Chapter Text
Stiles didn't know what to do. His marriage was falling apart and it just kept getting worse. He didn't know how to fix it. A part of him, a huge part wanted to blame Peter.
Things hadn't been the same since that night in the preserve when the older wolf had called him an 'extra'. They had said their apologies and put on smiling faces for a very pregnant and sick Derek and have managed to stay smiling for the first few months after Bill and Charlie were born but it was getting harder and harder.
Normally if two of them were fighting, the third one stays out of it to avoid taking sides and most of the time Stiles and Peter tried not to fight at all if Derek is home. They chose to completely keep him out of their arguements because they upset him so much, but with Derek's extended paternity leave on account of being so sick, the arguements have crept throughout the relationship as a whole and all three of them are mad at each other all the time now.
Peter's comment had dredged up a lot of ugly feelings for Stiles, feelings had thought had gone away years ago and Peter kept looking at him. That, in and of itself wasn't weird, Peter was always observing, but ever since that night he would get this weird look on his face if Derek and Stiles were having a nice moment and sometimes even went so far as to leave the room.
he was starting to feel like an extra. He'd never truly felt like this before, yes, at the start it was awkward trying to slot into an existing relationship but it was different, they were actively trying to make space for him. He didn't know where he fit anymore.
Earlier in the nigth he had try to talk to Derek about it and it really didn't go well.
Derek had been trying to give Morgan a bath, a very difficukt task at the best of time so maybe he should have picked a better time, sue him.
"Morgan, if you don't gt ready for your bath by the count of 3 I will haul you outside and spray you down with the hose , 1, - Oh My God, Stiles! Why did you do that ?!"
Admittedly, maybe he shouldn't have undermined Derek's discipline by grabbing and swinging her into the tub fully clothed.
"You could've counted to a million and she would'nt even have taken off a sock"
"How is that supposed to teach her anything ?!"
"You would have to forcibly strip her anyways to hose her down, which we decided she's too old for."
They couldn't keep clothes on Caroline when she was this age and they couldn't get clothes off Morgan now. They normally started teaching the kids about privacy and consent when they were around 3 so they had a firm grasp of it by the time they started school, which didn't really jive with thenightly tussle to get Morgan bathed and into Pyjamas.
"And now we have sopping wet clothes to deal with as well as a screaming child."
"I do the laundry Derek, it's no extra work on you. Morgan, screaming doesn't equal no bath so you may as well stop.
Cue screaming even louder.
"Why are you even in here? It's my night for baths."
"All the lunches are packed and I wanted to talk to you while Peter is reading PJ his story."
"I'm a bit busy for a chat Stiles. Morgan, stay in the bath."
It took everything Stiles had to not to laugh when Derek got a wet sock to the face.
"I just - I feel like I'm on the outside lately and I wanted to talk to you about it."
Derek dropped his head and sighed.
"And you couldn't have picked a better time ? Morgan take that out of your mouth."
He snatched the wet sock from the little girl, who went back to screaming.
"I thought you'd be done by now, bath time doesn't normally take this long"
"Well, I'm sorry that Micheal wanted every toy ran under the sink tap before they could in the bath and Morgan can't follow simple instructions"
"Dere-"
"WILL YOU JUST STOP !!!!"
He yelled, Alpha voice adn red eyes causingthe child to scuttle away whimpering.
"Derek!! What the fu-hell?!"
They didn't do that. They didn't scare the kids into submission. Ocassionally they'd flash their eyes at the older ones to show they were serious but they never used the Alpha voice.
"You wash her then, since I'm not doing it fast enough."
He brushed past Stiles as he stormed out.
Stiles gathered Morgan into his arms and let her cry into his neck.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Daddy, I'm sorry"
God she was shivering.
"It's okay Mogs, it's okay. I'm here, it's okay. Let's get you dried and into some jammies okay ?"
She just continued to sob and shiver. Stiles was going to have Derek's head for this.
Eventaully he got her calmed down enough to start gettingher into her pyjamas. About halfway through, Derek and Peter started yelling so he just shut the door.
He brushed her hair in the bathroom and braided it into pigtails just to avoid going out there until he heard a door slam.
"Let's get you into bed, my mogs."
"I'm sorry"
"It's okay, baby, I'm sorry too."
He got her settled adn read the older twins a story before braving the kitchen. Peter was doing something on the tablet, frowning firmly.
"Where's Derek ?"
"Gone for a run."
"Did he tell you what happened ?"
"He didn't have to, every werewolf in the house knows what happened. he scared all the other children as well, the older ones have even decided to go to bed early."
Stiles flopped into the chair beside his oldest husband and put his head in his hands.
"Morgan was terrified."
"I'm not surprised, a fully grown beta would have been scared."
"Why did he do that?"
"Possibly because someone ambushed him and set her off screaming."
Stiles head shot up.
"So this is my fault?"
"You certainly didn't help."
"Are you serious ?! He went Alpha on a toddler and it's my fault?"
"You knew he was agitated adn you kept pushing."
"Unbelievable, and what were you doing while this was going on ?"
"As I said, he scared all the children, so I was dealing with that."
"And the yelling afterwards?"
Peter finally put the tablet down.
"I called him out on it. No one frightens my children like that."
"Bet he took that well."
"No he didn't, but maybe if you weren't making him feel like a bad parent, he would've handled it better."
Stiles rolled his eyes at Peter's glare.
"So this is back to being my fault. How the hell am I making him feel like a bad parent ?"
Stiles heard the little bell that meant a wolf was at the door and wanted to be let in, and grudginly got up to open the door. Derek trotted through the kitchen and out into the hall without looking at either of them.
"Not everyone takes to it as well as you did and he's not used to the chaos all day long, cut him some slack"
"Why don't I just go back to being the fulltime nanny here. Seems to be all I'm here for anyways."
Derek came back into the kitchen, fully clothed and human.
Stiles crossed his arms, and glared at him.
"I put Morgan to bed, once she finished crying her eyes out and shaking like a leaf."
"I'll talk to her and the others in the morning."
Derek went to boil the kettle.
"Is that it ?"
"What more do you want ?"
"Anything, literally anything. Do you feel lke you're struggling with the kids?"
The younger werewolf dropped the spoon he was holding.
"Why did you tell him?"
He glared at Peter.
"Why didn't you tell me Derek ?"
"Because everything is an argument lately. You said it yourself, you've been on the outside."
"And how does isolating me further help that ?"
"What more can I do Stiles ?"
There was tears in Derek's eyes as he turned to face them.
"You wanted more kids, I had more kids. You wanted me to take a break from work, I took a break. You wanted me to stay out of whatever you two are fighting about, I stayed out of it. You have had one foot out the door for months now, both of you have and neither one will tell me why ?!"
The tears had become full on sobbing and a quick glance at Peter showed he also had a wet sheen over his eyes.
"I thought if I started taking some fo the load with the kids, it would make things easier for you and you wouldn't be upset all the time but I'm just making it worse."
Derek sank to the ground and cried into his knees, only the top of his graying hair was showing. Peter slowly rose from his chair adn went over to him. He gently wrapped his arms around his crying husband and whispered to him, too low for Stiles to make it out.
For the first time in years, jealousy rose its head deep in Stiles's chest. He hadn't had comfort from his husbands in months and he felt like he would be intruding if he went over there now. he'd been thinking about it for a while, not planning, just thinking and doesn't know why he said it, just that he couldn't stop it.
"I think I want a divorce."
Both heads snapped up to look at him, rage on Peter's face and shock on Derek's.
"Really Stiles ? Now ? "
"The fact that that is your response doesn't help Peter."
Derek had started to get up, trying to untangle himself from Peter.
"Stiles.... no.... Stiles, you can't..... please...."
Derek stood in front of him and put his hands on Stiles's shoulders.
"Stiles, please, we can fix this."
"We've been trying to fix this Derek and we keep hurting each other and now it's affecting the kids."
"I'm sorry I lost my temper, never again, I swear."
"This isn't just about that Derek."
Stiles didnt even hear the door shut, had Derek not turned his head, he wouldn't have even realised that Peter had slunk out.
"What have you two been fighting about?"
"Lots of things, if I'm being honest. Have you noticed how he's been looking at us lately?"
"Yeah, I asked him what that was about, but he refuses to tell me."
"I think he's realised I've overstayed my welcome."
"Stiles, please don't talk like that, I'm sorry you felt neglected, I was just trying to keep everything in the air."
"I shouldn't have put that on you."
"I'm sorry I didn't talk to you. Please tellme what's going on."
Stiles pulled Derek into a hug.
"You already know Derek."
"Th-That night?"
"Yeah, it left a few scars."
"This is all my fault."
It was barely a whisper, but Stiles heard it. He pulled back to look Derek in the eye.
"That wasnt your fault. Okay ? It was mine for my behaviour that day and using you to get a jab at Peter. It was my fault and you shouldn't have to deal with the fallout."
"You want a divorce Stiles. No matter how this goes there is going to be fallout"
"I'm not a hundred percent on board with the divorce just yet. Can we talk about this in the morning ?"
Derek stepped back and looked at the floor.
"I'm going to sleep in the nursery tonight."
"Whatever you need, you know where I am if you change your mind."
xxxx
Peter lay on the grass in the clearing where the Hale house used to stand. He'd been spending more and more time up here since Bill and Charlie had been born.
He finally did it, he ruined everything.
He was arguably teh most secure in their relationship, always has been even since the early days when Derek didn't truly understand what a mate was.
He knew Derek would never leave him and he knew Stiles was would never leave him either. He wasn't so naive to think they'd always be happy, but thought they'd sitcik around, no matter how miserable they were. He didn't actively try to make them miserable, just his mind never went to the worst case scenario during arguments the same way his husbands' did.
He was wrong about Derek, and it got his family killed, now he was wrong about Stiles and his family was going to fall apart.
Stiles had been suffering and Derek was blaming himself and Peter, the asshole, just let it keep happening.
He thought they could work through it and Derek would never have to know, what a fool he'd been.
He wasn't going to ruin things any furthe. His problem with Stiles was causing problems with Derek and Derek didn't handle problems well. He would do the honourable thing and bow out gracefully, let them be happy together without him ruining things.
He couldn't even look at them lately without thinking about how much better they would be without him. He just loved them both so much and he had always been selfish so he convinved himself they needed him. They didn't and they would be happier without him.
xxxx