Forever and Always (Sciles)

Kara POV

It's about nine at night and I'm sitting in the living room, reading over a chapter of a chemistry text book that my teacher assigned us to read tonight when I hear someone entering the house, their footsteps loud. I glance up from my book to see Stiles walking past, and he definitely looks weary.

"Hey, Stiles. Where have you been?" I ask cheerfully. Stiles stops in his tracks, turns around and then starts to walk into the living room, giving me a light smile.

"Hey Kara. Sorry I'm late. I was at Scott's. I wasn't planning on going there after school today, but after the whole fight thing, I needed to get cleaned up because there was blood everywhere and-" Stiles begins, but I interrupt him quickly.

"Woah, woah, woah! Slow down! You got into a fight? And you were bleeding?!" I ask in shock as I scramble to my feet and rush over to Stiles, looking him over, even though it's clear that any previous injuries he had would have been healed with water by now.

"Um, yeah. It happened at lacrosse. These three guys came up to me and started harassing me about being a merman, and they started getting on my nerves. I'll admit that I landed the first punch, but I think the lacrosse guys got the last punch, both physically and emotionally. It hit me hard, but I'm okay now. You know that I can heal easily with water, so the scars, cuts and bruises fade away quickly. Broken bones mend themselves. Scott and Coach came and got the guys off me anyway." Stiles shrugs in response and he rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.  I can guess that he feels embarrassed talking about this.

"Oh, Stiles, I'm really sorry. That's not fair, you don't deserve that crap." I apologize as I hurriedly pull Stiles into a tight, comforting hug. I feel Stiles' arms wrap around me in response almost immediately.

"It's okay, Kara. It's not your fault. It's not like you could've done anything to prevent it or provoke it." Stiles responds as he continues to hug me.

"I know, but ugh. It's just frustrating. You don't deserve to be treated like that. You saved their lives. More than once, might I add. It's a pretty crappy way of saying 'thank you'." I tell Stiles as I pull out of the hug and eye him with concern again.

"Oh well, that's their problem then." Stiles shrugs.

"Yeah, it is. I'm glad that Coach helped you out. I'm honestly surprised by that." I comment with a small smirk, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Yeah, me too. Scott was as well." Stiles laughs in response, shaking his head in amusement.

"Coach got really angry, actually. More angry than Scott did. Well, at least on the outside, anyway. I could tell Scott was trying to keep his emotions in check and was focusing on making sure that I was okay, but deep down and internally, I knew Scott was angry at the guys who kind of beat me up." Stiles adds.

"Well, I'm angry at them too." I huff in annoyance, disappointed that some people can be so ignorant to those who are different than them and just plain stupid.

"Don't worry about it, Kara. They're not worth the worry. Where's Ben, anyway?" Stiles asks, looking around the place in curiosity.

"I think he said he was going over to Lydia's place to study... Again. Although I don't really know what he would be studying, since he doesn't go to school here." I shrug, and I notice Stiles smirking and rolling his eyes at my comment.

"What?" I ask in confusion.

"Oh, Ben probably is studying, but I don't think he's studying any books or schoolwork." Stiles explains for me.

"Oh. Right." I laugh in response, feeling silly for not seeing it sooner. It is kind of obvious that Ben and Lydia have some kind of crush on each other. They're not very good at hiding it. Or the rest of us just like to jump to conclusions. It's probably a bit of both of those things, I'd say. I'd also say that not many people are good at hiding crushes, especially if feelings continue to develop more. However, it seems that the people involved are always the most oblivious. Ironic, considering they are the ones that are most desperately wanting the relationship to work.