彡 cora hale | teen wolf

[impetere]

	✔ Cʀᴏssᴏᴠᴇʀs/AU ✔ Aᴄᴛɪᴏɴsᴘᴀᴍ ✔ Pʀᴏsᴇ	✔ Pɪᴄᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴍᴘᴛs ✔ Oᴛʜᴇʀᴡᴏʀᴅʟʏ ✔ Sᴛᴀʀᴛᴇʀs	♥ F/M, F/F ⏰ Uᴘ ᴛᴏ ᴅᴀᴛᴇ

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[splinted]

"Where was that?"

Wanderers come from all kinds of worlds, he's found. He never assumes what their home must've been like. Sometimes it's similar to his, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes, it's both.

[impetere]

"Beacon Hills?"

If it's a completely different world, it's possible that it doesn't even exist which is both disheartening and a relief at the same time - Beacon Hills never brought anyone anything but pain in her experience. She pauses shift so that she's sitting cross-legged in the chair before continuing.

"It's a tiny town in California. Not a lot of people have heard of it."

[splinted]

There's a lack of recognition in Alek's face that likely answers that for her.

Beacon Hills doesn't exist in this world, or at the very least, he's never heard of it. It wouldn't be the same one Cora knew all the same. "I've never been to California," he offers quietly. "But I know you're a long way from home."

He's very sympathetic to Wanderers. Not everyone is, but Alek happens to think those people are assholes.

[impetere]

"It wasn't really home."

She's never actually had a home. The memories of the Hale House, the thing that was home, are tainted by the fire, and she's been running ever since. She thought that maybe she and Derek might be able to find one as they reconnected, finding somewhere to just settle and be a family, but considering she's here, and not home, that's understandably being brought to a halt.

"At least not like it used to be."

[splinted]

Alek lingers in the silence briefly after Cora's response.

He can tell there's a story there, but it might not be one she wants to tell him. He won't hold it against her if she doesn't, but he also can't stop himself from being curious. Cora really is one of the few werewolves Alek has ever met outside of his brothers, and she's the closest one in age, at that. "Why not?"

[impetere]

She doesn't particularly want to tell him. But given the way she reacted when she heard his name, she figures she should make at least that much make sense. She takes a few more bites of her pizza, trying to put some distance between her and the question if she can, but it doesn't always work that way.

"When I was eleven, some hunters barricaded us into our house and set it on fire." She still remembers the flames, the fear, and for a moment it flashes on her in a way that it usually only does in her nightmares. "We used to be this ... prominent werewolf family. We had gone back generations. And now all that's left is me, my brother and my uncle." And her cousin. But she doesn't know Malia exists, so we won't hold it against her.

[splinted]

"That's bullshit," Alek says, his thoughts on these hunters all too clear.

He says it before he can think better of it, and inwardly cringes. He already has a feeling she didn't want to tell him, and he also has a feeling any sympathy he might extend her way might not be comfortably received as it is, but that doesn't mean he thinks it sucks any less. "I'm sorry, Cora."

He's very sincere about it. Alek's a lot of things, but he's not an asshole and he isn't unfeeling. He's lost family. He can't imagine losing so much of it in one go.

[impetere]

She shakes her head a bit. "It was a long time ago." She's had time to deal with it, in one way or another. It's almost funny how the the world keeps snatching family away from her, just when she manages to think she's found it. Except for all the ways it's not.

"And it doesn't really matter now. I still have my brother." There's a pause. "Or I had him, anyway."

[splinted]

Alek doesn't want to give her false hope, but he also can't help pointing out a real possibility.

"He could always fall through the rift, too," he says to her. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened. People don't always fall through the rift at the same time, but there are reunions. Which can be confusing, depending on the different points in time they arrive from, but she would still have her brother. Alek wants that for her.

[impetere]

She wants that too. It would be great, if they could get away from a world of Argents and hunters (and Peter) but at the end of the day, she doesn't have a say in this. All she knows is that she often has a lot of people that she's never meant to keep. Derek's probably one of them.

"I've never really been that lucky."

[splinted]

It doesn't sound like she's stretching the truth, either. Life gave her a crappy hand, and whatever else she's been through, it's been hard. She doesn't act like most of the teenagers he's met, and that's pretty telling in and of itself.

"I guess I've never really decided if I believe in luck or not."

[impetere]

Cora knows that in some ways she has been lucky. She managed to survive for so long on her own, after all, and it's hard to say that she would have been able to do that if she didn't at least have a little bit of luck. But at the same time, the world just happens to people sometimes, and when you haven't really had a whole lot of good for a long time, it's either blame it on luck, or think that maybe you're doing something wrong.

"Sometimes it can make things a little easier."

[splinted]

Alek is quiet at first. He can see why it would make things easier. It always helps to have a reason for something happening, even if it's just that you have crappy luck. It's better than accepting the alternative terrible things happen for no reason at all. It makes the world too senseless, and he's often tried to make sense of it with little to no success.

"It at least explains why I'm terrible at poker," he says, glancing up at her with the faintest smirk.

[impetere]

She smirks back, taking another bite of her pizza before nodding. "You don't listen for the bluffs?" Catching people bluffing at poker is probably something she did for easy cash every once in a while when she was on her own. It was a good way to clean up and no one could ever figure out how to catch when she was cheating.

[splinted]

Alek smirks right back at her. It's kind of impressive how many slices of pizza he can store in his body, since he sure is reaching for his fourth slice. "I do, but the people I play with the most are my brothers, who can listen for them, too. It's always an adventure."

There's a slight pause. "You sound like you know a thing or two about it yourself. We should play sometime."

They'd at least be on equal ground.

[impetere]

She gives a bit of a shrug. "I used to use poker games for quick cash when I was a kid. I would tell the guy I was working with who was bluffing and he would give me a cut if he won. Some people bluff better than others, but it was an easy way to make some quick money."

She didn't really have a whole lot of options otherwise.

[splinted]

Alek's eyebrows climb up a bit at the revelation. The more he learns about her, the more he understands Cora has lived anything but a conventional life. Maybe that means she'll fit right in here. Chicago's anything but conventional, after all.

"Why would you need quick money?" he asks. And especially as a kid.

[impetere]

"So I could eat?" It's said bluntly, almost like a question, and she gives a bit of a shrug after. "I was on my own after the fire. I had to ... figure out how to get things for myself, and I didn't always like to steal."

[splinted]

"Oh." It's said sheepishly after a moment of consideration. Alek's always been a lone wolf, but it still seems... lonely to him. There's always been a difference. "I've never been to South America."

[impetere]

"Some parts of it are nice," she says with a nod. "Some of them are not. There's a hunter family there that pretty much controls everything from the border to La Iglesia so getting around them can be tough."

[splinted]

"You'll probably find this ironic, but werewolves are the ones in control in that region here," Alek says with a wry smile. Chicago really is one of the only place in this world where different species can all live in the same place. Everywhere else? You have to stake your claim. Vegas is demon central. Boston and New York angel central. Vampires and werewolves are not as powerful, but they have their territories."

[impetere]

She smirks a bit at that, before shaking her head. "The Calaveras would hate this place." Between falling through into another universe, being altered by the rifts themselves, and having the supernatural being more in control than they are? Their entire world view would be shattered. "I'd love to see it bite them in the ass."

[splinted]

Alek snorts. "From the way it sounds, it'd be the least they deserve. It'd serve them right."

Okay, so he may be biased, but it's pretty obvious by now Alek is firmly Team Cora.

[impetere]

She smiles a bit at that, because it's nice having someone on her team, but the smiles flickers and is gone pretty much almost as soon as it started. "Yeah, it probably would." It also would probably end in a mass suicide in the desert because they clung so tightly to their stupid code.

(Allison's code was better. Allison's code would always be better, because there was actually honor in it.)

"But thankfully, they're not here. I just have a whole new set of rules to learn."

[splinted]

Alek shakes his head in encouragement.

"You'll get the hang of it. I can't promise you it's going to be easy. In a lot of ways, I still haven't learned the rules myself. But if it helps, that means you won't be learning them alone," he says. They aren't words he would've come up with on his own - but his older brother said them to him once, and they stayed with him.

He doesn't know if it'll help Cora, but he can hope.