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Derek stepped on a toy and hopped around the room as the plastic giraffe stuck to his foot.
“That was a nice litany of swears.”
Derek looked up as he hopped on one foot, prying the toy off of his other. Lydia just watched with an amused smile on his face.
“What,” Derek growled, picking up the rest of the safari that was on the floor.
“Not so inviting,” Lydia said, coming into the room and sitting on the couch, she had a notebook and a paper wrapped parcel. She placed them on her lap and looked expectantly at Derek.
Derek looked at her, plush toys and plastic toys in his hands belaying his glower.
“Stiles isn’t here,” Derek told her. “He took Henry to the park.”
Lydia nodded. “I know.”
Derek just stared at her.
“You’re doing a very good job of not asking me what I’m doing here,” Lydia said with a small smile. “Which would be rude, have you been taking lessons from Allison? I know Stiles doesn’t know a bit about etiquette.”
Derek’s glare echoed through his eyebrows.
“Since you were so polite, I’ll tell you. I am here because we are going to be friends,” Lydia told him.
Derek’s eyebrows searched for his hairline. He waited for her to continue.
She didn’t.
He waited for the punch line.
She just looked at him expectantly.
“We’re going to be friends?” Derek asked.
Lydia nodded and gave him her patient look that she gave to people she thought were slow on the uptake. Which these days were less people, but still the look she gave to most of the population.
“Because I’m dating Stiles?” Derek asked, still clearly confused.
Lydia nodded and she spoke slowly. “You’re actually living together. There was a change of address form and everything, but that isn’t the only person that I like under this roof. I like Henry. Stiles says that he doesn’t have godparents. He’s almost one and doesn’t have anyone to buy him the most ridiculous things that you and Stiles won’t.”
Derek blinked. “No candy or a car.”
Lydia’s face dropped the patronizing look; she seemed to approve of the negotiations. “Well of course to the first, that is more Stiles’s thing. The second I will have the next fifteen years to work on. Any other stipulations?”
Derek’s forehead wrinkled. “Do you just want to call me up and make sure that I’m treating them right?”
Lydia took in a calming breath. “We can talk about Henry, but there is only so much baby I can take, as much as I love him, and I don’t want to talk about Stiles at all.”
Derek’s eyebrows did some kind of movement that Lydia previously thought only existed in cartoons.
“Sit down,” Lydia said patiently.
“Only if you explain,” Derek said not moving.
“You really are good at this negotiation thing,” Lydia said approvingly. “I see why you go be mediator for other packs. Do you have any interpack issues that you’re helping out with now?”
Derek took a step forward hesitantly. “There is an internal skirmish in the Callum pack in Nevada. They’re second cousins, but I don’t know them well. They’re having an issue with some attempted patricide due to an Alpha with dementia. They’re thinking of bringing me down,” a realization crossed Derek’s face and he crossed his arms. “And you’re trying to lull me into some kind of false security.”
Lydia’s face was duly impressed. “You catch on quickly. So is this what you do when they try to lie to you? You stand there with your arms crossed and glare at them until they behave?”
“You’re trying to manipulate me into friendship,” Derek accused.
“I’m trying to talk to you about you,” Lydia sighed. “Do you want to talk about me, because I know I can do that. Getting you to talk about yourself is like pulling teeth. Heaven forbid someone try to get to know something that you seem to have a talent for. They beg you to come there, yet all I’ve seen you do is just offer an eye roll and a glare.”
Derek’s eyebrow quirked and this time it had a little bit of humor in it. “Its working, other packs keep calling me. They all know about the Hales, anything that is a ‘Hale Decree’ usually is law.”
“Just how important and impressive is your family?” Lydia asked, her finger tapping her mouth.
This time Derek had a full smile and sat down next to her. “We’ve been around for awhile, we’ve always been pretty well respected.”
Lydia nodded. “You may be more than just the eyebrows and biceps.”
Derek cocked his head. “You may be more than the lipstick and the hair.”
Lydia pursed her lips and looked at him appraisingly. “I see it now.”
“You see what?” Derek asked.
“What Stiles sees in you,” Lydia said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “He has great taste in pretty, but that didn’t really explain the fact that he’s actually making a commitment. I’ve known you for years but it mostly has been nonverbal or bossy. I knew that there was something, something I just couldn’t put my finger on it, but I can see it now.”
“And we have to be friends?” Derek asked.
Lydia shook her head with a little smile. “No, we get to be friends because I want to be part of your life.”
She held up the parcel and put it on Derek’s lap.
“Also because I have these,” Lydia said. “I will share them with my friend.”
“You’re bribing me to be your friend?” Derek said, looking at the package.
“No,” Lydia sighed. “I’m speeding up the process. I think we might get along, but I want to ensure that you keep up your end of the deal. I’m incentivizing.”
Derek looked at the package as if it was going to bite him.
“Just open it,” Lydia urged.
Derek’s werewolf nails popped out and opened the tan paper and pulled out a black frame. Inside was a beautiful photograph.
Derek looked at the picture. The first thing he noticed was that Stiles was wearing nothing but a low hanging towel; he was mostly turned away from the camera. There were droplets of water gathering at the small of his back. Derek licked his lips. Stiles’s bare arms were holding Henry to his chest. Henry was dressed, one of his hands was on Stiles’s cheek and Stiles was resting his forehead on Henry’s.
Derek could contentedly stare at that picture for the rest of his life.
“He was talking about you,” Lydia said. “I don’t even know if he heard me take the picture, he was swearing to Henry that he had always wanted to try with you. That was the moment, I knew.”
“You knew what?” Derek said his voice was a little breathless.
“I knew that he had decided,” Lydia said softly. “I knew that this wasn’t like something he had done before, this wasn’t some crush. This was something that settled into his bones. He’s in this, over his head, as far as it can go, this isn’t like anything else that he had ever had before.”
Derek looked up at her steadily. “You mean it wasn’t like you.”
Lydia’s face softened, all pretense left it and she was just a girl, when she spoke it was soft and real. “Yes.”
Derek toyed with the wrapping from his new photo, but he looked straight at her. “Lydia, are you in love with him?”
Lydia’s face didn’t harden; she just gave Derek a small honest smile. “Of course I am, but I’m not confused to what that means.”
He looked at her face. Derek had spent the last few years becoming a pro at reading faces. He knew what hers was saying. Loyalty burned in her eyes, but passion did not. It was strangely comforting.
Derek cocked his head and looked at her for a long moment and then he nodded. “I see it now, I see what he sees in you.”
Lydia just looked at him.
Derek leaned back. “Are you keeping me closer?”
“I’m not your enemy,” Lydia said seriously. “I’m not your rival, I’m not trying to steal your Stiles. I’m just your friend.”
The edge of Derek’s mouth quirked. “Who is randomly going to supply me with pictures of my half naked boyfriend and my son?”
Lydia’s worried face slid into a grin. “I’m also your dealer.”
“If we’re going to be friends we have to talk about something besides Stiles and Henry,” Derek said slowly.
Lydia opened her notebook and pulled a pen out of the spine.
“I’m helping write the pack bestiary,” Lydia said. “I have so many questions. Scott doesn’t know anything and some people, who we are not talking about, have qualms about asking you questions that might be considered rude. I have no such problems.”
Derek smiled at her. “You’re an odd one Lydia.”
Lydia put a finger to her lips. “You have to keep my secrets now, because we are friends.”
Derek looked down at the picture in his lap, his finger tracing the lines of Stiles and Henry.
“And these?” Derek asked.
“Presents, when you’re having bad days,” Lydia said softly.
Derek raised an eyebrow at her. “Just how many of these do you have?”
Lydia smiled. “It was a long cooped up week.”
“I know we’re not talking about Stiles, but somewhere in this friendship I would love to hear your side of things,” Derek said.
Lydia smiled at him. “Oh yes Derek Hale, this is going to work nicely.”