Aria eats her pasta slowly, watching her Dad watch Derek as Derek becomes fascinated by a painting on the wall. If looks could kill, Derek would be long gone by now. Stiles happily eats his pasta, bathing in Aria's misery.
"So Derek, you and Aria have hung out a lot lately." Her Dad says slowly, his eyes meeting Derek's, "Why is that?"
"She enjoys my company." Derek says cockily.
Aria happily kicks him to enlighten him to the fact that was not the right answer at all. In fact, the furthest thing from the right answer ever. He should have just said, 'oh we're casually having sex' and that would have been the same thing.
"Do you?" Her Dad asks, sarcasm highlighting his tone as his eyes meet Aria's, "It's good that you're having fun with the adolescence then, huh, Derek?" He asks, turning back to Derek, "You know she's a kid, right?"
Derek takes a bite of his pasta, "Actually, I think she's pretty far from a kid. She's got a lot going on that you don't even know about. She's tough, she's strong, she's got it all under control though, so you don't even need to worry." He says, hinting at something.
"That so?" Her Dad turns to Aria.
"No, it's not. You know everything." Aria says to her Dad, while shooting a glare at Derek.
Her Dad drops it quickly, "What happened to that Issac kid, Aria? He was a good guy, I liked him."
"No, no you didn't." Aria rolls her eyes.
Her Dad offers her a smile, "I do a hell of a lot now."
Aria nervously bites her lip, her cheeks burning. She shyly bites into her pasta, avoiding eye contact with everyone at the kitchen table, she casually changes the subject, "We should get a cat."
"You don't know what you want, you're confused." Her Dad says, looking at her seriously, though Aria can feel that he's definitely not talking about a cat.
"Actually sir, I think she knows exactly what she wants, but she's just too afraid to go after it." Derek counters, his eyes meeting Aria's briefly, then flashing to meet her Dad's eyes.
Her Dad scoffs, glaring at Derek, meeting his gaze, "Is that what you think?" He leans forward in his chair, suddenly hanging on Derek's every word.
Derek nods, "Precisely." He says in a matter-of-factly tone.
"Whiskers is a stupid name, can we not name the cat that? Lets name it something cool, like the Hulk, or Beastie! Oh damn right, I love Beastie, we're going to name it Beastie, I don't care if you like it, Aria." Stiles interjects, "We are not getting one of those creepy nude cats."
"Definitely not!" Aria shudders, "I love cats but I'm not going down that path." They happily chat about cats as Derek and her Dad throw glares that could kill entire villages of people.
Of course, the conversation takes another turn for the worst.
"So Derek, what do you think about Issac?" Her father asks.
Derek glances over at Aria, "I think your daughter is completely out of his league."
Her father raises his eyebrows at him, "Oh yeah? So, lets just say, for sake of argument, that she's in your league? Do you believe that?" It's obviously a trap, Aria's eyes meet Derek's but he offers her a confident smile.
"Of course not."
Her father lets out the breath he'd been holding, "That's great. I mean... yeah, that's what I meant. She's definitely way out of your league."
Aria's cheeks are burning at this point, "Lets not talk about me anymore or my league. Lets talk about your newest case at work, Dad. Tell us about all the new chain-saw-slinging maniacs we love to hear about."
Her dad shakes his head, smiling, "No no, I think we need to talk about you more. Derek's enlightened me to the fact that I don't exactly know everything's that's going on with your life. I'm curious."
"Nothing to be curious about, same ol' Aria." Aria shrugs, "Afraid there's not much to talk about." She takes a bite of her pasta.
"Lets talk about Derek." Her dad says blandly.
Aria chokes and Stiles gives her a swift hit to the back. Aria swallows painfully, "Sure, we could do that." She croaks, "His name is Derek, he's very tall, very dark, very mysterious, pets bunnies, plants trees." Aria shrugs, "That's Derek, nothing more, nothing less."
Her Dad nods, obviously not believing her, "Right. So, would you say that Derek is handsome?"
Aria's cheeks heat up. "Well, I mean yes but-"
Derek chuckles from across the table and Aria gives him a swift kick.
"Yes but what?" Her Dad asks.
Aria looks at Derek, smiling, "He's kind of an asshole."
Her Dad grunts in approval, "Damn right he is, remember that Aria." Her Dad continues, "So Derek, are you in any relationships now?"
Derek shakes his head, "Sort of, but not really. She doesn't even see me in that way, which is perfectly understandable...I'm not the best guy."
Her Dad prods, leaning forward in his seat, "Who? Who is this she?"
Derek shrugs, glancing down at his pasta, though a smile stretches across his lips. Aria is staring intensely at him. Almost begging him not to do it. Not to say the one thing they've danced around for so long.
Derek meets Aria's eyes, "Not that it matters, she won't even look at me like that."
Aria swallows hard and she knows he can hear her heartbeat, every trip, every falter. The rapid beating of her heart against her ribcage. Painfully throwing itself against her ribcage as if it were trapped. He can hear her heartbeat slow as he turns away from her. She let's go of a shallow breath.
Aria walks him out to his car silently, the moon hanging in the sky. A painful reminder of what was to come. The Alphas, everything. The whole werewolf thing itself, though Aria has other things on her mind.
"What was that in there?" Aria asks, glancing up at him, "What kind of game were you playing?"
Derek looks down at her, scratching his jaw, his beautiful sculpted jaw. "No games, just me."
Aria feels a lump building in her throat and she takes a step away from him, "Right, no games, huh? You play a lot of games though. Remember that whole, 'please join my exclusive werewolf club' game? I do." Aria scratches the back of her head, "You should go."
"Are you going to be okay? After all of this.." Derek waves his hand absentmindedly.
"I don't think a family dinner is going to emotionally scar me for the rest of my life." Aria dryly laughs, scratching her elbow.
"I mean your Mom. Before all of this, your Mom." He says quickly, "I don't want to leave you without knowing that you're completely okay."
Aria glances up at him, "Uh, that's actually kind of sweet." Aria clears her throat, awkwardly shifting on her foot, "I think I'll be okay, I mean, I don't really have any answers or anything.. but I'll be okay." She nods, "Perfectly fine."
Derek nods, he pulls out his car keys, unlocking his car with a quick press to one of the buttons. He looks at Aria, "Are you sure?"
Aria nods, licking her lips, "Perfectly fine."
He nods again, except he lightly kisses her on the forehead, holding his hand behind her head for a second. His forehead lightly touching hers for a second before he pulls away, "Goodnight, Aria."
So, if Aria was having trouble figuring out Derek Hale before, now it was pretty close to impossible to figuring out what was up in that head of his. He drives away, she raises her hand to lightly wave. Then she turns around when Stiles comes up to her.
"You like him, don't you?" Stiles teases, giving her a small shove.
Aria sighs, rolling her eyes, she shoves him back, "Shut up, Stiles."
He's smiling as she walks away from him. Though he pulls out his phone, selecting Scott on his contacts list. Holding the phone up to his face, waiting, "Oh, hey! Scott, uh, we might have a slight problem over here..."