Stiles and Lydia wake up completely exposed next to each other. Stiles nudges Lydia awake, but not before gazing at her for a bit. He knew that they could never be together, but for fucks sake, it felt so right being with Lydia. When Lydia opens her magnificent green eyes, Stiles stares back at her, smirking. Lydia holds in a laugh that she soon stops containing. The two of them laugh awkwardly loud. Laughing at themselves, laughing at the tension, just high on life.

They get out of bed and help each other dress, the nudity no longer an issue. Lydia has Stiles help her slip into a strapless dress . The two of them walks down to the kitchen, planning to have a decent and quiet breakfast only to find their friends bursting into Lydia's home. "What's up guys?" Scott bellows, his arm around Allison waist as they strut into the kitchen, right past Stiles and Lydia. Allison laughs loudly at Scott's bluntness. Upon reaching the kitchen Allison opens the fridge and pulls out everything to make pancakes after. Scott turns on the small TV and puts on Scooby-Doo, his favorite cartoon. Cora and Isaac walk through the door next laughing at a joke Isaac made only moments ago. Typically, Isaac has a bottle of whiskey in his hand. Stiles rolls his eyes.

"Really Isaac? It's like nine," Stiles exclaims. Issac shrugs.

"Time is not important," Isaac jokes as he takes a large gulp of the liquid and pulls Cora along into the kitchen. She laughs and sits herself on the counter top where Allison is whisking the batter for pancakes. Lydia looks up at Stiles and shakes her head in amusement. They two of them walk into the kitchen smiling. As Allison mixes the pancake batter, a bit of it flies onto Cora's shirt.

"Hey Argent, watch it," Cora jokes. Allison smirks and sticks her hand in the batter before pressing it onto Cora's cheek. Cora laughs and takes a handful of the batter herself. Cora aims for Allison's face, but Ali swiftly move out of the way, causing Cora to hit Stiles' open mouth. That batter slaps against his tongue as it hangs out of his mouth. Lydia, standing next to him, burst out into laugher. Stiles looks down at her and raises his eyebrows. Lydia widens her eyes, "Stiles, don't you dare!" Stiles wraps his arms around Lydia's waist, holding her hostage, and licks the side of her face like a dog, leaving a trail of wet batter up her cheek.

__________________________________________________

Stiles left the three girls alone to comfort each other and watch movies as they tried not to think about the past. In Allison head, she contemplated how she and Scott could make this work again. Cora was completely numb, trying to get Isaac out of her head. Then there was Lydia, just watching the movie about friends with benefits. Stiles now consumes her thoughts. She recalls how they had agreed to get married if neither of them had a love life at forty years old. She remembers how willing he was to help her out when she wanted experience.

The night comes quickly and lasts long. At about 2:00am Lydia gives up on trying to sleep. She climbs out of bed and walks casually into the kitchen, clutching her phone. Deciding that maybe a walk will help tire her out, Lydia exits her apartment and bumps right into Stiles. She giggles awkwardly and he smirks down at her. "Lyds it's like two in the morning why the hell are you up?" Stiles asks amused.

"I could ask you the same thing," Lydia states with a devilish smirk.

"True, I couldn't sleep, what's your excuse?"

"The same," Lydia replied kindly. Stiles smiles down at her.

"Good, lets go out," Stiles insists. Lydia shoots him an odd glare.

"Where can we go?"

"A diner sounds nice."

Stiles and Lydia walk happily to a twenty four hour diner and sit down in a booth. A young girl hands them two menus and the friends scan over them. "What are you getting? Wait no! Lemme guess, two waffles with syrup, whipped cream, and strawberries," Stiles exclaims. Lydia opens her mouth to correct him on one thing, but he beats her too it, "and just enough butter to have a spec of it in each square," Stiles states. Lydia giggles and nods.

"You got it, spot on," Lydia says happily, "and if I was a stranger I would think that you would be manly and get a hardy omelette with bacon, sausage, and hash downs, but since you're Stiles, you will probably get a pancake with no butter, just syrup, or a fruit platter if you're having a bad day," Lydia recites confidently. Stiles smirks and nods casually.

"I guess you'll have to wait and see how my day is going by what I order," Stiles says. The two chat casually until the waitress comes back to take their order. Lydia tells the girl what she wants and then waits for Stiles to say what he wants.

"Fruit platter," he says knowingly. Lydia frowns, now knowing that her friend isn't doing well. The waitress nods and walks away. Lydia looks deeply at Stiles. He glances at her. "It's rude to stare firecracker." Lydia doesn't flinch.

"What's wrong?" She asks nervously. Stiles sighs and shrugs. She notices his eyes are blood red, for neck of sleep? Or maybe tears.

"Just stuff," Stiles brushes off the comment. Lydia takes in every detail of her friend. Thin skin, thin in general, dark bags, messy hair, and bitten nails.

"Stiles, really what's wrong?" Lydia insists. Stiles sighs.

"To give you the gist of it, my father is drinking again, he went broke, I paid for him to go to rehab, he got out and is living at the house alone now with no job, I send paychecks to him monthly so he can pay the bills, I'm not sleeping again, the panic attacks are back, I'm trying to keep Isaac and Scott happy, but I can't even take care of myself, I'm broke as hell and I'm kind of in love with this girl, but it's not gonna happen," Stiles informs Lydia. Tears prick at her eyes. She slides out of her side of the booth and slides next to Stiles, wrapping her arms around his waist and tucking her head into his chest.

"I'm sorry Stiles, I love you, you know that right?"

"Ya Lyds, I know, I love you too." Stiles thinks to himself, you just don't love me the way I love you.

Their food comes and Lydia quickly devours her waffles while Stiles picks at the colorful squares of fruit. He moves them around his plate and cuts them in half with his fork. As he does this he tries to distract Lydia by talking rapidly to her. She is not buying it. Stiles is about to put food in his mouth when he starts talking and puts the food back on the plate. "Oh and remember when we-"

"Stiles maybe you wanna start actually eating you food," Lydia tells him as she eats a strawberry off her waffle. Stiles looks at her with big eyes.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Stiles asks, causing Lydia to sigh.

"Do you remember when you found out I had a eating disorder in sophomore year?" Lydia asks her friend who nods slowly. "Then I showed you how I made it look like I had been interested in the food. I had told you I chop it into tiny little pieces," Lydia looks at be butchered fruit on his plate, "and moved it around my plate to make it look like I was interested in it," Lydia again notices the trails of fruit juice on his platter, "and how I would bring the food to my mouth, but then start talking so I would never eat it?" Lydia questions him. Stiles bites his bottom lip.

"Yes I suppose I remember," Stiles lies. He definitely remembers. He had sobbed the night he found out Lydia was starving herself. "Lydia this is different, you were starving yourself to make your body unreasonably thin, I'm just not hungry," Stiles tells his friend.

"Stiles you look emaciated, please just eat," Lydia begs.

"Lydia I am violently un-hungry," Stiles exclaims. Lydia sighs.

"Fine," she states before waving the waitress over. The girl hands Lydia the check and then walks away. Lydia takes out her wallet and starts to pay the bill. Stiles tries to snatch the check from her. Lydia pulls it away from him. "If you don't eat, I'm paying, if you eat, we split the bill," Lydia insists. Stiles grabs a strawberry and shoves it in his mouth.

"Gimme the bill," he beckons with his mouth full. Lydia shakes her head. "Lydia Martin give me the bill," Stiles demands.

"Swallow," Lydia tells the boy. Stiles obliges and reaches for the bill again. "No, eat the whole thing." Within a minute Stiles has eaten the whole plate of fruit. Lydia smiles, "thank you Stiles." He rolls his eyes.

"Ya ya, now give me the check," Stiles tells her. Lydia smirks.

"I paid it while you were eating, now come on," Lydia stares as she stands up with her wallet and phone. She starts for the door, Stiles following, quite angrily. Stiles pulls a few dollars from his pocket as he chases after Lydia as she exits the diner. He catches up with her and tries to hand her the money.

"Come on Lydia, just take the money," Stiles begs. Lydia shakes her head and makes Stiles put the money back in his pocket.

"Really Stiles, it's okay, until you get a steady job here, I've got the entertainment bills," Lydia insists. Stiles sighs and takes Lydia's hand.

"You're incredibly stubborn."

"I know."

"And wonderful," he adds.

"I've been told," Lydia states smirking. Stiles chuckles and plants a kiss on Lydia's cheek before pulling away slowly with furrowed eyebrows. She notices his discomfort. "What's wrong Sti?" He shakes his head and continues walking with her.

"Nothing, we're all good here," Stiles claims. Lydia nods slowly and they continue walking, talking and laughing together. Stiles clutches her left hand and has his other hand clutching his stomach. He tries to listen to the story she is telling, but his stomach is doing flips. Cutting Lydia off, Stiles runs into the alley next to them and squats down, a hand above his head on the brick wall. He throws up everything he just ate. Lydia walks slowly over to him and places a hand on his shoulder. "I told you," he starts, coughing a bit. "I was violently un-hungry."