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Watching Stiles pull a rice pudding out of the oven was bitter-sweet. The recipe was the one Claudia had taught him when he was about five, standing by him as he stirred the pot as the milk came to the boil, before she transferred it to the oven. The one with sultanas and nutmeg. Still the family tradition for special occasions.
“Is it done Daddy?” The bright sound of his granddaughter’s voice chasing the memory away as he picked up so that she could see over the kitchen island to watch as Stiles carefully put the dish on surface.
“Yes, it’s done poppet. Why don’t you go wash up and call everyone to dinner? Once you’ve eaten everything we’ll have this for pudding.”
“Okay Daddy.” As always her nose had wrinkled up at the thought of eating everything, but if rice pudding was the result he knew that she’d make a good go of it. Tally’s voice sung through the house and outside to let everyone know it was dinner time. Not that they wouldn’t have heard just from Stiles telling her.
It had taken him a long time to get used to the idea of supernatural hearing.
They didn’t know yet if Tally was something other than human yet. Occasionally, you didn’t know until a child hit puberty apparently, though she wasn’t a Were that much they did know.
Stiles and Peter had adopted his granddaughter a year after they had bonded. She had been abandoned by the big tree stump in the preserve, the one that there was something odd about. Her true name was Tallulah, but everyone called her Tally. Most people thought that she had been named after Peter’s sister, and no one was saying any different, true names had power after all.
“Noah.” Peter smiled at him as he walked in the door, leaning over to bring their cheeks together. Which was not something he thought he’d ever get used too, basically his son-in-law was giving him to Werewolf version of a peck on the cheek.
He knew it was a lot more than that, of course, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t above teasing Peter about it. Even though, it was something he more than treasured on the quiet.
The sound of little feet pounding down the stairs signalled it was time for dinner.
“What have I told you about fairy elephants Tally?” He couldn’t help but smile at those words, so similar to the ones that Claudia used to say to Stiles at more or less the same age, which brought much the same reaction as they had from Stiles.
That almost but not quite contrite look, which you knew meant there would be more comments about herds of fairy elephants in the future.
“Come and get it.” And there was dinner calling, dinner followed by rice pudding.