A Coward 'Till The End, Lies.

L-I-E-S

xXx

The first few months of uni was interesting to say the least.

If there's a God, and Stiles isnt sure anymore due to all the werewolves and shit, but anyway, if there's a God then he clearly has a sick sense of humor and obviously has it out for Stiles.

The university screwed up her dorm room.

They thought Genim 'Stiles' Stilinski was a boy and wahlah! Stiles was now living in the boys dorms, sharing a double room with, yep you guessed it, a boy! How was this her life?

Now normally it wouldnt have bothered Stiles that much after all she'd always found boys way easier to be friends with then girls, but now, now she was heartbroken and pregnant and had a life which involved freaking werewolves and of course it was just her luck that her roommate wasnt just any boy, nuhuh.

Alex 'Call Me Xander' Winchester was the living breathing embodiment of hotness.

God kill me now.

What was even more annoying was that they'd clicked like they'd known eachother for years. In three short weeks he knew things about her she'd never told anyone, not even Scott.

Xander was slightly older than Stiles at 21, he'd taken a gap year, well two, to travel around europe with his best friend Jackariah 'Never call him Jack, his face is too funny when you use his given name, trust me!' Dawson.
He and Stiles were studying pretty much all the same subjects like, Myths and Folk Law and English language and literature, the only difference in their schedules being that Xander was taking music/music tech and Stiles was studying Computers. (Well studying was a loose term, she was pretty much coasting through the class considering that she could hack anything from the age of ten and probably knew more about computers than the professor did).

It was the easiest friendship Stiles had ever known, within the first four days of knowing eachother Xander was introducing her to his mates and even his mum via skype. They bonded over a joint love of super heroes, bad take away and a love for anything supernatural.

Xander was cool and chilled and prone to moments of complete lunacy that normally involved climbing things, drop kicking water dispencers or dressing up like a girl and trying to get free drinks from frat boys.

He was an absolute riot whilst still being caring and open and honest and smart.

Sometimes he was a little bit too smart and tuned in for Stiles' liking.

He saw things noone else could, noticed things other people over looked and he never did what Stiles was expecting, like for example when Lydia visited for the first time; Stiles had figured Xander would be drooling all over the red head like every other guy she'd ever known but instead he'd just asked her all about her courses and her life back home and how she'd met Stiles and if she had any embarassing stories about Stiles.

Obviously most of Lydia's answers we're edited, anything werewolf related was left out but Lydia was an amazing liar and there was no way Xander would notice.

Except, he did.

Stupid empathetic man.

"Sooo, your friend um, Lydia?"

Stiles glanced up from where she was laying on her bed reading to see Xander leaning against their doorframe, trying to look nonchaluant but failing, brown eyes wide and faux innocent.

Stiles scoffed internally, she was the Queen of Puppy Dog Eyes, compared to her Xander was an amature.

"What about her?" She asked, tilting her head to one side and sliding her book mark between the crisp white pages of Witches Of Salem.

Xander bit his lip, worrying it between perfect pearly teeth, "She errr, well, its just that, i know she was lying a lot when she was here and err, she treats you sortof weird, like you're, i dont know, fragile or something and erm..." Xander trailed off shuffling unsurely on his feet before crossing the room to sit right next to Stiles suprising her by taking both her hands in his.

"Ermm Xan, what are you?"

"Look," Uhoh, he was using his no nonsence tone, Xander was rarely serious but when he was Stiles knew better than to interrupt him, "We've known eachother three months now and i know thats not very long and i know its none of my buisness and that i know nothing of your situation back home but i consider you one of my best mates and thats really strange for me because the only proper mate i have is Jack and ive known him for like fifteen years, the boys practically my brother, but i feel like ive known you my whole life too and i care about you so i want you to know that im here for you and you can count on me to help in any way i can, that is if you want me too."

Stiles stared at Xander like he'd grown a second head but he just continued to just sit there, holding her hands, staring her down with the strangest glint in his honey coloured eyes.

"Im, im not quite sure i know what youre talking about?" Stiles answered after a moment, her heart slapping against her rib cage like a fish out of water, shit! Why was he so insightful.

Xander's face softened and his trademark crooked smile lit up his eyes.

"You're pregnant arent you?"

Stiles winced before nodding gently, just a slight twitch of her head, how the hell did he?

Xander didnt even give her time to ask before he was answering her inner monolgue.

"Lydia treats you like something precious, and you sometimes rest your hand on your stomach with this dreamy look on your face and your dad and Lydia ring you like every night and even if you are incredibly close to people, three or four phone calls a days a little excessive unless said person is ill or dying or y'know, expecting."

He looks embaressed, his tanned cheeks flushed slightly and his hand is twitching around her own, desperate to cade through his hair in the way he always does when he's nervous.

Stiles isnt sure how to react. She'd never had a 'male friend' like Xander before.

Scott was like her brother, plain and simple. They were siblings, theyd fight one day and all would be forgiven the next, theyd grown up together everything had always and would always be platonic between them.

She and Jackson had never really been mates before they were pack, their entire relationship consisted of making sarcastic comments at each other and staying well out of eachothers ways unless they were playing sports.

Derek was the only guy shed ever felt anything, romantic for, they connected in a way she hadnt known was possible, she loved him from a deep unknown place way down in her chest that noone had even come close to reaching. They orbited eachother, two people so insainly differnet that they completed eachother. She thought they were mates, meant to be together.

Xander was dangerous, they'd gotten so close in such a short amount of time. She was well on her way to loving him as a best friend but... As something more? She didnt feel for him like she did anyone else, it was completely new and that was terrifying to Stiles. Maybe if...

"I erm, I gathered the dad isnt around because you never mention a boyfriend or anything like that and Lydia talks about certain people without using names and..." Xander suddenly looks angry for a second before he schools his features into a look of determination.

Stiles is still too shocked to speak and this has to be a record for the longest amout of time she hasnt spoken in, but everytime she thinks she has her head wrapped around Xander he goes and renders her speachless again! It must be some kind of super power, huh, if Scott and Jackson knew that Xander could make her silent they'd ask to bottle his essense or some shit and oh god Stiles focus he's still talking.

"My dad walked out on my family when i was a kid and it was so rough on my mum trying to raise me and my sister alone... I'd hate to see that happen here, i mean dont get me wrong, youre," he pauses to smile softly and Stiles is pretty sure she looks like a total moron just staring at him but seriously!? "you're incredible Stiles and im sure you'll be an amazing mum but just, if you need me or want me around, i'd really like to help you... Y'know, raise this kid as a ermm, a couple?" Stiles blinks, just fucking blinks, where are her words and how can she use them?!

"Oh crap! Not like this is a marriage proposal or, I mean, I errr,"

Stiles suddenly giggled, feeling slightly cracked, at the bright red spreading across his cheeks and down his throat as he started word vomiting almost as bad as Stiles normally did before putting him out of his misery.

"Thats, thats actually the nicest thing anyones ever said to me." She finally manages to choke out around her laughter.

"Wha, oh, really?" he asks big brown eyes wide and hopefull and Stiles couldnt stop the grin stretching her face if she tried.

"Yeah, erm, I have my twelve week scan this weekend, my dad and Lydia are coming with me but, if you'd like, well, you can come too? If youre serious about this i mean?"

Xander nodded enthusiastically before pulling Stiles into a hug, she grinned into his shoulder feeling giddy. The black cloud over her head was shrinking rapidly, pfft who needed Derek Hale too be happy. If Derek couldnt see a good thing when it was in front of him then that was his problem, Xander was a happy future served up on a silver plate and Stiles would be damned if she let it slip through her fingers.

"So im thinking if its a boy im naming him Jarvis."

"Okay, i'm seriously rethinking the amazing mother comment now."

"Oh shhh, you know its awesome!"

"The first thing im doing is buying you a baby name book, i swear to god!"

xXx 2 Weeks earlier xXx

"Hey Derek, i wasnt expecting to see you this week." Lydia greeted her Alpha with a grin stepping to one side to let him into her flat.

Derek surveyed her apartment, all top of the line appliances and chrome, it looked like something out of the pages of a home improvement magazine, compared to the tiny dorm room he was living in at UCLA it was a mansion.

"Yeah, well Scott and Alison have their two year anniversary this weekend and there's nothing i want to see less than those two going at it like bunnies, they both stink like theyve been rolling in pheromones."

Lydia cringed as she lead Derek through her kitchen and into the her lounge where he threw himself down on her three seater leather couch with a groan.

"Ugh it should be illegal how uncomfortable dorm room beds are."

Lydia chuckled lifting Dereks head up so she could sit with his head in her lap.

His stubble was seriously close to being an actual beard, his hair was long and disheveled and he had dark circles under his eyes, in short, he looked like shit.

"You're stressed."
It wasnt a question, out of all the wolves Lydia could sense things better than any of them sometimes even surpasing Derek, it made him think that somewhere back in her family tree there must have been wolves.

"Mmhmm."

Lydia shook her head affectionately and began to cade her fingers through his messy black hair.

"What's bothering you?"

Hazel eyes fluttered open warily meeting blue before closing again.

"Things."

Lydia let out a huff of annoyance, cuffing his head softly.

"I know you're lying, werewolf remember? Pretty sure it was you who turned me."

Derek stayed silent his lips quirking slightly at the corners.

"Oh for gods sake Derek, I know youre missing Stiles, I know you're dying to ask how she is, i know you went straight for this sofa and not the other one because Stiles practically lived on this sofa when she was here last weekend and her scent is all over it and i know you lied when you told her she wasnt youre mate."

Not a word. Not even a twitch of his eyebrows.

Lydia sighed and brushed his fringe out of his eyes.

"Whats going on with you Alpha, why are you making yourself miserable huh?" her tone was soothing as if she was talking to a child and in that moment she reminded Derek so much of Laura that his heart panged.

"She deserves better Lyds, she deserves so much better than me."

Lydia's wolf keened in her throat as she resumes combing his hair with her fingers, she couldnt stand seeing Stiles upset but her wolf could literally feel Dereks pain, wanted to do anything to make him feel better.

Lydia bit her tongue, she'd made Stiles a promise and she wasnt gonna break it.

They sat in silence until Dereks breathing evened out signaling he was asleep.

"Silly man, you deserve Stiles more than anyone."