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Cora’s uncle Peter can't really be around, and his wife, Aunt Sofia, is basically raising their daughter alone. But she still needs to work, so she has to have someone to babysit Malia when necessary. That is Cora and Derek’s job.
Malia is a very curious toddler, who can be terrifying and cute at the same time. She doesn’t throw a lot of tantrums, but she can be stubborn when she wants to. Today, she wants ice cream, and won’t take no for an answer, so Cora decides to go to the ice cream parlor with her, bringing Derek along.
They sit on the parlor’s terrace, and while Derek is trying to keep Malia in place so she won’t run off anywhere, Cora is holding three fingers in the air:
"So. Malia wants chocolate chip in a cone, I take passion fruit in a cup. What about you, Derek? Pistachio, I guess?"
"Strawberry, cone," Derek grumbles as he gives Malia the plush in Cora’s bag so she stops fidgeting.
"What? But pistachio is your favorite! And you’ve always said strawberry was bland and boring!"
Derek looks weirdly offended. Cora might as well have insulted their mom.
"Well, maybe I don’t think so anymore and now strawberry is my favorite."
"Okay?..."
Her brother is so fucking weird sometimes.
When she comes back with the ice creams however, two guys are standing in front of their table, and Derek is in a staring contest with one of them. She doesn’t even have to see his face to know the guy is Scott McCall, coveted omega of Beacon Hills High School. The guy awkwardly standing behind him is Stiles Stilinski, also omega, and McCall’s best friend.
"Your ice cream has arrived, we can start now," Scott says with an air of triumph.
Derek grabs the cone Cora was handing him, and smirks.
"Get ready to have your ass beaten, McCall," he says as he bites into the sorbet. He doesn’t even seem to have a brainfreeze, or maybe he does, but he doesn’t acknowledge it because McCall.
Cora rolls her eyes to the sky and glances at Stilinski, who's holding his own baby blue ice cream. He shrugs.
"Contest of who can eat five ice creams the fastest. Or something," he says, sounding utterly bored. Cora doesn’t blame him.
While his friend eats his ice cream like his life depends on it, Stilinski proceeds to play with Malia, who's licking her cone carefully, and eats his own. Slowly. Until drops of melted ice cream falls on the ground and he has to lick some off his wrist.
Derek ends up losing the contest, mumbling something about having been distracted.
Cora was there when Derek interacted with Scott McCall for the first time.
Before that day, Derek had been remotely aware of McCall and his friends, but had never really paid attention. Derek is an alpha and McCall is an omega, but Derek has never been that interested in romance before (much to a lot of betas and omegas' - and even a few alphas - displeasure), so it’s not surprising that McCall had never fallen into Derek’s radar.
Scott McCall is in the same year as Derek. He has kind eyes and a crooked smile, and he's super nice and gentle. It makes him pretty popular - Cora once heard Stilinski call McCall "the hot omega everybody wants". There are always people around him, but he usually hangs out with his two best friends, Stilinski, again, and another omega called Allison. The three of them have always been glued to each other since middle school, and have never been in the same circle of friends as the Hales, or even talked to them. This goes on until junior year — until Derek bumps into McCall while carrying his lunch and spills his juice on his sweatshirt. Which is surprising since Cora doesn’t know Derek for being particularly clumsy, but well, things happen.
The whole debacle involves a mad Derek grumbling to McCall to watch where he's going. It was Derek’s fault (even Cora would admit it, she was there), though, so McCall frowned and stood his ground. There was a lot of growling and flashing eyes.
From that day, Derek takes upon him to beat McCall at everything, be it sports or grades in the classes they share or the most stupid things ever like who can eat ice creams the fastest, and the worst is that McCall gladly accepts every challenge. It goes on until senior year, and Cora has no idea why Derek is so adamant to challenge McCall whenever he can. At first, she thinks it’s dumb alpha posturing (she would know, she's an alpha, and her girlfriend is an alpha too, there has been a /lot/ of posturing before the both of them got together), but even then, she doesn’t understand why Derek would try show off at the expense of McCall, who’s an omega and not an alpha.
Then, one day, it clicks.
Mr. Parrish is in charge of juniors while Mr. Deaton looks after the seniors for PE at the same time on Mondays, which means Cora and Derek’s classes sometimes share the field.
The juniors are running laps around the field while the seniors are playing soccer. At the end of the period, as Cora finishes her laps and finally gets to rest, she hears McCall telling Derek he would never be able to score a single goal against him.
Derek’s eyebrows shot up. He smirks, grabs a ball, and motions McCall to go to the nets. The rest of the class is cleaning up the field, totally unfazed by their behavior. It has become a common occurence now.
Derek kicks the ball two times, but fails both times. Cora sees his frown deepen, and he takes a deep breath before shooting McCall a smug smile as he kicks the ball a third time. However, right when the ball connects with his foot, it seems like something takes him by surprise, and instead of aiming for the top corner like he did the first two times, the ball goes straight into McCall’s face. Bounces on it. It goes in.
But Derek has no time to celebrate, as Stilinski rushes to them.
Stilinski is cute, in Cora’s opinion, but he isn’t dashing or dazzling, and even less graceful. He has a cute nose, long eyelashes and a nice strawberry scent, but he's gangly and has probably never learnt to coordinate his movements when he was younger. And next to Scott, who has been dubbed "most popular omega senior", he’s practically invisible. Then again, Cora is dating Lydia Martin, so the bar is set kind of high for her.
When it seems like McCall’s nose is not broken despite his pleas for the contrary, Stilinski flicks him on the forehead, rolling his eyes to the sky.
"Wh— Stiles?!"
"You’re as much in fault as he is, Scott. You were the one who suggested doing these."
McCall pouts, and Stilinski shakes his head, muttering something to express his annoyance.
Derek, who has remained quiet the whole time, suddenly strides up to them. His eyes flick to Stilinski, and he scratches the back of his neck.
"I. I didn’t mean to aim for his face or to hurt him. It was an accident. Sorry."
"Why are you apologizing to me? He’s the one who received a ball in the nose," Stiles says, motioning to his friend.
Derek throws a look at McCall who’s the one with a smug smile this time, before a blush starts blooming on his face. Derek looks at the ground and puts his hands in his pockets.
"Didn’t mean to hurt you," he says curtly.
Then he leaves, rushing for the lockers. Cora, who has stayed behind to witness the whole thing, sees McCall high fiving a confused Stilinski.
("Oh my god, did you see his face? Thank you for being you. I’m so glad to have you as a weapon against him in my team."
"Weapon? What are you talking about? Did he actually hurt your brain?")
But she doesn’t really care about this, because she just understood. For one, Derek hardly apologizes, and even less without anyone to tell him to do so. Derek never blushes either. Derek never avoids eyes.
Derek is pulling McCall’s metaphorical pigtails.
She wouldn’t push it past her brother to act like a four-year-old, because she knows it's his actual emotional age. She has always known that if Derek ever had a crush, he would deny it, then act on it by being the most annoying person on Earth there is. Because Derek handling feelings like the (almost) adult he is?
Hah. She can’t even dream of it.
The morning started like any other. Derek and Cora go to school together, picking Lydia on the way. Class is as boring as usual, Mr. Harris is as annoying as usual, and so on and so on.
Lunch, though? Not so much.
When Cora leaves the chemistry classroom, there's a huge commotion in the hall. A small group of people is agglutinated around the lockers, making too much noise to actually hear what’s going on in the center.
"What’s happening?" she asks to Lydia, who shrugs, totally disinterested.
Still, Cora makes her way in the crowd and reaches the front lines to see Derek and McCall, and she gasps.
Derek’s right eye is swollen, and his irises are blood red. McCall doesn’t seem hurt anywhere, but he’s holding his fist against his chest.
What. The. Fuck.
She says so out loud.
While her brother challenges McCall a lot, and McCall has started challenging him back over the time, it has been, until now, a relatively healthy rivalry. It has never come to fists. Hell, she has even witnessed times where Derek and McCall teased each other good-naturedly. They are not supposed to be archenemies. Derek is supposed to have a crush on Scott, what the fuck?
She rushes to put herself in front of her brother, who looks ready to charge.
"Derek! What the hell?!" she screams.
Derek is breathing heavily, panting almost. She has never seen Derek so mad, so close to going feral, but he seems to calm down when he hears her voice. Cora holds his hand to anchor him, and turns to Scott with a frown.
"What’s happening?!"
Scott, whose eyes are flashing golden too, but who seems way more down to earth, jumps and puts his hands in front of him.
"I— I don’t know! I just — flipped him off, like we always do, you know, to rile up each other. And usually he just... flips me off back? But I don’t know, today he wasn’t having it, and he started growling at me and he had fucking alpha red eyes and he never reacted like this and I thought it would become physical so — I don’t know! I just reacted! I didn’t do it on purpose, it was a reflex! I punched him in the face —"
"You punched my brother in the face?!"
"I’m sorry! I’m really sorry! It’s just — he never reacted like that!"
"Scott!" Allison’s voice cuts their conversation. She's making her way through the crowd, Stilinski following her not too far behind.
They surround McCall and check for bruises. But while Allison is turning his face in every way she can to make sure he hasn’t been cut anywhere, Stilinski turns to face Derek, frowning a bit.
"Derek?" he asks. His voice sounds more unsure than angry.
It seems enough to snap Derek out of his state and his eyes turn back to their usual color. Suddenly aware of his surroundings, he looks around him with a bewildered expression. Then his gaze flicks to Stilinski and he takes one step, two steps back, his hand leaving Cora’s grasp, before he runs away.
Cora looks for him around school for the whole lunch period, calls him and texts him a hundred of times, and even skips last period to find him. When the day ends and it’s pretty obvious Derek has left the school already, she decides to walk home with Lydia.
"Cora, you told me Derek had a crush on Scott McCall, right?" Lydia asks when they get close to the Hale house.
"Yeah, I’m pretty sure of it. But with everything today, chances are that Scott doesn’t like him back," she answers sadly.
Lydia is playing with the hem of her sleeve, like she always does when she has to say something she doesn’t want to.
"Well. Yes. I heard Scott’s dating someone since today."
"What?! Who?!"
Lydia twists her mouth.
"One of his two omega friends who are always with him. The girl. Allison, I think?"
"Oh," Cora just says, her eyes casting down.
While Derek is the most annoying brother of all times, she really loves him, and she can’t help but feel heartbroken in his stead. He has probably learnt the news this morning, and that’s why he has been so on edge earlier.
She feels a soft hand on her forearm.
"Hey, Cora. Baby. Don’t cry."
"I’m not crying," Cora only replies, voice trembling a bit.
Lydia huffs and begins to trace circles on Cora’s arm with her thumb.
"You want me to stay with you?"
"No, it’s okay. I want to keep Derek company."
Lydia only smiles sadly, and when they reach the house, she kisses her goodbye and leaves.
Derek’s shoes are the only ones next to the staircase, as their parents are still at work and Laura is away for college. She sighs. At least, he made it home.
When she gets into his room, he's curled in his bed, covers thrown up to his neck, but Cora knows he isn’t sleeping.
"Hey, I was worried you know? I called you," she says, glad she found a steady voice again.
Derek mumbles something, but he doesn’t move, so Cora goes to sit on the edge of his bed.
"I know you’re upset."
"I kind of ridiculed myself in front of the whole school," he says, his voice muffled by his pillow. "I would never hurt him. I was just in a bad mood and had a hard time controlling my wolf, but it was just a slip. I just wanted to tell him to leave me the fuck alone. Until he hit me, anyway."
"I know you wouldn’t. But do you like him so much your wolf slipped out? You're usually the best at control."
Derek peeks out from where he's hiding.
"Hm... What?"
"I know about your crush, Derek," she says, rolling her eyes.
Derek’s eyes go wild, the tip of his ears red.
"What?" he repeats.
"You’re upset about McCall and his friend dating, right?"
Derek deflates and his face closes off again. He goes to hide under his covers again.
He stays silent for five minutes, and Cora is almost standing up to leave the room when he talks again.
"Was it that obvious?"
Cora shakes her head, smiling sadly, but her voice is fond when she talks.
"You were so obvious. I mean, I’m your sister, of course I noticed." She doesn’t tell him probably half the school knows too. She’s his sister, not a demon.
He stays silent again, so Cora pats him from above the covers.
"Hey. You’re way more a catch than Allison and that dumbass doesn’t deserve you if he doesn’t see it."
"What?" Derek exclaims, peeking again from the covers.
"I said you were —"
"No, you said. McCall is dating Allison?!"
"Well, yes but —"
"Not Stiles? Oh my god!" he suddenly throws back the covers and Cora wants to put bleach in her eyes because she has just seen her brother in nothing but tight underwear. Also, when did her brother and Stilinski start being on first name basis?
He jumps from the bed and goes to search for clothes in his wardrobe.
"Oh my god," he keeps repeating as he dresses up. "I’m such a fucking idiot."
"Well, I’m not going to deny it, but— hey, where are you going?!" she exclaims as Derek bolts down the stairs and opens the front door.
"McCall’s!"
Cora falls asleep before Derek comes back. When she wakes up the next morning, he's in such a good mood that she wonders if she has dreamt the whole thing the day before.
When Lydia enters the Camaro as they pick her up, her eyebrows almost rise to her hairline, and she looks pointedly at Cora. Cora only shrugs. Well, not a dream, then. So, like, what the fuck?
As they make their way through the school parking lot, Cora motions to Lydia to leave first. Then, she tugs at Derek’s sleeve.
"Hey, Derek. You okay?"
"Oh, huh. Yes. Sorry for freaking out yesterday. There has been a misunderstanding."
Cora’s eyebrows shot up when she sees how red Derek’s ears have become.
"A misunderstanding. Because you thought McCall was dating Stilinski instead of Allison."
"Well — yes."
Cora frowns.
"I don’t understand. So you think you still have a chance with McCall if it’s Allison, but not if it’s Stilinski?"
"What are you talking about? A chance with McCall?"
"Don’t you have a crush on him?"
"What the fuck? No! Oh my god, no, McCall?! That’s so gross, what —"
Derek’s rant is cut when someone pokes him on the shoulder. A scent of strawberries assaults Cora’s nose.
Derek turns almost automatically to face Stilinski, who's smiling brightly at him.
"Hi, Derek," Stilinski says, his cheeks a little pink. Cora doesn't know him very well, but she would say he's a little bit flustered, even though she doesn't understand why.
Derek doesn’t answer, frozen like a deer caught in the headlights. It doesn’t seem to faze Stilinski even a bit — it even seems like it’s a common occurrence to him. But Cora knows. Derek Hale does not freeze.
"Thank you for apologizing to Scott, yesterday. I mean, he was more in the wrong than you, since he hit you and even though you were kind of scary you didn't actually touch him, but I’m impressed you were the one to take the first step and apologize. And thank you for making that truce with him too. The rivalry was getting kind of boring," he says with a laugh. Cora understands half of what he’s saying, because he speaks fast, without a pause, and she hasn’t been present for everything he’s talking about.
"Oh, hm. Yes. I mean, it’s okay. I mean, you’re welcome, it was nothing. Easy. Uh. Yeah."
Derek goes silent, closing his mouth in a thin line, panic written in his eyes. Stilinski cocks his head to the side with a smile, seeming confused but still amused, before bidding them goodbye and leaving.
Derek stares at the other boy’s retreating back, seeming lost in thoughts, before suddenly facepalming himself.
"Derek Hale, you’re such a moron. Why can’t you talk to him like a normal person?" he whispers.
But then, he seems to remember where he is, and who is there with him. He faces Cora again, eyes wide and the tip of his ears even redder than before, if possible. She has never seen them so red. They could probably lead Santa’s sleigh during foggy Christmas eves.
"Don’t say anything," he threatens with a growl. She doesn’t know why Derek thinks he can look threatening after what just happened.
"Oh. My. God."
She bursts out in laughter. Derek isn’t a four-year-old pigtail-puller type of crusher at all. Derek is an awkward stuttering mess type of crusher, and it is so so much better.