Stiles is racked with guilt after Allison's death. He can't look at any of his friends, especially Isaac, and not think about all of the people he'd killed, injured or left with broken families. He knew that wasn't purely him, but it hadn't purely b...
Thomas had greeted them with smiles and a hand shake at the door. Malia had been obviously grateful for the friendly welcome. The tension that had been in her shoulders since they had left the jeep seemed to leave instantly.
Tommy had given him the thumbs up as Malia had passed him through the doorway and both the young men had fallen into fits of laughter much to the coyote's bewilderment. Stiles had sobered quickly after that though as he gazed at the young woman and was struck at how lucky he was.
***
Malia had obviously tried hard at Beacon Hills to catch up on her education, she was struggling a lot less than Stiles had expected. The way she was struggling with her work was pretty much normal for a student fresh into college life.
The work wasn't proving too much though as the two would often ditch it and go down to the forest with Ide at night when the moon and the stars and the wolf were their only company.
Ide would never go too far and she would often turn to look back at them, a picture of pure beauty and power. Her grey fur would almost shine when the moonlight hit it and her brown eyes were always bright and full of intelligence. Stiles loved it most when she howled. When she did he could feel her joy course through him. She howled even though there were no wolves to answer but simply because she was telling the world that she was happy. She didn't need other wolves when she had Stiles.
In the winter when the weather turned colder, when Malia had been in Greenwood for 4 months, she would tip her head back and her breath would fog up in the air. The snow around them made it seem as if she was one with the earth where the white of her fur mixed with the soft drifts.
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***
As well as the walks, Mitchell had taken a step down and had Stiles sharing his duties as Emissary. Malia had also been welcomed into the Borden Pack, John seemed more than happy and there was only one member that had seemed slightly disgruntled. Her name was Amelia, she was a golden eyed 30 odd year old wolf with a constant bad temper. Everyone avoided her and she only seemed to respect John as her alpha. So Malia had taken no personal offence, which Stiles would be eternally grateful for.
As the Emissary, Stiles had had more contact with packs than he had ever had before. He had never realised that there was so many and it turned out that the McCall Pack was quite secluded. But then they didn't really have a proper Emissary, only Deaton, and a teen aged alpha.
As well as that development, Malia had taken well to Sarah, who was officially dating Tommy. Very well. The 2 were best friends and would often hang away from the boys. It was another thing that warmed Stiles' heart. He had been the only one that she had connected with in Beacon Hills, and here she had 2 new friends and an alpha who was happy to have her. She smiled more regularly with them than she had in Beacon Hills and when she did her whole face lit up and those wondrously brown eyes twinkled. It was best when she laughed though, it was such a beautiful sound and Stiles often couldn't resist pulling her into a kiss when it happened.
By that point in their,Stiles had full control of his elemental powers and was slowly gaining more and more tattoos. He found that he was increasingly fond of the ink that was spiraling across his skin. They helped anchor him when he delved into his magic, helped him to not get lost in the power. But on top of that, they looked cool. The ink that swirled over his skin gave it a mysterious and powerful look that Stiles loved. Malia liked them as well, which was just an added bonus.
The tattoos may not have been everyone's cup of tea though so at school he had taken to wearing long sleeves all of the time with high necked shirts. The teacher might not be to pleased with the amount of ink on his skin and the last thing he needed was to draw attention to himself. Sarah and Tommy had left college together, both graduating with grades that would make anyone envious and so it was just himself and Malia left as everyone else in the Pack was older.
***
Christmas was fast approaching in Beacon Hills and the cold seemed to have warded off all of the invading supernatural creatures. The basement was full of them and Scott was at a loss as to what to do. He was just incredibly grateful for the break.
His mother sat him down with Liam, Lydia, Kira and Mason for dinner one night. And of course the Sheriff was there too. She had invited Derek as a courtesy but the sour wolf declined. Sour wolf. He was missing Stiles so much, especially now at Christmas when the snow was covering the ground and hanging heavy in the trees and he wasn't there to ambush him and start a snow ball fight. There hadn't been a word from his friend for almost 2 years since he disappeared. If he hadn't got together with Melissa McCall, Scott was certain that the Sheriff would have either turned to the bottle or wouldn't be around anymore.
The Sheriff was the only person in Beacon Hills to know what had happened to Stiles, and even then Scott was certain that the contact Stilinski had with his son was on and off. Malia too had seemed to know, she had gotten quite close to the number 24 lacrosse player before his unexplained departure and hadn't been surprised when she went missing to, she had always been distant from the Pack as it was. She had been gone for the last 5 months so it was very likely that she had followed Stiles to whatever corner of the Earth that he had gone to after she graduated.
Scott just tried not to think about it too much. It hurt and he wanted a good holiday, make the most of not being in the middle of life and death situations all of the time. At the same time his brain, and that eternal optimist Derek, told him that it was all the calm before the storm.
