Phoenix || Malia Tate

13

I listened to Ultraviolence while writing this, so... just a thought.

*

It is five minutes until the final bell on Thursday, and Malia is staring holes into the clock. Scott and Stiles watch with careful eyes, turning to each other to exchanged quirked eyebrows and confused expressions before looking at Malia again. Her stare is so intense, Stiles worries she's actually trying to make it go faster with her mind.

"Mal," he says carefully. "Everything okay?"

Malia so is focused she can't even hear him. Scott clears his throat to get her attention. She looks to them with this confused, deer in the headlights kind of expression. "Yeah?"

"You're gonna burn a hole into that thing," Scott tells her.

"Oh." Malia straightens up and forces her eyes away from the clock. "Sorry."

Stiles is staring at her like he's suspicious of something now. She knows that squinty-eyed, lip-between-the-teeth look too well. It's the one he gives every single person he meets, every single person he doesn't trust. She shifts slightly under his gaze and tucks her hair behind her ears. She winces the moment she does. Dead giveaway.

"You got somewhere to be, Malia?" Stiles asks.

Scott gives him a look. "Stiles."

Malia shakes her head. She has to play along, has to kill any suspicion Stiles has. "I got nowhere to be."

But both Scott and Stiles know that's bullshit. They know she's lying, know she's keeping a secret.

Truth is, Malia doesn't know why she has this need to keep Phoenix a secret. He's not a threat anymore, not after he promised not tell anyone. He's not an enemy, just some guy who's way too fixated on the supernatural and way too flirty for his own good. And it's not like she's not allowed to have friends outside of the group. Perhaps it's because she doesn't want them to know how she met Phoenix, in her den when she wanted to run away. She doesn't want them to worry, doesn't want them to try to fix her. Yes, she decides. That is why she wants to keep Phoenix a secret. It's better than the alternative.

Stiles nods his head towards her. "So, you're hanging out with us today?"

Shit. She should've just said she had somewhere to be. "Uh," she starts. She's meeting Phoenix after school, and she really doesn't want ditch him. But not ditching Phoenix means ditching her friends, and that hasn't turn out too well.

The boys are still waiting. "Yes?" Stiles encourages. Scott watches on quietly.

"I, uh –"Malia looks at the clock, and it is as if the Heavens itself opened up just to ring the bell. "I gotta go, bye!"

With that, Malia grabs her bags and hauls ass out the doors, knocking a few students on her way out. Scott and Stiles exchange suspicious looks.

*

She walks into the den almost thirty minutes later, and he is exactly where he has been every day for the past two months.

"Well, if it isn't the queen of the woods herself," Phoenix says. "Thought you stood me up."

She's panting from the running she did since the moment she stepped out of the school doors, but Malia's not so sure that's the reason why she's suddenly at a loss for oxygen. The way he just said what he said, he made it sound like...like they're on a date.

Malia shifts her weight. "Thought I was 'princess'."

Phoenix smiles. "Guess you got a promotion."

Shit Phoenix and his goddamn flirting. Malia's not sure if he's being literal or figurative, if there's a deeper meaning, if it's metaphor. He's standing there, looking at with her with this freaking brightness that he just seems to have, looking at her with this tilted grin, and suddenly Malia's not sure she wants to know.

Phoenix looks down. "How, uh, how was school?" He asks.

"It was school," Malia replies. They walk to the back of the den, and just as the days before, sit and lean against the rock. Phoenix is sitting so close she could touch him if she moved an inch. They sit in silence for a moment. "Do you miss it?" She only asks it to avoid the silence. "School?"

Phoenix shakes his head. "Not one goddamn bit. School is hell, literally. And mine was even worse. It was a freaking prep school."

"You don't strike me as a pep boy," Malia comments. She turns her head to look at him. He does the same.

She expects him to say "I'm not." or make some kind of smartass comment, but he doesn't. He just bites his lip and says, "Oh, yeah? What do I strike you as?"

So many words come to mind in an instant, "hot" being one of them. She wants to stab herself in the face just for thinking it.

Malia looks down, trying to get her hair to cover the blush that won't stop growing. "A creepy stalker. Maybe a fanatic who has nothing else to do with his time," she says.

Phoenix breaths out a laugh. He leans closer, so close she can feel his breath hit her hair. She's already flustered and he's making it worse. "You sure about that?" He whispers.

"No," she says almost immediately, and it actually catches him off guard. He wasn't expecting that. He stops, eyebrows slightly drawn together as she turns to look at him. "I'm not sure about anything when it comes to you."

His face is so close to hers and she realizes for the first time that she wants to kiss him. The thought comes with such a quick ferocity that it actually surprises her. She turns away in embarrassment, refusing to look at him. Where did that thought even come from? They're friends. Really good friends. Is he hot? Hell yes. She's not blind. Is he funny? Sometimes. Does she like him? ...She's not sure.

Her mind, this situation, everything is suddenly such a blurry mess and she doesn't know what to do. She still wants to kiss him, but even if she did, would he reject her? Would she ruin everything?

No matter how much she wants it, Phoenix is the one thing that feels right in a life that feels so wrong and she can't ruin that.

*

He watches as Malia closes her eyes and leans her head against the wall. Phoenix is so still, so close, still shocked from what she just said. Double meanings weren't new to their dynamic, but they had always been from him. Flirting, teasing, riddled sentences had all been him. For it be her now, for their roles to be reversed...

Shit.

It's real, Phoenix realizes. It's all too goddamn real.

He pushes aside the deafening thoughts and drowns the logic, drowns the guilt, drowns the part he's been hiding from her. He forgets it all, chooses to focus his attention on her and only her. He looks at her dark hair and her little nose and her reddened cheeks and it's like his seeing her a new light. She's no longer Malia, the coyote girl. She's just Malia. Strong. Kind. Beautiful.

He leans in closer, just an inch, but she can feel it, can feel the proximity with such intensity. Malia turns her head, ever so slightly until her eyes meet his and in an instant, she's lost in the forest. Phoenix lifts a hand, gentle, careful, and presses his finger lightly against her chin. He pauses, waits for her to throw him off, waits for the punch, but it never comes. She's completely frozen but she's breathing so heavily. He turns her head to fully face him and lets his finger trail over her bottom lip. He watches as her mouth opens slightly and as she shivers at the contact. He moves forward, just the slightest, and can just about feel her lips brush against his. He's still waiting for the sign, still waiting for both of them to realize that this is a bad idea, but Malia closes the gap between them before it can.

.