Sweet’s the Air with Curly Smoke (From All My Burning Bridges)
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Summary: Derek wakes up in Kate's car smelling smoke.
Notes: Sequel to Love is Just a Bloodsport and A Banquet of Consequences. AU take on the Hale house fire and its consequences. Title from “Sanctuary” by Dorothy Parker.
Sweet’s the Air with Curly Smoke (From All My Burning Bridges) Every story has its chapter in the desert, the long slide from kingdom
to kingdom through the wilderness,
where you learn things, where you’re left to your own devices.
Henry’s driving,
and Theodore’s bleeding into the upholstery.
{Driving, Not Washing by Richard Siken}
Derek woke up groggy, head pounding and heavy. A touch of air wafted over his face, smelling of gasoline and cheap coffee and asphalt. The smells and a bitter taste in his mouth made his stomach roil. He swallowed hard and opened his eyes, squinting at the light. His eyes burned and he felt a tickling cough start in the back of his throat. He felt like he’d been put through a blender.
When his eyes stopped watering, they confirmed what his nose had told him. He was sitting alone in Kate’s car at a gas station, one he didn’t recognize. He probably wasn’t anywhere near Beacon Hills anymore. The sun was low in the horizon, so they’d probably been driving for four or five hours, which meant they could be anywhere.
Derek swiveled in his seat, fighting the nausea that instantly took hold of him, and glanced around. He couldn’t see any signs but the country side was desert, drier and sparser than anything near home. Maybe he was in Nevada? Arizona?
His memories were hazy and fragmented and old. He caught bits and pieces of the morning - the smell of grass on lacrosse field, the snap of a pencil in his hands - and the afternoon was even harder to pin down. He remembered Kate, remembered a wailing siren, and panic punching him in the chest.
Derek closed his eyes tight and took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. That proved a mistake, though, because his throat clamped down and it felt like something sharp slipped down into his lungs, forcing him to double over and cough until his throat felt raw.
Bent over his knees, taking short wheezing breaths, seatbelt digging into his chest with each inhale, Derek caught the scent something acrid and burnt. The smell permeated everything, from the seat upholstry to Derek’s clothes, the whole car swathed in it. When Derek turned his head he saw the car’s cigarette lighter stuffed to the brim with curling black petals and limp purple ones.
The echo of Kate’s voice whispered in his ear. “Sit tight, puppy.” Derek whined, nausea surging again, so he buried his face against his knees. Her words came back to him, the pounding needles of a headache. He pressed his nose into denim and searched for traces of wood smoke in the wolfsbane. “There’ll be nothing left when you wake up.”
The door to his left opened and Kate’s scent filled the car, fighting with the wolfsbane for dominance, spice and musk and human female, coffee and gasoline mixing in with bitterness and ash, cloying sweetness and fresh leaves. The slam of the door made him flinch - the pain in his head peaking, his ears buzzing. Over his laboured breathing he heard her slip her coffee cup into the holder, snap her seatbelt into place and slide the keys into the ignition.
He wanted to move, was going to move, but everything hurt and he felt sick and if he moved he might scream because there was wolfsbane in Kate’s car and something was really really wrong, something more than what was happening right there, with him, with her. Something to do with smoke and fire and any moment now he was going to remember.
Kate squeezed his shoulder and pulled him back up, pressed him into the backrest. He felt her hand cup his cheek, his jaw, move his head towards her, so he opened his eyes. Her mouth made a moue.
“Not looking so hot, puppy,” she said, as her fingers slipped to the side of his neck, feeling his pulse. Derek felt his fang dig into his lips and saw hers curve into a smile. “But good enough.”
Then her hand let go, turned the key and pressed a knob, and the wolfsbane was filling the car again, blotting out all scent of Kate and the memory woodsmoke. Derek slumped in the seat as unconsciousness took him again.