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

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."

The sad part was, neither of them were much into trusting others. It wasn’t likely they would ever find that kind of faith in another. All because of the same woman.

He chuckled at that. “Always a standard fallback,” he said with a nod. “You could try online work. I do editing.”

"I think getting a life and staying in my apartment to work would go against each other," he stated, nodding back at Peter with some amusement.

"I'll get a job that gets me out more." Derek would get a newspaper and check the want ads for something. There had to have been a couple of places around Beacon Hills that needed someone like him.

"It depends on how you handle it," he admitted. "And this is giving you levels and layers. I can't just thrust you out into the sunlight, can I?" It was an honest question, and one of amusement as well.

He considered that. "Don't work at the school. That's only going to make you creepier."

"Oh, so I should get used to interacting with people online then shift to in person?" Derek sounded amused by that. He wasn't as socially inept as most of the people around him thought, but he didn't bother trying to correct it so much.

"I didn't plan on working at the school. I'm around teenagers often enough."

"It would work if you ever shift to in person. It was a nice try when I started but I've never... shifted to in person," he admitted, acting as if it was nothing, dismissing it as nothing.

"Aren't we though," he said with a sigh. "We need adult interaction."

"Do you want to shift to in person?" he asked, leaning slightly so he was resting more of his weight against the arm of the couch. Derek did wonder if Peter was waiting until he felt more in control of himself for that, supposing there was a way for him to feel more in control.

"Adult interaction that isn't just with each other."

"Given I'm technically supposed to be covered in burns unless I have my name changed, then I don't have much choice for that." Peter Hale had been pulled from that fire a charred mess, after all.

"That would be nice, wouldn't it? Except most in town know us."

"But changing your name is an option."

Peter's next point made the option of changing his name somewhat pointless, though. "Does that mean we're stuck with just the company of each other until the teenagers grow up?"

"No, not to me it isn't," he said, expression going from animated to flat in a moment. "I'm a Hale, Derek. Just because we're all that remains doesn't mean I'm giving that up."

His name, that birthright, had always meant so much to him. This change wouldn't take that away from him.

"Boy, make it sound more horrible," he muttered, rolling his eyes.

Derek understood that. Even when he'd left Beacon Hills and gone across the country, he'd kept who he was. It was something he wasn't willing to let go of and he was even less inclined to with just the two of them left. He just nodded his understanding because he would've refused the option as well.

"Come on." He watched Peter roll his eyes, resisting letting it catch on. "Like you want your only real adult contact in person to be me. Having each other isn't a problem. It's not having anybody else that is."

At the nod, he realized that Derek got it. "So that leaves me with online and socializing in ways that didn't know me before."

Which hadn't been that hard. He hadn't been entirely social before. Instead he'd been there for his family as much as he could. All for the sake of the pack.

"Derek, most of my contact before was family. Just a lot more family than one person."

He did imagine that socializing on the internet was a lot easier than doing so in person and risking recognition. While Derek wondered what the reaction to Peter's miraculous recovery would be, he honestly didn't want to find out.

"I know that. But there were still more of us back then." And, if he thought about it, the two of them hadn't spent a whole lot of time together. Sure, Peter had taken care of them, but Derek didn't recall all that much bonding time for the two of them.

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