Who: Stiles Stilinski and Lydia Martin What: Stiles gets a worried phone call from Lydia in the middle of the night. Where: The Stilinski household. When: Saturday night (backdated). Rating: Low. Status: Complete!
As planned, she and Kira had gone over to the Nemeton that morning to try and find the jar. And Lydia had been restless since. She’d been researching ways to figure out if someone was possessed. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Deaton. No. She did. But she didn’t know if things were going to work here the exact same way it had back in her future.
Her bed had books all around her, and she had fallen asleep with her laptop on her lap.
And all of the sudden, she woke up with a gasp. She’d been dreaming of the night before the Nemeton pulled her. Of the Nogitsune taunting them, of the snow, of Stiles’ still form on the school floor.
“Stiles,” she whispered as she sat up, looking around the room that wasn’t hers. Not really.
Before she knew what she was doing, she was on her feet, sliding her ankle boots on and grabbing her purse.
The apartment was quiet as she made her way down the hall and out the front door, she didn’t even know what time it was and the second she made out of the elevator, she pressed her thumb against Stiles’ name on her phone and pulled it up to her ear. By the time it rang, she was already halfway to her car.
He’d been sitting at his desk for the last several hours, researching. It had started out with a simple curiosity about dopplegangers of this world. He knew about dopplegangers from Elena’s world -- or at least more than he did about this world’s. And his curiosity had ignited because a young woman who looked exactly like Allison Argent had suddenly shown up thanks to the Nemeton.
Unless Chris and Victoria Argent had twins and had given one up for adoption or something. Which didn’t seem likely.
His search for dopplegangers had led him to evil twin which had made him think of the nogitsune, and it had all spiraled from there. At some point he’d ended up dozing with his head on one arm on top of the desk. The sound of his phone ringing startled him out of the light state of slumber and he jerked his head up, blinking rapidly and looking around the dark room. His laptop battery had apparently died because the computer felt cool when he touched it and the screen had gone black.
Yawning, he rubbed a hand over his face and pressed the phone to his ear without looking to see who it was. “Hello?”
“Stiles,” she breathed, closing her eyes in relief for a second. The phone rang twice and apparently she’d been holding her breath the whole time. And it had felt like an eternity for her.
But he answered, he was alive. She was still starting her car and starting toward the Stilinki’s anyway. Because she wanted to see him, she wanted to make sure it was him. Even as she grasped the steering wheel tightly, she could feel her hands shaking. That dream had been so real. And she still didn’t know for sure if Stiles was okay in her future. She wouldn’t be sure unless she saw him for herself.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
He sat up a little straighter in his desk chair as soon as he heard Lydia’s voice, gaze darting over to his alarm clock across the room. It was nearly 2 a.m. Something was wrong. Not only did she not call at this hour unless something was wrong, but he could hear it in her voice, too.
“Lydia? Yeah, yeah, I’m okay,” he said, confused as he rose to his feet. He moved over to turn the light on, squinting as his eyes tried to adjust to the sudden brightness. “Are you okay? Where are you?”
He could hear the rumble of a car engine. Either she was driving or she was in a car.
The worry in his voice was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She had lost Allison once and for all she knew, she had lost him too. Two of the most important people in her life, two of the most influential people in her life, too. They were the reason she had changed, the reason she had become who she was today. She didn’t know what she was going to do if she lost either one of them for good.
She didn’t even want to think about what would happen if she lost both.
“I’m coming over. I just have to see you, okay?” As much as she tried to keep her voice firm, it still shook.
His brow furrowed with worry as he heard the catch in her voice. Hearing it made his chest tighten painfully, the way it always did when she was upset about something and he had no idea what to say or do to make it better. And he wanted to make it better. “Yeah, of course,” he said softly, raking a hand through his hair and heading for the door. From there he made his way out of his room, down the hallway and the stairs, and into the dark living room.
He unalarmed the security system in seconds. “Are you okay to drive? I can meet you somewhere and pick you up.” He unlocked and opened the door even though she wasn’t there yet.
He peered out into the darkness of the front yard, and saw two small yellow eyes glowing at him in the dark. The raccoon was back. He shook his head.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m almost there,” she assured him. It didn’t really matter anyway. The streets were deserted and at least, she didn’t feel like she was putting anyone else’s lives in danger. Because she really wasn’t all that okay to drive. Her vision kept getting blurred by tears and her hands were still shaking.
But she was close and soon enough she was going to be able to make sure he was okay and that he was himself. Which reminded her. “Did I wake you?”
He chewed on his lower lip, trying to ignore the anxiety that had crept into his stomach. No phone call that happened this early in the morning ever tended to consist of good news. Not that he ever really expected good news in Beacon Hills anymore. They were trapped in the small town with no way to leave even if they wanted to. Not that any of them would. Still.
Stiles turned on the porch light and grimaced as the raccoon skittered underneath the porch to hide from the brightness. “Not really,” he told her. It wasn’t like falling asleep with your head on a desk was ever going to make for quality sleep.
When Lydia got here and Stiles told her she was back in the past and that her best friend was alive, on top of her seeing him alive, it had been the best news she’d ever gotten in her life. But of course it wasn’t that simple since the thing that took Allison’s life, ruined Stiles’ and killed so many others just might be stuck there with them.
“Are you sure?” she asked, frowning as she pulled up to the front of his house, parking right in front of it. She saw him standing out there, of course and she wished he had waited for her inside, where he’d be safer, but at least, she was already there.
“I’m sure.” He watched her car pull up in front of the house, and he headed off the porch, glancing warily over his shoulder to where the raccoon had gone before slipping his phone into the pocket of his red hoodie and padding out into the grass in bare feet. His eyes were full of worry.
“Lydia? What’s going on?” he asked as he reached out to help her out of her car, holding his hand out to her.
She dropped her phone back inside her purse, pulled the key from the ignition and the moment his hand appeared next to her, she took it and easily slid out of the car.
Instead of answering him, though she just stared up at him for a moment then stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him to her because as far as she could tell, this was Stiles. She didn’t feel anything off, just what she normally felt around Stiles. “I think it was just a nightmare,” she whispered, turning her forehead into his shoulder.
He searched her eyes, trying to figure out what was going on with her. When she wrapped her arms around his neck, he wound his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him, one hand reaching up and threading into her hair. He leaned against her car as he held her, rubbing her back gently. “You wanna talk about it?” he asked softly.
She leaned into him completely. Being physically close to Stiles was natural where she came from. She didn’t know how different things were here for them, but this felt just as comforting as it did in her future. She’d been afraid of making him uncomfortable by taking his hand like she normally would, but the way he was holding her made her feel like he was okay with this.
“It felt like-- I had lost you too,” she whispered, tightening her hold on him as her eyes got warm again.
He rested his chin atop her head, tightening his arms around her at her words. “Well, you haven’t,” he said firmly. And if he had any say in things, she wouldn’t. Not the nogitsune, and not to anything else if he could help it. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.” He tried to imagine a situation in which he was uncomfortable being physically close to Lydia, but nothing came to mind.
Stiles shifted slightly, leaning more against her car but pulling her with him.
There was a very clear difference between the Stiles she had last seen back in her time and this Stiles, though. She didn’t know what exactly it was. But partially, she knew that it was the fact that this version of him was still mostly whole. The Nogitsune never tore him apart like it had the other Stiles.
She pulled her head away from him and nodded slightly as she held his gaze. He was right. He was there. “I’m sorry I scared you. Again,” she said quietly, pursing her lips into a thin line.
How many times had they gone through terrifying things together? he wondered. Peter Hale and kanima Jackson and the alpha pack, the durach. The night at the Glen Capri. Finding dead body after dead body. There were so many times he’d been terrified that she was going to die, that he was going to lose her for good that he’d actually lost track. But the same was true with Scott and Allison, too.
“Hey.” He met her eyes and shook his head slightly. “You don’t need to apologize.” He was pretty sure she’d had a few near heart attacks because of him, too. And even more so in the future after he was possessed and killing people. Killing Allison. And Aiden. Two people that he knew she cared a lot about. Truthfully he wasn’t sure why she found it comforting to be around him after going through that. It was probably weird that he felt guilty for things he hadn’t even actually done.
With a deep breath, she nodded slightly, cupping his cheek with one of her hands as she stared up at him in silence for a long moment. All she saw there was pure Stiles. And she was still searching for any signs of that thing, but it just wasn’t there. She was pretty sure she was never going to forget the way it looked at her. So cold and detached. Like he didn’t care what happened, as long as he won his game. And although he had been wearing Stiles’ face, she could never associate him to any of that. Because there had been none of Stiles in it.
Stiles wasn’t sure what to make of the way she was staring at him. It did, however, make his heart beat a little faster in his chest. Which was pretty typical when it came to all things involving Lydia Martin, really. He couldn’t help but wonder what was going through her mind. He reached up and covered her hand with his own, offering her a tiny, uncertain smile as he linked their fingers together and squeezed gently. “Why don’t you stay here tonight?” he asked after a moment, voice quiet.
Unconsciously, she squeezed his hand back. She was surprised he was inviting her to stay there. She hadn’t really planned on it, but considering he mentioned her driving over to check on him when she felt his nightmares before, she figured it wasn’t going to be the first time she spent the night there. She had to check, though. Just to be sure. “Your dad won’t mind?” she asked.
He couldn’t help but chuckle at the question. “At this point my dad’s so used to the steady stream of teenagers in and out of the house it’d be weird not to have random people to wake up to.” He paused, then shook his head. “Not that you’re a random person. You’re obviously not a random person, like at all.” She’d never just be a random person. “I just mean, since the Nemeton flared up, you stayed here for awhile, and then Ariel lived here because my dad and Isaac were afraid she was going to end up burning down the whole apartment building because she didn’t know how to use a microwave and then when she vanished, Cora moved in because Derek was gone, and then Melissa vanished and Scott was here and...I’m rambling.”
As he spoke, she didn’t even notice she started to smile. Yes, he was rambling, but she hadn’t seen him like this in such a long time, it was such a relief to see him doing something so completely Stiles-like. And her smile only grew the longer he went on. Eventually, when his self-awareness caught up with him, she just nodded a little. “As long as your dad won’t mind another random person waking up in your house, I can stay,” she teased, despite herself.
It took him a second to realize that she was grinning at him and not annoyed by the rambling. He shook his head, grinning sheepishly. “He won’t mind,” he assured her. Although technically he might have still been grounded. He kind of forgot to ask after the whole mugging incident. Oh well. He wasn’t going to wake his dad up at two in the morning and ask. He draped his arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the house. “So did I tell you about the family of raccoons that decided that they wanted to live under the porch awhile back?” he asked, arching his eyebrows. “Because apparently one of them came back.”
She wrapped her arm around his back, still holding him close as they walked toward his house. He was helping her relax, yes, faster than she had expected it to work. And apparently, he was working on distracting her, too. “No, I hadn’t heard anything about the raccoons. They are just regular raccoons, right? Not were raccoons?” It was mostly a joke, but all things considered, not completely.
He cocked his head to the side, considering that. “Well, actually Scott was the one who got them to move on the first time with his glowing alpha eyes. Maybe they are were raccoons. But as far as I know, they just stay small and fuzzy.” He paused at the porch, glancing under it but not seeing the raccoon. “Probably just actual raccoons.” He shrugged, leading her up the porch steps and into the house. Once they were inside, he shut and locked the door, re-alarming the security system and glancing at her sideways.
“Oddly I haven’t done the sleep walking thing once since we got this. It’s kind of like when you start having car troubles and you take it in to get it checked out and everything sounds perfectly normal.” He rolled his eyes.
“Well, considering the week-long crime wave, it’s not a bad idea to keep it on.” And considering what else could still happen to him. But she wasn’t going to scare him anymore than she already had, not when she wasn’t actually feeling anything off about him or any of this. If anything, he felt more like himself than he had in months for her.
“You mentioned I stayed here for a while?” She didn’t miss that piece of information, and she was curious. Both as to why she had stayed there to begin with and why she had moved to stay with the Argents.
“And considering things around here are kind of always up in the air anyway.” Really he was kind of surprised neither he nor his dad had considered getting a security system before Stiles had started sleepwalking a few months ago. He turned away from the alarm and faced her instead.
“Yeah,” he said after a moment, nodding. Of course she didn’t remember it. “It was pretty much right after the Nemeton started...acting up. Peter was being his creepy self and then Kate Argent showed up, too.” He grimaced. “Your parents weren’t here.”
While it made sense for the Stilinskis and the Argents to take her in with her parents not being in town, it really wasn’t going to make that much of a difference on her day-to-day. She pretty much only saw her dad on birthdays and holidays. And her mom, even if she was home, they didn’t spend a lot of time together. As much as she loved Allison and felt comfortable at her apartment, she still missed her room and her own house.
“Why did I move in with the Argents?” she asked Stiles as she started toward the stairs without really thinking about it. When she was at his house, she was usually in his room.
He followed her toward the stairs, faltering for a moment at her question. It wasn’t a night he liked to think about. The fight they had hadn’t been a pleasant one by any means. It had resulted in his storming out of the room and her leaving. He rubbed a hand over his face, staying quiet until they were in his room. He shut the door behind them and leaned against it.
“Because...you were pretty pissed off at me for not telling you that I was the one behind everyone’s forged documents,” he said hesitantly.
Lydia stopped in the middle of his room and turned to face him, arching her eyebrows. She really hadn’t expected anything like that. Because while she wanted to shake Stiles every now and then, they usually got over their issues fairly quickly. Although she didn’t know the whole story. Yet.
“Forged documents?” she asked. And yes, illegal activities made her nervous. And if he was hiding it from her, she guessed that was why.
He knew illegal activities made her nervous. They tended to make a lot of people nervous. Stiles wasn’t one of those people, and never had been. And considering he was the son of the town sheriff...well, there was a reason he tended to get grounded often.
“For the displaced people,” he explained. “So they can work or go to school or whatever.” It was so not a big deal by this point that he rarely even thought about it anymore. He’d forged so much documentation in the last few months -- had spent so much of his savings account to keep the necessary supplies on hand -- that he could practically do it in his sleep. Of course it was a tiny part of why he’d gotten so little sleep the last few weeks.
“Right.” Lydia stared at him for a moment longer then turned to take a seat on his bed. It made sense, that Stiles was going to find the most questionable way to help the displaced people, but at least she knew he meant well. And apparently she had already yelled at him about, so Lydia guessed that included all of her concerns about being careful and jeopardizing his dad’s job.
Although, she had to make sure. Just in case. “You’re being careful, right?”
“Yeah, absolutely.” He nodded, raking a hand through his already messy hair. “I mean that’s why I wasn’t really telling anyone to begin with. Because of my dad’s job,” he admitted. “I told Scott, but that’s -- I mean, he’s been helping deliver the documents to secure locations for drop off points. Werewolf speed and everything.” He shrugged and moved away from the door to sit down beside her on the bed. He hadn’t wanted to involve anyone else because if he wound up getting busted, he didn’t want anyone else getting into trouble. He didn’t even like involving Scott, but hell. The two of them had engaged in so many illegal activities together over the years, and Scott had been the one to suggest it.
“Good,” she said, still not completely comfortable with whatever this was, but she was going to let it go. “I’m sure I have already exposed all my other concerns to you, so…” She pursed her lips into a small smile and nodded. The fact that he had mentioned the Sheriff was already a good start.
“And so I left because I was mad at you?” Storming off was definitely something she was good at, she mostly enjoyed being chased after. But after everything she’d been through recently, sticking together sounded like a better option.
He winced a little as he remembered her words from that night. "You're not a hero, Stiles. You're trying to save everyone when you can't even save yourself." He’d actually been the one who’d left first. Granted, it had just been to his bedroom. But still.
“Yeah, basically,” he agreed with a nod. “It was unpleasant.” He grimaced. That was putting it mildly. They’d snapped at each other for days after that anytime they spoke or texted.
“Sounds like it,” she said, arching her eyebrows as she watched him. And even if she had been the one to snap at him and to yell and storm out. She was sure it had been hard on her, too. Even if she’d never let him notice.
“We were okay, though, right? By the time I disappeared?” Because this had to be a whole new level of weird for him if not.
They’d been more than okay when she disappeared, but he didn’t say that, either. “Yeah.” He nodded and looked down at his hands in his lap. “Yeah, we were fine. This happened months ago.” He glanced at her sideways, chewing his lower lip.
“Good,” she said, relaxing a little at the confirmation but she knew there was something else he wasn’t telling her. So when he turned to look at her, she cocked her head a little and kept her eyes on him. Once more resisting the urge to reach for his hand despite the way he had hugged her just now.
He turned his head so he could see her better, searching her eyes. “You okay?” he asked quietly, eyebrows furrowing once more.
“Yeah,” she answered, holding his gaze for a moment longer then looking around his room. It was messy. Unusually so. Especially his desk. So she cocked her head a little and turned her attention to him once more. “What were you researching?”
Stiles glanced around, making a face at the mess. “Uh. Dopplegangers,” he admitted, rising to his feet and moving over to his desk again, closing the books and stacking them in a neat pile as he started collecting his notes in another pile. “You know, after that girl who looked exactly like Allison showed up.” He shrugged, closing his laptop.
“Find anything good?” She stayed on the bed as she watched him organize his research material. She had left her own all over her bed. And that reminded her of what she was researching and she suddenly tensed again. Stiles was okay for now, she knew for sure that thing wasn’t controlling him. But she wasn’t sure how long it was going to last.
“Not really. I mean, considering how much of the information that’s out there tends to be inaccurate or just -- completely wrong in every possible way…” He shrugged. “And it’s not really what’s happening here anyway. I mean that girl came here via the Nemeton so she’s not technically a doppleganger. It’s just weird. How weirded out are you?” He glanced at her over his shoulder. He’d be pretty weirded out if someone who looked exactly like Scott showed up from another world.
“It’s pretty weird,” she admitted. But someone who looked like Allison showing up was hardly her main concern at the moment. She really didn’t want to talk to him about that, though. So she stood up and started looking around his room. It was hard to think about something else, but there were a couple of things she had to talk to him about.
“By the way, I talked to Deaton,” she said, stopping by his shelf and turning to look at him again.
“About the mountain ash stuff and Scott?” he asked, putting his pens and highlighters in the holder on his desk. “Did he have any new ideas?” His voice was hopeful. He didn’t want to keep having to lock Scott in a cellar in the woods on full moon nights. Listening to his friend change from his human form to wolf form was nothing short of torture. He knew the complete shift was painful and Stiles hated it immensely.
“One of the things, yes,” she said, giving him a pointed look as she turned to face him fully and took a couple of steps toward his desk, watching him as he organized it. “He suggested an all natural sedative he used on the animals at the clinic. He said it should work on Scott enough to calm him down and control the transformation. He has a plan B, but it isn’t as safe so I think we should stick with this one.”
“Yes, let’s definitely stick with the safer plan.” Especially when it came to Scott’s life. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what Deaton’s plan b was, even if Stiles was generally fond of having a plan b. He did wonder why the vet hadn’t suggested this solution weeks ago, though. Then again, Deaton had a way of disclosing things on his own timeline and no one else’s. He ignored the pointed look entirely, even if he knew exactly what she was getting at beyond the stuff with Scott.
“Yeah, I already told Scott we should try it in the next full moon,” she said, taking yet another step forward. Because it was pretty clear Stiles was attempting to ignore the subject she was about to throw at him. But this was important, just as important as helping Scott. “And we also have a plan for you.”
“Oh. Good. That’s good. I mean that’s the only time we’ll really get an accurate idea of if it’ll work or not. SInce that’s the only time he seems to really struggle with all the wolfie stuff.” He eyed her warily as she took another step closer and he was pretty sure she definitely wasn’t going to let him ignore the rest again. “What plan?” He sounded uncertain, even to his own ears.
“It’s when the wolf is supposed to be the strongest, right?” She pointed out. And when Scott would be more likely to lose control of himself. And that was what she wanted to avoid the most.
With Stiles though, she seriously needed him to stop being so insecure about his possible abilities. But then, she wanted to avoid sounding like a complete hypocrite. “Deaton and I are going to help you perform a ritual.”
“Yep.” That was how the whole werewolf thing worked. Fortunately, Scott tended to have tight control over his emotions the rest of the time. And while in theory, if he was angry enough, his best friend could wolf out at any time, he hadn’t so far, so Stiles was hopeful.
But at the words ritual, he grew still, sliding his gaze over to her. “A ritual,” he responded uneasily, immediately thinking of the ritual they’d all performed that had activated the Nemeton to begin with.
Lydia arched an eyebrow at him when he finally turned to look at her but stopped herself from shifting closer. She didn’t want him to feel trapped even if she didn’t plan on giving him a choice in the matter. “A very simple, harmless ritual.” Nothing like the previous one they’d been a part of. “Just to see how you do.”
“Is there even such a thing?” he asked skeptically, frown forming on his face. “Because while the word ritual seems completely innocuous, the ones that happen in Beacon Hills tends to end pretty badly.”
“According to Deaton, there is. This won’t involve anyone risking their lives.” At least, she hoped not. She wasn’t sure which ritual Deaton was planning, but he knew all about what the last one had done, right? Surely this was going to be a lot safer. Otherwise she might have issues with it, too. “I don’t know, Lydia.” He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to push away the anxiety that was curling in his stomach, the way it always did when he thought about the fact that he’d hurled his best friend across a hallway with freaking magic.
“Stiles, you have to do this,” she pushed, this time taking a step forward. “You have to know for sure what caused that episode at school.” What if the letharia vulpina just wasn’t working properly and that thing was giving him powers he wasn’t supposed to have. “And you have to learn how to control it.” Especially if, if the Nogitsune took control over him. It had been bad enough with a fully human Stiles.
Stiles grew completely still at that. “You still think there’s a chance that thing’s in me, don’t you?” He swallowed hard. “That it’s what made me throw Scott.” He raked a hand through his hair and leaned heavily against his desk for a moment before sinking down onto his desk chair.
Lydia paused and watched him sit down, her eyes widening as she brushed her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t have any concrete proof. You don’t feel off.” But he wasn’t sleeping. The jar was gone. And Kira’s mom could tell something was going on. She had a nightmare about him and the Nogitsune. Lydia couldn’t tell him those things, though. “I just don’t want to take any chances. I can’t.”
“What about the lutheria vulpina?” he asked, dropping his gaze to the floor and swallowing hard. “You don’t think it’s an accurate test?” He couldn’t look at her now. He twisted his fingers together.
“It should be. It worked in the other timeline. I just want to understand what is happening to you so we can be sure.” She hesitated and crouched down in front of him as she covered his hands with both of her. “Stiles, look at me.”
Stiles dragged in a breath and reluctantly lifted his eyes to meet hers, but remained silent.
Lydia wrapped her fingers around his hands and held his gaze for a moment. “I think I might just be paranoid.” At least when it came to him being possessed. There had been no signs of it so far. “But I ignored signs before and-- maybe things would have been different in the future if I hadn’t. I just need to make sure.”
He nodded slightly. He understood why she was worried. He was, too. “And what if this ritual doesn’t really tell us anything? I mean how are we going to know if it’s because I’m some magic guidance counselor or if it’s because I’m…” Being taken over by something that was the very definition of evil.
“The Nogitsune didn’t do magic. It played tricks. It was strong, physically. But it wouldn’t perform a ritual. It’d just try to get in the way of it.” Especially if it made Stiles stronger than he should be. Especially if it helped him fight it in ways he hadn’t been able to before. It would definitely try and stop him from doing it. “Just give this a try, Stiles. So we can be sure.”
“Okay but does being able to perform a ritual mean that there’s no way I can be possessed?” he questioned. “I mean will it rule it out?”
“I don’t know for sure,” she said sincerely, squeezing his hands before letting go and standing back up. “But it will change you, won’t it? You’ll be a druid, not just human.” And she didn’t know if the rules applied to druids like it did to foxes and wolves. But it should at the very least, make him stronger.
“I don’t know. I mean a druid is just a practitioner of magic, right? I mean it’s not the same thing as being like, Harry Potter, born a wizard.” He shook his head. “What if it just means this thing will be stronger if it does decide to possess me?”
“That’s not how it works, Stiles. Possession.” Mind control. “It weakens you until it can control you and your body.” That was what it had felt for her when Peter had controlled her. That was what she had seen when she went inside Stiles’ mind. “It will want to shatter you, take away all of your hope and strength so it can do whatever it wants without you fighting it and making it weaker.”
And that wouldn’t be hard, he thought. He was human. He knew there were already fractures in his mind that made him more vulnerable to that kind of thing. He was the pack’s weakest link. He shut his eyes, exhaling slowly. “Like through lack of sleep.” It wasn’t really a question.
“That could be one of the ways,” she agreed quietly. It had been a big part of what it had done to him back home. And that was something else they had to work on getting better here. And something else that was terrifying her.
He rubbed his face wearily. “Sleep’s always been an issue,” he admitted. “Since I was little.” He shrugged. “I never really worried that much about it.” At least until recently.
“Aside from the ritual, that’s something else that we can work on,” she said, but she wasn’t going to push on that as hard for now. Not when she knew she was already asking a lot of him. “Is there anything that helps you sleep?” Without drugs or anything that’d make him even less in control of his body.
“Luck?” he responded wryly. He shook his head. “No, not really.” He knew a lot of his sleep problem came from the Adderall that he took, but that wasn’t really a choice. He could barely function, think straight without it. He just wished it didn’t have side effects that included not sleeping and rarely being truly hungry.
“Well, I’m staying here tonight anyway. I could keep an eye on you so you can try and relax for longer than half an hour.” It was less of a suggestion this time and more of a plan. Because he had to sleep. Now she was even more aware of how important that was going to be to make sure he was safe.
Stiles gazed at her for a moment, nodding slightly in agreement. He glanced toward his bed, hesitating. “You should try and sleep too, though.”
She was surprised at how easily he agreed, considering she had gotten the impression he wasn’t even comfortable with her being the one to watch over him when she first suggested this. “Are you going to be able to rest if I do?” she asked. Mostly because she wasn’t sure he’d want her to actively keep an eye on him for the rest of the night. But partially because they were going to have to share a bed.
“It’s -- we’ve sorta done this before. I know you don’t remember it.” He bit his lip, shrugging. “But yeah. It usually helps me relax.” Which they’d chalked up to the tether, and he supposed that made sense. He was pretty sure that Allison found comfort in Isaac’s presence, too, though he wasn’t ready to voice that.
Once more, she was fairly sure there was more to what he was telling her than what he was actually saying. But she had the feeling she had pushed him enough for the night, so she nodded slightly. “Okay. Let’s try, then. But you can wake me up if you wake up,” she added. She wanted to be there for him if he had a nightmare.
“Okay,” he agreed, rising to his feet, and tugging her up to hers as well. He resisted the urge to brush a kiss against her forehead, and instead moved over to the bed, dropping down onto the far side of the mattress and leaving her space to lie down beside him.
She pulled her boots off then watched him as he got into bed before sitting down next to him and, after pulling her hair over her shoulder so she wasn’t laying on it, she laid down on her side so she was facing him. Stiles seemed surprisingly comfortable with this and although she was nervous about something happening, she was glad he had invited her to stay.
Stiles shifted onto his side so he was facing her, as well. He laid his head on the pillow, watching her for a moment and then dropping his gaze. “Do you feel safe here?” he asked quietly. What he meant was do you feel safe here with me?
Lydia frowned slightly at the question. She looked down at his hands and took one of them in one of hers, linking her fingers through his before nodding slightly. “Yeah.” She wasn’t lying, Stiles didn’t feel any different to her. “It helps, having you around.” Being around him, knowing he was himself. It made her feel safer than anything else.
He relaxed when she wove her fingers through his and he nodded, too. “Okay,” he whispered, letting his eyes drift shut. No way he’d ever ask her to stay if she didn’t feel one hundred percent safe. He never wanted to be someone who made her feel unsafe. And it gnawed at him that sometime in the future, that was exactly what happened.
She kept her eyes on him for a moment longer, watching as he relaxed somewhat. She was exhausted, but she didn’t think she was going to be able to fall asleep anytime soon. Instead, she was okay with laying there with him and making sure he got some rest. She was going to do this as many nights as necessary if it meant making sure Stiles was going to remain himself.