┏━━━━⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆━━━━┓

A HUMAN AND TWO WOLVES

ULTIMATELY, FINDING THE ALPHA PACK WAS PROVING TO BE HARDER THAN THEY THOUGHT.

Aside from taking Erica and Boyd, something that Emerson was extremely certain about, they hadn't made any moves of intercepting the pair of alphas. It was strange, because Deucalion never waited this long before striking— before making an appearance with those dark crimson eyes.

But it seemed like they, too, were playing the waiting game, and Emerson hadn't the faintest of clues as to why they switched up now.

The overlap in geographical areas between the loft and the Prescott home was large, they knew it, but in the two weeks that had since passed, they barely scratched the surface. Who knew Beacon Hills had so many abandoned properties? It was making their job harder than it already was.

For the most part it had been Derek, Emerson, and Isaac prowling around such properties, but more often than not, Emerson found herself alone with the older man. It was easier being around him now that they had a common goal, and as a result they fought less and less, not that either of them would tell you they noticed that trend.

It was soon the middle of summer, and they pair were knee deep in searching through their fourth abandoned warehouse, when the shrill ringing of Emerson's phone sounded through the air. Derek paused in his tracks as he was sniffing around the building, literally, for clues, watching as she answered.

"Kinda in the middle of some trespassing right now, Han."

Emerson caught the way Derek rolled his eyes, and she merely stuck her tongue out at him while she waited for Hannah to speak. "What time will you be home for dinner?"

"Uh—" she glanced around the giant warehouse and winced at the ground they still had yet to cover. "Maybe in an hour? Or two?"

A sigh was heard. "Okay, as long as you're being careful," she ended up saying. "I'll set the table for three, then."

Derek's eyes darted to the phone in her hand at the same time that Emerson's eyebrows furrowed. "Three?" Her gaze met Derek's.

"Well, I think it's well within my right to know the ex-fugitive you've been spending your time with lately," the Prescott woman said pointedly, and Emerson could almost see the stern look on her face.

She tried to downplay what her guardian was saying when she caught the corner of Derek's mouth tick upward. "I don't spend all my time with—"

"Just don't be late, please." And then, the dial tone.

Emerson cleared her throat, putting her phone back into the pocket of her shorts. "So," she started, bouncing on the balls of her feet, "guess you're invited to dinner."

Derek gave her an exasperated look, but beneath it was an emotion she could identify within a heartbeat. Weariness. "Did she just call me an ex-fugitive?"

It wasn't a no.

"Derek, you are an ex-fugitive," she responded matter-of-factly. "You've been a fugitive, like, multiple times over the last year."

"They dropped all the charges," he emphasized, crossing his arms over his chest as he started to walk away.

She scrambled after him, slowing once she fell into step with him. "Hence the term ex-fugitive. Seriously, how did you even graduate high school?"

"When you use the my family died in a fire card, it makes it a lot easier."

Emerson grimaced. "That's so fucking morbid... clever, but morbid."

ೃ࿔*:⋆

The pair walked into the house, Derek watching from behind her as she completed the knocking pattern before she even opened the door. She could tell he thought it was strange, but didn't ask.

"We're here!" she called out into the home, stopping to take off her muddy shoes. Derek followed suit, because thankfully he had some manners in his system, before she heard Hannah clanking around in the kitchen.

Emerson found her with ease, taking a casserole dish out of the oven while the werewolves lingered in the doorway. Hannah spotted them, taking the dish toward the middle of the table that had three place settings, just as she'd said it would.

"Well don't just stand there," Hannah said, sitting down while gesturing to the two empty seats across from her. The seats that were side by side— the seats that they were meant to sit in.

Emerson and Derek moved slowly toward the seats, almost in synchronicity, and promptly sat down once the blonde woman began dishing out the casserole she'd made. It was one Emerson had eaten a million times in the four years she'd been living with her, but somehow this dinner felt different than the others.

And part of that was because of the hulking figure to her right.

Hannah was scooping some casserole onto her own plate last, and before she even made a move to pick up her fork, she looked at Derek.

"It's nice to see you again, Derek. You staying out of trouble?"

Hannah had worked alongside the Sheriff in not only bringing Derek in a few months ago, under a now dismissed murder charge of all things, but also in bringing the Lahey boy on her another dismissed murder charge. Yeah, two peas in a pod, those two.

"I am, Deputy Prescott," the man to her side responded, a politeness laced in his tone that Emerson certainly had never heard before. "Thank you for having me... you have a lovely home."

Based on the proud smile Hannah suddenly wore, she ate that comment right up. "It's not a problem," she responded. "I love meeting Emmy's friends, not that she ever brings home many."

Emerson's head fell into her hands, a flush coating her cheeks. "Hannah..."

"Emmy?" Derek inquired, and part of Emerson wanted to be thankful that he hadn't brought up the rest of the Prescott woman's comment on her lack of friends.

Hell, Elizabeth had never been over, and they'd known each other for far longer than she had known Derek. "It's short for Emerson, incase you didn't know," she quipped sarcastically, eager to get her mind off the girl she had been blowing off all summer.

"I didn't know that, so thank you," he retorted in the same tone, raising a challenging eyebrow when she made a move to slap his bicep.

She would've done so anyway had Hannah not piped up. "What have I said about violence at the dinner table?"

She grumbled something under her breath as her hand lowered, retreating back to her fork with a miniature scowl. She swore she saw Derek smirk, but maybe it was a trick of the light.

"So Derek, what is it that you do for a living? Aside from turning teenagers into werewolves, that is?"

Emerson sputtered, a cacophony of laughter bubbling up from her throat as she tried to cover her mouth. Hannah had a smile on her face as she posed the question, and the way Derek's own polite smile faltered at the suddenness of it all made the laughter ramp up.

She couldn't wait to see how he could dig himself out of this one, truly.

"I, uh," he tried, mouth opening and closing before he sighed, throwing in the towel.

"It's a family business, really."

⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆

[ wyn's note ]

a family dinner??? derek having some manners??? a slice of life before i ruin it next chap LMAO

but derek and em are making progress!! they can actually stand one another now(even tho neither will own up to it)!!

all my love xx