A/N Title taken from Northern Downpour by Panic at the Disco.

The first time Danny and Stiles meet is on Halloween. It's almost 6 PM, and Danny is running extremely late to pick his child up from preschool.

Well, it's not his child, not exactly - legally, Charlie is all his, but biologically? Danny's sister got pregnant at 16, over two years ago now, and when it was made clear that she both wanted to go through with the pregnancy, but not raise the child, Danny stepped up to the plate. Maybe he was only 21 years old when it happened, but he had a steady job working for a tech company, making more money than he knew what to do with, and he'd always known he wanted a child.

For a man in his situation, homosexual, worked a lot, it wasn't going to be easy for him to get a kid through adoption, and natural pregnancy was out of the question, seeing as he knew firmly where he stood, and it was on the "likes guys" side of the line.

The adoption was official moments after Charlie's birth, and Danny had been working to raise the boy as his own for the past 22 months. Most of the time, he was able to juggle work and his son, especially since so much of his work could be done from home, but today...things just got away from him.

He had a meeting two towns over, and it ran late, and now he's struggling to get to the school, who has already called him 4 times to inform him that he's late, by the time he even gets out of the meeting. He speeds home to Beacon Hills, and thanks god that traffic isn't bad, but he know she's late, and that by now, little Charlie is certainly the only one in his class left...seeing as the school lets out at 5 PM at the latest.

When he bursts in the door, he's surprised to see his son, still wearing the dinosaur costume he came to school in, sitting in the lap of a total stranger dressed as a cowboy, fast asleep.

"I'm so sorry, I got held up at work, it was ridiculous, I didn't mean to be this late, I mean I didn't mean to be late at all, but..." He trails off, making sure that his voice is maintaining a whisper. "Wait, who are you?"

"I'm Stiles," Stiles says softly, gently shifting the boy in his arms to hold his hand out. I'm the new toddler assistant. I know Ms. Martin sent out a bulletin, but there wasn't a picture. You must be Mr. Mahealani."

"Daniel." He nods. "Or Danny. How long has he been asleep?"

"About 20 minutes. After the last kid left he screamed a little, wore himself out."

"God, I'm so sorry." Danny reaches into his pocket and pulls out his ID, showing it to Stiles. "I'll get him out of your hair so you can leave. I'm really sorry to keep you."

"Hey, it's okay." Stiles smiles. "So long as it doesn't become habit, I don't think we've got a problem."

"It won't, I promise. I should have called someone else, I just really didn't think that meeting would run over that long." Danny cradles his still sleeping son in his arms. "Was he that upset?"

"Nah." Stiles smiles. "I mean, about normal for the situation. At this age they haven't fully realized he concept of being late versus being, you know...left..." Stiles scratches at the back of his head, now wanting to make the clearly flustered father feel any worse.

"Well thank you for staying with him, for comforting him...and god, I can't believe he managed to keep his costume clean all day."

"Oh, he didn't." Stiles laughs. "As soon as the kids showed odd their costumes we took them off and changed them. I used putting it back on to distract him while we waited."

"Oh." Danny smiles, dimples wide. "Well thanks again. Have a good Halloween, John Wayne."

"That's the Lone Ranger to you," Stiles teases, instantly regretting it, because while this guy looks about his age, he's still the parent of one Stiles' students.

"Oh yeah?" Danny asks, arching one eyebrow high. "Then where's your mask?"

"In my bag," Stiles replies truthfully. "I didn't want to scare the kids."

"Oh." Danny looks shut down, like he has no response. "Well I'll be seeing you."

"Same." Stiles slings his messenger bag over his shoulder and signs both himself and Charlie out before turning the lights out and locking up the school, heading to the Halloween party his roommate is going to kill him for being late to help set up.

"Hey man Lone Ranger, how was your first day?" Scott asks, opening the door to their apartment before Stiles even has the chance to dig his keys out. "You're late, by the way."

"Suck it up, Tonto, we had a super late parent, and I'm the newbie so I got the short straw, had to stay with the kid. Not that it was bad, just...that's why I'm late."

"Forgiven." Scott shrugs. "I need you to help me with my face paint."

"What are we going to do when one of us is dating someone on Halloween, and expected to do a couples costume with them?" Stiles asks of his childhood best friend.

"Hope that they are understanding of or traditions?" Scott tries.

"Right on." Stiles laughs as he helps Scott get his face paint on.

"So for real, how was your first day?" Scott asks.

"Well I'm the only guy," Stiles states. "But it was good."

"The only guy in your classroom, or the only guy in the whole staff?"

"Whole staff."

"Lucky you," Scott says with a sigh. "It's just me and Deaton at the vets."

"You know I don't play where I work," Stiles smiles. "Besides, Ms. Martin - sorry, Lydia. It's toddlers, so first names - is engaged."

"Isn't here another assistant?" Scott asks.

"Yeah, Allison, but she's not really my type. Which is good. I won't be tempted to break my rules."

"What about hot parentals?" Scott teases.

"Nah." Stiles shrugs it off, his mind totally not going to the late father. Not at all. "Alright makeup done, let's set up the booze."

Scott and Stiles are new to Beacon Hills, and Scott, straight out of vet school, got a job easily at the local vet, and Stiles, straight out of college with a degree in early childhood development didn't have any problem getting a job as an assitant as a preschool. They decided to throw a party on Halloween, try and meet some of the people in their apartment complex, but mostly, it's just a fresh start for the childhood best friends, and they're happy about where their lives are taking them.

"What do we do if no one shows up?" Scott asks, setting out the bottles of beer and liquor that they had bought for the party while Stiles gets the cups.

"Get drunk and play Mario Kart," Stiles states. "Duh."

"Being an adult feels a lot like being in college," Scott muses.

"We're bridging the gap between college and adulthood," Stiles says with a smile. Hey, he's professional at work, he knows that. He's great with the kids, and he will be an amazing assistant. That doesn't mean that he can't get hammered on Halloween with his best friend, with his brother.

A/N Alright, new Stanny story! First off, I work with toddlers, and every toddler in this story's behavior will be modeled after one of my students, so it should be pretty accurate! Second, I hope that you enjoyed the opening, and yeah, it's probably going to be a slow build, so I hope that's alright! :) Please keep reading, even if it's a slow start!