fic: rearview mirror
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Characters: Malia Tate, Stiles Stilinski
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Placing: Season 4
Info: divorce AU + sequel
“Don’t you love dad anymore?” Clara asked her mom one afternoon. There was a pile of bills on the table and she was helping with the house books. If her parents really get the divorce, her dad would have half of her mom’s fortune (that wasn’t much of a fortune anymore, given the amount of time her grandfather spent in Eichen House). He said he didn’t want it, but it’d be his anyway. “Mom?” she insisted. Her mother’s hand went to the coffee mug half empty and already cold.
She slid her finger around the border of the mug before looking up at her daughter. Clara was fifteen already, the older daughter. All their children looked like him, but Clara… she was the exact mix of them both. And she was also the only child Malia had the chance to choose the name.
“What?”
“Do you still love dad?” the girl asked again. She didn’t need to, truth be told. But Malia wanted to buy time to give the right answer.
“Clara…” she reached for her daughter’s hand. She was the only child with light eyes, a clear shade of honey that contrasted so beautifully with her tanned skin and dark hair, a charming mole under her left eye. Derek said she kind of looked like Paige.
“Just answer the question, mom. I want to know.”
Malia sighed.
“Of course I still love your dad.” She finally said. It was the truth. “I’ll always love your dad-“
“Then why doesn’t he live with us anymore?”
Malia reached for the mug again, leaned her back against her chair.
“We already talked about it.”
“No, you didn’t. You just said he was leaving, that we were free to stay with who we wanted whenever we wanted, but never said why. Is dad having an affair? Are you having an affair?”
Shaking her head, Malia stood up, taking the mug to the sink.
“I don’t know where or why you had that idea, Clara. No one had an affair, we just… fell apart.”
“But you love him.”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s bullshit.” Her daughter announced and Malia sighed. “Mommy…” Clara stood up too, came closer to her mom. “Do you even remember why you loved him for the first time?”
Malia looked at her daughter - her beautiful, beautiful daughter, who knew people so well, who helped her father solving crimes, who turned into a coyote in her first full moon on the basement of that same house they were standing at the moment - with tears in her eyes.
“I loved your dad then for the same reasons I love him now, sweetheart. I love him because he’s him: too smart for his own good, faithful, just so lovable. He puts us first, he let me in.” she felt a tear in her cheek and quickly wiped it off. Stiles was a delicate subject and she would never forgive herself for not making it work. “He’s my mate.”
“Oh, mommy…” Clara hugged her mom, touched by her words, but she also used it as an excuse to check if everything went was she planned. On the corridor, Selina gave her a thumb up. Now they could just hope the boys had made their parts.
…
Two days later, it was Selina and Bruce’s 13th birthday and family and friends were united in the Stilinski backyard for a cookout. In a week, it’d be the Hale backyard - Stiles had left the house for Malia and he’d be back to the house he grew up in.
There was barbecue, potato salad, Coke and red velvet, because the twins had flipped a coin to decide who would chose the food and who’d chose the cake. They set up a screen and a data show because Malia asked Clark to prepare a video of his siblings’ life.
Everyone ate too much and drank too little. The thirteen candles on the cake were lit up and the birthday song was sung. The twins looked at each other and made a wish before blowing them out with eyes closed, because that was a very important wish. Clark rolled the video, but it wasn’t about his siblings. It was their parents.
“Your mom, Bruce,” Stiles was saying on the tape. “is the most incredible woman I’ve ever met.”
“I loved your dad then for the same reasons I love him now, sweetheart.” Malia appeared talking.
“I can’t never, ever forgive myself for not making it work.” Stiles again. “Because I love her to pieces and I love what we made and lived together. I wouldn’t trade it for nothing in this world.”
In the Stilinski backyard, everyone had one eye on the screen and the other on Stiles and Malia, waiting to see their reaction.
“Too smart for his own good, faithful, just so lovable. He puts us first, he let me in.” Malia appeared saying and the Malia watching this wiped a tear the same way the one on the tape did.
“We fell apart.” Stiles said.
“We just… fell apart.” Malia said.
“I don’t know how to fix this.”
There was a pause, a long footage of no lines, just their faces and the faces of the children who appeared on camera. Clara was biting her lip, Bruce looked up to his dad.
And then…
Then.
“He’s my mate.”
“She’s my mate.”
“I wish you have someone to love, and when you’re really tired there still is love to start again.”
Frejat - Amor pra recomeçar
When the party was over, the guests leaving in groups of three or four, the Stilinski kids eyed their parents with interest and anxiety while cleaning the cups and plates from the living room and tables.
Grandpa Stilinski kissed every single one of them with a smile, hugged them extra hard and a few seconds too long, saying always the same thing to each of them.
“You kids are so, so smart. I’m proud of you.”
They saw uncle Scott pointing at Stiles and Malia on his way out, heard the words he said.
“These kids are making you two run for your money, aren’t they?” with a smile that indicated that he agreed with them.
“It’ll work.” Vince, Scott’s older son, told Selina, looking into her eyes with those dark eyes of his. Stiles used to say there wasn’t a more colorful family in California than Scott and Kira’s.
“I’ll tell you if it does tomorrow.” Selina assured him, squeezing his fingers in hers. She still was a few inches taller than him despite the fact that he was almost a year older, but he had started to grow tall. (she also already turned on full moons and he didn’t yet. They still weren’t sure which was dominant: wolf or fox, and were waiting discover)
They were the last to leave, Vince’s younger brother sleeping soundly on his mother’s arms. Stiles closed the door, made sure it was locked and it startled the children. He wasn’t leaving tonight. He was staying.
With a subtle smile, Clara looked at her siblings and they seemed just as excited. She turned to look at their parents again and bit her lips expectantly. Malia narrowed her eyes, but she knew (she knew) her mom was fine, almost happy.
“Go on talk.” The older Stilinski said. “We can finish cleaning the house.”
Bruce, Selina and Clark nodded and mumbled in agreement as their parents looked at them. Clara had been planned. She was wanted right after they finished college and got jobs. Two years later, they had decided that she deserved a little brother or sister and the second kid was supposed to be planned as well, but, well, Clara got a brother and sister. And then, the complete surprise three years later was Clark, unplanned at all. They loved their kids more than it’s bearable.
“Don’t go to sleep too late.” Malia said, getting closer. She kissed the top of Clark’s head before doing the same with the other children.
“And give us some damn privacy, huh?” Stiles added, also kissing them good night. “You nosy little werecreatures.”
They all nodded solemnly and he didn’t believe them at all.
“I’m not supernatural yet.” Clark said shrugging.
“And we don’t know if you’ll be, but hey!” his dad said, a hand on his shoulder, and went on his eye level. “It’s an honor being human.” The kid smiled.
“Like you are, dad.” He replied smiling and Stiles nodded.
“Like grandpa and Allison too.” the father said. Clark surprised them in every way ever since he was conceived; the Hale had some strong genes, but they never knew if all of their children would turn. He was the only one with a second name - Clark Allison Stilinski.
They left the kids doing the cleaning and headed to their bedroom, that was on the first floor of the three storey house they built together (with Malia’s family money), and their children celebrated internally: it wasn’t the office, it was the bedroom! Progress, quick, fast, beautiful progress!
“Sneaky little bastards.” Stiles mumbled closing the door, but he was smiling when he turned to Malia who eyed him biting her lip. Clara got that from her.
“You blame yourself.” She said so low it was almost a whisperer.
“I do.” He nodded, stepped closer. “And I don’t know how it happened. I know I had you and you are wonderful, but I’m always out, working, looking for something better to my family when I was actually tearing it apart.”
Malia was shaking her head. She stepped closer too.
“Stiles.”
“I’ve became ashamed of coming back home and not being enough and it made me a shield.”
“That I didn’t try hard enough to break.” She cut him, making him look at her in surprise. “Sti, I blame myself too. I should’ve had tried harder, but you know me, relationships still are new for me, I don’t understand everything yet. I thought it was normal and inevitable, we are together for so long…”
“And it’s not like you have some good examples.” He pondered and she eyed him frowning. Stiles held his hands up. “Alright, I’ll not talk about your crazy mother.”
“Stiles.”
“I won’t.” he zipped his mouth.
“Some things are instinctual, but some confuse me and when I realized I should’ve done something it was too late and you were leaving.” She looked into his eyes. Hers were clear and dark, naïve and lost the way he had seen that day at hospital so many years before, after they were almost killed. Half of their kids had those eyes of her. “I don’t want you to leave.” She concluded and Stiles nodded.
“I never wanted to leave, I just thought it’d be better for everyone.” At this point, they were only one step apart. “You are my person and every day is new for me too.”
They were silent for a few moments. In the living room, all they could hear was Selina’s fast fingers tapping on her cellphone, the four siblings sitting still.
“Goddammit, Selly, let Vin sleep!” Bruce ranted in a whisper.
“He started!” she replied in the same tone.
“Shut up!” Clara demanded with a little growl and they shushed.
“It won’t be easy.” Malia said. “Getting back to the way it was. But I’m willing to try, I want to try.”
“We can’t go back, Mal. We can only go forward and be better.” He pondered and she nodded seriously.
“Try harder.”
“Make it better than before.”
“Yes.”
“You want this?”
“I love you.”
Malia went silent. For an instant, the time stopped, the room got warmer, the hearts beat slower.
And then…
Then.
She kissed him.
…
In the living room, the Stilinski kids high-fived each other.
Characters: Malia Tate, Stiles Stilinski
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Placing: Season 4
Info: divorce AU + sequel
“Don’t you love dad anymore?” Clara asked her mom one afternoon. There was a pile of bills on the table and she was helping with the house books. If her parents really get the divorce, her dad would have half of her mom’s fortune (that wasn’t much of a fortune anymore, given the amount of time her grandfather spent in Eichen House). He said he didn’t want it, but it’d be his anyway. “Mom?” she insisted. Her mother’s hand went to the coffee mug half empty and already cold.
She slid her finger around the border of the mug before looking up at her daughter. Clara was fifteen already, the older daughter. All their children looked like him, but Clara… she was the exact mix of them both. And she was also the only child Malia had the chance to choose the name.
“What?”
“Do you still love dad?” the girl asked again. She didn’t need to, truth be told. But Malia wanted to buy time to give the right answer.
“Clara…” she reached for her daughter’s hand. She was the only child with light eyes, a clear shade of honey that contrasted so beautifully with her tanned skin and dark hair, a charming mole under her left eye. Derek said she kind of looked like Paige.
“Just answer the question, mom. I want to know.”
Malia sighed.
“Of course I still love your dad.” She finally said. It was the truth. “I’ll always love your dad-“
“Then why doesn’t he live with us anymore?”
Malia reached for the mug again, leaned her back against her chair.
“We already talked about it.”
“No, you didn’t. You just said he was leaving, that we were free to stay with who we wanted whenever we wanted, but never said why. Is dad having an affair? Are you having an affair?”
Shaking her head, Malia stood up, taking the mug to the sink.
“I don’t know where or why you had that idea, Clara. No one had an affair, we just… fell apart.”
“But you love him.”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s bullshit.” Her daughter announced and Malia sighed. “Mommy…” Clara stood up too, came closer to her mom. “Do you even remember why you loved him for the first time?”
Malia looked at her daughter - her beautiful, beautiful daughter, who knew people so well, who helped her father solving crimes, who turned into a coyote in her first full moon on the basement of that same house they were standing at the moment - with tears in her eyes.
“I loved your dad then for the same reasons I love him now, sweetheart. I love him because he’s him: too smart for his own good, faithful, just so lovable. He puts us first, he let me in.” she felt a tear in her cheek and quickly wiped it off. Stiles was a delicate subject and she would never forgive herself for not making it work. “He’s my mate.”
“Oh, mommy…” Clara hugged her mom, touched by her words, but she also used it as an excuse to check if everything went was she planned. On the corridor, Selina gave her a thumb up. Now they could just hope the boys had made their parts.
…
Two days later, it was Selina and Bruce’s 13th birthday and family and friends were united in the Stilinski backyard for a cookout. In a week, it’d be the Hale backyard - Stiles had left the house for Malia and he’d be back to the house he grew up in.
There was barbecue, potato salad, Coke and red velvet, because the twins had flipped a coin to decide who would chose the food and who’d chose the cake. They set up a screen and a data show because Malia asked Clark to prepare a video of his siblings’ life.
Everyone ate too much and drank too little. The thirteen candles on the cake were lit up and the birthday song was sung. The twins looked at each other and made a wish before blowing them out with eyes closed, because that was a very important wish. Clark rolled the video, but it wasn’t about his siblings. It was their parents.
“Your mom, Bruce,” Stiles was saying on the tape. “is the most incredible woman I’ve ever met.”
“I loved your dad then for the same reasons I love him now, sweetheart.” Malia appeared talking.
“I can’t never, ever forgive myself for not making it work.” Stiles again. “Because I love her to pieces and I love what we made and lived together. I wouldn’t trade it for nothing in this world.”
In the Stilinski backyard, everyone had one eye on the screen and the other on Stiles and Malia, waiting to see their reaction.
“Too smart for his own good, faithful, just so lovable. He puts us first, he let me in.” Malia appeared saying and the Malia watching this wiped a tear the same way the one on the tape did.
“We fell apart.” Stiles said.
“We just… fell apart.” Malia said.
“I don’t know how to fix this.”
There was a pause, a long footage of no lines, just their faces and the faces of the children who appeared on camera. Clara was biting her lip, Bruce looked up to his dad.
And then…
Then.
“He’s my mate.”
“She’s my mate.”
“I wish you have someone to love, and when you’re really tired there still is love to start again.”
Frejat - Amor pra recomeçar
When the party was over, the guests leaving in groups of three or four, the Stilinski kids eyed their parents with interest and anxiety while cleaning the cups and plates from the living room and tables.
Grandpa Stilinski kissed every single one of them with a smile, hugged them extra hard and a few seconds too long, saying always the same thing to each of them.
“You kids are so, so smart. I’m proud of you.”
They saw uncle Scott pointing at Stiles and Malia on his way out, heard the words he said.
“These kids are making you two run for your money, aren’t they?” with a smile that indicated that he agreed with them.
“It’ll work.” Vince, Scott’s older son, told Selina, looking into her eyes with those dark eyes of his. Stiles used to say there wasn’t a more colorful family in California than Scott and Kira’s.
“I’ll tell you if it does tomorrow.” Selina assured him, squeezing his fingers in hers. She still was a few inches taller than him despite the fact that he was almost a year older, but he had started to grow tall. (she also already turned on full moons and he didn’t yet. They still weren’t sure which was dominant: wolf or fox, and were waiting discover)
They were the last to leave, Vince’s younger brother sleeping soundly on his mother’s arms. Stiles closed the door, made sure it was locked and it startled the children. He wasn’t leaving tonight. He was staying.
With a subtle smile, Clara looked at her siblings and they seemed just as excited. She turned to look at their parents again and bit her lips expectantly. Malia narrowed her eyes, but she knew (she knew) her mom was fine, almost happy.
“Go on talk.” The older Stilinski said. “We can finish cleaning the house.”
Bruce, Selina and Clark nodded and mumbled in agreement as their parents looked at them. Clara had been planned. She was wanted right after they finished college and got jobs. Two years later, they had decided that she deserved a little brother or sister and the second kid was supposed to be planned as well, but, well, Clara got a brother and sister. And then, the complete surprise three years later was Clark, unplanned at all. They loved their kids more than it’s bearable.
“Don’t go to sleep too late.” Malia said, getting closer. She kissed the top of Clark’s head before doing the same with the other children.
“And give us some damn privacy, huh?” Stiles added, also kissing them good night. “You nosy little werecreatures.”
They all nodded solemnly and he didn’t believe them at all.
“I’m not supernatural yet.” Clark said shrugging.
“And we don’t know if you’ll be, but hey!” his dad said, a hand on his shoulder, and went on his eye level. “It’s an honor being human.” The kid smiled.
“Like you are, dad.” He replied smiling and Stiles nodded.
“Like grandpa and Allison too.” the father said. Clark surprised them in every way ever since he was conceived; the Hale had some strong genes, but they never knew if all of their children would turn. He was the only one with a second name - Clark Allison Stilinski.
They left the kids doing the cleaning and headed to their bedroom, that was on the first floor of the three storey house they built together (with Malia’s family money), and their children celebrated internally: it wasn’t the office, it was the bedroom! Progress, quick, fast, beautiful progress!
“Sneaky little bastards.” Stiles mumbled closing the door, but he was smiling when he turned to Malia who eyed him biting her lip. Clara got that from her.
“You blame yourself.” She said so low it was almost a whisperer.
“I do.” He nodded, stepped closer. “And I don’t know how it happened. I know I had you and you are wonderful, but I’m always out, working, looking for something better to my family when I was actually tearing it apart.”
Malia was shaking her head. She stepped closer too.
“Stiles.”
“I’ve became ashamed of coming back home and not being enough and it made me a shield.”
“That I didn’t try hard enough to break.” She cut him, making him look at her in surprise. “Sti, I blame myself too. I should’ve had tried harder, but you know me, relationships still are new for me, I don’t understand everything yet. I thought it was normal and inevitable, we are together for so long…”
“And it’s not like you have some good examples.” He pondered and she eyed him frowning. Stiles held his hands up. “Alright, I’ll not talk about your crazy mother.”
“Stiles.”
“I won’t.” he zipped his mouth.
“Some things are instinctual, but some confuse me and when I realized I should’ve done something it was too late and you were leaving.” She looked into his eyes. Hers were clear and dark, naïve and lost the way he had seen that day at hospital so many years before, after they were almost killed. Half of their kids had those eyes of her. “I don’t want you to leave.” She concluded and Stiles nodded.
“I never wanted to leave, I just thought it’d be better for everyone.” At this point, they were only one step apart. “You are my person and every day is new for me too.”
They were silent for a few moments. In the living room, all they could hear was Selina’s fast fingers tapping on her cellphone, the four siblings sitting still.
“Goddammit, Selly, let Vin sleep!” Bruce ranted in a whisper.
“He started!” she replied in the same tone.
“Shut up!” Clara demanded with a little growl and they shushed.
“It won’t be easy.” Malia said. “Getting back to the way it was. But I’m willing to try, I want to try.”
“We can’t go back, Mal. We can only go forward and be better.” He pondered and she nodded seriously.
“Try harder.”
“Make it better than before.”
“Yes.”
“You want this?”
“I love you.”
Malia went silent. For an instant, the time stopped, the room got warmer, the hearts beat slower.
And then…
Then.
She kissed him.
…
In the living room, the Stilinski kids high-fived each other.