#jackhawkness

Lydia narrowed her eyes and slowly started to get even angrier, if that was even possible. Her mother had always been telling her that if people treated her badly, she shouldn’t just put up with it and accept it, but defend herself. And that was exactly what she was planning on doing.

She took the last steps towards the boys and tried her best to hit one of them but they were too fast and too strong, so she didn’t have quite as much as success as she had hoped. Stiles was suddenly next to her and nodded in her direction, silently telling her that they were in this together now. The both of them attempted to fight back, to get that damn ball back, but it was pointless, they didn’t even stand a chance against them in the slightest, and somehow they just ended up in a puddle full of mud, being pushed into it by the older children. Lydia screamed in disgust while Stiles made the effort to get his clothes at least a bit clean again.

When they think back to this memory today though, they rather laugh about it than anything else. After all, this was the beginning of their relationship.

  Their friendship had grown and developed since then, the two of them spending every waking minute – sometimes they did sleepovers though and would fall asleep cuddled up together on the couch while a movie was quietly playing in the background – with the other and not being able to imagine a life without each other.

But they got older, found new friends, and yet, they never forgot each other. One day in the week was only and exclusively reserved for them, it was just Stiles and Lydia together, like it had always been.

They helped each other through high school, too. Lydia always tutored Stiles in subjects like maths or physics because he was actually that bad and couldn’t get any of the formulas in his head, no matter how hard he learned or how often he muttered them quietly to himself. Lydia often felt the urge to cry whenever they studied together and at some point she wouldn’t have enough patience that day anymore and ask, “What’s exactly that hard about maths, Stiles? I seriously don’t get it.” And his answer would be that that was his problem, that he just didn’t understand this stuff and ‘not everyone can be as smart as Lydia fucking Martin!’ They would get into a fight then but it would be forgotten soon because they were Stiles and Lydia, and nothing could separate them, especially not something as unimportant and little as maths. (Stiles passed all of his classes in this year though, thanks to Lydia.)

Even as Stiles climbed the ladder of popularity while Lydia was just the nerd who ‘should be happy to even know Stiles’ as some people put it because they kept seeming to forget that these two had been friends since forever, they were inseparable.

Stiles would protect Lydia from bullies, exactly like she did when they were younger, only with the difference that they didn’t end up covered in mud (although Stiles came home with some bruises at some point and Lydia told him to stop fighting her battles but she was actually touched by his effort to protect her, and in this case he would never listen to her because it was important for him to defend Lydia Martin, his best friend since kindergarten). Lydia had been grateful for Stiles being so protective over her like that, and in some way it felt really good to know that he wouldn’t deny their friendship, but stand up for her and stick by her side. In her eyes, Stiles was kind of a hero, her own personal knight in shining armour, and she only fell a little bit in love with him along the way. But Lydia knew that she would never stand a chance because there were too many girls out there who wanted to be with Stiles, and why the hell would he even choose her over these beautiful, popular girls when he could have all of them? Besides, they were best friends and Lydia didn’t want to ruin that, so Stiles was definitely off limits when it came to boys.

But when her worst apprehensions came true in the end and Stiles really did get together with some girl, it still broke her heart a little. Nevertheless, Lydia stayed supportive of Stiles and never left his side. Their friendship changed soon though as Stiles suddenly didn’t have time for her anymore, their day once a week was reduced to every other week until they only saw each other at school. Stiles distanced himself from Lydia, and every time she came even near him, he would try to get away from her as fast as possible. The lack of interest in her hurt Lydia deeply and she didn’t even know why he acted that way.

She became a popular target for bullies again since her knight wasn’t there anymore to defend her. To be honest, she didn’t know what to do anymore. She got quieter, isolated herself from others, and the only person she talked to was this new pretty girl – her name was Allison, she believed, from her biology class, who would soon realise that it wasn’t a good idea to try to befriend her, let alone talk to her.

It went on like this for a few months, and Lydia was glad that it wouldn’t be long until her summer holidays which she would be spending on a trip around Europe. She honestly didn’t believe that anything would change until that one warm evening in April where she lay on her bed, doing absolutely nothing except for being bored and lazy, when there was a soft, barely audible knock on her door.

Lydia got up and walked slowly over to the door in her pyjama pants, opening it as soon as she stood in front of her wooden door.

“Mom, I told you-,“ she began, realizing that it wasn’t quite her mom who stood in front of her.

“Hey, uhm, your mom let me in,” Stiles greeted her, seemingly kind of shy and rubbing the back of his neck in that way that Lydia found so adorable. She shook her head and stared at him for a long moment, not exactly knowing what to say or how to react. Lydia should be happy, even relieved because Stiles was here, her best friend, the boy she still got this massive crush on was finally talking to her again. But then again she felt angry because he had ignored her for months and treated her like shit, and how did he dare show up here like nothing had happened? So her eyes turned cold, the strawberry blonde crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at him expectantly.

“What do you want, Stiles?”

“I just wanted to come by and say hi and uhm,” he began to stutter as Lydia’s eyebrows shot even higher while tapping her foot on the ground impatiently.

“Is that all?”

Lydia could see how Stiles struggled to find the right words, how tense he was, and all she wanted to do was pull him in for a hug and never let go and feel how the tension slowly eased out of his body. Suddenly she remembered all those months of loneliness, and the momentarily soft expression that had crossed her face hardened again.

“I, Lyds, I’m really sorry and-“

“Oh, you’re sorry? You are sorry? Why the sudden change, Stiles? Why now?” Lydia replied irritated and sarcastically, her nostrils flaring.

Stiles sighed and shook his head. “I, fuck, I broke up with her. And I missed you. I really did, and I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you the last months,” came the quiet answer, and Lydia felt like the air was being punched out of her lungs, like her insides turned cold and she wanted to break something, anything.

As Lydia looked down on her feet, she huffed a humorless laugh and tried to hold back her angry tears. After a small shake of her head, she looked up again and stared in his eyes directly, expression even more furious than before.

“Oh, so breaking up with her means I’m all of a sudden enough for Mr. Stilinski, he missed me? After months of ignoring me and leaving me alone and letting people treat me like shit although you’ve been doing everything you could to protect me from those people all your life, I’m worthy of your attention again?” Lydia huffed once more and wiped away one single tear that had made its way down her cheek. “You fucking left me, Stiles! You left, and now that you broke up with your oh-so-amazing girlfriend, you think you can just come back to me like that and I would forgive you that easily? You really think we can both pretend like nothing has ever happened and we keep living in our small little bubble full of sunshine and happiness and fucking unicorns? Do you really believe that? Seriously, I’m not that desperate to hop off with you into the sunset happily whenever you call.”

“Lydia, I’m sorry, really, I am, and it wasn’t okay to ignore you like that. I don’t know why I did this. People just kept talking insistently to me and I’m serious, I never wanted any of that to happen. Lyds, you gotta believe me, you’re still important to me,” Stiles practically pleaded, and she could tell he really did feel sorry for his actions, but neither was Lydia dumb nor was she naïve.

“Well, that part changed for me, though. You know, you get used to being lonely and having nobody by your side. Maybe you were my childhood friend, but we aren’t kids or friends anymore. We stopped being friends the moment you agreed to a relationship with Miss Perfect.” Lydia was quiet now, remembering the moment when Stiles told her the news; she had felt miserable for days, weeks, even months. Sometimes she would ask herself if she had ever stopped feeling that way. As the strawberry blonde spoke up again, lowly this time, she didn’t meet his eyes and stared at the ground instead. “Please just go, Stiles.”

Lydia didn’t see the short nod, the hurtful look on Stiles’ face, she just closed the door and turned around, making it to her bed just in time before collapsing on it and tears streaming down her cheeks until she was lulled into an uneasy and restless sleep.

  It had been several weeks since Lydia and Stiles last talked to each other, and Lydia didn’t think that would change soon. Still being angry and hurt by Stiles’ behaviour, she dug in her heels and refused to talk to him, turning around and going away as soon as she saw him coming over in school.

Lydia didn’t talk to anyone about Stiles, not even Allison with whom she actually got really close which was surprising, really, but Lydia was glad about their friendship and didn’t plan on letting her go that quickly.

Except for her new found friend, Lydia kept to herself and tried to concentrate on school and forget about Stiles. There were more important things on hand than a stupid boy that had meant everything to her all her life; well, that was what she was telling herself anyway.

Other people mostly ignored her again, for which Lydia was grateful, until one day in June when she was grabbing her books from her locker and accidentally overheard a conversation between two guys, one of them she recognised as Stiles.

“Lydia is so fucking annoying, and Jesus, just look at her. She thinks she’s cute but in reality she’s fucking ugly. People like her shouldn’t even be allowed to go to our school,” the other guy said, huffing a laugh, and Lydia closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. Although she had heard those things over a million times before, it still hurt and felt like a punch to her gut, like her insides got turned around and something could settled in her stomach, especially when Stiles was involved. So Lydia waited for his answer rather anxiously.

“Oh, could you please leave her alone for once, please?” Stiles sighed, rolling his eyes. “What has she ever done to make you hate her? Nothing, absolutely nothing. And come on, if we didn’t have people like her, our school would be full of dumb students and we wouldn’t win any prizes and our standard wouldn’t be as high as it is right now. Without people like her dumbasses like you wouldn’t even pass their classes.”

Lydia stopped dead in her tracks. Had she really just heard that or was she already imagining scenarios where her old Stiles would be on her side again? Wanting to make sure she didn’t understand anything wrong, she turned around in the direction where she had heard the voices coming from and found herself faced with a really pissed off looking Stiles and another guy who was shaking his head in disbelief.

“Stilinski, are you serious? Are you protecting her again? I mean, what the fuck? Nobody will want to have anything to do with you if you start hanging out with her again. Nobody fucking wants Lydia Martin and you are so much better off without that nerd. I’m serious, and you’re gonna have to choose between many people who care about you or Lydia who will ruin you and drag you down with her. She’s not good enough for you. And hey, maybe your ex will take you back if you apologise. She still loves you, you know, and is hotter than Martin. Nobody needs Lydia.”

Now it was Stiles’ turn to huff a humourless laugh and stare at the guy like he was about to kill him, which was actually a possibility if Stiles clenching his fists and jaw, looking the boy dead in the eye, and the fact that Lydia had never seen him so angry was anything to go by.

“Excuse you?! What the fuck did you just say? Okay, so first of all, yes, I’m protecting her because she’s my best friend, and you know what? You shouldn’t talk about my best friend like that, you’re,” Stiles pointed his index finger at him accusingly, “making a big mistake right now. Secondly, I want Lydia so much it hurts and I’m better off with her than you. And the great thing about her is that she’s so freaking smart! You can actually have a conversation on a higher level with her – which you don’t know exactly much about, am I right? – and I freaking love talking to her. I could listen to her all day and never get tired of her beautiful voice. By the way, if you haven’t already noticed, these popular kids? They don’t give a fuck about each other, they just need the other’s company to boost up their low self-esteem. And I’m not one of those people, never have been. I will gladly choose my best friend and she’s more than enough for me. Lyds is everything I’ve ever dreamt of but I’ve never realised that and started to date some girl I’ve never been in love with. I don’t want her back. I want Lydia Martin, my amazing, cute, nerdy best friend with glasses she totally looks hot in. And you can fuck off right now because if you don’t like Lydia and talk about her in a bad way, my fist and your face are gonna have a little talk which will not end well in favour for your face. Lydia is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen and I need her okay, I do need her, and please just go away, I don’t ever want to talk to you again, jackass.”

Lydia tried to swallow around the lump in her throat but it was impossible for her to do so, and her heart was about to burst out of her chest while she felt a wave of happiness and relief wash over her. As soon as the other boy walked away from Stiles, silently laughing to himself and with a shake of his head, Lydia made her way over to her best friend quickly, a small smile dancing across her lips.

“Stiles?” she asked, trying to be as neutral as she could although the slight trace of hope lingered in her voice for a little too long.

Turning around at the sound of her voice, he was surprised to see her, maybe a little shocked as to why Lydia was suddenly talking to him again, but it was the first time in a few months that Lydia felt like she could actually look him in the eyes and get out some words without choking on them.

“Hey Lyds, uh, I mean, Lydia. Hey, uhm, what are you doing here? And since when are you talking to me again? Did something happen or anything? Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy you’re here, but why now?”

“Well, five minutes ago you were talking about how awesome I am, and I came to tell you to continue with your list about what’s perfect about me. So I’m all yours, I want to hear some good reasons why you want me so much,” the strawberry blonde replied earnestly, trying to hide a big smirk.

“Uh, you, well, you are my best friend and always there for me and you’re also totally beautiful and-“

“Stiles, Stiles, stop, I was just kidding,” Lydia interrupted and laughed quietly to herself. “I only came over to say thank you for protecting me, again. It was really nice and sweet of you.” She took a deep breath and gathered all the courage she could muster up before leaning in and pressing a small, feather light kiss to his cheek, blushing deeply as she pulled back again. Lydia looked at Stiles with a sheepish grin and brushed away the hair that had fallen in her face.

“So everything is okay between us again?” Stiles asked, still kind of unsure and insecure about the whole situation.

Lydia gave a short nod and smiled. “You gotta make it up to me though.”

  Turns out that Lydia’s idea of making it up to her is actually going out on a date with her (Stiles didn’t object because he was fully okay with her conditions and would have asked her out anyway). She didn’t want anything fancy, although Stiles still wanted to make it special for her since it was their first date and he wanted, no, needed to show her how much she meant to him and how deeply he still cared about her.

After that first date, which went very successful, he drove her home and held her hand sheepishly, blushing a deep red while his eyes never left the road in front of them. When they got to Lydia’s house, she pulled her hand back reluctantly but leaned over to brush her lips over his cheek in a light peck. Lydia didn’t dare to go any further and neither did Stiles, who really couldn’t get any redder in the face, so she just murmured a ‘Thank you’ and they said their goodbyes before Lydia eventually got off the car and went inside her home.

That date led to another date which led to another one. They were back to their one-day-a-week-rule until they spent as much time together as in the past. It was Stiles and Lydia again, the inseparable dream team which could manage and handle everything together. It really didn’t take them long to confess their feelings for each other and start a relationship, which, yeah, they had their fights but it was perfect for them though and they were both happy.

During summer Lydia went on her trip through Europe, and she would always send Stiles photos of her in front of important monuments or funny pictures and tell him every day how much she missed him. At least once a week they would skype and Lydia would tell him everything about Europe, about different cultures, how great it was, how she never wanted to leave again, how much she missed him and how she wished Stiles could experience this with her.

After Lydia came back from Europe, the two of them had one week left, which they mostly spent at Stiles’ house. They took photos of themselves, exchanged kisses and fell asleep together snuggled up in Stiles’ bed while they were watching movies. In the morning he would cook and make breakfast for her, and around noon Stiles would listen to Lydia reciting quotes from her favourite books. It was then when Stiles suddenly blurted out an ‘I love you’ and Lydia just stared at him in shock until she said it back with a small smile dancing across her lips. Their afternoon took an unexpected, but very welcomed turn with passionate kisses and ‘I love you’s murmured against each other’s mouths.

They started their senior year, which really was uneventful and almost no one dared to say a word against Lydia so this year was alright for her, as a couple and ended it that way, with Lydia being the Valedictorian of Beacon Hills High School and Stiles being the dorky, funny guy that everyone liked.

Lydia got accepted into Harvard University while Stiles attended a community college. Having a long-distance relationship wasn’t easy, not even for them, but they managed. They always saw each other during holidays and their once-a-week-rule was still intact. Also, they could always text the other between classes as well and they both were faithful, so cheating wouldn’t be a problem at all; it wasn’t even an option.

After finishing their studies, Stiles and Lydia moved in together, and although they had their little, and sometimes big, fights which did not always end well, they stayed together and helped each other grow. They completed the other. Which was probably why they ended up standing in front of an altar, with Lydia in a long beautiful white wedding dress and Stiles in a neat black suit.

It was supposed to end like this, they believed. If they had made another choice, another decision, they would have always ended up here anyway, in this church on a beautiful sunny Saturday, vowing their endless love and commitment to the other.