𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐒 𝐌𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊, Lydia Martin

03 | lost in translation

"we were having fun,
now i can't wait to be done"
-The Neighbourhood

"YOU KNOW, I'M STARTING NOT TO like this idea." Isaac anxiously paced the length of the loft's floor to ceiling windows. "Sounds kinda dangerous."

"That's 'cause it is." Tobias kept his glare zeroed in on the closed metal door that served as an entrance to the place. He straightened a bit on the pillar he was leaning on when he started hearing distant footsteps walking up the staircase.

Isaac stopped to point at him briefly. "You know what? I don't like this idea, and I definitely don't like him." His finger budged to signal towards the door.

"Ditto."

"You'll be fine." Derek gave no other reassurances from his place sat in front of the table.

"Does it have to be him?" Isaac stopped his infinite march in order to move closer to the table in front of the windows, on the other side of Derek.

"He knows how to do it," The alpha explained. "I don't."

"I know how to do it, too," Tobias brought the argument up for the third time in the last half an hour, turning to look at him. "You just don't want to learn."

"I just don't want to kill him, you mean." Derek corrected him. "It'd be more dangerous if I tried doing it myself. I don't suppose you'd like another one of your friends to be used as a guinea pig?" His eyes narrowed tauntingly.

"And I don't suppose you'd like to be my next target at practice?" Tobias pushed away from the support beam, taking out one of the throwing knifes from the back of his waistband and holding it at his side.

"You know Scott doesn't trust him, right?" Isaac sent his friend a placating look as he defused the situation. "You know, personally, I'd.." He stammered slightly. "Well, we'd trust Scott." The dirty blond's hand gestured between himself and Tobias to his left.

"Do you trust me?" Derek finally turned to look at his beta.

"Yeah." Isaac answered after a moment. 

Taking notice of the silence that followed, Tobias, having moved back again to train his gaze on the door, turned back. Derek's eyes held a silent questioning in them as they looked at him.

The seventeen-year-old rolled his eyes, averting his gaze afterward. "S'long as you don't start spouting betas without previous notice again, sure." 

"You two wouldn't even be friends right now, if I hadn't." Derek deadpanned.

"Meh, we would've figured it out eventually." Tobias dismissed.

"Would you have, though? Really?" The older man teased him back.

"I still don't like him." Isaac interrupted them, whispering stubbornly. He had long ago learnt how to drown them out, a recurring event throughout the past few months.

"Nobody likes him." The other two said in unison.

The footsteps from earlier audibly stopped right outside the door. "Speak of the devil." Tobias muttered as he moved to stand next to Isaac, crossing his arms.

The metal doors smoothly slid to the side as the man they'd been speaking of opened them from the other side. 

"Boys," Peter Hale's permanently smug tone travelled across the room to them. "F.Y.I., yes, coming back from the dead has left my abilities somewhat impaired, but the hearing still works." He walked down the steps to reach them. "So, I hope that you're comfortable saying whatever it is that you're feeling straight to my face." He stared at them expectantly.