A/N: So this is inspired by the song Meet at the Corner by Tigers Jaw. But I read somewhere that songfics aren't allowed on ? So there are no lyrics in this version (if you would like to see the version with lyrics, which I think is at least slightly better, it's on Ao3 under the same name).
Scott remembered the last year painfully.
Stolen glances and eyes too nervous to meet each other's most of the time, she still made his heart beat faster when she walked into a room even when she was with Isaac, two circles on his arm that promised him they would be together again, somehow, sometime.
Lying in his arms, an inch from death, telling him she loved him.
She was gone before he could say it back.
It was hard to process, for a while. It still was. It was hard to accept that she was gone and would never come back. Sometimes, he would wake up, and, his mind still foggy from sleep, and think about wanting to see her that day. Sometimes, he could forget that she wasn't there with him.
This wasn't one of those times.
Scott laid the flowers he'd brought at the headstone, pushing the still-mostly-fresh ones he'd put there a few days ago to the side. He gazed at the headstone for a few minutes, as always. "Allison Argent," it read. "She protected those who could not protect themselves."
His phone rang, breaking the sacrosanct silence of the graveyard. It was Kira.
Talking to the rest of the pack about Allison was harder than it should be. Stiles was his best friend, his brother, but he couldn't mention Allison to him without Stiles veering into a panic attack from the guilt. Scott didn't blame him in the slightest for what happened, but making Stiles believe that was a different story. Isaac probably understood how he felt, but he was in France, and it wasn't the kind of conversation you could really have over spotty webcam on their weekly chats. Lydia got it, perhaps more than anyone - her scream that night still haunted him - but as much as they had shared over the years, they had never been particularly close. Not close enough for this, anyway.
And Kira. She was a sweet girl, and Scott liked her, he really did, but he hadn't figured out how to talk about Allison with her. How could he? She didn't really know Allison, and Scott didn't think detailing his passionate relationship with the hunter would be fair, or welcome, to the kitsune. So he was alone, mostly, with his grief. His mom helped, and Scott loved her for it, but she didn't know Allison all that well either.
His phone continued to ring and Scott reluctantly slid his finger across it, lifting it to his ear.
"Hey," he said, trying to sound normal.
Even without talking about Allison, however, Kira had been a big help. He just felt... better when she was around. Which reminded him...
"Hey, where are you? I thought we were going to go over the history notes together." She sounded anxious and Scott grimaced. He had completely forgot. "I mean, it's cool if you don't want to. I get it. Um, I'll just -"
"Kira," he cut her off, trying to sound happier than he felt. He didn't want to take this out on her. "I'm sorry. It just slipped my mind. I'll be there in a few minutes, okay?"
"Are you sure? It's really oka-"
"Kira," he repeated, a little more assuredly. "I definitely want to do this."
"Phew," she said, a strong note of relief evident in her voice. "Because, you know, I sort of already stole my dad's textbook. The teacher's addition with all the extra notes and grading rubrics for essays."
Scott laughed. She could almost always cheer him up. "I guess we kind of got you started on a life of crime, didn't we? Oh no. You're spiraling. What's next? A bank robbery? A jewelry heist?"
Her laughter sounded musical even through his phone's tinny speakers. "I guess so. I'll see you soon!" A little her anxiety returned. "But um, are you close? Because I'm at your house already and I think the neighbors might notice if I just stand outside creepily for too long."
"Oh. Yeah. Um. I'm close."
"Scott?" She said, a bit uncertainly. "Where...are you? Um, if you don't mind me asking. It's okay if it's private, or um, you don't want to say."
Scott clenched his fists. He hadn't told anyone about how frequent his visits to the graveyard were. He didn't even know if anyone else knew he went. But Kira was...kind of amazing. And she deserved to know the truth.
"Look, I'll tell you when I get there, okay? There are some things we should talk about." He could almost feel her worry, even connected by just a phone, and rushed to correct it. "It's nothing bad, I promise. I'll be there soon. See you in a bit."
Scott probably broke a few speeding limits trying to get back, but there were no patrol cars out, and he was the sheriff's son's best friend, so if he got pulled over he could probably get out of it. As he parked his motorbike and lifted his helmet off his head, he was greeted by the sight of a slightly worried kitsune sitting on his front steps.
"Hey," she said, probably trying not to sound extremely nervous, but not quite succeeding.
"Hey," he replied with a smile, walking over to sit next to her on the steps. She smiled back and moved over a bit to give him room.
He took a deep breath. Might as well go straight into it. "So, you've probably been wondering why I haven't really tried to...uh...do anything with you over the past few months."
She shook her head. "Um, not at all," she said, her face betraying her trepidation.
He grinned. "Kira, even if I couldn't hear your heartbeat, I could tell you were lying."
She stared at the ground, embarrassed. "I...I guess I wondered a little, yeah. But I know that you had stuff on your mind. I wasn't going to push it."
"And I appreciate that," Scott said. "But I haven't been talking to you about it. And I feel like I should. Is that... okay with you?"
"Yeah." Kira nodded. "Yeah, it's okay." She put her hand on his arm and met his eyes with her own. "But only if you feel comfortable with it."
He entwined their fingers, settling back for a second. "Before I came here, I was at the graveyard. At Allison's headstone. I bring her flow- I bring flowers to her tombstone once or twice a week. Sometimes I go there and just sit there, for hours. Sometimes I talk to it, like -" he choked up a bit and Kira squeezed his hand, hard. "Like she can still hear me. I miss her so much."
Kira shifted closer to him. "It's okay," she said softly. "You can talk to me."
"I...we...we were..." his voice trailed off. "For a long time I thought we'd end up together again. We dated when she first moved to Beacon Hills, before you were here. She was my first love, my first real girlfriend, my first...my first a lot of things. And she died in my arms. And she told me she loved me and she died before I could say it back to her." What had began a slow sequence of words rushed out of his mouth, like a floodgate had been opened and now couldn't be shut. He closed his eyes and loosened his grip on Kira's hand. She would probably go now. He wouldn't blame her.
Instead, she moved even closer to him, pressed against his side, and brought her other hand over to touch his cheek. "Scott," she said, "Scott. It's okay. I'm here for you."
He opened his eyes then, puzzled. "You're not mad, then?" he asked cautiously. "I didn't - I don't want to scare you off."
She smiled at him, but there was a hint of sadness in her eyes. "Give me some credit. I'm not going to run off because you're grieving for the love of your life. Don't get me wrong, I-" now it was her turn to have trouble getting the words out. "I had hoped that we might...but it's okay. I shouldn't have expected..."
Scott marveled, for a moment, at the girl in front of him. She was selfless, radiant. Beautiful. "I still...I like you, Kira. I like you a lot, and please never think that I don't. It's just hard for me, right now. But that doesn't mean that I...look, I care about you a lot, okay? There's just stuff on my mind with the whole Allison thing."
Kira's grin shined electric and Scott couldn't help himself. He leaned in and their lips were together and it wasn't their first kiss but it was their first kiss in a while and it was their first kiss since Allison died and it was...and Scott's brain faded out as the kitsune cautiously, then enthusiastically responded to him.
When they broke apart Kira hid her face, but Scott could still see her delicately beaming behind her arms. "Wow," she whispered. He could only laugh.
"What was that for?" she asked.
"For listening. It helped a lot, talking to you. I know it must be hard, listening to me go on about Allison, and I don't want to-"
It was her turn to cut him off. "Scott," she said. "You can always talk to me."
They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Scott spoke up.
"It's a shame you didn't get to know Allison better. I think you two would have been friends. You're both...warrior women," he said with a grin. "Warrior women who like knifes. I guess you guys did fight together once, right?"
"Right," Kira agreed. "Plus," she added, leaning her head against his shoulder, "we have the same great taste in guys."