Aria sits at the kitchen table in Lydia's home, kneading her fingers together, nervously knawing on her lip. She glances up every few or so minutes at the clock, longing to be anywhere but here.

Derek sits across from her, probably trying to vaporize her brain with his eyes. The air is filled with tension.

"So..." Aria says, folding her fingers together, "How are you doing?" She squeaks.

"Peachy." He says gruffly, "Lets just get down to business. You keep your pretty little mouth shut, and you get to keep your life."

"Am I supposed to thank you?" Aria replies. "Thank you, scary wolf man, for granting me the privilege of keeping my life." She folds her arms across her chest, leaning back in her chair.

Derek furrows his eyebrows at her and Scott quickly steps in.

"Aria, don't push it." Scott says, putting a hand on Derek's shoulder, "Calm down, man."

Derek looks up at Scott, grimacing, Aria looks away from the two, at the clock once more. "Can I go now? Now that I get to keep my life and all, I'd like to continue living it." Aria sighs, running a hand through her hair.

Scott clears his throat, "Yeah, um, go. Stiles and I will meet you back at the house."

Aria is desperate to leave the room, fishing her keys out of her pocket immediately. She exits the front door and isn't surprised to see Lydia waiting outside for her.

"So how'd it go? I mean, obviously it went well considering you're out here, right?" Lydia asks.

"Scary wolf man was nice enough to give me my life, how'd I get so lucky?" Aria says sarcastically, "I'm not so used to this idea of letting other people dictate whether I live or die. That's kind of a new concept for me. Also, my brother's best friend is a wolf and apparently there's all these packs and Derek basically wants me dead - so, it went well."

Lydia makes a funny face for a moment, "Ooookay then. So you're obviously not taking this well. Can you drive?"

"Of course I can. It's not like I have all of these crazy terrified emotions bottled up in me threatening to spill out, that'd be crazy." Aria shakes as she unlocks her car door, "I just need to take a breather."

Lydia nods, "I'll see you tomorrow, okay? I have to talk to your brother before he leaves." With that, Lydia bounces right back into the house.

Aria sighs, placing her forehead against her cold car door. How did things get fucked up so quickly in her absence? The kid she used to make mudpies with was some kind of superhuman dog thing. Not to mention he'd dragged Stiles right into the middle of it. She picks her forehead up and turns around to see Issac, she gasps, her hand flying to her heart.

"No need for a warning or anything, that'd be silly." She breathes, "You scared the shit out of me."

Issac nods, a smirk lighting up his face, "I could see."

"Of course you could, my heartbeat and all." Aria says, "Unfortunately for you, you caught me while I was leaving this circus."

"How disappointing, you're going to miss the show."

"Show?" Aria questions.

Issac shrugs, "It's always a show around here." He licks his dry lips, "I should probably let you go now, I bet you're dying to get out of here."

Aria gives him a little smile, "Not as much as before."

Aria did the only thing she could do, she baked with a fever. When she was stressed, she had this terrible habit of trying to make everyone around her overweight. She made cupcakes, flour on her cheeks.

The doorbell rings and she assumes Stiles has lost his key once more, so she doesn't bother to look through the peephole.

When she opens the door, she finds herself being shoved against the wall, a hand around her throat. Her eyes meet Derek Hale's, her eyes briefly flash with terror. "Can we please stop with this?" She croaks, but he doesn't loosen his grip.

"Listen here, I don't trust you. I don't think you're capable of keeping a secret, and I think you're just overall, a pretty bad risk." Derek growls, his lips now next to her ear. "Do you know what happens to bad risks, Aria?"

Aria gasps involuntarily, "They become the best risk you ever took?" She questions.

Derek rolls his eyes, "Or they end up the reason why most of my pack is slaughtered." His hand tightens.

"Okay, OW, first off, ow ow ow. I didn't take you for a woman beater-" He drops her then, she crumples to the ground, "Yeah, thanks asshole, not like I'm a vulnerable human being or anything.." She rubs her throbbing knee, "Are you done being a psychopath? I think the cupcakes are burning."

"Cupcakes?"

"I get nervous, I bake." Aria explains lamely, standing up, "No apology? Is the great Derek Hale too cool for apologies now too?" She rubs her neck.

Derek folds his muscular toned arms over his chest, "Cupcakes?" He repeats.

Aria walks past him into the kitchen, "Shut up." She says, slyly sliding a knife into the back of her jeans, in case he decided to play hardball again, "Though with muscles like that, you probably don't even look at cupcakes." She jokes, pulling them out of the oven.

"You've noticed?" He asks, following her into the kitchen.

"Hard not to." She realizes how bad and intensely flirty that sounds, "Ya know, because you basically had them around my throat, kind of hard not to see."

"Sorry about that."

"An apology. I dare say, I might be able to tolerate you breathing the same air as me now." She sets the cupcakes in the fridge to cool them before she begins frosting. She wipes the sweat from her brow.

Derek crosses over to her side of the counter, making her feel the knife pressing into her even more prominent, "Is that why you're hiding a knife in your jeans?"

"Cautionary measure. You've choked me out, thrown me to the ground, and threatened to kill me, I think it's necessary, don't you?"

Derek takes a few steps closer to her, "I suppose so. But I don't think you'd need that to take me on. I was testing you."

"Testing me?"

"I wanted to see if you'd be able to defend yourself. You travel the world, bake, you don't seem very.. capable, of protecting yourself."

"Is that your nice but really asshole way of saying I'm helpless?"

"Basically."

"Mmmm. I like you already." Aria grabs her pastry bag, filling it with frosting, "I'm pretty mean with frosting though, might want to watch where you step."

"You're underestimating me."

"Is that so?"

Suddenly, the pastry bag falls to the ground and she's being shoved up against the counter, the knife pressing painfully into her skin. He lifts her shirt, grabbing it out, "Yes, it is so." He says, his face only a few inches from hers.

"Okkkkkkay then." She says, trying to lightly push him off, "I get it, you're all strong and mighty, threat thoroughly recieved. Thank you so much for the heart attack and the nightmares I will probably be having after today."

"Derek?"

Aria looks over Derek's shoulder to see Scott and Issac standing there, Scott speaks first, "What the hell are you doing?"

"I came for the cupcakes, what do you think I'm doing?" Derek asks, shoving roughly off of Aria, "We aren't done."

Aria lets out air she'd been holding in, "Can we be though? I get it, keep my mouth shut, that whole song and dance."

Issac walks over to Aria quickly, "Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. A little beyond shaken up though. The nightmares are really going to be a new adventure for me." Aria jokes lamely, rubbing her throat absentmindedly.

Stiles runs in then, "What's going on?"

"Derek really has a thing for us Stilinski's." Aria says, "I'm going to go wash my face while profusely sobbing for a bit, so excuse me." She says, rushing upstairs. Pushing past Derek.

This was too much, all of it. She wanted to sit in French cafes and order in their pretty language and glance at hot french guys as the sun went down. She wanted to don a beret and let people make fun of her accent. She wanted to be anywhere but Beacon Hills.

She washes her face, looking as dark ugly purple marks appear around her throat. She begins to have a panic attack, her throat closing up. She thinks she's going to die because there's no way Derek is going to let her live.

She breathes heavily, leaning over the sink, meeting her terrified green eyes in the mirror. She sees the bright red of Derek's eyes and nearly hits the floor for the second or third time today.

There's a light knock at the door, "You all right in there?"

She opens the door to see her favorite wounded puppy, Issac Lahey, "Fine." She rasps, "Perfectly fine. Lets get out of here." She says, grabbing his hand and leading him down the stairs.

"Where are we going?" He asks.

"Anywhere but here."