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.*･｡. AN ODE TO CLARK KENT .*･｡.
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016.
YOU'RE IT.
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——

    "How long is this gonna take?"

   Lois rolled her eyes, not bothering to answer him as she fiddled with the wires, a screwdriver stuck between her teeth.

   After pitching her idea on how to bug Aiden and Ethan, and get them angry as payback for what they'd been doing to Isaac, Lois and the two werewolves ditched the rest of lunch detention (apart from Scott, who never had it in the first place) and put their plan into action. Lois was more than happy to have been screwing with the twins — they had nearly gotten Isaac to kill her, in that closet, and it served as a damn good warning to never hurt her cousin.

   The three of them had set for the parking lot. Knowing which bikes belonged to them was easy; Scott knew which was his, Lois knew which was Peter's, and the only two left were identical. 

   Lois had snorted.

   She had been pretty quick in dismantling parts of the bike that weren't important enough that their absence made it unrideable, just the parts that enough that they would notice. Lois gave a few of them to Scott and told him to head to class, and wait for their signal. Then, the girl started working on her next task while Isaac played as her look-out.

    "Hey—" he squinted, "Where'd you even learn to do this?"

   She shrugged, "My cousin has a bike."

    "And, he showed you how to how to hot-wire it...?"

   Scoffing, Lois continued to mess with the wires until she heard a satisfying hum. She grinned to herself and stood up, sticking the screwdriver into the ignition and turning it with ease. The bike grumbled and started, making both teens beam.

    "He didn't show me how to do that—" she drawled out and patted the seat, "—but I learnt a few things, a long the way."

   Eagerly, Isaac accepted her answer and hopped onto the seat. He reached for the handles and clutched them tightly, feeling and looking incredibly badass.

    "Would you look at that? Suits you," Lois noted.

    "Maybe I should get myself one, then..." he hummed, giving her a cheeky wink.

"I think you're fine, without one."

Isaac was about to make a comment on her words, one that was going to undoubtedly bug her, but his mouth snapped shut when the school bell rang in signal of last period starting. Lois looked at the school building and then back to him, raising an eyebrow as she realised that Isaac looked nervous. She'd never seen that.

"You haven't got a clue how to ride it—" she sighed, "—have you?"

He shook his head.

"Okay..." Lois breathed out. She walked back to the bike and leant over him, placing her hands onto the handles and on top of his own, ignoring the way that her stomach shifted. Tugging them back, Lois listened to the engine rumble, "Pull back with your left hand. Kick down to put in gear," she explained as she showed him each step. He watched intently, "Front brake, throttle. And then, back brake for stopping. Got it?"

Lois wasn't sure if Isaac had gotten it, at all. Judging by the way she turned her head and almost bumped his nose with her own, and with his eyes already on her, the beta hadn't been listening to any part of it. A quietness cast over them. It was like back in the janitors closet, when the two had found themselves just staring at each other; looking deep into the other's soul, but not meaning to do it so intentionally. Lois didn't aim to get herself lost up in Isaac Lahey's eyes, his smile, his annoyingly charmingly-charm — she didn't mean for any of it. And, deep down, she doubted that he had meant to get lost in her, either. In that second of quiet, they were two fools that were caught up in each other, in the ecstasy of pranking the twins, in a moment that shouldn't have been any kind of moment, to begin with.

She shook her head; it wasn't a moment.

Clearing her throat, Lois leaned her head back an inch. Their cheeks had been so close, and Isaac seemed to have been as lost as she had been, seeing as he started to blink rapidly.

"Who knew you were such a bike expert, Lane?" Isaac threw on his regular grin when he teased her, shrugging his shoulders. The atmosphere quickly went back to normal and he found himself in satisfaction when she rolled her eyes. "Hm— the more you know."

Lois tilted her head and took out her phone, "Smile, Lahey."

He did as told, more dashingly than he needed to, and Lois was quick to snap a picture. An absent moment passed and the Lane girl smiled at it, then attached it to a text and sent it over to Scott.

FROM: SCOTT SENT: 1:58
LOOKS GREAT. LET'S
GET GOING.

With a sneaky grin, Lois slid her phone back into her pocket and turned to Isaac one last time.

"Give me a five minute head start, okay?"

Isaac agreed. He watched closely as she crouched and began to pile a couple of pieces from Aiden's bike into her bag, a bolt or two into her pocket, and shamelessly carried the screwdriver in her hands. He doubted that she would put it away and likely use it to taunt the twins more — that made Isaac chuckle to himself as she stood back up.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

Before she could leave, Isaac took his chance to reach for her hand. He held it gently, gingerly, and Lois furrowed her brow.

"Hey, uh—" he stuttered, "I'm sorry. Y'know— for earlier."

"It's okay," her voice was barely a whisper.

Isaac shook his head, "No, it's not."

His thumb ran across the back of her hand. Carefully turning it over, the beta's eyes flickered down the scratches and bruising he had caused over the last few days. It made his chest constrict, and he briefly wondered whether she saw him as the monster he felt he was. Isaac had hurt her. Perhaps the damage could have been worse, Isaac knew it could have been a lot worse if he hadn't restrained, but he still felt guilty. It wasn't the first time that Isaac had almost killed Lois Lane.

But the worst part was that Isaac didn't know why he hadn't just killed her, on the spot. Any of those times. When he changed like that, he shouldn't have been able to restrain himself — he had been so close to killing her. It would have been so easy...

So, why hadn't he?

Why did Isaac feel he couldn't hurt Lois, even if he wanted to?

"I nearly killed you, Lois..." Isaac pursed his lips, "I could have killed you. That's not okay,"

"Because of them—"

"I nearly killed you, because I lost control." He interrupted her, sighing. Isaac continued to stroke along her wrist with the pad of his thumb, "That would have been on me."

"I don't blame you, Isaac." Lois said.

A small laugh passed his lip, though it was hardly humorous. "I know..." Isaac shrugged once, "But I wish you would."

   Honestly, Lois didn't know what to say to that. What was she supposed to say to that? For someone with usually so much to say, Lois Lane had been rendered speechless. Maybe it was because she couldn't believe that Isaac Lahey was apologising to her for the second time in the space of one week, or maybe it was because his skin upon hers sent chills down her back. Lois wasn't sure. Maybe she would never be sure. But she was certain that, right then and right there, Isaac — as much he annoyed her, as irritating and as anger-provoking as he was — wasn't being Derek's beta, nor was he being the scared boy from a year ago; there and then, Isaac was the closest to Isaac Lahey as he had ever been.

He was being genuine.

And Lois was certain that she was going to forgive him; even if he had almost killed her, several times. Lois was certain that Isaac never wanted to hurt her. No matter how many arguments they had, despite the sour words. Life was a funny thing — life had put her and Isaac in the same place, at the same time.

Whatever their fates were, wherever they would end up, Lois and Isaac were in the same place, right here and right now. And she was certain that it was no mistake.

"You're not going soft on me..." she teased, "Are you, Lahey?"

Isaac chuckled, "Not a chance, gumdrop."

They shared a smile, one that she wondered if they would ever share again, before the brunette span on her heel and made for the entrance. But she stopped after three single steps and promptly turned back.

"Oh— and Lahey?" She called.

"Lane?"

"Try not to crash."

"Yeah—" Isaac rolled his eyes, "Been there, done that."

A laugh bubbled from her lips. She snickered once more and spun back around, heading into the school as quickly as she could while he slipped the helmet on.

Lois was late to class, but only by a minute. Miss Blake gave her a small smile when she apologised, and told her to sit down and not let it happen again. The teen noticed that her reprimand was not very convincing — perhaps because she knew that it was more then likely Lois Lane would be late, again — but she didn't think much of it. Rather, Lois strolled to the desk on the left of Aiden while Scott had taken the one on the right of Ethan. She whistled a light tune and placed the screwdriver onto her desk with a clunk! It had the twins watching her curiously, but they had said nothing when Miss Blake began the lesson. Lois smirked.

"Okay, everyone— I know this is the last class of the day..." Miss Blake sighed, "To be honest, I want to get out of here, too."

Scott turned in his seat and stared at the twins with a grin.

He reached into his bag and pulled out the drive chain. Spinning it around, Scott caught the twins' attention and shrugged. His face looked almost clueless, "That looks kind of important..."

The twins shared a look.

Lois leant over and tapped Aiden on the shoulder, now holding up a part of the brake calliper.

"Do you know what this thing does?" She feigned innocence and placed it down on the desk. The metal hitting wood seemed to boil Aiden's blood and he ground his teeth so harshly, that Scott could hear it in his own ears. He was going to snap.

It seemed that Aiden was the first to cave. The boy slammed his fists on his desk and jumped out of his seat, Ethan shouting for him to come back and not give in, and shoved Lois' desk on the way. Lois gaped at him but couldn't fight the sly smirk working it's way onto her lips when she heard the hum of an engine from the hall. While Ethan shot them both a nasty glare, Scott had grabbed Lois' hand and pulled her out of the classroom. Every student was quick to follow behind, and Lois hopped that Isaac had gotten off of the bike in time to blame it on Aiden.

He had.

Scott fell in line with Isaac and Lois caught ahold of the back of his cardigan. She smothered a laugh when she noticed how smug he looked — a stark contrast to to the gormless expression Aiden adorned. Placing her palm to cover her mouth, Lois attempted to hide her snickers when Miss Blake pushed through the crowd.

"You have got to be kidding me!" The teacher snapped.

Unable to say anything, Aiden blinked.

"You realise this is gonna result in a suspension," she continued with her scrutiny. Aiden's gaze lingered on the trio in the corner.

Lois wiggled her fingers, at him. They had gotten the twins angry, alright.

• • •

"Mr Harris?"

Brows cinched, Lois slowly walked into the room. She puckered her lips and peered around, letting out a confused sigh, and let herself fully in. "Hello...?"

She looked down at the paper in her hand. Harris had told her and Isaac to write an apology letter to the janitor, for leaving his closet in a state with nothing unpacked and a broken door, and to have it done by the end of the day. Lois had begrudgingly written it after last period while Scott and Isaac went to lacrosse practice; it was short and snappy, and Isaac hadn't participated in the least, but it would do.

"Mr Harris?" Lois called again, "I have that letter?"

Again, there was no response.

Wandering to his desk, Lois placed the letter down. His pen was still out from marking papers, and she noticed that one had been branded with a H. Lois wrinkled her nose — that was a bit harsh. She had no idea you could get an H. Was that even a grade?

Lois muttered an insult under her breath and waited for another moment, until she decided that he had gone off on his travels and likely wouldn't be back, any time soon. He was probably torturing some kids in the hallway for running, or telling the other teachers how to do discipline. She rolled her eyes at the mere thought and gave her letter a light tap. Lois wasn't sure if she wanted to leave just yet; she felt as though she should wait, see if he came back at any point, though she couldn't have said why. Something felt off about the whole thing. Harris rarely ever left his classroom, and certainly not when his briefcase was still by his chair.

It was quiet in his classroom, eerily so, and she briefly wondered why he had told her to have the letter done by the end of fifth period when he wasn't even there to take it from her. Regardless, Lois released another sigh. "Well, I'll just leave this here..." she waited, but he definitely wasn't in. "I guess...?"

Rolling her eyes, Lois stepped away from the desk. What a waste of her time.

The girl took a few steps, her back facing the door, as she gave the room one last look. She couldn't help but feel like it was odd.

"You give it to him?"

Lois nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Oh my—!" She span on her heel and groaned, placing a hand over her heart to try and ease it's beating. Lois scowled at, while the culprit started to snicker at her fear, "What the hell, Isaac?"

"What?" He shrugged, "What's got you so jumpy?"

"Nothing— nothing..." Shaking her head, the girl ran a hand through her hair. He gave her an odd look.

"Alright..." Isaac wanted to ask further, but ultimately decided it was best not to pry. He had learnt that Lois could get snappy if she was pressed. He didn't feel like dealing with snappy Lois, not right now. "So— did you?"

"Did I, what?"

"Y'know— did you give Harris the letter?"

"Oh, you mean the letter you weren't involved in?" Lois crossed her arms, watching him roll his eyes. "In case you haven't noticed, smart guy, he's not in." She threw a thumb over her shoulder and in the direction of his desk, where the letter sat amongst a pile of his essay papers and other files. Isaac briefly followed her gaze as she spoke again, "I just left it on his desk."

"Great." Isaac shot her a smile, "Now that's done, how about a ride back to Derek's?"

She scoffed, "I'm not driving you to Derek's."

"Ah— come on, Lane!" The beta practically begged as walked out of Harris' class and past where he stood in the doorway, her arm breezing against his chest. Isaac followed, "What's the point in driving if you're not gonna let anyone ride with you?"

Her mind vaguely recalled a conversation that she'd had with Lydia at the ice rink, back when Lois didn't think she'd want to drive without anyone in the passenger seat.

Things had changed.

"The point of driving is to get me from A to B," Lois said, "Not to chaperone betas from school to their alpha's. Get a car."

Isaac sighed, but he didn't try and ask her again.

He would just ask in the parking lot.

Side by side, Lois and Isaac proceeded down the hallway and to the stairs. Apparently he had left Scott to finish changing after practice, while he had gone to find out if Lois had handed over their little apology letter, and he was waiting for them by the exit to the parking lot. She had asked if Stiles was waiting too, but the beta had told her that he hadn't shown up to practice. They had no idea why, but Stiles simply hadn't gone. Luna wasn't waiting for him, either — they figured that the couple had gone somewhere together, seeing as she usually always watched Stiles practice.

    "Stiles didn't show?"

    "Nope," Isaac shook his head, "Why? Was he supposed to?"

    "He said we were gonna visit his dad, after school." With a frown on her lips, Lois fiddled with her fingers nervously. "See if they found out anything about Kyle, or something." She cleared her throat and tried not to think too hard about it, "And I haven't seen Luna since third period..."

    "Maybe they just went together," he shrugged.

    "I don't know... everyone's acting weird," Lois told him. Isaac listened intently, which he never usually did, not far behind as they descended the stairs. "Did you know Lydia ended up in a music class, today? Danny texted me."

    "And that's weird, because...?"

    "Lydia doesn't take music."

   His lips formed an O. Isaac nodded slowly, "Okay— so, Lydia wanted to listen in on kids blowing the french horn? That's not that weird."

    "I just have this feeling," she said. Her voice was quieter than before, "Everything feels off."

    "Stiles will be with Luna, and Lydia... well, when hasn't Lydia been acting weird?" Isaac attempted to soothe her worry with a joke, but he earned himself a glare for the comment. It wasn't the right time to be cracking jokes. He let out a sigh and tried once more as they reached the foyer of the school, "Seriously, Lane. Nothing's off, you're just paranoid. Stop overthinking it, alright?"

    "Stop overthinking, what?"

   The two turned to see Scott McCall catching up to them.

    "Doesn't matter." Lois pushed a smile onto her lips and walked in between the two boys, "You know what does matter? The look on Aiden's face when we bust up his bike."

    "Yeah— I wish I could have seen their faces," Isaac laughed as he thought about their little stunt, "They look seriously pissed?"

   Scott nodded and grinned, practically beaming. It was safe to say that the three of them had gotten immense joy out of messing with the twins — it was fair, after all. They had put Isaac into a situation where Lois could have died. They deserved it.

   Lois hadn't realised they had pulled to a stop until Isaac took her wrist in hand. She stopped walking and frowned, her eyes tracing from his hand and up his arm, all the way to his set jaw and hard stare. It was then that she tuned into the low growls from the end of the foyer and she pursed her lips. Lois had a feeling that she didn't really want to turn around and see who was waiting for them by the doors, but the girl turned around anyway.

   She sucked in a breath — she shouldn't have turned.

    "Kind of like that..." Scott muttered, his attention focused on the twins.

   Like earlier that day, they looked pissed.

   Without warning, the carbon copies started to strip themselves of jackets and shirt, tossing the clothing aside. Lois' eyes widened as she watched, and she was tempted go cover her face and avoid the sight of two semi-naked teenage boys. She spared a look up and down the hallway and realised that no one else was about to witness what was happening; her stomach stirred. Scott, Isaac and Lois were left with no choice but to watch as the twins glared at them. Ethan crouched down and Aiden pushed his arm straight into the middle of his shoulder blade, the two of them morphing together with popping of joints and breaking bones. At one point, Lois thought that she was going to puke but kept it down. It was disgusting, if she were honest.

   Now one alpha — that was far bigger than they were — the twins growled, their eyes glowing red. Lois inched back behind Scott and Isaac, tugging on their shirts, but Isaac brushed her off and rolled his sleeves to his elbows.

    "We can take them."

    "Are you kidding—?" Scott yanked him back when they growled again, his other hand pushing Lois away. "Isaac!"

   The trio bolted down the hall, but the twins were right behind them. Amongst the pushing to get her the furthest away from the them, Lois tripped over her feet and landed on the floor, a heavy gasp passing her lips. They successfully grabbed Scott and Isaac by the back of their necks and lifted them into the air, at least a metre beneath their feet, bashing their heads together with a crack! Then the alpha-twin hybrid tossed the boys aside like rag dolls, and Lois ignored the urge to help them. There was no way she was going to get through Aiden and Ethan — not when she was on the floor in a heap, and they were snarling as though she were prey.

   She cringed away as they advanced. Her back soon hit the cool metal of the lockers, and Lois held her breath. They were closer, and then closer, until they were looming right over her teary face.

   Although, the twins stopped when they heard clicking.

   Lois was confused as to why the retreated and morphed back into two beings. She didn't understand until they turned their backs on her and faced a man with dark glasses covering his eyes and a stick in his hand. It tapped against the floor that she laid on and caused the twins to stiffen.

   He stopped in front of them, toe to toe, and all was silent. But that silence was sliced through when he struck them with the end of his stick, and their heads snapped to the side.

   Rolling his shoulders, the unknown man ushered Aiden and Ethan aside with a single wave of his hand. Once they had done as told, the man took a step towards Lois, kneeling closer to her trembling figure. She had no clue who this man was, or how he had gotten into their school, or why he had chosen to corner her and not the two werewolves in the corner. Isaac let out a low growl when he placed his hand on her cheek and wiped away a stray tear. Scott held him back.

    "You found it, didn't you?"

   Lois couldn't find any words. Found what?

    "Oh, sweetheart..." he hummed, "You have no idea."

   She trembled under his touch, her gaze flickering between the dark glasses that covered his eyes.

   With a deep sigh, the man released her cheek and smiled when Lois let out a strangled breath. He stood from the ground and held out a hand. Too afraid not to, the girl took it and let him pull her up. The man switched his grip to her wrist and squeezed it.

    "You're it."

   With that, the man released her. Lois took a step back and held her wrist — the skin had taken a beating, over the last few days.

   He walked away with Ethan and Aiden in tow.

   They glared.

   When they were gone, Lois had barely regulated her breathing before Isaac shot up from the ground and rushed towards her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

    "Who the hell was that?"

   Scott blinked. He couldn't look away, "Deucalion."

   You're it. Lois couldn't get his words out of her mind.

   You're it. You're it. You're it.

   What did that mean?

——

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