This is a particularly fluffy chapter, so warm cuddlies for everyone I hope. I wanted to use lyrics, but I'm not clear on the new policy about that so just to avoid issues, the songs that play in the first section (Kat's POV) is When You Were Young by The Killers and the second one is Coming Undone by Korn. Then in the second section (Isaac's POV) is So Far Away and Believe, both by Staind.

I'm feeling musical and they are my puppets. Mwahaha. Mmkay, so moving on….

Kat got out of the shower. Not because she particularly wanted to, but there was no more hot water. Her skin was pink and warm from the heat. She opened the window, glancing to the leather jacket folded at the foot of her bed and hoping that somehow by wishing hard enough she could summon its owner. Of course, it doesn't work.

She plugs her iPod into the speaker, puts it on shuffle, and laughs at the irony of the opening lines of the song that plays. She rolls her eyes. That shit should only happen in the movies. Even though she loves the song, she skips it. The next song is a bit more fitting and it has a good beat that she can move to as she goes on to the next step in her nightly routine.

It feels strange to be doing the same things she always does: putting on pajamas, brushing her hair, and reading. Kat knows that when she goes to sleep, she'll probably have nightmares about what would have happened if Isaac hadn't showed up but for now she feels strangely fine.

Her bedroom door squeaks as it opens. She's a little surprised by that. Her mother's been catatonic for hours. Then she realizes that of course her father wouldn't have to work, not after everything. She shuts off her music before she turns to look at him, really look at him for the first time since she'd found out about her brother's death. Her dad looks older, more vulnerable. His eyes are puffy and red, and his hair looks like it's greyer than before. He just looks tired.

"Look, Kat…" he trails off.

What is she supposed to say or do? Normal families would hug at a time like this, so Kat stands and crosses the room to him. She feels a little strange putting her arms around his neck and for a moment the awkwardness just increases until her dad finally gets that he's supposed so hug her back.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered against her hair.

Kat feels like she's four years old again and she's just fallen off her brother's bike. She wants to break down and cry, but she thinks that might be pushing it. Her father breaks off the hug and reaches into the pocket of his sweatpants.

"It's late and I know you're tired. I just wanted to give you this," he said, pressing the object into her hand. "Good night, sweetheart."

Kat looked down at the pepper spray in her hand with mixed feelings. Strangely, it brought back the helpless feeling from before. If things hadn't gone so wrong, her father never would have given her something like this. But she's glad he did. Maybe this will help her feel stronger. At least she has some way to protect herself. She turns the spray can over in her hands, carefully examining it. She brushes her fingers across the safety and imagines what it would be like to actually use it.

Kat is still staring at the Mace when she sees Isaac appear at her window. She puts the can down on her desks and goes over to help him climb through.

For a moment, neither of them is sure what to say. Isaac gestured to the pepper spray and joked, "Did you not want me to visit?"

Kat smiled and teased him back. "That's just there in case you annoy me."

Isaac hugged her closely and she let herself melt into his embrace. She noticed the way he smelled her hair and grinned at the little quirk, but she didn't say anything about it.

"Are you alright?" he asked. His eyes were serious and probing.

"Can we just be normal for tonight?" she replied.

Isaac chuckled. "Right, us two. Normal."

"We could give it a try."

Kat ventured down to the kitchen to raid the pantry for some snacks. She returned, with arms full of potato chips, marshmallows, a jar of peanut butter, two spoons, a few cans of sodas. She piled the spoils of her quest on the foot of the bed and they settled down next to each other. Suddenly, she's ravenous and she remembers she hadn't eaten at all that day. She dove into the snacks and they sat and talked. It's normal, as normal as they can get.

They shared stories from their childhood. Only the happy memories at first; Isaac told her about building a model rocket with his dad and his brother, she told Isaac about trips to the beach and how the ocean made her feel so small and so alive. Through laughter, they shared the embarrassing stories; Isaac chuckled through a story of the time his brother had colored him purple and green with markers to look like Barney, Kat giggled her way through the time she'd cut her own hair short like a boy's so she wouldn't have to put up with her mom braiding it. They worked their way into the more poignant parts of childhood; Isaac told her about his horrible luck with hamsters that kept dying, Kat talked about a pet rabbit that 'ran away'.

It was one in the morning when Isaac struggled through the story of the day his mother drove away and never came back. Kat took his hand in hers and talked about how her mother had slowly slipped away from them until she was just a ghost in the house. He told her about the day his brother went off to war and the day they found out he wasn't coming home. She told him about her brother moving out and never looking back, a story they both knew the end to.

It was two in the morning. They were both tired, but they kept going. Isaac shook as he whispered about the first time his dad had hit him, how shocked he'd been, too shocked to fight back when he was forced into an unplugged meat freezer and locked in there for hours. With tears in her eyes, Kat talked about how she'd always felt so ugly and insecure, how Mike had figured that out and manipulated her until she felt so low about herself that she thought she deserved it the first time he hit her.

It was three in the morning and their voices were scratchy from talking. They could barely keep their eyes open. Kat pulled the blanket back and they settled down into the bed. He wrapped his arms around her and Kat closed her eyes. She'd never felt this close to someone before. She fought to stay awake, not wanting this to end. Eventually, she fell asleep.

:::::::::::

Isaac crawled out of the bed as soon as Kat's heart was beating at a solid pace and her breathing was soft and serene. He hated it so much, but he needed to get out. He couldn't risk falling asleep there. It was too risky. Still, he didn't want to leave yet. He looked around her room and saw her iPod, still plugged into the speakers. He knew that sometimes she liked to sleep with her music on, but really he was just curious about what she had on there.

He pressed play, leaving it on shuffle because he hadn't really listened to about three fourths of the bands she had. The song that came on had a softer melody and he lingered next to her bed, watching her sleep as he listened to the lyrics that seemed all too apropos for the night that they'd just had.

When the song ended, he didn't want to leave. The next one that played was by the same band and it was another one that struck a chord with him. When that one ended, he quickly left or else he knew he'd stay the whole night. He grabbed his leather jacket, but he really didn't want to take it with him. Instead, he laid it over Kat's shoulders and leaned down to kiss her forehead. Things were far from okay, but he believed that it would be soon. It was easy to believe it, when he was with Kat and life didn't feel quite as fucked up.

Derek glared at him when Isaac finally made his way back into the run down excuse for a hide-out. "Where have you been all night?" Derek scowled.

"Out," Isaac replied.

"Erica told me there was an incident at the school," Derek said.

Isaac shrugged. "Yeah, it wasn't a big deal."

Derek looked nearly explosive. "Are you stupid? Do you not realize the risk you took today? What if you had shifted?"

Isaac was silent and watched the emotions play out over Derek's face. Normally his Alpha was hard to read, but when he was angry Isaac could read him like a book. Frustration gave way to understanding, then weary, disgruntled acceptance. Isaac went into his subway car and gave in to sleep.

::::::::::::::

The next few days passed in a blob. Kat wasn't at school, but everyone was buzzing with a thousand different versions of what had gone down. Isaac's personal favorite version of the story was that Kat was pregnant with either his or Mike's child and they'd been fighting over paternity because DNA tests were overrated.

Sobering reality hit when the story broke about a young couple that had been murdered. Derek was more and more easily frustrated. Erica seemed nervous, but eager to prove herself. Boyd didn't really say much of anything. The full moon was approaching and Isaac was completely terrified at Derek's solution. He stared at the box of chains, on edge, but there were bigger problems on the horizon.

They'd managed to learn a bit more about the Kanima. Isaac wasn't really surprised that Jackson was the lizard monster. Living across from him for so long, Isaac knew way more than he'd ever wanted to about Jackson. The real problem, though, was finding out who it was that was controlling the Kanima.

Isaac was anxious the day that Kat returned to school. Erica just rolled her eyes, a bit smug over the fact that Derek had given her special instructions to dig up as much information as she could about Jackson. He left her to it in order to chase after Kat during lunch.

"So I hear you're carrying my illegitimate child," Isaac said, hoping she'd find it humorous.

Luckily, she did. "Oh, but that's not possible because I hear you and Mike were having a torrid affair behind my back and you beat him up to stop him from telling me."

They laughed and absconded to the library, where there were plenty of quiet corners. Once they were hidden away, Isaac hugged her close. She was wearing his leather jacket and he loved that it made his scent cling to her just the slightest bit. He was pretty sure she'd definitely noticed him taking in her scent. Kat looked up at him, forced to turn her head upwards because he was half a foot taller than her. Today, her eyes were like milk chocolate.

He ran his fingers over her cheek, where the bruise was almost completely faded. The pad of his thumb found its way to her chin and he tilted her face up toward him just the slightest bit more. He'd never done this before and he's nervous. Isaac pressed their lips together tentatively and his heart leaped when he felt her pressing back.