Hyper-Insomnia-Para-Condrioid | Alaric & Derek
Derek’s hues wandered over the other male as he made his way to the bar. Alaric was weaponless now, and only a small threat, but a threat none the less and the Alpha was doubly careful when it was his own home at risk. If Alaric made a move, became the bad guy and lived, he’d be back, and Derek and Stiles would have to move before that happened, which was something Derek really didn’t want to do. They’d made their home there, though Derek, always the Sourwolf, made a point of letting Stiles know it probably wouldn’t last forever. Someone had to keep their heads out of the clouds and that clearly wasn’t Stiles.
He glanced to the two glasses he’d pulled out before looking back to the other male, he knew the bar wasn’t much but he couldn’t help but wonder what he thought. Some people had noone, and nowhere, and Alaric looked alone, looked like he never stayed in one place for long, it was probably strange to come into a building and see how homely it was, well no, homely wasn’t the word, but it was well used, and well loved, in a strange way.
"Eh… Sure, why the hell not as long as you’re paying," Derek gave a slight smirk as he poured the liquid into the two little glasses. Noone was paying, well except for which ever dead schmuck the place used to belong to. He would of made a joke about the beers being on the dead guy, but he was talking to a hunter and he didn’t want Alaric to get the wrong impression. He and Stiles stumbled on to this place, empty. Their conscious’s were clear. "That’s 5 dollars." he joked.
Derek’s hues slid to their sides as Stiles entered, mostly just letting the boy he acknowledges his presence and he pulled out another glass. The smirk on his face growing as Stiles insulted him, well, tried to. It was funny, how things were both a touchy subject and a case for amusement all at the same time. Derek stifled a laugh, before he slid the bourbon over to Alaric and glanced to Stiles, sliding one to the far end of the bar as if giving him encouragement to come closer. It was almost like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey.
The Alpha lifted the third glass to his lips and sipped it down, smiling to himself that Stiles was so protective over their home, and over him. He looked to Alaric over his glass, but wasn’t expecting the words that slipped out of his mouth. “So how long have the two of you been together?” He almost spat out his drink, or sucked it down the wrong hole, having to lift the back of his hand to his mouth to keep in the amber liquor. Maybe Alaric didn’t mean it as he took it, maybe he did, and he and Stiles we’re ‘together’ but it wasn’t something he liked to talk about and he swallowed the bourbon down quick before looking to Stiles with arched brows, like he was asking him to get him out of an uncomfortable situation.
He couldn’t help but wonder if he looked gay. If the boy still awkwardly stood by the door looked like he wanted a man, he had honestly thought that about Stiles when they’d first met, but it was mostly because the boy never had a girlfriend, and seemed so sexually frustrated, so desperate for a girl, it almost seemed too much…..
Okay, so maybe when he thought about it, Stiles did look gay, but really, did he? His brow arched as Alaric gave him the option of not giving out that kind of information and he could already see Stiles lips parting. “Years.” he stated bluntly, trying to get something out there before the boy could say something embarrassing.
Hues slid from the hunter at his bar to the boy by the door and quickly downed what was left of his drink. He hated sharing, and was starting to wonder why on earth he brought someone back, it was for company, it wasn’t often they had that, but still, he obviously hadn’t thought this through. He didn’t like to say boyfriend, he didn’t like the term couple, so what exactly was he meant to say when people asked? He lowered the glass to the bar and his fingers curled around the neck of the bottle to pour another.
"Before all these black eyes and vermin." he added, knowing a one word answer always lead to more questions, or it did with Stiles anyway. He poured himself another glass full and held the bottle out to Alaric. "Another?" he asked, trying to change the subject.
Alaric tried his best to relax as Derek moved around behind the bar, leaning forward where he sat on the bar stool and tapping his fingers lightly against the wood of the counter top. It wasn't so much that he was nervous or bursting with energy so much as he was so used to keeping his hands at the ready in case something or someone tried to attack him. It left him the penchant for always keeping his hands occupied doing something. Normally he would run his fingers over the stake he always kept with him but it was currently resting on the small table near the door so that was out. He was only making due with the options at his disposal and Alaric refused to play with the hem of his shirt like a child.
His perusal of Stiles and the bar the two called home was interrupted as Derek sat a tumbler before him, filled halfway with whiskey. He offered the wolf a smile before his fell from his face in shock at the man said it would be five dollars. It took him a few seconds but Alaric finally let out a short bark of laughter, shaking his head as his shoulders shook with suppressed mirth. "Oh yeah... Let me just run down to the corner ATM and get that for you," he muttered dryly, raising a brow in Derek's direction as though he were serious, "Put it on my tab?" It seemed a little presumptuous after he had spoken the words, implying even vaguely that he would be back in order to pay that tab but the words were already in the air and there was nothing he could do about them. Instead, Alaric finally picked up the glass before him before knocking back half of it. He couldn't help the grin that took over his face at the taste of bourbon, actual good bourbon at that compared to the cheap shit he'd been guzzling down.
The way the alpha werewolf acted when Alaric asked how long the two of them had been together was surprising, making him wonder if that was a question he shouldn't have asked. He didn't really think it was that invasive of a question but maybe it was different for others. Then he saw the looks Stiles and Derek were shooting one another like he wasn't in the room at all. It wasn't an exact answer but it seemed that the wolf thought he was asking a different question about a different type of together. The thought made him chuckle softly, hiding his grin behind the glass currently in his possession while keeping his gaze on the man behind the bar as he knocked back the rest of his drink.
It took several moments for the other male to answer but eventually the answer did come about. Years. The answer had a wistful smile curling his lips as he lowered the glass back to the counter top. Alaric wished he had any relationship, friendly or otherwise, to categorize in that length of time. He had it once, with Damon, but even now he couldn't bring himself to let the vampire back in after everything that happened a few months back. "It must be nice," he muttered, lowering his gaze to stare at his fingers as they rested idly against the wood. If his words sounded bitter in the least then he hadn't meant for them to be that way; he thought it must have genuinely be nice to have someone there who has had your back that you've trusted for years, it had to offer even a small sense of stability to an otherwise chaotic life. The melancholic feeling only deepened as Derek said that he and Stiles had been together since before the creatures took over everything. It was like his and Damon's story, just with a happier ending.
He glanced back up when he was asked, rather abruptly, if he wanted another glass of bourbon. "Yeah, please," he requested with a small smile. A soft sigh escaped him as he thought of giving tit for tat but it was only fair after all. "I had a friend once. We went through a hell of a lot of shit together. Hell he killed me once, imagine that," a rueful chuckle passed his lips as he glanced to the left, away from both of them, "But when the metaphorical shit hit the ceiling he up and vanished." Pausing for a moment, he returned his gaze to Derek before glancing quickly at Stiles and then back to the wolf, "So I guess what I'm saying is that it's rare for people to stick together anymore. Your friend is your closest enemy because they know what hurts you more and they know all your weakness. I suppose it's nice to see that not everyone has fallen with the rest of the world."
Running his finger around the rim of the glass that was now filled before him, Alaric licked his lips before asking, "So how did a human," he glanced over at Stiles though tilting his head in Derek's direction, "End up with a werewolf? You have to admit," Alaric picked up the glass and took a small sip this time, "It's an odd combination. The wolves I'm used to would seclude themselves away from humans. I guess they thought they were superior or some other egotistical shit like that. Then again... I guess I've seen weirder shit. Do you have any idea the relationship issues a vampire and a werewolf hybrid have?"
