...

Stiles flips from side to side in his bed, unable to get comfortable. His eyes flutter and he stares at Y/n's profile as she sleeps beside him. He shifts, making the bed bounce and she sighs as she's woken. "What's up?" She asks groggily.

"I always sleep in the middle of the bed, you know that." He pouts a little.

"Come on, one night isn't gonna bother you. Just go to sleep."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm trying." He rolls onto his back and she turns to lay her head on his shoulder. His arm goes around her shoulders and he holds the hand that she laid on his chest. He was still for a moment, but it doesn't last long as he sits up and she rolls off of him. "Yeah. I can't sleep unless I'm in the middle."

"Then we spoon." She rolled onto her side.

"I can spoon." He jumped at the option, quickly adjusting himself behind her. "I can spoon." One of his arms goes under her head and the other goes around her waist where she held his hand in hers. He sighs with a smile, and everything seems fine. Until his arm starts to tingle, and he begins to move it around.

"What now?" She groaned.

"My arm's falling asleep."

She glared at him over her shoudler. "I'm this close to knocking you unconcious myself." She threatened, her eyes flashing to prove her point.

"No, no. I'm moving." He rolled over, shaking his arm out, and settles on his side so they're back to back. Yet even that is not satisfactory. "I don't like this." He whined.

"I'm going to kill you."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry." She turned over when he moved and he looked down at her.

"Come here." She sighed before situating herself and pulling him down so he had his head on her chest, their positions now reversed from how they were before.

He's shocked for a moment, but then starts to relax. "I think this is good." He holds her hand as he snuggles further into her side, nuzzling his head into her neck. "Yeah, this is good." He feels her chest move as she chuckles a little, and she starts to pet his head.

"Goodnight, Stiles."

Stiles opens his eyes and finds he's hugging a pillow, head jolting up as he looks for Y/n, but then realizes she wasn't there. He sighs as he flops back onto his pillows, unknowingly leaving an empty space in the bed.

...

Y/n sat at the dining table in the kitchen, arms propped on the table as she stares at her clasped hands. She doesn't move when she hears the keys unlocking the door, letting the man she was waiting for enter the house. She hears him pause as he starts to pass the room, and move to stand near her instead. "Y/n, is there something wrong?" Alan asks.

"Lydia decoded the last third of the list." She said without looking up at him.

He nodded as his eyes flicked to the partially folded article. "Right, I believe you told me about that the other day."

"I finally got a chance to look at it, and I was... Very surprised, to say the least."

"Why?" He asked hesitantly. He didn't like how distant she sounded, or how she hadn't even looked at him yet. Without answering she pushed the paper in his direction and he flattened it out, eyes scanning for only a moment before he found it. He closes his eyes as he sighs, and takes a seat at the table.

"Peter is my father?"

"Yes."

She finally looked up at him, brows furrowed and mouth in a line. "How long have you known?" Her tone held a hint of anger in it, and a hint of hurt.

"Since the beginning. I was one of the first people she told when she found out she was pregnant."

"I should have realized sooner. Of course you would know, you were her best friend." Y/n shook her head and looked away again. "Why didn't you tell me? All those times when I talked about her, about what she told me of him, you could have told me so much more."

"I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't. When she left she made me promise to keep it a secret. I had to keep my promise."

"I just... For years I thought I didn't have any family left, any blood relatives. I never thought I would know my father, let alone meet him. And now I find out I have a sister and cousins."

"I'm sorry I kept it from you, but like you said, M/n was my best friend. I would have done pretty much anything for her." Y/n didn't answer. She really couldn't bring herself to. She understand why he never told her anything, but it still hurt.

Her phone buzzed then and she saw a message from Malia. "I've gotta go." She said as she stood and tucked her phone into her pocket.

"Where are you going?" He asked as he watched her walk away. He was worried for her. He could tell that she was upset by this discovery, what with everything that Peter has done thus far and all the people that seemed to know about it and kept it from her. He was afraid that she would push everyone away, leaving her vulnerable.

"I have my own promises to keep." And with that the door closed behind her, leaving Alan in silence.

Y/n met up with Malia in front of the school and together they entered the Hale vault, glancing around at the various curios on the shelves. Y/n's phone buzzes, and after a quick glance she shoves it back into her pocket. Malia looks at her as a weird box is suddenly so interesting to the witch. "Still haven't talked to him?" Malia asks.

"No." Is all Y/n responds with.

"Neither have I." Malia can tell even just the mention of the boy has upset her, so she puts a hand on Y/n's shoulder and offers a tiny smile for comfort. Y/n smiles back as she puts a hand over Malia's. Ever since their big discovery of their sisterhood, now understanding why they were so close in the beginning and their instant connection, the two girls have spent more time together and gotten even closer. Malia has done her best to support her newfound sister, knowing that Stiles' not telling them about this very important detail was hard on Y/n.

"Come on, we've got a safe to crack." Y/n smirked as she looked over to the said safe and the sisters walked over to it. Malia grabbed the handle, and after trying to use her strength to pry it off, Y/n stopped her. "Here, let me." Malia took a small step back and Y/n put her hand on the safe. Her eyes glowed and she used her magic to manipulate the mechanisms inside until it clicked and swung open. The only thing inside was a single file marked 'Malia Tate - Adoption Records'.

Footsteps approaching made them turn around to see Peter as he entered the room. "I've gotta buy a better safe." He sighed.

"With what money?" Y/n idly gestured to the empty object and Peter gave her a dry look.

"I can't let you leave here with that."

"Maybe you won't have a choice." Malia said.

"Is that right?" He moved to stand closer to one of the stone pillars, the girls matching his steps to keep their distance.

"I think we could take you."

He gave a small nod with a tiny smile. "You've heard rumors I'm not as strong as I used to be."

"Something like that."

"Something tells me you're about to prove the rumors wrong." No sooner had those words left Y/n's lips did Peter throw his fist back and slam it into the pillar, creating a sizable dent as the material crumbled to bits.

Malia stared back at him for a moment, before she raised her brows, silently admitting she didn't want to try and fight him, and held the file out towards him. "I said you couldn't leave with it. I didn't say you couldn't read it." Y/n rolled her eyes as Malia turned and flipped open the file. Y/n looked over her shoulder to read with her. There were only two papers and a picture in the folder. A birth certificate with a picture of baby Malia stuck to it with a paperclip, and an adoption paper, slightly torn and stained with blood. Malia closed the folder and sat it down when she was done, the teens turning back to Peter. "You wanna talk about it? See a family counsler?"

"There's nothing in there."

"Cost me a lot of money to get that file."

"You got ripped off." Y/n snickered a bit at that.

"You know what happens when you only hear one side of the story? You've only heard one side of the story."

"You murdered people. Not killed. Murdered."

"There were extenuating circumstances."

"Like what? The fire?"

"A fire that nearly burned me alive. Six years in a coma. Do you know what that's like for one of us? It's not a pleasant sleep. Imagine it. Being trapped in your body, but still being fully cognizant. Unable to do anything other than listen to you're own thoughts slowly driving you absolutely and totally insane, minute-by-minute, day-by-day. Yes, I've done horrible, terrible things. And so have a lot of people. And horrible, terrible things are going to keep happening. Especially when there's a dead pool with your names on it."

"But not yours." Y/n pointed out.

"True." He nodded and leaned back a bit. "But I am not The Benefactor. I'm just a guy who's out millions of dollars. A few thousand of which I used trying to help you." He directed to Malia.

"Me?"

"How does the bad guy prove that he's not so bad? By doing an act of kindness."

"What could you ever do for me?"

"Help you find your mother. I'm pretty interested myself as the memory was stolen from me by my sister, Talia."

"Okay. What did you find?"

"A woman, might be her. I don't have a name yet, just a particularly interesting alias. She's called The Desert Wolf. Do you know what that means?"

"Coyote."

"Precisely." After Peter promised to help find Malia's birth mother the girls were going to leave, but Y/n paused and told Malia to go ahead and that she would catch up. She turned back around and went back into the room where Peter still stood, seemingly waiting for her.

"Just because I found out you're my father, don't take that as I trust you." She warned. "I don't. At all, actually. But I made a promise to my mom and I intend to keep it. She knew full well how you could be, but she also saw some good in you. I'm gonna see if I can find it myself, or if it was burned out of you a long time ago."

"I'll admit, a lot of things were burned out of me. But I hope I can prove M/n right." She wouldn't admit it, but she hoped so too. She desperately wanted to see whatever it was in him that her mother saw. "There's also something I could do for you as well." Peter said, almost as an after thought. She raised a brow in skepticism and he continued. "I happen to know that one of the names on the last third of the list is one you know very well. Genevieve Pierre." Her posture straightened at that.

It was true, she did know Genevieve. She was the witch Allison had told her about in Paris, the witch she learned from what feels like forever ago. They kept in contact with letters, but they slowed to a stop. One of the last things Genevieve said was that she wanted to visit and see how Y/n's magic has developed since they last saw each other. Y/n had had no idea if she actually made the trip or if something else came up, but when she saw her mentor's name on the list she became worried. Y/n had no way of warning Genevieve of the current dangers in Beacon Hills.

"What about her?" Y/n asked.

"I can help you find her. Although, I can't guarantee whether she's alive or not."

"How can you find her?"

He shrugged a shoulder with an easy going smile. "I have my ways. Give me a few days, I'll let you know what I find, if I find anything."

She was silent for a moment before she gave a small nod. "Alright."

...

Stiles sighed as he walked into his house. Him and the pack had just tried a very dangerous idea to try and draw out the Benefactor. That idea being slowing Scott's heart to little to nothing, having him come up as dead in the hospital so he could be taken to the morgue, and then pretend to be an assassin who couldn't get visual confirmation. They thought that the Benefactor would have to come to check for themselves, but they never showed. Scott was luckily resuscitated in time after a brief tussle with Kate and her berserkers.

Stiles trudged up the stairs and to his room, but paused in the doorway when he saw Y/n there, looking over his murder board. "Hey." He called. She barely glanced in his direction and his stomach dropped. "Where have you been?"

"Talking to Malia. Talking to Peter."

"Okay. You think talking to Peter is a good idea?"

"Maybe, maybe not. But if I can get what I want from him, then it doesn't matter if it's a good idea or not."

He furrowed his brow in confusion. "What could you possibly want from him?"

"I'm looking for someone, so is Malia, and he has resources we don't." She shrugged a shoulder.

"You know anything he tells you could be a lie."

She finally looked at him then and he could see the hurt in her eyes that she was trying to hold back. "Well, at least I'll know he could be lying." She closed her eyes for a moment and averted her gaze again. She didn't come here to do this, to accuse and cause a fight, but she couldn't help it. She was hurt and a little angry, and it just spilled out.

"Look, Y/n, I'm-" He started to apologize, wanting to explain everything, even if he still didn't really know how to do that exactly, but she cut him off.

"I never thought... I never thought you would lie to me about something like that."

"I didn't lie." He defended a bit lamely, his tone not really convincing even to his ears.

"But you kept it from me. That's not exactly honest, either." She looked up at him again, brows furrowed in hurt and sadness. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

He shrugged a bit, not really sure if he had a proper answer. But he settled with, "Eventually."

"How long did you know about it?" He couldn't meet her eyes for a moment, knowing she wouldn't like the answer. "How long?" She repeated, her voice a little more firm.

"A while. Before the dead pool and the assassins. A little after the whole evil fox thing."

"I get that you were trying to protect me, but you knew what this meant to me. I told you about my promise to my mom and how much it means to me that I keep it."

"Y/n, this is Peter we're talking about. He's not exactly Father of the Year material, you know?"

"She saw something in him. I have to see if it's still there."

"He's not a good guy, Y/n!" He snapped a bit, getting frustrated and scared. What if he lost her to Peter of all people? The one person he tried to keep her shielded from. "Whatever your mom saw is long gone. He's just going to use this to get into your head again and poison you. That's why I didn't tell you. Don't you see that?"

"That wasn't your choice to make!" She snapped back, her own anger and frustration starting to rise. "Whether my mom was right or wrong, whether he still has a chance of being a decent human being or not, was not for you to decide! That's for me to find out myself."

He was a little stunned at that. He didn't realize that it would seem he was making choices for her. He just wanted to protect her from being hurt like she was always protecting him. "Y/n." He moved towards her and reached out to take her hand, to touch her, but he paused when she took half a step back. He let his hand fall and watched sadly as she avoided his eyes once again as she walked passed him without another word.

It killed her to avoid him like this, but she just couldn't be around him at the moment. She knew she would forgive him, eventually. But not right now. She wasn't ready yet.

~~~
Published: 2/16/22
Edited: 4/12/22