Medieval AU where werewolf Scott and princess Lydia and human/spark Stiles and huntress Allison grew up as best friends, totally inseparable and mischievous those four were, always getting into trouble, but also always getting each other out of trouble so their parents didn’t really mind all that much
and eventually Scott becomes a knight and he’s Lydia’s bodyguard so their relationship kind of changes and they grow apart, even if they spend all day every day together, and he wants to tell her how much she means to him every single day, but it’s not proper, her being a princess and him being a knight, yes, but also a werewolf, it just wouldn’t be right for her to marry a werewolf, so he resigns himself to always being on the fringes of her life, keeping her safe but never belonging to her
but then her parents are assassinated so she becomes the youngest Queen Beacon Hills has ever had, making the kingdom vulnerable to outside threats and Scott, Allison, and Stiles are the only people she can trust and count on and they start investigating everyone in court to try to figure out who betrayed her parents and who is trying to usurp her
meanwhile Queen Talia from the next kingdom over sends her two eldest children, Laura and Derek, to kind of feel out what kind of Queen Lydia’s going to be (is she going to continue to waffle on the subject of equal rights for werewolves like her parents did, or is she going to be more progressive and equalize all of her citizens?) and also to see if she would be amenable to a political alliance via marriage to one of her children. (laura felt it was her duty as the eldest to offer herself up for this alliance, while derek offered himself as penance for endangering his family by giving his last paramour free reign in the castle, where she attempted to assassinate the entire royal family via a fire)
Laura figures out right away a hale-martin marriage is never going to happen because Lydia’s in love with someone else, but since Lydia’s political viewpoints align with those of the Hales, she offers to help the new queen figure out who assassinated her parents and who is out to get her at court
Derek meanwhile is a little slower on the uptake and thinks he’s going to have to be the one to marry Lydia, but he agonizes over this because can’t stop staring at the gorgeous man who sits on Lydia’s private council, an old friend of hers who has just started to dabble in the magical arts
Lydia’s trusted council includes three werewolves, a mage, and a huntress; she thinks she’ll be safe enough with that foundation of trust in her kingdom
Lydia and Scott spend a lot of time together planning strategy to keep her safe but also in case one of many possible enemy countries decides to take advantage of the political instability in her country to overthrow her and take over. he gets up early every day to make sure she can’t slip out of the castle without him, he insists she take close-combat lessons with him and Allison so she knows how to defend herself if he is ever incapacitated, he follows her wherever she goes and makes sure to triple check any visitors for possible weapons, he runs himself ragged making sure she’s safe every day, but when she asks why he’s doing it, he doesn’t tell her the truth, that he loves her, he just tells her it’s his duty to protect her so that’s what he’s doing
Lydia works hard to keep her country running in the aftermath of her parents’ deaths while simultaneously trying to track down the people responsible for their deaths, learning how to defend herself from any kind of attacker, and burying her feelings for Scott as deep as she can. it’s always been difficult to keep her feelings hidden from her werewolf best friend, but she’s done pretty good over the years at keeping him from finding out she loves him. but it’s hard to keep it from showing when he’s always trying to protect her, and he’s always trying to help her, and he’s just always there for her
and it’s kind of a problem trying to unwind from repressing her feelings for him when he is always there, so one night Lydia uses a pendant she stole from Stiles which masks her scent from werewolves and sneaks out of the castle, just for a walk through the gardens, how much trouble could she really get into in the gardens right outside her own castle?
it turns out a lot because the werewolf pack responsible for her parents’ deaths have been patiently waiting for just such an opportunity to snatch the new queen and hold her hostage whilst they “negotiate” a marriage contract with her to allow their leader, an Alpha named Deucalion, a right to the throne. well Lydia’s not going to stand for that, so she blinds the man with the special blades she’d sewn into her bodice for just such an occasion and then she screams, loud enough for the entire no-good-dirty-rotten-queen-kidnapping alpha pack to fall to the ground, clutching their heads in agony, but the scream summons Scott, Laura, and Derek to come help her (and of course they bring Stiles and Allison along)
when the fighting is over and the enemy werewolves are dead or incapacitated, they all trudge back to the castle, numb and weary, and the others all go their separate ways, but scott escorts lydia back to her room, determined to wait outside all night to make sure she’s safe (he swears he stopped breathing the second he found out she was missing and he didn’t breathe again until he found her), but she just drags him into the room with her, strips them both down to their underwear, and nudges him to lay down on the bed with her. they don’t say anything, but they stare at each other a while, trying to read the other’s face, until finally lydia sighs, scoots over to throw her leg over both of scott’s, and lays her head on his shoulder. he brings his arm up to wrap around her shoulders, grips her hip with his other hand, and turns his head to lay his lips on her forehead.
her council gathers the next morning. they talk about what to do with the remaining members of the alpha pack which had orchestrated the previous monarchs’ deaths and lydia’s kidnapping. they talk about lydia’s scream and what it could mean for her and for their team. they talk about how Allison’s archery skills were really invaluable in that fight and maybe they should all take a few lessons from her. they talk about Stiles’s developing magical abilities and how he might be able to hone them to help in other ways. they talk about Scott’s fighting style versus Laura and Derek’s and maybe they could teach each other some new moves.
they don’t talk about how Lydia smells like she spent the night rolling around in bed with Scott, and not in a strictly-platonic “just sleeping” kind of way. they also don’t talk about the giant bruise on Stiles’ neck and the way he blushes every time his hand brushes over it (or about Derek’s self-satisfied smirk when he sees Stiles touching the mark).