Stiles felt a little bit calmer when he was settled into his old living room, having gone through an old, normal routine of cooking for his Dad and talking about useless crap while they wolfed it down – no pun intended with saying wolfed right there, his Dad didn't know and Stiles wasn't planning on letting him know that he could turn furry at will. It was strange being back and not being hyperactive though. He almost felt like he should be, like that would make everything sit a little better with him. But he wasn't that Stiles anymore. He didn't think he even knew how to be that Stiles.
And it was all going fine, Stiles hadn't even come close to freaking out once, until his Dad decided to drop a little – or not so little – bombshell on him. "So um. . . what would you do if I told you I was seeing Melissa McCall?" he asked so casually it practically hurt.
Now, Stiles wasn't surprised that his Dad was dating someone, because hello, the sheriff was related to him and that therefore made him epic and a great catch; that and Stiles could smell another scent all over this house, but it was just that he hadn't thought for a million years that it would be Melissa McCall. In fact, he was that surprised that he spat drink all over the carpet, falling back into his old persona a little bit actually.
He blinked stupidly at his Dad while he wiped at his mouth and he knew the expression on his face was probably a little bit stupid looking. He should have seen this coming. He shouldn't have been surprised. After all, he had been able to smell his dad's nervousness from the minute he'd stepped into the house. He just hadn't thought it would have anything to do with his Dad's dating life.
And then of course, he started eternally panicking. Because if his Dad was dating Melissa, this meant that he was liable to run into Scott. It meant that chances were, he wasn't going to be able to avoid him for two weeks. And sure, Stiles felt a little bad about wanting to avoid Scott, they had after all been best friends once, but it had been ages. Also, if you added in the fact that Stiles had ignored all of Scott's texts and calls for years, then it was going to be an awkward reunion to say the least.
He chewed at his bottom lip and cast his Dad another glance, because he couldn't help but wonder if Scott had told his mum yet about being a werewolf. Stiles had always thought that Scott had been liable to do that; and if Melissa knew, chances were his Dad would. Except his Dad was giving nothing away.
"R-Really?" he asked, coughing a little and banging a fist on his chest, "T-That's great Dad."
And he meant it, he really did, because he could tell that his Dad was happy. He just hated the fact that it didn't sound like he meant it. It sounded like he was about to hyperventilate actually, like the words were being forced out of him.
Stiles stopped chewing his mouth and dug his fingernails into his palms to make sure he kept calm. "And I do mean it," he said, making sure to smile, "I'm happy for you, Mrs McCall's a great gal, I'm just sort of nervous about having to face Scott, was kind of hoping I could avoid him for two weeks you know."
His Dad nodded and gave him a sympathetic pat on the knee and his wolf almost considered that a touch from a Pack member. It calmed a little because of it, but not completely. Not enough. "I understand son," he said, but Stiles heard the skip in his Dad's heartbeat that said even the Sheriff didn't believe that, "And I haven't told either of them you're coming, I think it's going to be a surprise, but Melissa's cooking me a birthday dinner tonight, I was hoping you'd come." His Dad smiled at him nervously, "I haven't heard yet if Scott's going to be there, but he could be."
"Of course I'll be there," Stiles said instantly, because that wasn't even up for debate, "Didn't drive all this way for nothing, did I?" He laughed, but it sounded fake even to his own ears. "This does mean I'm going to have to get her some flowers though, try and butter her up so maybe she won't smack me one for ditching her son," he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"As far as I'm aware she blames you both equally," the Sheriff told him and his heart didn't stutter at all, so this time Stiles' smile was completely genuine.
He stood up and rubbed his hands on his jeans. "How about I meet you there?" he asked, "I want to visit mum anyway and if I'm getting flowers then I could be a while."
His Dad rose when he did and pulled him into a hug almost immediately. Stiles hugged him back automatically, but felt guilty because he could both feel from the hug and smell how much it meant to his Dad that he'd finally come back here. Stiles knew it had been too long, if only for the reason that he should have been back to visit his mum's grave at the very least; but he just hadn't been able to make himself.
If he was being honest, he'd only come this time because Maggie had threatened to put wolfsbane in his underwear drawer if he didn't.
"You need me to get anything else?" he asked when they pulled apart, feeling a little calmer now that his Dad's scent clung to him. It was familiar and comforting, it reminded him of his childhood, of happy memories. It reminded him of his mother as well.
His Dad shook his head. "Thought you might want to take the Baby out actually," he said, digging around in his pocket and holding out a pair of keys, "Had her fixed up a little for when you came back, thought you might have missed her."
Stiles grinned genuinely as his fingers curled around the familiar keys. He did a little dance and hugged his Dad again, already feeling more hyperactive than he had done in a long time. Becoming a werewolf hadn't quite cured his ADHD, but it had certainly helped it out a lot.
There was nothing that quite compared to the feeling of sliding in behind the wheel of his old jeep and he just sat there for a while, running his hands over the steering wheel lovingly. He took a deep breath through his nose, drawing in the scent of his Dad, of his human self that still lingered there. There was a hint of Scott's scent as well and something else so incredibly tantalising that he didn't have a name for it. He smiled to himself and cranked up the radio enough to fill the silence that would no doubt start pounding in his head.
The CD in the player still flicked on halfway through a song and Stiles laughed under his breath at his old music taste. Laughed at how it hadn't changed in the slightest. He could remember listening to this CD with Scott, the other boy grumbling at his taste in music. That didn't happen in the Pack, he had actually been voted as having the best taste in music. But then again, a lot of them had strange tastes so that wasn't saying much.
Yelling more than singing along to Snow Patrol, he took the familiar roads into town, not quite sure how he felt about the fact that each turning was practically instinct. He supposed that was what you got when you grew up in a place though.