"What the hell, Erica?" Stiles said as he took a deep breath, trying to calm his rushing heart.
Erica's smirk just grew, "Thought I'd stop by and see what all the hullabaloo was about."
Stiles stared at her in disbelief before he shook his head, "You could have just asked if you could come to dinner."
Instead of her normal snarky laughter, Erica genuinely laughed. It was contagious and Stiles couldn't help but join her. He grabbed his laptop and motioned for her to follow him. Erica walked through the house slowly, taking in her surroundings. It felt like Isaac's first day all over again.
When he reached the kitchen, he turned to speak to her but she wasn't there. He backtracked through the house and found her in the living room, staring at the pictures on the walls. No one could ever say that John Stilinski wasn't sentimental. He kept every picture of Claudia up and looked at them every day.
He reached Erica's side and she pointed at one of the pictures from when Stiles was five. "Is that your mom?" Her voice was soft, almost emotional. Stiles simply nodded. "You look just like her." Maybe that's why John had such a hard time looking at him.
"She was wonderful," He said.
"And beautiful," She said before leaning closer to bump their shoulders. There was something there that Stiles appreciated, as if she were speaking about him directly.
"Come on and pick out something for dinner," He took her by the elbow and she straightened up into that tall goddess that walked around the school.
"Anything is fine with me Stilinski," She walked and disappeared into the kitchen.
Stiles rolled his eyes, the moment gone in a puff of smoke. He walked into the kitchen and pulled out enough ingredients for five and realized that he would have to go shopping soon. It was taking quite the budget to feed everyone all the time. As he got to cooking, he wondered if his father would ever say something about it.
It wasn't like they were lacking for money, but purchasing groceries for two versus three or even most nights five, it began to get up there. He decided on chicken casserole and fried veggies for dinner, the smell wafting through the air. The sound of the front door opening and closing came and moments later Isaac entered the kitchen.
He smiled softly at the sight of Erica before sitting down next to her. "Scott told me to tell you that his mother was able to get tonight off, so they're having dinner together. I invited Boyd over in his place if that's okay."
For some reason, Scott not being there for dinner made his heart ache, but he didn't let it show. He didn't really understand why.
"Of course, that's fine, I'm making plenty!" Stiles said with a smile and before long the doorbell rang. Before Isaac could get up, Erica was out of her seat and she led Boyd into the kitchen. This time Stiles set the table for everyone, because there just weren't enough bar stools.
Everyone sat down to eat as Isaac brought over drinks for everyone. Conversation was limited to the Hale house being renovated, lacrosse practice went fine, there was homework to do, and Stiles cooking was amazing. Boyd just couldn't seem to stop saying how good the casserole was and it warmed Stiles' heart. It made his ears flush at the praise.
"Are the two of you staying for a movie?" Stiles offered and Erica looked at Boyd.
"I think we're going to head out and study for our trig test tomorrow, but thank you for dinner Stiles," She said when Boyd simply shrugged his shoulders.
"That's fine, we'll just see you tomorrow at school, yea?" Stiles said and they both nodded in unison. As Isaac helped him clear off the table, Boyd and Erica stood to leave, but before Erica could drag him out of the house he leaned forward into Stiles' personal space.
Boyd didn't quite touch him, but Stiles stood still just as he would when Isaac would lean into his neck. The boy took Stiles' hand and put something into it. He smiled, "Thank you Stiles." Then they turned and left.
"What was that about?" Stiles said before he could stop it, looking down into his hand. Boyd had handed him two hundred dollar bills. "What the hell is this for?"
"It's from Derek, for groceries," Isaac said as he finished loading the dishwasher.
Stiles could do nothing but stare down at the money in his hand, even as Isaac went into the living room to pick a movie and start on his homework.
"For groceries," Stiles said stupidly to himself and finally rolled his eyes. Forgetting who was in his house for a moment he muttered to himself, "Could just cook for his kids, but what can you do?" Isaac's laughter from the living room made him groan. "I didn't say that got it Isaac?"
"Got it Stiles," Came through the wall and Stiles sighed as he started the dishwasher.
"What movie did you pick out tonight?" He said as he went to finish his own homework, welcoming another evening spent with his friend.
The next morning Stiles woke up freezing. He just couldn't seem to get warm and went searching for the covers that he must have kicked off in the night. As he was reaching for them, he squinted and found that his bedroom window was open. He didn't remember opening it the night before, but maybe he did thinking Isaac would sneak in.
He closed the window, careful to leave it unlocked and turned to crawl back into bed. What he was met with woke him all the way up. Not only had Isaac found his way into Stiles' bed again, there was Scott. And on the floor were Boyd and Erica, nuzzled close together for warmth. Stiles sighed as he pressed his hand to his mouth, becoming increasingly concerned for his sanity.
Not only had he managed to adopt Isaac, managed to bring Scott back into the fold, but he had two more puppies joining into the cuddle puddle. Stiles seriously wondered if they would have gotten into the bed, if there had been room. With another sigh, Stiles just decided that he'd deal with it in the morning. He crawled back into the space between Scott and Isaac, noting that when he'd gotten up that they kept the space open for him.
In the morning, after he fed them all breakfast, he was tracking down Derek. He had questions that he needed answers to yesterday.