City morgue, you stab em, we slab em! (coughcoughHOTARULOVERcoughcough)
Okay! Another chapter! I had someone annonymously ask me the a question that I interperated to be asking how many chapters I was going to have and the answer is somewhere around twenty-twenty five chapters total. Thanks for the reviews and enjoy!
Disclaimer: Travis the lawyer: -scratches tik marks into the wall with his nail-
Kayka-chan: Stop writing on my wall. I need that for seducing.
Travis the lawyer: I'm just counting down the days till my contract is over.
Kayka-chan: Until then...
Travis the lawyer: She don't own Darkest Powers.
Foolish
Chapter Twelve
----XX----
If home is not here,
Where is it?
If death brings us home,
Then where are we when alive?
If home is not here,
Life means we are not at home.
This makes no sense to me.
----XX----
Derek rolled his shoulders around, squinting his eyes and making a displeased face at the way the old leather jacket fit on him. The pants weren't any better either, because, while they were long enough to compliment his height, the person who owned them previously either really like to have his pants very, very loose, or was seriously overweight. He growled in frustration as he hefted the pants up again.
He had, thankfully, turned back into his humanoid form while Chloe was exploring the two only other rooms in the small cabin. She had heard the noise and soon figured out that she probably didn't need to see what she was about to and left again, sparing him the awkwardness that surely would have ensued.
Not that it wasn't embarrassing as hell, because it's hard not to be embarrassed when you wrap a flowery drape around your hips to hide the fact you have no clothing on, but there was definitely less embarrassment than the situation could have held.
He hiked the pants up again and tried to pull the coat far enough around his broad shoulders and zip it shut. After some battling, Derek had to face the hard fact that he wasn't going to zip it shut. He sighed and began to walk out of the tiny bathroom, sparing himself only a glance in the direction of the mirror, already aware that he looked like a complete and total clown, picking up the drape on the way out. He squeezed himself out of the doorway, fitting his hulk through the tiny crack that the door would allow itself to be opened to.
Chloe was sitting on one of the dusty seats at the dining table and offered him a shy smile when he entered the main room. He nodded to her while he shuffled himself over to the window that he took the drape down from, tossing it back over to hide the window from view. He fiddled with it until he was completely sure that no one would be able to see in. He turned around, pulling the pants up again, wincing at the way the chaffed, before looking at Chloe who was staring at him.
"Do you feel okay?" She asked him a concerned tone to her voice. Derek gave one curt nod before wondering over to the cabinets and began pulling them open, looking for the food he knew that Chloe wanted while she peppered him with questions. "How long have we been here? When are we going to go find the others? Do you think that they're okay? Who were those people that attacked us? Why did you turn into a wolf? What is this place?"
"Okay, slow down." He said, waving one of his hands in her direction while he reached his other one back into the cabinet to grab onto a dusty, but no less good, pack 'o uncooked chicken Ramen. Derek almost grinned in triumph and tossed it around in his hands. "We have been here for at least a few hours, I will go to find the others when I think that it's safe," Derek answered, putting heavy emphasis on I, "They're fine, I'm not sure who they were that attacked us, but I did see some Edison Group people in the mix, my transformation was a fluke, and I'm guessing this place was where the grounds keeper stayed." He juggled the ramen pack in his hand for a bit before tossing it towards her. "Here."
The pack of Ramen landed on the table in front of Chloe with a dull, rattling, crack and slid a bit. Chloe leaned back quickly before picking it up and turning it this way and that. She stopped when she started to read something on the bottom. "Derek, this expired two years ago." Chloe bluntly said, putting it down and delicately pushing it away. He snorted and looked down at her.
"It's either expired Ramen or nothing and I don't' know how long we could be stuck in here."
"… I loveexpired ramen"
"That's what I thought."
She smiled over at him before cautiously opening the pack up and breaking the raw noodles in half with a soggy crack. Chloe squealed quietly as the pieces crumbled in her fingers and she shook them off, sticking one in her mouth and handing the other half to Derek. He regarded it carefully before reaching over and taking it carefully.
"Thanks." He mumbled before he broke off a piece and stuck it in his mouth. It was bland and tasteless, altogether nasty, but it was food and they both needed something of the sort. He ate his quickly, practically inhaling it, but Chloe ate hers carefully, breaking off small pieces and chewing on them thoughtfully before repeating the sequence again. While she ate her food he wandered around, looking at things a bit more carefully than he had before.
It was a boring old camping lodge mostly made of wood.
There was a fire place that Derek didn't dare light, one reason being that the smoke from the chimney would tell everyone where they were hiding, and two because Derek had no idea if it was clean and he didn't want a whole bunch of crud to fill up the cottage.
Derek felt weird. He was on constant alert but his instincts were dulled because his wolf half was exhausted and sleeping more soundly than he ever had. It was like that time he lost the bet to Simon and had to chug ten Red Bulls in a row. He was high strung but there didn't seem a purpose to it.
At the thought of Simon, his mood took an even steeper nose dive than it already was taking. Sure, he told Chloe that they would be fine, but, seriously? He had absolutely no freaking idea where they were or if any of them were okay. Lillian seemed like she needed immediate medical attention and if they were hiding, she was not getting the care she needed. Plus, what's to say that Simon or Tori or Andrew hadn't gotten taken by their attackers?
Absolutely nothing, that's what.
Derek would have growled if it wouldn't have freaked Chloe out. This is fan- fucking –tastic, he thought wrathfully to himself, pacing around the small room. He crossed is arms in front of his chest and hunched himself over as he walked in his circle of thought.
"What are you doing?" Derek stopped moving and looked over at Chloe, who was watching his progress with an amused expression.
"Thinking." He grumbled, rubbing his face with one of his large, cool hands. Derek realized that they smelt like wet dirt. Chloe made a humming noise and pushed the chair back with her feet while standing up, balling the Ramen wrapper up loudly and looking around for a place to throw it. Finding none she just sighed and rolled it onto the table where it quickly unfolded and lay there defiantly.
"What about?" she questioned, coming up to stand beside him. Derek grumbled to himself quietly before taking a few steps back from her and throwing his arms akimbo as if to embrace the room.
"Where are we?" He asked rhetorically. Chloe answered anyway.
"A cabin." She responded astutely, cocking an eyebrow.
"Exactly." Derek snapped. "We're hiding in a cabin, from bad people who want to kill us. By my account, we have made absolutely no progress since we escaped from Lyle House. No dad, no vanquishing of the Edison Group, nothing." He huffed and resumed his pacing as Chloe just stood there looking at the floor. He stopped and took a deep calming and cleansing breath. He glanced at Chloe from the corner of his eye. "I'm just frustrated, that's all." He went for an apologetic tone and hoped she could hear it.
"I know what you mean." She breathed, frowning and shuffling her feet, shivering at the chilly air and looking around the room. Derek scratched his head wearily, looking down at her.
"You cold?" he asked, for lack of better thing to say to her.
"I'm good." Chloe answered as she shivered so hard her teeth clicked together. Derek rolled his eyes, because she was just so convincing. He shed the jacket and held it out to her.
"Here." He said, Chloe shook her head and pushed away his hand holding the jacket.
"Keep it. You need it more than I do." She said, pointing out the already obvious fact he had only a jacket and pants. He grunted, more concerned about her than himself. He didn't get sick as easily as regular people did and he would suck it up and live without a jacket.
"No, I don't. Take it." He said once again pushing his hand forward. Chloe looked up at him and hesitantly took the jacket, mumbling her thanks. Derek nodded and once again looked around the room while she slipped the jacket on. It had to be nearing midnight by now, seeing as it was getting to be its darkest, and Derek hoped that their attackers would give up and sleep so that he could go and find the rest of the group.
"Do you think it's safe to go look for them yet?" Chloe asked, looking at the window covered by the drape.
"I don't know yet." He shot her a look. "And, just so we get this straight, when we go looking for them, which I'm not even sure I should take you yet, you stay close to me. Don't go wandering off after something shiny." Chloe rolled her eyes and wrinkled her nose.
"I'm not five, Derek. I know I'm not supposed to run off." She retorted haughtily, turning and sliding down the wall again. She pulled her legs up to her chest and leaned her face into her thighs. Derek looked around. She looked so small and vulnerable like that. It was…
Wrong.
Derek bit the inside of his cheek and worked his way over to her again, sitting down next to her while still keeping a respectable distance. He ignored the chills that raised the hairs on his arm from the cold wall touching his bare back.
He tapped his toe restlessly when she didn't even look up to acknowledge his presence. He began to wonder if he said something that offended her. All that he could think of was the remark about her chasing a shiny object.
"Are you okay?" He asked gruffly, looking over at her out of the corner of his eye. Her head shot up and turned towards him. She tucked a few strands of her hair out of her face and shrugged.
"Just tired." She answered. She moved herself around, the leather making strained noises with her movement. Derek grunted and looked over at the bedroom. There was a mattress on the frame, but it was old and dusty and rickety. Not exactly an award winner in the comfort area either, Derek was sure. He glanced over at Chloe again and realized that it probably didn't even matter to her.
"You can sleep in the bedroom." He offered. Chloe blinked, hope lighting up her blue eyes beautifully before it snubbed out and replaced itself with worry.
"Where would you sleep?" She questioned. Derek shrugged noncommittally. He planned on sleeping on the floor, near to Chloe so that if she needed help he was right there. Easier than having to vault over stuff to get to her because Derek had learned that running took up valuable time that could be used for better things.
"Floor." Chloe lay her head down on her knees, still facing him. She looked up at him exasperatedly.
"Well, that doesn't seem too awfully fair." She mumbled, staring holes through him.
"I'll live." Derek responded sardonically.
"And praise the lord for that." Chloe grumbled as she heaved herself to her feet and began walking for the bedroom. Derek stood, too, watching as this tiny girl moved away from him. She was about to open the door when she turned her top half around to look at him. "Come on." He blinked at the way this all seemed laid out right now.
Chloe was opening a door to a bedroom while simultaneously beckoning him to come with her.
Hm.
Yeah.
This sounded startlingly familiar to some fantasies of his.
He quickly shrugged off the thought before it woke up the wolf and nodded, following her in and shutting the door behind him. Chloe had worked her way onto the bed and had sprawled herself out on it. Very reminiscent to the 'Dead cat' sprawl.
"Smells weird." She mumbled sleepily, her eyelids already drooping closed. Derek smirked and sat down on the floor at the foot of the bed, drifting off slowly. He really hoped that Simon was okay…
Ta-da!
Review please!
