Open Post 2016 2017 Edition

[likeabulldozer]

☻Pick one of my characters or drop any of your characters in and get a random choice.
☻Pick a scenario or use RNG (or make one up if you don't see what you want here).
☻Have fun!

I. Roadtrip

1. BREAK DOWN. Oh snap. Your car decided to break down out in the middle of nowhere. WHAT DO? Is that Leather-face? Will this be "Children of the Corn"?
2. HITCHHIKERS? Is this even a good idea? Threads may also have a third participant. Go wild.
3. WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST HIT? Dude, I hear deer mess up cars... Or I think that was a deer...
4. DON'T MAKE ME TURN THIS CAR AROUND. Alas. You're the parent or disgruntled friend who has had it up to here with all the fighting in the back. This thread may also have a third or even fourth participant, if you can wing it.
5. OMG, I WANT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF THIS LANDMARK! No, no, and no. You tell that person that they're going to be driven around and they're going to like it.
6. THE GREAT ESCAPE. Either dinosaurs or the moth-man is chasing you. Don't stop now.
7. MAKE OUT. For whatever reason, the person you're traveling with in the car. You would love to make out with them and then some.



II. Cuddles

1. SWEET DREAMS. It's been a long day and all you want to do is sleep or just rest your eyes for a bit. Hopefully whoever is close by doesn't mind if you use them as a blanket.
2. STORMY WEATHER. The heavy rain, thunder, and lightning won't be letting up anytime soon. Luckily, it's the perfect weather to stay indoors and snuggle up close and keep warm.
3. SLOW DANCE. It's the end of a party, or maybe it's only the two of you, but the tempo is slow and the lights are low. Let your dance partner take the weight and just sway.
4. SURPRISE ATTACK. Time to invade someone's personal space. Are they working too much and need a distraction? Maybe you just wanted to brighten their day. Either way, they won't see it coming.
5. MOVIE NIGHT. It can be on the sofa or in a darkened theater, but you've got your popcorn and someone to settle against during your favorite movie.
6. I LOVE YOU, MAN. It's totally platonic, really. You're just very good friends, no matter what people like to think. But you just love your friend so much you want to hug them, whether they like it or not.
7. JEEPERS CREEPERS. Welp. You were just frightened. Was it a spider in the washroom, a ghost in the attic, a bad dream? Either way, you're looking for someone to cling to right now, and who better than that person right there?
8. HURT AND COMFORT. Whether you're sick in bed, just been dumped, or suffered a traumatic event, you need someone to wrap their arms around you and make everything go away.
9. SUNDAY MORNING. Maybe you just had a wild night. Maybe there's just not enough space at your place and you need to share your bed. Or maybe you just got really tired and someone else happened to be there. Doesn't matter because now the person with you looks way more comfortable than any blanket or pillow. Drape to your heart's content.
10. MOMENT AFTER. You just had incredible, vigorous sex and if you weren't a cuddler before, you are now. You're probably too exhausted to do anything else anyway. Just enjoy the moment.
11. PLAYER'S CHOICE. Pick one or make up your own!

III. Hurt/Comfort

1. INJURY. You've been injured. Broken bones or bleeding out or maybe just a tiny little paper-cut. The choice is yours.
2. SICKNESS. You're sick and laid up in bed, at home or in a hospital. The severity is up to you.
3. FEAR/ANXIETY. Something is happening and you're scared beyond belief.
4. LOSS OF SENSES. Sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell, etc. You've lost some important sense or ability and now you're left to deal with it.
5. DESPAIR. Nothing is good or right anymore and you can't shake the depression. Maybe that friend of yours can help though.
6. MAKE UP. Fight or break up, it's time to make up.
7. RESCUED. You've just been held captive and/or tortured for however long and finally, someone has come to the rescue.
8. BAD ROMANCE. Fight, cheat on, abuse, whatever the case is, someone else can clearly see you need comfort from someone who isn't your terrible lover tonight.
9. LOSS. You've experienced a loss of some kind and need help getting through it.

IV. Texts from Last Night

1.Go here
2. Make Magic happen

V. Intimacy

1. PHYSICAL INTIMACY. It might just be innocent touches or it might be foreplay.
2. LONG CONVERSATIONS. Honest words can be more intimate than touch.
3. DRUNK. You're over-sharing or simply maudlin.
4. FORCED INTIMACY. Magic. A truth serum, whatever - you didn't mean to bare your soul, but that is precisely what you're doing right now.
5. SLOW-DANCING. There is something inherently intimate about trusting someone else to lead you, and someone trust you to lead them.
6. OTHER. Intimacy can come in many forms. Pick your poison.

VI. SENTINEL GUIDE

Prompts
oo1. The Meeting:
How did you meet? Was it at an event organized specifically for finding your other half? By accident? Did you follow a mystical calling to them? Some other way?

oo2. Rejection:
Sometimes Sentinels or Guides propose a match but it's just not perfect. You don't feel the pull or maybe you think there is someone better or maybe you're already claimed. Maybe you were claimed and someone better came along?

oo3. Protection:
Sentinels are meant to protect Guides, any Guides, but it's even worse when they feel their Guide is in danger. They go feral; blind to anything but stopping and killing whoever threatened their Guide or the bond. Maybe someone attacked your Guide or you haven't bonded yet and you feel threatened or maybe you're the one doing the threatening. Whatever the reason, Sentinels in a feral state are dangerous and only their Guides can stop them.

oo4. Lost:
Sentinels often lose themselves in their senses. Either you're a Sentinel who has lost themselves or a Guide that has stumbled on one or a friend trying to draw them out. Unbonded Sentinels will find it hard to escape without a Guide. Or maybe you're bonded already which means you just need yours to come home.

005. Persecution:
Sometimes normal people or the government fear the power of Guides and Sentinels. Guides are empaths, feeling the emotions and sometimes passing thoughts of others and it can make people feel violated. Sentinels often have enhanced strength, which can make them dangerous. So they scorn them, hurt them or in the case of governments, regulate them.

oo6. Old-School:
Guides used to be treated on the same level as slaves. Unable to work unless their Sentinel said. Not allowed out on their own. They used to wear collars and couldn't own land or inherit money. Maybe the old ways haven't completely fallen out of style.

oo7. Unbonded:
Nothing sucks more than being an unbonded Guide or Sentinel. Always looking for your other half to fill that empty feeling but you probably have friends that aren't your match or who are trying to set you up with someone. Maybe you're skeptical about the whole love at first sight thing and haven't been looking.

oo8. Wildcard: Some mish-mash of the above or anything else you can come up with!



Other Options
Don't like any of the above? Here are some other options:

1. Picture Prompt: go here or any of your other favorite picture sites. Leave me a few pictures and I'll set something up.
2. Pick a prompt from this prompt tumblr or try googling OTP prompts
3. Insomnia! One or both of you can't sleep. Be awake together.
4. Leave me a scenario, lyrics, a word or a quote

Comments

[mightbeconcussed]

Lucy is entirely human. In fact, she's not even aware that there are such things as non-humans or half humans or werewolves or vampires. She reads books about those things, but she assumes they're fiction. When she'd first met Derek, she'd been aware that he was passing through. She'd been pleasantly surprised to see him again and by the third time, she'd assumed he'd simply decided to stay in Alabama longer than planned.

She tries not to get close to people, but she likes Derek. He's so serious and grumpy. She feels like she's accomplished something when she makes him smile or laugh. He's gorgeous, which Lucy is just shallow enough to really appreciate, and he's interesting. Sure, she doesn't get a lot out of him when she starts trying to get him to talk about himself, but that's part of the challenge. She definitely wants to get to know Derek better and she's beginning to think she might get that chance. She's also beginning to like him more than she's ready to admit.

Lucy is a social butterfly that will chat up a fence post, but that doesn't change the fact that she likes Derek. She's almost always in a good mood and when she's not, she either hides in her apartment or fakes it. That spark, it's not all in Derek's head. She feels it when they're together as well and more often she finds herself hoping that he won't leave Alabama at all (of course, it's also possible that Lucy could be persuaded to go on a road trip).

The Houndstooth is Lucy's favorite bar. She frequents it far more than she probably should, but Lucy isn't one that pays much attention to shoulds or should nots. She sort of does what she wants. She bops into the Houndstooth dressed like a ray of sunshine (which is normal for her). Her hair bounces around her shoulders and down her back. She makes a beeline for the bar, her lips curving in a bright smile when she sees Derek there. She immediately postpones getting a drink and walks over to him, leaning in to brush a kiss against his cheek. "Well now my night is made."

And she's sincere about that. She'd only come in for a drink thinking she'd chat with the bartender and maybe meet some friends later. Her night is looking much better than that now.

[duelo]

It's kind of hard to miss her when she walks in. Lucy looks like a rainbow lost its lunch on her dress, but she manages to make it look good even though it should be nothing short of obnoxious. It's things like that that have caught Derek's attention and things like the way she greets him that keep him on the hook.

Derek smiles a little, trying to clamp it down but unable to hide it entirely, because that's the sort of thing her mere presence does to him. She's always smiling and it's always contagious. That's also what makes her so terrifying.

His eyebrows lift with amusement and he gestures to the empty stool beside himself. "Yours too, huh? What a coincidence." He feels like he's probably got an idiot grin on his face when he lifts his bottle again to take a pull. He's attempting to hide it. "What, no plans tonight?" he asks.

[mightbeconcussed]

Hey now. Puking rainbows are totally on trend. She'd been very pleased then and now to have caught Derek's attention. As for the way she greets him, she's an affectionate, touchy person and she likes Derek. She's also a shallow person sometimes and Derek is gorgeous. Touching him isn't a hardship in any way.

That smile, she notices that little smile and the way he tries to stifle it. It makes her preen just a little. Lucy is, most of the time, a happy person and she doesn't see the point in not smiling. It's not as if frowning, bitching or crying will make her day any better.

She slides onto the stool next to him and orders a usual from the bartender. The usual is a mint julep and honestly, the bartender started making it when he saw Lucy walk in. She doesn't bother checking an 'awww' at Derek's comment. He is surprisingly sweet at random times. That's definitely what keeps her pleased to see him still coming around. Lots of guys have a view, but there aren't a lot that are still great when they start talking. Derek is one of those few. The bartender places the drink in front of Lucy and she takes a sip.

"Something might've just come up," she smiles at him. "What are you doing here?"

[duelo]

Derek and Lucy are both tactile people, Lucy just seems to be a lot more comfortable with that facet of herself. Derek stifles urges, reminds himself that personal space is a thing. Just because he wants to be touching someone doesn't mean that they want to be touched. It's something that's been ingrained in his head for as long as he can remember and he doesn't necessarily think he was raised to be that way so much as social cues taught him and quickly. He envies that Lucy's so loose with it and he wishes he could feel comfortable being the same way.

He's already memorized her drink and he isn't surprised when she orders the mint julep. The fact that he knows already that that's what she's going to order really should speak volumes; it kind of tells Derek that he knows silly, trivial things about Lucy that only close friends and significant others would give a shit about...and he gives a shit about them. Danger, Will Robinson.

"Oh yeah?" he asks, his eyebrows lifting in mock surprise. "Who's the lucky guy?" He's joking; he gets it. The honest answer to her question is that he's here hoping that she shows up and gives him a sign that he should stick around and that maybe, just maybe...actually liking this girl might not be so bad. Maybe asking her out on an actual date might not end the world. He hasn't yet. ...he's considering it. But the answer he gives her is, "something to do. The company doesn't suck all of a sudden, though, so there is that," he points out with a grin.

[mightbeconcussed]

Maybe with Lucy, he'll get comfortable enough to be tactile around her. She almost always wants to be touched, and when she doesn't is probably when she needs to be touched the most. She was lucky being raised in a family where affection was encouraged. She was lucky that she had always been pretty and no one had ever told her that she shouldn't hug and pat and touch.

She likes that he's memorized her drink, that he knows her that well already. She likes being known. She doesn't view any of these things as bad things. She's curious about all those little things about Derek.

She smiles at him, biting her bottom lip around the smile. Sometimes honesty is too real and brutal. Sometimes tiptoeing around it is better. She knows what he's tiptoeing around. Is this enough of a sign? Is this hope? She does hope that he sticks around. She'd like to be asked on a date. She'd like for him to be there for her. She'd certainly hoped that he'd show up here tonight as he seemed to be getting in the habit of. She leans into him, shoulder pressing against his. "Thank Bear Bryant. I wouldn't have had a clue what to do otherwise." She raises her drink in a toast to him before taking a sip. "Tell me, Sugar, how was your day?"

[duelo]

He smirks a little at her response. "I feel like you'd figure something out. You seem clever like that," he replies. Sometimes he just likes to listen to Lucy talk; that accent isn't super thick to the point where he can't understand her without asking her to slow down, but it suits her. It's comforting and relaxing. Another reason why she's terrifying; her voice feels like home to him and that's...well. It's way too early for that. Way.

"Same old, same old. Went on my early morning run, then lounged around the hotel room for the rest of the morning, spent the larger part of the afternoon in the gym, and now I'm here." Derek's life isn't all that exciting these days, but if he's honest, he really sort of prefers it that way. That's the biggest reason why he left Beacon Hills. He needed a break from all the crazy. He's actually still enjoying his honeymoon phase with having no responsibilities. Derek knows himself well enough to know that eventually he'll get bored with it, but for now, he's not complaining.

Derek takes another drink and then sets the beer bottle down on the counter to give Lucy his undivided attention. "What about you, pretty girl? How was your day?"

[mightbeconcussed]

She shrugs a little at that and gives him a knowing sort of smile. "Probably, but it wouldn't have been half as good as this." She's got the classic Southern Belle accent. It drawls a little and is slow and lazy, but doesn't distort words so badly one can't understand. It may be too early for that, but Lucy would like to see where this goes. She tries not to get serious, but she falls in love far harder and faster than she wants to admit. Right now, everything about Derek makes her feel warm, safe and happy. Those are good feelings to have.

His schedule prompts her to slide a hand up his arm to curve over his bicep. "Well, I can certainly appreciate the dedication to the gym," she tells him. She's half turned on the stool so that she's facing him and she scoots a little closer so she can rest her chin on his shoulder. "Tell me this is the best part of your day." It's not a statement, more of a request. She doesn't even care if he's lying about it. She likes the sweet words.

"Good. I got a coffee, worked this morning," she works in a local candle shop, "then spent the afternoon organizing my closet," something she loves doing, "had dinner with Mom and Daddy and tried to convince him I need a degree in Business." It's not that she's that great at school or that smart, but she loves going to school. "He's thinking about it. Now I'm here and it's easily the best part of my day."

[duelo]

Lucy gives Derek those same feelings: warm, safe, and happy. The scary thing is just knowing that the last three women he felt like that with had been psychotic or had just been doing their job. He was a job, for Braeden. He can't imagine in a million years that, given the circumstances of their meeting, that he's in any way a job for Lucy. Derek finds himself having to actively remind himself that not everyone is out to get him; that Lucy isn't out to get him. ...probably.

He laughs a little at her appreciative comment and he looks her in the eye before responding to the later comment. Or, at least, he does until she gets too close to be able to focus his eyes on properly.

"This is absolutely the best part of my day," he admits and he finally ventures to kiss her. It isn't the first time they've kissed and he hopes it won't be the last, but it's chaste and when he pulls back, he's smiling down at her. Lucy is always the best part of his day.

His reflexive response to get mention that she'd like to go back to school and that her father is thinking about paying for it is to...offer to pay for it if her father turns it down. If Lucy likes being in school and wants to better her chances in the rat race, then she should be able to. But strangers who kiss sometimes and flirt even more often aren't the types of people who pay your way through college. He knows that'd be an inappropriate offer, so he doesn't make it, but the thought is there. ...if she was his girlfriend, he wouldn't even have thought twice about saying it. He is in so deep…

"That's great," he encourages. "I hope he gets on board with that."

[mightbeconcussed]

It's debatable whether Lucy is mental or not. She's got a few ex-boyfriends that would claim she's crazy. Derek definitely isn't a job for Lucy. She's not nearly that dedicated and a job like that would take up too much of her time and cramp her style. Lucy is not out to get him.

The kiss and the words are sweet. Lucy touches his smile with the tips of her fingers then presses a sweet, tender kiss that lingers to his lips. "I'd say you need better days, but self deprecating isn't really my style," she tells him with a grin.

No. Absolutely not. She wouldn't let Derek pay for school, not now and not if she becomes his girlfriend. Her father can afford to pay for college and Lucy already has a bachelor's degree in Philosophy. It's useless unless she wants to get her masters and be a Philosophy professor. She doesn't and the uselessness is part of why she majored in Philosophy. Lucy likes uselessness. She likes not having a purpose and a focus in life. She knows she's putting off the future by not getting a degree in something that she can use. She likes to think she's growing past that by choosing business, but she also knows that she's just as likely to change her major once she gets in school or procrastinate so that a four year degree takes her six years or longer. Lucy just likes being a college student with a future full of potential rather than an adult who is supposed to be responsible and successful. See? Mental might not be a stretch.

"Daddy has a hard time telling me no. He calls me Princess Lucy." Yeah, she's one of those girls.

[duelo]

With a surprised huff of laughter, Derek cranes his neck back and his eyebrows lift in mock offense. "I think my days are just fine, thank you very much," he shoots back, looking as amused as he is by the comment. She has worded it in such a way that she can get away with saying it without actually saying it and Derek thinks that's cute and clever, although if he ever admitted that, he can only assume she'll run with it. He tries to be careful not to give Lucy things like that to run with because he's already wrapped around her little finger as it is, whether she realizes it or not.

"Well, then I guess you'll be good to go and you don't really need my good luck wish all that much," he says, leaning forward again. This time, he stops shy of kissing her and changes course, moving to whisper in her ear, his lips brushing against her skin as he does. "You'll have to let me know so we can celebrate when he inevitably gives in, then."

[mightbeconcussed]

Lucy probably would run with it. She likes his answer though. As for that very important realization, she hasn't had it yet. She tries not to think too much about how very much she feels for Derek, how very much she's falling in love with him despite all her attempts at not doing just that. Instead she hums a little and leans into him. Honestly, if he moved away right now, she'd probably fall off the bar stool she's precariously perched on. "In that case, I think you should spend more of your time with me. Days. Nights. I'm not particularly picky."

She shrugs a bit. "It never hurts to have luck on my side." She shivers a bit when he whispers in her ear, when his lips brush against her skin. "I'll start planning the celebration," she tells him.

[duelo]

Her suggestion is one that sticks with him. It means that his feelings, at least to some degree, are not one-sided. She wants to spend more time with him just like he wants to spend more time with her. She's just the one of the two of them brave enough to come out and say it directly instead of just creepily showing up at her favorite haunts in the hopes of yet another chance run in.

"Yeah?" he asks. "...you wanna finish our drinks and get out of here now and spend some time together?" he asks. It's not too late; he could take her to dinner, if she wanted, he thinks. Or back to the hotel. Or her place. Or they can just go for a walk; she knows the town and its offerings better than he does, but it doesn't really matter to Derek what they're doing if he gets to spend time with Lucy.

Which, again, is a huge red flag that he's getting in too deep, but he can't help himself. He likes her...a lot.

[mightbeconcussed]

His feelings are definitely not one-sided. She's either brave or very stupid. Time will tell. Right now, she just wants to spend more time with Derek. She wants to get to know him better, to see if her feelings are reciprocated. He can stop stalking her, or rather don't stop, but be more obvious about it so that she can make sure to see him every day.

A smile curves across her lips at his suggestion and she dips her head before looking back up at him. "I would very much like that." She's not opposed to going back to his hotel or to her place. Really, she's not opposed to any of that as long as she spends time with Derek.

At least he's not in it alone.

[duelo]

If the choice is between brave or stupid, Derek's going to have to bet that he falls in the center of that particular Venn diagram; he's easily both. It's just that she makes him happy when he's around her and that's not something a whole lot of other people can say. Derek can probably count on one hand the number of people who could ever accomplish that feat, so she's in a very select group...and she's the only one who's still alive to do it.

Careful not to make her lose her balance, Derek starts to move back very slowly so that she has time to right herself. "Can I take you out to dinner?" he asks, and for the first time in forever, he feels like a teenager again. He hasn't asked someone out to dinner pretty much ever but he can't help thinking that the closest he ever came to it was when he and Paige were together when he was still a kid. Fifteen and free of worries, sorrow, and pain. It was a lifetime ago.

Right now, though, he's just going to enjoy Lucy and the fact that maybe there might actually be something to this...whatever it is that they have going on between them. He finds himself foolishly kind of hoping so.

[mightbeconcussed]

Sometimes being brave is stupid, or at least reckless which Lucy is pretty sure a lot of people think of as a synonym for stupid. She is very pleased to be in that small circle of people. She's also pretty pleased to be alive (she's been dead once. She doesn't recommend it; it's a long story involving another city where things like that happened).

She does lean back when he starts to move back, switching her hand to the bar so she can scoot back on her stool a bit more. His question makes her smile broadly and she nods before she ever says anything at all. "Sweetheart, you ask me like that and you can take me anywhere you want," she tells him, a little bit of giddiness bleeding into her voice.

She scoops her hair up and pulls it over one shoulder. "Now, or some date in the future?"

[duelo]

The tone in Lucy's voice gets another smile out of Derek. She's so painfully adorable sometimes, he thinks, and when he hears that excited lilt in her Southern drawl, he thinks so himself that this is absolutely one of those times.

"Well...you probably shouldn't have admitted that, Luce," he says with a tone of feigned scolding before he grins. His eyes move over her face as she pulls her hair over her shoulder. "Now's good for me, if it's good for you?" he suggests almost hopefully.

...okay, totally hopefully. He'd really like to take her out to dinner right now if he's being entirely honest with himself.

[mightbeconcussed]

She can handle painfully adorable.

"Momma's been telling me that for years now," she tells him with a laugh. "And in that tone too. Apparently, you're not supposed to admit when you've done things like sneak out at night." She drains her drink in one long swallow and hops down off the stool.

"Now is perfect. I haven't eaten dinner yet," she tells him, holding out her hand and wiggling her fingers for his hand.

[duelo]

In spite of himself, Derek can't help laughing at that comment. "Yeah I feel like that sort of contradicts the whole point of sneaking out, doesn't it?" he asks with a smirk.

When Lucy hops off her stool, Derek sets a twenty dollar bill on the bar and tells the bartender to keep it — it more than covers their drinks — and he gets to his feet, too.

"Awesome, me either," he says and grins a little, a laugh escaping him a little unexpectedly as her fingers wiggle in an effort, he assumes, to get him to take her hand. It isn't like she needs to ask him twice. Derek takes her smaller hand in his much larger one and gives it a little squeeze as he starts toward the door.

"The only problem is that I don't know this town well enough to have picked a place," he says sheepishly. "So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find the best place in town and direct me there. Make sure it's impressive, now," he says. "I really like this girl and I kinda want her to like me back, so it's gotta be a really great place."

[mightbeconcussed]

"Yeah, I was horrible at it. Besides, you try sneaking out in four inch heels," Lucy shrugs a little.

She murmurs a thank you when he pays for the drinks. It's nice of him and she notices that he tips well. Her best friend has spent a long time waitressing and bartending. She likes people who tip well.

She likes the way he takes her hand, the way he gives it a little squeeze. Quite honestly, she hasn't found anything she doesn't like about Derek.

His sheepish confession gets a laugh out of her. "Have I got the place for you. Not only am I going to introduce you to the best place in town, I'm going to introduce you to the best bar-b-que in the country. Your girl doesn't stand a chance," she teases him back. "It's a little of a drive though. That okay?"

[duelo]

Laughing, Derek shakes his head. "I mean, you could've taken the heels off, snuck out, and then put them back on?"

Try sneaking out when your parents have werewolf hearing, he has the urge to challenge, but keeps to himself because he does not love the idea of her finding out about the werewolf, yet. Things are going really well right now and the last thing he wants is to scare her away because he's, quite literally, a monster. He just doesn't happen to do monstrous things. Most people don't bother to get to know him well enough to learn that part, though.

Derek's older sister waited tables in two shitty diners in Brooklyn when they were still teenagers, trying to support them both financially when they'd gone on the run from the Argents after the fire. They'd had to leave too abruptly to stop at the vault to take some of Peter's cash — everyone else in the family was smart enough to invest or keep their money in bonds — and they'd probably have been followed there, anyway, and picked off as well. They'd gone to Brooklyn with barely a penny to their names and had wiped out their savings accounts renting out their crappy, cockroach infested loft. That first year had been rough before the inheritance and insurance payouts had started to roll into Laura's bank account. He tips that way because he knows first hand that these types of jobs tend to depend on tips. The pay isn't great and the hours are just as bad or worse, most of the time. Tips put food in kids' mouths. Derek's mouth was one of them. It's the least he can do when he has the money to spare.

"I'm completely okay with a drive so long as you think I'll be able to impress my date with this bar-b-que," he says playfully. "You sound pretty confident. You wouldn't lead me astray now, would you?" He grins a little and leads her out to his car — well, his car now. The Camaro was Laura's — unlocking the doors and pulling the passenger one open for her.

[mightbeconcussed]

She wobbles her head side to side in a 'yeah probably' sort of gesture. "Grass stains or dirty feet would ruin my pedicure, not to mention the insides of my shoes."

Yeah, he definitely had it harder. Lucy's parents are ridiculously indulgent. She's an only child and they'd tried for years to get pregnant before they were able to have her. Lucy can do no wrong as far as they're concerned. As far as the monster thing goes, she's willing to get to know him before she makes any snap judgements. Right now, she can't imagine ever thinking he's a monster.

It's nice regardless and Lucy thinks well of him. She's been lucky and she's never had to deal with anything like that.

"Oh, I think your date will be very impressed," she grins at him. She shakes her head at his question. "Nope. Wouldn't ever led astray. I'm just not that sort of girl," she tells him as she gets in the passenger seat of the car, murmuring a thank you as she does.

[duelo]

"Wow," Derek laughs, genuinely amused. "I mean if you didn't get in enough trouble for sneaking out then I guess I can see the appeal of prioritizing that way, but wow, Lucy. Wow." He's laughing, though, and he thinks that's cute, too. Everything about Lucy is cute. Some part of him is pretty sure that the whole reason he's still hanging out in Alabama of all places is because he wants to keep her.

"Oh okay, good," he says sagely, feigning seriousness. People who know Derek back home would never recognize him when he's with Lucy. She makes him feel safe; his true self comes out when Derek feels safe. Back home, he's always on the defense. He's always cold and closed off, and angry. Back home, he's also always tired because he doesn't sleep well and then it seems like every other day, they're fighting for their lives. Derek is another person entirely here in Alabama and with Lucy. He likes this version of himself an awful lot more than the one with whom McCall's pack is familiar.

Once she's in the car, Derek shuts the door and rounds the front of the car to get into the driver's seat, looking over at her as he puts the keys in the ignition and turns them to bring the engine to life. "All right, I'm trusting you here," he teases, "where'm I going?"

[mightbeconcussed]

Honestly, it's impossible not to grin at him. "You'll find I usually do prioritize that way. Shoes are very important, Derek." Hers, not his. He's wearing shoes so she's happy. Her expectations for her own shoes are so much higher. Plus, her shoes cost more than some people make in a week, which she is aware is very wasteful of her. She's helping the economy, or something like that.

One of these days, when they're both more comfortable with what they feel for each other, he should tell her that. She would appreciate it and be so pleased (and yes, smug) that he is this happy and light with her. She would also do her best to insure that he stays this way because she likes this version of him as well.

"I won't fail you," she tells him then proceeds to give him directions, but not all at once. She parcels them out as they drive, watching him unabashedly. They'll weave through some neighborhood streets and look like they're kind of going out into the middle of the woods. "I like your car," she tells him.

[duelo]

A smirk takes over his face for a second before Derek forces something more akin to a neutral expression and then he nods. "Of course they are," he agrees. Maybe for her. If he's paying more than $20 for a pair of shoes, he's a very pissed off werewolf. Women are weird about those sorts of things, though. Shoes, bags...he doesn't get it, but to each their own, he thinks.

Derek glances in Lucy's direction at the compliment. He's the sort of person who tends to be in the zone when he's driving, and he puts his full focus on the road, but when she says she likes the car he smiles a little and gives her a brief look. She may or may not have had time to notice, in the few seconds he's looking at her before his eyes move back to the road in front of him, that the smile falls a little short of his eyes.

"It was my sister's," he says. "I always felt so cool when she would take me to school in this thing..."

[mightbeconcussed]

And Lucy doesn't think that she's got a pair of shoes in her entire closet that didn't cost more than that. Maybe her house slippers? She's not quite as fanatic about her bags, but she cares about the shoes.

She doesn't have enough time to really identify what's off about his smile, but she does notice that it's not the smile she's used to getting out of him; it's not the smile that she likes. So the car is a sensitive area. She won't poke and prod at it too much.

"Loads better than a mini van," she agrees with a nod. "Forever when I was little, my mom had this bright yellow Hummer because Daddy was convinced that it was the only think Mom and I would be safe in, except she kept running over things in it: bikes, curbs, sidewalks, bushes, a fire hydrant once. Finally, he bought her a very safe, normal four door Audi."