As soon as he heard a knock on the door Stiles leaped off his bed and practically ripped the door off its hinges to reveal Scott standing there.
"Dude!" Scott exclaims as soon as he sees Stiles' face, a wide, warm smile firmly in place. Stiles grabs Scott and pulls him into a tight bear hug.
"I missed you. I missed you so much. Please never leave me again." Stiles says as he squeezes Scott tighter. Scott lets out a low chuckle and pats Stiles on the back.
"Do you two want to be left alone or what?" Both boy reluctantly let go of each other to face Stiles' roommate Robbie.
"Shut up Robbie, I saw you cry when your mum left!" Stiles shouts at his roommate, Robbie just rolls his eyes and flips Stiles off before flopping back onto his bed.
"So dude what are we doing tonight? It's Halloween there has to be some party going on?" Scott asks dumping his bag on the blow up mattress Stiles had set up.
"Diana invited us to the party at Alpha Rho Tau if you feel up to that?" Stiles says rubbing a hand along his jaw.
"She's your FBI partner right? I can't wait to meet her." Scott gives Stiles one of his genuine warm smiles.
"Your hot friend's coming over?" Robbie says excitedly sitting up. Stiles lets out a frustrated groan and rubs a hand down his face.
"Dude don't be weird around her again. Like maybe tone it back… like a lot" Scott's eyes flick between Stiles and his roommate, he can smell the irritation rolling off his best friend.
I'm not weird! I'm smooth bro. That girl's gonna be eating out of my hand." Robbie says with a smirk on his face. Both Scott and Stiles wrinkle their noses in disgust.
"No. Just no. Don't talk about her like that." The disgust evident in Stiles' voice. He turns away from his roommate and pulls out his phone rapidly tapping away a message. His phone quickly vibrates with a response.
"She's going to swing by before the party so we can all get something to eat first." Stiles tells Scott looking up from his phone. They chat about Scott's classes at UC Davis and about people they know from Beacon Hills who aren't in the pack. Robbie has chosen to ignore them and has put on his headphones, the volume of the music is up so high that even Stiles can hear it on the other side of the room. Suddenly they hear a rapid knocking at the door. Stiles jumps up off of his bed and over the inflatable mattress he set up for Scott to answer it. The door opens up into the room blocking the view of whoever is on the other side from Scott.
"Oh wow you look… um… WOW… Those shorts are… short." Stiles stutters out, eyes wide. Robbie suddenly sits up a bit straighter quickly ripping off his head phones. Scott figures Diana must be at the door.
"Why thank you Mr. Stilinski!" Diana says stepping into the room all smiles. Scott can now see why her arrival solicited that kind of reaction. The young woman is dressed up in a skin tight Wonder Woman costume.
"Yeah you look really hot!" Robbie calls out eagerly, Diana's face drops immediately and a look of annoyance firmly set on her pretty face.
"Robert." With just one word Diana has been able to convey her complete and utter distain for the boy. She turns her head away from Robbie rolling her eyes when she catches site of Scott sitting awkwardly on Stiles' bed.
"Oh my gosh! You must be Scott! Stiles has told my so much about you, it's so cool to finally be meeting you." She sticks out her hand to shake his, Scott relaxes a bit a shakes her hand.
"So are you going to get changed or what boys?" Diana says looking between Stiles and Scott. Scott looks over at his best friend confused, who sends him an equally perplexed look. Is there something wrong with what they are wearing?
"Your costumes? Where are your costumes? It's a Halloween party, costumes are a must. Do you think I dressed like this for shits and giggles?" She says placing her hands on her hips.
"You should always dress like that." Robbie mumbles under his breath.
"Dude!" Stiles snaps at him. Diana just rolls her eyes again.
"I know Stiles that 90% of your wardrobe consists of plaid, hoodies and a surprising amount of red pants but you have to have something!" Scott and Stiles both shake their heads. Diana lets out a frustrated sigh.
"Ok, I think I should have some onesies in my room that should fit you. You can wear one those." Diana offers up helpfully.
"What about me? You have anything for me?" Robbie says getting up from his bed. He moves closer to Diana, wrapping one arm around her shoulder. She looks down at his hand in disgust.
"Hey Stiles, you know where my room is. Why don't you and Scott start walking on over there and I'll just have a quick chat with Robert here." Her tone is light and pleasant but there is an edge to what she just said. Stiles looks Diana straight in the eye and hold her gaze for a moment before giving a small nod and quickly ushering Scott towards the door. With one last look over his shoulder Stiles calls out.
"I told you not to be weird dude."
Scott turns to look at Stiles as they stand out in the hallway for a moment or two.
"Is she gonna be ok? Should we have left them alone together?" Scott questions his best friend. Stiles grab a hold of Scott's arm and begins to almost drag him down the corridor.
"I'm more worried about what's going to happen to him then her really. Diana can take care of herself." Scott just looks at Stiles for a moment, taken back by his friends out of character comment.
"What do you mean-" Scott gets cut off before he can finish his sentence by a loud yelp of pain coming from Stiles' dorm room. The boys turn around to see Diana exit the room, shutting the door behind her. She does a little jog to catch up with the boys.
"Come on, my rooms just around the corner." Diana says brightly as if the whole incident never happened, power walking past them. Scott stops and listens for a moment before making eye contact with Stiles.
"Dude I think he's crying in there."
"See I told you she can take care of herself."
The first thing Scott notices in Diana's room is an ornately carved wooden bow mounted on her dorm room wall. It reminds him of Allison and the ache he hadn't felt in such a long time settles back in his chest. His eyes quickly scan around the room, he notices more archery equipment around the room.
"You into archery?" Scott asks picking up what he thinks Allison called a sight off one of the desks pushed up underneath a window. Diana turns around too look at Scott as she is pulling out a large plastic tub from the bottom of her closet.
"Um yeah. I've been doing it since I was a little kid. Columbia offered me a scholarship for it but I turned them down. They think I could go all the way to the Olympics but I'm not really interested." Scott feels a hand come down on his shoulder, he looks up to see Stiles is giving him a sad look of understanding, he's never going to be able to avoid things that remind him of Allison completely.
"Ok boys! Let's see what I've got." Diana says clapping her hands together breaking the spell.
"I have a shark, giraffe, cow, I don't think you boys would be interested in the unicorn one, a dragon…" She begins pulling all the onesies out of the tub and on to the bed.
"I have a wolf one-" Both boys let out a snort at the mention of wolf.
"Am I missing something?" Diana asks raising a questioning eyebrow at the two boys.
"Don't worry it's nothing. But I think Scott really wants to wear the wolf onesie." Stiles says with a smirk, clapping Scott on the back again. The smile drops of Scott's face as he gives Stiles a dirty look.
"Ooook then…" Diana says handing Scott the wolf onesie, he accepts is gratefully.
"What else do I have… oooo I have a fox onesie! Do you wanna be a fox Stiles?" Diana asks holding up the orange and white material for Stiles to see. All the colour drains out of Stiles' face and he gets that sick feeling in his stomach that sometimes gets whenever he is reminded of that period of his life. He can feel Scott's concerned gaze boring into the side of his face.
"Um… I think I'll go with the shark, thanks." Stiles chokes out snatching up the onesie off the bed.
"You two are acting really weird. Did I say something wrong?" She asks trying to read Stiles' expression.
"No! No… everything's fine! Scott and I'll get changed and we can head off to this party!" Stiles says with slightly forced enthusiasm, punching the air, Scott next to smiling awkwardly at the entire scene.
"Right. I'll just wait outside while you two change then." She grabs a jacket out of her closet and heads out the door to wait for them in the hallway.
"Dude." Scott says, conveying all his emotions in a single word.
"I know man, I know." Stiles replies staring at the crumpled fox onesie left on top of Diana's bed. His gaze shifts from the bed to Scott, who is staring intently at the bow mounted on the wall.
"I guess no matter how far away from Beacon Hills we go there are always going to be reminders of the past."
The three of them stand at the bottom of the steps leading up to the front porch of the Alpha Rho Tau sorority house. The golden letters APT sit over the front door. The music is pulsing and the bass is making the whole house shake.
"Are we going to stand out here all night or are we going in?" Stiles says bouncing up and down on the spot trying to stay warn in the cool night air. Diana just rolls her eyes at her friend and begins walking up the stairs.
"Seriously, how are you not cold in that costume? The shorts are tiny. I'm cold looking at you." Stiles moans following her up the steps and Scott trailing close behind him. Diana pushes open the front door and all three are hit by a wall of sound.
"Hey girls look who I brought with me!" Diana bellows over the music. A group of about five girls standing near the entrance turn around to look at them.
"Stiles!" They all call out in unison.
"I'm going to let the others know that Stiles is here!" A petite Asian girl in a sexy Snow White costume pipes up before dashing off. Scott just looks at his best friend eyebrows raised.
"Who are you?" Stiles just smirks at his friend and accepts two solo cups that had been pressed into his hands by a girl dressed as Elsa from Frozen. He passes one of the cups to Scott who takes a large gulp of the cheap beer inside, knowing the alcohol is going to absolutely no effect on him.
Diana peels away from the boys mentioning something about joining some of her other friends for a game of beer pong. Stiles guides him around the party introducing him to his friends on the baseball team, people he knows from different classes and a few of the other FBI interns. A few more of the Alpha Rho sisters come up to Stiles and introducing themselves to Scott.
Scott drains the last of the beer from his cup, Stiles is now in the middle of a debate with one of the guys from his Forensics class and another girl who he met during the internship. Scott lets the others know he is going to find more drinks and asks the others if they want anything from the kitchen, they all politely decline. Scott pushes his way through the crowd of people towards the kitchen, out of the corner of his eye he catches a glimpse of Diana standing on the balcony the level above observing the entire party. Next to her is a tall willowy African American girl with a serious intense look on her face dressed as angel. Diana catches him staring at her, the look on her face unreadable, Scott smiles sheepishly and gives her a small and continues on his way.
In the kitchen he looks over the bottles of spirits sitting on the counter before passing over the keg to look through a metal trash can filled with ice and bottles of beer and cans of soda. He's trying to make a decision about whether he should have another beer even though it will be completely pointless, when he hears a voice behind him making him jump.
"You having fun Scott?" Diana asks sweetly, completely ignoring Scott's startled expressions.
"Uh… yeah, the party's great." Scott says awkwardly avoiding eye contact.
"Have you tried the punch yet? It's an old sorority recipe, has a real kick to it." Diana loops her arm through his and leads him over to a table with a fish tank filled with a dark red liquid. She takes Scott's empty cup from his hands and turns her back to him to lean over the tank to scoop out some of the liquid. As Diana bends over her hair falls over her shoulders to expose her back. Scott notices that she has a tattoo that runs down the length of her spine.
"Cool tattoo." He says accepting the cup of punch from Diana, she flashes him a brilliant smile.
"Why thank you Scott. It's the different phases of the moon. I've always felt a very strong connection to the moon and its energy." She tells him leaning in closer to him and talking in a stage whisper, almost like she is telling him a secret.
"I think I know how you feel." Scott says taking a sip of the punch. Instantly his insides feel warm. "This punch is really good. Who did you say made it?"
"I didn't. Have you met Atalanta yet? You should dance with her!" Diana says gesturing to the girl he saw her standing with before who seems to have appeared out of nowhere beside them. The strange intense look that was firmly plastered on her face before has melted away, now replaced with a kind smile. Scott just stares at the two women in front of him completely confused, his head has begun to feel cloudy.
"Um… yeah… sure… Do you wanna dance?" Scott mumbles, his mouth feels like it is full of cotton. Atalanta just gabs his hand and drags him back towards the living room area where there is a mass of bodies thrashing about to the music. Before leaving the room Scott turns and looks over his shoulder at Diana, but she's already gone.
The boys attempt to reenter Stiles dorm room quietly but fail miserably as Stiles is completely plastered and Scott is feeling very lightheaded after consuming the sorority's secret punch all night.
"Dude how are you drunk? I thought you couldn't do that with your… condition." Stiles whisper yells at Scott.
"I have no idea. All I drank was the punch!" Scott whisper yells back as Stiles finally manages to get the door open. Stiles turns to Scott placing a finger on his lips and lets out a loud 'shh' to let him know to be quiet. The boys both stumble into the room and notice that it is empty, Robbie must have found a party to go to in the end.
"Cool." Stiles mumbles before flopping unceremoniously onto his bed. Scott kicks off his shoes before sitting on the end of the inflatable mattress.
"Your friend Diana is strange." Scott blurts out suddenly, his brain to mouth filter gone.
"Scott… we're strange." Stiles retorts. Scott decides to drop the subject the subject for now, they're both too tired and he's still feeling the effects of whatever was in that drink he had.
"Night Stiles. " Scott murmurs before laying back onto the mattress.
"Nigh' S'ott." Stiles sleepily into his pillow.
He running, running through the preserve in Beacon Hills. Something is following him. He can feel it's presence behind him but he can't see anything following him.
He keeps running.
He can hear something moving behind him, it sounds like a galloping. He turns again, nothing.
He can see the nemeton in the clearing ahead of him, calling to him. He runs towards the tree stump.
Suddenly he feels whatever has been following him spring forward, leaping clear over his head. He stops running and ducks down, closing his eyes.
He hears the creature land on the nemeton, the sound of hooves clip clopping against the wood.
He opens his eyes. Standing on top of the nemeton is a deer with antlers of gold and hooves of bronze. The deer turns its head to look directly with bright violet eyes meeting his red unafraid.
Scott jerks awake suddenly gasping for air. He sits up, the blanket pooling into his lap. Stiles' bed is empty, a note left on top of the sheets.
Gone for a run with Diana. Even hung over she's still making me workout. The note reads.
Scott lets out a huff and flops back down closing his eyes trying to calm his heart rate after waking from the dream. He understands how Lydia must feel now. The dream while simple and not one of the more violent dreams he's ever had has profoundly shaken him. Scott feels shaken, like something important just happened but he can't place what any of that dream could mean.
He lets himself drift off once again.
Stiles takes a moment to fully absorb what Scott just told him.
"So let me get this straight. You think that Diana drugged you with magical punch that made you have a very vivid dream about a deer with golden antlers and the nemeton." Stiles gives Scott a look that could be described a condescending.
"Well when you put it like that it sounds crazy but come on Stiles! How do you explain how I got tipsy? And you have to admit she's kind of… odd." Scott leans in dropping his voice. Both boys are sitting at a picnic table in the middle of the quad. While nobody is paying them any real attention Scott doesn't want to be over heard by anyone.
"First off, the girls have a habit of adding Absinth to their punch. So that stuff is pretty lethal, maybe it's strong enough to have some sort of effect on you. And secondly Scott nothing about our lives is normal! For the last three years of our lives we have been anything but normal. I think we've forgotten what it's like to spend time with people who don't deal with the supernatural." Stiles exclaims excitedly waving his arms about.
"But are you sure she not… like me?"
"Trust me in the first week of the internship I made sure to check if anybody was like you, same goes for the baseball team and all my lab partners. Everybody's clean. They all crossed the mountain ash just fine. Calm down Scott, you're starting to sound like me." Stiles says smirking.
"Ok, fine! I'll trust your instincts." Scott says putting his hands up in surrender.
"I'm just happy that your happy and that the pack is finally getting to live normal lives. I guess there's a part of me worried that this is all too good to be true and that something is going to turn up suddenly and I won't be there to help." Scott confesses to Stiles.
"Speaking of things just popping up… What did Deaton say about that feather I sent him?"
"He said it was definitely a real feather but didn't know what type of bird it came from."
"That's all he said? He didn't have any theories or ideas about what it could be from?" Stiles presses the issue further.
"Deaton said he's never seen anything like it before, as a vet and as an emissary. I'm sorry Stiles unless you get something more he can't really help." Scott gives Stiles an apologetic look. Stiles lets out an agitated huff.
"I'll see what I can find I guess." Stiles starts making plans to stake out areas around the college to see if the giant "bird" returns.
"Or you could just forget about it. It's not like whatever it was attacked anybody, it could be totally harmless. Or it could be an actual bird." Scott tries to talk Stiles out snooping around any further. Stiles just gives him a look that he's seen many times before and he knows that it means his pleas will be ignored.
"How about you tell me how you ended up joining the baseball team? I didn't know you knew how to play. I mean it's not like you were the best player on the lacrosse team." Scott asks smirking.
"Diana found my stash of baseball bats, I had to give her some excuse for having so many of them! And as it turns out, I'm pretty good at it. Maybe defending myself against supernatural monsters only armed with a bat had some benefits after all!"
As Stiles crams the last few remaining shirts into his suitcase he hears a car horn honking from outside. His phone chimes with an alert of a new text message from Diana.
'I'm parked in a 15min spot so hurry up and get your ass down here now!' it reads. Stiles zips up his case and hurries down stairs to meet her. He scrolls through his favourites in his phone contacts and dials Lydia's number.
"Hey Styles."
"Hey Lyds we are about to hit the road so I will see you in seven hours." Stiles says excitedly down the phone. Lydia's course load was too large for her to take both Thanksgiving and Christmas off, so Stiles decided to spend Thanksgiving with her in Boston so they both could return to Beacon Hills for Christmas.
"Are you sure don't want to go home Thanksgiving? I know you haven't seen your dad in ages and it's not like we'll be able to do a proper Thanksgiving dinner." Lydia says in almost whisper down the phone.
"First of all Lydia, you are my home now. Where ever you are that's where I want to be. Secondly, I'll see my dad at Christmas and I'm pretty sure he likes you more than me anyway so he'd be mad if I left you all alone in Boston. And third… it doesn't matter what we eat." Stiles says racing down the stairs awkwardly dragging his suitcase behind him. He can still hear the honking of the car horn in the distance.
"I'm really excited to see you and my roommate has gone home, so we will have the room all to ourselves." Lydia purrs down the phone.
"You can't say things like that when I'm seven hours away Lyds!" Stiles cries out in frustration. He pushes through the glass door to exit the building, the case getting caught in the door pulling him back.
"HURRY UP LOSER!" Stiles hears Diana bellow from somewhere in the carpark, he looks around trying to find where her voice came from.
"Hey Lyds I better go, my ride is getting impatient." Stiles eyes scan the parking bays looking for his friend.
"See you soon Stiles, I love you."
"I love you too, bye." As he hangs up from the call he spots a single arm waving in the air and heads in that general direction. When he sees Diana hanging out of the window of her vehicle he stops and does a double take for a moment. Directly in front of him is a large black combi van with geometric deer painted in gold on the side of the van. His mouth hangs open slightly at the sight.
"This is your car?" He questions moving slowly towards the vehicle. Diana just smiles brightly and nods her head.
"Yeah, I was perfect for going on road trips, camping and chauffeuring around my brother's band and all their equipment." Diana smiles wistfully as she slides back into the van through the window. Stiles slides open the van door, placing his case in the back with Diana's stuff. He hops in the front of the van next to Diana in the passenger seat.
"Thanks for giving me a ride up to Boston, it'll save me a bunch of money on flights. Luck you were heading that way." He says pulling his seat belt across his chest and clicking it into place.
"Yeah, my brother Po's band managed to score a gig there so we thought that we'd all just crash at our cousin Minnie's place and do Thanksgiving there. Speaking of my brother he made us a playlist for the trip!" She opens up the Spotify app on her phone and presses shuffle on the playlist. The opening strains of the Dropkick Murphys 'I'm Shipping Up To Boston' start blasting out of the van's speakers. Stiles leans over her shoulder and reads the rest of the playlist.
"It's basically 90% Dropkick Murphys songs and 'Sweet Caroline' repeated five times at the end." Stiles muses.
"He is a great musician but lousy at making playlists." Diana says putting the car into drive and pulling out of the carpark.
Lydia sits on her bed in her dorm room flicking through one of her text books making notes for one of her assignments, her eyes every so often flick over to her mobile phone next to her. Stiles promised that he would message her when he arrived on campus so she could come out and greet him. She lets out a sigh as another minute ticks by with no message or call from her boyfriend. Suddenly her phone lights up and begins buzzing to alert her to an incoming call. Lydia snatches up the phone quickly to answer.
"Hello? Stiles?" She says almost breathily down the phone. In the background she can hear the chorus of 'Sweet Caroline' playing out.
"Hey Lyds we're almost there! I'll see you in a couple of minutes!" He yells down the phone trying to be heard over the music.
"See you soon!" Lydia hangs up the phone and rushes around her room tidying up what little mess there was. She quickly refreshes her makeup and runs a comb through her hair before grabbing her coat and gloves before slipping on some boots before leaving.
Lydia hears them before she see them, the roar of the vans engine and two voices just barely heard over the music yelling 'BA BA BAAAAAA!". She doesn't even have to see him to know its Stiles. The van turns around the corner and Lydia's eyes go wide and her mouth opens slightly at the sight of the Volkswagen pulling up to the curb in front of her. The engine cuts out and the music stops, Stiles swings open the car door and hops out of the vehicle, a bright smile on his face as soon as he spots Lydia waiting for him. Lydia lets out a squeal of excitement at seeing him, she runs up to him and throws her arms around him almost bowling him over.
"I'm so glad you're here! I've missed you so much!" She whispers into his ear.
"I've missed you too Lyds. Skype is really not enough." He says burying his face in her strawberry blond hair. They stand there for several moments embracing, soaking in just being around each other again. Stiles pulls away only slightly to press his lips against hers, the kiss is gentile, sweet and filled with a passion simmering beneath the surface. The sound of a loud cough from behind Stiles causes them to break apart. Standing by her van, Stiles' case beside her, looking completely uncomfortable is Diana.
"Hello! You must be Lydia, I'm Diana. It's great to finally meet you, Stiles has pictures of you everywhere and talks about you all the time. You are so much prettier in person and waaaay out of his league." She says stepping forward, arm outstretched to shake Lydia's hand. Lydia places a delicate gloved hand in Diana's hand.
"It's nice to finally meet you too! Stiles has told me you were partnered up during your internship." Lydia says carefully eyeballing the girl in front of her. Lydia would not consider herself a jealous person, she confident enough in herself not to feel threatened by Stiles having female friends but this girl is his college best friend. Diana is taller than Lydia, closer to Stiles' height and has something about her that reminds her of Allison. Maybe it's the dark chocolate tresses tumbling down in waves or her bight warm smile, but Lydia is struck suddenly how much this girl reminds her of her dead best friend.
"Yeah, it's been brilliant working with this goof." Diana says bouncing on her heels attempting to warm herself up in the crisp fall Massachusetts air.
"Look I'm sorry to love you and leave you boo but I really need to hit the road again to make it to my cousins place before dinner time. I'll text you all the deets of the gig, let me know if you're interested and if you need a ride." Diana leans over and quickly embraces Stiles in a hug before giving a small wave to Lydia.
"See you 'round. Once again it was nice to meet you Lydia." Diana quickly walks off and hops back in her van.
"See you!" Stiles calls out, wrapping one arm around Lydia's waist pulling her closer as they watch the van pull away from the curb and speed back down the road. They stand there for a few more moments, Stiles' arm around her, Lydia genially resting her head on his shoulder.
"Let's go inside, it's cold out here and my roommate has already left for the holidays so we will have the room all to ourselves." Lydia practically purrs pressing a quick kiss against Stiles lips. He just smiles at her before leaning down and kissing her again, this time with more ferocity before grabbing his suitcase and following Lydia back to her room.
As soon as Lydia had closed the door to her room Stiles had her pressed up against the door, his hands pushing he heavy winter coat off her shoulders. The coat falls to the floor with a light thud, Lydia wraps her arms around Stiles' neck pulling him in closer as his hands now skim around where her blouse is tucked into her skirt, pulling the ends free so he can slide his large calloused hands up her back.
"Bed." Lydia mumbles against his lips. She slides her hands through his hair, lacing her fingers around his neck.
"As hot as it would be to do it against the door, I really don't want everybody walking past to hear us." She moans out as Stiles presses kisses down her neck. His hands slide from her back to cup her ass to lift her up, she wraps her legs around his hips. Stiles holds on to Lydia as he turns away from the door and moves them towards Lydia's bed, carefully placing her down on top of her comforter.
"You're so beautiful Lydia. I love you so much." He murmurs as he leans down to press an urgent kiss against her lips.
"I know." Lydia whispers back once the kiss is broken. Stiles stiffens suddenly and pulls back to look Lydia directly in the eye.
"Did you just Han Solo me?" He says, jaw dropping in awe. Lydia can't help but smile at her boyfriend's reaction. In previous relationships Lydia had enjoyed having a certain power and control over her boyfriends, her relationship with Stiles is different though. Yes she does maintain a certain level power over him but he has a power over her that she never imagined she would ever feel comfortable with. Lydia may be able to make him weak at the knees with one Star Wars reference, but being with Stiles made her want to watch those movies and show interest in the things he enjoys.
"Yeah, I just did. Now you scruffy-looking nerf herder I can think of much better things you mouth can be doing rather than talking." She says as she slides her hands around his neck and pulling him back down towards her.
Lydia is sitting at her desk reading over her applied mathematics text book and making notes on each chapter summarising it, when the site of Stiles spread out across her bed texting furiously catches her eyes. He's just so beautiful and full of energy it makes her heart feel warm that this boy, no this man, saw more to her and didn't give up on her. She watches as his tongue darts out to wet his lips and his brow furrows with concentration. Suddenly Stiles breaks the comfortable silence making Lydia jump slightly as she is ripped out of her bubble.
"Did you want to go see Diana's brother's band on Friday?" He says without looking away from his phone.
"What?" Lydia responds as she clams herself for a moment.
"Diana just sent me a text. Her brother's band is playing on Black Friday at some bar called … HA! Howl At The Moon! I got to tell Scott that! She wants to know if we need a ride." Stiles still doesn't look away from his phone, she presumes he is messaging Scott to let him know about the bar's name he found so hilarious.
"Um, sure that sounds great. What are they called?" Lydia says tightly, tempering down the jealousy she feels rising in the pit of her stomach.
"What are who called?" Stiles asks her finally looking away from his phone.
"The band what's their name, and I guess Diana's brother too. We can't just keep calling him Diana's brother." Lydia quires.
"I don't know." Stiles says suddenly.
"You don't know what? The name of the band or her brother's name?"
"Either. I don't think she's ever told me his name or the band's name. She always just called him her brother or her twin." Lydia just raises her eyebrows at this in a sort of questioning surprise.
"Has she told you and you've forgotten?" Because Lydia wouldn't put it past Stiles to have forgotten the poor guy's name.
"No, I haven't forgotten. I don't think I've forgotten." Stiles says sitting up now.
"You don't find it kind of odd that she's never mentioned her brother's name?"
"Lydia, we're odd. We spent most of our high school years fighting supernatural monsters." Stiles shoots back at her gesturing wildly.
"I just think it's kind of strange that she's never told you her twin brother's name that's all. Also I find it odd how easily you've trusted her, you were suspicious of Theo from the moment you laid eyes on him." She can feel that tiny bubble of jealously begin to rise again in her stomach. Maybe she's a little envious of the girl who gets to spend more time with her boyfriend then she does and the apparent easy friendship they share. And maybe she's also a little jealous that Stiles is texting her when he's with her.
"Yeah well that's because Theo was evil, he had an evil face. Covered with EVIL! Besides like I told Scott, she can cross mountain ash." Stiles is becoming all riled up in only the way mentions of Theo can.
"Theo can cross mountain ash." Lydia retorts. She knows it's childish but she can't help it.
"Yeah well Theo is not a proper werewolf and is barely even human." Stiles is pouting slightly now in a way Lydia should find childish and annoying but really finds kind of cute.
"Look I'm sorry for bringing Theo up, I don't want to fight with you. I'm sure Diana and her twin brother are perfectly normal. Let's just go out on Friday and enjoy whatisname's band, the whatever they're called's." Stiles lets out a snort at this but does calm down and begin to smile again.
"That sounds perfect." Stiles says pressing a quick kiss to her lips.
The bar is packed with students and locals all looking for something to do over the holiday break. Stiles and Lydia push their way through crowds of people trying to find a table to sit down at. When they had arrived at Howl At The Moon they had been surprised to find that Diana had managed to get them on to the bands guest list and wristbands stating that they are over 21.
"STILES! LYDIA! OVER HERE!" They both look around at the sound of their names being called out. They see Diana over in a corner with an entire booth to herself, standing up waving to them, they make their way across the room towards her. Stiles stands back letting Lydia slide into the seat across from Diana first before following after her.
"I'm so glad you both made it! I would have been sitting here alone if you hadn't come, Minnie hates this kind of scene and everyone else I know is in the band." Diana yells over the noise of the crowd, bumping her fist against Stiles in greeting.
"Thanks for inviting us and getting us on the guest list! How did you manage to get us these wristbands too?" Lydia gushes excitedly, for all the reservations she may have about Stiles' friendship with her, she really has pulled through for them.
"My other cousin Marsden is the bands drummer and the dude looks waaaay older than he is. So people tend to believe him when he asks for extra wristbands for his friends." She replies with a smug little smile on her face as she flips some of her brunet tresses over her shoulder.
"I asked Stiles but he didn't seem to know what the name of your brother's band is." Lydia says innocently enough as Stiles shoots her a dirty look.
"The bands called Lyre Lier, don't ask he thinks he's going clever. My brother Po is the lead singer and guitarist, Marsden is on drums and our other cousin Paul is on bass."
"Your family must be really close then, that's nice." Lydia says with a sweet smile. Stiles just rolls his eyes at his girlfriend, he knows this isn't her just being nice. Lydia is playing nice to lure his new friend into a false sense of security before she attacks.
"We're all pretty tight for such a large family. And melodramatic. There isn't just one drama queen in the family, we're all the drama queens." Diana replies innocently enough. Before Lydia can begin to probe further the recorded music that had been playing though out the bar cuts out, the lights dim down more and a spotlight brightens the stage. A man in his mid-thirties walks on to the stage and taps the microphone to check if it's on.
"How's everybody doing tonight?!" He shouts into the microphone, the bar patrons respond with various positive whoops and yells.
"That's what I like to hear! Well we have a brand new act for you guys tonight! These three boys have come all the way from Washington State to perform for you here tonight. So please give it up for Lyre Lier!"
Diana cups her hands around her mouth and lets out a loud 'whoo' noise as the three band members enter the stage. At the sight of them both Stiles and Lydia's eyes go wide with shock and Stiles' jaw drops. Lydia begins to hit his chest repeatedly with the back of her hand trying to get his attention.
The drummer looked like The Rock, if The Rock was about twice as big and also took steroids. The man sitting behind the drum kit was enormous and muscular making it look like he was sitting behind a child's toy. Both of his arms were covered in tribal, Polynesian looking tattoos. For as intimidating as he looked the smile on his face was genuine and friendly, showing off his brilliant white teeth.
Where the drummer was large, the bassist was small and lean. He appeared to move impossibly quick, almost appearing out of nowhere. His appearance looked like it he would have been more suited to be in a Korean boyband, with his perfectly styled hair and delicate Asian features.
But the lead singer is what confused them the most. It was as if the universe created two completely opposite people and called them 'twins'. With his dark skin tone and warm brown eyes the man didn't look like he could have been her brother let alone her twin. His whole demeanour oozed confidence and that he knew exactly how attractive he is. Po's guitar was slung across his chest with one hand holding on to the body of the guitar while he ran his other hand through his afro as he approached the microphone.
"HELLOOO BOSTON!" Po shouts out to the crowd once he reaches the microphone. More positive cheers pour out from the happy, tipsy crowd. He looks behind him to the Marsden and gives him a nod, the drummer tilts his chin back and begins hitting his drumsticks together before the bass and guitar join in. Rock pop melodies washing over the crowd.
"Stiles. Stiles! Stiles! STILES!" Lydia hisses aggressively at her boyfriend, now grabbing at his arm for attention. "Did you know about this? Is one of them adopted? Both adopted?" Lydia looks over at Diana who is bopping along to a familiar sounding song paying no attention to the couple, not a care in the world.
"I hadn't seen a photo of him before! I had no idea!" Stiles hisses back at her looking rather distressed.
"Don't you find it kind of bazar that this girl, who you hardly know might I add, has wormed her way into your life? And for some strange reason you trust her! You instantly distrusted Theo as soon as you saw him! But you are willing to look past the odd vibes she gives off and her family of completely different ethnicities! Do you have feelings for her? Is that what this is?" Lydia says sharply with a withering gaze.
"What? No! I love you! She is my friend, I feel about her the same way I feel about Scott!" Stiles retorts back at her. Lydia lets out an undignified snort.
"I'm fairly certain that if Scott was into boys you two would have hooked by now!" She scoffs at him.
"Ok bad example. I feel about her the way I feel about Kira or Liam. They are my friends, well Liam is more like an annoying little brother, but you can see the point I am making!"
"It doesn't explain to me why you let her into your life so easily Stiles."
"When I saw Theo that first time since the fourth grade it was like warning bells went off in my head and the overwhelming feeling of dread crept over me. There was something in the back of my mind telling me that Theo was not who he said he was and that I needed to get away from him straight away. That feeling, I don't get that feeling from her. I don't understand why you don't trust her. Are you jealous?" He feels Lydia suddenly stiffen up next to him at his question.
"No Stiles, I don't get jealous. But I would like to make it abundantly clear to everyone in this bar that you are my boyfriend. So put your arm around my shoulder and kiss me." Lydia says almost primly as she takes Stiles arm and places it around her shoulders. Stiles just bites his tongue and let's Lydia snuggle in to his chest.
"Did you want anything to drink? I'm heading up to the bar." Diana yells over the music, turning around to face them having completely missed their entire discussion.
"Sure thanks. I'll have a beer. Lydia?" Stiles looks down at his girlfriend.
"I'll just have a water thanks. I have to keep working on my assignments tomorrow." Lydia replies as if she didn't have an issue with the girl.
"Cool, one water, one beer. I'll be right back." They watch her as she disappears into the crowd towards the bar.
"I'm sorry for over reacting, I trust your judgment. And maybe I am a bit jealous." Lydia says to him after a few moments of silence letting the music wash over them. Stiles chuckles slightly.
"I must be rubbing off on you. It's usually me who's the paranoid one that doesn't trust anyone." Lydia elbows him gently in the stomach in response.
"Is everybody having a good time tonight?" Po calls from the stage catching the couple's attention again.
"I just want to do a shout out to my sister Diana who is in the crowd tonight." The crowd lets out another drunken whoo again.
"This song is a favourite of hers. So this one's for you D." He begins to play a familiar series of opening chords. It reminds Stiles of a song his mom use to sing along to on the radio when he was a kid. Then he hears it, Diana's voice boom over the noise of the bar and music almost impossibly loud.
"FUCK YOU PO!"
Lydia turns to look at Stiles who just shrugs in confusion. They hear Po chuckle into his microphone.
"Love you too sis! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeeeeaaah!"Po seamlessly transitions from yelling back at his sister to singing. Stiles watches as Po looks over at the bassist who looks like he is trying to break out in uncontrollable laughter.
"If God had a name, what would it be? And would you call it to His face? If you were faced with Him in all His glory. What would you ask if you had just one question?" There is something hypnotic about the way Po sings, there is a calming soothing quality about it that makes Stiles feel at ease.
"And yeah, yeah God is great. Yeah, yeah God is good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us. Just a stranger on the bus, trying to make His way home." Stiles and Lydia are so caught up in the song that they had not noticed Diana return to the table with their drinks until she places them down harder than necessary.
"I'm going to kill that little shit when he gets off that stage. He knows how I feel about that song!" She practically fumes, tossing back her drink quickly before going back to glaring at her brother. Lydia leans in closer to Stiles to whisper in his ear.
"Aren't you glad we're only children?" Stiles lets out a laugh before pressing a kiss to her lips.
The bar is almost empty and the band is packing away their equipment on stage. Stiles, Lydia and Diana are all sitting in the booth chatting waiting for the boys to be done, Lydia seems to have finally begun to warm up slightly towards Diana. It was progress.
"Hey D, we're done here now, we'll just shove all this stuff in the van then come join you!" Po calls to his sister.
"Sure thing bro!" Diana shouts back tossing him the keys.
"So… you and your brother… well you, uh, um…. you…" Stiles stumbles over trying to approach what could be a very delicate topic. Diana lets out a sigh.
"You want to know why he's black and I'm white don't you?" Diana states almost disinterested in the entire topic.
"What? No! That's not what I was going to… I would never… Maybe just a little… Yeah… That's what I was going to ask." Lydia can't help but roll her eyes at her boyfriend's lack of tact.
"Our parents are both mixed race. One black parent, one white parent each. Sometimes genetics can mean that they have a kid with all the genes of one particular ethnicity. Sometimes it happens with twins. We're not the only mixed-race twins in the world, there are sisters in the UK like us. You can google it if you don't believe me. We did make quite a splash when we were born, made national news papers. Wasn't the best way for our dad's wife to find out about out his infidelity, or for our mum to find out he had a wife." Stiles nearly spits out his drink over the entire table at that, he ends up chocking it down instead. Lydia rubs circles on his back trying to sooth him. Before either of them could ask any more questions the band returned.
"Hey everyone!" Po says all warm smiles not noticing at all Stiles almost chocking to death, the two other boys hovering just behind him. Diana gets up from the booth to hug her brother and cousins.
"Po, Marsden, Paul I would like you to meet my FBI internship partner Stiles and his girlfriend Lydia." Stiles now fully recovered sticks his hand out to shake Po's.
"It's nice to finally meet you. You're bands really great by the way." Po just gets a smug little smile on his face and begins to run his eyes over both Stiles and Lydia.
"No! Stop it Po! I know that look. You are not going to sleep with them. Individually or together, so stop giving them the once over and get in the booth." Po just rolls his eyes at his sister and slides into the booth. As he does Diana slaps him on the back of his head.
"Ow! What did you do that for?" Po says rubbing the back of his head as Paul lets out a snigger at his cousin's expense sliding along the seat after him.
"That was for the song dickhead." Diana retorts sitting down next to Paul. Marsden had grabbed a seat from a nearby table as he was too big to fit into the booth, he sits down quietly having never said a word the entire time.
"So how long have you all been playing together for?" Lydia ask politely, feeling slightly unnerved by Marsden's looming presence and Po blatantly checking her and Stiles out. While Stiles is openly staring at the human mountain that is Marsden.
"We always were mucking about together as kids but didn't really start to get serious about it until mid-last year." Po replies stealing his sister's beer and finishing it off.
"I remember when I got you your first guitar. It was always meant to be bro." Paul chips in. Marsden still stays quiet.
"He's not much of a talker is he?" Stiles says to the three sitting across from him, jerking his thumb in Marsden's direction.
"He's more a man of action then words." Paul replies. Marsden stays quiet, his face expressionless.
Lydia watches the group chat and laugh amongst themselves for a few moments. She can't help but feel like she is missing something important. While she might have told Stiles that she trusts his judgement about his new friend and her family Lydia can't help but feel like there is something right in front of her that she can't see.
Stiles was exhausted. He had spent the last the last few weeks after Christmas searching the campus grounds looking for more of those feathers he had found. Spending half the night wondering around had not done any favours for his already admittedly poor sleeping schedule. Stiles can't help but let out a massive yawn.
"I'm sorry Mr. Stilinski, am I keep you up?" Special Agent Bell stops abruptly in the middle of his lecture to call Stiles.
"Sorry Sir." Stiles replies trying to keep his eyes open and not yawn again in Bell's face.
"May I suggest you go to bed earlier tonight." Bell says clearly unimpressed with his favourite student before moving on with the lecture again. Stiles tries to stifle another yawn subtly into his hands. Diana shoots him a concerned look.
"Are you still not sleeping? You've been exhausted for weeks and you've been extra sluggish at out gym sessions lately." Diana whispers.
"I'm fine, just working on some side projects." He mumbles rubbing his eyes. Diana looks at him concerned for a moment before rummaging around in her backpack. She pulls out a small cardboard box and places it in front of Stiles.
"It's tea, drink it a couple of hours before you go to bed and I guarantee you will have a great night's sleep." She says softly tapping the box with her nail. Stiles picks up the box and runs his fingers over the embossed letters spelling out 'Sleepy Time'.
"Why do you have tea in your bag?" Stiles says leaning over to whisper back. Diana just huffs at him in response. Stiles slides back into his chair, his gaze focused on the box of tea bags in his right hand, his leg bounces up and down at a manic pace as he bites his left thumb.
The scent of the spicy tea hits his nose as he lifts the mug towards his mouth. Stiles takes a deep gulp of the scolding hot liquid burning his tongue in the process. He isn't much of a tea drinker, in fact he's never drank tea at all, but Stiles will give anything a go once. He figures that if he drinks the tea now he'll still have an hour or so to have a quick search around campus for any more of those feathers.
Stiles blows on the rest of his tea to cool it off before draining the mug. He grabs his coat, satchel filled with supplies for collecting evidence to send back to Deaton and his phone before heading out. Robbie has already passed out on his bed with a textbook open across his chest, his roommate already use to Stiles' erratic sleeping schedule. He's decided to try the area around Kogan Plaza again since that's where he found the original feathers, hoping whatever left them is a creature of habit.
With a map in hand of all the areas he has previously covered Stiles slips out the door and begins his journey across campus. Fifteen minutes into his walk it's like his brain has hit a wall, a wave a tiredness washes over him suddenly, he stumbles slightly struggling to keep his eyes open. Stiles spies a park bench just up ahead and forces his body towards the seat. When he finally reaches the bench he lays down across it letting his eyes fall shut, thinking to himself how he'll only just close his eyes for a moment. Stiles' vision gets fuzzy but he can swear he can see a figure step out of the shadows towards him.
Stiles groans as the morning sun streams into his eyes, he shifts slightly pulling the blankets up higher and snuggling deeper into the pillows. His eyes snap open suddenly hit with the realisation that he is in his own bed back in his dorm room and not on the park bench he fell asleep on, with no recollection of how he got there. Stiles sits up noticing that the shoes he was wearing are next to his bed and his jacket and bag have been placed neatly on his desk. His eyes drift over to Robbie who is still in the exact same position he left him in last night. Stiles picks up his alarm clock, angry red numbers flash '7:02 AM' in his face. Taking a deep breath Stiles only has one thought on his mind, what the hell happened to him in the eight hours he can't remember?
Argent,
How has this kid not managed to get himself killed yet I will never know. I found him asleep on a bench the other night…