I'm giving you all [Scerek]

I'm giving you all

Swallow my breath and take what is mine.

(I'm giving you all, I'm giving you all)

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There's a scared boy looking at Scott in the mirror. Oh, he may be a man, technically - twenty-years-old and more world weary than any man his age has right to be. But despite that, all Scott sees is the same scared boy that thought going into the woods at night was a great idea. "Okay," Scott tells his reflection. "You can do this. You've got this."

His reflection doesn't seem too sure about that.

"You can do this," he repeats. As if maybe saying it enough times will make it come true.

There's a soft tap against the bathroom door. "Scott?" Derek's voice calls gently from the other side.

Scott flinches, cringing at his reflection in the mirror. "Yeah, I'm coming," he answers. He takes one last deep breath, one last chance to shake the jitters out of his hands, and finger-combs his hair back into perfect order. When he opens the bathroom door, Derek's expression is sympathetic. "Hey," Scott mumbles. The sight of his boyfriend usually has the effect of chasing Scott's worries away. But today it's just too much, and all he wants to do is curl up against the man and hide.

"Hey. You ready? Alpha Ortega will be here soon."

'No,' Scott wants to say. He's not ready for this. He's supposed to be a college student, only worried about money and putting his life together and making sure he's caught up on classwork so he can take the week of Valentine's Day off to suitably woo his boyfriend. (He's gone through at least a dozen ideas at this point. All of them range from falling too short to being, well, too much. Especially the gift he really wants to give Derek.) He shouldn't have to fret about life and death and starting a supernatural turf war at a last minute Pack delegation. But he's the Alpha, and so he sucks it up and lies through his teeth. "As ready as I'll ever be."

It's a blatant lie, but Derek only hums in response. He steps easily into Scott's space, doesn't even hesitate to lift a hand to Scott's shoulder. It's the simplest touch and yet it sends has the tight vice around his heart easing just a bit. It makes Scott think of all the years they've missed out on, on how many years he'd thought about being this close to older 'wolf. "It's okay to be nervous," Derek reminds him softly.

Scott winces. "You can smell that? Is it that bad?"

Derek looks like he's fighting not to roll his eyes. "Scott, I don't need to smell anything to see that you're nervous."

That's even worse. This is going to be a disaster. Why did Scott ever agree to meet with the neighboring Pack? Life was hard enough when their ragtag group was just fighting to survive. Now they have to add negotiating and politics to it. "This isn't going to work," he says in a rush of breath, panic overtaking him for a terrifying instant. "We should call this off. Alpha Ortega is going to see how awful I am at this and she's going to wipe the floor with me..."