allthesame2me | 15th [Audio]

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15th [Audio]

Derek, you around?

[Alex just found out Chloe isn't around. If his tone is anything to go by, he's unhappy at the very least, but also worried about his friend.]

[Private]

Anders? Where the hell are you...

[He hadn't heard from the Mage since he'd left the damned note on his door saying he, Hawke and co. were going off and he'd waited as long as he could. Searches had come up with nothing, but god help him he refused to accept he was gone and would keep trying to reach him.]

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[Derek is around, but he's not in any position to check the journals. He doesn't even have his with him, because he'd been in and out of his wolf form too much in the last few days to want to carry it around with him. He's been following Chloe's scent trail, trying desperately to find her, and telling himself that it doesn't mean anything that it's simply disappeared.

By now, he knows that he's not going to find her, that like so many other people here, she's just vanished.

He just doesn't want to admit it, and so he's still hunting around the Keep for her, although at least he's back in human form.]

[Alex had not heard from either Derek or Anders and it was really just making him all the more uptight. The were-leopard sets out, determined to find at least someone he's looking for.

It doesn't take long and he spots his friend a short distance ahead.]

Derek!

[He jogs up the distance between them, his own form singing with tension and unease.]

Anything?

[No need to say what or whom.]

[Derek smells Alex coming before he sees him, mostly because Derek's pretty obsessively hunting for anything that smells familiar. At first he ignores it, but then pauses when he realizes Alex is actually heading for him, and turns towards him when he calls his name.

He easily picks up on the tension and unease, and knows it's mirrored in his own frame.

But there's a hint of defeat there, too, as he shakes his head.]

No.

[There is no missing that trace of defeat in Derek's posture or his scent. There's no missing it because Alex is feeling very much the same thing right now, both for Chloe and for Anders, whom he has found no trace of in over a month.

He slows to a stop as he reaches Derek, his brows drawn together. There is no holding back the explosion.]

Son of a bitch!!

[Normally it'd be comforting to have someone feeling the same thing, and maybe it is, if only because it's Alex, but Derek's having a hard time being comforted by anything right now.

He doesn't even know if he's angry. He had been, angry and panicked and worried and desperate, but now that it's starting to set in, that there's nothing he can do, he doesn't know.

And then Alex curses, and no, he still has that anger.

Derek growls his agreement, but the growl goes on longer than he'd planned, and then he has to cut himself off, because the last thing he needs to do is start changing right now.]

Have you?

[Found anything, he means, but it's all he can do to get those two words out.]

[Derek growls low in response to Alex's own anger and the Were tries to quickly reign himself in. The last thing he needed was for either of them to lose their cool and to flip out within the Keep.

When Derek asks if he's found anything himself, Alex shakes his head sharply.]

Nothing... I've checked everywhere I can think of.

[When Alex tries to reign himself in, Derek does as well. It's hard, because it's Chloe, but he knows that losing control isn't going to accomplish anything.]

Yeah. Same.

[It's not what he wants to hear... it's exactly the opposite of what he wants to hear, really. And he can't help the sudden sag to his shoulders as Derek admits that he hasn't found a sign of her.]

Damn this place...

[Chloe was part of his pack and this loss was one of the keenest he'd suffered.]

[Derek whines softly, before he can stop himself. Alex's shoulders sagging like that is pretty much a reflection of the defeat that Derek feels right now.

He was supposed to protect her. He'd promised, that he'd always be there for her, for as long as she wanted him, and he failed. The most important person in his life, and he'd been powerless to stop her disappearance. He doesn't know what to do. While he was still looking, there was something for him to do, for him to focus on, he could pretend, but now...

Almost before he realizes it, he's moved closer to Alex. Alex is part of his pack, one of the few he has left here, and he... he doesn't know what he's doing. Maybe he wants that reminder, the comfort of a packmate, that there's still someone left.]

[Alex hates that they lost someone he was so close to, but he knows damn well that he's not the only one suffering the loss of Chloe's disappearance.

As much as Derek beats himself up for being responsible for Chloe, so does Alex. He'd been keeping an eye on her since before Derek showed up and readily counted her amongst his closest friends.

When Derek moves closer, Alex drops into a squat without even a beat, fingers digging into the wolf's pelt. Derek's scent is unmistakable and unique, a mixture of a wolf's muskiness and his distinct human self. There is no denying the comfort her takes from it and he closes his eyes briefly, leaning in to rest his forehead against Derek's.]

[Perhaps it's because of that, of the fact that Alex is suffering as well, that Alex is blaming himself for not keeping an eye on Chloe as Derek is, that makes Derek willing to open himself up like this.

Or maybe it's that Alex was the first one to think Derek being a werewolf was cool, maybe it's everything that's happened at the Keep, maybe it's the fact that Alex is family, as much as his dad and Simon and Chloe and Liz are, that Alex has been part of his pack for longer than Derek's been consciously aware of.

But whatever the case, when Alex leans closer to him, rests his forehead against Derek's, Derek lets out a soft, slightly hopeless sigh.

And then his arms are wrapping around Alex without him really being aware of it, pulling him into a hug.]

[Alex is silent as his forehead rests against Derek's, but his brows knit together at his friend's soft sigh.

When Derek hugs him, there isn't a beat of hesitation before his arms wrap around him and he hugs back.]

We'll find her, Derek... We'll find her.

[Derek's eyes close as Alex hugs him back, taking comfort in having a familiar scent nearby, in Alex just being there.

He's not sure he really believes that right now. But he has to, because there really isn't another option.]

We will.

[Alex won't pull away until Derek does, knowing how important scent and touch play directly hand in hand with comfort amongst most shifters.

He'll keep looking for Chloe until she shows up again. He will never ever consider that she might not come back.]

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