Multi-Fandom One-Shots Part 2

Swings - Stydia (Teen Wolf)

The only thing Stiles liked about the hospital was all the balloons his mom would get. This was mainly because it is common knowledge that you could do a multitude of things with balloons to entertain yourself or the people around you. To name a few, you could rub them on your head and make your hair stand up completely straight. You could draw hilarious faces on them with sharpie and then bop them around with your fists. Or (his personal favorite) you could tear a tiny opening with it and suck the helium to make your voice go about two octaves higher.

But the best part is that he could make his mother laugh with all three.

On this particular day, he was sitting next to her bed, sucking helium from a bright red balloon, talking about his day at school and having to pause to laugh at himself every few seconds. His mother was looking on with smiling eyes, happy that her child was there and real and keeping her company.

"...And then when I was talking to Scott at lunch about the Harry Potter book I'm reading called Chamber of Secrets, Lydia leaned over to say that she read that one already last year and-"

"Lydia?" his mother inquired suddenly, "who is she? You, uh, bring her up a lot-".

Stiles choked on the helium he was currently sucking and look at Claudia with enormous eyes.

"What? No I don't! I so do not, girls are gross and weird and Lydia is...Lydia is...a girl. I don't like her or anything...".

Claudia threw her hands up in the air defensively, "I never said you did. But last week you told me about how Lydia won the spelling bee and at lunch how she traded you your cookies for her pudding cup. Then the week before that you told me about how she pushed a boy to the ground so hard he skinned his knee because he laughed at her shoes".

Stiles sputtered, "N-no! She just...I mean I just..." finally he hung his head in defeat, "don't tell Scott".

His mother laughed her warm and reassuring laugh, "Don't worry, Stiles, I won't. As long as you tell me all about her".

Stiles realized that he had been beaten. He put down the balloon and took a breath, closing his eyes to picture the girl in his head. "Well, she has this really pretty, long hair. It's not exactly red but it's not blonde..."

"Oh that's called strawberry-blonde," said Claudia.

"Right," replied Stiles thoughtfully.

Claudia had to suppress a smile by coughing into her hand.

"And she has big green eyes. She's really really smart. I know that because I used to sit next to her and she would always get perfect scores on her times tables. Or she would always finish her quiet time reading before everyone else in the whole class. And I think Mrs. Jamison noticed too because now she gives Lydia different books than all of us and they're always big and have no pictures in them".

Stiles looked up at his mom, "My heart gets sort of...fluttery whenever she talks to me".

"You've got it bad, baby," sighed Claudia, leaning her head back onto the pillow, "you know that's how I knew I wanted to marry daddy. When the fluttery feeling was just always there no matter how many times I saw him every day or no matter how many dates we would go on. It was always there. And sometimes, it would get worse if he would touch my hand or kiss me-"

"Gross mom".

Claudia ignored him and continued, her eyes getting glassy and dazed, "But I really knew when the fluttery feeling would sometimes feel bad. Like when I knew he was going on police patrol and I couldn't help but worry. That's when the fluttery feeling would go into my head and it felt like I couldn't even think properly. It would be like he was all I could ever think about and I was completely okay with that," she looked at her son, and for a moment, he swore he saw tears in her eyes, "that's called love kiddo. And I hope I get to watch you fall into it before-" she was abruptly interrupted by a sharp cry of pain. Her hand flew to her head and her eyes screwed shut.