Who: Kate and Clayton Danvers What: Talking Where: Pack House Kitchen When: Tuesday, lunchtime-ish Warnings: ... Status: Closed, Complete
The best thing about being a werewolf was being able to eat yourself silly and not regretting it the next day. Kate had thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday and was going over to the big house to raid the fridge for some leftovers.
She looked up and smiled when she heard footsteps and realized it was her dad. “Hey, you want some leftovers too?” she asked, pulling out a foil covered plate with turkey.
***
“You know I do,” Clay said. Because Clay and left overs were almost like a bonded pair. Where there was food, there was Clay. He tended to grill way too much meat with the intent of having left overs for several days.
But he also wanted to talk to Kate. He’d had a sleepless kind of night, thinking about a lot of things. And some of those things involved her, after the revelations he’d had yesterday at the cook out. He’d ease into it though.
“You want some bread to make a sandwich?”
***
“Ooh, sure, that sounds good,” Kate agreed. She put the plate on the table and then went back to rummaging through the fridge to pull out additional containers of potatoes and veggies. “I wonder if there are any brownies left.”
Those tended to be a big hit no matter who made them.
“Yesterday was fun.”
***
Clay rummaged through the breads, and came up with an extra little wrapped package. “Did someone say leftover brownies?” He had his tricks, and he knew what needed to be hidden from sight in order to be, well, saved for later. The brownies were often the first to go, and Clay was often guilty of hoarding a small portion for the next day.
He set the bread on the counter, but kept the foil wrapped brownies in his possession. “These are like gold, though,” he said with a grin. “Why should I share?” he would, of course, and she probably knew that he would share with her. But why would he make it easy? Besides, he had some questions for her. He’d get to that in a minute. Maybe after the sandwiches were made.
***
Kate managed her best fake pout. “Because I’m your favorite daughter and you love me?” she said, trying to make her voice sound as pitiful as possible. It wasn’t like she couldn’t get Jaime or Mercy to make more brownies if she wanted them, but it was more fun to bug her dad.
“And I’m going to make you an awesome sandwich,” she added, opening the bread and pulling out slices so she could start assembling.
***
Clay sat down at the table, allowing Kate to do her thing with the sandwiches and everything. He’d gotten drinks, and had the brownies on the table off to the side, furthest away from where she would sit. He was being a brat and he knew it, but it wasn’t like he’d really deny her the treat.
“So, I wanted to ask you something,” he said when she brought the plates over and sat down at the table. “And I may be way off base here, but I don’t think I am. Because I mean, I know you are Stiles are friends, but when I was harassing him yesterday, Nick’s scent was all over him. I mean all over him.” There was a certain implication in Clay’s tone, and he was pretty sure Kate would pick up on it without him having to elaborate.
***
No, he didn’t need to elaborate and Kate wasn’t entirely surprised that he’d picked up on something. They’d agreed they weren’t going to make a big announcement about their relationship, but that they wouldn’t necessarily hide it either.
Kate was, however, at least as much of a brat as her father, so before she took a bite of her sandwich, she said, “I didn’t hear a question in there.”
***
He gave her a dead pan sort of look and took a bite of the sandwich, making a show of chewing and swallowing before he said anything more. “What’s going on with Nick and Stiles?” Whether or not he’d asked Stiles about it, or even Nick, was irrelevant. He wanted to know what Kate had to say.
Kate’s relationship with Nick was a source of stress and discontent with Clay. Her relationship with Stiles had a negative history with him too, but for entirely different reasons. He’d come to terms with both of the relationships, more or less. He’d taken to harassing Stiles, largely in the form of imposing shirtless hugs on him, and he didn’t really wish anything bad to happen to Stiles despite whatever he might have said in the past.
The idea of Stiles being involved with Nick, though. That gave him more than a little cause for concern, though. Especially if the two of them were messing around behind Kate’s back.
***
Kate finished chewing and swallowing the bite of her sandwich, grateful that it allowed her to hide her amusement. It would be nearly impossible for anyone to sneak around behind a werewolf’s back thanks to enhanced senses.
“We’re dating,” she said, reaching for her soda to take a drink. She wasn’t going to elaborate or offer any more information unless Clay asked for it.
***
“Excuse me, what?” Clay dropped his sandwich, meat spilling out on his plate when the bread hit the flat surface. He gaped at Kate, his eyes wide and unblinking. He had to have heard that wrong, because it sounded like she’d said she and Nick and Stiles were dating. As in a threesome. As in...the three of them, together.
Not that he had any real basis for objection. They were all over 18. They were all old enough to make up their own minds. And while Stiles was supposedly merely human, his best friend was a werewolf, he’d dated a werecoyote. He wasn’t exactly a stranger to the whole werewolf life. But still.
***
“Nick and I are dating Stiles,” Kate said. His reaction was, so far, milder than she’d been anticipating. With any luck they’d get through this without him breaking any bones. At least this time she was over 18 and not hooking up with his best friend.
She knew it was unconventional, but it shouldn’t really surprise anyone that Nick and Kate of all people were going the unconventional route. “It’s pretty new and we aren’t making a big production out of it.”
***
Clay had come a long way since he’d found out about Kate and Nick. He’d been through a lot. He’d had to deal with his daughter and his best friend, who he considered a brother in every way, dating. He’d had to deal with Elena coming and going, coming and going, coming and finally settling in town but by then he couldn’t deal with the uncertainty. He’d had to deal with nearly alienating himself from his pack by pursuing a relationship with someone who wasn’t Elena. He’d had to deal with losing Logan to the whims of the dome. All of those things, and the random madness the dome spit at them on a regular basis besides, had hardened Clay at the same time it had all made him more humble, more open and in touch with his emotions. More accepting.
As a result, this news, while shocking and completely unexpected, didn’t slam him so hard that he reacted impulsively, which often meant negatively with him. It hit him hard, sure. He couldn’t deny that. He hadn’t any idea it was coming. At least not before yesterday. Not before he’d smelled Nick so keenly all over Stiles, and Stiles all over Nick in return. He hadn’t really expected this to be the explanation, but it didn’t shock him as much as it would have, if he hadn’t been exposed to the scents.
“Okay.” Clay nodded. He pieced his sandwich back together and picked it up to take a bite. “If you’re happy, that’s what matters.”
***
Well, that was completely unexpected and Kate put down her own sandwich to give him a curious look. As glad as she was that her father wasn’t flipping out and punching walls, she was expecting at least a token protest or objection and not such easy acceptance.
“Who are you and what did you do with my father?” she asked.
***
Clay gave her a half smile. “I spent a lot of time being upset about you and Nick. You spent a lot of time fighting me and Mercy. All that did was give us both a lot of heartache. I’m not interested in going through that again. So if you’re happy, I’m going to be happy for you.” And whatever he felt personally, he’d keep it to himself, and deal with it in his own way. Because when it came down to it, his daughter’s happiness was more important to him than anything else.
***
Kate realized that he was making a good point and wow, they had both grown up a lot during their time in Madison Valley. “Thanks,” she said. “We are happy. I mean, we know it’s unconventional, but…” It seemed like it was working for them so far. Time would tell if it continued that way.
“It kind of started when Nick was a girl,” she explained. Then she realized her father probably didn’t want to hear about that, so she picked up her sandwich and took another bite.
***
“You know, I may not have known you when you were younger, when you were growing up,” Clay hated that, but it was fact, and he couldn’t change that fact. Maybe he would eventually know her in his home reality, when he went back. Maybe not, there was no way to know. He knew her now, and she was a wonderful, amazing young woman. “But one thing I know. You have never been what other people would consider conventional.”
He smiled a little smile. He had a million and one thoughts rolling around in his head, and a lot of them were bouncing off the walls of his mind. But he wasn’t sugar coating things. He did love her, he did want the best for her, her happiness was the most important thing. He was just leaving out the negative stuff.
And she was right about one thing. He didn’t really want to talk about when Nick was a girl. Not. At. All. He took a bite of his sandwich pretty much at the same moment Kate did.
***
Conventional was definitely not a word that anyone would use to describe Kate. She smiled at him, content to finish their sandwiches in silence. When they were done eating, she took their plates to the sink to wash them.
“So… can you maybe try not to utterly terrify Stiles next time he’s around?”
***
Clay moved the foil wrapped brownies over so they were sitting in front of him and he started to unwrap the foil as Kate rinsed the plates off. He didn’t wait for her to start eating them, but he’d make sure there was some for her to enjoy.
“I’m not going to stop harassing him.” Because really, harassing Stiles was fun. And that had to be better than when he used to glower at him, and silently threaten to do him bodily harm.
***
Kate rolled her eyes and helped herself to a brownie when she re-joined him at the table. “I didn’t ask you to,” she said. “I just asked you not to terrify him.”
It was a lot to ask, given that Clay generally had a menacing presence and Stiles was convinced that the man still hated him for something that hadn’t even been his fault a couple of years ago, but she was hoping her father would at least make an effort for her sake.
“What do you think Jeremy will say?”
***
What would Jeremy say? Was there any way to predict what Jeremy would say, in any situation? There were times he’d say nothing at all, or say a million things with nothing more than a look. But as for his actual words...that was a harder prediction.
“He likes Stiles. You might be all right.” Clay, however, felt like he needed to do something. He wanted to go and punch someone. He wouldn’t. Instead, maybe he’d go to Verdant and see if Scarlett was working. He’d heard she was tending bar over there, and he knew just how effectively she could make him seem to be human. Maybe he could get drunk. It wouldn’t be the same as getting in a fight, but maybe it would be better because he’d never actually been drunk before.
Clay finished off a brownie and pushed the last one toward Kate. “I should go upstairs, see what Mercy’s up to.” And maybe tell her he was going out for a while.
***
“Okay,” Kate said. She got the sense that he wasn’t as okay with this whole thing as he was pretending to be, but she was going to accept his word that he wanted her to be happy. “You can tell her, if you want. Either Nick or I will talk to Jeremy soon.”
Once he left the room, she put away all the leftovers and made sure the kitchen was tidy before heading back over to the tiny house.