Lightning of Her Skin

So he didn't know how it happened but somehow Stiles and Sophia ended up sitting in his jeep, outside her house arguing over which was more effective during a raid, the 5 dexterity Deathdealer's vest or the 5 strength Stormforged vest. It had turned out they were both part of the same online game that battled mythical creatures.

Actually, he knew how it had happened. Feeling much lighter than he had done in forever Stiles had taken to his jeep after school, leaving Scott and Allison wondering why he was so happy. He bet if anyone else cared and 'knew' their minds would race and connect fake dots on if it was something to do with the pack or not. Why was he arguing with Scott? Why was he so happy away from Scott? Well, this time round it was Stiles who could have the secret. He was keeping everyone else's and now it was time to have one of his own. Even if it didn't last very long. Hopefully she might be seen talking to him in school or something. Maybe, just maybe she'd be okay with that despite the fact that could just be because she didn't care about the social ladder just yet.

“The sun rises as you walk away from all the fears and faults you left behind.” He sang off-key as he part-danced, part-shuffled to his car. Mumford and Sons were generally pretty much an 'Autumn' band but today called for a summer song. Just as he opened the door to his car however, the woman who had put him in this good mood walked past with all of her books in her arms.

“Wow. Someone really can't sing.” She laughed, but not at him which was also nice. Wasn't she just an over-abundance of nice right now. That's good. Nice is what he needed. After having his heart stomped all over he required a bit of tenderness.

“I have many other talents.” He mock-bowed to her with one hand as the other awkwardly tried to shove all of his lacrosse gear in to the passenger seat of his car. It refused to comply with his demands and rebelled by falling out again. He shot her a smile as he swooped down to pick it all back up. And there Sophie was again, kneeling beside him with that smile. The nice smile that made him feel all relaxed in her presence, even to allow him to spill out his guts. When he wasn't feeling totally nervous of course.

“Tell me, do those talents include saving some stranded maidens?” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she glance up at him with an apologetic expression, “it's just that my cousin's left me a little stranded is all. And at the moment you're the only person who I know...”
“Maidens? As in plural?” There was a hint of panic to his tone. Let more than one girl in his jeep when he hadn't cleaned it of all his... man things? Oh God. Let her in to his manly jeep of man things? He swallowed hard.

“Oh no. Just me. Sorry. Sorry, I shouldn't have asked. I'll just walk. You know what, it's fine.” With a faint blush and another apologetic bob of the head Sophia pushed his lacrosse gear in to his arms, picked up the books she'd placed on the hood of the jeep to help him and began walking off. Stiles was pretty sure that she had no idea where she was going. Cursing his slow reactions, he yanked open the boot and shoved his stuff in, giving them a telling off and flailing slightly. Then he jumped in the front and casually rolled up beside her with his arm hanging out the window. Oh God he looked like he was pretending to be some kind of weird gangster thing. Was there ever going to be a time in his life when he didn't think he was constantly embarrassing himself?

“Sorry about that.” What was it with apologising today? “I just had a... moment. Yeah, so hop in and I'll take you wherever you need.” As Sophia hurried around to the passenger seat Stiles mentally cursed himself for being so dull. She got in, Stiles noting the way her bare legs moved against each other as her floral dress got a little caught on the seat. He have a lot of distracting stuff going on but he was still a seventeen year old guy okay. She said the address and he pulled away from the school wholly excited to have some new company.

“So... Sophia... you're related to Danny?” He asked awkwardly tapping a beat out on his steering wheel after about a minutes silence.

“Yeah.” She sounded relieved to have some conversation topic between them, “he's my cousin. I just moved here from the UK and came to stay with them. Hopefully until university at least.”

“College.”

“What?”

“Over here, university is called college. If you're here might as well catch you up with the slang.” He shot a grin at her, hoping she wouldn't find him too rude for correcting her. It was an automatic reaction because he had to correct Scott all the time. Despite all the naysayers (read: Mr. Harris as top of the few) Stiles had smarts, he just needed to apply them to actual school. Sophia nodded with an easy smile before promptly turning to stare out the window. Her eyes darted all over the window as if memorising the route he was taking, memorising the town for future use. There was another minute of silence.

“So...” And of course Stiles had to fill it again, “what do you do for fun?” He winced. He resisted the urge to hit his head against the steering wheel.

“I read a lot I guess. Books, comics, pamphlets. You name it, I read it. Oh and God this is kind of embarrassing but I might as well get it out of the way, so you know what you're getting in for...”
And so Stiles found out that Sophia was rather secretly an MMORPG gaming nerd and was, in fact, a member of the same MMO that he was. For the next ten minutes they discussed the game excitedly. For the ten minutes after that the discussion became a light-hearted argument over raids, classes and certain servers. They'd sat outside her house for about half an hour before Danny knocked on the window, causing them both to jump. Stiles let out an inelegant noise from the back of the throat.

“I see you've met my cousin...” The tone was a little threatening, which was weird for Danny. Sophia rolled her eyes and hopped out of the car.

“Yeah okay. Now you've done the overprotective family member routine you can go inside. I'll come in now.” It took a moment but Danny gave a curt nod. Jokingly, or at least Stiles hoped it was jokingly, he put two fingers to his eyes and then swished them around at Stiles in the universal 'I'm-watching-you' signal. Another eye roll later and Sophia's attention was back on the awkward sixteen year old in the driver's seat, “so send me a tell in-game. I might need your help for a Quest down in the Deep Elm Mine.”

What might sound as complete jargon to others was a total turn on for Stiles. He was gonna need a minute after this. Also, another minute to resign himself to another hopeless love and build up another ten year plan.

“Oh and Stiles?” Sophia called back when she was at the door of her house, “I really do like ice cream. Just a hint.”

Five minutes. Make that five minutes.