InsaneJournal

Stepping into futuristic Vallo was a strange experience. Lydia left one which was relatively intact and found herself in the middle of a bloody battle, the world clearly in shambles. It threw her off because she was still fairly new. A few months into Vallo but clearly not having spent several years there as most people had. Somehow, it had felt both like home and also not.

It also threw her off because of the deaths she sensed all around her. There was so much. It was like stepping into bright sunlight after being stuck in an extra dark cave for months. It almost threw her off her feet, but she was able to right herself in time to escape the ambush and get to the Outpost. The voices here were not as loud but she still heard them all, still more than what she had been used to in Vallo. Or even Beacon Hills. And she wondered if she might even hear herself too.

She was a genius, yes, but it didn’t take a genius to realize time travel forward into the future had certain requirements to avoid a hot mess and one of them was that her existence in the future would have to be null. Which from what she heard could mean any number of things, sent back to their home world or turned into a mindless drone.

But most people didn’t have the senses of a banshee to help them figure it out.

Now that she had marginally settled and placed into a relatively safer spot, Lydia set out to find some familiar faces.

Getting used to Vallo was something that had crept up on Stiles slowly. He hadn't believed it would ever be possible, and then all of a sudden one day he realised he had a job, he had friends...and maybe the thing that had helped most of all. He had Lydia. That had happened slowly too. Or maybe it had just felt that way to him because she had always been at the centre of his universe. He'd always told her they had some kind of connection, and a place as weird as Vallo hadn't been enough to change his mind on that.

They'd had a year together. One entire year where even though things around them had started to fall apart, he'd been grateful to still have her. And then fate had stepped in and decided that once again, that Stiles Stilinski wasn't meant to keep the people he loved. And she was taken from him. And nothing much had mattered to him after that. Sure, he did what he could. Helped Caleb with some of his magic and was even learning some of it along the way. But for the most part he kept to himself. He'd told Lydia once, years ago now, that if she died he'd go out of his freaking mind. A part of him thought maybe that was probably exactly what had happened.

He'd tried to keep his hopes that she might show up here to a minimum. Just because people would be traveling here from the past didn't mean she'd be one of them. But that didn't stop a persistent thread of hope from creeping its way into his brain. He'd spent the whole morning trying to distract himself by reading back over his own notes, but the only thing that had done for him was give him a headache.

Making his way outside, he was all set to just sit and enjoy not being cooped up in his room for a while, when his eyes were drawn to an all too familiar head of strawberry blonde hair. His eyes had to be playing tricks on him this time. It wasn't possible. Was it?

Lydia had half a mind to call out or grab someone and ask if there was a Stiles Stilinski around. She was almost afraid to know though what happened, if he was around, if he was sent back, if he was broken into pieces somewhere, unable to interact with anything. But there were reunions happening all around her amidst busy-bodies making sure things were in order here for the newcomers.

Instead she let her eyes wander, stopping in a spot out of people’s way, and letting her eyes roam. They almost passed him… actually they did pass him because gone was the face that she knew so well complete with the biggest shit-eating grin he could give. Instead, it was replaced with someone way harder and darker.

She blinked when her eyes found him again, mouth dropping slightly, both actions done so due to the surprise.

When their eyes met across the short distance, he froze. That was Lydia. It had to be. Alive, and close enough that he could see almost every detail of a face he knew better than his own. He hated himself for hesitating, but there was a part of him convinced if he took that first step, she'd disappear.

He looked around, taking in the way everyone was milling around, noticing for the first time the way people were greeting each other. They were here, which meant she could be, too.

His eyes snapped back to hers, and he took that tentative first step. That single movement was enough to break the spell, and before he knew it he was crossing the short distance between them. It was only when he was maybe a step away that he paused again, eyes moving over her of their own accord. Reassuring himself she was alright. She looked...she looked like she had back then. Before everything had changed. "You're really here," he spoke hoarsely, the words completely redundant but feeling important regardless.

Lydia almost made a joke about assuring him he would age like fine wine, but it died right on her tongue as she took him in further. Particularly the desperation in his eyes, like he needed her to be real, to actually be in front of him right then. Everything about him seemed experienced and yet, absolutely haunted.

“I’m here,” she answered, looking up at him, her eyes roaming his face, taking in all the details. She wasn’t sure how long she’d be here, and if she would even remember much of it when she went back to her time – or if they managed to help out here however they could, assuming they were able to go back at all – but she wanted to remember it.

She already didn’t like this version of Vallo even if the past one was still new to her.

“Do you remember this? From ten years ago? Do you remember me leaving to travel here?”

For a few moments they just stood there looking at each other, and he tried not to squirm under her penetrating gaze. It felt as though she could see everything that had happened in the ensuing years. It wasn’t until she said the number that it hit him. She was still…she was so young. And alive. And it just didn’t seem fair, somehow. He’d have given anything to go back there with her, truth be told. He was self pitying enough to acknowledge if he was given the choice he’d take it in a heartbeat, anything else be damned.

He still loved her too much to deny that.

He shook his head slowly, some of his now longer hair falling over his forehead in the process until he pushed it back off his face. “No. I don’t think I…there was nothing like this.” There was so much he did remember, memories he cherished all the more since he’d lost her, even if it meant looking back on them with rose colored glasses. But this? This was something he couldn’t possibly have forgotten.

Lydia gave him a small smile. He needed it, a way to assure him she was okay. The fight that broke out on their arrival was scarier than she thought it would be and she had gone through a whole lot of shit in Eichen House, learning it way more personally than she would have liked. Her methods of using her powers as weapons, at least she got to use those this time again. She was scared and anxious and wanted to go back to their universe where everything seemed okay and safe.

But, she still smiled for him, knowing it would help him. “I’m so relieved to see you here.” She moved closer than to put her arms around him.

He appreciated it, even if he thought maybe there was little genuine behind it. The fact she was offering him that smile meant so much more than…so much that had happened, in the last couple of years. He honestly couldn’t remember the time he’d last genuinely smiled. Not since losing her.

When she stepped closer and her arms wrapped around him he felt the coil of tension inside him loosen just a fraction, his own arms rising instinctively to hold her in turn. He’d never thought he’d see her again, in any form. How did you explain to someone from the past everything that had happened? How did he explain how badly he’d screwed up, by not keeping her safe? It was something he couldn’t even think about, let alone say the words aloud.

“I’ve missed you,” was what he wound up saying, holding her as close as he dared.

This hug wasn’t anything new. For as long as she could remember being Stiles’s friend, there was hardly a moment when they weren’t touching in some form: with the red yarn string in their fingers, protecting one another from the nogitsune, shoving him away from the fire at the haunted hotel…

This hug felt like so much more. It felt like a loss or complete absence of all those moments of touch over the past ten years, and all their moments, from him telling her how he’d lose her mind if something happened to her, to their impromptu kiss during his panic attack, to the rescue from Eichen House, came forth in her mind, and she just hugged him tighter.

“I’m sorry I gave you a chance to miss me,” she mumbled into his shoulder.

If possible he held her even tighter, just reveling in the simple fact of her being there again, of feeling her breathe. She’d always had that ability with him. To take some of the storm of his thoughts and quiet them, to give him something singular to focus on. Probably because she just meant so damn much to him.

“It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything.” The problem was, neither had he. That was why he didn’t have her with him any more, here. Not the one who’d finally told him she felt the same way. And as good as this felt, he knew eventually he’d be losing her too.

She didn’t want to let go. There was just so much meaning in this hug, and she felt all of it, like it had been accumulating not just in the past few years she had lost him but during his entire lifetime, from back when he had basically confessed his undying love to her in high school, when she somehow finally noticed him. He had always had those big strong feelings for her and she… god, why did she always hold back?

Reluctantly, she pulled back, but just a little and brought one hand up to cup his cheek. “I’m here now. You have a lot to catch me up on.”

He gave her a small and somewhat watery smile before wiping a hand over his eyes with a wry laugh. What a sentimental idiot. “Just a few things.” He hesitated for a second, hand making an aborted movement towards hers before he inwardly cursed himself and reached out to wrap his fingers around hers. “Come on. I’ll give you the tour.” Not that there was a lot to see.