Well here's the next chapter! It has a little bit of a cliff hanger. Don't worry, I'm going to try to get the next chapter out asap. Enjoy!
It wasn't going too badly, Derek thought as he threw pieces of burnt furniture out the second story window of his home. Every other werewolf of the pack was in another room on the second floor, doing the same thing. Downstairs, their human members had different odd jobs. And Danny was floating around taking pictures of it all.
Derek had made sure that all of them were told to appear human when Danny was around, even made a point of buying them all rough work gloves to wear for protection. Derek grinned and wiped sweat off of his upper lips with his forearm. He loved the smell of the work gloves. They made him want to tear into them and gnaw on them for awhile. It was something they'd done as children when they were teething.
Derek clapped his hands together, ash and dust coming off in big clap clouds. He walked out into the hall, time to inspect how his betas were coming along.
A quick peek in with Boyd and Erica reassured him that things were going along as planned. It was when he started walking to the room that Scott was working in that Derek got a little frustrated. Mainly because he could hear that Scott wasn't working. He was on the phone talking with Allison.
Allison who had opted out of the whole project because then she would have plausible deniability when it came time for the wolves to make special arrangements in the house. Right now, she stood as a neutral party between them and other hunters. They all intended for it to stay that way.
"No, no it's cool. I just don't want to be here. It's so depressing." Scott whined.
Derek clenched his fists. Depressing? If Scott thought it was depressing, shouldn't that give him an idea of how horrifying this was for Derek? Not all of the ash in this house was furniture and clothe. Some of it was the remains of his family.
An odd beeping and clicking reached his ears. Puzzled he peeked into what was once his little brother James' room and stopped in disbelief. Scott sat in the middle of rubble, nowhere near done clearing the room, with talking to Allison on his headset while he was playing an old game boy advance, a box of games and stuff were sitting opened in front of him.
"What are you doing?" Derek rasped, the water gone from his mouth. He recognized that box. He'd given James his old game boy advance when he'd saved up enough money to buy the DS. His little brother had loved all the games and had tried so hard to beat Derek's scores.
Scott cocked his head slightly as he continued to play the game, "Oh hey Derek, hold on, I'm just beating the score on this Tetris game, can you believe this thing survived the fire?"
Derek's heart beat once and it seemed like time slowed as redness overtook his vision.
When he came to his senses it was to him holding Scott by the throat against the wall, with voices shouting at him in the background. There was a tugging on his arm that didn't scream threat, so he knew that it was Stiles. His body visible shook with the effort of holding his wolf back from tearing Scott's throat out.
That game had belonged to his little brother, who was gone and dead. It was just like Scott, who had spit in his face when Derek called him brother, because Scott had reminded him of James. They would have gotten along, gotten into so much trouble together, had they been allowed to meet. Now Scott was doing it again, ruining something so precious because it was one of the only things he had to remind him of his brother.
"Derek, let him go. Scott what the hell happened man?" Stiles continued to tug on Derek's arms.
There was anger in Stiles' voice, along with disappointment. Hurt by this Derek abruptly let go of Scott, who slid down the wall and turned to Stiles, he had understand. Derek hadn't meant to attack Scott, it had just happened.
"This is why I didn't want to freaken be here. You're always talking about control and then you do crap like this," Scott said his hand over his throat as he looked up at Derek.
Stiles nodded his head once, "It is a bit hypocritical of you Derek. You need to use words a little more man."
A whine threatened to slip past Derek's mouth, but he hardened it into a thin line. If this was how it was going to be, Stiles always taking Scott's side then Derek didn't know what to do. Maybe he should end it. He needed someone who was on his side, why wasn't anyone ever on his side? His stomach clenched.
Derek bent over and grabbed the handheld that had fallen on the floor when he'd attacked Scott and the box of games and with a glare, walked past Erica and Boyd who stood in the hallway listening in. They shrank back from him as he walked by, "Go home, you're done for the day. Thanks for helping."
Lydia and Jackson were waiting at the bottom of the stairs as he passed.
"I thought this might happen, don't worry, everything is still mostly on schedule," Lydia said softly as Jackson subtly moved so that he was between her and Derek.
Derek looked at the open front door; escape was right in front of him. He was very aware that he might have ruined whatever they'd been working to build. How like him, he thought.
"I'll text you to remind you to call the contractors tomorrow and set up appointments, ok?" Lydia asked.
Derek nodded and then he was out the door in his car. Moments later he was speeding out of the forest. The road was open before him and how he wished he could just keep driving, but there were responsibilities that he had in Beacon Hill. He was tied to the land and had tied himself to people there, it didn't matter if they'd liked it or not. They'd agreed to be a part of this. Except for Scott and Stiles, his mind whispered.
Derek's gripped the wheel tighter. He didn't want to think of the spazzy dimpled person who'd fallen into Derek's life like a sweet juicy apple that had fallen on the ground in front of a hungry beggar, begging to be eaten. Then someone he's wormed his way into Derek's confidence, with soft sighs and whispered kindness. Stiles was just so pushy, always wanting more and more from him.
Sometimes it made Derek want to be a better person. Derek continued to drive.
It'd been a few days since he'd gone to Stiles to sleep, choosing instead to stay in the streetcars with Isaac and Peter. He didn't know what to say to Stiles, he wasn't even sure if he should be the one contacting Stiles. Derek could privately acknowledge that he was the one who'd started it, but Stiles hadn't made things between them better either. He wondered if Stiles missed him, because even though he thought it was too soon, he had a constant ache in his heart now.
Derek stroked James' box of games and sighed. He lay back on his bed and stared at his ceiling. He kinda hated it here and couldn't wait for the work to be finished enough at the house for him, Isaac and Peter to move in.
The contractor he'd finally decided on was coming to take a look at the building in a couple of days. He'd managed to avoid Scott and Stiles because of lacrosse and detentions and him finishing up his portion of the work before they'd come to do their portions after dinner.
The ring of his cell pulled him out of his musings. One look at the caller id and he saw that it was Stiles. He throat suddenly closed; apparently they were going to do this now then. He accepted the call. "Yes?"
"Hi Derek," Stiles' voice came over the phone. It sounded hesitant.
That little bit made the tightness in his stomach loosen.
"What do you want?" That was what it came down to in the end. What Stiles wanted, did he want Derek. Could he accept that he and Scott had a lot of tension, fighting and bad blood to work out between them?
Stiles breathed out heavily against the phone. "I just thought, I mean I know earlier this week was rough. We had a great time the other night just eating and watching movies. Would you want to do that again? I'm tired of the fighting."
Derek was too. He wished he could just do or say whatever it was that Scott wanted from him so he would just get over himself and be a part of the group they were all trying to forge. "Yes, I mean," Derek paused, trying to get the words that were stuck on his tongue out, "I don't like the fighting either. I was trying."
"Good then, that's great!" Stiles exclaimed. "I'll order a pizza or two, supreme deep dish! You'll love them. See you soon."
There was a click and the phone against his ear was silent. Derek looked down at the phone in his hand and wondered again how he'd let Stiles do this to him. Lead him along, when Derek knew full well that neither of them really knew what the hell they were doing. Derek's cheek twitched, he had to admit that he liked the fact that Stiles was taking the lead in all of this. It made him feel a bit better, that maybe he would get a chance to explain his side of what had happened.
Derek sprung up from his bed and pulled on a clean shirt and breathed in deep the combined scent of him and Stiles. It was from a load of wash that he'd done at Stiles' house while they weren't there. Getting fully dressed and grabbing his jacket, Derek walked out of the subway car.
Isaac sat in the middle of the warehouse on a couch they'd pulled from who knows where. It didn't smell too bad, like rain and mildew, which was more preferable than what it could have smelled like. "Going to Stiles' house then?" He looked up at Derek with sad blue eyes.
I'm doing this for you, Derek wanted to tell Isaac. He wanted to make sure Isaac would always have a home, somewhere safe to sleep, but decided against it. Actions spoke more than words was a phrase his father had liked to drill into them.
"Yes." Derek smirked, "Why are you going to wait up for me, Mom?"
Isaac rolled his eyes and gave a small smile, "No." He looked down at the sketchbook in his hands, a nervous smell drifted from him. "I just," he looked everywhere but at Derek, "Stiles?" Isaac finally asked.
Derek wondered when one of them finally figured out that his scent and Stiles' was beginning to merge together. "It's something that just happened. Something new and," now it was Derek's turn to look away, "fragile."
His eyes turned bright red, "So don't go teasing or bugging Stiles about it. Just stay out of it."
A bit ashamed of how he'd just acting, Derek quickly walked out of the warehouse and to his car. The closer he got to Stiles' house, the more the tension of the past few days was starting to dissipate.
Leave me a little lovin'!