The Picket Fence Cliche

It starts as an accident, really.

Cora’s always been drawn to animals over people and that only increases tenfold after the fire, where she almost seemed to be a shadow of herself. She went through the motions, went to school, talked to her family at dinner, but it didn’t escape Laura’s notice that her answers are fairly formulaic. There isn’t anything that excites her, and she doesn’t light up the way she used to. It makes sense – she’s been through a trauma, and it will take her time to process it fully. She just misses the way her sister used to be.

(Derek and Cora think she doesn’t know about the nightmares, but when Cora winds up in Derek’s room more often than not, it’s obvious there’s something going on there. She doesn’t say anything, though – it’s helping them both, and that’s the part that matters.)

It’s not that long past the fire when she goes to pick Cora up from school, and she finds her talking to a mountain of a stranger, and it’s only the fact that she’s smiling for the first time in months that makes her stop short of charging over there in a panic. Upon closer inspection of the man in question isn’t much older than Laura, dressed in lazy college student chic with a t-shirt and torn jeans. A few steps closer has the familiar tell-tale scent of “werewolf” which makes her breathe a little bit easier, and another few after that reveals the true culprit in it all – an English mastiff puppy sitting dutifully at her feet while Cora scratches him behind the ears.

Of course there’s a dog.

She sighs, resigned as she makes her way closer, and it’s the man who notices her first, holding up his hands in a gesture of innocence, before pointing down to the dog. “I know it’s a total cop out, but Barron is the one trying to woo her, not me.”

Cora’s head snaps to her sister immediately, and she puts on her best innocent face possible. She doesn’t, however, stop petting the dog. “He’s just a puppy. He didn’t know better.”

“I’d say that that statement could go for anyone here, but I’m pretty sure two of you are supposed to know better,” Laura teases and her sister ducks her head a bit, satisfied for the moment that she’s not getting yelled at. The man, however, just grins easily as he turns to face her. He’s cute. If things were different, she might have tried to flirt with him, once upon a time. Unfortunately, things are not different.

“He lives at the shelter across the street. I was just taking him for a walk, and he broke away with a mind of his own.” He then holds his hand out to her. “I’m Nik.”

“Laura.” She shakes his hand firmly. “I’m sure she’s just as guilty. She has a thing for dogs. Especially ones that are her size.”

“Well, she ever wants to come over and hang out with him, we could always use extra volunteers. Just have to get your parents to sign a permission thing, since she’s underage.”

Laura’s smile fades slightly and Cora’s hand slows on top of Barron’s head. “I’m her guardian,” she answers with a nod, before pulling herself back to chipper again. The wounds are still new and each reminder is still hard, but they’re working on it, one day at a time. “We’ll see. She just transferred, so I want to make sure she’s on top of her school work first.”

“Totally understandable.”

“And speaking of school, we should get you home so you can get started on your homework.” She gestures with one hand for Cora to come to her and she does, not stopping until Laura had a hand resting on her shoulder. “But it was nice meeting you.”

“You too.” He gives a bit of a wave as he tugs on Barron’s leash to take him away. Laura watches him go for a moment, before turning and heading the opposite way back towards the apartment.

“Nik says he’ll probably get adopted pretty quickly since he’s a puppy.”

“That’s good,” Laura says softly, glancing back as she goes. “All puppies need good homes.”

***

“You smell like dog.”

The comment comes from his brother the minute he walks in the door and Nik tosses him a look as he hangs up his jacket in the hall closet. “Your olfactory senses are astounding.”

Victor smirks in return, before turning to head back towards his office. “Clean up, dinner is in an hour.”

“Sounds good.” There’s a pause as he moves to head towards his bathroom before he stops and backtracks a bit. “I think I met the new Hale alpha today.”

Victor stops walking.

“Her name’s Laura, right?”

Then he takes a few steps back so that his head is poking out the entryway again. “Really?”

“Yeah. The youngest – Cora? She goes to school across the street from the shelter.”

Victor nods, considering it for a moment, before turning and heading back to his office again. “Make friends. Find out what her situation is.”

Nik sighs for a moment, before shaking his head and continuing on his way. “Yes, sir.”

***

It starts because Laura is running late and can’t pick her up on time. Derek is at an after school thing, Peter is handling Ivanov business, and she’s rushing to try and get her sister after taking Malia to one of the many trips she needs to make to help her get ready for school next year. Verity helped her find a cryptid friendly psychologist in the city to help get her started on talking through what happened with her mother and sister, and while they’re not making an astounding amount of progress, at least Malia hasn’t bitten this one.

Cora asks if she can wait at the shelter – Nik is there, and since he and Laura have talked a few more times, and she’s deemed him fairly safe. Laura agrees, and that’s pretty much the beginning of the end.

Waiting for Laura to pick her up turns into regular hour blocks after school, and the tanuki woman who runs the no-kill shelter adores her, and says she’s a great help. Cora has something to pull her out of her shell a bit so Laura lets the reins go, lets her grow a little on her own, and for the most part it seems to be working.

It’s a few months after that that Cora sits down at the breakfast bar, waiting for dinner. It’s just the two of them, as Derek took Malia to the basketball game at the Y and Peter was out again. She’s staring at Laura, mouth occasionally opening and closing as though she wants to say something, a look that Laura has learned all too well over the years.

“Out with it.”

Cora blinks. “What?”

“You want to ask me something. Out with it.”

Her sister sighs, drumming her fingers against the counter for a moment before she finally speaks. “Is our building pet friendly?”

Laura isn’t all that surprised. “Yes, it is.” Then she sighs. “Which one do you want to adopt?”

Cora makes a face at being that transparent, but at least the door is open. “Barron. He’s been there six months, and no one’s adopted him yet.”

“Isn’t it a no-kill shelter?”

“Yeah. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve a family, right?” Cora’s eyes were big and wide, practically begging for Laura to say yes. “He’s already been neutered and he has all his shots, and he’s a great dog, and I’ll take care of him all myself. I’ll walk him and feed him and play with him, and I’ll make sure he doesn’t get sick and … ”

Laura watches her ramble for a moment, laying out all of the reasons why she should do this, and she’d be lying if she said she couldn’t see the merits, at least for Cora. She sighs heavily, closing her eyes as she serves up the plate of food before cutting her off. “I’ll talk to Peter.”

“What?”

“I’ll talk to Peter, when he gets back.” She then puts her own plate down next to Cora, before making her way around to take a seat. “Now eat, before your food gets cold.”

Cora watches her for a moment, before leaning forward and throwing her arms around her sister’s neck. She hugs her tightly, and Laura closes her eyes before hugging her back in return. It’s probably the first real hug she’s given her since the fire, and it’s then that she knows she screwed.

Thus begins the slow descent of Laura pretty much giving Cora whatever she wants. Good thing Cora never really asks for much.