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She wasn't thinking when she offered. Really, she wasn't.
It just seemed like the type of thing you do when someone you know is going out of town; you offer to watch their house, check their mail, water their plants, feed their pets.
No one ever says yes. Not to Lydia anyway.
Except for Kira.
“What?” Lydia blinked up at the girl.
“I said, 'that'd be great!' We have a couple of dogs that won't be able to make the trip, and we were going to have to board them, but this would be so much better! Thank you so much, Lydia!”
And that's how it happened.
It wasn't all bad, she guessed. Kira and her husband, Scott, had a nice house and let her have access to all of their food. It was sort of like she was having her own mini-vacation, complete with animals that didn't belong to her.
Lydia had changed into a tank top and short pajama bottoms and curled up on the couch to watch Hallmark Christmas movies. She loved the cheesy story lines and bad acting. It always put her in the Christmas spirit.
One of her friend's dogs jumped up on the couch and snuggled onto her lap.
“Hi, Lady,” Lydia addressed the tiny pup.
Lady nudged Lydia's hand with a paw and lowered her head.
“Oh, I see.” Lydia chuckled and lifted her hand to pet the dog.
Lydia got invested in Santa's daughter's quest to put the Morgan family back on the nice list, and wasn't sure how long it took her to realize that the rumble she'd been feeling on her lap was Lady, growling under her breath.
“Lady?” she asked tentatively. “What's wrong, girl?” Lady's ears were perked, and she seemed focused on the kitchen.
That's where the backdoor is. Lydia realized. Her heart began beating rapidly out of her chest.
It's probably nothing. She told herself. Maybe a raccoon playing in the trashcan.
That's when she heard the Clang! from the kitchen.
“Oh God...” she whispered under her breath and looked around the room for anything she could use to fight off an attacker. The wooden bat leaning on the wall next to the front door caught her attention. She shakily moved Lady off of her lap and untangled herself from the blanket.
Lydia tiptoed over to the door and grabbed the neck of the bat with both hands, gripping tightly.
She eased herself toward the kitchen, as Lady began to bark louder.
Suddenly, the door to the kitchen swung open, and she reared back with the bat ready to strike.
The intruder was carrying a two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew in one hand, a bowl of popcorn in the other, and a bag of potato chips in his mouth. When he saw the petite strawberry-blonde poised to swing, his eyes widened.
“Ahh!” he'd screamed. The bowl flew into the air, raining down popcorn everywhere, while the drink and chips had both fallen to the ground, and his hands came out to protect himself. “Whoa! Whoa! What the fuck? Who the hell are you?!” he yelled in a rush.
Logic worked quicky, telling her that an intruder wouldn't ask that. Lydia stopped herself from swinging the bat, but kept it ready just in case.
“What do you mean who the hell am I? Who the hell are you?”
“I'm Stiles!” he told her, touching his chest with both hands.
Stiles? Why did that name sound familiar? Wait, Kira had said something....
“Really, you just have to worry about Lady and Jock.” Kira told her, and then as an after thought she added, “Oh, and Stiles may stop by too.”
“You're Stiles?!” He nodded, hands still ready to protect himself. “I thought you were a stray dog!”
Stiles looked like he was about to say something before a look of confusion swept across his face. “What?! And for the love of God, can you put the bat away?”
Lydia sighed, dropped the bat, and straightened herself up. “I'm Lydia.” She finally answered his question.
“Okay...” he said, still confused, but finally able to drop his defensive stance. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“I'm the house-sitter?”
“They hired a house-sitter? What's wrong with me?!”
“Well, they didn't hire me. I offered. Kira and I work together.” Lydia took a deep breath. “You know, you could have used the front door.”
“Why would I do that?”
Lydia shrugged, exasperated. “I don't know. Common sense?”
“Well, that's just so inconvenient! I live behind them. It's much easier to go through the back door.”
“Wait, if you live behind them, what's wrong with your own house?”
Stiles shrugged. “They have better food.” He looked down at the spilled popcorn and sighed. “Poor popcorn. It never even had a chance.”
He picked up the now empty bowl and took it back into the kitchen. Lydia looked at the bat. Deciding she no longer needed it, she walked it back over and propped it up next to the door.
Stiles came back with a broom and dustpan and crouched down to sweep the popcorn up. Lydia walked back over to stand next to him and crossed her arms in front of her.
He stopped sweeping for a moment, and looked up at her. “Can I help you?”
“What?”
“Well, you're just standing there like a prison guard.”
“Sorry,” she said shaking her head. “I was going to ask if you needed me to do anything, but it seemed like you had it under control, so I didn't say anything.”
Stiles nodded. “Sure.” He went back to sweeping what he could before commenting, “Nice legs by the way.”
Lydia looked down, realizing what she was wearing. She would never wear these pajamas in front of people!
“Um...thanks,” she mumbled as she took a few steps back.
“Aren't you cold?”
“Well, I was under the blanket before you walked in.” She motioned to couch where Lady still sat, apparently having found that to be the safest place.
“Ah,” he nodded before cleaning up the rest of the popcorn, and disappearing back into the kitchen.
Maybe he was gone now?
Lydia went back to the couch, and grabbed the blanket while Lady found her spot back on Lydia's lap.
She hadn't missed much of the movie- and even if she had, she'd seen this one a thousand times. The movie came back from a commercial break and Lydia lost herself in the familiar plot once more.
“Oh, Once Upon a Christmas!” Lydia jumped when she heard Stiles's voice. “I love this movie!”
“Where did you come from?!” she exclaimed as Stiles sat on the couch next to her.
“Well,” he began. “I was born and raised in California, but-” Lydia sighed and rolled her eyes and Stiles couldn't stop his laugh. “I'm just kidding. Cocoa?” He extended the mug in his hand. “You looked cold, so I figured...”
“Thank you.” She said with a smile and took the warm mug from him.
“You're welcome. Marshmallows?” he asked, holding out the bag with his other hand.
“Definitely.”
“I love this movie,” Stiles commented as Lydia grabbed the necessary marshmallows from the bag.
“Me too. Twice Upon a Christmas comes on next.”
“Really?!”
“Mmmhmm,” Lydia nodded. She took a hesitant sip of her cocoa and sighed contentedly.
“Mind if I hang around to watch?”
“Sure.”
And so began a nightly routine. Lydia would come home and feed the dogs, (Jock would hide upstairs once he was full, and Lady would stay right by Lydia the entire night). Stiles would eventually come over and make hot cocoa, then he and Lydia would sip it while watching bad Hallmark Channel movies.
“So, do you have any Christmas plans at all?” Stiles asked the night of Christmas Eve.
Lydia shrugged. “Nothing really,” she told him as she absently scratched behind Lady's ears.
“Really?” He seemed surprised.
“Yeah, no... I mean Kira gets back tomorrow. I was probably going to go back to my own place, eat a TV dinner and watch Christmas movies.”
“So, basically the same thing you've been doing for the past two weeks?”
“Basically. My apartment isn't even decorated yet.”
“What?!” Stiles exclaimed.
“When have I had time? Plus, even if I had decorated it, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy it. I've been here.”
Stiles looked around him. “This place isn't even decorated...You've been deprived of being surrounded by proper Christmas decorations the whole season?!”
“It's fine,” she laughed.
“No, it's not!” He stood up indignantly. “We need to fix this. Pronto. What do you say we open a bottle of bourbon and drunkenly decorate this house?” As if knowing what this would lead to, Lady jumped down off the couch and ran upstairs.
A couple of hours later, the two sat in front of the couch and Stiles was filling Lydia's cup again (she'd long lost count of which number this was). He had found a couple of boxes of decorations in his best friend's attic and they had begun to decorate, stringing lights down the staircase, and attempted to put together the artificial tree. It only got halfway done before they realized they were too tipsy to get the branches into the small holes of the base. Instead, they'd decided to decorate themselves.
So, now they sat with Christmas music playing in the background, and a long forgotten box of decorations sitting next to Stiles. Stiles was wearing a Santa hat and had wrapped himself in Christmas lights, while Lydia was wearing garland like a scarf around her neck with some light-weight ornaments hanging from her ears. (Later, when she was sober she would probably regret that decision.) Tinsel was scattered around the room, from when Stiles threw it into the air, insisting it was snow, (the pile in the corner was supposed to be their snowman).
“This was fun," Lydia giggled.
“Agreed.” Stiles held his glass up and Lydia clinked them together. He put his drink onto the coffee table, after taking a sip, then stretched. As he brought his arms down, his hand hit the box of decorations and he looked over at it.
“Is there anything good in there?” Lydia asked as she sat forward and put her drink down. “I need something for my head. Oh! Is there a tiara?”
Stiles looked back at her and laughed. “What does a tiara have to do with Christmas?”
Lydia shrugged. “I don't know,” she said before having another giggle fit.
Stiles reached his hand inside without looking and when it emerged he had a sprig of mistletoe.
“Oh hey, look at that.” He slowly began to raise it over their heads, while Lydia laughed.
“No, don't you dare,” she was giggling.
He'd raised it above them completely, and in a swift movement he'd leaned in and pecked her on the lips.
Lydia jerked back in surprise, and Stiles began to sober up. “Uh...I'm sorry I-”
He was cut off, as Lydia rushed back toward him and kissed him fiercely, the mistletoe falling from his hand as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
When Lydia awoke the next morning, her face was buried into the back of the couch. She was just beginning to register the massive headache and recall the events from the night before when she heard a key jingle in the door.
“Oh shit!” she yelled as she bolted upright.
“Oh fuck,” Stiles grumbled as he landed on the floor with a thud.
“Stiles, they're home! Wait, where are your clothes?” She looked down and lifted the blanket she was wrapped in. “Where are my clothes?”
“What?” He wasn't comprehending anything she was saying.
“Here!” She tossed him a pillow as the door swung open, and Stiles sat up.
“We're ho-oh my God!” Kira covered her eyes.
Lydia looked down. “Stiles, the pillow.”
“Oh! Right.” He adjusted the pillow in front of him “All clear.”
Kira slowly moved her hands away from her face.
“Okay...”she said slowly. “I'm going to go put our bags away, and when I get back, if everyone could be fully clothed, that'd be great.”
Scott smiled over at the two of them and winked, “Merry Christmas, guys.”
“Merry Christmas,” they mumbled and sighed.
They were well into the new year before Kira would look Lydia in the eye. It was still two months later before Lydia felt comfortable with that, and nearly a year had passed before Kira would say more than two words to Stiles when he dropped by the office to bring Lydia lunch or coffee. (It would have taken longer if he hadn't brought something for Kira too).
Needless to say, Lydia was never asked to house sit again. (Although, that didn't stop her and Stiles from sneaking in the following Christmas to drink cocoa and watch Hallmark Christmas movies. What? Scott and Kira had a better TV.)