Work Text:
It starts off as the usual small talk that she exchanges with Derek every time she passes his office on her way to the locker room. She knocks on the frame of his office door, causing him to glance up for a moment before he returns to his papers.
“You’re sweaty.”
“I just took row,” she says as she lets herself in and walks over to take a drink from his fridge. “Your sister’s a slave driver.”
“That’s why Laura has the job.”
Lydia laughs from where she’s rummaging through his fridge. “So what’s your reasoning for Cora working here? Is she really that good at maintenance?”
“Someone needs to keep this place clean,” he says before adding, “She also helps with the front desk.”
She closes the door of the fridge and turns to face him. “Isn’t that what Stiles is for?
“You could do it.” Derek looks up at her for a moment.
“And spend the rest of my life with people who aren’t smart enough to turn on a treadmill?” She shakes her head. “I’ll stick with med school.”
“Scott helps out sometimes.”
“Chocolate milk?” she changes the subject as she looks at the bottle in her hand. “Really? That’s what you provide for your members?”
“Best for post workout.”
Lydia shrugs at his response as she drops down onto the chair across from him.
"School?" he asks leaning back in his chair as he relaxes, giving her a small smile.
"Good," she responds, popping off the cap. "Gym?"
"Same. Boyfriend?"
"No. Boyfriend?"
"No."
"Girlfriend?"
"No?" He says it like it’s a question, causing Lydia to smirk as she takes a sip.
"Well that explains why you're extra glowy today."
"I was kidding." Derek’s ear starts to turn pink and Lydia tries not to show her amusement.
"I don't think you were," she says, adjusting herself into a more comfortable position.
"You're tenacious today."
"I'm tenacious every day."
"You need to get laid.”
"Because you're getting laid?" Lydia counters and delights in seeing the rosy tint appear on his cheeks as well. "Who is it? Allison? Please don't let it be that Kate girl."
"It's not Kate."
"So there is someone!"
Derek lightly throws his pen at Lydia, while a smirk plays at his lips.
“That’s no way for you to treat your customers,” she says, lifting her legs up to rest on his desk.
“Funny,” Derek says as he leans forward to swat her feet off his desk, “I don’t seem to recall you ever paying for membership.”
“Funny,” she counters, “I seem to recall Laura telling me that ‘Family joins free.’”
“You’re not technically family,” he reminds her. “And Laura doesn’t make the decisions here. I do.”
“A Hale is a Hale is a Hale is a Hale,” Lydia says with a shake of her head. “As long as this place is called ‘Hale’s Gym’ and not ‘Derek’s,’ Laura will assert whatever big sister authority she has over you to do whatever she wants.”
“I still own this place.”
“And it’s a nice place too,” Lydia says with a wave of her hand. “Run by your little sister’s college friends.”
“You’re Cora’s college friend.”
“I was her Anatomy tutor,” Lydia reminds him. “I’m your friend.”
“Biggest mistake of my life.”
“Hiring the just-out-of-college trainers two years ago? Yup. Huge mistake.”
“You don’t seem to mind them working here based on your constant appearance everywhere here.”
“I tutored all these kids. They owe me their lives for passing their science classes.”
“They’re not kids if you’re all the same age.”
“Now that you mention it,” she leans toward him as a smile plays on her lips, “I keep forgetting how old you truly are.”
Derek narrows his eyes at her in way that seems playful. “Why are you in here again?”
“You amuse me.”
She takes a sip from her drink as she watches Derek lean back in his chair again. He looks better than he had a few months ago. Less stressed. He really does seem to have a more pleasant aura surrounding him, now that she thinks about it. Whoever this girl is, she seems to be doing wonders for Derek’s general demeanor. Normally, he would’ve tried to kick Lydia out at least once. Maybe after five years of friendship—or whatever this is—he finally realizes that he needs her around to validate his life.
“I really need to get back to work…”
“What? And not get the chance to reminisce on what led us here in the first place?”
Derek rolls his eyes. If he rolled them any more, they’d probably fall out of his head.
“I bet it’s someone who works here,” she says casually. Derek raises an eyebrow. “The girl you’re boning.”
“I’m not—“
“She definitely works here.”
“There’s no one, Lydia.”
Lydia gives him a knowing look and enjoys how she can practically read him like a book.
“Why would she work here?” he asks with a sigh. “Enlighten me.”
“Please. You don’t look as scruffy as you usually do. It’s like you actually care about how you look and you’re at the gym—“
“Well, it is my place of work…”
Lydia scoffs. “Like that’s mattered to you before?”
Derek shrugs, looking down at his legs.
A knock comes from the door, causing Lydia to shift her attention to where Danny’s leaning against the doorframe, an easy smile on his lips.
"What's going on in here?" he asks as he makes his way to the seat beside Lydia's.
"Trying to pry out the name of Derek's new squeeze," she explains.
Derek ducks his head slightly as if to avoid the conversation.
"Derek has a new squeeze?" Danny smiles and stretches out his hand for Lydia’s drink.
“Do you need something, Danny?”
It’s all Lydia can do not to laugh as Derek tries to change the subject. Danny loves talking about this stuff more than anyone she knows.
“Well,” Danny starts as Lydia passes him the milk, “I was going to ask about the search for the new trainer. I’m getting booked pretty solid and I can’t take everyone on or refer them to Scott and Boyd anymore since they’re filling up all of their slots too.”
“The association is sending over a potential trainer Monday,” Derek informs him.
Danny bobs his head at Derek’s answer and doesn’t make any movement to leave.
Derek sighs. “Anything else?”
Danny smirks. “Do they work here?”
“I think so,” Lydia says.
"Oh my God!" Derek buries his head in his hands. “Drop it!”
"Lucky guy," Danny says as he brought the bottle to his lips.
"It's a girl this time," she says.
"Lucky girl."
"Who's a lucky girl?" The sound of Cora's voice fills the room seconds before Derek's little sister appears and sits down on the edge of the desk.
"His fuck buddy," Danny says, pointing to where Derek was beginning to lightly beat his head against his desk.
“Big brother has a fuck buddy?” Cora smiles as she reaches out to pat Derek’s head.
“Well that explains the sounds from his room.” Cora winks at Lydia. “He’s a screamer.”
“I am kicking you out,” Derek threatens as he pulls Cora’s hand off him.
"Kicking who out?" comes Stiles' familiar voice.
Lydia turns to see him and Scott breathing heavily and standing in the doorway. Sweat is dripping down both of their faces, their shirts are soaked, and Stiles’ face resembles a cherry.
“Good grief,” Danny says as he looks at the two new additions to the conversation. “What have you been doing?”
“Zumba with Kira,” Stiles answers as he gives a shake of his hips. “You should watch sometime.”
Lydia laughs lightly as she notices Scott looking at her. He nods toward her when they make eye contact.
She smiles slightly and is tempted to motion him over to her, but Derek distracts her by asking, "Why is everyone in my office?"
Lydia feels the familiar and unexpected weight of Scott's hands on her as he begins to massage her shoulders accompanying Stiles’ voice. "Scotty and I came to talk about tonight."
There’s more talk, Lydia’s certain, but she’s getting lost in the rhythm and movement of Scott's hands on her shoulders. She stops paying attention to whatever the others are talking about and gets lost in the unrequested, yet completely needed, massage. Seriously, orgasmic. She's surprised that she doesn't make any audible moaning sounds since that's seriously what’s going on in her head.
"You should come," Scott's voice, combined with the halting of his hands, pulls her back to the conversation.
"Hmmm... what?"
"Tonight. You should come," Scott clarifies.
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Lydia says as she pats his hands in an attempt to get him to continue.
"Really?" Cora asks.
Lydia looks around the room, realizing that everyone seems a bit dumbfounded by her agreement.
"Wait," she says slowly, leaning forward in her seat. "What did I agree to?"
"UFC pay per view at Peter's bar."
"Oh. Then I meant no."
"Too late," Derek says with a smile that makes her want to stop coming by his office altogether.
"I didn't know what I was agreeing to," Lydia points out.
"Come on, Lyd," Danny says as he handed her back her almost empty bottle. "Do you have some grand plans for tonight that don't include molecular chemistry?"
"Molecular biology," she corrects.
"You should come," Scott repeats.
Lydia leans her head back to get a look at where Scott stands above her. His familiar smile as he looks down at her makes her shudder slightly. She smiles to herself as she remembers waking up to a view much like it two days earlier. But there had been no one else there that time except for Erica milling around in the kitchen of their apartment. Which gave her an excuse…
"I don't want to leave Erica home alone," she tries to counter as she looks back at Derek. “She’s been working here so much. All that spin and kickboxing. We just need a nice, relaxing girls’ night in.”
"Actually,” Derek says, “Erica's coming with us tonight.” He then shifts his eyes in Scott’s direction. “And so is Stiles and Danny and Laura and Scott.” He clears his throat and looks at Lydia with smirk playing on his lips. “You should definitely come.”
Lydia raises her eyebrows at Derek, completely aware that the others in the room are watching them with an oddly fascinated interest in the conversation.
She knows that Derek knows. And Derek knows that she knows that he knows. There is a lot of knowing going on between the two of them, just no talking about it.
It’s not like Lydia’s trying to keep it a secret. She is sleeping with Scott. It is a fact, not some big secret that they want to keep from everyone. She and Scott just don’t talk about it.
Not that Lydia would mind if someone found out. Erica knows. And Derek obviously knows. She’s not even trying to hide it from him, really. She just knows that it pisses him off that she won’t tell him.
And he keeps trying to bring it up in clever ways, too. Like earlier, when he mentioned Scott and proceeded to ask if she had a boyfriend. It was the wrong way to phrase the question if he wanted her to admit to anything. She isn’t denying anything when she tells him no.
She doesn’t have a boyfriend. She has Scott. He’s funny and kind and smart and handsome. He’s everyone's best friend. There’s absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about.
But Derek is still looking at her like she’s hiding some big, bad secret and that if she doesn’t come to this stupid UFC watch—or whatever it is—that he would somehow win whatever game he’s playing at. Lydia hasn’t lost to Derek in anything before and she refuses to lose to him now.
"Fine," Lydia says before slouching back into the chair and pointing at Derek as his smile morphs into a smirk. "But you're buying all of my drinks."
~
Lydia finds herself sitting at a table, pressed up against Scott to make room for everyone with Derek, Erica, Danny on the other side and Cora and Laura on the ends cheering on the fighters on the massive screens in the bar.
"There's nothing like seeing shirtless, sweaty men between each other's legs, am I right?" Stiles nudges Lydia out of her seat, forcing her halfway onto Scott’s lap.
Derek mutters something about something and Stiles replies with something that's probably equal parts snarky and lewd, but Lydia can't understand any of it. Comprehension isn't something that comes easy when Scott's wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her completely onto his lap. His forearms rest against her lower stomach and lap as his chest vibrates against her back as he laughs and cheers along with his coworkers.
She can feel the ghost of his lips against the back of her neck as she relaxes into him, feels him smiling against her skin. She wishes that she could feel him smiling against her lips or forehead like he does whenever they sit on the couch and watch Psych together.
But if he did that in public, people might think that they’re in a relationship. Not a mutually beneficial friends with benefits relationship, but an actual relationship with feelings and planning for the future. Which, to be completely honest, Lydia would be okay with.
She would be fine with holding his hand in public and going shopping for towels for their apartment that they’d get together when she starts to work at a hospital. She’d be fine with letting other girls know that he’s taken and that they can back the fuck up because he’s going home with her. She’d be fine not waiting at the bar and hoping that he choses to go home with her instead of one of the desperate girls who are constantly hitting on him. She’d be completely fine with doodling ‘Lydia + Scott’ in her notes while feeling like a stupid schoolgirl. But Scott seems completely fine with how things are now. And if he’s okay with it, she is too.
"You okay there, Lyd?" Erica asks, causing Lydia to abandon her thoughts of Scott and focus on the other people around her.
"I'm great."
"Looked like you were deep in thought," Derek says as he sends her a knowing look that makes her want hit him. "What'cha thinking about?"
She smiles as sweetly as she can. "Who you're sleeping with."
"Good topic!" Stiles sips at his beer with a smile playing on his lips. "It's not me, is it?"
Danny rolls his eyes. "Wouldn't you know if it were you?" he asks only to receive a shrug as a response.
"Maybe it's Boyd." Cora.
"Jackson?" Laura.
“It’s a girl,” Lydia points out.
"Allison?" Danny.
"Kira?" Stiles waits for someone else to add a name, then nods and smiles. "It's Kira."
"It's not Kira!" Derek says, looking as if he would like to drown himself in his beer. "And shouldn't we be watching the fight?"
"I'm only interested in the main event," Danny says with a wave of his hand before his eyes meet Lydia's. Lydia smiles at him. Big mistake.
"Oh my god!” Danny practically spills his beer over in excitement. “It's Lydia."
"Wait. What?" Lydia asks and she feels Scott's arms tense around her.
"That actually makes a lot of sense," Stiles adds. "She is super interested in the topic."
Lydia's mouth drops. Looking over at Derek, she see him smirking at her, as if to say "that's what you get."
"I'm not sleeping with Derek!"
"'The lady doth protest too much'," Stiles says.
"It's not Lydia," Scott says.
"Nah, Buddy." Stiles reaches over to pat Scott on the shoulder. "Trust me on this one. It's totally Lydia."
"I don't think it's Lydia," Erica adds.
"Thank you," Lydia says to her roommate.
Laura raises her eyebrows and looks around the group. "Those who think it's not Lydia raise your hand."
"Laura--" Derek starts, only to have Laura stick her hand in his face.
"Raise your hand," she repeats. Derek reluctantly raises his hands. Lydia, Erica, and Scott follow.
"Those who think that it is Lydia--"
Everyone else raises their hands.
"Totally Lydia," Stiles says.
"They literally both just told you that they're not sleeping together," Scott points out.
"Of course they would deny it. I mean, I wouldn't deny sleeping with either of them," Stiles comments, "but I guess they both have the hotness right to be ashamed of each other."
"It's not Lydia."
"Is it you, Scott?"
"No."
"Then it's Lydia."
"It's not."
"Buddy--"
"Scott--" Lydia starts.
"Lydia's not fucking Derek!"
Lydia's pretty certain that the entire table is glad that the bar is so consumed with cheering on the fighters that Scott's outburst is only limited to them. There should be an awkward moment where everyone avoids looking at Scott, but they're all saved from that when Scott pushes back the chair he and Lydia are on, lightly shoves her off his lap, and walks away from the table. Lydia's left standing where her seat was formerly located, while everyone stares at her.
"Well that escalated quickly," Cora says as she sips at her drink.
Lydia makes eye contact with each person individually before clarifying, "I'm not sleeping with Derek." She then swats Stiles on the back of the head before turning in the direction that Scott went. "Excuse me."
She finds him outside of the men's restroom, leaning against the wall. He's breathing like he's angry and Lydia has to fight the natural urge to place her hand on his arm.
"What the hell was that?" she asks as she comes up beside him, waving her arm back toward the table.
"Are you sleeping with him?" He leans his head back against the wall and looks straight ahead.
"Who? Derek?"
"Are you?"
Lydia tries to step into his line of vision. "You know I'm not."
"Do I?" He looks at her. His eyes are tired or angry. She’s not sure which one. Maybe both.
"What's wrong with you?" she asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
The restroom door opens as a man comes out and Scott seizes the opportunity to drag Lydia inside of the restroom with him. He shuts the door behind him and quickly positions himself so that Lydia finds herself pressed against the locked door with him looming over her.
She's not going to lie. It's kind of hot. Especially when his lips come crashing to hers, cutting off anything that she was going say. His kiss is more intense than usual, like he’s trying to consume her.
"You’re not answering my question," Lydia says as Scott refocuses his attention from her lips to her neck. "Not that I'm complaining, but we need to talk about your explosion out there."
Scott detaches his lips from her neck and rests there for a moment before lifting his head so that their foreheads are leaning against each other.
"It made me crazy," he says, slightly out of breath. He's looking anywhere but her eyes.
Lydia lifts her hands to his jaw to steady him. "What?"
He flicks his eyes up to hers and says, "The idea of you with someone else."
Lydia's hands drop to his shoulders. "Really?"
"Fuck," Scott says as he takes a step back. "Fuck! I'm sorry. I know we're not...that this isn't...that we're..." He turns away from her for a moment.
"Scott," she starts and he turns back toward her.
"You're mine," he says before his hand flies up to his mouth. "Shit! Not like I own you, but like I'm yours and you're mine."
It gets very quiet in the restroom. Lydia can faintly hear the sound of men yelling at the screens back in the main room of the bar, but that's nothing compared to the sound that she's sure her heart must be making.
Lydia's still not entirely certain when Scott started to look less like a puppy and more like a man. Or when his proximity made her blush. Or when his touch made her heart feel like it was going to leap out of her chest. Or when she knew for certain that she wanted more, so much more with him. It really doesn't matter when it started or how it started. All that matters is that she doesn't want it to end.
"I know we don’t talk about it and I know you're not into labels and that we have a nonexclusive verbal contract," he says, as if he's trying to put the words that he's said back into his mouth, "and it's not like I expect you to not fuck other dudes--"
"I don't want anyone else," she tells him. She tries to not reach for him or to let her smile show too much on her face.
Scott looks at her from beneath his lashes. "You don't?" It's so quiet, how he says it. So vulnerable.
Lydia can practically feel him starting to take up space inside of her soul as she tells herself to fuck it, moves toward him, and reaches for his face.
“I’m all yours.”
~
The knocking on the door starts as soon as Scott’s pants and Lydia’s knees have found their way to the floor.
“You’ve got to be fucking me.” Scott groans and lightly bangs his head back against the wall.
“There’s no fucking in my restroom, Little Scott!”
“Is that Peter?” Lydia asks as she stands up and backs away from Scott to adjust her clothing.
Scott groans louder. “How am I supposed to get rid of my raging boner then, you psycho?”
“I’m a socio,” Peter says through the door, “not a psycho. And have her call you ‘Stiles’ a few times. Or imagine that annoying college lacrosse coach of yours naked. Just get the fuck out of my restroom!”
Scott shudders and pulls his pants up quickly.
“Thinking of Finstock do the trick?” Lydia asks as her hand grabs on to the handle of the door.
Scott shakes his head as she opens the door to reveal an annoyed Peter. She can hear the smile in Scott’s voice when he says, “Nothing like hearing Peter’s voice to stop the blood flow.”
Peter mutters a threat about firing Scott from the gym as Scott walks past the older man. Lydia doesn’t miss Peter’s fond smile at Scott before he glances over at Lydia and mouths “finally” as Scott reaches for her hand to lead her back to their table.
"Talked him down from the ledge, I see," Laura says as Lydia and Scott rejoin the group.
Scott plants himself back in his seat and pulls Lydia down on top of him. He wraps his arms tightly around her and informs the table, "Erica's fucking Derek."
There’s an awkward silence at their table as everyone looks at Scott and then at Derek, whose face has turned a lovely shade of embarrassed. Erica rolls her eyes as the others stare at her and Derek.
“All right,” she says with a wave of her hand. “Let’s hear it.”
Danny starts the others off. “I fucking knew it!”
“Explains the bite marks…”
“Can’t believe she hit that before I did.”
“Is it as big as I think it is?”
“He’s a screamer! I know it!”
Lydia leans back into Scott as she listens to her friends speculate about Erica and Derek’s sex life. Derek’s eyebrows are furrowing dangerously at her, but Lydia can’t bring herself to care as she lets Scott bury his face in her neck, grinning at his smile against her skin.