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Peter smells the change a moment before Stiles runs for the bathroom. It takes some time for the niggling memory at the back of his mind to click with the change in scent but then his eyes widen and he carefully goes after Stiles.
He registers the grumbling, whining tone even as the scent is suddenly coupled with a heartbeat and he drops to his knees in front of his heart, his mate carrying his pup. (he can't believe it, just can't process it, there were legends sure but...)
"Peeeettteeeer!" the stretched out whine of his name snaps him out of his thoughts and surprised shock. "Would you stop just staring and give me some water?"
"You're pregnant."
He hadn't meant to just blurt it out like that but the shock still had its claws in him.
Stiles blinked a couple of times before carefully asking, "I'm what exactly?"
"You're pregnant." Peter still had trouble processing it. Actually having a pup of his own with his mate, he'd thought that would never happen.
"What?! I can't be pregnant! Men don't get pregnant!!!" Stiles' voice was getting shriller towards the end and his eyes were widening in his panic.
"Men can't get pregnant just like werewolves are a fairytale?" Peter snarked back on pure instinct.
"Don't be an ass and gimme some water." Stiles groaned in reply.
For a while Peter just rubbed circles in Stiles' back.
He murmured, "I can hear the heartbeat." still focusing on that precious, so, so precious sound even while getting a mug out of the bathroom cabinet and filling it with water.
"Hear the heartbeat? It's fine, right?" There was anxiety in Stiles' voice like he already couldn't bear the thought of something happening to their child.
"It's fine as far as I can tell. Deaton or Melissa would be able to tell you more, though. I'm not exactly an expert in unborn fetuses."
"Oh my god, Peter." The exasperation at least was familiar ground and he didn't have to see it to know Stiles had rolled his eyes.
A beat of silence and something like uncertainty creeps into Stiles' scent.
"You... You're fine with this, right?"
It's the sudden vulnerability that jolts him into focusing on his mate.
"Of course I am. It's what I've always wanted. A pack, a family of my own."
***
Deaton actually looks surprised when they hear the heartbeat loud and clear. Melissa looks like she wants to squeal but contents herself with a warm smile and congratulations.
After that Peter spends six months and some weeks between awed elation and absolute panic.
(he later finds out that mix of elation and panic will never end)
***
He remembers drowning in flames and screams and pain for years. Remembers being the outsider, the outcast, the unwanted.
But he also remembers kisses like blood and protection that would move mountains.
And now that he stares at his little girl and his mate, he might even remember what love feels like.