—
"Hey, Ryder, Austin!"
The pair turn in confusion, wondering why Allison, of all people, would be calling out to them.
"What?"
Austin nudges her softly, whispering a soft, "be nice."
He struggled to take his own advice upon noticing Scott standing not too far away. He didn't forget how the McCall took it upon himself to speak about something he knew nothing about, ie, Ryder's life.
"Hey." The future huntress smiles, "We're going ice skating, do you guys want to come? I think it'd be pretty fun."
"Oh, like a triple date?" Austin asks, standing so his chest is against Ryder's back. He rubbed his hand against her own, trying to get her to show the slightest bit of interest in the discussion.
"Oh, no, we're not going on a date." Lydia quickly corrects, pointing between Stiles and herself. "But we can all hang out."
The Stilinski groans lowly, "Right to the heart."
"I thought it was going to be just the four of us?" Scott cut in, "Ryder doesn't even look interested."
Hearing her name come from his mouth only fueled her need to make him upset, "We would actually love to go ice skating, Allison."
"Oh, really?" She smiles brightly.
Austin frowns, "Really?"
"Yes, really." She chuckles, "This could be our chance to have fun and clear up all the tension that i'm feeling between Scott and I. I might even get the chance to clear the air between me and Lydia."
"That's great!" The brunette girl chirps, "We can all go home, change, and then we'll meet there, okay?"
"Sounds perfect."
•••
"I thought you hated Lydia and thought she was stupid."
"I don't think Lydia's stupid. I think she plays stupid, which is stupid." Ryder admits, "Besides, i'm turning over a new leaf. The Ryder you knew before is no longer the Ryder I am today."
Austin laughs, keeping his eyes on the road, turning the direction his GPS told him to, "You go blonde and you're a whole new woman."
"That I am." She chuckles.
"I think i enjoy this version of you. However, i think it'll
take some time for me to get used to not having you to myself all the time."
"What does that mean?"
"Well, if you're 'turning over a new leaf' and clearing the air, then you'll end up having friends."
The girl freezes.
"And when you have friends, they tend to want to hang out with you. Which will then leave me with no Ryder because you're left having far too much fun with your new friends."
"I'm starting to think we shouldn't go. I was just trying to be a good person, i don't want any friends."
The boy lets out a hearty laugh, "Too late, we're already here."
"We can still turn around, go watch a movie with your mom. They haven't noticed us yet." She splutters out, seriously not liking the idea of coming to the place.
"Let's go, grab your jacket."
•••
"Could it be any colder in here?" Lydia asks out loud, rubbing her hands against her arms in hopes of warming up a bit.
"Probably." Ryder hums, waiting for Austin to bring her shoes. The boy having insisted that she let him go.
Stiles glances at the girl, pulling out a jacket for the strawberry blonde next to him, "Here."
"Oh, my goodness." The Miller teen mumbles, Lydia thinking the exact same thing as her.
Despite their extremely different senses of style (wink wink), they could come to an agreement that blue and orange should never go together.
Lydia pushes his hand away, "I'm wearing blue. Orange and blue, not a good combination."
Another voice joins Stiles as they defend the colors in unison, "But it's the colors of the Mets."
"They're complementary colors, you aren't necessarily supposed to put them together, unless want walk around unintentionally stopping traffic." Ryder speaks up, earning an appreciative hum from the Martin girl, herself.
"It is a bold choice."
Ryder then turned her attention to Austin, the boy watching their interaction carefully, glad they had come to an agreement on something, even if it meant bashing one of his favorite baseball teams signature colors.
"Okay, um, maybe orange and blue is not the best. Right, you know, um, sometimes there's other things you wouldn't think would be a good combination end up turning out to be, like, a perfect combination, you know, like two people together - Who nobody ever thought would be together ever." Stiles rambled on, his eyes only ever leaving Lydia's to glance at the blonde who was getting her skating shoes properly tied.
"No, I can see that." Lydia agrees, only not to what Stiles was truly speaking about.
The buzzcut teen straightened up, "You can?"
"Yeah." She nods, pointing over to Scott and Allison, "They're cute together."
"Oh, yeah, them." His mood dimmed.
"Cute."
The Stilinski grumbled, "Cute. Adorable."
"That's even cuter." She points. Stiles following her finger, only for his stomach to drop at Austin holding tightly onto Ryder's hand, whispering promises that he wouldn't let her fall.
"Freaking fantastic."
•••
"Austin, seriously."
Despite her warnings, the teen couldn't help but laugh, "I already told you i wouldn't allow to fall. Calm down."
"Don't tell me to calm down." She gasped, tripping over her own feet, gripping tightly onto his forearms.
"Look at me." He demanded in a soft voice, she follow his words, their eyes locking, "You'll be okay."
Their moment is being interrupted by Scott slamming himself into the wall.
Ryder laughing hard enough to where she too, tripped, taking Austin down with her.
Allison looked at the three, struggling to contain her laughter while doing her best to help them all up.
From afar, Lydia and Stiles watched them, one more giddy than the other as she gestured for him to follow,
"Well? Come on."
•••
Ryder sat with her legs out, her bottom against the ice after falling again.
Austin smiled as he skated toward her, stopping before he could hit her.
"Come on." He teased, "Get up."
She struggled to do as he said for a minute, reaching her hands up so he could at least help her stand. To her surprise, he did much more than that, instead bending down to grab her by her waist, effortlessly picking up her up and skating his way to the benches.
Ryder rested her forehead against his shoulder, gripping his shoulder's tightly, shuddering at the kiss he placed against her bare neck.
"Can we go take some pictures instead?"