Chapter Text
The knocks were getting louder each second. Stiles tried to muffle his ears with pillow for the first few minutes, but when they were getting louder, the pillow had no use at all. He groaned and kicked a spot which should not be empty this early in the morning. He groaned even deeper.
“Theo!!” He yelled, with eyes still closed. “Help me answer that damned door!!”
There was sound of water running and then stopped from the bathroom, before its door yanked open. Theo stomped out with only large towel covering his private part, and a toothbrush hanging in his mouth. He glared to Stiles with menacing face.
“You are an epitome of lazy-bones, simply fucking impossible, do you know that?!!” Theo cursed and spat some of the toothpaste while he talked. Stiles only had energy to open half of his eyes, so he didn’t move his tongue to chastise his friend.
Theo shot another glare to the taller brunette, but finally resigned when Stiles made no effort to wake up. The spike-haired brunette walked outside the bedroom to answer the door, half cursing. He squinted his eyes when he saw a beautiful petite ginger was standing on the other side. She was as fashionable as always with her designer’s summer dress and peep heels, and as astonishing as always with her perfect make-up.
“Theo,” she greeted, with a pointed tone. Yep, they never liked each other, despite a common someone they cared so much. Stiles.
“Lydia,” Theo greeted back, took one step backward to give the ginger a way in.
Lydia walked in and cast her eyes around Stiles’ apartment, with her sharp chin tilted so high, like a potential buyer for a house on sale. She pivoted her eyes to the half-naked Theo and snorted.
“I should have known you’ll be here,” she jeered. “Pop idol doesn’t pay much for decent rent?”
Theo took a deep breath and clenched his jaw. She was lucky that he cared about Stiles very much to make him able to control himself from returning her insult. The girl was Stiles’ step-sister, no matter what, and as annoying as it was, the other brunette loved her so much.
“I’ll wake him up,” he said, grasped any chance to flee Her Majesty Lydia Martin-Stilinski. Theo hastily made a beeline toward Stiles’ bedroom. The said brunette was still in his dreamland, sleeping like a log, although the morning sun had shine on his bare ass. He’s one hell of beautiful log, indeed, Theo thought. He’d like to cuddle the brunette once more, if only there was no Queen Bee waiting impatiently at the living room. The shorter brunette finished brushing his teeth, climbed on the bed and slapped Stiles’ ass, made him jolt in surprise.
“”Hey!!!” Stiles protested, looked so cute with eyes still half-opened, yet he had his angry look on. Theo pursed his lips into a thin smile.
“Wake up, Lydia’s here,” he said, while his hands cleared all of cover, sheet, and everything else that potentially could help Stiles falling to sleep again. “You should just give her keys, you know?!” He added.
“And let her crash in whenever she feels to? Nah, thank you. I love her, but no,” Stiles finally woke up and put on his sweatpants to meet his sister. Theo stayed for a while in the room, cleaning up. Well, he had to agree with Stiles about that keys matter. It was a bad idea. Theo shivered from the mental image of Lydia barging in when they were making love. Theo and Stiles might only friends with benefit and not lovers, but still, Theo preferred no one ever interrupted when they were having their steamy bonding.
“Whassup, Lyds’?” Theo heard Stiles greeted his sister.
“Dad summons you,” she deadpanned, not beating around the bush at all. They were only step-siblings, not blood related, but the two were surprisingly shared same traits of character, and temper.
“I went home last month, what the hell he wants this time?” Stiles complained.
Theo couldn’t hold his curiosity. Stiles’ family never liked Theo, for heaven’s known the reason, and the fact that they were friends (and beyond). That, and with Theo’s career, were the two things that were holding them to be officially together as lovers. That was why, the mentioning of Stiles’ dad made Theo itching to follow the conversation. He wore proper clothes, then sashayed to the kitchen, putting his best straight face, as if he didn’t care, and started to fix some breakfast for him and Stiles.
“I want my coffee black, please…,” Stiles cocked his head to Theo, putting his puppy face on display that drawn a laugh from Theo. “I’m having tad hangover thanks to you and your wine, Raeken!!” He continued with his ranting. Theo was nodding his head to signal Stiles that he heard him the first time.
“He dozed you with alcohol to have his way into your pants now?” Lydia frowned. Theo immediately snapped his head to the ginger, furiously, but Stiles already silenced his sister with nastiest glare he could pull. Lydia bitten her tongue, and shut up.
“Insult me anything, Dear Sister,” Stiles hissed. “But do not bad-mouthing my best friend!”
Lydia cowered a bit, and pouted. Stiles always knew how to make her shut up, fortunately. His friend was always strict and firm on his principles, and let no one to poke or joke about it. To treasure thee family and loyal to thee friends were two of his top principles. He would not hesitate to chastise anyone who tried to insult any of those two.
“So, what does good old Dad want this time?”
“He didn’t say,” Lydia rolled her eyes. “Just send me here to get you.”
”It’s never been a good thing whenever he’s being secretive,” Stiles snorted. He stood up to take his coffee mug from the kitchen island, where Theo put it. The shorter brunette had started to dig his breakfast, while looking at the siblings with curious gaze.
“Whatever. Just take a shower, put on some decent clothing and come with me.”
“Can’t a man get his morning coffee first?” Stiles complained.
“It’s not morning anymore,” Lydia retorted. “It’s almost ten, and you really don’t want to make Dad waiting, Stiles. Not with your allowance at stake.”
Stiles was dead on his track and had stopped sipping his coffee altogether. Theo stiffened too. As a son of powerful and wealthy businessman, Stiles was expected to inherit the company’s leadership. However, Stiles never liked it and chose to enter art major instead. That created havoc, of course. It was finally ended with Lydia stepped in with a promise to inherit the company and Stiles made compromise to study digital art and visual design instead of pure art he loved. He was just graduating six months ago and striving to establish his own advertisement company. He tried to raise the capital he needed, of course, but he needed real money if he wanted to make a big company. Stiles finally resorted to his allowance, which he rarely used before, and promised his father to pay him back when the company established and running smoothly. From that day onward, his family always used the said allowance as leverage to make Stiles succumbed to do their bidding. Today was no exception.
Theo sighed. He had offered his own wealth to help his friend, but Stiles always refused. Now, the taller brunette would have to face the consequence in dealing with the devil. If only Stiles accepted Theo’s offer…, Theo sighed once more.
“Alright, I’ll hit the shower,” Stiles grumbled and turned his heels to the bedroom.
“Dude, I’m leaving, alright? I have appointment with my producer,” Theo informed him while collecting his bags and dirty clothes. With Stiles having his shower, Theo should spare himself from dreading waiting time in awkward silent with Lydia. He’d rather jet and done some work. Stiles hummed a replied to him, as Theo gave Lydia a clipped nod, before he left the place. The ginger nodded back as a reply.
**
Stiles’ father started their business from their small hometown, Beacon Hills, before it transformed into multi-billion dollars nation-wide and international company, turned their family’s life upside-down. They moved to New York and seven years after his mother died, Stiles’ father married Lydia’s mother, an already powerful business woman herself. Stiles loved his new family instantly, but his mother was irreplaceable in his heart. The pain of loosing her abruptly lingered in his heart that made him slightly resenting his father for the re-married, although he liked his step-mom. It was a complicated feeling, he knew, but that was what he felt, which made him reluctant to go home. Only on special occasion he’d willing to visit his family, or when his father specifically summoned him, like today.
Parrish, his father’s secretary slash assistant answered the door for them. He was a tall man with soft face and calm expression. At the moment, he was smiling so brightly when he saw Lydia. Stiles always known that those two had a ‘thing’ going on, and secretly, of course. He would never snitch on his sister to his father, but he’d use the secret to scold Lydia back whenever she started to chastise him about Theo. His family never liked Theo, for no obvious reason, but Stiles suspected it had something to do with Theo being a Raeken, his father’s greatest rival. That was slight unfair, really, since Theo was an adoptive son and hardly had anything to do with his family business. He had been Stiles second longest best friend, and Stiles was there to witness how Theo paved his way to popularity and wealth, without even using a single penny of his family’s fortune. Theo, too, had always been there for Stiles, made him cherished their friendship so much.
“Your father is in his office,” Parrish informed them. Stiles nodded and walked to the pointed direction, leaving Lydia and Jordan alone. He chuckled when the corner of his eye saw his sister was dragging Parrish to her bedroom direction. Fine, he’d stall the oldman long enough so Lydia could have a ‘quality’ time with her boyfriend.
“Dad”, Stiles knocked and poked his head in. His father was sitting at the end of the spacious office, behind his desk, with eyes glued on the monitor screen. When he saw Stiles was coming, he waved to let his son in. Stiles walked in obediently and seated himself on one of the armed chair in front of his father’s.
There was a long silent, and Stiles spent it to study the old man. His father still looked as handsome and his eyes were as sharp as ever. They used to have a close relationship, prior his mother’s death. After his mother died, due to his deep lost, Stiles’ father dwelt himself in work, totally abandoning Stiles, made him resented the old man. He wasn't the only one who lost his beloved one, Stiles always thought. The last straw was his marriage with Lydia’s mother that made Stiles completely distant himself from his father. Whenever he had to face the old man, Stiles would be alarmed and employed all of survival instinct he got.
“You look sated,” his father finally broken the silent, tore his eyes from the screen and fixated them on Stiles neck. Reflexively, Stiles raised his hand to cover that particular anatomy with his button-up’s collar the best he could. He remembered Theo sucked his neck hard last night, so it was most likely left some bruise. “Theo?”
“My love life should be a private matter,” Stiles replied, shifting his seating position. “I have other appointment, so if it’s possible, could you please state your business…”
“Can’t a father see his son?” His father sighed. “But, I taught you that charming attitude, so it’s only me to be blame. Fine. I summoned you to talk about your mother’s last wish that the two of us not yet fulfilled.”
Stiles frowned. He never knew that. He let his father continued. “You do know that your mother had a BFF named Talia Hale, right?”
Stiles fished the name out of his memory. Yes, he remembered Aunt Talia. She came visiting their house couple of time when Stiles was no more than ten years old. She was nice, but she had this grumpy son who was older by two years than Stiles, who was always put on some airs around him. He remembered he tried to be nice to the boy, only to be shoved around by him. After his mother died, the Hale never came visiting them again, much to Stiles’ relieved. The family was one the socialites too, with half the members were working as lawyers, and the other half were hot-shots in the politic.
“Yes,” Stiles nodded. “What’s wrong with Aunt Talia?”
His father reached for his drawer and pulled a file out, to shove it to Stiles. The brunette took it and read the content, only to find himself bugging his eyes out.
“That’s your mother’s will. She was expecting you to get married to one of Talia’s children, once you earned your degree. You’ve done it six months ago, and Talia has been counting too. She contacted me yesterday, asking for the complement of the promise Claudia made to her years ago.”
Stiles’ face lost its colour instantly. He stared disbelief to his father. “Y-you want to sell me out to the Hale? What century is this that this kind of arranged married still happening?!!” Stiles shrieked in disgust and threw the file back on desk. He stood up and started his agitated pace. “You can’t do this to me!!!” He screamed.
“That was your mother’s wish,” Stilinski senior replied calmly. "And it shouldn't be a problem since you have no lover..."
“I have my own life!! You can’t just orchestrated it the way you want!!”
“You don’t even want to grant your mom’s wish now?”
Stiles stopped pacing. He had his back to his father, his shoulders shivered strongly as he tried to blink his tears away. Why?
“Talia has two daughters. She said she would be honoured if you marry her youngest one. Her name is Cora. She’s beautiful, maybe you could see her picture first and make up your mind,” John Stilinski stood up and approached his son with a photograph in his hand. He put it in Stiles’ line of sight, was hoping his son could take a glance.
“The wedding is on Sunday, three days from now,” his father resumed talking. “It’s not a request, Stiles.”
Stiles gritted his teeth and snatched the photo from his father’s hand. He nodded harshly, with bead of tear swollen on the corner of his eye. “Got it,” he hissed.
He opened his mouth no more, and rushing out his father’s office, took big steps to the front door. He just wanted to leave this dreaded house in instant. He ignored Lydia’s calling, kept on marching out the house. He couldn’t believe how his family always found new way to torment him. He couldn’t believe how his beloved mother could have thing like this in store for him. But it was her last wish nonetheless, of which Stiles had no heart to say no.
**