Tim Murphy is an (honoraryhale) wrote in multifariousic, @ 2015-07-14 11:07:00 |
|
|||
Being dragged out of his slumber by the rough lap of Luna's tongue over his face was nothing new to Tim, so at first, he didn't think anything of it when, once again, he woke to it. It took a moment, but Tim registered belatedly the way that she felt light on his chest and stomach rather than heavy against his side. Tim's eyes opened and the first thing he saw was a much younger Luna. Tim stared briefly back at her with widened eyes before clearing his throat and sitting up, scratching behind her ears to calm her down and then gently pushing her off the bed. ...off of which his feet were hanging. “...why is there a hobbit bed?” he muttered, frowning as he knit his brow. Tim took a deep breath and let it out in a yawn as he stretched his arms over his head and climbed out of bed, promptly stepping on a Lego — what the fuck, I haven’t had Legos in years — and cursing loudly, hopping on one foot and dropping back down onto the bed. “Dad!” he called out, frustrated. Then, he looked around the room, now that his eyes weren’t quite as bleary from sleep and Tim’s jaw went slack. A tiny pile of tiny dirty clothes was in the corner in a hamper. A Lego castle was halfway finished on the floor a few feet away. Tim got back off the bed and tilted his head slightly, eyes wide. “What the fuck…?” he whispered to himself. “...Dad?” he called out. Then, Tim paused. “Uh, Coach?” he tacked on, just in case. Last night went better than they usually did; Tim had only woken up once, and after Derek had eased him back to sleep he stayed in his own room for the rest of his slumber. The chances of Joey and him getting the bed to themselves was now a solid 50/50, so when he was awoken by a sound that he hadn’t yet registered Derek smiled, holding Joey close in his arms and planting lazy kisses on the back of her shoulder in his half daze. But someone called out again, and Derek’s eyes snapped open as panic burst in the center of his chest. He didn’t recognize that voice, but it sounded like a man, in the apartment. There were no unfamiliar scents but Derek jumped to his feet anyway, looking back at Joey when he startled her, and he held his finger up to his lips before whispering to her, “stay here.” The ‘Coach’ that was tacked on only made Derek even more uncomfortable although he didn’t know why, and he slowly made his way down the hall, padding on bare feet before stopping outside of Tim’s door. He pushed it open a little wider, staying off to the side, and when it finally swung open completely Derek leaned over to glance into the room only to see a man sitting in Tim’s bed. A man who smelled like Tim. ...Who had definitely called him Dad. Derek’s eyes narrowed a little as he stared at the vaguely familiar face, and he filed the ‘Dad’ thing in the back of his head for now. Maybe he had misheard… “...Tim?” Tim looked up from Luna, whose ears he’d started to scratch again while he waited for his foot to stop throbbing from the fucking Lego. “...yeah…?” he asked, knitting his brow with confusion. Was that even a real question? “Hey, quick questions: why is there a hobbit bed where mine is supposed to be and why is Luna tiny?” he asked, clearing his throat. “...is this a thing? Like a...City thing; weird universe fucked up thing that happens sometimes...what’s going on and why do you look like you’ve just seen a ghost…?” He paused and got to his feet, a towering six foot three, taller even than his adoptive father who’d taken him in eleven years ago. “...oh shit, ohhh...oh man, am I in the past? Is that a thing that can happen?!” If Derek’s head wasn’t hurting already, it certainly was by the time that Tim stood up. The boy - man? - literally towered over him, and Derek stared up at him with a shocked look in his eye. It took him a few moments to find his voice, and he was a little glad that Tim was working it out aloud because this was crazy. Even for Derek, who had experienced these things more than he’d like to admit, this was crazy. “Watch your language,” he mumbled it before he could even register that it was coming out of his mouth, “yeah. You’re in the past - how old are you?” His brain finally seemed to kick into gear, and Derek glanced over his shoulder to see if Joey had followed him before calling down the hall to her, “It’s just Tim, something… happened, don’t freak out.” His eyes moved back to the ten year old he had adopted. “You’re supposed to be ten.” It was probably one of the most ridiculous things he had ever said to Tim but he didn’t know how else to explain what was going on, or to excuse his shock. “You’re definitely supposed to be ten, you were ten six hours ago.” The question was on the tip of his tongue - Did you call me Dad? - but he bit it back, because now wasn’t the time. And Derek was afraid to hear the answer, no matter what it was. “...Jesus, what the hell have I been feeding you?” In spite of himself, Tim smirked a little at the command to watch his mouth; he hadn’t heard that in nearly five years. “I’m twenty-one,” he answered. When Derek leaned back out, Tim craned his neck to look. It had to be Joey he was talking to, because Laura moved out a long time ago. ...actually, more accurately come to think of it, he and Derek had moved out a long time ago… “Oops?” came his response to Derek’s point that he was supposed to be ten. So then that would make this...2015. Tim was just about over all the time travel, he realized with a wrinkle of his nose. Tim laughed and shook his head. “You ask me that all the time when we’re shooting hoops.. My bio dad is really tall,” he explained. “Guess I got it from him. I’ve been taller than you since my sophomore year in high school,” he replied with another smirk. Derek looked like he had been physically struck when Tim said that he was twenty one, and he listened carefully as the other man continued before trying to wrap his head around everything. It wasn’t impossible, obviously, Derek knew how these things worked, and he would have Tim back in about a week or so, just the way that he had seen him last night. Still, seeing the boy as a grown man, seemingly functioning without any severe problems due to a gross overlook in his raising, made Derek feel a little better than it probably should have. “Twenty-one…” he repeated dully. “...I guess you can say shit then, isn’t that an eighteen or older thing? I don’t know, I haven’t gotten there yet…” He sounded distant, looking at the boy for a few more seconds and letting it all sink in before he finally allowed himself to give a small but genuine smile. “Look at you, holy shit…” He took a few steps closer to Tim so he could look at him properly, his smile turning into a grin before he finally released a small laugh of disbelief. “You’re still alive. Apparently I figure out what I’m doing at some point after all, huh? So, I mean-” his brow furrowed a little in confusion, “you’ve been raised by me for eleven years? That’s the reality you come from?” He wanted to ask a million questions as they popped into his head but he refrained, again afraid of what answers he would hear. “You ever - I mean, you finish school, right?” He hesitated once more. “Do your parents ever…?” “I don’t know, you haven’t yelled at me for saying it in a long time,” Tim said, shrugging and giving Derek a reassuring smile. His eyebrows cocked and he smirked again when Derek started to finally smile, musing at the look of him before stepping forward. Laughing, Tim reached up and rubbed at his chin absently. “Still alive,” he agreed, nodding. “Yeah, that’s the reality I come from. You’re a good dad, I’m okay, I promise,” he added, looking amused. “I graduated high school, yeah, and I’m in my junior year at UCLA. I still can’t kick the damn dinosaurs...I’m studying paleontology,” he replied giving another shrug. At the question about his parents, Tim gave a subtle shake of his head. “No...not my sister, either,” he said, the smirk falling away in favor of something a little more neutral that didn’t match the flash of sadness in his eyes. “Just me and you, Coach.” Well, and Joey, but he wasn’t really sure whether he was supposed to...spoil. Could you spoil the future for someone…? Tim had used the word so casually that Derek had forced himself to stay neutral despite the fact that even hearing himself referred to as a dad was both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. He loved Tim, he truly did. The boy had quickly become one of the most important things in Derek’s life, he had attached to him just as quickly as Tim attached to Derek, and knowing that he actually did well... it was like a weight was lifted that Derek didn’t even know was on him in the first place. He grinned when Tim said that he graduated high school, and he felt a pang of pride when he went on to explain that he was accepted into UCLA for paleontology, out of all things. It reassured Derek that maybe something alright would come out of these awful nightmares, and that they really wouldn’t last forever. He didn’t miss the connection, however. UCLA was in, obviously, L.A, and Derek could only think of one reason why they would move there, and stay there until Tim was an adult. One very important reason that he would most certainly keep to himself for now. His smile faded when Tim told him that his family never showed up, and Derek clapped the taller (seriously, what was he feeding him though) man on the shoulder with a sympathetic look. He didn’t say anything because he knew he didn’t need to; that was something that Tim probably struggled with for a long time. Derek knew that nothing he could say would make it better. “Laura is going to freak out, you know that, right?” He allowed his smile to slowly return. “And Joey. ...Careful, actually, she might cry, you might want to approach that one delicately.” He looked the boy up and down once more, shaking his head in disbelief. “Twenty-one…” he breathed it once more. “...This means I can actually buy you a drink then, right? Before you’re sent back to your time where I can probably barely walk?” The smile hadn’t quite made its way back to Tim’s eyes but it tugged at the corners of his mouth, all the same, at the mention of Laura. “Does she still live here? Laura, I mean? Is that who you’re talking to or Joey…?” he asked, lifting a thoughtful eyebrow. “Oh, Joey cries at everything,” he replied flippantly, the smirk finally reaching his eyes again. She was hella embarrassing at his high school graduation. “I’m already prepared for that.” With a nod, Tim tilted his head a little. “Twenty-one,” he confirmed, “you can totally buy me a drink. Not that you’ll feel it,” he joked. “And honestly it took me a minute to figure this whole...thing...out because you look the same in my time, Coach.” He was mindful to keep away from calling Derek ‘Dad’ again because that was maybe too soon, if they were still in 2015. It had taken Tim years to call him that, well after he’d been legally adopted. “And you can still give me a run for my money on the basketball court,” he added with a laugh. The fact that Tim had referred to Joey so easily, and in the present tense, made Derek feel better once more about something that he didn’t even know he was concerned about. “She still lives here, yeah.” He wasn’t surprised at the question; he had a feeling that Laura would want to leave soon. He didn’t want her to, but it was starting to get unfair for him to ask her to stick around. Between Tim and Joey, Laura had no privacy anymore, and Derek definitely saw that. “We’re in New York right now.” He clarified, because he was already starting to put a few of the pieces together himself. Another grin graced his face. “It’s not about me feeling it, it’s about me being about to buy you one and not having to wait another eleven years to do it, keep up, I thought you were going to UCLA.” He wasn’t surprised to hear that he looked the same in eleven years as he did now; if he was being honest, that was something that Derek had always been afraid of in the back of his mind. Joey, and now Tim, growing on without him. He didn’t allow himself to dwell on the thought. “And the only reason you probably ever win on the court in the first place is because you’re cheating, you probably don’t even have to jump to reach the hoop.” His grin widened, and Derek had to concentrate on keeping himself grounded once more before the burst of emotion he was feeling actually surfaced. He was not going to be one of those Dads. Absolutely not. “Girlfriend? Anything serious?” Derek smirked a little. “I’m assuming that Kira didn’t work out.” “Yeah, I’m seeing that the more I look around. The New York thing, I mean. I haven’t touched a set of Legos in like seven years or something,” he replied and gestured with one hand to the half-built castle. “And Luna’s all tiny and I remember this room,” he said, almost nostalgic, looking around it again. “It explains the hobbit bed,” he joked, looking back at Derek. Another laugh bubbled to the surface and he shook his head. “Too bad it’s not an eclipse, we could get wasted together while we’re almost the same age,” he replied. “Oh please, like you didn’t have it raised,” he pointed out with a smirk. At the question about girlfriends, Tim reached a hand up to rub the back of his neck awkwardly, clearing his throat. “...it’s kind of new, still,” he said uncomfortably, averting his eyes. “And his name’s Dustin…” He chanced a glance back up at Derek. “Kira didn’t work out, no,” he added with a sheepish grin. “It’s not a hobbit bed, you’re just a giant.” Derek retorted with a grin, and he actually laughed when Tim said that he had raised the net, because of course he did. The mention about an eclipse pulled a dramatic sigh out of the older Hale and he clapped his boy on the shoulder. “Let’s be honest, both you and I know that it would be a bad idea to get me wasted around you, I’ll start asking questions to things I probably shouldn’t know the answers to and you’ll start telling me shit I shouldn’t hear… we’d probably create a time paradox, and I feel like Joey would be pissed at me for something like that. So, no eclipse, we should be grateful.” When Tim continued to talk about Dustin, Derek gave a little facial shrug of surprise before breaking out into an even wider grin, laughing at the comment about Kira. “Apparently not, no. Dustin… he better have gone to school. ...Or… you know, going to school.” Because what the hell was Derek going to do, tell Tim that he couldn’t date a man who hadn’t graduated high school yet? He was twenty one. And Derek was dating Joey, who was - ...yeah, he couldn’t tell Tim to only date people within two years of his own age. “How about you and I go to the kitchen and I start making breakfast? And you can tell me all about Dustin.” Smirking, Tim gave a sideways tilt of his head in a non-commital half-nod. “Yeah, all right, I guess you have a point there. And yeah she probably would, good call,” he replied with a huff of amusement. Opening his mouth to respond, he stopped and huffed another laugh as Derek went on. Stretching his arms over his head and then letting them drop back down to his sides, he gave a nod. “Yeah, cool. Sounds good And, for the record, he’s working on his Masters in Seismology...he’s older than me, before you hurt yourself worrying he’s a kid,” he added with a smirk, because the age difference between Derek and Joey was something he was aware of although they never really talked about it, but that same age gap between Tim and someone younger would’ve literally been a crime, because Tim was younger than Derek was. He didn’t want to think about it. “Lead on,” he gestured toward the door and yawned again, scratching the back of his head before padding forward. “Bowl of cereal ain’t gonna cut it anymore, Coach, I’m gonna need like an omelet, at least,” he teased. “I know he’s not a kid, obviously,” Derek grinned a little, “I was just going to demand that he graduated high school and it would be a little hypocritical of me to say that you couldn’t date an eighteen year old. ...I’d probably be annoyed and I’d have a problem if he was younger than that, obviously, but, you know, ‘lead by example’ and all of that. Seismology…” his grin turned into a smirk with a slow nod. “Sexy.” He tried not to laugh, “yeah, you’re going to have to tell me about him, now you’ve got me curious. And this isn’t a restaurant, you want something fancier than what I make you, you can make it yourself.” He stared at Tim for another second or two, shaking his head, and he gave a little huff of disbelief and amusement before finally turning and leading him out into the hall. Rolling his eyes playfully, Tim shook his head. “It’s the opposite of sexy, Coach, even I know that,” he laughed, shaking his head. “Ah, ah, ah, technically I’m a guest. You make Joey breakfast, so you can make me breakfast,” he teased back, giving Derek a playful shove as he headed out of younger-him’s room behind him. Well...this was going to be an interesting...however long. |