β derek hale | teen wolf

[epistemic]

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

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[epistemic]

And Derek won't dignify that question with a response (because it would probably be a lie) and just raise his eyebrows at her again, as though to say "don't impugn the validity of my claim to be redecorating."

"I got sidetracked."

By, you know, Beacon Hills and Scott's pack being Beacon Hills and Scott's pack, always finding trouble wherever they go.

[fothermucker]

"All the more reason for me to do it! One less thing on your mind."

Cheerful as ever, until she catches him raising his eyebrows at her. She sighs and makes her way over to him. She takes his face in her hands, smushing his cheeks - no, really, there is smushing - and looking at him very earnestly.

"You will always be sidetracked. But this place needs to be less depressing. For your sake and mine."

[epistemic]

Derek is still linefacing at her, even with the face smushing. It's all in his eyebrows - he mastered the art of eyebrow communication a long time ago, and he just stares at her for a moment before he tries to talk in spite of her hands.

"It's not that depressing."

[fothermucker]

The words are vaguely muffled to her ears, due to the fact she continues to squish his face in between her hands. He is officially her squishy. Unfortunately for you, Derek, Phoebe's eyebrows have game of their own. She arches a perfectly plucked eyebrow in return.

"Why would you settle for 'not that depressing'?"

[epistemic]

He makes as though he's going to say that he's not "settling." He happens to favor "not that depressing." But that's not exactly going to go over well, he has a feeling. So he opts for what (he thinks) sounds like the next best thing.

"If I were settling, I wouldn't have let the city reclaim my family home."

And when he says that, he's intentionally leaving out the "burnt out remains" that's supposed to go in front of it.

[fothermucker]

Omg, he had to bring in the big guns. Did he have to bring in the big guns.

She stifles a small squeal of frustration, letting her hands drop from his face. Even when she knows she's right, she's never going to argue against family. She technically didn't have one, but she understands that stuff's sacred.

So she collapses dramatically on the couch with her arms folded across her chest. She is officially without a project now.

"Fine. Fine, have it your way!"

[epistemic]

Derek rolls his eyes, more out of a reflex from Stiles being dramatic before moving to flop down next to her. He doesn't mean to frustrate her - as adorable as it is - but he always manages to, one way or another. He's aware that he doesn't know how to function like a person these days, but he isn't completely unaware of when he's living in squalor.

"I put the hole in the wall. I did it when I first moved in because I was still trying to decide what to do with the space. But since I own the building, other projects came up for other tenants and Beacon Hills happened, and I hadn't gotten around to finishing."

[fothermucker]

"Oh."

Her voice is soft, and almost sheepish. Derek has the uncanny ability to make her feel silly without even trying; it's mostly her own self-awareness rearing its head, and she does have some, thank you very much. Phoebe sighs, looking down at her hands, fingers playing with each other like they're caught in a web.

"I'm a fixer. I like to fix things. Not people, because that's not ... what it means to be a person." She's not here to 'fix' Derek any more than she is really here to 'fix' the wall. But she doesn't like feeling useless, and being Derek's guardian is, most of the time, an exercise in futility. She'd like to help somewhere, even if it's a dumb wall.

[epistemic]

He gets that. He just doesn't want to come home and not recognize his own living space. He went a long time without having a place that really felt like his own (the Hale house burned down and then was torn down, the apartment in New York has Laura's ghost resting in every corner, and the train car ... well, that was actually a cry for help, and thankfully he got over it). He wants this to be a place that he built for himself (and maybe Cora, if this place is ever safe enough for her to come home).

He glances around for a moment, before looking at Phoebe with a nod. It's obvious that Beacon Hills isn't really going to allow him the time to do it himself, so if he doesn't, someone should.

"Just ... run stuff by me before you make the final decision?"