Two Halves of a Whole

"Wait you're hanging out with Stiles again?"

Lydia sighed as she put her second earring in, "yes Jackson I'm hanging out with him again because we're friends. Besides, why do you even care? We broke up remember? That's why I came home from London because we broke up and besides you met someone else. So yes I'm going to hang out with my friend,"

"I just didn't realize you two were so close. Or that you actually remembered who he was. Hang out with him if you want, you're more than welcome to after all. Because we are broken up, and there's an ocean between us. So there's no need for either of us to wait around for one another," Jackson replied before saying goodbye because it was getting late.

Lydia was happy that she and Jackson had been able to end things on such good terms, and she was a little shocked by how little she actually missed him given she'd thought she'd miss him a lot more. He was after all her first boyfriend and while they had been far from perfect together there had been some good moments. That was all in the past, though, and Lydia was going to give being single for a while a chance. She was just going to try and enjoy this last bit of her summer that so far had been nice and supernatural-free. The one thing she did want, though, was for her best friend to come home so they could finally talk about well everything.

Meet you at the movies? she texted Stiles so he'd know she was ready and on her way.

---

Derek couldn't really have been more stressed out than he'd been over the last few nights. He'd been working a lot with Alyssa lately trying to make sure she was prepared for the full moon and just everything else in general, and the entire time all he could do was worry about Boyd and Erika because he still hadn't heard from them. He had no idea where they were or when they'd be back. He also had this awful feeling that something bad was coming, and with the sign, he'd gotten on his door a couple weeks before he knew it had to do with the new pack in town. The pack that he wanted nothing to do with. And was trying to keep from everyone really. Probably because he was silently wishing they'd just leave or even that they didn't want anything. He knew that was stupid though given an alpha pack could only mean trouble.

"Are you ready for some training today? We've got a full moon coming soon and I need to make sure you're ready. Because if you're not well I'll never hear the end of it," he told her feeling in his gut that she would be. But he still wanted to make sure.

"Shit. I'm going to be late!" Grumbling, Stiles jumped off of Scott's bed and grabbed his jacket. "Lydia's going to kill me if I'm late again." With a shake of his head and, without waiting for Scott's reaction, Stiles shot out the door, only to come rushing right back. Of course he'd forgotten his phone. Scott, a grin on his face, held the phone up for Stiles to grab and rush back out of the room. "See you later!" He called over his shoulder as he ran out the front door.

See you there! His phone had buzzed in his hand on his way out though he'd only gotten to the reply once he reached the movie theatre. Huffing, he leaned against the wall with a grin. He was there before the red head was. He wasn't going to die at the hands of a banshee after all.

---

Ali rolled her eyes at Derek as she leaned against the pillar in his wonderfully creepy family home. "You know I'm ready, Derek." The words slipped past her lips, a grin forming on her face. She'd seen how Derek interacted with Scott, and she'd seen him worry about Erika and Boyd, but somehow, he was a lot more human with her. Why? She didn't know. Not that she was questioning it. She'd gotten away with a lot of things she knew Erika and Boyd wouldn't have gotten away with. "But yes, I'm ready to get to the training."

Lydia rolled her eyes as when she pulled up to the movies right behind Stiles' and his reckless driving. Sometimes she wondered how he'd been allowed to drive but she just let the thought leave her mind because it was probably better off that she didn't know everything. Especially when it came to Stiles. There were most certainly some things left better to the imagination. "Glad to see you made it in one piece," Lydia said smiling as she walked up to Stiles. "I'm going to ask you one more time, you're sure that you're okay going to see this movie with me right? Because I mean it is a romance film, and I know how some people are," she told him not wanting to drag him to the movies to watch a total chick flick with her if he didn't actually want to see it. Which she knew that Jackson always hated going to see movies like this with her, and usually only did it if she promised him something in return, and even though she wasn't dating Stiles she didn't want their friendship to suffer because of a movie.

---

Derek nodded to Ali glad she was ready to get started because honestly, he needed to do this for him as much as he did for her. Yes, he wanted to make sure Ali was totally ready for the full moon that was right around the corner, but he also needed to do something that would take his mind off of worrying about Boyd and Erika and for more than maybe five minutes. "Okay, well let's get started then," he said motioning for her to follow him since well his house was already falling apart and he'd rather not make it worse so he had somewhere else set up to train new werewolves. Honestly once he was done with training for the day he planned on going to look into this loft that was for sale to move into. Just so there would be more room for everyone and what not.

"Of course I'm okay with seeing the movie. If I get too bored, I'll just do-- I won't get bored!" Stiles had started to say he'd doze off, of course. But he couldn't risk getting Lydia mad again. Shoving his phone into his pocket, he moved towards the ticketing booth, a grin on his face. "Two, please." He muttered to the cashier, slipping the money for the tickets into the booth. He turned his head to glance over at the red head and, once the tickets were handed to him, he nodded to her. "Come on. We gotta grab the popcorn too."

---

Ali started after Derek, her hands pushed into her pocket as she walked. She could tell just by looking at the alpha just how stressed out he was. His stance was tense and Ali wanted to almost reach out and just give him a damn back massage. Of course, she knew to stay well within her limits. He was, after all, her pack leader, her alpha.

"Thanks for coming with me," Lydia said as she followed Stiles to get popcorn before the movie. "Even if you get bored it still means a lot that you came," She told him hoping that he didn't get bored. But she did really appreciate him coming with her, especially since she didn't have Allison around to come with her. At least not until she got back into town, which Lydia wasn't sure when that would be, though he did hope it was soon. Because she was in desperate need for a girls day. And sure Lydia could ask Stiles to the movies, and yeah they'd hung out at his house sometimes playing some MMORPG because Lydia could totally be an online gamer, or they'd go out for lunch, but Lydia knew there was a line. And she couldn't ask Stiles to go with her to get her nails done, and she couldn't take him shopping. At least not unless there was more involved and since he wasn't her boyfriend she didn't ask.

---

"So it's going to be same as last time. We're just going to work on breathing and make sure you stay in control at all times. But well Scott actually broke my punching bag when he was in here the other day and I haven't had time to get a new one. So I'll be the punching bag," Derek told her feeling like maybe hand to hand sparring would be better than a punching bag anyways. He didn't really know after all the punching bag had worked for others, but that didn't mean it worked for everyone. "So I hope you're still ready,"

"Anytime. You know it." Stiles flashed the red head a smile as he headed towards the snacks counter. If he was being honest, he was absolutely loving all the time he was spending with Lydia. Since Jackson left for London, and Alison went off to god knows where, she'd been spending a lot more time with him and, although he knew that this could very well just be temporary, he wasn't going to concentrate on that. All that really mattered to him was that he got to spend all this time with Lydia. He had, after all, been in love with her for the longest time.

---

Raising her brows, Ali let out a soft laugh. "Wait. You want me to basically let it all out on you?" The idea was tempting, of course. But Derek was never to blame for her turning into whatever it is that she was. "That sounds very tempting, you know. But it also sounds like a damn trap. A free pass to punch it all out on the pack leader? What's the catch, Derek?"

Lydia smiled at Stiles just happy she had someone to spend her time with. Honestly, this summer wasn't what she'd been expecting. There were things she was still a little confused on, like how had she been attacked by a werewolf and lived, not only lived but come out unaffected maybe. She hadn't turned into a werewolf or a kanima like Jackson had, but she also knew that neither Scott nor Deaton knew the answer she wanted, because she'd already asked them both. And even if she had been affected by the werewolf bite and maybe it just hadn't started to show for whatever reason yet, hanging around Stiles was nice because it kind of made her forget about everything else. He was just a human so being around him was easy and didn't remind her all the time that maybe there was something going on with her that she just hadn't figured out yet.

---

Derek nodded his head, "that's exactly what I want," he told her knowing that it wasn't his usual way of going about things but it never hurt to change things up a little. "There's no catch. Scott broke my punching bag and I haven't had time to get a new one. And I can't let you not train with a full moon so close, so we're going to try something a little different today, so are you ready?" He asked her knowing it sounded like a trap, but it really wasn't.

Grabbing the rather large tub of popcorn, Stiles nodded towards Lydia, leading her into the movie theatre. He let her choose the seats, of course. It was the gentlemanly thing to do and, once they were seated, he placed the popcorn between them. He could tell something was on the redhead's mind but, for now, he was sure it could wait. She'd wanted to watch the movie and he didn't want to distract her from it to ask her about whatever it was that was troubling her. He did enjoy hanging out with her and the last thing he wanted was to remind her of whatever it was that was bugging her, lest she changed her mind about hanging out with him.

---

With a shrug of her shoulders, Ali nodded her head. Flexing her shoulders then, she raised both her arms, balancing her stance as she flashed her alpha a grin. "I'm always ready to punch something, Derek. You should know that by now. Honestly. Do you not know me at all?"

Lydia pushed the bad thoughts aside as they walked into the theater. She didn't want to end up dwelling on the bad while she was with Stiles because honestly, he was the one person she could be around and feel normal again. And she wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. So she sat in silence munching on the popcorn throughout the movie glad that she'd picked it once it was over because it had been a beautiful story. Like she'd thought it would be.

"That was such a lovely movie. Lovelier than the Notebook and that's always been my favorite romance movie," Lydia told Stiles with a soft sigh. If there was one thing in life that Lydia would always enjoy it was a good love story. Of course, now that the movie was over though she wasn't sure what they could do now, but surely they'd think of something.

---

Derek cracked his knuckles and his neck just to prepare himself for what was about to happen. He knew what he'd signed up for, he was about to let his newest beta use him as a punching bag. Which he knew it needed to be done because she needed to train, plus he was sure she had some pent up anger she needed to let out, especially before the full moon. He just hoped it wasn't more than he could handle. After all, she wasn't his only beta, nor was weak so he knew this situation could go south quickly. But he'd deal with that if he needed to. "Let's see what you got then," he finally said motioning for her to start.

"That was a good movie, yeah." Stiles murmured, a smile forming on his face. Not that he remembered much of it. He was too focused on the fact that he was at the movies with Lydia Martin. He was also focused on the fact that Lydia was a little too into the movie. He'd watched movies with the redhead before and she almost always had something to say about the movie they were watching. He wanted to ask her what was wrong but, he figured, that could wait for a little while longer.

---

With her eyebrows still raised, Ali moved forward, her arm swinging out to hit Derek in his gut. She didn't put enough force in though. She was stronger, for now, and she knew it and the last thing she wanted was to seriously injure her Alpha, even though she knew he'd heal fast enough. The grin on her face had faded as a look of concentration took over her features.

"I agree," Lydia said with a smile positive she hadn't actually enjoyed a movie so much in awhile. "What should we do now that the movies over, though?" She asked him wondering if he'd made plans with Scott of if they were free to hang out a while longer, only if he wanted to of course because as much as Lydia craved human contact and almost needed someone to hang around she wasn't going to force someone to hang out with her. And it came back to the whole they weren't dating so he was free to hang out with other people if he wanted. Of course, he'd be free to hang out with other people even if they were dating, because she didn't control him.

---

Derek had agreed to be a punching bag, and while he did plan on blocking some of her hits, and possibly even hitting back, though maybe not with all his force since he didn't want to actually hurt her, he was going to wait a while for that. Because well this was all about training and the first part was going to be about her letting out some of her stress in the form of well, aggression. "You can give me all you've got. You're not going to hurt me," Derek told her knowing that maybe her punches would sting a little, and maybe she'd even break a bone or two, but he'd heal almost as quickly as she hurt him so in the end he'd be fine.

Stiles shrugged his shoulders at the red head's question. He honestly didn't know what next. It wasn't like he'd made plans with Scott or something. Plus, Scott was busy dealing with Werewolf stuff with Derek, he was sure. He had, of course, made his mind up to spend time with Lydia, if she wanted to, of course. "That's up to you. I don't really have any ideas so if you're up to doing something, I'm game."

---

With a shrug of her shoulders at his words, the brunette swung at him, a soft grin forming on her face. It wasn't that she was enjoying beating up the Alpha. It was just that she hadn't gotten around to letting out her frustration. She'd been in town for a while now and though she'd been with Derek's pack for as long as that, she still couldn't be as brash as she used to be, not since she got bitten anyway.