Stiles hurriedly approached the Martin household, the sound of Prada's high-pitched barking audible all the way to the street. It was somewhat dark and overcast, and he wanted to see his longtime love, both reasons for him to walk as fast as he could without looking strange or jogging. As soon as he got to the front door, he opened it with no hesitation and lumbered right on in.
"Lydia?' he called, his recognizable voice echoing throughout the large and empty house.
"Kitchen," he heard from his right side. Stiles followed the voice to the kitchen where he found Lydia, her strawberry blonde hair tied up except for a few strands that fell in her face. She was taping wax paper to the counter and gathering mixing bowls and measuring cups. For a second, he reveled in this domestic, badass goddess, his mouth ajar. Lydia felt his presence and looked up, the corners of her mouth ever-so-slightly upturned.
"You look gorgeous, as always," Stiles breathed, still standing awkwardly in the doorway. She motioned for him to come in with her index finger, still smiling.
He walked towards the girl, the dim lights in the room casting shadows on his face. Once he got close enough to her, Stiles hesitantly placed a quick kiss on Lydia's cheek, to which she replied by raising her eyebrows at him.
"We're baking, remember?" she chirped, tapping him in the chest with a rubber spatula. Smiling, she looked down to all of her neatly organized tools and sighed contentedly. It was after a few seconds of scanning her collection, that she finally turned and looked up at Stiles.
With a snide smile and a slow blink, Lydia spoke. "Hi. Flour. Behind you, in the cabinet," she barked, scrolling the recipe on her phone on the counter. Stiles promptly followed instructions and grabbed the powdery bag on the top shelf of the green painted cabinet. As he returned to Lydia, he wrapped an arm around her waist from behind and put his chin on her shoulder, putting the flour on the counter with his other hand.
"Hey," she protested, shoving her elbow back and slightly into his abdomen.
Stiles winced over-dramatically and stepped so that he stood beside her.
"Whatever, I'll just get the stuff myself. Preheat the oven, though, Stiles." She scurried around, getting the butter out of the fridge, the sugar off the shelf, and other ingredients from around the room. Stiles went to the oven and bent over to turn it on, his backside being bumped a few times by a quickly-moving and determined Lydia.
"Will you watch it?" Stiles turned his head and retorted, his lips pursing before he turned back to the oven dials. Preheating the oven to 375° Fahrenheit, he stood up straight and smiled, feeling oddly accomplished that he performed the task that Lydia had assigned him.
Once Lydia had everything set out in the measured amounts on the counter, she took another quick scan of everything before turning to her boyfriend and placing her index finger gently on his chest.
"Now. You mix it all together." She smiled and finally pressed her lips to his, gently and slowly. Lydia continued to kiss him for another few seconds before breaking away and going to sit at the table only a few feet from Stiles. He was breathless for a beat, as he always was when Lydia kissed him, and it took him a minute to come back to reality before he started pouring everything in the mixing bowl. It only then occurred to him to ask what they were making.
"Hey, uh, what is this going to turn out to be if I do it right?" Stiles continued mixing consistently as Lydia sat with her elbow on the table and her head propped up on her hand. She blew the loose strands of hair out of her face and looked up.
"Cookie dough," Lydia replied, feeling comfortable and happy. She was with Stiles, of course she was happy. He was one of the few people she did feel happy around, and even moreso comfortable. She could wear anything around him (or as little anything as she wanted) and feel confident and settled. Stiles loved her, she knew that, and the more she was around him and saw him for the person he truly was, the more Lydia loved him back. Everything about him contrasted her in every way, yet they rounded each other out. She lovingly watched him work so hard to keep up with her, and she grinned to herself. Lydia was brought out of her lovestruck daydream when she saw Stiles sneak a spoonful of cookie dough.
"Stiles, don't," she cried. "You could get all kinds of viruses. E. coli, salmonella...Do you know how many bacteria could be in the raw eggs?" Lydia was by his side instantly and smacked the spoon out of his hand and back into the mixing bowl. Stiles' eyes widened.
"Wow, okay, calm. Everyone does it." He gestured to his body. "See? Fine." Lydia rolled her eyes and grabbed the bowl from him. She placed it on the table away from them and went to the sink to wash her hands again. After drying her hands, she picked the bowl back up from the table and started scooping cookie dough into straight and even lines on the non-stick pan she had set out before. Stiles looked on just as lovingly as the way Lydia had looked at him, admiring how careful and concise she was with this, just as she was with everything. He was happy that more and more people knew how smart she was now, that she wasn't hiding her intellect. It so bothered him when she did that before. People only saw Lydia as the brainless beauty queen, and didn't see that there was so much more to her than that, much more depth and knowledge and snark. Stiles liked the snark, even when it was directed towards him. She was one of the few people who would out-sass him if a contest ever arose. He briefly considered setting one up just so it could happen. Lydia went to put the pan in the oven when Stiles took it from her.
"Nah, let me do it," he blurted. He didn't want her getting burned, even if she did know what she was doing. He quickly shoved the full pan on the top rack of the oven, yanking his hand out just before he got burned.
"Stiles did you put it on the middle rack?" she called, not exactly looking.
"Yeaaaa-no," Stiles attempted to lie but couldn't.
"Eh, I'm sure it'll be fine." Lydia was only half-sarcastic. Stiles headed towards her at the table and sat on the chair next to her. Lydia immediately got up and sat in his lap, locking her arms around his neck before burying her head in it. She stayed like that for a minute before bringing her head up and kissing his cheek. Stiles' breath was jagged, as he was even still nervous when she got intimate with him.
"You're a dork," she smiled, looking at his lips. "And I love you."
"I-I love you too, beautiful," Stiles stammered, not quite believing that he finally had the girl of his dreams, the one he had loved for so long. He kissed her gently, and she kissed him back."Love you too."