January Prompts 01

[inkandblade]

 

Derek scraped off the little bit of remaining spaghetti sauce, then added his plate to the pile on the side of the sink. He shut off the water so he could start washing.

 

“You could Bite the man at the coffee shop we go to on the weekend, Uncle Der.”

 

The look on Ronnie’s face when she turned to look at him was serious in only the way a five-year-old’s could be: her forehead was scrunched with how hard she was concentrating, and there was a streak of caramel sauce up one of her cheeks swirling off towards her ear, as if she’d been trying to hear her dessert instead of eating it.

 

Laura reached over to wipe her daughter’s skin as she asked, “Why do you think your uncle would want to Bite him, Ronnie?”

 

Derek wasn’t sure he wanted to know why his niece thought he should give the Bite to Finstock, of all people. No one had seen the man’s second career coming, but Derek could admit that Coach apparently had as much love for lattes as he did lacrosse. He made a damn fine brew, but Derek wasn’t about to expand his Pack just for caffeinated benefits.

 

“You said Uncle Derek wants someone special in his Pack, Mom. And I heard the man at the shop say Uncle Derek is a fine specimen of a Wolf. A softie but hard in all the right places.” She blinked a few times. “He meant it like Goldilocks, I think. Juuuust right.”    

 

Derek almost dropped the plate he was holding. He could see that his sister was gripping the inside of one cheek with her teeth to stop herself from laughing. It wasn’t working very well. He turned slowly to look at his niece.

 

He had no idea how to answer that statement.

 

Rhonda knew that while she was an alpha, that her mom was her capital-A Alpha, and that her big brother and soon to be little brother and their dad were all part of Laura’s Pack. She knew that a lot of Packs were the same — basically all family members — but that some were different. She’d been a little confused when she’d first met Derek’s betas Erica and Isaac, and then very, very confused when she’d met Boyd. That had led to a conversation not only about Pack structure and building, but also why skin came in so many different colors, and why Wolves didn’t always have the same colored fur as their skin or hair when they shifted.

 

Derek did not recall, however, any of that conversation having to do with the birds and the bees, and hoped therefore that she had no idea what she’d actually just said.

 

He swallowed that idea and decided to just go with, “I don’t think Coach wants to be a Wolf, sweetie.”

 

“Of course Coach doesn’t! That’s just ridiculous.”

 

Laura made a kind of honking noise as she stifled her laughter. Her daughter gave her a dirty look, and in a beat or three it was pretty obvious from Ronnie’s scent that she was taking this far more seriously than either of the adults she was currently dealing with.

 

Derek put the sponge on the edge of the sink and wiped the bubbles off his hands so he could turn and face his niece properly.

 

She stuck out her chin a little. She was not fooling around, then.

 

“I didn’t really think you could mean Coach, really. I can’t think of another man from the coffee shop, though.”

 

There were plenty of staff, but most were high-school aged or thereabouts, and Ronnie would probably call them boys and girls, not men and women.

 

“The omega-man with the computer who sits in the corner and stares at you when we’re waiting for our drinks. The one you say hello to and smile at and always try to sniff when we walk past his table. He has pretty eyes.”
 

 

make (v): to bring into existence by shaping or changing material, combining parts, etc.


December January Prompts List/Series: AO3, Pillowfort, Dreamwidth