the wolves all cry

Derek doesn't have the kind of pets that really ever leave the house. He has an enormous black cat and a tiny purple puff ball, and they're usually content to stay at the cabin. This morning, however, Jinx seemed intent on going outside to hunt. Derek let her go, understanding that particular urge, and then set about getting read for the day. Barry has long since left for work, and as soon as Derek puts on his boots and shrugs into his leather jacket the pygmy puff starts squeaking in its cage. It bounces around and lets out another indignant squeak when Derek reaches for the door knob, so he sighs and goes over to peer into the cage.

"What," he says flatly, and the puff stares back at him with determined amber eyes. "You want to go outside?"

The puff squeals again and Derek rolls his eyes in fond exasperation as he opens the cage and holds out his hand. The puff bounces onto it and toddles up Derek's arm until it can rest on his shoulder, purring happily as Derek leaves the cabin.

They get a few looks as he walks through town, and Derek doesn't know if it's simply due to the odd picture they make or if people might remember the puff's rampage during last new year's debacle. Another reason he doesn't often take the puff around town is because of all the attention. He doesn't really like to make a spectacle of himself, and the cute purple puffball sort of begs women of all ages to come over and ask to pet it. He dodges a few of them even as the puff coos at the attention, and then sighs as he heads for the coffee shop.

"I need less cute pets," Derek murmurs, growling when the puff nips at his neck with tiny little teeth. "Hey!"

Derek has a lot more time on his hands now that he isn't working the food truck, and he's doing his best to find ways to fill it. He's made some improvements to the cabin, and now he looks at the place that was once a place for him to be alone and wonders if its too small. He wonders if maybe Barry might want to find a place of their own together. The thought scares him and exhilarates him all at once, and he pushes it aside to think about later. Things are so good between them, and he's a little worried to press his luck.

Since the truck has been closed, Derek's Friday nights are free again. Barry is at the station, no doubt cooped up in his lab, and Derek decides to see if he can go coax him out. It's a little strange to walk through the police station, even as often as he finds himself there now. He still has a bit of a reputation there, thanks to his history of showing up with bleeding criminals, and now he's also known as the boyfriend of the cute new forensic scientist.

He waves at a few people, avoids small talk with a few others, and finally breathes in relief once he finds Barry's lab. He's the only one inside, sitting in the moonlight pouring in through the window, and Derek knocks on the door frame. "Hey," he says quietly. "Must be a hell of a case."

It seems like they've been working at this for awhile but at the same time, Derek can't believe that it's already time to put on the suit.

He and Barry talked about it after their heated discussion about Derek needing his own secret identity. The Arrow and Arsenal suits were still in Barry's closet, hanging there as a melancholy reminder of those they had lost. It just made sense to put the Arrow suit back on the streets, and Derek thought that maybe it would be a good way to honor their friend's memory.

He and Barry have made several modifications to it to suit Derek's needs. First step was removing the bow and quiver and hanging them up to rest. Derek doesn't know how to shoot a bow and even if he could learn, they quickly decided that Derek would not take up the mantle of the Arrow. Oliver Queen was the Arrow, and that won't ever change. Derek will be someone else.

They darken the leather to a charcoal black and use pieces of red leather from the Arsenal suit for accents and reinforcements. Leather gloves are added for grip, with slits cut into the tips of the fingers for Derek's claws. They've put so much work into this, and it's still a little unbelievable to see it all laid out. The suit and the boots, the hood and the domino. Derek's new secret identity. All he has to do now is try it on.

He looks up at Barry on the other side of the table and gives him a small quirk of a smile. It's sort of a bittersweet moment for them both, he's sure. The ghost of Oliver is hanging over their heads, but he would like to think his friend would approve. Maybe make some sort of dig in jest, but ultimately he would approve. Derek thinks so, at least.

"So," Derek says, reaching out to run his fingertips along the supple black leather. "Moment of truth, huh?"

Derek knows that Bitty and Jack have been a thing for awhile now, maybe about a month. But then Bitty lost his friend, and Derek isn't such an asshole that he'll mess with Bitty right away. But then Bitty comes into work humming and grinning and smelling so much like sex that Derek can't help it. He just can't.

There's the fact that Derek himself is also in a good mood, and also reeking of morning sex. But Bitty can't smell that.

He waits for Bitty to join him in the back, whistling and swishing his hips all the while, and Derek raises an eyebrow once he gets close enough. "Looks like someone woke up on the right side of the boyfriend this morning."

It's that time where it's a little too late for dinner but a little too early to start drinking, so Semele's is relatively quiet for the time being. Derek doesn't really need to there, but he also doesn't have anything better to do for the time being. Barry is off being a superhero and Derek's own suit isn't ready yet so he can't go help. It's better to stay busy than go home and worry.

He's wiping down the bar while thinking about that, about the fact that soon he may don a leather suit and go help his superhero boyfriend fight crime. It's really not the path he expected his life to take, but he's ready for it. He thinks.

The door opens and Derek doesn't look up until the familiar scent hits his nose. Izzy makes her way through the bar like she owns the place, red lips curved into a smirk, and Derek smiles as he leans against the bar and waits for her to approach. "Hey stranger. Stop by to break some hearts?"

This can't be happening again. It was so stupid to think that Barry would be safe with Derek, that old patterns wouldn't repeat themselves. How could he have been so foolish as to think that he could open his heart up to someone like that again, and they wouldn't get hurt?

He rushes through a darkened alley, eyes red and fangs extended, and remembers what it was like to fight that copy of himself in that other Darrow. Your love is a curse, Derek.

The scent of Barry's blood stings his nostrils, and Derek thinks about finding it smeared across brick. All he found was that and Barry's scent, thick with anxiety and pain. Fear. Derek followed the trail until it ended, vanished into thin air.

It's horrible, so horrible to think, but at least the blood told him that Barry is most likely still here somewhere in the city. He may be somewhere that Derek can still reach him. Maybe he can fix this.

He needs Luke, and he needs Oliver. He needs anyone who could help, but first on his list is someone with a nose nearly as good as his. He's on his way to Luke's when he runs right past Reid, who smells like anger and grief, and Derek skids to a stop. Whirling around to face him, fangs and claws extended with eyes glowing red in the darkness, Derek feels his heart drop into his stomach. Reid looks awful, like he just lost his whole world.

"Reid," he rasps out around his fangs. "I was just going to get-- is Luke gone too?"

When Derek stripped down in the woods and shifted, he had no real destination in mind. He just ran, but it doesn't surprise him that he winds up on the cliff where he and Barry went on their date. The spot has become more special to him than it already was and he sniffs along the grass, finding Barry's scent and flopping down to roll around in it with his legs in the air. Their scents have mingled, along with the nervous excitement they both were feeling. And there, underneath it all, is happiness.

Derek finishes rolling around like a happy pup and then gets up, shaking out his fur before letting out a long, joyous howl at the moon.

He's almost back to the city when everything suddenly goes oddly quiet. All the city noise that lives in Derek's ears as a constant white noise hum has been silenced, and when he breaks into a run and gets closer to the city, he can see why. The lights are all out.

There's no power in Darrow. Derek can't remember that ever happening before, and he clicks instantly into his alpha mindset. He runs loops around the city, making the rounds and checking on his pack to make sure everyone is okay and accounted for. Once he's done, he realizes that there's a new addition to the list-- someone else that he needs to check on.

Barry.

Derek turns and heads for his apartment on four legs, making his way easily in the dark thanks to his night vision. He stops to help a few different people, nudging a lost child back towards her mother and making sure they were safely on the sidewalk and under the light of the moon before taking off again.

He catches Barry's scent and follows it, soon finding him making his way down the street with his phone screen illuminated. Derek feels relief blossom in his chest, even thought at first glance it just seems to be a run of the mill power outage. But in Darrow, things are rarely run of the mill.

Derek skids to a stop in front of Barry, leaning in and nuzzling at his hip before sitting back on his haunches and letting his ears perk up, tail thumping against the pavement with a steady thwack thwack thwack. He can't help it. Seeing Barry makes him happy, and in this form in particular that's pretty hard to hide.

Derek can tell when it's about to snow. It's a trick he learned in New York, since snow wasn't something he encountered much in Beacon Hills. He's walking home from the bar late one night, and the air is almost eerily still and calm. It smells like frost, and Derek can feel it down in his bones. His instincts are telling him to find shelter, to get somewhere warm.

Snow is on the way.

He remembers his conversation with Thomas, and his own unexplained desire to be there when he sees it for the first time. Maybe it's because of how Thomas looked when Derek showed him the ocean, and the awed look on his face. He likes the way that Thomas looks when he's seeing something new, something he can barely believe, and snow brings out an almost childlike wonder in nearly everyone anyway.

Derek doesn't sleep much that night, and when he gets up dawn is just on the horizon and, as he expected, everything is covered in a fresh blanket of pure white snow. He smiles to himself and gets dressed, adding a scarf to his usual ensemble of leather jacket, boots, and jeans. Snowflakes are still falling lazily from the sky, and Derek gives into the urge to catch one on his tongue as he walks.

He gets two cups of hot chocolate and some scones on the way to Thomas' and knocks on the door with a smile on his face. Likely, he'll be waking Thomas up, but he thinks it will be worth it. All he hopes is that Thomas' blinds are drawn, and he doesn't look out the window on his way to the door.

It's been nearly two weeks since they returned from that other Darrow, and Derek is beginning to settle back down. The things he saw there still haunt him, and keep him up at night, but he's almost to a point where he can ignore the memories. Derek has seen many, many terrible things, and he knows that he just has to keep on going.

He knows that everyone has been struggling, and it's his friends that have been helping to get him through it. Derek is trying to help however he can, and that's why he laces up his running shoes one morning and heads to Thomas' with a hoodie over his track pants and fitted t-shirt. Winter is drawing near, and Derek can see his breath while he walks. There's a calm sort of stillness to the city, one that only seems to come with cold, crisp mornings.

After stopping to get two coffees and breakfast sandwiches, he heads to Thomas' building and knocks on the door, listening hard as he waits for it to open. Thomas saw some horrible things, and Derek wants to make sure that he's doing okay. Feeding him and dragging him out for a long run should hopefully be a good start.