Lydia Martin was a mess. In all possible ways. Firstly, she had her perfect curls crammed down into a messy bun on the top of her head. Then, she had absolutely no makeup on and she was pretty sure her eyes were puffy. Next, Lydia had thrown on her best friends 'I love Rock 'n' Roll' t-shirt, she had left at the Martin house after their millionth sleepover and a pair of old sweatpants. Lastly, she hadn't ate or slept in days due to the ever aching chest pains and lack of will Lydia was currently succumbing to. Lydia Martin was tired, hungry and ever so lonely due to her constant tears.

Lydia Martin was definitely a mess.

But then again, Lydia Martin had every right to be a mess. Her best friend had died a few weeks ago, too young.

A ringing noise made Lydia jump, her place on the floor next to her bed had seemed like a particularly appropriate placement for her earlier session of tears. Lydia covered her ears for a moment, not wanting to move to pick up her phone. But then she realized whose ringtone it really was and she knew she couldn't make him worry. Stiles Stillenski was the biggest worrier in the world, so if she didn't move her ass over to the desk and grab her phone, he would be at her house within the hour.

"Hello?" She tried to raise her voice to more than a crumbled whisper. The trick would have fooled anyone other than Stiles.

He started to sound frantic, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just tired, I guess," Lydia knew it wasn't a total lie.

Stiles knit his eyebrows together with concern, "What're you up to?"

"About to sleep," She deadpanned.

He cleared his throat, "In the middle of the day?"

"Why not?"

"It's a school day, Lydia. I know you came back for a week or so but you haven't been in five days," He sounded concerned.

She groggily got up off the floor and sat in her desk chair, "I'll be fine. I'm a genius, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," He spoke rather fondly, "At least let me come over and drop off your makeup work?"

Lydia groaned, "Can't you do that tomorrow?"

"Nope. It's now or never, Miss. Martin."

"Fine."

He mentally highfived himself, "Don't get too excited, you might strain something."

Lydia let out a small chuckle and allowed a soft smile to linger on her face, "Just hurry up, Stillenski. I'm tired."

"Alright , alright."

Within a half hour, Lydia heard a faint knock on the front door. She sighed, a small smile playing at her lips, and made her way down the stairs. Slowly opening the door she noticed something peculiar about her friend. He stood, a huge smile on his face, with both arms held up. One had a rather large bag of Life Savers candies and the other held a six-pack of Yoohoo's. Lydia knit her eyebrows together at the sight. The smile still ever present.

"That doesn't look like school work."

Stiles let his arms rest as he walked past her and into the hallway, "Don't worry. I brought that too."

"So what's with the goofy smile?" She asked, genuinely curious. She led the way upstairs and into her room.

"I can't smile, now?" He teased, throwing the snacks onto her disheveled bed and dropped his backpack onto the floor. Stiles looked over at her, she had taken a seat at the desk and was plugging her phone in. He took the moment to admire her. Even with her hair pinned up and the lack of makeup, he saw her beauty in every feature. From the way her eyebrows raised as she caught him staring, the way her eyes glimmered in the sunlight from the window and to the way her back hunched ever so slightly when she pulled one or two knees up to her chin. Stiles looked at the mess that was Lydia Martin and all he saw was beauty and an incredible amount of raw emotion.

"What are you looking at?" She stared curiously up at him, her chin resting on one knee at the moment.

Stiles sent her a smile, "You look really beautiful."

Lydia's eyes widened a bit and her hands quickly covered her face. Her leg fell off of the chair and her head hung low, "Don't start with that."

"Why not?" He asked, taking a few steps towards her.

Lydia tried to take a few deep breaths, "Because I've been crying non stop for days and my eyes are all puffy now. I'm laying around all the time with my hair up and one of Allison's shirts on and I can't look beautiful. You're full of shit."

"Lydia," He knelt down in front of her, his hands prying her own away from her face, "None of that matters. You would look beautiful with eye-boogers or mud smashed all over your face. It's not about your mood or what your wearing. It's not even about the makeup or hair. Lydia, you will always look beautiful to me. It's just who you are and what I see in you. So stop complaining and take the damn compliment."

She chuckled and looked up at him through her decently thick eyelashes, "You are too much."

"I try," Stiles kept holding her hands gently in his more muscular ones.

Lydia nodded her head slightly, "Alright. Thank you."

They made long eye contact and both of them held small smiles.

"I think it's time for a Yoohoo, don't you?" Stiles squeezed her hands gingerly.

"How could I say no to that?" Lydia let out a small laugh and allowed him to guide her over to the bed.

Stiles handed her a can before picking up the Life Savers bag. In a failed attempt at opening them, he ended up making 1/5 of the little candies shoot out of the bag and all over her floor. He looked at her, expecting a glare or aggravated comment but only saw a weak smile. He laughed then and she made eye contact with him once again.

"You've got one on your head..." He pointed out, trying to stifle his laughter, "I've got it."

As he lightly pulled the hard, grape candy from her hair, she proceeded to laugh for a good moment.

Stiles opened the little package and spoke, "I assume this was a cleaver choice of candy.. right?"

Lydia saw a look in his eyes that was hoping for her approval, "You might actually be the Life Saver here."

"Is that so?" He began quite visually sucking and chomping on his second piece of candy.

Lydia grabbed a cherry one and joined him, "Very much so."

"Alright," He got up and began rounding up the lost savers.

Lydia watched him. The way he was knelt down made his back look extra muscular, or maybe it actually was and she hadn't noticed the change until that moment. His hair was in need of a trim but she somehow liked the longer look on him now. Somehow it suited him. When he turned again to where she could see his face, she knew he was trying to act like she wasn't staring at him. She noticed he only had the tiniest of bags over under his eyes and his skin was as smooth as ever.

"I'll be right back," Lydia made a spontaneous decision and disappeared into her closet.

Minutes later she came out in a fitted black tank top and a pair of pink relaxing shorts. Thudding through her room in some middle calf socks that matched her tank, she made her way into the bathroom. She wet, washed, rinsed and dried her face as quickly as she could before rejoining him on her bed. They both sat and sipped on their chocolate beverages.

"Why'd you change?" He was worried that his message earlier hadn't gotten through to her.

"I'm tired of acting like a bum... And you don't want to know how long I was in those clothes..." She stared at her feet.

Stiles let out an amused huff, "You are one strange girl."

"Thank you for noticing."

Stiles then kicked off his sneaker and crawled backwards on her bed until he hit the headboard. He had taken all of the Life Savers with him. Lydia slowly mimicked his actions and made herself comfortable. She finished off her Yoohoo and reached for another cherry saver. Her face showed that her mind was elsewhere.

"What's on your mind?" He asked.

Lydia pursed her lips before glancing at him with a faint smile, "Allison."

"Oh," He looked down at his hands and began popping them.

"I just miss her."

"We all do."

There was a pause.

"Lydia, we both know she wouldn't you want to be neglecting school and slowly turning yourself into a hermit. Especially because of her."

The girl pulled her knees up to her chin, "I get that now. I guess I just needed the time.."

"And that is one hundred percent okay."

She stared up at him with eyes of a stitched soul, "You're a great person. Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Not in those words. No," He smirked. They kept on staring sideways at one another.

"Well. You are a great person. Hell, a wonderful person."

Stiles chuckled at her, "You're not too bad either."

"Oh really?" She playfully slapped his shoulder.

His smile only got bigger, "No. You seriously are one of the most caring people I know, Lydia."

She looked away quickly, the moment was too sweet for her to ruin it by saying the wrong thing. So she kept her focus on the end of the bed where her blanket laid.

He followed her gaze and suddenly felt himself get utterly nervous.

Lydia smirked after the tired part of her mind won over the rest. She put the candy bag on the floor and started to scoot down into a laying position. Pulling the soft blanket over her shoulder, she turned toward Stiles expectantly. He quickly took the hint and was now the one mimicking actions.

"I'm sorry but I wasn't kidding when I said I was tired."

"I'm okay with that."

Lydia started to close her eyes, but before she let herself fall into dreamland, she snuggled up closer to her friend. He placed his arm under her head and hesitantly placed the other one around her waist. She soon relaxed with her own hands gently laid against his chest. Face to face, the pair fell into a wonderful nap. ϟ