Stiles
"You suck!" someone in the offensive line shouted as Stiles pulled himself off the floor for the fourth time. Removing grass from the grill on his helmet he couldn't disagree with the comment. He did indeed suck. Big time.
He had spent all day trying to convince himself that Malia was fine. That even though she hadn't contacted him in a couple of days didn't mean anything was wrong. But he had kidded himself. He was worried about her and couldn't seem to stop his over active imagination from thinking bad things had happened to her.
Scott pulled his friend by the helmet until they were back stood side by side. Shoulders square, facing the queue of players waiting to barge through the two of them to get to goal.
"Come on dude, you're making me look bad" his friend playfully said as they got ready to try and push back another charging jock.
Stiles took in a deep breath and dug his shoes into the dirt, readying himself to take on Wilson, a particularly large sophomore. He did his best to clear his mind long enough to hold strong against the kid. But Wilson chose not to go for goal or try to push through the middle of the two seniors but instead just went straight for Stiles, barreling into his side sending him straight to the cold ground again.
Stiles was winded pretty bad and could feel throbbing in his ribs from the throw down. He was exhausted and shouldn't have been able to get back up.
But he did get back up and fast.
Wilson had unknowingly been the final straw for Stiles and pure anger seemed to pump through his veins as he squared up to the cocky jock.
"Ok, you want to do this? Right, let's go" Stiles bellowed at his team-mate, pushing him in the chest hard enough for Wilson to stumble backwards.
Scott quickly arrived between them trying to calm his best friend, but Stiles was not one of his out of control wolves. That Alpha influence that controlled Liam and Isaac wasn't working on the very human Stiles. Scott tried to hold him back, shocked at the strength his friend used in pulling out of his grip.
"Stilinski!" Coach's yell seemed to be an octave higher as he ploughed across the field towards the feuding pair.
"Hit the showers, you are done for the day" he ordered to a fuming Stiles.
"You too Wilson, and if you pull another stunt like that, you are off the team"
The Coach turned to face Scott quickly realising a potential problem in his decision to send two angry teenagers off somewhere unsupervised.
"McCall, Go and make sure your boyfriend doesn't get in anymore trouble" he swiftly insisted before turning his attention back to the rest of his team.
Scott nodded then jogged ahead off the field ready to catch up to Stiles. But the locker-room only revealed one occupant and that was Wilson, his friend was nowhere to be seen.
Stiles was too tightly wound to go back into the school and just couldn't wait till evening to find Malia. So to kill both birds with one stone he bypassed the locker room and decided to walk home giving him the fresh air to calm himself and clear his head enough to organise a plan in finding his girlfriend.
He took in deep breath as he pounded the pavement away from the school. His cleats skidding against the asphalt underfoot. He had scared himself on that field. That anger that he felt towards Wilson was not him.
There was a time not so long ago when he wouldn't have even considered retaliating against a douche like Wilson. But it seemed after fighting against kanima's, ruthless werewolves, hunters, assassins and even an evil version of himself, Stiles just didn't have that same sense of fear he used to have.
His fear now centred around a feeling of helplessness in protecting those he cared about. That brought him back to thinking about Malia Tate. They had met in Eichen House. The two had found each other in a place were they both desperately needed a friend. But she was wild. She had lived for so long, alone in the forest that this new life in the human world was hard for her.
Stiles watched her try and work within in the boundaries of civilised life but she often found the rules frustrating. She struggled with tact and diplomacy, failing to understand why people's 'feelings' were hurt when she expressed her opinion. She didn't understand why she had to go to school, why she didn't have a choice in it.
Most of all she struggled with patience. Stiles had been slowly gathering facts in finding her mother but Malia didn't want to wait. She kept taking the smallest of clues and disappearing to investigate where they led.
The bottom line was, Malia Tate was hot and sexy and could do things that made Stiles very, very happy. But help was something she didn't really need. She was happy to do things alone where Stiles' whole life was about trying to help and protect his friends. If he was honest with himself he couldn't see the two of them lasting long-term.
That thought made him a little sad as he continued on his long walk home. There was another thought that was residing in the back of his mind and wouldn't quite go away. That was the way Lydia had looked at him in Economics class.
He had spent most of his life reading into looks, smiles and words Lydia directed at him and it had brought him nothing but disappointment. He had realised the night they had tried to kill the monster Jackson Whitmore had become that Lydia Martin would never look at him the way she looked at Jackson.
Since then he had settled for her friendship. He'd even managed to get a kiss out of it that would stay with him forever. But that look she had given him in last period was a lot like the way she used to look at Jackson. He knew that thinking about it would only send him back to the old days of disappointment, so he just stored it back to the furthest part of his brain to think about at a less confusing time.
It was then he heard a car pull up beside him. It was Lydia with Scott riding shotgun. The Toyota crawled along beside Stiles while he continued to walk on.
"You taking a very long way round to the shower room" Scott called out through Lydia's open window. But Stiles couldn't find a smile for his friends lame joke.
"I can't wait till this evening to find her, I need to start now" he told them seriosuly.
The two car occupants took a moment to decide whether to return to school or stick with Stiles. Of course they would go with their friend. They were a pack and this it what they did for each other.
"Get in the car Stiles" Lydia insisted and he gratefully climbed in the back seat.
He filled them in on all he knew about where he thought Malia might go. Told them about the clues he'd so far discovered about her mother. The first thing they needed to do was stop by his bedroom and get some paperwork together. So that was where the three of them headed first.
On reaching the Stilinski residence Stiles jogged up the stairs to his room with his two friends in tow, discussing his theories and ideas with an enthusiasm much more like the normal Stiles. He opened his bedroom door and then came to an abrupt halt.
There sat crossed legged on the middle of his bed was Malia. She had her head down reading a magazine and slowly looked up to where the three of them stood and smiled.
"You're back!" Stiles stated a little shocked to see her there.
"Are you ok?" he added, casting an eye over her for any physical injuries.
"Yeah, I'm fine" she replied brightly
"Didn't you get my calls?" Stiles asked as he stood by the door looking down at the girl who looked as though she had been sat there all along and not missing for the past few days.
She looked on, a little puzzled at his question then pulled a cell phone from her back pocket and studied the scroll of missed calls.
"Oh sorry I had it turned off and didn't realise you'd called" she replied in a nonchalant manner
Stiles stepped back for a moment. Light fading from his eyes, as he swallowed hard.
"You've been gone for days, I was worried about you" he said, the words spoken as more of a mumble.
Malia looked into his eyes confusion filling her own as she simply asked
"Why?".
Stiles felt like he had been punched. He had spend days concerned about her safety and she just didn't understand what he had been going through. It wasn't her fault, human emotion wasn't easy for her.
They had fun and fooled around together and it was that moment that he realised he wanted more than that, he wanted a relationship and he wasn't sure she was anywhere near ready for that.
He glanced behind him and caught Lydia looking back at him. Her face was full of concern and sorrow. Was heartache so easy to read across his face?.
"It seems I don't need your help anymore" he said to his best friend and Lydia. Scott patted him on the shoulder and then they left leaving Stiles to think about what he was going to do next.
