get your words out { 2024 } build-a-bingo

[iluvroadrunner6]

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o2 (survival) | like i'm the one that put you on trial ~ teen wolf (d&d au) ~ 969

[iluvroadrunner6]

Kate and Allison leave the room, and Peter sits quietly at the edge of the table. Even having spent years apart, Derek can still tell that the wheels in his head are spinning. What he doesn’t know is whether they’re spinning in his favor.

Malia finishes her plate, before leaning back in her seat and fixing him with a stare. “You’re stewing. You want to say no.”

Peter fixes her with a glare. Derek knows how out of sync they’ve been since everything with Kate happened. How Malia, in some respects, feels he chose Kate over her—and how, in some ways, she’s not wrong. He can’t imagine feeling the strain with his father that Malia has with hers, but he can’t blame her, either. Peter’s been gone. And as well as she knows the reasons, it can’t be said that nothing has suffered for it.

“I didn’t spend a decade of my life running from Gerard Argent and staying away from my family for you all to just throw yourself back into the fire, anyway.” Peter grits his teeth as he turns to fix that same glare on Derek. “And what you told Allison wasn’t your secret to share. You couldn’t have been sure that she wasn’t still in Gerard’s pocket.”

“How did you know Kate wasn’t?”

Peter starts and stops several retorts before gritting his teeth and leaning back in his chair. It’s a high-quality sulk, and Malia rolls her eyes as she reaches for the wine.

“Sure, you may have stopped the war, but Gerard Argent is still alive. He’s still causing problems. You didn’t actually fix the problem.” She takes a sip of the wine. “And for the record, I wasn’t planning on throwing my hat in with this, but if it’s what it takes to get you off your ass and actually finishing what you claimed you started, then so be it.”

Peter’s eyes narrow as they focus on her. “Say what you want about my choices, Malia, but I did it to keep you safe. To allow you to live this long in the first place. If Gerard had had his way, our entire family would have been wiped out a decade ago.”

“Maybe so. But you did what you did and now I’m an adult and you don’t get a say in my choices.”

“She’s right, Peter.” Derek will not waste Malia’s support if she’s willing to offer it. “Sure, you may have stalled the battle, but you didn’t win the war. Gerard is still a problem as long as he’s in charge of the Argent family.”

“And he isn’t the only problem. There are cabals and cults all over the place, and I’m not going to sit down and let them happen.” Malia takes another sip of her wine. “If it’s not Gerard, I’m going back to helping Cora and Boyd deal with the Dread Doctors. Survival isn’t worth the lives of other people. Ever. Not when I can do something about it.”

Peter glares at them both, and Derek can understand the position they’re putting him in. Not just risking his daughter, but his entire family and his partner. Disturbing the fragile peace that they all have built for themselves, but Derek knows Malia isn’t wrong. And he knows Peter will see that too.

And it might help if he twists the screw, just a little: “You haven’t been in the grove in ten years, Peter. Don’t you want to go home?”

“Of course I do,” Peter’s words are soft, and there’s a longing as he looks at his daughter, seeing all the time he missed. “But that doesn’t mean I want to risk your lives to do it.”

“Whether or not we like it, this isn’t our decision to make,” Derek points out. “It’s Allison and Kate’s. Their family. It’s just a matter of whether we support them in this.” He pauses, holding back on saying the words that he knows would be the nail in the coffin, but he doesn’t want to have to. But as Peter’s sullen silence continues, he knows he has to pull the trigger. “Mom would have supported them.”

Peter’s eyes sharpen to a glare, because he knows what Derek is doing. It’s a knife twist he doesn’t appreciate. But he holds his own and leans back in his seat.

“I can’t stop either of you from doing what you feel you need to do.” His voice is the calm that Derek doesn’t like, but he knows he put Peter here. “But that doesn’t mean it’s going to force what I am going to do.”

He pushes up from the table, moving brusquely away from both of them and retreating further into the house. Malia sighs as she watches him go, slumping a bit in the chair.

“Do you think I’m being unfair?” she asks, and Derek shrugs.

“Maybe. But so is he.” He glances over at Malia. “Thank you for taking us up here anyway, though. I know this isn’t where you want to be.”

“Maybe not. But maybe it’s where I needed it to be. I wasn’t going to make you have to stand up to him alone.” She moves her chair close enough that she’s leaning into his shoulder a bit, taking that bit of solidarity from the family that was there for her. “Do you think Kate will go for it?”

“I don’t know. But I feel like Kate’s been waiting a long time to square things with her father.” If this is the time to do it, when Gerard isn’t expecting the attack, then Derek will not question her. “We’ll just have to see what she says when she and Allison are done.”

And hopefully, they’ll both be able to succeed and make it out the other side intact.