Fandom: Teen Wolf
Story Title: "We Stood Tall"
Summary: Under the light of the full moon she tells a werewolf that she loves him. /Or, in a world where Allison met Derek first.
Character/Relationship(s): Allison Argent/Derek Hale, Scott McCall, Kate Argent
Rating: T
Warnings: None, really.
Story Word Count: 1.9k
Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable.
Notes: For the Sterek Free Ficathon held on my LJ. My prompt was: Allison/Derek, she meets the other werewolf first, a little more dangerous and a lot more damaged-and future takes a different path. I also want to point out that this fic is not told in order, so if things don't make sense at first that's why.
We Stood Tall
She knows that he's in the room, had heard him come in her window, felt the vibrations of his feet touching the floor, but it's almost like he's not. He's completely lost in the darkness; she can't even hear him breathing.
He didn't leave, though. She knows he didn't leave.
For a moment she might as well be completely alone but then Derek asks, voice low and rough like gravel against concrete, "What's your last name?"
Later, Allison will see this as the beginning of the end.
.
Allison can hardly believe it when she sees Derek through the crowd of people. He's dressed in leather and looks discomfit, but still hot as hell. It's unfair, really.
She crosses the party, having to shove through people, to stand next to him. Somewhere Lydia is off making out with Jackson, so she won't see this, thank God.
"Aren't you kind of old to be coming to one of these shin digs?" she asks him, taking a sip of her beer.
He raises an eyebrow at her wording-she might have drank that first cup of beer too fast, oops-but he still slowly relaxes when he realizes that it's her. "Who do you think help supplied the party?" Derek asks her, a slight smile on his face. Even so, though, he seems distracted. Like he's looking for something.
She wonders what for, especially because she's standing beside him.
"What's up?"
He looks down at her, like he just remembered that she was there. "Nothing," he says, shaking his head before turning his full attention on her. She can feel the exact moment when he does because it's like someone flipped a switch and bathed her whole body in warmth and light. "I just heard someone was going to come, but it seems like they didn't."
"So you didn't come for me, then?" She can't keep the disappointment from her voice, and it's sort of embarrassing. She doesn't want to come off as the needy and desperate sixteen-year-old girl-even though that's exactly what she is.
"No," he says, but when he bothers to look at her he quickly amends it with, "But I'm really glad that you're here so that I have a reason to stay."
She just looks at him, before laughing. "Nice save."
"I try."
.
"So, who was that?" Kate asks, her eyes following Scott where he joined the rest of the lacrosse team.
"His name's Scott. I don't really know that much about him." He'd let her borrow a pen her first day of school, a pen that she still had in her backpack. He had also invited her to that party all those weeks ago, but she'd said no because of Derek.
Not that anyone in her family knows about Derek.
"He's cute, such sweet brown eyes. You should break his heart."
"Aunt Kate!"
Kate just grins, shrugs. "Don't look so appalled, you could do it. It'd be beautiful, something he'd always remember. He'd tell his grandchildren stories about you, the one that got away."
"No," Allison says, shaking her head. "I couldn't."
Kate just turned to look at her, and Allison tried to keep her face expressionless. Her aunt was definitely one of the people that knew Allison best; if anyone could figure out her secret, it would be her.
She tried not to make her relief obvious when Kate turned away.
.
The woods are beautiful at night, dark and treacherous and alive. Allison can see stars through the gaps in the trees and tries to focus on that instead of the nervousness that's making her stomach sour.. She's had sex before, but with Derek it's different.
"Don't be afraid," he says when he comes up behind her. His breath is warm against the cool edge of the night. Slowly he places his hands on her shoulders before rubbing them all the way down her arms before finally grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the blankets that he has set up.
He brought a small electric lantern, that turns everything blue. Other than the light of the moon, it's the only thing that's illuminating the dark.
.
They stared at each other, the only sound in the room being the door that was slammed shut.
"I'm going to get you out of here," Allison finally tells him, moving towards him as if he's a wounded animal. Which, if she thinks about it too hard, he sort of is.
"Don't bother," Derek tells her. "They'll just catch me and hurt you too."
"Do you really think I care about me right now, Derek?"
"Tell me, Allison, how does you getting me out of these chains help me? Your aunt sure as hell isn't leaving-she's probably waiting right outside with wolfsbane bullets lodged into her gun. She's probably even listening to this conversation right now, just waiting for me to get out of here so she can kill me this time. And I can't move fast enough to stop her. So don't even bother."
"I can't leave you here to die," she whispers, too soft for normal ears, but she knows that he hears anyway.
"The rest of your family would," he says. "Don't try to change the mold."
"Allison?" her aunt calls, voice seeming so far away. "Are you done yet? This star crossed lovers routine is making me nauseous."
"I have to go, but I'll try to get to you soon. We'll figure something out."
"Don't bother," he says, loud enough for Kate to hear. "I don't ever want to see you again. So just leave."
She stares at him, but Derek's face is closed off enough that she can't read it. He just stares at her, cold and hard, until she has to walk away.
.
Allison stares into Scott McCall's sweet, innocent face, and wishes to God that she had met him first. She wonders what would have happened if that would have been the case.
"I'm sorry," she finds herself telling him. "But I can't."
"Oh," Scott says, and he smiles like he isn't phased, even though if she looks at his eyes she can tell that this is killing her even more than it's killing her. "Do you have a boyfriend or something?"
"Yeah," she tells him, and it's the first time that she's admitted it out loud. "Yeah I do. I'm really sorry."
"No, it's totally cool." At this Scott seems to be done with the conversation, but then he turns back around and suddenly says, "I hope you guys are happy together."
"We are," she whispers, but even as she says the words she's beginning to be sure that her words are nothing but a lie.
.
When Kate walks into her room and sits down on the chair in the corner, Allison knows that something's up.
"So, basically, I have been forced to become the informant for your parents because you'll talk to me," Kate begins. "But, I would have volunteered, because it's leaving your father on edge and that is driving me crazy. So, tell me. Who's the guy?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Allison replies automatically. Too fast, though, because her aunt raises an eyebrow.
"Sure you don't. So tell me, what's wrong with him? Is he too old, too young, or, God forbid, too ugly?"
"No," Allison says, thinking of Derek's face. "It's definitely not the last one."
"So which one is it?"
"He's older."
Kate raises her eyebrows. "How much older." When she sees Allison hesitate she rolls her eyes. "Please, I won't tell your parents all the details. Just the important ones. But I want to know, in case something happens, so that I'll know what exactly what to say when Chris goes and cuts this kid's balls off."
"He's twenty-three."
"So am I ever going to meet this college graduate, or...?"
"Maybe I'll let you take us out to dinner," Allison tells her, but she mostly just feels uneasy about the thought of Kate and Derek together. She doesn't know why.
.
"I'm a werewolf, Allison," he finally tells her, face deadly. For a moment she just wants to laugh, but instead manages to go for a disbelieving adhuff inste. This had to be a joke. This had to be a joke. There is no way that he was actually a werewolf.
There is no way that Derek, her boyfriend, the man she loves, Derek Hale, is a werewolf. While she, on the other hand, was from a line of werewolf hunters that had existed since medieval times. There was just. No way. This had to be a bad episode of Supernatural, or The Vampire Diaries or something.
"How?" she finally managed to say.
"I was born this way. My whole family was this way."
"So then..." How are they all dead? she wanted to ask. How are they all dead but you're not?
"Your aunt," he says, answering the question she never would have asked out loud.
.
He gripped her hand lightly, like it was breakable. For him, it probably was. But that one movement brought tears to her eyes. "I love you," she says finally. Under the light of the full moon she tells a werewolf that she loves him.
When he squeezes her hand three times, his thumb on the pulse of her wrist, she knows that he's saying it back in the only way that he can.
.
"Say it, Allison," Kate says, and Allison has never seen her look this vicious. Her Aunt Kate is a lot of things-fun and funny and the one person Allison could tell all her secrets-but she has never seen this manic gleam in her eye, never seen the monster living beneath her aunt's skin. "Say you'll never see him again."
On the floor Derek is still trying to drag himself away, leaving behind smears of blood.
"Okay," Allison half-screams, half-sobs. She drops to her knees beside him, tears falling to the ground. She will say anything, anything Kate wants, if it will mean that she will let Derek get up and walk out of here. "I won't see him ever again, I promise I promise I promise. Please, please, just let him go."
.
"That was really convincing, but I'm still not buying it."
And then the trigger is pulled.
.
It's another first day at another new school. Allison twists and turns all night, dreading it.
Another school to have to fit in. Another new school to have to figure out, another year of probably reading the same books in English. At least this year she was starting the school year with everyone else instead of in the middle of the semester, but this was still bad enough.
Eventually she can't take it anymore and gets up, puts her hair into a tight bun, and slips on her workout clothes. When they first moved into this house Allison discovered that her bedroom window was low enough to the ground to jump out of, despite being on the second floor, so jump she does.
The moon is new tonight, so there's no light in the forest, but Allison runs anyway. She doesn't know how far she goes until she can feel eyes on her, and stops. The clearing of trees makes everything seem creepier.
"I know you're there," she says, heart in her throat. "Come out."
And then, he does. She lifts her phone to see his face clearly, and it's so ironic that the creeper in the middle of the woods is hot as hell.
"Who are you?" Allison demands of him.
"My name's Derek, and you're on private property," he tells her.
This, really, is the beginning of the end.