Who: Malia Tate and Stiles Stilinski What: Malia's arrival Where: In town When: Evening Warnings: Mentions of canon character death Status: Complete gdoc
Everything was wrong. Scott and Stiles weren’t talking, Kira was gone, and Theo was a bad guy. Malia felt like the rug had been pulled out from under her. The pack that she relied on ever since Scott forced her back to being a human was falling apart and she couldn’t understand where it all went wrong. Whatever the Dread Doctors did to them obviously went far beyond what they had managed to remember so far and it was frustrating to know that someone had manipulated her again.
She had enough trouble accepting that Peter Hale was her biological father. Having a memory surface of her biological mother with a gun standing in the road just before the accident that killed her adopted mother and sister was more than she could handle. Especially when she felt like she couldn’t talk to Stiles or Scott about her plans. Maybe finding the Desert Wolf and killing her would help things go back to normal. Or maybe it would make them even worse. Either way, Malia knew it was something she needed to do.
Especially since her mother apparently knew she was alive and was coming back to Beacon Hills. The last thing Malia wanted was for anything to happen to Stiles or any of her friends because of her. She couldn’t take that additional guilt. At least Braeden seemed to understand what Malia needed to do and was willing to help.
With so much on her mind as she walked down the street, it took a minute for Malia to realize that she was no longer in Beacon Hills. The air smelled different and she felt a surge of panic rising. Where was she? How did she get here? She flicked her claws out, eyes flashing blue, as she looked around for whoever was responsible.
***
Stiles couldn’t believe that he’d been roomed with Scott. The last place he wanted to be right now was near the guy who’d kicked him out of the pack, who’d left him alone in the rain to find his own answers. The guy who hadn’t even really wanted to hear his side of the story. He’d believed Theo over him, and that might have been the thing that hurt the most of all. A guy he’d known for a few weeks over his best friend of more than ten years.
And his conversation with Scott as he arrived here hadn’t been so great either. It had been full of awkwardness, of things left unsaid. Of hurt. And a conversation with Scott had never been like that and he really didn’t know what to make of it other than that it sucked a lot and it hurt and...he felt really lost and alone. More lost and alone than he’d ever felt before.
He was out wandering the streets, doing god knew what, basically just trying to stay out of the house, out of close quarters with the guy who’d been closer than his brother just a few weeks ago. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, but the nervous energy was obvious anyway. He couldn’t sit still, he needed to be up and around, moving, trying to work off this horrible feeling.
When he finally did take stock of his surroundings, he was shocked by what he saw. He opened his mouth to call out to her, but memories of Scott flooded his mind and he abruptly closed his mouth. But then he took a step closer, his words tentative.
“Uh...Malia?”
***
Even though things had been somewhat awkward between them lately, Malia was relieved to hear Stiles speak. She retracted her claws and walked over to stand next to him. “Stiles, what the hell is going on?” she asked. “Are the Dread Doctors responsible?”
Maybe this was some sort of incredibly realistic hallucination. Or maybe they were about to be viciously attacked by some chimeras.
***
Stiles sighed deeply, running a hand over his face. People always expected him to know the answers, because yeah, okay, he usually did. But this time? Well, this time he was pretty damned clueless. Not only that, but he’d only been here a few days so it really wasn’t his fault that he didn’t have it all figured out yet was it?
“Hell, Malia, I don’t know. I showed up here same as you, and nobody seems to have any good answers.”
At least they hadn’t been attacked by anything yet. A vast improvement over home.
***
Malia frowned. Even when Stiles didn’t know the answers, he at least had a theory. If he didn’t have a theory about whatever this place was, that meant trouble as far as she was concerned.
“How many people have you talked to?” she asked. “How long have you been here?”
It couldn’t have been that long. She had seen him back home not that long ago.
***
“Uh, I don’t know,” he said, running his hand through his hair now. He was going through all his nervous gestures at once. Awesome. And did she really expect him to keep track of time, come on.
“I guess...uh, about a week, maybe? I mean, I’ve asked around, but nobody has any idea and whoever brought us here hasn’t exactly come up with a welcoming committee and brought us cookie baskets or something. That would have been cool, though. Actually, I could use a cookie right now. Can you smell a bakery anywhere?”
He caught himself, and continued without waiting for an answer.
“I don’t have any answers, but I’m trying okay?”
***
It was pretty adorable when Stiles rambled and Malia couldn’t help but smile. She was hungry, though she would rather have a good rare steak than a cookie.
“I just saw you at home,” she said. “How could you be here for a week?”
This was shaping up to be stranger than when they found de-aged Derek in Mexico.
***
“Uh...time travel?” He didn’t have a freaking idea, but it was as good of an answer as any. And as plausible as anything he’d heard of, or thought of yet. “Maybe I...return to the exact same second I leave so you didn’t see a thing. So that would mean that I’m kind of in two places at the same time. But...I’ve never been here before so I don’t think we have to worry about me meeting myself and the universe imploding, or whatever’s supposed to happen.”
He flashed her a grin at that, trying to make her grin, although his eyes were still dark with his troubles.
***
Malia appreciated his effort to make her smile, even though it was obvious he was still struggling with all of the crap they went through recently. Still, she closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“I’m pretty sure the universe couldn’t handle two of you,” she said.
She cocked her head to the side. “Though I could think of some fun things to try if that ever happens.”
***
And that made Stiles grin, a little more sincerely this time. He liked where her mind went, he could totally deal with that. After all, he was a teenage guy and he was pretty sure his mind was on sex as much as Malia’s. If not more. Although she had quite a good drive herself.
“Um…” he said, and it was obvious he was breaching an uncomfortable topic. “I’ve been assigned to live with Scott.”
***
“I’m going to live with you too,” Malia said. She had no idea who was ‘assigning’ them living quarters and she didn’t much care. No one was going to make her live anywhere else. If they tried, she would just sneak into his place anyway.
It must be awkward for him to be in close quarters with Scott right now though. “How’s that going?”
***
She’d might as well, Stiles thought. She’d be coming over every night anyway and at least this way she wouldn’t be waking him up and scaring the crap out of him every night. He could actually get some sleep. And really, he liked having her there. She...even if he didn’t necessarily agree with her opinions about his killing of Donovan, it felt good to have someone there who was on his side. There weren’t so many of those these days.
“Yeah, okay. Just - things between Scott and me they - they’re really bad, Malia.”
***
Malia’s view of the situation was fairly pragmatic. If Stiles hadn’t killed Donovan, it was very likely that Donovan would have killed Stiles. And then Malia would have killed Donovan. Either way, Donovan was going to end up dead.
“Is he still being a jerk?” she asked. Sure, she didn’t think that Stiles should have kept the truth from them, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to be on his side.
***
And still, on top of it all, Stiles felt the need to defend Scott.
“He wasn’t being a jerk. He was just...doing what he thought he had to do to protect the pack, and maybe he’s right that he should just kick murderers out of it.”
He’d been having those nightmares even more often since that night in the rain. He just couldn’t escape that horrible moment when he’d heard and seen Donovan impaled. Dead. At his hand. One of the ones they were trying to save.
And maybe it had been self defense, but he should have been smarter, he should have had a different plan because hell that was his job to have the plan and he’d totally failed and now someone was dead because of it and he’d lost everyone and the Vision was falling apart and oh god just what he needed, another panic attack.
***
Of course Malia recognized the signs that Stiles was starting to have a panic attack and she leaned in to kiss him in an effort to distract him from the spiral of obsessive thoughts happening in his brain.
For the moment, she wouldn’t argue that he wasn’t a murderer or that Scott was being unfair about kicking him out because of what happened with Donovan. That could wait until later, when he was calmer.
***
Despite any awkwardness that might still be between them, he clung to Malia, embracing her as if she were some sort of life preserver. Which maybe she was. It had sure seemed that way at Eichen House, a connection when he’d so desperately needed one.
He buried his face in her hair, breathing in the comforting, familiar smell of her, but his heart was racing and his breath was becoming shallower regardless.
“Everything’s going...everything’s going wrong.”
***
“Breathe,” Malia said, reaching up to run her fingers through his hair.
Everything sucked right now, but they were still together. Even though they might disagree about the details of what happened with Donovan and she knew he wouldn’t approve of her plans to find her mother and kill her, they were still there for each other. Stiles was her mate. There was nothing that would change that.
***
He tried, he really did. He knew if he didn’t get this under control it would just be worse and he hadn’t gotten around to getting his Xanax yet, or his Adderall for that matter and he probably needed both of them but there’d been so much going on that he just hadn’t had a chance for a happy little trip to the drug store. But maybe he should have. Maybe he should have taken the time because a bit of medicine would sure make this suck a lot less.
But he did his best to get himself under control, at least getting himself functional. Panic attacks didn’t pass that easily, but he figured that now at least he could get himself back to their place, even if his legs were a little shaky.
“Come on,” he said, clenching and unclenching his fists. “Let’s get home. Let’s - come on.”
***
Malia leaned in and kissed him again. “We should stop at the pharmacy and get condoms on the way,” she said. “And maybe a cheeseburger.”
After all, if they were going home to have sex, she was going to need something to eat.
***
Right now, in the middle of a freaking panic attack, sex was the last thing on his mind. Sure, it would be soon enough but right now he was just struggling to stay conscious and sane and oh my god he liked Malia a lot but sometimes she just didn’t get human stuff.
Coyotes probably didn’t have panic attacks.
“I don’t think they sell cheeseburgers at the pharmacy,” he said. “But how about this. We go straight home, and then you go out and get...whatever it is you want to get?”
***
“Okay,” Malia said. That sounded like a good plan to her. As long as it meant she and Stiles got to spend some time together and she got some food.
She slipped her arm around his waist and started walking. “Which way are we going?”
***
He waved his hand in a general westward direction. “That way. The house is that way. It’s nice. And you do have your own bedroom or you can stay with me, I don’t care.”
He was shocked during the small amount of time when they’d...broken up? how much he missed her there. Originally, sleeping with another person had been awkward and uncomfortable, but he guessed he’d gotten used to it, and now he didn’t sleep nearly as well alone. Well, he didn’t sleep very well anyway, not since before the Nogitsune had gotten in his head. He was always having nightmares of one type or another. It seemed like they’d never stop.
***
Malia preferred to sleep next to Stiles. After years of sleeping in the woods alone as a coyote, she felt more comfortable with him there. Most of the time, she felt like she was adjusting to life has a human pretty well, but at night it was harder. A part of her was afraid that she would somehow revert to her coyote form in her sleep without realizing it and be stuck that way again. It was a ridiculous fear, she knew that, but she couldn’t help thinking about it.
“Whatever you want,” she said. Even if she took her own room, she would probably end up in his bed more often than not.
***
“I don’t care,” he said, not because he had absolutely no opinion on the matter but because right now he just didn’t feel like making decisions. Any decisions. He wanted to get home and lay down on his bed and try to keep from dying. Okay, so he wasn’t really dying but it felt that way. And he’d be shaky and feel like crap for a good part of the evening, so he hoped Malia wouldn’t expect him to do too much tonight.
“Maybe we could watch Star Wars or something. We never got through the newest one.”
***
“Sure, we can do that,” Malia said. She hated when Stiles got like this, but she knew it wasn’t anything he was doing on purpose so she tried not to let her irritation show. “Do they have pizza delivery in this place?”
If they were going to just hang out and watch a movie, she didn’t need to worry about buying condoms tonight which meant she didn’t need to actually go out once they got back to his place. Well, their place. Hopefully he had some clothes that she could borrow.
***
As long as she didn’t mind his t-shirts, flannels and boxers, then yes, he had clothes for her to wear. And he didn’t mind at all if she wore them because she kind of looked hot in them. Okay, yeah, no ‘kind of’ about it.
“Yeah, I think they do. You can order whatever you want.”
He wasn’t at all hungry now, but he probably would be later, once all the panic and adrenaline had worn off.
***
“Do you want to be the big spoon tonight?” she offered. It was a generous offer since she vastly preferred that.
Malia would be perfectly comfortable in his t-shirts, flannels, and boxers. That was the type of thing she liked to wear anyway. And at least wherever they were seemed fairly warm.
***
Really? No, he didn’t. He thought it would be nice for once to be the little spoon tonight but saying that made him sound far less than manly so he shrugged. “Whatever you want.”
Honestly, he just wanted to get home and for the world to start making sense. He might get one of those two.