tw rarepair week 23: day 6, season 3 malia & derek
|| for @teenwolfrarepairevents event
|| peaceful — on my ao3 | 1.4k+ word count
|| tags: hurt/comfort, malia getting overwhelmed, derek is malias brother (even if that’s not how family trees work)
The lights are bright, noises too loud, smells overwhelming with different foods from one direction and sickly sweet perfumes from another. This is bad, Malia had decided five minutes into the mall trip with the pack. They all came, Scott, Stiles, Derek, Allison, Lydia and even Kira tagged along, so she’s been roughing it out.
The trip is for Malia, that’s what Lydia told her on the half hour car ride to the other side of Beacon hills. The mall just hits the line between Beacon hills and the next town over, really it could be considered in either. Malia already knew this before Stiles told her, she’s been here before, back when she was a coyote and liked to walk the woods near the dumpsters waiting for the workers to dump bucket loads of perfectly good food, wasteful, but as a coyote she appreciated the free snacks.
It’s not nearly as enjoyable now. She’s not in the woods but rather inside, walking the second floor of the mall where most clothing stores live, that’s really why they’re here, to get Malia clothes that aren’t random hand-me-downs from each member in the pack. As of now she has on one of Derek’s shirts, an oversized olive green one, it’s soft and one of Malias favorites, it’s paired with a pair of Lydias old jeans, they’re too tight for Malias liking but she’s thankful that Lydia gave them to her. Stiles says Lydia’s really into fashion, she assumes that means Lydia giving up her clothes is a big deal, she tries to thank the redhead when she can.
It’s hard making friends and forming bonds with people, but Malia tries, especially with Lydia. She can tell Lydia is an important person to Stiles and Derek, the rest of the pack too, but those two seem extra protective over her.
Speaking of Derek and Stiles, she can’t see them through the clothing racks scattered about the store. Lydia’s in front of her with Kira, they’re talking about a shirt and keep glancing at Malia, studying her in a way. That’s fine, she doesn’t mind their looks, but she does want to find Derek. Or Stiles. They’re the people she’s grown most fond of, become most attached to, she’s practically in Stiles’ bed every night and if not there she’s at Derek’s loft sleeping on his floor by his bed. He always offers the bed and says he’ll take the couch, she denies each time, she likes his floor, it’s not wood like Stiles’ but instead a concrete that’s finished over and surprisingly warm. Derek says there’s heaters built into the floor, she loves it.
She wants that, the warmth and comfort of Derek’s floor, of his loft that she knows every inch of and smells like safety, she wants the comfort of Derek. This was a bad idea, the mall is too bright and too overstimulating, she needs Derek.
“Malia? Hey, hey, Malia what’s wrong?” She stares at Lydia, the hands that Lydia squeezes on her shoulders is helping a little, not enough.
“Derek— where’s Derek?” Looking around again helps nothing, she can’t see him, and there’s too many scents and smells to try to pinpoint where he is through it all.
“Hey, hey, I’m right here.” She clings to his frame as soon as he appears behind her. Derek’s arms curl over Malias back the second she throws herself into his chest, hiding her face against the soft material of his t-shirt, it blocks out most of the light and his scent overpowers the other mix of too many smells to decipher. She leans as far into Derek as she can, it’s too loud, too many things are going on, she wants to go home, with the people she trusts and not the random strangers around now.
“Malia, can you talk to me?” It’s a few moments later when Derek speaks, Malia tries to force the words but can’t.
She feels like a wild animal trapped in a cage, but then it hits her, she is a wild animal. She’s a coyote, one that lived in the woods for years and hasn’t been around people nor lived as a human for most of her growing up, she is trapped. Having to learn how to live in the “normal” world and being expected to function like everyone else feels suffocating, as if she’s scratching the walls begging for help and direction.
“Breathe Malia, you gotta breathe. In and out, nice and slow.” Oh, she’s not breathing correctly. It’s fast and ragged like Stiles’ gets when he wakes up from nightmares, and Derek’s rubbing her back like she does to Stiles after his nightmares too. It’s helping, she nuzzles against Derek, an odd pitchy noise coming from her throat. A whimper. She’s never done that as a human before, a coyote sure, but it feels different as a human. More vulnerable than she ever was as a coyote.
“I don’t want to be here.” It shakes coming out of Malias mouth, muffled by her face still pressed into Derek’s chest. They’ve been here for hours and somehow the shopping trip still isn’t done, Malia can’t handle being here anymore.
“Okay, okay, alright let’s go. I’ll take you back to my loft.” It’s where she was before they left this morning. She hadn’t meant to end up there. She had gone out in what was just supposed to be a late night run, but somehow she was standing in Derek’s doorway before she could question how she got there, and he wouldn’t let her run back home so late so she stayed over.
-
Malia clings to Derek the ride home, gripping his hand as tightly as she can over the center console. He says nothing about it, or about her constant shifting in her seat since her anxiety hasn’t calmed down and every car that goes by somehow seems louder than they ever have.
The ride is silent aside from Derek humming under his breath, Malia finds herself getting lost in it. She doesn’t recognize the tune, which isn’t surprising as she hasn’t listened to a lot of music, but there’s something soothing about it. By the time they pull up to Derek’s loft she’s calmed down a sufficient amount, she can tell Derek has too, no longer trying to hide his panic about Malias state.
“Do you need anything?” Derek asks once they’re inside and he can strip his leather jacket off while Malia toes her shoes off. She’s still not used to them, she’d rather be barefoot, but it’s “unacceptable” according to the pack, something about societal norms as Mason put it.
“Can I stay here tonight?” There’s no need for her to ask, Derek wouldn’t let her leave even if she wanted to. He’s still too protective about what happened earlier, Malia can smell it on him.
“You never have to ask, my doors always open. Do you want to take the bed?” She shakes her head and smiles when Derek chuckles lightly.
It’s not late enough to go to bed by normal standards but Derek changes into his pajamas anyways, and lends Malia a pair of basketball shorts she thinks he bought specifically for her as there’s no way they’d ever fit him. She appreciates them, and how Derek resumes humming that same song once Malia curls up on the floor by his bed and he sits up at the headboard with a book.
They don’t sleep but it’s peaceful, a different type of peaceful that Malia isn’t used to. She can’t hear the sound of birds chirping or the wind rustling the trees like she used to in the woods, it’s replaced by Derek’s humming and the routine click of a clock that’s somewhere in the loft. There’s also a periodic sound of Derek turning his page, it’s a big book when Malia lifts her head to look over at him, she can’t read the cover as Derek’s hand covers it but she assumes it’s something important. There’s no way a book that thick would just be for fun.
“Hi?” Derek’s lips curl into a smile, Malia gives one back, Stiles tells her it’s rude not to. And now that she’s sat on the end of Derek’s bed she thinks he deserves one, not that it feels forced with Derek. They’re family, in a weird way Malia still doesn’t understand, but he’s comfortable to be around and that’s all she really cares about.
“Can you keep humming?” It takes a second for her to get the request out, not sure if this is an appropriate thing for her to ask.
Derek doesn’t bat an eye and simply goes back to his reading/humming. Malia lays by his feet, on the bed, it’s softer up here and warmer despite the heated floors of the loft. She settles herself into the fleece blanket Derek has folded across the end of his bed, she knows her brother won’t mind it.
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Here are some bmth updates for us tumblr fans who r confused as hell
Bmth is headlining at Download Festival, and they have made up an entire fake cult along with little riddles scattered around the festival to lead fans on a journey looking for hints and clues as to what they’re doing next (like Trench’s symbolism/cryptic shit back in 2018)
All the riddles have answers that are given to “followers” of The Church Of Genxis (the name of the cult) in exchange for silver medallions (oddly enough a lot of this is reminiscent of resident evil 4 with the blue medallions and the Genxis symbol looking like Las Plagas’ symbol)
A lot of the imagery here seems to have been planned for a while, people are speculating that some of the symbolism from Die4U, LosT, and Strangers are all tying into this Genxsis stuff.
To those who have never been to a BMTH concert before, recently BMTH has had a vocaloid/fictional AI styled narrator at their shows as their intro/break performance. This narrator is kind of like a fictional AI looking for signs of human life to bring upon “salvation” usually they are used to rile up the crowd to start circle pits, but lately the old one (an AI with the design of a nun with gold demon horns) was replaced with a new one that has a symbol on their forehead, a lot of people are wondering why the change.
Also, the silver medallions are collected after completing the riddles! Here’s all the riddles so far! (jcx200 on Twitter)
After collecting 3 medallions, people are allowed inside of the “church” (it’s just a shipping container LMFKALFJLSFK), but so far I feel like there’s some secrecy because there have been people who went into the “Church” but no one is telling us what goes on inside T-T…so who knows man!!!
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