Stiles was close to canceling at the last minute.
"This is ridiculous," he said to himself, already sitting in the jeep in John's driveway but for long minutes he couldn't bring himself to start the engine. Maybe he should just drive back to the lake. With a sick feeling in his stomach, Stiles did start the car and headed out to the preserve.
It was just dinner with the family of his boyfriend. Meet the family. Something millions of people went through and survived every day. It would be stiff and awkward but that was it.
Most of those million other people didn't date a werewolf, though. And they didn't have a history with the pack as Stiles did.
"I have the jeep, I can leave whenever I want," Stiles told himself. "I can pull a Cinderella at nine. It's going to be fine." He doubted that anybody would try to hold him back if he wanted to leave early but even if ... they wouldn't stand a chance against Derek.
Peter met him outside and the bastard even made him laugh with offering his arm and walking him over to the house. At least that way Stiles didn't have to face Talia alone.
Introductions were as awkward as expected and Stiles only breathed easier once he was sitting on the couch with Peter on one side and Emily on the other. They sat like that at the dinner table as well and slowly Stiles dared to relax.
The focus was on him, this whole thing was about him, but it wasn't the interrogation he'd feared. He'd kind of expected something like his meeting with Talia where she'd been borderline hostile towards him and Derek.
Stiles had no doubt that the werewolves could smell all kinds of bad emotions coming from him but they did make an effort to make this easier for him. Laura just got home from college, she had some stories to tell, and Erica could write books about customers at work.
Naturally, the conversation always circled back to Stiles. With him, however, lots of the usual topics for this occasion didn't apply. He did go to school but only as a cover, he didn't work and would most likely never pursue a career. He didn't have plans for his future because what future?
His family consisted of the sheriff and the local lake monster. The latter was something everybody at the table wanted to hear about. Only Peter and Talia had ever met Derek, Boyd and Erica's encounter with him didn't count, and the others only had the basic facts about him. Of course, they wanted to know everything first hand from Stiles.
It was the older man, Walter, who dared to touch that topic.
"We all know how you ended up living with … Derek," Walter started.
"You can call him the scary lake monster if you want to," Stiles offered with a broad grin. It got him a round of chuckles and Stiles felt himself getting more at ease around these people.
"... and I want to say how sorry we all are for what happened to you," Walter continued. Stiles made a face, he didn't want his pity but Walter glossed over it quickly. "What I wanted to ask, that scary lake monster … what is he like? As a person?"
Stiles had not expected that question so for a long second he didn't know what to say. Most didn't even see Derek as a person.
"He looks scary with those eyebrows and all that and he will drown you if you dare to go into his lake." Stiles had a stern look around, he didn't want anybody to come out there on a dare. Been there, done that. It never ended well. John would have to tell some poor parents that their kid was dead and Stiles would have to comfort Derek.
"But on the inside, he's a marshmallow." Stiles felt a smile ghosting over his lips just thinking about all the little things Derek had done to make his life as easy for him as possible.
"He's bad at Uno," Stiles added after a moment. "And he's seen more Marvel movies than Peter. But we're working on it, aren't we?" He bumped shoulders with Peter.
"He likes to go to the movies?" Erica asked. Her only encounter with Derek had been when he'd killed somebody right in front of her and then he'd almost drowned her and Boyd as well. Marvel didn't seem to fit that picture.
"Not on release day," Stiles hurried to say when he noticed Talia's expression at that. She most likely was picturing Derek in a theater packed with people. What did she expect him to do there aside from quietly soaking his seat? It was not that he was running around, randomly killing people. Mostly Derek just glared at the screen. But when Stiles was ranting about the movie afterward, he did have a thing or two to say about it. Derek would never admit it but Stiles had the suspicion that he enjoyed the experience. On occasion.
"But on my fifth or sixth re-watch?" Stiles continued as if he hadn't noticed Talia's disapproval. "I like to take somebody with me and John is not particularly interested in those movies and with his schedule …" He let out a sigh. "But now I have Peter. I'm going to get him up to date before the next one comes out."
"Shouldn't I get a say in this?" Peter raised an eyebrow at him.
"Nope."
By the time they reached the dessert part of the meal, Stiles had eaten way too much and he had an easy banter going on with Erica. There were other conversations going on and Stiles felt himself relax. He could get used to this.
"You good?" Peter asked in a low voice to which Stiles nodded. The rest of the pack was distracted by clearing the table to make room for ice cream and pies but Stiles didn't want to get caught in a lie if he gave a verbal answer.
"We made four pies," Emily told him proudly.
"I have to try all four, then." Stiles was up for the challenge. He had to call it quits after two. He was eyeing the other ones, that pecan one looked really good, but no.
"I'll make sure to add a slice of each," Pamela assured him.
"Add a slice of what to what?" Stiles tore his eyes off the pie, not following.
"The pies, silly." Pamela gave him an amused look. "I'll add them to the leftovers you're going to take home."
Stiles opened his mouth to argue but Anthony stopped him.
"Don't," he said. "You won't get out of it anyway."
Stiles was too full and comfortable to even put up a token fight so he just threw his hands up in defeat. It turned out to be a rather limp flailing.
"He likes to feed me as well." He nodded at Peter. "Must be a werewolf thing."
Stiles didn't want to move but when Emily tugged at his sleeve, he turned towards her.
"Do you want to see my room?"
"I bet he's more interested in Peter's room," Christina chimed in.
"Why would I be interested in Peter's room?" Stiles played dumb.
"You'll be more interested in the library anyway," Peter said before Christina could think of a response. "I'll show you once you've seen Emily's room. She has tidied up just for you."
"I did not," Emily protested but was already out of her chair, dragging Stiles with her.
Peter was right, Stiles was more interested in the library but he did follow the girl upstairs who was already bubbling about the games she had.
"I have Uno if Derek wants to play with us sometime," she said. "I'd even let him win."
"You would do that?" Stiles tried to picture Derek in the room he'd just entered. There was a lot of pink. And Elsa. Thinking of Derek in all this? Stiles would pay money to see that.
"You'll have to ask your parents. And Talia, I guess," Stiles added after a second. "But I can see if Derek wants to play with us sometime."
Even if he wasn't able to hear what was going on downstairs, Stiles just knew that the werewolves were all straining their ears to catch what was going on up here. He just wished he could see Talia's face at the idea of Derek playing cards with the little girl. She was probably suffering a heart attack right now.
But to be fair, the alpha had been way more friendly today than at their first encounter. She was still wary when it came to Derek but she seemed to be willing to listen. Stiles guessed that he had Peter to thank for that. He was the left hand after all, it was his job to determine if something or somebody was a threat to the pack. However, when it came to Stiles, he might be biased. Just a little bit.
On the other hand, Stiles knew without a shadow of a doubt that Peter would do everything to protect his pack.
Emily showed him the series Peter was reading to her, with the reminder that Stiles had promised to read to her as well. To not have to read to her with half the pack listening in, Stiles latched on to the first thing he spotted. Which happened to be Emily's guitar.
"You wanna try?" Emily already had it out of the case and before Stiles knew what was happening, he had a guitar in his hand.
"I don't even know how to hold this," Stiles admitted. He was holding the instrument by the neck at arm's length in fear that he would damage it.
"I'll show you."
Stiles felt sorry for the werewolves in the house when he tried to get some nice noises out of the guitar. He did manage the noises part, though.
"I'll leave that to you." Stiles carefully put the guitar on the bed. "Do you wanna play something?"
Emily suggested Uno, to practice before they would play with Derek, so a few minutes later Stiles was sitting on the floor with a full hand, wondering how many plus fours this kid had up her sleeve.
"You would be killing at poker," Stiles muttered but at least he had more than enough red cards to put in the middle. He still had seven cards when Emily proudly proclaimed Uno.
"Need some saving?" Peter poked his head in just in time to witness Emily's victory. He must have timed it.
"Please!" Stiles hurried to put the cards away before Emily could consider a rematch.
"You impressed Talia with how you are with Emily," Peter whispered into his ear when he escorted him over to the library.
"She's easy to impress, then," Stiles muttered back.
Peter opened a door and motioned for Stiles to go in first.
Stiles made it a few steps into the room before he stopped, mouth hanging open. There were a few reading nooks, two tables cluttered with what he guessed was Peter's research of Derek, but the room was dominated by the long rows of shelves filled up to the ceiling with old leather-bound books. Stiles could almost taste the knowledge stored in this room. For sure he could smell the typical mixture of dust and old paper.
"Who's easy to impress now?" Peter asked.
"I think I love you." Stiles stepped over to the closest shelf and ran a finger over the spines. "May I?"
He was known for dropping books, he knew that, but Peter gave him the go-ahead without hesitation.
Stiles couldn't even read the title of the book he'd picked, Latin was his best guess, but he browsed through the pages, marveling over the old-style printing.
"I'd rather not have any books leave the house," Peter said behind him. "But you can come over to read here whenever you like."
The book still in hand Stiles turned around to face him. Peter's face was carefully guarded, unreadable, but the offer he'd just made spoke for itself. Aside from the knowledge stored in here, the books themselves must be worth a fortune. Stiles didn't have to have a closer look to know that there were quite some first editions among them.
However, this was not about the library. Peter had just invited him into his den. Stiles didn't have to be a werewolf to understand that it was quite a big deal. And that Peter couldn't make an offer like this without the approval of his alpha.
"Thank you." Stiles closed the gap between them and brought their lips together for a kiss.
