Chapter Text
There was something about driving around in the desert that made Malia feel free again. No other cars, no lamp posts, medians, trees, nothing to run into. Kira sat in the passenger seat, after Malia had managed to jail break her from the skin-walkers clutches – for a few hours at least, she had promised them to return her.
Kira was playing something called BabyMetal, loudly. She rolled the windows down, heart shaped sunglasses perched on her nose as she tilted her face to the sun and rested her chin on folded arms on the window ledge. Kira tossed back her head, letting the wind whip her hair out the window.
Malia cut a donut in the dirt making Kira squeal. She liked pretending that they were in a high speed chase, dodging bad guys together.
“What’s this song called again?” Malia yelled over the wind and the heavy metal guitar.
“Megitsune!” Kira shouted, grinning widely.
“Like Kitsune?”
Kira nodded enthusiastically while singing along and dancing in her seat.
“It’s…” Malia cut another slower circle while she thought of something to say about it. “They sing well?”
Kira’s face lit up. “Yeah they do!”
Malia drew the car to a stop at the edge of a gorge. She let the song come to an end before she shut off the car.
Together they sat on the edge, feet dangling. The wind whipped Malia’s hair in her face till Kira grew tired of pushing it back for her and braided the short hairs haphazardly around her head like a crown. Malia twisted her head around in compliance.
Kira filled in Malia on her latest with the skin-walkers.
“I’m doing really well. It’s still a struggle to get the kitsune side of me under control, but I’m getting better at it every day. It takes longer for it to gain control.”
Malia nodded, listening. Then she filled in Kira on Beacon Hills.
“Scott and Stiles almost got arrested, they were trying to catch Liam after he lost control, but Parrish was the officer on call so he let them off with a warning to be less obvious. Lydia’s applying to a brain school, she’s racking up scholarships, your dad keeps encouraging her to sign up for more.”
“And you?”
“Me? I’m just trying to make it through the year.”
“But what about college” Kira’s own plans were on hold, she needed to take a year off, maybe two or more, to get herself under control before she could apply anywhere. So she lived for finding out what her friend’s plans were, she’d live vicariously through their choices until she could get there herself. Till then she was homeschooling, or at least that’s what they told the state. When she wasn’t meditating or practicing holding off the fox, she was spending way less than the required amount of homeschooling time writing essays or taking quizzes and tests on a laptop with internet routed from someone’s phone hotspot.
Malia shrugged, “maybe I’ll start slow, take a few community classes, see if I like it. School’s not really my thing. Maybe I’ll just get a job.”
Kira nodded and reached for Malia’s hand. They sat together in silence, watching the sun go down. Then they gathered themselves and started back to the skin-walkers, parting with promises to meet again next time Kira could.