Talia wanted to meet Stiles.

Peter understood where she was coming from, he would have requested the same, but it was still a bad idea. Stiles did not like werewolves in general and the Hale pack in particular, with the exception of Peter for some reason. Stiles had been friendly with Cora but he'd kept his distance. Talia was the alpha, somehow Peter doubted that Stiles would be friendly with her.

If it had been anybody else, Peter would have gotten popcorn and enjoyed the show but here he didn't want to be present for the disaster.

However, Stiles had to agree to meet Talia first.

Not sure how to break it to him, Peter did what he always did when he didn't know how to handle a situation, he gathered information. So on a whim, he drove over to the sheriff's station. He knew that John was home in the evening all week so chances were good to catch him at the station in the morning.

"Hey Nancy," Peter greeted her with a winning smile.

"Didn't expect you." She narrowed her eyes on him. "Did something happen?"

"Just a friendly visit, is the sheriff in?" Peter asked but when he spotted Deputy Parrish in the background, he couldn't help but add: "Heard something did happen here last night."

"Do I even want to know how you know about that already?"

Peter just smiled at her.

"Parrish brought somebody in last night," Nancy told him in a low voice. Low enough that Parrish wouldn't be able to hear but the way he was glancing in their direction he knew exactly what they were talking about. "He didn't want to say why he'd brought him in, just said that he would report to Sheriff Stilinski directly in the morning."

"Isn't that unusual?" Peter asked with a concerned face. "Doesn't he have to write a report or something? Document everything?"

"Usually yes but he said that he wanted to check in with the sheriff first." She made a dramatic pause. "The guy didn't have an ID on him and he wasn't talking. Parrish put him in a holding cell to stew for a few minutes but when he came back, the guy was gone."

"Gone?" Peter faked surprise. "Did he just get up and walked out of the door?"

"We don't know, the cameras malfunctioned. We have Parrish with him in the cell but seconds after he left, the camera in the room just stopped working. Maintenance says something about water damage. But there's no leak or anything."

"How can that be?" Peter played along but he did file away the new piece of information about Derek.

"Nobody knows." She glanced over to the deputy. "Poor Parrish. The sheriff had him in the office for almost half an hour."

Somehow Peter doubted that the vanishing guy had been the main topic there. More the Stiles meeting men older than him in the middle of the night issue.

"Anyway, is he in?"

A minute later Peter poked his head into the sheriff's office.

"Ah, Peter, come in." John motioned for him to take a seat. "What did Stiles do now?" He asked as soon as Peter had closed the door.

"Nothing," Peter assured him. "Heard Parrish made a friend last night?"

John glared at him.

"That poor boy is beating himself up over it." John let out a sigh. "And he's very concerned about Stiles."

"Naturally."

"So." John changed the topic. "What brings you here?"

"I'm kind of looking for advice," Peter admitted. "Talia found out that I'm seeing Stiles."

"Okay? How did she take it?" He asked carefully. "I take that you told her about Stiles and Derek."

"She knows how Stiles ended up with Derek," Peter confirmed. "She's the alpha, she needs to know about things like that in her territory. I didn't tell her that I was seeing Stiles but last night she found out. She's concerned. She wants to meet him."

"The alpha of the Hale pack wants to meet Stiles." John leaned back in his chair with a groan.

"That bad?"

"For sure it's not a good idea."

"Talia insists." Peter spread his fingers to indicate that this was out of his hands. "You know him better than me, how would you break it to him?"

John thought about it for a long moment.

"Don't send him a message that you need to talk," he started. "Stiles is an overthinker, he would just work himself up over that. Call him and just tell him. Or tell him in person, that would be better."

That had been Peter's plan anyway. In the morning he had pondered if he should send Stiles a message like that but for one, Stiles wouldn't have read it anytime soon anyway and second was exactly what John had just pointed out.

"Offer neutral ground," John continued. "He would never agree to this at the Hale house or his cabin. Meet in a coffee shop or over lunch, somewhere public and with food. It calms him down if he has something to chew on."

"Yeah, I noticed that." Peter thought about the poor straws Stiles had molested.

"Don't trap him," John said. "Leave him an escape route."

"So pretty much treat him like he's a spooked animal."

"More like a traumatized person," John corrected with a stern look. "It's been a long time but what happened to him? It still haunts him some days. Meeting your alpha is probably the last thing he wants to do."

Peter left the station deep in thoughts.

It was still early and since he was in town, he checked in with some of his contacts. It kept his mind off other things. He didn't gather any new information, though. Nobody had seen the two hunters and the Argents were just playing nice neighbors. Everything was calm and Peter didn't like it.

He came home in the afternoon along with most of the pack, coming home from school or work. Cora came only in to drop off her bag and freshen up a little before she was out of the door again to meet a friend. The way her gaze kept flickering to Peter, he knew that this wasn't just a friend she hung out with so Talia's "Have fun" became instantly funnier. Cora rolled her eyes at her mother and then she was out of the door.

Talia didn't mention Stiles, there were too many people around and they had agreed to keep Stiles and Derek a secret for now. No need to stir up a panic or to tempt somebody, Peter was thinking of Isaac or Erica, most likely both, to go out to the lake just to see for themselves.

Stiles shot him a message that he was back on the surface again. They still couldn't use John's house, at least not without him hanging around and neither of them wanted that, but Stiles asked if he wanted to come over to the cabin again.

You still owe me, Stiles wrote followed by the emoji of an eggplant and some droplets.

Very mature, Peter answered but this was his best opportunity. So he agreed to come over and asked if he should bring dinner.

"You're seeing him tonight?" Talia asked quietly when he once again got ready to leave before dinner.

"Yes." There was no point denying it. "I'm going to ask him."

She nodded to that, her fingers lingering on his arm for just a moment too long.

"Be careful."

"He's no threat to us," Peter felt the need to say but he understood that she needed to see for herself.

He got the tacos Stiles wanted for dinner before he drove out to the lake. There was no deputy in sight, at least that.

"Should have asked John to tell his deputies to not bother me," Peter muttered to himself when he parked the car. But it looked like not even Stiles was on the not to bother list so why should he be?

Using the path was way quicker than walking through the woods and Peter reached the cabin quicker than he liked. He was not looking forward to the conversation he would have with Stiles.

Stiles greeted him with a kiss and took the bag of food from him to set it out on the small table.

"Derek did make it home?" Peter asked even if he already knew the answer.

"One of his easiest tricks." Stiles waved him off. "Damn, this smells delicious. I'm starving."

They sat down and Stiles had inhaled half his taco before Peter even had unwrapped his.

"Talia wants to meet you," Peter said just to get it over with. He should have waited until Stiles had cleared his mouth and was not in the middle of swallowing, though. Stiles coughed around the bite deep in his throat, his face turning red and Peter seriously wondered if this was a case for Heimlich when Stiles finally managed to cough the bite back up. He spat it into his napkin.

"What?" He asked still coughing.

"She heard me on the phone last night." How he could have been that careless was beyond Peter but he'd been at home, the place where he was supposed to be safe. He'd let his guard down.

"She figured out that it's you I'm seeing."

"Why does she want to meet me?" Stiles took a shallow breath and when that didn't cause another coughing fit, he reached for his glass for a careful sip.

"You're holding a grudge against us," Peter reminded him. "She wants to know if you're a threat."

"You're her left hand and you've already determined that I'm not a threat. Why isn't she listening to you?"

"I might be biased when it comes to you." Peter reached for his taco again.

"Do I have time to think about it?" Stiles asked with a look at the door as if he expected Talia to come in any second now.

"Of course." Peter licked sauce of his thumb. "Sleep over it. And if you say no, she has to accept it." He was not looking forward to telling her that. Talia was not used to people telling her no. "I would like you to meet her but I won't push."

Stiles was now eating way slower, he seemed to have lost his appetite and was chewing mechanically on his taco. He took two more bites before he dropped it entirety and pushed it away.

"Do you want me to leave?" Peter offered. Stiles might want to be alone for a while.

"No." He shook his head. "Please stay."

"Okay."

Peter took his time, eating his food because it looked like Stiles needed a moment to himself. He didn't even make an attempt to fill the silence and that was saying something. Once Peter had finished the taco, he balled up the wrapper and put it back in the bag. There was no garbage truck coming out here so he would take the trash out with him later.

"What do you want to do with the evening?" Peter asked. Sex had been on the table earlier but he doubted that Stiles was in the mood for that.

"Let's watch a movie?" Stiles suggested.

They moved over to the bed, which was missing at least one blanket, Peter noticed.

"One is in the laundry and I had to throw out the other one," Stiles said when Peter mentioned it to him. "You shredded it." He made a clawing motion with his hand.

"I'll replace it," Peter hurried to say but he failed to feel ashamed for ruining one of Stiles' blankets. The blowjob had been more than worth it. He would sacrifice every blanket in the world for another one like that.

"Don't worry about it, blankets are cheap."

They got comfortable with their backs against the wall and their legs stretched out on which Stiles placed his laptop. He refused to watch another Marvel movie like this, apparently one needed a big screen and snacks for that which he was both lacking here. All Stiles had at hand were some Twizzlers but those didn't count.

They settled on a horror movie and then Stiles hit play.

It was a bad horror movie.

They were laughing more than they were scared. Peter couldn't care less for the characters and they were just betting on who of the annoying bunch of dumb teenagers would die next. Sadly two of them survived. They totally didn't deserve it but here they were, coming out of the house with only minor scratches.

"I want a movie where the killer wins," Stiles whined. "This was so dumb. Did you notice …"

And with that Peter was listening to a detailed rundown of all the things that were bad about the movie. He wasn't one to judge, he was joining in rather quickly. Half an hour later they were discussing the biggest plot holes in movie history and Peter had gotten smacked in the face twice by Stiles who was wildly gesticulating while he laid out his argument.