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Lydia stirs under the warmth of the morning sun streaming through her curtains, she blinks several times as her eyes focus on Stiles beside her who’s watching her softly and the corners of his mouth quirk up in a lazy smile.
“Morning.” Stiles whispers as he places his hand on her upper arm and lightly strokes it with his thumb.
“Mmm. Good morning,” Lydia gently moans as her eyes flutter closed and she melts under his touch, “Can’t believe I’m waking up next to you.”
“Yeah, I’ve considered the possibility that I knocked myself out at some point and this is all a very vivid dream,” Stiles says almost wistfully.
Lydia shifts closer to him, nuzzles her nose against his and then looks into his eyes deeply, “Last night wasn’t a dream Stiles.”
“Hmm. Might need to see your boobs again to prove it,” Stiles teases boldly as he quirks an eyebrow.
Abruptly, Lydia moves back slightly and lifts the cover up, baring her breasts to Stiles. She grins as Stiles’s eyes drift down to look at her appreciatively before she drops the blanket back down, “Told you, not a dream.”
“To be fair though, I have seen them before. I could have a photographic memory,” Stiles leans forward and gives her a light kiss as his arm curls around her to pull her closer to him again. They lie in silence for a few minutes relishing being with each other in the quiet morning, no urgent need to rush off and face down any more monsters, for the time being at least. “So when did you know?”
“Which part?” Lydia opens her eyes again and looks at him tenderly.
“What do you mean?” Stiles questions as his eyebrows become furrowed.
“When did I know you were missing? When did I remember you? When did I know I loved you?” Lydia’s hand has found Stiles’s cheek again; she hasn’t been able to stop touching his face since she got him back.
“All of the above, I guess. I want to hear everything. It was only a few days for me, but I was gone for three months for you,” Stiles takes the hand she’s been stroking his face with, kisses her palm a few times and then laces their fingers together.
Lydia gets closer to him still, pressing their foreheads together, “The second I walked into school the next morning I knew something was wrong. I looked down the hallway and everybody was smiling and walking to class, and I had this visceral reaction that I’d forgotten something important. Someone.”
She stares at their intertwined fingers, “A few days after that I came to school and walked straight up to your locker to meet you, but there was nobody there. You weren’t there,” Lydia’s eyes get a little watery at the memory. Stiles squeezes her hand, reminding her that he’s there now and urging her to continue.
“I sat down in class and your seat was empty. And then I saw a woman in a lab coat in your place and questioned her about why she was in the class. When she opened her mouth I just heard the sound of a train.”
Stiles moves back slightly so he can look at her face intently, “The first woman I spoke to in the station was a doctor. Who else did you see?”
“There was an old woman in your house that said ‘the following stops have been cancelled’. A young guy stood in front of your room who told me ‘it’s right in front of your face’.” She recites.
“He’s the one who showed Peter and I where the rift was. He died trying to go through it,” Stiles shares sadly. “So you saw what I was seeing over there. Certainly tested out that connection didn’t we?”
“Mhm. We did. Could’ve maybe done without waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of a train coming through here though,” Lydia puts a hand to the back of his neck and pulls him forward for a slow kiss.
“So how did you remember the last thing I said?” Stiles questions before whispering, “Remember I love you.”
Her eyes lock with his as they fill with tears again, “When I chased the doctor through the school, I came out of the doors into a memory of the night you were taken. I could hear you and I could feel you, but I couldn’t see you. And I started to recite the words I said back to you. I was running and calling out that I wouldn’t forget you and I ran into the road, Malia had to pull me back from getting run over.” Stiles's face creases with worry as he wipes away a single tear that’s escaped from Lydia’s eye, “I think what you said that night stayed in my memories after that, but I didn’t consciously know the last thing you said until you asked me to tell you.”
“I’m glad you did. Knowing you knew, that you remembered, it kept me hopeful Lydia,” Stiles says tenderly, “I knew you could do it.”
Lydia sighs, “It wasn’t easy. At times it felt like I was the only one who really believed. Everyone thought I was crazy. I didn’t have you beside me to tell me I was right,” she nestles herself forwards, tucking her head under his chin and places a kiss on his chest before turning and resting her cheek there. Stiles turns onto his back so they can lie together more comfortably with her on top of him. Lydia sighs, “And then there was Claudia trying to hold me back, and stopping your dad from believing us.”
“Yeah, could’ve done without that plot twist,” Stiles grimaces.
Lydia runs her fingers up and down his arm, just enjoying being able to feel him, “I missed you so much. It feels like we wasted so much time.”
“I think it’s kind of amazing. Probably the most romantic circumstances we’ve had regarding supernatural villains ruining our lives,” Stiles jokes as he runs his fingers through Lydia’s hair. “Two lovers separated through time and space, dimensional rifts and other worlds, trying to make it back to each other again.”
Lydia sits up slightly and glares at him, “Don’t start making comparisons between us and The Doctor and Rose, Stiles. Don’t do it.”
“Oh, we’re better. I actually told you I loved you,” Stiles grins and Lydia breaks into a small laugh.
She muses, “Technically, I didn’t though. And you didn’t burn up a sun just to say goodbye to me.”
"It was implied,” Stiles retorts, regarding her lack of love confession, “And I did risk being burned to a crisp to make it back to you. Speaking of, ‘when I kissed you’?” he asks.
Lydia presses a light kiss to his lips, “We had to find you in our memories to try and open the rift. Scott and Malia went into the cold chamber in Argent’s bunker, the one Jordan uses. They nearly froze to death trying to remember you,” she pauses for a moment, “When that didn’t work, Scott guided me through hypnosis to find the memory that would trigger the rift.”
Stiles shifts slightly, adjusting to be more comfortable on her bed, “Mmm. So the kiss?” he prompts.
“Was the first time I knew I had feelings for you, beyond friendship. It was like the floodgates opened, and I couldn’t stop myself even if I wanted to Stiles, you felt like an inevitability and it terrified me,” she lifts a hand up to the side of his head and brushes her thumb along his hairline, “It changed our relationship, and then we were tethered together because Deaton saw a connection between us.”
“I hadn’t thought much about that until I was taken,” Stiles says thoughtfully.
“I did,” Lydia pauses again, longer this time. Stiles finds her eyes and waits for her to continue, “When you were in the hospital after you went missing because of the Nogitsune, I was sat in my car and I could hear this incessant banging, like a hammer hitting an anvil.”
“The MRI machine?” Stiles sits up slightly, leaning on his elbows.
Lydia nods, “And then I screamed.”
“When the Nogitsune possessed me,” Stiles’s brow furrows again, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t believe in myself,” Lydia says quietly, breaking eye contact as she looks away from him, “We’d been searching for you all night and I led everyone to Eichen House because I was sure you were there. And you weren’t. I felt like a failure.”
Stiles lifts one of his hands to her face, pulling her eyes back to his, “I was there, Lydia. Not physically, but in my head that’s where I was,” he says intently.
“Oh.” she responds simply, not knowing what to say. He moves in to kiss her on the cheek and her mouth twists up into a smile again.
Lydia moves so she’s half lying on Stiles and half on the bed, one of her legs intertwined with his. She relishes in the comfort it brings her being this close to him, it’s new but it feels like they should’ve been doing this forever.
“How did you know?” Lydia whispers, breaking the comfortable silence of the last few moments.
Stiles’s eyes have closed again, but he says fondly, “I always saw you Lydia,” the words make her inhale sharply, “But I knew something had shifted between us when we rescued you from Eichen. That there was no going back after that.”
“When you saved me,” Lydia says as she tilts her head, resting her chin on his shoulder.
“It was a group effort,” Stiles smiles, kissing her on the nose.
Lydia presses an elbow into the bed so she can sit up a little, allowing Stiles to get a look at her breasts once more. “But it was your plan, you came back for me when I told you to leave, you kept me alive.”
Stiles’s tone becomes serious, “I thought you weren’t for a moment,” he leans over and they kiss longingly, just breathing each other in when their lips part, “When I found you before I was taken…you told me, Lydia. You might not have said the words, but you told me. I knew.”
“Good. Because I do, love you.”
“I know,” he replies assuredly.
“I love you, Stiles,” Lydia presses.
A spark in his eye, Stiles just murmurs, “Mmm.”
“Stiles,” sharpness enters Lydia’s tone.
“I love you too, Lydia,” Stiles says simply, as if it’s the most concrete fact that’s ever existed in their crazy world.
Lydia beams, “Better. Thank you.”
They resume kissing in the morning light, basking in their newfound relationship and finally having the chance to just be with each other completely, without emotional barriers, other partners or supernatural creatures blocking them.
“Mmm, Mieczysław,” Lydia moans quietly.
Stiles jumps back, “Goddammit, Dad!” he shouts, frustrated. Lydia just laughs.