Isaac is the last one in the locker room after lacrosse practice on Tuesday, and he's just about to leave when he finds himself slammed against a wall.
"Why the fuck do you smell like him?" Ethan demands, one hand on Isaac's chest, holding him down, the other around his neck, not in a truly damaging way, just in a threatening way.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Isaac states, deciding it's not worth the energy just yet to fight this.
Isaac and Ethan have a history of not getting along, and everyone in the pack knows that. Isaac hates that the twins are in now. He knows their value, it's muscle all the way, and Scott needs that, but at the same time, he really, really hates those guys, and he knows they hate him right back.
"Don't play dumb with me, I smell him all over you all the time!" Ethan's claws come out, and Isaac knows exactly why he's upset.
Things with Danny and Ethan, they didn't go well, but they also didn't explode terribly the way that they could have. After everything that happened with the Darach, and every other god damned thing that's happened in this town, Ethan just had to disappear unexplained far too much for Danny's liking.
Danny could tell he was being lied to, and Ethan couldn't ever tell him the truth, so he made things up, and eventually, Danny saw through those lies, too, and called it off. Isaac's not sure if Danny still has feelings for what could have been with Ethan, nor is he sure if Ethan still has feelings for Danny, or if this is all just territorial jealously.
After all, the twins are hot headed like no one Isaac's ever met.
"Ethan, it's not what you think, I promise," Isaac states. "Let go of me and I'll explain."
Sure, the last thing that Isaac really wants to do is sit down and have some feelings-oriented conversation explaining why Isaac smells like Ethan's ex, but he doesn't want to get his ass kicked, and he knows that, as much as he hates Ethan, he's not actually a bad guy. He saw the remorse on Ethan's face as he helped to kill Boyd, and he's seen how Ethan's tried to help them. He knows what it's like to be shaped and molded by pain and abuse, and he knows that the twins are just as much of a product of that as he is, except that, instead of being knocked around by one person, they were abused by a whole pack.
Also, Scott wouldn't let them in if they were bad guys, and since they're part of Scott's pack now, they can't be all bad. Isaac, above all else, trusts Scott.
"Fine," Ethan snarls, letting Isaac go, though he does shove him slightly.
Isaac walks over and sits down on one of the benches in the locker room, because he figures that an empty locker room is as good of a place to have this conversation as any.
"Maia's sick," Isaac starts out. After all, Scott knows now, and Isaac, as much as he wants to punch Ethan in his stupid face, knows that he can be trusted. He also knows that Ethan knows who Maia is, and it occurs to him for the first time, that Ethan might actually care about what's going on.
"Sick?" he frowns.
"Yeah, she has cancer."
"She's five," Ethan frowns.
"Doesn't change the truth," Isaac points out. "Anyways, I ran into Danny while I was volunteering at the hospital, and-"
"You volunteer at the hospital?" Ethan asks, surprised.
"Yeah." Isaac nods. "Don't you ever…I mean all of these destructive things we can do, we have one thing that we can use to help other people."
"I guess…I never thought of that," Ethan says softly. It stays there, because they both know why he never thought of it. His old pack didn't train him and Aiden to be healers, just to destroy, and the Alpha pack only intensified that. Ethan has been little more than a weapon for so long that Isaac's not sure how human he still is.
"Okay, well anyways, I've just been helping out with Maia, and…Danny's needed comfort, so I've been there for him as a friend, and staying over a lot. That's why you can smell him on me," he says softly. He's not sure how Ethan's going to take that, and of course he's nervous about it, because Ethan is definitely the kind of guy you don't want to fuck with, and they have a history of violence between them.
That being said, it's not really Ethan's fault that things didn't work out with Danny, and sure, Danny feels hurt by it, and Isaac knows that, and he can't defend Ethan's actions, not without giving away their secret, but he does know it was hard on Ethan as well as Danny. He may not like Ethan, but he can't begrudge the choices that he made.
Isaac isn't really sure how to explain the platonic nature of what he and Danny are, but he knows what kind of rift it could cause in the pack – his pack – if Ethan thins Isaac is sleeping with Danny. Things have just started to go back to normal, and Isaac knows that they don't need the melodrama of Ethan thinking Isaac is stepping out with his ex-boyfriend, even if Ethan is over Danny.
"He's been going through a lot, and I'm just trying to be there for him."
"And that involves rubbing yourself all over him?" Ethan growls.
"No, no. We've been sleeping in the same bed some nights, but it's not…I swear, Ethan." Isaac looks up at him. "Danny and I…we're just friends."
Ethan takes a moment, then nods, deciding that, at least for now, he's alright with Isaac's explanation. He's also not sure how he feels about Danny. He knows they had their chance, and that it has well and truly passed. He also knows that the new transfer student is awfully appealing, but that doesn't erase the eruption of jealousy that he felt when he smelled Danny all over Isaac.
Ethan leaves, and Isaac's not sure if things are actually okay between them. Then again, he's not sure that he and Ethan have ever been okay, nor that they ever will be, and he has made his peace with that, for the most part. Now that Danny is involved, it is a little more complicated. Isaac isn't afraid to admit that Danny does mean something to him, but he's too inexperienced to be able to say for sure just what that is. All that he knows is that at night, Danny's body is warm against his, comforting, and Isaac has started to really like that.
That night, Danny is at the hospital with his family, so Isaac is at home, hanging out with Scott. He wonders if Scott is choosing to ignore Danny's scent all over him, or if he just hasn't noticed yet.
"Ethan confronted me today," Isaac states, looking over at Scott.
"About Danny?"
"Yeah." Isaac nods.
"I was wondering when that was going to happen."
"You were?" Isaac's confusion is evident, but maybe it shouldn't be. Maybe this has been a long time coming.
"Well, yeah. You've been spending all of your time with him, and he's Ethan's ex. Lately, you've been smelling like him all of the time, to the point that it even has me wondering what's going on between you two."
"Are…are you mad at me?" Isaac asks meekly.
"No, Isaac, god no." He shakes his head. "I just don't know what's going on."
"That makes two of us," Isaac mutters.
"What?" Scott frowns. "Isaac, is something going on between you and Danny?"
Scott is mildly surprised at the idea of it, but he supposes, less surprised than he would be if he couldn't smell the goalie all over his best friend.
"No, no…I…I mean, I don't know, but no."
"Isaac," Scott looks at him, brow furrowed. "That makes no sense."
"I…I know." Isaac sighs, looking up at Scott, shrugging his shoulders. "It's me, Scott. You know how my life has been, I've never really had dating and stuff at the top of my priorities list, and with Danny, it's still not. He's going through a lot, and I'm trying to be a friend to him, you know?"
"But you're attracted to him." Scott doesn't ask it like a question, it's just a statement, a fact.
"I don't know, maybe a little. Yeah, I can appreciate that he's good looking, but so can you, I've heard you say it, and…he's nice, and he's smart, really smart, and great at lacrosse, and he's amazing at cuddling, but all of that, it doesn't mean that I'm into him that way, and even if it does, this just isn't the right time for him."
"Okay." Scott nods, deciding not to push the issue further. To him, it's pretty evident what's going on here, but Isaac is still new to this. He goes back to the video game that they were playing, deciding that it's probably for the best to let Isaac figure this out on his own.
A/N: Alright, I am trying really hard to play Ethan out in a positive way, but with him and Danny still broken up. I don't want to offend Dethan shippers, and this is NOT the only time I plan on addressing their past relationship, including why it ended! I promise, and yeah...I really don't want to villainize Ethan. At all.