mayparker: (Project_20220401_0003)
May Parker ([personal profile] mayparker) wrote in [community profile] portalhopping2022-08-04 07:52 pm

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WHO: May Parker & Derek Hale
WHAT: And they were roommates...
WHEN: Thursday 8/3
WHERE: Their apartment

She bakes when she feels out of sorts. It's something she picked up from her mother, who she used to find up in the middle of the night working with an electric mixer and muttering about whatever was eating her up at the time. When she was younger, she never thought that she'd follow in her footsteps, or that there would be no one around to listen to her mutterings.

It feels strange, living without Peter. He's not far. Really, if she felt like it she could go and knock on his door, but that would be insane. Especially considering the hour. And though Prim is teeth achingly sweet and Five is incredibly stoic, she's pretty sure showing up just because she's feeling a little lonely would be really inconsiderate and mortifying for Peter.

So instead, she gives up trying to sleep and slips out of the apartment around four in the morning. She returns thirty minutes later with a bag of ingredients and gets to work. Though, she at least has the decency not to use the electric mixer. An hour later the deceptively delicious scent of walnut date bread has permeated the kitchen. It'll go nice with some coffee, which she starts. She'll have to make sure to put some bread aside for Five and his similar caffeine addiction.

She pours herself a cup, borrowing one of Derek's mugs, and looks over the wreckage of the kitchen. She sighs and mutters to herself. "God, you're turning into your mother. You've got to get a hobby."
duelo: (extra ♦ 04)

[personal profile] duelo 2022-08-05 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
The sound of movement in the apartment startles the dog awake, first, mostly because it's new to have movement when Derek is sleeping.

Chance noses his way out of the bedroom and follows the scents to the kitchen, snuffling with interest as he makes his way there, notices the new human, and drops dutifully into a sit, right in front of her, big brown eyes looking hopefully up at her for a treat.

Derek isn't far behind, between the loss of the weight of his dog at the foot of the bed and the smell of baking wafting in through the now open bedroom door, he can't help getting up. It doesn't occur to him, in his sleepy state, that May might still be awake and that the smell isn't just leftover from when she'd been baking before he woke up.

"Chance," he calls out groggily, voice thick with disuse as he pads out of his bedroom in a pair of joggers, scratching idly at his bare stomach and yawning. "Time for bed," he adds, the words drawing out in the yawn before it finishes and he clears his throat. "Chance, now," he adds, but stops in the doorway, shirtless and hair sleep-disheveled, face unkempt because he's due for a touch-up in the morning, and eyes flickering between green and glowing blue as they adjust to the unexpected brightness in the kitchen.

He notices May there with Chance still sitting at her feet, staring hopefully up at her, and the bitter tang of coffee hanging in the air yanks Derek further out of his sleep hangover. "Shit, I'm sorry. Is he bothering you?" he asks, reaching up to scrub his face. Derek clears his throat again when his voice still sounds hoarse with sleep. "You're up late. Do you always bake in the middle of the night or am I just really lucky?"
duelo: (extra ♦ 12)

[personal profile] duelo 2022-08-06 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
Stifling a yawn behind his wrist, Derek looks back at the dog still sitting in front of her, waiting.

"Chance, don't beg, come on, man," he sighs. Chance only ever does that to guests because he knows Derek won't give him anything, but May isn't a guest. She lives here, now, so he needs to knock it off; it's rude.

She explains the source of the scent and Derek smiles sleepily. "I was wondering what that was. Thanks. Shit, it's early... He's gonna keep me up, now, so I'm going to put on some coffee. You need a refill while I'm at it?" he offers, moving toward the coffeemaker.

A small smile pulls over his expression and he looks back at May over his shoulder. "I don't mind, but do that at your own risk, May. You feed him now, he's always going to beg you forever and ever moving forward," he points out with a playful lilt to his voice as he turns his back to her again to work on the coffee. Not that it helps him a ton, but it does give him a quick boost, enough to shake off some of the sleep, hopefully.
duelo: (anim ♦ shy ♦ down)

[personal profile] duelo 2022-08-14 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
Derek gives her a sympathetic look and nods. He absolutely understands how that goes. Clearing his throat, Derek shrugs. "Eh we'll live. I think it was the smell of fresh baking that did it to him," he jokes. "He's not used to that because God knows I can't bake unless French toast counts and I'm pretty sure it doesn't since you do it in a pan on the stove and not in the oven," he laughs, looking back over at her.

Pulling out two mugs, Derek notices May in his peripheral moving toward him and only realizes a little belatedly that it's to get to the bread she wants to break a piece off for his dog. Most people give him and Chance a wide berth because Chance is a pit and a lot of people are afraid of him for no reason beyond that. It's kind of refreshing to see someone reacting favorably to his dog for a change. It certainly doesn't hurt that it's his pretty roommate doing the favorable reacting.

"Pick your poison," he says, jabbing a thumb in the direction of the K-Cup variety pack on the counter. "I'm too out of it to figure out the coffee pot, so the Keurig one cup at a time it is," he admits, eyes shifting one more time from human green to glowing blue and back again before finally settling. Yeah, he's awake now.

Huffing an amused sound, Derek gives her a knowing look. "You've got that right. I hope you didn't enjoy eating your own meals in peace. You'll forever have an eager audience every time you have food, now. Don't say I didn't warn you," he teases her playfully, putting his mug under the Keurig drip and making the appropriate selections to start the brew. "Chance, easy," he says gently to the dog whose eyes shift for a split second away from the piece of bread to acknowledge he's heard his owner's command.

When Chance cranes his neck toward May's hand to take the piece of bread, he does it almost comically slowly. His jaw opens with an equally comical slow speed and he daintily plucks the piece of bread from her fingers before sitting back and chomping, lips smacking loudly as he chews happily. His tail sweeps rapidly back and forth on the tile floor as he watches May attentively, waiting to see if she'll offer more.

"That sounds amazing, but he'll never let me. He's gonna want to go for our run, now," he sighs, frowning a little to himself as he takes his finished cup of coffee off the machine to put an empty mug in there for May. "We run on the beach every morning." He doesn't add 'weather permitting' even though that's true. If it rains, they just change course and go out to the woods where Derek can switch to wolf form instead.

His eyebrows lift thoughtfully. "If you ever want to borrow him if you're feeling like you want to take a walk at night or if you just want to be left the fuck alone, you're welcome to it, though. He loves his walkies, and most people cross the street to avoid him. Cuz he's so mean and scary," he finishes as Chance delicately takes the second piece of bread before standing and turning in a half-circle to lean heavily against May's leg as she pets him. The dog tilts his head hopefully, nudging her hand, and Derek smiles. "He wants you to scratch his ears," he explains the dog's body language.
duelo: (ι яєα∂ тнєм αℓℓ σηє ∂αу)

[personal profile] duelo 2022-08-24 01:08 am (UTC)(link)
Derek laughs a little at the justification she gives. "Hey, I'll take it," he agrees readily, more than happy to be given credit for baking when he's still pretty sure it doesn't count as baking. "It's the only damn thing I know how to make, so I'll take what I can get," he adds with a lopsided grin.

Once his cup is done brewing, Derek removes his kcup and replaces it with hers, moving her mug to take the spot his mug has now vacated. Then he runs the brew for her, smirking a little at her joke. "Honestly, I can't even really take that much credit for it, May, I just metabolize food, like, exponentially faster than humans do. Running is more to burn off energy for both of us than it is to maintain anything. The maintenance, I guess, would probably come from working at the gym."

Allison's gym, he thinks with a pang of sadness. They weren't super close, but he considered her a friend and they were officially business partners, so he misses her. He also misses not having to run the damn place all by himself, but he doesn't want to bring someone else in, in case she ever comes back. It was her idea, after all, he just financed it.

He nods to her gratitude. "Any time," he says and finds that he actually means it. He smiles a little at the affection she's giving the dog. "They can be if they're trained well, yeah, for sure. He's my ride or die, aren't'cha, big guy?" he asks, the question coming out in a playful tone.

"You should get one, if you want one. He's super friendly with other dogs, so you wouldn't have to worry about that bit. I worked as a dog trainer for years, so I can help you with that part. And as for where, one of the girls here works at the local shelter and I bet she could hook you up. Prim. Have you met her?"
duelo: (αη∂ уσυ ωєяє αωαу)

[personal profile] duelo 2022-08-27 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
Derek shakes his head and shrugs a little at her apology. "That's okay. I don't know that cooking is really my thing. It's a lot of work for something that's ultimately never actually going to satisfy my hunger, so...I don't know. But I'll for sure keep that in mind," he replies with a smile.

He laughs a little when she teases him for his response to her compliment about his physique. "You'd be surprised at how obnoxious it can be sometimes," he points out. He's lucky he's wealthy, he thinks to himself. Otherwise, he'd never be able to afford his groceries or the sheer volume of takeout he requires for sustenance. "Besides, what do you need my metabolism for? You look incredible," he adds and while he's obviously flirting with her, he does mean it all the same. She looks like she puts in all the work he used to even though it sounds like maybe she isn't the type for that. Good for her.

"No, not really. I'm kind of acting as one here and there, but I kind of run the place," he explains, "I was the financial backer for the business and I was supposed to be a mostly silent partner, but then she got sent back through the portal, so...somebody has to keep the business running until she comes back and seeing as how it was my dollar that got the thing off the ground, I guess that means it's me."

He sounds a little bit tired when he says it and that's because he is. He'd never really wanted to be tied down to the business like this. It's not what he loves; it's not what he's passionate about. It's a way to kill time until, hopefully, his best friend comes back so that they can get started with the process of opening their service dog training facility. He just doesn't want to see all of that money and all of Allison's hard work go to waste while she's away, so he's doing what he needs to do.

"Once she gets back and can take it on again, I had a different business venture in mind. I'd like to try to get it off the ground, with or without the friend I was talking about starting it with. I'm not great at...people. I'm a lot better with animals. Well...with dogs. So, I'd rather be doing that than the gym, but..." he trails off as he takes a sip of his coffee and shrugs again. "We can't all get what we want, I guess."

He lifts an eyebrow curiously at her. "What's holding you back?" he asks, genuinely wondering. The sincerity is clear in his tone when he inquires. "I think her full name is prettier, personally, but I like Prim, too. It's short for Primrose. She's a good kid," he tells her. Then, belatedly as he's mid-sip, it comes to him. "Oh, you know what? I think she lives with Peter, actually. He lives with Number Five, right? The guy that looks like a kid even though he's a middle-aged man? I know that Prim lives with Number Five, so must be she's one of Peter's roommates, too."
duelo: (σн тнєу тσℓ∂ мє ησтнιηg ηєω)

[personal profile] duelo 2022-08-27 03:13 am (UTC)(link)
Derek shrugs casually. "Mostly, yeah, mildly at least. I've felt full, it just doesn't linger like I think it does in you guys sometimes," he explains.

His eyebrows raise and he huffs a soft, incredulous laugh. "If I wanted you to cook, I'd just ask you to cook. I take it nobody's told you lately that you look amazing, then...that's a damn shame." It takes a conscious effort not to let his eyes linger in any particular place when he loses the battle to give her a quick up and down glance.

Nodding his acknowledgment of her sympathy, Derek takes another sip of coffee. "I could, yeah, but I have trust issues," he replies, taking another sip of coffee. "So did Allison, so it wouldn't feel right hiring someone unless they were also a Super, especially since it's a gym for Supers. She started it back when we were having a pretty big issue with locals harassing or attacking us. That was a weird time..." he mutters thoughtfully. "But yeah, I've thought about it a lot. I wish I felt like I could delegate like that, but I feel like she'd be upset if I did. And with my luck, I'd end up hiring someone who was out on parole from embezzling charges or some dumb shit like that." He laughs again, but it's dry and self-deprecating. Derek has the worst luck of anyone he knows.

Derek smirks a little at her comment. "I'm good with people I like," he corrects his own statement for clarification. "I just don't like very many people. Humans are generally not very kind to people like me back home." He realizes entirely too belatedly that he's being cryptic about it unintentionally. He's still sort of waking up, at least that's the excuse he tells himself. "Oh sorry, that probably sounds so cagey. Full disclosure since you live here now: I'm a werewolf. I'm not an Alpha, so I can't turn anybody and I only ever would if they wanted me to, anyway. I can turn at will but I can completely control myself on a full moon. ...not that I'm around on the full moons; there's a werewolf here who needs help on those nights, so my sister and I take them down to the abandoned warehouse district on those nights. So you're completely safe, but...if it freaks you out, no hard feelings if you feel like you need to relocate. For what it's worth, I hope you don't, but...I promise not to give you any shit or hold it against you if you do."

Derek looks at the clock and notices it's about time for Chance to eat, which would explain why he's suddenly pacing in front of the fridge. "Shit, sorry buddy," he mutters, putting his coffee down and foraging through the cabinets for a clean dog bowl so he can feed the dog. "Yeah, she works there after school I think, and maybe on weekends? She helped my buddy Diego get a couple of dogs when he was still here. She's a sweetheart."

He opens the fridge and pulls out a bag of dog food — when he says he doesn't cook, he means for himself. The dog food is a mix of cooked ground beef, ground chicken, ground turkey, eggs, and mixed vegetables — and a container of orange puree. Chance is at his heels in an instant when Derek starts to prep the meal. "Oh, no...I got Chance at a shelter in the last universe or whatever the hell I was in before Eglaf. When I got here, I didn't think I'd ever see him again but then a friend of mine got pulled through and she had been taking care of him, so he came through with her. But if I was going to get him a companion, yeah, I'd go see Prim."

He finishes dishing the pumpkin puree and food, setting the bowl down on the floor. Chance's tail slams repeatedly into the lower cabinets as he wags it in anticipation. His eyes move from the bowl to Derek and with a challenging lift of Derek's eyebrows, the dog sits and looks back at him, waiting. After a short pause, Derek sweeps his hand toward the bowl. "Free," he says, and Chance bolts toward the food bowl to enjoy his breakfast. "That's what was keeping you from getting a dog back home, but what would keep you from doing it here?" Derek asks, looking back at May as he circles back to the part of the conversation in which he's most invested at the moment.
duelo: (вυт ι ℓσνє тσ яєα∂)

[personal profile] duelo 2022-08-27 05:19 am (UTC)(link)
Derek gives her a slow, wry smile. "Oh no, that would be really awful," he says sarcastically. "I hate it when I make women feel like the perfect specimens they are."

May latches onto the embezzling example because she can relate to it, but it's the last thing he's actually worried about. "Yeah...it's also hard to trust people when they've been trying to kill you for your entire life because you're not like them," he points out a little somberly before clearing his throat. "So long as you're not secretly a werewolf hunter here to take down one of the last of the Hale pack, we're good as far as I'm concerned." If she is, she'll regret it, but he can't imagine that she is based on what he knows of her and what he's observed about Peter in passing. He doesn't know the kid, but he has a general idea that the kid has good morals and that would suggest that maybe he got them from her passing her own down.

"As far as questions go, though, I'm a pretty open book now that I'm finally somewhere that it's safe to be me and not hide behind the human facade," he finishes before crouching to give Chance an affectionate pat and taking his bowl up off the floor.

Returning to the counter beside her, Derek takes up his mug again and leans back against the counter, his back to the wall as he looks over at her. "It'd only be selfish if that was what you were actually trying to do," Derek counters her. "It's not about replacing someone so much as it is needing a connection with another living, loving creature. Everybody gets lonely sometimes, why would it be selfish to have a pet that can help you with that in exchange for you giving them a loving home?" he asks. "But that said," he goes on, pausing to take another drink from his coffee mug, "sometimes logic and emotions aren't on the same wavelength, so even knowing you're not replacing him with a dog, doesn't necessarily mean you won't feel like you're doing something wrong if you tell yourself that's a possibility. So...I get it. In the meantime, you can borrow Chance. He clearly likes you."
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[personal profile] duelo 2022-08-28 12:57 am (UTC)(link)
Derek smirks a little, shrugging. "I'll heal," he says with a wink. But with that, he does drop it. He's made it clear to her that he's comfortable flirting with her, so if she wants to flirt with him in the future, he's on board.

The saddened expression isn't lost on Derek, but even if it had been, he can smell it in the air, the way her emotion shifts. Her eyes on him have him giving her a small nod of appreciation even as his own eyes avert downward with discomfort for a few seconds before meeting hers again.

He watches her look down at his dog briefly before looking back up at him and Derek smiles a little at her comment as she squeezes his arm. "I do try. And any time," he replies. "Seriously."

Chance moves to the door when he finishes his meal, turning in a circle before sitting and looking up at Derek expectantly. Derek clears his throat and pushes off the counter. "Yeah, all right, I'm coming," he sighs, taking a deep breath that slips into a yawn before he can finish.

Looking back at May, he gives her a small smile. "I gotta take him for our run. I'll see you in an hour or so? Or hopefully not, since you should be sleeping when I get back," he says a little playfully.