Beacon Hills wasn't the prettiest, most fancy city, but it sure looked beautiful from the forest hill where you could stand and see the entire town. Vanessa loved seeing it from that point of view with all the lights and the distant sounds.
"Hey." A soft voice greeted her. Derek placed himself beside her and warmly smiled. She returned it and folded her arms together.
"Finally." Vanessa commented his lateness, though he wasn't that late.
"I was busy." He mumbled. She didn't ask with what since he gave her a vibe that wasn't welcoming for questions. "It's been a while. I mean, I barely see you at school."
"And I barely see you." She replied with a sloppy shrug. With a sigh, he turned to look at her instead of Beacon Hills and leaned his head to the side a bit.
"What's this?"
"What's what?"
"This." He repeated as he waved his hand back and forth between them. "This coldness. It's so tense and I don't like it."
"How am I supposed to know?" She scoffed so sternly that he winced out of surprise and slight fear. "And I don't even know what you mean. I don't feel any tension."
"That's a lie. You moved your foot." He observed strangely, making her frown as a question mark. "You always move your foot when you lie."
"I hate you sometimes." She muttered and looked away for a moment. "I just feel like going to the same school isn't that good for us. We were supposed to be the mysterious friends who only meet now and then. Besides, we made ourselves other friends too."
"How about we make a deal? That like, every day we eat lunch together. And then we could meet here once a week or something." He suggested. For a second, she was ready to accept the deal and shake his hand with a smile.
"So what, we're just gonna ignore the kiss completely? Like it never happened?" She asked with a sassy shrug, turning herself to look at him. "You kissed me, remember? If there's something you want to tell me, do it."
"Nessa, I... I don't know what to say." He said quietly, afraid that she'd punch him for his vagueness.
"Of course you don't." Vanessa started to walk away, arms folded when Derek called her and seized her wrist carefully. He had no idea what to say, but the last thing he wanted was for her to walk away from him in a bad mood. "Seriously, do you have anything to say to me?" She repeated, jerking her arm away from his grasp.
"I'm not good at this, okay! What the hell am I supposed to say?" He exclaimed, holding the fingers of his hands against his chest.
"You don't have to be good at it, Derek. You just have to be honest, which you're clearly not." She stated before leaving.
Derek sighed as he watched her figure disappear out of his sight. Vanessa didn't know what she felt exactly. The main reason why she was mad at him wasn't that he didn't have the guts to tell her that he didn't like her in that way, but that he didn't have the guts to tell her anything. She also felt, and knew him too well to notice, that he was hiding something from her.
A few days later, she was practicing her fighting skills with her dad on their backyard. He never questioned why she wanted to improve her fighting all of sudden because he wanted to teach her how to defend herself. It went on rather smoothly, though she had to do her best not to accidentally hit him with some extra werewolf strength.
"Don't forget to put some focus on your stance, it's important. It's like a base for how you'll punch and how steady those punches are." Jacques pointed out as he aimed for her head and watched her dodge it.
"Did you learn how to fight before or during joining the army?" She asked curiously.
"Your uncle and I took lessons together before. But he wanted to join the FBI and I joined the army." Jacques answered. Vanessa smiled before they continued to practice.
Derek carefully walked to the unknown territory. He noticed from afar that Vanessa and her dad — he assumed — were training something. From his point of view, she was terrifying as she punched and punched her dad's palms, her entire body pushing those punches forward. If there was someone he was genuinely scared of, it was her.
"I really hope you're not imagining my face." He dared to comment.
Vanessa abruptly stopped her movements once she heard that it was Derek Hale of all people. Jacques frowned and turned to study the young boy standing just a few metres away from them. She tried not to show how impressed she was that he had the courage to actually go to her house and interfere like this.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, though Jacques wasn't satisfied with that.
"Who are you?"
"Dad, this is Derek. Hale." She introduced him quietly, folding her arms together against her chest. Derek awkwardly waved at the man. She was so sure he'd drop a rude comment or simply glare at Derek and leave, but he didn't. Instead, he suprised them both.
"Nice to finally meet you, Derek." Jacques actually smiled as he offered his hand for Derek to shake, which the young boy did instantly and politely.
"Nice to meet you too. Sorry I've never introduced myself, but–"
"Don't worry about it." He waved him off, making Vanessa pull a shocked, confused, judging face while she watched the two interract and smile at each other. She was almost certain her dad had lost his mind completely. "Do you want to come in?"
"Oh, I was just gonna talk to Nessa, but sure." Derek shrugged, trying to play it as cool as possible. Vanessa rolled her eyes and simultaneously turned her head to the side, suppressing a laughter. This was too weird to be real.
"Well, you're welcome inside. I'll let you two talk." Jacques offered them another smile before he entered the house and left them alone. Vanessa looked at Derek and raised her eyebrows.
"I came over to apologize." He admitted, taking a few steps closer to her. "I know I should've answered you and I know I'm bad at... Emotions, so I'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologize. I mean, we are who we are and both of us are bad at communicating when it comes to deep stuff. I just want us to be what we've been for the past year and a half. It was easier like that."
Vanessa had been saying that to herself too, trying to push down these silly feelings by remembering how good and rare friends they are. Having Derek confirming that he wanted the same might help her in the process. Instead of instantly answering, he looked down at his shoes with a thoughtful mind.
"Yeah, that sounds good. Sorry for making things so complicated."
Part of her felt satisfied with that answer, but the other part didn't. She was so conflicted it started to really frustrate her. Instead of vocally saying something back, she simply nodded slowly and pursed her averagely plump lips. They stood silently for a while until Vanessa realized her dad had actually invited Derek inside.
"Do you wanna come inside? It'll be weird, but you get to see my room." She asked as she motioned behind her shoulder with her thumb. He cracked an adorable smile, looked down and then nodded happily.
"Yeah, I'd like that."
Vanessa used the backdoor that led to the kitchen with Derek following closely behind her. Now that he thought about it, he realized he hadn't been much to other people's houses. It was so modern compared to the Hale house, though it had some cosy traditional drag to it. He loved it already, plus their house smelled like faint vanilla — not so much that it suffocates you and smells disgusting, but just enough.
"There's some snacks in the cabinets and so, unless you're hungry?" Jacques looked away from his phone as he directed his question to Derek. The young boy thought about it for a moment before he kindly declined.
"Seriously dad, are you drunk or something?" Vanessa questioned in a whisper with a frown. As she and Derek passed Jacques to go to her room, her dad pinched her side jokingly for the comment. "What? Can you blame me?"
"Just go." Jacques sighed with a hopeless smile.
"Your dad scares me but he seems cool." Derek whispered, causing her body to shiver a little. Vanessa snorted, opened the door to her room and entered. She sat down on the edge of her bed out of habit and watched as he surveyed her room with curious eyes.
It really wasn't that extraordinary. Her walls were white and decorated with personal details, such as small photos, posters, creative collections she had and such, all placed so well done that the room still looked fancy. She didn't have many unnecessary furniture either; a bed, desk, closet, mirror and a small table by the bed.
"Done yet?" She asked with a smirk once a time had passed. He turned his head toward her and laughed nerverously before joining her side.
"Is that your dad on the picture?" He asked as he pointed to the framed picture on her desk. On the frame hung a necklace as well.
"Yeah. He used to be in the army, then he met my mom. He was going to quit but he had to join the battlefield for one last moment. Took him a few months, but he came home and they started a life together. He always talked about his time there and raised me the way they trained him. Not as brutally of course, but still." She answered, a hint of pride in her face.
"Wow." Derek said quietly. "I like that you're room isn't full of things."
"I like to keep it simple and organized. I'm a soft version of Monica Geller."
"Who?" He asked with a confused expression. She deadpanned him, staring at him until she was sure he honestly didn't know.
"Monica from Friends? You haven't seen that show?" He shook his head like a lost little puppy. "Everyone's seen that show. Weird."
"I don't watch much TV." He shrugged.
"Figured." She smiled and mildly scratched her upper arm. She did that often, he had noticed. "Maybe we should start watching a TV show together, now that you can freely walk into my house."
"We should." He agreed. Derek had felt a bit out of place until now. Finally he felt comfortable enough to lean back and prop himself up by using his elbows, looking at her with that charming, sometimes cocky, smile of his. It made Vanessa look away and bite her lip.
"I have a list with my favorite tv shows so far somewhere. I'll find it later and we could check it out. Or we could watch something I haven't seen." She rambled, on her way to get up and get that list when he seized her wrist and laughed.
"Are you always this chatty?" He chuckled, causing her to close her mouth and her eyes wander hastily. "Not that I mind." He then quickly added once he realized that maybe that had hurt her. And he didn't mind either.
"I just get excited about things I like, you know. Which in a way is bad because I bore people and I'm really bad at faking enthusiasm when it comes to things I don't like." She explained with a low voice.
"You don't bore me." He shrugged shamelessly, making her smile a little.
"Thank the gods." She laughed.
"Gods?" He repeated, emphasizing the last letter.
"Oh yeah, I love to believe in a lot. You know, if there truly are higher forces, why can't there be more than just one? And why can't different ones get along?" She philosophed, making him frown in confusion. "Who says the ancient Greek gods and the Hindu gods don't exist at the same time? It's crazy, I know, but if I'm going to believe in religion, it'll be all of them. Though I like the Greek mythology more."
"I am truly impressed by everything that's going on in your brain. Truly." He stated slowly, nodding just as slowly and gazing at her intensely.
Vanessa didn't physically blush, but it felt like it. Smiling, she looked down and tried to think of something that would change the subject. Derek slowly grew a grin as he watched her avoid eye contact.
"Stop staring."
"I'm not staring, I'm gazing."
"That's just a fancy word for staring." She scoffed while nudging his side, earning a laughter from him.
"You know, you don't have to excuse your bad qualities. No one's perfect, Nessa." He pointed out, making her look at him with an insecure expression. It was funny, because to the outside world and his friends, she seemed like the most confident person ever. They always used to make a comment about that after she and Derek had talked at school, about how hot she is and cool and funny. Seeing her look so self-conscious was weird, but he also understood it. Vanessa was confident and she loved herself in a healthy way, but sometimes everyone has to have a moment of doubt.
"I know." She finally said and nodded weakly. "But my bad qualities are so damn extreme. I think they're the reason why it's so unknowingly hard for me to make close friends."
"You've got me, and I think I'm enough." He half joked and shrugged, earning a Vanessa eye roll.
"You're enough, don't worry." She assured him. "Though it'd be nice with just one more person other than Scott and my dad."
"Haven't made one from the cheerleading squad yet?"
"I'm still the youngest. It's hard to impress those nasty, shallow, boyeaters." She whispered the last part, making him giggle as she moved her fingers in a monsterous way. Of course she didn't mean what she said, she just said it to make him laugh.
"Okay, okay."
"Hey, speaking off which." She suddenly remembered, sitting with her back straighter. "It's my birthday in like, a week and a half. I'm not gonna have a major party, it'll just be my dad, Scott, his mom, probably Stiles too and maybe Zaina from the squad. I don't know, but either way, you're invited. Especially now that my dad seems to like all of sudden."
"Yeah, I should probably take advantage of that before it goes away, shouldn't I?" He murmured, referring to the last part. She nodded in agreement. "Of course I'll come. Just text me the day and time."
"Great." She smiled and scratched her arm again. Derek glanced over at her clock placed on the wall — which he found odd but very useful — and stood up carefully.
"I need to get back home, but it was nice to finally come here. Your room fits you." He said, taking another look at it. "Simple, organized, cool and a lot of space for personal memory things. Love it."
"You're such an asskisser." She snorted and waved at the door. "Just leave already."
"Okay, I will. See you at school." Before he actually left her room, Derek leaned down a little, pecked her cheek and then left. Weirdly, it felt so natural to both of them, but Vanessa still brought her hand up to her cheek with the biggest frown. She heard Jacques saying goodbye to Derek right before the door opened and closed.
hey guys! here's some cute, smoochy derek and vanessa, AND I'VE CHANGED MY TUMBLR URL! it used to be 'rubyslucas' but now it's 'princes-jasmine'! so if you wanna see more of old connections, go to my new user and check the tag out! hugs xx
