On Thursday Peter entered the coffee shop with mixed feelings. He still wasn't sure what Derek wanted to talk about and if he was honest, Peter didn't know what he wanted to talk about either. Should he come clean? Should he tell Derek that Stiles was cheating on him? Either way, it sucked.

Peter scanned the room until he spotted Derek in a booth in the far corner. Even if this was a public place, they should have some privacy there.

"I hope, I'm not late," Peter said when he approached his nephew who already had a cup of coffee in front of him.

"Nobody made use of my office hours so I got an early lunch break." Derek made an inviting gesture and Peter sat down. A waitress was quick to supply him with coffee.

"Again, I'm sorry," Derek repeated the words from his message once they were alone again. "Stiles can be an ass sometimes. And I shouldn't have left you hanging the whole week either. It's just … I needed a few days to get over the fact that you're the one he's seeing." Derek gave him an apologizing smile with his eyebrows doing something complicated behind the frame of his glasses.

"He told you?"

"The second you were out of the door." Derek nodded. "Found it hilarious. He had way too much fun, letting you squirm that day."

Peter didn't want to jump to conclusions but it sounded a lot as if Derek knew about him and Stiles. And he wasn't upset? At least not about the fact that Stiles was seeing someone in general.

"What exactly did Stiles tell you?" He asked. He didn't want to say the wrong thing in case he was reading the situation wrong.

"Twice you met at the Jungle and the last time he came to your hotel directly." Derek took a sip of his coffee. "I just didn't know that it's you he's seeing. But neither did Stiles."

"He tells you stuff like that?" Peter felt like he should look for hidden cameras.

"He didn't shut up about the cheese for two days." Derek made a suffering noise.

"Okay?" In his head, Peter had played endless scenarios of how this conversation could go down but this was so far off from what he'd imagined that he didn't even know which question to ask first.

They got interrupted by the waitress again who took their order, not that Peter cared about which sandwich he got so he just pointed at something on the menu. By the time they were alone again, Peter still had no idea how to proceed.

"So you know he's cheating on you and you're okay with it?" He tried to make sense of what Derek was telling him.

"He's not cheating on me."

"You might want to look up the definition of cheating."

Derek took a deep breath, this wasn't easy for him, that much was clear.

"I'm asexual," he said, suddenly very interested in his cup of coffee.

Peter blinked at him. Today Derek was throwing him one curve ball after the other.

"Let me get this right." Peter knew what that word meant but he'd never guessed that Derek would use it to describe himself. "You don't like sex so Stiles gets it somewhere else?"

"Basically?" Derek glanced up at him. He looked younger all of a sudden, insecure and vulnerable. Peter felt the urge to comfort him even if he had no clue how. So he just shifted uncomfortably in his seat but thankfully Derek got his features under control again quickly.

"When I was a teen I thought that I just had to get used to it, that it would become fun eventually." Derek was talking mostly into his coffee. "I did it because hey, everybody did it but it never became fun. Or even enjoyable. It was more of a chore, to be honest. A gross one." He let out a bitter laugh. "At one point I was convinced that it was just some kind of scam. That nobody actually likes it but society tells you that you have to like it, especially as a guy, so everybody pretends because they think that they are the odd one for not wanting sex without realizing that everybody thinks the same. Like in that tale about the Emperor's New Clothes."

For a moment Peter just sat there, stunned. The speech sounded practiced as if Derek had spent the last few days thinking about it.

"I never noticed." Peter thought back to when they had been younger. They had been close and Peter had thought that they had talked openly about everything back then. They had come out as bisexual to each other first before they had told anybody else.

Peter remembered how one day they had talked about Lord of the Rings and how hot Liv Tyler was as Arwen and how he'd dared to mention that he wouldn't kick Aragorn out of his bed either. Then he'd been holding his breath for Derek's reaction. He'd had his suspicions about his nephew's orientation but it still had been a leap of faith.

Derek had asked if Peter liked men as well to which Peter had replied with "if the opportunity arises" to which Derek had rolled his eyes. A moment later he'd admitted that he was not only looking at women either. He had, however, failed to mention that he didn't want to sleep with either.

"It's not something I talked about." Derek let out a sigh. "And it's not something you want to admit when you're surrounded by horny teenagers who brag about their sexual encounters."

"Most of those are imaginary anyway," Peter threw in which got him a smile from Derek.

"Anyway, in a relationship, it is expected so I did it. Back then I didn't know that love and sex are two different things," Derek continued. "Kate didn't care, I know that now, but Stiles caught on rather quickly that I'm not into it. We talked about it and with his help, I was able to put a label on it. Finally, I knew that nothing is wrong with me."

"That must have felt good."

"You have no idea." Now Derek's smile became blinding.

"So that's when you came up with the idea that Stiles gets his sex elsewhere?" Peter guessed.

"Not right away," Derek said but before he could explain further the waitress was back with their food. They probably should have picked a more private place for this but Derek had suggested this coffee shop and contrary to Peter he had known where this conversation would go.

"Stiles tried to go without for my sake," Derek continued once they were alone again.

"It didn't work out?"

"He gets very cranky when he can't let off some steam. And no, his own hand is not enough. We argued a lot. I offered to help him out but that was the wrong thing to say. He didn't want a pity fuck, his words. We almost broke up because of that."

"Harsh." Peter had a look at his sandwich to find out what he'd ordered. Something with turkey it looked like.

"At one point I was so frustrated that I threw him out of the apartment and told him to not come back until he'd gotten a good fucking." Derek blushed over the vulgar phrase but Peter could picture him using those exact words in a heated argument like that.

"I'm surprised he came back." Peter took a bite.

"Apparently, that idiot loves me." Derek smiled. "He was the one who proposed after all."

"So that's how it is now?" Peter asked. "He hooks up with strangers regularly and when he comes home you play happy family?" Peter tried very hard to not sound too sarcastic.

"It's been working for years now." With the worst part of the conversation over Derek started eating his sandwich but then he looked over to Peter. "I know what you think, that sooner or later he's going to fall in love with somebody and believe me, I feared the same in the beginning, but now I know that it's just an activity he enjoys and I don't so he finds somebody else to do it with."

Peter thought about it, not convinced.

"What do you do while he's out?" He asked. "Do you sit at home all evening?"

Derek gave him a knowing smile. As if he knew how Peter pictured him. Sitting home alone on a Saturday evening while his husband was out, having fun. It was a pathetic picture.

"He does his thing and I do mine." Derek made a point of taking another bite, just to draw out the moment. Looked like the awkward part was over, now he was having fun, messing with Peter. "If the weather is nice, I get my telescope and drive out of town."

"You still do that?" Peter had thought that Derek had grown out of that phase. When he'd been younger it had been a way to escape for a little while but he'd thought that it had to do with being a moody teenager. On the other hand, Derek had become a professor of astrophysics, that alone should have given him the hint that he was still quite obsessed with the stars.

"Whenever I get the chance." Derek nodded. "It depends highly on the weather but if it's a good night, I don't come home until morning. I'm the one who stays out late most of the time, Stiles is waiting for me." He paused to wash down another bite with a sip of coffee. "Most of the time he's sound asleep when I come home. His activity is more exhausting than mine."

Peter almost spit out his coffee. Coughing he reached for the napkin.

"As I said, the only surprise was that it's you he's seeing," Derek said when Peter had composed himself.

Peter still wasn't convinced that their arrangement could work in the long run.

Stiles had made it clear from the very beginning that they were strangers with benefits, nothing more, and he was very good with keeping the personal stuff out of his sexual encounters but Peter couldn't deny the chemistry between them. They had clicked on some level. The fact alone that Stiles, who claimed that he didn't do re-matches, had been with him three times by now with the clear intention to see him again spoke for itself. Okay, that had been before he'd known who Peter was so he doubted that the offer still stood but still. Not that Peter had any intention to get intimate with Stiles ever again.

He told Derek that much, just to make it clear where he stood. He'd come to New York to reconnect with his nephew, nothing else. He didn't want to make things more awkward than they already were.

"That's something you have to discuss with Stiles," Derek said.

"What?" Lost in his own thoughts for a moment Peter didn't know what Derek was referring to.

"If you see each other like that again." Derek finished his sandwich and pushed the plate away. He tried to look casual but even with years apart Peter knew him. He saw right through the facade. Derek was nervous, maybe a bit anxious. They were getting to the meat of their conversation.

"Are you trying to tell me that we have your blessing?" Peter narrowed his eyes on him.

"Stiles goes home with strangers on a regular basis." Derek shifted in his seat. "He tries to be careful and most of the time nothing bad happens but he had his bad encounters." Derek fiddled with his napkin.

"Not too bad, I hope." Peter did not like what Derek was implying here.

"No, nothing like that," Derek hurried to say. "He's a good judge of people and he is careful. He watches his drink and he sends me messages throughout the night. When he leaves the club, where he goes, things like that. He sent me the name of your hotel and your room number."

"I didn't notice." Peter thought back to when he'd met Stiles at the club. He couldn't recall if he had his phone out at any point.

"He's been doing this for a while now, he has his routine down to an art," Derek reminded him. He sounded proud of his husband. "But from time to time, he meets somebody who's too pushy, who has a hard time accepting a no. Nothing really bad ever happened but there have been a few close calls."

"I can imagine."

"I try to not think too much about it but I breathe easier every time I get the message that he got home safely," Derek admitted.

Peter nodded to that but he was still waiting for an explanation for Derek's comment earlier.

"Things would be easier if he weren't seeing random strangers," Derek finally said and Peter was ready to agree when Derek looked at him and added: "It would be easier if he saw somebody we know and trust."