#{🐾} malia hale ; headcanons

[painofhumanity]

I'm still working on fleshing out exactly where and when Stiles and Kira and Malia go canon divergent individually, but here's some highlights:

Stiles

does not break up with Malia--or at least not in that leaving without saying anything way

in threads/verses he does break up with Malia, he does not end up with Lydia

we are exploring that whole "spark" thing, even though Jeff threw it out as soon as he brought it up

we're also ignoring like, all of season 6. just. all of it.

Kira

does not just get abandoned in the New Mexico desert, never to be seen again

in fact, we're ignoring the whole "becoming possessed by her own fox" BS, because it was weird and dumb

Kira did start losing control of her powers, however, and she did spend some time away from Beacon Hills with her mom learning control--but from other kitsune, not the skin walkers, because that literally doesn't even make sense

graduates with the pack, because we're ignoring season 6

Malia

Malia was raised by Peter and the Hales until the fire, then she was adopted by the Tates; she still goes by Hale, and wants to connect with Peter again, but he's not the father she remembers.

does not break up with Stiles, does not end up dating Scott (even though that was actually kinda cute)

again, ignoring season 6

[painofhumanity]

There are a lot of things about the night of the Hale House Fire that Malia just can't remember. She doesn't remember what that last normal night was like, or who she hugged goodnight, or the last thing she said to her aunts, uncles, and cousins. . . But she remembers the screams all too well. And the heat and the smoke. She remembers crying out for her dad, and hearing him yell for her to run, promising to find her. She remembers holding Cora's hand while they ran through the preserve until they got separated. And she remembers the nice cop who gave her his jacket when he found her dirty and crying on the side of the road, how he stayed with her as long as he could when he took her to the hospital. . . That's the one good thing from that night Malia remembers, but she's long since forgotten the man's name.

[painofhumanity]

The older I get, the more I think Malia has autism. Struggles with social skills, often takes things literally, looks at things different than most people. And yeah, some of that could be explained by several years spent as a coyote, but it just feels like a little more than that to me.

[painofhumanity]

Thinking about how guarded Malia's heart is, and how it must scare the hell outta her that Scott lives with his wide open. And how she comes to trust and respect and love Scott, and how she would actually, literally, HAPPILY kill anyone who hurt him (if Scott and Stiles would actually let her).

[painofhumanity]

Malia spent so much time with Stiles that anxiety became the first emotion she could easily identify (hence her immediately knowing when Scott and Kira were worried about something and her bluntly asking "What's wrong with you?"), and it's still the easiest for her to pick up on when she gets more practice identifying chemosignals.

[painofhumanity]

When Malia is first made human again, there are times when she gets stressed or overwhelmed and turns back into a coyote again for the first several months, because that's what her brain determined was the proper response to extreme stressors. Of course, she only stays like this for a few hours to a day, depending on how soon Scott can track her down and make her shift back. And Stiles is always there to talk her through whatever she's feeling, because it quickly becomes clear that he's what anchors her to her humanity.

[painofhumanity]

At some point, Malia starts constantly listening to Stiles' heartbeat and breathing, and also monitoring his chemosignals. It just becomes a habit, because she quickly learns that he always says he's fine, but rarely is. She gets so familiar with all of it, that she knows when Stiles is starting to have a panic attack, or when he's getting agitated because he's over- or understimulated.

Malia also learns early on that Stiles doesn't like those things called to everyone's attention, so she figures out quiet ways to help him without anyone (even him, sometimes) realizing it. Things like taking his hand and tracing it with her finger, or lightly running her nails up and down his forearm, or playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. Sometimes, it's the reverse--handing Stiles her hand for him to fidget with her fingers, or letting Stiles play with her hair. If Stiles knows what she's doing, he's never told her.

[painofhumanity]

Tag Drop;; Malia Tate 🐾