Chapter Text
Laura POV
“Studying in the library” Please. Did her sister think she would fall for that excuse? Laura wasn’t born yesterday. Nobody dresses fancy to go to the library. And Cora wasn’t one to dress up even for family events. Laura knew her well. At least she used to.
She knew that teenagers grow up, get a personal life and fly out of the nest. But she hoped that Cora would still engage her in her life. She could understand that she wanted to cut off their mum, but Laura? Her one and only big sister? They used to tell each other everything when they were younger. The good old days of before yesterday.
She sighed loudly and suddenly got aware of the silence that surrounded her. Her family owned a huge part of the forest and she loved the nature since she was a child. The freedom that you could feel while running freely in the woods couldn’t be exchange for anything else. But right now the peace and quiet she usually so needed clearing her mind, felt overwhelming. Like she could almost suffocate on all the fresh air.
Cora was always the most private one and that says a lot, because they grew up with Derek, Mr. Stay out my bussines, pseudonym Grumpy Pants. If only her siblings weren’t emotionally constipated, what an easier life that would be. Laura sighed and rubbed her temple.
She was the responsible one as an older sister. What would make Cora not trust her with this? She was a great secret keeper.
Well... except for that one time… or that other time. But those were Derek’s crushes, and at the end of the day, her big mouth actually help him get some. So it shouldn’t even count. Also everybody knew that he was making googly eyes for Paige, she only helped him. That’s what she does. It’s her job as an older sister. Hel-ping.
It wasn’t like she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. When necessary. None of the situations were necessary as of yet.
Laura knew that she couldn’t just let it go. If she let’s this slip, what will be next? In a blink of an eye they could become strangers. Although there wasn’t much she could do. It’s not like she could just roam around and spy on her sister and her sister’s possible significant other.
Or maybe she could.
Nothing was determent. But she had to do it smart. She probably would know what she was doing. She hadn’t had any experience, but she watched some movies, read some books. She known the gist. Probably. How hard could it be, seriously. It wasn’t like she would be creepy stalker. She would be a polite and well-behaved stalker. She would even give Cora her space, and stop immediately after she found out her little sister’s secret crush. She was just concerned of her well-being, that’s all.She had to start soon too. After the right occasion will present itself aka after Cora will shamelessly lie to her face again.
Which wasn’t that long of a wait. Two days later Cora had to “do some research” in the “library” again. This time Laura didn’t ask any questions, not to be the subject of suspicion. Huh watching those TV shows paid off after all (eat it Derek!). And after Cora got off Laura sneaked off the house to follow. She had to keep some distance. Which was more difficult than you might think. They were getting closer what might be library area, and Laura started to worry that maybe she wasn’t as sneaky as she though.
And when finally Cora got to library door, she turn around quickly, and scanned the surrounding area. Laura thought that she surely must have seen her, but the younger girl only sighed and sat on the stairs in front of library. She put her hands together, and placed them on her neck. Then she stood up and started to nervously walk in front of the stars. She finally seemed to calm down when she looked onto the distance.
There was a girl walking toward Cora’s direction. When she came closer to Cora she looked like they might be the same age but the other girl was a bit smaller. She took Cora’s hand and rapidly dragged her through the front doors of library.
So Laura’s sister didn’t lie about her destination after all. But she still didn’t know the truth. And she vowed that she would find out. Even if it meant long hours spend on following her sister. Even if it meant breaking the law. Even if it meant not sleeping. Her sister happiness had to been put before all that. It was her duty, it ---
Her train of thought was broken by some loud noise in the bushes next to her. She was obviously not stupid enough to risk injuring her whole body by recklessly hiding inside of the bushes, but it looked like somebody thought it was a good idea.
A boy emerged from the biggest bush. Laura started to wander how he got there in the first place. Or how he got into those tight pants.
She put her judgemental “I might as well be your mother (even though I’m only a few years younger than you) young man what do you think you are doing” face on, and decided to confront the creep. When the boy stood up, and was brushing the dirt off his jeans, she coughed loudly to catch his attention. And she sure did, as the boy turned to her direction with a scared face that quickly turned into a small smile.
‘Hi.’ - He said, trying to look casual, pulling his head up and then slowly down, clearly not sure what to do with his hands, finally pulling them behind his back. – ‘How’s it going?’
Laura narrowed her eyes, and tried to look nonchalant too. Although, she was sure she looked more comfortable than him. Although she really wasn’t. This wasn’t her plan. She didn’t want to be seen anywhere near the library and didn’t want for Cora to found out that she was fallowing her. She shouldn’t take the chances. Now that she thought about that she should have just leave unnoticed, and let the guy be. On the other hand he too was spying, and what if he was spying on her sister? What if he was a REAL stalker? Her sister stalker? Oh no this is not the matter that can be just ignore.
She haven’t change her expression from the judgmental-face and decided on a straight forward approach
‘Do your parents know you are sneaking around in the bushes, following people around and spying on them?’ - the parents card was a longshot but the boy look relatively young enough now that she had a better look on him
‘Spying? Who said anything about spying?’ - said the boy in a pretty good pretended to be offended voice. Maybe Laura underestimated his acting skills – ‘I was actually looking for my friend’s inhaler, he lost it here when he was going to library yesterday, and he needs it, it’s a life-or-death situation, literally’
If Laura narrowed her eyes more she would have to close them ‘Oh please try a better excuse kid’
‘Well I’m really offended’ - he let out an overdone gasp, which made Laura to involuntarily roll her eyes – ‘And I’ll let you know that I’m an full-on adult. And I surely wasn’t doing anything you weren’t doing’ - he smirked, now clearly changing to an approach he though would work better.
Damn he was right. But Laura wasn’t a fresh player. And she wasn’t going to let some child beat her at this game.
‘Well, let’s say I believe that you didn’t mean any charm. Big part of trust on my side by the way. Say why you are really here, and don’t try any cry story on me, and let’s have this awkward encounter behind us.’
‘Fair. Although I would say ladies first’ - and the smirk, that was getting on Laura nerves, thankfully her face said it all and she didn’t have to open her mouth to express her feeling, as the boy start talking. – ‘So I might be or not might be, but mostly might be, spying-ish on my friend who might be or might not be having a secret meet-up in the library almost, like every day’ - He said quickly in one breath.
The situation was better than Laura expected it to be.
‘Wait, so you’re Cora’s friend?’
‘What? No.’ - the guy was clearly confused now – ‘Who’s Cora? No, I’m Lydia’s friend. Best friend’
‘Best friend that is spying on her?’
‘Hey! Do not mock our very real friendship. And It’s not my fault that people have their secrets, that they want to keep them secret, even though they shouldn’t, but they don’t know that they shouldn’t, so sometimes you have to take the matter in your own hands, you know?’
And Laura did know. Even thought it was somewhat incoherent babbling, she knew exactly what the boy meant. And was here for the same reason.
‘Secrets are not a good thing’- she agreed, which made a boy looked relieved
‘Ok so now your turn’
‘What?’
‘You know, what’s your deal, why are you here?’
Well maybe she didn’t quite thought this through, or maybe she though that admiting to following her sister to a stranger would be easier, but in the moment it felt like the weirdest thing anybody can do, even though he JUST admitted to a basically same thing. Well either way now Laura got herself into this and there was no escape. She planned on at least being diplomatic about it.
‘Well, I was just worried about my sister’ - she shrugged. Exactly, simple, short answer, an example of a sisterly love. Perfect.
‘So you were spying on the other girl?’ - the boy said letting go of a short laugh at the end.
Damn it. Him and her were nothing alike.
‘Oh my god what are the chances? Actually this is good. Now I’ll have a chance to know more about “mystery girl”’ – the boy continued.
‘“Mistery girl”?’
‘Yeah, the girl that Lydia spends all her free time with and as it turns out aka your sister’
‘Cora’ - Laura said – ‘My sister name is Cora. And she would kill you if she know that you called her that’
‘Well now I think I know what Lydia sees in her’ - the boy said – ‘I’m Stiles by the way.’
‘Laura’
‘Nice to meet you Laura, I guess this is the beginning of our friendship, huh?’
‘Doubt it’
‘C’mon we can help each other! Be reasonable here! I mean we have the same goal right? We can exchange the information. I mean it’s better than hiding in the bushes, right?’
‘Well, excuse me, you were the only one hiding in the bushes’
'So just because you were hiding near the bushes, now you're better than me?’
Laura sighed, the boy--Stiles had a point. Although she wasn’t sure that a new girl friend of Cora was that good of a person if she had friends like that. She will not judge until she meets her though. If she meets her. What if Cora never introduces her? What if she will secretly meet her for the rest of her life. What if… okay yeah the Stiles guy was definitely on point with the information flow. They could help each other.
‘Deal’ - she said simply, and Stiles smiled widely at that answer.
They didn’t have to get along they just had to work together and that was it. No friendly feeling needed to be involved.
‘So, what’s your sister like?’ - he asked, with the expression like that wasn’t the creepiest thing to ask a person while standing near the bushes after you were spying on said sister. He didn’t seem to think so though, as he interpreted the silence in a different way. – ‘Okay then. I’ll start. Lydia is… Lydia. I mean she is a gift to humanity. And to mathematic. Mostly to mathematic, but also to other scientific genres. She has strawberry-blond hair… but I guess you know how she looks like, so this part we can leave out. She likes to dress fashionably, she has a dog named Prada, what else…’
‘Thanks, I think that’s enough of useless information for me’
‘Useless? Well sure if you don’t want to get to know your sister’s new girlfriend, that’s on you.’
‘Girlfriend? You think they are girlfriends?’
‘Yeah, I mean it’s pretty obvious right? The same happened with my best friend Scott, which I don’t call my ex-best friend only because he directly requested that I do not call him that, in a conversation we had recently to which I quote ‘Stiles, it’s been just a couple of weeks that I couldn’t spend Friday night with you, it doesn’t mean our friendship is over’. Which are lies, lies I tell you!’ – the boy made a dramiatic gesture with his hand and continued – ‘Nothing ever is the same when a person gets into a relationship, and I already lost one of my best friends, I’m not going to lose another!’
‘Really? You think you lost your friend because he can’t hang out with you anymore on a Friday night? That’s all it take for a friendship to be destroyed?’
‘Do not dare underestimate the importants of a Friday night hang out! He actually never can hang out anymore because he and his girlfriend “have a date” and he’s “in love” because they’re “soulmates”’
‘I think your overdoing it with the jealousy and the quotations marks’
‘Yeah? Well they’re overdoing it with “love-sickness”’
‘Yeah, I guess you do have a point. Love everywhere is tiresome’
‘Wow, did you just agreed with me? Did we just had a bonding moment? Crazy. Soo while we’re at the love sickness do you think that you know, what do you think about the new love birds situation?’
‘Ummm? Who?’
‘Hansel and Gretel’ - this time it was Stiles who did the eye-rolling ‘Who do you think, our main subjects’
‘Ugh we have to think about other name, because we certainly are not calling them “subjects” we’re not in biology class in high school. Or wait are we? I mean are you? How OLD are you?’
‘Great subject change, very smooth. And yes, you got me a high school student here, but like I said an adult? Eighteen, fully legal’ - Stiles winked while saying the last word – ‘And unfortunately still in high school, last class, so thankfully not much left, or to be exact, since it’s march, four months left of this hell, and then I move to college, which I guess is just a different type of hell. Huh, well I guess they won’t have bronies there. Or so I hope. God I hope they don’t have them in a real hell either, or it’s just this section prepared especially for them, like who would want to share an eternity with them. And this is actually the first time I’m scared of going to hell. Huh.’
‘Oh-kay. I think I’d rather talk about my sister’s romantic lesbian relationship’
‘Oh, so you do think they are in a relationship! And also hey, not cool! Lydia’s if anything is bi, or pan, she definitely had boyfriends before, and she enjoyed it, trust me I wish she didn’t or at least wasn’t that graphic about it” - Stiles made a face a baby makes while eating a lemon – ‘The times when she dated Jackson were much darker times for me, trust me. Anyway do not erase her experience - is my point’
‘Sorry, didn’t know you were so touchy about that’
‘Not touchy, just fair, also you know you have to protect your own.'
‘Right, so getting to the point, do YOU think they are a couple?”
‘Well, maybe they are?’
‘That’s not an answer’
‘It is. It’s a SAFE answer’
‘Safe equals not-real’
‘You should definitely NOT give the sex talk to undergraduates’
‘I mean in this situation. In this particular situation, not anywhere else. And don’t change the subject. Which is that you can’t give a straight answer.’
‘Straight? Really? Oh the jokes keep coming don’t they’ - Stiles smirked but thankfully continued with more serious note – ‘But to be honest I don’t know how they labelled it. Butthat doesn’t mean we can’t find out right?
‘What if even they don’t know it yet?’
‘Doesn’t matter. We’ll be the first to know, that’s great right?’
‘I guess?’
‘Okay, So you’re in?’
‘Wait. In on what? I think I’m lost now?’
‘Our Operation “Wolves in love” Duhh’
‘What? “Our”? “Wolves in love?” What does that even mean? Who are the wolves? I think I specifically said that you shouldn’t be the one naming things’
‘Well it’s better than “subjects” right?’
‘Fine, whatever, what’s the plan of this operation?’
‘Oh, you’ll see’- Stiles said while smiling creepily.
‘Or you could tell me now’
‘Nope, I’ll contact you, through your phone, which reminds me, what’s your number?’
‘I can’t believe I’m saying yes to this’
‘Oh but you are! Can’t refuse this kind of offer can you? See you around Laura, let’s hope next we will meet in more comfortable place, not in the bushes! - Stiles smiled and start walking away.
She looked down on her phone and saw that stiles saved himself as “WIL” – She sighed to herself “Wolves In Love” so it was.