(Author's note: this chapter got really schmoopy. I'm not apologizing, but I decided I'd better warn you. I wrote it in ten hours during an international plane ride on my phone, which — wow, that's the first time I've ever done that! Also, after the incident in the Nemeton with Stiles' father, I decided he'd better just already know about werewolves and be done with it — but then I've still got Scott not quite an Alpha, so… I'm confused about my own timeline, okay? Apologies for that. Hope you can overlook the inconsistencies and enjoy it for what it is. -amy)
Stiles listened with one ear as Danny, Scott and Allison talked in sober tones about the challenge, but he didn't manage to speak again until after they'd said goodbye. He leaned against the door, pressing it closed, and stared at Danny accusingly.
"You can't kill Ethan."
Danny turned away. I might have to, ku'u lei.
"But he's your boyfriend!"
Was. He went along with the challenge, which means on some level, he's complicit. I can't be responsible for his brother's actions if he isn't willing to deal with me directly.
Stiles glared at him. "Don't tell me. It's werewolf business, and it doesn't concern me. Right?"
"Of course it concerns you," Danny said aloud. "You're not going to convince me you're not interested when your thoughts are right here in my head."
"Did I say I wasn't interested?" Stiles huffed. "Trust me, I know how this goes. I've been through this before. You're the hero now, but me? I'm still the sidekick."
Danny smiled. It was gentle enough that Stiles probably should have felt annoyed, but it just made him shuffle in a step closer. "I'm pairbonded to you, Stiles. You can't assume it's going to be the way it was with Scott. A pair means two of a kind. You matter as much as I do in this equation."
"Even when it comes to pack?" Stiles heard how the question sounded. He might as well have been whining But the big wolves won't let me play with them. He was about ready to strangle himself. Luckily, Danny didn't seem to feel the same way. He wasn't pushing Stiles away or getting annoyed with him or anything. Stiles sidled another step closer.
Even then. Once you're my pack, that'll be something nobody can take away. It's not a civil contract; it's a physical bond. Danny touched his chest. I can smell you on me.
As Stiles let the hand settle on him, he relaxed. "Thought you washed your hands pretty well."
Deeper than that. He grinned. But that? No, I don't think I could wash them well enough to erase your scent completely.
Stiles licked his lips. "Yeah. Yours, either. I can still... even without werewolf superpowers."
It had never occurred to him how hot it might be to taste the flavor of another guy's come, at all, much less for hours afterward. But there was no doubt the lingering scent was making him hard all over again. He groaned a little, leaning into Danny.
"My dad said something about the pairbond making me hornier. Like I needed that."
"That's actually kind of a relief to know." Stiles could see the tips of Danny's pointed incisors protruding from beneath his lips. "I'm really not used to this degree of... yeah. So the thought that it might calm down is... god, Stiles." He twisted away from Stiles' groping hands. "Isn't your dad coming home soon?"
"Yes. My dad." Stiles knew he had some self-control, somewhere. He rubbed his hands along the length of his thighs. "Okay. This is kind of insane. Didn't we just - I mean, just, like less than an hour ago...?"
"I did," Danny agreed. "Pretty sure you did too." He crossed his arms across his chest, running his tongue over his teeth. "That fang thing is so weird."
"Just wait until you see what happens during the full moon." Stiles watched him longingly from a safe distance. "But right now... I'm really not sure how to keep from making this harder - I mean worse. Worse for you, when you can just tell, anyway? Can't you see exactly what I'm - what I'm thinking about you doing to me?"
Danny blew out a breath. Okay. Prime opportunity to teach you about blocking. He pulled out a chair from the table and placed it opposite, facing the other way. When he sat in it, Stiles couldn't see his face.
"Blocking. This is what you were doing last night, on your way over?" Stiles shook his head. "I think you're overestimating my ability to control - anything at all, really."
Just sit. Think about my hands, ku'u lei. What are they doing?
Stiles watched in the corner of his mind as Danny pressed his fingers together, then interlaced them. "Turning me on."
Behave, Danny chided. More specifically.
Stiles sighed. "You're making the ok sign with your left hand."
And now?
As he watched, the picture darkened, as though something had smudged it. He frowned. "You're... showing four fingers - no, three."
"How about now?"
"I can't tell. What are you doing?"
"You wouldn't be able to hear my voice either, if I were still trying to talk to you that way. I'm putting a cover over it. I can block your feedback too. My grandmother taught me how, after I learned you were my soulmate." Stiles heard him smiling. "Believe me, you're distracting enough without knowing about all the stuff you want to do to Lydia."
Stiles winced. "God. I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I just thought it was rude, eavesdropping on you." He glanced back at Stiles over his shoulder. "Doesn't mean I didn't do it sometimes, anyway."
He laughed. "Really?"
"Really. I'd just sit in bed and let my mind pick up on what you were doing, and kind of... watch you..." Danny laughed too, sounding embarrassed. "I guess that's pretty creepy."
"No!" Stiles said, surprised. "I just think... I'm sorry you had all that time to be alone." Then he realized what he'd said. He stood, feeling a sudden, profound need to be touching Danny, reached across the table - and the smudge was gone, cleared away. He could feel his soulmate again. He breathed in their connection. "God. Don't do that again, okay?"
Danny was silent, but that didn't matter anymore. Stiles could feel exactly what he was feeling, every bit of those eight years of solitude. He hurried around to where Danny was sitting, the tears dropping onto his lap.
"No, no, no," Stiles murmured, taking him into his arms, "it's never going to be like that again. I'm not going anywhere. This is - hey, come on, it's okay."
He knew Danny wouldn't mind if he held him tight, so he did that, feeling the way their bodies fit perfectly together, arms and hands and lips, hungrily seeking, while his mind said all the things he knew were true: you're a part of me, for ever and ever, I don't want to ever leave you again, you feel so perfect, this is what I've always wanted.
Danny wasn't letting himself cry, not the way he was feeling inside his heart, but Stiles forgave him that. Knowing how Danny really felt was enough, no matter how much of it was hidden from the rest of the world.
"I thought it was right to keep it from you," Danny said, his voice low and broken, "but I can tell now how lonely you were - just like I was, and to think you were just waiting for me, that whole time... I would have kept that from you forever, Stiles, I could have -"
"It doesn't matter," he said. He kissed Danny everywhere he could reach, all over his face, his neck, his mouth, trying to penetrate the self-recrimination Danny was casting upon himself. "It's done now. And you couldn't have kept me from you forever. I would have found you. I didn't even know I was looking for you and - and I found you anyway. And god, I'm so glad." He was crying openly now, crying the way Danny was denying himself, but as long as one of them was feeling it, what did it matter? It belonged to both of them. "This - this is exactly what I wanted."
Ku'u lei. Danny kissed him back, with a fervor that made them both groan. I won't ever keep it from you again. It's yours, as long as you want it.
Stiles felt the import of those words penetrate, felt exactly what they meant, when spoken by Danny. He smiled through his tears, kissing him again. He didn't mess around, his ku'u lei.
I'm yours, remember? Stiles told him. Whatever I thought I could have before, this has changed all of that. Na'u 'oe, and that's better than anything I could have imagined. You'll have me as long as -
He had to cut that sentiment off at its root, because the specter of Danny's confrontation with the twins loomed suddenly over their future together. The thought of Danny being torn from him made Stiles clutch him tighter, pressing his lips to his neck, shaking.
I know, Danny assured him. He had calmed down now, his control restored, and he held Stiles close. It'll never be enough time. I would do anything to keep you. Anything. He gripped Stiles' shoulders gently. And your dad's going to be here in a minute. Do you want a second to -
"Fuck that," he muttered into Danny's neck. "He knows what what this feels like. I'm not going to pretend." He kissed Danny again, slowly this time, building to a gasping fever pitch. This is real. This is mine.
Yes, Danny promised him, and Stiles believed him.
When Stiles' dad walked into the house, he stopped when he saw Stiles and Danny sitting together, hands joined, waiting at the table. He looked at them, then he dropped his gaze to the floor, and sighed.
"Okay," he said, resigned. "I get it. I do. I've been there. This doesn't have to be a lecture. The teaching parts can wait." He looked at them both pleadingly. "I just need you to agree to some ground rules."
"Mr. Stilinski," Danny began, but his dad cut him off with a reluctant shake of his head.
"There's no need, son. Anyone whose been soul bonded has thought through every possible argument to justify their need to be with their pair. Seeing as how you've circumvented the issue about accidental pregnancy, I'm just going to jump to my own concerns, all right?" He counted on his fingers. "Number one, your parents have to know. I'm not having anybody cheating under my roof."
Stiles stared at his dad. "Dad, we're not -"
"Number two," he pressed on, "you two are safe. Safe means no sex with anybody else, or it means condoms for everything, and I'm not -"
"Dad," Stiles said again. "He's a - um. A werewolf. It's always going to be safe sex."
Danny shot him a baleful grimace, but at least Stiles' dad stopped talking for a moment.
"Jesus," his dad muttered, running a hand over his face.
"Sir," Danny tried again. He was being so courageous that Stiles wanted to cry, but his dad just put out a hand and rested it on Danny's shoulder. He fixed him with a measured look.
"I know," he said softly. "My wife, she... it was just this way, with us. I would have done anything for her. She was the love of my life, and I never left her side." His eyes were wet. "And I couldn't ask for more than for my own son to have that, too."
Danny swallowed, and nodded. "I promise. I won't let him down."
Stiles watched the interchange between the two of them with limp, feeble objection. "Dad... Danny?"
His dad let go of Danny's shoulder. He was suddenly looking much more relaxed. "Stiles, you might as well give up now. You're never going to be the one in charge." He shook his head, smiling unapologetically. "I wasn't, either."
Danny, to his credit, didn't laugh, though his own eyes glimmered a little. "Any other rules I should know about, sir?"
His dad looked somewhat reproachful. "I had it all worked out, and then you had to throw the werewolf thing at me."
Stiles cleared his throat and tried a smile. "Well, uh... in that case... how about lunch?"
His dad took about three seconds to cave. "Sodas and sandwiches are in the front seat of my car."
Stiles hurried out to the driveway to get lunch from the sheriff's patrol car, but when he turned, Danny was right beside him.
"I'm sorry," Stiles told him. "About the - the werewolf thing. I just couldn't lie to -"
Danny interrupted him very slowly, taking Stiles' face in both hands and waiting for him to go quiet before kissing him with utter sincerity. Stiles just stood there and whimpered until he was done.
"Ku'u lei," Danny whispered, "your father just gave me permission to sleep over at your house. You'll forgive me if I feel anything but amazing."
Stiles stared into his deep brown eyes and swallowed. "That's... the first time I've ever heard you say that aloud."
"Ku'u lei," Danny said again, stroking his cheek. It was all Stiles could do not to collapse against the side of his dad's car.
"Lunch," he managed.
They brought the sandwiches into the house and unwrapped them on the table. By the time they poured the sodas into glasses and added ice, Stiles' dad had recovered himself.
"So, you're the one who came into the hospital with the injured boy earlier this year."
Stiles watched Danny go still. "Yes, sir."
Stiles' dad poured himself a Coke. Stiles decided now was not the time to complain about the amount of sugar in his dad's drink. He regarded Danny over the rim of his glass. "Am I to take it he... recovered?"
"He did," Danny said steadily. "But eventually he decided being the boyfriend of somebody else's soulmate wasn't worth it."
Stiles' dad snorted. "No. I'd expect not."
"Yeah." Danny gave Stiles an apologetic smile. "It took me way too long to figure that out."
"Okay." His dad took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "And... to be honest, boys, I have zero idea what to ask about this werewolf business, so you're going to have to help me out with that."
"It's new for me, too, sir." Danny nodded at Stiles. "He's the expert."
Stiles watched his dad's eyes widen, and he shook his head definitively. "No. Not me. I'm not. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just - nope, still human here."
"All right." Stiles' dad nodded wearily. "I'm going to count that in the plus column, but you can bet I'll have all kinds of questions for both of you, very soon. That's enough for today. I'm guessing you have another set of parents to talk to today? Stiles, I'll expect you - at least you - for dinner." He gestured at the driveway. "Now get out of here."
They scrambled for the Jeep, staring at one another in amazement.
"That was a lot more than I expected," Stiles said. He settled back in the driver's seat and breathed. "Fuck."
"Yeah," Danny agreed faintly. "I, uh, really want to kiss you, but let me just make sure I'm not going to throw up first."
Eventually Stiles was able to dig in the pocket of his shorts for his keys. "You really want me to come meet your mother?"
"And my grandmother," Danny agreed. "My mom's easy. My grandmother's the badass. Although, honestly, between her and your dad, I'm not at all sure who'd win."
