ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ ɪs ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴜɴɪᴠᴇʀsᴀʟ ᴛʜᴀɴ ʟɪғᴇ. ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ᴅɪᴇs, ʙᴜᴛ ɴᴏᴛ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ʟɪᴠᴇs.

[tramplemain]

ꫀꪜꫀꪹꪗꪮ᭢ꫀ ꪶỉꪜꫀక

1 - kol when he finds out why kieran proposed this experiment.
2 - anything with the heirs prior to David getting possessed.
3 - allison and lydia post nogitsune
4 - shep's early days in the underground
5 - bela and elijah's jet setting adventures
6 - oliver and laurel getting together
7 - rebekah and doc, first meeting
8 - derek and hayley, date night
9 - alice and doc, attempts to bond
10 - faith and mia, training montage
11 - That is a very long story involving a psychic and a circus in South Florida. Sweets.

Comments

3.

[matriarchate]

Allison worries that Lydia will be held back if she spends any longer in Paris with her. She also knows there is no chance of that happening. She knows her best friend is a genius. She also know Lydia screamed for her. She can't find an equivalent to what that would even feel like. Maybe it feels like the sword that ran through her. Eyes half-lidded, in and out of consciousness, she laid there, collapsed in her ex's arms. Embarrassing. For a girl and for a hunter, for clarification.

Lydia changes all her plans and takes one of her final exams on a plane. She aces it. Of course she aces it.

It's after a very pleasant late afternoon tea when Allison manages to get Lydia alone on a walk back to her father's apartment. Isaac has fallen in with the local werewolves and to nobody's surprise, their romance fizzled completely during her recovery. Whether it was Scott's last words, Allison's exhaustion, or purpose Isaac finally found. She hopes it's the third thing. She knows the first is a factor. She knows the second won't always be true.

"I can't say I get it," she finally manages to say as they overlook the Seine, the romantic wall of locks behind them. "And I don't blame you and I love you being here. You are the best friend I've ever had. Seriously. But, you have a life to get back to. Junior year is still there. And then senior year, and maybe Aiden-"

"Don't-" Lydia cautions, holding up a gloved hand. "Finish that sentence." Allison smiles. She deserves that. "It's not that I think you're not fully recovered. Or, that the Nogitsune is going to come back -" Even though, they always come back, she thinks. Peter Hale. She can't form the words and so she looks away.

"Goodbyes are hard."

Lydia doesn't say anything.

"You know this isn't goodbye, right?"

She doesn't mean to ask it like that, but it triggers something. A rogue tear escapes her friend's eye. She wipes it away quickly but doesn't temper her response.

"But it almost was, Allison." Her tone is harsh. Her words are clipped. Like Allison realized this wasn't easy for Lydia, but never actually acknowledged it. "I'm tired of feeling dread for events I can't stop. Jennifer Blake cut a swath through our school and bewitched Derek Hale. All because I was something."

Allison's expression turns more sympathetic, because she forgot her friend's pain in all of this.

"And then, I'm the only one who's able to pull Stiles out almost, but not fully, and then." She wipes another tear and sighs, finally turning to face her. "Every bone in my body thought it was goodbye. It took them three days to get through to me. To convince me you weren't dead and then I saw you lying there." She grimaces. "In the hospital."

"Lydia," she says again, taking one of her hands. "If you hadn't have screamed maybe it would've been goodbye, but it wasn't. I'm in Paris. Isaac's in Paris. You're in Paris, even though you should be in Beacon Hills." She smiles. "And you have no idea how grateful I am to have you here. But, I transitioned. I recovered. I know I'm not there and I know you also know why I can't go back." Why her father won't and she's not pushing him to. "We're friends forever. I'll buy a lock. I swear. We should buy a lock and write our initials and we'll end up on some random --"

Lydia laughs.

"I don't need a lock. I just - need something you can't give me."

To know Allison is safe. And Allison sees that in Lydia's eyes. But she can't guarantee it either.

They do a buy a lock, but not for their friendship, for the people lost in Beacon Hills. For the victims in that motel. For the survivors who have to find a way to get buy. They really just write "Beacon Hills," but it's very demonstrative. Like their friendship.

Lydia stays two more days. They hold their goodbye hug in the drop-offs of the Charles De Gaulle. It lasts two minutes and thirty-two seconds. Not the two days and thirty two hours she spent catatonic.

They stretch out their time from then on. Three day trips always become three weeks.

Neither would have it any other way.