Blood Runs Cold

Epilogue

Lydia knew there was something going on between Peter and Stiles even before the whole dryad incident. Well, to phrase that better, she knew that Peter was far too interested in Stiles for that interest to be anything platonic and she also knew that if Peter made a move, Stiles was going to go along with it.

So when Peter kidnapped Stiles for the weekend, she threw her ten bucks into the pot that there was no way that weekend would end without Stiles getting fucked. She probably should have felt bad for betting on whether or not one of her best friends was going to sleep with but even Derek — reluctantly — threw in some cash, so, honestly? She really didn't feel all that awful.

Pretty much everyone aside from Liam and Kira put their cash in the same pot that she did. Kira didn't because she abstained from the bet, feeling too weird about betting on her friend's sex life, especially as it pertained to one Peter Hale. Which, ok, totally fair. Lydia couldn't blame her for that.

The fact that only Liam betted against Stiles sleeping with Peter that weekend meant that everyone was pretty much gaining a single dollar, but really the dollar amount didn't matter. It was more of the principle of the matter. Less of trying to earn money on Stiles' sex life and more of everyone making sure that they were on the same page. That page being that Stiles was about to sleep with his ex's dad and that everyone was fine with it.

Like, Stiles sleeping with Peter was a weird concept. Lydia had never really fully forgiven him for the whole making the end of her sophomore year a waking nightmare where she couldn't tell dream from reality and ended in her drugging her friends and resurrecting him. But also she couldn't totally blame him for it. She didn't really want to die either, but it was still a completely asshole move.

But the thing that Lydia and Peter had in common was that they both were watchers. They watched, waited, listened, and observed before they made a move. They were pragmatic, doing what they had to in order to make it through. So even if Lydia never could truly forgive Peter for using her, she respected him in some way.

She couldn't respect his decisions, but she respected his mind. He was smarter than most people in any room and he knew how to use those smarts. She also respected the way he protected those he loved. She was more neutral towards the whole murder spree that took up sophomore year than most of the pack. She hadn't been involved until the end.

Peter killed who he needed to kill. From what she knew, they all deserved to die. He got his vengeance with minimal collateral damage. In a strictly pragmatic sense, he had done what was necessary.

Of course, she also understood that the way he had gone about everything was fucked up and that there was something deeply wrong with the man. But what she also understood was that Stiles knew that. It wasn't like Stiles was stupid or blind — quite the opposite in fact, he saw through her old farce before anyone else had. And if anyone could balance out Peter's... Peter-ness, it was probably Stiles.

All things considered, she trusted Stiles to make the correct choice, so if he decided that choice was to get together with Peter, she'd support him. And if she'd support him, so would everyone else. Easy as that.

"Should we get a cake that says 'It's okay that you're sleeping with my biodad!' or something?" Malia asked, looking up from the math problems Lydia had been helping her out with.

"Maybe a card, we can get everyone to sign it," Lydia replied with a laugh. She could picture the look that Stiles would get on his face as soon as he saw either of those.

But really though, she was happy for him. He had moved on from her crush on her ages ago —she loved him, but as a friend and nothing more, and he accepted that— and he deserved someone who would treat him well. Despite all of Peter's issues, when he cared about someone, he would tear apart heaven and hell for them.