Teen Wolf Holiday Femslash Exchange gift for a dropped participant.
AU: Laura gets caught by Lydia, the beautiful RA and queen of the 7th floor, while trying to sneak her cat into her brother's dorm as a prank. Lydia agrees to let Laura go without penalty when Laura, a barista at a local cafe, offers to give her free coffee for a year. The arrangement proves even more beneficial when Lydia's increasingly frequent coffee runs lead to a relationship between the two women.
Laura’s almost cleared the seventh floor lobby and infiltrated the boys’ wing when a voice breaks through the silence.
“Excuse me!”
Shit.
Grimacing, Laura reluctantly turns around. Standing before her is a beautiful redhead clad in a blue dress and cherry red heels—one of which taps impatiently as the girl crosses her arms. Both perfectly-eyelinered eyes squint in Laura’s direction. Small but scarily intimidating, she remembers Derek saying about the girl RA on his floor. This must be the infamous Lydia Martin.
Laura puts on her best smile, ready to lay on the same charm that’s won her extensions on countless homework assignments, free drinks at every bar, and even a few get-out-of-jail-free cards with her mother. “Hey, there! I was just—“
“You were just what?” Lydia cuts her off, reaching for a strand of hair to twirl. “Just making a laughably bad attempt at smuggling a very prohibited cat onto my floor?”
“Laughable?” Laura says. “I’ll have you know I once snuck an entire donkey into my high school. I’m no amateur!”
“Could’ve fooled me,” Lydia says, thoroughly unimpressed. “You could’ve at least made sure Fluffy’s tail wasn’t sticking out of your purse.”
Laura looks down to see that Hale-fire’s tail is, indeed, sticking out of her bag. “Oh, shit.”
“Exactly,” says Lydia, pouty lips quirking upward at the corners. “Now, I know you’re not one of my girls—none of them would dare try shit like this, anyway—but I’ll be happy to escort you to the downstairs’ front desk where Tanya can take care of writing you up for breaking the rules.”
“Am I going to get a strike?” Laura asks, scoffing. “Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I don’t even live here.”
“In that case, I can have you reported as an unescorted guest, and you can deal with campus security,” says Lydia. “Unless, of course, you can convince me why I shouldn’t have you reported for abusing an adorable designer handbag by putting a mangy feline in it.”
Laura sighs, knowing it's time to fess up. “Look, my brother Derek lives on this floor, okay? He and I have been in a prank war pretty much since we could walk, and last weekend he fucked up our espresso machines down at The Mug Shot. I figured I’d get him back by sneaking my cat in his room. He’s allergic. And I was also hoping it’d get him in trouble with his RA.”
Lydia finally smiles at her. “Using a man’s allergies against him. That’s diabolical.” Laura can’t help preening at this. “I like the way you think, but unfortunately the guy’s RA on this floor is Scott McCall.” Lydia rolls her eyes. “The dude’s basically Jesus. I doubt your brother would even get written up.”
“Well, shit.” Laura runs a hand through her hair before reaching into her bag to quiet an increasingly fussy Hale-fire. “Can’t you just pretend you didn’t see me and at least let me get the satisfaction of seeing my brother break out in hives?”
“Hmm,” Lydia says. “And your brother would be Derek Hale?”
“I’d deny it if I could,” Laura says, nose wrinkling.
“Well, he did piss me off last year . . .”
Laura’s green eyes light up, intrigued. “How?”
“Well, first he punched the guy I was dating at the time.”
“Sorry about that,” Laura laughs. “My brother can be a bit of a Neanderthal.”
“Eh,” Lydia waves her hand in dismissal. “I’m kind of glad about that part, to be honest. Jackson totally deserved it. He was a total tool. What I’m mad about is what happened after. Derek was super rude to my best friend, Allison. Like, I know her aunt is a bitch who went all crazy after your brother dumped her in high school, but—“
“If you’re talking about Kate Argent, she tried to burn our house down,” Laura says dryly.
Lydia shrugs. “Like I said: crazy. But that doesn’t give him the right to be all glare-y and broody to Allison, who had nothing to do with it and is sweet as a kitten.”
“That’s fair,” Laura nods. She gestures towards the boy’s wing. “So you’ll let me put the cat in his room?”
“I didn’t say that,” replies Lydia. “I’d be letting you break quite a few rules here. And I could get in a lot of trouble—lose my spot as an RA, even—if the higher-ups found out I condoned such behavior. As much as I want to see your brother suffer, I’m going to need a little something more for me to consider this a worthwhile risk.” She examines her nails, deliberately nonchalant.
“I can get you free coffee for the whole year,” Laura says. “I work at The Mug Shot, remember?”
Lydia hums to herself, considering. “I’ve always been a bit of a Starbucks snob, myself, but . . .” She makes no attempt to hide the way her eyes suddenly scan over Laura from bottom to top. “I’ve always admired the aesthetic of The Mug Shot.”
Laura smirks, extending a hand. “Do we have a deal then?”
“Yes.” Lydia gives her a firm handshake. “Now go cause your chaos, Ms. Hale. And be quick about it.”
“My name’s Laura.”
“Alright. See you around, Laura.”
Laura winks. “Definitely.”
