Who: Derek Souza and Chloe Saunders What: Movie night Where: Derek and Tyler's apartment When: October 30th Rating/Warning: Low/None Status: Complete
It was the night before Halloween. While Derek was sure Chloe had Halloween plans with her boyfriend he wanted to have her over to watch scary movies. It wasn’t exactly his thing, but it seemed fun and festive. It was as close to celebrating as Derek was going to get. There was no way in hell he was going to go to a party. He tried the whole college party thing with Meg and he had no intention of ever going to any sort of party again. But scary movies he could do.
Tyler was out for the night, probably with his girlfriend. So Derek and Chloe would have the apartment to themselves. Being Derek, he heard Chloe outside the door and opened it before she could even knock. “Hey,” he said a large smile spread across his face. “I was thinking The Nightmare Before Christmas first? I know it’s not exactly scary but still fitting.”
Watching movie with Derek was a great idea and Chloe was pleased that he had brought it up. It had been a while since the last time they had hung out together and she wanted to make sure things were going well for him. He and Henry had finally met and even had lunch together, so making sure both of these important men in her life got along was high on her list. Halloween was falling on a Monday this year, so she didn’t have plans for anything too crazy - she had gone to at least one party this weekend.
“Heyya!” Chloe responded, although paused slightly at the smile on his face. Derek didn’t usually smile that wide, “And Nightmare Before Christmas would be great. I haven’t watched that in quite a while. What else were you thinking of watching?” She was curious as to what horror movies Derek had picked out as she stepped into the apartment.
“Nightmare on Elm Street, The Shining, and The Exorcist,” Derek said leading her into the apartment with a nod at the couch for her to take a seat. He had no idea if they would actually get through them all, in fact they probably wouldn’t. But it was nice to have options.
He headed into the kitchen. “I’ll make some popcorn,” he said already getting it out. “We can order a pizza too,” in fact he’d prefer both. Derek in his appetite. “You want a soda?”
“Those are good choices. Gotta love the classics,” it had actually been a while since she had watched those movies. She might have to sit Henry down and watch some other things that she hadn’t seen lately. She followed along behind him, kicking her shoes off, and setting her purse down.
“Yeah, that’d be fine. Pepperoni pizza sounds awesome. And yeah, you got Coke?” she was going to need a bit of caffeine to keep up with all the movies, “What else have you been up to lately? Are you feeling any changes lately? I want to help out if you do.”
Derek grabbed two cokes from the fridge. He handed one to Chloe and set the other down on the coffee table. “No changes. I haven’t had any dreams since we split up with you and Tori at the factory.” Although at least he knew they were reunited thanks to Chloe. It made him feel a little less anxious and tense about the whole thing.
He headed back into the kitchen placing a bag of popcorn in the microwave. While it popped he called the pizza place ordering two large pepperoni pizzas and some wings. “What about you?” he asked when everything was taken care of. “Anything new and exciting going on in the life of Chloe Saunders?” he teased pouring the popcorn into a bowl.
“Do you mind at all when I post about Dream spoilers on the network?” Chloe had realized that she had never asked him about that before and she might as well ask since she was ahead of him for the moment. If he didn’t want to know then she would make it so he couldn’t see it. She took a seat at the table and watched him as he walked around the kitchen.
Cheeks colored when he asked about what was going on with her. “Aside from dead animals following me, not a whole lot. Although I think Henry and I are going to adopt a real live kitten. That’s really about it.” She had just been working like normal and there wasn’t much else going on. Her powers were only causing minor issues.
“Nah. I’d prefer to know we get reunited. Saves some stress,” he shrugged. Whether or not Chloe posted about them or not it wouldn’t change what he dreamed. He didn’t see the harm in it.
He placed the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, sitting down next to Chloe. A kitten? Well okay then. He wouldn’t really be able to visit Chloe if it was at her place. Cats didn’t like him. But wait, was it going to be at her place? “Are you guys moving in?”
“Mkay, perfect. If there’s anything truly major I’ll make sure to send a text your way before posting about it on the network. Especially if something bad happens to either of us,” Chloe had his back period. They were really only still alive because they were together - Simon was helpful, but Tori was a bit of a waste right now. She really hoped that Derek wasn’t going to fully change during this trip to the woods.
Maybe her cat would like him, who knew. She would train the kitten to like Derek if she had to. “Um, I don’t know. I was thinking of drawing up some custody agreements. We live in the same buildings, so at least that’s helpful. Haven’t really thought about that part of it yet. I’m just kinda excited about a kitten.” Her eyes sought his as she looked up from the popcorn bowl and shoved some in her mouth to stop from talking.
“Thanks,” Derek replied giving her another smile as he grabbed a handful of popcorn popping it into his mouth. “Ah, well that’s good for you guys.” He was trying his best to sound positive about the whole thing even though he wasn’t entirely thrilled. Cats didn’t like werewolves. There was no getting around it. But Derek was being a bit presumptuous. He probably wasn’t even going to be around the thing in the first place.
“Thanks, we’ll see how it goes. It’ll be interesting to see how having a pet changes things. I haven’t had to take care of anything besides myself in quite a while. So! Enough about that. What’s going on with you?” Chloe asked as she took a handful of popcorn herself. Chloe was sure that she could figure out the situation should it arise about the cats and werewolves. She just wanted to make sure that she and Derek had a good relationship here despite what would happen in the Dreams.
“I don't think I ever have,” he paused for a second. “Well unless you count Simon.” Derek never had any pets but he was often looking out for his brother. It was how he had gotten in trouble all those years ago. Now was not the time to think about that though. “Nothing really new here. Other than the move. I think my roommate has two girlfriends,” he shrugged. He couldn't really keep up with his roommate’s personal life. Nor did he care to.
A joke? Derek made a joke. The corner of Chloe’s mouth twitched up in a smirk at his comment. Something had to be up because Derek didn't’ joke like this and certainly didn’t seem like he was in such a good mood. “You think your roommate has two girlfriends? Now that sounds like good gossip right there. Why are you saying that?” Chloe got a lot of office gossip, but it was far more interesting when she knew some of the people involved.
Leave it to Chloe to be interested in his roommates love life. And maybe he shouldn’t be making judgements about Tyler. The guy had thought Meg was his girlfriend when they first met. “They just come to visit a lot. One hung out when he wasn’t here. Well I was tutoring her, but she stayed to wait after.” Derek liked Blossom better, no offense to the perky blonde but he could talk science with Blossom.
“Huh, how interesting. Well, at least something scandalous is happening,” Chloe commented with a chuckle, “You seem in a really good mood today, too. Any reason behind that?” She was quite curious as to if there was a reason behind why Derek was acting so chatty. Maybe he had a date or something. Although the thought of that made her feel a little weird - something she would ignore for the moment.
“I’ll keep you updated,” Derek offered with another smile. That was of course if he continued to pay attention to the situation. But if Chloe was interested he just might. “What? Can’t a guy be happy to watch movies with his dream!friend?”
“Suuuure,” Chloe commented with a playful smirk on her face, “Whatever you say. I just think it’s interesting how talkative you are today. This might be the most we’ve spoken to each other in and out of the dreams.” That was actually a very fairly accurate comment. Derek wasn’t much for talking, so this side of him was a little different and she wasn’t quite sure what the reasoning behind it was. Was it some kind of weird Dream side effect?
Chloe had a point. Derek wasn’t sure why he was so talkative today either, but he was enjoying it. He felt happy, carefree, for the first time in a long time. Not thinking about what had happened to him in the past, what he could do to people. “If you want we can skip the movies. Talk all night like I’ve heard girls do at slumber parties,” he was mostly joking. And honestly Derek had no clue what the hell girls did at slumber parties. Hell he wasn’t even sure where he heard that. Probably some movie. “But I draw the line at braiding hair and pillow fights.”
“Are you basing your knowledge on slumber parties on old 80’s movies?” Chloe couldn’t help but laugh at that, “And I think you wouldn’t be awful at braiding hair, but you could kick my butt in a pillow fight. Let’s just get down to the movie watching, no offense.” She wasn’t opposed to chatting more with Derek, but movies were calling her in. They would probably end up chatting during the movie or else between movies.
“Not at all,” Derek said with a smirk. “But you got it.” He had no issue with watching the movie either. Especially if he was going to avoid the hair braiding and pillow fight aspect. With that he pressed play. No matter what they ended up spending their time, he could already tell it was going to be a good night.