Stiles
"One of my shelves broke." He said nervously to the furious looking man stood in front of him.
"And that's my problem because...?" Derek sighed. Stiles really didn't know why he thought Derek would want to help him.

"Well I guess it's not, but I uh remembered you said you repair stuff?" Derek simply stared at him blankly. "I was wondering... If it's not too much trouble, could you help me out? I'll pay you of course." He continued.
"No." Derek replied, closing his door.

'Well that could have gone better.' Stiles thought as he walked back into his own apartment. He concluded it was up to him to fix it. He crouched in front of the bookcase, eyeing the offending shelf. He really had no idea where to start, he didn't even have any tools. He was markedly better with computers.

He sighed and decided to see if Google had any advice for him.

Derek
It was around 10 when Derek flinched for the seventh time at the sound of another crash and more muffled swearing coming from next door. He was becoming increasingly irritated, he didn't allow himself much time to relax and read and the one time he had he was being interrupted every five minutes.

He set his book down on the floor by the couch and listened. He couldn't hear much aside from a faint clattering, how hard could fixing a shelf be? The left side of his brain was instructing him to ignore it and go back to his reading, but the right side was curious, not just about why Stiles couldn't repair a simple shelf but about his neighbour as a whole.

He'd never met someone that so actively ignored his cold, awkward persona and persisted in interacting with him. He eventually ignored the battle in his head and got up, was there really any harm in seeing if he needed a hand? That's what neighbours did right? He grabbed his tool box, left his apartment and knocked on Stiles' door.

He heard a scrambling from behind the door, it reminded him of when a dog hears someone at the door and rushes to see who it is. Stiles flung open the door, his face was a little flushed and his hair was sticking up at funny angles, for a moment Derek thought he looked quite cute but then mentally slapped himself.

"Thank God." The unusual man exhaled. "I tried to fix it but I made it worse." Derek rolled his eyes and paused before passing Stiles into his home. He was led into the living room and the source of the noise was revealed. A bookcase that should have had about six shelves, but now only had two towards the top.

A mixture of video games, comic books, novels and DVDs were scattered about the floor.
"I thought you said it was one shelf." Derek dead panned, Stiles scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Like I said, I made it worse." He chuckled.
"How do you break three more shelves in the process of fixing one?" Derek asked, it was more of a rhetorical question but Stiles didn't seem to pick up on this as he broke into a lengthy explanation.

"... And then I hit my head on the third one from the top and it snapped in half! I don't know what hurt more, the splinters or the fact my head is big enough to break a freaking shelf!" Derek had tried to suppress a laugh but failed, and let out a snort of amusement.

"It laughs!" Stiles exclaimed melodramatically as Derek examined the annihilated shelves.
"Should you really be referring to the guy fixing your shelves as 'it'?" He retorted. Stiles grinned mischievously.

"Dude, you're like a scary statue or something! You never smile or anything, forgive me for being surprised when you laughed." Derek raised an eyebrow.
"Statues don't move."
"Ok then smart ass, a robot."

Derek didn't understand what it was about the mindless banter that passed between them that for some reason he didn't find irritating, but it was actually quite pleasant. Normally he preferred to work in silence, and usually his customers left him to it, only offering him a beverage every now and then.

On the other hand, Stiles took an active interest in everything he was doing, and generally he'd find this exceedingly annoying, but he didn't. He answered each of his questions about the tools he was using, the types of screws and the structure of the bookcase with a patience that was very uncharacteristic of him.

After fixing the bottom three, he picked up the remains of the shelf that was in two pieces and shook his head.
"This is gonna need replacing." He informed Stiles.
"I could go to the hardware store now if you don't mind waiting?"

Derek nearly laughed for the second time.
"You can't just buy shelves. You have to order them, send in measurements and get them made." He explained. Stiles' face dropped a little, reminding Derek of a disappointed puppy and he couldn't help saying what he said next.

"Don't bother ordering one. I got it." He muttered, Stiles cocked his his in confusion. Derek packed his tools up and made to leave, feeling awkward and mad at himself for giving himself more work than necessary. Stiles fussed around thanking him profusely.
"Let me get some cash, how much do I owe you?"

Derek raised a hand, opening the front door.
"It's fine." He mumbled, embarrassed by the attention.
"Please! I want to do something for you." Stiles pleaded, Derek inhaled sharply at the inappropriate image this planted in his brain.

"Seriously, I said it's fine."
"Ok, at least let me buy you a beer sometime. You really did me a solid back there." Derek really needed to escape, Stiles choices of words were messing with his mind and body.

"Ok, ok. Fine, whatever." He relented, quickly leaving the apartment.
"Thanks again! See ya Derek!" He heard Stiles call out before closing the door. This was bad, Derek didn't do one on one socialising, in fact he didn't do socialising period. The worst part was he wasn't even getting flustered about it because he didn't want to.

It was because he actually did want to spend more time with Stiles.
'Oh shit.'