Recondite {Malia Tate}

18: Charlie's on fire!

"I can't," Charlie sighed, rubbing his face in frustration as he stood in the backyard of Ezekiel's home, face soaked with salty sweat as he attempted another power exercise given from the older man.

Charlie was currently over at Ezekiel's house; he had requested help on his new abilities to draw his attention away from the fact that Malia had basically broken up with him. It had taken much mental conflict on whether or not he truly wanted help from the man who used to love his mom. He barely new the man, so he was slow to trust him.

Ezekiel watched with arms crossed as Charlie grabbed his phone from the deck, checking it to see if he had gotten any calls or texts, or even a simple notification.

"That's the twelfth time you've checked your phone in the past twenty minutes," he noted, approaching Charlie.

Charlie sat down tiredly, sighing again as he let his head fall, "I'm just..." He trailed off.

Just what? Charlie thought. Waiting for a call from a girl I know doesn't want anything to do with me?  Because that doesn't say pathetic and desperate.

"Ah, so you're having lady problems?" Ezekiel realized, a small tilt of his lips showing his amusement of the situation.

Charlie looked up, almost rolling his eyes at Ezekiel's look of humor, "No, I'm having Malia problems," he muttered.

He didn't care about Malia's lack of "lady-likeness"; in fact, he loved Malia's personality. She was everything he wanted to be; Malia was strong, protective, interesting, layered, and, to him, funny. She was everything Charlie has ever wanted, and now he's pushed that away.

"So," Ezekiel hummed, "what'd you do to this Malia?" He asked.

"I," Charlie cleared his throat, "I withheld what seemed to be a very important secret," he said vaguely.

"You know, Charlie, the way you talk almost makes me believe that you weren't even born in this century," Ezekiel commented, leaning against the deck railing beside the teen.

"Thanks for the compliment?" Charlie said, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to process whether or not that was meant in a way to make Charlie feel better.

"That's what I like about you," Ezekiel said. "I like how you're different from the teens I've spoken to nowadays. You don't act like someone you're not."

"Well, I've never been a really good actor so..." Charlie trailed off with a shrug.

Ezekiel cracked a smile, "Did you just crack a joke?"

"That depends," Charlie said softly, raising an eyebrow, "was it funny?"

Ezekiel nodded, "Not bad, little man," he said. "Now, what was the secret you kept from little Malia Tate?"

Charlie's eyebrows flew up, "You know who Malia is?"

"Only whats been on the news," he said. "Sixteen year-old Malia Tate was brought home by Mr. Sheriff Stilinski after being lost in the woods for eight years."

Charlie remembered the day he first saw Malia, given she was a coyote, and she was trying to eat him, but that's not really his point. His point was that though she was trying to eat him and even though she was a snarling mess, Charlie thought her coyote form was dangerously beautiful.

"I didn't tell her that she was adopted," Charlie blurted, finally getting the problem off his chest.

Ezekiel was shocked to say the least. He hadn't thought the secret would be that major. Maybe a simple white lie that had become prominent, but definitely not the secret of her real parents.