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Stiles had his back turned when Scott entered his room. It was a while after he would’ve finished his shift at the vet clinic. Stiles knew he was coming over; he had texted that he was on his way a while ago.
“Hey,” Stiles said without looking away from his laptop.
“Hey,” Scott said. The bed creaks a bit as he sits down.
It’s silent for a while, the muted sound of Stiles’ game as he—rather the character he chose—battled against another low-level werewolf as part of the most boring quests he’s gone on so far.
“I need to tell you something,” Scott said.
“Sure, what’s up?” Stiles said a while later, still inside the game. He turns around his chair, twisting his body as part of him wants to turn around to face Scott.
It takes a moment but as soon as the creature kneels over in defeat, he turns around completely.
Scott was nervously playing with the zip of his jacket. “It’s something important…to me.”
“You can tell me anything, Scotty. You know that.” Stiles leans forward, pushing his chair closer to the bed. Closer to Scott.
“I know…I know. It’s just that, what if I say it and,” Scott pauses, biting his lip, “and everything between us changes.”
“I promise you it won’t, Scott.” He reaches out for Scott’s hand, a soft squeeze as assurance. Stiles noticed that the nail polish he had painted on a week ago had started to chip and peel away. “We’ll still be boyfriends, we’ll still be together.”
He exhales, looking away. “The thing is…I don’t- I don’t want to be your boyfriend.”
Stiles moves his hand away slowly. Unsure of what Scott was getting at.
“I wanna be your…” Stiles couldn’t make out the last word as Scott’s sentence tapered into quiet mumbles.
“What?”
“I want to be your girlfriend,” Scott said louder.
“Ok.”
“Ok?”
“Yeah, you can be my girlfriend.” Stiles had his suspicions about Scott for a while now, tiny minor ones that bubbled in his head which he never really pushed on. He was just glad that Scott could tell him herself.
Tears swell up in Scott’s eyes.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” Stiles immediately brings her into a hug. “I still love you the same, nothing can change that.”
She cries for a bit in Stiles’ arms.
“Are you gonna change your name?” Stiles asked.
“No,” she said. “I like my name.”
She smiles. It’s not like any other she has ever given. There’s a newfound peace in it, happiness that didn’t feel all too forced.
“I love you,” she says. It’s the first time she’s said it to him ever since they started dating.
“I love you too,” Stiles said, caressing her cheek.
—
Scott shows up at his house a few days later. She wore a matching pastel pink cardigan and skirt. She had bought it and kept it inside her closet for a while now. Stiles couldn’t help but compliment her all day as he had been through texts. He liked to call her beautiful just to watch her blush and bury her face into her hands.
He helps her paint her nails with the bottle of black nail polish—the same one she used when she first painted her nails—which she stole from her mom. He does a terrible job at helping. The polish smeared everywhere on the one finger he attempted to paint on. He ends up watching her do the rest herself. He observes the careful precision of how her hands glided with the small, tiny, itty-bitty brush over her fingernail and the way she bit on her lip when she was focusing hard on it and the way she’d gently blow on them when her patience wanes when she’s waiting for the coat of polish to dry.
“What?” she asked, noticing Stiles’ gaze. She’d become a bit wary of stares, especially since a few stares from other people left a bad taste in her mouth. When their eyes glazed over her, stepping into uncomfortable lengths with hushed phrases between themselves. Scott couldn’t help but wonder about what they said about her. She wishes she didn’t. But these thoughts would seem to swallow her whole sometimes. Even if she knew Stiles wouldn’t think like them, a small part inside her nagged about it every time.
“Nothing, I just love you so much.” He says as he moves forward to tuck her hair behind her ear. She shies away, smiling. Her face warmed as she felt fuzzy inside with love.
Stiles couldn’t help but pepper her face and hands with soft kisses later when her nails dried. If he’d done that before, he’d most certainly smudge them unintentionally. Stiles wanted to do everything to make sure she still felt loved. Maybe even harder now that Stiles saw a side to her that was so vulnerable, happier, and more confident.
—
He eventually gets better at putting the nail polish on Scott. The colours begin cycling through a few pastel hues she bought when shopping for more clothes and accessories.
It was the summer now, her hair a bit longer, and she’d begin vocal training to achieve a higher pitch. Stiles began to carry around a hair tie for her, just in case she ever needs one. It was one of the few she had left over at his house. She ties her bangs back every time she gets serious when playing Mariokart. Stiles noticed that the second time around. He finds it cute and absolutely important to his Mariokart strategy.
For her birthday, Stiles tries to make the most perfect gift box ever known to mankind. He buys loads of cute little items for her room. The stuff he knew she wanted for ages, like a lego flower bouquet (he bought two so he could have one in his room too), a Kirby plush (her main in Super Smash Bros. ever since they started playing it together in middle school), and other little accessories which he hoped she liked. He even had a go with doodling a few Kirbys on the box.
Aside from the uncanny valley Kirbys, she loved it. He spent the evening building the two bouquets with her. He should’ve bought two small vases from the dollar store but for now, the flowers were kept in extra glass cups. Stiles had to use a mug once he went home. All the glass cups were in the dishwasher that he forgot to run before leaving the house earlier.
She sends a picture the next day of her nails, little flowers painted with nail polish, one on each nail. She shows how she did them on his nails the next time they meet. A daisy on his index finger and a rose on his middle finger. She tries to draw a leaf on his ring finger but it doesn’t come out right so it’s just a flick of light green against a darker green.
It doesn’t matter. Stiles just liked that his nails matched with his girlfriend’s now.
—
By the time it was senior year, Stiles and Scott had dated for two years at this point. It was no surprise that they would be each other’s senior prom dates.
Coordinating their outfits became a simple thing as prom rolled around. Scott had developed a better sense of style by that time and she tries to sneak new clothes into Stiles’ closet once in a while. So that he’d have something other than graphic tees to wear.
They decided red was going to be their colour for prom. Stiles had seen a picture of the dress she picked out, but it wasn’t until she wore it in front of him on the night of where he saw it in its proper form. Scott looked ethereal in it. The light shines off the red sequins, and the dress shapes her body perfectly. She had the biggest smile on her face, Stiles couldn’t help but give her the most loving kiss his body could provide.
She doesn’t get prom queen, however to Stiles, she is his prom queen no matter what. The night was spent dancing in the gymnasium until their feet hurt. He drops her home, kissing her once more on the porch of her house.
He fumbles for his keys. His wallet falls out instead. The inside opened out like a book. Scott picked it up and looked at the little picture in the see-through pocket of it. It was from before she came out. From a date when she and Stiles squeezed into a photo booth together at the skating rink.
She rubbed her thumb over it, a fond feeling blossoming in her heart as she reminisced about that day.
“I can switch that picture out if you want.”
“No, I know how much you like it,” she said.
“We should take another one someday.”
“How about…this Saturday?” she suggested. “Vernon mentioned that the rink would open by the end of this week.”
“It closed?”
“For maintenance or something. He’s only said a bit about it.”
“Saturday it is then,” he said, beaming as he put the wallet back inside his trouser pocket.
She leans in closer, wrapping her arms around his neck. She wanted to lean in for a kiss but was too busy admiring him. He licked his lips, wanting to pull her in, though he was too caught in her eyes to move in. Scott inevitably pulls him in closer and they kiss.
It’s a slow kiss, the time around them feeling slow and excessive. He’s testing how long they can go for, the urge to rip apart barely there. She runs her hands up the back of his head, sending goosebumps up his spine in an insanely good way. He hooks his hands around her waist and pulled her even closer.
They part long after, breathing heavily.
“Text me when you’re home?”
“You know it.”
—
That Saturday, the picture in his wallet changed as they posed inside the photo booth at the skating rink. Scott on Stiles’ lap, both of them looking at each other in love and joy. Even if it didn’t look like the first picture they took, Stiles was beginning to think he liked the new one even better. The old one found a new home inside his room. It’s stuck on the corkboard over the printer with the other pictures. He leans back on his chair, not really thinking about anything. He glances down at his fingernails. The nail polish had chipped a bit, but his brain never faltered to think about Scott when admiring them. He smiles as he takes his phone out, sending Scott a picture of the new addition to the corkboard and a goodnight text. Scott’s never late to send a goodnight text back to him.