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When Jackson gets home, Stiles is nowhere to be seen. Instead of calling his name, he listens for his heartbeat and heads there.
“Hey,” Jackson says as he enters the laundry room.
“Hi.” Stiles looks at him but keeps folding the t-shirt in his hands.
Jackson walks in until he’s standing behind his husband and wraps his arms around his waist, embracing him from behind. He kisses his neck and just inhales his scent without another word.
“I didn’t hear you arrive. You’re back early.”
Jackson had gone to Derek’s to watch some baseball game with Scott and Stiles hadn’t expected him to come back for at least another hour.
“Yeah, the game was boring as hell and Derek had shopping and stuff to do because Kane is visiting his brother in the hospital like he’s been doing all week.”
“How’s he doing?”
Jackson lets go of Stiles and moves to the side.
“Last I heard he’s having surgery tomorrow, so it depends on how that goes. It seems like a pretty standard procedure. Derek said the doctors are very optimistic and they expect him to make a full recovery.”
“That’s good, then.”
“Yeah, it’s good.” Jackson nods and licks his lips. He stays silent for a few seconds and Stiles looks at him but doesn’t say anything.
“Look. We need… we have to discuss something.”
“Discuss?” Stiles frowns. “What do we have to discuss?” Stiles grabs another t-shirt and continues the folding.
Jackson puts his hand on the t-shirt. “Can you stop that?”
“Okay—What’s going on?” Stiles raises his eyebrows.
“I know we haven’t talked about it for a while but Derek said something today, and he’s right, we need to make a decision about Kyle.”
Stiles turns to face Jackson completely, crossing his arms. “What did he say exactly?”
“He said that there’s a couple in a New York pack who have been waiting to adopt a child for a couple of years and he knows they would adopt him right away.”
“Does he even know these people?”
“What do you think?” Jackson waves his right arm. “Of course he does. He’s known that pack for a long time. He totally trusts them and thinks they would be a good fit for him. He thinks… you know… that they’d be a good family for him.”
“But why? Why is he doing this? Why did he suddenly decide to send him off to New York?”
“Hey, it’s not a sudden decision. As the alpha, he’s looking out for him. You know he cares about him like we do.”
“Not like we do.” Stiles shakes his head.
“What do you mean?” Jackson shrugs.
“What’s wrong with you? You love that kid. I know you do. Even our kids have a bond with him. They’d be devastated if we shipped him off to New York… especially Ilya. It would break his heart, and you know it. And shit, Derek fucking knows it too, so I don’t understand it. That man… sometimes I don’t understand how his mind works.”
“Stiles… he just… well, he thinks he should have legal parents. We said this was a temporary situation until we found him a permanent solution. You know he can’t stay with foster parents forever and it’s been ten months.”
“Well, is it just me who doesn’t feel like his foster father anymore? Am I the only one who can’t imagine this house without him in it? I mean, why didn’t you tell him he’s part of our family now?”
“Stiles, it’s not that I don’t want him here. Of course, I do. But we don’t have his parental rights; we aren’t his legal parents, we are his foster parents and that’s the truth of the situation here. Social services might find him another home if Derek doesn’t find it first and that’s why he told us about this possibility. Because this kid is a wolf and he needs a pack, and you know it’s not that easy to find him a family who wants to adopt him… and also, the truth is that you’ve been avoiding the subject and I don’t even know why. So, Derek is not the one to blame here, okay? He’s just trying to do what is best for him.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” Stiles shakes his head, waving his arm.
“What question?” Jackson frowns.
Stiles rolls his eyes dramatically because he’s not a fan of repeating stuff to his husband or anybody else for that matter. “I asked if it’s just me who doesn’t feel like his foster father?—Shit. How do you feel, Jackson? Just be honest with me.”
“Now you wanna talk about it. About my feelings?” Jackson raises his eyebrows.
“Yeah. You need to tell me before he’s shipped him off to New York and we never see him again.”
“Yeah, because five weeks ago, I didn’t you ask about it and you said you couldn’t give me an answer. You said you weren’t sure. You said—”
“I know what I said. What I said was the truth. You wanted something I couldn’t give you… so you decided to tell Derek to find him a home somewhere else,” Stiles says, raising his voice.
“Calm down, okay? I didn’t tell him that. I told him to give us more time to decide… so he decided to just ask around. Only in case he needed another home… that’s all. And to answer your question, I… You know… I don’t want him to go. I agree. He’s part of this family now… but we never planned to have another kid and it was my idea to bring him here, so when you said that last month—”
“I was stupid, okay?” Stiles interrupts him. “I hesitated because it’s a huge responsibility. It’s not something you can decide lightly and I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that kind of commitment. I thought we needed more time, but the truth is that we’re already his parents. We’ve pretty much been since the day we met him and took him home. Since we took him shopping and gave him his own room. He’s got his school here. He’s got his friends, two kids who argue with him the way only brothers do…” Stiles smiles and so does Jackson. “His pack… his whole world is here now. And he’s been through so much… I could never uproot him again and send him to fucking New York. And Derek is even crazier than I thought if he thinks that.”
Jackson is not going to say it, but he’s pretty sure that Derek never intended to send him away with that pack. Probably, he only did the whole thing to push them to answer a question he already knew the answer to. Derek has his own way of doing things, and he might not always agree, but he respects that and he values the kind of alpha he’s become.
“So, okay. Are you saying that you want to adopt him?” Because he really needs Stiles to say the words and make it official before he says anything to Derek.
“What else?” Stiles asks, resting both arms on Jackson’s shoulders. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Stiles grins.
“I mean, you want to, right?” Stiles cups Jackson’s cheek with his right hand.
“Yeah, I want to. Of course, I want to,” Jackson smiles.
Stiles’s relief couldn’t be described with words if he tried and Jackson can easily see it on his face. He kisses Jackson and Jackson kisses him back, and it’s the kind of kiss that says everything he needs to know. The kind that leaves him breathless and craving more at the same time.
He knows his husband loves him and supports him, and there’s nothing they can’t do together.
As long as they are united, there’s no problem they can’t face and there’s no decision they can’t make.
It’s almost funny now to think that Stiles woke up from that coma he thought his life was over. He still remembers how lost he felt all those years ago, when he woke up without memories; how hard it was to imagine a future for himself. How he blamed fate and bad luck for what had happened to him. He remembers the rage, the sadness and how he treated Jackson and Daniel. He thought he had lost the life he was supposed to have but the truth is he never did. The truth is simply that fate had other plans for him.
The truth is that Jackson never gave up on him.
He never wanted a life without him.
They might argue and they don’t always see things the same way. They’ve never been perfect, but Jackson’s love for him has never quivered. It has never changed. They have three kids who are special, smart, trouble and fun; they couldn’t be more different from each other and still, they are all part of the puzzle that is their everyday lives. That puzzle that makes their lives interesting, full of love and much more fulfilling than he could have ever imagined. That is why despite what happened, he’s one of the lucky ones. Every time he wakes up in the morning, he knows that.