Holy moly, I can't believe Cora actually survived the finale! I guess miracles can happen. Now I just need Cora to come back and sweep Lydia off her feel, please thank you.

As always, I own nothing.

Of all the people Lydia expects to be at her door at half 11 on school night, Cora Hale certainly wasn't one of them. She suddenly feels very under-dressed as she takes in the other girl in her dark jacket and big boots, and tightens the ties of her dressing gown.

'Hey?' It comes out as more of a question than a greeting.

'Hey.' It would seem that Cora wasn't going immediately going to be offering any explanation.

'Did you want to come in?'

'I can't, Derek's waiting for me in the car. I made him stop by here so I could see you.'

'Are you going somewhere?'

'Yes actually, we're leaving town.'

'What?' Lydia hadn't heard anything about this from Scott. Or even Stiles. 'For how long?'

Cora hesitantly raises her head, refusing the meet Lydia's questioning eyes.

'Oh.'

'Yeah.'

'Why?'

'I can't say. We have some things to take care of. Family things. And Derek doesn't want anyone to know.'

'Oh. Are you sure you have to leave too? Couldn't you just stay here? Enroll at Beacon Hills, have a semi-normal life or something?' Lydia's not sure why she's pushing this. She's seen a lot of people leave, maybe she just doesn't want yet another person to.

'I don't think high school's really for me.' Lydia cringes at her choice of words a little when she realises that Cora's injury occurred in the locker room. She quickly tries to brush it off. That's what she's good at, after all.

'That's a shame, I would have enjoyed forcing you to carry my books for me.' The corner of Lydia's mouth is turned up in a familiar smirk, but the playfulness of the comment doesn't reach her eyes.

'Maybe I would have liked that.' Cora's eyes don't leave Lydia's as she says it.

Silence falls between them for a moment as Lydia wraps her arms around herself for warmth from the evening chill, and Cora picks at a bit of peeling paint on the Martin's door-frame.

'Look, Lydia, I just came to say... I was wrong about you.'

'What do you mean?'

Cora looks up, a half smile now fixed upon her face, and a teasing glint in her eye.

'You can definitely handle a werewolf.'

A short laugh escapes Lydia's mouth, and Cora watches as her breath hangs in the air between them. It makes Lydia seem even more beautiful.

'How are the twins?' Cora hadn't seen them since Deaton has nursed them back to health the night before.

'They'll be okay.'

'And you and Aiden?' The question is hesitant. The dry paint snaps from the frame and falls to Cora's feet.

'We'll see.' The question is loaded, and Lydia's answer is softer than any bullet.

The sound of a car horn blares through the night, and Lydia catches Cora rolling her eyes. She's going to miss that.

'That's Derek, I should probably get going.'

'Okay.'

'Just...'

'What?'

'Take care of yourself, okay? You've more than proven to me that you're capable of handling things yourself,' she adds as Lydia opens her mouth in protest. 'But if I ever come back, I want you alive and kicking, you hear me?'

'Okay.' Lydia's not sure whether she smiles because Cora might come back one day, or because she would actually want to see Lydia if she did.

Lydia reaches out her hand, taking Cora's larger one in her own, grasping it gently for a brief moment. There's a light squeeze and then it's released.

'Goodbye Cora.'

The wolf is still looking down at her hand, and she swears, as lame as she knows it sounds, that she can feel it tingling.

She's never been one for the emotional side of things; she's always tried to remain detached, finding it easier to get by just looking out for herself (and her family, of course). But as she looks up into Lydia's eyes (she's biting her pink bottom lip, clearly worried she perhaps overstepped the mark, and Cora's mind flashes back to their first encounter, when she had reacted so visibly to even the mention of the word 'sweetheart') she debates whether or not she should just forget about all of that for tonight.

Oh, screw it.

Before she can stop herself, she closes the distance between them and leaves a soft kiss on the redhead's cheek. It lasts just a few seconds, before she quickly pulls back and nods.

'See you around, genius.' And with a final smile and a wink, she's gone.

Lydia watches as the other girl joins her brother in his car, and he pulls out onto the road. Their eyes meet one final time, before the car is out of her sight, and she's left alone on her porch, fingers touching cheek, recalling the ghost of the wolf's kiss.