red strings

chapter 1

waking up to an eight year old squishing his face was not what dean was expecting to wake up to. he was expecting a scream or a hug or maybe a sleeping child. but knowing his son he probably should have expected something weird.

dean opened his eyes to find wide amber eyes staring down at him. he screamed and sat up. "daddy?" stiles asked, shocked. dean nodded, while still trying to calm his heartbeat. stiles smiled brightly and laughed. "daddy!" he exclaimed and lunged on his father, hugging him tightly.

dean embraced him while laughing roughly, "hey buddy. i missed you too." stiles hugged his dad tighter, never wanting to let go. dean closed his eyes and enjoyed being with his son. his peace was interrupted by a click of a camera.

he looked up with furrowed eyebrows and found noah standing on the doorway with a camera. noah shrugged, putting the camera away. dean chuckled and patted stiles' back, "alright. let's get you cleaned up. you stink." stiles pulled back and looked at him with an offended face. "nuh uh!" he said, "you stink!"

dean raised his eyebrows, "oh really? well this stinky monster is coming to get you unless you run to the bathroom!" he lunged, trying to catch stiles. stiles squealed and ran to the bathroom.

after dean had bathed his son, he himself took a shower and went down the hallway to find his son and uncle at the kitchen table. walking to the table, he kissed stiles' head and picked the kid up to place him in his lap. dean took a piece of bacon of his plate and looked at noah, "i thought the doctor said no bacon." noah ignored at dean's narrowed eyes and waved him off, "yeah but you're here, so i think that calls for a bacon breakfast, right stiles?"

stiles looked up from his plate, his mouth full off food and screamed, "yeah! but it's okay daddy grampa can't eat more than three pieces. i won't let him." dean smiled and turned to his son, "good."

stiles went back to stuffing his face with food, feeding his father some in the middle as dean and noah talked. "so how's everything?" dean asked, hoping to get a positive answer for once. the look on noah's face, however, told him that wasn't the case. "no leads?" he asked, feeling sympathy.

noah shook his head, "none. i'm gonna have to shut the case soon, it's been more than 2 months now." dean looked at his son, hating himself for not being able to be any help in finding out what caused the hale fire. taking a deep breath, he asked, "and what about stiles?" stiles looked up at the mention of his name but didn't intervene.

"well, he speaks to me and you and he recently started speaking to scott, but other than that, no luck? his therapist says since he already lost claudia and cora, he doesn't want to initiate conversation with anyone because he's scared they might leave him too." cora hale, one of stiles' best friends died in the fire too, they couldn't even find her body. her death seemed to have added to the death of his aunt, who herself died only four-five months ago, and traumatized him far too much for an eight-year old.

dean sighed, kissing stiles' head and holding him closer. he never wanted to let his son feel any pain, he made him stay with noah for that particular reason. but apparently pain doesn't need anything supernatural to take shelter in your home. him constantly leaving the kid can't be helpful either. he closed his eyes, not for the first time hating himself for leaving and listening to his father over taking care of his kid.

but john is dean's dad and dean owes him his life, he can't just abandon his dad. he felt someone tap his arm and opened his eyes. stiles looked at him with concerned eyes and a piece of bacon in his hand. he offered the bacon to his dad and dean chuckled, blinking to get rid of the tears gathered in his eyes. opening his mouth, he ate the bacon as noah spoke, "stiles has a session today, you can go with him if you want."