After Isaac woke up, the rest of the day went smoothly. Liam told him about his excursion into the woods, choosing to leave out the part about the wolf and the strange group of voices that followed him. He told him about the path and the pond.
"Maybe we can cut back some of the plants, make it easier to get through." Isaac suggested.
"Nah, I don't want to encourage anyone else to go back there, I've claimed that spot, It's mine," The both laughed.
"Alright , well we've got things we need to buy." Isaac said, grabbing the car keys.
"Already made a list," Liam said excitedly.
Liam and Isaac drove to the grocery store they had passed on the way to the clinic the day before. It was a small local place, but it had everything they needed. Thanks to Deaton, they no longer needed to take furniture into their budget, so they decided to splurge a little.
"What did you say that was?" Isaac asked Liam, who was holding a spiking pinkish-red fruit in his hand.
"Dragonfruit," Liam explained, "Never had one and it looked cool. I'm not really sure how you eat it, but I can google it when we get home." Isaac smiled and nodded. They made their way through the rest of the store, grabbing everything Liam had on the list, plus things they didn't even think about, like salt and pepper, as well as some other spices. The person at the register was a very nice woman who seemed to realize they were new to town. She explained that everyone tended to come here, and she knew most everyone else by name.
Isaac smiled, "Yeah, just got here the other day."
"Oh really, are you guys going to school here? You look young enough, especially you." She pointed towards Liam.
"Uh, yeah, Liam here's a junior, I'm a senior." Liam waved sort of shyly at her, but smiled.
"Cool, I'm a junior too, my name's Hayden. Kind of a weird question, entirely off topic, so please excuse me, " Hayden had a quizzical expression on her face, "Do you guys play lacrosse by chance?"
Liam and Isaac's faces both twisted in confusion, "Uh, no, why?" Liam asked.
"Well," she explained, "I don't want this to sound creepy, but our school is pretty obsessed with lacrosse, and a lot of the best players graduated last year, again I do not want to sound creepy, but Coach has been emailing people all summer trying to get them to join the team, and even though you'd be starting late, it might be a good chance to meet people. I know when I first moved here a few years ago I joined the softball team, I met a lot of cool people."
"Oh, well, I don't know, we could think about it I guess, I don't think I could, cause it'd only be for a year, but I don't know, maybe you'll join Li." Isaac smiled at Hayden and turned towards Liam.
"Yeah, I'm not so sure about that, but yeah I'll think about it." Hayden smiled, she'd finished scanning everything, and they'd helped bag it all.
"Well, I'll see you guys next week when school starts hopefully, have a good one!"
"You too" they both called leaving the store.
They made their way back into the car, putting the bags in the back and climbing in.
"I think she likes you," Isaac laughed, "Bit of a disappointment when she realizes you're only into dudes."
"Oh you're just reading into it," Liam countered, "She was nice, that doesn't mean she likes me" Liam rolled his eyes, Isaac chuckling as they started their drive home.
Monday was a lot easier than Isaac thought it would be. He got up early enough to get to the clinic 15 minutes early, which seemed like plenty of time. Deaton was there, he gave him a slightly more in depth tour, had him feed the animals, and had him help with the animals that were brought periodically throughout the day.
"Isaac, can you grab Sprinkles? I already told his owner everything they need to know about taking care of him after the surgery." Deaton asked, coming into the back from the reception desk.
"Yeah sure," Isaac found sprinkles, a fluffy Maine Coon, you'd just had a minor surgery. It was the same cat that curled up so comfortably in his arms two days ago when he first visited. He carried him into the waiting room. A little boy was standing there with his father jumping up and down impatiently. Isaac smiled when the father just laughed. "God" he thought, "wish I had him as a dad"
"Relax, Jamie," the dad laughed, "see look Sprinkles is right there." The boy's head whipped around to look at Isaac, holding Sprinkles. He ran towards him holding out his arms. Isaac looked questioningly at the father before he nodded. Isaac knelt down and placed Sprinkles in the boy's arms. Isaac half expected the boy to squeeze the cat so hard it passed out, but he didn't. The cat merely curled up comfortably in his arms and purred.
'Thank you!" The boy yelled at Isaac wrapping his arm around Isaac's neck in a half hug.
"Oh I didn't-" Isaac began
"No use arguing with him," the father laughed, "You gave him back his cat, he doesn't care what you did or didn't do."
Isaac laughed and hugged the boy quickly with one arm before letting go. The boy held on for just a second longer before letting go and turning back to his dad. "Thank you" he mouthed before turning and leaving, his boy in front of him. Isaac smiled warmly in their direction.
The door opened again, and a familiar boy stepped in, Scott. Their eyes locked and both had a familiar blush creepy onto their faces. Isaac averted his eyes quickly.
"Uh, hey, how are you doing?" Isaac asked.
Scott chuckled nervously, "Uh good, you?"
"Good." was all Isaac said, before turning slowly and making his way back into the exam room. He took a deep breath. "Fuck," he though, he's never had a crush like this before, but he guessed he'd also never been obligated to work with one this closely before either. They didn't say much to each other for the first hour, just simply working in silence or asking questions, which were only related to work. At one point they'd both reached for the same pen, and when their hand brushed Isaac though he was going to die. "This is like some fucking cliché rom-com, Li was right," he thought.
Scott wasn't sure what to do, his mind was going all over the fucking place. At this point there were a few things he knew for certain.
He liked Isaac.
He was fairly sure Isaac like him too, he could hear his heartbeat quicken whenever he looked at him.
Stiles thinks he should go for it.
There was also a list of things that made him hesitate.
He isn't certain Isaac likes him.
He doesn't want to put him in danger.
All his friends know about the werewolf thing, and it would be a little weird that Isaac didn't.
Telling Isaac could go very VERY badly.
He really needed to talk to Stiles about all this.
And he did. After work, Isaac and Scott said an awkward goodbye. The second Scott was in his car he whipped out his phone and called Stiles. He picked up pretty quickly.
"Hey, dude can I talk to you, It's about the Isaac thing."
He could hear Stile sign on the other end, "Fine but can we do it in person, I think I can convey my frustration of this situation better in person."
Scott sighed, "Yeah, yeah, I'm heading home now I'll meet you there."
"Listen, Scott, I get why you're freaked out about this. The last time you had a crush on someone like this you weren't a werewolf." Stile started pacing around Scott's room while Scott lay on his back staring at the ceiling. "But you need to realize something. As far as we know, you are always going to be fighting or dealing with something, some things worse than others, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be allowed to, ya know" He made a strange gesture with his hands, Scott looked at him, and unamused expression on his face, he threw a pillow and it hit him square in the nose.
"Dude, I'm not talking about sex, I'm talking about an actual relationship." Scott explained.
"Okay, okay, I was joking, kind of" Scott glared at him, "Seriously, though, you don't know what's going to happen. Maybe these hunters leave, and we never deal with anything bad again, and maybe this other werewolf will be friendly, we don't know. So why hold off? Also, and I think this is something you've been forgetting throughout all of this," Stile walked over, gripping Scott's shoulder and speaking to him, very close and way too loud, "You. Have. Not. Done. Anything. Yet. For all you know you'll start talking to the guy, he'll be a dick, and you won't have a crush anymore. I said the same thing the other day. Were you not listening?"
"No, no I was." Scott whined.
"Good, listen, just do what you think is right, it's not like you have to make a decision about it and ask him out tomorrow, just chill alright."
'But see Stiles, that's part of the problem. We're starting school in a week and he's hot as hell, people will probably be asking him out left and right. He'll end up dating someone else before I even get the chance to make up my mind.'
"Well if he goes out with someone else than I guess he didn't like you that much in the first place, okay? Seriously dude you're making me feel bad for you. Just sleep on it until Monday, see how you feel. You said you have his number, so you can text him when you decide, yeah?"
"Yeah, fuck, your right."
"Always am, now can we do something else please.''
"Yeah okay."
Liam led Isaac through the woods early Tuesday morning. The sun was just beginning to rise, and Isaac didn't work until the afternoon, so he wasn't worried about sleep. They stepped over the overgrown paths, the edge of the water coming into few through a thin fog that seemed to settle over the forest.
"Wow, it's beautiful over here." Isaac said.
Liam sat down on the edge of a small overhang, the bottoms of his shoes just barely scraping the water below, sending little ripples over the quiet mirror.
Isaac sat down next to him slowly. Sitting slightly further back, otherwise his feet would be completely submerged. "How are you feeling about everything?" He asked werely, "We haven't really talked about it since the car."
Liam was quiet for a moment, Isaac watching the side of his face intently, as he looked over the water.
"It's... It's a lot." he settled on, "But I like it here, the people we've met so far are really nice, even if Scott is a little weird." Liam smirked looking at Isaac. Isaac's face went a little red but he smiled. "It's just..." he paused again, "Some stuff won't really ever go away, ya know. Like the nightmares, and, well everything else, but I like it here, it feels safe, calm, quiet."
Isaac smiled softly at his brother, he wrapped his arm over his shoulders, squeezing just for a second, before letting his arm fall. They weren't the physical affection type, at least Isaac wasn't. A part of him felt like Liam was more okay with it than he was, but it was never something they talked about, just a silent agreement they had made over the years.
"I think we're gonna be okay here," he said, "and, god forbid, he did find us, what is he gonna do? Drive up here and try to drag us back. We both know he's let up the last few months, and we both know it's 'cause he knows I'd take you with me when I turned 18 anyway. He'll probably be too drunk to notice we're even gone in the first place." Isaac joked, but there was acid on his tongue.
Liam nodded and they both just sat for a while, as the sun rose higher over the water.
"I should sleep a little more before work, you hungry?" Isaac asked, standing up and brushing the dirt off his pants.
"No, I'll be good, I'm gonna stay here for a little bit."
"Alright, I'll see you later." Isaac made his way back down the path towards the house.
Liam sighed, content, staring out over the water, the sun was just on its edge now. A half circle of light peeking out behind the glass. Liam looked down at the dirt, picking up a rock. He didn't get to throw it last time. He reared his arm bag and chucked the small stone as far out as he could. It went a decent distance and sent large ripples through the water that slowly dissipated, becoming almost impossible to notice by the time they reached Liam's feet.
He sat there for a while longer, and then sat back resting his head on the, surprisingly soft, forest floor. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Taking in the sounds of the birds around him, and the smell of the trees and the water around him. It was peaceful.
Then he heard a familiar rustling nearby, he shot up quickly and turned. It was the wolf from the other day. Liam stiffened when it started moving closer to him. He shot up on his feet ready to run, but it stopped, sitting down like a dog. Liam's mind was telling him to back away slowly, but a part of him was telling him to stay, to feel out the situation a little more.
He stood frozen, looking down at the wolf, it's head probably coming up to Liam's mid thigh. It's fur was jet black, except for a patch of white on its chest and the tip of its tail.
"Um, hello," Liam said, he wasn't quite sure why, maybe talking in a quiet voice would make it be nice. To his surprise the wolf's head tilted to the side, and it's tail wagged on the forest floor. "I didn't even know wolves could do that" he thought.
The animal tried to stand up taking a step forward, which was about 2 meters away from Liam. Liam took a slow step back, and the wolf stopped, sitting again. A high whine left it's throat and Liam felt a wave of confusion and curiosity flash over him, what the hell was going on. It laid down slowly, rolling on its side just a little bit.
Liam just stood in confusion for a few moments before something in him decided it had a death wish. He bent down slowly, squatting to about the height of the wolf. It's ears perked up and it's tail wagged again. "What the hell are you doing Liam?" Liam though, smacking himself upside the head internally. But he stayed there. The wolf got up slowly, and took a step forwards, Liam flinched slightly but didn't move backwards. Slowly it made its way closer to Liam. Until there was only about a foot of distance between them. It sat down again, looking at Liam. Somehow, Liam felt like he could read its eyes, like an energy radiating from them, it was calm, and happy.
Liam would curse himself for this in an hour or so, but he slowly lifted his hand and reached out towards the wolf. Stopping just short, his hand wavering over its side. The wolf made a low, happy sound, it's tail wagging again. Liam let his hand fall and... "wow" he thought, the wolf's fur was incredibly soft, and warm. He pet it slowly down it's side, as the wolf's tail wagged quickly, it's ears falling comfortably.
"Fuck," he said quietly, the wolf turned it's face towards him, head tilting slightly, "Isaac really isn't going to believe me now.' He chuckled slightly and the wolf seemed to like that, rubbing its face against Liam's hand, making him pet it's head. "You aren't going to kill me, right?" Liam laughed nervously, the wolf growled low, Liam flinched back, it whined and pushed its face back against Liam's hand. "Was that a no?" Liam laughed, but part of him would swear he saw the wolf nod.