Stiles was tense for the rest of the work day, too nervous to concentrate on any of the responsibilities thrown his way. No one noticed a difference since he rarely focused on his work anyways. Plus, none of his coworkers cared about his state of mind. Except - Stiles had to rethink that - except for Derek, who seemed acutely aware of Stiles's emotional state. Which may have been another reason for his nerves on top of everything else he had wracking through his mind.

Currently, he was pacing outside the office building, waiting for Malia to come out, murmuring his prepared break up speech. It was a lot of work to keep calm and Stiles wished that she would end soon. The longer waited for her, the more he feared he would lose his nerve. Was it really necessary to break up with her, the girl he'd been with since high school? The one who had put up with all of his quirks and tolerated his wayward ambitions? Each passing moment that she didn't step out, these questions were given more weight for him to bear. He was slowly beginning to reconsider the need to do so. Afterall, his thoughts rambled on, how much better could he be by himself?

Then Malia finally came out of the double glass doors, more than an hour since Stiles himself had stepped outside and began his pacing, and two hours after almost everyone else had gone home. She was tense and her expression was pinched, but that was a natural disposition for her. "Stiles," she greeted without much emotion in her voice, as if to hide something from him. It only made him more nervous than he was. "I tried calling you last night. It's not like you to not answer."

And maybe that's why she was putting on a stoic mask; she was waiting to see what response would be more appropriate. If something had been keeping him from answering her then she would adopt a tone of slight concern. Whereas, if she learned that he had been purposefully avoiding her, then her reaction would probably be more aggressive.

The prospect of the latter had Stiles shifting from foot to foot. Her dark eyes narrowed at the action. It was enough of a reply from him for her to get her answer. As expected, her words were much harsher when she spoke next. "Was there a reason you weren't answering my calls?"

This was when Stiles should man up and tell her exactly what had been going through his thoughts last night, but he couldn't seem to even open his mouth. He was stuck staring at her, fidgeting under her returning glare.

A few seconds later, Malia rolled her eyes. It was a familiar display of exasperation, a common occurance between them. "Well I was trying to call you about a place I found. I was hoping we could go today to see it, but since you never got back to me, I guess we'll have to make an appointment for tomorrow. Hopefully, no one else has taken an interest in it."

"Wait. What? Really?"

Malia's exasperated expression became one of complete annoyance. "Yes, really. Jesus, Stiles, we've been talking about this for days. Can't you focus on reality for just a moment to remember something as important as us taking the next step together? What's been going on with you?"

"I thought you had been calling about what happened at the meeting yesterday."

She huffed and shook her head. "Look, you don't have to worry about the meeting. I'm sorry I got mad. I forgive you. We can move on."

Stiles stepped back, affronted. "You forgive me? You've got to be kidding me!"

The annoyance in her features was gone, replaced by anger. "What the hell is wrong with you Stiles? This isn't like you."

"You went into that meeting yesterday with the intention of throwing all the blame of this company's downfalls on the Design Department."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes again, this time with more aggression to her attitude. "I did my research and those were my findings. I don't understand why you're taking this so personally."

"Because I'm part of the Design Department Malia!" he couldn't help but shout the statement for emphasis. It caused a few people from down the sidewalk to stop and stare at the two curiously, making Stiles suddenly remember that they were still in front of Wolf Security. The realization should have led him to move the conversation somewhere else, but he was afraid that if he did that he'd lose his momentum.

Malia seemed to notice the onlookers too. The muscles in her jaw clenched at the fact that Stiles was causing a scene in public. With her voice much lower, she tried to calm her boyfriend, "It's really not that big of a deal. You need to calm down. Since when do you care so much about your job anyways?"

"I care about not so subtly being told I suck at what I do."

"I wasn't talking about you personally. I was talking about the department as a whole."

"And again, I belong to that department." She opened her mouth to argue, and Stiles knew immediately it was going to be patronizing and dig deep into his insecurities. He wasn't going to give her that opportunity. Not anymore. "I think we should break up."

That had her stopping in whatever she was about to snap at him. The fight seemed to have drained away and for a moment she just stared. Then, her voice still low, she tried to deny, "You're overreacting. This will blow over tomorrow and we'll be fine."

Having said his piece, Stiles's voice had gotten lower too, but was much more confident than before. "Malia," he forced her to listen and accept his words, "I want to break up."

And yet, she shook her head, everything in her stance exuding confidence. "You're just stressed over something. It'll…"

"It'll not blow over by tomorrow." Stiles sighed. His nerves had disappeared. Now he was more tired than anything and yea, Malia was right about thing, he was stressed. "I thought about this all last night and today and I've made up my mind. We should break up. I think we want different things and we're just not a good fit anymore." If they had ever been a good fit in the first place.

Stiles could see her take a deep breath and how her mind churned. After a short time, but felt longer, Malia stated, "if this is just about yesterday's meeting we can talk about it when we get to my place."

If she were anyone else, he might have thought her words were on the verge of pleading, but he knew her better than that. Not liking what she was hearing, Malia was trying to manipulate the situation. Most likely, she'd get him to her place with the lure of them talking in private and then as they were there, she'd distract him with sex. It was a ploy she had done often enough. Though he had never minded before. He liked sex, and sex with Malia had always been good. But he couldn't allow himself to be swayed by it now.

"It's not just about what happened at the meeting. It's how I've been feeling."

Which might not have been the best way to explain things to Malia. She didn't take much stock in what she claimed as "sappy emotions".

As he should have expected, Malia cocked her head slightly as if she had to process what he meant by feelings. Then her eyes darkened and a nasty snarl was at her lips. "Did you meet someone else?"

"What? No." Stiles hung his head. "I just...we're done Malia. I'm sorry. But I can't be in this relationship anymore."

For a long time, she glared at him, seeming to try and read past what he was presenting to her. She didn't find anything. At least not anything she wanted to see. "Whatever. Just don't take too long in crawling back to me. I might have found someone new."

There was no point in telling her that he hoped she did find someone new, someone that truly appreciated her ambition and her passion, and that he had no intention of crawling back to her. She walked away with a haughty gait. He watched her go, caught between being relieved that it was finally over and feeling a sense of loss of what they had once had together.

Off the side, someone cleared their throat. Stiles startled at the sound. "Derek! What...what are you doing here?"

Derek was standing calmly right in front of the doors, his hands in his pockets. There was a small upturn twitch to his lips at Stiles's gracelessness."I was going to head home."

"Right. Duh. Of course. So...uh, how long have you been standing there?"

"I announced my presence as soon as I got outside," he reassured to save Stiles from embarrassment, but then admitted unsurely, "I could see the last part through the glass though. So I'm guessing…"

"Yea. We broke up."

Derek nodded in what Stiles thought to be sympathy. "And how are you feeling about it?" Dark beautiful eyes studied Stiles carefully.

With a sigh and a shrug, Stiles replied, "I'm okay. I mean, yea, it sucks that those years together just feel away, but...I don't know," he shook his head in an attempt to rearrange his thoughts. "But it needed to happen. It wasn't right between us. And you know, it might be nice being single again. I haven't been single since high school. So yea," he nodded as if to convince himself of this fact, "I'm actually looking forward to it."

"Oh." There was something in Derek's intonation that sounded off, like he didn't truly believe in Stiles assessment.

It had Stiles rethinking over everything once again. "What? Do you think I'll be horrible at being single?" All at once, his nerves overwhelmed. "Oh, of course, I'll suck at it. I mean, I was pathetic before. Now I'm just pathetically lonely."

"No!" Derek's objection cut him off. During Stiles's rant of insecurity, Derek's features had gone through a montage of emotions, but now that he had caught Stiles's undivided attention there was something shy and unsure in his expression. Not sounding at all like the confident CEO that he was, Derek sort of stammered, "I understand if you want to try out this new single life, but I...I was thinking you might want to have dinner with me." There was a tint of faded pink across his cheeks as he waited for an answer.

For an extended second, Stiles was struck speechless. Slowly, he clarified. "Like a date?"

Again, there was the lightest shade of pink against the older man's skin. Stiles found it adorable and it would have been enough to bring about a blush across his own pale face, but fortunately, he was too stunned to do so. Derek took in a deep breath and settled his gaze on Stiles. With a small, secretive smile he answered, "I admit, I was hoping that would be a date."