sassiopath | Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly: For Haled

Derek recognized that it probably wasn't the best idea once he'd left his apartment and was on his way to Peter's. He hadn't been invited to live with his uncle when he was looking for an apartment and, while he'd considered the possibility of Peter ending up at their place, he hadn't rented a place that had enough bedrooms to cover if he really did end up living with them at some point.

He followed the directions he was given and made his way upstairs to the correct door. And there was a moment of hesitation before Derek knocked a couple of times then turned the knob to let himself inside, almost immediately surprised by the warmth of the place as he stepped in.

Most of it had been the nurse's. He'd worked with it, made it his own. That was the computer. Some of the rest though, he hadn't changed. It wasn't real family but there were pictures watching over them.

He came out of the kitchen, drying his hands on a towel.

"I admit, I wasn't sure if you were going to come or not."

Had he not been given the directions by his uncle, he would've expected the person walking out of the kitchen to be someone else entirely that would likely have attempted to have him arrested. Even with Peter giving him the directions, that had been a possibility.

The apartment had a strangely homey feel to it and it came very close to making Derek miss their home long before Kate had gotten to it.

"A bed sounded a lot better than the futon. I couldn't turn it down after rolling around on that thing."

"Like I said, you don't do shopping without me. You'd be more comfortable on the floor," he admitted, leaning back to toss the towel on the counter. "At least then the hard wood is even and not in slats," he admitted, giving a look around.

"So, like I said, had a place since I got out of the hospital. You seemed determined to be a fugitive though, so I figured I'd stay close. Make yourself at home. Except the computer. Leave that alone, thanks." He sounded, even to his own ears, normal. It almost worried him.

"Yeah, wish I'd realized that before. I should've just dragged the mattress off of it and put that on the floor. It would've worked," Derek mused with a shrug as he took another couple of steps forward to look around.

The place suited Peter. Derek considered that as he nodded and moved into the living room, talking over his shoulder. "I didn't plan on touching the computer. Don't worry." It took a few minutes of just wandering around and getting the feel for the place before Derek finally settled on the couch and located the remote to the television to flip it on - one of those normal things that he hadn't done in a very long time.

He watched Derek, leaning against that doorway. In truth he hadn't ever thought about having anyone here, not one of them at least. Especially not Derek. Not because he didn't like having his nephew still in his life, but because eventually them being together would explode with emotions and the past.

Today didn't seem to be that day.

"Did I say make yourself at home,' he asked, amused. "I guess I did. Did you want anything? Kitchen's fairly well stocked."

He wasn't sure what to do with himself, not with Derek in that space with him.

Derek hadn't exactly pictured himself spending any time at Peter's. Not beyond the potential cooking lessons that they'd talked about, but had yet to actually plan. They were usually better off taking each other in small doses and spending fair amounts of time apart. Living together, even if it was just for a couple of days, probably wasn't the best idea.

He wasn't going to leave, though. He felt like going would have been worse than sticking around.

"I'm alright." Derek shifted to look up at Peter, raising an eyebrow at him as he remained in the spot he was in. "This is your place. You can ignore me. Or sit down. Anything that isn't standing there and watching me."

He moved to the desk, fingers moving over the keyboard and saving what he'd been working on, closing down a program before coming over and sitting in an arm chair that sat kitty corner to the couch, facing the window and the fireplace.

"Yeah well, I'm not used to having guests," he pointed out. "I usually spend my evenings working." But that seemed rude, after all. "So... do you do anything for entertainment but hang around with teenagers?" He asked cheerfully.

He only looked over to watch the movement for a moment before he turned the television on and started to flip through the channels. All Derek needed was a baseball game and he'd have no problem sinking into the couch and remaining silent until he was ready to head to bed.

The sports channels were almost all covering football, though, and he found himself stopping on one and turning the volume down as Peter took a seat. "It's not like you have to entertain me. I'm not really much of a guest." He was just the nephew that was crashing in the spare bedroom. Something that sounded far too normal for them. The question made Derek furrow his eyebrows for a second.

"... I'm starting to think I don't," he admitted, almost looking put out over the fact that all he ever did was spend time with teenagers.

He watched the channels, not one for watching them though there were days he missed playing. "You and baseball," he said with a chuckle and a shake of his head. "At least it isn't lacrosse," he pointed out, still not getting that game. Not really."

Peter made a face. "You're family, and I don't have to entertain you but ignoring you seems wrong. You're here and I'm giving you time and attention. Not a bad thing, is it?"

Despite the look on Derek's face, he chuckled. "Okay then. So next on our shopping list is getting you a life?"

Playing was something he missed, too. Not like there was much of a chance for it at his age or like he could see himself asking any of his very small pack to play with him. Derek imagined asking any of them would get looks wondering if he was sick. "I don't get it either.

"It's not a bad thing, no. But it's not a requirement either. I'm not here to bother you." No, if Derek was there with some sort of purpose other than sleeping, they wouldn't have been sitting around in the living room.

"Depends on what getting me a life entails. I'm not hitting bars or joining something like a bowling league with you," he replied, wrinkling his nose. They went back and forth with being in an okay play, but they would never be that close. And Derek wasn't putting on a pair of bowling shoes.

It never occurred to Peter to think about how different life could have been. What kind of relationship would they have if not for Kate, for the fire and all it had caused in it's wake. He never wondered if it would end up with them as friends, something that could never happen now. In his head he had done exactly what he had to and that trumped everything else.

"I'm not asking you to go normal and suburban," he said with a snort. "I'm saying you need to do something. Why not a bar or club?" His nose wrinkled much as Derek's had. "You don't dance?"

It was something that had crossed Derek's mind. But, he had a lot of 'what if' thoughts regarding the fire and Kate and the loss of their family. It went hand in hand with the amount of time everyone liked to say he spent brooding, he supposed. He did think that, had nothing happened, they might've been close.

"I can deal with a bar before a club." The television had completely lost Derek's attention at the mention of dancing. "Do I look like I dance?"

Things even now were changing. Peter wasn't sure where they would end up, but he was willing to wait it out and see. At least until it crashed down on them. He wasn't sure he didn't expect it to crash though. Derek was new and nervous to all he was doing. Peter was lost in madness. Yet they might be able to do this. If they were both patient.

"You could learn. It isn't that hard, you know," he said with a grin. "I would offer to teach you but..." His grin only widened.

They probably wouldn't ever be friends. Not in the way they could've been before everything. But, there was always the chance that they would be able to work together. Put the crashing and failure aside to find common ground and stick to it. They were still family, even if that wasn't as important of a point when it came to keeping peace between them.

"I have no rhythm," Derek stated, very sure of that. He'd lived outside of Beacon Hills. He'd done his share of socializing. It had served as a decent distraction in the beginning. "It's only something you'd want to see to mock me for later."

"Okay, so... you've never been social? Ever," he asked, frowning deeply. He tried to remember if Derek had always been like that but he remembered a boy following after Laura. Most of his attention had been on helping to groom Laura to be alpha and he now realized how much they hadn't offered to the younger Hale sibling.

"What did you do for fun in high school?"

"I've been social. I know how to be social." It didn't mean he was always fond of being social, though. Still, he wasn't at that point where he needed to call someone to deliver groceries to him to avoid going out.

"I played baseball. Went out on the weekends. Dated her..." Okay, so his social at that time had hit a very abrupt end after Kate. Outside of Beacon Hills, he'd spent some time out. He preferred bars to clubs because they weren't always as loud. And because he was far less likely to get asked to dance at one.

'Let's leave out dating her," he said, expression darkening for a moment. He was dealing with that in his own way. Like ripping out her throat, but tat was another story. Though it was one that had worked well for him, he had to admit.

"Are you planning to never date again," he asked suddenly. "I'm not saying you have to, I'm just curious if you have no plans to ever date again. Because, well, that would be dumb," he pointed out.

He smiled though, trying not to make it sound so harsh. Except he'd intended it that way from the way he said it, obviously.

Derek was all for leaving any discussion of Kate out of things despite being the one that had brought it up in the first place. It had covered part of his social life, though, so he'd felt the need to mention it.

The smile didn't soften anything. Not that Derek expected anything gentle to come from Peter in the first place.

"I don't plan on dating right now," he replied, shrugging his shoulders. It was something that crossed his mind from time to time, but it wasn't an absolute need. Not when he was more focused on forming and training a pack. "I'll eventually date again. Just not right now." Derek thought that answer was acceptable enough.

Despite how twisted and backwards his words were, and not entirely the most judicious of things Peter had said, there was an undertone of care. He was, in his own psychopathic way, actually wanting to see his nephew find a life that wasn't just the pain and loss that seemed to consume them both these days.

"Right. Of course you will." He didn't buy it. Not in the least. The family line was likely to end with them. He accepted that.

"Derek, you need a life. You're a bitter young man. You don't need to age to be a bitter old man."

"I'm not bitter." His tone said otherwise and he realized it, sighing afterward and letting himself lean against the arm of the couch, elbow resting there.

"Having a life and dating aren't the same thing," Derek pointed out after a moment of thought. And he knew he was right in that much. Dating could've been part of having a life, but it didn't necessarily need to be. He was fine with it not being a part of finding things to do outside of training and worrying about teenagers all the time.

Peter sat back in the chair, staring at Derek. "You know saying it doesn't make it true, right? You're still hurting and you're not doing anything to make it better. You killed me. You stopped Gerard. Make a life for yourself, for Isaac," he said, shaking his head as he rolled his eyes.

"Dating is part of a normal life, Derek. Your father did it. I did it. There were always those children," he said, voice grinding at the memory of them. "Because they all had their lives."

"Yeah, I know that." That wouldn't stop him from claiming he wasn't bitter about things. But getting settled and giving himself more of a life was a much better option than sitting down and talking everything out with someone. There wasn't a single person he'd actually consider for that.

And, it didn't fail. They always circled back to the way things were. It was another reason they'd never really be able to move past things to become anything close to friends. "I know it's a part of life, but it's not something I want right now. I'm thinking about getting a job instead."

There really did need to be more therapists that specialized in the supernatural and the extraordinary. Who else could they turn to with their psychosis? It was an untapped resource though did nothing to help Derek, or even Peter, now.

That was a new answer that Peter hadn't counted. "Oh? Doing what," he asked. "Not in the insulting you can't do anything but what are you considering?" He realized just how harsh those words had sounded.

It wasn't like Derek honestly would've considered talking to a therapist if he couldn't even bother to confide in his own pack. But, Peter probably could've used a therapist. It might've made some improvement for him.

"I haven't decided yet." Derek didn't overthink the way the question had sounded. "I'm considering delivery or being a mover. At least temporarily. Heavy lifting is something I can do without a problem."

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