Bite Me Harder -Sterek AU-

Chapter 21

Isaac ate dinner at a slow pace, glancing up at his father nervously as he spoke of his grades.

"Um...so far it's an A in French and a B minus in Econ." His father eats calmly, barely paying his fidgeting fingers any attention. Isaac is strong now though. He shouldn't fear his father. He refused to...Yet old habits died hard.

"Well, what about chemistry?" Isaac dreaded that question, eyes flickering between his father and his dinner.

"I'm not sure, I...mid terms are in a few days so it'll go up." He can never lie to his father. Only avoid the subject as best as possible.

"Well, what's it at now?" Isaac pinched a cucumber between his fingers,even if it was bad table manners.

"Grade?"

"Well, yeah?" His father laughed, short and stiff, but not of humour. More of a 'what do you think?' way. Isaac refused to look at his father, cucumber breaking under his fingers as he let it rest back on his plate.

"Uh, I'm not sure."

"But you just said it could go up." His father never takes a curved answer and it only makes Isaac break into a cold sweat.

"I-I, I meant generally." Isaac ran a hand through his brown curls, voice cracking lightly from fear. Fear. God, he hated being afraid of his father but time had eroded away any good memories with the man.

His father goes back to his meal nonetheless though, ignoring Isaac for a few moments of peace. False hope and security.

"You wouldn't be lying to me, would you, Isaac?" Isaac's heart is seized in ice as he slowly looked up, eyes searching for any evidence of rage. He shook his head, murmuring a weak 'no'. "Then tell me the grade." Isaac can see his fathers patiences is running thin, and it ices him inside as his skin flushes hot at the sudden chill.

"I just told you, I don't know."

"Do you want to take this little conversation downstairs?" Isaac shakes him head, one solid shake as his skin prickled, nails aching in reminder of the freezer. He lowered them to his lap under the table, hiding the itch Stiles had told him about. "No...? Tell me the grade, son." His father is smiling that mocking smile, filled with false kindness and acceptance that Isaac knows is a lie.

"Dad, the semesters only half over, the-there's plenty of time to-"

"Isaac." Isaac words his words lodged in his throat at the way his father pronounces his name, the pronounced I, separating it for the S. The silence is tense and it kills Isaac slowly as his heart began to pound in his ears.

"It's a D." He finally says, admitting the failure to his perfectionist father. It's an intimidating thing when his father seemed to just shrug it off.

"Alright." He placed his cutlery down with a clang that seems to resound in his ears, over the racing organ in his chest and his shallow breathes. "It's a D. I-I'm not angry." Isaac isn't sure whether or not to believe him, not when his father's face is only ever filled with mockery these days. Cruel, cold mockery.

"You know I'm gonna have to find a way to punish you though." There it is. His claws dig into his thighs, but it's the smallest pain he's felt in years compared to the abuse. "You know how...I have my responsibilities as a parent." Isaac wants to scream at him that he has no right to parent him this way. "So, we'll start with something simple like uh...I'll tell you what, you do the dishes and clean the kitchen, okay."