Birthday drabbles

Drabble #13

"It's not new. You've always known that."

She reaches for his hand over the table, her fingers brushing his, her gaze solely on their hands. "In a way, I really think I have."

Stiles holds her hand, sitting straighter on his chair and clearing his throat. Lydia reciprocates easily, offering him an almost shy smile. "I uh- I'm sorry that this isn't going as it should. I'm really nervous."

She knows.

He hasn't stopped stomping his foot ever since they arrived to the restaurant almost fifteen minutes ago. "Who said it isn't going as it should?"

"I don't know, I just-"

"None of that," she interrupts. "It's going fine. It'll get better."

He frowns out of habit. "You're feeling optimistic today..."

She beams. "I am. It's not every day that one gets a date with Stiles Stilinski, now is it?" she teases.

"What?" he chuckles.

She raises an eyebrow, amused. "What? You thought you were the only one who wanted a date? Because if so, you're dead wrong."

He glares at her defiantly, trying to decode if she's just playing him or being honest, and he gets true playfulness. Lydia Martin in a nutshell.

God, he loves her. "I'm always wrong in comparison to a certified genius like yourself."

Lydia clicks her tongue, tilting her head before sipping on her drink again. "Not at all. See? You got that right."

Stiles winks and Lydia blushes, a grin forming on her lips easily. "You're rubbing off on me."

"Good" it's all she says and there's a glint of mischief in her eyes, like she's telling him there will be more, for sure, sometime soon.

Good.

"And you look really good tonight, by the way."

It's his time to blush, chuckling nervously. "We're quite the pair, aren't we?"

His words come out a little sadder than Lydia would like. She doesn't hesitate in entwining their fingers together. "We are. We will be."

"How can you be sure?"

"How can you not?"

"Sometimes, I... I feel like we're living in borrowed time, and that eventually life will set us all up, again, and it's like... When good things happen, it's hard to believe they're real, you know?"

Lydia lets out a breath in understanding. "I know. But I want to live in the moment," she tells him, resolute. "And right now I want us to forget about everything else and just have dinner, take a walk in the park and then take you home."

He hesitates for a brief second before lifting her hand to place a soft kiss on her knuckles, smiling at her, his eyes sparkling. "Thank you."

It's ridiculous that such an innocent gesture makes her insides clench. "For saying I'll take you home?" she jokes, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

"No!" he mocks playfully. "For wanting this to be a normal night. We don't have many of those."

"No, we don't. So lets try our best not to be nervous about this and screw this up. We know each other. We're friends. We're gonna have a nice dinner, split the bill..." Stiles opens his mouth to interject but Lydia just glares at him, continuing in a lowered tone of voice. "... You'll take me to the park and we'll sit on a bench or by the fountain and just look up at the stars for a little while and we'll kiss. Or maybe we'll just kiss when you drop me home or when you pretend to leave even though I sure as hell will not let you. We'll definitely kiss." Stiles leans back on his chair, amused. "I'll make sure to persuade you to stay the night and you'll probably pretend you don't want to. I'll win you over because you need to see how soft my sheets are. It's insane, Stiles, and you haven't yet so you'll really have to stay with me. And in the morning we're totally gonna cook breakfast together-"

"You really have it all figured out, haven't you?"

She nods dutifully. "Yes, I do. And you'd better not mess with my plan," she warns teasingly.

He crosses his heart. "I'd never dare."

They have an amazing dinner after that, a better walk in the park when Stiles decides to surprise her and kiss Lydia as soon as they cross the gates. They sit by the fountain and make a wish as Lydia tells him what constellations she knows off and Stiles listens attentively, dazzled because Lydia is leaning into him and ends up shivering from the light breeze that can be felt on that summer night.

It's a good enough excuse for Stiles to have an arm wrapped around her for the rest of the night, and all cold vanishes when they reach her bedroom an hour later and Stiles finds out that indeed her sheets are absolutely amazing, and when they fall asleep, naked and still breathing heavy and their minds fuzzy like if they are intoxicated, neither has nightmares.

Stiles decides to ask her his opening question again in the morning just because he's Stiles and he can, when she's still groggy and looking like a goddamn angel that ended up falling on his arms out of chance, a halo of strawberry blonde hair illuminating the room when the sun hits her mane, and Lydia only mumbles a "Shut up" pats his cheek sleepily, turning away from him and nuzzling against her pillow more, and that's how Stiles finds out that Lydia is not a morning person, but he doesn't mind much.

He wakes her up just fine.