Rowing the Rarepair Rowboat: Katherine Pierce (The Vampire Diaries) x Derek Hale (Teen Wolf)
Requested by @wonderdoves
The trees go past on either side in a blur as Derek darts between them. Leaves rustle above him. Branches barely creaking under the millisecond of pressure applied to them.
He can feel the forest floor beneath his feet--paws--cold and soggy from the shower of rain they had this morning. But it's nightfall now, everything shrouded in twisting shadows and noises bouncing through the darkness, echoing in the silence.
A leaf rustles free from a branch just up ahead. Derek pounces. He feels the contact, his weight knocking straight into something, tackling them to the ground.
Shifting back to his human form, he looks down. And grins.
Katherine huffs, attempting to blow a strand of dark, curly hair from her face in the process. The leaf lands in the rest of her hair.
"Been a while, Katherine," he says.
She lifts her eyes to his and he finds himself gazing into pools of blood, outlined by nothing but black. His own eyes are glowing red as well, he's sure, brought on by the chase.
Then, she blinks, and her eyes fade back to soft, melting brown. The eyes of a predator pretending to be the innocent prey. She smirks back at him.
"Too long, I'd say," she replies, voice that same teasing, seductive whine he remembers, pouting just for effect. "You never visited. I got bored."
"Heard you were on the run again," he says instead of explaining himself. After all, life in Beacon Hills has been... complicated, to say the least. There hasn't exactly been much of a chance to get away.
"Heard you were, too."
Derek tilts his head, eyebrows drawing together. She scoffs and rolls her eyes.
"Please, give me some credit," she says. "You were the FBI's most wanted for, like, a month. As someone who's been trying to keep low on the radar for over five hundred years, I need to know these things. And you, my wolf friend, are a terrible hider."
"I'm not dead," Derek points out. "Guess I can't be doing so bad."
Katherine shrugs, her expression agreeing to disagree. He chuckles, softening.
"So, that why you're here?" he asks at last. "Need to lay low at mine again?"
"And I missed you," Katherine says, widening her eyes further, slipping mock sincerity into her voice.
Derek chuckles, shaking his head. "About as much as I've missed you, I'm sure. Come on. I got a new place. It's bigger."
Her face lights up with intrigue at that. But she glances down for a moment, then meets his eyes again to say, "You're very naked right now. You're aware of that?"
"I am," he says, nodding, grin widening.
Katherine hums, the corners of her mouth twitching up. Her hands are on his shoulders, he registers, winding around to the back of his neck. Her skin is cold and her touch familiar, and he's not sure which one sends a shiver through his spine.
"Maybe I wasn't totally lying when I said I missed you," she murmurs, holding his gaze.
There's a tug in Derek's gut. The promise he makes to himself everytime he finds himself here breaks.
He's almost too eager to lean down and meet her waiting lips. But he lets himself fall into it anyway as she kisses him back just as hard, neither one caring that they're in the middle of the woods at some time far too late for anyone else to be around.