Sterek Library (a03 Edition)

Water Wings

By: AsagiStilinski on a03

"Are you SURE you don't want to come in?" Derek asked slowly as he stared at the little girl in front of him

"Um..." she wimpered, looking down at the water and shaking her head quickly

"Do you want to use the stairs?" he offered, looking over to where the stairs for the pool were

The little girl nodded quickly and he held out his hand, backing up step by step as she toddled over to the stairs and stepped into the water, shreiking at the chill

"Cold isn't it?" he chuckled

The girl shook her head quickly, even though she was already shivering

"N-N-Nope, werewolves don't get cold," she insisted

"Julia you know that isn't true, werewolves can get cold," he insisted, sitting on the top step were she was standing and watching her climb down to the second step

"You aren't cold," she pointed out

"That's because I've been in the water for a few minutes, I'm used to it," he shrugged back

Just before his daughter could rebuff his statement an exclaimation of "HOLY SHI-.. TZU... THAT'S COLD!" came from the other end of the pool, drawing the attention of both Derek and Julia and seeing thin, slightly scrawny man flailing around in animated motion in the water as he shivered and leaned against the edge

"Aren't all indoor pools supposed to be heated?" he groaned

"Not all of them apparently," Derek offered from the other side of the pool

The man cursed under his breath a few times, probbably under the impression that they couldn't hear him, but werewolves could hear everything...

Derek just sighed quietly, it was exactly BECAUSE werewolves could hear everything that he had long since given up on sheilding his five-year-old from profanity....

The guy just gave them a small wave and lowered a decorative baby floatie into the water with a young child looking to be no older than a year old in it

The baby seemed immediately comfortable and splashed the guy and Derek faintly heard him grunt a "Traitor.." at the child

He considered going over to say hi, it wasn't often he saw other dads having quality time with their kids (especially without bemoaning it) but his lack of social skills ended up keeping him on the other side of the pool

"You want to try actually swimming instead of floating?" he offered, watching the little brunette next to him as she floated aimlessly in the water, letting the water wings and floating ring do all the work

"I guess so..." she said hesitantly

"We don't have to," Derek shrugged

Personally, he rather liked swimming, something about it was very lively, it was quiet and relaxing- tuning out the rest of the world- that was nearly impossible for him to have, yet at the same time it was also a very harsh, bitter reality that if one allowed themselves to get too lost there would be consequences

It toed the line between relaxing and hypervigalence and something about that line appealed greatly to Derek

"Um... can we play Star?" she asked

Derek smiled and nodded, setting Julia on the middle step and walking to the center of the pool, trying to ignore the tiny aches on the bottom of his feet from the roughness of the pool bottom continously scraping against his skin

"Do you want to go first?" he asked with a smile

One of the perks to being a werewolf, unlike most people who play games across any sort of distance they didn't have to shout anything at eachother