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

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

This was a bad idea. Peter was pretty sure of this. Even if it was just Derek crashing there a few days, it meant them living together. In the former home of a woman he'd killed. Somewhere deep down, he knew this was a bad idea.

Yet he'd invited him nonetheless.

Unlocking the door, he made sure everything was clean and neat. It was all elegant in white and grey and oyster with a fireplace where earlier he'd built a fire, a massive desk tucked into one corner and a rather expensive computer set up that hadn't come with the place when he'd "inherited" it.

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Despite the knowledge it would be eventually torn down by the state, Peter knew it was better for everyon 0 not to mention his own mental well being - to let it go.

That question though made him curious. "Hey, what happened to my motorcycle? Do you know?"

It was eventually going to be torn down and Derek was fine with leaving it there until that happened. He wasn't in any rush to see an empty plot of land where his home used to be.

He tilted his head slightly. "Assuming the lease on the space didn't get canceled, it's in storage with a few other things."

He nodded. "I'll have to check into that. I did love that bike." He grinned at Derek. "Surprised you didn't get it out and claim it for your own," he teased, seeming to certainly remember times before the fire in that moment.

"You should get it out. It'll probably need some work after sitting in there for that long," he pointed out, recalling times before the first as well and letting out a low chuckle. "I didn't even consider it. It didn't seem right."

He chuckled. "I could make that the project and get you to fix my bike for me," he said, seemingly amused by this idea. "A lot about our lives isn't right, Derek," he admitted with a sigh, turning serious for a moment. "When has that stopped some?"

"I'm not your mechanic," Derek replied, wrinkling his nose at the thought of having to work on Peter's bike likely while his uncle watched and informed him what he was doing wrong.

"It doesn't stop some." He just shrugged. It had stopped him, though, and that was what mattered.

"What makes you think I don't know how to work on it myself," he asked, rolling his eyes. "I spent years taking off from this town, coming back in time for the moon. Do you think I paid a mechanic every time something went wrong," he asked. "Please. You know so little about me but you think you know so much."

He shook his head. "Derek, you were a child when you knew me. You know the man I am, not who I was."

Derek let out a sigh and massaged the spot between his eyes, closing them for a second. "You're jumping all over me for nothing," he informed him after a second as he lifted his head and opened his eyes. "You said you'd get me to fix your bike for you. I didn't say anything about what you did or didn't know. I just meant that I'm not going to work on it for you. With you, though, yeah."

He shook his head slightly and lifted his glass to finish off his drink.

"I'm jumping on you because you made an assumption. You do it a lot,' he pointed out, though he was also working to keep him off balance emotionally and mentally where Derek was concerned.

"Derek, I'm trying to work this out. Eventually I'm going to snap. Eventually you're going to lose it because of me. I'm still trying." And he was thinking about that day when he finally snapped. He knew it would happen, eventually.

If Peter was aiming to keep him off balance, he did the job well. Derek never quite knew what was going to pass and what wasn't, whether he intended to make assumptions or comments to provoke Peter or not.

"So, it's all just waiting, then? Until you snap and I lose it again because of that?" Derek wasn't sure he liked that it seemed like a big waiting game, just holding on and being decent enough around each other until something snapped Peter's trigger.

All that was met with was silence. He looked away, downing his drink and considering his answer.

"The truth, Derek? I don't know. Since I... Since I came back, things have been different than before. Not over though. I don't feel like I did before. I know what the world is, who you can trust and what there is in the end. I can't promise you anything, though I'm trying. All for the sake of you and you being my family."

The answer was somewhat surprising, mainly because Derek felt like he lived wary of everyone around him, Peter included. So, to hear that Peter might've actually been making an effort because of him was enough to shut him up for a few moments.

"I know you can't promise anything," he said, slow with his words to try to avoid being misunderstood again. He was never careful enough when he spoke to his uncle and he wanted to avoid making his words come across like an attack. "Let me help you stay grounded this time."

Peter was trying, though his definition of trying was different than most people. He still felt he was owed, that he had been cheated of his revenge and yet had accomplished what so many others hadn't.

Now he had to see if he could keep the allies he had, or find himself alone and likely to be killed.

"Is that really what you want to do," he asked, arching a brow. Curious more than upset.

Derek was silent for a few moments before he finally nodded in response, looking at Peter.

"If you're serious about trying, yeah." Family probably didn't mean as much to either of them as it used to. Not in the same way, at least. And Derek didn't doubt the possibility of Peter betraying him even if he did try to help.

He was still offering anyway. Peter was all he had left.

He was quiet, toying with his bottle. He thought about what he should say, and how to handle this. Did he leave it alone and not mention Laura ever? Would Derek prefer that?

He decided to follow Derek's lead and not say a word.

"So... How goes things with you and the beta," he asked suddenly, changing directions to the living and not the dead.

Honestly, Derek would have preferred to not talk about Laura or the rest of their family. The loss was something he locked away because it just felt easier to deal with things like that.

It was either that or he ran the risk of snapping one day.

The sudden change of subject wasn't as disarming as it felt like it should've been. "Things are good. He's not seeing the apartment until everything's there, though. I don't know how much he appreciates that."

It was a loss that Peter felt though, and because of his actions he had no one he could ever talk to about it. That was the hardest part for him. He knew he couldn't talk to anyone about things, but he was entirely and completely without anyone he could talk to about what drove him, the screams he'd heard, and all he had lost.

"He'd help you, you know," he pointed out. "Least he seems the type. So... puppyish."

Derek would potentially be willing to talk to Peter about it, to listen to his side of things. But, right then, with everything still so fresh, he couldn't. It didn't all have to do with Peter. Part of it was the fact that he never did give himself the time to really mourn Laura and it was something he was still putting off. Like he had to find the right time to manage it.

"I know he would, but I'm trying to prove that he can depend on me," Derek replied, shrugging.

"That's a sentiment I can understand. Something we don't have now," he admitted, thinking back to times before the fire. There had always been a family to rely on, a pack that a person could turn to.

"What is it you want, Derek?"

He nodded at that because it was the truth. With Derek as the alpha and the lacking bit of pack they did have, there was nothing near the sense of togetherness or stability they'd had before the fire.

There was a long few moments of silence after the question as Derek looked at Peter. "I'd like to be able to depend on you at some point. Or to trust you and have you depend on me."

And it was something that Peter didn't believe they would ever have. The family was dead. The people they loved gone. How could they have back everything they lost considering?

He heard what Derek said, actually listening. "And do you think those things are possible? Derek, what happened to me doesn't get cured." He'd had a snap, and didn't believe he could ever wholly heal."

There was no faith in getting things back, but Derek did have some hope that he could build something new. He couldn't replace his family. That wasn't going to happen. But, forming a new pack and having people around him that he could eventually learn to trust sounded like a good idea.

"Even if I can't depend on you because of that, it doesn't mean you can't depend on me at some point." Which was what his role should've been from the moment he became alpha, after all. Someone the rest of the pack could depend on.

Peter wanted more. He had to focus on more than the idea that there was nothing but these two men and a burned out shell of a home. If he focused only on that, the crack that ran through his mind would only considered to widen until there was no crossing that chasm.

"Derek, let's be honest. You're going to support your pack, but just like them you don't see me as part of that even if you're my alpha." That he knew, and would accept. For the time being.

"Maybe not right now." Derek was at least going to be honest about things, even if the potential for driving more of a wedge between them was there. Lying about things would've just been a quick way to end anything decent between them and he wasn't looking to do that.

"Things can change. I don't plan on cutting you out. I'd eventually like you to be part of my pack." That was assuming he ever managed to keep enough betas around to build one.

"Things are changing. That is something we have to face." All the threats around them, their own differences aside, there was more they had to worry about than just what Peter was capable of.

"What do you consider me now then," he asked, curious where he stood in Derek's eyes.

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