Stiles wasn't even sure why he asked Peter to come over. It was just that over the last few days, Peter's messages had become shorter and more clipped, he didn't do small talk at all and he answered Stiles' rants with just a word or two. Just to break out into a rant himself now and then about how not helpful the Argents were and that Peter couldn't find those damn hunters and that his family was getting on his nerves. After such a rant, he said sorry for ranting like that and then he was back to monosyllabic answers for a while. It was not hard to see frustration building up there.
So Stiles told him to come over.
Which turned out to be the right thing. After Stiles blew him into Nirvana, Peter slept like a baby. Looked like he needed the sleep. And in the morning he was more mellowed out, sipping his coffee at ease and relaxed.
Peter told Stiles in detail what he'd found out about the hunters in town, something short text messages were not good for, and Stiles got the feeling that he needed to tell somebody to sort his thoughts. So Stiles listened to him and threw in a word here and there to get the wheels in his head going.
After breakfast, Peter cleaned up as best as he could. Stiles didn't have a shower out here so Peter had to do with a bowl of water Stiles heated up on the stove.
"You're not going to going to dunk your junk in there, are you?" Stiles asked when Peter washed his nether regions which had to be sticky with dried come and saliva, Stiles had slobbered all over him. Peter just glared at him but used a cupped hand and a cloth to clean himself up.
"At this time nobody should be home, I might be able to sneak in and take a shower without starting a new round of rumor," Peter said when he tucked himself back in his boxers and put his jeans back on. Stiles didn't need to be a werewolf to know that Peter himself and his clothes as well were reeking of sex and Stiles.
"Good luck with that." Stiles kissed him goodbye and then he watched as Peter walked into the woods. With a sigh, Stiles closed the door and started to clean up. Peter had shredded one of his blankets and another one was strained with his juices. Stiles threw out the first and put the second one in a bucket to soak.
Peter had left an envelope on the table and Stiles didn't even need to check, there would be exactly five hundred dollars in there.
"Way to make me feel like a cheap whore," Stiles muttered when he tucked the envelope away. "Well, not exactly a cheap whore."
The money was not for the blow-job, it was payment for the information Stiles had given Peter the other day, the timing was just bad and Stiles knew how it must look like to an outsider. That thought made him laugh.
At least Peter had promised to make it up to him soon, delivered with a growl and a flash of his eyes, and that was something Stiles was looking forward to. Peter was eye candy on an average day but shifted? Damn, Stiles was down for that.
Stiles had one last look around to make sure that everything was in order before he stripped down to his underwear and went outside. He didn't mind Derek seeing him naked but he had to walk the short distance over to the lake and he didn't want to flash anybody by accident, again, so he'd gotten used to at least wear his underwear or some kind of shorts when he walked out into the lake. Aside from Peter nobody had bothered him out here in years but better safe than sorry.
Stiles locked the door and a second later he was diving into the lake.
He hadn't lied when he'd told Peter that he could stay at the cabin, it did count as staying with Derek, but whenever Stiles did stay there for longer periods of time, he felt the need to go back into the lake. It wasn't urgent, he could have stayed in the cabin the whole day if he'd wanted to but since he couldn't show up in town at this time of the day anyway, he decided to go under for a little while.
A little while turned out to be almost the whole day and he had to hurry to be on time for his dinner with John. Stiles had missed those before, not often but it did happen, and by now John knew that Stiles sometimes got lost down there. Not too bad, he wasn't losing days … often but it happened that he came up a day late.
Before he headed out, though, he checked his phone and sure enough, there was a message from Peter waiting for him. Just to check in with him, nothing important and Stiles answered in the same manner, telling Peter that he was on his way to see John for dinner.
Peter answered a second later with a picture he must have taken secretly. It was of his family at the dinner table. There were heads stuck together in animated conversations, people laughing and just having a good time. It was titled "Having dinner as well"
Stiles stared at the picture for a long moment. Peter wasn't one who gave out private information easily and this was another level of private information. This was his family, his pack and he wanted Stiles to see them.
You're a lucky man, Stiles wrote back. He couldn't deny the little stab of jealously in his chest. Peter had a big family, there were fourteen people permanently living in the Hale house alone with the extended family spread all over town. And here was Stiles, alone in his remote cabin and his only friends were the local lake monster and the sheriff. He couldn't even remember his mother's face.
Stiles was late for dinner with John but he'd needed a few minutes to compose himself.
He was happy with his life. Sure it wasn't like what people considered a perfect or even an okay life but it was his. He liked how things were, even if he could, he wouldn't change a damn thing. But knowing that Peter was surrounded by his family, by people who loved him, that did something to him.
"Stiles?" John had one look at him to know that something was up.
"It's nothing." Stiles gave him a weak smile. John didn't believe him but he didn't push. Instead, he stacked their plates, grabbed the silverware and moved everything over to the living room.
"Get the glasses," he told Stiles over his shoulder while he was setting the coffee table.
Stiles wanted to protest, he wasn't having a bad day, that picture just had caught him off guard and he would be in a better mood in a minute here but in the end, he grabbed the glasses and the napkins and followed John out to the living room.
They ate in front of the TV, watching some procedural cop show, and it didn't take long for both of them to groan and rant at the stupid characters on screen.
"Feeling better?" John asked when the episode was over.
"Yeah." Stiles rubbed the back of his head. "It's just … Peter sent me a picture of his family earlier and well, it got to me." He was not going to show John the picture, that was private, but this was enough for John to get the picture, so to speak.
John didn't have any close relatives either, Claudia had died almost twenty years ago but neither she nor John had family living around here. John had a few friends and once over the summer he invited the whole station for a BBQ but there weren't many people in his life either. Stiles kind of was the only family he had and vice versa, it was kind of sad actually.
At least John got it. Partly. Because John would grow old and die and then Stiles wouldn't have anybody. Well, except for Derek. Derek would always be there.
They sat there for a long moment, both lost in their thoughts.
"Sorry for dragging you down with me," Stiles said. He was feeling better but the bad thoughts were still lingering in the back of his mind and now it was the same for John.
"We're not going to sit here all evening, feeling sorry for ourselves." Stiles clapped his hands. "This calls for the board games."
There weren't that many games that worked well with two people but over the years they had gathered a nice little collection.
They played until Derek showed up to fetch Stiles and they even managed to rope him into a few games of Uno before Stiles left with him. They took the jeep so he wouldn't have to pick it up tomorrow.
"Thanks for playing with us," Stiles said when they were in the car and on their way out to the lake. "I know it's not your thing."
"I don't mind," Derek said. "You were having fun."
"It was even more fun, kicking your ass." Stiles threw him a grin. "You're bad at Uno. Who's bad at Uno? Five-year-olds play better than you."
"Next time I'm just going to drag you through the pipes," Derek promised darkly. He was glaring at Stiles from under thick eyebrows but Stiles had to keep his eyes on the road so the glare of doom was easy to dismiss. Not that Derek would follow threw with his threat, he was a marshmallow on the inside. Sure, he did drag Stiles through the pipes from time to time but more often than not he was okay with Stiles driving them back. That might change if Stiles didn't start to keep a better eye on the time. He'd gone for years without staying out too long but lately? It felt as if Derek had to come for him every other day. Derek was a very patient guy, real chill actually, but even he would get sick of going after Stiles this often eventually.
"I'll keep an eye on the time next time," Stiles promised to which Derek nodded, an easy to miss smile playing on his lips. Or maybe he did like to have a reason to come out of his lake and scare the shit out of Peter or lose five games of Uno in a row. Stiles knew him for ages but he was still discovering new sides of Derek.
Stiles was about to park his car in the usual spot where it wouldn't be seen from the road when the lights of a cruiser from the sheriff's department flashed behind him.
"Seriously?" Stiles groaned. It was nice and dandy that John was keeping people away from the lake and his deputies were doing a really good job with this but they were not supposed to keep him away.
"What are you doing out here, sir?" The deputy asked before he even looked at Stiles.
"Evening to you too, Parrish," Stiles greeted him.
"Stiles?" Parrish did a double-take, he'd clearly not expected to see him out here. Had he not looked at his car? The jeep was pretty distinctive and everybody at the station knew that it belonged to Stiles. But it was the middle of the night and Parrish looked tired, Stiles was willing to cut him some slack.
"What are you doing out here?" Parrish had recovered from his shock. "Does your uncle know where you are?"
John did know but Stiles didn't tell him that, it would lead to the question of why John allowed his teenage nephew to be out here in the woods at this time of the evening.
"And who are you?" Parrish shone his flashlight right into Derek's face. In the harsh light, Derek looked even paler than usual, his face had a greenish sheen under the moisture constantly on his skin. Stiles was used to mopping up puddles every time he gave Derek a ride.
"Sir?" Parrish asked when Derek didn't answer. "Are you alright?"
"I'm giving him a ride home but he said that he's feeling sick. That's why we stopped here," Stiles blurted out the first thing coming to mind. To his surprise, it was a pretty good lie.
"You're not going to throw up, are you?" Parrish kept Derek in the beam of his flashlight, still not sure what to think of him. "Can you show me some ID?"
"Is that really necessary?" Stiles groaned, this was getting better and better. "Look at him, he just wants to get home and sleep it off. Why are you bothering this poor man?"
"Because your uncle is going to have my hide if he hears that you're driving around in the middle of the night with a man at least ten yours older than you. ID please."
