Chapter Text
Because Stiles was never the luckiest dude in the world, the first person he met in the campus was a were. A were what, you might ask? Stiles was never completely sure, but apparently the dude could turn into something and the moon had some sort of freaky control over him.
His name was Jonah. It was as good as name as any, but Stiles would never be completely comfortable using it, simply because the entire world and their mothers called him Mason. Because that was his last name.
The first words Mason ever said to him were: dude, you smell like wolf. Stiles had looked at him for quite a while, surprised by the bluntness and complete lack of tact in his statement before nodding.
“There was a pack in my hometown. Sometimes I ran with them” And that was it. As blunt as Jonah Manson was, he hadn’t been particularly interested in his life before Columbia. Having a roommate that knew about the supernatural was apparently cool, though, and from that point on, Jonah made sure to take Stiles with him everywhere he went.
Manson’ major was Economics-Philosophy. Why someone would do such a thing to themselves was a question Stiles had never been able to answer, but he was a cool dude and a great roommate who only sexiled him in four occasions.
-o-
Claudia started classes on the first week of September. She had loved her school back in Newy York, so Stiles had been understandably worried about her reaction when she started school in Beacon Hills.
He had made sure to talk to her teacher before she started. Ms. Luna was a lovely girl, two years younger than Stiles who clearly adored children and who, fortunately, was not teaching because she had failed at something else.
Still, the class was much bigger than the one in New York and the building was not as interesting.
“Try to have fun, okay?” He told his daughter as he knelt down in front of her. Claudia rolled her eyes and Stiles bit back a smirk, clearly she did not appreciate being reminded to have fun so many times in one morning.
“I’ll be fine, daddy” She told him impatiently. Stiles nodded, but still reached out to fix her jacket–again. “If something happens, I’ll ask someone to let me call you” Stiles nodded again as he pressed a kiss against her cheek. He inhaled her soft scent before letting her go.
“I love you, ladybug”
“I love you too, daddy” She said, finally smiling. She then turned around and ran towards the building. Stiles waited until she was inside before walking back to the car. The car belonged to one of his dad’s friends, who had gone on a trip had had lent it to Stiles. It was an old Chevy that worked quite well, but Stiles knew that he had to find a permanent solution to his car problem soon.
He spent the morning, and part of his afternoon, working. He had –finally– caught up with his work, but it still took him several hours to get to the point where he could spend the afternoon with his daughter without having to worry about it.
He should have not felt as relieved as he did when he found his daughter in one piece, if a little bit dirtier than earlier that day. She was clearly happy, if the way she chatted and told him everything about her day was anything to go by. They drove up to the station to visit his father for a little bit, and then Stiles drove them to the park, where he bought them some ice cream and let her play with Oscar.
“And then there’s Susan. Did I tell you about Susan? She has the longest hair I’ve ever seen…It was ever longer than Teresa's! She told me that her mommy always combs her hair, but it always end up all tangled after a while. She told me she has a cat named Oswald. I think Oswald is worse than Oscar” Apparently, Claudia had inherited his ability to never shit up. She talked and talked and talked and, on the very rare occasions the words she knew weren’t enough to say everything she had to say, she let her whole body talk for her.
Most people loved her because of that, and even if Stiles loved that people loved his daughter almost as much as he loved her, it was still a little bit unfair that the reason she was everyone’s favorite was the same reason everyone hated him when he was a kid.
It was about five in the afternoon –probably time to go home– when Stiles saw Kira walking towards them. He had a moment to wonder how she’d known they would be there, but he pushed the thought aside quickly. He gave her a small smile and called Claudia towards him.
“Stiles Stilinski, it’s so good to see you” Kira said as soon as she was close enough. Then she looked at Claudia, who was hiding shyly behind Stiles’ back. “And you, you’re even prettier than I remembered”
“Don’t be silly, you can’t get prettier after a week” Even though she was still behind him, Stiles should have known that his daughter would never be too shy to sass someone. Kira let out a chuckle at her words, but recovered rather quickly.
“Should I assume there’s a reason you’re here?” Stiles said, trying not to be too rude. He probably failed, if the way she winced was anything to go by.
“Scott thinks it’s time for you to meet the pack” Stiles made a face, but nodded. He pulled out his cellphone and checked his schedule.
“I have a meeting later tonight and one tomorrow afternoon. I wouldn’t be comfortable having this meeting without Claudia, so it’s either on the weekend or next week in the afternoon” Kira looked as if she wanted to say something, but Stiles just narrowed his eyes, making it clear neither of those things was up to discussion.
“I’ll pass the message, then” Stiles relaxed a little bit, even though he hadn’t noticed he’d tensed up.
“Great” He said with a small grin.
“You’re always welcome to have dinner with us–we could ask the rest to stay away for a night” She said after a moment of silence. Stiles had no doubt that it had been discussed beforehand with Scott.
“I–I really just want to be with Claudia and my dad, make sure that she’s adjusting well. So–not right now?” He hated himself a little bit for making it sound like a question. Kira’s face fell immediately, but she didn’t press.
“Okay. I just wanted to leave an open invitation” There was an awkward moment where she clearly wondered if she should wave or hug or kiss Stiles. She settled for waving from an awkward wave and a way-too-cheerful smile.
-o-
On one memorable occasion, Stiles fucked a vampire.
Actually, it was memorable because the vampire was hot as fuck and had the most perfect ass the world had ever seen, and its memorableness had nothing to do with the fact that he had been a vampire.
His name was Andrew. Stiles sometimes thought that Andrew was not a good name for a vampire, but then again, he –Andrew– usually got a little bit angry when Stiles implied that he ought to be different because he was a fucking vampire.
Andrew was not 300 years-old, either. He was actually 22 and had been bitten by one of his mom’s friends when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Stiles would have given him points for the tragic story, but he would have had to take them back because Andrew was just as boring as his name suggested.
Still. Hot as fuck and had the best ass in the world.
Manson usually reminded him that he did not want to get too involved with the supernatural world. Andrew was a good guy who happened to be a vampire, but there were creatures out there who would love nothing more than to take over the world. Stiles would have thought that Manson was exaggerating, but he had met Peter Hale and he was quite sure that the guy had been possessed by the fucking devil or something.
His relationship with Andrew did not work. It was never much of a relationship, simply because Stiles was so busy he just had time to get off and sleep, but in any case, it did not work.
Andrew was a genuinely nice guy. If he got upset about something, he would very politely tell Stiles that he was fucking up and ask him to stop fucking up. He would sometimes bring him coffee and even once baked him cookies. Andrew was too nice and Stiles was too much of an asshole. Besides, Nicole broke up with her boyfriend and Andrew did not stand a chance.
-o-
Stiles met the pack on Monday. He had to admit that it was much more functional than the old one, and it probably had a lot to do with the fact that Scott hadn’t bitten them out of desperation and that he was not quite as broken as Derek.
Stiles met Anne, Roger, Luke, Michael and Ashley. Also, Isaac had come back and Danny had been brought into the pack, even though he hadn’t been bitten –yet–. For some reason, Stiles had thought that it would be bigger. Deaton and Scott had made it sound bigger. On top of that, he had to compare them to Erica and Boyd and Alisson and, he had to admit, they were not even remotely as badass as they had been.
Stiles’ strategy had been simple: he made Claudia look as cute as possible. That way, people would be more distracted and would pay less attention to him. It was as good of a plan as any –yay, Father of the Year Award goes to: Stiles Stilinsky– but clearly Scott was more interested in what Stiles had to offer.
“We don’t know if there’s something we should prepare for–are they going to come here? Are they a threat?” Stiles would have scowled, but then Scott would have made him feel as if he’d kicked his puppy.
“I told you everything I knew last time. I don’t know anything else. I can give you the number of an alpha in New York, with some luck he might be able to keep you up to date with what is going on, but I’m not sure I’ll be of much help” Clearly, Scott would have made him feel like shit regardless of what he chose to do or say.
“What does he even want? He should be thankful that Derek refused to kill him. He has no motive or whatsoever!”
“Except for the fact that we ended up destroying his pack without killing everyone” Derek pointed out. For some reason, Claudia was sitting on his lap, playing with the watch on his wrist and looking as if sitting on Derek was nothing out of the ordinary. Stiles had to bite back another scowl: he would have Words –with capital w– with his daughter about proper behavior.
“I don’t know, Scott. I really don’t know. When I saw him, he just told me to get away and tell you that he was back. For all I know, he could just be posturing or some shit”
“Swear jar, daddy” Claudia sang cheerfully. Stiles rolled his eyes and threw a ball of paper at his daughter. “That’s rude” She complained with a pout, jumping off Derek’s lap and running towards her father. Stiles picked her up and held her close.
“Look, Claudia has homework and I have a deadline coming up. This has been interesting and all, but there’s nothing else I can tell you right now. I’ll call my friend in New York, I’ll ask him to give me some information, but that’s it”
“Stiles–”
“Drop it” Derek growled at Scott. Scott’s eyes flashed red, but clearly his relationship with Derek was more complicated than he thought, because he simply sighed and nodded. “Do you need me to drive you back?” Derek asked after a moment. Stiles smiled gratefully.
“Yes, thank you. Say bye, ladybug” Claudia climbed off his lap and ran to say goodbye to everyone. Stiles was feeling more than a little bit anxious and the faster he got back home, the better.
-o-
His relationship with Vanessa was intense. That was the only word he would be able to think of when he remembered her years later. Their interactions were intense, the sex was intense, their emotions were intense–
Vanessa fucked him up, just a little bit. But that was fair, because he also fucked her up, just a little bit. They fell in too quickly into a relationship, they were both intense and awkward and Vanessa was much too beautiful for him to handle.
Funnily enough, Vanessa was human. She was as normal as anyone else. She was majoring in political science; she came from a textbook family (mother, father, 2.5 kids), and she had never experienced major loss. Sometimes, Stiles couldn’t believe that he had been with her for six months because it felt much longer.
They had even talked about moving in together. They had wondered what marriage would be like. They had even named their future children (surprisingly, Claudia had not been within those names, which was ironic)
Of course it all fell apart at the end.
They had always argued. Their relationship had started because they loved to pull on each other’s metaphorical pigtails, and most of the attraction they felt had been born out of a love-hate relationship. Around the fifth month of their relationship though, the fights got worse. It was no longer about being annoying, they were actively trying to hurt each other.
She would yell at him, slap him, accuse him of cheating, and even though Stiles had never even looked at anyone else –not even Nicole– he would tell her that he had, that he could not stand her, that he was a crazy bitch and that he regretted ever talking to her.
Their relationship burned out just as fast as it had been born. The fights lasted for about three weeks and they dared to pretend that everything would be fine for one more before they broke up. Then, the clothes that had slowly migrated towards his drawers disappeared and the few things he had left over her room returned. It was as if she had never been there–except for the fact that he had gotten his little heart broken and Mason liked to remind him that he was a fucking idiot for rushing –yes, a certain song had been sung more than once and no, Fucking Manson did not have a good voice–.
-o-
“Maybe next time you could leave Claudia with me? There are some conversations that should not me had with a child so close” The scene was oddly homey, and it brought him a very nostalgic feeling. Claudia was passed out on the couch, the TV still on, and his dad washed the dishes while he dried, both chores completed way too quickly for them to have been done properly.
“She would notice if I were to keep something from her. She doesn’t like it, so I try not to. There are a few things she doesn’t understand, but she knows that whatever she hears is not to be repeated” He shrugged, finally putting away the last glass.
“Still”
“Claudia is the safest when she’s with me; I’d rather keep her close. That way she learns what is safe and what is dangerous” His dad is very obviously not happy about it, but he knows better than to try to teach Stiles how to be a parent.
“Are you sure she won’t tell anyone about anything?” His dad did a weird eyebrow-wiggle when he said that, making Stiles laugh.
“She’s a smart girl, in case you didn’t notice. She still doesn’t know what’s safe to share and what is not, so she mostly doesn’t talk about me or my friends to anyone. Her teachers back at New York would tell me that most of her friends were convinced I didn’t exist” He grimaced “That is a little bit unfair, but she’ll get better at figuring it out, and both our lives will get easier”
“Didn’t you say that you tried to stay away from all the –supernatural business once she was born?” Stiles sighed, hoping his dad would have overlooked it.
“And I did. That doesn’t mean that the supernatural business decided to stay away from me” He confessed “I did not look for it, I didn’t seek anyone out–but I’d acquired some responsibilities that would not be easily dropped”
“Will you ever tell me about what happened?” His dad asked, looking a little bit unsure. Stiles looked at him, at the wrinkles that were now more deeply set in his forehead and the way his hair had turned almost completely gray. He nodded.
“One day–just”
“Time, I know” He said with a small smile. Stiles let out a relieved sigh. “Do you think you’re safe here?”
“Everything that has to happen, will happen in Beacon Hills. I’m as safe here as I was back there–probably safer, considering Deucalion. I still do not know what the hell is going on, though. I’m not used to that, and that makes me nervous. That’s probably why I’ve been so anxious, not because there’s a certain threat coming towards us”
“That will do for now, I guess” The sheriff sighed. “Do you want to stay the night? It’s late” Stiles shook his head.
“I have to feed Oscar and Claudia gets restless” He offered. Truth to be told, he didn’t want to set foot in his old bedroom. “I’m fine to drive, it’ll be okay” His dad frowned, but did not protest. In the end, he helped stiles carry Claudia towards the car –not that Stiles needed much help. The drive took about 15 minutes, and by 11 the dog had been fed, his daughter had been put in her bed and Stiles had changed and gone to sleep.
-o-
Interestingly enough, Stiles didn’t have the time to earn a ‘class clown’ image in Columbia. His day was so busy, he didn’t really have time to waste and it meant people thought he was much more serious than he really was. It probably helped his case in the long run, as he was apparently a bright human kid that knew about the supernatural world and that was willing to help whoever might need his assistance.
–yeah, they also thought he was a much better person than he actually was. In reality, most of the time Stiles was an asshole that wanted to be informed of every little thing that happened around him, and helping supernatural creatures was usually the way to go.
The particular image the circumstances had helped him create was what made a couple of werewolves approach him for the first time.
“His name is Bruce Montgomery. He’s a hunter–I–I hate hunters, but I know he’s not exactly the worst person in the world” The youngest of the two was called William. He didn’t talk at all during the meeting, scared shitless as he was. The other guy was called Armand, and even though he was speaking, he didn’t look much better.
“I don’t understand what I can do for you” They had approached him one day in the library. Armand had flashed his amber eyes at him, and Stiles had had no choice other than to follow both of them towards the back of the building.
“They think I killed a girl” William whispered, looking around and shivering like a scared dog –That’s racist, Stiles–.
“Did you?” Stiles couldn’t help but ask. William flashed his eyes in response. Stiles would have been scared, but the fact that his eyes were still yellow, probably meant William had not killed anyone.
“No, I didn’t! I would never–I was just in the worst place at the worst time. She’d been left bleeding on a fire escape and when I walked under it she fell down and–” Could werewolves have panic attacks? Stiles was not sure, but William certainly looked as if he was about to have one. He looked at Armand for help, but the older werewolf just shook his head. “When Montgomery arrived, I was coated in blood and the girl was dead. They stick to the code as much as they can, but that doesn’t mean that they carry out fair trials for guys like us”
“He–”
“Dead girl, werewolf coated in blood–Apparently he did the math, and it resulted in William killing a girl” Armand told him. “William managed to get away, but Montgomery is looking for him. Our alpha is in Europe–we have no way of contacting him. I tried to speak to Montgomery, but he clearly didn’t believe us” He rubbed his face with his hands, looking absolutely exhausted. “We just need a chance to explain–he just hates werewolves. Manson –he was the one that suggested we talked to you– told us that his sister was killed a few years ago by a rouge werewolf, so he holds no sympathy. But if a human were to talk to him–”
“He may listen to your case” Both werewolves nodded. “I–I don’t know where to find him” He offered, even though he was already thinking of ways he could fix it.
“He’s an animal hunter, as well as a supernatural one. He has a store downtown”
“If I end up dead, I will come back just so I can kill you both” Stiles decided.
“Thank you!” William whispered gratefully, ignoring Stiles’ threat. (To be perfectly honest, it had been such a pathetic excuse of a threat, that Stiles would have probably ignored it as well)
In the end, Stiles managed to save William’s life and help Montgomery catch the werewolf that had killed the girl. Apparently her dad had owned the pack some money and the girl had –foolishly– tried to deceive the pack. When the alpha had realized what was going on, he had been justifiably mad, but had reacted like the batshit crazy creature he was. He had been convinced that it had all been planned by the girl’s father and had decided to punish him by killing the girl.
–Stiles thought there was more to the story, but Montgomery hadn’t really let him listen further. He had simply shot the werewolf in the forehead before calling off his team.
Stiles thought that if the alpha had not been a crazy, Nazi-like dictator, the pack would have been much more upset about having hunters killing him without consideration. Stiles quickly learned that Montgomery –although arguably not a bad man– was not someone that thought too much about his actions, which was precisely why Stiles had fell into his position as human mediator.
-o-
Stiles had learned to braid on YouTube. He was not the most talented man in the world; he was still way to spastic to have good fine motor skills. Still, his daughter very clearly appreciated his effort, always agreeing to pose for a picture whenever Stiles did her hair.
Stiles was finishing with doing a milkmaid braid when Oscar started to growl from his position in front of Claudia. Oscar was not an aggressive dog; in fact, he rarely barked and even more rarely growled. That was the reason Stiles was put immediately on edge by the sound. He secured the braid with a bobby-pin and then ushered Claudia towards the kitchen. He made a ‘shhh’ motion with his finger and then went to open the door.
–the whole pack was in front of his apartment and Stiles had a moment to consider if it would be appropriate to kill them all dead with his daughter still in the kitchen.
“What the hell are you doing here?” That he had the time to reconsider murdering a relatively big group of werewolf did not mean that he had time to calm himself down.
“You’ve been dodging my calls” Scott explained, as if that made perfect sense. Although, given the fact that werewolves had had the habit of sneaking into his room at crazy hours of the night without giving him any notice, he figured that it probably made perfect sense to him.
“And you decided to bring a search party?” He decided that having such a big group of people in front of his apartment was probably not a great idea so, against his better judgment, he moved aside to let them in. Once closed the door, he went to the kitchen to retrieve his daughter who, amazingly enough, had remained quiet and cuddled behind Oscar.
–and the damn dog was still growling and he had so many jokes and so little time.
“We heard back from you friend in New York” Derek said. He was not looking at him, instead, he had bent down to greet Claudia. Stiles hated that warm feeling in his chest when he saw how quickly his daughter had wrapped the former alpha around her little finger.
“You did? What did he say?”
“Deucalion has killed two alphas ever since you left” Scott told him. “He defied both alphas, killed them and then claimed their packs. He killed the few people that didn’t like his presence in the pack. Clearly him finding you coincided with his decision to move things forward, as whatever he’s been doing in the past was not quite as dramatic as this”
“A group of hunters went to ‘talk’ to him” Kira even did the quotations marks with her fingers. Stiles could admit that she was still adorable. “Apparently they only found half of one of them” Stiles frowned, before looking at his daughter. For the first time he wondered if maybe he should send her away from that particular discussion. It seemed like Derek had the same worry, though.
“Lady Claudia, I think Sir Oscar is not very happy here” Stiles bit back a smile at the way Derek spoke to his daughter. “Would you like to go out for a walk with him?”
“But–sir Derek, my dad–“
“I think Oscar needs you more right now, ladybug” Stiles told her gently. “Besides, you told me that you wanted to hang out with Derek” He almost laughed out loud at the bright blush that filled his daughter’s cheeks. She had such a huge crush that it almost was not funny anymore. Almost.
Derek, Oscar and Claudia left and as soon as the door was closed, Stiles spoke.
“What exactly do you want me to do?” He felt like he had to ask. He was worried, of course he was worried. He had friends in New York and he suddenly was worried that some of them might have been gotten caught in the whole mess. He knew hunters, he knew alphas, he knew betas–and the fact that so far the whole mess just involved werewolves did not mean that other supernatural creatures were not involved as well.
“It’s not that we want you to do something–It’ just that regardless of whether you want it or not, you’re involved in this whole thing. And we need to be prepared–just in case” Scott let out a tired sigh and for a moment Stiles thought of the guy who had just been bitten and who was more worried about whether he would be able to date Allison or not. “There’s another pack in the city–the alpha is a little bit older than me and we’re in good terms. There’s also a nomad pack staying around the preserve and I have friends in a pack in Fresno. We have no reason to think that Deucalion will come here–New York is very far, but we think that things will be safer if we work together”
“And you want me involved?” He couldn’t help but ask.
“As involved as you want to be, dude. Maybe just meeting them, maybe helping us contact something other than werewolves–whatever you’re willing to do” And Stiles couldn’t say no to that, because Scott looked earnest and worried and Stiles was not a complete piece of shit.
-o-
Even though Stiles had been given a full ride, he still needed to work. He had a place to stay, school and two meals a day guaranteed, but he still needed more food, clothes and other necessities.
During his first year in college, he went the traditional route and worked in a Starbucks. Stiles had never been a big fan of the company: the coffee was not all that great, the prices were ridiculous, and people were unexplainably obsessed with it. However, that had nothing to do with the fact that he needed a job and Starbucks was a good place to start.
When he started his position as a supernatural mediator, a few people pointed out that Starbucks was not the best place to have conversations. It was then that he met Mama Lupe. Mama Lupe was some kind of witch –I’m not a witch Stiles, I’m a mambo asogwe– who owned a thematic café a few blocks away from campus.
–only most of the shit in the walls was real and the place would freak the fuck out of Stiles most of the time.
Stiles agreed to work here only when he was sure he would not have to do anything out of the ordinary. The place became some sort of office–it was not very clear exactly what Stiles do. A few times a week someone would come in and ask for help and Stiles would decide whether or not he should get involved. Sometimes, payment was involved, sometimes it wasn’t…it all depended on how dangerous the situation was, or how complex, or how much time he had to invest on it.
He had the suspicion that Mama Lupe didn’t like him –Maybe I would like you better if you stopped calling me a witch– but she still allowed him to work there both as waiter and as a mysterious mediator in supernatural arguments.
It was also through Mama Lupe that Stiles met the other side of the supernatural coin, one that Derek had never bothered to tell him about–
–maybe Derek didn’t even know about it.
It was through Mama Lupe that Stiles learned about different theories of shape-shifting, and it was through Mama Lupe that Stiles met different kinds of magic users. Stiles could admit that he had been way too arrogant in Beacon Hills. It should have been obvious that if werewolves and kanimas and wendigos and kitsunes and banshees existed, then other mythical creatures had to exist as well.
It was probably a smart decision to stay as far away from it all as his job would let him –which was not a lot– because if he thought Peter had been crazy, there were people out there who would have given the werewolf nightmares.