There’s a stack of blankets on the sofa, and the chairs from the dining room table have been brought into the living room. Stiles moves a couple of pieces of furniture to make the space more amenable to his plans for the evening. After making sure everything is set up, he goes to his bedroom to change into some comfy sweatpants and a t-shirt that Isaac left when he slept over the other night. Since he knows the issues likely to arise by wearing it, he also grabs one of Jackson’s button up shirts out of the closet, pulling it on over the t-shirt. Dating two werewolves who share insecurities and possessive qualities means there’s a constant balancing act to make sure he doesn’t play favorites or isn’t seen as letting one claim him over the other.
Fortunately, Stiles does it naturally more often than not because he knows what Isaac and Jackson need from him, and they give him everything, so it’s worth making the effort to share himself the way they need. After all, having two hot guys want him is pretty amazing, and he still can’t really believe that Jackson moved back from London then Isaac came back from France, and they both set their sights on him. And, honestly, having those two hot guys willingly enter into a polyamorous relationship instead of forcing him to choose between them is even better. The chemistry between Jackson and Isaac is more physical than anything else, but Stiles knows there’s some affection outside of pack bonds developing between them, too, which should make things more stable between the three of them.
It’s only been about three months since casually dating the two of them separately became seriously dating both of them together, and they’ve definitely improved on the jealousy thing that was happening whenever he’d spend time with one without the other, though he still knows better than to do anything more than some tame making out unless they’re both involved because he’s not going to deliberately do anything that hurts either of them. It’ll get to a point where they accept that he does care about them both, possibly even loves them, and he thinks their feelings for each other will grow stronger, too, and it’ll make things easier.
Until then, it’s like any new relationship, just a little more complicated than most since there are two strong personalities involved in addition to his own. But they’re all committed to figuring out how to make it work, which is the most important thing. Jackson and Isaac have even done some research on ways to make polyam relationships successful after a particularly rough argument several weeks ago, so he knows it’s worth all the effort in these early months to reach the right equilibrium. Since their relationship does seem slightly dependent on good (amazing, phenomenal, outstanding) sex to work through the rough spots, Stiles is trying to focus on the non-sexual aspects to build a core of trust and affection between the three of them because no relationship is going to last if the foundation isn’t strong.
When the doorbell rings, Stiles shakes his head and stops plotting so he can answer the door. Isaac and Jackson are both there, and he watches their eyes flash yellow and blue respectively as they stare at him and scent the air. “Did you ride together?” he asks curiously, not able to see the parking lot from where his apartment is located.
“No,” Jackson says, leaning in to kiss Stiles. He turns his head slightly, letting Jackson kiss his cheek because Stiles knows he’s only human, and his determination for tonight to be about bonding instead of boning isn’t going to last long if they start kissing. Jackson huffs. “One of those nights, is it?”
“Yep.” Stiles kisses Jackson’s jaw before leaning up to kiss Isaac’s cheek. Isaac kisses his cheek on the way inside the apartment.
“We met up in the parking lot, so we could arrive at the same time,” Isaac admits, flashing a wry smile and running his fingers through his curly hair.
“Why are there blankets on the sofa?” Jackson asks, arching a brow as he puts his overnight bag on the floor. “When you invited us for a sleepover, I was expecting to get some use out of that king size bed I bought us, not envisioning sleeping on blankets in the living room.”
“We aren’t sleeping on the blankets. We’re going to build a blanket fort,” Stiles tells them, grinning as he bounces back on the heels of his feet. They exchange a look before staring at him.
“Why?” Isaac looks confused. “We’re twenty-one. Isn’t that a little old for blanket forts?”
“I never even made a blanket fort when I was a kid,” Jackson points out, rubbing the back of his neck as he stares at Stiles. “Why would I want to now? Stiles, you’re serious about doing this, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am,” Stiles confirms. Based on his lovers’ obvious bewilderment, he made the right choice for tonight’s activity. It had actually come to mind when talking to Scott the other day. He realized that Isaac missed out on a lot of typical childhood experiences because of his dad, who had never been going to win any father of the year awards even before Camden died, and Jackson’s parents had put such high expectations on him from an early age that he’d never indulged in silly childish things that most kids do at some point because he’d been trying desperately to live up to their ideal. Building a blanket fort together seems a bit odd, but he knows it’s going to be fun.
“Okay.” Isaac puts his bag down beside Jackson’s and bites his lip. “What do we need to do?”
“First, you need to go change into comfy clothes. Don’t give me that look, Jax. I know you brought those expensive pajama bottoms you like wearing during breakfast, so go put them on. I’ve got a ton of junk food that isn’t good for us at all, but we’re indulging tonight so no bitching about my human nutritional health, Isaac, and no sneering at Cheetos fingers, Jackson. I’ll order pizza later.” Stiles grins. “Go on. I want to see comfortable and relaxed back here in five minutes.”
“Bossy ass,” Jackson mutters, grabbing his bag and heading to the bedroom. Isaac rolls his eyes but follows. While they’re changing, Stiles goes to the kitchen to get something to drink, grabbing the bag of junk food to take into the living room with him.
“Does this meet your approval, Master?” Isaac asks as he walks back into the room. He’s wearing a pair of sweats and a t-shirt with some French saying written in cursive.
“Yes, it’s good, Minion. What does the shirt say?” Stiles looks up as Jackson comes into the room in his fancy pajama bottoms and a sleeveless tank that shows off his muscular arms.
“It says Fuck Me, Beautiful,” Jackson tells him, snorting as he shakes his head. “Real cute, pretty boy.”
“Don’t even start the pretty boy thing,” Stiles warns. That’ll just dissolve into an argument slash competition about who the prettiest is, even if they’d deny that’s what they argue about. His lovers can be vain and petty sometimes, but he can be a sarcastic ass often, so their bad traits tend to balance out somehow.
“Let’s do this fort thing,” Jackson says, making a face to let Stiles know he is totally not invested in this but is only doing it to make him happy. He can pretend all he wants because Stiles can tell from the way his eyes keep darting towards the blankets and the slight curve of his lips that he’s actually excited.
They do the fort thing. It’s even more enjoyable than Stiles expects because Jackson is so anal about being perfect that he wants to engineer the entire thing, and Isaac is so creative that he’s able to think outside the box to arrange the blankets into formations that shouldn’t even be possible but seem to work when combined with Jackson’s analytical skills. They act like kids, just good-natured teasing and laughing and being foolish in ways they don’t usually allow themselves to be, and it’s awesome. Best idea ever.
By the time they finish, they’ve already eaten their pizza, half the junk food is gone, and the entire living room is covered in blankets and sheets, because Isaac had to get reinforcements when they ran out of blankets mid-way through. Stiles looks at their fort and smiles when Isaac moves behind him, wrapping his arms around his waist and leaning down to rest his chin on Stiles’ shoulder.
“It looks passable,” Jackson declares, eyeing it critically. He looks at Stiles, lips curving into an affectionate smile. “What do we do now that it’s done?”
“Now, we go inside and cuddle.” Stiles grins as he takes Jackson’s hand and tugs him down to the floor.
“I can’t believe you’d rather lie around on the floor than go have mind-blowing sex,” Jackson mutters, crawling on the floor with him.
“I’ll get pillows,” Isaac tells them, grabbing pillows off the bed and bringing them back to the living room. He tosses them inside the blanket fort, and Stiles catches them, arranging them in a pile before falling back and getting comfortable. Isaac smiles as he curls up against Stiles’ side. His voice is soft, just above a whisper, when he says, “This is fun.”
“It’s not that bad,” Jackson agrees, his tone reluctant even as he fights a smile. It’s the best admission they’ll get that he’s enjoying himself, and Stiles is glad they had fun with his idea for tonight.
Jackson moves against Stiles’ other side, snuggling close and putting his leg over Stiles’ leg, claiming half of him. Isaac does the same thing to his other half, which makes Stiles have to bite his lip to keep from smiling at their ridiculousness. He reaches down to take their hands in his, bringing them together and resting them on his belly. Their fingers twitch then entwine, and he sighs contentedly as he looks at the top of their blanket fort, putting his hand on theirs and just enjoying the warmth of his partners pressed against him as they enjoy the silence for a moment.