triskehale | (no subject)

It's been so long since Derek has been to his building in the warehouse district that it's a surprise when his phone alerts him that the alarm is going off. Thankfully he's close by and takes off at a run, only to get inside and realize that the alarm was tripped by a raccoon in the hall. It shrieks when it sees Derek and then scurries off, and he rolls his eyes before heading upstairs just to check on things.

The loft is just as he left it so long ago, if perhaps a little dusty. Purple sheets still tucked into the bed near the windows, exercise equipment tucked into one corner, and computers sitting silent on the desk Barry built in about five seconds or less. Most notable, of course, is the Flash suit, and the Alpha suit next to it. They're hung along a wall like they're just waiting to be pulled back on, and Derek's mouth quirks in a small smile.

Seeing the Flash suit doesn't feel like a gut punch anymore. Yes, it makes him wistful and sad, but it's been long enough that the good memories outweigh the grief. The suit doesn't even smell like Barry anymore, not really, and Derek runs his fingertips along the sleeve before heaving a sigh and looking around. He has no use for this place anymore, not really, and now it just sits here as a shrine to all he's lost. Barry, Beacon Hills, and his brief career as a superhero's sidekick.

Maybe he should pack the suits up and take them home, and sell the whole place, even if it is from home. It's something to think about, anyway, and Derek picks up his domino mask with a wry smile, looking down at it in his palm before putting in the pocket of his leather coat.

After making sure all the alarms are set, Derek leaves the loft and slides the door shut before locking it and heading back downstairs. The same fat raccoon is still cowering in a corner, and Derek doesn't even bother trying to make it leave. He's pretty sure that it's pregnant and if it can make a safe place somewhere on this shitty ground floor, he's fine with that.

He slips back into the afternoon sunshine and turns to lock the door behind him, jiggling the key and yanking it out when it sticks. Walking back a few steps, he puts his hands on his hips and looks up at the building with a sigh. "Who would even want this piece of crap?"

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"Apparently you," I pointed out, brow arched and curious, because I'd never seen him near this fucking block, let alone watched him come out of the old, nondescript warehouse building with keys in his hand, like he fucking belonged.

One corner of my mouth twitched, a hesitant smile on my face.

Things had been... weird, the last couple months. I'd given him space since Valentine's Day, sending off texts to check in but otherwise cutting him a break. It seemed like he needed it.

When Derek catches Neil's scent, he waits to be addressed before turning around, just in case Neil doesn't want to talk to him. Things have been a little off, and he's pretty sure that it's all his fault, but he doesn't really know how to fix it, either.

Still, he's glad to see Neil now, and he gives him a smile that turns sheepish as he turns to look up at the building. He'd kept it a secret for so long, mostly to protect Barry's secret while he was here, then because it was too hard to talk about after he was gone, and then he just sort of didn't think about it for a long time.

"Yeah, well. Not a whole lot of good real estate investment opportunities in Beacon Hills," Derek tells him, shrugging a shoulder. "This is where I lived back home. Whole damn building showed up."

“What, just now?” I asked, looking past him at the building, which admittedly did look like a real shithole.

Judging by his face, there was more to it, and I knew that a place like that had to have carried a lot of memories. Bad ones, if I had to guess.

At the question, Derek's face goes a little too casual and he glances over at Neil without moving his face, only his eyes, and then pockets the keys. Neil will probably be pissed, but Derek had his reasons at the time.

"A few years ago, actually," Derek tells him, and then holds up a hand to stop any tirade. "But I gave it to Barry to use for his secret superhero lair, emphasis on the secret part, so I never told anyone else."

Coughing out a laugh, I waited for a punchline that wouldn't come. It wasn't even... surprising, and I wasn't pissed, like he was obviously bracing for. I felt vaguely admonished by the way he seemed to be managing my reaction, when I wasn't angry. I was just... a little embarrassed.

I felt like I kept finding more and more ways that our friendship wasn't what I'd built it up to be, with all my bullshit. We kept secrets. We didn't understand each other as well as I'd thought. We weren't fucking epic soulmates who were going to end up alone in the city together, after everyone else was gone. And we didn't need to be. We were just... friends, and whether he believed it or not, I could let that be enough.

"Lucky him," I said, one corner of my mouth twitching into a faint smirk. "Were the rats part of the deal?"

Neil doesn't even all that surprised, let alone mad like Derek was almost expecting, and he feels like kind of ass for thinking he would be. Or maybe he feels like an ass for keeping this a secret for so long even after Barry was gone. It wasn't even something he did deliberately, really. He just didn't want to think about it much at all.

"Raccoons, actually," he says with a huff of laughter. He unlocks the front door again and steps inside to disable the alarm before pointing down the hall, where the fat raccoon is shredding a cardboard box she dragged in from somewhere. "She's about to give birth, I think. Better in here than some sewer. Can't bring myself to kick her out."

"Jesus Christ," I said, peering past him into the darkened hallway at the round furball building a nest.

"You're such a fucking softie," I said, knocking my shoulder into his as I moved to stand next to him.

"So, it's just been sitting here, this whole time?"

"Yeah, yeah. Pretty sure we all knew that already," Derek says with a soft huff of laughter, crossing his arms as he watches the raccoon shred an old t-shirt, glancing periodically over at the two of them. It seems to think that since Derek didn't hurt her, he's going to protect her, which is true, he supposes.

"Uh, yeah. Pretty much." He looks over at Neil and shrugs, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. "I kind of just tried to ignore it after Barry left. Only reason I'm here today because mom over there tripped an alarm. It's from home, but I only know that because of my nose. I don't remember ever living in it."

"It's weird, that this place would give you something you didn't even remember," I frowned, stepping carefully down the hall and peering into a darkened stairwell.

"So, you're gonna sell it?"

"What about this place isn't weird?" Derek asks with a shrug, twirling the keys around his finger before tucking them into the pocket of his jacket.

"I'm not sure who would even want it. There are apartments on each floor and I had the loft upstairs, but knowing myself, especially back around the time I came from, I would have just bought the whole place for myself." He pauses and then turns to open the unlocked door of one of the ground floor apartments, looking in to find a dusty and unfurnished room. "I suppose I could work on renovating it if I need a new project."

"It could be nice," I shrugged, sticking my head into the empty apartment. Sure, it looked like shit, and I wasn't even sure I could say it had potential, but there were a lot of warehouses they'd made into decent placed. Hell, I'd lived in two of them.

"I'd offer to rent one out, but I dunno if I want you as a landlord," I teased, walking further down the hall.

"Fuck off. I'd be a great landlord," Derek retorts, smiling over his shoulder before turning to open another one of the apartments and wander inside. There's lots of natural light and decent flooring, and Derek looks around a little wistfully.

"This place used to smell like Beacon Hills," he says after a long moment, trailing a fingertip through a layer of dust on the kitchen island. "Maybe that's why I held onto it so long. But it doesn't anymore, not really."

"Good, 'cause all I smell is mold and raccoon piss," I joked, because we both knew I'd never have the kind of nose he had. Sure, there were plenty of things that had scents attached, that brought up vivid memories for me, but nothing like it would be for him.

"Do you miss it?"

"Beacon Hills? All the time," Derek says with a wistful smile, looking out the window in the living room and imagining for just a moment that his hometown is just beyond it, trees spreading outward for miles before suddenly dropping away to coastline.

"But the Beacon Hills that I miss doesn't exist anymore." He turns and looks at Neil, shrugging helplessly. The Beacon Hills that he misses is the one where his family is still alive, and their secret was hidden and he could pretend that he might have a normal life. The fairytale. "And I don't have any real desire to go back to what it became, so I guess this place is stuck with me."

As if he has a choice in the matter, anyway.