Summary: Missing scene from 6x10, between The Kiss and The Look.
Rating: General
Tags: Fluff, Romance.
Author's Note: A shout out to bebethsas who looked this over because it's past 5am here and I spent all night writing and editing and revising, back and forth between four different fics and my brain is fried.
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"In a world full of temporary things
you are a perpetual feeling."
- Sanober Khan
Lydia hasn't left his side.
Not when the battle was finally over. Not when his father and his friends welcomed him back. Not when the Sheriff decided to drive both Stiles and Lydia back to the Stilinski's residence because their hands wouldn't part for anything.
She doesn't let go of his hand during the entirety of the ride either, when the Sheriff has to play chauffeur so that the kids can enjoy the closeness for a bit now that things have calmed down.
Neither does Lydia disentangle her fingers from his when Stiles nudges her to get inside the house, then stopping for a moment in the living room as if he's taking it all in for the first time.
Lydia definitely does not let go, and even squeezes his hand for comfort, when his eyes find a picture of Claudia on the mantelpiece. Stiles is drawn to it and picks it up with the hand that's not holding Lydia's, and for a moment neither of them talks. Not Stiles, who's getting emotional. Not Lydia, who wishes she could take away their pain. Not the Sheriff, who's still standing by the front door watching the scene.
But then Stiles braves and puts the frame back in its place because the present is not the past, smiling down at Lydia and she returns it with a teary grin that makes him want to kiss her. Instead, he makes his way to his dad and hugs him tightly again for good measure, whispers that he loves him because he knows he'll never say it enough, and Stiles only realizes he'd let go of Lydia's hand when the Sheriff pats his son on the back and faces the banshee.
"Lydia, would you like to stay for dinner?"
Stiles lets go of his dad with excitement in his eyes at the man's words, looks back at Lydia over his shoulder and nods subtly - or as subtly as Stiles ever does anything - in a way of asking her to stay.
To his surprise, her cheeks redden. "I'd love to."
Her expression is so soft, so shy that Stiles aches to touch her again.
"Then you're gonna have to help me," the Sheriff says jokingly, "because I can't cook for the life of me." Truth is, some boundaries should be established right away. While he does want to give his son and the banshee some privacy, Noah knows that this has been a long time coming, and that sooner or later things are bound to happen. Not with him around in the house, that's for sure, so keeping an eye on them seems like the best approach for right now. "Why don't I give you two a minute and then you can meet me in the kitchen while Stiles takes a shower and changes?" He asks Lydia, then turning to Stiles. "I'm sure you'd like that."
Stiles nods emphatically in answer to both things. "God, yes. Please."
Lydia's grin breaks through and Stiles thinks it could lighten the whole room. It's genuine, honestly pure, the same way she's been doing ever since the two of them were reunited just a couple of hours before. It seems that she hasn't stopped smiling since. "Thank you, Sheriff. We won't take long," Lydia murmurs softly as she walks up to Stiles and waits for him to move.
