⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀   ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
——

⠀⠀⠀   ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
.*･｡. AN ODE TO CLARK KENT .*･｡.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

015.
LAHEY AND LANE.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

——

Strangely, walking into Harris' classroom for her lunch detention had easily been one of the best parts of Lois Lane's day.

Despite being spoken to like trash by Isaac, finding out that the alpha twins that could combine bodies were her cousin's friends Ethan and Aiden, stumbling upon a corpse that triggered a messy panic attack, and Isaac threatening to kill said alpha twins, Lois' morning hadn't been the worst. In fact, it was as rough as usual.

She swung the door open and took a brief note of the four other kids that were present — clearly, Harris had been handing out his lunch detentions like freebies.

With a sarcastic smile at the man to which he returned, Lois had rolled her eyes and briskly made for the desk furthest away from him. She didn't want to be anywhere near him for the next thirty minutes. Harris still hated her, hence why she was still serving her sentence of three lunch detentions for being late that morning a couple of days prior, and he hadn't been impressed to find that she had tried to skip one and then not shown up to school to make her second. It was likely that Lois would be stuck in lunch detention until she died, at this rate. She wouldn't have been surprised.

Lois absently played with the ends of her hair as she waited.

Judging by the look on Harris' face, there were still stragglers to show up. She peered around and realised she didn't really know any of the kids she'd been stuck with today — most of them being freshman that were yet to know Harris was an asshole that would just give detentions for breathing — until one kid walked through the door with a coy smile.

Lois' jaw dropped.

He swiftly made his way to the seat next to her, not caring for the way that Harris glared. It was clear that he'd figured out that the two were related. In a way, he didn't look surprised. Perhaps he had sensed it, the minute he'd met the younger boy.

"Peter?" She hissed, "You got detention?"

"Funny seeing you here, Lo." Peter joked, but his face fell when he saw her fuming eyes.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing much..." he sighed, "Just dropped a test tube, s'all."

She rolled her eyes at her cousin. Of course he had done the most innocent thing to receive a lunch detention — an accident, above anything else. Lois knew that it couldn't have been bad.

Another person walked into the classroom, and then another not far behind. Lois raised her brows at Allison, but the girl signalled that she would tell her later and took a seat at the table to the left of them. Noticing Peter gazing, Lois nudged him with her elbow and ignored his whine about his ribs. Her attention drifted to the other person who was taking a seat towards the front. He didn't really care where he sat; close to Harris, or not. Lois assumed he was just trying to steer clear of Allison. She did stab him.

Scott had told Lois that Isaac would be in detention. Apparently Ethan and Aiden had framed him for beating Ethan to a pulp.

Part of her had wondered if Isaac had done it, but Scott told her that he knew otherwise. So, Lois had begrudgingly believed him. After all, Scott always told the truth. Lois would always listen to Scott.

The girl debated how she was going to tell Peter that he couldn't hang out with Ethan and Aiden, anymore. She didn't want her cousin to get in with the likes of the alpha twins — not now that she knew who they really were. They were dangerous and Peter was innocent, and she didn't went him dragged into this mess. He deserved better than that. Peter deserved so much better.

But, what would she say?

Your friends are werewolves? She didn't think, so.

Something told her that wouldn't go down, very well.

When everyone was seated, Harris hummed under his breath and narrowed his eyes. He glanced over the teenagers that he had in his clutches, smiling smugly when he noticed Lois' glare, and clapped his hands together. Lois huffed — the man got way too much enjoyment out of this.

"The two of you will wash all the boards in this hall," he told the first two delinquents, then pointed at the next pair. "Re-shelving the library."

Harris then looked at Allison and Isaac as if deliberating their task, "Re-stocking the janitors closet."

Lois cringed. She knew that Isaac wouldn't be happy with the arrangement, and she doubted Allison would be either, but she couldn't really bring herself to care. She was still mad at Isaac for the way he had spoken to her, during cross country.

She hoped he was miserable.

"And I've saved my favourite for last," Harris announced with a mocking happy tone. He approached the desk that Lois and Peter sat, a smirk that made her want to smack him adorning his face, and he stopped right in front of them. "Since this is your second lunch detention in a row, Miss Lane—" she resisted the urge to tell him that it was his fault that he had to deal with her for so long, and not hers, "—you two can scrape every piece of gum from the bottom of every desk, in this classroom. I'm sorry that you had to be dragged down with her, Mr Parker. Have fun."

Gaping at him incredulously, Lois found herself wanting to jump from her seat and strangle him with her bare hands. Scraping the stale gum from underneath the desks? Was that even humane?

Peter leant over to her, in shock.

"I thought you were lying when you said he hated you!"

"Does it look like I'm lying?" She hissed.

As Harris returned to his desk, Isaac hopped up from his seat and made his way over. Lois frowned.

"Oh— Mr Harris?" He cleared his throat and pointed over at Allison, who sat behind him with a red upon her cheeks. "Um— does it have to be with her?"

Harris looked between them and blinked.

He sighed, "Seeing as I'm feeling kind, today— fine." While he contemplated a switch, Lois wondered why he hadn't been kind when he had given her the job of scraping gum. Harris pointed at Isaac, "You can swap with Mr Parker, and Miss Lane can join you in re-stocking the janitor's closet. Now, get out of my sight."

Lois clenched her jaw, great.

Sending her a sorry look — that didn't look all that sorry, rather shy when Peter made his way over to her — Allison left her seat and joined the boy in grabbing paddles for scraping. Lois huffed a breath and stood, making her way to the front.

She grabbed a stack of paper towels and left Isaac to grab the dolly, lifting boxes onto it, and walked out of the classroom.

"Oh, and Miss Lane?"

Lois turned back to look at Harris.

"The gum under my desk will see you, tomorrow." He taunted.

With one last irritated smile, Lois Lane balanced the piled paper towels in her arms and marched down the hall. She vaguely heard Isaac follow her but she didn't wait up, and opened the closet door.

"You got three lunch detentions?"

She didn't answer Isaac's question. He muttered a quiet okay, then under his breath and she ignored that, too. Lois entered the closet and tried not to think too much about the old janitor who Peter Hale had killed in front of her and her friends, and instead started to take the paper towels and place them onto random shelves. If there was an order to it, Lois didn't pay attention to it. She didn't care about organisation and practically threw the items and left them wherever they happened to land. Isaac followed.

Minutes passed, around five, and she noticed that Isaac would occasionally look back at the door. It was as if he was checking it was still open.

"What?" Lois eventually sighed.

"Nothing," he shook his head, "I'm just not a big fan of small spaces."

Lois was about to ask him why, but she quickly decided against it and cursed to herself. His father used to lock him in a freezer. How did she forget that? Isaac was probably traumatised. While Lois wasn't keen on small spaces, she could deal with them, where as Isaac was probably plagued with memories about them. She felt a bit bad for him being set this job, but she shook it off.

"We'll keep the door open," walking over to the door, Lois made a point of pushing it open as far as it's hinges would allow.

Isaac nodded, "Thanks."

Mirroring his actions, Lois returned to her place in front of the shelves and carried on unloading paper towels. When she was done with those, and they were sporadically piled, she turned to the soap for bathroom dispensers and started to unload those.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Do you have to?" Lois shot back.

"Okay— guess not..." Shrugging, Isaac pursed his lips together and went quiet. But that didn't last for too long, and soon the beta turned back to her with a mocking expression. "Actually, I think I just remembered I don't really care if you want me to ask you a question, or not. I'm gonna ask you, anyway."

"Alright." Lois placed down the dispenser and crossed her arms. She leant against the shelving unit and quirked a brow, expecting him to speak and challenging him, at the same time. "Well...?"

"Why are you pissed with me?"

She scoffed, "Really?"

"Yeah, really." He echoed her words, "What's your deal?"

"I don't like your attitude."

"Wait— my attitude?"

"You wanted an answer, didn't you?"

"What's wrong with my attitude?" Isaac asked. When she let out a snicker, he squinted at her. "No— go on. I wanna know."

"You're just..." Lois struggled to find the right word, "You're egotistical. And cocky, and totally rude. You're like a mini Derek Hale, and it bugs me."

"I'm taller than Derek."

"That's what I mean!" She pointed at him accusingly, "You are just an asshole, aren't you? Don't you see? You always have to say something irritable, and— and annoying! And you talk to other people like they're dirt on your shoe!"

"Oh— I'm annoying?" His eyes widened as she nodded, and he huffed a laugh. "Listen to yourself, gumdrop!"

"If you call me that, one more time—!"

"What?" Isaac put his box of cleaning products down and stood to face her. He noticed her scowl and dark eyes, and took one step closer. Lois stepped back and so he took another, then another, and then another, until she was caged in with the shelving unit at her back and Isaac at her front. Slowly, he bent down and looked her in the eyes, a smirk on his lips. "What are you gonna do? Huh? Go on— let me hear it, gumdrop."

Lois swiftly snatched the mop to her left and smacked him with it, smiling in triumph when he stumbled back and tripped a step.

"What the—?"

She hit him with it a second time.

"Ow—!" Isaac hissed, "Hey, what was that for?"

"That was for bossing me around, this morning—" Lois spat, then hit him again. "—that was for thinking I was controlling the kanima." Again. "That was for kissing me when I told you not to, twice!" She served one last blow to his shoulder, "And that was for caging me in here, like an animal!"

Breathing heavily, Lois wiped her brow.

Isaac rolled his eyes, "You done?"

The girl pretended to think about it, and then swung for him once again. But Isaac expected it and caught it, tugging the mop towards him and thus her body flying with it. She hit his chest.

Both of them were panting, and their faces were so, so close.

She could feel his breath ticking her cheeks, his curls of hair stroking her forehead. Lois briefly noticed that he smelled like sun on a rainy day, a discreet dew upon pine aroma, but begged her mind to push those thoughts away.

Tense silence smothered them.

Isaac was counting her freckles when he realised how long they had been stood there. Just staring into each other's eyes. It was as though Lois was trying to find every secret inside of him, and he felt his face grow hot. His stomach flipped and a small bit of him worried that he would be sick, that he had suddenly fallen ill with a bug, but another bit of him knew better. Werewolves didn't get sick.

"Well?" He eventually spoke, his voice above whisper. "What was that one, for?"

She licked her dry lips, "For calling me gumdrop."

Before Isaac could come up with a response, the closet door had slammed shut. He instantly moved away from Lois as he whipped around. His eyes were wide and he gave it a push.

It didn't move.

Isaac gripped the doorknob and gave it a firm rattle, his shoulder leaning against the door, but it still didn't open.

"Uh— okay..." Lois said, "Maybe it locked, from the outside?"

"No— no, there's something against it." Isaac grunted.

He let out a heavy breath and took off his cardigan, suddenly warmer than he had been before, and ran a rough hand through his hair. The beta muttered a string of incoherent words and Lois pursed her lips. She knew that this wasn't good — it was very bad.

"Okay— okay, okay..."

"Alright, uh— let's relax," Lois tried to keep a level head and calm him down. She knew an on-coming panic attack when she saw one, "Let's just relax, okay?"

But he didn't hear her.

Placing his fists on the door, Isaac sucked in deeply through his nose and his head twitched. He banged his fist against the door and threw his head back. Another fist hit the door. He hit it a third time and groaned loudly, the vein in his forehead almost bursting, and looking like it would explode.

"Isaac, just—"

"Come on..." he huffed, "Come on!"

The beta began to kick and thrash, his fists bloody.

"Isaac!" Lois cried, "Isaac, stop it!"

"Come on—!"

"Hey— quit it! Just relax!"

He continued to scream and shout, slamming his whole body against the door. Lois was surprised it didn't break.

"Isaac! Don't—!"

Then, the punches stopped. Lois breathed deeply when his body totally stilled. It was an eery moment that passed, and a shiver hit her spine. Isaac's head shot up from it's downcast position, and let out a growl. His eyes were amber.

Lois froze, "Isaac...?"

She had no time to react, or find something to defend herself with, when the beta lurched at her. Isaac grabbed her wrists and pushed her against the shelving unit, her back hitting it with a violent slam! Letting out a groan of pain, Lois tried to wiggle out from his grip and kicked and swung, but he had too much strength to let her gain control.

"Isaac! Stop it!" She screamed, "Don't— hey, stop! Don't! This isn't— this isn't you! It's not you! Please, Isaac! Stop it—!"

Her voice seemed to register something in his head.

Isaac's grip loosened.

Lois was shaking, at this point. Quivering. She shook her head numbly, still trying to pry her sore wrists from his grip. "Isaac, stop! Let me go—!"

His body was ripped away from her. Lois' legs caved and she hit the ground, watching at Isaac's was thrown out of the closet and into the hallway. She cringed when his back his the floor with a loud slam!

Looking away from him and upwards, she let out a loud sigh of relief.

"Scott?"

Said boy barely registered her and rushed out of the closet. He threw himself to the ground and pinned Isaac by his neck, the beta fighting and growling as he tried to get out from Scott's tight grip. He kicked and scratched but Scott didn't let him go, not when he could hurt Lois, again. Not when he was dangerous.

"Isaac—" he flashed his eyes and roared, "Isaac!"

At that, Isaac calmed. His claws went away and his amber eyes returned to their normal blue. Isaac heaved and whimpered, and he scrambled back when Scott let him go to check on Lois.

"I'm fine," she reassured her friend, whom was looking at her scratched wrists. "It's nothing bad, Scott, I'm okay—"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Isaac whimpered as he looked up at her with fragile eyes. She softened when she noticed his shaky hands, and he continued to apologise profusely. "I— I keep hurting you, Lois. I'm sorry, I didn't— I didn't mean to do that!"

"It's okay—"

"I— I'm so sorry..."

"It's not his fault," she told Scott.

"I know." He said with a solemn face, "I guess we know they wanna do more than get you angry. They want to get someone hurt,"

"So—?" Isaac panted, "—are we gonna do something?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna get them angry."

Lois rose a brow, "How angry?"

"Really angry."

Thinking back to how her cousin met the twins, Lois' eyes lit up ever so slightly.

"I've got an idea."

——

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀   ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀