The Preserve, Thursday Afternoon

[bitten_notshy]

Sometimes, being a werewolf led to annoying errands of a totally unexpected kind.

Today, for example. Several days after the last full moon, Jack had accepted his watch was not at the Community Center, Devil's Nest or the Perk, or anywhere in his house. Which meant it had either gotten stolen, trampled under a rickshaw, or (and he had to admit this possibility was the most likely) it had fallen out of his pocket and gotten left behind in the preserve in his haste to get dressed and go home some morning.

He would have just bought a new watch, but, as this one had been purchased in 1899, it had some sentimental value.

So here he was, prodding under branches with a stick and hoping he'd spot a telltale gleam of gold before the mosquitoes and gnats ate him alive.

It was indeed a glamorous day.

[OOC: For one and NFB, please.]

Comments

[justlurkinghere]

Derek wasn't creeping persay. He was standing with purpose. Near a stranger.

Totally different.

The lack of greeting could be labeled creepy, though. And all the intense staring. That was also creepy.

[bitten_notshy]

"Am I in your way?"

Jack was going to stare right back at the (admittedly rather handsome) complete stranger.

And also wonder why he smelled that way.

[justlurkinghere]

Like leather and rage? It was his signature cologne.

"I think that depends," Derek decided, keeping up that intense look. He'd caught a hint of the scent in town and was both pleased and concerned to find the source.

[bitten_notshy]

"On?" Jack prompted, and something in him made him circle Derek slightly, move so his back was to a tree. If he'd had fur on his back, it would have been standing up.

He thought he knew what the smell was now. He didn't like it. The only other sources for it he knew were George and Nina. And George didn't lurk.

[justlurkinghere]

Well George had a stupid face! Yeah, he went there.

Derek frowned for a moment, pulling back on his ominous looming and forcibly relaxing his posture. He could do friendly. With other werewolves, that is. "It depends on you," he replied. "There isn't a pack here."

He'd have smelled more. Or the kid would have called for the others already.

[bitten_notshy]

"No," Jack said, and if the guy was going to do friendly he could too. He let himself appear to relax, though internally he was still on high alert.

"There's just me. Was just me," he corrected. "I'm Jack. You're ... visiting, or staying?"

Visiting was easy. Staying was more complicated.

[justlurkinghere]

"Somewhere between them." He eyed Jack for a moment longer. "Derek."

[bitten_notshy]

"Hi," Jack said, with a slight edge of humor. Usually one started with hi.

"What's in between a visit and moving here?" he asked.

[justlurkinghere]

Derek shot him a look, trying to figure out just how long Jack had been like them if he wasn't nervous about settling down.

"Someone who isn't planning to stay long enough to change their address." Joke's on you! He hadn't had a set address in years!

[bitten_notshy]

Eight months. He was practically a veteran, omg.

"Okay..." Yeah, Derek's answer hadn't helped much. Jack gave up the line of questioning for a moment and went back to his poking. "You don't see a gold watch, do you?"

[justlurkinghere]

That got Jack the watch in question being tossed over at him. Because Derek Hale was a master creeper. "You're alone here then."

Don't sound vaguely hopeful, Derek. It was weird.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack snagged the watch out of the air neatly. "Thank you," he said, surprised. He'd been asking mainly as a springboard to complaining, but if Derek wanted to be useful...

"I guess I am," he said. "The way I think you mean it, anyhow. I have three housemates but they aren't ... like me."

That 'me' was odd; Jack wondered if it should have been an 'us', but it felt early to use the word.

[justlurkinghere]

"Us," Derek corrected after a moment. "Are there hunters here?"

[bitten_notshy]

Jack tilted his head and pursed his lips. "Some of the more time-displaced students come out in the preserve to look for game sometimes, if that's what you mean," he said. "But I've never been interrupted at a bad time."

You know. Like when he'd tear someone's throat out.

[justlurkinghere]

He was just... still adjusting to the insanity of the island. The best way to do that? Not reacting at all. And being stoic.

Derek's mouth went tight for a moment. "How long ago were you bitten?"

Because clearly not born one of them.

[bitten_notshy]

Ah. A question Jack knew the answer to. He was almost grateful.

"January," he said. "In Paris. The monster died. So you're only the third other I've ever actually spoken with."

He glanced over. "You?"

[justlurkinghere]

Jack was so lucky that Derek loathed those American Werewolf in Random European Country movies. No jokes to be made there.

"I was born this way." And he hated Lady Gaga. "Did none of them teach you these things?"

[bitten_notshy]

Jack shrugged.

"It wasn't a long conversation. I heard to drag a raw chicken around ahead of time to distract the beast," he offered. "And that I didn't need to worry too much about accidentally infecting people most of the month."

He gave Derek a look that was almost jealous. "You must have had family to teach you."

[justlurkinghere]

"...I did." What the hell was Jack on about? He frowned again, moving closer to Jack as though to sniff out the answer. Or intimidate him. One of them. "What do you mean?"

[bitten_notshy]

Jack held his ground. (When completely confused, he was going to stick to bravado.) "I mean I didn't fancy making my girlfriend a monster. What did you think I meant?"

[justlurkinghere]

No emotional intimacy in Derek's general direction, thank you.

"Raw chicken? We're not animals." Not human, but not animals.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack was clearly having a hard time coming up with words.

"Not exactly, but -- I don't need to come to one morning and find out I bit through someone's throat. The chicken's absurd, but chasing the scent keeps me busy. It's all I ask." And now he was getting more curious. "What do you do to keep yourself in check?"

He was going to assume Derek wasn't a killer. Just for the sake of his own sanity for the moment.

[justlurkinghere]

Derek's frown wasn't going anywhere now.

"An anchor--" Jack, you were very strange. "Something that holds you to your humanity and doesn't let the instincts pull you under. If you can't manage that, you chain yourself up. Or put yourself in enough pain to keep from changing."

...ow.

[bitten_notshy]

It was okay. Jack's frown could keep it company.

"You can do that?" There was some weak hope in his voice. "I -- no one told me that, nothing I read said that, I had no idea."

He wasn't touching the 'chain yourself up' suggestion. It seemed a fast path to disaster.

[justlurkinghere]

No, that would end in tears. Tears and someone blowing purple dust at Derek.

"It's not an easy thing," Derek granted him. "But it keeps you in control and keeps you off the radar of any hunters."