The Odd Pairs
word count: 4722
It had only been a day since Juno kissed Stiles, yet she could still feel him linger on her lips. The intense feeling of overwhelming euphoria was still in her body. A part of her swore that she could still smell his blood around her.
But these feelings would fade quickly when she realised that he was locked away in a mental institution. Even at his own will, she was still concerned for his well-being; there was always a history of abuse in places like Eichen House.
To keep her mind occupied from Stiles, she sat on the furry pink rug spread in Lydia's bedroom. While Stiles was gone, Juno was tired of holding back her apology for shutting out Lydia after what had happened a while ago, no matter how many times Scott told Juno that she didn't need to. Lydia was more than happy knowing that Juno wanted full closure rather than to act normal without a word; it made her respect her far more, and she welcomed her back fully into her life with welcome arms.
Lydia held onto Juno's hand gently as she carefully stroked bright pink polish along each of her fingernails. Allison was laying on the ground; her dark curls sprawled around her as she vocalised all of her feelings for Isaac. Juno really loved listening to Allison talk about what had been going on with her life. It felt relieving to just sit and listen to others, since Juno had felt she had been doing all the talking lately. It was especially relieving to have Allison voice her feelings about Isaac, because it gave Juno a break from being bombarded with questions about her kiss with Stiles.
"I say go for it," Lydia shrugged, painting Juno's pinky finger. "You two hit it off at the party and since then it's just been awkward city."
Allison shut her eyes tight and groaned, finding every possible reason to protest, and all sorts of excuses as to why it wouldn't work.
"If you protest so much then do you really like him that much?" Juno asked. Lydia raised her eyebrows, and Allison sat up slightly to look at Juno, her expression unreadable.
"I do I just-" Allison began defensively, but then her face fell as she looked down. She laid back down on the ground and stared up at the ceiling. "No you're right Juno, if I really did like him I wouldn't come up with so many excuses..."
Lydia tried to hide the smirk fighting to appear on her face, "so, you'll go for it?"
Juno and Lydia both grinned as they watched Allison nod her head then let out a deep sigh. Lydia mouthed 'nice one' to Juno before continuing to paint her nails. Juno was worried that perhaps she had come off too harsh, but it was the truth that Allison needed to hear. If Allison really did have feelings for Isaac, there was no use listing all the reasons why she shouldn't, unless she didn't have true feelings for him at all and just wanted to avoid it.
"What about you Juno," Lydia hummed, "you don't seem to be following your own wise advice," she teased.
"Oh we're back onto him are we?"
"You two kissed and you act like nothing happened, of course we're back on that!" Allison chimed. "You've had this built up tension for months and he finally makes a move and you two didn't even make anything official."
Juno shrugged, "it's not like I can march up to Eichen House and demand him to put a label on our relationship right this second," Juno laughed.
"He really picked a great time to kiss you huh," Allison scoffed, "right before he goes away to a mental institution when he doesn't need to be there. If a guy I liked did that to me I'd be hung up about him and on edge constantly."
Juno hummed in agreement. It was strange to feel so invested in a boy; she never imagined there would be a day where she would act like a regular seventeen year old and have her nails being painted a pretty pink colour while gossipping about boys. She wasn't quite sure what to think of the situation; she loved talking with Lydia and Allison, but she felt like her very being was being driven by Stiles, and she hated feeling so weak and helpless, like she was waiting around for him.
"He doesn't want to hurt anyone, so it makes sense that he wants to be somewhere with high security," Juno brushed off, examining her nails that Lydia had just finished painting, smiling as she noticed they matched her trademark pink high top sneakers laying across the room.
"But he's hurting you," Lydia mumbled, twisting the cap on the nail polish as tightly as she could. There was a long string of silence. Juno knew she was right but she didn't think that her feelings being hurt outweighed the consequences of Stiles unknowingly harming others to the point where they may die.
Juno completely ignored the subject; thinking of Stiles too much began to make her hurt more, and more she began to grow selfish and agree with Lydia more and more. "Any special someone in your life, Lydia?" She asked.
Allison sat up from the ground and stared at Lydia with quizzical eyes. Lydia laughed and shook her head, not believing that the conversation was now turned around to her. Lydia understood that Juno didn't want to talk about Stiles, but she couldn't help but feel uneasy about him being locked away after his moment with Juno. She wasn't sure why, but something just told her that Juno was going to end up getting hurt by something other than just his absence alone.
"No I'm done with high school boys," Lydia sighed. Suddenly Lydia's bored expression turned to one of interest, straightening her posture as she raised an eye at Juno. "How old is your brother by the way?" She asked.
Allison began to giggle, covering her mouth as she held back full laughter noticing Juno's expression of pure horror.
"He's literally been alive for over a millennium, Lydia..."
"Yeah but you're seventeen while also being centuries old," Lydia laughed.
"Twenty one," Juno answered. Lydia and Allison eyed each other, both of them grinning uncontrollably. Juno narrowed her eyes at the two girls, knowing well what they were thinking.
"Not bad. I totally dibs him," Lydia giggled. A range of profanities left Allison's lips as she began to whine that it wasn't fair while also throwing numerous pillows as hard as she could at Lydia. If Juno could blush, she would be bright red at what they were saying. Lydia noticed Juno's off look and only grinned. "What? He's gorgeous!"
Juno cringed, shaking her head before staring up at the ceiling as if she were in the middle of a prayer. "Christ why am I hearing this?" She muttered.
"But do I have your blessing?" Lydia asked between giggles. Out of the corner of her eye Juno saw Allison waving her arms around trying to tell Juno to say no, making a small smile appear on Juno's lips from her erraticness. Her smile however fell when she noticed Lydia's face, showing no signs of her joking like her tone of voice had implied. Instead, Lydia looked dead serious.
That was when Juno truly felt stuck. Hundreds of years, she watched her brother stay a lone wolf much like herself. He definitely socialised much more than she did, but he was never romantically involved with anyone. Cyrus would always tell her that he didn't see the point in romance as he would leave whoever he was with anyway to change their identities. He'd claim that it was a waste of time, and that he didn't want to break someone's heart by being emotionally invested in them and never seeing them again.
No matter how many excuses he would come up with, Juno knew that it wasn't other people's feelings he was afraid of, it was his own.
Even after hundreds of years, he was still heartbroken over Juno's sister.
"If you could manage to spark his interest, then you'd definitely have my blessing as I'd be so impressed you could do it," Juno shrugged.
Lydia frowned, "what's that supposed to mean?"
"Cyrus isn't the romantic type," Juno explained. "So if you could manage to get him to soften up, then I'd be more than happy to let you be with him," she answered honestly. Truly, Juno wanted Cyrus to be in love again, but she knew he was extremely stubborn and closed off. If Lydia could crack him, then Juno definitely wouldn't have a problem with Lydia grafting onto him.
However she wasn't going to admit that it would be slightly weird, at least not yet.
Lydia hummed, "well I always like a challenge," she shrugged. Allison groaned at the unfairness, while Juno rolled her eyes. The awkwardness she felt completely drifted away, since Juno knew Lydia's fantasies would never come true no matter how hard she tried.
Like clockwork, Juno heard Lydia's doorbell ring. Looking up at the clock on Lydia's wall, Juno knew it had to be her brother, which is why Lydia's sudden sprint to the front door didn't take her by surprise while Allison clutched onto her chest from the jumpscare.
"That's my queue," Juno sighed, grabbing her things and quickly putting her shoes back on. "You coming down or are you going to let Lydia hog my brother?" Juno teased. Allison's pale cheeks had a slight tinge of rosiness to them as she got up on her feet in under a second. Juno couldn't fight the eye roll as she left Lydia's room to go to the front door, and what she saw in the door frame made her freeze in shock.
Cyrus was smiling, no, grinning, at someone that wasn't herself.
She could have sworn she saw a glimpse of gold appear in his eyes, meaning he was fighting back and urge. She noticed his hand leaning on the doorframe, his knuckles pure white as he gripped onto the frame of the door for dear life. A brief wash of gold appeared in his eyes again as Lydia kept talking to him. To Lydia and Allison, the scene before them just looked like Juno's older brother leaning against the doorframe, trying to seem suave.
But in actuality, Cyrus was fighting every urge in his body not to kill Lydia to taste her blood.
The way he stood there, staring at Lydia with adoration as she was talking about who knows what, was all too familiar to Juno. It was as if she had seen this scenario play out before.
When Lydia flipped her hair, exposing her neck, Juno watched his grip on the doorframe become tighter. She quickly stepped in between the two. While she knew that Cyrus had more control over blood urges than her, and that he definitely wasn't making anything obvious to Lydia and Allison, Juno didn't want to risk anything.
"Thanks Lydia for having me over," Juno said breathlessly, ignoring Lydia's very obvious pout and Cyrus' nearly inaudible groan. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said quickly before shoving Cyrus away from the door towards his car. His sudden weakness around Lydia caused him to lose his balance slightly from Juno's strength, but he was quickly back to normal.
Lydia sighed, waving the two goodbye, but keeping her gaze on Cyrus, who too, was staring right back at her. Their eye contact broke when Allison rolled her eyes and closed the front door, but Cyrus still stared longingly at the front of Lydia's house.
Juno grabbed onto both of her brother's shoulders and began to shake him furiously, but he was still in a dizzy, dreamy like state. It wasn't until she slapped him across the face with all of her might did he snap out of his trance, hissing and holding onto his cheek to ease the pain.
"Juno what are you-"
"Don't ask me what I'm doing, what the fuck are you doing!?" Juno hissed, dragging a semi-weakened Cyrus to the car and pushing him into the door so he'd get in. Cyrus scowled at his little sister, not being used to her throwing him around and seeming so nasty all of a sudden. He got in the car and slammed the door shut. As soon as Juno closed the door on her side, Cyrus sped down the street.
"Do you mind explaining what that was back there?" Juno asked, unsure of how Cyrus could have had that blood attraction towards Lydia, when the two had briefly met before and he didn't show any of the signs he exhibited just moments ago.
Cyrus gripped the steering wheel so tight it began to mould to his grasp. "You're smarter than this Juno, don't make me spell it out for you," he spat. He was bitter at Juno. One, because she slapped him, and because Lydia's blood had him weak, it really was excruciating. Two, because never in centuries did he think he'd feel the things he felt currently, and Juno took it away from him after only mere seconds of remembering what it was like to long for someone.
"Don't you remember when you picked me up from Allison's? Lydia was there-"
"Connect the dots June," Cyrus sighed in annoyance. "How did you feel as soon as you walked into Allison's house?"
Juno furrowed her brow as she remembered when she first went to Allison's house with Lydia. Right when she walked in, she had to pretend she had allergies to not give away her Vampirism, due to the vase of wild roses.
That's when Juno sighed and sunk low in the car seat, finally understanding the unpredictability. She looked over at Cyrus who stared out onto the road. She wish she had his mind reading powers so she could truly know what he was thinking, as she noticed a hint of guilt on his face.
"Well, just know I slapped you to get you out of that dizzy state, it wasn't out of anger," Juno explained.
Cyrus' eyes glanced over to Juno shortly, before looking back onto the road. He didn't want her to easily read his expressions by looking right at her. His grip on the steering wheel loosened, causing him to curse under his breath as he noticed the dents his hands have caused.
He pulled up to the driveway of their home, but he didn't move and instead remained seated in the driver's seat. Juno could see that he was struggling to say something, as he parted his lips frequently, before closing them again and frowning. Normally, he was so good with his words, expressing his thoughts; it was the first time she had seen him unable to speak.
Cyrus sighed in frustration, hating that he couldn't formulate his thoughts into a sentence. While Lydia had blood that drove him crazy, there was something else about her that made Cyrus become immediately attached. When he came face to face with Lydia, seeing her hazel eyes stare up at him with deep red strands of hair framing her face, he immediately felt weak. He caught a glimpse of her when he and Juno were at Allison's, but since then he had been so busy that glimpse became a forgotten memory.
He tried to read her mind as she began spouting out her charm on him before Juno came to the door. This was where he immediately knew he became a lost cause, because he couldn't read her mind.
Along with her intense blood scent, and her eloquently spoken sentences, him not being able to read her mind made Cyrus more and more infatuated with her. Why he couldn't read her thoughts, he didn't know, but that's what made him need to know more about her, but Juno parted them before Cyrus could even obtain more than a flirty introduction and brief description of how Lydia was.
There was another thought in his mind that was begging to be expressed through words but Cyrus knew that he could never say it no matter how hard he tried. It was about Juno's sister, Diana. He had never encountered a blood scent as strong as Diana's until today. It had been so long since he had ever felt how he did when he properly met Lydia. A part of him almost felt a form of guilt, as if he had betrayed Diana in some way. The feeling of someone's blood being so powerful that it made you lose your balance was a distant memory to him, the feeling of longing for someone was most certainly forgotten.
He couldn't tell Juno that he as thinking of Diana, and how he was feeling guilty over feeling how he felt for Diana towards someone else. He wasn't sure how Juno would react upon her sister being brought up, since the two of them made a habit to hang onto tragedies and have them still hurt even if it's only slightly.
Instead, his mind wandered elsewhere. He thought about what he could do about Lydia. Of course, he couldn't actually be anything more with her, since she was only seventeen, and while Cyrus was technically over a thousand years old, to the law he was twenty one. He wasn't going to skew his morals just to satisfy his emotions; he never has put himself first in such a way, and never would. But also, he wondered how Juno truly felt; Lydia was her friend after all, surely she was uncomfortable with it?
"What do you think?" Cyrus began, "about this... situation?"
Juno didn't hesitate to answer. She knew what her thoughts were exactly, and how to get them out.
"You were looking at Lydia the same way you looked at her when you first met," Juno mumbled, afraid to say her sister's name in front of Cyrus. He closed his eyes, unsure of what to make of what Juno had said. "I'll admit, I was in shock since Lydia, Allison and I were literally talking about you moments ago, but all in all, I really have nothing but support for you."
Cyrus let out a deep breath. His eyes were glassy as tears threatened to fall, but he refused to let them. Hearing Juno tell him that him meeting Lydia reminded her of him meeting her sister was something he didn't expect, and he didn't exactly know how to absorb that. It only increased the amount of guilt he felt for Diana, as he remembered all those centuries ago that he vowed his life to her; he even told himself that he would find a way to become mortal for her.
Juno placed a hand on Cyrus' shoulder reassuringly. Though she couldn't read his mind, she knew how it worked better than anyone, so she knew the inner conflict he faced.
"Cyrus, she would have wanted this for you," Juno spoke softly. Cyrus scoffed, thinking that she was only trying to make him feel better, but the tightened grip on his shoulder and the menacing glare on Juno's face told him that she was telling the truth.
"Think about it. If you had to leave to change your identity, you would want her to find happiness in someone else wouldn't you?" Juno asked.
While Cyrus wouldn't have left Diana, he nodded, because if he had to, he would have wanted her to find someone new.
"For centuries you and I have been at each other's throats about breaking down our emotional barriers, and confiding in other people," Juno explained. "Don't you think it means something, that you and I have both found someone that makes us want to do that?"
Cyrus hummed, "it's definitely one hell of a coincidence."
"You've said to me that you're happy I found people that I open up to after all of these years, Cyrus, don't you think you deserve the same?"
Cyrus knew that Juno was right. For hundreds of years he urged her to make friends, open up after continuously living as an introvert, and when she finally did so he couldn't quite describe how delighted he was that the one he cared about most finally found happiness. However now it was time for him to do the same; to stop being accustomed to isolation and to open up to someone new. While he thought for a moment, wondering how he could suddenly just change his way of thought, he remembered how quickly Juno was able to open up.
He sighed in defeat, knowing that Juno had successfully gotten through to him.
After centuries of denying himself love, thinking he was unworthy, thinking he was betraying his first love, Cyrus knew that what he had found was unmissable. He was finally going to stop shutting people other than Juno out.
"Alright, I'll go through with it," he admitted, fighting the large grin on his face as the words left his lips. Juno's cheeks began to hurt as she grinned uncontrollably.
"In a year," Cyrus added, before getting out of the car.
Juno's eyes widened, scowling at Cyrus. "What? What do you mean in a year?" She called out angrily, wondering why Cyrus was stalling after she thought she had just gotten through to him.
"I'm not going to date a minor, June!" Cyrus whined before closing the car door. Juno huffed as she got out of the car. While she appreciated that he was respecting Lydia in that way, and he wasn't putting his emotions above morals, she hated that she was going to have to wait a year or so before seeing her brother be truly happy.
-
Allison and Juno were sitting at the back of their Chemistry class, waiting for it to begin. The two were giggling over a video on Allison's phone, until a tap on their desk interrupted them. Allison put her phone away at lightning speed and stopped her laughter immediately, thinking they were caught by a teacher while Juno was still fighting off giggles. The two looked up that the girl with long light brown hair and dark eyes, staring at them with a raised eyebrow. Juno managed to hide a disgusted facial expression as she could smell the lingering scent of wet dog radiate off of the girl, meaning she was Supernatural.
Allison's posture relaxed upon realising it wasn't a teacher, but her eyes widened slightly as she knew exactly who was standing before her; it was the coyote her and Scott managed to save, and convert back to human. What she was so shocked about, was that she was already in school, when she heard that Malia had been put into Eichen House.
She decided to ignore it, as she must have been discharged for whatever reason that wasn't her business.
"Hey, what's up?" Allison asked, no wanting to say Malia's name as she knew that Malia didn't know her.
"The guy at the front told me that you two know Stiles," Malia said, pointing to Danny who was quickly finishing his Chemistry homework before the teacher arrived.
Juno and Allison both nodded. "Yeah he's our friend, why?" Allison asked.
"This might sound dumb or whatever, but has he been let out of Eichen House?" Malia asked. Juno's face fell; she had been managing to not think about Stiles in Eichen House until now. Allison noticed her sunken expression, and continued to stay as the one talking to Malia.
"Oh..." Allison let out, not expecting that question from Malia. "No, he hasn't. I think he's still there for one more day," she answered. Malia nodded, thinning her lips as she was visibly unhappy with what Allison said.
Malia sat down at the empty science desk in front of them. Juno raised an eyebrow, completely confused about the girl in front of her. Juno noticed the teacher arrive into the classroom and got out her notebook and pen, beginning to write her notes for the lesson.
But staring at the back of the new girl's head, the burning question of how she knew Stiles, and why she would ask them such a question continued to invade her thoughts.
Juno leaned forward to tap Malia on the shoulder. Malia turned around quickly, and stared at Juno with a deadly stare.
"Sorry, but, how do you know Stiles?" Juno asked.
Malia's dark brown eyes pierced right into Juno's, her expression remaining completely blank.
"He's my boyfriend," she answered bluntly, before turning her attention to the front of the class.
Allison's jaw dropped, and her eyes widened at Malia's response. She looked over to Juno, who looked as if she was about to rip Malia's head off with her bare hands. She bit her bottom lip to prevent herself from screaming in pure anger, drawing blood from how hard she bit down. Her grip on her pen was so tight in broke in her grasp, the crack of the plastic echoing off of the walls, the blue ink staining her hand and pouring from her palm onto the table.
The loud crack of her pen caused the entire class to stare at Juno. Malia turned around and looked at her, her blunt expression turning to one of slight fear as she stared into Juno's hateful eyes. She watched tears roll down Juno's cheeks as she tried to control her breathing, and her urge to take down Malia right then and there.
Malia scowled at her, reacting to the threatening glare Juno sent through her tearful eyes, and flashed her bright, glowing blue eyes at Juno. This only angered Juno more, knowing that the girl had the nerve to try and threaten Juno with her eyes, making her launch at Malia. Juno only managed to pull at Malia's hair violently before Allison somehow managed to rip Juno off of her. Malia was crying out in pain, cursing Juno out as Allison dragged Juno out of the classroom. The teacher was yelling at Malia to calm down, while instructing Allison to make Juno to do the same before taking her to the principal's office.
Allison lead Juno to the bathroom, where Juno immediately pushed Allison off of her and fell to the ground, hugging her knees against the wall as she cried waterfalls. Allison sat down beside Juno, wrapping her arms around her and gently rubbing her back, trying not to cry herself as she found Juno's heartbroken sobs unbearable to listen to.
Juno felt like she spent hours on the bathroom floor crying in Allison's arms, but it had only been a few minutes. Juno began asking questions, wondering what was wrong with her, why would Stiles do one thing, but turn around and be with some other girl, and who that Malia even was to begin with.
"Juno? None of this is on you okay? You didn't do anything," Allison hummed, gently rubbing Juno's back as she hopelessly wiped her tears away and began sniffing uncontrollably. "We'll deal with this later when he comes back alright? But right now let's just ditch school, you can come back to my place and we can just forget boys all together."
Juno wanted to chuckle, but she couldn't. There was a level of anger rising in her that she had never felt before. This feeling of rage was completely new to her. Stiles kissing her, showing her that he really did reciprocate the feelings she had for him just over a day ago, only for Juno to discover that this mystery girl is in fact his girlfriend made Juno want to break something. The level of trust she had in him felt crushed; she felt used.
She wanted to do exactly what Allison had said: forget boys.
Forget Stiles Stilinski.
~
Told you guys the happiness wouldn't last long.
Anyway, ever since I created Cyrus in my mind I always thought what his dynamic would be like with Lydia. Since he's incredibly intelligent and quite guarded, and just thought of how he and Lydia would probably talk for hours on end about nothing, both of them being geniuses, they would be the only ones who truly understand what the other is talking about.
I hope you all aren't too mad at me for the Malia drama... but then again, your suffering brings me joy! Muahahaha. But of course, things will work out... but not for quite a while.
Hope you enjoyed xoxo