Chapter Text
Lydia pursed her lips in her rearview mirror, checking to make sure everything had stayed in place during the drive to school.
“We don't have to do this,” Stiles said from the passenger seat. “I mean, it's not really important.” But his voice dripped with unhappiness, even though he was trying to hide it, and Lydia knew that her decision was the right one.
“Of course we do. Don't be stupid.”
Stiles beamed at her. “Okay. On three?”
Lydia took a deep breath. “One. Two.... Three.” They opened their car doors and stepped out of Lydia's car simultaneously, shouldering their respective bags. They rounded the front of the car, facing each other.
“You're sure?” Stiles asked, tugging on the sleeves of his hoodie. “I fully understand if you want to wai--”
Lydia scooped a hand behind his head and pulled him down to place a long, confident kiss on his lips. Stiles pulled back blinking rapidly, an unmistakable smile fluttering along the edge of his lips.
“Have I convinced you?” Lydia asked, holding out her hand expectantly. Stiles threaded his fingers between hers wordlessly.
And together, hands linked, Stiles' lips pink with Lydia's lipgloss, they strode across the high school parking lot, ready to conquer the world.
The world, though, didn't seem particularly interested in getting conquered. “They're finally together?” Lydia heard one girl whisper. Another said, “I told you so!”
“Okay,” Lydia said to Stiles through a false smile, “are you weirded out? I'm weirded out.”
“Yep!” Stiles replied cheerily, squeezing the blood out of her hand. They reached Lydia's locker and he swiveled so he could rest his back against the metal. “What the fuck?” he whispered urgently. “I thought there would be, you know.”
“Something?” Lydia finished for him, opening her locker to keep up appearances. “Yeah.”
“Well, let's just ride it out,” Stiles suggested. “And if we get buckets of pig's blood poured on us, we'll know why.”
“Yeah, okay,” Lydia said dubiously. “I have to head to class. See you in English?”
Stiles moved to nod, but then he grinned mischievously instead. “Whaddya say we give ’em a little bit of a show, just for shits and giggles?”
Lydia bit her lip, smiling. “What kind of a show?”
“I'll see you at lunch, babe,” Stiles said loudly, winking at her quickly. Lydia cottoned on immediately.
“I'll count down the hours,” she replied equally loudly, playing with the front of his open plaid. “I'll miss you, sweetie.”
“Kiss to tide me over?” Stiles requested, leaning in dramatically. Lydia latched her hands around his neck and kissed him firmly, leaning into the arch of his spine. After a moment, though, Lydia felt the still-new tingle of 'oh, this is what love is like' and the kiss softened, deepening into an embrace. When Stiles pulled back, they were both smiling goofily at each other. Stiles' mouth was a mess of lipgloss. Lydia couldn't care less.
“See you at lunch,” she said, the affection in her voice completely genuine.
“Yeah,” Stiles said blankly. “Love you.”
Lydia beamed at him. “Love you, too.”
Allison cornered her between second and third period. “Congratulations on finally getting your life in order.”
“What?” Lydia asked, crossing her arms. “What do you mean?”
“Stiles, Lydia,” Allison replied rolling her eyes. “What did you think I meant?”
Lydia had been getting this all day, and she was confused to the point of frustration. “How did everyone know?!”
Allison smiled at her patiently, making Lydia feel instantly guilty for snapping at her friend. “Do you want the timeline, as the rest of the school saw it? Because I don't think you realize how transparent you've been.”
“Lay it on me,” Lydia sighed.
“I think it started a few weeks ago, when Stiles' oral fixation got really bad. Like, worse than ever. Scott complained about it, and I noticed that you seemed different. But then you two disappeared into Finstock's office that one day, which, by the way, wasn't nearly as inconspicuous as you seemed to think it was. Then Stiles just, like calmed down. Scott was worried that Stiles had gotten into drugs but he couldn't smell anything off in his chemistry, or whatever. I'm not actually sure how that works, but Scott seemed pretty confident.
“I'm not even going to talk about how worried we were when both of you disappeared off the edge of the world that one weekend. Scott didn't talk to me about it until Saturday night, and we pieced it together from there. Congrats, by the way. A whole weekend? I'm impressed.”
“Thanks,” Lydia mumbled, blushing furiously. “God, I can't believe we were that obvious.”
“Mmhm,” Allison said, looking like she was enjoying herself. “Then you guys had that big fight two days ago which, again, obvious. I think that's when the rest of the school figured it out. Yesterday was awful, I'll tell you what. Glad you missed. Honestly, I think people are more surprised Stiles forgave you than anything else.”
“Me too,” Lydia confessed, chest heavy with shame. “I was despicable to him. He should hate me.”
“That's not how love works,” Allison said, shrugging. “I tried to hate Scott for the longest time, but when you really love someone, there's no way for you to hate them. Not really.”
“When did you get so wise?” Lydia demanded, mock-pouting. “I should start calling you Yoda.”
Allison hugged her. “I've just dealt with a lot-- like a lot-- of relationship drama recently. No big. I have to go to chem. See you later! Oh, and the sci-fi references? Dead giveaway!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bye!” Lydia said, turning to head to English. She sat next to Stiles, who was texting someone.
“Everyone is congratulating me,” he said, putting his phone away. “Like, everyone. You'd think I won a marathon, or something.”
“Apparently our relationship is old news,” Lydia replied, locking her fingers into his and bringing the back of his hand to kiss it. Stiles blushed, and it was the cutest thing Lydia had seen in a long time. “In completely unrelated news, we were obvious as hell about sexing each other all this time.”
“I'm me,” Stiles said unrepentantly. “If you wanted subtlety, you should have dated, I dunno, Danny. I bet Danny's subtle.”
“Shut up, Stiles,” Lydia said pleasantly. “Or I won't show you what I got from the shop last weekend.” And judging from the way Stiles jerked in his seat, he knew exactly which shop she meant.
“Who's Danny?” Stiles asked, feigning innocence. “I don't know anyone by that name.”
“Good boy,” Lydia praised. “I love you." And yeah, she'd said it a lot lately, but it felt so good, too good to keep it inside. It seemed so foolish, now, that she had spent weeks and weeks fretting over something that she could express so easily, in three little words. She said it again, just because she could. "I love you."
Stiles grinned and kissed the back of her hand, a mirror of what she'd done before. "I love you, too. Twice, just to even the playing field."
"You'll love me twice?" Lydia purred. "I think I'll have to see it to believe it."
Stiles' eyes darkened. "Oh, I'll show you--"
"Guys, can you please not," a girl asked from two rows over. "I mean, you're cute together and all, but there's only so much I can take."
Lydia and Stiles ripped apart, both of them turning dark red. "Sorry," Stiles said.
When school ended and not one single person had given Lydia the stink eye, she admitted defeat. She'd misjudged the population of BHHS or, rather, the population of BHHS had failed to misjudge her. Either way, she spent weeks worrying that her feelings for Stiles would conflict with her impeccable social status. He was a chink in her armor.
But, looking at the way the school had accepted her so readily, maybe she could handle a chink or two.
Or, maybe (just maybe), she didn't need armor after all.