A/N: As per usual I do not own Teen Wolf or it's characters.
The overall plot is mine but this is written to fulfill a prompt for 'pligrimkitty' on tumblr
Chapter Three.
Sunday morning came round to find Isaac curled up in the same corner of the room he'd escaped to last time, with a blanket wrapped tightly around him. The young werewolf blinked, barely remembering last night, flashes came back to him. He'd had another attack in his sleep and had somehow wound up in the corner. He slowly got up stretching his aching limbs, it didn't explain the blanket though. He placed it on the bed and a sent hit his nose, Stiles. And suddenly Isaac knew, Stiles had come into the room for some reason and had seen him like that. He'd tried to get him to go back to bed but eventually had settled on making him comfy. The teen forced the thoughts from his mind and got ready with trepidation, he didn't want to go back. But he knew he had to. Closing his eyes he concentrated on locking the memories away.
Stiles was already downstairs, he kept yawning he normally wouldn't have been up for hours yet but here he was dressed and making breakfast. His father was in the dining room looking over his cases, he'd gotten an epiphany sometime whilst they'd been talking and walked off. Stiles had shrugged it off, it was a fairly normal occurrence.
"Hey." A voice called softly from the doorway.
"Yo!" Stiles called back to Isaac before turning his attention back to the food.
"You always do this?" Isaac asked gesturing to the food before sitting at the counter.
"No, I usually cook dinner when I get in and leave some in the fridge for my dad t heat up. I sometimes cook breakfast on the weekend." Stiles paused, "Yesterday was the first I'm cooked for my dad in a while, you know whilst he was actually here."
"I heard that." The sheriff stated.
"Good!"
"Need a hand?" The werewolf asked.
"Naw, I'm good. Nearly finished anyways." Stiles smiled before calling his dad through and they ate in silence.
"I was thinking that we'd head over after we've finished." John said breaking the silence stretching through the kitchen.
Isaac nodded, "That sounds fine."
"You're sure?" The sheriff said raising an eyebrow, "I don't want to force you to do anything."
Isaac shook his head, "You're not."
"What about you Stiles? What're you doing today?" John asked trying to change the topic.
The teen looked up dopily from his food, "Sorry, what. Oh, I'm coming with you."
John was about to say something when he noticed the slightly relieved look flicker over Isaac's face, so instead he just nodded. The meal threatened to carrying on in silence when Stiles made one of his usual comments about his health. The sheriff groaned Sarah's he's your son. He bantered with his son, suddenly remembering just how much he'd missed this.
Not long later found them in the cruiser, heading to Isaac's house, it was awkward to say the least what with the wire meshing dividing the car. They pulled up to the house, the trash can had been knocked over and bottles had rolled out of it. Isaac got out of the car and righted it, not giving himself a chance to react. They headed inside in silence, even Stiles didn't make any witty remarks.
The sheriff removed the police tape from the door, and unlocked it, pushing it open, it creaked ominously and showed an untouched house. Isaac could picture his father walking around the corner, he reflexively took a step back only to bump into Stiles, the shorter guy smiled at him, his usual geeky smile and Isaac took a breath they walked inside.
"I'm going to go and grab some things." Isaac muttered before dashing to his room. He didn't see the silent communicae between the two Stilinski's, saying to keep an eye on him. He did however notice Stiles following him. But he ignored in in favour of going into his small room with a sloping roof an grabbing a duffle bag, he stuffed it full of all of his clothes, he didn't have many after all.
"Do you need a hand?" Stiles asked from the doorway. Isaac turned to look at him, he was taking in the posters dotted around the room, "Theses are pretty sweet you know."
Isaac nodded, "I dunno, I don't know what happening next or what I'll be able to take with me." He moved to grab his another bag to put his laptop that he'd saved up to buy and a couple of books and nicknaks. He then dashed out of the room to grab his toiletries. He came back in to see Stiles grabbing his school stuff for him. They lugged the stuff down the car and put it in the back seat, the sheriff was nowhere to be seen.
Isaac stared at the house in front of him and without thinking he just started running, barely registering Stiles calling after him. He just ran and ran, eventually he found himself surrounded by trees. Falling to his knees he screamed, the sound of it reverberated around the forests and into one alpha's ears. Derek's head shot up and ignoring the two betas nearby who hadn't noticed a thing, he took off not bothering to say anything to the unobservant duo.
Following his instincts he followed the call into the woods and it wasn't long 'till he found the source, Isaac was curled up on the floor. Unsure what to do he walked into the clearing, the kid barely moved in acknowledgement. He moved over and nudged the beta, motioning for him to follow and silently Isaac did. They walked through the forest and to Derek's camaro they drove back to the underground shelter with the heavy silence sitting comfortably between them. Derek led the teen inside and to his pack mates, who by now knew something was wrong. Erica ran up and hugged Isaac and the duo led him away to the couches. Derek stood there not sure what to say whilst his pack mate was drawn out of his shell. So instead he left.
Stiles was quiet on the car ride back, he'd been so since telling his dad what had happened. John dropped his son off at home with Isaac's things, he then drove off making up his mind on the way he headed to the station, he had a number of stops to make today.
Stiles had take the werewolf's things inside and placed them in his room before heading to his, he texted Scott but hadn't gotten a response yet. Inside his room he found the sourwolf looking decidedly put out.
"The rodents get to you again huh?"
Derek didn't respond and just stared, Stiles started fidgeting before sitting down at his desk and trying t ignore the large alpha in his room, again.
"You do realise that I'm not a werewolf, in fact there's actually no reason for you to be-"
"What happened." Derek demanded, interrupting what would probably have turned into a long rambling soliloquy.
Stiles turned to appraise Derek, "This is about Isaac, isn't it?" He waited for a response and frowned when he didn't get one, "We took him to get his things from his house, he freaked and ran." Stiles shrugged.
"You don't care."
"No." Stiles paused, "I just know I have absolutely no chance at keeping up with a running werewolf." He shrugged. "How is he?"
"Better. Erica and Boyd are with him."
"You had no idea what to do, did you?" Derek didn't respond, but Stiles knew he'd hit the nail on the head, "Well tell him that he's welcome to come back here if he wants." And with that he turned back to his research, he'd barely done any what with everything that had been happening. He grumbled to himself he wanted to go out but he had so much to do. It was annoying but he eyed the stack of work on his desk anyway. He let out a sigh of relief when Derek finally getting the messaged he'd been dismissed had disappeared out the window again.
The pack mates zoned in on Derek when he came back he was rolling in emotions, not all of them easy to distinguish. "We're practising." Was the only curt message they got before he took up position at the other end of the station.
The trio smirked and started getting ready. Boyd went first using his advanced strength to barrel at Derek, who just moved out of the way leaving the younger werewolf to either catch himself or crash into the wall, he managed to stop just.
"Don't rely too much on strength, you're only a beta, even the weakest alpha is stronger than you." Derek moved back into position, "Next."
Erica was off before he'd barely finished the word, she tried moving close to get a blow in before darting away and it worked some of the time. Her natural agility was something to behold but her speed was lacking. She'd just managed to get past Derek's defences when he started moving to grab her, unable to land a blow she ducked under him and flipped away. Before she knew it something grabbed her and the next thing she knew she was sailing into a wall. She slid down it and looked up to find Derek staring at her. She moved, testing herself, her shoulder felt out of place, gritting her teeth she popped it back into place.
"Better, but you should have attacked as well as trying to get away, when you'd ducked under my arms you could have punched me in the stomach. Instead you left yourself open. Vulnerable." Grumbling Erica got up and joined Boyd watching from the sidelines. "Next." The Alpha called out.
Isaac just stood there and watched his alpha, Derek's muscles rippled with movement ready to attack or defend at any moment. Isaac took and breath and then took off running, he kicked off the ground and used the height to get behind Derek, But he was there. Isaac blocked Derek's blow with his right arm, before using it as a pivot to send a high left kick up towards Derek's head. Isaac felt the shudder run through him as the kick was caught it's momentum dispersing, without thinking he moved kicking straight upwards with his right leg, bashing Derek's chin and breaking the embrace before the alpha had a change to throw him into the wall, like he did Erica. He land on the hard ground with a thud and breathing heavily he moved to get away quickly. He looked back to see Derek grinning and found himself smiling in response. They continued like that for a few moments, each testing each other but Isaac couldn't land another blow. Derek finally broke pattern rushed the beta. Isaac blocked a whirlwind of kicks and punches, barely attacking, when suddenly he felt a shift and without thinking he took it, only to have his arm grabbed and the next thing he knew was pain. He fell to his knees and stared up at his pack leader.
Derek took a step back releasing him and growled, "You're not even trying, you have good senses you could tell how I was going to move but you refused to realise what I was trying to do and fell for it." He shook his head, "You need to watch your opponent more." He turned to the group, "Part of fighting is not thinking, yes, but you still need to be aware." He glanced down at the werewolf in front of him, "You got too caught up in the pattern to see the break in it, numerous times."
He moved back into position, "Again. Together." He barked moving back into position.
This time Boyd didn't rush him, instead he paced around the alpha and then darted in trying to get him off guard, his move was blocked, when Erica suddenly joined in and attacked from the opposite direction. Derek ducked under the move, leading them to bash into one another. "You have to be aware of where people are." He frowned a moment before calling out a pause, he seemed to be thinking something up. "You two, pair up against each other you're strength and weaknesses are the exact opposite, it'd be good for you." He frowned even more, when they smiled at each other, "You'd better both come out with acceptable injuries." They frowned at that glancing at the other before moving down the platform.
Derek motioned Isaac over with his arm, "We're going to work on you actually seeing with your eyes, not just your instincts."
By the end of the practise, Isaac was sore all over and was yet again sprawled on the floor. His arm was twinging with a shooting pain every so often, but the was nothing he could do about that. "That's enough." Derek called out, "We're not going to get much further, beside too much and you'll forget it all." Erica and Boyd nodded, stopping their attacks, they both had bruises on them, Derek looked them over, he'd stopped the practise on occasions to watch them. He seemed relatively pleased, which for him was amazing. Isaac froze in surprise when Derek offered a hand to him, he barely hesitated before taking it, "By the way, Stiles said you were welcome back there, if you wanted to go back." Isaac stared in surprise, nodding in thanks he moved over to the other two beta.
Erica was talking to Boyd about something he seemed to be telling her to stop but as usual, she didn't listen, "Why are you so insistent that we learn to fight?" Erica inquired, sending silence through the room.
"Because something is coming and you need all the protection you can get."
"Something, you mean the kanima?" Boyd asked.
Derek shook his head and wondered off, leaving the trio of betas to their thoughts.
"Hey, you'll be all right, won't you?" Erica asked, placing a hand on his arm, Isaac resisted flinching and nodded. Erica smiled in response, it lit up her face and she looped her arm through Boyd's, "Come on, lets get going then," She turned around to look back at her pack mate, "See you tomorrow?"
"Maybe." Isaac said shrugging and smirking at her. After they'd left he glanced over at Derek before he too slipped away.
It was late afternoon when Isaac fund himself standing outside of he Stilinski house, he'd been gone a while. He was considering leaving when the cruiser pulled up outside, well, there goes that chance."Isaac." The sheriff said getting out of his car, "Well, come on inside then." He waved for the teen to follow him.
The smell of pasta assaulted Isaac's senses and his stomach growled loudly in response, the sheriff laughed and hung up his jacket, but like the other day, he left his gun strapped on. Isaac headed into the kitchen to find Stiles stirring away and muttering to himself. Isaac paused, does he do that often, he wondered.
"Yes." John said coming up behind him, Isaac jumped slightly he must have asked it out loud, "Sometimes I worry about hi." The elder Stilinski shook his head and busied himself getting bowls and cutlery.
"You guys have good timing. There's nothing or you to do and the foods nearly done."
If Isaac hadn't known any better he would have said Stiles was put out by that but the teen realised he was kidding. Taking a seat he scarfed down what he was given, trying not to show how his left arm was still aching. With a start he also realised how neither of them had commented on the bruises littering his face, he paused he eating and watched them, a sudden warm feeling shot through him. He wanted to stay. He shook his head, pushing the thought away and turning his attention back to the food in front of him.
There was a break in the conversation when the sheriff cleared his throat, muttering something about getting up the nerve. "Earlier, after you left." John started, stating it delicately, "I went to see what could be done about your situation, as you're not eighteen yet. You could go with social services, which will no doubt mean moving and you most likely wouldn't be placed with a family, or you could stay here, if you did you could live at a shelter or find a family to support you whilst you're here, they need to be vetted and so on." He paused, there was something more that he wasn't saying, he grit he teeth and got the rest out. "If you wanted you could stay here for a little while for a probationary period."
Isaac stared into his food, the new information swimming around in his head, they'd offered to let him stay. He glanced up at them, the sheriff looked nervous and Isaac paused he couldn't work out what look Stiles had on, it was mainly shock, noticing he was being watch he gave a half smile at Isaac. The werewolf bit his lip, "I'd like to stay here, if that's all right?"
John nodded, "That's fine, you'll have to go to the station tomorrow in the morning to sign some papers before going back to school."
Isaac nodded happily. Not noticing the thoughts whirring through peers head. Stiles was shocked at what his father had done, first brining Isaac home like a stray, which wasn't that far off considering the whole werewolf thing and now, he was pretty much thinking of adopting him?! He'd had to fight to keep his face nonchalant, but even then some things had seeped through his poker face. At least Isaac wasn't terribly adept at reading emotions just yet, thankfully.
A/N: Ooooh, not everyone's a happy bunny! I just realised how much this writing style is like stream of consciousness, good god. -.- (Severe loathing for Mrs. Dalloway, here!)
zephyr hb: I know he does, argh! This fic has made me realise how much I do not like writing Derek! He's just so… One-dimensional, at least how the Teen Wolf writers have made him.
0809m: I'm glad you enjoyed it! & I hope you're feeling better. (You probably are considering how long this update took!)
CtcKid, NickolaSchulzy and emmylia6: I'm glad you liked it and cheers for the reviews! ^.^
