Chapter Text
"I hear you picked a fight with a bully."
That was how Spencer greeted him a few nights later. The second oldest of the Hale siblings, he was enrolled in his freshman year at NYU. Anyone who knew Spencer knew school wasn't his priority, but he was smart enough to get a scholarship, and living in New York was step one on his plan to become famous. He would start as a model, of course ("Obviously" he would say, gesturing to his face), while taking some film studies classes at school, and branch out into acting later.
But for all his dreams, Spencer couldn't resist picking on his younger siblings - and Laura's best defense had always been to deflect the attention on down to Derek.
Derek dropped the phone against his chest and shouted an aggrieved, "Laura!" further into the house.
She popped her head into his doorway, hair already wrapped up in a towel and face blotchy from chemicals of some kind. "What's your problem now, moppet?"
"Stop telling people that I'm being bullied and stop calling me moppet!"
"Ten-four, moppet," she said solemnly, before she disappeared back into the hall.
"I'm not being bullied," Derek said into the phone, aggrieved.
"Didn't say you were," Spencer said easily. "I said I heard you picked a fight with one. That's what Hales do, y'know. Ask Laura sometime about that kid that ended up with a broken nose."
"I'm not going to fight him."
Spencer laughed. "Of course not. You're not a fighter, Der. You're the smart one."
Just because Derek knew exactly how Spencer worked - about how his praise was just another way for him to charm people - didn't mean he didn't fall for it every time. Spencer needed to be the favorite sibling, and he made it easy. He was supportive, encouraging, and always interested. Just as long as the attention turned back to him eventually. "This kid was going to coat Mr. Harris's desk in honey, but he got caught and I got in trouble, too. So when he was showering after track practice, I stole the honey and poured it all over his clothes."
Hearing his brother laugh at his expoloits only emboldened Derek. "That's awesome, man," Spencer crowed. "I love it. It's all poetic and shit."
Derek grinned, dropping down onto his bed and staring up at the ceiling. "How's New York?" He knew better than to ask about school.
"Oh, man, it's so awesome. Everyone here is just so...interesting. Like everyone has their story about why they moved to the city, and their own style and look. It's crazy. I've already started hearing back from some people."
"That's awesome!"
There was an awkward silence that Derek couldn't decipher at first, so he added an enthusiastic, "I knew you were going to make it happen. Just don't forget brother, okay?"
"Forget my favorite?" Spencer laughed like the pause hadn't happened. "I'd have to be dead first."
Derek knew for a fact that he told each of them that they were his favorite. "So have you talked to Matt? He hasn't answered any of the texts I've sent him." Spencer might claim favorites, but everyone knew Matt really was. They were like twins, despite being born two years apart, so different and yet they complimented each other perfectly. Spencer was the jock and the social butterfly, Matt the cultured genius.
"Yeah, dude, he's coming up to the city in a couple of weeks. He's stressing about some big project. I'm going to take him out to all the best clubs. He's going to hate it."
"Sounds fun!"
"Oh, it will be. I'll take pictures!"
They talked for awhile about nothing in particular - mostly Spencer talked, and Derek listened. Spencer told him about some girl he'd met on the subway, and about a girl in his Philosophy class, a coffee shop girl and the sushi delivery girl. And about how his roommate was on an episode of Gossip Girl, and he's pretty sure he saw one of those guys from Arrow on the subway.
"Has mom mentioned how Uncle Peter is doing?" Spencer asked out of absolutely nowhere, and Derek grew still. Uncle Peter was one of those topics that they did not discuss. The last time they'd seen him had been a few weeks before Spencer graduated, he'd showed up in the middle of the night and he'd gotten into a screaming match with his sister, Derek's mother.
After that, no one really talked about where he was, or what happened to him. His Camaro had sat in the driveway for weeks before Mom gave Laura permission to start taking it to school. Laura had basically laid claim to it, and since she both needed a car and the boys were off at college, Talia had finally agreed.
All of them wanted to ask - Uncle Peter was way younger than their mom, and more like an awesome older brother than an uncle - but every time one of them started hinting at it, they saw their mom's Prosecutor face. Besides, Peter was always gallivanting off on some adventure - he'd backpacked in Europe four times, and spent nearly a year in South America. So for him to run off wasn't unusual. The fight with his sister, though, was.
"She hasn't said anything," Derek said quietly. "Do you think something's wrong?"
"I don't know," Spencer said, which was a lie, because Spencer knew everything. And if he was asking, he was worried.
"Do...do you want me to ask Mom?" Because Derek wouldn't do it on his own, but if Spencer wanted him to, he would.
"No, bud, I'm sure it's fine. Just keep an ear out, yeah?"
Derek squirmed on the bed, the dark worry clenching in his chest. He pushed it down, trying to sound as easygoing as Spencer did. "So tell me more about that girl." Which spirals into an hour of Spencer regaling him with stories of every girl he's met in New York. And he never actually says I miss you to him, but they both hear it anyway.
***
Another couple of weeks went by without reprisal. Derek was constantly on his guard, waiting for Stiles to retaliate because he knew it was coming.
So far, it was a miracle that they hadn't been hauled down to the principal's office yet. Even one of their pranks was enough to get them suspended so hard their children's GPAs would never recover. The Monday after his locker disappeared, he'd helped Scott cram for the Bio quiz, and the two of them had the highest grades in the class. The next day he'd come in, and his locker was exactly where it was supposed to be - lined up in a row with the others (if still a little damp in the corners).
Derek had never reported the disappearance, and he didn't know if anyone else had, but no one ever asked him about it. And then everything was back where it was supposed to be, so he never questioned it. But he had to wonder about the shoulder clap he'd gotten from his lab partner that day.
He couldn't say for certain that Scott was some kind of good Samaritan - because in truth he never managed to stop Stiles from his next hideous idea - but Scott always had a reassuring smile the morning after the latest prank had gone awry.
Which led him to Biology, and the gauntlet thrown down. Derek had been in a rush that morning, throwing his books into his bag without really paying attention. It had been weeks the last round of pranks, so his guard was down.
"Sup, man," Scott greeted when Derek sat down, but his head was glued to his phone. Derek almost reminded him of Harris' insanity about cell phones, but first he caught sight of his textbook as it slid from his bag.
"What the hell? This isn't mine?"
Scott glanced over at him in confusion. "Looks like yours."
The textbook looked like his, definitely. It had the same cover, was approximately the same size and shape. In every way it was the textbook that Derek had signed for at the beginning of the school year.
Except it was written in Japanese.
"Really?" Derek snapped, grabbing the book and shoving it towards Scott's face. "Read chapter 3 and tell me it's just like my book."
It took remarkably little for Scott to realize what was happening - but there was enough initial confusion that Derek realized Scott didn't know this was coming. Stiles had kept his best friend out of the loop - probably exactly for this reason.
"Whatever," Derek grunted, "I still have my notes. Thank god I read ahead over the weekend."
Scott's confusion gave way to a smile and a shake of the head. "You know you don't have to read ahead just because of me." Derek spent as much time working with Scott to make sure they were on the same page that reading ahead had just made it all easier. If he already knew what they were going to talk about, he could help Scott work through it.
"I like reading ahead." Wait, he was getting off track. This wasn't about reading ahead. This was about his book being...manhandled. Translated. Mantranslated.
He grabbed the blue notebook out of his bag, and flipped it open angrily. "I hate him. I hate him. I hate him so much." The notebook, aside from the part where BIOLOGY was written in marker across the front, had been expertly duplicated as well. Every page was filled with kanji, the only parts identical were the doodles and drawings and handouts that Harris had given them, and Derek had later pasted into his notebook. But even the drawings were labeled in Japenese.
"Can't you just look at the pictures?" Scott asked.
Derek gritted his teeth. "The notes in the diagrams are in Japanese, too. I don't read Japanese!"
"I do," a girl supplied helpfully as she was passing by. "What do you need?" She was strikingly pretty, and Derek saw the way Scott's eyes lit up as she passed. He snatched the notebook out of Derek's hands and held it out to her like an offering.
"Here, Kira," he said, and then blushed. "I mean, you're Kira, right? That's your name? Because if that's not your name I totally didn't mean to call you Kira."
The awkward and adorable was really irritating. Derek huffed as the two of them forgot him entirely. "No, it's fine, I'll get by without."
Scott nodded absently, though he didn't look away from the girl. "Awesome, dude."
Maybe Scott wasn't such a good Samaritan after all.
***
"I'm worried about Derek," Laura offered, running her straw around the perimeter of her shake, stirring it endlessly. She hadn't even sipped it yet. Danny and Lydia sat on the other side of the booth, Danny with a plate in front of him, and Lydia helping herself to his fries. They'd headed to the next town over for a concert, and Laura was just grateful that her curfew wasn't until one. Dancing that long had worked up an appetite.
"He's just trying to figure out his place," Danny replied, swatting at Lydia's hand as he grabbed a fry. "The last thing he needs is you hovering over him."
"I don't hover."
Lydia's smile was indulgent. "Of course you don't, sweetie. Tell us again about how you got Derek out of detention?"
"That wasn't hovering! That was making sure he didn't get screwed over by that kid."
"Speaking of," Danny said with a nod across the room. Laura looked over her shoulder, and saw a pair of boys sitting at the diner counter. At her glance, the gawky one on the left flinched and flailed his way back around, trying to pretend like he wasn't staring at them.
"Derek can do better," Lydia offered through pursed lips. "Wait, which one are we talking about?"
"C'mon, Lydia. You know who we're talking about," Danny replied. "Stiles?" Her blank look didn't clear up so he added, "The Sheriff's kid?"
"His dad's the Sheriff?" Laura snagged a fry and Danny huffed out a breath. "Is that how he's still in school? I would have thought he'd be suspended by now."
"He's not that bad," Danny said easily, and then his expression stilled and got serious. "And if you ever repeat that, I'm telling your Mom about what you did after the rave we never speak of."
Just for that, Laura grabbed a handful of fries and dumped them on her plate. Lydia shrugged, and started snagging fries from her instead.
"You know him?" Laura asked, glancing over again at Stiles and the other one. They were horribly obvious in their attempts at watching Laura and her friends. Every time she turned, they flailed back around. Well, at least Stiles did.
"He's on the lacrosse team. Loosely, I guess. But I think Coach likes him. He only picks on the kids he likes. Other than Greenburg."
"Everyone hates Greenburg," Lydia said. "You just can't help it."
The boys at the counter were in the process of paying - Laura saw the other one pull a handful of coins out of one pocket and she winced. Poor waitress. That didn't bode well for her tip. Well, she and Laura would have to make up for it. Danny paid for the tickets, so they were treating him.
"Still, Derek's becoming obsessed with one upping him. They have this little prank war going on. He's going to get himself kicked out of school if he's not careful."
"No, he's not," Danny said. There was a confidence to the way he said it that raised Laura's suspicions.
"What did you do?"
He didn't even bother to feign innocence. "Nothing really. I just had some friends keep the school from getting too suspicious."
"They're not your friends. They're freshmen," Lydia said airily. "It makes it sound noble when it's really not."
Laura crinkled her nose. "Are you roping the freshmen into being your interns again? Didn't anyone learn last year what a bad idea that was?"
"I'm captain of the lacrosse team," Danny said with a shrug. "Coach listens to me. I can't help it if that's why people want to be my friend."
"And if you get first dibs at the new boys in school, then all the better?" Lydia asked.
"Gross." Danny grabbed a fry off Laura's plate. "I'm not you, trolling around for fresh meat. I wouldn't date anyone still in high school."
Lydia shrugged, then focused on Laura. "Maybe Stiles just needs to start making better friends. I could introduce him to Erica."
Because Lydia's little freshman protégé would be any better than one of Danny's "interns." "I'm not trying to find my little brother a hook up."
"Good," Danny muttered under his breath. Laura shot him a look but continued, "And don't tell me that Erica would be anything more than that. You and I both know she's boy crazy."
"If I told her Derek was off limits, but could use a friend, she'd listen," Lydia said. "Everyone listens to me."
"Because we're all sick of listening to you scream when you don't get your way." Danny nodded his head towards the counter again, and Laura turned in time to see Stiles and his friend heading for the door.
"Hey. Uhm, hey Lydia, how's it going. You're looking..." he started to trail off as Lydia pursed her lips and turned towards her phone on the table, giving him the cold shoulder, "...like you're not interested. Awesome. Good talk. See you around." The dismissal was noted, but it was clear that Stiles didn't let it crush his spirits at all.
"He has a thing for you?" Laura asked, once the boys climbed into a ratty blue Jeep.
"Lydia thinks everyone has a thing for her," Danny interjected quickly, before Lydia could respond.
"Empirical evidence suggests it's true," she said, after taking a moment to shoot Danny a poisonous look. "Jealous, much?"
"For the last time, I was not in love with Jackson. No matter how much you and he wanted me to be!"
"The lady doth protest..." but she smiled.
Laura watched the Jeep pull out of the parking lot, her mind turning.