What Would You Do Without Me? // Teen Wolf

The Hale Family

They never ended up watching a movie. They'd lay on the floor until Peter began complaining about his back, and it began complaints from various pack members about discomfort and eventually Stiles barked for them all to either get up or shut up. They moved. People were strewn around the room in various places and groupings, leaving Stiles, Theo and Jackson on the floor together, all touching in some way. Stiles was sure that he'd spent too much time with the Werewolves because he couldn't bear to let them go, some deeper instinct that he was sure he'd taken from somewhere else, and a deep-seated need for Pack.

Peter escaped away after a while, sitting on the stairs, Talia's letter still gripped tightly in his hand. Stiles let him. He clearly got very little chance to talk about his family, and the letter left for her was a piece of his past he hadn't had a chance to mourn the loss of. Derek ordered Chinese food for everyone, 'Wolves laughing as the man taking the order began sounding more and more bewildered the more he ordered. Over $100 of Chinese food. The pack continued chatting together, Stiles still not moving from the sides of his friends. They'd lost so much time, but they wouldn't lose any more. He wondered who else Claudia had cast her spell on, who else now remembered things that they'd long since forgotten.

It hadn't been minutes since that thought passed his mind when Peter's phone began to ring. People didn't call Peter, he called them. He stood and gestured Derek over. The call was from Cora. Immediately, the entire pack could hear her yelling down the phone at her uncle, demanding to know what he had done to her because who else would put memories of her old life in her head, who else would make her see him in a positive light and Stiles was up quicker than a shot to defend him. He'd taken the phone away and shushed her as much as he could manage (this took several long minutes) and then explained to her what had happened. About his mother. If Derek was thirteen, then Cora was younger. She was.. Ten. Ten years old when she thought that she'd lost her entire family and ran away to an old ally. On a whole other continent. He felt the reality of it hit him hard in his stomach, no wonder she was.. Like that. The way she was. He'd spent a while quietly explaining to her what had happened recently, and he knew that the other pack members were listening. They'd been curious, if a little too nice or distracted to ask. When he was done, he handed the phone back to Peter, who stepped outside as a clear sign that he wanted privacy talking to her, and Derek followed. The pack respected their privacy.

When Stiles returned, Liam had hesitantly sat on Theo's other side, looking almost worried that Stiles would disapprove. The Spark just rolled his eyes and ruffled Liam's hair before returning to his spot between Theo and Jackson. He was comfortable there and he wasn't fool enough to be blind to what was going on between Liam and Theo. He could see it from a mile away and he was sure the rest of the pack could too, he'd just been trying to ignore it before today - not anymore. Not now.

Derek and Peter returned inside with the arrival of the food they'd ordered for everyone, and Peter again isolated himself from the others. Stiles wouldn't have that.

"What are you doing, Creeper?" He asked, moving to sit beside Peter at the kitchen island where the older 'Wolf had sat himself.

"Eating my dinner." Peter replied with an arched brow, as if Stiles had asked a stupid question.

"Stupid answer for a stupid question?" Stiles asked in return, showing that he could nowadays read Peter almost just as well as he could read Stiles. Well maybe not that well, he wasn't stupid enough to pretend it was that close between their abilities, but Stiles was still leagues ahead of other pack members in that department.

"Alright. It's.. strange." Peter replied, now more honest. Stiles was unsure what he meant.

"Explain." He said, tucking into the collection of food he'd assembled for himself from the various things they'd picked out, because everyone had taken to sharing rather than being possessive of their own orders.