The Ties That Bind Us

The Out-of-Line

Malia tried to hide a smile.

"You broke his nose, remember? Poor thing. Never play tricks when girls are stronger than you, I kept telling him, but he never listened." Derek kept telling funny stories about Matt until the topic died away.

"So are you coming on the ski trip?" Stiles asked him.

Derek nodded. "I haven't been skiing in ages. No time. Been saving all my vacation for this."

"Vacation? You have a job? What do you do?" That was unusual. Most half-breeds worked, true, but not the royal ones. Royalty had enough money to survive a hundred years without work.

"I teach personal defense."

Stiles stared at him in astonishment. A royal half-breed that knew how to fight? Also unusual.

"What do you think, Stiles?" Kira seemed highly amused by his surprise. "Think you could take him?"

Derek crooked him a grin. "Probably. I've seen what you guys can do. Especially now, with Malia teaching him. This is just a hobby I picked up."

"You're being modest," Malia said. "You could teach half the classes around here."

"Not likely," he argued. "It'd be pretty embarrassing to be beaten up by a bunch of teenagers."

"I don't think that would happen," she said. "I seem to remember you doing some damage to Donovan Donati."

"Punching him in the face was just something I'd dream about doing for years."

"You and the rest of the world."

They both laughed until Stiles decided to butt in again. "Did you start learning to fight before or after that happened to your face?" he asked.

"Stiles!" Scott hissed, slapping the back of Stiles's head.

"Ouch!"

But Derek didn't seem upset. He regarded Stiles with a level, thoughtful look. "After," he said. "How much do you know?"

"The basics."

Derek slowly chewed on a marshmallow. "I knew... I knew what Noshiko and Ken had become, but that still didn't prepare me. Mentally. Physically. Emotionally. I think if I had to live through it again, I still wouldn't be ready. But after that night, I looked at myself and realized how defenseless I was. I'd spent my whole life expecting guardians to protect me and take care of me."

"That's our duty," Stiles said.

"Maybe so. But we can't always count on someone. And that's not to say the guardians aren't capable. Like I said, you could probably take me in a fight. But we should also help when possible."

Stiles found that unlikely. Half-breeds weren't raised for combat. Most of them froze before threats. Not to mention their nature, their beliefs, were in favor of peace and strongly against the use of violence.

"And they—Noshiko and Ken—cut down our two guardians before we realized what had happened. I stalled them, but just barely. If the others hadn't shown up, I'd be dead. I decided that I didn't want to die that way, not without putting up a real fight and doing everything I could to protect myself and those I love. So I learned all sorts of self-defense. And after a while, I didn't really, uh, fit in so well with the peaceful society around here."

Silence fell. Derek faced the wall. He seemed to be going through that night in his head.

"It's a weird story, I admit," he continued, his voice now a whisper. "He was my brother. We grew up together. And a lot of nights I wonder if I was right. Was he really going to kill me? He only did this to my face after I attacked him in my werewolf form. Noshiko begged me to let her take Kira. She swore she was trying to keep her daughter safe. She kept saying that the Estate of Moksha—or something like that—wasn't so bad, that it wasn't primitive, that it allowed them to have control. I don't know what she meant by that. Until today, I don't know what parts of what they said was true."