The Hale family had died in a fire two decades ago. Peter had spent years without thinking about the people he'd lost. Sure, from time to time a memory sneaked up on him. A smell, a song, something small and innocent triggered a memory but most of the time he was good at not thinking about the past.
And now he was here with Derek and for some reason, they were talking about their family. BBQs in the backyard and the chaos of Christmas mornings. Laura's first attempt to ride a bike and Derek's first telescope he'd gotten for his seventh birthday.
It didn't even hurt that much to bring up Olivia. She and Talia had gotten along well and Peter had never stood a chance when they teamed up against him. They had been in the middle of setting up the nursery when …
But even that didn't hurt like it used to. Today he looked back at Talia and Olivia arguing over if the room should be safari themed with elephants and giraffes or if it should get a teddy bear theme. They had died before they had come to an agreement.
Peter fell quiet at that memory and Derek let him be for a moment before he asked if he remembered that one time Cora had been a flower in a school play in elementary school. One kid had stumbled over their own feet and all the flowers in the background had gone down in a heap of limbs.
"Cora had been so mad at that kid," Peter remembered. The whole family had been there to watch her first acting role even if it was just a background flower and some stupid kid had ruined her performance.
"Mom took us all out for ice cream." Derek's eyes glossed over at that memory.
"Cora was eight, at that age you can fix everything with ice cream," Peter said and glanced over to Stiles who was quietly listening to them. Usually, he was quite a talker but today he got that this was more about Peter and Derek.
While they had talked Stiles had brought out red wine and snacks and he seemed more than content with just sitting there, sipping wine and munching on the snacks while he listened to Peter and Derek going down memory lane.
Peter stayed for longer than intended.
He went back to his hotel a bit tipsy and in a melancholic mood. Over the evening he'd laughed a lot but when he entered his impersonal hotel room, it hit him that they were all gone. It didn't hurt like it used to but he missed them. He missed Olivia and the baby he never got to know. Their baby would be old enough to be one of Derek's students by now.
His head filled with bittersweet thoughts Peter crawled into bed but sleep didn't come for a long time.
In the morning, Peter didn't feel like getting up. He stayed in bed for a few more hours and he only threw on a bathrobe to open the door when his breakfast got delivered. The next two hours, he was lounging in his bathrobe on the bed, eating his breakfast, and lazily scrolling through his phone. He answered a message here and there but his head was not in the right place for big stuff.
He did come across the pictures he'd taken of that guy he'd met in the coffee shop the other day. The one who claimed to be just a college student but somehow seemed to know Peter. Peter skipped through the pictures, trying to place the face.
He was sure that he'd seen him before but for the life of his, he couldn't remember where. He had been in New York before, he had his contacts here he saw more or less regularly but he couldn't recall meeting any college students. Maybe the son of someone he worked with? No, that didn't feel right.
Over his current stay, Peter hadn't been out that much either. For sure not to places college students liked to hang out at. Only the club where he'd met Stiles and that place he'd been to with Derek for lunch came to mind. And Peter still couldn't think of anybody he'd interacted with there.
The only other explanation he came up with was that College Guy hadn't met him in person but knew his face from somewhere else. Peter didn't like the direction this train of thought led him.
If this guy was a college student he might be in Derek's class. It only took one google search …
Even if he wasn't in Derek's class, he might have come here with previous knowledge. They had made a fucking documentary about the Hale Fire. Even now, decades later, people recognized Peter on occasion. He didn't want to know how it was for Derek. One curious student could put his whole life here in jeopardy.
Peter forwarded one of the pictures of College Guy to Derek with the question if he knew him. He was still convinced that he'd seen him before so he probably was bothering Derek for no reason here but better safe than sorry.
It took Derek a while to answer but the man was at work, he could hardly answer his phone in the middle of class but he should have lunch any time soon.
That's Isaac Lahey, he's a student of mine, Derek answered eventually. Why?
Met him in a coffee shop the other day. Acted weird, as if he knew me.
Instead of typing out a message, Derek called him.
"What do you mean he acted as if he knows you?" Derek asked but Peter could tell that his mind was going in the same direction as his.
Peter told him what little he knew which was basically nothing.
"You think he knows?" Derek asked.
"He's one of your students," Peter reminded him. "He might have gotten curious about you. However, I can't shake off the feeling that I've seen him before somewhere but I guarantee you, he knows who I am."
"He's interested in astronomy, he came to see me over my office hours a few times," Derek said, thinking. "If he knows about my past, he never said anything."
"He might try to blackmail you." Peter hated that that was the direction his mind went first but he couldn't help it.
"He wouldn't be the first." Derek let out a sigh and Peter wondered how often he'd gone through this before. All it took was one google search and nowadays everybody googled everybody.
"Why didn't you take Stiles' name when you got married?" Peter wondered. That would have solved that problem.
"We both had been teaching here for years by then."
Peter pictured him pinching the bridge of his nose, it would explain the rustling he heard at the other end.
"Taking his name would make it obvious to everybody that we're a couple," Derek continued. "There are still people against that kind of thing."
"So you're saying taking Stiles' name would have caused you more problems than keeping Hale?"
"Basically," Derek said. "People still lose their jobs over things like this, especially if one works with children or young adults. Their minds are so easy to impress," he said the last bit mockingly as if he was repeating something he'd heard far too often.
"I've met a few of those." Peter had his run-ins with bigots but lucky him, he didn't care what others thought about him. Besides, he didn't have a nine-to-five or a husband to come home to and he'd never stayed long enough at one place to even think about his neighbors.
"Anyway, I just wanted you to know that there's something fishy about that student of yours," Peter brought them back to the reason they were talking on the phone right now.
"I'll keep it in mind, thank you."
They ended the call and then Peter was sitting on the edge of the bed in his bathrobe, elbows on his knees, and his phone loosely in his hand.
Derek was right, some people were pretty backward.
Stiles was against going out on dates with Peter for different reasons but it was not a bad idea to keep their relationship low-key. If people were backward about two men being together Peter didn't want to think about the shitstorm the fact could cause that Stiles went out regularly to have sex with random men. That too might have factored in Derek's decision that it was okay that Stiles was seeing Peter. Less going out to clubs, fewer chances to get spotted by students.
Peter chuckled at the idea of one of Stiles' students seeing him with another man at the Jungle.
"Oh, shit." Peter dropped his phone. He knew where he'd seen that face before.
Isaac was not just Derek's student, he was Stiles' as well. He'd been there when Peter and Stiles had stumbled into the restroom like some horny teenagers. Peter had locked eyes with him just before he'd closed the door of the stall where Stiles had gone down on him.
Peter fumbled for his phone, he needed to call Derek.
The phone was ringing but Derek didn't pick up. Right, he was still at work.
Remembered where I saw that guy before, Peter shot him a message. Talk to me before you say anything to him
The check mark indicated that the message had arrived but it didn't turn blue. Peter doubted that Derek would do something about his student immediately, he could explain himself later.
Is Isaac Lahey one of your students? Peter asked Stiles. It was around lunchtime so maybe he was lucky and Stiles had time to check his phone.
Yes, why? Stiles answered the same way as Derek.
Do you have time to talk?
Instead of an answer, Peter's phone rang.
"I might have fucked up," Peter said. He gave Stiles a quick recap of what he'd just talked about with Derek, namely that he'd suspected that Isaac had found out about Derek's past.
"Don't know how much Derek told you about it." Peter paused, suddenly not sure if he was creating an even greater mess here. What exactly did Stiles know about it?
"He told me," was all Stiles said to that. "So you're saying Isaac found out and might start bothering Derek with it?" He didn't outright say it but it was clear that he was thinking in the direction of blackmailing as well. It did make Peter wonder how often they had been to this rodeo before.
"That's what I thought." By now Peter was pacing up and down his room, he needed to move. "But then I remembered where I've seen him before. He was at the Jungle, in the restroom."
"Okay?" Stiles asked, not getting it.
"When we first met," Peter reminded him. "You remember how we barely made it into the stall? You were all over me."
"We were all over each other." Stiles chuckled at that memory but then he sobered up. "Are you saying that Isaac saw us?"
"Yes."
"Fuck," Stiles cursed. He fell silent for a second but then he said: "I saw him when I got breakfast the other day, you know the morning after you went rough on me. He kind of noticed … you know."
Peter did remember Stiles' hoarse voice and how he'd been limping.
"What are we going to do now?" Stiles asked. Judging by the background noises he was not in a big crowd but Peter heard voices and it sounded as if Stiles was walking.
"First we need to tell Derek to not talk to Isaac about Kate and the fire, he most likely knows nothing about that, no need to tick him off." Peter tried to sort his mind. "He's not answering his phone."
"Yeah, it's his office hours, he's most likely with a student," Stiles said. "I'm on my way over to him, I'll tell him. And we should talk about Isaac, can you come over later today? Dinner?"
"Sure," Peter agreed. "I'm sorry for this mess."
"Nothing we can't fix," Stiles assured him. "I gonna talk to Derek now, see you later."
They ended the call and then Peter stood at the window, his bathrobe hanging open, and his mind swirling. He'd come to New York to reconnect with Derek and now this.
"What a mess," he said and wondered if it was too early for a drink.
