a little afraid.
“Derek, if you value anything, you will do this for me,” she threatened.
“Fine,” he replied, “but only because I know that you would send her here no matter what. I may be an asshole, but I’m not heartless enough to kick an unsuspecting child out onto the streets of New York.”
“That’s the spirit!” Laura warbled. Looping her arm through his, she began to drag him towards the back door.
“Hold on,” Derek said, pulling her to a stop. “In return, I’m going to need you to switch over all of the ice cream tonight. I’m feeling a little drained from having to talk to you for more than five minutes.”
“Ha ha,” Laura said sarcastically. Derek raised his eyebrows and wordlessly flicked his gaze from her to the deep freezer. She pushed out her bottom lip in a pout when she realized that he was serious.
“Argh!” she yelled, smacking his arm. “Fine, you brat. Go pick up our usual order of Chinese food from around the corner and I’ll meet you at the apartment in ten minutes.”
Derek quickly shrugged on his leather jacket and eased out the back door, considering it a win.
* * *
It said something about the mess Derek called his life that he was unsurprised to walk into the shop on Thursday to see a red haired little girl lying face down on the floor.
Derek walked up to her, nudging her unmoving body with the toe of his boot.
“Great,” he muttered, “I haven’t even been watching this kid for a minute and she’s already dead.”
The girl’s still form made a garbled noise before rolling over and squinting up at him. Her hair fanned out across the tile like fire, and he quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her up.
“You just earned me at least ten health code violations,” he said in lieu of a hello. She simply looked up at him, rubbing sleep from her giant hazel eyes. He skipped over her flaming mop and noticed a smattering of freckles across her pale cheeks.
“My dad says that staring is rude,” she said bluntly, turning around and flouncing towards the counter.
“Does your dad ever tell you that you’re a hypocrite?” Derek replied. The girl paused, and Derek was momentarily worried that he had hurt her feelings.
“Wow, Mister Derek. Miss Laura said that you were grouchy, but she didn’t tell me that you were rude too,” she sniffed. Derek rolled his eyes. It figured that he had to spend two days a week with someone who had already been ruined by his sister.
“I bet that Miss Laura also didn’t tell you that she promised you would sit quietly at the counter all day,” Derek said cheerily. The girl whipped around, looking at him with wide eyes.
“I’m an energetic young sprite! I can’t do that!” she cried, frowning. Derek’s mouth quirked up at the way she spoke; too quickly and using words that half the people his age didn’t even know.
“How old are you anyways?” he asked, walking to the back to start setting up. He put on his apron and rolled up his sleeves, grabbing tubs of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry from the freezer. He carried it to the front, where his charge sat twirling on a stool.
“I’m seven,” she answered, running a piece of hair through her mouth thoughtfully. “How old are you?”
“Twenty five,” he replied. “Do I get to know your name, since you already know mine?”
“Aria Stilinski,” she said proudly. The girl - Aria - pulled a backpack out from under the seat and pointed out the name tag on the front. “I already knew your age too, but I was trying to be polite. My grandpa is the sheriff back home. Daddy made him look you up before he left me here.”
“I think that’s illegal,” Derek pointed out. He went back to the freezer and grabbed the last three tubs of ice cream. When he came out this time, Aria was on her tippy toes behind the counter. She turned around, looking scandalized. When she saw the bins in Derek’s arms, her face flooded with relief.
“I thought you only had those three boring flavours!” she cried, waving her arms around. She looked like one of those wind socks that were always outside of the car dealership on Derek’s way home.
“No,” he replied. “I have six boring flavours instead. Here are banana, mango and neapolitan- since I like to get a little crazy sometimes.”
Aria cocked an eyebrow at him and the corners of his mouth turned up when he realized that it reminded him of himself.
“Why do you only have six flavours?” Aria questioned.
“They’re all pretty popular, so I don’t have to worry about them not selling,” Derek answered. “Maybe once I’m a little more established, I’ll get some more inventory.”
Aria brightened considerably at the prospect of more ice cream. Go figure.
“I can help you pick the flavours,” she said, once again leaning into the case. “You have room for at least four more cartons in here, six if we squish.”
Derek’s reply was cut off when the back door slammed shut.
“Boss?” Boyd called, walking to the front with his apron in hand and Erica in tow. “Who’s that?”
“The kid Laura asked me to watch,” Derek replied. Boyd nodded once and went to flip the sign on the door, signaling that they were officially open for the day.
“She’s kind of adorable,” Erica said. Her mouth twisted up in a smile which only caused Aria to grin back.
“She’s also going to sit at the counter and behave, because we have work to do,” Derek stated, turning to look at Aria. “Please?”
Instead of dignifying him with an answer, she opened her backpack and pulled out a comic book. She flipped it open with a sigh and began to read silently.
Derek grabbed six clean ice cream scoops from the sink in the back and stuck one into each tub. He took up his post behind the counter as Erica did a final check of the register.
Mornings were always the busiest time for the shop. All of the mothers took their kids to the park nearby and without fail ended up stopping by for ice cream. Most of them were sweet, apologizing when their little devils climbed all over the chairs or took twenty minutes to choose a flavour. It was the flirtatious single moms that were the real problem, and a group of them just so happened to be walking into his shop at that very moment.
“It’s like they travel in a pack,” Derek hissed at Erica as they approached the counter. Erica simply smirked at him, but her red lips twisted into a grimace as one of the women leaned right over the counter.
“Good morning, Derek,” she giggled. His senses were flooded with the smell of perfume and arousal. He tried not to gag as he took a step back.
“Morning,” he choked out. “What can I get for you?”
“Surprise us,” she whispered, reaching her hand out and tapping his chin. He held back a growl and quickly started to make four vanilla cones. The woman - Sandy, if his memory served - didn’t move from where she rested on the display case.
“Your wife is a very lucky woman if you cater to her this quickly,” Sandy murmured as she passed the first two cones that Derek handed her to her kids.
“I’m not married,” he replied, gritting his teeth. Sandy’s smile took on a predatory gleam and Derek bustled to finish the order as quickly as possible. He noticed her take a receipt out of her bag and scribble something on the back. She was about to pass it over the counter when Aria flounced over from a booth in the corner.
“Daddy!” she squealed. “Look at what I drew for you.”
It was a messy drawing on one of his napkins. There was a stick figure with red hair lying on the floor, presumably dead by the x’s she had for eyes. Off in the corner was a group of women that had mysterious waves of green floating from their bodies.
“You have a daughter?” Sandy remarked, looking between him and Aria.
“Yes,” Aria replied sweetly, “and I’m his number one priority.”
Stretching her arm to the top of the counter, Aria grabbed the slip of paper that Sandy had put there and examined it closely.
“I’ll make sure he calls you if we ever need a babysitter,” she said brightly, slipping it into her pocket. Derek choked back a laugh as he handed Sandy the last two cones and she walked out in a huff. The other moms had heard the conversation and kept quiet, making it a lot faster to fill out all of their orders. Eventually, the store was empty once again.
“What was that about?” Derek asked, turning to look at Aria. “I thought I told you to sit at the counter.”
“You also told me to be quiet,” she pointed out. “I’m zero for two right now.”
“You’re also not my daughter,” he remarked, grabbing the napkin. She gave him a toothy grin.
“The women’s perfume was artistically interpreted since I couldn’t actually see it. Luckily, I moved to the corner booth before death by asphyxiation actually happened.”
“It wouldn’t have,” Derek replied, scowling down at her. She heaved a sigh and looked up at him through her eyelashes.
“My daddy isn’t married either. I know that sometimes it bothers him when people hit on him, and I assumed by the look on your face that you were the same way. I was just trying to help.”
“You can help by leaving me to run my business,” he said, but there was no heat behind the words. Aria could tell, and she grabbed the napkin drawing from him and ran to the back. He saw her randomly around the store for the rest of the day, but she kept out of his hair. It wasn’t until late afternoon that she spoke to him again.
“Thank you for letting me stay here, Mr. Derek,” she called, waving to him from behind the counter. He asked Boyd to take over the customers and walked over to Aria.
“Are you sure your dad is done?” he asked. She nodded and grabbed her backpack. Derek helped her put her arms through the straps and tightened one that was slightly off kilter.
“There’s a door in the back room that connects this to the yoga studio. Go through there,” Derek advised. Aria nodded again and waved as she walked away.
It wasn’t until the store was empty once more that Derek realized how strange the silence now felt.
* * *
“Derek,” Aria yelled. He turned around just in time to see her run out of the back room, her pigtails flying behind her.
“What happened to the Mister part?” he asked, taking a sip from his coffee. The store didn’t open for another fifteen minutes, but Laura had asked him to come in early since Aria’s dad had an early class.
“I’m your daughter; cut me some slack,” she threw back, climbing up onto the bench beside him. Her body was thrumming with energy, and he sighed as he turned to face her.
“What’s going on?” he asked. Aria’s eyes lit up and he knew that he had asked the right question.
“You know how you said that you would expand your number of flavours once you were more established?” she asked. Derek nodded and glanced up as she slid a piece of paper onto the table.
“I was thinking yesterday, and the only way to become more established is if you’re different,” she said. “Which relates back to having a lot of choices!”
“I guess that makes sense,” Derek conceded. “But why should I take business advice from a seven year old?”
Aria patted his arm patronizingly.
“You named this place Hale’s Ice Cream Shop. I think I have you beat on the creativity front, and that is definitely the one in which you are lacking.”
Derek couldn’t fight that logic. He grabbed the list off of the table and quickly skimmed it.
“Maple bacon?” he read out loud, making a face.
“I figured we needed to appeal to any Canadians that were in town,” she explained.
“I’ll give them vanilla and they’ll be too nice to complain,” Derek reasoned, scratching it off the list. He continued to scan through them and almost choked on his own tongue.
“Soft Serve, Firm Butt?” Derek read, his voice strangled. Aria’s eyes went wide and she broke into hysterics.
“Dad probably wrote it while I was asleep. He thinks he’s funny,” she giggled, clearly agreeing with her father on that one.
“Was ‘Lick My Nuts’ his idea too?”
“No,” Aria said, her brows knitting in confusion. “Why?”
“Nevermind,” Derek said hastily, getting up and grabbing both the list and his coffee cup. “Go try to lick your elbow or something like a normal kid your age.”
“Seven going on seventeen,” Aria sang, grabbing her backpack from where she had flung it in the corner. Derek rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t help the smile that escaped.
“I think she’s growing on you,” Erica yelled from the back.
“Yeah,” Derek called. “Like a mold, or a fungus.”
Aria was silent, but Derek noticed her grinning at her comic book.
Maybe he was growing on her too.
* * *
Derek lowered the newspaper to find Laura staring at him pointedly.
“What?” he said sharply, taking another sip of his coffee. He made a face and added another spoonful of sugar to it.
“You and Aria are getting along pretty well, right?” she asked. Derek shrugged in response and Laura smiled.
“Good,” she said brightly, “because Stiles is so popular that I had to add another yoga class on Tuesday nights. You’re now responsible for giving her dinner.”
“What?” Derek replied. “I have a business to run too, Laura!”
“Please?” she pleaded. “I’ll pay your half of the rent this month. I really need this, Der.”
Laura knew exactly how to get her way, which was how he now found himself in a dingy chinese food restaurant across from Aria after closing up the shop.
“Do you usually eat here on Tuesday nights?” she asked, taking a bite of orange chicken.
“No,” Derek said gruffly. “I usually spend them at home on the couch.”
“Watching Project Runway in your sweats?” Aria asked, her face lighting up. Derek shook his head and she visibly deflated.
“That’s what my Dad and I do sometimes,” she admitted. Derek smiled at the mental image. He had heard a lot about Aria’s dad from both her and his sister.
“Miss Laura really likes him,” Derek said. “It’s usually pretty tough to get on her good side.”
“My dad could get on anyone’s good side.”
“Even me?” Derek asked, leaning back in his chair. Aria chewed thoughtfully on her piece of chicken.
“Definitely. I’ve learned a few things in our time together-”
“All three weeks?” Derek interrupted, earning him a death glare that was more adorable than anything.
“And one of them,” she continued loudly, “is that you’re a giant softy.”
“I am not!” Derek protested, pushing his empty tray of butter chicken to the side. Aria simply smirked as she finished off her dinner. He waited for further explanation, but none came.
“Just for being a brat, I’m making you help Boyd clean the shop on Thursday.”
Aria groaned as she followed Derek out to the Camaro. As soon as he turned it on, music blasted from the speakers. It was a song he didn’t recognize, but Aria froze and quickly started mashing buttons on the console.
“Hey,” he said, grabbing her arm. He noticed that her hand was shaking and he turned to look at her fully.
“Turn it off,” she yelled, her voice strangled. “Turn it off!”
Derek quickly turned the dial to shut off the radio, leaving the car in a heavy silence. He could hear Aria gulping breaths in the seat beside him and he dragged her over to sit in his lap.
A few tears rolled down her cheeks and Derek wiped them away. She nestled her face into his neck and he stroked her hair soothingly. Eventually, her breathing calmed down and she looked up at him with tear stained cheeks.
“Sorry,” she sniffled, rubbing her face with a small fist. He sometimes forgot how young she was, but it was heartbreakingly clear as her tiny body curled up in his lap.
“My mom used to love that song,” Aria explained, her voice trembling with emotion. “She was singing it in the shower the morning she left.”
“Left?” Derek asked, his voice hoarse. Aria nodded.
“She went to work and never came back.”
Derek swallowed the lump in his throat. His family was everything to him, and he had no idea how he would survive if one of them just disappeared.
“Do you miss her?” he asked. It was probably a stupid question, considering, but he found himself wanting to hear her answer.
“Not really,” Aria replied, much to his surprise. “It was her choice to abandon us. I know that sounds dumb, especially since I almost had a panic attack over it just now.”
“It’s not dumb,” Derek said.
She smiled up at him and he was hit with a wave of sadness. Who could ever leave her?
“She’s not really the reason I freak out,” Aria said quietly. “She just reminds me that anyone could be out of my life so quickly. My dad could get up one morning and drive away.”
“He wouldn’t,” Derek promised and against all odds, Aria laughed.
“I know,” she whispered.
“I wouldn’t either.”
The words were out of his mouth before he even thought about them, but it surprised Derek to realize that they were true. Aria’s head snapped up and she looked at him with wide eyes.
“You wouldn’t?”
“No,” he affirmed. “Although, neither of us will be leaving anything including this parking lot if we don’t get moving.”
Aria scrambled over the arm rest and back into the passenger’s seat, clipping her seatbelt on in record time.
“Let's go home,” she declared, leaning back in the seat.
Aria chatted all the way back to the ice cream shop about everything from what she wanted to dress up as for Halloween to her excitement over starting school in a few weeks. Derek let her voice wash over him and heaved a sigh of relief that she was feeling better.
A small hand found its way into his at some point during the ride and he held onto it gladly.
If neither of them let go until it was time to get out of the car, Derek figured that that was nobody’s business except their own.
* * *
“Do you want me to unlock the door?” Aria asked as Derek put the mango and neapolitan in their usual spot. The two of them had gotten into an easy routine in the morning; they would talk for fifteen minutes while Derek had his coffee and then Aria would help him set up so that they could still open on time.
“Not yet,” he replied, returning to the back with a smug smile on his face. He went to the freezer and pulled out the two full tubs of mint chocolate chip and birthday cake ice cream that he had been hiding back there since Wednesday morning.
The minute he walked out front, Aria shrieked and ran over to see the new flavours. She jumped around him excitedly as he put them in the display case, her entire body vibrating with anticipation.
“Everyone is going to love them,” she squealed. Derek laughed as Aria ran to the sink and grabbed two more clean scoops, shoving them into the tubs.
“Of course they are,” he reminded her. “You picked them.”
“Exactly,” Aria replied, tossing her hair over her shoulder with a ridiculous expression. Derek grabbed her from behind and threw her over his shoulder.
“Stop!” she shrieked, wiggling in his grip. He tickled her until she was gasping for breath and her face was almost as red as her hair.
“You guys are so cute!” Erica squealed, dropping her Starbucks cup in the garbage as she walked in.
“We are not cute,” Derek replied, setting Aria back on her feet. She kicked him in the shin and he bit his lip to keep from hissing.
“Someone clearly fed that thing after midnight,” he mumbled, grabbing the mop from Erica and beginning to clean the floors.
“So you do think I’m cute!” Aria crowed, poking him in the side.
“No,” he said, “I called you a Gremlin.”
“It’s the same thing.”
“If you think that Gremlins are cute then we need to have a serious talk about your dad’s parenting skills,” Derek grumbled. Aria perked up at that.
“You’ll get the chance!” she announced, running to her backpack and pulling out a small pink envelope.
Derek leaned the mop against the wall and took it from her. When he opened the flap, glitter floated down and stuck to his pants. He ignored it in favour of tugging out the card.
“You’re inviting me to your birthday party?” Derek asked, looking up at her in shock.
“Of course,” she exclaimed. “Dad told me to ask my best friends.”
It had been a long time since anyone but his family had counted him in that category, which is why it came as no surprise to Derek when he blurted out, “I’ll be there.”
As much as he would like to say that the hug came as a surprise, it wasn’t coincidence that Derek’s arms were wide open when Aria threw herself into them. Derek inhaled her familiar scent and for once, didn’t try to ignore the tugging feeling in his heart.
* * *
“Stop messing with your hair,” Laura hissed, swatting at his hand. They had just pulled into the Stilinskis’ driveway and Derek was nervous to finally meet the guy whose kid he had been taking care of for five weeks.
“It’s going to be fine,” Laura sighed. She opened her car door and began to walk towards their house, her heels clicking on the pavement. Derek ran after her, not wanting to be beat to the door by his +1.
He jumped onto the porch in front of her and rang the doorbell. A childish shriek sounded from inside and footsteps pounded to the door. Aria threw it open, a tiara on her head and chocolate icing smeared across her nose.
“Happy Birthday,” Derek laughed, passing her the present he had painstakingly wrapped that morning. She said something to him, but Derek was distracted by the man that had just appeared over Aria’s shoulder.
He had the same eyes as his daughter, big and bright framed by thick eyelashes. He offered Derek a brilliant smile and stuck out his hand.
“I’m Stiles,” he said, and after a few seconds of staring Derek snapped back to reality. He returned the handshake just a second late enough to make things awkward and Laura laughed.
“I’m going to go put Aria’s hair into something resembling a braid,” she announced, ushering the little girl back inside, “you two take this time to get acquainted with each other.”
Stiles pulled a face behind Laura’s back and Derek couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him.
“I think your sister is trying to set us up,” Stiles admitted, scratching the back of his neck nervously.
“I think your daughter might be too,” Derek replied. “She tried to entice me with sweatpants and Project Runway.”
“Oh my God,” Sties squawked, smacking a hand over his face. “I can’t believe she told you about that!”
“If it makes you feel better,” Derek laughed, “it worked.”
Stiles opened his mouth and then immediately snapped it shut, a flush climbing up his neck. Derek wanted to press his lips to it; feel the smooth skin beneath his mouth.
“Aria has been trying to convince me to try your ice cream,” Stiles mused, his mouth quirking upwards.
“Soft Serve, Firm Butt?” Derek quipped, taking a step forwards. Stiles laughed again, loud and bright, and Derek decided that he would do anything to hear that sound for the rest of his life.
“I’d be willing to taste either one,” Stiles replied, and it was Derek’s turn to flush. He offered Stiles a lopsided grin and followed him when he turned to walk inside.
Aria ran down the stairs, hair sufficiently tamed, and jumped into Derek’s arms. She pressed a wet kiss to his cheek, and Derek was amazed by how strongly he had come to love this little girl in such a short amount of time.
Somehow, he didn’t think her father would be any different.