bonus ∞ sweet bachelor pad
"Derek, I think I'm lost," Lily spoke into the phone as she parked outside an old warehouse. Derek had moved into an actual apartment instead of the Hale House and Lily was finally allowed to see it. At first he'd refused, saying that he needed to get it ready but he'd said she could come that day and given her the address. For some reason it had led her to a warehouse district and an abandoned looking area. "Either that or you've moved into some creepy warehouse," she added, then paused as she considered it, "Please tell me you haven't moved into some creepy warehouse." There was only silence on the other end. "I swear to God I'm turning around and going home."
Derek sighed on the other end but from his tone, she could tell he was amused, "Quit being so dramatic and come up already. I promise it looks better on the inside."
Grabbing her housewarming gift for him, she jumped from the jeep, muttering into the phone, "How am I not surprised? I knew I should have come apartment shopping with you. If you'd just let me come along, I could have helped you find a sweet bachelor pad."
He scoffed, "Bachelor pad? You know what that entails, right?"
Lily ignored his comment, asking, "Top floor?"
"Top floor," Derek confirmed. "See you soon," he added, hanging up.
Releasing a huge breath, Lily began trudging up the stairs, not sure whether she preferred this place or the Hale House just yet. As she got further up, she decided that she definitely preferred this place because it didn't have all the bad memories that came with the Hale House. It may have been in the middle of nowhere and really creepy, but it was an actual apartment – something she couldn't complain about. One thing she would complain about though was the flight of stairs she had to travel up.
Derek was waiting for her once she got to the top, an amused smirk on his face and his eyebrows raised. "You took the stairs?" he hummed, "Interesting choice."
She frowned, "What?" He only chuckled slightly, leading her into the room. "There was another option?" she continued complaining, looking around. That's when she noticed the elevator, her mouth gaping open in annoyance. Instead of dwelling on her mistake, she only followed him in, taking her surroundings in as she entered.
Above all, the whole loft screamed Derek Hale. All the furniture was simple and rustic, only the basic necessities around. There was a sofa in the middle, with a table and two chairs. A little closer to the windows was a desk with a simple stool. Then, right in the corner, was the bed – not exactly in the open but not fully concealed. Lily was about to comment on that fact when she noticed something else peculiar. "Is that a hole?" Lily raised her eyebrows, staring at the random hole in the wall.
"I was trying to extend the loft," Derek admitted.
Lily opened her mouth to respond and then closed it, not really sure what she could say about the hole. Finally, she blurted, "Yeah... you probably shouldn't do that again." Approaching the wall, she tilted her head and appraised it, "What did you do? Did you just punch a hole through?" Her mind filled with images of Derek punching at brick wall and she couldn't help but to giggle slightly.
"Stop laughing," Derek frowned, "That's not what I did."
Biting her lip, she did her best to stop laughing as she handed him the gift she'd prepared for him – a vase full of flowers. She figured she couldn't just get the flowers because Derek wouldn't have a vase and she was right to think so. "These are for you," she grinned, "They're lilies."
Derek smiled reluctantly, shaking his head as he took the gift, "You think you're really funny, huh?" She didn't reply, doing her best to look cute as he placed the vase of flowers on the table near the sofa. They added something more to the room, contrasting the dark feeling of the apartment. It gave off the feeling of a woman's touch, something she couldn't help but be pleased with; it was her version of peeing on her territory.
"I know I'm funny actually," Lily replied, trailing away to look around the loft a little more. She paused at the bed, her cheeks flushing as she thought of less than appropriate things. Not wanting to get caught doing that, she tried to quickly step away but couldn't as strong arms encircled her.
Lily held her breath as her back hit Derek's chest and his arms wrapped around her waist. His face went into her neck and she shivered at the feeling of his stubble brushing against her skin. "What do you think then?" he asked, his lips brushing against her neck
She gulped, "What?"
"About the loft?" he smirked, "Do you like it?"
"If I say no, will you go out a buy a sweet bachelor pad?" she wondered out loud.
"What's your obsession with that?" Derek pulled his head from her neck, sending her a curious look.
"Just imagine it," Lily said, her voice filled with mock longing, "A pool table, hot tub, flat screen TV-"
"-none of those things appeal to me," Derek cut her off, returning his face to her neck.
She sucked in a breath, replying, "What does?"
Lily felt his lip brush gently on her neck, "Lying around in bed with you."
The silly grin and bright blush that covered her face was embarrassing; she was glad that he couldn't see it. Not wanting to give in so easily, she wiggled out of his arms, teasing, "Hey, hey, hey – not so fast." She walked over to the table as she spoke, ignoring the frustrated look on his face, "You have to feed me first. I skipped dinner expecting to show up here and find a romantic candlelit dinner."
Derek approached, standing on the other side of the table and scoffing, "No you didn't."
"Okay, I definitely didn't," she admitted, pointing her finger at him, "But maybe you should consider doing that sometime because you know, I definitely wouldn't be against that, if you catch my drift."
He smiled, rolling his eyes, "I'll add that to the list, right below pool table, hot tub, flat screen TV... do you even know how to play pool?"
"That's not important," she waved a dismissive hand, a mischievous grin crossed her face as she met his eyes across the table, "There's other things people can do on a pool table." Lily and Derek had never gone further than a little bit of heavy making out but she loved teasing him and hinting about that kind of thing. He reacted differently each time which made even more fun for Lily to do. When they would do the 'do' – if they ever would (hopefully) – was something that neither of them talked about but both of them probably thought about.
Derek smirked, circling around the table slowly but he paused as he noticed that she was going the opposite direction, his eyes narrowing slightly, "What are you doing?"
She smiled innocently, "What do you mean?"
He shook his head, amusement twinkling in his eyes, "You realise that I'm a wolf so my natural instinct is to chase, right?" He got a giggle in response, which he just raised his eyebrow to – a reluctant smile covering his face.
Lily had noticed a few things the past few weeks they'd started properly dating – like things that made Derek respond a certain way. If he was scowling, all she had to do was pepper his face with kisses and he'd let out a reluctant smile. Or she could make a stupid remark or pull a silly face and that would also do the job. It always made her fill with pride whenever she managed to pull one of those smiles from him. They came surprisingly often when they were alone; Derek was actually a teddy bear in disguise.
"And you're kind of slow so I could definitely catch you," Derek said.
Gasping, Lily released a shocked laugh, "I am not that slow-"
"-you kind of are," he stepped closer.
She took a step back, "Am not. You can't compare my normal speed – which is quite fast for the average teenage girl – to your abnormal werewolf speed."
"And yet you're still running," Derek nodded to the steps back she was taking.
"I'm not running," she said, then turning her back, made a dash for the door, "Now I'm running."
Behind her, she could hear his steps and it was a matter of seconds before he caught up to her, his arms wrapped around her and lifting her up in the air. Lily laughed, wriggling around in his arms while he shook her a bit. "Okay, you win," she giggled, "You can let go of me now." He put her down, his arms still around her as he turned her to face him, a grin on his face. His hands gripped her waist and he pulled her flush against him.
"I think I'm gonna hold on a little longer," he murmured, leaning closer to her.
"Fine by me," she smiled, lips brushing his. She liked this new apartment – it was definitely something she could get used to. They kissed for a moment before she pulled away, whispering, "I'm willing to give up on the romantic dinner if you get me pizza."
Derek raised an eyebrow, "And the sweet bachelor pad?"
Lily gasped dramatically, pulling away as far as his arms would let her, "You want me to give up on my hopes and dreams?"
"Your hopes and dreams?" he scoffed, "So you're choosing the bachelor pad over pizza?" His voice was disbelieving, probably because Lily spoke about pizza and her love for it regularly but at this point she was just having fun talking about the bachelor pad. The loft had already grown on her and she was pretty pleased with it but she just enjoyed teasing him.
"Can't I have both?" she pouted.
"You can't have your cake and eat it too," Derek retorted.
"What's the point of having cake if I'm not going to eat it? I didn't go out and buy this amazing red velvet cupcake with gourmet cream cheese icing just to sit there and watch it decompose," Lily complained rather passionately, her words hurried and her eyes oddly serious. She was remembering a dark time in her life – obviously.
Derek furrowed his eyebrows, "Who burned you?"
Lily blushed, realising how dramatic she'd been and shaking her head, "I just hate that saying."
"I can tell," he grinned, "Do you want me to buy you a red velvet cupcake? I'll get the gourmet cream cheese icing and everything."
"Nah, just get me pizza," Lily shrugged, ridiculous smile on her face at his cute gesture. Red velvet cake was great but in the end, it was always pizza that won.
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Word Count: 1848
Here's one of those bonus chapters I mentioned... dunno if I'll keep it up because it's just pointless fluff but you guys let me know. Also, I wanna tell you guys that Book 2 is now up. It's called Human and I'm super excited for it! Thanks for the huge response on the last chapter of this book and see you on the other side!
(P.S If you like this then I'll post some more but if not then I might just remove this cause I don't really know how I feel about this ridiculous fluff...)
Also, thanks to Dislarryting for the cover!