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Stiles woke as dawn peeked around the window blinds of the bedroom. He felt safe in a way he had not been while living with Scott and his Pack. Noting overt had ever happened while living with Scott, but it felt like there had been a threat hanging over his head.
The room Peter had led him to last night was small but thoughtfully put together. There was an extra-long single bed, a shelf with electrical plugs and USB ports next to the bed for his phone, and shelves in the small closet for clothes in lieu of a dresser. The bathroom had a small shower stall to go with the sink and toilet.
"We sometimes use the rooms to catch some sleep when we have a longer window between appointments," Peter explained. "Towels and such under the sink. But you can stay for a couple of nights, until you get settled."
"Oh, man," Stiles nodded. "I didn't want to blow up my credit card with a hotel bill. Tell me what I owe you for this."
"Just come back when you're ready for more ink," Peter said with a grin. He pointed down the hall. The floor-level lighting down the hallway was decent and, since the space was largely used by 'wolves, it was more than enough. "There's an open space on the other end that's a community kitchen. Don't eat anything that has someone's name on it, but there usually are baked goods for the taking. And there's a coffee maker, with tea and coffee pods in the drawer underneath it. Again, clean up after yourself."
"I can do that," Stiles promised.
"As you know, the shop will be open until the early hours of the morning, so we'll be up later than you probably want to be," Peter went on. "Someone is always in the shop, which is a story for later. But you can come and go as you need to. If the door is locked, just knock and someone will open it."
"Thank you, so much," Stiles nodded.
"Good night," Peter said, pulling the door to the room shut behind him.
Dawn became daylight and it was still before Stiles' alarm was set to go off, so he lay in the bed and breathed. It gave him hope that he truly had landed on his feet and things would go well.
That feeling lasted until the interview in the morning.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Adamson," Stiles held on to his temper. "The position description indicated this was a summer internship for an IT support company. There was no mention of sales or that pay was based solely on commission."
Adamson shrugged easily. "Oh, I tried to get HR to post the correct job description but they insist on posting that old internship job. The only opening we have is in the sales department." That was a bald-faced lie, Stiles knew. But he wasn't desperate enough to take a sketchy sales job.
Stiles stood, gathering up his resume. He wasn't leaving anything behind. "Since I won't be taking the position, I won't waste any more of your time. Have a good day."
Adamson shook his head and turned back to his computer as Stiles left.
Stiles headed back to the Den. Good thing he had another interview on Tuesday. It was only Friday and he had to hope Peter would let him stay for the weekend.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Peter asked as Stiles entered the tattoo shop. "Your interview go bad?"
"Job was a scam," he sighed. "It's a telemarketing sweatshop, pay is based on commission. You don't sell, you don't get paid. I walked out half way through the interview."
"Good for you," Peter said with a nod. "You can do better."
"Well, the embarrassing part is that my next interview isn't until Tuesday and I guess I'm asking if you mind if I stay through the weekend," Stiles said.
"Not a problem," Peter said easily. "Do you have something to keep yourself busy? You don't seem like the sitting still type."
Stiles laughed. "You got that right," he said. "I have a senior project to start for next year. It's not due until April but I was going to use my free time in the summer to get a start on it. And, well, I need to find someone to help me learn more about my magic. I know enough about the supernatural to not want to do stupid if I can help it. And, well, I have hours of saved Netflix videos I've not had time to watch while I was taking classes." Another shrug. "Worse case is that I pick up an online summer class but I can wait until Tuesday before I have to make a decision on that."
Peter laughed. "What are you studying?"
"My major is criminology, with a minor in statistical analysis," Stiles said.
"What is your senior project about?" Peter asked. "SInce you're already starting to work it, I assume you've picked a topic."
"Well, I've been Pack adjacent long enough to know there are a lot of crimes that are supernaturally related," Stiles explained. "While I can't use the supernatural as a topic, what I can do is explore the number of 'unexplained' or unsolved crimes in small towns in northern California, when compared to larger cities in the same geographic area."
Peter frowned. "What kind of information will you need for that?"
"I'm using public records," Stiles said. "My dad is the Sheriff in Beacon Hills, so I know what kinds of reports he has to fill out and how much of that is public information. So I use publicly available information to compare and contrast small town data to big city data. I add in appropriate criminology theory to explain what I find and, ta-da, I have a senior project."
"That's... actually fascinating," Peter said. "What if you find a serious anomaly?"
"Oh, I expect Beacon Hills to be a huge anomaly," Stiles laughed. "My friend became a 'wolf while we were in high school, and we spent too much time dealing with chaos. What I'm really looking to see is if there are other hell holes out there."
"What will you do if you find one?" Peter asked.
"That, I don't have an answer for," Stiles admitted. "But I have an application in to the FBI and I'm hoping my research catches their attention. I'm pretty sure they have a... special branch that deals with the supernatural. Feels like something like that would be an interesting place to work."
"You surprise me," Peter admitted. "That's an interesting way to apply for a job."
"If nothing else, I'd be an FBI agent and hopefully do some work for the good guys," Stiles shrugged.
"For that ambition alone, you can stay until Tuesday," Peter grinned. "Come on, if you're going to stay that long, you need to meet some of the others."
"I'd love that," Stiles replied.
Peter took Stiles to a large, broody looking man. "This is my nephew Derek," Peter said. "Don't let the murder brows fool you, Derek is quite the marshmallow."
Stiles held back a laugh as Derek blushed. "Good to meet you," he said.
"Cora, on the other hand, will kill you for breathing wrong," Peter teased. "Cora is Derek's sister and my niece."
"Ha! You'll never see me coming!" Cora replied but grinned at Stiles.
"Erica is a family friend," Peter went on. "She's Pack and is our best colorist. We all do color, but Erica's sleeves have a months-long waiting list."
"Interesting," Stiles admitted. "I hadn't thought about getting that much work done, but I love the look on others."
"Glad to meet you!" Erica smiled.
"You'll meet Boyd at some point," Peter said. "He works in a bakery and the pastries in the kitchen are from him."
"Whoa," Stiles smiled. "That banana nut bread I had this morning was amazing!"
"He'll probably be by later," Erica nodded. "He'll be glad to hear that."
"Stiles has a job interview on Tuesday, so he'll be staying upstairs until then," Peter said. "But he'll probably be in and out over the weekend."
Everyone nodded.
"Good to have you with us," Derek added.
"Oh man! Thanks to all of you for putting up with me at the last minute," Stiles said.
"Stiles has recently discovered he's a magic user," Peter went on. "So, no pranks. We don't know how he'll react if he's startled."
Stiles held up a hand. "Sorry, I've been pack-adjacent for years, but the magic is really new. That's part of what I need to figure out."
"I'm going to introduce Stiles to Esmeralda," Peter said. "I suspect that will be... interesting."
"Really?" Derek asked, looking at Stiles again.
Peter nodded.
Confused, Stiles looked between them.
"No," Peter said firmly. "I don't want to predispose you to something. Esmerelda is rarely in LA and I'm thinking the fact that she is here has something to do with you."
"Okay, I'm officially weirded out by that," Stiles admitted.
"Good!" Peter said. "Now. The most important question of all. Can you cook?"
Stiles grinned. "I'm not a Boyd-level baker, but I've kept an apartment full of 'wolves alive for the school year. Although, they're a bunch of guys, so anything that doesn't move and isn't poisonous is good enough for them."
"Hurrah!" Cora cheered. "That's better than we can do."
"I'm assuming not upstairs," Stiles said. "There's not enough of anything to make meals up there."
"I live in the building next door," Peter admitted. "Everyone has apartments in the neighborhood, but we tend to congregate there."
"I know the Alpha's space draws in the pack," Stiles said. "And I thank you for opening your home to me."
Peter looked charmed at the thanks.
"Come and see what there is," Peter said. "I don't have an appointment for another hour."
"Anything anyone doesn't like?" Stiles looked around. "Like, I don't like olives, so I don't cook with them. But I'm not offended if you like them."
"Avocados," Derek said softly.
"Noted," Stiles nodded. "Anything else?"
"I suspect there's little in the kitchen that nobody likes," Peter replied. "As you say, you don't buy things you don't like."
"Good enough!" Stiles said. "We can call it a work in progress."
"Let's go, since I need to be back," Peter said. He looked at the others. "Aren't there chores that need doing?"
Erica laughed but nodded. "On it!"
Peter took Stiles to the building next door. The ground floor was a florist and Stiles followed Peter up the private stairs.
"Do not leave unless you have to," Peter said. "The security it set up to not let you back in."
"Oh, sure," Stiles said. "Makes sense."
Peter opened the door to the apartment, which Stiles quickly realized was the entire floor of the building.
"I've renovated it so that four smaller apartments are one space," Peter admitted. "The kitchen and living room are oversized so we can have Pack nights together. There's a bathroom just down the corridor. Please stay out of the bedrooms."
"A scent thing," Stiles nodded. "I'm not Pack so it will confuse your 'wolf if you can smell me in your private space."
"Very good!" Peter nodded.
"I wasn't Pack but I learned a lot," Stiles admitted.
"As you can see, the kitchen, eating area, and living room are one space," Peter waved a hand. "We tend to eat an evening meal as we have breaks between customers. So something that can be kept warm for a while, or reheated is best."
Stiles nodded. "I can do a lot of things like that. My dad worked odd shifts and I made meals so he could eat whenever he was home."
"Sound good," Peter replied.
"Anything you don't want?" Stiles asked. "You're the Alpha. You get to have preferences."
Peter's eyes went wide. "How thoughtful," Peter admitted. "All right. Cooked tomatoes. Raw tomatoes in a salad are fine, tomato sauce is fine... but there's something about a cooked tomato that I try to avoid." He shrugged. "I'll eat them if they are part of a dish but it's not my favorite thing to eat."
"Likely a texture thing," Stiles nodded. "I can work with that."
"Thank you for asking," Peter replied.
"I'll see what you have on hand and should be able to manage," Stiles said. "I've been feeding a bunch of guys who have unreliable incomes for the past year. So I've gotten good at managing with odd ingredients. I know this will be light years better than that."
"Call when it's ready and someone will likely be ready to eat," Peter said.
"Give me... hour and a half?" Stiles looked at the time on his phone. "That gives me time for almost anything."
"That should be fine," Peter said. "Have fun!"
Stiles laughed. "Don't worry, I will!"