Pack Feels

Lydia Martin was ruthless. Painstakingly so. Isaac would've been perfectly happy with going the simple route, really, but as soon as Lydia heard the words 'new apartment' her eyes lit up, and Isaac knew this was going to be a battle.

His new room was a good size, bigger than he would've predicted. The walls were white, the wood floors were dark, and it was completely empty. All Isaac wanted was a comfortable bed, and a desk. Maybe somewhere to put his clothes. That would've been great. But of course, since Lydia was involved, Isaac got no say, and within three days of moving in, Isaac was greeted with a newly decorated bedroom. 

The bed was huge. The sheets were white and smooth and crisp, and the comforter was striped and gray- and boy, he was never going to hear the end of his '50 shades of gray' bed, was he? It looked big and puffy, and he just wanted to jump onto it and sink in and sleep forever. There were two big dressers on either side of the room, dark wood. One was filled with his clothes while the other was empty, but not for long (by the third night of his new room, the drawers were open and Stiles and Scott's clothes were messily thrown in and spilling out). There was a black rug and black curtains and some stupid girly black and white paintings hung on the wall. Across from his bed sat a desk, completely black, and one of those spinning chairs his dad used to scream at him for playing in. 

The room was extravagant, really. Fancier than any hotel he'd ever stayed in. He knew that in time  the room would be trashed- his clothes and papers everywhere, his posters littering the walls- because to be honest, it wasn't homey, note yet. Nevertheless, he gave Lydia a huge thank you hug and Derek the best smile he could muster, because he couldn't believe anyone would've wanted to spend a dime on him.

The thing about Isaac's room was that it wasn't really his room at all. Derek had a room- it was directly across from his. Boyd had a room, and so did Cora, on the opposite side of the house. But there was no 'Isaac's room'- instead, there was the room. The boys' room. Their room. Because really, it was as much of Stiles' and Scott's room as it was Isaac's. The three boy's clothes were all over the floor, a mixture between plaid button ups and graphic t's and band shirts and soft long sleeved henleys. There were jackets and jeans and the occasional dress shirt or belt. Shoes were under the bed and dressers and in the middle of the room- in prime tripping territory- and there was a point where the boys began to forget who's was who's.  If it was clean and it fit, you wore it. Sometimes people would notice that Isaac's shirts seemed a little tight on the arms, or Scott's jeans were a little too long, or that they could've sworn Stiles wore the same shirt on Saturday that Isaac was wearing today. If you looked into their dresser drawers, you'd see three filled with boxers and the occasional sock, because they were close, but not 'underwear sharing' close. 

Sometimes Lydia would come into the room, and she would make that face. Her eyebrows would raise in disbelief at the mess. Not only clothes and shoes covered the floor, but there were papers and laptops and backpacks. Not to mention that action figure that Stiles brought because he just had to show Isaac, and the comic books, a few movie and CD cases, and some of the Harry Potter novels because Isaac had never read them before and of course, Stiles kept a copy of all 7 (he was currently on book 5, but Stiles had never gotten around to bringing any home because honestly, that was his home). There were about 4 blankets and 6 pillows on Isaac's bed every night, but during the day, they could be anywhere from in the closet to on the floor to hanging from the ceiling to block out light. Occasionally they'd end up in the dresser drawers because they were always being thrown around. There were coffee cups and soda cans and cereal bowls on the nightstands, stacked and dirty in classic teenage fashion. Usually they'd sneak to the kitchen at ungodly hours and grab whatever they were in the mood for, and fall asleep between bites and sips and conversations about stuff like Iron Man and how zebras were most definitely horrifying, thank you very much, and who has time for things like dirty dishes during conversations like that?

The room might've been messy, destroyed even, but it was the closest he had felt to home in a very long time. When his dad was still alive, his room was stifling hot, tiny, and spotless. His dad wouldn't have allowed it to be any other way. His bed frame was old, unpainted iron, and his walls were bare. He spent his nights there in fear, crying himself to sleep. Times were different now. There was no more falling asleep to the sound of his own shallow breaths. No more stifling, hot air that made it hard to breathe. Instead, he had comfort. 

He hadn't had nightmares for the first few nights. He had slept comfortably, snuggled under all 50 shades of his gray comforter, listening to Scott's heartbeat next to him and Stiles' light snores from the floor, occasionally smacking him with a pillow if they got too loud. There was a storm when he had the first nightmare, he had woken up screaming and crying, but they were there. Scott and Stiles slept on either side of him, their warmth making him feel somewhat safer. Those were his favorite nights, when they were both there, both so happy. Those nights had been rare at first, but became more common. Though they didn't really live there, they were there more than they were at their own houses. They would sit on the couch with Isaac in weird positions, watching dumb movies, a lot of the time superhero, occasionally scary. Sometimes they could convince Derek to join them, and he and Stiles would debate about stupid things and they'd all laugh and eat peanut butter cup icecream- their favorites- and when Derek wasn't around they'd take turns shooting whipped cream into eachothers mouth's because Derek would have a fit when they did (even though they had caught Derek in the act a few times). 

Isaac's favorite days were when everyone was together- Him, Scott, Stiles, Derek, Lydia, Boyd, Cora, and sometimes even Allison- and they'd order pizza (because they all remember what happened that one time when they tried to make it themselves and almost burnt down the entire apartment) and watch a movie or play a board game which Stiles or Lydia would usually win and fall asleep on top of each other and the first to wake up could take embarrassing pictures.

His other favorite times were when Stiles would be too busy researching or typing or reading to hang out and he and Scott would take walks through the forest and have tree climbing contests. They'd stop and get a lemonade or a hot chocolate depending on the season and would do stupid things like play hide and seek or look inside the little pottery shop downtown or go to the craft store and buy paint and go splatter it on the trees- things that they couldn't do with Stiles because he just wouldn't appreciate it like they did.

That was family, that was his family, and it all started with a bedroom.