𝐷𝐸𝑀𝑂𝐿𝐼𝑇𝐼𝑂𝑁 𝐿𝑂𝑉𝐸𝑅𝑆 ➪ 𝐶𝐻𝑅𝐼𝑆 𝐴𝑅𝐺𝐸𝑁𝑇

10.

At the school, in the locker room, Derek turns the lights off. "Danny?" Scott calls out nervously.

He walks around the locker room holding a towel tightly around his waist, he tries to turn the lights back on, but they don't work.

A lacrosse ball rolls and bounces off a locker and he walks over to pick it up. "The hell.."

He steps forward and jumps when he sees Derek standing in the shower room. "Thank god!"

"Where the hell have you been?! Do you have any idea what's been going on?!" Scott asks. Derek's eyes flickered over toward Peter, Dahlia, and Sage.

Peter steps out holding a lacrosse stick. "I really don't get lacrosse." He says. "It was you.."

"When we were in high school, we played basketball. Dahlia here won us a lot of trophies, heh. There's a real sport. Still, I read somewhere that lacrosse comes from Native American tribes and that they played it to resolve conflict. Do I have that right?"

Peter shakes his head. "Well..I have a little conflict of my own to resolve, Scott, but I need your help to do it." He says. "I'm not helping you kill people."

"Well, I don't want to kill all of them." Peter responds before looking at Dahlia. "Just the responsible ones, and that doesn't have to include.."

"Allison." Dahlia mumbles. Scott knits his brows. "You're on his side? All three of you?" He asks.

"Are you forgetting the part where he killed your niece? Your sister? Your cousin?!" He continued.

"It was a mistake." Derek answers. "What?!"

"It happens." Sage adds. "Scott, I think you're getting the wrong impression of us. We really just want to help you reach your full potential." Peter says.

"By killing my friends." Scott deadpanned.

Peter looks at Dahlia accusingly. "Sometimes the people closest to you, can be the ones holding you back the most." He mutters. Scott glares at him.

"If they're holding me back from becoming a psychotic nut-job like you, I'm okay with that."

Peter steps forward and Scott backs up, glancing at Derek. "Maybe..you could try and see things.." Peter's claws extend from his fingers. "..from my perspective." He finishes. His claws enter the back of Scott's neck and Derek glances at Dahlia.

Peter withdraws his claws and blood drips down Scott's neck as he falls to the floor. Sage furrows his brows as his uncle walks off.

•

Later, at the McCall household, Dahlia and Calliope sit on Melissa's bed as they wait for her to walk out of her bathroom. "C'mon, Mel! We're waiting!"

They smiled as they heard the woman laugh from the other side of the closed door.

"Alright, I'm coming."

Melissa walks out of the bathroom and the three smile in excitement. "Ah! You look gorgeous!"

Melissa's smile brightened. "I hope my date thinks the same thing." She laughed. "Who is it, anyway?"

"Hm?"

"Your date." Calliope says. Melissa quickly glances at Dahlia. "I don't wanna say-"

"Oh, c'mon! It can't be worse than you-know-who."

Melissa blushes. "Hey! I was young, okay!"

Dahlia gives her a look. "Who is it?" She repeats.

After inhaling a deep breath, Melissa says the next two words carefully. "You're brother." She smiles.

Dahlia's face twisted in disgust. "Oh, gross!"

Calliope laughs, which causes the other two to laugh. "Get over it!" Melissa says. "It's Peter." Dahlia deadpanned.

"It's better than your Victoria-"

"Hey! I was young!" Dahlia defended, repeating her friends words from earlier. "Exactly." Melissa smiled. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go tell Scott." She adds, walking out of the room. "Ew."

A few minutes later, the doorbell rings. Scott hurries down the stairs and hesitates when he reaches for the doorknob.

"Scott, get the door!" His mom yells.

"I'll get it." Dahlia says, walking downstairs. She passes Scott and opens the door. "You're disgusting." She grins. Peter grins back.

"So are you." He says.

Melissa sticks her head around the corner. "Hey, what are you doing? Aren't you gonna invite him in?" She asks her son. Scott turns to Peter.

"Hello there."

Quickly, Scott pushes Dahlia out of the house and tries to close the door. Peter shares a look with her and pushes the door back open. "Really?"

"Slamming the door in our face? C'mon, take a second to think that through."

"I'll tell her." Scott threatens.

"That I used to be a catatonic invalid with burns covering half of my face? Good luck with that."

"If you hurt her, if you even touch her-"

"Scott, if I may interrupt your listing of the top five most important-sounding threats for a moment. Try and remember that i've been in a coma for six years."

Dahlia walks back into the house. "And I was invited over here, asshole." She states before walking back upstairs. Peter rolls his eyes.

"Aunts." He mutters.

"Don't you think I'd like to have dinner with a beautiful woman?" He asks. After taunting Scott for a few more minutes, Melissa appears just as Dahlia and Lio walk down the stairs. "I'm ready." She says.

Peter smiles and offers his arm, Melissa takes it and Dahlia pretends to barf. Lio laughs quietly and the four walk out of the house.

"Hurt her and I hurt you." Dahlia threatens. Peter smirks. "Whatever you say, timebomb."