BH×DH

6.

The next night, at Bella's house, Derek climbed into the mermaid's bedroom, through her open window, wanting to see her.

To his surprise, her room is empty.

After they went their separate ways from their night in the pool, Derek kept replaying the song she sung with her beautiful voice, in his head.

It made him feel warm that she loves singing, but it also broke his heart as he was reminded of Paige.

Derek hadn't gathered the courage to tell Bella about Paige yet, in fear of opening up to her about something so personal, so soon.

He wants to one day tell her, just not yet.

He did spend all night imagining that if Paige was still alive, and if she and Bella met, they would've been great friends and could've been an unstoppable musical duo together.

With Paige's gift with a cello and Bella's heart-stopping singing, they could've created great things together.

The Alpha strained his hearing and heard her heartbeat coming from the en-suite bathroom and relaxed, knowing she was close.

Deciding to wait for her, Derek explored her room, having never been inside her house before.

He was amused and intrigued to find many different collections of seashells, handmade pearl necklaces, exotic flowers and rocks, guessing that Bella found and collected them all from the ocean itself, rather than a cheap market stall.

Derek stopped at her dresser, spotting a picture frame and picked it up.

He took a closer look at it, seeing a picture of teenage Bella at a beach, wearing a bikini and stood in the middle of two girls, also in bikinis, with her arms wrapped around their shoulders as they had their arms wrapped around her, and they were all smiling at the camera.

The girl on the left was blonde and taller than Bella and the girl on the right was about Bella's height with brunette hair.

Derek figured that these were the other mermaids she told him about.

Putting the frame back, he noticed a couple of postcards and picked them up.

The first one had a picture of a beach with palm trees and he turned it over, reading the message.
'Loving the Hawaii sun and atmosphere. Wish you and the girls were here with me. Love and miss you, Rikki'

He looked at the second one, seeing a river with boats and buildings and read the message.
'I know how much you want to travel to Italy. Just letting you know I'm here for 2 months if you do come and we can go on exclusive boat trips together. Love and miss you, Rikki'

Derek was about to look at the third one, when a loud thud came from the bathroom, making him drop the postcards and rush to the bathroom door, urgently knocking on it.
"Bella? Are you ok? Bella?" He calls, worried that something was wrong.
"I'm... I'm ok, Derek" She called back, surprised as she wasn't expecting him to be right outside the door.
"Are you hurt?" He asks, still worried.
"I'm fine. Just don't come in" She replies.

Derek didn't listen, too concerned about her wellbeing and opened the door, but froze at seeing her laying on the bathroom floor, beside her bathtub, in her mermaid form.

She sighed in annoyance and embarrassment that he saw her like this.
"Did you fall?" He asks her.
"No, I was just taking a bath. I do this all the time" She tells him.
"Do you need any help?" He offers.
"No thank you. Privacy please?" Bella asks him, gesturing for him to leave.

Derek left the bathroom, closing the door behind him and decided to sit on her bed and wait for her.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Bella walked in, human formed and dressed in sleepwear.
(Her outfit)

She stops in front of Derek, placing her hand on her hip.
"What are you doing here?" She asks him.
"Just wanted to see you" Derek answers with a slight shrug.
"How did you even get in?" She asks, confused.

Derek points to the open window, making her groan in annoyance.
"If it helps, this isn't the first time I've done this" Derek says, hoping to ease the tension.
"It really doesn't, but that doesn't surprise me" She states, eyes wide as she crosses her arms over her chest.
"I'm sorry. Let me start over. I came over to see you because... I've been going out of my mind all day" Derek tells her, standing up from the bed to stand in front of her.
"And you decided to come in through my bedroom window, while I was taking a bath with the door unlocked, instead of ringing the front doorbell, like a normal person?" Bella questions him, teasingly.

Derek stands frozen for a moment.
"Yeah, now that I think about it, it doesn't look good for me" He says in realization.

Bella laughs and pulls him in for a kiss, which he happily returns.

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On a late afternoon, a couple of days later, Scott and Stiles were carrying Erica down to Derek's hideout, after the Kanima attacked them and scratched Erica, causing her to start having a seizure.
"Derek! Derek!" Scott called, urgently for the Alpha, but to his surprise, the place was empty.

Thinking quickly, Scott placed Erica on the ground and pulled out his phone to call the absent Alpha as Stiles tried to keep Erica still.

After a few rings, he picked up.
"What do you want? I'm busy, right now" He asked the teen Omega, annoyed.
"The Kanima scratched Erica and she's having a seizure! It's not good!" Scott exclaims, hoping Derek can help.
"Just break her arm to trigger her healing, then cut into her skin to bleed the venom out, let her rest and she'll be fine" Derek tells him, nonchalantly and hangs up.

With Derek, he puts his phone down and lies back down.

Want to know what he's doing?

He's at Lookout Point, sunbathing with Bella, both of them completely naked.

She told him that morning, that she was gonna do it again and he asked to come along and join her, to which she agreed.

They've been soaking in the sun for hours, enjoying each other's company, not caring about the fact that they were both naked and not doing other things.