kira yukimura is electric. (electrocutie) wrote in blackpoint, @ 2014-04-01 14:08:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | isaac lahey (au), kira yukimura |
who RTW!Isaac and Kira
what Isaac has a nightmare and Kira helps him through it. Mostly, though, the UST that's been building for the last three months finally becomes RST~
when Sunday night/early Monday morning.
where Isaac's room
rating His nightmare could be mildly triggery, and it fades to black~
There was such an overwhelming sense of relief that came in the aftermath of the final battle with the nogitsune. Now that they were a few days removed from it, that relief was even stronger because Kira knew that it’d worked and that they’d truly been successful. That night of relaxation and drinking had been so worth the hangover the next morning, and she finally felt a strong sense that they’d really be able to make this work and move forward effectively.
There was, of course, also that deep sense of possessiveness and protectiveness over her friends -- over Allison, who they’d lost on the show, and over Stiles. She worried for Scott and Lydia and all they had to bear. She worried for Danny and Mr. Argent and all of them. And she worried a little bit extra for Isaac, who not only nearly lost his life on the show as well but had gone through such an ordeal for his part of the final defeat. She knew his claustrophobia was no joke, and she worried about the lasting effects of his trip underwater.
And, of course, she also had a flood of excitement because of the meeting she had planned for Monday. So in total, Kira was burdened with a variety of feelings, though all came from a place of love and therefore were infinitely better than the stress that had been weighing oppressively on her shoulders for months.
After watching Isaac and Scott work to get as much of the ink off of Isaac’s back as they could (laughing all the while, of course), Kira had promised to step in as well and take over the attempt. She’d focused on getting clean water in the bowl they’d been using to keep the rag damp, rather than considering the fact that Isaac was shirtless and she’d be touching his bare skin so intimately. She’d had to make him sit in a chair backwards to really able to reach his skin, but they’d gotten themselves all sorted. She’d already changed into a tank top and shorts for bed, because it was getting late, and they’d shifted all of their homework books back on his desk to make room for the bowl of water. Taking the rag in her hand, she warned him before making contact and then resumed work on the last bit of the ink.
She grinned after a moment, partially in amusement and partially out of a sort of thrilled and flustered embarrassment over the intimacy of the gesture. “I think this ink may be as stubborn as I am,” she commented.
People were telling Isaac that things were getting back to normal now that the Nogitsune had been defeated and their show was on hiatus. No one was in danger of dying so life could resume as normal as it could in this world. However, Isaac didn’t do normal. Before he came here he was a werewolf fighting for control of Beacon Hills with the Hunters, and before then he was locked in a freezer in his father’s basement, and before then he pretended he didn’t see the strife between his brother and father. There might have been a time where he had simply been Isaac Lahey, but that was a time he couldn’t remember.
Isaac had stayed in the back as Lydia and Scott drew out the Nogitsune, and he had watched as Kira stepped forward and stabbed it with her katana. Everyone had their part, and he hadn’t minded that it seemed like years before they handed him the container with the fly trapped in it. Despite the captain’s random chatting and Scott’s reassurances that things would be fine, it seemed that all too soon he was going overboard into the ocean. He had wanted to help, but in his desire to be seen as useful he had forgotten where the portal actually was. In order to bury it under the portal he’d have to dive beneath the ocean, and of course all of the lessons he had learned in school about how much pressure you experienced under all of that water came rushing to the forefront of his brain as he neared the bottom. There had been moments when he had thought that he wouldn’t be able to do it and he came close several times to full on panicking, but he had done it. Breaking the surface was the best sensation he could remember feeling in a while, and his shaking hands were easily hidden underneath the towel they wrapped him up in.
He wasn’t sure where he stood now that things were over. He had done his part and now everyone was breaking up into their own factions once again. The girls were breaking off to drink white Russians while Scott took Stiles to get drunk at Dennys, dragging along Isaac to make sure he didn’t sit at home and brood. He didn’t mind being towed along – it beat sitting alone and watching reruns – but he couldn’t help shake the feeling that he was going to be on his own again.
But then the older Scott had drawn on his back while he was drunk, effectively marking Isaac in a way that he had been unable to do himself. He could have gotten mad at the older wolf, but in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t worth it. Scott and Kira both had come over to help him get the ink off because the little shit had drawn in someplace where Isaac himself couldn’t get it off fully, and a relaxing night without the entire gang had been nice.
He leaned forward once Scott left, leaving Kira to get off the last of it off. He didn’t feel vulnerable with his bare back to her. He felt safe here, but he was glad that she couldn’t see the way his stomach tightened when the rag hit his skin. “It hasn’t nagged me about homework yet,” he said, smirking slightly as he turned to look at her from the corner of his eye, “so there might be hope that it’ll come off.”
Kira had given a bit of thought to the fact that she and Isaac had developed such an interesting relationship over the past few months. It’d started with such a snarky, sassy back-and-forth that really didn’t have much depth of meaning to it. They were part of two different groups, and a bit more peripherally than the main members of the groups. Both had the tendency to go off alone or to keep to themselves at times. And yet, they’d end up bonding over their mutual sass.
Somehow, that had evolved into a much deeper friendship with an undeniable attraction. She could still distinctly remember that night they’d fallen asleep tangled together out in the valley (and the awkward morning wake-up that followed). It seemed so strange to think that they’d gone from that to sleeping together almost every night. More than just that, they’d gotten to the point where they couldn’t sleep at all without each other. She wasn’t sure how it’d happened, but Independent Kira had become rather co-dependent with Isaac Lahey.
She might’ve let the skin of her hand brush against his back more than was necessary as she wiped at the ink left over, but she wouldn’t have admitted that. She worked at one of the darker areas as he spoke, grinning still. “See, now you can’t complain when I make you do it because you brought it up,” she pointed out.
Isaac dipped his head at the comment, shoulders shaking slightly as he laughed as he drew attention away for the way his skin tingled where her hand had brushed. “I don’t think I can stop complaining about that,” he countered. The truth of the matter was that he didn’t mind homework too much. He had been doing better with Kira’s help, and while he still preferred to spend his time doing anything but answering the questions his teachers assigned, he had started looking forward to their after school sessions. Homework turned into more of a discussion than a chore, and her brownie system wasn’t the only thing that inspired him to answer correctly. Praise wasn’t something he was used to getting or accepted easily, but there was a satisfaction of sorts in seeing the way Kira smiled when he got an answer right or surprised her with something he had learned on his own. Apparently you could still teach Hale wolves new tricks.
The next time Kira went to rinse the rag he braced a hand on the chair and turned, twisting around in a vain attempt to see how the progress was going. From his vantage spot he couldn’t see any of Scott’s masterpiece other than a few red patches of skin where they had managed to get it off. “I knew our bodies rejected regular tattoos, but I had no idea that permanent marker would be such a bitch to remove,” he apologized. “He must have used some true alpha magic or something.”
Kira’s smile brightened even more with his laugh, because it was an amusing moment and because she loved hearing him laugh. He spent so much time over-thinking and brooding and generally being serious that she always enjoyed those times when she could get him to smile or laugh. It felt like more of a success than she could really justify feeling. “Fine,” she said. “You can complain if you must, but it’ll lose a lot of its staying power since I know you really secretly like when I bring it up,” she responded. She knew his grades were starting to get a little better and better, and she was so proud of that. She’d been more excited about his latest grade report than she had ever been about her own, and she was sure to praise him constantly for his progress. At the same time, she tried to challenge him as much as she could. She wanted to inspire him to want to learn, at least a little in some area, but she could settle for decent grades.
She was actually setting the rag in the bowl, satisfied with the work and figuring it was complete. “Alpha magic markers are totally a thing,” she agreed, laughing. “It should all be gone now. Do you have lotion or anything? I don’t want your skin to dry out.”
“I’m the persistent pessimist,” Isaac quoted, “so you have to at least let me pretend.” Stiles hadn’t been too far off the mark when he had said that. He had been raised to be a glass half-empty type of guy, and there hadn’t been much of a reason to change that way of thinking. It had been better to assume the worst than to walk away disappointed, and he had acted under that belief for as long as he could remember. It was harder to do that here in Hawaii under Scott. His pessimism had slowly morphed into something less cynical, but it was a far cry from where Kira and Scott were. There was a future here that didn’t include Oni or demon wolves, so he could allow himself to think past high school. Kira was making sure of that.
He leaned over and grabbed the pajamas he had set on his desk, shaking his head at her words as he stood up. His joints creaked as they popped from being in the same position for too long, and he had a sheepish look on his face when he turned around. He reached up out of habit and rubbed at the back of his head, forgetting for a moment that he was shirtless as he tried to come up with an excuse. “I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but I can take a look in the stash of bottles I grabbed from the hotel the first night I was here,” he said, disappearing into the bathroom to change and see what he could find.
Isaac emerged a few minutes later with a small bottle cupped in his hand, and he didn’t say anything until he was sprawled on the bed. “I didn’t have any, but it looks like either you left this here at one point or Scott isn’t telling me something,” he teased, holding the small tube of sensual amber out to her.
For her own part, Kira was absolutely an optimist. She had a very realistic view of the world, of course, and didn’t let herself be blinded by her optimism, but she was a creature of faith. She fell on the opposite side of the spectrum as Allison, and was more inclined to simply believe rather than require proof. It was for this reason that she was so easygoing and zen, because everything fell on the idea that it all happened as it was meant to happen. Of course, Kira also had a fiercely determined side. It had come out in the aftermath of Allison’s death on the show, a determination to finish the Nogitsune thing and keep everyone safe. It also came out in her intentions towards Isaac.
More than anything, Kira wanted Isaac to realize that he could go for what he wanted, that his happiness was important and should be a priority. She wanted him to figure out what made him feel the most whole and to do whatever he could to make it happen without feeling like he deserved anything less.
And really, she thought she was making progress with that.
She nodded as he spoke, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, curling leg up and wrapping her arms around her shin as she waited for him to return. She smiled as he did so, taking the bottle as it was passed to him. “Everyone loves the sensual amber,” she said, shrugging. She moved to her knees beside where he was sprawled. “Roll over.”
“And everyone loves Kira.” Isaac did as he was told, twisting away from her so he wouldn’t accidentally hit her as he rolled over. He reached back and pulled his shirt up, exposing his back, and grabbed a pillow to hug under his face while she worked.
“I can’t believe that I thought you were a sweet pea when you first appeared,” he said, pressing his face against the pillow as he stared out the window. “It’s too sweet, too common. I’m not saying that you’re not sweet, but it’s… sickening. It’s like eating an entire bag of gummy bears and flossing with cotton candy.” He remembered the day Scott arrived as a full wolf and how everyone had piled into his apartment after a group of them had helped pull him back into his human form. Scott had spent a long time in the shower trying to get clean, and the extra bodies in their place had made Isaac more than a little jittery. He had used the cold water excuse to slip out to Kira’s to shower as a cover because no one wanted to hear about the claustrophobic wolf when they were focused on Scott’s return and Stiley’s success at closing the door in her mind. Luckily smelling like sensual amber and a beginning of a friendship with Kira were the only things that resulted because of that.
“They’d certainly better,” Kira responded, grinning. She let him roll over and adjust, reaching to help pull his shirt up and around his shoulders. The skin was still a bit red and dry from the washcloth and scrubbing, though the former was already easing from the werewolf healing. “I’m going to sit on you. If it makes you feel claustrophobic, tell me. Okay?” she said, sliding a leg over his hips so that she’d have better access to rub the lotion into his dry skin.
She laughed as he spoke, pouring some of the lotion into her palm and spreading it across both before pressing her hands against his back. “It was a lapse in judgment, Lahey. It happens to everyone sometimes,” she said, sighing, and rubbing her hands across his skin to smooth the cream against it. “Luckily, I forgive you. I’m a very generous future-Avenger.”
Isaac lifted his shoulders for a moment to make it easier and let them down with a sigh. “I was just under sixty feet of water. I think I can handle you on my back,” he said, his sudden confidence betrayed by the way he gripped his pillow tighter for reassurance. He had gotten more comfortable being closer to her after spending most nights for the past two months together, but he was still careful to make sure he was aware of what was happening and had an out someway. It was easier letting himself fall asleep when he knew he had nothing at his back, preventing him from accidentally panicking and going full wolf on her once the attack was triggered.
He stilled once her hands started roaming across her back. They had been down to the beach before and she had made sure his SPF 7000 covered all of his pale skin, but that sensation was totally different than this one. He was suddenly very aware that a very attractive woman was sitting on him, massaging lotion into his bare back on his bed. He placed his forehead against the pillow, hoping it looked like he was trying to make sure she had easier access to his shoulders, and smiled into the pillowcase. “Speaking of Avengers, oh benevolent one, I saw something about a meeting with Stevie Rogers?”
“If you get overwhelmed, just let me know and I’ll move. I know I’m monstrously huge,” Kira responded anyway, adding that last part to ease the question away from focusing on his phobia. Kira was always as mindful as she could be about the things she said to Isaac, knowing he’d been through so much in his life and not wanting anything she said or did to trigger him in any way. Her goal was to make him confident and in control of himself and happy, so if that meant tempering all of her words with careful additions, then she was more than happy to do so. She didn’t fear Isaac, in spite of what he worried about at times. She knew he’d never hurt her.
She wasn’t massaging the lotion very deeply, because she knew that that had a much better chance of setting off his claustrophobia, but she was rubbing it into his skin carefully, just as she did with the sunscreen. At his question, she beamed, unable to keep from wiggling from excitement. “I have a meeting with Captain America who is already impressed by my skills,” she gushed. “Tomorrow after school. I am so excited.”
“The hugest,” Isaac lightly agreed, “I have no idea how my back’s not breaking from all the pressure on it.” He could see what Kira was doing and was grateful, but he couldn’t help feel a little embarrassed about how all encompassing his phobia was. He had been told that it wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t get as comfortable as most of the others in a puppy pile or that he couldn’t relax totally when someone was close to him, but there was still an underlying guilt that he had done something to warrant it. Kira, he was beginning to fully realize, was an exception. She addressed it openly and made sure he was comfortable, often sacrificing her own comfort to make sure that he didn’t feel trapped. It had been her voice that had kept him from giving into his phobia while underwater, and it was her warm hands that kept him anchored to the present.
He grunted when he felt her wiggle against her, more out of surprise than anything. “You’re going to be an Avenger before you know it,” Isaac said, turning around so he could smile at her. He was glad that this opportunity was available to her here. He knew how much this meant to her, and like she was always telling him, the wolf was glad that she had found something to work towards that made her happy. “Just promise that you’ll write from the Academy once you become super busy learning all of that Avengery stuff. I can make an exception and write back to you.”
“Ugh, right? I’m basically a monster, really,” Kira responded, audibly scoffing in a playful way. Kira didn’t mind altering the way she interacted with him to account for his phobia. By this point, it was so ingrained in her that she barely had to think consciously of it. She asked him because she knew he wouldn’t say it himself in most occasions, and she wanted him to have an out to take if he needed it. It wasn’t his fault that he was this way, but he still was, and that meant that certain things would need to be done to make sure that he felt comfortable and safe. And really, none of it was ever a burden, even sleeping in his bed every night. It was, after all, infinitely more comfortable than her own, and she’d found that she had trouble sleeping without him too.
She laughed at his grunt. “Sorry,” she offered gently, then beamed. “I can’t believe it’s actually a thing that could remotely happen. I’m actually legitimately auditioning for Captain America.” She pushed hair over her shoulder, moving her hands to his mid and lower back. “Shhh, I don’t want to jinx anything!” she said, still smiling. The idea of being away from Hawaii wasn’t her favorite, but she knew that it was premature to think about that just yet.
Isaac melted against the bed, doing his best to get his muscles to relax under her touch. He had been in a state of constant vigilance ever since Scott had arrived, and now that everything with Stiles was taken care of he could allow himself to loosen up. He toed the line between so laid back he appeared disinterested and alert, and sometimes the exertion required to show both faces rendered him almost catatonic when he fell asleep next to Kira. His nights had been quiet lately due in large part to her presence. It was comforting to have another person around him, but he probably wouldn’t say aloud how much it meant to wake up tangled up with her in the morning.
“You’re going to be great,” he assured her, glancing over his shoulder as he felt her hands travel down his back. “And if not you can always come back here and be the Avenger’s babysitter. I heard you already have quite the fan club for that.” He enjoyed watching the Captain and Bucky’s girls with Kira, even if he was used more as a jungle gym than a babysitter.
Kira wasn’t massaging his muscles so much as rubbing the lotion into his skin, but as she felt him relaxing beneath her hands, she pressed a little harder in places to help him relax. She knew that he spent a lot of time tense, something she could only guess originated in having to be so constantly alert around his father. She loved when he was at his easiest and happiest, and she’d found that those moments tended to happen when it was just the two of them tangled together. It made it all the easier to continue curling up each night in the same bed to think that not only did she genuinely enjoy being with him, but it seemed to help him. That certainly made it worthwhile.
“I hope so,” she responded, smiling at him when their eyes met. “I’ll still be the Avengers’ babysitter. I’m not planning on relocating or anything.” She shrugged a shoulder. She smiled, the lotion sunk into his skin now, and pulled his shirt back down. “There. Now you won’t go all scaly on me,” she said, patting his back lightly and pulling her leg back to one side of him. “We should probably go to sleep. School tomorrow, you know.”
Isaac nodded along with what she was saying, not sure if it was his place to voice the thoughts that were bubbling just beneath the surface. He wanted Kira to be successful with her Avenger audition and had no doubt that they would want her to train with them, but the thought of losing her to New York wasn’t something he was ready to face out loud. Others in his life had promised to come back after leaving home, and he kept telling himself that this was different. Kira was independent and there were wizards around that made traveling easier than catching the bus to school, and like she said she wasn’t planning on relocating. Just Avenging.
He groaned again at the mention of school and hauled himself off the bed, pulling a face all the while. “You just had to mention the s-word,” he complained, pulling the sheets back. “Are you sure we have to go back? No one likes Mondays, teachers included, so I don’t think they’d miss us too much if we didn’t go.” He gave her a half-hopeful look at he slid back on the bed, the look losing much of it credibility when he reached up to smother a yawn.
Kira had already considered what she might do if she were offered a position but only if she moved to NYC, and she couldn’t imagine packing up and leaving her friends. She would see if there were things she could do from Hawaii, if necessary, even if it meant giving up actually being an Avenger. Honestly, getting the chance to audition was a dream-come-true, and she could settle for that at the very least. The rest she could figure out along the way.
She laughed at his groan, adjusting as he did as they readied the bed, pulling pillows into place with the practice that had come from months of this routine. “It’s a necessary evil,” she said, grinning. “We have to go to school, sugarplum. Sorry to say.” She slid into bed as well, rolling onto her side, back towards him, and grabbing his arm and pulling it across her to coax him into position against her.
They chatted sleepily until she heard his breathing change and knew he’d dozed off, and she wasn’t far behind him there. When she’d drifted awake a few hours later, it was nearly three in the morning and she was curled up against him even more, his breathing warm on her neck. She lay there a few long moments, simply letting her sleepy mind wander. She untangled herself from Isaac and pulled herself out of bed to get a glass of water, her curiosity over the Avengers getting the better of her as she returned and prompting her to take a seat at the computer to do a bit of late night Googling.
“A necessary evil?” Isaac blearily parroted as they settled in, following what Kira was guiding him to do and rearranging himself so he was curled around her. “I’m with the good guys now. That should get me out of anything evil.”
It was easy for him to drift off to sleep once they stilled. He slept quietly for the first few hours, comforted by the feeling of her tucked securely up against him. It happened slowly, but over time his dreamless sleep started to become anything but. Suddenly he was back under the portal, a tank strapped to him as he headed down towards the ocean floor. The jar clutched tightly in his right hand seemed to glow the further under water he got, and a stream of bubbles left his mouth as he cried out when he saw what was inside. A miniature version of his father banged against the glass instead of the fat fly-like creature that had been there the last time, hurling accusations at him for not working hard enough to reach the bottom. Isaac kicked out in his dream, tangling the sheets hopelessly around his legs, and tried to dive deeper towards the murky sand that seemed to be growing further away the closer he tried to get to it. He panicked as the accusations became louder and tried to change courses towards the surface, but all he could see around him was darkness. The jar fell from his hands as he reached out in his sleep, trying to find something to grab onto and only finding empty space.
Kira was interested mostly in how public the Avengers actually were to the non-Blackpoint people. She knew it wasn’t much of a secret, because it really couldn’t be, but she was interested in knowing the extent so that she knew what to expect if this all went according to her hopes and she was allowed to become one of them.
She was in the midst of reading articles and looking at pictures when she heard movement from the bed. She looked over her shoulder, her brow furrowed a bit, but Isaac wasn’t moving in that moment. She watched him a bit longer, then caught the signs of distress. She didn’t have to know what he was dreaming about to know that it wasn’t good. She was out of her chair in an instant, moving to sit on the bed beside him. She reached for his grasping hands, unafraid of the possibility that he might lash out as a werewolf, and used her other hand to gently settle on his face, leaning over him with concern and urgency. “Shh, it’s okay, Isaac,” she said gently, reassuringly, but with worry. “It’s just a dream. Wake up. You’re okay.”
It had been a while since a nightmare had snuck up on him. Between homework, the events on the show, and figuring out how to deal with the nogitsune his brain hadn’t had much empty space to allow a nightmare to settle inside. Now that it was almost all over he had relaxed enough to allow one to sneak past his relaxed defenses and plague him. It capitalized on the suppressed panic he had felt while he was underwater and his fears that Kira would leave him again and amplified them while he slept.
He swerved in his dream as the bed dipped next to him, knocking him off course towards the pinprick of light that had appeared in front of him. He could hear voices muttering something as he tried to make his way onwards, but his movements felt like he was swimming through molasses instead of water. He was just about to give in to the darkness when he felt something on his face, causing his eyes to fly open as he was jolted back to wakefulness. For a moment his eyes flashed to gold as they darted around the room as he got his bearings. The muted voices fell away as Kira’s replaced them, her worried tone pulling his awareness out of the dream and back to reality.
“Oh god,” he exclaimed, eyes widening as he realized that he had been dreaming. He scrambled to pull his hands from hers in case he had hurt her and curled them against his chest, doing his best to keep his claws from breaking through and hurting her. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Kira knew that he’d been sleeping without as many nightmares lately, because she’d been sleeping beside him most nights. Perhaps sleeping was a little more difficult at times, but he’d not been plagued as often with bad dreams. To see him suffering from one now made her so concerned and so alarmed. It broke her heart. It brought little tears to prick her eyes, even. But her priority was to wake him up and coax him out of his panic.
She watched his eyes flash gold, but didn’t move from her position. She wasn’t afraid of him, not even a little bit. He pulled away and curled in on himself, a reaction she’d seen far too much than she ever wanted to see. “It’s okay,” she said, reaching to take his hands again, moving closer to him. “Isaac, it’s okay. You didn’t do anything. I’m fine. And you’re fine. It was just a nightmare.”
She pressed her lips to his hands gently to try to calm him. “Just try to calm, okay? I’m here.”
“Just a nightmare,” he echoed, voice shaking as he took a deep, ragged breath. Isaac pressed his eyes closed as Kira tried to sooth him, focusing on listening to her voice as he got his heartbeat under control. The dream had felt so real that he was thankful that the light from the computer illuminated the room, banishing any doubt that he was still trapped underwater. He didn’t argue as she came closer and took his hands in hers, drawing them out and creating more space around him to help vanquish the feeling of water crushing around him.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, his eyes finding hers. The gold was starting to fade, but the panic in them had yet to totally dissipate. He turned his hands in hers and grasped her hands, anchoring him to their conversation so he wouldn’t slip back under. “I was trying to … and then …I couldn’t break through. It was stupid.”
“Just a nightmare,” she repeated again, not needing special werewolf hearing to know that his heart was beating hard in his chest. She settled her body closer to him still, making physical comfort to anchor him and bring him back to reality even more quickly. She met his eyes, making the contact without hesitation to help relieve his anxieties and panicking. She held his hands tightly as they tangled together more, holding them closer to her own chest to help reassure him that she was there and wasn’t going anywhere.
“Don’t apologize,” she said gently. “You don’t have to apologize. You’re fine.” She shifted his hands to one of hers, reaching with the other to his face again and settling it lightly against his skin. “Just breathe, Isaac. Settle down, alright? You’re safe.”
Kira was real, and he clung to that. She wasn’t a part of the nightmare he had been in, and her presence against him signaled to him that it was over. There was nothing oppressive about the way she pressed against him. Instead, her presence had the opposite effect. She was the metaphorical life preserver tossed to him in that hellish ocean and was dragging him back to the present. He kicked a leg free from the sheets and hooked a it between hers, helping complicate the human knot they had a tendency of forming.
Isaac guiltily took in the worried lines around her eyes and face as she comforted him, and he couldn’t help but press against the hand she placed against his cheek. It was partially selfish, but he needed to find a way to show her that he was here with her now. “I’m okay,” he settled on, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
That was her aim in this, to show Isaac that she was real and that he was no longer trapped in his nightmare. Kira didn’t really have nightmares, mostly because she was so relaxed during the day and wasn’t actually scared of much. Her biggest fears were the loss of those she loved, so she’d had more troubling dreams lately than she’d ever had before. She knew Isaac had plenty of ammunition for bad dreams, though, and she absolutely hated that. All she wanted was for him to be at peace and to be happy, and these moments reminded her that there were some things she just couldn’t fix for him. She could help, though. She curled the leg that wasn’t trapped between his around his waist, pulling them even closer together to complete that knot.
She could see the guilt in his expression, and her finger tips worried over the little lines in his face to smooth them. “I know you didn’t,” she said, smiling a bit finally, glad to have him back with her. “Are you alright now?”
“I’m okay,” he repeated, choosing to stick with simple phrases. He wasn’t witty to begin with, and the guilt and embarrassment that she had to witness that part of him still weighed heavily on his shoulders. However, it was second to the feeling of relief that spread through him that she had been there. He had woken up countless times on his own in the middle of a nightmare, and it was a fruitless endeavor to assure himself that it had all been in his head. His nightmares felt too real to be fictional, and having someone to cling to helped him separate the two.
Isaac leaned forward so he could bump his forehead against hers, rendering it impossible for any outsiders to determine where one of them began and the other ended. He stayed quite for a moment, focusing on the way the comforting scent of her shampoo flooded his senses with each calming breath he took, before saying, “I’m glad you’re here with me.”
Kira had a feeling that the reason his nightmares were so difficult to differentiate from reality was because he’d experienced so much in his life that were nightmare fuel all on their own. She didn’t imagine he had nightmares that resembled horror movies or other fictional aspects. Instead, she was heartbreakingly sure that his were focused on his father and the horrors he’d endured as a child and throughout his teenage years. It made her angry, but she couldn’t be angry right now. Right now, all she could feel was relief that he seemed to be okay.
She smiled a bit more, gently, as their foreheads met, their joined hands pressed between them and her other still on his face. The intimacy wasn’t lost on her, but she didn’t pull away. She didn’t want to. “I’m not going anywhere, Isaac. No matter what happens,” she said. She was quiet a moment longer, eyes focused on his, easing him more and more out of the panic. She smiled a little more then, and leaned a little closer, closing that gap between them to press her lips to his.
Isaac Lahey was a soldier. He had seen and gone through things that no one his age should have experienced before in his life, but he had survived. He had the scars to prove it, but the scars were what made him alive. As unpleasant as they were, he would take a nightmare about something he had gone through than going through it again. Those he could control. Those he could get through with help.
A tired smile appeared on his face as they stayed where they were, frozen in a position far more intimate than anything they had been in before. Even if there were more layers between them now there was something more intimate to being face to face than having Kira work on his bare back. He didn’t want to move and disrupt what they had going, so he nodded in agreement to her words. The way he clung to her spoke for him. He wouldn’t let go until she was ready for him to.
His eyes widened for a moment when Kira closed the gap, but he quickly recovered and gave her hand a squeeze before removing it from between their bodies and cupping the back of her head as he kissed her back. There had been several times where he had wanted to lean over and act on his desire to kiss her, but each time something had come between them. It had been frustrating at the time, but now it felt right.
He pulled back after a moment, and this time it was his turn to peer closely at her for any signs of distress. As happy as he was right now, he couldn’t prevent himself from asking, “You’ll still be here even if this happens?”
Kira was a soldier too, but she’d not had near the same experiences as Isaac had. In fact, she had far more positivity in her life than any of her friends, and perhaps that was really what had the largest impact on her personality. She still had both of her parents still happily married and alive, a true novelty in Beacon Hills. She’d been raised by both of them together with love and attention from both sides. Perhaps she’d been left out of her mother’s great secret, but that didn’t change the fact that her parents had been incredible growing up.
Though she had no basis of comparison, she knew that Isaac was a survivor. She was so proud of him for it, too, and it fueled her desire to make him happy because she felt he deserved it more than most. He deserved to have people who loved and believed in him, and she knew that their group did exactly that. Especially Scott. She knew how amazing Scott was for and with Isaac.
At the moment, though, Scott was the furthest thing from her mind. He was returning her kiss, and it felt so right. They’d been restraining themselves for so long, waiting for the perfect moment. It was everything she’d expected it to be, and she wasn’t ready for him to pull away when he did.
She smiled at his words, her thumb moving over the soft skin of his face lightly. “I told you. I’m not going anywhere,” she said, her heartbeat quickening just a bit. She pulled just a little more away, giving even more of an answer by untangling her hands to pull her shirt over her head and toss it away, unintentionally mimicking a moment from the show in the process, though she didn’t anticipate Chris Argent walking in. She grinned at him, her hands moving back to each side of his face as she reconnected their lips.
“Good. I don’t want you to.” He smiled at her words, relief washing over him as her thumb danced across his face.
Isaac hadn’t forgotten Kira’s words to him months ago about figuring out what made him happy and going after it. He didn’t know then that what that would primarily be would be her, but when their lips had connected he knew. Something clicked inside of him like one of the missing puzzle pieces finally falling in place, and the difference from what he had been feeling moments ago to what he was astounding. He had gone through experiencing one of his biggest fears to one of his biggest desires.
He leaned back as her hands went down to her hem, giving her a little extra space to pull off her shirt in response to his question. He had spent enough time around her to know that her mind was made up, and the wolfish grin that answered hers showed that he was one hundred percent behind this new development. He placed a hand against her waist, taking a moment to appreciate how soft the skin on the curve of her hip was, before flipping her over on her back. He gave her a sound kiss of his own before pulling back and adding his own shirt to hers on the floor.
“This is your last chance,” he warned, bracing his arms on either side of her and placing a kiss on the side of her neck. He had to be sure about this one last time before things started taking off faster than they could control. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her in any way.
Kira had said for so long that even she didn’t know what she wanted, and that was why she wasn’t just going to sleep with him and be done with it like she’d been encouraged to do a few times in the past. Now, though, she knew exactly what she wanted. She’d known for some time now, really. She’d realized very quickly that the idea of losing him made her feel like the world was shifting beneath her. It would’ve only been on the show, of course, but still. The idea that he might not be in her life made her panic more than she’d have ever expected it to.
This connection was giving into weeks upon weeks of unresolved tension, and the grin he wore made her heart flutter even more. This was absolutely what she wanted, he was what she wanted, and there was no point in trying to resist that any further.
She made a little sound of very pleased surprise as he moved her so swiftly onto her back, a grin still on her face as they kissed again. Her hands moved appreciatively over his newly exposed skin, her head tilting to accept the kiss on her neck. “Your words are saying one thing while your lips are saying another,” she hummed. “I don’t need a last chance. I’ve already made up my mind.”
Like most things in his life, coming to terms with how he felt for Kira had crept up on him. He wasn’t able to compartmentalize and sort through what he felt, and coming through the portal had caused him to face a lot of things at once. Not only did he have to figure out what he felt about Kira, he was faced with a different future from back home that the others from his world had lived. Scott saw him as pack where he had only spoke to him in passing back home; he had formed some sort of truce with Allison and Lydia when he had helped that night at Deaton’s; and Kira and Stiles were more a part of his life than ever. He had not only his world’s future to sort through but that on the show and through the other version of him, making it difficult to figure out what he wanted.
He didn’t have a moment of clarity until Spring Break. That had been the first time that he and Kira had been separated for an extended amount of time since they started pairing off, and he hadn’t realized how much he relied on her. He had seen the worried looks Scott sent him when he casually volunteered himself as the practice dummy, easily regressing back to the blindly following Beta he had been back in Derek’s pack. Kira was the one he looked for when the panic started to kick in and the person he simply wanted to be around. He would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about going forward and doing more with her, but she wasn’t one of the girls who had easily agreed to sleep into his bed after the bite. Kira was more than that. She was his anchor.
“You should listen to what I’m saying, not what I’m doing,” Isaac said, smirking against her skin. He felt small sparks of electricity each time her fingers came in contact with her, his nerves going crazy each time she brushed against him. He pulled back to look at her, dark hair splayed against the pillow, and couldn’t help the relieved smile that appeared on his face. “Good, because I’ve made my choice too.”
Kira didn’t really have relationships, largely because no one had ever really been able to keep up with her. She had the tendency to get an idea and just go with it until it was complete, which meant a lot of trips to various places to discover some new mythology or legend. Back in Beacon Hills, her trips had been more localized to the surrounding areas in California. When she’d lived in New York, she’d been grounded pretty much to the city. Here, though, she had even more opportunity, compliments of the wizards and their ability to travel long distances. She’d been able to say that she wanted to go to Japan, organize a trip, and actually go. It was an amazing thing for someone like her, and made this place all the lovelier in her eyes.
Her feelings for Isaac had crept up on her too, really. She’d been in classes with him when he’d first gotten the bite, so she’d seen his transformation into that more confident, sexy person. Of course, she’d also been busy at that time, breaking out of her own independent shell to train and work and build friendships with the girls. And Isaac had been a Hale wolf, which came with a lot of baggage, particularly given that she learned much of what she did about the Hales from the Argents.
Here, though, he’d been hard to resist getting to know. Kira liked to help people and she liked to try to solve problems. Isaac had some issues that she knew she’d never be able to truly fix, but he needed someone to believe in him. She believed in everything. It made sense.
“That’s a lot easier said than done, let me just say,” she said, her breathing a little sharp with the movement of his lips against her skin. She smiled up at him as he looked down at her, that little ripple of light electricity tingling through her something she couldn’t really help with the way he was looking at her. She drew a finger to his lips, an eyebrow arching and her smile turning into a smirk. “Too much talking, Lahey.”
There were times when Isaac didn’t know if he could smile the same way that the older versions of him could. He was too close to his past for his face to relax easily into the playful smirk and was far from having all of his stuff together, but there were times like now where he saw a glimmer of hope that maybe one day he too would be okay. He wouldn’t be completely healed for what all had happened, but he could find new ways to acknowledge what had happened and move forward. Kira had been right when he overheard her telling Scott that sometimes all it took to get started was one person.
“And this is why you’re the smart one here,” Isaac conceded, kissing her finger away and doing exactly what she asked as he brought his lips back to hers.