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Peter's not sure how they ended up lying together and talking. It had started with Derek leaning against the table talking about a family outing before the fire. He was making fun of Cora for having blundered into a patch of poison oak. "I was ten! What did you expect?" she had playfully punched him on the arm before sitting on the table next to him. Peter got up from the stairs as she made to lie down on the table.
Derek smiled softly, "Mom was trying to show you how to scent it out, that was a whole point." She grumbled lightly and he leaned back and joined her on the flat surface.
Peter strode over to the both of them and rested his hip against the edge. "If I remember correctly, you knew it was there. You were supposed to be helping your younger sister," he lightly scolded him. Derek glared at the older wolf as Cora punched him again; a moment later he motioned for his uncle to join them on the table. Peter contemplated it for a second before he slid into space next to his nephew.
They hadn't had any family moments since the three of them had been together. It made him uncomfortable in the strangest way and he struggled to explain the feeling. The two younger wolves continued to banter back and forth as Peter looked up into the rafters. Family, they were everything he had left; Derek with his unfortunate luck and Cora with her mysterious absence and feigned apathy. At moments like this he could feel the tiny bit of regret niggling at him for Laura's death. Derek's soft chuckle broke him out of his reverie and he turned his head. Something like fondness almost broke through before he realised it and then he was overcome with envy and rage. He managed to get his feelings under control and keep his heartbeat steady before the two of them noticed. He wondered if he was growing weak with his feelings for his poor broken family.
Derek turned to him a moment later when he asked a question and the older man hadn't responded, "Are you okay?"
Peter blinked in surprise because he so engrossed in this thoughts he had not been listening. The concern on his niece and nephew's faces momentarily disarmed him. "Yes, I was just lost in the moment," he replied without any sarcasm for once. They both smiled at him and returned to their conversation.
The former alpha frowned and let a bit of nostalgia wash through him. He decided in that moment, that he would find a way to get these two damnable children out of his way. They would have to leave so that he wouldn't have to deal with any more of those trifling niggling feelings that threatened to fill the empty hole in his chest.