Red Eyes and Revelations [Derek Hale fanfic]

From past to future

Note: Please, listen to the song I linked while reading it. I think it kinda fits the chapter, but I'd like to hear your opinion.

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I tried to call Jason, but he didn’t pick up. While I recorded a message on his answering machine Derek had went into his bedroom and put on a shirt. He went to the kitchen and started making some coffee. When I was sitting in the couch I got to see my own reflection in his TV. My hair was a mess and I looked fluffy and dirty. I was still wearing my running clothes and I felt a little embarrassed since I didn’t feel dressed for the situation. But the damage was done and it seemed stupid to ask if I could go change now anyway, I was eager to know more about Derek’s past.

“Do you use anything in your coffee?” He asked me from the kitchen.

“Nope, black is fine.”

“Same here.. just a sec, I need to find something.”

He went to the bedroom again and came back with a couple of pictures in his hand. It was like he’d suddenly become a little more excited about telling me about his past than he usually was. Maybe it was the fact he could be totally honest about it now?

“Here you go.. watch out, it’s hot. Uhm.. first.. I have a picture of me and my family. It was taken a few months before they died. I was 16 when it happened.”

He handed me the picture. He looked almost the same now as he did back then – expect for his more manly looks and he was more muscular now. His sister, who looked like she was a couple of years older than him was smiling next to him. She had long brown hair and she looked like much like the mother who stood behind her in the photo. The father was standing behind Derek - he was tall and had short black hair. In a weird way, he didn’t seem to fit in on the picture, he wasn’t smiling or radiating family bonding like the other 3.

“You were all werewolves?” I asked, still examining the picture.

“Yups.”

“Hmm.. you dad didn’t seem to be a cheerful guy?”

“He wasn’t… mostly, when he was home from L.A. he spend his time correcting me, trying to tell me what to do with my life and to pamper my special gift – the werewolf gene. He didn’t have much respect for normal human beings either; he was a fascist you could say. Once I asked mom if he’d always been that bossy. It had upset he a little, but she said he’d changed since they met, but that she still loved him and that I shouldn’t be asking her that sort of questions again. I think she knew that he was being hard on me, but she didn’t know what to do. I guess she was a little afraid of him. As I grew older and became a teenager I got tired of putting up with him playing the alpha of the house when he hardly was living in it. He started accusing mom for not raising us kids well enough when he was away making a living for us. Then one weekend I refused to be home when he was gonna be there, and then the fire started. Of course I was being a rebel and had been drinking and falling asleep in the woods, so I didn’t realize what had happened until the next day. First I was accused for being the arsonist, but Rose took care of it and I was cleaned. I lived with her and Jason until I was 18 and then I got my own place. I’ve travelled a bit too, also with Jason. I’ve never attached to anyone since the incident. I didn’t want to put myself in a situation where I’d lose someone close to me again.”

“Wow.. it must have been horrible.. Rose seem to have saved us both in a way…”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

He took a sip of his coffee, he needed a short break from all the talking. I decided to be patience, since I figured this wasn’t a story he’d told many people.
“You might probably have noticed I have a problem with anger. It’s my Achilles heel and I bet my dad is most likely guilty in me developing that problem. My anger is also one of the reasons I don’t socialize much, I don’t wanna hurt anyone or expose myself. Over the years I have tried to find out how to suppress that anger, but I haven’t been able to find whatever it takes. Instead it found me. Your presence calms me down, but it doesn’t mean that what happened in the house today wasn’t dangerous. I could easily have killed you. But it proved to me that with a lot of practice it’s possible for me to be in control. “