Who: Ray Palmer and Derek Hale When: Wednesday August 23 [Backdated] What: Derek is a hero! Where: One of the local cafes Warnings: Ray is a nerd~ Status: Closed/In-Progress [TBC in comments]
Ray had fought against some terrifying things since becoming The Atom. He had gone up against very terrifying things after joining the Legends. With everything he had seen, Ray felt he could handle most things that were thrown his way. He was almost positive he could.
Then he began teaching high school students.
And they were, by far, more terrifying than perhaps even Damien Darhk. Which was certainly saying something. Especially the teenage girls.
He even shuddered where he sat outside one of the local cafes just thinking about it. There were a few file folders sitting on the table along with his coffee. Getting out of the house to grade papers always seemed to help him collect his thoughts, and re-energize himself.
Ray definitely need it after some of the days he had.
***
Caffeine, like alcohol, didn’t have quite the same effect on werewolves as it did humans, but Derek still enjoyed a good cup of coffee now and then. He was in a decent mood, cautiously optimistic that things were going to turn around with his sister and her adjustment to town, so as he left the coffee shop, he gave a friendly nod to the man who was sitting outside surrounded by papers.
A moment later, a gust of wind started blowing some of those papers away and Derek instinctively went after them. “Here, I think I got them all,” he said, setting the papers down in front of the other man and moving the ceramic dish that held the sugar packets on top of them so they wouldn’t blow away again.
***
Derek had been much faster than Ray, and he was thankful for that. The idea of losing all of that work had made his stomach twist into a very much unwelcomed knot.
It was certainly a scene that Ray had seen in plenty of movies. The ones that always played in slow motion until the very end when it turned out either good or bad. Today was a good ending.
“You...are a lifesaver. Seriously. Just thinking about re-doing all of those papers and projects?” Teaching college level students was much easier. Maybe it was because they had been in the past, and teaching so much history wasn’t needed. Maybe it was just because kids were so much different back then, too.
“Look, you gotta let me buy you a coffee or something. I mean, it’s that important that you caught them.”
***
“Uh, sure, okay,” Derek said with a shrug. He wasn’t exactly the outgoing, friendly type, but he was making an effort to be a little more pleasant and there was no reason he couldn’t spend a few minutes sharing coffee with someone new. Normally he would insist that it wasn’t necessary and go on with his day. Being in this town was definitely loosening him up.
He glanced at all the stuff the guy had. “Do you want to move inside so that doesn’t happen again?”
***
“That might be a good idea now that you mention it.” Being outside was nice. It helped balance the need to relax and facepalm when grading some of the work. He also didn’t want to lose his sanity completely, and losing the papers would certainly end up doing that.
Packing papers away in folders, and then placing them into a vintage-looking brief case, Ray turned his attention to Derek for a moment before heading inside.
“How did you get to them so quickly? Super speed? Don’t worry. I know a speedster. Two, actually. Although I’d rather not know the second one at all.”