Chapter Text
Lazily he stretched and threw his keys into the basket which stood solely for that purpose on the small desk near the entrance. It was a Friday evening and he was exhausted from school and wanted nothing more than to sleep. But unfortunately he had a few things to do before he had enough freedom to allow himself to fall into the huge bed in the room on the upper floor.
He switched the lights on and looked around, deep satisfaction written all over his face. This house was his alone and it had been a lot of work. But now after the last few things had been finished it was perfect. As a high school student he had not a lot of money and had spent his entire fortune on that house. He had worked his ass off to gain enough money to fix everything in less than three years, job after job, not a cent went anywhere else than into the restoration or the furniture.
He walked into the kitchen, switched the coffee-machine on and made himself a sandwich, while he waited for said machine to be ready. A steaming, hot cup of coffee would be perfect to ensure that he would not fall asleep in the next few hours. As he sat on a stool next to the little bar he had built his phone buzzed. Looking the message over he smiled and pressed a button to phone the person who had sent him the text.
“Hey mom. Are you back from work already? No no I´m staying in my house tonight. Yeah everything´s fine. I just need a little peace to study and you know that nobody can find me here. I will be home tomorrow afternoon. See you.” His mom didn´t really have to know what he wanted to do today.
Sighing he stood up and went upstairs to switch into more casual clothes than his school attire. As a seventeen year old he of course lived with his mom but the house he was staying in right now was his escape from time to time. Moreover a really much needed escape. A nice old lady had written him into her will as the new owner of her house after her death. He had saved her old dog from drowning once when he went for a walk. She was really grateful, because the dog was her only companion. And because she was childless and had therefore nobody who looked after her she decided to give him everything she owned as a thank you. Everything except her money, which went to different animal homes in the near arena.
Nobody except his mom knew he owned that house, not even his friends. He wanted to keep it to himself because he desperately needed a place where nobody could enter. His life got really chaotic and dangerous in the last few years and he needed space to breath to escape insanity. His mom understood that and had sworn to never tell anyone about it, not even she herself had ever set a foot into his refugee.
After changing into a plain black t-shirt and loose-fitting pants he went back downstairs. As a person who loved their freedom more than anything else he didn´t like it to stay or live in small rooms. That was another reason he wasn´t often home anymore because his room at home was rather small and made him sometimes feel like he was suffocating. That was also why he had destroyed all walls in his house after he got it. Now there was just one really big room on the ground floor. In it where a gigantic couch, a huge TV, some self-drawn pictures, the kitchen, a bar and some other necessities. It was all rather plain and simple. Exactly the way he liked it, also the colours where mostly black, grey and white, sometimes mixed with dark red.
He stepped down from the last step of the staircase that led into the upper floor where his bedroom, the bathroom and several guest rooms were situated. The old lady had once been really rich and therefore the house was practically a small mansion surrounded with a huge garden. He was not really fond of gardening and did not more than cutting the grass from time to time. That was why the garden looked a bit overgrown. It had a mysterious aura, as if many secrets were hidden in it.
Back to the topic at hand. Friday afternoons where always his favourite because on that particular day most people were exhausted from all the working/learning and wanted nothing more than to relax. That was why nearly no one phoned him during that time and he could do what he wanted without being interrupted. For example weapon-practising, exactly what he was going to do.
With a few graceful strides he was next to the door which led down to the cellar. The cellar of his house was nearly twice as big as the floors above the ground. He had divided it into five parts of various sizes. The biggest was his immensely huge library, thousands of books neatly organized in hundreds of shelves. Followed by his practicing arena, where he trained with swords, pistols and other weapons. Furthermore a bedroom (if he was too lazy to go all the way up), a soundproof recording studio with all his instruments and stuff and living room with useful technical equipment.
Many of the things mentioned such as the destroying of the walls and some of the furniture, for example the instruments, TVs, technical equipment, were all paid by the old lady before her death. She wanted the boy to be happy with his new home and knew that as a student being able to buy all that stuff would be impossible. He was eternally grateful and visited her grave every month to lay some flowers on her grave. He knew that it was not enough to thank her for all the things but it was all he could do. He also went to an animal shelter and brought two cats home with him.
The old lady had been a huge animal lover, mostly dog-lover, but well…he was not really fond of dogs and settled on cats. Two beautiful ones which won his heart in a few seconds. He named them Frozen and Flame. Frozen had a white fur, which looked almost blue in the right light, she loved to cuddle with him and always slept in his bed. Flame on the other hand had orange fur, white paws and was always strolling around in the garden. Too lazy to catch anything but enjoying the sun. As his name said looked his fur like fire in the sun.
At the moment those two were laying on the couch in the living room in the cellar. They went downstairs with him, always near him when he went to the house which was almost every day. When he didn´t come by a neighbour was so kind to look after them. He sat down and petted them for a while before standing up and heading to the practice arena.
Once there he choose to work with the pistols first. Shooting at various targets from different angles and positions. Next was one-hour sword practice, followed by dancing (he enjoyed it and it helped him building up muscles). Sweat streamed down his face and trenched his entire body, he liked to feel exhausted because then he knew that he had down something. It made him feel good. After a quick shower he wanted to get his desired sleep when music interrupted the silence. Looking for his phone he found it in the kitchen. He picked up and listened to the rambling of his best friend.
Ten minutes for one information. Today was a pack meeting and his presence was demanded. He swore under his breath, went up to change his clothes again, picked up his keys and left the house.
“Frozen, Flame, I will be back in a few hours. Be nice will I am gone and don´t destroy anything!” It was a habit they had picked up after he had left them alone too often. It was their way of demanding his attention. Soft meow answered his call and with a smile he closed and locked the door.
Jumping into his car he went off towards Derek´s house. Pack meeting again and on a Friday afternoon. He sighed and rubbed his temples. Being a werewolf was not easy, being Alpha was all the more tiresome. He was really happy that he had a good Beta who took most of the work out of his hands. Even if the only reason for that was that all people in beacon hills thought he was dumb or if they were nicer preferred the term naïve.
But well he had nothing against it, on the other hand, he even undermined that statement with the way he acted and his words. Nobody needed to know that he was not dumb but intelligent. It made things easier and less people demanded something from someone. That was one of the things he had learned when he was a small child.
Not that he was lazy or that he didn´t like to help people. No on the exact opposite he enjoyed helping people and providing them with necessary information, but….well you could call it an experiment of sorts.
When he was a small boy of around eight years old his marks were excellent, but his father in his drunken stupor never paid any attention to them. Most of the time he had fun ripping them apart and laughing at his son´s thunderstruck face. Not that he hated his dad for that, actually his father didn´t matter to him at all. One parent was good enough, his mother was an angel. Coming back to the story…after some time he was just annoyed with his father´s behaviour but he couldn´t do anything against it. Furthermore his classmates hated him (he didn´t have any friends) because he always knew the answers to the teacher´s questions and was bored during classes. They bullied him, called him names and threw things at him. He was fed up and decided on a whim to never again show his intelligence.
But he didn´t want to leave it at that, he wanted them to leave him forever alone and so he decided to go a step further and make them think that he was dumb. And not only his enemies, also his friends and family. He was amazed how well his plan worked out and enjoyed his new freedom. After seeing how well the plan worked he began to write it down and made a study out of it. Since then nine years had passed and everything went as he wanted.
Only in his own home was he himself, only in his house did he get rid of his, over the years perfected, mask. Not even his own mother was able to discover who he really was. He had to admit that it made him kind of sad that nobody knew him. But he had wanted it that way and moments of doubt where too few to affect him.
The only thing which made him annoyed were relationships. During the time he spent with another person they always seemed to sense that he wasn´t entirely who he seemed to be. Of course they couldn´t name it but it made them break up with him. His long-term relationship with his ex-girlfriend Allison was the first to last that long and possibly she didn´t discover what his other partners did just because she was so absorbed in her own hunter problems.
He never was in love with anyone, never felt enough affection for any human being to even consider showing them who he really was. Well at least he liked to say that to himself…because once there was someone he liked. But the source of his affection, a boy who went to the same school with him, hated him.
He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn´t discover that he was standing in front of Derek´s house since a few minutes. Suddenly the door was wrenched open and his best friend Stiles grabbed his hand and dragged him into the house. “What were you doing? Spacing out at the front door. You shouldn´t think so much, Scotty. It doesn´t seem like it´s so good for you”, he said good natured and with a warm smile.
“Yeah. Possibly true”, Scott answered a little bit embarrassed. His mask perfectly back in place. He scolded himself for being so inattentive. “So what is the reason for this pack meeting? I don´t have much time.”
“Ah well yeah. We just got together to discuss some news and eat some pizza”, Stiles shrugged and went into the living room. Scott following suit.
All his friends were already there and sitting around, he got rid of his jacket and shoes and went inside. Looking around he greeted everyone and sat down next to Peter. All other seats were already occupied. And contrary to his outer behaviour he didn´t have anything against Peter, on the other hand he understood the older werewolf. To a certain degree at least.
“What are those news Stiles talked about”, he wanted to know as soon as he was seated.
Danny stood up and placed one of the popcorn bowls next to Scott. He grabbed a handful popcorn, shoved it into his mouth and smiled happily, always the cheerful person everyone thought he was. On the inside he was getting rather annoyed, being here for some probably uninteresting news on his Friday afternoon was not something to be happy about.
Everyone went silent and looked at him. Suddenly he heard a noise, he swallowed and froze on the spot. Footsteps got nearer and the others grew more annoyed with each passing second. The person on the other side of the door didn´t seem to be very welcome if the faces of his friends were anything to go by. Except Peter and Danny, the first was as always totally impassive and the other had a content look on his face to the unhappiness of his boyfriend Ethan.
Finally the door opened and a figure stepped into the room. His heart picked up a slightly faster pace (he had trained hard to be able to control his heartbeat better, being under werewolves had it disadvantages). The person for whom he once had felt affection, the one whom he had thought was away for good stood in the living room looking at him with those eyes which once were full of so much hatred.
He opened his mouth and only one word came past his momentary state of shock. “Jackson.”
TO BE CONTINUED