Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or it's characters
"Where are you sneaking off to?"
Isaac's head jolts up when Erica appears in his doorway. He had been so distracted in his own head that he failed to notice her coming. Judging by her smirk she must have noticed.
"Nowhere, just going for a walk," He tells her, in an attempt to be nonchalant, and returns to tying his sneakers.
"Uh hn…you've been going for walks and runs every night this week."
"It's not every night Erica." But it almost has been hasn't it? Every free night for the past three weeks he heads out hoping to catch Charlee. Sometimes he does. Sometimes he doesn't. The man at the convenient store seems to be getting suspicious. Isaac thinks that he thinks they're selling drugs or something. "I just like to get some air."
"Hmmm….well, don't stay out 'getting some air' for too long. Derek wants early morning training." Erica warns and sashays off to do something of her own, probably with Boyd.
Isaac smirks, thinking that perhaps none of them are as clever as they like to think they are, and heads out.
Isaac is only jogging the first few blocks because he really does need to stretch his legs. Not because he wants to get to the convenience store faster.
It's become an unspoken thing between them that they meet at the store before going off somewhere for the rest of the night. And he says thing because it's not a date. They aren't dating. But Isaac wants to.
Something about Charlee really speaks to him; pulls at him almost like a secret tether. He feels this…bond with her that he's never felt with someone before, not even the pack. Isaac thinks back to a time when Scott had sapped on and on about how he and Allison were soul mates and, despite Isaac's best efforts to tune him out, some of it had gotten through. He thinks about that faded in and out conversation and reflects on the parallels between his situation now and Scott's.
'Dear God! Please don't tell me I'm turning into Scott over this girl I just met! Please, please, please don't let me pull a Scott!'
"Hey!" Isaac snaps out of his introspection to see Charlee bound over to him. He hadn't realized he had made it yet, his feet taking him there automatically. "I got mango and key lime, though it tastes more like lime than key-lime." It's so hard to not smile when she sips the green slushie again to test it before nodding the affirmative that it's more like limes than key-limes.
He takes the mango and she shrugs, seeming indifferent to either choice, and they head down the street.
A lot of the time they wonder around town. Other times they head for a park a few blocks away. Once they snuck up on to the roof top of some building through the fire escape. Isaac doesn't really care. He just likes being around Charlee and hearing her talk and learning about her and drinking slushies.
He's learned that she's not as reserved and cool as she likes to portray herself to be. She's excitable, not like Stiles, but definitely wears her emotions on her sleeves when she's not watching. He's learned that they share a fondness for almost all sweets and not just slushie. They once split a whole box of oreos in one sitting between the two of them when they had snuck into the park and drifted lazily around on the carousel. He's learned that she has both the grace of a jaguar and the klutziness of a baby deer. It still amazes him how she can stroll across a sidewalk railing with ease one minute only to trip on empty air when she's back in the ground in the next. He's learned that she's very bright, eloquent, and despite all these traits and beauty is almost painful shy at times. Her confidence is not the best, and she tries desperately to hide that. And he feels for her for that, remembering a time not so long ago that he thought he was worthless but tried to hide it by pushing everyone away.
"You know I'm getting kind of tired of slushie." Isaac interrupts smack dab in the middle of some rant about modern movie monsters and classic fiction monsters.
"Blasphemer!"
Isaac chuckles a little at Charlee's exaggerated accusation, her fake offense laughable. "No, what I'm saying is maybe we could get some real food."
"Like a date?"
Isaac looks over his shoulder, seeing Charlee has frozen to a halt in that way she does when she's taken by surprise with a wide eyed look. "Or…like get real food." He offers in alternative, thinking that maybe he's misinterpreted everything and she really does just want to be friends.
"Oh," Her face and shoulders fall drastically and she looks rather desolate.
"Or like a date?"
Charlee perks up again instantly, her smile beaming like the sun in the dark. "Yes! Can we go now?! This is so exciting! I've never been on a real date before!"
"Seriously?"
"Strict bible beater home school parents," She says that a lot when Isaac brings up something he thinks is typical-teenager that she's never done. He is at least a little happy that she has gotten over her initial embarrassment about these things and more shrugs them off as things she can't change.
The other teen shrugs, "Well I guess we could go now." He says not wanting to besmudge her her excitement. And if he is being honest, he wants to go now too.
The only place that is open now is a 24 hour diner that sells half-way decent coffee and above average waffles.
Their waitress, who arches a brow in a manner suggesting she finds it inappropriate that a pair of teenagers are out at nearly midnight on a school night, seats them in a both near the back. Probably worried that if she sits them too close to the door they'll bolt after their meal, Isaac thinks.
"What are you gonna get?"
"Umm…I kinda already ate before I came to meet you. So I'm not really hungry." Charlee confesses sullenly, dropping her pretense of getting a meal along with her menu.
"Why did you want to go now then?" He laughs.
"Because I thought you'd change your mind."
Charlee doesn't look at him when she tells him this, paying much closer attention to poking the ice cubes in her water with a straw.
Isaac can tell by her expression that she really thinks that. That she thinks that he'll change his mind, want nothing to do with her, and leave her alone again. So, in an effort to be bold and have his intentions finally understood, Isaac takes her free hand on the table and squeezes it gently.
"I won't change my mind."
Isaac can see a bit of heat spread to Charlee's cheeks like his hand does to hers when she smiles. If she's going to insist on going for walks when she can't sleep she's going to need to invest in gloves soon. Her hands are already like ice.
"What can I get 'ca?" Their moment is broken when the waitress in tacky teal eye shadow appears causing Charlee to snatch her hand away quickly.
Isaac smiles a little, sad but understanding. If he guesses right she's never had a boyfriend and this is very new for her. The thought makes his heart kick start a little faster and that possessive streak in his wolf also seems pleased. "Well if you're not gonna get anything I guess I-"Do you have pie?"
The request takes both Isaac and the waitress by surprise but the older woman nods. "Sure. We have apple, cherry, and chocolate."
"May I have cherry please?"
Charlee seems to look back to Isaac for approval and he smiles slightly with a nod before pointing to his menu.
"Can I get a number six please?" The waitress writes the request down and leaves again with not much else. "I thought you weren't hungry."
"I'm not. But there's always room for pie." She says with a bright smile and nonchalant shrug before reeling back in again. "And I didn't want you to not get anything because you had to eat alone."
Isaac feels his heart rate kick up again when those green eyes catch his through her lashes and he wonders how, strict bible beater parents or not, no one has ever thought to make this beautiful creature theirs before him.
"Well, thanks for not letting me eat alone." He tells her and takes her hand back in his. It's warmer now. And he likes the idea that it's because of him.
"So, how was your first ever date?" Isaac asks as they leave the diner and head down the street towards Charlee's house.
"I liked it. Not as romantic as the movies make it out to be, but I got free pie."
They both chuckle a little at the joke. "Well, next time I'll have to step up my game."
"Next time?"
Isaac stops, expecting her to halt like she does, and smiles casually. "Yeah, next time."
Charlee blinks up at him like she's confused, like she still doesn't get it. Well, they can't have that.
It doesn't take much for Isaac's long legs to close the gap between them, fingers lacing into her soft caramel hair, and kiss her.
It wasn't much; he doesn't want to scare her. But the feeling of electricity that passes through him that both pulls him in and makes him sore, scares him a little. And that tether he thinks he feels is very real all of a sudden.
"That was my first kiss." Charlee sighs when he pulls back, dazed and lingering.
Isaac smiles and strokes her cheek with his thumb, fingers are still in her hair, "I figured."
It surprises him when Charlee takes the final step this time and kisses him, but he's eager to reprise.
When he gets home later, much later than he had originally planned, he doesn't even let Erica's snide comment of 'have a nice walk?' get him down before he falls into bed. Sweet dreams of long kisses on cherry flavored lips filling his dreams.
Please review! Review and feedback are always welcome!