#my laptop is around 11 years old and lately it's started to drop the wifi connection randomly even when the wifi modem itself is fine

[rapha-reads]

My laptop likes to remind me to "go to bed, you unhinged bitch, it's almost 4am, why are you still up listening to the entire discography of Poets of The Fall when you have work at 10" by suddenly turning off the wifi without warning and shutting off my music, brutally taking me out of the perfect vibe I'd gotten into reading my gay little fics and blasting my emo music.

Gah. Guess I'll shut it off, put down the fics and go to bed, then. *rolls my eyes so hard they fall off my head*

[writing--ramblings]

Protector PT. 1

Characters: Derek x Reader

Summary: You are Derek’s long time girlfriend, with no knowledge of the supernatural. 

A/N: This first chapter is before any craziness ensues. It’s kind of giving Derek the life he’s always wanted.

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You sighed as you looked at the clock 11:39PM flashed bright red. This had become a routine and you didn’t like it. You watched as the store bought marinara sauce began to boil. He’d been coming home late more and more; later and later, you began cooking later and later. Once the sauce was done, you took the meatballs out of the small oven that the trailer provided and mixed the pasta in. Why did it have to be this way? Nearly every night you found yourself serving separate plates and putting the second one in the microwave, tonight was no different. It was almost sad how  more often than not you sat in front of the TV with your dinner, watching a rented movie from the video store on your crappy 20" television than in front of your beautiful brooding boyfriend. Who are you kidding? Hell it was sad.

An annoying song was playing. Then again. And it began again. You peeled your eyes open and recognized the title sequence of the DVD you’d been watching, pressing play just to make it stop. Checking your phone you saw that it was 3:13AM, you had fallen asleep. You rolled on your side and lay awake, thinking about your current situation. How did you go from being a librarian in Portland, Oregon with promising references of a promotion, you might add, to a having a 3 day a week 5 hour a day bookstore job in a nowhere town in Nebraska? Your thoughts would have to wait, because at this moment in time headlights shone through your window signalling that he was home.

You listened as the engine cut off, sputtering as it did. You listened as he opened the car door and heard his boots hit the gravel as he traveled the short distance to the door of your trailer. You listened as he got inside and sighed as he sat on the couch and took off his work boots. You listened as he heated his food up in the microwave for less than 30 seconds. You held in a giggle as he ate it in less than five minutes. You listened as he cleaned all the dishes that were used for tonight’s dinner and the few cups in the small sink, a smile appeared on your lips, you taught him well. You listened as he stripped down to his underwear. You felt the blanket lift and let out a breath, you didn’t realize you were holding as he wrapped his arm around you and pulled himself to you.

“Thank you baby, it was delicious” he kissed the back of your head. He always knew when you were awake, somehow.

“How’d it go?” You stopped asking how work went, it killed him to lie to you.

“Nothing tonight.” He mumbled curtly. That’s really all you ever got out of him. “I love you” no more questions.

“I love you back” you whispered and nestled against him tighter as you fell asleep. ——— “Get up, baby” Derek pushed his nose in the crook of your neck and took a deep inhale, you smiled to yourself, he did this everyday, he says he wants to keep your scent when you’re away. It was strange but, for some reason it comforted you, it made you feel special.

“Nooo, work is gross” you whined and rolled to face him, you weren’t being serious… Not completely at least. He chuckled and kissed your shoulder.

“You don’t have to work, you know” he always tried to convince you to stay home.

“And do what all day? Watch every DVD in the video store? Pretty sure I’m almost there” you scrunched your nose.

“True. Plus, who are all those old men gonna flirt with?” he let out a rythmic laugh and pulled you on top of him so you were straddling him.

“You’re right, it is my civic duty after all.” You flipped your hair dramatically. You leaned down and kissed him softly, his lips moving with yours in unison.

After you both pulled away, you climbed off of Derek and grabbed your clothes for the day, jeans and a simple long sleeve shirt with three buttons at the top. You placed them on top of the toilet in the tiny restroom of your trailer and took a quick 10 minute shower, any longer and you’d get bombarded with ice cold water. After getting dressed and doing your hair and makeup you walked over to Derek who handed you a breakfast sandwich, you took it greatfully.

As you began eating, you thought back to last night. “Why’d you get home so late?” You paused. “Again.” He needed to see how annoyed you were.

“I’m sorry [Y/N], I didn’t think it would take that long” he rubbed the back of his neck and looked down.

“What? What were you doing?” You sat in the dining area, he was always so secretive. Nearly two and a half years into a relationship with this man and he still couldn’t tell you about his job. He’d made up some story about being a wild animal researcher and tracker, a story he knew that you knew was a lie. Wild animal researchers don’t look like that. But, you dropped it.

“You know I can’t tell you” he looked at you with pleading eyes. “Not yet” your eyes scanned his face and you stood, sighing as you did.

“It better be soon,” you walked up to him and placed your hands on both his arms “This is the third town we’ve lived in, in five months Der. I need to know what we’re running from or who you’re searching for. I love you, and you can’t change that, no matter what you tell me” his eyes watered but, he never let the tears fall out.

“I love you, I love you so much. I have to protect you, I will tell you soon, I promise” his arms snaked around your body and he pressed his lips to your hair, you both stayed like that for a while.

“I have to get to work” you pulled away and kissed his lips “but you promised” you reminded him and put on your boots, “I’m taking the truck” you told him as he walked back to the bedroom to go back to sleep, presumably.

You drove to work and sat behind the counter. Working at the bookstore wasn’t very exciting, usually it was just the older men and women, a few teenagers and a couple people your age came in to the store, mostly because you were the only place in town with wifi and a few computers. Nothing to it, you opened your laptop and used it to update your social media.

Having a great time traveling with the beuax.

Accompanying the post was a photo of you two, well, of your silhouettes, Derek didn’t want anyone to see his face for your protection, which was okay, you weren’t too much of a social media maven anyhow. But sometimes it was hard not being able to show off a man that fine. The day went off without a hitch and when 3pm came ‘round, you were surprised to see Derek walk in with just​ an undershirt on, his shirt draped over his shoulder, he’d walked the 3 miles it took to get there without breaking a sweat. Janie, your nineteen year old co-worker, began blushing profusely.

“Who is that and where can I get one?” She whispered in your ear and you laughed, it’s been nearly three months since you lived in this town and Derek was rarely seen.

“That one belongs to me” you tossed your bag over your shoulder and smiled.

“Ooohh, get it, girl” she gave you a wink and you shook your head walking over to Derek.

“Well, this is unexpected” you watched as he flicked his fingers along the spines of a few books.

“Good, I was trying to surprise you.” He looked down at you, amusement showing through his eyes. “I just wanted to see you” something was happening. He pressed his lips to yours and before you got a chance to deepen the kiss Janie cleared her throat.

“Janie, Derek, Derek, Janie.” You introduced them and Janie gave a small wave, he gave a nod and looked ready to go. You left the store and hopped into your truck and headed back to what you called home.

——— Your legs were draped across Derek’s lap and he was using your legs to hold his plate of pizza. Both of you were watching the screen,eager to know what came next. Derek hadn’t watched a ton of movies when he was younger, his family was more of the outdoorsy type, at least from what you knew. So whenever he got the chance to watch anything he was enamored with it, pausing if he had to get up, rewinding if he missed a line, it was quite cute, actually.

“How come only bad guys are shown pooping in movies?” You asked once the movie finished.

“What?” He looked at you quizzically a smile playing on the edge of his lips.

“Seriously! You never see any good guys pooping but like, the bad guy always dies on the toilet or something” you remarked, sneaking a bite of his pizza. His laugh was beautiful and hearty, a deep rumble coming from his chest, you couldn’t help but follow with one of your own. He opened his mouth to respond but then stood abruptly, opening the trailer door.

“Oh!” The redhead woman yelled, surprised. You stood behind Derek, curious. “Well, you just about scared me half to death!” Her southern accent thick as she held her hand to her chest and threw in a little chuckle. Being scared half to death didn’t stop her eyes from scoping out his body.

“How can we help you?” Derek said quickly, you giggled softly and pushed his shoulder, reminding him to be nice. He wrapped his arm around your shoulders and his posture softened immediately at the touch. Anchor, that’s what he called you, that’s what you were to him. It was hard to understand at first but, he says you bring him back to where he needs to be.

“Forgive him. Straight to the point. This one” you offered a smile and patted his chest, her eyes lingered on it for a second and then went back to your faces.

“Well, some of us just noticed that y'all haven’t been to the monthly potluck the past two months, and I just wanted to personally invite ya” she smiled and Derek remained tight lipped.

“Oh wow, that sounds great, when is it?” You asked, hell if you were gonna stay here, you may as well make a few friends.

“Oh well, it started about thirty minutes ago” she pointed over to the group of people dancing, eating, hanging about. You wanted to go.

“We don’t have a dish” both of you looked at Derek when he spoke. Your furrowed your eyebrows and gave him your best 'Derek staredown’, basically trying to mimick Derek when he gets stern. He sighed “Can we bring beer?” He gave her his best friendly smile. –

“So what do you do?” You asked Derek as you were both getting a little more dressed for the potluck. Shirlene, you’d learned the redheads name, had gone to tell some of the neighbors the good news.

“I’m a nocturnal animal researcher” he tilted his head at you.

“No one’s gonna believe that lie” you smiled at him and took a few steps towards him. “We’d have much better digs, if that were true.” You kissed his chin when you reached him. “Plus, what would you need all this muscle for?” You smacked his arm.

“I’ll come up with something” he bit your bottom lip softly, you loved when he did that, it was so subtle, but so longing “How long have you known?”

“Hmmm… Probably after our six month anniversary, you came to mine with a ripped shirt and dried blood on your pants” you smiled and smoothed his shirt.

“Didn’t think you’d noticed that” he muttered

“Of course I did silly, it’s not an everyday occurrence” you rolled your eyes and put your shoes on as Derek shrugged his leather jacket over his dark blue short sleeve shirt, only he could wear such simple attire and look so put together. You wore a white plaid button down with leggings and black boots. You both left the trailer and made the short walk to the potluck.

Before you arrived Derek whispered, “Don’t eat anything and don’t drink anything that I don’t give you.” He kissed your shoulder. You arrived at the party before he could hear your protest. Always so protective, it brought a smile to your face.

“Derek! [Y/N]!” Shirlene squealed and ran over, hugging you both. Derek excused himself to get drinks as Shirlene began introducing you to the girls, he came back and gave you some type of wine cooler and was dragged away by a guy named Barry.

The women that you were introduced to were nice enough, there was this woman though, Katrina, her name was… She was odd, cryptic.

“So how did you two meet?” Katrina asked watching Derek, you glared at her, you weren’t shy when it came to him.

“He was traveling for work and he kept bothering me” you smiled “The rest is history” you looked at the man whose eyes were trained on you and tilted your bottled towards him, he did the same.

Two years ago you’d been working as a librarian in Portland, when a scruffy man with broad shoulders and a leather jacket wanted to know where your Italian folk lore section was located. He came in every day for a new cultures lore and phenomenon until finally he came to you and told you, that if you didn’t go on a date with him, he would have no choice but to read every book in the library. Who could put a man through that much misery? You smiled at the fond memory.

“Huh, and he just whisked you away?” The smile she gave you was fake, it was almost convincing though. “Romantic” she took a drink of her wine and walked away. You turned and looked at Derek and shook your head as he was about to make his way towards you. You regrouped with Shirlene and the rest of the girls.

Later on in the night you and Derek next to each other with your hand resting on top of his. Shirlene and her husband Arnie were there, with a few others, Fred, Danielle, Rachel, John and Bobby. Everyone sat in a circle on various lawn chairs and benches. You remarked on what a great night this was, it was one you’d both needed.

“So what do you do again?” Arnie asked looking pointedly at Derek, he’d had a lot to drink tonight so his words were slurred a bit.

“I’m a nocturnal animal tracker” the group looked at Derek, quiet.

“Well, what does that mean?” Rachel voiced everyone’s question.

“Well, you know, mountain lions, cayotes, wolves. If they get too close to civilization I track them and make sure they don’t get too close” he told them. Good lie, you thought. If he’d told you that, maybe you would have believed him.

“Oh my Gosh, do you kill them?” Danielle asked with a gasp and leaned forward, showing interest, and her cleavage. Derek looked at you, seeming annoyed at her flirting, you smiled at him, biting back your laughter. His look matched yours almost instantly. His gaze went steely again though, when it was time to answer the question.

“If I have to” he took a drink and looked straight ahead.

“So basically… you’re Animal Control” Arnie said drunkenly. Derek’s hand clenched under yours. Arnie was a jealous man, he wasn’t ugly, his blonde hair was in a buzz cut with a little scruff on his face, he was a little shorter than Derek and on the thinner side, save for his small beer gut. Maybe he was the type of guy that couldn’t handle a better looking person around.

“Only the dangerous ones” he looked into Arnie’s eyes with a look that you would never like to be on the other end of. Arnie wasn’t dangerous but, Derek definitely was. You gripped Derek’s hand tightly.

“You know, I heard that a big ol’ group of people just came in town and just about rented the whole motel up.” Shirlene changed the subject quickly.

The rest of the evening went by smoothly, you both headed back to your trailer, waving to the few leftover people that stayed. It was nearing Midnight and you were getting tired. Once you got inside you stripped off all your clothes, and turned to face Derek, a little tipsy.

“That was fun,you have to admit” you wrapped your arms around his neck.

“Yeah, I guess it was” He smiled and placed his hands on your waist.

“I’m still mad at you for not letting me have a slice of cake” you pouted and bit your lip.

“Babygirl, if you wanted dessert, you should have said something” he picked you up and you wrapped your legs around his waist.

“I want dessert” you said lightly. He pressed his lips to yours hungrily and walked you both back to the bedroom.