#lhaw20

For @laurahale-appreciation Week Day 2: Sibling Rivalry

If you want to hear what a fox throwing a tantrum actually sounds like, do yourself a favor and watch this adorable video. You won’t regret it.

Read on AO3

the quick brown fox jumps over the sour wolf | T | 443 words

“This is all your fault.”

There’s an outraged sound from the fox sitting at her side, like a cross between a yowling cat and a screeching bird.

“I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But it's definitely your fault.”

The fox chitters, red and beige fur puffed up to a ridiculous degree, panting and snapping his teeth at Laura’s wrist. She bops him on the nose like a naughty puppy, making him yelp and jump backward.

“Don’t get mad at me because you decided to play with spells before you should have and got yourself turned into a fox, Stiles.”

Stiles whines, loudly enough that she resists the urge to cover her ears. God, she hates foxes. At the moment, she kind of hates Stiles, too. “Tell it to someone who cares.” Laura ignores the yip she receives in response and turns to the coal-black wolf sitting on her other side. “And you! Don’t think I don’t know you had something to do with this.”

Derek whimpers, ears pulled back on his head, tail between his legs. He looks every inch the remorseful canine he’s imitating, except for the gleam of mischief that flickers through the gold of his eyes.

Stiles crouches down, tail wagging furiously before he pounces over Derek’s back. Derek growls, rolling over onto his side and ignoring the fox trying to goad him into playing.

Stiles bounces around his head, nudging into his fur like he’s trying to burrow his way into Derek’s ridiculously soft, fluffy belly. When that doesn’t work, he tugs at Derek’s ear with his teeth.

Derek turns and snarls. Stiles takes off across the grass, making a sound like barking laughter at the back of his throat.

It’s creepy is what it is.

“What the hell did I do to deserve this?” she mutters. Derek snorts, lying his head down on his front paws and shutting his eyes. Stiles runs circles around both of them with endless energy. Every sound he makes grates like nails on a chalkboard against her sensitive ears.

Laura sighs, flipping through her apps until she finds her camera. Might as well get some blackmail material out of this mess.

She snaps a dozen pictures of her idiot brother and her equally dumb emissary rolling around in the grass. Stiles throws his head back and screams. Derek howls his displeasure at the noise, bowling Laura over on to her back in his rush to tuck his entire face under her armpit. Stiles screeches even louder.

laura didn’t die / @laurahale-appreciation

Fresh after the Fire, Laura and Derek are in New York, shell shocked and afraid for their lives, just trying to stay alive and safe.

While trying to keep everything together, Laura meets Mitch. He seems sweet enough, but Laura can't trust him, not now. Mitch doesn't press for anything. He makes whatever assumptions he does, and doesn't do anything more than sometimes text Laura or ask her out for coffee/study dates. He wants to be her friend, and isn't that something?

Little by little, she lets him in. Lowers her walls Just enough to see over. She wants to trust him. She's so tired of being alone, having to be the strong one, the Alpha, taking care of everything. She wants someone to lean on.

A few months in they start dating. Mitch is still sweet as ever, never pushes for anything Laura doesn't want to give, and handles her mood swings amazingly well. Eventually she tells him a sanitized version of the truth, to explain why she is the way he is. Mitch tells her about his own father, who died when he was a teenager, and then his first girlfriend was murdered almost 2 years ago. It's not the same thing as losing everyone, but he kinda of gets it.

Despite all of her instincts and fear telling her not to, she begins to trust Mitch. She can't find any reasons not to: he seems like a genuinely kind and caring person, and she needs that.

The first time they sleep together, Laura doesn't notice anything is off. Everything is actually really good, distractingly so. But later, when he gets out of bed ringer dressed again, Laura notices the tattoo on his shoulder: he's a hunter.

Flashes of Kate and fire and death run through her mind, and all she can think is, how could she be so naïve? This is exactly how Kate got to Derek.

Laura attacks him, and sure enough, he fights like a hunter, too. Knows exactly how to use her weaknesses to overcome her before she kills him, and oh, is she going to tear his throat out with her teeth.

It's not an easy struggle. There's shouting and crashing furniture and blood and Mitch is lucky Derek isn't home or he would be dead. As it is, he keeps trying to make Laura listen to him; insisting that he's not like other hunters, as if she can believe that. "Have I done anything since we met to make you think I'd ever want to hurt you?"

Mitch has never had very good self-preservation instincts. When he sees he's not getting through to Laura, he lets her go and dares her kill him. If that's what she thinks he deserves, then fine, to for it, he's at her mercy.

She wants to. All the pent up rage and grief and injustice makes her inhuman, bloodlust singing through her veins. But she knows Mitch had nothing to do with her family, even if he is a hunter. And she's not like them. She won't do anything to anyone who hasn't hurt her first.

Laura demands he gets out of the apartment. She doesn't want to see him ever again. Mitch doesn't try to fight this time. Got his shoes and phone and left without another word, before she can change her mind, and Laura finally cries. The betrayal and the heart break and the fear finally breaks her. What if she hadn't caught him tonight? She per the last of her family at risk by letting a hunter into their home, and she may not have realized until it was too late. It's worse when she realizes she's still wearing Mitch's shirt, and his scent is comforting even now.

She understands how Derek must have felt in a way she never had before. When Kate came slithering into his life in the aftermath of Paige's death. When she pretended to love him just so she could destroy everything.

Derek comes home to find her a wreck, her room in shambles, smelling like pain and anger and so much grief that it chokes him. He's horrified when Laura tells him, because he knows. He knows.

Mitch waits a few days for everything to cool off before contacting Laura again. He doesn't try to see her, or even call, but he does send her a text. Tries to explain that he had never, would never, want to hurt her. The message goes to read and doesn't get a response.

It's weeks before Laura decides to see Mitch again. It's a risk—she can hardly trust him atbfsce value, but she misses him. Misses the way things had been. Even now she still sleeps with her face buried in his shirt; even though his scent has faded. It's the one small comfort she has.

And she knows it's stupid but she meets him at their usual coffee shop. Derek tells he not to do it, he doesn't want his sister hurt the way he was, but she needs answers. And the only way she can be sure Mitch isn't lying to her, is if she can hear his heart.

The first thing she asks is how Mitch's girlfriend really died, already suspecting she knows the answer. Sure enough, it was a werewolf. A rogue omega that killed her.

She asks if Mitch knew what she was from the beginning—he didn't. Hale isn't and uncommon name, and they've always been more prevalent on the West Coast, anyway. It didn't click until she told him about her family, and he remembered hearing rumors through the grape vine about an entire pack being eradicated in California. He did some research and found the news paper reports.

Why didn't he tell her? He was trying to avoid this. Looking for the right time to tell her when the grief wouldn't be so fresh. He knew she wouldn't trust him if she knew, and damn did he get that one right. The dig hurts, but he knows he deserves it.

After the very long interrogation, Laura's nerves are raw. She needs time to think everything over.

When she goes back home Derek is waiting for her, obviously stressed, knowing she had to have been with Mitch. He's relieved when she comes home okay, until he sees that she looks like hell.

Another few days go by and the whole time, she really just misses Mitch. Seeing him again calmed something inside her, even despite the circumstances. (And deep down, she knows he could be her mate. Has known for a while, she just couldn't find the right time to tell him, afraid of scaring him off, and the irony isn't lost on her.)

Title:  The Mysterious Nurse

Rating:  G

Warnings:  Mentioned animal death

Theme:  Dealer’s Choice

Words:  1683

Summary:  Laura goes to the hospital to confront Jennifer about why she was helping Peter.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Laura Hale & Talia Hale Characters: Laura Hale, Talia Hale, Derek Hale, Peter Hale Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Alpha Talia Hale, Minor Character Death, Canonical Character Death, Missing Scene, Fix-It, Light Angst, Teaching, Meta Summary: