Sterek Library (a03 Edition)

A Match Unmade In Beacon Hills (part 3)

By: KouriArashi

Stiles studied the message on his phone for what felt like a small eternity before he hauled himself up off his bed and went downstairs, where his father was watching television. "Are you watching Cops?"

"No," Noah said, then, "Maybe."

Stiles snorted and dropped onto the sofa next to his father, leaning his back against the arm rest so he could look at him and not the TV. "Well, I'm glad I'm not interrupting anything important. Can we talk?"

"Sure," Noah said, grabbing the remote. He sounded apprehensive, which Stiles couldn't really blame him for. But he turned off the television and turned to face his son without further commentary. "What's up?"

"I want you to know that I'm giving up on dating," Stiles said, "forever."

Noah sighed. "It's been three weeks, Stiles – "

"Read this," Stiles said, and extended the phone to his father. He had sent a message to a man in his fifties who liked hockey and barbecue and country music, because he was running out of choices without getting into people who were an hour away. The response had been, 'Your profile says you don't have a soulmate. How is that possible? What's wrong with you?'

Noah read it and grimaced. "That son of a bitch, I'm going to – "

"That's not even the worst message I've gotten," Stiles said. "You were at work the night someone messaged me telling me that this website wasn't for freaks like me."

"Jesus Christ," Noah said. "Stiles, tell me you're not going to let some assholes drive you away from finding happiness."

"I'm not going to find happiness on a dating website, Dad," Stiles said. "Look, even the people who have been nice about it have pretty much all turned me down for the same reason. They're on this website because they're looking for someone who will understand their pain, who shares their life experience of having a soulmate, loving them, and losing them. I'm never going to understand that. And I'm too young for them. I'm not saying that because I wouldn't be willing to date a seventy year old. I'm sure there are some seventy year olds out there who are very cool. But they aren't willing to date me. I'm not what they're looking for."

Noah sighed. "I know that, but . . ."

"But you want me to be happy. I know," Stiles said. "But I've been facing a lot of really shitty truths in the past couple weeks, and one of them is that I'm going to have to figure out how to be happy without a soulmate. The fact that I don't have one isn't something either of us can fix. And me trying to, to drown it with other people is only making it worse. It's only reminding me of what I'm missing."

For a long moment, Noah seemed to struggle with that. Then he nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

"Not having a soulmate doesn't mean I can't have a fulfilling career," Stiles continued. "So I think that's what I want to focus on right now. I talked to Peter – it's weird with him being Derek's uncle but he's still my friend, and he's literally the only person I know who gets me, who gets this – and he's going to loan me some money to get into the police academy. I mean, it only costs about five grand, and that's a drop in the bucket to that rich asshole. I'm going to become a police officer and I'm gonna make you proud and then in five or ten years, maybe I'll think about dating again. But I can't do it right now, Dad, and I need you to be okay with that."

Noah reached out and pulled him into an embrace, hugging him tightly. "The only thing I care about is you being happy."

"I can't make any promises," Stiles admitted. "But at least I can try."