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“So what are your plans tonight, son?” John asked.
“Derek’s taking me on a walk!” Stiles said excitedly.
“Oh yeah? Where are you going?”
Stiles sighed romantically. “We’re going on a moonlit stroll through the graveyard. It’s the full moon tonight, you know.”
John raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say anything. Sure, the Hales were an odd bunch. Good people, but definitely odd. But he was more concerned about his son, because he’d never heard Stiles sigh romantically about anything in his life. “Bit cold for an outdoor walk, don’t you think?”
“It’s okay, Dad. Our love will keep us warm.”
And what the hell could John say to that?
“Is this how you felt with Mom?” Stiles asked. “Like you just wanted to be around her all the time, like you were just going to burst with how much you loved her?”
It sounded exactly like he’d felt about Claudia, so maybe he didn’t have much room to judge Stiles’s romantic sighing. John cleared his throat and went back to his book. “Yeah. That sounds about right.”
The doorbell rang, and Stiles practically bounded over to the door to answer it. “Derek!”
He hugged Derek far too enthusiastically for John’s liking, but at least refrained from kissing him. John was okay with a lot of things, but watching his son passionately kiss anybody was a bridge too far.
“I missed you,” Derek said.
“It’s been ages,” Stiles said.
John put his book down. “You saw each other three hours ago.”
“Ages,” Stiles repeated.
Derek clasped Stiles’s hands and kissed his knuckles. “I brought you something.”
Stiles’s eyes lit up. “What is it?”
John quietly prayed it wasn’t a snake like it had been last time.
Derek reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a trio of black roses. “A most rare and beautiful flower for a most rare and beautiful man.”
Stiles was practically glowing as he took the flowers. “They’re gorgeous.”
He and Derek gazed at each other with such blatant and open happiness and adoration that John was almost envious. Moments like this, he missed Claudia so much it hurt.
He cleared his throat and stepped into the foyer. “Stiles, why don’t you let me put those in a vase? I know you two have plans.”
Stiles blinked, and handed the roses over to John. “Can you put them by Beatrice’s cage? I think she’d love them. Since she was also a gift from Derek.”
John pressed his lips together to hold in the sigh. “I am sure your ball python will be thrilled with your interior decorating choices.”
“I promise, I’ll have him home by midnight, sir,” Derek said. “And I swear I’ll protect him with my life.”
John did sigh then. “I know you will, Derek. You two crazy kids have fun.”
Derek held out his elbow, Stiles took it, and then Derek led him out the door. John continued to watch as Derek opened the Camaro’s door for Stiles before running back over to the driver’s side.
He shook his head and went back into the kitchen to put the roses in water. He didn’t get it. But Stiles and Derek were crazy about each other, and even though it had been nearly a year since they’d started dating, the passion didn’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon.
And really, as a father, John couldn’t ask for anything more for his son.