(A/N) I just finished reading this series, and I have so many ideas for where I could run as far as FanFiction goes, but I figured I'd start out with this. This would be set during The Awakening chapters 26-27, mostly when they're on the bus.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Awakening nor any of its characters.

The petite girl was struggling under the weight of her backpack. She was dead tired, and she didn't have any motivation for carrying so much crap on her shoulders. Chloe fiddled with the straps in a weak attempt to lighten her load when strong hands ripped the bag out of her hands.

She tilted her head up at Derek. She scowled, knowing he thought she was too pathetic to do her part in carrying all of their stuff. His expression was somewhat unreadable when he stated, "Stop sulking. It's just hair."

He would never understand why hair mattered so much to girls. It was stupid to be so picky, especially when she was still… attractive. Derek, on the other hand, probably should worry more about his hair, but he preferred not to think about that. Despite what many people believed, he did have his own insecurities.

"That's not—" Chloe began before cutting herself off, an expression of annoyance written all over her facial features.

Simon walked up, Dr. Pepper in hand. Of course he passed it to Chloe, and of course the slightest of smiles touched her lips. "You okay?" He asked, voice exuding concern.

She frowned. "Just thinking about my dad and Liz. I wish I could have told them we're leaving," She said to the half-Asian boy wistfully.

Derek didn't know very much about Chloe, but he knew that she was the type of person who was often times walking around with a bright grin on her face. And to know that he was part of the reason she was upset made him feel rather guilty. "Smile," he breathed in her ear, "You look like you're being kidnapped, and people are staring."

She looked around and her brow furrowed again, this time in confusion. No one was looking at her. Sure, a few girls were giggling in Simon's general direction, but not a soul was glancing at her in suspicion. Chloe turned her blue gaze on Derek and was about to say something when something interrupted her.

"Ease off," Simon told his brother, more for his benefit than Chloe's. What he was going to do next would probably be selfish, but he didn't care. Clearly, Derek didn't have to fight for Chloe to feel something for him, so Simon was going to do his best to make her see something in him as well. "This okay?" He asked, pointing to a spot crowded with other people.

His brother was more than a bit confused. Chloe was nodding and she sat down by the window and Derek said, "There's more at the back. We can't sit together up here."

"No, we can't." Simon's eyes were flickering, just daring Derek to challenge him. Of course he didn't, and Simon felt a little bit guilty. No need to get so jealous… right?

When Simon slid into the seat next to Chloe, Derek's first thought was, There is no way both me and Tori are going to survive this bus ride. The second thought was a rather spiteful, Of course he gets to sit next to her. The third thought was, I can't believe I just thought that. Maybe sitting next to Tori was his punishment for being so selfish, it was obvious that Simon liked Chloe, and who was he to take her away from him? Not that he wanted to take her from him.

That would mean he liked the fifteen-year old girl, which he obviously didn't. Yet, his heart still panged when she started talking to Simon and smiling brightly. Simon was always good at that: making people happy. Derek was better at making people hate themselves.

As Derek and Tori made their way to the back, he tried not to listen in on Simon and Chloe's conversation too much. It was really difficult, and he blamed it on the wolf in him. The wolf in him liked to be properly informed of all interpersonal relationships going on inside his… pack, if you will. It had nothing to do with the feeling he must have mistaken as envy crawling up his spine.

For a long time, Tori was completely quiet. They rode along for maybe an hour and a half or so when she finally said something. "You should stop staring at her like that, or else this time people really will think you're some creepy child snatcher."

He considered denying that he was staring at her, but Tori clearly knew that he was watching her. That he was looking out for her. "What?" He mumbled darkly. "Do I fit the part well?"

Snidely, she turned up her nose and replied snippily, "Well, you said it not me."

They fell into another silence, though this time it was more awkward. Derek's super hearing enabled him to hear every breath Tori took in, and he could tell that there were several times when she wanted to say anything. But he wasn't paying attention to her.

He tried to look away from the tiny girl at the front, but he just couldn't. Every time he so much as glanced away, she'd get herself into some kind of trouble. His fist clenched as he recalled the rage he felt when those blue eyes conveyed so much terror as the girl sneered over her, threatening to cut her up…

"Calm down," Tori told him, trying to sound reasonable, though truthfully she was a little bit scared at the suddenly murderous look on his face. "You can't be that jealous of your own brother."

His head snapped toward her, and Tori mentally cheered in a bitter tone. Huzzah! He finally looked away. Secretly, she wished someone would care that much about her. " Jealous? I'm not jealous of…" He trailed off as Chloe burst into a fit of laughter and he tossed a glance her way.

She was gazing at Simon, eyes wide in adoration. His eyes were shining too, and he was wondering if maybe he still had a chance with her. Maybe he really was imagining the looks she sneaked at Derek when she thought no one was looking.

Derek's fist clenched once more, this time feeling fiercely protective. He wasn't sure if Simon would ever do anything to hurt Chloe but what if he did? That would kill her, and then he'd want to massacre his own best friend. He shook his head, trying to clear away his strange thoughts.

When he looked back at Tori, he was ready to finish his statement, but her raised eyebrows stopped him. "I almost get it."

"Get what?" He asked her. In the back of his mind, he wondered if Tori might actually say something remotely civilized to him for once. She too, was looking at the front of the bus, longing and forced distaste lying in her stare.

She sighed. "Why you two are both so obsessed with her."

He growled. Obsessed? With Chloe? Maybe Simon was, but he wasn't. It wasn't possible. He was grateful that she stayed with him when he was Changing, and yes, she was pretty, and she was powerful, and she was smart… He shook his head again.

If Tori was one of those girls who loved chick flicks, she would have started bawling at the sappiness of the situation. She could see it in the way Derek looked at Chloe, she could see that he didn't just like her. He loved her. He looked at Chloe the way she always wished someone would look at her.

"When you first glance at her, you see her small body, those wide and innocent blue eyes. You see someone you need to protect. And by the time you get to know her and find out she doesn't want protecting, you can't stop. She just sucks you in with her sickeningly perky attitude and disgustingly pretty face that still can't be wrecked by the most god-awful hair…" She stopped herself.

At the start of her rant, she was longing. She was almost complimentary, but as she continued to talk, Tori was overwhelmed with desire. Desire to be like her, desire to be loved like her.

The only thing Derek could think to say was, "The hair isn't that bad."

Tori smiled wryly. "I can't even tell if you're defending her or yourself." Both, she assumed.

Derek looked at Tori. He almost felt sorry for her, until he remembered what she did to… Chloe. He blinked in surprise, and he wondered how often his thoughts ended up with her. With Chloe. He didn't bother replying.

"I'm right, aren't I? You're crazy about her, don't bother lying. Even if you don't know it yet, I do." But he was staring at Chloe again, and Tori thought to herself, Oh yeah. He's long gone. "You want to know what else I'm right about?"

No, he did not want to know. Derek was quickly finding out that Tori might not have been as stupid as she looked if she could recognize what he was feeling before he could himself. He was also finding out that he didn't like what Tori knew about.

She didn't care though. "I know she feels the same way."

He snorted, knowing she didn't mean that. He knew she felt bad for making him give up on his façade, give up on tricking himself. Most people would freak when they realized they loved someone they shouldn't, but maybe Derek already knew, already admitted it. Just not to anyone else.

"I'm serious, Derek." She did, indeed, look rather serious. But he still felt no need to say anything. "Who was the one who saved her from…" He voice faltered. "From… from… God, I sound like her." She took a deep breath to steady herself. "Who was the one who saved her from me? Simon didn't find her. You did."

Derek wasn't a heartless guy. At that moment, he felt sorry for Tori. She was staring at her feet, and her cheeks were turning red. She was embarrassed about what she'd done to Chloe, and for that Derek could forgive her. His eyes softened a bit.

"You must have been so mad at me when I just left her. Both times. And you probably hate me, and that's okay. Everyone already thinks I'm a psychotic bitch, so why not you too?" He could tell she wanted him to protest, but he didn't. What she said was true, he was mad at her, and he did think he was psychotic. But now he was being forced to rethink his first opinions about her when he could see that she was a real person with real feelings.

"Where are you going with this?" He asked.

She fixed a glare on him, clearly mad that he interrupted her. She could tell he felt sorry for her, and she didn't want his sympathy. She wanted him to stop hating her so much. She wanted everyone to stop hating her so much. "Anyway… I knew you'd save her." She finished blandly.

Angrily, he snapped, "And what if I didn't? What would have happened then?"

She shook her head and waved her hand in the air and didn't seem fazed. "You would have saved her." She winked at him in an over-the-top way and said, "It's in your DNA."

"What do you know about werewolves?"

She snorted. "Enough to realize that you guys are insanely protective. You better watch out, or you might scare her away, getting so mad when anyone threatens her." She frowned and seemed to reconsider before saying, "Actually, if that face of yours didn't scare her away yet, I think you're good."

Derek didn't reply because what she said was the truth. He glanced in the window's reflection and saw what he'd been seeing for years: a monster. Red dots were sprayed across his face (though not as many as before), his hair hung limply around his face (though possibly due to a lack of a shower), and his eyes. The eyes were the one thing that would never be different, even when he Changed. The eyes of a predator were a part of him.

Then he looked at Chloe. She was yawning a bit, and Simon was saying something in her ear, a little closer than necessary. A growl stirred in his throat and he realized he wasn't protective, no, the word was possessive.

He looked at the window again, though this time he was peering out it. He could see the sign that stared up at him and made his stomach churn: Syracuse, six miles.

"One more thing you should know," Tori taunted him, waiting for him to take the bait. And sure enough he did, brilliant green eyes that she'd kill for focused on hers. She almost laughed at the desperate curiosity burning in them. "Simon is going to ask her out any minute now. Actually, in: five… four… three… two…"

Boy did that turn his head around fast. Sure enough, the signs were there. Simon was staring at Chloe, and she was staring back, completely rapt and awestruck. Derek didn't have to strain to hear what he was saying. "…once we get settled in, I thought maybe you and I could—"

Tori didn't know how the hell he got up there so fast, but she laughed to herself and whispered, "One."

Simon looked up in annoyance, and Tori laughed again. Simon knew about Derek's almost-creepy infatuation with Chloe, while the unnaturally dark-haired girl was completely clueless.

Derek's feet were moving of their own accord. His brain was screaming at them to stop, that it wasn't his place to dictate who Chloe could and couldn't go out with, but he had to make an attempt. If she really wanted to date Simon, she'd ask him afterward herself.

He didn't really like himself at that moment. He just knew he had to stop Simon before it was too late, but he felt like he was taking something that wasn't his, like he was interfering in something he wasn't supposed to be interfering in. "Yes, Derek?" Simon asked.

Chloe looked at Derek, though she didn't seem half as annoyed as her companion sitting next to her. "We're coming up to Syracuse soon."

Flatly, Simon replied, "Okay."

The taller boy's stomach growled. "I need something to eat. I'm starving."

"Sure," Simon said in a knowing tone. Like he didn't figure out exactly why Derek was suddenly plagued with an unfathomable hunger. "I figured we'd jump off and grab dinner."

Hating to admit any kind of weakness, Derek rumbled, "I can't. Not here." Simon lifted his eyebrows as if to ask 'And? Your point?' Slowly, Derek said, "Syracuse?"

"I don't think they're going to be hanging out at the bus station." Both Simon and Derek knew that.

"Is something wrong?" Chloe asked, completely unaware of the tension throbbing in the air between the two testosterone-filled males next to her.

"Nah," Simon lied smoothly. "I'll grab some food, okay?"

The green-eyed boy almost backed down. He didn't want Simon to be angry with him, but he really did need food, and he couldn't risk getting off the bus. Not there.

Tori watched in amusement, completely aware of what was going on even while Chloe didn't. She locked eyes with the necromancer before both of their eyes went to Derek who was walking back to his place next to Tori. "I'm surprised."

Derek didn't bother to ask her what exactly was so shocking because he knew she'd plow on and tell him anyway. "You actually defied your brother. Over Chloe. I take it this situation didn't come up very often? The pretty girl wasn't attracted to Simon, but you?"

"Shouldn't you be stretching?" He snarled at her. For a second, hurt flickered across her face before she smiled smugly and stepped off the bus.

He sat there alone, watching until the cluster of his friends stopped at a random food stand. Chloe was prattling off food items while Simon and Tori were occasionally throwing in something that they might have wanted. At one point Tori directed something at Simon that made him grit his teeth and glare at the bus, suspiciously close to where he was sitting.

"Everything okay?" Derek jumped slightly at the sound of Chloe's voice before he snapped in her direction. He nodded in response to her question, patiently waiting for her to pass the food to him.

She sat down beside me and asked, "Did you used to live here?"

Derek glanced out the window again, though this time he stared in the direction of where a strong and recognizable scent was billowing through the cracked window. "We lived just about every place in the state except here. We can't. Three are… others here."

"Others?" He didn't need to look at her face to tell she was confused.

There were still other people on the bus so he quietly replied, "Werewolves."

"In Syracuse?"

"Near it. A Pack."

"Oh."

He tried not to grimace as he heard something in her voice. It wasn't quite distaste, but he knew it could quickly turn to that if he proved he was really the beast everyone perceived werewolves to be.

Slowly she questioned, "And that's a problem?" There was a tiny bit of hesitation. "If they smelled you?"

"Yeah… we're territorial."

She blinked. There was a dryness in his tone, like he found what he just said highly ironic. "Oh."

"Yeah."

He wasn't really focused on anything outside the bus anymore. He was thinking about what they were just saying. Werewolves, he was quickly learning, were territorial about all kinds of things, not just places, but people too.

He felt her shift, the resigned sigh, and he knew she was leaving. In a somewhat desperate attempt to keep her next to him, he offered, "When I was a kid, when I lived in that place where you were locked up, the others were like that. Territorial."

She sat down next to him again, and he smiled slightly. "The other werewo—" She cut herself off. "Subjects?"

"Yeah," He said again, this time he faced her. Chloe frowned as she saw the bitterness as he looked back on painful memories that she wish she hadn't brought up. "Thy had this pack, I guess you'd call it, and they'd claim stuff, like the sandbox, as their territory, and if—"

He stopped talking as he smelled Simon. "Simon's coming." He glanced at his brother who was staring in confusion at the empty seat where Chloe was supposed to be. "He's looking for you. Better go."

She opened her mouth, something like disappointment lying on her face. "You go," She offered. "Sit with him the rest of the way."

Was she serious? He almost chuckled at how naïve she was. But then he realized she was offering out of kindness. Well, Derek was pretty sure that Simon wouldn't be too happy to see that he was going to be riding with him instead of Chloe. "Nah," he said wryly. "I'm good."

Chloe didn't pick up on his tartness as she insisted, "Really, I—"

"Chloe?" He asked, looking at her. She was clearly confused, but Derek could see that Tori was wrong. She didn't want to sit with him, she wanted to sit with Simon. "Go. Okay?"

She frowned, wondering if he just wanted to get rid of her. If she wasn't very fun to talk to, she didn't want to be a nuisance to him, so she nodded curtly and left.

Tori boarded the bus and sat down again next to Derek. "Trouble in paradise? Wow, I thought when I got back on the bus you two would be making out in my seat."

"Tori?"

She blinked at the tiredness in Derek's voice. "What?"

"You were wrong. Now shut up."

Tori wanted to deny that she saw the pain in his eyes, that he really didn't love her because then maybe this stupid love triangle would go away. This stupid soap opera that she had to watch.

She almost reconsidered, but she saw Chloe glance back at Derek who was too busy being moody and staring out the window to notice. "No," She said before she could stop herself. "I'm not wrong."

Tori's shoulder was shaken, snapping her out of her dream. "We'll be back soon, Derek's Changing."

Sleepily, she blinked her eyes. At first she thought she was still too tired to be seeing things right, but she blinked again sharply. Derek was sweating, face contorted in discomfort. "Okay… Behave yourselves."

Chloe didn't think anything of it, just rolled her eyes. But Derek glared at her and Tori mumbled, already falling back asleep, "Don't worry. She's even more blind than you."

(A/N) I'm not sure how in character everyone is, but I tried my hardest! I actually really like Tori, and I'm not sure if I'm the only one… anyway, reviews are loved :)

And yes, I do know that Tori was "actually completely clueless" about Derek and Chloe's relationship, (according to page372 in The Reckoning) but that's why it's FAN-fiction ;P Honestly though, I don't buy that she had no clue what was going on. She seemed a lot more boy savvy than Chloe, but hey, whatever Ms. Armstrong wanted to put in her series is cool with me.