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It was the middle of lacrosse practice, and as was fairly usual these days Stiles was sitting on the bench watching a scrimmage. He would be offended but, well, he had eyes.
“I think I might have sex with Nathan.”
Stiles had never choked on air before, so that was a new experience. Once he’d managed to get some of said air into his lungs where it belonged, he turned to face Malia, who had appeared out of nowhere to sit next to him on the bench.
“What?!”
“I think I might -”
“Yeah, I heard you,” Stiles interrupted exasperatedly. “Why the hell are you telling me this?”
Malia shrugged. “I’m sharing,” she said. “We’re friends now. Friends share, right?”
Honestly, if it had been anyone else, Stiles might have thought she was… testing him , or something. You know, bringing up a new flame to see if she could make her ex jealous. But this was Malia. She didn’t believe in playing games like that - she was direct in everything she did, including relationships. If she wanted Stiles back, she would just come out and say it. Her openness was one of the things he liked best about her.
Still. There was no need to be this open.
“Suuure,” he said slowly, picking his words carefully, “but they don’t have to talk about, you know -”
“Sex?” Malia supplied. There was that openness again.
“Yeah.”
She frowned. “I talk to Lydia about sex all the time,” she said.
“Well that’s diff- wait, what?”
“I talk to Lydia about -”
“Yeah, I heard -” Stiles took a deep breath, trying and failing to get hold of his racing thoughts as his brain turned over the full implications of Malia’s seemingly innocent statement. “I mean, did you… you talked to Lydia about… I mean, when the two of us were…”
He gestured between the two of them. Malia watched his hand impassively and then raised an eyebrow at him. Stiles let out an exasperated snort. “You talked to Lydia about sex… with me?”
“Oh! Sure.”
Stiles could literally feel himself blushing, like he was some kind of Victorian maiden or something. “What did you t- you know what, I don’t wanna know,” he said, turning away from Malia to stare back out at the scrimmage on the field.
“Not much,” said Malia, seemingly indifferent to his embarrassment. “She didn’t really want me to go into a lot of detail, I don’t know why.”
Stiles sent a silent prayer of thanks up to the heavens for that .
“She gave me some tips though, when I told her I was looking new positions to -”
“So Nathan, huh?” Interrupted Stiles loudly, turning back to Malia and giving her a meaningful look. He really, really didn't need to hear the name Lydia in a sentence about sexual positions.
It wasn’t clear whether she had finally noticed his discomfort, but she took the change of topic with good grace. “Yeah,” she said. “He’s hot.”
Stiles looked out across the field to Nathan, who was running down the far wing towards the goal like some kind of graceful stick-wielding antelope. “Well yeah, if you like big muscles, athleticism and good bone structure,” he said.
“I do.”
Stiles rolled his eyes. “He’s not much of a conversationalist.”
“Well I don’t need him to talk .”
Stiles snorted. “True,” he said. Then he shrugged. “Well. Good luck I guess.”
Malia smiled and bumped her shoulder against his. “Thanks. See you later.”
Stiles watched her walk away, shaking his head silently, and froze when he spotted Lydia waiting for her by the corner of the bleachers. She saw him looking before he could turn away and raised a hand to wave - Stiles managed a nod in return before turning back to the field, his eyes shut tight in mortification.
It had been a while since Stiles had felt embarrassed in front of Lydia but apparently all it had taken was Malia telling her all about their sex life when they were together. Oh god. That was ok though, right? It’s not like their sex life had been bad ; certainly not for him and lord knows Malia wasn’t the kind of girl who’d fake it, so… and Malia had also said that Lydia hadn’t wanted details, so that covered most of the stuff his brain was coming up with… though what did that really mean exactly, details ?
But then why hadn't she wanted details? What did that mean?
“Stilinski! You’re up!”
“Thank god,” Stiles breathed, jumping to his feet so quickly that he managed to both drop and then tread on and trip over his helmet. By the time he’d made it onto the field, Scott was staring at him in concern.
“You okay man?” He asked. “What did Malia want?”
“Nathan,” Stiles replied.
“What?”
“Don’t worry, let’s go.”
xxxxx
Stiles heard from Liam that Malia had been seen talking to Nathan, but she didn't say anything more to Stiles about it, for which he was very grateful. He wasn't jealous or anything - far from it - but it was weird right? He'd never really had an ex before but it didn't seem right to him to be having those kinds of conversations. Maybe Malia had come round to the same way of thinking.
Yeah… not so much.
It was about four days later, and Stiles was in the library finishing up his econ reading when Malia sat down next to him and started talking before he’d even had a chance to look up. And without bothering to lower her voice. At all.
“So I was making out with Nathan, and I'd just got my hands under his shirt when he-”
“Okay, woah, stop ,” Stiles burst out. He glanced around and saw a few people were now looking at them, and he gave them a kind of apologetic grimace before leaning towards Malia. “What the hell, Malia?” He whispered.
“What?” She whispered back.
“Why are you talking to me about this?”
“Because you're my friend.”
Stiles let out an exasperated huff. “Yeah but I'm also your ex-boyfriend .”
“Yeah,” Malia replied, looking at him like he was the crazy person here. “You're the only other guy I've had sex with, or even made out with for that matter. So you're uniquely placed to give me advice.”
Stiles opened his mouth but then had to close it again, since he didn’t really have a counter-argument for that. “…I guess there's a kind of logic to that,” he whispered after a moment. He sighed. “It's just that it's a bit… awkward.”
“Why?” Malia asked. “You don't still want to have sex with me, do you?” She looked genuinely puzzled, and Stiles was quick to alleviate her worries.
“No.”
“And I don't want to have sex with you either,” she whispered back. Stiles rolled his eyes and looked back down at his book, but he had a feeling that Malia wasn’t finished. He was right.
“So why can't we talk about me and Nathan?” She whispered. “Or you and Lydia?”
Stiles’ head snapped back up. “I- what do you mean me and- there isn't a-” he stammered, looking round, expecting to see everyone's eyes back on them. No one was paying them any attention. Malia raised an eyebrow at him, and Stiles huffed. “I'm not having sex with Lydia.”
“Obviously,” Malia said, with a very clear (and uncalled-for, in Stiles’ opinion) ‘duh’ in her tone, “but you're into her, right? I'm just saying we can talk about that without it being awkward.”
Stiles couldn’t really think of anything more awkward than talking to Malia about Lydia, but that was kind of beside the point. “I don’t need to - there isn’t anything to talk about,” he whispered. “What put that idea - I mean how - I’m gonna go.”
He stood up too quickly and his chair made a horrifically loud scraping sound on the floor, earning him at least a dozen glares from other students. He rolled his eyes and grabbed his backpack.
“Are you okay?” Malia asked.
Stiles gave a strangled laugh. “Oh yeah I’m just great,” he said, before fleeing.
Stiles still had almost ten minutes of his free period left, so he went outside and flopped down on one of picnic benches, his head thudding down onto the table. He let out a loud groan.
Did Malia really have to be so… so Malia ? You just didn't have those kind of conversations with your exes, you didn't. He didn't want to have to give her tips about her sex life with Nathan, and god knows he did not want to discuss his own sex life with her .
Not that he had one at the moment. Nope, nothing happening for him on that front. Nothing.
Urgh.
That was the real problem, wasn't it? Not that he didn't have a sex life - though that would be nice - but that Malia had brought up Lydia. Him and Lydia. Together.
He'd been trying so hard to hide it this time round. He hadn't exactly been subtle about his crush on her before… well, before everything had happened. But since he and Malia had split, and since Eichen… he'd done nothing to give away his feelings. He'd been treating Lydia like the rest of his friends… okay, he was spending a lot more time with her than ever before, not only because he had more time now since Malia but also because they were actually friends now, not just two people thrown together by supernatural circumstances. But he'd not made anything even resembling a move. And he didn't intend to.
It wasn't like he didn't want to. His crush was no longer just a crush, that was for damn sure… ever since Eichen, well. Crush did not cover it. But he could - and would - ignore that. Maybe it was because he was more mature now. Maybe it was because being her friend was too important to risk with declarations of unrequited love. Maybe he was just scared of putting himself out there and being rejected for real.
Anyway, he'd not done or said anything to give away his feelings.
Or so he'd thought.
If Malia - Malia, who was the least socially-aware person he knew - could tell that he had feelings for Lydia, then there was no way Lydia herself hadn't noticed. Right?
Oh god.
The bell rang, and Stiles groaned again before sitting up straight. He had to go to econ now, and sit next to Lydia, and act like he hadn't just spent the last ten minutes freaking out.
A flash of red in the corner of his eye had him looking round to see Lydia herself striding along the far side of the courtyard, heading from her art class to the econ corridor. She saw him watching her and flashed him a smile, and then slowed down when he didn't move.
She raised her eyebrows at him, eyes wide, and jerked her head towards the courtyard door. Stiles nodded and got to his feet, and by the time he'd disentangled himself from the picnic table she'd disappeared.
xxxxx
Stiles considered trying to avoid Malia in the aftermath of the library conversation, but since she was one of his best friends that was easier said than done. He just had to settle for hoping she'd either never bring it up again, or at least never say anything in front of other people.
Turned out the first hope was incredibly foolish, as he discovered the very next morning when he agreed to give her a ride to school. At least they were alone.
“So I tried to ask Scott about you and Lydia and he was, like, really cagey,” Malia said out of nowhere.
Stiles kept his eyes on the road, but just barely. So much for the second hope too, if she'd decided to talk to Scott about him. “Why would you do that?”
“Well you were acting really weird when I mentioned Lydia yesterday, I wanted to know why,” said Malia. “And then Scott was weird too. He wouldn’t say that you like Lydia even though I know you totally do.”
Stiles sighed. “Malia…”
“So I’ve been thinking about it, and I think you’re both being weird because you think I’m gonna get mad or something,” she declared. Stiles glanced at her, frowning, and she gave him a quick smile before he looked back at the road.
“Look, I really don’t mind that you have feelings for Lydia, even if you had them while we were together,” she said. Stiles opened his mouth to say something - he wasn’t sure what, but something - but she carried on before he could. “You were a really good boyfriend, Stiles - you never made me feel like I was a second choice.”
“You weren’t!” Stiles exclaimed, turning to look at her, aghast. Malia nodded meaningfully at the windscreen and he quickly turned back to the wheel, correcting the drift of the car and taking a deep breath to try and calm himself. He chanced another look at her - she looked annoyingly understanding , and Stiles hated it. “No, Malia, really, you weren’t,” he insisted. “Please don’t ever think that.”
“It's ok.”
“No it's not!” Stiles practically shouted. He shook his head and pulled sharply to the side of the road, cut the engine and turned to Malia. She looked kind of surprised by his reaction, and he resisted the urge to shake her.
“Look, yes, I had this crazy huge crush on Lydia since we were kids,” he said. “I had this dream that we would end up together - I even had a five year plan to get her to fall in love with me.”
Malia actually smiled at that, and Stiles rolled his eyes. “But then the last couple of years happened and we became actual friends and… things changed. I changed. And when I met you, and we started dating, I wasn't thinking about Lydia, I wasn’t wishing I was with her instead. I wasn’t. And I really don't want you to think I was.”
Malia stared at him in silence for a moment, and Stiles wondered idly if she was listening to his heartbeat. In any case, she eventually nodded. “Okay,” she said.
“Okay,” he echoed.
“But you think about her now, right?”
Stiles tipped his head back against the seat and shut his eyes. “Oh my god…” he groaned.
“I see the way you look at her!” Malia said, almost laughing. “It's… I believe you when you say I wasn't a second choice but... you never looked at me like that.”
Stiles opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Malia, who shrugged. “It's just a fact, Stiles. You can admit it.”
Stiles tried glaring at Malia, but she just raised an eyebrow at him, waiting, daring him to stay silent when she knew how much he hated silence. He only lasted a couple of seconds. “Why is this so important to you?” He demanded.
“You're my friend and she's my friend and I think the two of you would be cute together,” she said simply. She paused. “And I don’t like feeling like there’s something you can’t tell me.”
There was that openness again. God damnit.
Stiles sighed and sat up again, staring straight ahead out of the windshield.
“When we… ever since I - we - almost lost her at Eichen, I just… I can't help it,” he said quietly. He gripped the top of the steering wheel and rested his forehead on his hands, and groaned. “I’m completely in love with her.”
The silence that followed seemed to almost ring in Stiles’ ears, but it was a relief, really, to have finally said it. He hadn't said it out loud to anyone, not even to Scott - not admitting it to himself had been a key part of his not-making-a-move master plan. But actually saying it felt… good.
Damnit. Well, at least he got to say it once .
He heard Malia shift in her seat, and waited for her next pearl of wisdom.
“You should ask her out.”
Stiles laughed: a sudden, shocked laugh, breaking the tension of the moment. “Yeah,” he said sarcastically, sitting back up. Malia was looking at him, one eyebrow raised, and Stiles realised that she wasn’t kidding. His eyes widened. “ No. ”
“Why not?”
“Because - god, so many reasons!” Stiles burst out. “For a start, it’s really not that simple. And even if it was, even I could just… do that… she does not feel that way about me.”
“I think she does.”
Stiles’ heart started beating wildly, and he really wished it wouldn't - Malia was definitely going to notice. But even though it was ridiculous , maybe she…well, she had noticed how he was feeling, so what if… no, it was impossible.
But it didn’t hurt to ask. “What makes you say that?” He said, trying for casual despite his crazy heartbeat.
“The way she looks at you sometimes,” Malia said.
Stiles shook his head. “That doesn’t mean any-”
“And her heart rate goes up when you touch her.”
That made Stiles pause. “Excuse me?”
“Like when touch her hand or hug her or whatever,” said Malia. “Her heart rate picks up. I’ve been listening - it only happens with you.”
Stiles gaped at her. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” Malia shrugged again. “If you want I could just ask her if she-”
“No, absolutely not,” said Stiles.
“You sure? I don't mind.”
“I'm sure.” Stiles swallowed, hard. “Just… leave it.”
“Okay,” said Malia. “But think about it.”
Stiles shook his head and restarted the jeep. Think about it . Ha. He'd be lucky if he could think of anything else.
xxxxx
If Stiles had thought that Malia would back off after getting him to spill his innermost feelings, he was soon disabused of such foolish hopes.
She didn't actually say anything, but she didn't have to.
It started that same day, when they and Scott were eating lunch in the cafeteria. Malia was sitting next to Stiles, with Scott across from him, when she suddenly froze with a sandwich literally in her mouth, then shot to her feet - the sandwich still in her mouth - grabbed her stuff and moved with supernatural speed around the table, only to drop down onto the seat next to Scott instead.
She took the sandwich out of her mouth and chewed, as if nothing had happened.
“What was that?” Stiles demanded.
Malia shrugged, her eyes too wide for true innocence - not that Stiles had any idea what true innocence looked like on her, since he'd never seen it. “Just felt like sitting here instead,” she said.
Stiles opened his mouth again but at that moment Lydia dropped down into the seat next to Stiles, the one Malia had just left open. “Hey.”
Stiles glanced at Lydia and then looked back at Malia, who was now staring at the wall over Lydia’s shoulder, chewing her sandwich again. He looked at Scott, and glared when he saw he was smirking.
Traitor.
“What's going on?” Lydia asked, looking between the three of them.
Stiles shot one last glare at both Malia and Scott, and then changed the subject.
xxxxx
It was more of the same over the next few days. Malia didn’t say anything to him directly about Lydia, but she went out of her way to force the two of them together - maneuvering them into adjoining seats, giving Lydia shotgun in the jeep, ‘forgetting’ to meet them for studying in the library, asking them both to meet her for ice cream and then cancelling last minute.
That last one had ended up being kind of fun, but he wasn’t about to tell Malia that.
Lydia didn’t seem to notice anything suspicious about Malia’s behaviour, so Stiles was at least comforted by the knowledge that she wasn’t being hounded by her either. Scott definitely knew exactly what was going on, but his only response was to smirk or turn his laughter into a cough.
Again: traitor.
After about a week of this, Malia seemed to decide that Stiles needed… persuading.
It started during another lacrosse practice - Stiles was running laps for not checking Coach was out of earshot before making a crack about his latest motivational speech. Malia suddenly appeared next to him, easily keeping pace without showing the slightest bit of exertion. Since Stiles was already on lap number eleven and he wasn't a were-anything, he was panting like an asthmatic dog.
“Hey.”
“...Hey.”
“So.”
“So… what?” Stiles panted.
“So you haven’t asked out Lydia yet.”
“I know… that…”
“If you're feeling self-conscious about it, I thought it might be helpful for you to hear my reasons for why I think you should.”
“Please… don’t…”
“First of all you’re in love with her, and I think she likes you too.”
“Malia…”
“You make her laugh more than anyone else.”
“That’s…”
“She feels safe with you. When she’s in danger she always looks for you first.”
Stiles stopped running, shaking his head and breathing heavily. “Malia… you need… to stop…” He managed.
Malia just smiled and shrugged. “Only trying to help,” she said cheerfully, before turning on her heel and jogging away.
Stiles swore under his breath and started running again, fuming to himself. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to ask Lydia out, but it wasn’t that simple . Lydia had never shown the slightest bit of romantic interest in him, no matter what Malia said about heart rates and him making her feel safe. It was all conjecture, and Stiles wasn’t about to put her in the position of having to reject him.
They were friends, good friends. They studied together and walked to classes together and worked problems for the pack together and spent at least a night a week together investigating suspicious reports Stiles heard on his police scanner… it was great. It was enough.
xxxxx
Not for Malia, apparently.
The very next day the three of them were in the library, and Lydia got up to find a book. Malia leant across the table towards Stiles and (thankfully) lowered her voice to a whisper.
“She’s probably really good at sex.”
Stiles gaped at her. “Oh my god…”
“I mean, she's pretty experienced and, like, really confident in her sexuality so she's probably really good at it,” she continued. She shrugged. “In case that helps with your decision about whether to ask her out or not.”
Stiles glared at her. “Thanks.”
xxxxx
The next morning Stiles got a text from Malia on his drive to school.
From: Malia -- Riding in with Lydia she’s wearing that flower perfume I know you like
Stiles read it at a stop light, and banged his head on the steering wheel a couple of times, as his phone chimed with more messages. He ignored them until he got to school and parked up.
From: Malia -- I’m just saying today would be a good day to ask her out
From: Malia -- Because she smells good
Stiles quickly typed out a reply and then got out of the jeep, slamming the door shut behind him.
From: Stiles -- It sounds like you want to ask her out.
From: Malia -- No I slept with Nathan yesterday I’m good.
From: Malia -- And I wouldn’t do that to you.
xxxxx
The next day in the hallway before first period:
“Have you seen Lydia's shoes today? They make her legs looks amazing.”
“ Go away .”
"Your loss."
xxxxx
It really did feel like just a few days to Stiles. Three months. It was insane to wrap his head round.
Things were kind of a haze after he had a run in with a zombie ghost rider thing pretending to be his mom , but most of the pack, and his dad, and Peter, and Theo what the hell?? ended up in the school parking lot, and Stiles was leaning against his dad’s cruiser, just taking in the sight and breathing in the air and appreciating the non-sepia colours of the real world, when Malia sidled up to him and leaned against the car too. She’d given him a brief hug when they’d all first met up, but they hadn’t had much of a chance to actually talk.
“I know you don’t like me talking about this, but seriously, you need to know,” she said in a low, serious voice. He looked at her, and she practically glared back at him. “Lydia is in love with you. For real.”
Stiles grinned, a rush of affection for Malia and her one-track mind rushing through him. They’d literally not talked for three months, and she was carrying on the conversation like no time had passed. He looked away from her, to where Lydia was talking to her mom on her cellphone on the other side of the lot, and his grin became a soft smile.
He looked back at Malia.
“I know.”
Malia folded her arms. “And?”
“And I don’t need anymore pep talks,” said Stiles. “I’m good. We’re good.”
Malia looked surprised. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
She grinned and bumped her shoulder against his. “Good.”
Stiles cleared his throat. “And to return the favour… I watched Peter jump through a wall of fire that we’d just seen some kid get burned alive in because he wanted to help you,” he said. He sighed, and gave Malia a small smile. “I hate the guy but… not because he’s necessarily a bad father.”
Malia huffed a laugh. “Thanks.”
Stiles grinned again and stood up straight, pulling Malia into his arms for another hug.
“I missed you,” he told her, squeezing her shoulders.
She squeezed back, so tight it was almost painful. “I missed you too,” she said. They pulled apart and she gave him another smile. “Even when I couldn’t remember you.”
“Yeah, it must have been weird not having anyone to bug about their love life on a daily basis.”
“Awful. But you’re back now. And if you ever need any tips I can tell you everything I've learned from other sexual en-"
"No. Just no."
THE END