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Stiles is lounging in a car, carefully watching the equipment that he has liberated from the station. Really, most of the officers don’t even know how to use and appreciate it, and if there was any case where they needed it, Stiles would know about it. There is currently no greater need in Beacon Hills than his own need to know Peter Hale’s favorite flavor of ice cream.
In the grand scheme of things, it probably wasn’t that important. Unless it was something weird and gross, there wasn’t really any need for Peter to hide the information. Stiles was pretty sure that being secretive about literally everything was just a habit of Peter’s at this point, and unless there was something significant to gain from it, Peter’s default was to never let anyone know anything about him.
Enter Stiles.
Who, a few months ago when the weather started getting hot, decided to switch up what he brought to Peter’s. Stiles had gotten in the habit of going over to Peter’s most days after school during senior year, and that habit had just kind of continued, where after work or studying or whatever is scheduled for the day is over, Stiles heads to Peter’s in the afternoon. Stiles tended to stress bake, and he had also gotten in the habit of bringing over some of whatever he had baked that morning or the night before. Peter never said thank you, exactly, but he always looked pleased when Stiles gave him anything he had made, so Stiles kept doing it.
That day, though, temperatures had hit the 90’s, and Stiles was in desperate need of some ice cream, so he called Peter on his way over.
“I’m bringing ice cream, what kind do you want?”
“It hardly matters to me, Stiles, just get whatever you want.”
“Do you not like ice cream? I can get something else. Smoothies maybe?”
“I like ice cream just fine.”
“Okay so what’s your favorite flavor?”
“Anything is fine.”
“Dude, everyone had a favorite flavor of ice cream.”
“Perhaps I’m not everyone. I’ll see you soon, Stiles.”
“Okay, but - “
“Goodbye, Stiles.”
And thus began The Great Ice Cream Experiment.
At least once a week, Stiles would bring ice cream with him when he went over to Peter’s. The first week he brought chocolate, mint chocolate chip, and butter pecan. Peter looked at the butter pecan like it had personally offended him, ignored the chocolate altogether, and had half a scoop of mint chocolate chip. Stiles wasn’t entirely certain it wasn’t just out of politeness.
The next time he decided to branch out, and tried strawberry, coffee chip, and pistachio. None of those seemed entirely offensive to Peter, and he had a small scoop of the coffee chip, but Stiles knew his ‘this is delicious’ face, and that wasn’t it.
To: Spooky Goddess: can wolves be lactose intolerant???
To: Stiles Stilinski: I don’t believe so. Why do you ask?
To: Spooky Goddess: just wondered thanks <3
Six weeks in, Stiles had exhausted all of the flavors that his usual ice cream shop carried, but that only made him more determined. (Although, Kira had threatened to divorce Scott if any more ice cream showed up in their freezer, so he was going to have to find something else to do with any rejects.)
Time for a different tactic.
And thus began the Great Ice Cream Investigation.
Stiles sat at his desk chair, fingers steepled, examining the murder board in front of him that had been repurposed to be an ice-cream-mystery-board. At the top, he had highlighted five facts.
1. Peter Hale likes sweets, especially when he’s stressed out.
2. Peter Hale is a foodie and also a snob.
3. Peter once complained to him that the only good part about visiting the Ito pack was stopping on the way back to get ice cream.
4. Based on what Stiles knew about Peter’s driving preferences (see section 3, figure 8.A) the likeliest route for Peter to take back from the Ito pack house passed two ice cream locations, one a Baskin-Robbins and the other a third-generation-owned, locally-sourced, boutique ice cream parlor (cross reference this fact with #2)
5. The Ito pack had a significant treaty renewal coming up.
Well. Never let it be said that Stiles Stilinski backed down from a challenge.
It only took three days and one pack meeting for Stiles to convince everyone that Peter should go and leave a traditional peace offering with the Ito pack on the eve of their treaty signing. It wasn’t as hard as he had expected, actually - just a few comments to Derek, one petty backhanded compliment to Jackson, and a mention of how he could skip an important dinner with his dad if he needed to go (Peter would never ask him to do any such thing).
And voila, one trip to Ito packlands for Peter Hale.
Which brings Stiles here, hanging out behind this ice cream parlor, for hours on end, waiting for information that has eluded him- him, information broker extraordinaire - for months.
Stiles shoots upright in his chair as a familiar car parks out front, visible on the feed he’s tapped from the bank camera a few buildings down. His quarry has arrived.
He switches to a different camera feed, one that he put in himself by the cash register of the ice cream parlor, hidden between a tip jar and a stand of mints. He had carefully worn scent-repelling and scent-erasing charms so that he couldn’t possibly tip Peter off, and now all his hard work is paying off. He watches, holding his breath, as the person at the register greets Peter with a smile, and Peter picks -
Rose cardamom.
Of course. Stiles feels giddy with success, the sweet, sweet endorphins of having won against Peter Hale flooding his system. He was a god. No one could hide things from him for long. Lesser humans trembled in fear before his powers. Feel the power! He could topple empires, build invincible kingdoms with his spymaster skills. Bow before him, fools!
Stiles cackles the whole way home.
—
Four days later, Stiles shows up at Peter’s with rose cardamom ice cream from across town and triple fudge, his own favorite. Peter glances at the ice cream with disinterest as Stiles pulls it out of the bag, and then his eyes widen and light up the tiniest amount. Something that wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone except Stiles, and maybe Derek or Cora. Peter would never be so crass as to eat out of the container, but he puts two healthy scoops into one of his fancy ice cream dishes and heads back to sit down. As he puts the first spoonful in his mouth, Stiles catches the smallest crinkle by his eyes and a little tilt of his lips upward. Peter has his favorite ice cream and he’s happy.
Stiles could topple empires. But making Peter Hale smile is a bigger victory.