Dust. That's what the attic smelled of. God knows how long it's been since anyone was up here. Lydia pulls her hair back and secures it with a hair tie and accepts the hand Stiles offers her to help navigate the boxes.

She supposes a lot of this stuff is from before her father moved out, shoved in the most forgotten about place so it wouldn't serve as a reminder. Lydia kicks a box, more out of disappointment than anything and sends a puff of dust flying.

She feels a tingle over her skin and knows that whatever the hell it is they're looking for; they came to the right place. She lets her feelings guide her and with Stiles' comforting words in her ears she stops just beyond a pile of boxes.

In front of her is a chest, it looks old and heavy, with a rusty key protruding from its lock. Lydia kneels and Stiles kneels beside her together thy push back the lid. A solitary damaged black leather bound book sits inside.

Lydia turns to Stiles, 'Will you lift it out?'

He frowns at her but obliges, lifting the heavy book with both hands.

'I can feel its power - my Grandmother's power – I'm afraid to touch it.'

He nods, tracing his fingers over the front cover; Bestiary is etched in faint letters as if time has almost worn them away. Stiles opens the heavy book, the pages yellow and torn.

'This must be the most comprehensive Bestiary we've ever seen.' Lydia whispers, leaning over Stiles' shoulder to read. She turns his head to look at him and blushes when she finds he's already looking at her intently.

'I think you should touch it,' He says.

'What?' she splutters taken aback and hastily returning her gaze to the book. 'Stiles…' she says, grabbing his arm, eyes wide, 'Stiles, look.'

In front of them the book sits open at a page with 'bean-sidhe' written across the top in ancient lettering. 'Banshee,' Lydia leans over so far she almost topples Stiles over with her.

'What does it say?' Stiles asks.

'I'm not sure, it's written in Gaelic, something about the source; we'll have to bring it down with us.' She stands up, brushing dust from her jeans. It's the first time Stiles has seen her wear jeans since middle school and the thought is oddly comforting to him. He hefts the book into his arms, getting up to follow after her. He immediately came to an abrupt stop however, when he realised that Lydia too had stopped in her tracks.

'What's up?'

Lydia doesn't answer and instead walks to where a battered old box lies, seemingly forgotten, at the side of the attic. She pulls out and old stuffed elephant and stares at it as if it signifies the end of the world.

'Lydia?' Stiles prompts; setting the book down on an old shelving unit and rubbing his hands up and down her arms carefully.

'My dad bought me this for my tenth birthday, just before he left us; I called it Nellie, predictably. Nellie has known more of my tears than any other thing in this world.' Her voice which started flat and toneless starts to shake before the end of the sentence and Stiles is sure he's never seen her as vulnerable. 'I remember there was this one time, I was feeling so sad at school and I ran out the classroom; at break time a boy gave me his chocolate bar and told me lots of silly jokes to try and make me smile.' She turns around at last and looks directly into his eyes and her gaze is so intense that he has to look away. 'You taught me that there are people who do care about me, Stiles; and I am forever grateful for that.' She puts the elephant back in its box and grabs his hand, 'I'm sorry I started ignoring you when we got to high school, I'm sorry for what I turned into.'

He smiles, 'you turned into a beautiful, intelligent, kick-ass banshee and I don't see anything wrong with that.'

'I find dead people in my spare time,' Lydia laughs, trying to ignore the blush that comes along with his compliments.

Stiles laughs too, 'you save people too.'

'I couldn't do it without you,' her expression turns thoughtful, 'you know, we should really start listening to everyone around us.' She's finding it hard to meet his eyes, they're so warm and honest and gentle.

'What do you mean?' Stiles asks.

'Even my mom has noticed and that must mean something, even Allison wanted…' Lydia trails off, wondering if she's making a mistake by talking about this out loud.

Stiles still looks baffled.

'You know… uh,' Lydia plays with a strand of her hair like it's the most interesting thing she's ever seen, 'the bond between us,' she says it dramatically waving her arms.

'Oh right,' Stiles rubs the back of his head as he does whenever he's nervous and she wonders when she started noticing things like that. 'My dad asked whether there was anything going on between us, right after Malia and I broke up.'

'Oh... what did you tell him?' Lydia is wearing a small smile now, feeling confident. She doesn't know how long it's been there but the urge to kiss him is so strong, especially here in the dim light of the attic.

Maybe it's been there since before the last time she kissed him.

'I told him that I left you when you needed me most and I didn't know if you'd ever forgive me for that.' Stiles says, meeting her eyes as Lydia takes a step forward. He feels his breath shortening in his chest but for once it feels nothing like a panic attack. He can do nothing but stand still and look into her green eyes as she places her hands on his shoulders and rises onto her toes.

'You're forgiven,' she whispers as his arms fall around her waist.

In the silence of the dark room something rings loudly causing Stiles to jump back about ten feet and Lydia to swear.

'It's Scott,' Stiles says, pulling out his phone with a look of disappointment.

To his surprise when he looks up Lydia is wearing a cheeky grin, 'you better see what he wants,' she giggles flirtily.

'I'm going to kill you Scott McCall,' Stiles says as he finds his best friend at the edge of the woods.

Scott looks taken aback, 'I'm used to that threat but rarely does it come from my friends, what's the matter?'

'What's the matter?' Stiles rants, 'what's the bloody matter?'

Scott flinches, unsure of how to calm his friend down.

'Lydia freaking Martin was about to kiss me in her attic and you just had to pick that moment to call. Impeccable timing Scotty.'

'Wha - I didn't get ESP along with the rest of my puppy powers – wait did you just say Lydia kissed you?'

'Nearly kissed me, Scott. That's the difference here.'

'Dude, this is a big deal. This is Lydia we're talking about. You've had a crush on her since like fourth grade.'

'Third.'

'Third and now she loves you and wants to kiss you,' Scott sits down, overwhelmed.

'No one said anything about love, okay? She just wants to explore our bond.'

Scott wiggles his eyebrows a little.

'Not like that, Scott.'

'If I know Lydia and I'm pretty sure I do, it's gonna be exactly like that at some point in the near future.'

'Oh God,' Stiles slides down the tree trunk he's been leaning against, 'what am I going to do?'

'You're going to stay calm and come and investigate with me.'

Stiles is quiet all the way to their destination and it's because he's thinking about the possibility of him and the stunningly beautiful goddess that is Miss Lydia Martin… Well, he'd think about that later.

They arrive at the Nemeton; Scott is convinced that they've missed something and since the Nemeton is one of the only leads they have Stiles has ended up at the mangled old tree instead of kissing the prettiest girl in Beacon Hills.

The clearing that hosts the Nemeton looks much less threatening in the daylight they discover. Shafts of light fall through the branches and scatter on the ground; lighting up the burnt orange and yellow leaves on the ground and motes of dust dance and twirl in the beams. It seems almost peaceful and Scott and Stiles chat amicably about school and their friends.

'Derek is more shaken by the attack than he's letting on,' Scott pokes around in a pile of leaves, hoping to find a drop of wax or literally anything that might lead them to the witches.

'Well since he turned into a wolf he's been stronger, it must have been bad,' Stiles stands at the opposite end of the clearing. 'Hey Scott,' he says quietly as he sees the corner of a page poking up through the leaves.

'What is it, buddy?' Scott moves towards him as Stiles moves to brush the leaves away, 'Stiles I've got bad feeling about this.'

Stiles glances back at Scott once before he swipes a hand across the page.

'STILES!' Scott shouts, seeing Stiles enveloped in black smoke, Scott fights his way through and grasps at the spot where Stiles once was. Stiles is gone and so is the book.

'Stiles!' Scott hears a shout from beyond the clearing, 'Scott!' At first it sounds like Allison and he shakes his head - sure that the black mist is playing tricks on him – then he sees a fiery head appear at the edge of the treeline.

'Scott,' Lydia breathes heavily, as if she's been running, 'where the hell is Stiles?'

A/N: I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story (especially to those who have reviewed it.) This is my first multi-chapter story -of any form- in a while so it's been a bit tough to keep updating but I really think it's starting to come together now ^.^