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"Hey Lydia?"
The strawberry blonde looked up from her phone, laying on her bed with Allison by her side. Kira was sitting on the carpet, having been watching TV during their sleepover, but now a bothered look crossed her face. "Umm..."
Allison looked at Lydia knowingly, seeing the light blush on Kira's cheeks. "Yeah?" Lydia asked patiently, sitting up a little and moving so she laid on her stomach, looking at Kira. Allison followed. Kira chewed on her bottom lip and turned the TV in Lydia's room off.
Normally, there would have been at least Malia with them, but Erica, Malia, and Cora were all busy, leaving just the three of them. Luckily, she was with the two that she trusted most to tell about this, so it wasn't as hard to say as she expected. Erica and Cora were nice, but she didn't think she would want to hear their sarcasm with this. "Do you think Malia likes me?" She asked all at once, slumping a little bit as she did and letting out a sigh. Allison raised her eyebrow and Lydia looked surprised. "Because Scott and Stiles said she did, and I don't know if they were teasing me or not, and it's been bothering me for like, ever."
"When did they say that?" Allison asked as Lydia couldn't think of anything to say. The other girl's mouth was just open in an 'O' with both of her eyebrows raised.
"Uh, about a week ago, why?" Kira asked nervously. She picked at the pink throw carpet beneath her until Allison patted the space on the bed beside her and told her to hop up.
"Well, I was just wondering how long you've been thinking about all that," Allison said carefully, but Lydia was more direct, interrupting her.
"-Or why you've been thinking about that for that long." Kira groaned when Lydia finally spoke, and the banshee clapped her hands together. "You like Malia?"
Kira didn't answer, but she had always been unable to keep back a blush, which gave the other two the answer they wanted. "Oh my god! You do!" Allison exclaimed, grinning widely. "I knew it!"
"Okay, yeah, but that's not what I asked!" Kira sputtered, raising her hands and shutting her eyes. She chose to ignore the last bit. "I was just wondering why they would say that. I don't think she likes me back, but I've never been good at that."
Lydia straight up laughed, and Allison nudged her but joined as well. "Oh, Kira. She likes you. Scott and Stiles were just the two idiots who decided to confess it for her."
Kira's eyes bugged out a little, and she opened and closed her mouth a few times, speechless. "What- did she tell you that?" She asked incredulously, looking between the two smiling girls with panic. "How could you not tell me-"
"Kira, Kira, calm down!" Lydia sighed, sitting up to match her eye level. "She didn't tell us anything, and I doubt she would have told Scott and Stiles."
"So how do you-"
"It doesn't take a genius to see it," Allison chuckled, pushing back a piece of her hair. "You seriously haven't seen any signs?"
Kira had to think. She looked down at the comforter and thought back to the past few weeks, but she couldn't remember anything that stood out from her normal behavior. Malia was always kind of clingy to her, but she was that way to the rest of their friends as well, either all over them or completely distant. Kira had learned awhile ago that the concept of personal boundaries didn't really seem to apply to her, so she ruled that out for signs. Other than that, though, there was still nothing. She was still her normal sarcastic and caring self. "No," Kira admitted, fidgeting with her fingers. "What was I missing?"
"Oh, where should I even start?" Lydia laugh-sighed, pretending to look in the air for an example. Allison rolled her eyes lightheartedly, and Kira just looked at her urgently. No matter how serious the kitsune was about it, she knew that Allison and Lydia would try and string it out for as long as they could.
"How about that time on the school beach trip?" Allison suggested, and Lydia nodded, thinking back.
Kira looked at them with confusion, since she hadn't seen anything different about that trip, but thought it over anyway.
It was in June, and the school had been through a lot at that point, dealing with the random "animal attacks" and quartentines, so the board had decided to give the students a little break and to pay for them all to go to the beach. They all rode on buses there, and Kira remembered how Malia pretty much launched herself to sit next to her, which Lydia pointed out. Kira argued that they were friends, and it would have been boring to sit somewhere else. "She has other friends, though," Lydia replied. Kira shook her off. It was a fun bus ride, and they shared headphones and swapped music suggestions like they always did. "She doesn't do that with us..."
"What else?" Kira stopped that in it's tracks, and Allison shook her head humorously.
They were still on the beach trip, and they obviously had to put bathing suits on. The girls for the most part had theirs on under their clothes, so they didn't have to go to the bathrooms out on the boardwalk to change.
The six girls had gone out shopping for the occasion, getting new bathing suits with varying levels of coverage. While Cora, Malia, and Allison had one-pieces, Lydia and Erica got two very small bikinis ("if we're allowed to break the dress code, we're really gonna break the dress code," as Erica put it) which they looked great in. Kira had probably spent the most time in the dressing rooms, and Lydia, the expert in it all, had been the only one to see what she bought.
When she was at the beach though, she wasn't sure if she wanted to do it. Buying a bikini for the first time had been embarrassing when she couldn't figure out how to tie it and was barely sure if she liked the way she looked enough to wear one, but Lydia had convinced her. Being in public was a whole different scene that scared her; all of her classmates who were used to seeing her stressed mostly in jeans and leggings were there, and they'd be seeing her for the first time not all the way covered up. Worst of all to think about was Malia, who had no issues being comfortable in her skin. It was essentially just black underwear!
'You can do it,' Lydia had said to her as she saw her looking around at everyone else, hands on the hem of the T-shirt covering her. Kira swallowed once, looked at her for reassurance, and pulled it up over her head.
She was really out in the open for the first time, and she wasn't sure at first if she liked it. She had seen Scott do the world's most badly-hidden double take when he saw her, and there was definitely attention from other guys passing by. The thing that rattled her the most was Malia when she looked up from setting out their towel, glancing at her from under her sunglasses. 'Wow,' She just said, eyebrows raised, completely shameless about looking at her.
"She was totally checking you out all day. I've literally never seen that girl look at a pair of boobs that much, not even her own." Kira glanced down at her chest out of instinct, and Allison nudged Lydia again for making her nervous.
"Or she was looking at me because I looked ridiculous. Seriously, what did I think I was doing?" Kira asked the ceiling, tossing her hands up.
"First of all, you didn't," Allison scoffed. "And second of all, she really asked you of all people to put suntan lotion on her back. That's a complete power move, Kira. If you can't see that, you're hopeless."
Kira felt her cheeks burn again. That had been a good day. She quickly shook it off. "Okay, so we had one nice day together. What is that supposed to prove?"
Allison already had a rebuttal. "Are you forgetting about the time with Josh Diaz? How she threatened to rip his throat out?"
Oh, right. That one. Josh had seemed like a nice enough guy, always smiling at Kira when she passed him in the hallway, and she always grinned back. Maybe that had given him a little too much confidence and he was feeling particularly brave, because he didn't stay nice for long. 'Yukimura! What do you say we go out to lot C, hm?'
Kira had been walking with Malia and Allison when all three of them froze. Allison and Malia turned back slowly to look at him like he'd grown a second head while Kira stayed looking straight ahead in surprise. Lot C, the parking lot particularly well-hidden under a patch of trees, was notorious for students going to have quick, mostly-meaningless and messy hookups in it until the school found out and shut it down a few weeks after the Josh incident. Kira had no problem with it when it came to other people, since she knew for a fact her friends Theo and Liam disappeared there often, but they knew each other and weren't some random in a hallway.
' What did you just say to her?' Allison asked, giving him a second chance. Usually, the raised eyebrow and death stare worked, but Diaz apparently wasn't at the top of his game that day.
'I said we should go out to lot C and have a little fun!' He clarified as if they really hadn't heard it. The next thing Kira knew, there was a clang against the metal of Josh's locker and she whipped around to see where it came from.
'Malia!' She had shouted in surprise. The werecoyote's fingers were wrapped around the lacrosse player's neck, lifting him a few inches off the floor threateningly. The smile off his face was gone and replaced with a look of disturbed fear. 'Malia, stop!'
'Jesus Christ!' Josh choked out, his once laughing friends now either laughing harder or backing away out of caution. Malia pressed him further into his locker.
'Don't you ever talk to her like that again,' Malia growled, just barely human. 'You understand me? Don't talk to anyone like that!' Josh didn't answer at first and she let her claws out the tiniest bit so that he could feel them in his neck but no one else could see. Kira was still pulling at her strong arm, making sure she wasn't breaking any skin.
'I un-understand,' Josh said, coughing in between. Malia held him there for a few seconds longer before she was satisfied, and released him. Josh fell back to the ground with a groan.
After that, Malia had acted like nothing had happened. She stepped back in line with Allison and Kira, walking to class, while the other two girls were silently screaming to each other.
"Allison told me all about that heroism. She took a video," Lydia laughed.
"Seriously? You took a video?"
"Not the point," Allison rebuted, waving her off. "What we're trying to say is that she's always protective of you. It's in her nature to protect the one she loves the most, so...why wouldn't it be you?"
Kira paused, silent. "Can we go onto the next one?" She asked meekly, not ready to think about the implications of what they were saying, but her defenses were dropping lower and lower. Lydia nodded, understanding.
The next one they brought up took place at school again, this time at lunch. At that point, even though she had a crush on Malia, Kira had been talking to a girl from another school who turned out to be playing her, so she was pretty upset about that. "Comforting me after Aiden and I broke up was a huge factor in Allison and I getting together," Lydia made sure to add, and even the stressed-out Kira could admit it was cute the way Allison lightly touched her nose. "But anyway, she seemed to be particularly all over you that week, flirting and stuff. Like I said, protective."
"How was she flirting?" Kira asked, trying to remember that week. Lydia and Allison held back laughter.
"How wasn't she? Have you ever seen Malia hug someone who she wasn't dating or into? You and her have been next-level for a long time," Allison sighed like Kira was trying not to get it, which on some basis was true. "I'll never forget the time at lunch when she-"
"-when she pushed her hair back!" Lydia finished excitedly. "I wasn't going to say anything, but that was so cute!"
"When she did what?" Kira asked, the memories hazy.
It didn't take longer than a second for Lydia to launch in and set the scene. It wasn't that long ago, just a few months, and they were in the cafeteria. Malia had been sitting next to her, as always, and Kira was letting her long black hair fall into her face, too bothered to fix it. They were talking about their weekend plans to get her mind off of things, but it wasn’t really working.
‘I don’t know, I’m probably just gonna sit and watch Netflix, try to make sure my dad doesn’t ask me any questions about it,’ Kira said, shrugging and looking through her hair. ‘Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll go in the pool-’
Kira was interrupted by a gold-ringed finger brushing near her face, catching the strands of black hair. She looked up in surprise now that she was able to see, and Malia had a soft smile on her face that she’d somehow forgotten about. ‘Sorry, your hair was in your face...I thought I should move it so I could see you better.’
She was stunned, to say the least, and looking back on it, she wasn’t sure how she’d forgotten. It’s needless to say that she wasn’t too sad after that. “And then she invited you over for a sleepover that weekend!” Allison exclaimed triumphantly, convinced she’d won the argument.
“Between the blatant checking you out, protectiveness, and flat-out flirting she’s been doing, it would take an idiot to still think she didn’t like you.”
Lydia started scrolling on her phone again, Allison paid attention to the TV, and Kira was left to stare with her lips slightly parted at the wall. Oh, she thought. Oh!
Her first instinct, a bad one when it came to her feelings, was to reach for her phone, but she wanted to do this in person. She was about to say that she was going to go find her, but then she remembered that the reason Malia couldn’t be there that night was because she was out of state. She vaguely heard Lydia whisper “I think we broke Kira,” but she was suddenly so tired that she didn’t even care.
“I...I’ve got to sleep on that one,” Kira admitted, sliding off the bed and onto the couch on the other side of the room.
“Just remember,” Lydia said in a sing-song tone. “She’s back tomorrow at school!”
__
When Kira saw Malia the next day, she almost turned right around and ran the other direction, despite the fact that the werecoyote was waiting for her at her locker. Those were the kinds of things that Kira would have never noticed before, but now that there was a good possibility that Malia felt the same way about her, she couldn’t keep them off her mind. She paused at the beginning of the hallway, looked over her other path options, and took a few stumbling steps around until she decided to just go for it head on.
Malia tapped her fingers on the metal locker, the volume getting louder as she approached. Kira took a deep breath, knowing that soon enough Malia would be able to tell she was there, and for a fleeting second, she wondered if it would have been better when she was still blissfully ignorant. Malia looked like she caught a scent she recognized, and her entire face lit up with a smile when she realized who’s it was. Nobody had seen that much of a smile since Stiles, and even then, they were rare.
Kira started walking a little faster, trying to avoid the now awkward gaze that Malia had on her as she walked down the hall. “Hey,” she said shakily. “How was Arizona?”
Malia shrugged. “It was alright. Peter and Derek spent the whole time brooding, as usual, even a little too much for me. I think they dragged me out there under false pretenses just so I’d shut up. Would’ve rather been at Lydia’s with you.” Kira laughed lightly, looking down at the floor and kicking it. She noticed that Malia didn’t say ‘you guys’ and was looking at her when she said ‘you.’ She stayed quiet, but her breath caught in her throat when something familiar happened; one finger brushing the hair out of her eyes. “You okay?”
“Yeah…” Kira trailed off, but if it hadn’t happened already, everything was starting to fall into place. Malia raised her eyebrow. “I...Don’t know?”
Malia automatically went into protective-mode, squaring her shoulders and scowling, and a bit of thrill ran through the kitsune. “What happened? Did someone do something?” She asked firmly, and she put one hand on Kira’s shoulder. Kira shook her head, and glanced back down at the floor. “Then what?”
“Do you like me?”
Malia’s eyes widened for just a second at Kira’s outburst, but not nearly as wide as Kira’s. She didn’t take her hand off of Kira, instead dropping from her shoulder to upper arm with a light squeeze. “Who told you that?” Malia asked urgently. “It was Stiles, wasn’t it? It has to be Stiles. Lydia?”
“It wasn’t Stiles or Lydia,” Kira whispered, mortified. “I just thought...I don’t know, nevermind.”
“No, ‘you just thought’ what?” Malia wasn’t going to let it go. When Kira didn’t answer, her expression and voice softened. No matter how much she prodded, she knew she wasn’t going to get anything out of her, and she didn’t want to force it. “You thought I liked you?”
Kira nodded, biting her bottom lip, feeling flushed with embarrassment.
“Well, you’re right,” Malia said simply, shrugging her shoulders, and Kira’s head popped up in shock. “I do like you. And not like how I like Lydia and Allison and Kira, like how I liked Stiles and Braeden.”
“You liked Braeden?” Malia looked at her skeptically. “...Not the point. Sorry. You like me?”
“Yeah, of course,” Malia said like it was obvious. “I just figured you didn’t feel the same so I didn’t make the first move. Thought you knew already.”
“I-I didn’t,” Kira admitted, cursing herself for stuttering. A soft smile came onto her face, getting wider, but Malia wasn’t doing anything. She looked at the kitsune expectantly, and Kira didn’t know what she wanted since she showed no signs of vulnerability. “What? Oh! Oh, I-I like you too!” That time, Malia matched her smile, and it was like Kira’s world started spinning a little faster. “I mean, I’m not sure when I noticed it, but I’ve liked you for years now, you were literally the cause of my gay awakening when you pulled me onto the dancefloor in Mexico, God-”
“Kira?” Malia asked, putting her hands back on Kira’s arms. The kitsune managed to quit rambling, and a pinkness came to her cheeks.
“Shut up?” Kira asked knowingly, this time only a little embarassed. The feeling didn’t last long, since Malia’s hands moved up her arms to her neck to her face, cupping her cheeks. Her hands were soft and smelled vaguely earthy, comforting.
“Yeah.” The borderline whisper was the last thing Kira heard, the softest that Malia had ever talked to anyone, before she felt two lips on her own. She couldn’t help but gasp as the unfamiliar warm and fuzzy feeling started to wash over her, and she felt Malia smile against her lips. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with her hands, so she settled for grabbing onto Malia’s olive-green jacket, and going by the little sigh Malia let out, she liked that choice.
When they pulled away after what felt like nothing and everything, they didn’t think about the surprised classmates who were looking at them or the warning bell going off over their heads. All they could do was smile at each other, eyes shiny and hands still poised to hold each other.
“C-come on,” Malia said, the first time Kira ever heard her stutter, and she loved that she was the one to make her do that. “We should get to class.” She took her hands off of Kira’s face and laced her fingers through Kira’s, squeezing softly, gently, careful not to go too fast. “So, next weekend…”
“Next weekend I’m free,” Kira offered with a smile. Malia bit her lip.
“Next weekend, it’s just me and you, because I’m taking you out on a real date.” Kira almost squealed with excitement. “We could do a movie, or just chill out, but we do that all the time...dinner?”
Kira couldn’t find her voice to agree, so she just nodded, completely in awe of the most beautiful girl in the world who was now holding her hand. Malia was trying to act like she was perfectly calm as ever, but Kira didn’t miss the way her mouth twitched in a smile, nodding towards the classroom.
And even if Kira didn’t squeal at all that, Allison had to pull Lydia around a corner so no one would see the banshee jump up and down with excitement, having seen everything.