Stiles looked around their apartment, everything looked clean and in order. He was hosting the Secret Santa this year and it was more daunting than he thought it would be. With the pizza and wings on the way, there was nothing left to do. He had shooed Lydia out of his apartment the day before so that he could wrap her gift in peace and so that he could clean. While he hadn't gotten Lydia for the Secret Santa part of the evening, he knew that his girlfriend of ten years was going to expect a gift of her caliber at the end of the night.
They'd just decided to move in and since Stiles had the slightly bigger apartment due to the fantastic deal with the landlord that he'd scored when he'd moved back to Beacon Hill. Leaning against the island in the kitchen he looked over at the little gift boxes one stacked on the other under the tree he crossed his fingers.
Glancing at his watch Stiles raised an eyebrow, it wasn't like for Kira, Erica, Malia, Allison, or Lydia to be late. Because of the four of them it was a miracle that their respective partners were on time. As the clock ticked by and it was encroaching on half seven Stiles was resisting the itch to text the group chat. Another ten minutes and the itch had won out. He was in the middle of typing out 'where y'all at?' as the apartment door opened and all nine of his friends stumbled in. Raising an eyebrow as Boyd, Isaac, and Theo stood behind everyone else holding the pizza, wings, and alcohol.
"I thought you all bailed on me?" he said walking over to where his friends and girlfriends were laying on the floor. Holding out a hand to Lydia he smiled as she took it and allowed him to pull her up. Holding her tight he placed a kiss on her cheek. "Remind me next time that I hate spending time apart."
"Oh I will especially since I had only just moved my stuff into the apartment three days ago," she said leaning into his hug and returning it just as tight. She pulled back just enough to place a soft kiss to his lips. Stiles returned it, to the boos from their friends.
They broke apart laughing and the two of them stepped aside so that everyone else could get up and properly enter the flat. They'd all hung out here hundreds of time, so the guys headed over to the kitchen island to put the food down and put the alcohol in the correct spot. Lydia stepped away to go grab her already wrapped gift from the linen closet and the other girls started unloading the gifts under the tree.
Stiles smiled at his girlfriend and walked over to where the guys were standing around opening beers and chatting. Nodding in thanks to the handed beer from Scott he looked at his friends. Allison and Isaac where celebrating their first Christmas as a married couple. Boyd and Erica were going on year five and had to leave around ten to catch their midnight flight out to Boyd's grandmothers in Baltimore for the holiday. Scott and Kira had gotten married right out of high school to no one's shock. They'd eloped and then come home from their first semester at two different colleges married. Oddly it had worked for them.
Malia and Theo had just gotten back together after a decade apart. They were good for each other, Stiles would be lying if he said that he suddenly liked Theo now. While indifferent towards the newest addition to their group, he had to admit that Malia seemed lighter. As for himself and Lydia, they'd dated long distance throughout their undergrad with Lydia and Stiles taking turn going up or coming down from their respective colleges. He'd gone on to get a masters in criminal psychology before officially joining the Bauru, and Lydia had recently received her Ph.D. in theoretical mathematics from Stanford. With his fourth year at the Bauru ending and Lydia settled into her position at Berkley, they were finally in the same spot.
Boyd raised his eyebrow at him, as Boyd gestured towards the bottles of champagne in his fridge. Stiles just smiled and winked at his friend. When Boyd grinned and clapped him on the back Stiles was eternally grateful for having a friend like Boyd who was an expert at the art of silent conversation. Turning to Scott he slung his arm over the doofus' shoulder and clinked his beer to Scott's.
The girls had all sorted themselves with glasses of wine or a glass of sparkling grape juice for Alison, as they grabbed paper plates from the counter. Stiles eyes following the subtle movements of Lydia moving around his-no their apartment with ease deftly knowing where anything she might need was. Her laughter twinkling around the room as they stood there putting pizza on plates and laughing about the volume of wings they'd ordered.
"Stiles are you even listening?" Isaac's voice cut through his thought about how he loved it when Lydia wore that dress. Turning back to Scott and Isaac he raised his eyebrow.
"Of course-" when they gave him a look, he just laughed and shook his head, "no not at all."
"We were asking if you and Lydia had any plans for the new year," Isaac asked looking at him eyebrow raised.
"You know we've talked about it a bit and we really want to use our days off to go travel Southeast Asia or Africa," he said shrugging nonchalantly and looking at his friends. "Speaking of plans, how did Mr. Argent take the news that you and Alison are finally having kids?"
Isaac blanched and took a swig from the scotch in his hand. Scott and Stiles burst into laughter as Boyd and Theo moved over to them. After Scott recapped what had happened Theo shook his head and whistled. "I do not envy having to tell that man anything."
Stiles, Scott, and Boyd all nodded looking at their friend in mock sympathy before laughing again. Soon the conversation turned to the cases that Stiles was working, the animals at Scott's vet office, Theo's work at the station and how Beacon Hill High was doing now that Isaac and Boyd were teaching at it. Stiles tuned out humming and hawing at the proper moments, his thoughts and eyes enraptured with the strawberry blonde vision across the room sitting with the girls and giggling at something Kira had said.
Scott followed his best friends' eyes to his girlfriend and grinned. Stiles hadn't been able to ever focus on the world around him when Lydia was in the room. The rest of the group had been shocked that Stiles and Lydia had been the last ones to get married.
Scott understood, though. While the love the two held was nauseating to everyone around them, they hadn't ever mentioned a desire to further their relationship as they were both still working towards their goals and in different schools. Scott applauded his best friends will to not mention that his one true goal was to marry Lydia Martin.
As he and Stiles were lost in thought the girls started to gestor to the guys who were all standing by the island eating and hanging out. It was Isaac pulling them behind him that snapped them both out of their separate thoughts as they stumbled forward. Stiles laughed and gently shoved Isaac towards his newly wed wife. Walking over to Lydia he slipped behind her on the arm chair and wrapped his arm around her shoulder smiling down at her. As the other four couples got situated around the Christmas tree he leaned down to give Lydia a kiss.
"Quit it you two nerds, it is time to hand out gifts," Kira said throwing a piece of wrapping at them. Lydia smirked and threw it back at her best friend.
Erica shook her head and looked at everyone waiting for them to calm down. Once there was relative silence around the ten of them she started to pass out gifts to everyone. After seven years of Secret Santa they all had the process down. They went one at a time till everyone had claimed a gift that was given. This year the process seemed to be taking for-fucking ever. Stiles smiled as Lydia passed up his secret santa gift. The always split the group into two sets so as to make it easier on everyone.
This year Lydia had gotten Boyd, Stiles had gotten Kira, Alison had gotten Malia, Isaac had gotten Theo, and Scott had gotten Erica. In the other set; Boyd had gotten Isaac, Kira had gotten Alison, Malia had gotten Lydia, Erica had gotten Stiles, and Theo had gotten Scott. As gifts were opened and hugs were given in return Stiles started to sweat.
The time was coming closer and closer. Erica winked at him as the hubbub settled and people started to shift and place their gifts with their things. She shifted back and pulled out the little box still under the tree. He smiled grateful that he'd filled his Catwoman in on the scheme. As Lydia took the box she looked around eyebrow raised. As she pulled the bow off the box. Spinning she found Stiles down on one knee.
"Lydia, we've never talked about it," he started his voice shaking, "at least with each other in a plan sort of way. We've been best friends since junior year, but I've loved you since the second grade." Stiles cleared his throat and offered her a small smile. Lydia moved closer tears in her eyes.
"We're both in the same place in our lives now, we don't have any more exams or training," he chuckled as she rolled her eyes at him. "Well you have a few more exams, what with grading and all." Lydia laughed outright at this and Stiles smiled back at her. "Will you Lydia Jean Martin make me the happiest and luckiest guy in the entire world? Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife, though I insist you keep your last name, you've worked hard for those accreditations." Finishing, he looked at her and held his breath.
For her credit Lydia was only a little surprised, she'd had her suspicions about it since he'd asked her to move into his apartment. Staring down at the man she had loved since she was 18 she got lost in the memories of college, illness, and movie nights. A small cough from Alison behind her broke her reverie and she realized she hadn't answered.
"Yes! Yes, a thousand times yes," she said pulling him up, so she could kiss him properly. As they embraced tears on both of their faces, the sounds of their friends cheering and a champagne bottle popping in the background filled their ears. Lydia pulled away slightly and rested her forehead against his and took a breath.