There were only a few options for Stiles in this whole shit. He knew what he should do. He knew what he shouldn't do.

Stiles had seen Derek looking at him since he got back. There were a lot of people who were looking at him now, but he hadn't thought that Derek would ever be one of them. Stiles had been casually dating since he came home from the FBI Academy and was assigned to work with the newly minted field office in Beacon City. It had been decided that with the Nemeton making too much noise and no way to shut it down, that wasn't going to fuck up all of the ley lines in the area; it would just have to be watched. So they were working in a large area around Northern California. Stiles spent most of his mornings in the office researching items that he was finding and then afternoons training with the rest of the team.

When it was time for him to be needed, he was always ready, especially with his magic. Magic that hadn't been unlocked until it was found to have been bound when he was younger. It had been unlocked while he was at the Academy. The FBI was still changing in the wake of more of it being known about the supernatural. There wasn't really a team that didn't know that if shit turned strange, one needed to call the unit. Stiles' team was more than happy to have him there. He was the one who picked the cases for them; despite him being a damned good field asset, he was best behind the scenes. It also meant that people who went after them underestimated him.

This thing with Derek wasn't something that Stiles had seen coming. Before Braeden had entered the picture and Derek had left with her, Stiles had thought that he and Derek were building to something for when Stiles became legal. The discussion had been had about how liking someone underage didn't make him like Kate. If that was the only reason Derek wanted him, yes, there would be red flags, but Derek liked him for his whole person, who just happened to be underage per California law. It wasn't the worst thing to have to wait to get to know Derek. Then Derek was just gone.

Stiles had moved on, and when Lydia had seemed like she might like him, they had tried, and it had fizzled out. They were much better as friends and nothing more. Still, the sex had been great, and they had kept that for when each other needed it. A few hundred miles was nothing for a booty call. Stiles had learned a lot about sex with her. He had learned a lot about himself, and the main thing was that he was pretty damned close to gay. Brains turned him on, but it was mostly guys with brains and then a few others. It explained why things with Malia had been so strange to him and so wrong. He had assumed it was just his lingering emotions for Lydia that were hard to let go of. Which had then made Stiles think about whether he had been using Lydia as a beard for years.

"Busy?" Derek asked as he set his cup down on the table.

"Not really. Go ahead and sit down," Stiles said.

"You were going good and then stopped on there. I didn't want to bother you."

"Nah, I'm not even on the clock. I got done with work about three hours ago. I came here to relax because I didn't want to go home alone. What did you want?" Stiles asked. He closed his laptop and picked up his cup of tea. His shirt sleeves were pulled up to where his forearms were visible. Stiles watched how Derek's eyes zeroed in on the way his muscles moved under his skin. So he hadn't been seeing things when he caught Derek looking at him last weekend while Stiles had been at the Jungle. Stiles had been pleasantly surprised when he got home to find that it was open under that name again, with the kids of the former owners being the ones running it. It was a little higher class than before, but the same patrons who had been there before were still going. Stiles had found his Drag Queens there ruling the roost, and he had been happy about that.

"We've not really got caught up since you've come home, and I wanted to do that. I know that it's short notice, but I hoped maybe dinner?"

Stiles picked up his cell phone and checked the time on it. It was just a little past three. He had no plans for his dinner other than whatever he could make given the things in his fridge. He was up for dinner with Derek.

"Sure, that sounds great. Is six a good time? I have a few errands I want to run, and that will give me just enough time for that. Did you want to meet somewhere specific?"

"I'll pick you up."

"Sure. That works. I'll text you my address."

"You don't need to. I've seen your Jeep parked in the driveway there when I've been on runs in the morning."

"Dude, I don't have Roscoe anymore, so if you see that Jeep, that's not my place."

"No, your new Jeep. The one you like to drive around without the top on and the doors off."

"Ah, my fun Jeep. Yeah, I love that thing. Sure. Pick me up at six, and we can catch up." Stiles looked into his cup and picked it up to drain the last bits. He would need one to go. He had been up half the night and took a three-hour nap before starting work. It was why he was off already. He was salary, but he also was not allowed to work above a certain number of hours in a day unless they had an active case. There were no cases that were considered active like that. Stiles was tracking a few that were going on in the area that they covered.

"Six. I'll see you then," Derek said.

Stiles read Derek's body language. He was nervous. Which wasn't something that Stiles had ever really seen before for him. Derek Hale didn't get nervous, not like that. Stiles was pretty sure this was supposed to be a date, without Derek saying it was. So Stiles made plans on what he wanted to wear.

Stiles grabbed his coat and slipped it on. It was not fully spring yet, so the temperatures were lower than he would be happy about without a coat. He wasn't even sure where they were going or what they were doing. Which was okay. Stiles had his backup gun on him and everything he needed to carry. Given his job, he was considered on-duty at all times when he was in Beacon County. Normally he would carry around wolfsbane as well, but he chose not to just because he was going out with Derek. He did have Mountain Ash powder just in case they were attacked. He didn't figure that it would happen, but it might. Things were almost too quiet in Beacon Hills at the moment, and Stiles didn't like it. Quiet wasn't good when it felt like this.

The rev of an engine had Stiles opening his door. He found Derek getting out of the Camaro. It was the same damned Camaro, but it looked new.

"You restored it?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah, it's been keeping me busy when I'm not working."

"You have a job?"

"Kind of?" Derek said. His face scrunched up, and he looked all kinds of adorable like that.

"You'll have to tell me all about it."

"That's the plan for tonight, isn't it? Getting to know each other?" Derek asked.

Stiles nodded his head. He stepped off his porch, and Derek walked to the edge of the Camaro and opened up Stiles' door. This was totally a date. Stiles wasn't sure what he felt about that. He really wasn't. He hoped that he knew by the end of this date.

"Where are we going?"

"My place."

"Your place?" Stiles asked. He hadn't been to Derek's new place as their paths didn't actually cross that much. Up until Stiles and his team came to Beacon Hills, Derek had been the main contact for anything supernatural in town. He had been glad to be rid of the job, and he was only called in to help when things went horrible.

"I have dinner started already."

"I could have driven to you," Stiles said.

"I needed an excuse to try this baby out. I just finished her up a few days ago. I'm happy with what I've been able to get done with her in a short time."

"So you are taking me out in an untested vehicle?" Stiles asked.

Derek laughed. It looked like something he did a lot of now; he had laugh lines on his face.

Stiles hadn't noticed a lot of the changes with Derek. They didn't spend much time together and hadn't since Stiles had come back to Beacon Hills. He hadn't even known that Derek was here until he had already been living here six months. Seeing Derek shopping in the store had been a shock. Derek had been living in Beacon Hills since not long after Stiles had gone to college.

"What did you make?" Stiles asked.

"It's a surprise," Derek said. He looked at Stiles as he pulled up to a stoplight. He reached out and cupped the side of Stiles' cheek, brushing over the bruise there. "I mean to ask you how you got that?"

"Do you want the fake story or the real one?"

"Fake first. I want to know what you are telling everyone else."

"That I was rushing to stand up and cracked my cheek off the desk when my chair tripped me. I have done something like it before."

"What really happened?"

"Deputy Stackhouse is getting fired and tried for assaulting a federal agent in the commission of a crime."

"What?"

"Yeah, after we went our ways after you asked me on this date, I was heading into a store. He was trying to blackmail the owner into giving him goods for free for protection. He wanted a ring for his wife. His wife wanted it; he couldn't afford it. He would rather blackmail someone into getting instead of telling his wife to fuck off for wanting things right now that they can't afford."

"What were you doing in there?"

"I have a ring that was found on a case a while back, and Grist has been looking into it for me. It's a custom piece, and so he's checking in with people around the world. He's playing a long game of telephone. People across the sea will be more willing to talk to him than an FBI agent. He had a lead and wanted to give me an update. I went in before I went home. Grist gave me a look that said bad shit was going down. I stepped in, and Stackhouse punched me and tried to run. I stepped out the door and yelled at the two BHPD officers on foot patrol. They caught him."

"He did a shit job at punching you."

"Nah, I moved mostly out of the way. He was going for my nose, caught my cheek instead."

The thumb trailing over the kind felt good. The light changed, and Derek dropped it. He hadn't said that it wasn't a date, which was good. Stiles felt out of his depth, and he wasn't sure what he wanted to feel about this. Derek had been a dream once upon a time. Not like Lydia had been. No, Derek had been different. Stiles had made plans that were actually planned. Derek coming with Stiles to college since he was adrift anyway. Then Derek hadn't come home. Not until after Stiles had left.

Biting his lip, Stiles kept his mouth shut. He wanted to know why Derek had waited that long to come back to Beacon Hills. He wanted to know a lot of things, but most of all, he wanted to know why now.

"I have three surprises for you when we get to my place. Any of those three could send you running. Parrish is on hand to pick you up at his place and take you home."

"He's working."

Yes, but his place isn't far from mine. You can wait on his porch for him."

"Does any of them have to do with you staying away for just long enough for me to leave Beacon Hills?"

"No, I know it looks that way, but I came back when Kate was gone. I made sure I was never going to be a target again, and then I came home. I fully expected you to visit more during college, but then Parrish explained the internship you were doing that was going to replace the work experience, and then you went for your masters."

"So what's...the three things."

"When we are there." Derek looked at Stiles briefly and then back at the road.

Stiles didn't do good with things like this. Yes, he was happy that Derek wanted to be open. He was happy that Derek wanted to have things be even between them, but he didn't do well at this kind of shit.

The house they pulled up in front of was quaint. It was nothing like the loft that Derek had lived in after he had finally decided a place that wasn't condemned was where he wanted to live.

The door opened up, and Peter stood there with a child in his hands. She looked to be about three years old, and behind Peter was another kid peeking out. He looked to be around seven.

"Who are they?"

"Mine and Braeden's kids. She's not a mother, and she knows it, but she knew that I wanted kids. She carried them, and she's their mother on paper, but I have full custody. They are one of the three things."

"Is the second Peter?"

"Yes, he lives with me. We take care of them together. The other thing is kind of twisted into one thing, kind of. The pack is small. It's just us five."

"Who is the fifth?"

As if summoned, a coyote trotted around the house and settled onto her butt. Stiles knew exactly who that was. After France, Malia had come back to Beacon Hills, and she had tried it. She had gone to college and tried, but she just wrote a letter and disappeared. Then her father was found with a suicide note. He hadn't been able to live with just Malia returned to him. He had tried, but he was tired.

"Dad said he was pretty sure she had turned into a coyote again. He tried to find her to tell her to just come to his place. He had a safe spot for her."

"And she knows about it. She's used it on occasion. You two do make her feel safe. She's just not cut out for being a human."

"I get that. So she lives inside?"

"Yeah, she has her own room, and it's kitted out for her as a human or a coyote. I've seen her in human form a few times. I think she might have someone she goes to for sex."

"And Scott? Last I knew, they were tight and partially married," Stiles said.

"Your father didn't tell you?"

"I told him not to tell me anything else about Scott after my first semester at college, and Scott wanted me to come out there to help him learn how to do what he should have learned in high school. I was just going for a stupid degree, and it didn't matter, but his degree did."

"And that's why they broke up. Malia heard about it. She didn't like that he was valuing his education over yours. You are her anchor still, Stiles. You keep her human, even in that form."

"How do you know?"

"Derek, I'm not standing here all evening," Peter yelled.

"If he lets them go, they are coming for us," Derek said.

"That's fine. We can get out. I like kids."

"I know, but Reed doesn't quite know his strength yet," Derek's aid.

"Ah, well then I'll take the little one. She looks adorable."

Stiles got out and walked around the Camaro just as the little toddler made it to him. He scooped her up, and she rubbed her cheek against his. Her eyes flashed at him, and she was adorable with her yellow eyes.

"So, this is?"

"Emma."

"Emma and Reed. Very simple names," Stiles said. He was just glad that Derek had not given them the first names of anyone dead in the family. "So, Malia is the third?"

"Malia and this are kind of wrapped into the third. I said pack, Stiles. I said we were a pack."

Stiles nodded his head, and then he got it. He looked at Peter and then at Derek. Peter's eyes flashed blue when he looked at him the second time, and Derek's were glowing a steady red when Stiles looked at him.

"How?"

"No clue. I'm not sure; Peter isn't sure."

"You two have buried your hatchet?" Stiles asked.

Derek picked up Reed as he tugged on Derek's jacket.

"Hi, Mister Stiles,' Reed said.

"Well, hello to you too, Mister Reed."

"Daddy says your name is too hard to pronounce, and that's why you are called Stiles. He said the name, but I don't believe him."

"Really? You said it? How did you even find out about it?"

"I have my ways, and it's Mieczyslaw, correct?" Derek asked.

"Did daddy say it right?" Reed asked.

"Yeah, buddy, he did. Almost as good as I say it," Stiles answered.

"I taught Derek that taking an interest in the small things was a good way to show one cared. It can also be seen as stalking to know a lot of little things. It's a fine balance. Hello, Stiles. I'm heading out for my evening off of childcare. Do have fun." Peter pulled Stiles into a hug and then brushed his cheek over Stiles'. After Peter had burned himself up to save Stiles and get rid of the Wild Hunt, they had grown closer. They chatted through email for a long time, and Peter had tapered off some over the last few years.

"Why didn't anyone tell me about the kids?" Stiles asked.

"Not many know. Your father and Parrish do, but I promised them to keep it quiet. There are still factions of the Argent hunting group out there that would love to take me down for killing Kate and Gerard."

"Chris talked about someone shooting him."

"Well, that was Braeden when we were hunting Kate. We stumbled upon him, and I couldn't let him leave. I had always felt that bond with him until I wasn't an Alpha anymore. It was the only good thing that came out of that, besides Cora being alive."

"Hungry," Emma said in Stiles' arms.

"Yeah? Then let's go eat," Derek said.

Stiles followed him into the house. Peter got into a truly pretentious car and backed out of the driveway. The living room was taken over with kids' toys, but it looked like they had a home on the sides of the room. It looked very much like a house with kids in it that were loved.

"So you got to where you were good in your life before wanting me in it," Stiles said.

"Kind of. I kept expecting you to come home with a girlfriend or a wife, or even a boyfriend or a husband. It just never happened, and then your father dropped that you weren't dating as much as finding people to have sex with. I thought it couldn't hurt to try it."

"What did you make?" Stiles asked.

"Scallops will be for an appetizer for us, cheese for the kids."

"Just cheese?"

"Well, it's gouda. They like it." Derek pulled a tray with bits of cheese cut up on it from the fridge. There were two distinct piles.

"Anything I can do?" Stiles asked.

"Nope. I just got to sear the scallops, and everything for it will be ready. Dinner is baking in the oven, and dessert is setting up in the fridge. Reed, have you washed your hands?"

"I'll go do it now." Reed eyed the cheese before he headed to a small room just off the kitchen.

"And Emma?"

"She's got wipes. She likes to play too much, so washing like that is only after she eats, and that's usually a bath or a big wipe down with a rag." Derek looked sure of himself as he worked on the scallops. Stiles set Emma down on the counter by the cheese and grabbed one of the wipes in a box there on the counter. He wiped down her hands and then his own.

Emma grabbed a bite of cheese from the pile and popped it into her mouth, chewing on it. She didn't even attempt to reach for the other cheese that was bigger.

Sure that she was mostly safe, Stiles walked around the island to stand beside Derek, one eye on her and one eye on Derek. Emma just sat there and slowly ate.

"Emma is a really good baby," Stiles said.

"Yes, she is. Peter tells me that she's nothing like I was. Reed was. He was a handful when he was a toddler. The terrible twos started at fourteen months and didn't end until he was three and a half."

"Sounds like you got what your mother probably cursed you to have."

"Cora, I guess, was even worse than me. Laura and Spencer were the two good babies," Derek said.

Stiles nodded his head. He had talked to Peter about Spencer just once while they were trapped in the Wild Hunt's train station. Peter had warned Stiles to never bring him up around Derek. Stiles hadn't.

"Well, first and last and all of that shit."

"How do you know Spencer is last?" Derek asked. He turned to look at Stiles before he looked back as he flipped the scallops.

"Peter talked about him once during the Wild Hunt shit. He told me not to bring him up with you."

"He was the baby, but he was also my favorite sibling. Cora was Cora, and Laura didn't have time for the younger of us after turning seven. So I made sure that I didn't do that with Cora and with Spencer. I hated it with Laura."

Stiles nodded his head. He wasn't sure what to say, and he would rather say nothing than to upset or piss off Derek.

"You don't have any siblings, right?" Derek asked.

"You are asking me that?" Stiles asked. He looked at Derek a little harder than he had before. He looked nervous. "It's nice to see you nervous."

"It's been a long time since I was nervous. My life has been hell for a long time."

Stiles looked at Emma and then at Derek. "DUDE!"

"I've just been teaching her and Reed not to repeat words said at home. That's pretty much the only good I got on that. Peter's mouth is horrible. I really gave up when I couldn't stop myself before Reed was two. So yeah, there is that."

"Yes. I'll know to keep that kind of talk mostly quiet but not force myself into something I'm not."

"Reed called someone a prick. It was funny, but also, he was a prick. He was mean to Peter, and when a child called him a prick, it kind of made everyone step back to look at him. He didn't last long at the store, and it was something that everyone was happy about. So yes, they will cuss. They will learn to adjust to your words that you use. It's fine."

"You have kids," Stiles said. He knew that it was nothing too shocking. Derek knew he had kids. Stiles knew he had kids, but it was just listening to Derek talking about his kids that made it really sink in.

"Yeah, I really have kids," Derek said. He finished up whatever he was doing at the stove and turned it off before looking at Stiles.

"I just." Stiles snapped his mouth shut and tried to think about what he wanted to say before saying something he might regret. It wasn't a new feeling for him; he had learned how to stop himself a great deal over the years. It had been ingrained into him for work, and he carried it over. During the course of a case, there were times that someone getting treated to the full Stiles was a good interrogation technique.

Derek handed over a plate, and Stiles looked at the food. He looked at Derek again as the man directed him to a seat.

"Reed!" Derek yelled up the stairs.

There were a few noises and then the sound of feet on the stairs. Stiles hadn't even heard the kid go up them.

Reed came in and moved around to where he was sitting at the island in front of his cheese.

"I knew you had to grow up the rest of the way at some point. Learn the stuff you never learned because of the stuff that happened before." Stiles didn't want to freak out Reed on anything to do with his father. "I just never realized that it would come with children attached."

"Braeden made me talk to her, and I talked to her a lot. It was more physical with her than emotional, so I think I could let go more. She was my therapist for a long time. We were both messed up in our own ways."

"Everyone is."

"Daddy," Reed said, and he held up a piece of cheese. "What kind is this?"

"Gouda."

"It tastes different."

"It's a smoked gouda," Derek answered.

"Oh, that cool. I don't know if I like it better or not."

After that, it was Reed asking many questions as Derek finished cooking the meal and preparing it. Then it was bedtime. Stiles stayed downstairs for that. No matter how much history there was between them, Stiles didn't need to intrude on that kind of family time.

"Here," Derek said as he came around the couch with a glass of wine in his hand.

"So this is why you wanted to drive me," Stiles said with a laugh. He took the glass and then set his cellphone down on the arm of the couch.

"No, I was hoping you would stay the night. I have the guest room made up for you."

"You want me to stay over on a Friday night and sleep in your guest room."

"Well, I would offer my bed for sleeping, but you might think me too forward."

"Derek, you left."

"I know I did, and while there are parts of that I regret, there are a lot of parts of me that don't. I got Kate, I got my head on straight, and I have two kids that I love, and she and I are discussing a third and final. For another year or so down the road. Braeden told me that if I hadn't gone on a date with you by the time she made it back next week. She was going to tranq me with wolfsbane and lock me in a room with you until I confessed. She would do it too. I ran away because I was scared of what I was feeling for you. I was scared because everyone that I ever loved was taken from me in one way, shape, or form."

"I get that. It hurt when you left, but I understood it. Getting her was for you, and it was for Peter. He had only become what he was because of her."

"Peter played a part in it, but she was out there hunting other families, and she had abilities that would make it easier. We trust others like us. She would be abusing that trust, just like I trusted her since she was a teacher."

"Do you know what I would have done if she had killed my parents? Probably worse than Peter did. I would have left them gutted for their family to see. To show them what kind of person they were. To go after innocents like that. It breaks lesser men, Derek, and you were a kid at the time."

Derek sipped at his wine and nodded his head. He looked like he had been told all of this before. Which, Stiles figured that Braeden had told him something like it before.

Stiles hadn't really thought about Derek too much over the years, other than when he was worried that Derek could be killed. Then Derek would check-in, and Stiles' worry would recede.

"So, how is the date going so far?" Derek asked.

"Terrible. The food was shit. The company was even shitter," Stiles deadpanned.

Derek laughed and set his wine glass down. He reached over and plucked Stiles' from his hand before using that hand to draw Stiles over to him.

"Well, I guess then I'll have to just live with friends," Derek said just before he kissed Stiles.

All of Stiles' attraction had felt over the years and buried deep down inside was there again. Stiles kissed Derek with the passion that he had wanted to when it was safe to. He wanted to feel it returned.

Stiles understood that there were many years between when they had started down this path and now, and it was all disconnected in weird ways, but they were trying now.

"So, how was that?" Derek asked.

"Abysmal, we need to try again." Stiles ducked down and kissed Derek while he was laughing.

Derek wrapped an arm around Stiles' waist to hold him right there, and then he kissed back, hard.

Stiles was breathless when they finally broke the kiss again.

"Stay the weekend. Don't leave."

"Well, I have to leave at some point to get clothes. It won't take long as I have go-bags packed, and I have one with plain clothes in it for the cases where I need to blend in more than stand out as an FBI agent."

"Good. We can do that in the morning. Just give me the weekend, and if you feel nothing or I feel nothing. We will end this and be friends."

"Dude, I don't know about you, but that kiss? That's not nothing. We've got something. We just need to work on it more," Stiles said.

Derek nodded his head and pulled Stiles into a kiss again.

Hopefully, this was a step forward in Stiles figuring out what he wanted to do for the rest of his life and who he wanted to do it with. He looked forward to getting to know the kids and this version of Derek, but at the base of him, Derek was the same, and Stiles wanted him.

The End