Monster. (Sterek)

Part 5: Boyfriends?

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When the Sheriff came home all he wanted to do was go upstairs and sleep for weeks. He'd had a long day at work and between a new case and a new cop to keep an eye on he had been completely run down. When he got upstairs though he decided to check on Stiles. He both hoped his boy wasn't awake, as Stiles didn't get enough sleep as it was, and hoped that he was so that they could talk about how it went. Stiles had been really unsure about telling the rest of his Pack and it had taken a lot of coaxing on everyone who knew's part before he finally agreed. It hadn't taken too long.

Noah wanted to know how it went and how everyone reacted, especially Scott, so he knew he'd made the right decision in telling his kid that they would love him no matter what. More importantly, he wanted to make sure that Stiles was okay. But he also knew that telling the truth to the people you love was sometimes more crucial than how you think they'll react. Knowing he helped Stiles be confident enough to tell such a big thing to people that meant so much to him made him happy. What made him fill with pride was the fact that Stiles had been brave and strong enough to do such a thing.

He wasn't particularly fond of the fact that Derek had helped talk him into telling his Pack. In fact, he just wasn't particularly fond of Derek in general. The way he looked at Stiles and the way he just sort of lingered, quietly whilst he did so, not to mention the way he acted so... different around him, it was unnerving. He was also so much older than Stiles. That and the fact that Noah had once had to arrest the younger man on suspicion of murder. Although Stiles had cleared all that up, he still got an odd feeling about him sometimes.

He shook his head as he knocked gently on Stiles' door and, after getting no response, pushed it open to peek in. Stiles was half sprawled over someone. Noah peered at the man, it took a moment for him to realise that it was Derek. The revelation caused him to pull the door shut quickly. An onslaught of questions filling his mind: why was his son sleeping on top of Derek Hale? Hell, had Derek finally asked him out or was it a Pack thing? If it was a Pack thing where was the rest of The Pack? Had it not gone well? No, because Lydia would be there. Maybe Stiles just needed some comfort or maybe he'd backed out entirely.

But what if it was that he and Derek were dating? He wasn't sure how he would feel about that. Maybe he'd be fine with it, maybe he wouldn't. It's not like Derek was a particularly safe person, he wasn't explicitly dangerous either but he had the potential to be. But Noah knew better than anyone – being a sheriff and all – that anyone and everyone had the potential to be dangerous so he couldn't live his life scared of everyone his boy would date.

That thought didn't stop him from worrying though. That was his job – to worry. He always had and always would. And it wasn't like the idea of Derek being a bad guy was completely ludicrous; he had, after all, dragged Stiles and the rest of his Pack into trouble before. Granted that was, apparently, because of his inability to listen despite his superior sense.

He knew, though, it didn't matter what he thought because Stiles wouldn't listen to him. The last thing he wanted was to get into an argument with his kid over his maybe-boyfriend. It was better for everyone if the two Stilinski men stuck together, as if he was right, and Derek ended up hurting Stiles, he would need to be there. And if he was wrong (as he hoped he was) then he wouldn't want to be pushed out of Stiles' life because he fucked up.

He sighed, annoyed and wishing even more than he had in a long time, that Claudia was there to help out. She would've known exactly what to do and if Noah was right. She had always been an excellent judge of character.

He went to bed that night head swimming with questions that would have to wait until morning and extremely glad that he didn't have a shift until after lunch tomorrow.