A/N: FYI, this chapter starts out with all three of them, but it does eventually become Lyrek only, and it's explicit. I felt it was extremely necessary to show that the trio works on all levels and that meant Derek and Lydia needed their own growth and development, not just with Stiles as a conduit. I know for some people that will be harder to read, so I wanted to give a warning just in case.
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this."
Lydia smiled, pleased, as she surveyed her handiwork. "It looks fabulous and you know it."
Derek glanced around, wincing. "It's purple. Really purple."
"And gray," Stiles pointed out, coming up between them and slinging his arms around their waists. "At least she kept to darker tones," he added.
"I look like I live in Barney's stomach," he grumbled. Lydia arched one eyebrow and Stiles' were drawn together in confusion. "Come on," he protested. "I'm not that much older than you two, you have to remember who Barney is."
"What do you mean, Der? You're ancient," Stiles teased.
"Barney was kind of a fuchsia color anyway," Lydia added. "This is definitely more of a plum shade, with grape accents."
"Seriously?" Derek sighed. "My apartment should not be decorated in a color that has shades named for fruit. It should be blue. Or brown. Brown would have been good."
"Brown's boring," Lydia said dismissively. "The plum and pewter is very modern and stylish. I think it looks beautiful."
"Why can't it just be purple and gray?" he muttered grouchily. "Why do they have all these stupid-sounding names, like deep space sparkle and sinnerous?"
"Cinereous," she corrected automatically, and he made a face at her.
"I still think AuroMetalSaurus was the best one," Stiles offered with a grin. "That would have been cool. 'I used AuroMetalSaurus in my loft, what about you?'"
Derek rolled his eyes. "Yes, because the color sounding like a robot dinosaur was a significant factor in choosing what our home looks like."
Two faces turned to him, eyes lit up, and he stared at them. "What?"
"Our home," Lydia said softly. She slid a hand into his and leaned her head against his shoulder. "I think that's the first time we've really called it that."
His heartbeat picked up as he squeezed her fingers. The past few weeks had eased him into their unorthodox relationship and he was starting to feel more relaxed about the non-sexual aspects of their trinity. Although as he flicked his eyes upward to take in the purple-scratch that, plum- curtains hanging from ceiling to floor, he was less enamored of Lydia's part in it.
Then she tilted her chin up so she could look into his eyes, and that beaming smile made him soften. The purple wasn't so bad. And he didn't really care what the place looked like as long as they were in it with him.
Stiles flopped backward onto the new couch, a deep slate gray color that Derek had actually gotten to have approval on, and sighed. "This is almost as nice as the burgundy one," he announced. "It's not as squishy, but it's still seriously comfortable." He wiggled his ass and gestured to them. "Come on, come sit over here with me."
Derek sank down beside him while Lydia settled herself into his lap, cuddling into his chest while propping her feet in Derek's lap. He absent-mindedly picked one up and started rubbing the arch, massaging his thumbs into it, and she moaned happily. "I never want to leave," she sighed. "Can't we just move in here now?"
"Unfortunately we still have another year of school," Stiles pointed out with a grimace.
"So we have to wait a little while longer," Derek shrugged. "A year isn't that long."
"Well yeah, not when you're a hundred," Stiles cracked, and Derek gave him his patented, "I will eat you" stare. Unfortunately for him, it had lost its effectiveness on Stiles a long time ago. "Seriously, Der, this year might not be a big deal to you, but it is to me. This is the last year between me and freedom."
"It's the last year between us and the rest of our lives," Lydia chimed in.
Stiles' phone chirped and he shifted onto his hip, tilting Lydia toward Derek, so he could dig it out of his pocket. "It's my dad," he announced with a frown. "I have to head home, apparently. We haven't seen each other much lately and he wants to do dinner. I need to make sure he doesn't burn the house down." Derek tugged Lydia into his lap so Stiles could stand, and he snagged his backpack off the floor behind the couch.
Leaning over the back of it, he pressed a kiss to Lydia's upturned mouth and then did the same to Derek, smiling against him when Derek bit lightly into his bottom lip. "Love you both. See you tomorrow."
And then the loft door was sliding shut behind him, and Derek and Lydia looked at each other and realized that for the first time since this all began, it was just the two of them.
At the same time, Lydia realized she was curled up in his lap and she scooted backward until she was on the couch beside him. Derek looked down at her as she cuddled into his side, burrowing her face into his chest almost shyly. He understood; there was an awkward tension in the air that he didn't know how to dispel. As he'd told Stiles, sex was easy-it was the emotional connections he struggled with. Stiles had wormed his way in unexpectedly, though, and he suspected Lydia would soon do the same.
"This is weird, isn't it?" she asked, her lips brushing against his chest.
He chuckled. "Yeah."
Pulling away, she sat up and turned to face him, tucking her knees into her chest. "How is it so easy to have sex, but we can't even talk to each other without Stiles?"
Derek shifted so he was facing her as well. "Because I don't talk?" he replied honestly.
Lydia laughed softly. "You talk to Stiles," she pointed out.
"I love him."
"You didn't love him at first," she reminded him.
He considered that. "I didn't talk to him at first, either," he admitted. "It wasn't much easier to talk to him than it is to talk to you."
"So you and Stiles started out as hot sex and grew to love each other, and you opened up to him. The same will happen with us," she concluded confidently.
He cracked a smile. "How can I refute that kind of optimism?"
She beamed at him. "You can't. I'm always right." She sank back into the couch, watching him cautiously. "Tell me about him."
Derek smirked. "Let me guess, you always rip Band-aids off."
"He never talked about it," she replied with a shrug. "About you, or the two of you together." Sadness crossed her face. "I didn't know how to help him. He was so unhappy, and he tried so hard not to let me see it because he didn't want me to feel guilty."
"I had no idea." Wiping a hand over his face, he leaned back into the couch and stared at the ceiling. "When I kissed him, it was a surprise. I'd had… thoughts in that direction, but I refused to acknowledge them. Then that afternoon when he came over, it just happened. I acted impulsively, for once."
Lydia scoffed and he lifted his head to look over at her suspiciously. "You act impulsively all the time, Derek. It's why you get your ass kicked so often," she added, her tone sugary-sweet.
A scowl twisted his handsome face, but he continued as if she hadn't interrupted. "After that it was easy. Scary, but easy. He fell into my life like he'd always belonged there, like the piece of the puzzle I didn't know was missing." He smiled wistfully. "I didn't want to believe I was in love with him. I was afraid of what would happen if I did. Everyone would make a big deal about us being together, or worse, he'd say he wasn't in love with me, he was just in it for the sex."
"So basically you lived the same anxiety every woman lives when she gets into a new relationship," Lydia surmised. One delicate eyebrow arched and a teasing glint lit her eyes.
"Do you want to hear this or not?" he grumbled.
Chastened, she reached for his hand and tugged it into her lap. "I'm sorry. Go on."
Easing closer to her, Derek looked down at their hands as he turned his palm up and watched her slide hers into it, their fingers linking. It was a deceptively easy, casually intimate moment, and he struggled to remember what he'd been saying. "There isn't much else. I finally admitted to myself that I loved him and wanted to be with him, and it was worth it to take the risk and tell him." His voice faltered at the memory of what came next. "I was in such a good mood when he came over that day."
"A rarity," she acknowledged, nodding. He gave her a deadpan stare and she gestured with her free hand for him to continue.
"I hadn't seen him for a few days and couldn't wait to tell him how I felt. He interrupted me to say he'd slept with you." His face darkened and hers fell. "That's it. I was devastated, but I told myself it was nothing. I'd shake it off. Except I couldn't, so I left."
The finality of his words landed like a stone between them and she didn't speak. The painful memories had risen up and he fell into silence himself, looking inward at those months of misery. Then her other hand closed over their joined ones and he lifted his gaze to meet hers.
"I'm sorry. I was a part of that, but I never knew how much pain I helped cause." Her eyes shimmered and he raised his free hand to cup her cheek.
"Don't, Lyds." The unconscious use of Stiles' nickname for her caused a tremulous smile to curve her lips. "Stiles made his choice because you were always it for him. I never blamed you." Breaking off, he considered his words. "Well, I tried," he amended. "But it wasn't your fault. It wasn't anybody's fault. It was just timing."
Lydia curled into him and he pulled her in, feeling an unexpected need to be close to her. "I wasn't 'it' for him, you know that," she reminded him. "You had such an impact on his life that I never would have been enough, even if he tried for the rest of his life to convince himself that I was."
"But now he has us both."
"Yeah," she agreed, tilting her chin up so she could look into his eyes, smiling tenderly. "He has us both. And now we have each other." Their gazes locked and heat speared through him, catching him by surprise. The scent of her alerted him to the fact that he wasn't the only one feeling the effects of their closeness.
Before he could think about it too deeply, Derek's fingers were sliding through her hair and tugging her head up as he dipped his, and their mouths collided urgently. Their fingers unlinked and he framed her face with his now-free hand, and she rose up onto her knees to lock her arms around his neck.
Derek snaked an arm around her waist and lifted her, and she twisted her legs so that when he deposited her into his lap, her knees gripped his thighs and her core was pressed tightly against his erection. He groaned into her mouth as his tongue swirled around hers, withdrawing long enough for him to suck her lower lip into his mouth, and then advancing again. She rocked against him and scratched her nails lightly across the back of his neck, eliciting a pained hiss.
Her skirt was twisted around her thighs and his hands slid upward from her knees, catching the fabric and pulling as they went until it was gathered around her waist. His large palms cupped her hips and held her tightly against him as his cock swelled into the hollow between her thighs. "Jesus, Lydia," he groaned as her perfectly white teeth sank into his lower lip, biting firmly.
Red hair curled over her shoulders in abandon as she threw her head back and bit her own lip. Derek's fingers found their way under her skirt and into the edge of her silky panties, quickly becoming bathed in her wetness. Whimpers burst from her lips when he eased them inside her, stroking in and out while his thumb caressed her clit. The smell of her arousal was overpowering and he couldn't stand it anymore.
He flipped her off his lap and on her back, leaning over her as his hips dropped to rock into the cradle of her thighs. Her legs came up around his waist and her toes dug into the waistband of his jeans. Derek got the hint and pulled back enough to attack his zipper, and as soon as the fabric was loose her feet were pushing his jeans down his hips and thighs to gather at his knees. He wanted nothing more than to sheathe himself in her tight core, but he broke away from her to tug his jeans the rest of the way off.
When he returned his attention to her, she was gazing up at him in hungry anticipation. Groaning, he slipped inside her, feeling her warmth surround him like a cocoon until he thought he was going to lose his mind. Silken arms twined around his neck and pulled him down for a heated kiss as he drove forward, burying himself inside her. She fit around him like a glove and despite having done the same thing many times in the previous few weeks, it felt different, special.
The look she gave him told him she was feeling it, too. "I didn't know if we'd be able to do this without Stiles," she admitted, just before a cry was ripped from her throat when he pulled back and thrust into her sharply. "I thought he might be the only thing holding us together."
Derek gritted his teeth as he filled her over and over again, his hips pumping roughly. Her knees gripped his hips and she dug her fingernails into his shoulders, hanging on for dear life while he rocked against her. Oddly, thoughts of Stiles were far from his mind at this moment, and the realization stunned him enough to slow his forward motion.
Doubt-filled eyes found his and he hated that he'd put that look in them. For better or worse, Lydia was his now, too, just as much as Stiles was. It took effort to think of anything but the sensations she was eliciting in him, but he smiled at her as he bent his head to slant his lips over hers and sank back into her, pressing forward until he filled her deeply. Her moan filled his mouth and he slid an arm around her back, holding her close as he rolled them into a seated position.
She was biting her lip, her eyes squeezed tightly shut as she rode him. Her body rose and fell with every downward thrust, drawing out gasps and cries when his hips collided powerfully with hers. "Oh God, Derek," she whimpered, and he knew she was close. Her aroma was intoxicating; the ability to smell that arousal in such stark relief was one of his favorite parts of being a werewolf.
One hand rose to palm her breast, lifting it to his mouth so his tongue could roll over her hardened nipple. He nipped at it lightly and her cries escalated in volume, drawing him closer to his own release. With a sigh, he transferred his attention to her other breast, lavishing it with the same attention he'd just given its twin. Lydia thrust down roughly as she approached the edge of oblivion, and Derek obliged her. One hand slipped between their bodies and his thumb found her clit, rubbing firmly in tight circles.
"Oh my God!" she cried out, doubling over as the orgasm rocked through her. She pressed her forehead against his shoulder as she rode out the aftershocks, shuddering until she lay limply against him. He stopped driving into her, letting her recover. She stayed still for several moments, but as she came back to earth she realized he was still rock hard inside her and began moving her hips again, taking him in deep.
She was slippery wet and he almost slid out of her several times, but the sloppiness just made him want her that much more and he was soon pounding into her rapidly, his breathing becoming harsh and labored. "Fuck," he groaned, feeling the tightening in his testicles that signaled impending release. Long fingers folded over her hips, the tips of them biting into the soft flesh of her ass, and he pulled her down harder as he thrust up one last time before coming apart at the seams.
His cock pulsed, filling her repeatedly with his fluid until he was spent. She slumped against him again, not moving from his lap and seemingly in no hurry to have him out of her. Both their chests rose and fell rapidly as they struggled to get their breathing under control.
When Derek had recovered, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She was yet another unexpected blessing to come into his life, and he was having a hard time believing that he'd been so adamantly opposed to the idea of the three of them. Right now, he couldn't imagine her not being a part of this. He loved Stiles, but they wouldn't be complete without Lydia.
Glancing down, he chuckled softly. "Are you always right about everything?"
To her credit, she didn't even pretend to not know what he was talking about. "Always," she replied sweetly. "Get used to it."
Both arms slid around her waist and tightened, cuddling her close against his chest. "I'm looking forward to it."