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The pack just kind of hangs out at the refurbished Hale house sometimes. Not collectively. Just come and go. It's like their spot. Way better than a table at the local Starbucks, anyways.
Stiles is lounging on the couch watching Steven Universe (hey, he can relate to the whole "horribly awkward magic human trouble finds him" thing) one afternoon when Lydia comes over.
She doesn't even bother knocking, just comes storming in and settles herself on the couch facing him. She opens her mouth to speak and he cuts her off with a finger against her mouth without even looking at her.
"Shhhh, Steven's fingers are cats!"
She rolls her eyes and turns off the tv.
"Heeeeyyy!" He protests, whipping around to glare at her.
"You've seen that episode, Stiles. Three times. Besides," she pauses, and smirks at him,"new Scientific American!" And she whips the magazine out from behind her back.
Stiles lights up in delight and claps his palms together.
"Yesss! Quantum or astro?" He grins excitedly.
"Quantum. Looks like they're a step closer to finding... Something. Help me make sense of it?"
Once a month Lydia and Stiles tag-team a Scientific American article until they both get it. Stiles knows his Feynman diagrams like nobody's goddamn business, thank you very much, and Lydia is perhaps the only person in the world who can explain the string theory math to him so he gets it.
This article's a lot harder than normal. It's been four hours and they're still working through the math proofs for quantum loops on Lydia's tablet and arguing loudly.
"But you just keep getting the infinities, Lyd! I just don't know how to work around them without-"
"You can't renormalize, Stiles, it's impossible, there's no math for it, you can't just-"
and that's when Derek Hale goes wandering past the couch with a Go-Gurt in his mouth and a huge-ass chimera claw covered in blood in his hand and looks down at them. Lydia trails off.
"You have to renormalize the model using baryons....." He mumbles around the yogurt, and he picks up the tablet, balancing it on the non-bloody part of his forearm and types with his other hand. Then he hands it back to Stiles and saunters off towards the kitchen.
Lydia and Stiles stare at him in shock.
"Is he high?!" Stiles whispers.
"Not sure." She hisses back.
Stiles looks down at the tablet and pales.
"Lydia."
"What?"
He just shakes his head.
"What is it, Stiles?"
"He.." Stiles croaks. "Lyd, he solved it."
"The proof?"
"The problem. The whole thing. It's....I've never seen anything like it. It's beautiful, Lyd."
"Let me see!" She snatches the tablet and her eyes go wide.
"It. Wow."
They look at each other in shock.
Stiles wonders if you can fall in love with someone through quark plasma.