Stiles entered the classroom to nine high-pitched squeals of his name.
"Hey Jacob, Sarah, what's up you guys?" He returned the hugs they gave him happily, letting each of them get close and run their mouths about what had happened to them in the last six days.
They reminded him of what he was like when he was a kid, babbling about absolutely nothing, talking over others, some even climbing over others for his attention.
He'd learned how to filter his thoughts, but they still came spilling over sometimes. Okay, all the time, but not around the kids. Never around them.
Scott saved him from the babbling spider-monkeys by calling them back to him. "Are you guys just going to talk to him all day, or do you want him to actually read you a story like he's supposed to?"
The kids quickly dispersed and sat down in the middle of the room, culminating around a plush green armchair. "Stiles, Stiles, hurry!"
He smiled widely at them, then looked down at a tug on his jeans. Darby, one of the youngest girls, was there, thumb in mouth and clutching tight to her blanket and sitting on the floor, like always. Her thin blonde hair was wrapped up in a ponytail, sparkling blue eyes full of wonder.
Darby was one of Stiles' favorite kids, mostly because the three year old had never spoken a word to him before. Hell, he didn't even know if she could speak.
He picked her up gently and carried her over to the chair, setting her on his lap before taking a giant book of fairy tales from Scott.
"What do you guys want to hear today?" He asked.
"Little Red Riding Hood!" A dark haired five year old bounced in his place. This was Elias, the most hyperactive kid in the universe. He thought he out-ADD'ed Stiles sometimes.
"You ask for that every time, Elias." Scott chuckled.
"And one of these days, you'll give it to me." Elias huffed.
"What about…" Stiles skimmed the table of contents for something they hadn't read before.
"Pocahontas!" Sarah squealed.
"That's a movie, not a story tale, stupid!" Elias bit out at her.
"Hey!" Scott used his teacher-voice, and that shut Elias up. "We don't use that kind of language here."
Stiles put on his happy face. "Why don't you pick a story out Darby?" He asked the girl on his lap. She couldn't read, obviously, but he opened up to the table of contents. Her finger departed her mouth with a pop and she left a wet mark over the 'ix' in 'The Six Swans'. "If you insist."
As usual, each child clung desperately to his every word, loving when he brought a seemingly mundane story to life. They gasped when the brothers told the girl she only had six years to stitch together six swan shirts, and then they would be freed from their swan bodies.
"Why doesn't she just buy them from the store?" Sarah asked, holding her knees to her chest.
"Because these are special shirts, shirts that must be sewn from pure rose petals." Stiles told her.
She smiled. "They must smell nice."
"I'm sure, but they're a pain to make." Stiles winked. He continued with the story, and by the time the girl had gotten her voice back, it was time for the children to leave.
Darby's mom took a moment of her time to talk with Scott in hushed tones, Darby held between them, oblivious.
"What did Erica want?" Stiles muttered under his breath.
"More pack stuff." Scott whispered as he passed by, searching for one of the kids coats. "Nothing much Stiles, don't worry about it."
Stiles felt a pulling on his leg. "My daddy's here." Elias beamed up at him.
"You know how to sign them out Stiles, you work here." Scott called from the other end of the room.
"C'mon you little rascal!" He hoisted Elias over his shoulder and ran down the hall, the boy squealing and laughing. "Raaaaa!" Stiles growled and let him down; Elias threw his arms in the air and disappeared into the crowd of parents.
Stiles, Scott, and one of their co-workers, Allison, greeted the parents and said farewell to their students.
"Stiles! Stiles! Stiles!" Elias shot out of the slowly draining crowd and crashed into Stiles' knees. "Stiles, this is my daddy, he wanted to talk to you!"
Stiles looked up at the man Elias was referring to, a tall one with dark hair, dark eyes, and a rugged jaw line.
"Stiles?" He asked.
"Derek?" It dawned on Stiles where he'd seen this man before. He knew him back in high school, back when Scott had first turned. You could say he'd been a big part of Stiles' life, but he'd moved on so quickly he'd almost forgotten… "Derek Hale?"
"I didn't know you worked here." Derek gestured to the day care they were standing in.
"I read to the kids in the afternoon." Stiles explained.
"He still won't read me Red Riding Hood." Elias pouted.
"Good thing too." Derek looked down at the boy affectionately and ruffled his dark hair. "You don't need any more wolf stories." Derek actually smiled at Stiles. "I swear, I read him the Three Little Pigs once and he can't stop thinking about the Big Bad Wolf."
Scott joined their one-sidedly-awkward conversation just in the knick of time. "Hey Derek. Doesn't Elias' mom usually pick him up?"
Derek immediately went back to his original sour-wolf frown. "She-"
"Mommy left because my daddy likes other daddies!" Elias was all too happy to be delivering this information, and Stiles blushed. Derek remained stone faced.
Scott and Stiles both stared, unable to form words, but luckily they were saved by Allison. "I'm sorry to hear that Derek. You doing okay without her?"
"Of course." Derek had his pride. "I think I should go. Scott, don't forget about tonight." He left without another word.
"Well he's ominous and disturbing." Stiles commented. "What was that about?"
"We've got a pack meeting tonight, man. God, you've been gone awhile." Scott rolled his eyes, something he must have picked up from Stiles. "Actually, Derek needs a babysitter for tonight. Do you think you could-"
"Of course!" Stiles answered emphatically, surreptitiously checking his watch. "Shit, Scott, I've got to go."
"See you tonight." Scott waved goodbye to his best friend, then joined Allison in closing up the day-care.
Stiles approached the large, looming Hale house. At least it wasn't a dark, burned out shell like it was all those years ago. He guessed Derek had tried to fix it up for his kid, and probably his wife too.
The door was unlocked, so he just walked in, to be greeted by a horde of happy werewolves.
"Stiles!" Erica leapt up from the couch to hug her old best friend. "Where ya been, Batman? You haven't been to a pack meeting since high school! What happened?"
"Uh…" Stiles looked around at all of his old friends, who were waiting. "I went to college." He said nervously.
"We all did too; but we still made it back at least monthly for meetings." Erica's smile deflated a bit. "Where were you?"
"Montana. I emailed."
"You could have come down every once and awhile. We needed you." She looked betrayed, almost. Erica might have confidence the size of a mountain, but with Stiles… she couldn't help showing true emotions.
"You didn't need me, I'm just a human."
Stiles barely finished his sentence before Erica's palm collided with his cheekbone. "Don't you ever-"
"Erica!" Derek had magically appeared in the doorway to what looked like the kitchen. "That's the last time you do that."
"I'm sorry." Erica immediately went into submissive-mode. "But he-"
"I know." Derek handed Stiles a mug of coffee, which he almost immediately spilled on himself; mostly due to a three-and-a-half foot missile shooting into his kneecaps.
"Stiles!" It squealed, and the shining face of Elias beamed up at him.
"Hey buddy!" Stiles passed his- now half empty- mug to Erica and picked up the little monster.
"What are you doing out of bed?" Derek demanded in his Daddy-voice.
"I couldn't sleep!" Elias insisted from Stiles' arms. "All this noise. And Stiles is here!" He hugged the young man around the neck. "I can't go to sleep now, Daddy."
Derek rolled his eyes. "Elias, you have school tomorrow…"
"Is that Mister Scott?!" Elias noticed the others in the room. "Hi Mister Scott! Can I stay up tonight? Please? You won't mind if I'm tired tomorrow, right Mister Scott?" Elias pleaded with his teacher.
"No, Elias-" Derek tried to take him from Stiles.
"Please daddy? Please? Stiles is here!"
Stiles glanced awkwardly between the boy and his father. "Derek, I can take him upstairs, you can debrief from last time, and I'll be down soon."
Derek gave his son a pointed look. "Would you go to sleep if Stiles read to you?"
Elias seemed to weigh his options for a moment. "Yes! I would." He turned his full attention to Stiles. "Would you read to me? Please?"
"Sure kiddo." Stiles wobbled up the stairs with a new, uneven weight on his hip. The weight babbled on about how much he missed Stiles over the day, occasionally hugging his neck while Stiles tried to wrangle the boy back into his bed.
"Can you read this one?" Elias held up a book from his nightstand with both hands.
Stiles looked around for a chair or something, and then, finding none, decided to sit on the floor. Elias frowned.
"No Stiles." Elias patted the bed beside him. "Sit here." Stiles obeyed. "My daddy and mommy used to read this book to me." Elias says without a hint of sadness. "Daddy doesn't like to read it anymore."
Stiles swallowed around a jealous lump in his throat. Derek read this book to his son. With his wife. They probably kissed after they finished it. They probably went back to their room after they put Elias to bed. They probably spent the whole night-
"Stiles?" He looked down at the wide eyes of the boy. "Stiles you went all quiet."
"I'm sorry." Stiles cleared his throat and opened the book. "Guess How Much I Love You." He read aloud.
Derek's ears pricked while Isaac spoke. Stiles was still upstairs, reading to his son. The words as much as the voice caught his attention.
"'I love you as high as I can reach.' Said the Little Nut-Brown Hare. 'Well I love you as high as I can reach.' Said the Big Nut-Brown Hare."
Derek froze.
"'I love you all the way to the moon.' Said the Little Nut-Brown Hare. The Big Nut-Brown Hare kissed his forehead-" There was a smack like lips on skin. "And whispered 'I love you to the moon and back.'" Another smack. "Goodnight Elias."
"Night-night Stiles." There was some shuffling, probably Stiles getting up off the bed. His footsteps drew closer to the door. "Stiles?" He stopped.
"Yeah Elias?"
"Is my daddy going to kiss me goodnight too?"
Derek stood up from his armchair and growled. "We're done here." He said tersely, then marched up the stairs.
"Sure, I'll go grab him."
Derek reached for the door handle at the same moment it was wrenched open. "Stiles."
"Oh, hey!" Stiles beamed. "Elias wants a kiss goodnight. I was just about to come get you."
Derek shoved past him and kissed his son's forehead. "Goodnight, Elias." He grunted, but Elias didn't seem to mind. He then seized Stiles by the collar and slammed the door behind him.
"Hey, hey, Derek! What-"
"Why were you reading that book?" Derek demanded in a hushed, violent tone.
"He asked me to! What's wrong? I can't read your kid whatever he damn pleases?" Stiles switched the offensive.
"Not that one. Any book in that whole damn room and you picked Guess How Much I Love You?!"
"Derek, it's not a big deal! He told me to read that book specifically and I did!" Stiles started to worm around in Derek's grasp. "Seriously, you have a very bossy five year old."
"Shut up." Derek snarled. "We'd read it to him." He'd suddenly calmed. "When we were together."
"Did you love her?" Stiles asked quietly. Derek's hand was still on his collar, but it wasn't as tight as before.
Derek shook his head. "I don't know."
"Was she a wolf?"
"No."
"Is he a wolf?"
"It doesn't… no. He's human." Derek switched gears, slamming Stiles against the wall with renewed hostility. "Why does it matter?"
"It doesn't." Stiles covered quickly. "How does me reading that book affect him?" He stares right back at Derek fearlessly. Derek can practically see Stiles brain-gears churning. "Unless it doesn't. Unless it hurts you more than anything else. Unless my reading that book to your kid reminds you of your wife-"
"Ex-wife." Derek corrected.
"So what? Derek, Elias loves you. It doesn't matter to him if you like guys, he just wants you to-"
"To what, Stiles?!" Derek whisper-yells, then drags Stiles down the stairs to the kitchen. "I think it's fascinating that you know exactly what my kid wants."
"He wants you to pay attention to him! He wants you to take ten minutes out of your fucking day to sit down and read him a book before bedtime!" Stiles screamed. "He wants you to take him to a ball game or do a puzzle! The least you could do is eat dinner with the kid!"
"How do you know that?!" Derek barked.
"Because I was him!" Stiles' voice cracked. Derek backed up a step. "All I wanted to do when I was younger was hang out with my dad, but he was too busy at work to tuck me in and…" Stiles swallowed thickly. "Read me a book."
The room went silent.
Stiles could practically hear Derek swallow. "You can leave now, if you want."
"Okay." He knows when he's not wanted. "Call me. You know, if Elias needs a babysitter."
Derek nods tersely, but Stiles doesn't see; he's already in his jeep.