Lydia showed up at 7'o clock on the dot to Stiles' house, like she said she would. As usual, she was preceded by probably a dozen books and notes. "Hi." She greeted him. "I know we don't know what the latest creature haunting Beacon Hills is, but with a team effort I think we can crack through at least two thirds of this stuff." She said, heading straight to business. "Do you have the case report from your dad's office?" That's why she was there to begin with, she could have done it on her own otherwise.
Stiles was sitting cross legged on his bed staring at a book in his lap but not reading it. All day he has had trouble focusing even with the ridiculous amont of adderall he had taken. For some reason he starts zoning out and getting trapped in his head. It took him a minute to realize that Lydia was in his room and seemed to be waiting for a reply. "I'm sorry, what?"
She blinked at him, blankly, still obviously struggling with the various books and binders. She walked over to the bed and let them all fall. "The police case, from your dad's office. Did you get it?"
"Oh. Uh yeah" Stiles lifted up a book that was on the bed in front of him and pulled out the case file from under it. He held it out for Lydia to take.
"Thanks." She took it and sat down next to him, scanning it for clues immediately. She noticed him looking at her. "What?" She asked, suddenly self conscious.
Stiles snapped back into reality when he heard Lydia's voice. "What?" he asked again.
"Whoa," she looked at him closely. "Are-are you okay?" She frowned at him.
Stiles grinned and shrugged, the 'real' Stiles was the one who was looking at her. He fought back but the other him was the one speaking. "Y-Yeah, I must have just ... just zoned out a little." He said trying to give her a reassuring smile.
"Hm." She looked at him uncertainly. He had dark circles under his eyes. Deciding he was just sleep deprived she pressed on, scanning the file for more clues.
In Stiles' head: Stiles opened his eyes but he wasn't in his room anymore. Well it was his room but it wasn't. Everything was dark and all of his posters had a monsterous twist to them. He turned around to notice a bandaged form standing behind him. "Hello Stiles" it said.
"What, who are you?" Stiles asked backing away.
"I'm you."
In reality, the Nogitsune opened Stiles' eyes. He stretched a little getting use to the new body. Lydia noticed Stiles stirring as she packed up her stuff. "Long day, huh?" She asked sympathetically. "I left your dads file on the table." She smiled as she started to head out.
Stiles looked away from her and got up, "I'm fine. But you should go. I need time...for myself." He grumbled softly and leaned on his dresser. The real Stiles was fighting against the weak Nogitsune but the Nogitsune was still a little stronger.
"Oh...okay." she sighed. "see you." she said somewhat skeptically.
Stiles was the one who wanted her to leave. He didn't want her to get hurt. But the Nogitsune regained control before she left. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back. The Nogitsune smirked at her, "Actually I had a change of heart. Stay."
"Stiles, I..." she looked into his eyes and realized that something wasn't right. "I should go."
"How are things with Aiden?" Stiles said sitting up on the bed.
She looked up, surprised at his tone. She frowned "He's fine..." She looked at him as he tilted his head, something wasn't quite there...
"Hmm, what is your relationship status this week?"
"We're fine." She said shortly. In other words, they were together, but barely.
Stiles smirked at her and shook his head.
"That's great" He smirked wickedly, "Aiden is a lucky man." He chuckled a way that only someone evil would laugh. "Maybe we could be better than fine"
"I... What?" She looked at him confused. "I should go." She said, starting to walk out. He let her. He just wanted to plant the seed in her head. He could save everything else for later.
The Nogitsune rolled his eyes. "You can leave. It will be your loss." He shrugged and laid back onto the bed with another laugh.
They next day in school she saw Aiden again. They got into a fight before math class about something stupid, and Lydia could barely concentrate on her school work, which was a first for her.
The Nogitsune walked into the classroom, sitting down with a grin. Everyone probably thought that Stiles is just being an ass. No one would care about him soon and it would make things so much easier. Lydia nodded to acknowledge him, not really paying attention and trying to focus back on her work.
He saw Lydia standing at her locker after class. He slowly strutted up to her. "why the trouble in paradise?"
How could he even tell? She wondered. "I'm fine." She said, perhaps banging her locker a little too hard.
"I never asked if you were okay. I asked what your fight was about.." He growled. She wasn't much fun to mess with was she?
"He just...we are going through some stuff. Miscommunication - jealousy." Why was she telling him this?
"Jealousy? Who's jealous? It shouldn't be you because you have nothing to be jealous of." He grinned, now it was getting a little fun. He feeds off others pain and this counts as pain on her side.
"No he..asked where I was last night." She never revealed this sort of thing to anyone. She didn't even understand why she was so enticed, spilling all of this to Stiles, of all people...
"Oh and you told him you were with me." He chuckled, "I can't believe that from being at my house for a few minutes caused Aiden to get jealous."
The real Stiles just wanted to be there for her and comfort her but he could hear all the Nogitsune's thoughts. Lydia was just some fun on the side for the Nogitsune. He tisked and leaned up against the lockers next to hers. "You want me to walk you to class?" The Nogitsune asked almost sincerely. His thoughts were full of lust for Lydia, while Stiles thoughts were full of love for her.
"Um, sure. That'll be nice." she let him join her.
The Nogitsune walked her to class, glancing at her body as they walked then he looked at the hallway they were walking down. He was thinking about how he's already gotten farther with Lydia then the real Stiles did which made him smirk.
"Thanks," she said quietly as they reached.
"It's my pleasure." He nodded and walked away once she got to her class. "I'll talk to you later." He winked at her then went to his class.
The next couple of days were no better. With all the additional stress, plus a break up, Lydia had almost no time to research the supernatural beings until after school on Wednesday.
The Nogitsune gained full control and was laying on Stiles bed as he thought of Lydia. If only he could have her. If he did then it would just make Stiles even more helpless.
The Nogitsune could always sense where people were so he went straight to the library to check out a book then purposely ran into Lydia, "What a coincidence. Hey Lyds.."
She jumped, taken by surprise. "Hi, Stiles."
He chuckled and leaned in to whisper into her ear, "What? Did I scare you?" He breathed against her ear then grabbed his book, "What book are you checking out?
She involuntarily shivered and showed him. Eastern mythology, 19th century
He grinned and chuckled, "Of course it's mythology.." He checked out his book and looked at her. "So what are you up to today besides checking out a book?"
She shrugged "reading the book." Why did he care..?
"Oh that sounds interesting. Wouldn't you rather do something fun today?" He tilted his head questioningly.
She shrugged again. "I shouldn't, probably." She thought about the argument it would cause. "I have plans."
"Doing what?" He asked leaning in close. A little too close.
She moved backwards, creating more distance. "Okay, I dont. Just. Don't want to start a fight."
"if he starts a fight over this he's an idiot. And I'll kill him."
"You'll what?"
"Well that's what he deserves if he hurts you. Come on. Let's go out one night. Just tell Aiden that you were with Kira." He chuckled.
"He would know."
"Come on Lyds.. It will be alright. I promise." He grinned and gave her fake puppy dog eyes. The Nogitsune wouldn't take no for an answer.
She rolled her eyes. "Fine."
He smirked and looked into her eyes, "So where does the beautiful strawberry blonde want to go?"
"You tell me."
"Okay. We'll go to a club then." He grinned and brushed her hair behind her ear, "You got a fake id right?"
"its a Wednesday..."
"Fine then we'll do something else. But I have no clue what you'd want to do so you should choose."
"Come help me research."
"Research? Fine. I guess we can do that." He sighed.
They reached her house and she opened the book. He sat onto her bed next to her, looking over at the book, "So what supernatural creature are you researching?"
"same as ever. According to the case file, all the victims died a most painful death. So, I'm indexing 'pain'..."
The Nogitsune gulps and looks away from her, "Well don't all supernatural creatures create pain?"
"Yeah, but to thrive off it? Each death is more horrible than the prior..."
"I don't know. Maybe it's just a more furious werewolf or something. Maybe he wants the deaths to be like a game?"
"Werewolves normally have a motive...even a pattern..." She was flipping through pages, ignoring him until she struck upon a term.
He tried to look at what she found but he couldn't, "What is it Lydia? What'd you find?"
She tried to pronounce it "No...gitsune?" she looked up at him.
"Nogitsune?" He tries to sound confused. "What is that? What does it do?'
She read out the description. "Well?"
"Well that's terrifying.. So does that mean someone in our town is possessed with it? Who do you think it is? Y'know, Aiden has be acting a little devious lately. It could be him." He shrugged and scanned through the page she was looking at.
"Aiden's..fine."
"Other than being really possessive of you I guess.." He shrugged, "Honestly it could be anyone."
"I don't think it's possible for something supernatural to be possessed by this...no. It needs to be someone human...Unless it's not a teenager..."
"What if it's a parent..? Like Melissa, my dad, or even your mom?" She bit her lip. "What's wrong, Lyd? Everything is going to be alright." He assured her and set his hand on her shoulder trying to be comforting.
She looked at him with a sudden realization. "Why are you so confident all of a sudden?"
"Wait, what do you mean? I'm the same.. Do you think I'm the Nogitsune?" He looks at her shocked and shook his head. She eyed him suspiciously. "Lyd.. Its me. I swear." He said defensively and looked into her eyes, "Even if I wasn't myself what would you do about it?"
"I didn't know," she admitted quietly.
"Yeah, I kinda figured that. But I won't hurt you. I've actually taken quite a liking in you Miss. Lydia Martin." He smirked at her. "I think you know I've had a crush on you for years. What I want to know is why you've been ignoring it?"
She shook her head and moved backwards. "We talked about this, Stiles." That was a lie; they didn't. But she had hoped the lack of conversation would have given him a clue...
"I remember doing all the talking. Pouring my heart out to have it pushed aside."
Stiles, the real Stiles, saw everything that happened. It was like an out of body experience, being there but not at the same time. He was mad at the Nogistsune for saying all of that to Lydia but deep down he knew it was true. The Nogitsune was simply saying everything that he was to afraid to say. Deep down he needed answers. He needed to know how Lydia felt about him.
"I hoped that would be enough.." She frowned. "I think you already know what I'm about to say.."
"No Lydia, what are you about to say?"
She shifted backwards again.
"Hey you have nothing to be afraid of. Okay, maybe you do...but not of me. I won't hurt you." He walked closer to her.
"Leave."
"Come on, Lydia. You got to admit that you like Stiles a lot more now that I'm him."
"Not true." she squeaked out.
"Oh its not? Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I like Stiles as he is." she blushed
The Nogitsune rolled his eyes, "Wow.. I thought that we could have had something going here." He smirked.
"I can't be with you when you're only half as amazing as Stiles actually is." she didn't know where this bravery was coming from, but she hoped more than anything that Stiles was still alive somewhere in there and had heard her, and would use it as intention to fight.
Stiles heard every word she said, trying to fight against the Nogitsune, "Half as amazing? Ha. Please I'm twice as amazing then him. You like bad boys and I'm a bad boy. Stiles isn't even close to that." The Nogitsune winced as Stiles tried to regain control.
In Stiles' head: "I'm helping you" Stiles couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"No, you're ruining my life. Lydia probably thinks I'm some stupid jerk like every other guy she's been with. Thanks."
"You're welcome. Don't pretend that everything I said wasn't what you were already thinking. Where do you think I got it from?" Stiles was speechless. He knew it was true no matter how much he wanted to deny it. "
That still doesn't give you the right to say what I'm thinking out loud without my permission!" He said falling back on anger. "You need to leave me alone and get out of my head!"
"Yeah I like bad boys and look where that's gotten me?!" Improvise Lydia... she thought to herself. "I'd much rather have someone like Stiles who loves me for me."
The Nogitsune was taken aback at how strong Stiles really was. The Nogitsune gripped his head and closed his eyes in pain. "STOP!"
"Stiles, if you can hear me now, I want you to fight as hard as you can. I believe in you, and I know you can do this. Please, Stiles. For me."
Stiles used as much strength as he could then slowly opened his eyes, letting his hands drop to his sides, a tear running down his cheek, "L-Lydia?"
"Is - is it you?"
Stiles nodded and walked towards her then stopped so that he wouldn't startle her. "Yes Lydia it's me. I've been fighting back the whole time but you talking to me gave me the strength to be myself again."
Her face broke out in the first smile in weeks.
He returned a smile and walked up to her, pulling her into a tight embrace. "I'm sorry for what he put you through."
She hugged him back and nodded into his shoulder. "I'm sorry I never gave you a straight answer. I should have. He wouldn't have been able to feed off your pain..."
He shook his head, "Its fine Lyds. Yeah I was in a lot of pain but the moment I heard my name from you, the pain went away and now I'm me again."
She bit her lip, and before she could think against it she wrapped her arms around Stiles neck and smashed her lips against his.
His eyes widened for a second then slowly closed, wrapping his arms around her waist as he returned the kiss gently. When he opened his eyes, he had to do everything in his power to not laugh manically. Silly Lydia had believed that her unoriginal speech had saved Stiles from the Nogitsune. But now he had her trust...and it would be so much easier to cause her pain once he had her trust.