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There’s an insistent tug on Derek’s leg. “Daddy, Daddy!”
Derek closes his book with a soft thud, looking at his daughter. Her face is streaked with tears, cheeks blotchy and red. So much for some quiet playtime for Zoey and relaxing novel-reading time for Derek. “What is it, sweetie?” he asks. “Are you alright?”
"You need to go beat up Jamie’s daddy!" Zoey insists, pointing at the sandbox where she had just been playing, where a brown-haired boy is running off. Also in tears. Derek frowns. Five minutes ago he swears he heard Zoey tell him, "Jamie is my new best friend!" because they both had monster action figures or something, and immediately decided to build a sand- city to destroy together.
The Godzilla action figure (brand-new, really, Zoey?) is lying askew in the sand, next to another monster toy that Derek presumes is the other kid’s.
"Zoey," Derek says sternly, and her lip wobbles, eyes widening, and yeah, she knows exactly what she’s doing because Derek stands up from the bench reluctantly. "What happened?"
Zoey sniffles. “Jamie told me his monster is better than Godzilla because his is an,”— sniff sniff— “ALIEN”— rubs her eyes “—and destroyed way more places like Australia and San Francisco and Mexico and the Phil-ip-pines!” She stomps her foot with every ‘and’.
Derek raises an eyebrow as Zoey continues. “And he said Godzilla was not a good monster because he only attacked New York and Japan. But then I told him Godzilla was better because he has tons of movies, and that if he didn’t let Godzilla be the monster leader then my daddy would beat up his daddy.”
Derek feels a headache coming on. He rubs his temple briefly and takes Zoey’s hand. “Okay, sweetie, obviously we’re going to have a talk with Jamie and his dad, but it sounds like you were both mean to each other, and I can’t promise you I’m going to beat anyone up…”
Derek trails off, because he recognizes the man walking behind the little boy, both wearing matching plaid shirts. The guy is attractive, lean and pale, with flyaway hair and black rimmed glasses, and he catches Derek’s eye, waving jauntily at Derek.
Jamie marches right up to Zoey and glares at her. “You take back what you said about Otachi! She’s the best of the best of the Kaiju! Or my daddy will totally make your daddy cry!”
Zoey sticks her tongue out at him. “Well my daddy is bigger than your daddy, so it looks like YOURS is going to be the one that cries!”
Derek stares straight ahead, and he can feel his face heating up, and Jamie’s dad blushes. The moles on the side of his face dance a little when he smiles, and Derek feels a little warm inside.
Their kids are still yelling at each other. Jamie is saying something about a black belt, and then his father winks saucily at Derek.
This is either going to be hilarious or awful.
Derek steps forward, and the other man does the same. They’re nearly the same height, and they stare each other for a moment, Derek looking into those mischievous amber eyes. The plaid shirt gets its sleeves rolled up, and then the glasses are off, placed protectively in a back pocket.
"Yeah! You’re going to get it!" Jamie says, pumping his fist in the air.
"Kids, I’m going to show you a great way how to resolve conflict," Derek says, and Zoey nods with determination.
They both adopt a fighting stance that lasts for all of three seconds before Derek swoops in, dipping the man dramatically and catching his mouth in a hot whirlwind kiss. He forgets for a second it’s for show when a hand makes its way into his hair and a tongue teases at his lips, up until he hears a chorus of “EWW, GROSS!”
Derek pulls away from the kiss, and they’re both laughing brightly. “Zoey, do you remember how I told you I wanted you to meet Daddy’s special friend?” he says to his daughter. “This is Stiles.”
Zoey and Jamie stare at each other in shock, then back at their fathers.
"You mean this is the Derek you’ve been telling me about for the past two weeks?” Jamie splutters, looking up at Stiles.
Stiles shrugs sheepishly. “Yup.” He smiles, taking Derek’s hand and squeezing it. “I think we were planning to officially have all of you guys meet on Friday, but this was too funny to pass up.”
He just looks so adorable and ridiculous grinning that Derek has to kiss him again, going for a quick peck but Stiles responds enthusiastically, kissing him back until Jamie makes a gagging noise.
Zoey is making a face. “Grownups are weird,” she says.
"Yeah," Jamie agrees. "Do you wanna finish building New York outta sand?"