Chapter Text
"Why the fuck do you live there? I mean I get why but you can't live in a burned down house. I won't let you." They spoke loudly, driving down the highway with their phone on speaker.
Derek sighed and he could practically hear the regret and irritation in the exhale alone. "I could get a house-"
"Then get one! You can't live there, half of it doesn't even have a roof."
He was quiet and for a second the vampire swore he'd refuse out of principle, but he surprised him with a soft huff of amusement. "You want me to get the one right next to yours?" He teased, flatly.
His lips sprung up, "Just move into my place. It's got a spare room anyway and it's not like we hadn't talked about it since you were a kid."
"Since we were kids." He corrected you with a smile clear in his voice.
"Same difference." They brushed off with an eye roll. "I need to enroll into school anyway and they'll feel better if I've got an 'adult' living with me."
"You're just gonna pretend to be sixteen again? What if someone recognizes you?"
He scoffs, "Oh, yeah. 'Cause people here will remember a kid who visited one time, a million years ago."
"It was three years ago, being a vampire doesn't automatically make you a million years old."
"Whatever. No one’s going to recognize me anyway and if they do, I've got the eye thing down, remember?" Derek hummed, a deep rumble that had them smiling sadly. "Soon enough you'll be an old man and I'll still be your seventeen-year-old best friend, I wanna have as much time with you as I can. You and me again.”
"Yeah." His voice was soft, shifting easily into a teasing one. "You'll be the one back in high school."
"I don't know, maybe it'll be fun? I kinda lost those last few years to vamp hunting."
"You hated high school." He spoke matter-of-factly.
"Still do, but now I'm a hot vampire who can talk my way to better grades." And it's not like it matters if I flunk.
He groaned, "Great. You'll be more insufferable than ever."
"You'll love it."
It only seemed right to take care of him now that you were going back. Laura would've wanted her little brother as safe, or as safe as he could get in Beacon Hills.