Work Text:
Laura went out to the preserve to look for Derek yet again. For the entire week he’d been back in Beacon Hills, he would spend most of his days out at their old house, lost in his memories and guilt. She feared that if she hadn’t forced him to stay at the hotel with her, he would actually stay in the burned out husk of the house, and that definitely wouldn’t help her brother heal.
But when she arrived at the ruins of the Hale house, Derek wasn‘t there. Both of their scents permeated the entire preserve, so it was hard to tell where exactly Derek had gone. But Laura was an alpha, with better senses than most werewolves, and she was able to figure out which was the freshest scent left by her brother. As she followed the scent trail, she was surprised but intrigued when she realized where exactly he must have been going.
Sure enough, she ended up at the edge of the preserve right behind Beacon Hills High School near the sports fields. If she remembered correctly, the lacrosse field was the one closest to where they were. Sure enough, there was a bunch of teens playing lacrosse. School must have let out already. A voice rang out above all the others in the distance, and even though it had been many years since she herself had been a student there, she immediately recognized it as Coach Finstock, the lacrosse coach. She grinned as she realized that the man hadn’t changed one bit since her high school days.
And sure enough, there was Derek standing there with his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket that he always seemed to be wearing. His gaze was intense as he watched the players.
“Hey, baby bro,” Laura said, walking up beside him.
Derek didn’t turn to look at her. “Hi, Laura.”
She took a deep breath and breathed the scents of their old school. The grass on the field, the sweaty players, food served at the cafeteria at lunchtime. Then, she caught a whiff of a couple of very familiar and recent scents, causing her to smirk.
She looked closer at each lacrosse player, and then she spotted them. The two boys who had been trespassing on their property. Scott and Stiles, she remembered. The two of them were sitting on the bench. So maybe this was the reason Derek had snuck out there, she thought slyly.
“So, what are you doing out here?” she asked innocently.
All she got in response was a shrug. Her brother, such a talkative guy.
But then again, he’d always been pretty quiet. He talked a lot when it was something he was interested in, though, like basketball when he was in high school. He used to love basketball. Their family had always gone to his games, even their extended family when they were in town. But it hadn’t just been Derek’s basketball games that their mother and father had gone to.
“Remember when Mom and Dad used to come out here?” she asked. It was impossible to keep the wistfulness out of her voice. “They used to pop up sometimes during my gym classes, watch me play kickball. They’d stand right about where we are. They thought they were so sneaky, but they weren‘t.” She chuckled softly.
A pained look crossed Derek‘s face. “And they’d always be at my basketball games too,” he said quietly.
“Yeah,” Laura said. “And they’d make whatever family was visiting at the time go along with them. They always cheered the loudest of anyone there.”
“And they would wave, too.” One side of Derek‘s mouth quirked up. “They were so embarrassing.” Then his face crumpled and Laura‘s heart ached. “I miss them so much.”
Laura wrapped her arms around him tightly. “Oh, Der,” she whispered. “Me, too.” She could feel a little dampness on her shoulder where Derek’s head rested. “It’s gonna be okay, Der.”
Derek lifted his head, and Laura ignored the wateriness in his red-rimmed eyes. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Laura,” he told her. “If you weren’t here…”
“But I am here,” she interrupted, trying not to think about how she almost wasn’t, how if she hadn’t let loose her alpha roar, their insane uncle would have killed her in his rage over their family’s deaths. “And I plan on being here for a very long time.”
A small smile appeared again on Derek’s face. “Me, too.”
“I’m going to be here to embarrass you all you want!” Laura vowed. And there was the perfect excuse to change the subject “Like coming here to see Stiles?”
Derek’s cheeks turned red. “No,” he hissed, glancing over at where the two boys were still sitting on the bench. “And don’t let them hear you!”
“Oh, please,” Laura said, waving her hand. “They aren’t werewolves. We would have smelled it on them. They can’t hear us. Which mean I can tease you all I want about it!” she finished gleefully.
“I take it back! I’d rather be alone!” Derek huffed, the blip in his heartbeat obvious to both of them.
Laura grinned and wrapped an arm around Derek’s neck. “I love you, too, Der-bear!” she crowed, giving her brother a noogie.
“Stop it, Laura! They’re gonna notice us!” Derek whined, trying to get out of her grip.
Laura shook her head. “No, they’re not. Here, I’ll listen in on the conversations from here, okay, and that’ll ease your mind.”
Derek looked skeptical, but he nodded anyways.
Laura focused on the conversations happening over at the lacrosse field. It didn’t take long to make out the two boys’ voices.
“I wish I didn’t need that inhaler.” That was Scott. “Then maybe I could actually play and impress Allison!”
“You do good when it’s just you and me practicing, bro.” Stiles.
“Yeah, but it’s not an important game where all the pressure is on us. That makes me so nervous, I need my inhaler!”
“Yeah, I usually trip when all the pressure’s on me. I mean, you’ve seen me, man! I do pretty good normally, but around these guys, and the other teams, I’m just an uncoordinated klutz!”
“Aw, don’t talk bad about yourself, Stiles.”
Laura smiled. It was nice to see what good friends those two were. She turned to Derek. “They’re not listening to you at all. So don’t wor--.”
“Hey, Scotty, look who’s over there!”
Laura froze. “Um.” That wasn’t what she was expecting at all.
“Where?”
“Over there, by the preserve!”
From the way Derek froze as well and looked as if he wanted to run away, she could tell that he‘d been listening in too. “You said they couldn’t hear!” he hissed.
“They can’t!” Laura hissed back.
“Then why are they talking about us?” Derek demanded, his cheeks reddening.
Laura couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, Der-bear, how are you going to get your guy to go out with you if you can’t even handle him talking about you?”
“I don’t want to go out with him,” Derek grumbled.
“That is a complete and utter lie, and your heart knows it!” Laura crowed.
“Oh my God, Laura, can’t we just go?” Derek moaned, his head in his hands. Laura thought it was hilarious that a grown man in a leather jacket acted like a child sometimes.
“Come on, Der-bear,” she said, putting an arm around him. “We’ll go back to the house and plan out how you’re going to win your guy.”
Over Derek’s grumblings as he allowed her to lead him away, Laura continued listening to Stiles and Scott’s conversation.
“What do you think they were doing here?”
“Dude, what if Derek was so enamored by me that he came to the school to come see me, but he was too shy to say anything? That would be so awesome, Scotty! I haven’t even started my wooing plan! It would totally cut the seven year plan down to… three or four, I’d say!”
“Good luck, dude!”
Laura shook her head with a laugh. She was really starting to grow fond of Stiles. He was a cute, smart cookie. She certainly hoped it didn’t take three or four years for him to get together, though. Maybe she’d have to give them a little nudge. Their happiness depended on it.
The future was looking bright for the Hale pack.