Stiles was at the library, his study group just packing to leave, when the guy beside him nudged his elbow. "Hottie across the hall, two o'clock."

Stiles looked in that direction immediately, spotting a tall brunette with long legs, accentuated by the dark skinny jeans she was wearing. She had long brown hair, slightly wavy and messy, but still looked well put together. He was about to agree with his partner Darren, when his eyes travelled from her light blue sweater to her face, belatedly realizing he was looking at Malia. Shit.

She saw him and waved smiling. Stiles gave a small wave back, feeling heat in his cheeks, embarrassed that he had been gawking at her open mouthed. He looked down, relieved that she was still far away enough for her not to notice him blush. He hoped she hadn't noticed him fully checking her out either.

"Dude, you know her?"

"Yeah, she's my roommate." Stiles mumbled, head still bent over his book, avoiding any eye contact if he could help it.

Darren whistled low as he got up to leave. He openly checked Malia out without shame. "Damn, I'm jealous! You're so lucky!"

Stiles smiled, not adding the challenges living with Malia included.

Just the other day she had come in from class and asked what a bj was. Stiles who had just taken a sip of water, had sprayed it spectacularly in his surprise. Already having explained bondage, he had no desire to indulge her curiosity and his embarrassment of what a blow job was. After finding out two boys sitting behind her were comparing 'notes' so to speak, peaking her curiosity, he had just looked it up online and handed the phone to her without a word. Seeing her scroll down more than enough times, had Stiles snatching it away from her.

He was sure she had absorbed enough information on how to give good head, for him to be envious of the guy she would end up with.

What was he? An encyclopedia of knowledge for all sexual terms?

When Malia sat down, she frowned in the parting boy's direction.

"What was that about?"

"He was admiring you." Stiles replied. He had learned earlier that Malia was an excellent lie detector, so being upfront was better than being caught, which he had been.

More than once.

"I don't think admiring is the word I would use," Malia muttered, getting her textbooks out. She couldn't very well mention how she had heard him perfectly while crossing the room.

Stiles nodded in agreement, "More like leering I guess,"

"Why?"

"Cause you're pretty." Stiles said matter-of-factly, bending over his book reading. "But he just doesn't know what a pain in the ass roommate you are though,"

Malia looked up from her work at Stiles, who raised his eyes to hers, breaking into a grin to show he was joking.

"Jerk," Malia stuck her tongue out as Stiles shrugged, smile lingering on his face.

"Are you sticking around?" he asked, studying her as she switched into her serious study mode.

"Only for a bit." Malia murmured, turning her head to the side, like she was listening for something.

They fell into easy silence, Stiles not questioning her sudden appearance, and Malia not explaining. Come to think of it, she had been 'bumping' into him quite often these past few days. It was getting less and less as the days went by, but again, no one brought it up.

Stiles was almost done his readings, when he felt someone staring in his direction as they walked by.

He looked up in time to see a boy with beefy arms about two years his senior, coming towards them. His nostrils were flared in anger, his lips drawn in a thin tight line and he was sporting a puffy eye, which was turning a nice shade of purple. Stiles instinctively shrank back in his chair as the guy drew closer but passed by without a word.

Confused to see this anger directed at him, he turned to Malia noticing then her hands clench into fists, her entire frame rigid. Realization dawned on as Stiles slowly connected the dots.

He saw how tightly she gripped the pen in her hand, seeming like she could snap it in half easily. Even when he knew the guy was long gone, Malia stayed there fists tightly clenched. Stiles reached over slowly, covering her hand with his, willing for her to look at him. When Malia finally did, Stiles noticed her expression was hard and angry. He swallowed, getting nervous. He had never been a victim to her anger and he couldn't help but feel like the anger was aimed at him.

Maybe it should have been.

Despite this, Stiles stayed by her keeping eye contact, caressing her knuckles with his thumb. Malia responded better to physical contact. He could tell even now, she was starting to calm down. He gripped the pen from her hand seeing it ready to crack, and pried it from her fingers.

It was like the act finally broke the spell, and the fire died from her eyes. Malia blinked a couple times, looking at Stiles with a slightly confused expression. Stiles continued to caress the tops of her fingers with his thumb, until Malia slowly withdrew her hand from his.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Malia sighed turning away. In a low voice she explained what had happened. She had gone to the party looking for Andy and had asked a boy if he had seen her.

"He told me he knew where I could find her." Stiles' stomach felt uneasy as he heard the tremor in her voice.

Malia took a deep breath and continued, "I saw the room was empty and I-I turned and asked him where she was. He told me she wasn't there, and then he came at me– I hit him. That's what happened."

They sat in silence for a while. Malia eventually turned to him, "Why would he do that?"

"He wanted something from you," Stiles said carefully, trying to gauge her reaction from where he sat. "Something he knew you wouldn't give. So he tried taking it anyway,"

Malia felt dread wash over her. That was horrible. What's more, the stranger's actions had almost cost him his life. She had panicked and lost control and it had been quick reflexes that had saved him from real harm. He was drunk and probably not believe even if he did see anything, but that was too close a call to be taken lightly. She had to learn better control. She needed to be more aware of her surroundings. She had to remember that not everyone was like Stiles.

Stiles felt Malia grip his wrist to the point of being painful, until she realized what she was doing when Stiles whimpered softly. She let go quickly, now being the one to rub the inner part of his wrist, in apology.

Stiles watched her as she did this. He couldn't imagine what was running through her mind. Her severe reaction to the guy walking by and what Stiles had just said, showed how disturbed by the events she was.

"You got him good though," he said softy. "You got him real good."

—

They spent the night in front of the TV, books forgotten. Malia sat half-way through a basketball game, where Stiles was explaining the rules, before she switched the remote to a movie. Stiles made a face, personally not a fan of romantic comedies.

"You were doing so well understanding the game," he grumbled as Malia got up to make popcorn.

"Why would you want to watch people throwing balls in nets anyway? It gets very repetitive after a while." Malia said from the kitchen.

"Well, when you put it that way!" Stiles responded sarcastically.

When she came back, they sat on one of the couches legs tangled together in the middle, stuffing their faces with popcorn.

Stiles had been trying to watch the movie for the past twenty minutes, but his mind kept going back to Malia. Nothing seriously bad had happened he knew, but it still angered him. He couldn't help be protective of her. Malia was a strong willed person but she was naïve. That fucker had taken advantage of that, abused her trust. Now there was nothing he could do except be there for her, but he still felt like it was his fault. If he had just driven her…

His thoughts got interrupted when Malia turned to him, "People actually like this stuff?" she said in disbelief. "What are the chances that two best friends would fall in love with sisters? How is that even realistic?"

"Maybe its not supposed to be realistic?" Stiles tried, "It's like a fantasy right? People sometimes want to be in love so bad, they just want to get to that point and don't care about a realistic aspect,"

"Like you and Lydia?" Malia asked. Stiles grimaced. Never getting shit-faced again! He was sure she brought it up now just to torture him.

"Uh, yeah I guess," Stiles agreed. Malia had no tact. He should be used to these right hooks by now though. "But not for her. She doesn't really like me that way,"

"Would you like for her to like you that way?"

Stiles thought about this, "I dunno. I think we are different people now. We're actually closer than we were, when I did like her. Funny how that happens huh?" Stiles was happy that him and Lydia were in a good place. He did still care about her, but in a friend way which was nice.

Malia watched as Stiles' eyes took a distant look. Now that wouldn't do. They were supposed to have a silly fun time. She grabbed a handful of popcorn and threw it at his face.

"Hey!" Stiles snapped, scowling at her.

Malia grinned, "I lost you for a minute there."

"I'm a bad influence on you," Stiles picked a kernel from his shirt, popped it in his mouth and pulled the blanket laying on the back of the couch, for them to huddle under. Malia's feet were always icy cold.

Malia sat with her left side leaning against Stiles' folded legs, as she draped the blanket over her. She spent the rest of the night ripping romantic ideologies to shreds, and thankfully for Stiles, not relating them to his failed attempts to woo anybody.

—

Stiles woke up the next morning on the couch. He felt something poking his back and went to put his hand to take it out, when he noticed a heavy weight on his chest. Looking down, he noticed Malia half lying on him, sandwiched between him and the back of the couch. A quick look at the clock showed it was 11. Thank god it was a Sunday, or he would have been screwed.

"Uh.." Stiles looked around trying to figure out what to do. They must have dozed off when the marathon movies had started after, because the TV was still on, with some infomercial about a super vacuum cleaner. He reached the floor for the remote and turned it off quickly.

Biting his lip, Stiles shook Malia gently, "Malia? Hey, wake up." This action didn't really do anything other than make Malia snuggle even more onto his chest.

"Five more minutes," Malia mumbled softly, tussled hair covering her face.

Stiles laughed. Malia must have been a nightmare to wake up if she was a 'five more minutes' type of person. All this would have been very amusing, if he didn't have to use the bathroom though. He shook her more forcefully this time, succeeding in waking her up.

Malia grumbled as she looked up at Stiles with bleary eyes. Stiles grinned. " Good morning."

"Morning," Malia yawned closing her eyes and resting her head back down. Stiles had to only wait two seconds for Malia to shoot up to a sitting position on the couch. She looked at Stiles confused as to why she was on top of him on a couch in the living room.

Stiles grinned, enjoying her expression, "The movie had to have been really boring," he offered.

"Ugh, what time is it?" Malia asked as she got up from the couch.

"A little past eleven, I think." Stiles yawned, snuggling back under the warmth of the blanket.

Malia made a face seeing him, and padded softly to the kitchen "Scrambled eggs?"

"Scrambled eggs," Stiles agreed.

—

A/N: Hey Lovelies! I've missed this story, so light-hearted and everything :3 Though I feel the need to mention I wrote this story in 2015-16, so the Stiles spraying water thing was before S6 moment, k? lol Aside from that...do you like it so far? Should I keep going?