[somewhere in Beacon Hills]
After the initial shock that Derek was back to his adult self, Lulu felt out of place. The teens she'd been helping out the past three days were glad to have Derek back to his adult self. While the night didn't end on a high note for everyone, Lulu's mind wasn't on the millions of dollars Peter had been robbed of.
Lulu didn't intend to leave without saying goodbye, they just weren't her things. Yet goodbyes were Scott's things, and it's how he'd found her grabbing her duffle bag from Stiles's jeep.
"You're leaving?" Scott asks watching her close the door of the Jeep
"I helped, and now I just really need a shower"
Understanding that she hadn't really been given a break since accepting to help them Scott nods, "Thank you, for dropping everything and coming to help us. Not many people would do that"
"Well, you were brave enough to ask, so thank you. It was refreshing to be part of the pack if you will"
"Do you have a pack?" Scott asks interested in how she was so easily able to drop everything to help his pack. To help a bunch of strangers just because they called, what type of person would do that?
"Rest up Scott, you have school tomorrow," Lulu replies avoiding the question, and starts walking away from him.
Lulu had packed light, leaving all her more so glamorous clothes back in South America. Being able to smell her sweat clinging to her clothes Lulu scrunches her nose wanting a shower not caring if it was hot or cold. That little dream was delayed at the sound of echoing footsteps that weren't hers under the overpass.
Turning around Lulu couldn't help but smile at the sight of green eyes brightened by the green shirt he wore, "Hello Derek. I suppose you remember?"
"Yeah." Derek simply replies walking towards her still frame. It had taken some time for his mind to process the last few days, specifically to sort out that the woman standing before him had stayed true to every word she'd told him. "You came"
"I did. You needed help," Lulu shrugs not wanting to make a big deal about it
"What now?" Derek asks remembering her expressing how she was disappointed he never called
"I helped and..." Lulu trails off taking a deep breath to form her words "if there is no reason to extend my trip then, then I go back home"
"What if there is no reason-"
"Well-"
"Rather a request," Derek finishes his sentence that makes Lulu smile, her smiles her never closed-lipped smiles rather were bright toothy smiles
"I would need to find a place to stay, know of any with a good shower?" Lulu asks, the plan still being to shower
Derek's loft was void of color and looked nothing like a home, it had no warmth to it. It could be looked at as a minimalist lifestyle but the only way to know Derek even lived in that loft was in his shower products. From what Lulu could tell at the wide open layout was that Derek was confident because if she had a whole wall as a window she'd put up curtains.
Putting her dirty clothes in a drawstring bag and then back in her duffle bag Lulu exits the bathroom. A shower really was what she needed, once she put lotion on clean skin she could feel Mexico's desert sand become a distant memory.
Not knowing where to place her duffle bag Lulu sets it by the stairs before letting her ears search for Derek. Being led to the kitchen that was very hidden Lulu enters it to see the man by the stove cooking
"Hey, thank you for letting me use your shower." Lulu voices making sure he knew of her presence
"It's the least I could do," Derek replies, he'd changed out his green shirt and jeans yet the clothes he now wore were still form fitting
"He cooks, he speaks Spanish, what can Derek Hale not do?" Lulu asks, watching the man cooks with a smirk as she walks closer to him but stays far enough to give him moving distance around his kitchen "What are you making?"
"Garlic bread grilled cheese sandwiches"
"One cheese?"
"Three"
Lulu hums in approval the kitchen smell already making to want to try his cooking, "I am impressed"
Leaning by the sink Lulu couldn't help but fill in the silence, "Is it okay if I ask you a bunch of questions? This trip brought up a lot of them and I never got the answers to?"
"Do I get to ask questions of my own?" Derek asks flipping one of the cheese sandwiches
"Yes. Mine is uh, what is a nogitsune?" Lulu asks her first question being nothing about the Hale fire or Kate or even his eyes leaving Derek to relax
"It's a void kitsune" Derek answers walking around to grab two plates Lulu's eyes following his every move "Who feeds on chaos, pain, and strife"
"And you guys fought one?" Lulu questions seeing as a void kitsune sounds nothing anyone would want to befriend, it almost sounded like the opposite of Kira who while brave didn't like causing pain
"Yes. It possessed Stiles, really was the best manipulator because no one could have guessed that kid could do evil things"
"Possessed him?" Lulu worriedly mutters and being with a werewolf meant he could hear everything she'd say
Handing her a plate with a cut in half garlic bread grilled cheese sandwich, "They really didn't tell you anything?"
"All Stiles did was interview me when he met me. Really he just mentioned you all went through in the past years family of hunters, alpha pack and a nogitsune. To which I have zero qualifications for," Lulu smiles following after him plate and drink in hand as they walk away from the kitchen and towards the main room to sit on the sofa
"Yet you helped"
"Mhm"
The two sit on the same sofa with space between them and their drink and plate on the coffee table. Lulu had her leg crossed under her giving her room to face Derek while he kept his attention forward.
This time it was Derek's turn to break the silence, "How did you come to own your restaurant and club?"
"Through my relationship with food and family," Lulu says giving him the short version of a very long story
"They inspired that much?" Derek questions picking up half of his sandwich
"Oh no, bad relationships." Lulu explains while cleaning her hands from the oil of the sandwich on a napkin "La Luna and El Sol were more so helping me heal my relationship with food and my relationship with people in general, with my community."
"Has it worked so far?" Derek asks because it seemed it had, from when he'd met her Lulu was the one reaching out to people making them feel comfortable and making sure things were going great. She had a community back home
"It has. I did use my father's money to pay for the building. He never found out I stole it so really it worked out," Lulu tries to shrug off her explanation but it wasn't something simple one can just let go of
"You stole?" Derek questions not seeing her to have the ability to steal
"I took with me all the expensive gifts I had gotten over the years, and sold them," Lulu says because it was true, she didn't care for expensive jewelry or gifts none of them were her or her style so why not sell them to get funds for something she was passionate about
Hearing that she sold something that already belonged to her Derek shakes his head slightly moving his body to face Lulu rather than the coffee table, "That's not stealing"
"It is when I sold my brother's engagement ring without his knowledge and let him think he just misplaced it," Lulu admits what she'd done being something she wasn't proud to admit but was proud of
"That's manipulative"
Lulu shakes her head knowing he didn't mean it offensively, finishing up chewing her food before defending herself, "He made his friends lock me in our school's janitor room my junior year of high school so I can fail a test. Which made our parents force me to get a tutor who just so happened to be a girl he liked. While he was making out with his future fiance, my tutor, I had to get my grades up alone. It was payback, and it is not like he paid for the ring with his money - it was our father's money"
"You're vindictive," Derek says with a smirk seeing a different side of Lulu who was ready to help anybody
"I can be." Lulu admits only really being vindictive when it came to her family or anyone who had tried to cross her or hurt anyone she'd come to respect back in South America "Really it was just me trying to survive"
"Nobody helped?" Derek asks thinking she must have had someone who taught her to help everyone rather than becoming bitter toward the world as he had
Wanting to explain it in a way he'd understand Lulu says, "I never had friendships like Scott and his friends. None of the people I made friends with during school would have helped one me through full moons or traveled to Mexico on a hunch."
"Would you have for them?" Derek asks starting to understand the type of upbringing she had but wanted to learn more about her
"Yeah, even after knowing they would not," Lulu answers without a second guess telling the truth
"Were you always this... This helpfully optimistic?" Derek questions and at his tone Lulu doesn't take it to heart just found it funny how he had yet to understand it took nothing to be nice but everything in her to be mean
"No. When I got bitten I was angry for so long. I had gone home thinking it would help being around those I love but my anger never faded. I learned there was so much unresolved problems and things I had been holding on to that my family had shoved away. I started fighting and arguing with them and soon I realized it was me who was angry. It was not the wolf making me angry and I had every right to be angry," Lulu shares a big part of her opening up to him in a way that made him be able to smell the anxiety of waves washing over her when she mentioned her family
"They were that bad of parents?" Derek questions having come across his fair share of bad parents
In a deep sigh, Lulu answers, "I am the middle child with four brothers. My dad is someone you would call a... mobster or like that God...father uh person in that one film"
"The Godfather?" Derek questions in disbelief as that movie was known worldwide
"I suppose so." Lulu hesitantly replies being her only uncertain answer as she'd never watched the film only heard people talk about it,
"Unlike him who cherishes his daughter, all my father cared about was that I was not pregnant by a certain age and finished school. While my brothers were immediately taken to be taught of the family business at the ripe age of 5. They were loved by all my tias and tios. While I was being told I had to fill up, being told every time they saw me that I had to eat more, and when they saw me eat questioned if that was all I was eating. And when I ate just as much as my brothers - to the point where I was ready to throw up and no longer enjoying my food - they would scold me"
"That's why you needed to repair your relationship with food," Derek nods in understanding liking the woman before him even more
"Yes. That's why at my restaurant we have food sizes, I never want anyone visiting to feel like they have to eat more than they can or feel pressured to finish their plate clean. I want them to be healthy above pleasing someone," Lulu shares showing her passion for helping people even when she isn't physically there at her restaurant
"Do you have friends now that would help?" Derek asks wondering if she was ever in need of help she'd call him
"I would hope so. My so called friends left me for dead once, i was a ghost in my own family and everyone around me worked for my father so they would not do anything without asking for his permission," Lulu lists off without going into detail but it was enough to know she'd gotten screwed over in her life more than once
"And you're the literal opposite," Derek states a big part of him is starting to fully trust her. He'd gotten screwed over in life by women that he wasn't just going to trust the first woman who was nice to him. Really giving Scott her number in case of emergencies was a whim thinking it would never have come to that
"I help people because no one should expect anything but kindness." Lulu explains her philosophy, taking a sip of her drink before putting the attention back on them "Now it is my turn for a question, what does it take to get you to smile?"
"I smile"
"No you smirk or grin." Lulu points out now understanding why Stiles would call him a downer if he never smiled "Teenage you showed more range of emotion than you now."
"And you were disappointed i never called," Derek grins putting the attention on her to which Lulu laugh
"It was disappointing hearing Scott and Stiles' voices." Lulu honestly says and while she liked the boys now it was the last thing she had expected when answering that call "But speaking about our conversation... When am I going to meet your family?"
"You heard about the Hale fire, you know what happened to them." Derek distantly says
"Introducing me to them does not mean me meeting them, it can be you tell me about them"
"I'll tell you after you tell me how you got bitten"
"Ohhh, okay, um it's safe to assume you were born into this life right? I was not, I did get bit and never found out by who or really cared. You have to understand I went to a private school where they had a annual senior trip of the seniors before graduation. My whole class went to the woods to camp and not in rickety tents but like house tents. I was stupidly walking alone to the bathrooms and got lost, stopped to clean my glasses and it happened...
Teenage Lulu in matching white flannel pajamas laid on the ground bleeding under the night sky. She thought she was alone but the sound of a familiar teen girl's voice makes her know she wasn't, "We should just leave her"
That brought Lulu zero comfort, she thought they'd help her. She was bleeding and in paralyzing pain, why wouldn't they help?
"Leave her?" Another teen girl's voice worriedly asks
"She's not breathing! They're going to think we did this to her!" The high-pitched girl exclaims in defense
"What if they think we did something because we left!" The mouse voice girl whispers
"They won't. They'll realize in the morning that she's gone, we'll say we saw her go out of her tent but don't know if she came back. Boom start of a search party"
Lulu wanted to shout that she was alive, she was just in pain but breathing. She didn't want to be alone, if she was dying she didn't want to die alone.
"Okay, okay. You're sure she's not breathing right?" The mousey voice asks making it known she would follow the other girl's lead
"Looks like it"
"Check just to be sure"
"You check!"
"If she pops up like a zombie in those movies you're getting eaten first!" The girl exclaims walking over to the teen girl's bloody body making sure not to step with her $500 slippers on the blood
She checks if Lulu's breathing by putting her freshly manicured finger under Lulu's nose as her lips were closed. Feeling a faint warm breath leaving the bloody girl's nostrils she let's out a mousy whine, "Ughhh she's breathing!"
"Damn it! Okay, now we just call for help. And tell the truth, we found her like this. We got no blood on us we're good"
They call for help as planned and no one put the blame on the two girls, because they did the right thing in calling for help.
All Lulu could remember is being left alone, a group of people finding her and calling for an ambulance that would take too long. Then someone people just start putting gauze over the visible bleeding area's, and yet nobody was trying to get her to stay awake.
In reality, the chaperones call for an ambulance but because they are out in the middle of nowhere they're told to stabilize her and not move the girl. With a newly bought first aid kit that had never been used in the past three years, two chaperones do their best to put gauze on the bleeding area's without cleaning the wound or really looking at it - they weren't good at handling blood.
An hour later an ambulance came and Lulu's wounds were close to fully healing only that once paramedics started to treat her and put all kinds of chemicals on her body it stopped the fast healing process. Rather than having deep claw marks on her Lulu had deep scratch marks and the bite wasn't deep teen marks just needle-like puncture wounds.
Lulu doesn't remember the ambulance ride, she only remembers waking up in a hospital bed feeling better than ever. She was so used to having to reaching out for her glasses once waking up that when she opens her eyes and sees clearly the reason why wasn't her first thought. Lulu's first thought was why everything was so bright and loud.
Lulu was ready to raise a hand to her eyes and cover them but was restricted. Looking down Lulu focuses on the soft fabric cuffs around her wrists restricting her movements
At the noise inside the curtain room an older woman walks in, "Lucia mi amor como estas?"
"Bien, que paso? Por que- que es esto?" Lulu asks looking down at the cuffs around
"Mirame," The mother says making the daughter look up at the familiar eyes "Lucia, por que te lastimaste?"
"Que?" Lulu asks, trying her best to stand up with the restraints "I-i did not hurt myself! Is this what you think happened? Who told you that?"
Turned out the story everyone had created once seeing her small cuts after the blood had been cleaned up was that she harmed herself. Lulu may not have known what attacked her but she knew she had been bitten and scratched by some animal and most importantly she did not harm herself.
It didn't take long after the first full moon to understand what had happened to her. She'd been bitten by a werewolf and suddenly had to learn a new form of control for everyday interactions so she wouldn't shift and hurt someone. There were positives in having been bitten; she no longer needed glasses, her cystic acne vanished, healed incredibly fast, and had a physical strength that for her body muscle didn't make sense.
Lulu never found a pack, even after graduating she traveled the best she could but the other werewolf pack's she'd come across already had felt set - like they didn't have room for her. While it could be said that they'd make room for her she never stayed long enough to figure out if they'd be a good fit. She never had the ability to stay, still chained to the wishes of her father.
Her family never learned what she was, and when she left after her mom died she finally had the chance to find a pack. Only that no longer being chained to her family meant she could figure out what she wanted in life and how she'd achieve that.
Derek stayed to his word he introduced Lulu to his family in the form of a photo book. His kitchen seemed to have the most of his personality because in between two cookbooks a family photo book at been camouflaged in. That also gave them the opportunity to clean and put away their dirty plates before heading back to the couch. This time both their bodies were facing each other that showed trust and respect
Lulu learned about the Hale Alpha Talia, whose predecessor after the house fire - which was set by Kate Argent who is a sociopathic bitch - was her daughter Laura. Lulu instantly knew Derek grew up in a home filled with love because when he spoke about his father taking his mother's family name he had to be a good man. She learned that not all Hale's born or adopted into the family turned into werewolves, some stayed human after their teen years came.
Seeing a picture of his smiling self as a teenager Lulu couldn't help but ask, "What was it like being a teenager again?"
"It was actually nice being 15 again. Believing and just knowing without a doubt that my family was still alive. Having no memory of the fire just of my family without there being grief, that was... nice," Derek shares making Lulu have a faint smile at the trust he was showing her
Not once did she ask about his eye color change
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a/n: do yall like chapter titles numbered or named with something about the chapter?