"A lake."
"Well spotted, Lyds."
She rolled her eyes. "You interrupted my OITHN marathon to drive me to a lake?"
Stiles looked a bit embarrassed, and his voice was defensive when he replied. "Not just any lake."
"Is it a magic lake?"
"No. At least, not that I knowof. I probably should have checked that beforehand. Knowing our luck, it's brimming with evil mermaids and kappas, just dying to drown us and devour our flesh."
Lydia couldn't help the smile that crept up her face. "Someone's been rereading Harry Potter." She chuckled when Stiles blushed, the reddening of his cheeks visible even in the dim light of the dashboard. "I'm not laughing at you." She clarified, when he didn't immediately say anything. "It's an outstanding piece of literature." She gave him an honest smile, and barely a second later he relaxed in his seat. It was pretty funny, she thought, how well attuned with each other they had become. They had spent most of the summer together, while Scott had been out with either Allison or Derek and Isaac, doing ridiculous werewolf stuff like playing tag and chasing rabbits. Lydia was glad her specific brand of supernatural came mostly without side-effects. (Not counting the whispers she sometimes could hear. As long as she stayed away from graveyards, she was fine) and after Stiles had stopped chasing her skirt, they quickly turned out to be best friend material. If Lydia sometimes let her mind wonder to how it would feel to have his hands on her back and his lips on her neck, well, she was a young woman with a very active libido, it was bound to happen.
To her surprise, Stiles unbuckled his seat belt and started unbuttoning his shirt, quickly revealing some soft chest hair which made Lydia feel a bit dizzy. "Stiles, I... What...?"
Stiles turned towards her, hand still on the hem of his shirt, andhe must have caught her distraught expression, because he held up his hands in innocence. "No. No, this is not.. I mean I'm not trying to..."
"Oh, alright, I just..."
"I mean, that would have been a smart move, if a bit of a dick-ish one, but I really..."
"I thought you were..."
When it became obvious that they were getting nowhere, they both stopped talking and laughed awkwardly. Stiles leant in his seat and ran a hand through his hair. "I should have explained myself first," he said, with a small smile playing around his lips. "Sorry to have given you a fright."
"Didn't." Lydia said. She had come to the conclusion weeks ago that she trusted Stiles completely, with her life and mind which was really enough of a terrifying thought she had pushed it away.
There was a long moment of silence, in which Lydia studied Stiles' profile as he stared at the steering wheel, hands relaxed on his knees, and smiled when he turned his face towards her again. "This is the lake my mom and dad used to come to every month when I was younger."
Lydia nodded, encouraging him to continue.
"It was a bit of a tradition, you know. They'd drop me off at Scott's and then come here, and after she died my dad's been going on his own, but he had to work late tonight and I know that he felt bad about not making it this month.." He trailed off with a snort. "And I know it's not.. I mean I know we're just friends but I felt I couldn't come here alone and then I realised that there was no one else I wanted to share this with."
"This being sitting in a car and staring at a lake while getting undressed?" Lydia asked, her voice light though her heart clenched in that familiar way it always did when Stiles opened up about his mother.
Stiles' cheeks grew darker again. "They, um, they went skinny dipping."
Lydia snorted, the loud unattractive sound escaping her before she could contain it. Stiles had this strange ability to always make her drop her pretences, which was annoying, but also strangely liberating. "So this IS an excuse to get me naked, Stilinski?"
