The Downpour.

Awkward First Date. [Chapter Forty-Four]

Takes places post-Season Two, before the events of Season 3A of MTV's Teen Wolf.

"I have to say," Peter drawled, collapsing by Emily's feet on the couch where she was curled up, reading To Kill a Mockingbird for the millionth time "I'm a little disappointed by the lack of food on the table. Is this what I have to get used to of the upcoming years? Dinner not ready for when I come back?"

"If you want dinner to be ready for when you come back, find a girlfriend, make sure she's gullible or in need, give her what she wants, make her your wife and you two can live a long, full life of manipulation and tears. That's what you specialise in anyway, isn't it?" Emily asked, closing her book softly and placing it onto the coffee table. Peter smirking, giving her a half shrug.

"I didn't marry you though, did I?"

"But if you never left, I would've in a heartbeat. I had a… soft spot, dare I call it, for you. One of the lower points in my life, I'll admit." Emily sniffed, smiling up at Derek when he walked through the door, sliding it shut behind him.

"That warms my heart, to hear, actually." Peter said, grinning coyly. "But I don't need a girlfriend when I have you." Derek snapped his head towards Peter, glaring up storms. "Just make sure you have dinner on the table for when I come back and I won't have a –" Derek hauled Peter off the couch by the collar of his V-neck.

"Emily won't do shit for you. You aren't living here. I'm not crazy." Derek hissed.

"Nice kid you have through there." Peter muttered, jutting his head towards the hole in the wall. "Isaac, is his name, right? Such a shame it would be to see him die, wouldn't it? Of course, I could put on a show if you don't let me go right now." Derek dropped Peter, growling lowly and flashing his eyes.

"You know," Emily hissed, throwing Peter against a wall with the wave of her hand "I don't take very kindly to people threatening those close to me. So I suggest you don't make that mistake again or throwing you against the wall won't be as far as I go." Emily allowed Peter to slide down the wall, hitting the floor with a dull thud.

"Getting thrown against a wall from you used to be much more fun." Peter mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. Emily rolled her eyes, walking through to the kitchen.

"You're lucky I'm hungry." She muttered bitterly. "Any special requests?"

"Ooh," Peter grinned, following after Emily "can you make that pasta with the sauce with the mushrooms? My mouth waters just thinking about it, honest."

"I haven't made it in ages, it probably wouldn't be the same. I'll make something more simple."

"When was the last time you made it? When you made it for me, you claimed that it was the first time you made it."

"First and last." Emily muttered bashfully, turning to face the cupboards to hide her embarrassed flush. Peter snorted, nodding his head.

"To much emotional damage?"

"Yes, actually." Emily snapped. "You left me when I needed you most. Four days after my mother died. I – I was an emotional mess and you just abandoned me. You said you would come back, clear thing up with your mom and sister and com straight back. I waited two years. Two damn years." Emily's lips twitched up into a smirk. "I'll kill you one day, Peter. For good, this time. It's not gonna be anytime soon, because I quite like myself a challenge. I'll wait 'til you're strong enough to fight back and then I'll kill you slowly and watch all that built up power that you spent ages gaining back drain away to nothing. I'll enjoy it a lot. Since you're my guest I'll take your request. Derek, can you go wake Isaac? He can't hold up conversations when he's newly woken." Derek nodded his head slowly, looking at Peter with raised eyebrows, finding a whole new admiration for Emily.

/ / /

"I've died and gone to heaven." Isaac moaned, shovelling a forkful of pasta into his mouth and closing his eyes. He cracked an eye open, looking at Emily with suspicion. "What is heaven like? Is it even real?"

"Is there a reason you're asking me?" Emily asked, cocking an eyebrow. She thrived internally when she watched Isaac shrivel into his seat, chewing slowly on his pasta and frowning intensely.

"Well – you've, y'know, died before. I've always been curious on what it's like."

"You ever watched Captain America?" Isaac nodded in confusion. "You know, how, at the end they dig him up from the ice and he has no fucking clue on where he is?" Isaac nodded again. "That was what it was like with me. I didn't know where I was, how I got there, what year it was and shit like that. He was still alive under the ice, just like I was alive in my grave. Also like Steve Rogers, I was taken to a room by someone who I have no idea on their identity. My room wasn't made to look like I woke up in my era, I woke up in a room filled with technology I wouldn't've been able to think of in my wildest dreams back when I was fifteen. My mother and father were on beds next to mine, still sleeping or whatever, I went out on the streets and came across Peter. My life after that was a train wreck until my dad moved him and I here. It had been going pretty smoothly until Peter came and mucked it up again. You know the rest, not going to bore you on things you already know."

"So," Isaac said, with a small smirk "you're basically the female Captain America?"

"How do you know Captain America isn't the male version of me, his life just spiced up a little?" Isaac went silent after that.

"Are you ever going to share this recipe with me, Emmy?" Peter asked, looking at the pasta with a small glare. "It's too good not to share."

"I'm taking it to my grave."

"It's a family recipe, you know." Peter said, pointing his fork at Derek. "I would say that when you two have a family and a little daughter running about, she could tell me, but Emily here, doesn't want kids so I'll have to pry it out of her."

"Okay?" Derek asked slowly, averting his gaze to his plate, not looking up and especially not at Emily. Oh, God. He wanted kids. Emily doesn't! No way in hell. That's a worthy reason to break up with someone. Why the hell would Peter do this? Her life and future is most positively ruined.

"Something to do with a traumatic experience." Peter shrugged.

"I think you would be pretty put off kids too, if you spent the majority of your teen years in your proper era was filled with watching adults pull homeless children's bodies out the rubble. When the air raids went off and we had to get into the shelters, homeless kids would go inside people's houses and steal food. Some of them weren't so lucky to make it back out. Hearing children cry for their dead mothers, fathers, sisters or brothers was a daily occurrence. Forgive me if hearing a child cry is pretty traumatic to me." Nobody else talked throughout the rest of dinner. Not even Peter.

/ / /

"Did I make it awkward earlier?" Emily asked quietly, watching Derek as he pealed of his shirt and threw it into the laundry basket.

"No, why?" Emily frowned, sitting up against the headboard of their bed.

"When I said I didn't want kids you didn't talk for the rest of dinner, I just thought –"

"No, it wasn't that." Derek dismissed. "It's just that – we've never talked about any of that before and it was a little weird doing it second hand, s'all. Especially it being through Peter and Isaac sitting right there at the other side of me, it was just – weird."

"You know something's weird when Derek Hale, Beacon Hills supernatural know-all, says it is." Emily teased lightly. "But it was really weird. Peter brought it up on purpose. I really shouldn't've let him stay for dinner, sorry."

"S'fine." Derek mumbled, mushing his face against her shoulder. "You really gonna kill 'im?"

"Yeah. That's my new plan." Emily muttered, shimmying down and under the covers. Derek's head was not mushed into her hair and neither of them minded one bit. "I find life to be quite boring when I don't have a plan."

"What was your last plan?"

"My last plan was to signal to you when it was the right time to murder Jackson."

"I'm sensing a lot of killing in your plans." Derek smirked.

"Well, your wolfy-senses are correct." Emily bit her lip before asking "Do you ever wonder what Erica and Boyd are up to?"

"Hopefully in a large pack, filled with nice people and not dead."

"Some packs are territorial, aren't they?"

"It depends on the Alpha. My mom wasn't like that. If an Omega came to her, desperate and she saw that they were telling the whole truth, she'd take them it. Was who she was."

"She sounds like a nice person, your mom." Emily mumbled, smiling.

"She was. She would've liked you. Probably more than she likes me."

"I do have the effect on people." Emily joked, snuggling closer to his chest. "My mom would've loved you. She loved everyone, even Peter. Or what she saw of him anyway. She always told me there was something more to him and I should keep an eye out of it. I just never expected it to be that he likes to kill and is power hungry."

/ / /

"Hey!" Emily looked up and was pelted in the face with flowers. She spluttered, rubbing her eyes.

"What the hell, Derek?" Emily exclaimed. "I have pollen in my eye, are you trying to blind me?"

"Sorry." Derek drawled. "I was trying to be… romantic and shit."

"And shit." Emily repeated slowly.

"And shit." Derek clarified. "Get dressed into something… other than pyjamas." Emily frowned.

"What's wrong with my pyjamas?"

"I don't want to be seen in public with you in your pyjamas."

"Public? It's my day off, I have the week off. We don't even have anywhere to be." Derek threw his head back and groaned.

"I'm trying to ask you out on a date. Get dressed and we'll go."

"I think you're missing the whole 'asking' ordeal. You're basically just telling me and I don't think that I like that." Emily sniffed, looking away from his to hide her smile. Derek glared at the back of her head and stalked over, picking her up and carrying her, kicking and whining, to their room.

"Dress." He growled like an impatient child. Emily huffed, slowly unbuttoning her pyjama shirt.

"What attire?"

"I don't care, just not sleep wear." Emily rolled her eyes and picked out black skinny jeans and a black shirt.

"Your heart inspired this look." Emily smirked, turning on the spot. "Black and boring."

"Your words scar." Derek drawled. "Come on. Isaac said to be back by seven."

"Oh, Isaac said."

"Shut the fuck up or I'll take you straight to Texas and you can live with your dad."

/ / /

Derek took her to Wal-Mart. Like a good boyfriend should, right? Shut up, he was trying, okay?. Not very hard, but trying. They held hands. It was the gesture that counts, okay? It was awkward, Emily's arm was bent slightly because of her height, Derek didn't know what to do with his thumb, and Derek was a fast walker. It was actually rather horrendous and Emily was ever so pleased when Derek muttered that it was awkward, didn't feel right and was far too forced. Emily agreed wholeheartedly.

Emily didn't say anything about Derek's basket filling up with the oddest things, okay? Nope, not at all. ("Fake candles, Derek, really?" "Irritating questions, Emily, really?" "Why the fuck do we need two bottles of red bull both one litre?" "Because I know it's your favourite. I'm trying to be romantic, shut the fuck up about my shopping list." "Derek, do we really need Lunchables?" "Emily, do we really need an Italian wooden coffee table that cost more than our weekly shopping?") She also didn't say anything when they got back to an empty loft and Derek hauled out all their extra pillows and put them on the floor. He emptied the plastic bags contents and put all of the fake candles in the middle, went to the kitchen and came back with two champagne flutes, filled them with Red Bull, opened the Lunchables and flicked off the lights. "Sit." Emily did as told, sitting on one pile of pillows and grinning when Derek turned on the fake candles.

"Less of a fire hazard." He elaborated, sitting cross legged in front of her.

"So I dressed up for a trip to do some shopping?"

"I was going to take you somewhere but then you insulted my heart so I just had to get creative."

"Aw," Emily cooed, jutting out her lower lip in a pout "you poor soul. Getting creative and original must've killed you!" She picked up her champagne flute, brought it to her lips and smiled around it. "This is actually nicer that I thought it would've been." She commented.

"Thank God." Derek moaned with relief. "I had no clue what I was doing. I was originally going to go for a sappy, most likely shitty movie and I'm really glad I never."

"Aw, I'd love anything you do. Even startin' to appreciate the whole throwing the flowers at my face, thing. Dead romantic."

"I panicked! I – I didn't know what to do and then all of a sudden I was getting your attention so I threw them at you. And they hit you in the eye. I could've blinded you. I am a terrible boyfriend."

"God." Emily laughed. "I'm in love with a moron." Her laughing was cut short, as was Derek's breathing. "Oh fuck. Shit, shit, fuck." She muttered to herself. "Can we just pretend I never said that?" Derek blinked twice. "Derek." Emily snapped, clicking her fingers in front of his face.

"Fuck." He mumbled.

"Not the exact response I was hoping for, but I'll take it. Are we gonna pretend that I never said that? Because it will save me a shit load of embarrassment."

"You – You said you're in love with me."

"I know." Emily stressed. "I know what I said and to be honest, I do. I have for a while and it hurts like a fucking bitch. Whenever you're like, around, which you always are, somewhere, I feel all mushy inside. I'd go in depth but you're looking at me like I'm fucking weird so I'm gonna stop." Emily looked down at her flute, her tongue darting across her lips, dampening them. "You don't have to say it back, I really don't expect you to."

"I – I do, though. Kind of?" Stabbing her multiple times and showing her Peter's naked body would hurt less.

"Kind of."

"I do but – I don't. Does that make any sense?"

"You love me, but you're not in love with me." Derek nodded slightly. Yeah, that was it. In words and not just jumbled up colours in his head. "Okay, well, to save us from delving into awkwardness as we are doing right now, I'm gonna – I'm gonna go." Emily stood up, pointing her thumb towards the door. "I'm not gonna be one of those girls who can't function properly because her boyfriend is a few pages back on their relationship. I can function and I'll show you how well I can function by returning tomorrow before dinner sometime. Getting the awkward out of the air will benefit not only you and I, but also Isaac. So I'm gonna – yeah, bye." Derek didn't bother to watch her leave; just hung his head in his hands, grumbling madly to himself. Such a fucking idiot.

/ / /

When Isaac walked through the door, fully prepared to be met by the scent of complete utter love and admiration, he was a little shocked, to say the least. Derek was sprawled on the sofa, a pizza box balanced on his chest as he watched reruns of Friends. Emily was nowhere in sight and the smell of love and admiration wasn't even detectable. He made sure to slide the door open nosily to get Derek's attention. "There's leftovers from yesterday in the fridge and pizza n the counter. Didn't know what you liked so I just got nothing on it." Isaac nodded, giving Derek an odd look as he sauntered into the kitchen. He was hungry; he'd sort out his Alpha's love problems with his best friend while eating. Giving advice was actually a pretty hard job and not to be done on a hungry stomach.

"What's up?" Isaac asked, falling into the arm chair. "You look… out of character." Derek shifted his head so he was looking at Isaac.

"She told me she's in love with me."

"That's – That's good, Derek! What's wrong about that?"

"I didn't say it back." God, his Alpha.

"Do you, though?" Derek glared weakly at him.

"Yes, of course I do. She just – caught me off guard and then I denied it and then I was agreeing to loving her but not being in love with her because it sort of made sense at the time."

"And then?" Isaac coaxed.

"And then she left and I felt… lonely and hollow." Isaac whistled lowly, shaking his head. "Not helping." Derek snapped. "I just – after the whole Kate thing, it's a bit hard to identify feelings because I kept myself isolated for so long and felt nothing but anger. Anger at myself, anger at Kate, anger at my mom for not smelling Kate and the gasoline, angry at Laura for letting me off so easily, I just felt really fucking angry."

"Which is why angers your anchor and not Emily."

"No." Derek mumbled. "Anger's my anchor because it's something to focus on that won't leave. S'hard having someone human as your anchor. Humans can actually inflict pain on the supernatural, most times, it's not even physical. It's emotional."

"Well, Emily's not really a human –"

"Hypothetically speaking." Derek snipped, tossing the empty pizza box onto the coffee table.

"You're acting pathetic." Isaac growled suddenly. Derek's eyes widened in surprise. "I told you to step up your game, take Emily on a romantic date and tell her your fucking feelings! You just freaked out because she got to the feelings part before you did, and now, you're drowning in carbs which is going to affect your body, by the way, and telling me how you feel about your girlfriend! Tell her yourself! Are you a werewolf or a pussy?"

"What that doesn't –"

"You're a werewolf, Derek Hale! Now, man the fuck up and tell your girlfriend you love her!" Derek nodded, getting off the couch and exiting the loft. Isaac smirked to himself. Whoever said the tough love act doesn't work obviously was working on the wrong guy.

To me, the Derek that watched Friends while eating pizza is stress-free Derek. No monsters to worry about and no rogue alpha's going around murdering people. Of course, that is going to go to shit because in the next chapter is when the Erica and Boyd bomb drops. Also, would you guys ike to see more of Emily's past with Peter? Rather curious.

Megarafan2 asks: How is life going on the other side of the world?

A: Pretty cold and the Back-To-School storm is coming (next Tuesday, boo) so that hurts like a bitch. Thank you for asking!

ElephantXlove asks: Has Emily already graduated or will you write it?

A: Emily has graduated, which sucks for me because I really, really wanted to write a graduation scene! I had it all planned out, the sheriff was gonna be there, so was Derek and Isaac (Isaac, of course, cheering goofily when she accepted the scroll thing – is it a diploma? I dunno) but I haven't graduated and I don't know how graduation is done in America, so instead of getting everything horrifically wrong, I just left it out.