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“Stiles. What the hell happened to you?” Peter grabbed Stiles’ face in both his hands to examine the black eye. “Who did this to you?”
“No one. It’s nothing.” Stiles pushed Peter’s hands away. “I was just a bit clumsy once again.”
Peter shook his head. “Why do you even try to lie to me, Stiles?”
“What? I am not. This was my own fault.” Stiles huffed as he moved past Peter and into his kitchen.
Peter listened closely but this time Stiles’ heart didn’t miss a single beat. So, either Stiles knew exactly how to lie to the wolf by now or it had actually been his own fault.
He followed Stiles into the kitchen and leaned against the counter as he watched how Stiles went through the content of his fridge.
Stiles pulled a face at all the healthy stuff and eventually just grabbed a yoghurt to sit down with it at the kitchen table. He was about to say something, but Peter was quicker.
“Did it happen at school?” He asked, still trying to figure out what happened to Stiles’ face. “You can tell me.”
Stiles groaned. “Peter. Let it go. I don’t want to talk about this.”
“I am definitely not going to let it go before you told me what happened.” Peter said, shaking his head. “I just want to make sure that you are fine, Stiles. That no one is hurting you. So, please, just tell me.”
Stiles glanced up at Peter for just a moment but didn’t say anything.
“Stiles, come on.”
“You don’t have to protect me, Peter.”
Peter sighed. “But I do. You are my boyfriend. If someone is hurting you, I will protect you.”
“I don’t want you to protect me this time.”
“Why? What happened, Stiles?” Peter sat down in front of Stiles; his face nothing but concern.
“It was my fault, just like I said already. I should have known better.”
“Should have known better about what?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
Peter sighed. “Stiles. Please, just talk to me.”
“You shouldn’t get involved in this. It’s not going to happen again. I’ll watch my mouth next time.” Stiles said quietly, not even daring to look up at Peter.
“I already am involved, Stiles. Just tell me who did this, please.”
“He didn’t mean to! He never hurt me before. He would never hurt me.”
“Who, Stiles? Who would never hurt you?”
“My dad.” Stiles almost sobbed. “It wasn’t his fault. I did this. I made him do this. Peter, you can’t be angry at him.”
“Your dad?” Peter’s eyes widened a little. He didn’t know the Sheriff as a violent person. Stiles’ dad had always been a friendly and polite person. Someone who loved his son with all his heart. “Tell me what happened, please.”
Stiles glanced up this time, uncertain of what to tell Peter. “He has been working on a case of three missing teenagers lately and like most of the time he wouldn’t tell me anything about it, but I wanted to know what was going on, so I talked him into having some Whiskey after dinner. Just a little.” Stiles explained. “This usually works. He gets more talkative when he’s drinking. Shares stuff with me. Work stuff. But he had too much last night. I made him drink a lot more than necessary.”
Peter sighed but reached out to take Stiles’ hand into his own.
“He didn’t mean to do this, Peter. You know my dad.”
Peter nodded slowly. “What happened after he drank?”
“We got into a fight and he got angry with me. He grabbed his shoe and … I realized too late that he was actually throwing it at me.”
Peter got up and walked around the table. He grabbed Stiles’ hand to pull him out of his chair and wrapped his arms around the boy.
Stiles leaned into Peter’s hug, pressing his face against his boyfriend’s shoulder. “He would never hurt me on purpose, Peter. It wasn’t his fault. I made him drink and I started the argument. I made him angry.”
“We will have to talk to him about this.” Peter just said, letting his hand rub over Stiles’ back in little, soothing motions, to calm Stiles down again.
“He doesn’t remember.”
Peter sighed again. “Then we definitely need to talk to him. I know your dad as someone who really wouldn’t hurt his only son like that and I’m sure he will be more than sorry if he finds out that he did this to you. But if he knows then maybe he will at least try not to drink so much in the future.”
“I can’t tell him that he did that.” Stiles shook his head. “I don’t want to tell him about that.”
“I will be right there with you.”
Stiles seemed to hesitate for a moment but after what felt like minutes, he finally nodded against Peter’s shoulder.
“Thank you, Peter.”