Chapter Text
Strolling to answer the door, I pause long enough to discover it’s not a hunter, I swing it open to find Isaac standing there. “Hey Isaac,” I give him a big dopey grin, “Ready for homework catch up?” I’d volunteered myself to help him catch up on his classes this weekend.
“Sure,” He doesn’t sound sure and he smells a bit of fear, the abuse his dad subjected him to will take time to heal.
“Okay, well come on it, we have all sorts of sodas and drinks, chips and other really bad for you junk food that I’m hiding from dad, so please feel free to help me eat it all,” is mentioning my dad going to upset him about his dad? He doesn’t look that upset, he’s looking around the hall and checking out the pictures on the wall.
“Um, water’s fine,” he mutters and I lead the way to the kitchen, I make sure to pick out the plastic glasses for us, and when I’ve got some water juice I show him upstairs to my room.
His heartbeat speeds up and the smell of fear is thicker on him, I vaguely remember he’s claustrophobic and I leave my door wide open, that seems to do the trick and his body relaxes again.
“So… Your dad is out all day today, right?” He asks nervously and I’m glad dad is at the office sorting some things, Isaac might take a while to learn to relax around people’s dads, last time he had Derek, which isn’t saying much but Derek wasn’t a dad and never openly acted like one either, so that must have helped.
“Yeah, he’s at the office today, way too much paperwork, again, I swear the damn stuff breeds when you’re not looking. It’s just us, Derek and Peter in the house. But Peter’s stolen, sorry I mean ‘borrowed’ my computer again, and Derek’s doing Dereky things, which might mean brooding manfully with his manpain in a corner,” I know damn well they can both hear me and I hear Peter laugh and Derek grunt at my comments.
I thought that would make Isaac relax but he tenses up even more and then nods like he’s resigned to some kind of fate.
I’ve taught a lot of people in my life and I gear myself up for my newest pupil, I didn’t realise until I got to college the difference the right teacher can make in learning something. I’ve done training courses and I bring it all to mind as we start on math.
It quickly becomes apparent that Isaac doesn’t expect much of himself, that he thinks he’s going to fail this subject, so I back up and break down what we’re doing even further. A few goes of coaxing through some easy problems, and praising him when he gets them right, gives him some confidence. When he gets that look on his face that tells me it’s clicked in his head I slowly hold up my hand for a high five. “Awesome Isaac, that was awesome.”
“But it’s easy,” he says a bit stunned, “Now you’ve explained it, it’s so easy.”
“Yeah, most math is, you just memorise a formula and use it over and over,” I shrug, “It’s always been easy to me, but then my mom was awesome with numbers and she taught me a lot of it,” I point to the next question, “Come on Isaac, you get this one right and I’ll bribe you with candy.”
“What kind of candy?” He asks first and I wave his favourite under his nose, he startles and then says, “Okay, I can totally do this.”
“Yep you can,” I encourage him.
He wins the candy and munches happily on it as he powers through the rest of his math homework.
History and English also fall to him and he’s smelling happier and happier as things progress. He’s smart and quick to learn so it’s not a huge effort on my part, to the point that I can let my mind drift and I zero in on the clicks of Peter’s fingers on my keyboard, except that makes me think of his fingers elsewhere so I switch to Derek, he’s outside on the back porch doing weights, the familiar and comforting clank of metal calms me down.
“You’re good at this,” Isaac startles me and I quirk an eyebrow at him, “Teaching, you’re good at this, you make this all so easy, it makes sense for once.”
Shrugging I try to play it off, “It’s my ADHD, it’s hard for me to concentrate in class, to follow the structure they want to foist off on me, I’ve spent a lot of time teaching myself, well past the levels they try and pretend they’re teaching,” I snort at the thought of most of the school’s teachers, I know now they’re doing their best, but some, like Adrian, need a kick in the ass, preferably before he manages to get himself killed again.
“Maybe, but I still think it’s mostly you,” he tells me and goes back to reading, it’s a crappy short story by an equally crappy author but it’s supposed to be a classic so we have to do a freaking report on it.
“You hungry?” I ask and volunteer to go make sandwiches, “Is it okay if I do ham?” He likes ham and he stares at me while his heart speeds up, “If you don’t want I can do cheese or maybe PB&J?”
“No,” he clears his throat and tilts his head thoughtfully, “I like ham.”
“Okay,” I leave him to his work and go to make us lunch, he likes apples too so I get him one of those. I bring our food up and he stares at the apple for a minute or two before he does this weird blush thing and gives me the shyest smile I’ve ever seen on him.
“Thank you,” he nibbles on his sandwich.
“You’re welcome,” I scoff my own food and damn it I’m still going to be hungry, stupid werewolf appetite.
After lunch I take our plates downstairs and get ready to tackle Chemistry, this is something nearly all Beacon Hills suffers with, probably because Adrian can’t be bothered with us so he didn’t really try. Sitting next to Isaac on the floor I frown when he keeps the text book on the other side forcing me to lean over him to point things out. Each time I lean his heart does the fear thing but in the end it stops and the smells coming off of him are really mixed, I can’t get a fix on them.
Isaac does get a grip on Chemistry and he smells really happy, when he smiles at me I’m a little shocked at how close to me he is, but I don’t really think about it as I smile back at him. “Thank you,” he says very softly, his breath ghosting over my face.
“No worries, you’re easy to teach, and if you need help with anything, anything at all, just ask okay?” I offer.
For a few seconds his eyes drop to my mouth and if I didn’t know he’s straight I’d think he was actually going to kiss me, and then he does. He’s hesitant and I freeze in shock at what’s happening. Why the hell is Isaac kissing me?
Jerking back from him I stare at him, and I know my mouth has dropped open.
Ducking his head he laughs at me, “Wow, I thought I’d hate it, I thought that being your boyfriend would be horrible, but that was nice,” and I have no idea what the fuck he is talking about.
I make a puzzled sound and he gives me a cocky grin, “It’s okay Stiles, I know it was you that got Boyd to do what he did in the canteen. I know you’re gay, Erika and Allison told me, and Scott explained that you’ve been hiding it by pretending to be in love with Lydia,” I still have no clue as to what is going on, “And I’m fine with dating you, I know that’s the price for you doing what you did, and the way you’re treating me now? I like that, I like that a lot.”
In the distance I can hear Peter snarl angrily, the weights outside clunk to the ground as Derek reacts to what’s going on too.
“What?” Is the only thing that’s coming out my mouth.
Isaac dips in to kiss me again and I hold my hand out to stop him, he frowns, “Stiles? What’s wrong? Am I doing something wrong?” He starts to smell of anxiety and I don’t know what the hell to do next as Peter’s growl gets closer.
“Isaac… I…” He’s been abused, hurt, he’s old unflinching loyalty to Derek is starting to make sense if he believes there is a price he has to pay to his rescuer.
“Peter.” Derek’s whisper carries as does the sound of flesh on flesh, the far too familiar sound of muffled fighting, of two people struggling against each other.
Oh crap, this is not good, and then Isaac kisses me again.