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Theo was not nervous. He was Theo Raeken, he didn’t get nervous. That was what he kept telling himself on the drive over to his boyfriend’s house. He had no reason to be nervous, he knew that. He was only meeting his boyfriend’s parents for the first time, they couldn’t be that bad. Anyone who had raised Liam, the nicest person Theo had ever met, couldn’t possibly be awful. He had no reason to be nervous, with that said, he had been standing in front of the Stilinski-McCall household for five minutes, with sweaty palms and a heartbeat that couldn’t be safe. This was Theo’s first relationship he wanted it to be his only relationship, he loved Liam and if meeting Liam’s parents would make Liam happy he would do it. He’d do anything for Liam. With that in mind, he took a deep breath and finally knocked on the door.
Theo’s couldn’t help the soft smile that formed on his face when he saw Liam open the front door with an equally as happy smile to see Theo. Liam looked perfect, he always did, but before Theo could tell him that Liam was being pulled backwards by his shirt collar revealing one of Liam’s fathers. Theo wanted to throw up when he recognised who Liam’s father was, his dad recognised Theo right away.
“Raeken! What the hell are you doing here?” Stiles Stilinski asked with an edge to his tone, shocked to find Theo Raeken, someone he had seen down at the police station one to many times for somebody his age.
Theo didn’t know what to say, Liam had not once mentioned being the son of the Sheriff, luckily for him Liam didn’t hesitate, “Move pops, Theo’s my boyfriend. You know the one coming for dinner.” Liam pushed past his dad and pulled Theo into the house, kissing his cheek when Theo was close enough.
Stiles stood there in the entrance to his house with his mouth hanging open, “What do you mean, boyfriend?”
Theo gulped, this was not going to end well, and it was all Liam’s fault, a little warning would have been nice. Liam obviously not taking Stiles seriously, rolled his eyes at his father before pulling Theo through the entrance of the house into the dining room where Liam’s other father was.
“You couldn’t have mentioned your dad was the sheriff?” Theo hissed under his breath to Liam as they walked through Liam’s house.
Liam snuck a look at Theo, who looked terrified, “Then you would have never dated me and that would make me sad, you wouldn’t want me to be sad, would you Theo?”
That didn’t have the effect on Theo, Liam had hoped for, “Liam, he’s going to kill me. He’s arrested me. Oh my God, I’m never going to see you again.”
“Theo, don’t worry. He’s harmless when my dad’s around, everything’s going to be fine.” Liam reassured his boyfriend, grabbing a hold of his hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it. Theo gave Liam a weak smile. He still didn’t have a good feeling about this.
The two of them walked into the dining room, where Scott was putting plates down on the table. Scott turned to when he heard his son and this boyfriend walk through the dining room entrance, smiling he walked over to the pair.
“Hi, you must be Theo, I’m Liam’s other dad, call me Scott.” Scott warmly smiled at Theo, holding out a hand for him to shake. Theo smiled back, shaking his hand and introducing himself. He suddenly felt good. Theo was welcoming the warm feeling of Scott’s approval and Liam’s happy look at his dad and his boyfriend being friendly. That feeling was short lived as Stiles joined them in the room, and instantly shot him a glare when he saw his husband smiling at Theo.
“I see met you met my husband, Stiles, don’t mind him, he doesn’t really like anyone.” Scott told Theo, feeling sorry for the boy once he noticed his husband’s glare at him. Stiles had always been overprotective of Liam, Scott knew that once Liam got a boyfriend it would be impossible for them to get Stiles’ approval and judging by Theo’s reaction to Stiles, Theo had not stayed on the right side of the law. Theo was going to have to try very hard if Stiles was ever going to approve of him.
Scott sensing the awkward tension in the room decided to step in, “Theo, you are just in time, dinner’s ready. So why don’t we all sit down and eat.”
Scott ushered Theo into a seat, leaving Liam the seat next to it. As Liam started to move to go to sit in the seat, Stiles was pulling Liam down into the seat next to where he was sitting. Sending Theo, a smug grin across the table. Liam pouted and started to complain but was quickly shushed by his dad. Theo was trying hard to not appear to be affected by Stiles’ actions. He was failing, and he knew it. He just really didn’t want to upset Liam, this whole night meant so much to him.
“Theo, what do you do?” Scott asked, breaking the awkward tension that filled the room.
Stiles scoffed, “I’ll tell you what he does. He gets arrested.”
Liam frowned at his father, visibly upset with how his father was acting. Scott too didn’t look pleased, Theo on the other hand clenched his jaw trying his hardest not to argue back with the man who was clearly never going to like him.
Theo straightened in his chair, “I’ve only been arrested twice, sir and I’m currently enrolled in UC Davis majoring in Biological science.”
Liam grinned at his boyfriend’s response, knowing that Scott was going to eat that up, if Stiles was going to play dirty he’d found his match against Theo. Theo could charm anyone and Liam knew if Stiles wasn’t in the room, Scott would be eating out of Theo’s hand by now. Liam was right, Scott instantly smiled at Theo’s response whilst Stiles frowned and angrily stabbed his fork into some broccoli on his plate.
“Really? I went there too and studied the same, what do you want to do when you graduate?” Scott asked interested, leaning in to Theo more at the same time Stiles opened his mouth, again.
“Wait a second, you’re in college? Great! Scott, our son is dating a predator.” Stiles groaned, outraged at the idea that his seventeen year old son was dating somebody in college. Theo could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks, the last thing he wanted was to be arrested over dinner.
Liam was equally as outraged as Stiles was, but for the complete opposite reason, “Pops! Theo isn’t a predator! He wouldn’t even touch me for months, he thought I was too good for him. I practically had to jump him for him to admit he liked me.” Liam rambled angrily, obviously not realising what he had just said to his father, who was the sheriff. Theo was doomed.
“Liam!”
Stiles looked like he was halfway between deciding whether to kill Theo and then lock Liam in his room for the rest of eternity or the other way around, “Liam, have you had sex with a criminal?” Stiles was fuming, Liam was far too young to be having sex with anyone, let alone a criminal.
“Yes, obviously. Don’t be stupid pops and he’s not a criminal, he’s my boyfriend.”
Theo wanted the ground to swallow him whole, he had no idea that tonight he was actually walking to his death. It had been nice, he was sure Liam would mourn him. Scott was gaping to and from Theo, to his son and then to his husband. Finally catching up with the situation at hand, he decided to step in before tears were involved.
“Jesus, Stiles calm down. It’s not the end of the world as long as they’re being safe. I for one am proud of Liam, Theo is obviously trying to correct his wrongdoings and Liam is encouraging him. Everyone deserves a second chance.” Scott calmly told Stiles, who was not happy that Scott had sided with Theo. Theo was a criminal and not worthy of his son and of course he had Scott defending him.
Stiles settled in his seat before turning to face his husband, “This is all your fault. You and your good nature, if it wasn’t for you teaching him to save everyone we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Liam sniggered at Scott’s reaction to Stiles blaming him, he couldn’t help it if he tried to see the good in everyone. Theo felt very out of place and perhaps he shouldn’t be here for this conversation, it felt very personal. A conversation that the three of them should have when Theo wasn’t sitting there awkwardly.
“Excuse me, when have I ever tried to save people?” Scott asked defensively, crossing his arms.
“I’m sorry don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about Allison and Isaac.” Liam scrunched his face up at the mention of his pseudo aunt and uncle, he hated when the two of them did this. He never wanted to imagine his dad dating anyone but his pops, especially the people who he considered family.
Scott let out a dry laugh, “Allison never needed saving, and Isaac had a deeply traumatic past, he needed somebody to lean on and trust.”
Theo looked so confused, Liam thought it was only fair is he explained what was going on to his boyfriend, “Dad used to date Allison and Isaac. Isaac’s dad locked him in a freezer for most of his childhood.”
It was Stiles’ turn to laugh, ignoring Liam he carried on, “Please, admittedly Allison could look after herself, but after the whole Kate thing and her mum dying, she was a mess and you wanted to save her.”
What the hell had Theo gotten himself into, he didn’t even want to know what the Kate thing. He was half tempted to make a run for it and never step foot in the Stilinski-McCall house ever again. Liam on the other had was rather amused by his parent’s bickering and was happily shoving his dinner into his mouth as he watched.
“Stiles, if Liam is taking after anyone here, it would be you and your obsession with cocky alphas. I mean there was Lydia, Jackson, Erica, Derek and let’s not forget Peter.” Scott smirked, shifting the blame, after not liking what Stiles was saying about his past relationships.
Stiles flushed bright red at Scott’s words, Stiles never thought he had a type until Scott had lumped everyone he had ever liked under one category. Liam stopped eating, pulling a face at the mention of Peter’s name, now that was something Liam never wanted to imagine.
“Peter? As in Peter Hale?” Theo asked surprised at the outcome of Stiles’ dating history. Theo let out a laugh, when Scott nodded at him before turning to Stiles as if to say, see I was right, “If anyone’s a predator it’s him. The guys a creep.”
“You know Peter?” Liam was shocked, he felt like his boyfriend should have mentioned knowing Peter Hale.
Theo nodded, “After I had been arrested for trespassing, I shared a holding cell with him. He said I was pretty.”
Liam did not like the thought of Peter Hale of all people, calling his boyfriend pretty, no matter how right he was. Scott and Stiles both seemed shocked by Theo’s statement. Both shocked for different reasons. Scott, shocked to find out that Theo had been locked away with Peter, mildly disgusted that Peter, old enough to be Theo’s grandfather, was hitting on him and no one had stopped him. Stiles, shocked that Liam was knowingly dating a criminal and knew about his arrests.
“Peter’s standards have seriously fallen.” Stiles muttered, causing Liam to throw a potato at him.
“No, Peter’s standards have never been high if he dated you.” Liam paused, “No offence dad.”
Stiles frowned, “None taken.” Stiles frowned even harder.
“We didn’t even date. It was like a few drunk hook ups. Which I want to point out, your fault.” Stiles defended himself, pointing his fork at Liam, his was not going to take any of the blame tonight.
Liam rolled his eyes, “Not my fault, you can’t tell when a good thing’s happening even if it’s literally hitting you in the face.” Liam winked over at his dad, before cheekily grinning at his pops.
Theo had heard this story, Liam’s rocky road to getting adopted by both of his fathers. Scott was visiting Stiles at the station for lunch, a three year old Liam had been found alone and Scott couldn’t leave without knowing Liam had a nice place to stay, he had ended up looking after him and then adopting him. Stiles thought it was a bad idea and that Scott was too young to be looking after a toddler, but Scott made it work. Stiles had moved in, bitterly, and helped Scott out. They fell in love, Stiles freaked out, the Peter thing happened and then he crawled back to Scott crying about how he could never lose him and he loved their little family. Liam thought the story was cute, Theo couldn’t understand how Liam found any of it funny. Theo would’ve had a mental breakdown if his parents had told him that story.
Stiles smiled fondly at his son, “Yeah, I was an idiot.”
Theo couldn’t help but smile at the scene in front of him, Liam was so lucky to be loved the way he was. Theo often couldn’t help the sad feeling he got when Liam talked about his family, as his was nothing like that, but watching it was a different story. He was so happy that Liam was happy.
“Trespassing, huh? Tell me about that.” Scott asked Theo, Liam’s eyes flickered over to Theo, looking at him with concern, knowing how this story affected Theo. Theo sent him a reassuring smile letting him know it was ok.
“Not much of a story really, my parents had kicked me out. They caught me sneaking back in to grab my clothes and they called the cops.” Theo shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal. Liam knew better though, he remembered finding Theo in his truck crying. They weren’t even dating at that point, but Liam was ready to fight Theo’s parents and anyone else for that matter, if they hurt Theo.
Scott’s heart broke, he couldn’t imagine what that must have been like for Theo. He threw a glare over at his husband, “And you arrested him? Gosh, you are a dick sometimes Stilinski.”
“I was doing my job.” Stiles threw his hands up defensively. Scott still shook his head at him, disappointed in him.
“Did you have anywhere to go? Where are you living now?” Scott asked, putting a comforting hand on Theo’s shoulder. Theo’s heart swelled, he totally got now the whole saving people thing. He wasn’t used to people caring about him, like this. Liam was the first really.
“I bounced around friend’s places for a while, but I ended up crashing with my Brett until I went to college and now I’m now staying in dorms. I’ll probably end up getting my own apartment after college.” Theo told Scott. Liam beamed at his boyfriend, he loved Theo so much and he was so happy that his dad cared enough to ask and be interested in Theo’s wellbeing, not enough people were to be honest.
Scott still had not taken his hand off of Theo’s shoulder, “If you ever need somewhere to stay you can stay here.”
Theo tried to swallow his happiness, he snuck a look over to Stiles to see if he would shout and demand Scott to take it back, “I guess if you’re here you aren’t causing trouble out there. And I can keep an eye on the two of you.”
Theo nodded, thanked them both and smiled softly at Liam who was grinning. He winked at Theo, which earned a smack to the back of the head from Stiles, which made everyone laugh.
Liam was right, everything would be fine.