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sethsclearwater · 3 days ago

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chapter two | divas & vertigo

synopsis: you wake up to find not one, but two men in your grandmother’s house and attempt to make sense of what you saw before you fainted.

warnings: paul being a diva, reader gets a nosebleed

word count: 4.2k

[masterlist] [previous] [next - coming soon]

“you panicked, and the best idea you had was to kidnap her?”

“obviously i didn’t get that far. she’s still here, isn’t she?”

coming to your senses a bit, you winced, cracking your eyes open in a weak attempt to figure out what was happening. your last memory had been of the man in your backyard turning into a giant wolf after you chewed him out for stripping - none of that made any sense, though.

you took a lot of pride in being known as a patient, rarely ill-tempered individual so you were beyond confused on how and why you were screaming at a stranger for something so random. the whole thing seemed beyond your comprehension, and you let out a low groan as you rolled onto your back.

“hey, hey, don’t move too much-” an unfamiliar voice came as a man stepped over to you, standing over you. from his eyes alone, you were immediately able to discern that he must’ve been sue clearwater’s son, seth. he had those same kind eyes she had, a near identical shade of chocolate brown coloring his orbs, “take a few sips of this for me, okay? it’s just to help get your blood sugar up,” he reassured, guiding what you’d assumed was a bottle of gatorade or something of the sorts to your lips so you could take a few sips.

“there you go,” he cooed, pulling the bottle from your lips once he’d decided you’d swallowed enough, setting it to the side before he was sitting down next to you on the couch in your living room that they must’ve brought you onto after you fainted, “you’re winona’s granddaughter, right?” he asked after a moment, sighing when you only gave him a small nod before you were pushing yourself up onto your elbows despite the pounding in your head. thankfully, that obnoxious buzzing in the back of your mind had subsided enough, and the ache in your hips wasn’t nearly as horrible as it was before you passed out.

you only needed to scan the room for a few seconds before you zeroed in on the man you swore had definitely turned into a wolf just a few minutes ago… or hours… how long had it been? “are you…” your voice trailed off, a frown quickly covering your features as you tried to figure out how you were going to ask him if he was actually some sort of shapeshifter you’d heard of through the legends your grandmother had passed down to you so many years ago.

everyone who was anyone on the res knew the legends, and you were no exception to the rule, thanks to your grandmother. maybe it was just your mind playing tricks on you. maybe you’d hallucinated the whole thing and were about to make an even bigger fool of yourself than you already were.

screaming at a random man and then accusing him of being a werewolf? great idea.

“annoyed? mad? disturbed? upset? bothered?” he responded for you from his place in the armchair across from the couch. even sitting hunched over with his elbows on his knees, he was still larger than life, and the annoyed expression on his face wasn’t exactly making him look any more digestible either. you were surprised you never remembered seeing him around before. he’d have been impossible to miss if you did see him.

“paul-” seth started, an annoyed undertone to his voice that had you thanking any lucky stars you had left that he was on your side. glancing over your shoulder to look at him for just a moment, you found him with a concerned expression on his face. you did feel horrible about screaming at that paul guy, though, and supposed you probably also would be annoyed, mad, disturbed, upset, bothered, and more if some stranger you didn’t know came running outside screaming at you.

“i’m sorry i yelled at you like that,” your voice came out much softer and quieter than you’d expected, a blush rapidly creeping up on your cheeks as you anxiously waited for his response.

he rolled his eyes, “attacked is more like it. you-” paul didn’t even get to finish his sentence because seth had gotten up and stepped in between the two of you.

“kitchen. now.” despite his voice still being rather calm (he did have an uncanny way of sounding like a disappointed parent), paul only huffed before getting up and following him into the kitchen, not before shooting you one last disturbed look.

soon enough, the two of them had stepped down the hall to the kitchen, and you dropped back onto the couch, throwing your arm over your eyes, desperate to ease the ache behind them. you could only make out a few muffled sounds, wishing you could hear more of their conversation as you also tried to figure out what on earth was going on.

paul seemed like he’d be more in charge than seth, but maybe that was just because of how they looked. both men were nearly overbearingly large but paul was built like a tank. not that seth was much smaller, but he carried himself in a lighter way than paul, it seemed like he had his mother’s patience so you’d assumed paul must’ve been pretty freaked out if he was taking orders from seth right now. maybe he was also confused why he turned into a giant wolf in your backyard.

straining to listen, you sat up again so you could rest your head against the top cushions in an attempt to get a better angle, putting all your energy into understanding what the two men were talking about. you weren’t sure if their voices had gotten louder or if your hearing magically got better, but sure enough, you could hear the two of them. the humming in your mind scaled up again, back to that obnoxious, anxiety-inducing level, but you were determined to hear what they were talking about.

“i don’t think you imprinted on her paul,” seth had started, that same, almost patronizingly calm tone in his voice, “you wouldn’t be so mad if you’d imprinted. or maybe you would i don’t know, you always-” suddenly paul’s voice was cutting over his own just as you felt something trickling down your chin.

“oh you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me right now,” he was groaning, “a fucking nose bleed? since when have any of us gotten nose bleeds? she’s fucking with my head seth,” you could hear one of the boys fumbling around in the kitchen, presumably grabbing something to stop the bleeding with.

reaching a hand up to your own face, you pulled your hand away only to find it also covered in blood. your hearing returned to normal almost immediately, the boys’ voices returning to the same muffled sound they were before you’d focused on it.

“hey do you have any…” seth’s voice trailed off when he stepped back into the living room, pausing in his tracks when he saw you staring at him with blood dripping down your chin and on your hand, “okay maybe he’s right,” he mumbled, quickly striding over to you, “is it okay if i touch you?” he asked, sitting down next to you on the couch.

you nodded, watching him warily as he reached both hands up, one tilting your head back while the other pinched your nose. almost immediately, the humming in your mind subsided and the headache vanished, “oh,” you let out a heavy exhale, eyes fluttering closed as you momentarily lost your composure.

“i’ve got you,” seth reassured, removing his hand from the back of your head to wrap around your side, helping hold you up, “do you feel like you’re gonna faint again?” he asked, and you took in one more breath with the pain almost completely gone before opening your eyes. he looked concerned as ever, brows creased in worry as he looked down at you, still dutifully pinching your nose to help stop the blood.

“no…” you trailed off, “it’s just… my headache…” you stumbled over your words, once again unsure how to explain what was going on around you but decided against bringing up the buzzing, figuring he’d absolutely think you were certifiably crazy if you added that in, “it went away when you touched me,” you concluded, eyes searching his for some kind of an answer but he didn’t seem to have one, worry still coating his features.

“i’ll keep my hand there then, yea?” he suggested, “my mom always said i had magic hands,” he added, an easy smile taking over when you let out a breathy laugh.

the moment didn’t last long, paul’s borderline obnoxiously loud voice returning when he decided to follow seth into the living room, “how long does it take-” you didn’t see him but you’d assumed he’d dramatically dropped his jaw when he saw you and seth, “oh now she’s got one too? i told you seth she’s a fucking witch and she’s gonna get you next now that you’re being nice to her,” he immediately started rambling, stomping over so he was in front of you two again.

despite staring up at the ceiling thanks to the way seth had your head angled while he waited for the bleeding to stop, you could see that paul was also plugging his nose, the blood not seeming to stop as he sat down in the airchair again with a huff, glaring daggers at you when you rolled your eyes at him.

“witch might be a bit dramatic,” seth soothed, “can you call my mom? i want to get her checked for a concussion and see if she knows what’s going on,” he asked, also doing his best to refrain from rolling his eyes when paul got back up with a rather dramatic grunt.

“not concerned about me? i’m probably bleeding out from the inside thanks to whatever black magic she’s working and we won’t know until i’m dead as a doornail in an hour,” he blathered on, his voice still somehow managing to be quite loud even as his footsteps receded down the hall and into the kitchen to grab his phone. what a drama queen.

seth let out a soft sigh, giving your arm a gentle squeeze before he turned his gaze away from the hallway and back to you. you lifted your hand to gently remove his from your nose, scunching it for a moment as air refilled your nostrils, straightening your head back up with a low groan, neck tender from keeping it back for en extended period of time, “the bleeding stopped pretty quick,” seth commented, “ that’s good,” he added after a moment, his warm hand cupping your jaw, eyebrows creasing again as he got a better look at your head.

that agitating, grating voice came again from the giant all the way in the kitchen, still loud as ever, “of course her nose stopped! guess who’s still bleeding out in here?”

“i’ll have my mom check you out first paul!” seth called back, smiling again when you let out a breathy laugh at his reply, “is your head still hurting? paul said you went down pretty hard in the backyard,” he asked, sliding his hand up from your shoulder to gently run his fingers through your hair in what you assumed was an attempt to see if there was any visible damage.

you hummed, shaking your head, “not anymore,” you murmured, leaving out the fact that all the pain had gone away as soon as he touched you, “i’m pretty sure i was seeing things earlier though,” you added, seth’s fingers pausing, his gaze meeting yours.

“oh?” he asked, keeping his voice soft as he waited for you to carry on.

you shrugged, “i thought i saw big mouth turn into a wolf in the yard right before i fainted,” you admitted, pulling your bottom lip between your teeth when seth’s lips pursed, his head cocking to the side just a smidge as you assumed he tried to figure out a nice way to tell you he was now definitely going to be admitting you to the psych ward.

after a moment, he sucked in a breath, “big mouth as in… paul?” he asked after a moment andyou nodded, both of you letting out quiet laughs over that being the thing he chose to focus on. he hummed and nodded, “does suit him. he’s not normally this bad though, only when he’s worried,” he vouched, voice significantly more quiet in what you could only assume was an attempt to keep paul from hearing and making an even bigger scene than he already was.

“i sure hope he’s not,” you replied with another quiet laugh, “he looks more like the brooding, quiet type. i did not think he was that noisy,” seth’s smile widened, clearly amused by your read of paul.

“but anyways i just got so angry in the yard and i don’t know why but i started yelling at him and then boom he turns into this massive grey wolf and then i fainted,” you explained, dropping your gaze down to your lap as you picked at your fingers, not feeling nearly as confident in confiding in seth as you did a few minutes prior. nothing ever seemed to come out the way you wanted and now that it was out in the air, you definitely sounded like a freak. maybe paul was right about you.

seth hummed again, gently scratching at your scalp, “well unfortunately, you weren’t hallucinating,” he murmured after a moment, sighing when you lifted your eyes to meet his. what the fuck was he on about? maybe there was some kind of gas leak in the house, and it had gotten to all three of you because there was no way in hell people were now turning into werewolves.

“he is… well actually we are both able to,” he continued, voice soft and steady as he gave you a moment to process everything, “i’m assuming winona told you the legends, right?” he asked and you frowned, leaning away from him as you moved to get up, his hand falling from your body in the process.

before you had a moment to get all the way up, that blinding pain returned, your headache raging on, your hips and back aching and sending you to near tears as the humming returned in a rather violent, clanging now at the forefront of your mind. you immediately collapsed back onto the couch, legs giving out from the combination of all the pain, “paul get in here and help me please!”

seth caught you, one hand gripping your hip while the other caught your head so he could pull you into his side to better support you. as soon as his hands were on you, the pain vanished just as quickly as it had come, leaving you breathless in his arms, “hey, hey, you’re okay, promise you’re okay,” you had no idea how he always managed to keep his voice so calm even when he was clearly overwhelmed, “not gonna take my hands off you unless you ask,” he reassured, brown eyes filled with concern again as he pulled the sleeve of his shirt over his hand to gently brush away the blood that had begun gushing out of your nose again.

as you struggled to orient yourself, pressing one hand into seth’s thigh to sit yourself up, you looked over to where paul was standing in front of you, wide eyed and looking almost as concerned as seth was, “happy now?” you asked paul and it came out much more humorless than you’d have liked it to thanks to your breathlessness, “fuck - sorry - that was mean,” you added after a moment, turning your attention back to seth who’s frown had deepened. a knock came at the door, and he pinched your nose again, tilting your head back to stop the bleeding.

“this is so fucked up,” you could faintly hear paul grumbling as he walked to get the door, leaving only the sounds of your heavy breathing in his absence.

neither seth nor you said anything to fill the silence, sitting for a few moments with his hand pinching your nose before sue’s voice filled the room, “oh sweetheart,” you couldn’t see her with your gaze currently on the atrocious popcorn ceiling of the living room but you’d heard her footsteps enough to gather that she had come over to the couch, “alright let me take a look. seth, honey, can you go help paul with his nose?” she asked, the couch dipping as she sat down next to you.

you were quick to drop your head back down, anxiously looking over at seth who was quick to reassure you, “i can’t really move right now,” he started, awkwardly trailing off as he tried to figure out how on earth to explain what was going on. sue narrowed her eyes at her son, beckoning him to continue and he did, slowly, “there’s… something weird going on. when i take my hand off of her she’s in a ton of pain. i don’t know,” he explained, both of them looking over to you for a moment before looking back at eachother.

“okay…” sue let out a heavy sigh, “we can deal with that later. can i see your nose?” she asked, offering you a soft smile when you nodded. seth’s hand slid down to your shoulder while sue grabbed some antiseptic wipes from her bag, her calloused hands gently rubbing off the remaining blood that had dripped down over your lips and chin so she could get a better look at you.

“how is your head feeling? paul said you went down pretty hard,” she murmured as she swapped out the wipes for some gauze, all of her attention currently on making sure you weren’t bleeding anymore. if you weren’t so stressed, you might’ve laughed at how her wording was identical to seth’s just a few minutes prior - like mother like son, you supposed.

you let out a small hum, “it’s only bad when he takes his hands away. right now it’s fine though,” you explained, sighing as she dropped the guazein favor of threading her fingers through your hair to slowly check your scalp for any head wounds, just as seth had done, “and i thought i was seeing things but seth said i wasn’t. that him and paul can actually…” your voice quieted as you struggled to find the right words, also unsure if you should continue because you had no idea if sue even knew about this big wolf thing.

“she saw paul phase in the yard and thought she was hallucinating. i told her she wasn’t,” seth quickly and concisely clarified, you shifted your gaze between the two awkwardly as they both stared at each other with rather concerned expressions. you imagined this must be about as stressed as the clearwaters got. they seemed to hide it better than most, which, based on the fact that you could definitely feel the stress radiating off of them, you were beginning to get concerned about the gravity of the situation.

shockingly, paul’s obnoxiously loud voice was welcome this time as it split the tension in the room. calling from the kitchen, he griped, “i want it on the record that she made me shift!”

seth rolled his eyes again, giving your shoulder a gentle squeeze and you guessed that was his way of letting you know that he didn’t blame you for paul’s ridiculous outburst earlier, “we got it paul!” seth called back, voice still overtly calm. “paul is convinced her anger magically made him angry too and forced him to shift,” seth added, not that the clarification helped much but sue just hummed, pursing her lips together before she went back to checking your scalp.

once she was satisfied you weren’t secretly bleeding out, she dropped her hands from your head, pulling a small flashlight out of her bag, “look straight ahead for me sweetheart,” sue directed and you nodded, looking at her as she shined the light into your eyes, directly in front and then to each side, “your pupils seem alright,” she decided after a minute, clicking the flashlight off and setting it in her bag.

she let out a heavy exhale, looking over to seth then, “he hasn’t had any problems like that in a long time,” sue responded to his earlier comment, glancing over at her son, who just hummed and nodded.

“i know,” seth agreed, not seeming to have much else to say as he let out a heavy sigh, leaning back into the corner of the couch, his hand still on your shoulder for both of your sakes.

sue waited a moment, the three of you sitting in a quiet silence. it seemed natural enough for the two of them but you felt awkward, not at all sure what to do, “would it be okay with you if seth tried taking his hand off again for a second so i can see what’s going on? i think that’s the bigger issue here,” sue kept her voice clinically calm, that familiar warmth still managing to seep through just enough for you not to feel horribly anxious about it.

“i think so,” you whispered, glancing over to seth, who gave you a reassuring smile, straightening back up when he saw your apprehension, “promise you’ll put it right back after a second?”

he squeezed your shoulder again, “promise,” he reassured, “you ready?” he asked, waiting for you to nod before he pulled his hand away from your shoulder just an inch.

the pain didn’t come. only the low humming in the back of your mind returned, though it wasn’t nearly as intense or as debilitating as it was earlier. your shoulders dropped, a breath of relief leaving your lips when you realized you weren’t in fact, going to literally be attached to sue clearwater’s poor son for the rest of both of your days.

“no pain?” sue questioned after a moment of observing you, both her and seth smiling when you shook your head. all three of you noticeably relaxed with that now solved, even though none of you could figure out what the hell had just happened. you weren’t asking too many questions, though, just happy to know you weren’t teetering on the edge of agony at any second again.

sue turned her attention to seth who just shrugged, also not knowing what had just transpired, “okay… well that’s good i suppose,” sue let out a breathy laugh, a hint of anxiety behind it but it was easily hidden by her calm demeanor, “has anyone called billy yet?” she asked after a moment, both of you shaking your head and paul calling out a rather loud ‘no’ from wherever he was hiding out in the kitchen, presumably trying to distance himself as much as possible from you.

“alright, paul?” sue called, waiting until she heard a chair in the kitchen scrape against the floor, some footsteps, and eventually for paul’s looming figure to appear as he stepped back into the living room, still dramatically holding his nose though his head wasn’t tilted back so you’d assumed he was just going to suffocate himself before your black magic or whatever he thought you had got to him.

sue offered him a kind smile, “come sit and let me take a look at your nose and then i’ll give him a call so we can see if he knows anything that can help,” she cooed, also clearly refraining from laughing at paul’s antics as he dramatically dropped down on the couch next to sue, as far as he could from your end of the couch with seth.

she grabbed some more gauze and antiseptic pads before she got to work helping clear off his nose as well, “looks like the bleeding has stopped,” she murmured, “still really strange that you had a nosebleed though,” she added, and although you’d gathered that was definitely true, you still chose to believe she said that just to coddle paul a bit so he wouldn’t go all psycho on you again.

“almost sounds like something that would happen if a witch were here,” paul jeered, the remaining three of you letting out dramatic sighs at his comment, “i can’t believe you’re taking her side in this whole thing. we don’t even know anything about her!” he protested and sue just rolled her eyes before turning her attention to you and seth.

“why don’t you take her into the kitchen and heat up some of that soup, okay? should help get her feeling back to normal, and i’ll stay in here and help paul. don’t need him getting stressed out either,” sue explained, ignoring paul’s groan as he dropped his head back against the couch, holding one beefy arm up to keep some gauze against his nose even though sue just told all of you that the bleeding had stopped. you decided then that this man was a complete and utter diva.

“alright let’s go get some soup,” seth’s cheery voice pulled you away from staring at paul, the two of you quickly getting up to head into the kitchen while sue dealt with your least favorite diva in the living room. what a day.

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sethsclearwater · 4 days ago

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chapter two coming out tonight!! 🤭🩷

chapter one | homecoming

synopsis: reader returns to la push to make a decision to clean out or move into her late grandmother’s house. she’s quickly flooded with memories of the past, not all of them good, and struggles to come to terms with her grief.

warnings: SUPER plot heavy (sorry y’all lol)

word count: 4.3k

[masterlist] [next - coming soon]

having nothing but your thoughts to keep you company for the 4-hour drive back to your grandmother’s hometown left you somehow feeling more stressed than when you’d first gotten the call to come back 2 days prior.

although your grandmother had passed a year ago, the tribal council had only recently pressed you to either move in or move your grandmother’s stuff out, so it wasn’t just becoming some shell of what it used to be. you still weren’t entirely sure what your plans for the house were, but you’d quickly realized you’d need to make up your mind sooner rather than later before they moved a new family into it.

you’d spent most of your life in seattle but once every couple of years, your mom would drive you over to la push to visit your grandmother. both women had quite a strained relationship with each other, but your mom still felt some semblance of guilt when it came to making sure your grandmother could at least see you growing up, so she wasn’t a total stranger. with your grandmother now 6 feet under and you being in your mid twenties, you’d decided you two definitely didn’t have much of a relationship despite your mother’s minimal attempts. unsurprisingly, the lack of effort didn’t leave a lasting impact.

the last time you’d made the drive out west was just before you graduated high school, and you’d only stopped by for a few hours to visit before your mom was corralling you back into the car to make the drive back to seattle. so to say you didn’t have much connection to the quileute in your blood was the understatement of the year.

the closer you got to the res, the larger everything seemed to become. the evergreens seemed to reach the sky, blocking off most of the clouds but still managing to allow the near constant drizzle of rain through to patter against your windshield. as the roads continued to wind, so did your mind as you allowed yourself back into your thoughts while you ran through how easy it would be to just turn around and never come back. leaving your grandmother and all her things behind to return back to your life in seattle and just forget any of this ever existed.

…

since arriving on the res, an unfamiliar buzz in the back of your mind began to take root, your hips and back carrying the weight of it as you shifted uncomfortably in the driver’s seat, deciding to blame the nearly 4-hour drive on your soreness. despite your discomfort, it turned out that finding your way through the res and down some beaten old road to your grandmother’s house proved to be much easier than you remembered it being. maybe it was your mother’s incessant complaining about how annoying the drive was echoing in your subconscious, or maybe it was just your own inner critic - at the end of the day, who really cares what it was? you made it, and that was what mattered.

her house was even gloomier than you remembered it. the drizzle that had quickly turned into pouring rain not helping at all as you sprinted to the front door, fumbling around for a moment before you’d found the keys about three feet behind the pot billy had told you they would be under. last you remembered he was in a wheelchair, so you figured it wasn’t him who’d hid the key given that there were quite a few steps to hike up to get to the porch, but whoever he did get to hide the key clearly wasn’t great at following instructions.

frustration and a surge of emotions flowing through your system, you turned the key with shaky hands and pushed inside. as you should have expected, dust flew around everywhere and you quickly found yourself in a coughing fit as you stumbled into the house with your bags, shutting the door behind you in a weak attempt to keep the rain out despite the fact that you were already soaked from the few short seconds outside.

“fuck me,” you groaned, fumbling your hands along the wall until you felt the lightswitch, flicking it on. after a few seconds of flickering, the entryway and living room were illuminated, everything in almost exactly the same place as you’d remembered it being nearly a decade ago when you last visited. coughing again, you made quick work of moving over to the bay windows looking out into the towering evergreens in the backyard, cracking them open just enough to provide some ventilation while you figured out how on earth you were going to tackle cleaning and clearing out this entire place. thankfully, the downpour had been reduced to a drizzle, allowing you to get some fresh air without risking adding flooding the place to your ever-growing list of things to do.

a heavy sigh left your lips as you brought your hands to your hips, gently massaging them and your lower back. that drive wasn’t exactly easy, but you never remembered feeling that sore the last time you drove down. maybe you were just aging worse than you thought you were and chose to blame it on not working out enough instead of digging deeper.

deciding a walk might help you get some fresh air and, more importantly, clear your mind, you headed back over to the entryway to dig through your bags to find your rainboots and windbreaker. you hadn’t packed too much, not expecting to stay here for more than a week, only a couple of pairs of jeans, some shorts you now realized you definitely weren’t going to be wearing anytime soon thanks to how much cooled it was on the coast than it was in seattle, and a few sweatshirts and t-shirts.

at the bottom of your bag, you pulled out the same run-down pair of dark green rain boots you’d had since high school, and the windbreaker you’d borrowed from a friend in college but had forgotten to give back to her before she’d moved back home.

pulling on the boots and windbreaker, you mentally cursed yourself for losing touch with her and so many other friends from college. sure you all kept up with each other’s lives through social media, commenting on each other’s photos and messaging each other videos you’d found funny that reminded you of each other, but you rarely texted or called. you could be a better friend - actually, you would be a better friend when this was all over and settled, you decided. once the house was left behind you and you were able to cut off this part of your life for good, you’d reach back out and apologize for all the lost time and hope they felt the same.

no wonder your hips and back were so fucked up - carrying all that extra stress would be enough to make anyone break down. though, despite your explanation for the pain, you couldn’t shake that incessant, low buzzing noise in the back of your mind that had refused to leave since you’d set foot back on the res. it wasn’t particularly loud or annoying, but it was always there.

deciding against putting some headphones in, you headed down the short trail to the beach, the distant crashing waves doing more work for your nerves than any music ever could. the dirt below your boots and soaring evergreens canopying your view of the sky only lasted for a few moments before breaking away, rather suddenly shifting to wet, dark sand and cloudy skies that matched the deep ocean blue.

you paused for a moment and sucked in a few deep breaths, the salty air clearing your lungs and mind. you’d missed this. missed hearing the waves crashing against the shore, the soft swaying of the forest behind you, the wind brushing against your cheeks, along with a few raindrops here and there. it was peaceful, only a few other people walking up and down the beach as you began your walk down, sticking close enough to the water that the tide could wash waves over your boots every time it rolled in.

the last time you’d been on the beach was over a decade ago. your grandma had taken you down here for a walk, not unlike the one you were currently on, to help you clear your head while you two talked about all the different colleges you’d considered applying for and which ones you thought could be your top contenders. at the time, you’d been pretty insistent on traveling somewhere far away, looking way beyond seattle and instead looking across the country at colleges on the east coast. you’d insisted it was just because the better schools were on that coast, but you and your grandmother knew you just wanted to get away. you weren’t sure if your mom had understood that at the time, she seemed to view it more as a stupid way for you to drive yourself into an insurmountable amount of debt before you’d even hit 18, but then again, you two never seemed to see eye to eye on much.

your grandmother seemed to empathize with you a little more. as far as you knew, she’d never moved off the res, so you were surprised when she’d vocalized her support for you to travel while you were still young enough to do so. thankfully, you were able to attend a little college on the east coast and spent 4 years over there learning more about yourself and the world than you ever would’ve had you stayed in what you’d always known. as luck would have it, you landed a full-time job teaching in seattle shortly after you graduated so, even though you’d loved the few years you’d spent away, you found yourself back on the west coast.

when you first went to college, you used the distance as an excuse not to come home and visit ever. but even when you moved back, you couldn’t seem to bring yourself back to the res to visit your grandmother. it wasn’t ever intentional, at least not after a few years. by then, it had just become habit, the way things were with your life. you weren’t tied to la push at all, seattle was your home, and that was that.

continuing your walk down the beach, a familiar face waved at you. although you hadn’t seen her since you were in high school, sue clearwater had hardly aged, “oh sweetheart, how are you?” sue’s warmth radiated off of her as she called to you, quickly striding over to pull you into a tight hug.

of course she’d know you were back, she was the one who had originally reached out about your grandmother’s house just a few weeks ago and had helped with nearly all the funeral arrangements over a year ago when you couldn’t muster the strength to come back yet.

wrapping your arms around her to hug her back just as tight, you sucked in a deep breath, “hi sue,” you mumbled into her hair, tears forming in your eyes for just a moment before you blinked them away. no way were you about to be the girl who had a meltdown on the beach as soon as she came back to the res, “i’m okay,” you finally answered her original question after a moment.

although you didn’t have many memories of her from your minimal visits to la push as a kid, you did know that she had two children of her own, but you couldn’t remember who they were for the life of you.

she released you from the hug after another tight squeeze, sliding her hands to your shoulders to get a better look at you. looking at her up close, you could see how she’d looked a bit older than the last time that you saw her, though she was still just as beautiful as you’d remembered her. crows feet had formed at the corners of her eyes, likely from smiling so much, and the sun had darkened her skin to a much deeper olive tone. her eyes remained as kind as you’d remembered them being, if not more now that you too were older and could appreciate it more.

“did you just drive in?” she asked, the corners of her eyes crinkling in concern as she frowned when you quickly nodded, praying she couldn’t read you as well as you figured she could.

“do you want to talk about it?” her voice softened, and you knew she’d read you like a book. you took in a shaky breath, fearing your voice would betray you, so you just settled for shaking your head.

she gave you a sad, knowing smile before pulling you back into another hug. disguised as a simple gesture of affection, you knew she was also giving you a much-needed moment to compose yourself before you really let your suddenly rampant emotions get the better of you.

sue ran her hand up and down your back soothingly, “i know honey,” she murmured, “i just had a long talk with seth about life today. sounds like you both are going through it,” she chuckled softly, “except he wants something to change in his life and it’s looking like you need yours to calm down,” she mused, lips curling into a small smile when she heard you let out a breathy laugh.

seth was 100% the name of her son, and now you felt slightly worse that you couldn’t remember the name of her daughter. you knew they were both around your age but never had the chance to really interact with them, only seeing them from afar once or twice during your rare visits to the res.

confident you weren’t going to have a complete meltdown on the beach, she released you from the hug again, giving you another knowing smile when you sniffled and quickly brushed away the few tears that managed to escape your waterline.

“have you gotten settled yet? eaten anything since you got in?” her concern was evident in her tone, and before she even offered, you knew she’d be offering to bring you over some food. from the few times you’d seen her, you always remembered her bringing over some chicken and dumpling soup to your grandmother’s for you when you visited. you also remembered how much you loved it, so, despite feeling selfish for it, you were pretty hopeful she’d offer.

“i just got here and wanted to take a walk before dealing with everything in the house,” you confessed, unable to even try and offer an excuse as to why you hadn’t eaten yet when she jumped in.

“sweetheart, no wonder you’re so wound up,” sue soothed, and, if it were anyone else you’d have taken it personally but, from your minimal interactions with her, you knew she only meant well, “i’ll have seth or leah bring some dinner by the house tonight, okay?” she suggested.

“you really don’t have to sue, i’m sure my grandmother has something-” you started, but she cut you off with a quiet tut that only mothers seemed to know how to do successfully.

“you and i both know there’s nothing edible in that house except maybe those god awful canned sardines she insisted on eating,” you and sue both let out laughs at that before, her lips twitching in amusement before she continued, “it’s really no bother, seth needs to get out some more anyway. i’m sure he’d love to meet someone new,” she reassured, smiling when you conceded with a small sigh and nodded, matching her happy expression.

she gave you a moment to let it sink in before she was pulling you back into a hug, “are you okay heading back to the house? i can walk you back if you need someone, you know your grandmother was a close friend of mine,” she reminded, giving you another tight squeeze when you hummed and nodded.

“i’ll be alright,” you reassured, “but i have your number if anything comes up,” you added after a moment, knowing she likely wouldn’t let you go back on your own if she had even the slightest suspicion you’d break down on the walk back.

she gave you a satisfied hum, “i’ll have him run it by in just a little bit then, okay? and you let me know when you need help with anything. you’re a part of this community and we support each other,” she reminded again and you nodded.

“even after everything?” you whispered after a moment, tears clouding your vision again as you recalled your complete refusal to return to la push and help when your grandmother had originally passed, instead passing it all onto the community.

“especially after everything,” sue reassured, offering you that sad, knowing smile when a few more tears skipped past your waterline and ran down your cheeks. if you knew anything from your grandmother’s relationship with her, you knew it was okay to cry in front of sue.

she gently thumbed away the stray tears, “you get home safe, okay? seth’ll be over soon and you can keep him as long as you want. or kick him out right away if he starts talking too much,” she teased, smiling again when you giggled and sniffled, quickly wiping away the stray tears with your windbreaker before nodding.

“thanks sue,” you murmured, letting out a heavy exhale when she squeezed your shoulders one more time for good measure before sending you on your way back down the beach and down the trail leading back to your temporary home.

…

the walk home gives you a much-needed reality check. you were never this emotional. you’d learned to keep a tight leash on your feelings at a young age, fear of adding to your mom’s stress keeping you a mostly docile and happy kid, turned teen, turned adult. so your little meltdown in front of sue (it was just a few tears but you definitely treated it like a monsoon had hijacked your emotions in front of her) was a shock to say the least.

you still couldn’t shake that nagging in the back of your mind or the dull ache in your hips and back, and now, post-meltdown, they seemed to be irritating you even more. so when you got home, you were quick to lock yourself inside and figure out where you were going to be sleeping for the night because it sure as hell wasn’t going to be the bed your grandmother had died in.

it took some dusting and quite a few disinfectant wipes but soon enough, you’d managed to clear the couch in the living room to some sort of hygienic standards, along with the side table. in a vain attempt to bring some normalcy to the situation, you began unpacking a few belongings. notably adding your hydroflask to the side table, phone charger, your favorite throw blanket, along with a few books you’d vowed to yourself you’d actually read this summer break.

getting settled on the couch didn’t take long, the exhaustion from the day shutting down any qualms you’d normally have about staying alone in an unfamiliar (could you even call it that?) place and, more concerningly, the home of your dead grandmother. you got on your phone, sending sue a quick text that you’d gotten back okay before scrolling through tiktok to numb your thoughts while you waited for sue’s son to come by.

unsurprisingly, tiktok didn’t seem to work to calm your anxiety and after seeing one too many ill-timed true crime videos about single women going missing, you decided to set your phone back on the side table and take a shower instead.

if there was one thing you were grateful for about your grandmother’s house, it was her disproportionately large bathroom, the clawfoot tub in the back taking up most of the room. one of these days, before you headed back to seattle and once you cleaned the place out and scrubbed the tub enough that you were sure there wasn’t any weird shit growing in there, you’d make sure to take a bath in there. for now, though, you settled on the shower in the corner.

it didn’t match the extravagance of the clawfoot tub, but then again, how many things in life could compare to a good clawfoot tub? not many you decided as you got the shower turned on, pulling the handle all the way over so get it as steamy in there as possible.

you headed back into the living room to grab some pajamas, settling for some plaid boxer shorts and a sweatshirt from your college before padding over to the bathroom to get undressed. peeling away your hoodie and jeans felt cathartic in a way, physically allowing the chaos of the day to be shed from your skin despite the incessant ache deep in your bones and nagging, buzzing anxiety in the back of your mind.

stepping into the heat of the shower, you let out a heavy sigh of relief when you felt the way the water immediately encompassed you, enveloping you in its warm embrace. before you could even think about beginning to wash your hair, your fingers found their way to your hips and lower back, eyes falling closed as you slowly kneaded at the tender flesh there.

although it didn’t relieve the ache, the combination of the heat from the water and your ministrations dulled it enough for it to be bearable for the time being. you weren’t entirely sure how on earth you were going to sleep with that pain, but decided that would be a problem for future you to figure out as you pumped some shampoo onto your hands and brushed it through your hair.

taking your time, you lathered some conditioner into your hair next, making sure you focused all your energy into that instead of allowing your thoughts to continue wandering since that clearly wasn’t doing you any good these days.

getting some body wash onto your loofah, you steadily scrubbed yourself, gradually washing away the stress of the day in a thwarted try at physically and metaphorically cleansing yourself enough to wash away the pain of the past and present. the more you washed, the more you realized just how much grief was coming back now dug up and exposed.

you’d buried your past alive and it was now clawing its way to the surface as you were forced to deal with your grandmother’s untimely death, the stagnant memories of her from your childhood, and the grief you carried from it all.

“for fuck’s sake-” you snapped, your tears once again pouring down your cheeks and mingling with the condensation from the shower.

you didn’t even bother attempting to calm yourself down, throwing the loofah down like it had personally offended you and turning the shower off rather abruptly. your fingers wasted no time finding their way to your hair, wringing it out before grabbing a towel so you could dry yourself off with it.

had these things even been washed since your grandmother died? what if this was the towel she used before she died? oh my fucking god.

your thoughts spiralling out of control, you made a halfassed attempt at drying yourself off before tugging on your shorts and sweatshirt, “fuck this fucking house and this town-” you angrily rambled to yourself as you stumbled out into the living room, the wood creaking underneath your feet just adding to your rage.

you seriously needed to get it together before this clearwater kid came over and saw you like this. with your luck, he’d probably tell the whole town exactly what he saw, and you’d be exiled before you even had the chance to spend a night here.

your feet sticking to the wood thanks to your shitty dry job only brought fuel to the fire while you vainly went in search of your phone to look up some youtube meditation video. maybe some random white guy on the internet would be able to talk you out of the rage. yea. right.

out of the corner of your eye, you caught movement in the backyard through those big bay windows you’d cracked before your walk.

“oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me right now,” you started, almost immediately getting redirected when you saw a man nearly double your size stripping out of his clothes in the middle of your grandmother’s backyard, just past the treeline.

before you could even form a rational thought, you were storming outside yelling, “what the fuck are you doing? what is this? some kind of strip club? it’s fucking la push bitch!”

apparently, taking your anger out on the random, half-naked man in your yard was your new form of anger management. real mature.

you weren’t entirely sure he’d even heard you because, as he turned around to face you, he looked more shocked than anything. though, you didn’t have to ponder his emotional state for long before he was shaking, his expression almost immediately morphing into one of anger.

you weren’t sure who was angrier, you or him. you weren’t shaking, but your hips and back felt like they were going to explode from the pressure and pain. you also couldn’t recall a time when you’d felt this much fury before. it was seeping into your bones, and you were suddenly flooded with memories, some you could absolutely identify as yours, but some others you couldn’t quite place your finger on, despite how familiar they felt to you.

the final straw came as the man in front of you, seemingly defying every physics law imaginable, transformed into a giant silver wolf right before your eyes. it didn’t help the rage coursing through your system, and your vision was quickly spinning, only lasting a few moments before fading entirely as you collapsed to the ground, your last view one of the massive wolf towering over you.

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sethsclearwater · 4 days ago

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You takin request? Btw LOVE the new fic! Was it Paul at the end? Also, what are the ages of everyone approx. so I can get it in my head while reading.

Thanks for doing the hard work so we can read 💗

hi pretty!! tysm!! i'm not going to be doing any requests for full-length imagines right now but i might do some blurb requests once moonbound gets up and running! i'm not totally sure yet but feel free to send something in if you want me to take a look but if you want something done sooner i'd def send it in to another writer on here!! there's quite a few on my fic recs list who are accepting requests now if you wanted to take a look there too!

for your second question, it was most definitely paul at the end - you'll be seeing a lot of him and his dramatics in chapter two lol. they're all going to be 26-28ish in this fic (it's about a decade after breaking dawn)!!

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sethsclearwater · 4 days ago

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first chapter was AMAZINGGGGG

not paul crashing out already..

TYSM!!! and just wait till chapter two lol - he turns into a complete diva😭😭

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sethsclearwater · 4 days ago

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CHAPTER 1 WAS SO GOODDDD!!! I love the plot and I can't wait for her to meet the boysssss

TYSM!! i’m SO excited for her to meet them!!! (minus paul cause he’s lowkey acting up rn lol)

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sethsclearwater · 5 days ago

Text

chapter one | homecoming

warnings: SUPER plot heavy (sorry y’all lol)

word count: 4.3k

[masterlist] [next]

…

“did you just drive in?” she asked, the corners of her eyes crinkling in concern as she frowned when you quickly nodded, praying she couldn’t read you as well as you figured she could.

“i just got here and wanted to take a walk before dealing with everything in the house,” you confessed, unable to even try and offer an excuse as to why you hadn’t eaten yet when she jumped in.

“you really don’t have to sue, i’m sure my grandmother has something-” you started, but she cut you off with a quiet tut that only mothers seemed to know how to do successfully.

…

“for fuck’s sake-” you snapped, your tears once again pouring down your cheeks and mingling with the condensation from the shower.

had these things even been washed since your grandmother died? what if this was the towel she used before she died? oh my fucking god.

out of the corner of your eye, you caught movement in the backyard through those big bay windows you’d cracked before your walk.

before you could even form a rational thought, you were storming outside yelling, “what the fuck are you doing? what is this? some kind of strip club? it’s fucking la push bitch!”

apparently, taking your anger out on the random, half-naked man in your yard was your new form of anger management. real mature.

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