It had been a relief to finally get her hands on her bow, magic powers were cool and everything but the weight of the bow in her hands, the pull of her muscles as she draws the string back, the way everything just seems to stop. The sound of the arrow sailing through the air, the feeling of satisfaction as it hits the bullseye. Allison let's out a steady breath and lowers her bow, turning to face the pack, her eyes falling on Lydia, who was staring intently at her
"So, who wants to go first?" Allison asked, a grin spreading over her face as she eyes Lydia
Naturally, Lydia excelled, which surprised no one, she had pulled a pistol from a selection of weapons inside the duffel bag, loaded it, flicked off the safety and hit every mark. She released the clip and met the packs eyes, all varying degrees of shock and amazement
"What? I read" Lydia had smiled innocently. Danny had adjusted easily enough to a pistol but Scott and Derek were useless, so Allison had set Scott up with a crossbow, grinning when he eventually hit a bullseye. Derek was lounging against the wall of his house, keeping a close eye on them while he read. The big surprise had been Stiles, who it turns out was pretty good at throwing knives (even though he nearly lost a toe while picking one up)
He and Allison had moved away from the group, partly out of safety because the last thing they needed was for Stiles to accidentally impale one of them but mostly to focus on seeing just how skilled Stiles was without the group watching him, Allison was using her powers to hold up targets at different levels and distances while Stiles tried to hit them.
"Why are you good at this?" Allison asked, unable to keep the disbelief from her voice
"Like I know" Stiles shrugged as he threw a knife, grinning as it pierced the bullseye "I'm just glad I'm good at something" He laughed
"You're good at plenty of things Stiles" Allison pulled the knife out and let it fall at Stiles' feet
"Yeah, you guys tell me that enough, but it's nice to actually see it from time to time"
Allison opened her mouth to reply "Oh Scott you imbecile"
"Did you hear that?" She asked
"Hear what?" Stiles furrowed his brow in confusion. Allison matched his gaze
"I thought I could hear Lydia talking"
"I didn't hear anything" Stiles shook his head "What did she say?"
"She called Scott an imbecile"
"That does sound like Lydia though" He nodded thoughtfully "Maybe you imagined it?"
"I guess" Allison agreed, looking back to the clearing where she knew the group were still practising
"You know Derek" Lydia sat down on the ground beside him "I've been thinking, after this whole apocalypse thing has been dealt with, maybe we should rebuild this old place?"
"Why would we do that?" Derek replied stiffly, turning another page of his book
"Because it looks like shit, and a pack should really stay together, and it's big enough for all of us... Need I go on?"
"We wouldn't be able to afford it"
"Minor details" Lydia waved her hand carelessly "What do you think? The whole pack working together on this wreck could be good bonding experience"
"I'll consider it"
"That's all I ask" Lydia smiled as she saw Allison and Stiles heading towards them
"It turns out Stiles is a pretty damn good knife thrower" Allison announced to the pack as she reached Lydia, bending down to press a kiss to her lips (their preferred form of greeting now)
"That's awesome dude!" Scott grinned, he turned to Allison "I know a way we can practice your fireball skills as well" He ran inside the house and returned a minute later, a sack of tennis balls over his shoulder
"Do I want to know why you have like two hundred tennis balls?" Lydia asked, she turned to Derek "is this a wolf thing?"
Derek laughed humourlessly before looking back to his book
"Where did you get two hundred tennis balls?" Stiles asked
"Amazon" Scott replied with a shrug as he pulled one out
"That place fucking sells everything" Danny muttered
"So what? You throw tennis balls and I blast them?" Allison asked
"Pretty much" Scott nodded and lobbed a ball in the air, Allison's hunter reflexes kicked in and she blasted the ball out of the air easily
"that's totally awesome when it's not your eyebrow" Stiles muttered, grabbing a ball from the bag
"Guys...stop" Allison held her hands up after the twentieth ball, she brought her hands up to her head
"Allison?" Lydia asked, as she ran over to her "Are you okay?" Allison flinched away from her and dropped to her knees. Lydia looked back at the pack who were all beginning to walk towards her, she waved them away, trying to tell them to keep their distance. Stiles seemed to understand and whispered something to Scott
"I think I pushed too far" Allison whispered. Lydia placed her hands on top of Allison's, feeling the older girl tense beneath her touch for a moment before relaxing.
"You're okay" Lydia said soothingly, peeling Allison's hands away from her head, she did a double take upon seeing her girlfriend,
"What's wrong?" Allison whispered, picking up on Lydia's reactions
"Your eyes are blue, like really really blue" Lydia replied, it was a bit of an understatement really, they were practically glowing
"Lydia my head feels like it's exploding"
Lydia placed her own hands on either side of Allison's face and pressed their foreheads together, ignoring the fallen leaves beginning to float up around them, Lydia gasped as she felt a wave of energy pulse through her body
"Focus on my voice Alli, you're okay"Allison's hands clutched desperately at the material of Lydia's shirt,
"I can't hold on Lydia" Allison whined. Seeing no other choice Lydia pressed her lips desperately against Allison's, her hands gripping her face and refusing to let go. After what felt like a lifetime Lydia felt Allison's her grip on her on her shirt tighten and reciprocate the kiss as though it was the only thing holding Allison together. It was only when she felt Allison sigh into her mouth she pulled back, watching Allison's face carefully. When Allison opened her eyes Lydia smiled, those brown orbs were back
"Okay?" Lydia asked, Allison nodded
"Yeah" Allison replied, pushing herself off of her knees to sit back properly, her legs on either side of Lydia. Allison reached forward and pulled a leaf from Lydia's hair, tucking a strand behind her ear "Thank you"
"For what?" Lydia asked
"Bringing me back"
"Don't thank me for that" Lydia shook her head "If I was in the same position you would do the exact same thing"
"I would die for you Lydia" Allison replied in a tone that suggested she damn well meant it. Lydia didn't have the words to respond to a statement like that, she settled for climbing into Allison's lap and kissing her until Stiles threw a tennis ball at them
Allison was still suffering from a migraine when they got back so Lydia sent her to her room and told her not to come out until she had rested, Allison had tried to play it off that she was fine but blanched when Lydia gave her the 'Do not fuck with me' look.
Now they all found themselves stretched out around the living room, reading through the information Danny had gotten from Deaton's computer
"You know, I was thinking" Scott broke the silence "This Aisa, Atropos, whatever her name is. She wants to summon the titans right?" He asked the group
"Yeah?" Lydia asked
"Well they're in Greece right? Like hell in Greece, and without like a tear they can't come through so what do they do? Come out in Greece and walk?" Scott asked
"Dude... Shut up and read" Stiles shook his head
Lydia flicked through the pages, it was all helpful for helping them kill creatures that she was pretty sure were made up but she hadn't seen anything remotely relevant to what they were searching for
"Guys" Scott called "I found something" Stiles was at his side and reading the extract that Scott was pointing to
"Uh oh" Stiles made a horrified sound
"What?" Lydia asked
"Remember how you said you thought there was a tear between Allison's dreamscape and this reality? Well... You were right, It turns out there is a tear to hell right here in Beacon Hills, Deaton was looking into it"
Stiles scratched his head before looking to his best friend
"Looks like we just found out how the titans are going to come knocking"
"So I did some digging, one of the names on the list is a witch, Willow. She lives in London, leading a coven of witches, Deaton had some correspondence with her" Danny said to the group from behind the laptop
"What did they talk about?"
"Mostly he asked for everything she knew on tears, how they open, he wanted to know about the oblivion plains"
"What did she say?" Allison asked
"She refused to tell him anything, but he had also asked for a recipe for a potion which she did send him"
"Let me guess" Allison sighs "The same potion he used to put me into a coma?"
"The very same" Danny nodded
"Okay, so this Willow, she obviously knows more than Deaton if he's asking her for help. We should send her a message"
"Are you serious? What if she's evil?" Scott asked Lydia, his eyes wide
"Do you have a better plan Stilinski?" Lydia snapped, Allison flinched beside her and squeezed Lydia's hand, a silent calm down Lydia flashed her a small smile "Look, these tears are obviously important-"
"one's an incident, two's a coincidence, and three's a pattern" Stiles muttered, earning a confused look from the group "Aisa just so happened to bring her coven here to do the locator spell, there just so happens to be a tear that can act as a doorway to the plains of oblivion including hell where the titans reside and it just so happens that the power source she needs is in the form of a pretty little brunette who goes by the name of Allison Argent" Stiles explained "Lydia's right, we need to know what causes these tears"
"And how to close them" Lydia added. Derek nodded to the group and looked to Danny
"Can you send her a message?"
"Already on it" Danny replied, typing away furiously
It wasn't until the next day when they had a response. At first she had been reluctant to believe that the pack were who they said they were but had relented when Lydia had responded with a strongly worded email outlining the many ways she would make Willow suffer if she didn't help them, powerful witch be damned. Willow had responded with a heartfelt apology for providing Deaton with the knowledge to lock Allison in the dreamscape (but also praised Allison and Lydia for finding a way out of it) She had explained that there was a lot of things going around and that she couldn't really help but that she had basically attached every single article of information she had on learning to control powers and everything she had on spells for all uses. She had promised to try and send a team out to help as soon as possible but not to hold their breaths.
"Well that was pretty much a waste of time" Stiles huffed, Lydia punched him in the arm
"What are you talking about? She said she was going to try and send help" Scott replied
"'But not to hold our breaths'" Stiles echoed
"At least she sent us some stuff to read"
"Can you print it?"
"Already on it" Danny smiled
"What do we do?" Derek asked Lydia
"We need to find a way to know when Allison is reaching her limit, and how to stop it"
"We should try and get into Deaton's place" Derek suggested
"It could be trapped"
"That's why I want Allison to come with me" He saw Lydia open her mouth to protest "We'll just go over, see if he's in, if he isn't we try and get in. We'll only be gone for an hour"
Lydia pursed her lips "Fine. An hour, then you get back here, deal?"
Allison waited until they were a good distance from the house before speaking
"There's more to this than just trying to break into Deaton's isn't there?"
"Stiles told me about you hearing Lydia's voice back at the reserve"
"Of course he did" Allison rolled her eyes "So! What's the theory and why haven't you told Lydia yet? And what else has he told you?" She added
"He also told me you had nightmares" Derek shrugged "Anyway, with wolves, particularly those who received the bite have trouble...adjusting, to help them they often, subconsciously seek out an anchor"
"An anchor?"
"Somebody to ground them, thinking of them helps them to calm the wolf within. I recall you being Scott's anchor in his first few weeks" Derek smiled at that, actually smiled at Allison and if that wasn't the strangest sight she's ever seen she didn't know what was "He's his own anchor now. But, I think a similar thing has happened with you and Lydia."
"You think she's my anchor?"
"Your first experience with magic, Lydia calmed you down-"
"And then Stiles slapped me" Allison interrupted
"True" Derek nodded "But she still had an effect. Okay, the time Stiles tried to teach you magic and ended up making you question your sexuality and almost start a thunderstorm, how did you stop it?" Derek asked, despite knowing the answer. Allison thought back to that day
"Lydia"
"Who was it who helped you use your magic for the first time?"
"Lydia"
"Who stopped you from having a meltdown this morning?"
"I get it"
"And let's not forget the fact that she literally tied your soul to hers so she could bring you back from a different dimension" Derek concluded "She literally anchored you to herself"
"She's my anchor" Allison said, earning a nod from Derek "That doesn't explain why I heard her voice though"
"There's a bond between you now, and now that you're together and you have magic that bond will probably just continue to strengthen, so you probably read her mind"
"What?" Allison asked "that's insane, why hasn't it happened before? Or since?"
"Probably because you're never more than five feet from her at any given time"
"That's why you insisted I come with you isn't it?"
"Yes, with you being so close to her you don't realise the connection you seem to have with her, so now, I want you to try and reach out to her"
"isn't that kind of invasive?"
"Just do it" Derek huffed as they reached a set of traffic lights
"How?"
"Just..reach out, I can't be of any more help, it comes naturally to me" Allison huffed but closed her eyes, she visualised Lydia, focused on the sound of her voice, after a minute of nothing happening she opened her eyes to look to Derek but clamped her mouth shut when she heard a whisper from the corner of her mind. Derek raised an eyebrow but said nothing as Allison clamped her eyes shut again and focused on where the sound come from.
She could smell coffee, she could hear Stiles yelling something at Scott in the distance
She heard"Forty five minutes" clearly in her head, she knew it was Lydia. She locked on to that voice and she could see her clearly then, she could see Lydia reading through some papers, her eyes flitting up to the clock on the mantle.
Allison opened her eyes and looked at Derek
"I heard her thoughts"
"What did she say?"
"Forty five minutes, I think she's counting how long we have until she expects us back" Allison laughed "Holy shit Derek what do I tell her?"
"The truth" Derek replied "It's only going to get stronger the more you're with one another, and it's probably going to affect the rest of the pack eventually"
"What?"
"Pack bond" Derek reminded her
"Oh shit"
Derek laughed, Allison flinched, it was such a foreign sound to her
"Hopefully you'll be able to control it by the time that happens, you can restrict who taps into your mind"
"Thank god, the last thing I need is for Stiles to appear in my head at inconvenient times" Allison muttered. Derek smiled at her once more before looking back to the road, his lips pursed into a thoughtful expression. They drove on in silence for a while
"I am glad you're pack Allison" Derek said. Allison's lips formed a straight line as she continued to stare out of the window "And I know I never said it, but I am sorry for what I did"
"I'm not going to lie Der, I hated you. I wanted to kill you, and a small part of me will probably always hate you for what you did" Allison sighed. Derek nodded as he turned down another road "But." Allison turned to face him "I understand now why you did it, you bit her, yes. But you didn't kill her, she took her own life and I know that, she tried to kill Scott and you protected him" She smiled at him "I'm glad I'm pack too" Allison finished
Derek nodded back at her, a weight lifted between them
"Do you have a plan on how to get in?" Allison asked as they stood shoulder to shoulder staring at Deaton's home from across the street
"I'm thinking we go in the back way?"
They nodded to one another before walking around the building
"There was nothing there?" Stiles asked
"Completely empty." Derek replied grimly
"It was like no body had ever lived there" Allison added, folding her arms
"You need to call your Dad" Lydia turned to Allison
"I know" Allison sighed, she had already pulled her phone from her jeans
"Not yet" Lydia rolled her eyes, reaching out and stilling Allison's hand with her own. She glared at the pack and watched as they dispersed, leaving the two girls alone "What are you going to say?"
"I don't really want to tell him I'm a witch over the phone but if I have to I will"
"And what will you tell him about us?"
"Well if he asks I'll tell him...Unless you'd rather I didn't?" Allison asked, remembering they hadn't actually talked about how open their relationship would be
"Oh honey, I have nothing to hide, when we go back to school with you on my arm heads will turn" Lydia flashed a grin that Allison couldn't help but match, despite everything she was still very much the queen bee that had approached her that first day in the hallway, but they had grown so much. Allison and Lydia went upstairs to Allison's room and sat down opposite each other on her bed, Allison hooked one of her legs around Lydia's waist and brought her in close as she held the phone up to her ear
Her dad picked up on the third ring
"Allison- now isn't the best time" He sounded exhausted
"Dad, we need help" Allison said, her eyes flicking up to Lydia briefly
"What's wrong?" He asked, his voice now alert
"Okay I didn't want to do this over the phone..." Allison hesitated
"What's wrong?" Chris asked again, his voice becoming slightly panicked
"Okay so long story short? It turns out that I have magic powers because we're descended from a Greek Goddess and this evil chick wants to suck my soul so she can summon the titans and bring about the next apocalypse..." Allison trailed off "ALSO while I'm at it, Lydia is my girlfriend now" She added quickly. Her dad was silent for so long Allison had to check to make sure they hadn't been disconnected. Lydia took one of her hands and began to rub her thumb with her own, it distracted Allison so much she almost missed her dad start talking again
"Well...That's a lot of information to take in, things are bad out here Allison, activity is up, witches, vampires, weird cults. They're all flocking to California-"
"Hold on dad, I'm putting you on speaker phone" Allison fumbled with the phone and held it out between herself and Lydia "You think they're coming here?"
"It would make sense if there's a goddess running around Beacon Hills trying to bring about the end of the world, they're probably devout followers"
"When can you get back?"
"That's the problem..." he sighed, Lydia and Allison flashed one another a worried look "We think there's something blocking us from getting back into the town, we've tried but then we black out and the next thing we know we're on the road heading back the way we came"
"Wait, we?" Lydia asked
"Erica, Boyd and Isaac, they're here with me, they're helping me track a large vampire pack"
"Dad what do we do?"
"My office, go in, read everything. There has to be something in there to help you out, I'll call in all the help we can get and have them as close as possible, we'll try to hold off any unwanted visitors"
"Okay"
"And Allison?"
"Yeah?"
"There's a box, inside the desk, consider it an early gift"
"Thank you"
"I love you okay? Witch, human, whatever. You are my daughter and I love you. Stay safe okay?"
"I love you too Dad" Allison smiled, watery eyed
"Keep her safe Lydia, I'll see you both soon" Allison could hear the smile in his voice
"I will Sir" Lydia smiled at Allison.
After they hung up, Allison received a text containing a four digit code and she almost fell off of the bed as she scrambled out of the room, ignoring the laugh that escaped Lydia's lips, she almost ripped the door off of the hinges in her excitement. It was immaculately organised, a stack of books lining one of the walls.
"Go papa Argent" Lydia whistled from behind her. Allison stepped inside and ran a finger along the spines. She sat down at the desk, her gaze lingering on the picture of herself, her mother and father that was framed in the corner before she spun around in her seat to look at Lydia, stretching herself back against the leather, her hands folded in her lap
"It suits you" Lydia waved her hand around the room
"The office?"
"You look at home"
"I do live here Lydia" Allison reminded her gently
"You know what I mean" Lydia huffed "So, you going to look for that box or not?"
"Oh right" Allison laughed, she span her chair around and pulled out a wooden box, she felt Lydia walk up and lean against the back of the chair as she lifted the two catches, unlocking the box. As she lifted the lid she felt Lydia take a sharp intake of breath before letting out a low whistle. Inside velvet lined box was a pistol, it was silver, the grip appeared to be carved from ivory. As she lifted the gun from it's box she noticed how there was a pattern carved into it that looked almost exactly like the pendant Kate had given her for her birthday. The rest of the gun was engraved with flowers and vines. It was beautiful. Allison gripped the gun and pointed it, testing it's weight, she let out a content hum before placing it back in the box and snapping the lid shut.
"That's it?" Lydia asked
"What do you mean?" Allison twisted her head slightly
"Is that what you guys buy each other now? Are you going to buy your dad a new knife for Christmas? Because I don't appreciate weapons as gifts I'm telling you now"
Allison ducked her head to stifle her laughter "Don't worry, I won't buy you weapons as gifts" She grinned as she felt the chair twisting and looked up as she came face to face with Lydia's chest, she let out a quiet hum of approval
"My eyes are up here" Lydia stated, Allison could hear the grin in her voice. Allison craned her neck up to meet Lydia's eyes, her smile deepened as Lydia crawled onto her lap, settling her legs on either side of Allison's thighs, she smiled at Allison before cradling her face in her hands and ducking down to capture her lips.
Allison ran her tongue along Lydia's bottom lip, grinning into the kiss as Lydia gasped and pulled back slightly. Allison bundled Lydia's shirt in her fists and pulled the girl closer to her, biting down gently on Lydia's lip before sweeping her tongue across it again, the taste of vanilla on her tongue, Lydia's grip tightened on Allison's face as the younger girl deepened the kiss, exploring the expanse of Allison's mouth, she let her hands run down Allison's arms, feeling goosebumps break out against her skin at the contact. Lydia took Allison's bottom lip between her teeth and bit down, harder than Allison had to her, earning a moan from the girl beneath her. Lydia grinned into Allison's mouth because this? This is electric. Her body is buzzing, every nerve is alive, and judging from the reaction of the girl beneath of, Allison feels the same way. Lydia's hands found the bottom of Allison's shirt and broke the kiss before leaving a trail of kisses from Allison's ear to the jawline before biting down on her pulse point and sucking the area until a bruise began to form. Lydia began to pull the shirt up Allison's body, humming against Allison's neck as her hands brushed against toned abs. Lydia had just about exposed Allison's bra when she felt hands on her wrists, stilling her. She looked down quizzically to Allison, who's pupils dilated to the point where they were almost black, her lips were parted slightly as though she was having difficulty breathing
"Are you okay?" Lydia asked
"I'm fine, but erm" Allison looked uncomfortable as she struggled to find words "This is my dads office"
"And?"
"...He probably has some kind of surveillance" Allison muttered as she glanced around sheepishly. Lydia felt her skin pale as she crawled off of Allison who was rubbing the back of her head, still looking around the room
"This is awkward" Lydia muttered, Allison hummed in agreement
"But, I didn't blow anything up, so there's that"
"You're getting stronger" Lydia noted. Allison smiled as she got up from the chair and walked over to Lydia and wrapped her up in a hug, Lydia ducked her head so that it was resting against Allison's chest
"I can feel your magic In your body"
"It's because you're here, when you're around, my magic goes crazy" Allison whispered. Lydia pulled away and looked at Allison with wide eyes
"Really?"
Allison nodded "Really"
Lydia smiled and took one of Allison's hand and pressed it against her chest, Allison grinned as she felt the rhythmic beating of her girlfriends heart
"It's not the same as magic, but my heart beats like that whenever I see you" Lydia replies before leaning forward for another kiss
"Allison- HEY! You got the door open well- Oh shit" Stiles appeared in the doorway as they broke apart "Shit I'm sorry. Scott made lunch, they sent me up here to tell you- shit I'm sorry, don't kill me" Stiles ran before they could reply
"Soon they'll be out of this house" Lydia muttered. Allison just laughed as she pulled away to grab the box on the desk, they'd return for the books after they've eaten. As Allison held out her spare hand for Lydia to take, Lydia reached forward and grabbed Allison's shirt, pulling it down to cover the huntresses body.