AN: Thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate them! Here is the next chapter, let me know what you think :)
Stiles watched as Lydia walked up to a palm tree and sat down in the shade. She leaned her head back against the tree trunk and closed her eyes. Even though Stiles felt awful for putting her through all of this, he couldn't help but be grateful that he got to hold her. Twice, and they had only just gotten here.
He couldn't imagine how she must have felt when he didn't wake up. He had had the feeling that she didn't want to talk about it, so he had just let her cry while he held her. She had held onto him so tightly that it had been almost painful, but Stiles definitely wouldn't complain. He had revelled in the feeling of her in his arms. Countless times had he imagined how it would feel to hold her and now he finally knew and he was anything but disappointed.
But he had also noticed the way she had put up those walls around her again after the relief of him waking up had lessened. He had spent the past year trying to tear down those walls as carefully and unnoticed as possible and he had been extremely happy with the outcome. Lydia was so much more herself around him now than she had been a year ago and the more she let him see of her personality the more he wanted to know.
When she had walked away from him about an hour ago he had known that the shade had only been an excuse to get away from him. Stiles knew her well enough by now to know that Lydia wasn't showing affection that openly to anyone, especially after what happened with Jackson. But Stiles was determined to pull down the walls she was putting up and he hoped that they weren't as high again now as they had been a year ago.
The growl of his stomach pulled him from his thoughts and made him walk over to Lydia. She was still sitting in the shade, her head against the tree trunk and she was so still that Stiles was wondering if she was asleep. He looked down at her for a moment, appreciating the view of her, completely relaxed.
"Are you going to say something or are you just going to stare at me?" Lydia asked without opening her eyes and Stiles was speechless for a few seconds. He didn't know what to say, especially because he didn't know if she was still angry at him.
"Um… I was thinking that we could maybe check out the island… if you want to… with me?" he stammered and Stiles hated that they seemed to be back to square one: with him stuttering whenever he talked to Lydia and Lydia with her walls up.
"Sure. I'm starving!" she answered, ignoring his stammering. Stiles was equally surprised and grateful that she didn't make a sarcastic comment or gave a snappy answer. But he didn't know if he should maybe worry about it. Even though he knew that deep down she wasn't as mean as she had been acting in school, her true personality still had a little edge to it and she wouldn't leave out any opportunity to make a sarcastic remark.
"I already found a lake, it's really beautiful! And there are trees with fruit everywhere so I think it's not going to be that difficult to survive here. I'll show you the lake first, I think I can find it again!" Lydia said and Stiles felt as if he was visiting Lydia's island and she was showing him around. He was in awe of how quickly and easily she found the lake she had told him about and it was truly beautiful. The water was crystal clear and even Stiles had never seen anything as beautiful as this waterfall, except for Lydia of course.
When he turned around to tell her how amazing he thought it was his breath caught in his throat when Lydia stood in front of him in only her underwear with her skirt and blouse in her hands. Stiles gaped at her and tried very hard to stop his eyes from raking up and down her body. She raised an eyebrow at him and he quickly closed his mouth, still not able to form a coherent thought, let alone a sentence.
"What? Have you never seen a girl in her underwear before?" she asked with a smirk. Stiles knew she took pleasure in watching him squirm and he was desperately racking his brain for something to say.
"No" was all he could come up with, completely throwing Lydia off her game. He knew she had expected him to say something flirtatious or to not be able to say anything at all. But never had she imagined he would just blatantly answer her question.
Lydia couldn't decide if she was more shocked by the fact that he gained his composure back so quickly or about the fact that he had never seen a girl in her underwear before. There was an awkward silence that neither of them knew how to fill until her curiosity took the better of Lydia.
"Seriously?" she finally asked. Stiles blushed a deep shade of red and couldn't hold her gaze.
"Yes, seriously." He replied honestly. "In bikinis, yes, obviously, but never in underwear, never in underwear..." He added, not thinking before speaking as his eyes wandered over her body on their own accord.
He only noticed what he was doing when his eyes met hers again and he saw the smirk on Lydia's face.
"Sorry, I'm just… it's just… you look beautiful!" he finally said, looking up from the ground that his eyes had fallen to in embarrassment, but meeting her gaze again at his last words.
Lydia was rendered speechless and for a moment her mouth dropped open just a little. She would never get used to the way he complimented her so openly. He had been embarrassed, but only because she had caught him looking up and down her body and not because he had complimented her.
Lydia decided it was time for her to clear her head and jumped into lake without any further thought. The water was cold against her bare skin and a welcome change from the hot air. The water enveloped her and she felt panic rise inside of her, her body remembering the last time she had been in the water this suddenly.
She shot up through the surface, gasping for air and looked around for Stiles frantically. He noticed her ragged breathing and shrugged off the last of his trousers and carefully got into the water next to her. The lake was quite deep underneath Lydia and Stiles gently took her hand and lead her over to the other side of the lake where they could touch the ground with their feet.
Lydia fought hard to slow her breathing and didn't really notice Stiles until he was right in front of her, her face in his hands. She couldn't hear anything; the panic was drowning out all the noises around her. She focused on his eyes, pleading her to calm her breathing. She tried to adapt to his rhythm of breathing and soon she could hear his worried voice, telling her to slow her breathing.
They breathed together a few more times until Stiles deemed it safe to let go of her and they stood in silence, worry still showing clearly in his eyes.
"What happened?" he asked her carefully.
"W-When I jumped into the water it felt just like when we were thrown off the boat and then the panic just came over me and I couldn't breath and…" Lydia trailed off quietly. She hated feeling the way she was feeling right now. So she decided that she just wouldn't feel that way anymore. She took a deep breath and started rubbing up and down her arms to get rid of the salt that was still clinging to her while Stiles still watched her with worried eyes.
She pretended not to notice and just kept going, until Stiles apparently decided to just let it go and started to wash himself too. When they were both as clean as they would get without any shampoo or shower gel they washed their clothes as well. Since they both only had what they had on them when they were kidnapped, they needed to take good care of their clothes.
They decided to walk back to the beach for now to dry off in the sun. They placed their clothes on a rock and Stiles still hadn't gotten used to Lydia walking around in her underwear. He had to focus on not looking at her the entire time and it was draining him. He was also exhausted from the walk to the lake and back even though it wasn't that long but he was probably still exhausted from their "journey".
"I will lie down for a bit, if you don't mind", he said, desperately trying to get away from her and her half naked body.
Lydia nodded her head and watched Stiles walk towards the ocean. She had never noticed it before or even thought about it, but he now that he was shirtless, she saw that he must have been working out. Or maybe the running from supernatural creatures did this to his body, but she had to admit that he looked good!
He was walking along the beach for a while until he was dry before lying down in the sand with his hands placed behind his head. He looked comfortable and relaxed and Lydia felt a wave of relief washing over her that he was still alive. She couldn't imagine what it would have been like to be here all by herself.
She felt bad for yelling at him earlier when he had woken up. But after the relief had worn off, the anger she had felt about him being so irresponsible and not thinking about himself even when he was close to unconsciousness had come to the surface again. All of her worry, relief, anger, fear and happiness had completely overwhelmed her at that moment and she had let it all out. On him. Granted, most of it was somehow his fault but she felt bad for yelling and hitting him especially because he was so sweet to her all the time.
So, when she noticed that they hadn't followed their initial plan to find something to eat, she decided to do something nice for him and went into the woods to gather some food for the two of them to eat when he woke up.
She took Stiles' shirt and formed a kind of bag to carry the fruit. She obviously could have taken her blouse instead but she didn't want to get stains on it and Stiles shirt was probably already stained anyway. She only took a few steps between the trees and was instantly surrounded by trees and bushes that carrying all different kinds of fruit.
She decided to stick to common kinds of fruit like bananas, raspberries and blueberries. She walked back to the beach and placed her bundle of fruit carefully on top of a rock. Stiles was still lying in the sand, seemingly asleep, so she decided to look for coconuts. Palm trees full of coconuts were lining the beach and Lydia was determined to get one. She obviously wasn't going to climb up to pick one so she hoped that some might be laying on the ground.
She didn't have to go far, until she found the first one, practically waiting for Lydia. She continued down her path and returned when she had found four. A big grin spread across her face when she thought about drinking the coconut water. When she passed Stiles on her way back he was still asleep so she arranged their food nicely, put her now dry clothes on and strolled along the beach to find a sharp stone to open the coconut with.
"Are you looking for something?" a sleepy voice said behind Lydia. She turned around and looked at a still sleepy looking Stiles.
"I found us some coconuts but I can't open them without something sharp, so that's what I'm looking for." she replied, smiling at him while he was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Stiles smiled back at her before she took his hand in hers and pulled him towards their "table".
"I wanted to do something nice for you, you know, for hitting you and yelling at you…" she explained when she saw the surprise in his eyes. She had arranged the berries in a kind of pattern while he was still asleep.
"Is Lydia Martin apologising to me?" Stiles asked, smirking at her. "I don't think I've ever heard you apologise to anyone ever before!"
"No, I'm not apologising, just stating the facts!" she said grinning back at him.
Lydia patted the stone next to their table for Stiles to sit down before sitting down opposite him. She had granted him the nicer seat, the one overlooking the beach and the ocean.
"Beautiful", Stiles said and when Lydia looked up, she found him already staring at her intently.
"W-What?" she asked blushing.
"The pattern you have made with our food is really beautiful", Stiles elaborated with a smirk, both of them knowing that that wasn't what he had meant. Lydia didn't fight the smile that took over her face, grateful that he had noticed her discomfort and changed wherever he had wanted this to go. He complimented her often, to the extend where she didn't even acknowledge it most of the time but somehow this had felt much more significant and it had made her utterly uncomfortable.
The way he had looked at her had made her feel as if he was staring straight into her soul and it scared her. Luckily Stiles seemed to be able to read her emotions like a book, which scared her as well, but it was also proving to be helpful that he noticed when she got uncomfortable.
They had an easy conversation throughout their lunch and appreciated every single piece of fruit. They had decided that it was best to try and build something to sleep in for the night, the only problem being that neither of them had ever done it before. Or even thought about it for that matter.
"I have an idea!" Stiles exclaimed suddenly. They collected as many logs as they could find from the woods and piled them up near the stone table where they had decided to build their place to sleep. Stiles' plan was to build two little tipi-style huts where they would at least have some kind of cover for the night. When they had gathered a countless amount of logs, Stiles started sorting through the pile and lined them up by size. He picked up the two longest logs and arranged them to what was supposed to be the beginning of a tipi.
"Ok, Lydia, can you stand here and hold this up for me please?" Stiles instructed and Lydia obliged.
Stiles continued to place more and more logs next to the others, until it actually looked like a tipi. He took a step back, admired his work and nodded appreciatively. He grinned at Lydia, expecting her to be impressed with his work too, but she just raised an eyebrow at him.
"So, am I supposed to hold them in place the whole time or do you have a plan for this?" she asked just as he had opened his mouth to ask what was wrong. His mouth dropped open for a moment, realising that he hadn't thought this through completely, before gaining back the control over his facial expression.
"Yeah, yeah, I mean of course I have an idea for that too!" he quickly said, his voice a pitch too high and giving away his lie. He was scratching the back of his neck while looking around frantically for a solution to the problem.
"I'll be right back!" he finally said, hoping that his idea would work. He gathered a few palm-leaves and broke of some of the long pieces to tie the logs together carefully. After what felt like an eternity, he finally deemed it safe for Lydia to let go. Lydia's arm was already feeling as if they might fall off at any second and she let go of the logs carefully, not really trusting the stability of Stiles' construction.
When Lydia let go, the logs started sliding down a little, widening the space inside the tipi. The two of them held their breath until everything had stilled and they both sighed in relief. They agreed to gather some more palm-leaves to cover the sand and use it as a kind of carpet and mattress for the tipi.
Once the floor was covered they both got in, only now noticing how big the tipi was. It looked much smaller from the outside but could fit the two of them easily. They both sat down on the floor cross-legged and joked about the construction and Stiles ability as a craftsman.
"I know we wanted to build two, but I'm really exhausted so I will just sleep outside and you can sleep in here", Stiles stated after a while.
"Stiles, don't be silly! I am not going to make you sleep outside, especially since you are the one who built this. There is enough space in here for the both of us!" Lydia said as if it was the most normal thing for them to be sleeping in the same "bed".
"Uh.. sure, okay, thanks!" Stiles stuttered, not meeting her eyes.
"Oh my god, look!" Lydia suddenly exclaimed while scrambling to get up and run out of the tipi. Stiles followed her immediately and stopped in his tracks the second he got a good look at the ocean. The sun was setting and Stiles could only make out Lydia's silhouette against the bright light and he had never seen anything more beautiful in his entire life.
The sky was shimmering in a thousand different colours, ranging from yellow to orange and red and with everything reflecting in the water it looked infinite. But the most beautiful part about the view was the silhouette of the girl in front of all the colours. Even though he couldn't see her face or the colour of her hair or anything else, he would still have recognised her just by the way she was standing there.
He had spent so many years looking at her from afar and he couldn't believe how everything had played out the way it did and had led him here. He certainly wasn't grateful that he had been kidnapped or stranded on this island but he thanked every deity he had ever heard about for being here with her. He knew it was selfish and he wanted nothing more than for her to be safe, but he couldn't deny that he loved spending time with her, whatever the circumstances.
He couldn't take his eyes off of her but when she turned around to look at him he walked over to her and they watched the sun set together in a comfortable silence.
Without the sun, the temperature was dropping quickly and Lydia shivered next to him. He wanted to offer her his jacket, but unfortunately neither of them had one. They walked back to their tipi and lay down next to each other, careful not to be touching the other. The palm-leaves they had collected earlier were used as blankets but they weren't bracing them much against the cold wind that was whistling through the holes in the walls.
Lydia curled herself up into a ball and tried to fall asleep. She tossed and turned as did Stiles, not able to get comfortable due to the cold, the rather hard surface and the unfamiliar noises that were surrounding them. Stiles was struggling not to reach out to her and pull her towards him every time he felt the leaves move underneath him from Lydia's shiver.
Even though the temperature had dropped considerably he wasn't really feeling the cold. The fact that Lydia was lying only a few inches away from him washed all other feelings away and left him with only the ones he had for her.
"Stiles?" Lydia whispered about half an hour later.
"Yeah?" he answered back just as quietly.
"So you can't sleep either?" she questioned with a little relief in her voice that she wasn't the only one awake.
"No, I can't. We really need to figure out a way to make our bed a little softer..." he joked, trying to lighten the mood.
Lydia stayed silent but Stiles could hear a light chuckle escaping her lips. They were silent again and when Lydia shivered again, Stiles decided to be bold.
"Are you cold?" he asked tentatively, already trying to figure out what to say when she said yes. He knew she was cold and he really wanted this conversation to end with Lydia being in his arms again but he also knew that he had to be careful.
It was a little like approaching a wild animal: if he was too forward she would shy away and if he was too careful nothing would come out of this whole situation.
"No", Lydia answered and shivered about a second later.
"You do now that the leaves are moving underneath me every time you shiver, right?" he said with a smile on his lips. She was so stubborn and she would never ask for help.
"Okay, yes, maybe I am a little cold!" Lydia admitted while rolling her eyes and even though Stiles could not see it he knew her well enough to be able to hear it in her tone of voice.
Still, Stiles was having a hard time to grasp Lydia's mood without seeing her face but he decided to take his chances.
"You could come a little closer to get warm, you know, if you wanted to. I really wouldn't mind, the opposite actually! But I would understand if you didn't want to, I just wanted to offer..." he rambled.
"Stiles, shut up!" Lydia cut him off.
"Sorry", Stiles answered embarrassed. No matter how much time they spent together, he always seemed to start rambling when it came to her. He was really annoyed and frustrated with himself for not being able to talk to her like a normal human being, but he couldn't stop his rambling once he started. And now he had lost this chance to be close to her and had embarrassed himself once again.
A frustrated sigh escaped his lips and he turned back onto his back and placed his hands behind his back, knowing that he would be thinking about his stupidity for a while before he would even be able to think about sleeping.
Lydia shuffled again next to him and suddenly her hand was tapping the side of his chest, trying to locate him in the darkness, before she moved closer to him and placed her hand on his chest. Stiles shivered at her touch and his heart began beating out of his chest. She rested her head on his chest next to her hand and when she shivered against him he boldly removed his arm from behind his head and started rubbing up and down her back to get her warm.
His other hand found hers on his chest and he flinched away when he noticed just how cold it was. He placed his hand on top of hers and he knew then that he would never be able to have a goodnight sleep without her next to him.
"Your heart is beating really fast", Lydia suddenly said, her voice already laced with sleep.
Stiles blushed, trying to get his heartbeat under control but now that he knew she had noticed his erratic heartbeat, it was even more difficult to get it back to a normal pace.
"I wonder why that might be..." he answered, deciding that sarcasm was his best option to hide his embarrassment.
He felt Lydia smile against his chest as she moved a little closer, soaking in his body heat. She murmured a quiet "goodnight Stiles" before finally giving in to sleep. Her breathing evened out and Stiles felt himself grow more and more tired. He felt so peaceful holding her, that he fell asleep just a few minutes later, even though he had tried to fight it to savour every moment with her.
