The Preserve, Saturday Morning

[justlurkinghere]

The plan had originally been for there to be working on Jackson's werewolfing skills this morning. As it was Derek Hale's School for Werewolves Who Can't Werewolf Good and Want To Learn To Learn To Not Be A Murder Lizard.

The best school around.

Of course, waking up to being unable to hear had put a sliiiight damper on that. But Derek wasn't going to let something like that deter him. So, he was waiting, glaring at everything in sight.

At least he could still smell.

[[So, so open]]

Comments

[nomoresportscars]

Yeah, Jackson wasn't taking it well that he couldn't hear. He'd taken a long time to get used to his supernatural hearing, and now that it was gone? He was pretty freaked out.

So he'd almost been glad that he had a bitchy text to respond to by making his way to a spot in the preserve. He'd been grumbling the entire way over, naturally. Like he was trying to force himself into hearing his own voice. It didn't work, and it didn't make him feel any better, and he did it anyway.

He looked pretty pissy when he appeared.

[justlurkinghere]

Derek turned to face him, following the sudden new scent in the area that wasn't a bunny or... something that smelled dead. Possibly a rotting deer carcass.

He tapped his ear once Jackson came into sight.

[nomoresportscars]

"I can't hear a thing."

Or himself saying that as he moved closer, looking tense. Please allow him to be dumb in his annoyance.

[justlurkinghere]

Derek rolled his eyes at that in an overly exaggerated fashion. As was his wont. Because it wasn't like he could hear you, Jackson.

God.

[nomoresportscars]

Jackson glared at him some more.

This was exactly the kind of behavior that got him magical time-outs.

[justlurkinghere]

And this is why you don't get any gold werewolf stars, Jackson. This right here.

Derek took another breath to try and focus himself. The silence was actually not helping with that. At all. He pointed to his nose like that would help Jackson figure out how to deal with this crazy deafness.

[nomoresportscars]

It wasn't going to.

But he did stop and try to get somewhere through his other senses. Namely, his sense of smell. But he wasn't too good at using that to his advantage yet. And who knew absolute silence could be that distracting?

[robinonadderall]

Stiles could still smell but he didn't get how that would help him any. He definitely couldn't hear either, but he was still talking to himself as he walked around the preserve because it was habit by now.

Obviously he would not be doing his half-assed attempt at track training if he had known there was winged grossness around, but he woke up angry and needed to work off energy because he couldn't do it his usual way in the bouncy castles.

[justlurkinghere]

...gross, Stiles. Gross. No one needed to see you do that in a bouncy castle.

Derek's head jerked up at the scent, narrowing down on him without the nicely reassuring sound of a heartbeat to go with it. Which, you know, was kind of Twilight of him. And creepy. But such was his life. Such was his life.

He took off after the scent, sticking to the periphery once he caught sight of Stiles.

[robinonadderall]

Stiles, of course, was not noticing a damn thing. If he was honest with himself, he probably wouldn't have noticed anything if he could hear either.

Stumbling around without actually falling over took a lot of effort, okay?

[justlurkinghere]

Accurate. It probably didn't help that, even on a good day, Derek slunk around like a ninja. Only to pop up when least expected.

Possibly in a teenager's bedroom.

Derek rolled his eyes before looking around for the things that were lurking in the preserve. Catching them by scent was kind of difficult when the smell was just everywhere now.

They could be just about anywhere now, you know. Also? They could fucking fly.

[robinonadderall]

What? There were things that could fly? Stiles didn't know anything about that.

You know, not until one came out of fucking nowhere and sank it's talon's into one of Stiles' shoulders. Apparently in the Fandom preserve, no one could hear you scream.

[justlurkinghere]

DAMN IT, RIPLEY.

And that would be Derek not sticking to his creepy stalker distance anymore as he rushed forward to tackle the thing off of him. Not that you could hear him or anything, but there was a pretty impressive roar in there as he viciously clawed at the thing's face and neck.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack showed up a little late, and more than a little grumpy. Being deprived of one of his senses had him off-balance, and he was cursing the fact sign language wasn't among the dozen or so languages he spoke.

Also, there were birds that smelled like vampires was not making his day any better.

He slipped up beside Derek and waved. Sullenly. Were they training, or could he just go kill some birds and call it a day?

[justlurkinghere]

Derek nodded back to him, shaking his shoulder to loosen up the tense muscles that came from being ready for a fight at all times. Yeah, no one needed these damn monsters in their backyard today.

He shot Jack a sideways glance as though to make sure he was okay.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack nodded, made a show of brushing off his shoulders as if to show nothing was the matter. Then he raised his eyebrows at Derek inquisitively.

Can you hear? he asked, shaping his mouth slowly and carefully. He thought the answer was no, but it was always worth double-checking.

[justlurkinghere]

Well good.

Derek shook his head, lip curling up in a deeply unhappy sneer. He liked being able to hear, damn it. It was nice. They were going to end up fighting blind next. Literally.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack would take fighting blind over fighting deaf, not that he'd been asked for his opinion.

And of course it had gotten Derek too. He sighed and rolled his eyes to express his frustration at the situation.

And then he tilted his head back. He had the strangest feeling something was approaching --

[justlurkinghere]

Derek froze as well, picking up what Jack was putting down. Maybe it was a pack thing, maybe it was a hyper-alert response to danger created from being hunted by humans since he was a teenager.

It would have helped if they could hear the soft whoosh of wings above them. Really it would have.

[amthenight.livejournal.com]

Deafness was weird. Normally, he'd expect to hear the rustle of leaves, the snapping of branches, and the breaking of bones as he rode a dropping bird-vampire through the Preserve's canopy. He'd certainly expect to hear a thud as the wakwak hit the ground directly beneath him. But nope, nothing. Weird.

As he got up off the broken vampire, he spotted Derek and gave a nod.

[justlurkinghere]

....

Derek didn't know when this become part of his normal life, but. There it was. He nodded back slowly.

[amthenight.livejournal.com]

"Can you read lips?" Batman asked, even though he knew Derek couldn't hear him.

[justlurkinghere]

Derek just stared back. Because... what?

So, that would be a no, Batman. He did not read lips. Because that would actually be a useful skill here. Instead, he could look sexy while bleeding. Which also helped.

[amthenight.livejournal.com]

Batman sighed, reached into his utility belt, and pulled out a pen and notepad. After a few seconds, he handed Derek a piece of paper.

"Watch out for the wakwaks. They're everywhere."

He knew his world mythology, okay?

[justlurkinghere]

Derek gave the word 'wakwak' the most dubious of all looks. Even though he was a goddamn werewolf and things like demon wolves and kanimas existed. He was a skeptical man.