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Laura sighed when she decided to ring for the third time at her uncle’s apartment door.
Peter had mentioned to several family members in conversation, that he had a new ‘partner’ as he called it.
Though from what information they had pieced together it was a boy half Peter’s age who lived in Peter’s apartment, wore clothes Peter bought for him, went on vacations Peter invited him to and beyond all that Peter was paying for his college tuition as well.
So suffice to say they weren’t trusting the situation.
Which was why her mother and grandmother had given Laura the task to pay her uncle a little surprise visit and take a closer look at this Stiles charakter.
Which definitely wasn’t his actual name.
So she pressed the doorbell again.
A few seconds later the door was pulled open and Laura made a step back at what she saw.
In front of her stood a...man?
He was tall, thin and pale, with gangly limbs and an uncomfortably intense stare.
His hair stood up in all directions, he had some stubble on his face, his skin looked pale, his face was wearing an intensely annoyed expression and a toothbrush was stuck in his mouth.
She looked down from his face to see an incredibly worn out NASA shirt with holes, grey sweatpants that looked like they should have been thrown out years ago and bare feet in worn out star wars slippers.
Was this the wrong apartment?
“It’s 8 am, stop ringing, fucking psycho” the man grumbled past his toothbrush with a raspy voice that promised nothing but despair for her.
Then he stepped aside. “Peter’s in the living room.”
What?
She was too perplexed to immediately walk in, which prompted the man to take the toothbrush out of his mouth and glare at her. “Today, if possible.”
She stepped over the threshold and the door was pulled shut behind her.
Then the man just walked past her yelled “Your sister’s clone is here” and disappeared into what Laura knew was her uncle’s bedroom.
Still a little stunned she continued her path until she found Peter.
He looked impeccable as ever, groomed with precision, wearing jeans and a v-neck, sitting on his couch, leaned back comfortably, sipping his morning tea and reading something on his phone.
When she stepped in he glanced up with a perfectly charming but cold smile. “Hello dear niece, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
Laura glanced around, trying to decide if she was going to sit down even though her uncle had not offered her to sit.
Probably deliberately so.
“I was in the area and thought it’d be a fun surprise…” she trailed off as the same hideous gremlin of a person left Peter’s bedroom again and shuffled towards the couch.
The man ignored that Peter was reading, or holding his mug and just flopped down over Peter’s lap, lazily wrapping one arm around Peter’s torso and burying his face in the couch cushions. All the while grumbling and muttering incomprehensibly.
To Laura’s sheer irritation a soft smile appeared on her uncle’s face. She had never seen him smile like that.
When Peter looked back up to her she could see his smile go cold again. “It’s certainly a surprise.”
He leaned forward to place his mug on the coffee table and entirely ignored the way the other man protested the movement. “So what did you have in mind?”
She couldn’t just leave again, but she had no idea how to make sense of this situation.
Maybe a chat with her uncle alone would help? “I...ehrm...I thought maybe going out to somewhere to maybe have uh...breakfast?”
Her uncle tilted his head, then he leaned over to the man in his lap and spoke in a sickeningly sweet tone. “What do you say, my little Bratty Cat? Would you like to have a proper breakfast? Pancakes maybe?”
There was some more incomprehensibly muttering and Peter hmm-ed pleased in response.
“Alright” he then suddenly said a little louder while looking up at Laura and giving her a grin that made her feel slightly worried. “Going out for breakfast sounds like a lovely plan. Just give Stiles a few minutes.”
Under more protest the man who was now definitely confirmed to be Stiles got up again and stumbled back towards the bedroom door.
Laura couldn’t keep from giving her uncle a doubtful glance.
She had never known Peter to be a pushover.
She’d also never known Peter to accept anything less than perfect from his partners.
And she’d never seen Peter look genuinely like he liked someone.
He hadn’t even looked at his former girlfriend of three years the way he looked at this Stiles. How was this possible?
Peter smiled back at her, almost like he was daring her to say something and then got up to put on some shoes and a jacket, as well as grabbing his wallet and keys.
A lot faster than Laura had expected the door to Peter’s bedroom was opened again.
As Stiles stepped out she almost lost her balance.
The young man in front of her was clean shaven, his hair combed back stylishly.
He was wearing dark grey, tightly fitted jeans, a white shirt with thin dark blue horizontal stripes, a wine red colored cardigan and dark brown brogues.
His silhouette, earlier looking thin and tall and worrisome now had been transformed into what looked like a lithe, tall young man with broad shoulders, elegant hands, and an even more elegant neck.
His face, seeming intense and discomforting before was in fact surprisingly beautiful.
Suddenly she had no trouble imagining him as a model on a billboard. For perfume maybe.
His beautiful eyes, framed by long, dark lashes focused their attention on her and a charming yet cheeky smirk spread on his face. “Don’t be fooled Talia 2.0. I’m still the unacceptable gremlin you met at the door. Don’t change your opinion on me just because I know how to look pretty.”
She had no idea how to react to that and just stared, her mouth slightly open, as Peter chuckled and wrapped one arm around Stiles’ waist.
“You always look pretty, sweetheart. You just know how to make society see it.”
And if Peter’s look for this man had surprised Laura she’d definitely not been prepared for Stiles to return the heart eyes with full force.
“You always look like you are a drug cartel kingpin posing as a pillar of the community.”
Peter grinned happily, it looked so strange on him, like he was an entirely different person. “Thank you, darling.”
Stiles gave him a short peck on the lips. “You wear it well. Now let’s go. I dressed up, I was promised pancakes.”