First, Peter brought Talia up to date with what he knew about Derek. He left out the part where Derek had almost drowned him but he did mention that he could come through the pipes.

"You think he's a threat?" Talia asked the question Peter had been pondering for a while now.

However, Derek had come to him to threaten him when he could have just killed him and be done with it. Plus, Stiles had mentioned that Derek didn't like to kill. Even the sheriff didn't seem particularly worried about the lake monster in his town but Peter had to admit that since the sheriff was keeping an eye on the lake, nobody had died out there.

"No." He shook his head. "He's not a threat. At least not until provoked."

"Okay." She took his word for that. "So what about that other someone?"

Peter told her about the deal the alpha back then had with Derek and how he'd cheated his way out of it. That Stiles now was bound to stay with Derek. Peter just gave her the cliff-notes, no need to go into detail here. He didn't want to betray Stiles by gossiping about him but Talia needed to know at least the basics.

When he'd finished, she sat there in stunned silence for a moment, trying to comprehend the new information.

"Oh and by the way, the sheriff knows about us," Peter added for good measure.

"Sheriff Stilinski?" That threw her off. Peter couldn't blame her. He had thought that their secret was well kept and that he knew everybody around here who knew about them but the sheriff had completely slipped his radar. If he hadn't outed himself, Peter would have never guessed.

"The very same," Peter said. "He's pretending to be Stiles' uncle, pretty sure Stiles told him about us. Years ago."

The sheriff had known about werewolves for years and they had been none the wiser. Peter didn't like that at all but on the other hand, he had to give the sheriff kudos for taking it in stride. "As long as we're not breaking the law, he won't do anything."

"Why didn't we know about all this?" Talia asked. "How can this Stiles live out there for decades without us noticing? You say he's in town quite frequently."

"We never had a reason to have a closer look," Peter offered but he had been asking himself the same question. It was his job to know things like this. "And we don't go there, remember?"

She nodded to that and Peter was pretty sure that that rule would be enforced more firmly again.

"So this Stiles." She came to the point Peter wanted to talk about. "Is there something we can do?"

"I don't know how," Peter admitted. "Even if we free him somehow, I doubt Derek is just going to ignore such a breach of contract. He's played along and has accepted Stiles instead of what he's been promised but cheating him out of that?" He shook his head. "Things would become bloody." He had no doubt about that.

"So what can we do? We can't just leave him like that."

"He told me to do just that. To let things be." Peter sighed. "He has my number, we've been talking."

Talia threw him a glance but didn't comment on it.

"I want to meet him," she decided.

"I doubt that he wants to meet you. He's not particularly fond of the Hale family." Peter made a face, remembering how gleeful Stiles had been when he'd thought that Peter had killed a Hale. "For obvious reasons."

"What do you suggest?"

"Keep things like they are for now." Peter didn't like it but he had no other idea. "I still don't know what Derek is, I might be able to say more once I know. Until then? I'm going to stay in contact with Stiles."

"You're using him."

"No." That word came out sharper than intended. "I like him and I want to help him."

"You don't like people. And you don't want to help people," Talia reminded him. "You think about the safety of the pack first, always. That's the reason why you're my left hand."

"Stiles is different," he said and planted his feet firmly on the floor. "I'm going to check the doors and then I'll turn in." He stood and walked out of the room. He couldn't remember the last time he hadn't been the last to turn in but the conversation had been heading in a direction he didn't want right now. He felt Talia's eyes on his back but ignored them.

He made a quick round to make sure that everything was locked before he retreated to his bedroom.

It was still early, at least for him, so he got comfortable on the bed and took his phone out. Stiles had read his message but he still hadn't answered his question about what it was like to be under. Randomly Under the Sea popped into his head but he doubted that this was as colorful and happy as in the movie.

He was just about to put the phone aside, it was late and he doubted that Stiles would answer at this time of the night but then he saw that Stiles was typing.

Peaceful, came the answer. Nothing matters down there.

Do you like it?

Depends. It's a nice retreat but I do like being upside.

Hence the cabin, Peter thought. And Stiles did have contacts in town. Which reminded him …

Did you enjoy dinner with your uncle?

He was pouting all the way through dinner. I forced him to have salad

You're cruel

He deserved it for telling you that he knows about you. Not you you but you know

Peter did know and he appreciated that Stiles did not use the word werewolf in a written conversation. Who knew who might read it.

He was pouting so badly that I carved and we had pasta later. Totally forgot the time over that. Again

Peter sensed more behind those words but before he could type out the question, Stiles had sent him another message.

So about that book ...

Peter got more comfortable on the bed.

They started with books, picking things up right where they had left them yesterday but they moved on to other things eventually. If Peter had seen the latest Spiderman? To which Peter had to admit that he'd seen a few of the Marvel movies but that he wasn't particularly fond of Spiderman. To which Stiles broke into a rant about how awesome Tom Holland was, followed by a rant about how it was not acceptable that Peter wasn't up to date with the Marvel Franchise.

We need to watch them

All of them

I have a spreadsheet of the right order to watch them

With all the tie-ins

But we can keep those for later

The last few messages came in as rapidly fired shots.

Who says that I want to watch them? Peter asked.

Nobody's asking you. Those movies are our culture

If you say so, Peter couldn't help but tease.

I do

There was a pause where the dots were indicating that Stiles was typing but there were long pauses as if he was writing and deleting something. Peter waited patiently for him to make up his mind.

When are you free? Was the message Stiles finally sent out.

Is this a date? Peter asked, partly to mess with him but partly because he wanted to know where they stood.

No, Stiles answered instantly but after a second another message came in: Unless you want it to be

Peter laughed at that.

It's a date, then

You do know that there are 23 movies, right? Stiles reminded him. Not that Peter had known the exact number just that there were a lot of these movies. That's 23 dates, 12 if we do double features

Let's start with one, Peter tried to slow him down.

And just like that Peter had a date.

They would hash out the details later because they would not have a movie night at the Hale house, both of them were set on that, and Stiles didn't want to watch the movies on the little screen of his laptop in his cabin. That would have been cozy but camping out on the floor in the pile of blankets Stiles called a bed was not Peter's idea of a date. He felt a tad too old for that.

Stiles suggested the sheriff's place, he was pulling nightshifts a lot lately and he did have a nice big TV. Stiles just had to ask him when it would work out with his schedule. Peter was not sure what to think about that but it was the easiest option. He didn't want to rent a room for a night because that would implicate things and he didn't know what Stiles would say to that. So the sheriff's place it was.

It was way after midnight when they called it a night and Peter put away his phone. Talia had gone to bed a while ago so the house was quiet again. Before Peter got ready for bed, he went downstairs again and stepped outside for a moment. He hadn't done that earlier and it felt wrong to go to bed without his last round around the house. Everything was quiet outside and with a good feeling, Peter locked up and went to bed.

He wasn't constantly texting with Stiles, there were long stretches of time where Stiles didn't read his messages and vice versa, Peter had things to do as well, but they were talking frequently now. For their date, they had set their minds on the weekend because weekends were for dates at least according to Stiles even if neither of them had to get up early over the week.

Besides, Peter had other things on his mind. There was no sign of those hunters but Peter did check in with most of his contacts just to stay in the loop.

Then he was still trying to figure out what Derek was. That had become kind of an obsession to him because once he knew what Derek was he might be able to help Stiles. Not that Stiles had asked for his help, quite the opposite. Stiles had explicitly told him to drop it but that was the one thing Peter couldn't do. He needed to know. If that knowledge would help him in the long run and if he would use it in some way he didn't know but he wanted to have it. Just in case.

Stiles had said that Derek might have come to America with the Vikings or German settlers so that narrowed it down but not by much. There were a lot of European water spirits. A lot of them quite similar but every country had its own version and even in the same country, those could differ wildly from region to region. Even if Peter had a name, it was quite possible that he wouldn't get the little differences in meaning and that this version of the creature would not play by the rules he thought it would. It was frustrating. But it kept his mind busy.

Peter drove Emily to her guitar lesson on Friday and stopped by the library as usual until it was time to pick her up again. He had kind of hoped to see Stiles there as well but no such luck. So he just browsed the shelves, picked a few books at random and was out of the library before Denise spotted him. He was not in the mood for gossip right now.

Cora was avoiding him but he caught her looking at him as if she was trying to figure something out or as if she was working up the courage to ask him something but every time he looked back at her, she ducked her head and said nothing. She would come around on her own time, Peter decided and didn't push.

Then it was Saturday and he had a date with Stiles. Peter did not tell his family where he was going when he left the house before dinner but they were used to him coming and going as he pleased so nobody questioned it.

On his way over to the sheriff's place, he stopped at the store. Peter didn't want to show up empty-handed. He'd thought about wine, the classic date gift but Stiles didn't even look old enough to have wine and it wouldn't fit the kind of movie they intended to watch. Peter passed on the chocolate as well, that wasn't Stiles either.

He left the store with Twizzlers and lollipops.

This was going to be the death of him, Peter just knew but it looked like he was that kind of masochistic.