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disclaimer: i don't own teen wolf
((AU - OOC - AH since I'm in the car on the way to Belfast, Ireland, and details seem to fly out of my head.))
"On Finding Each Other"
Sometimes love sneaks up on you at a time you least realize it will. | Or, in which we watch two best friends find each other.
Him
It was love at first-sight for him.
She is the new kid in the class. He has lived in that town his whole friggin' life and as far as he knows, with the sheriff as his father, nothing exciting as her bright strawberry hair and perfect nose happens. However, when she walks into the room, a row of angels process in his [love-struck] brain, and a chorus begins.
He misses her name and other information that later he'll keep (although, later, his best friend Scott fills him in and jabs at his guts with a pencil, joking about how his face had looked) and she sits down in the first row. Later, over the years, seeing as she is a nerd inside, her popularity card never affects her perfect grades.
He finally realizes how lucky he is when she sits down next to him at the middle school lunch table, and says,
"Hey. Can I sit here?"
He nods eagerly and Scott stifles a laugh from next to him (because, even in seventh grade, you can't seem too eager).
She sets her bagged lunch down (as she will do the next five years).
He looks at his tray, wishing for the slimy jello-like food to disappear and she pats his arm.
"I knew, from my experiences, not to trust the cafeteria food."
At this, Scott chortles and Stiles elbows him in the ribs, causing the brunette to choke on his milk.
Over the years, their friendship turns into weekend/weekday sleepovers and sharing of his plaid button ups when the two of them mess up her clothes as he teaches her to cook. Usually, even as they near their late teens, they'll end up sleeping on each other after a late-night movie or in each other's bed when one of them has a nightmare (or any normal circumstance, really).
When she begs him to watch Bates Motel with her, she'll comfort him
when he gets too angry at Norma keeping secrets from her son, or Dylan getting his ass kicked (she knows that Max Theriot is his favorite actor; but they agree not to mention it in public, just like he knows that she has a slight woman-crush on Nina Dobrev).
They both ship couples from their tv shows and they'll end up laughing randomly at the lunch table when something that reminds them of one of the ships comes up.
(He loves that she knows everything about him.)
Everyone thinks they're dating, which is a common misconception even between their best friends Scott and Allison. Although Stiles and Lydia agree the two of them should seriously just suck it up and get together.
(He wants to date her, but he's scared as hell that she'll reject him).
They had also been subject to multiple truth or dares and spin the bottle games, where they had to kiss each other.
(He enjoys the kisses... oh fuck yeah he enjoys them. He wants to prolong them but even as they separate, even as Scott sends him a meaningful glance, he brushes it off.)
When they were seventeen, he finally stops getting a buzz cut and she comes with him, just as he had when she got her tonsils removed or any appointment basically (she wants to
be a doctor, so they brush it off as nothing more).
He realizes that she brushes her hands in his hair more, and he likes it. They don't question each other's motives. They just... work.
That is... until that night that changed everything.
Her
She's grown to love him over the years. It was a slow growth, but it was always subtly there.
Since that day when she moved here and she saw his face when she walked into the room... it was life-changing.
She admits, she's used her best friend as an excuse to avoid dating any unwanted guys that usually go with the 'usual popularity rule'.
She has to admit, the two of them, seeing as they were always together, it was quite probable they could have been dating.
But Stiles isn't the brightest person out there, nor is he the most conscious of his surroundings. As a result, things that could've happened never did.
Their parents (well, his dad and her mom, and whenever her dad has been there) have had a bet for years when their children would finally get together.
Quite frankly, she wonders what she herself is waiting for.
But she knows that she's afraid of rejection and even though she's usually the 'I'll-ask-instead-of-him-because-I-can' type of girl, she can't bring herself to do it.
God, his kisses are heart-warming. She's counted each and every one (six, to be exact.) in her diary and god help her if she sneaks into his room at night claiming a nightmare when really all she wants is to see and be with him.
She loves how he cares for her when she's sick; how he understands that when exams come he should only bring orange sherbet ice cream and a bottle of aspirin when he comes.
Of course, there's the fact that he's the sweetest, most amazing male figure in her life that also adds into the picture.
But no, not like that changes anything.
And it all changed that night.
Them
It was the night of their graduation, and they had been partying all night into 2am. Allison, being the sober one (as well as Lydia and Isaac but the brunette had insisted) was driving.
The group of them; Lydia, Allison, Stiles, Scott, Isaac, Derek, and Cora were hit by a drunk driver who quite literally came out of nowhere.
Allison got the blunt of it, the medics had said, and was killed on impact, as the driver.
Isaac had two broken bones and a concussion, the same with Cora. Derek suffered a broken leg and bruised ribs. Lydia had a few bruises and Stiles had a slight concussion and a broken hand.
They were the lucky ones.
After crying silently over their best friend's untimely death at the hospital, the two that had been released, and after Stiles had his hand put into a cast, her parents drove them to their house.
Stiles and Lydia sat facing each other on her bed, both silent in their thoughts, until suddenly Lydia spoke up.
Clearing her throat, she said, "I can't believe she's gone. I mean... she's my best-"
He cut her off when she started to sob. He bundled her to his chest and rocked her back and forth, and she realized that Allison's death had a major impact on him too.
From the stricken look on his face to the way his hands were shaking, she could tell that he was having a hard time keeping it together for her sake, too.
When she murmured, "It's alright. Stiles, it's alright to let go," he lost it.
Sobs racked his body and the two
of them cried into the early morning, when the sun basked through the open window and the sky became pink and anew with light.
Then Lydia sat up. Taking his cheeks between her hands, she kissed his nose. When he opened his eyes, she smiled.
"I'm done wasting time." She said, and she laid down again. He rested his head on top of hers. He raised his eyebrows and she continued.
"I've been in love with you for nearly five years, Stiles Stilinski." She announced and she raised her head to see a shining happiness in his eyes. He kissed her enthusiastically for a few minutes before letting go of her and said, "I love you too, Lydia Martin. God, do I love you."
He kissed her again until they couldn't breath and smiled against her lips, feeling her do the same.
This may not have been the perfect romantic professing-my-love-for-you moment, but it was just right for them.
After five long years, they found each other.
an 1:
him and her pov's are in present bc they're FINDING each other. their pov is in past bc they've FOUND each other.
an 2:
I FIXED IT GUYS! :))) I'm proud of this story, so please, review, favorite, follow!