Talia was determined to find out who Peter had been with. If it had been a one-night stand or if he was serious with somebody. Just like when they had been teenagers. It was almost cute.

However, Peter had to make sure that his phone was locked at all times and that she wasn't reading over his shoulder when he was texting with Stiles. He was texting with lots of other people too but somehow she had a sixth sense for the times he was chatting with Stiles.

Since Stiles couldn't let himself be seen in town when teenagers should be in school, he didn't want to cause trouble for the sheriff, he stayed under most mornings. So when they were texting it was mostly in the afternoon or evening. Slowly Peter was seeing the pattern there even if he still didn't know if Stiles had to go back to the bottom of the lake that often or if he chose to go there.

If he went there on his own free will, what made him go? Stiles had drowned in that lake, why would he go back there willingly? They had been texting for a few days now but so far Stiles had refused to answer questions like that. Sometimes he did offer a piece of information but usually those raised more questions than they answered. Like the fact that Derek would come to bring him back. How long did Stiles have? How would Derek bring him back? Peter had the image of Stiles in mind, kicking and cursing while Derek was just carrying him under his arm down the street. Peter doubted that that was the case, somebody would have noticed and most likely would have called the sheriff. Peter was pretty sure that he would have heard about incidents like that. Not that he knew how often Derek had to come out to get Stiles but according to Stiles it had happened a few times lately.

However, Peter was chatting with Stiles at times when he wasn't alone in the house and thanks to Talia everybody wanted to know who he was talking to. Talia had tried to be discreet when she'd asked around if somebody knew who Peter was seeing but there was a reason he was the left hand and she was the alpha and that was not because she was older. She was good with people and the diplomatic stuff but she was shit at gathering information. Peter would have laughed if her clumsy attempt didn't draw the attention of the whole pack to him. Whenever it became too much, he fled the pack-house.

When Peter wanted to be alone he either just went out into the preserve for a run or he drove into town and hid in the library. When he came in two days in a row, even Denise noticed that something was up.

"You're coming here quite often lately." She cornered him one day.

"It's nice and quiet here," Peter offered with a little smile.

"And at home, it is not." She nodded in understanding. "You have too many people living on top of each other, just saying."

"We like it." Peter shrugged. They were pack. Not everybody lived at the main house but they all needed the closeness, it was a werewolf thing. There was a reason omegas didn't survive on their own. The loneliness drove them insane and most killed themselves before the became completely feral. Werewolves needed their pack.

But sometimes it was nice to be alone for a little while. Especially since the whole pack was after him now.

Thanks, sis, Peter thought. He would bet money that more interesting things would happen before the weekend that would catch Talia's attention but at the moment it felt like everybody was stalking him.

"But some privacy from time to time is also nice," Denise added but then someone demanded her attention and she had to leave.

"Didn't expect you here." Suddenly Stiles spoke up behind him.

Pleasantly surprised Peter turned around but was met with a confused look on Stiles' face.

"It's not Friday. Or is it?" For a moment Stiles didn't seem to be sure. "It's Tuesday, right? I've dinner with John tonight." He nodded as if he needed to convince himself of the date.

"Do you miss time?" Peter wondered.

"Days blur together if I'm not careful," Stiles said which didn't answer anything. "Do you want to grab a coffee?"

Maybe he was just in need of some caffeine, though.

"Sure," Peter agreed easily. It would be just his luck that somebody saw them together but he was willing to risk it. He knew that Talia would have a word with him if she knew that he was seeing Stiles. It was wrong on so many levels. Funny enough, the obvious one was not one of those problems. Stiles was not a teenager, he was old enough to do whatever he wanted to do.

But they were still standing on different sides, the division of the town between Derek and the Hale pack was just the result of something that went way deeper but if Stiles was willing to ignore that, Peter was not going to complain.

They went over to the same coffee shop as last time but today Stiles didn't add more shots of espresso to his drink which Peter took as a good sign.

"Is Talia still on your ass?" Stiles asked when they were sitting with their drinks at a table in the corner. Peter liked a seat from which he could overlook his surroundings and nobody could sneak up on him and it looked like it was the same for Stiles. He'd left the seat with the back to the wall to Peter and had taken the one at the window for himself but had twisted into the corner so that he almost had the wall in his back as well and could look out of the window.

"She's in big sister mode." Peter took a sip from his coffee.

"You could always tell her, you know?" Stiles reached for the straw.

"Where would be the fun in that?" He gave Stiles a feral grin. "I'm her little brother it's in the job description to not tell her things like this."

To not look at Stiles molesting the straw Peter had a look around at the other patrons. The coffee shop wasn't cramped, there were still quite a few tables free, and the guests were all focused on their drinks. For a moment he wondered what they thought when they looked at Stiles and him. They would most likely think that they were father and son, he guessed.

"John is going to pull a double on Thursday." Stiles changed the topic. "You up for the next movie?"

"Only if I can shower at your place afterward," Peter agreed. "At least if we …" He made a vague gesture to which Stiles blushed and almost knocked over his drink. It was adorable.

"Sure thing," Stiles said, trying for casually. He went back to attacking his straw but his heart was beating rapidly and the wave of pheromones coming from him gave him away.

Stiles was now looking out of the window, anywhere that wasn't Peter, he guessed, but then he spotted something outside.

"Is that Cora?" He asked.

Peter followed his line of sight and sure thing, that was his niece walking past the window. In the other direction with her back to them and she would have never spotted them but Stiles just had to blurt out that question, hadn't he? Because Cora had most certainly heard him.

She stopped in her tracks and was now looking around to identify who had just called her name. Peter would have liked to melt into the wall but even if she might not see him, with this angle he might be lucky, Stiles' was basically sitting in the window, there was no way that she would miss him.

Sure enough, her wandering gaze settled on Stiles.

Stiles waved at her.

A second later she stormed into the coffee shop.

"Stiles?" She asked but then her eyes narrowed down on Peter. "What are you doing here?"

"Having a coffee." He lifted his cup.

She rolled her eyes at him and took one of the free chairs. She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by Stiles who loudly sucked the remains of his drink through the straw. How anything even went through the chewed and twisted plastic was beyond Peter but for sure it made it noisier.

"I should go now." For good measure, Stiles licked the straw clean before he declared his drink finished. "Thanks for the coffee. We'll text."

He stood and for a moment he was fiddling with his hands as if he wanted to say more but then he turned on his heel and hurried away.

"Sorry for interrupting?" Cora's voice trailed off as she watched him leave. "I didn't mean to ..." She turned back to Peter with confusion written over her face. "Sorry?"

"It's fine, he was about to leave anyway," Peter assured her. She'd just witnessed Stiles chugging down half his drink, it was clear that Peter was lying but she accepted it.

"What were you guys doing here, anyway?" Cora recovered quickly.

"We had a little chat over coffee," Peter answered. For sure he would not tell her that they'd hashed out their second date.

"Does he have problems or something?" Cora asked. "Are we going to take him in?"

Peter had his cup half-way up to his mouth but he paused in mid-air, not following.

"What?"

"I was just thinking." Cora fiddled with a napkin. "When he came over the other day, we talked for a bit. He mentioned his uncle but when I asked where he lived, he didn't really answer."

"It's complicated." Peter sat down his cup.

"So, are we going to adopt him? That's why you're hanging out with him?"

Boyd, Erica, and Isaac had been adopted into the pack like that. Talia was not actively looking for additions to the pack, they were quite a large one already, but if they came across somebody who needed help, well, they wouldn't just turn their backs on them.

Troubled teenager had been Peter's first thought when Denise had told him about Stiles so it wasn't that far fetched.

"He has his uncle," Peter said. "He's looking after him, no need for adoption."

"If not that, why are you having coffee with him?" But then her face lit up with realization. "No way. This was a date? I interrupted a date?"

"It wasn't a date."

"I was right with your scent the other day. And now …" She took a deep breath. She shouldn't be able to find much but Peter had been watching Stiles molesting that straw for minutes, he had no illusions that that was still lingering in the air. "Is he the guy Mom's asking about?"

Of course, she connected the dots, she was too smart for her own good. Her excitement for figuring it out turned into something else rather quickly, though.

"How old is he?" She narrowed her eyes on him.

"Older than he looks," Peter answered truthfully. He knew what this looked like. He was a grown man and Stiles looked like a teenager. But it was not like that.

"I bet he's very mature for his age too." She even made the air quotes.

It was a common phrase to justify older men prying on teenagers, Peter had to give her that.

"No." Peter wasn't sure if mature was a word he would choose to describe Stiles. "I'm saying that he's old enough to do whatever he wants. The evening you're referring to? We spent that at his uncle's house. The sheriff knows about me seeing him and he's okay with it."

Cora studied him for a long moment, not buying it. She had seen Stiles. He looked like sixteen at most even if he claimed that he'd been eighteen when he'd stopped aging. But Peter wasn't going to tell her that. He'd told Talia because as the alpha she needed to know but he was not going to spread Stiles' secrets around the pack or the whole town.

"Let's make a deal." Peter became serious. "I'm not going to tell anybody about you liking girls and you're not going to tell anybody that I'm seeing Stiles." Not that he would tell anybody but Cora didn't need to know that.

"If it's okay to see him, why don't you want people to know?" She challenged him.

"Because sometimes people don't understand." Peter let out a sigh. If this thing with Stiles became more serious he would have to think about that. "But I swear, Stiles is old enough and I'm not taking advantage of him." He was looking her straight in the eye when he said it and he made sure that his whole body was transmitting that he was telling the truth. "Do we have a deal?"

"Deal."