Code Sea Witch [Sterek]

Code Sea Witch

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Valentine's Day is one prolonged, nightmarish fever dream that Stiles Stilinski can't wake up from.

Don't get him wrong, he thoroughly enjoys the entire ordeal. From the chocolate fueled chaos of elementary school to the borderline war strategy that he concocted every year in hopes of getting Lydia Martin to notice him, Stiles has always thrown himself full force into the Lovers' Holiday. Even now that he's grown past the desperation to have a Valentine for the sake of having one, he still adores it.

Which is why Stiles loves working for the Nereid Crown, Lydia Martin's crowning gem of a restaurant in New York City. Technically he's a consultant on the marketing and logistics side of the business. (It gives him a front row seat to Lydia Martin's genius in action, which is a joy in itself.) But sometimes, when the floor staff is short and it's the biggest couple's holiday of the year, Lydia pulls the friendship card.

Which is how Stiles ends up donning the black waistcoat, bow tie, and apron and finds himself in the thick of the Valentine's Day chaos.

And he loves it.

Because Stiles Stilinski is a special kind of twisted and turned out to be both a cynic and a hopeless romantic all in one, and working on Valentine's Day is the greatest spectacle of his year. It's chaos, sure. The Nereid is a nightmare the evening of Valentine's Day, sure. But it's the best kind of soap opera. The anticipation. The drama. The botched proposals. The Valentine's dates that just won't go right. It's schadenfreude given form.

And then there's also potential for joy: the lovestruck smiles and easy companionship. The love that just emanates off of people that makes Stiles, even at his most cynical, consider that there's someone out there for everyone; that the love he remembers seeing in his parents wasn't just a once-in-the-universe fluke.

Stiles always puts up a token fight about it, but working the Nereid on Valentine's Day is its own special kind of entertainment to him. He'll even withstand the nightmarish customers for it.

This time around, things aren't going too badly. It's dipping into evening and Stiles hasn't been snapped at or had something spilled on him yet. He's got a few interesting couples on his radar for the night: a guy about his age who looks equally as ready to puke out of nervousness as he is ready to propose to his pretty dinner date; a couple who Stiles is pretty sure are working out how they can engage in foreplay right there in the goddamned restaurant without anyone noticing; and a young lady who's looking increasingly repulsed with every word that comes out of her date's mouth.

Stiles' latest table, though, features a ridiculously attractive power couple. The kind that looks like they've just walked off a fashion magazine or a Hollywood movie set. The woman is perhaps in her mid-to-late-thirties, blonde and statuesque. Her features are sharp and her smile hungry. She's wearing a sparkling blue dress that hugs her lithe (surprisingly muscular) form in all the right places. The shimmering gems around her neck probably cost more than Stiles' entire higher education did. She's a woman that radiates power and adventure and probably eats guys like Stiles for breakfast.