Stiles woke slowly and regretfully to the rest of the world. At first, he thought it had been the slight chirping of the robins outside that had risen him, but then he realized he could also hear Scott's uneven snoring, which was the far more likely culprit.
Eyes still closed, Stiles smiled as he tightened his arms around the little boy laying in front of him. He wondered when Scott had climbed into bed with him, not that he minded – someday Scott would be too busy and cool to lay like this with his dad, so Stiles soaked it in while he could. Snoring or no snoring.
It was just when Stiles had started to think that the bed was almost unbearably warm for just the two of them that the pillows stacked against his backside moved slightly. And now that Stiles was starting to focus on them, he realized that the pillows were kind of stiff for pillows, and that they seemed to be encircled with his legs even.
Stiles opened his eyes slowly to take in the bed before him. Just as he had expected, Scott's large head rested against his shoulder, mouth wide open and eyes firmly shut. What he hadn't expected, however, was the tanned hand resting against his hip, which was attached to a tanned arm that wrapped around him from behind.
Turning his head as gently as possible, Stiles peeked behind himself only to find Jackson Fucking Whittemore.
"Oh, fuck," Stiles thought, suddenly remembering Scott's special dinner for his teacher.
The dinner that had unfortunately been interrupted by Derek, which led to Jackson intervening between Derek and Stiles.
Jackson shuffled forward, latching more firmly onto Stiles's torso and pushing up until his face rested against Stiles's neck and shoulder.
"Oh, fuck," Stiles thought, realizing Jackson was brushing more than his face up against Stiles's body.
Stiles really shouldn't be enjoying the feeling of Jackson's muscled body wrapped around him. Not only was the man Scott's teacher, but Stiles was still technically married to Derek. And while that probably wouldn't be for much longer after last night, that fact didn't necessarily make it right in the moment.
"So warm, baby," Jackson whispered into Stiles's ear.
"Fuck," Stiles thought, not appreciating how that one utterance did nothing to help Stiles stop enjoying the moment.
"Jackson," Stiles whispered, nudging the shoulder Jackson's face rested on, "Jackson, wake up."
"Mmm," Jackson said.
"Jackson, come on," Stiles whispered again, shaking his shoulder more urgently.
"Mr. Jack," Scott said, eyes still closed but little arm reaching forward in the direction of Jackson, "Daddy wants you awake."
"Stiles?" Jackson asked, blinking blearily as he pulled back.
At Jackson's greeting, Scott seemed satisfied, yawning and turning away from the pair before pushing himself backwards to snuggle deeper into Stiles.
Stiles snorted at his son before turning back to a blushing Jackson.
"Hey," Stiles said, offering a shy smile, "I don't really know how we ended up here, but I do remember the parts before it. And I think I owe you a big thanks."
"Oh," Jackson said, shaking his head, "Not really, don't worry about it. But, uh… Scott kind of insisted. About our sleeping together. Here. In bed. Not like sleeping sleeping! Just like laying and the… Sleeping."
"Christ," Jackson said, covering his face with his hands.
"Hey," Stiles said, laughing as he pulled at Jackson's hands, "Don't be embarrassed. If anyone has anything to be embarrassed about, it's me– Wait, are those my pajama pants?"
Jackson looked down at the Rugrats Reptar sleeping pants that Scott had insisted Stiles purchase last month – Scott had a matching pair, which the little guy was currently wearing. Stiles mentally deleted the internal "aww" that sprang forward at the realization that Jackson and Scott were wearing the same sleep pants.
Nope, that wasn't adorable. Especially not in Jackson's case, since the pants looked snug. Stiles's mouth dried as he continued to look down. The pants were leaving very little to the imagination, and Stiles hadn't even seen the back yet.
"Yes!" Jackson said, blushing a deeper red as he reached forward to place a pillow in front of his crotch, "And I think I'm suddenly feeling embarrassed again."
"I don't see how that's possible when I'm the one not wearing any sleep pants," Stiles said, snorting.
The pair were interrupted by a knocking on the bedroom door, followed by Isaac's head peeking in.
"This seems like an appropriate time to rescue my nephew," Isaac said, stepping up to the bed and picking a still sleeping Scott up, "Cora and Laura are downstairs, they decided to stay after mom picked Derek up. Just in case. John and Jordan are making breakfast in the kitchen, so come down whenever you want some, but you know… Take your time."
With an awkward waving motion between Jackson and Stiles, Isaac turned to leave the room.
"So," Jackson said, clearing his throat, "Do we need to talk about… Anything?"
Stiles snorted at the way Jackson repeated Isaac's awkward hand wave between them.
"Well," Stiles said, "I don't know. Is there anything you would like to talk about?"
"Uh… Well…" Jackson said, gaze shifting back and forth between the room and Stiles, "This was nice. Waking up like this. Next to you and Scott."
"Yeah," Stiles said, nodding his head, "That was nice. And dinner was nice, at least while it lasted. You really seemed to charm my father. And Isaac clearly likes you."
"I think Isaac likes anyone that's not Derek," Jackson said, smiling as he reached out to grasp Stiles's hand and tapping a finger on the wedding band, "Which is maybe something we should talk about."
Stiles let loose a deep sigh as he settled back down onto the pillows behind him.
"I've been considering a divorce for some time now," Stiles said, shaking his head, "But after last night… He kind of made my decision for me. It's just difficult, because that's… That was not the man I married, Jackson. And it's not the way I want you, or Scott, or anyone else to think of him. He was lost last night, I didn't recognize anything in his eyes. But I don't think I can help him anymore."
Jackson leaned down next to Stiles, resting on his elbow and propping his head up with his hand.
"When did things change between the two of you?" Jackson asked, "Not that you have to tell me. You just seem tense still, it might be good to talk about it. Unless you want me to go get Isaac? Or your dad?"
"I haven't told them, either," Stiles said, eyes brimming with tears, "It's not a good story, and I'm not sure if I reacted correctly. Sometimes I think I drove him to be like this."
"Hey," Jackson said, wiping a tear from Stiles's cheek, "I'm sure you didn't do anything to cause Derek to act like an asshole. He's an alpha, it comes naturally. I promise you."
Stiles laughed, wiping his other cheek dry.
"I think our big issue started in our third year of marriage," Stiles said, taking a shaky breath and looking at the wall in front of him, "I remember Scott wasn't very old, just a few months past one year. I had taken him out to the park for the day, so Derek could have the house to himself to focus. He was reviewing some big legal contract for an architectural project or something."
Jackson nodded his head, paying close attention to the story.
"When we came back, I walked into his study only to find him… Masturbating to a chat room," Stiles said, already getting flustered by the feelings of anger from the memory, "It didn't help that the subject was a tense one for us already. About a year before that I discovered his pretty frequent porn habit. And it's not that I think porn is bad, I've enjoyed it myself – I just had never really thought about porn while in our relationship. I didn't understand why he needed it, or wanted it, while we were together. Maybe it would have been different if he had asked me to explore it with him?"
Stiles's chest began tightening, and he took a breath before continuing.
"I don't know, I just felt… And this might sound really dumb," Stiles said, looking back at Jackson, "I kind of felt cheated on. And I felt really stupid trying to explain that to him, because he just didn't seem to understand. I tried explaining to him that it felt like an intimacy issue. I was giving him all of me, but then he was using these images of other people's bodies in a very intimate way without me – including people from chatrooms that he had never met before. It was too much."
"What happened?" Jackson asked, nudging Stiles's hands with his own.
"I asked him to stop," Stiles said, "At least the chatrooms, but I did ask him to try sharing porn with me when he felt like he really needed it. That was my attempt to compromise, but even when he said yes, I felt uneasy. It was done and over too quickly, and he didn't want to discuss it any further. I didn't really trust him anymore, which was the most damaging part for us, I think."
"But you stayed together for a long time after that?" Jackson asked.
"Five more years," Stiles said, nodding, "And it was in the sixth year of the eight that a woman called the house looking for Derek. She was nice enough, but didn't leave a name, and I wouldn't have thought much of it except for the way that Derek grew angry when I told him some unknown woman had called looking for him. It was two months later, after being caught in several lies, that he admitted the woman was a mistress. We had been in kind of a rut that year, not having a lot of sex, and he told me that that was what frustrated him, had led him to her. I was absolutely devastated."
"Stiles," Jackson said, wiping at Stiles's cheeks again, "I am so sorry that happened to you."
"We spent the next year and a half trying to work it out in New York," Stiles said, trying to blink his eyes dry, "And when we couldn't, I asked to come home, hoping that the support of our families could help us figure it out. Instead, Derek found Kate Argent, his newest mistress."
"Stiles, I am really, truly sorry for what you went through," Jackson said, staring earnestly back at Stiles, "And I am even more sorry that your family is still being challenged by these issues. I know it's not for me to affirm or validate your actions, or to bash Derek, but I do want you to know that you have my friendship and support no matter what happens, and I hope that helps a little."
Stiles pulled Jackson on top of him, wrapping his arms around the man for a deep hug.
"You don't know how much that means to me, Jackson," Stiles whispered.
Stiles cleared his throat before pushing Jackson back.
"And I know that we should talk about us–" Stiles said.
"Save it," Jackson said, lifting Stiles's face up with a hand on his chin, "I think it's pretty clear that I'm a little more interested in you than as simply a friend. Reptar was pretty vocal."
Stiles snorted as he shoved at Jackson's shoulder.
"But you need some time, and I get that," Jackson said, "I think that you are interested in me, though, right?"
"Yeah, Jackson," Stiles said, blushing as he nodded his head, "I'm interested."
"Great!" Jackson said, "I mean… Good. Why don't we head down for breakfast then? We'll figure the rest of this out later."
"I would like that a lot," Stiles said, smiling, "And I'm pretty sure Scott will be stoked when he's awake enough to realize you're here this morning."
"I'm going to go find my clothes then," Jackson said, chuckling, "I think I left them in the bathroom. I'll be right back."
Once the bedroom door closed behind Jackson, Stiles sighed back down into the mattress.
"Stiles?" his father's voice whispered through the door, followed by a soft knock.
"Yeah, dad?" Stiles asked.
The Sheriff opened the door and peeked his head in. If Stiles didn't know better, he would say that Isaac and his father were cut from the same cloth.
"Are you going on a date with him soon?" his father asked.
"Excuse me?!" Stiles asked.
"Jackson," his father said, rolling his eyes as if he thought Stiles was the slow one, "Did you have the talk? Isaac said he left you up here."
"Yes, Pops," Stiles said, "We had a talk, but no, we're not officially dating right now. I'm just a little bit still married, unless you forgot."
"I know," his father said, sighing with exasperation, "But this one seems like a real keeper. I kept my feelings to myself with Derek, but I want it on record now that I approve."
"Thanks, Pops," Stiles said, "I'll remember that when I give him the official interview."
"Skip the interview, son," his father said, "Scott approves, Isaac approves, I approve. Boyfriend accepted. Actually, if he's open to it, I am friends with the man that runs those court marriages downtown. You could be divorced and remarried tonight."
Stiles threw one of the pillows from behind him at his father, unfortunately the Sheriff closed the door before it could hit him.
Jackson chuckled as Scott shuffled back into the living room, carrying a ridiculously large bowl of popcorn over to the large reclining chair that the little guy was sharing with Isaac. Scott had been really excited to find Jackson at the breakfast table this morning, and fortunately for everyone, he seemed to recall more about Jackson's tail than the whole ordeal involving his father from the night before.
Scott had insisted that they spend the rest of the morning watching Tangled, since his after-dinner movie plans had been previously foiled. He was currently playing waiter – or maybe host would be the better descriptor – ensuring everyone had a drink or snack of some kind throughout the movie.
Scott handed the large bowl of popcorn up to Isaac before making his way back to the love-seat he had insisted Jackson and Stiles share. Jackson almost lost it with laughter when Stiles had leaned over to whisper, "I told you he had assigned seating."
"Her gold hair was nice, but her new hair is much better, don't you think so, daddy?" Scott asked Stiles, climbing up onto the love-seat to sit between Jackson and Stiles.
"Very chic," Stiles said, nodding his head.
Jackson felt a small hand curl its way into the thick wave of his hair.
"Brown is much better, it looks really soft, too, kind of like Mr. Jack's," Scott said, now petting Jackson's head, "Right, dad?"
"Ha," Stiles said, barely able to contain his laughter, "I do, Scotty. Very soft."
"And he's really funny, that Flynn guy, isn't he, Mr. Jack?" Scott said, hands moving out of Jackson's hair and latching onto Stiles's face, pushing his cheeks up into an exaggerated smile, "Kind of like daddy."
"Um… Yeah, bud," Jackson said, unsure whether the situation was still funny, "They're both very funny."
"Good," Scott said, nodding his head seriously, before jumping off the love-seat and heading out of the living room.
"Did he just compare me to Rapunzel?" Jackson asked, "And you to Flynn Rider?"
"Uh… I think he did," Stiles said, nodding seriously, "Where did he go, Isaac?"
"I can hear John giving him a dollar in the kitchen," Isaac said, still watching the television screen intently, "And be happy with your comparisons. He told me I would look good in green. I just knew if anybody was the lizard, it was lover boy over there. I thought I was at least the horse!"
