MIAKODA
Over the next month, the two fell into a rhythm. Miakoda was right in the fact that the nights were a little rocky – Dean had night terrors – but they got through them and gradually, the Hunter relaxed around the house.
She sat cradling a cup of coffee – it was black with "If History Repeats Itself, I'm So Getting A Dinosaur" and a stegosaurus silhouette on it in green – watching Dean stare at his phone.
"You know," Miakoda drawled, bringing the mug up for a sip, "you take on demons, wendigos, and the Devil on a near-daily basis and yet phoning a girl that you could potentially live with for the rest of your life scares the shit out of you."
"It does not." He growled at her, worn grey t-shirt over jeans that did wonders for not only his ass but also his shoulders and arms, straining.
Miakoda pointed to the pan. "You're gonna burn the pancakes."
"Fuck!"
She pulled herself out of her seat and moved to the fridge, pulling out a bottle of orange juice, the washed berries from yesterday's breakfast and the whipped cream canister before setting them at the table. Miakoda had cleaned it come the Monday morning that Dean had arrived, after getting all the exams that she'd been designated marked Sunday evening and getting them to Professor Hardings.
"Do you want to see her? And Ben? Do you want to be a part of their lives?" Miakoda asked as she moved to get glasses for them both, going up on her toes to get them down as well as grabbing the maple syrup which she'd forgotten to grab on the way past.
Dean ran a hand through his hair – the dark blond strands were still wet from his shower that morning so he looked a bit like an alarmed hedgehog before taking the stacks of pancakes over to the table.
"Yeah." He nodded.
"Tone down the enthusiasm there." Miakoda deadpanned, scooping out several berries and near-drowning the pancakes in syrup. "Why are you so hesitant? And don't say it's because of what you do because remember, we're weaning you off Hunting."
He was down to once a fortnight. Dean heaved a sigh. "I think we both know why I am."
"Your night terrors won't last forever, Dean." Miakoda rested a comforting hand on his forearm. She'd started to integrate regular touch into their conversations – not because she was flirting with the man but because Miakoda had noticed how he had been leaning into them. "You just have to become comfortable in your surroundings. Do you get them in Bobby's?"
He shook his head. He'd spoken about Bobby with her over the weeks and had recognised the look of a bibliophile that had the chance to get their hands on more books straight away. Miakoda had made it a mission to meet the man that Dean Winchester probably saw as a father figure if the melancholic and nostalgic scent had anything to go by.
"You're used to his place. You'll get to that stage again. Just give it time."
Dean was a little awkward for a minute or so, still not great at the whole 'sharing his thoughts and feelings' thing. Miakoda had become a friend over the past month, and he felt comfortable around her. She had this charisma to her - this draw - which you couldn't help but relax in her presence. Or at least just have her give you advice. There had been a few times over the past month where he had broken down and all she had done was hug him tight and let him get it out.
He rolled a blueberry around with his fork, thinking on it. Miakoda left him to it. "I, a few months if you'd've asked me what I would see if I wasn't Hunting, I would've said it was with Lisa and Ben but now…"
Miakoda raised an eyebrow, a mischievous grin to her face, "It's with me, isn't it?"
"You're a bitch, I swear." Dean shook his head, chucking a napkin at her. "No, but you…you understand what it's like, why I'm like this. I don't want Ben to see me like this."
"Have you ever thought that it could be as a sign of strength to him?" Miakoda asked as she picked up the plates seeing as he'd cooked. "To see a man that a boy like Ben could potentially idolise – especially with what you told me had happened with you three – show emotion like that…it's not something bad, Dean. You're human, not a machine."
An idea came to mind when the spare change caught her eye. She rummaged for a quarter out of the change dish and brought it over to him. Holding it up, Miakoda locked eyes with him, green on black, "Heads, you phone Lisa, tails, you don't but you put the phone away. Deal?"
Dean stewed for a second before nodding. Miakoda flicked the coin and snatching it out of the air and smacking it on the back of her hand.
"Heads." She revealed, after drawing back her hand. Leaving it beside him, Miakoda pointed down the hall. "You can use the library."
Dean steeled himself before getting up and heading to the library. Hearing the door click, Miakoda lost herself in cleaning the kitchen. Her Wolf prowled a little unhappily in her. She'd enjoyed having someone to look after and nurture over the past month and whilst Dean still had a slight glint to his eye, she took comfort in how comfortable he'd become in her home. Miakoda knew though, that she was still a link to Hunting, that he wasn't completely fulfilling the promise that he'd sworn to Sam if he stayed with her. Over the past month, Dean had taken to helping out up at the campus for a few of the tenures that were having car troubles, or just with mechanical issues. When she'd asked him once over dinner, he'd shrugged.
"An engine is an engine."
He'd also been fiddling with her Jeep that when she'd noticed the first time that that rattle she'd been meaning to get looked at wasn't there, had gained a sassy remark and playful narrowed eyed look towards the Hunter.
Twenty minutes later, he came wandering back in where Miakoda was just putting the pan he'd used into the drawer after she dried it, a tinge of excitement in his usual gunpowder, leather and engine grease scent, made her smile softly at him. "Go well?"
He nodded, sliding the phone between his fingers. "We agreed to have it as a trial run type thing for a while. If it goes well…"
"Don't you dare sabotage this for yourself, Dean Winchester." Miakoda pointed towards him and the blond Hunter shook head vehemently.
"No, I don't plan to."
"Good. Now," Miakoda opened her laptop, bringing up Maps, "Where do they live?"
"Cicero. In Indiana." Dean gave, watching as she brought up the directions.
"'cording to Google, it's 14 hours west from here." They both glanced at the clock. "If you leave within the next few hours, you'll arrive pretty late…"
He shrugged. "I said I'd be there by the end of the week." It was Friday. Miakoda held back a whine of disappointment by the skin of her teeth as it sat pressing against them.
"If it doesn't work out, the spare is yours." Miakoda nodded, printing the directions off, even though the man was "perfectly able to read a map, thanks Doc."
Dean left early the next morning. Miakoda had watched the Impala disappear down the road after he'd said goodbye with a hug and a heartfelt 'thank you'. She turned back into the house and didn't acknowledge the fact that his scent clung to everything. If she happened to sit in his spot as she watched TV that morning and evening, well, denial was a wonderful thing.
With Dean gone and the winter break in full swing, Miakoda found herself going up to Mount Greylock a lot more. Maybe it was because her Wolf was a dramatic bitch and that she was acting as though Dean had fucking gone to war. She didn't own the man. This was a free country. He could do what he wanted.
She frowned when her Wolf seemed to revolt at the fact that there was the chance that he wouldn't come back. If it worked out with Lisa, if Dean truly stopped Hunting like he promised Sam, then there would be the chance that he wouldn't come back. But just because they never physically saw each other, it wasn't as if technology just evaporated. He had asked for her opinion on certain things that he'd come across. Apparently Bobby had been being weird. Her Wolf growled at that.
At the given time, Miakoda found herself padding through the forest upon the Mountain again. With school out for Christmas, it meant that there was an influx of kids around. She didn't hate them. There had always been kids around when she was growing up. It just hurt sometimes. And maybe she was still a little stung by Dean's departure. Dave's cloying scent caught her attention from upwind. Her ear swung around when she heard the familiar sounds of a shutter going. She snarled to herself. Through the slightly blurry and dull vision – when she shifted, it meant that she got a wolf's vision too, yay, short-sightedness – Miakoda could vaguely make out the shadow that was Dave's camera and turned, booking it out of sight of him.
She led him on a false trail, away from her campsite, where she then doubled back and shifted. She blinked a little to get used to having the full range of colour back as she pulled on a long-sleeved layer over her sports bra and plonked down on a snow-dusted log to pull her shoes on. Her socks had gotten bark-y (heh) and probably made it look as though she'd just walked over from her tent when Dave came through the tree line. Honestly, the man not only stank like a perfume shop and one of those incense shops combined but also sounded like an Olephant. An elf of the Woodland Realm, the man was not.
Miakoda bit back a grimace. "Hey, Dave."
"Oh, M-"
"M?" Dean had teased her when she had growled over another text from the photographer and had chucked the phone at him. "Does the guy think of himself as James Bond?"
"He's not nearly as suave as that man." Miakoda had bluntly stated.
"—I didn't know that you'd decided to come up here."
Shoving her feet into her hiking boots, Miakoda stood up, pulling on what may have been Dean's flannel that he'd forgotten was in the laundry basket before he left, over the black shirt and grabbed her jacket. "I don't have to give you an itinerary of my every move, Dave. If you really must know, Mrs Daphne's grandkids are over for the first few weeks and they're fucking banshees."
He fiddled with the camera strap. "I forgot you didn't like kids-"
"What gave you that idea?" Miakoda's brow furrowed as she stared at the human in front of her. She used to think that the bumbly-ness of the photographer was kind of cute – in a foal not knowing how to use his legs yet kind of way – but as he became more and more obtuse with her turning him down for dates, they had lost their appeal. He'd lost his appeal. He never really had any if she was honest.
His face flushed. But, with a slight flare of her nose and with aid from a slight breeze, Miakoda had caught the irritation of his scent. "Just your reaction to them."
"I was the middle child of 7. Not to mention the other 5 cousins that were in the immediate vicinity to me growing up. Kids don't bother me. I just wish to be able to sleep past 9 in the morning without them screeching."
Miakoda grabbed her phone and her water bottle, shoving them into a pocket before pulling her gloves on and marched passed him, making her way down the trail, covering her paw prints as she did so. She heard his frustrated tuts from behind him. Good.
"How long you thinking of staying out here for?"
"Dunno yet." She shrugged, jumping over a fallen log with ease. "You ever going to ask Sue out?"
Her response had surprised him and she'd rolled her eyes. Honestly, it was either just humans that were obtuse or the fact that he was just as thick as a brick. Or both. She wouldn't want to just put the man into a box, he might cry.
"Wait, Sue likes me?"
Miakoda spun back around, staring at him. "Yes, she does. So either ask her out or put her out of her misery so that she can move on. But Dave, I do not want to date you, I do not want to go out with you so please, leave me alone."
Irritation flared in his gaze, and scornfulness soured his scent. "What? You'd rather date that guy from the bar?"
"What has he got to do with anything?" Miakoda shouted, finally fed up, her hands moving in exasperation. "I have tried, over the years that we have known each other, to let you down easily, as gently as I can to soft your delicate sensibilities but to be honest, I've had enough. Just because I said no to you, doesn't mean that my friend - whose brother had just died by the way – was the reason."
With that, Miakoda went to stalk off down the path when he grabbed her arm. "David Knowles, if you do not let me go, I will break your arm."
"What does he have that I don't?" he demanded and she locked eyes with him – animalistic fury building in her chest. The only thing that was holding her back shifting slightly was the fact that she didn't want to reveal the Supernatural to him.
"The ability to understand that when someone of the opposing sex says 'no', it does not mean 'try again at a different time'. Don't you dare contact me again; and stay away from me."
Happy Holidays to all of you who read Monsters. I have more chapters written but I don't think I'll have an onslaught of uploads until I have a significant amount more written. Hope you enjoy, and if you want, shoot me a review.
K.
