Peter leaned against the doorframe to Derek's bedroom, decked out in his usual plaid pajama pants while he struggled to suppress a yawn, his age and general lack of sleep catching up to him.

"Well, Isaac is asleep on the couch," Peter announced, "and just like when you were that age, there is no waking him up now."

Derek nodded from where he sat on the edge of his bed, gripping the mattress tightly in an effort to remain calm and level-headed. But there was no ignoring the tension radiating from him, no matter how much Peter wanted to do just that.

Derek sighed loudly as he stared down at his bare feet. "Which means you want to talk about changing him, I guess."

Peter chuckled and let his arms drop to his sides from where they'd been crossed over his chest, then stepped further into the room.

"Of course," he joked. "Listen, I know things got heated earlier, but now it's just us, all right? Let's talk this through."

"What's there to talk through, Peter?" Derek countered. "He's just a kid. That didn't change since dinner. He's barely ready to deal with choosing what college he goes to next year. Much less making a life-altering decision like this one."

"Tell me about it," Peter muttered, remembering Derek from that time in his life. "Still. He knows our secret. We can't remove him entirely from the equation now either. And despite the fact that you think he's a kid, I'm fairly certain he's deduced that none of us would be willing to actually kill him to keep him quiet. You might not be ready to admit it, but that's a problem, Derek."

Derek nodded along, seemingly unable to deny the truth of the matter in the quiet sanctuary of his own bedroom. "Do you really think he'd tell, though? You heard him tonight. He thinks he's going to wait me out. He's not going to give up the only card he has to play. Even if we would change him after he told, that would put him in more danger. Not less."

"Teenager, remember, Derek?" Peter insisted, wrapping an arm around Derek's broad shoulders. "I'm not sure he's going to think that far ahead. He might be fine waiting now, but eventually, when he doesn't get what he wants, he'll get petulant about it."

Derek looked back to his uncle slowly, exasperation coating his next words fully. "Are you really suggesting we change him because he might throw a temper tantrum?"

Peter guffawed at the totally incorrect conclusion Derek had come to, almost willfully misinterpreting his intentions now. "No, that's not what I meant at all. I just wanted to make sure we're considering this from all angles. Unlike him."

"Okay, fine, you want to consider all angles? How about this one? His father is abusing him, Peter," Derek emphasized, turning his whole body to face his uncle now. "And the fact that he hasn't turned him in, despite all the evidence you and I saw on him tonight, means he has no inclination to do so. And that probably also means he sees this as a way to be able to stand up to him."

Derek shook his head, trying to dislodge an unpleasant thought that Peter wasn't allowed to know. "If we change him, and his Dad pushes him too far, he might kill him. And then he'd have to live with that forever. He has no idea what he's doing, Peter. He thinks this sounds fun and badass and like the answer to all his problems. But you and I, and even Scott now, know it's not that easy. And it's not true."

Peter nodded along with Derek's argument, though he'd detached from the excuses his nephew was crafting to bolster his side of the argument long ago. Because that's all they were at this point. A way to maintain his firmly held beliefs on trust, and ultimately to prove to himself that it did him no good to let anyone in that wasn't family.

He'd been burned and Peter could see now that there might be no coming back from that. But he also didn't need to watch Derek dig his own grave. Or that of those around him, either.

"Next year, Isaac can leave his Dad. Until then, he can hang out here as often as he wants, and we can make sure he doesn't get hurt again. But if he becomes one of us, he will have problems for the rest of his life that there will be no escaping."

As he ran out of steam, both literally and figuratively, he took a deep breath and relaxed a negligible amount before chancing a glance at Peter again. Peter, in turn, reached out once more and gripped his shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Or he prayed it was reassuring. Lately, he wasn't so convinced he could even offer that level of comfort to Derek anymore. Not like he could've when he was younger. Back then, everything had seemed so much more chaotic and somehow so much easier.

"Well, that was at least more coherent than earlier," Peter razzed Derek, ruffling his hair as he'd done Stiles' a few days earlier. "And all fair points, I might add. I didn't mean to imply that it was an easy decision, Derek. Just that the far better option here might be for us to change him. And not just because he knows our secret. We do have to find a way to strengthen our pack. We have to be able to protect people. That's our job, and right now we're not doing it."

"A bunch of new werewolves we adopted that need training aren't exactly practical additions, though."

"Far easier to train them all together, let them spar with each other, then changing them one at a time," Peter contended firmly. "And don't you think Isaac wants a family that he can depend on? One that will always be there for him? Don't you think he deserves that after what he's been through?"

"We can offer him that without turning him," Derek argued, though his voice had lost most of its conviction.

Even he couldn't seem to deny the bond that tied a pack together was stronger than the blood that linked him and Peter.

"What do you suggest for adding new pack members then, Derek? An application?"

"No, I..."

"What are you looking for, exactly? Good credit score? No criminal record?" Peter stressed, wanting Derek to be forced to narrow down his actual objections to the matter succinctly. "On second thought, maybe we should make the criminal record thing mandatory. Get some new skills in the mix," he added, more to himself than anything. "Good job history? What about education? High school diploma? Or did you want something more impressive? A PhD, perhaps?"

Derek held up his hands in surrender, motioning for Peter to stop his rant. "You've made your point, all right? You always go way too far," he mumbled.

"It's my trademark," Peter retorted.

"I thought tight v-neck t-shirts were your trademark," Derek teased with a snicker.

"Okay, fine, I have two trademarks."

Derek gave him a withering look, despite the laughter bubbling up inside him, and even though he'd been the one to derail their conversation, causing Peter to give him a sardonic smile.

"I get that we're between a rock and a hard place, Derek," he admitted. "I do know that. But that place would be a lot less hard if we let Isaac in the pack."

Derek stared intensely at Peter for a few seconds, blinking rapidly before he burst out laughing. "Do you have any idea how dirty that sounded?"

Peter pursed his lips as Derek doubled over in an effort to inject some seriousness back into their debate, but it quickly devolved until both of them were laughing louder and longer than either had in ages.

A few more minutes and Derek sat back up, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Oh, Jesus. I needed that."

"Yes, you did," Peter agreed readily.

Then he sighed and ran a hand through his hair as the laughter from his own lips died down as well. "Look, despite what I said to Isaac earlier, I am old and I need my beauty sleep."

"Hope you have a week," Derek said with a devious smirk.

"Hey, butthead," Peter complained.

He made a face and then grabbed a pillow off Derek's bed, throwing it directly at him. But with his preternatural reflexes, Derek caught it and made a show of laying his head down on it and curling up like he was going to sleep.

"Just... consider my perspective," Peter pleaded as he stood. "We can talk more tomorrow."

"I'll consider it," Derek consented. "But that doesn't mean that I'm going to change my mind."

Peter rolled his eyes as Derek stood too, starting to actually turn down his sheets and get into bed.

"Stiles is right."

Derek's head snapped Peter's direction at the mention of the now infamous name in their home, his eyes narrowed skeptically. "About what?"

"You are literally the most stubborn person ever."

"He said that?" Derek said, shaking his head with a deep chuckle. "Like he's one to talk."

Peter watched him for a few more seconds before he walked back into the hallway fully, flipping off the lights as he made his way to his own bedroom next door, left to wonder if he'd made a difference.

Or if it was even his place anymore.