The Park, Saturday Afternoon

[justwantedfriends]

After waking up from Elsa's party, Kira had gone back to the big house of creepiness to take a shower, and come right back on the next ferry to spend her afternoon in town. After a bit of a walk, she'd ended up in the park, sitting on one of the benches as she looked through her phone. Between showing people the wonders of smartphones and trying to capture things for posterity, she'd taken a lot of pictures last night, but every picture of her was making her sigh. There was a weird gold light in every picture she was in, and she couldn't figure out what it was. She'd noticed it for the first time a few weeks before she left for Fandom, but she'd assumed it was a problem with her ancient and well-used phone. Now she had a new phone (courtesy of her parents, probably thanks to guilt about shipping her to a different state), but the light was still there, looking all kinds of weird and wrong.

Kira sighed and decided to just focus on the pictures of everyone else instead. At least being social had been pretty fun?

[Open!]

Comments

[justlurkinghere]

"Kira." Derek needed to learn to not just show up out of nowhere.

Though, in his defense, he was just there to talk his dog. His vicious, mean looking dog.

[justwantedfriends]

Kira squealed in surprise and jumped, dropping her phone. "Hi Mr. Hale," she said, trying not to look embarrassed.

[justlurkinghere]

"Derek." Because Mr. Hale was dead. ALL OF THEM WERE DEEEEEAAAAAD.

[justwantedfriends]

"Right, Derek," she said. "Oh, and your puppy. Hi puppy." Yes Puppy Joe, you made the best distraction tactic.

[justlurkinghere]

"It's his walk time," Derek said awkwardly. All the time was his walk time.

[justwantedfriends]

"Aww, he'll grow up to be big and strong." And ten times more fluffy and adorable! After a moment, Kira added, "So, um, how's your weekend going?"

She hadn't made him talk to her in class but he probably wasn't going to get out of it now unless he ran away like a punk.

[justlurkinghere]

"Better than last time." See? Not being a punk. See?

[justwantedfriends]

"Yeah, this weekend is definitely more normal. You know, for this place," she said. "I got to go to a birthday party last night, like a totally normal teenager who isn't living in a haunted house. So, that was cool."

And now she was babbling at poor Derek. Why did her mouth do those things?

[justlurkinghere]

"Is it actually haunted or just this place messing with you?"

It was a serious question for their magical lives.

[justwantedfriends]

"Oh no, it's actually haunted," Kira said with a nod. "There's a creepy lady who disapproves of our TV watching, and random music and children giggling. But it's that or go back to the dorms and listen to the Friday song over and over."

[justlurkinghere]

"Friday might be preferable," Derek muttered. "You're taking the ghost thing well."

[justwantedfriends]

Kira shrugged. "I don't have much of a choice. I mean, I could pretend the ghosts and stuff aren't real, but that seems kind of stupid. It was actually a little cool at first? But then it kind of got old and creepy." Much like Derek!

[justlurkinghere]

Rude! Accurate but rude.

"Probably a smart choice," Derek replied. "Especially with things the way they are. The island can be... how it is."

[justwantedfriends]

"Like last weekend?" Kira said. "People have made it sound like that was something that hasn't really happened before."

[justlurkinghere]

Derek sighed at that. "There have been weekends where I've gotten married for some reason."

[justwantedfriends]

"Aww really? That sounds adorable! And maybe super awkward when it's all over," Kira said, once she really thought about it. "Have you... I don't know if this is okay to ask, but have you ever gotten killed?"

[justlurkinghere]

"I've also been my own evil twin," Derek replied dryly. "You get used to it. Sometimes the island really likes to throw you at people."

[justwantedfriends]

Kira smiled softly. "Like your detective agency? All things considered, I could have been in a worse place, I guess." Aaand now she was going to reach for the puppy to see if he wanted to be petted, so she didn't have to actually look at Derek.

[justlurkinghere]

Well Puppy Joe was going to leap into her arms. God he was terrible. "Sorry. About that."

With the odd flirting.

[justwantedfriends]

Actually, Puppy Joe was the best, and he was going to get cuddled until he couldn't stand it anymore. "It's okay. I mean, everything was weird, right?" she said, laughing a little. She probably shouldn't have appreciated the flirting, crazy or not. "I am super foxy, so you were just stating a fact."

Kira, honey, no.

[justlurkinghere]

"I have a boyfriend." Did that help?

[justwantedfriends]

That helped a little, yes. "Do I need to like, apologize to him for anything? Or is he sort of used to how things go here?"

[justlurkinghere]

"Stiles knows how this place can be," Derek said with a shrug. "It could have been worse."

[justwantedfriends]

And now all that stuff on the radio made sense, aww. "Yeah, we could have been terrible murdery types," Kira said. "Um, unless you were the murdery type and I didn't realize it."

[justlurkinghere]

"As long as it's just on those weekends, it doesn't count." But don't get his boyfriend possessed or anything. Or so help him...

"But no. I think you were just my plucky assistant."

[justwantedfriends]

"I don't know if I would consider 'plucky' to be a good thing, but considering the circumstances, I'll take it," Kira said, letting Puppy Joe lick at her hand. "I think you were a good boss too, for what that's worth."

[justlurkinghere]

Derek look not so secretly pleased by that assessment. Because he was him. "It wasn't terrible."

Looked like he had a new person to force into being the TA come fall.

[justwantedfriends]

Oh no, that would be such a hardship, except not.

"You seemed to have a lot of different businesses going. But I'm kind of glad we don't actually need detectives and speakeasies in town."

[justlurkinghere]

"We already have a trooper station and two bars," Derek replied. "It didn't make any sense to have so many speakeasies."

Seriously. what was up with that?

[justwantedfriends]

"And, I mean maybe I miss stuff, but the island doesn't seem rampant with crime," she said. "Or a ton of mysteries to be solved, for that matter."

[justlurkinghere]

"I doubt it would let us solve any of the real mysteries."

Because the island was a dick. And sentient.

[justwantedfriends]

"Of course not, then we might be able to avoid the crazy stuff," Kira said, sighing and letting Puppy Joe carefully back down. "At least we all went through it together?"

[justlurkinghere]

"And you're not crying or running away." Congrats, Kira!

[justwantedfriends]

"When things are normalish, it's really not that bad," Kira insisted. "I'd show you some of the pictures from last night but they came out bad." She was totally blaming Fandom, for the record.

[justlurkinghere]

Derek gave her a look out of the corner of his eye. "Bad?"

[justwantedfriends]

"Some of the pictures have this weird orange-gold light in them. I think something might be wrong with my phone," Kira said with a sigh.

[justlurkinghere]

"Maybe," Derek replied, watching her aura shimmer that same color for a moment. "Cameras can be tricky for some people. You mentioned it to your mother?"

[justwantedfriends]

"No?" Of course, she didn't really know how much her mother looked at her phone. "But I've found that life is a lot easier the less my mother knows about things. Why do you ask?"

[justlurkinghere]

"If your phone is damaged." Yes. Clearly the only reasons for these questions.

[justwantedfriends]

Right, of course! "I hope it's not, it's kind of new," Kira said, looking a little worried. "Maybe there was just something wrong with the lights in the hotel or something. If my phone starts going crazy, then I'll know."

[justlurkinghere]

"Keep an eye on it," Derek suggested. "Let me know if anything gets worse with it."

CLEARLY FOR HIS TECH SKILLS.

[justwantedfriends]

Aww, he was just the nicest teacher ever.

"Okay, I will, thank you," she said. "And if you ever need someone to watch your dog, just let me know." That seemed like a fair trade, right?

[justlurkinghere]

"Sure." Derek eyed his traitorous dog for a moment. "Try to return him if he decides to run away to see you."

He'd done it in the past!

[justwantedfriends]

"I'll bring him back. You know, eventually."

Joking was a good sign of how comfortable she felt, honest.