Leftovers will be absolutely fine. Besides, Yvette is seventeen, she can handle feeding herself. She wishes Melissa a good day at work. And thanks her for - this. It was very helpful.

Well, Yvette has the house to herself again.

So she does.

She has some thinking to do, doesn't she. Does she want to open the book while she has the house to herself?

(Yes.)

No, she doesn't. She wants to inform someone of what she's doing before she opens the book, because that is what a responsible person does. She is going to ask Stiles for any knowledge he has about it, and any potential protections that are available in case it's evil, which it probably is. She's not going to open and read it in the house, she's going to open it and read it in a sensible location where if it explodes in horrorterrors, they're not all screwed.

Instead she starts plotting out how to handle the various problems in the town, because - well. She had her break. If she were to draw it out longer she'd start to just feel horrible, especially under this kind of pressure. So it's back to work for her. While she thinks, she cleans, just to keep busy. To feel like she's making something better. And to sort of - repay the McCalls. She'll avoid moving too many things around, but she can vacuum and dust and wipe down countertops and mop just fine. So she finds the cleaning supplies, and she does that.

She still needs to learn more about Lydia's - thing. She needs to handle the Matt situation. She needs to talk to Deaton, she needs to keep some kind of handle on Peter, and keep him far, far away from Lydia and Scott. She needs to figure out how to make Scott's pack some resemblance to official, so that if a new pack of werewolves show up they'll be moderately deterred from causing trouble. She needs to - she needs to get some kind of power, so she doesn't stare down monsters while made of paper and a lot of nerve. Whether that be through learning magic from Stiles or officially becoming a werewolf or opening that fucking book, she doesn't entirely care. But she doesn't want to be defenseless anymore.

Soon enough, she gets hungry, and she has some leftover lasagna nuked in the microwave. She takes a shower. She goes back to cleaning, trying to figure out various ways to approach the insane people in this town.

Eventually, she won't have the house to herself again.

Scott is home first.

"Hey. Are you- how are you holding up? What do you need?"

"Hey," she says, looking up from her dusting. "I'm - better. Ish. I've been cleaning. Your mom took some time off work to watch a stupid movie with me, it helped a lot." She considers, then adds, seriously, "And, uh, I probably need more Lysol."

"I can get some, sure. You don't have to clean. If you want chores to do, we'll come up with a schedule or something, but you're our guest."

"I know I don't have to," she assures. "I mean, granted, it's a bit rude for me to just start cleaning your house, and I'm sorry about that, but your mom seems busy and I know how busy you are too, so. It seemed the thing to do. I put everything back where I found it." She shrugs. "I don't want to just park on the couch all day, I'd go crazy."

"We'd understand if just relaxing and entertaining yourself was what you wanted instead. You've been pretty...active since you got here. I just want to make sure you're not over-doing anything. I mean, I'm sure you can take care of yourself, but it must be an adjustment." 

Scott means well, but he seriously has no idea what to do with her.

"It is. I'm - not going to pretend I'm entirely okay with everything. It's - sometimes I react to things affecting me adversely by wanting to fix my surroundings? Like cleaning. Instead of being a thing the world is toying with, I am a person fixing the world. On a very small scale."

"If- if you want more things to do, I can keep you updated on what's going on? Or do you want to stay as involved as you've been? That seems dangerous, usually humans don't. Allison has a crossbow and wolfsbane, Stiles has mountain ash if he needs it and mostly does research...do you want to find ways to protect yourself or do you want to the research?" 

"I'd like to be kept updated," she agrees, a little wryly. "And stay as involved as I have been, but - yes, I would like - something so I'm not a defenseless human surrounded by people that could hurt me. I," she hesitates, considering her wording. "I think I'd like to get involved with the research at the very least, and try to learn as much about my book companion as possible. But I would like to not be so vulnerable, as well."

"I'll look into getting your magic lessons, but it's not very useful in a fight. Mostly for barriers and defense. If you want self-defense training, the Argents can probably help; weapons too. Do you know how to patch yourself up? I can show you how, or my mom can. And you might not be our best option for research, now that Lydia's involved- she can read Latin. Maybe focus on being our, uh, neutral representative."

"I have some extremely basic knowledge of first-aid, but I think I would like my knowledge there double checked and patched up where necessary. I'll - see about asking the Argents for weapons training, I suppose. And - okay, fine, but I would really like to know about my probably evil book as soon as possible, at some point I'm going to be tempted enough to actually read the damn thing and I want to be as safe as possible when I do. But yes. Neutral representative focus was my plan. Just. Book."

"Right. The magic evil book. If you really think it's going to help, and not turn out to be a big mistake. Then yeah, we'll find a way to be safe about it. Are you sure wanting it to be soon is you and not...the book...maybe?"

"I don't know if it's going to help or not, but I can't just pretend it doesn't exist. It hides behind my eyelids, recall. And - I'm -" she hesitates. "Maybe 70% sure that it's me and not the book. But I acknowledge that it could be."

"Okay. If it is the book, and it's magically powerful, I don't know if we can stop you if something goes wrong. There's a chance that if it changes you somehow, mountain ash could trap...the book...if you want to try it inside a circle, but we really don't have a lot of defenses." 

"We can test to see if the book will follow me if it's trapped in a circle. Or if I can get trapped in a circle, actually. If mountain ash isn't hard to come by."

"Deaton keeps some at the clinic, he knows how to get more. I don't think mountain ash should work on humans normally, but if we're lucky, the book is special. Or if we're really lucky, it's not super creepy and evil." 

"If we're really lucky," she agrees wryly. "All right. So I can go talk to him later about it, and see if the test is worth the possible expense. I needed to talk to him anyway, that works out."

"Sounds good to me. Do you need a ride? I can take the car when my mom gets home, unless you'd rather take the bike."

"Yes please, and - car. If it's not too much trouble."

"Sure. I know you aren't a big fan of the bike, so after my mom gets home, we can leave. Anything I should do until then? I don't want you to get bored, but I don't think you should do anything about the book until we test the circle..."

"I decided not to do anything stupid and rash in regards to the book," she assures. "You don't need to convince me. If I'd wanted to read it now, I'd have done it while everyone was gone."

"...Thanks for not doing that. Um, so do you need something to pass the time? My mom will still be gone a couple of hours." 

"You're welcome. I was just going to keep cleaning, if there aren't any impending emergencies? I haven't gotten to the bathrooms yet..."