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At first it started out as something small, Kira had been giving Malia a sort of crash course on all the pop culture she had missed as a coyote, and then it turned into late night study sessions when Scott and Stiles were out...well, being Scott and Stiles. Then it turned into sleepovers. It was during all this when Malia began to really think. She thought about the way her heart beat a little quicker when she was next to Kira, she noticed how some nights, she would make sure Kira fell asleep before her and that she was close enough that if Kira had a nightmare about Mexico, that she would be there to calm her down after. Then she noticed the smaller things she did around Kira, things like how she would laugh a little more than necessary, or how she would be beside her during pack meetings. Malia had no idea what to make of these…reactions, or feelings toward Kira, after all she had been a were-coyote during most of puberty. She barely knew how to act around Stiles and she had been with him for nearly a year now. The one thing she knew about how she felt around Stiles and Kira was her heart beat faster when she was around the two, she felt more at ease around the two of them than she had with anyone else. But when she was around Kira she felt her heart beat just a little bit faster, she felt just a bit more at ease with Kira. Those tiny differences are what confused Malia. And her confusion came to a head one night at another sleepover.
Malia was staying over at Kira’s again and the girls were discussing their favorite topic: their boyfriends and the things their boyfriends were doing wrong.
“I mean I know I shouldn’t be mad about this, but it’s the third time that Scott cancels a date because Lydia is having problems.” sighed Kira as she lay on her back on her bed, realizing what she had said she quickly rushed out, “I mean I totally get it, I seriously do, I mean one year her boyfriend nearly kills everyone, the next he’s across the globe and then the guy she starts dating turns out to be a bad dude and then he ends up dying the day after her best friend dies. Not to mention when she thought she was going crazy and the whole hearing voices thing, but still. It’s the third time in four months that he does this and I just-” Kira sighed again.
“I get what you mean, ever since the whole thing with Kate and the benefactor and Peter, I thought me and Stiles would be closer and stuff, but now he’s obsessing over something else.” Malia was laying on her stomach, her head next to Kira’s, she blew a piece of hair out of her eyes and continued, “But it’s like that boy can’t just relax, now he’s taken it upon himself to solve all the cases his dad has unsolved. He’s great at all that detective-y stuff, but now he has like twelve of his boards up in his room. I don’t even think he noticed when I left, I’m pretty sure I left him buried beneath ten pounds of paper.” the girls laughed and Malia rolled over onto her back.
“Our boyfriends are stupid, but they’re our stupid boyfriends.” laughed Kira. The two laughed again and fell silent.
“Hey, remember our trip to Mexico?” asked Malia, breaking the silence.
“Ohmygod how could I not, so many creepy guys were hitting on us.” laughed Kira.
“And so many hot ones too.” chimed Malia, “Remember those two who were talking to us in Spanish?”
“You mean the ones who thought we were trying to get us to go back with them?” asked Kira, “Yeah, I also remember asking Lydia on our way back what they were saying and Scott and Stiles choking on their food.”
“I can still see the look on Stiles’ face!” giggled Malia, “His eyes got all bugy and he had food all over his face.”
“I still can’t believe they thought we were lesbians, I mean can’t two friends who are girls dance together without people assuming they’re together?”
“Don’t forget, I was a coyote for basically all of puberty so I didn’t go through the whole, ‘Dancing with friends at school’ thing that you did.”
“Yeah, well it’s still a pretty normal thing for girls to dance together without being together, you know.”
Malia nodded in agreement and fell silent before, “Ever think about that though?” she questioned as she inched closer to Kira, her face hovering near the other girls’.
“About what?” asked Kira, looking up at Malia.
“Being with a girl I mean. Ever think about that?” she asked again, resting her cheek on her palm.
Kira paused for a moment, “Uhm, kinda? I mean I think everyone has thought of kissing another girl or guy at some point…So…yeah, I have sometimes thought about it.” Kira looked up at Malia and smiled nervously. The two held eye contact until Malia took a quick breath and leaned over quickly and pressed her lips to the other girl’s. The two froze, Malia’s hair forming a curtain around them. Then Malia pulled back sharply, got off the bed and was out the door before Kira even knew what had happened. Five minutes after Malia had left, Kira was still lying on her bed in the same position Malia had left her before finally sitting up, “Holy shit,” she breathed out before falling back onto the bed.
After that day, the two actively avoided each other, more plainly, Malia avoided Kira whenever possible. In class Malia would sit as far away from the other girl and would rush out of class before Kira even had a chance to put away her books. During pack meetings she would sit as far away from Kira and as close to the door as possible. It took Kira about three days to get annoyed, another week to get pissy, and another two weeks to get frustrated and upset. She wasn’t mad about the kiss, what she was mad about was her best friend pulling as far away from her as possible. A month after the kiss, the pack was under attack again and soon it felt like things were somewhat normal, or at least ‘pre-kiss’ normal. Malia was always at her back protecting her blind side, but as soon as the fight was over, she would be gone again. It wasn’t until the McCall pack fought against the top tiered members of the rival pack that things really came to a head. Things were going to shit like usual, Lydia was hitting the other pack members with an aluminum bat, Scott was fighting tooth and nail against the other packs alpha, Derek was wolfed out going after as many betas as he could and Malia and Kira were back to back with Stiles in the middle, protecting him as he tried to rewire some of the traps Argent had left them. It was like nothing had changed, except right now Kira was trying to talk to Malia all while fighting off a particularly vicious beta wolf.
“Seriously Malia! We need to talk about that night!” yelled Kira, striking at an opening.
“No. We. Don’t. Nothing. Happened.” Hissed Malia, swiping at the other beta.
“Something did happen!” yelled Kira, kicking the beta in the chest angrily, pushing her down. She swung her katana down and stopped it above the wolfs throat, “Leave.” She hissed as she turned back to Malia, “You kissed me that night and we need to talk about it now.”
Malia snarled as she swiped at the beta, “Nothing happened, forget about the kiss.”
From between the two girls Stiles stopped what he was doing and yelped, “Wait what?! Kiss!?” before either girl could answer Lydia called from across the clearing, “Stiles turn on the damn traps right now before I beat your head with this bat!” she knocked the wolf in the head and Stiles yelled, “Fire in the hole!” and he flipped the switch quickly, too quickly for the pack to react.
High pitched noise filled the clearing and all supernatural, mostly of the were-variety, all fell to the floor clutching their ears. The pack ran off, holding the sides of their heads, Scott shifted and fell on to the ground exhausted, Lydia ran over to him dropping the bat along the way, Derek shifted back to his human form and ran off to go fill in the sheriff, Malia fell to her knees, hands clutched over her ears and Stiles shut off the power and went to check on her.
Kira sheathed her katana and knelt beside Malia, “Hey, are you okay?” she placed a hand on her shoulder.
Malia shrugged off her hand and turned away, “Yeah, I’m fine, go check on your boyfriend.” She spat bitterly.
“Hey, I’m only trying to help okay? I mean you’re the one who’s been avoiding me! Not the other way around.”
“I’m not avoiding you.” Muttered Malia.
“Yes you are! The only time that we’ve been in the same room for more than five minutes is class and pack meetings! And even then you leave as soon as you can! After that kiss you ran off before we could even talk and every time I try you run off!”
“Wait what? What kiss? Is this what you guys were fighting about during the fight?”
“We weren’t fighting!” snapped the girls at once before turning back to each other.
“You didn’t react! You didn’t come after me! What else am I supposed to think!?” cried Malia as she stood up.
“You didn’t give me a chance to! You left and I was in shock! I didn’t go after you because I was confused too!”
“Why would you be confused?” asked Malia, pausing a moment.
“Because-“
“Because why?” demanded Malia, voice raising and stepping closer.
Kira let out an exasperated sigh, “Because this!” she put her hands on the sides of Malia’s face and leaned in kissing her. This time Malia froze but Kira didn’t pull back and it wasn’t long until Malia kissed back. They pulled apart and Malia pressed her forehead to Kira’s, “Are you still confused?”
“I’m not if you’re not.” Smiled Kira.
From behind them they heard a cough, they turned to the source of the noise and saw Stiles, Lydia and Scott staring at them. The five stood in awkward silence until, “Finally! I was wondering how long it would take for the two of you to pull your heads out of your asses.” Sighed Lydia, she turned to Scott, “Do me a favor, call Derek tell him he owes me, I’d do it myself but I’m pretty sure I lost it or it broke somewhere back there.” Lydia took a slightly stunned Scott by the elbow and led him away, winking at Kira over her shoulder.
From beside them Stiles was staring with his mouth agape, “Okay wait what just happened here?”
Months later, at the beginning of their senior year, the pack had gathered at Derek’s loft, “Where are those two anyway?” grumbled Stiles from the couch, his legs dangling off the arm of the couch his head in Derek’s lap.
Across the room, Lydia was perched on the arm of Scott’s chair, she scoffed, “Oh let them be will you? If me, Scott and Liam hadn’t come when we did the two of you would still be going at it like bunnies.”
“Y’know I find it hard to believe that they’ve worked it out as well as they have,” piped up Liam from the floor besides Scott’s chair, “I mean Malia is pretty headstrong and so it Kira when she wants to be, I don’t know how they work through their issues.”
“Oh that’s easy,” said Stiles, “If they got in an argument, Malia will be all huffy for a while,”
“And so will Kira,” added Scott.
“And then she’ll go over and snuggle next to her and kiss her silly.”
“That’s how they’ve worked through everything? By kissing?” asked Liam incredulously.
Lydia laughed, “Never underestimate the power of a good kiss.”
“In all seriousness though, Kira and Malia are both pretty level headed, if they had a big fight or argument, then they’d work it out like mature adults.” Said Derek, “And besides, Malia is a Hale. The Hale family will always do what they can to make their mate happy.”
“So the two of aren’t mad that they got together while you were still together?” said Liam, gesturing to Scott and Stiles.
The two looked at each other and shrugged, “Not really,”
“I mean I’m sure the two of us knew there was something going on between them so it didn’t really come as a shock.”
“Speak for yourself,” said Stiles, “One minute they’re yelling at each other and kicking some butt, the next they’re making out.”
The group was still laughing as Malia and Kira walked in, hand-in-hand, “Wait, what are they laughing at?” asked Malia, feeling self-conscious.
Kira sighed, “I’m sure it’s nothing, but then again with our friends they could be laughing at something Stiles said.” She turned to her girlfriend and pressed a smile to her cheek, “Either way I’m sure it’s not about you.” Malia smiled and the two walked down to their friends and took their usual spots on the floor.