M. Stilinski

“Lydia?”

He rapped his knuckles lightly against her door, leaning in closely to see if he could hear anything from inside. He’d been half-surprised when Natalie had actually allowed him inside the house, given how she’d acted the last time he’d wanted to visit her daughter; days ago when Lydia had still been in Eichen, and none of them had known just how much danger she’d been in. But he was grateful that she had let him in --- not that it would have stopped him if she hadn’t. He hadn’t wanted to let Lydia out of his sight after that whole ordeal, but he hadn’t complained when Natalie had taken her home for some well-deserved rest.

(Partly because he knew Lydia needed it, but also partly because he wasn’t about to get on Natalie’s bad side again.)

It’d been hard, though. Hard to get her out of his head. Hard to stop thinking about how he’d felt something, an actual emotion, for the first time since he’d---

Well. He’d felt something when he’d seen her again, sitting there on that chair, pale and bleeding and so close to being consumed by the voices in her head, but alive. It had still felt distant, not as strong as it might have been before, but it had been something, more than he’d felt in days, and it’d been hard to let her go afterward. Hard to give her space.

(Particularly once he’d realized he hadn’t felt anything again since. It was as though someone had reached in and flipped a switch somewhere in his mind, turning his emotions back off and leaving him with nothing but a dull sort of numbness that filled him up and didn't leave room for anything else. Saving Lydia's life had felt good, had been the first time in days that he'd felt anything at all, but after that...it had all gone away again. After that, he'd just been tired.)

He could hear her heartbeat on the other side of the door, and he could smell her more strongly there too, right outside her bedroom. He was still getting used to his heightened senses, but this wasn’t overwhelming like other places were. This was comforting. Familiar. Lydia.