"Can I come?"
"I don't think that'd be a good idea." Charlie shook his head, biting his lip out of habit, the skin beneath his teeth drying and cracking.
Malia growled, "What if he loses control?"
Charlie sighed, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of him as he continued his drive to Scott's house, "He won't. Scott's gonna help him."
"But what if he does, Charlie?" Malia stressed, "What if he hurts you and I'm not there?"
Charlie felt his shoulders fall, "Malia, I'm a man. I can protect myself." He huffed, a sudden confidence fueling him.
Malia paused, before she scoffed, "No, you can't. Charlie, you need me. I don't want you to get hurt."
And just like that Charlie's confidence deflated like a popped balloon; fast and all at once. Sure, he liked Malia, a lot, but he was a boy. Boys can protect themselves. They're supposed to protect the girls. Charlie knew it sounded like he was anti feminist, but he didn't mean to be; he just thought it was what men were made for; protection. But he knew Malia was a girl that surpassed the damsel in distress stereotype, and that's what terrorized him the most.
He didn't like the thought of Malia putting herself in danger so that he could have a few more seconds of time to escape. Charlie was tired of being the boy in the pack. He wanted to be a man, but with his lack of claws and fangs and fighting skills, he couldn't be everything he desired. It was out of his grasp, much like his confidence balloon after it was popped.
Charlie suddenly heard Malis last sentence, "I don't want you getting hurt."
Charlie blushed at the thought of Malia looking into his eyes as she said this. Charlie always blushed when he made eye contact; he couldn't help it, except when he talked to his friends. It was a nervous habit he had. The last time Charlie made eye contact with someone he barely knew, he got a lump in his throat and turned away to puke onto the heated concrete he stood on. Needless to say he disliked looking into another's eyes.
"Charlie? Charlie? Charlie, are you going to answer me, or keep zoning out?" Malia sighed.
Charlie snapped from his daze, his eyes scanning the road as he continued his drive, mere seconds away from turning into the McCall's familiar driveway.
"Uh, u-um, I'll be fine, Malia. Sorry, but I, uh, I gotta go." He stumbled, "I'll see you when I get home tonight."
He ended the call and flushed a brilliant red, a thousand rubies staining his cheeks like little jewels of blood to show his sudden embarrassment. He just told his crush that he'd see her at his house. At night. And he left the conversation like that. Was he daring, or dumb?
"Charlie, stop!" A sudden voice screeched.
Charlie cried out as he slammed on his brakes, his body slinging against the seatbelt and falling back against his car seat. He breathed in heavily panicked breaths, seeing Stiles and Derek standing in front of his car, wide eyed expressions paling their faces. Charlie scrambled from the car with his backpacks, apologizing furiously as they walked to the front door.
"I'm seriously sorry, you guys." Charlie told them sincerely, clutching his books to his chest.
"Dude, it's fine." Stiles said, using his key to unlock the second door, "You didn't hit us, which is a plus."
"But you weren't paying attention while you were driving." Derek glared at him, "You could have killed us."
Stiles pushed Derek ahead of him as he opened the front door, a very darkly lit room meeting his eyes, "We're going to wait here for Scott. We're going to sit quietly. And we're not going to call or talk to anyone." Stiles immediately told Derek.
"Can I talk to you?" Derek asked him.
"No." Stiles instantly said.
"Good." Derek replied.
"Fine." Stiles rolled his eyes.
Charlie looked behind him, "Guys, we left the door open."
"Can I talk to you?" Derek looked to Charlie.
Charlie bit his lip, looking forward to Derek, "I'd rather you not." He said shyly.
"Who's gonna talk to him?" Derek asked, gesturing to where Raphael McCall stood.
Charlie jumped with Stiles and Stiles let it a small noise of surprise, "Are you getting taller?" He exclaimed.
"What're you guys doing here?" Raphael asked.
"Waiting for Scott." Derek stated as though it was clearly obvious.
"Yeah, so am I." The man said, Charlie just now noticing the giant bag of takeout he had in his arms, "We're supposed to have dinner."
Charlie loved Chinese food. Especially chicken lomein.
"I brought extra, are you guys hungry?" Raphael asked.
"Yeah." Derek told him.
Charlie hummed lowly as Stiles shook his head, "No. We're not hungry." He said.
"No. I'm starving. And so is Charlie, right, Charlie?" Derek said, turning to Charlie.
The two boy's gazes burned into him fiercely and he felt small beads of sweat come together at the base of his neck as they awaited an answer.
"A little-" Derek sent Stiles a smug look, but Stiles shook his head again.
"None of us are hungry." He said, "But thanks though." Stiles told the man, grinning oddly.
"Okay," Raphael nodded, "well, if you're not hungry, Stiles, your friends can still eat with us."
Charlie would be lying if he said he wasn't relieved when Mr. McCall said that.
"What's your name?" Raphael asked Derek, already hearing the other boy's name enough to know it already.
"De-" Derek started.
"Miguel." Stiles cut him off, nodding, "his names Miguel." He threw an arm around him, slapping his shoulder firmly, "This is my cousin Miguel. From Mexico, so.."
Raphael suddenly began speaking something in fluent Spanish to Derek, and Charlie almost dropped his books at the sudden turn of events.
"Oh my God." Stiles mumbled at the exchange.
Derek replied, easily letting each syllable fall off his tongue, letting Charlie know that the Hale most definitely passed his Spanish class back in high school.
"Fantastic. Egg roll?" Raphael asked.
"Hell, yeah." Derek nodded, grinning.
Stiles laughed obnoxiously as Charlie went to stand beside him, watching the interactions between Derek Hale and Raphael McCall.
"Shrimp fried rice or poor fried rice?" Raphael asked.
"Shrimp fried rice." Derek told him.
"Hah! Fantastic!" Stiles exclaimed, rubbing his head, "Egg roll."
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"So, uh, Miguel." Raphael started, "What'd you say your last name was again?"
"Oh, it's uh, Juarez, Cinqua.. Tiago." He winced, picking at his food.
Raphael rose an eyebrow, "That's, uh, that's a mouthful." He nodded.
Stiles nodded, "Mm, hmm."
"How do you spell that?" He asked.
Derek's gaze instantly found Stiles, giving him a mocking look as he waited for the pale boy to answer for him.
Charlie slurped his chicken lomein noodles into his mouth, rubbing the sauce from his lips with a napkin before mustering the courage to blurt out, "W-why do you need to know how to spell his last name?"
Stiles rose a mocking eyebrow at Raphael, "Hmm?"
"Curiosity." Raphael smiled, "And you were saying." He said to Stiles.
"Phonetically." Stiles said, raising his chopsticks.
"Mr. McCall, you're an FBI agent." Derek realized after seeing the badge lying on the dinner table.
Charlie coughed loudly, inhaling his noodles roughly, gagging as he tried to breathe. Everyone stared at him as he tried to catch his breath from his recent noodle attack.
"Oh my God." Charlie coughed, "It went down the wrong pipe. I'm sorry." He apologized meekly, chugging the glass of water beside him as he watched the interaction unfold in front of him.
"He's low level." Stiles informed Derek. "Very low level. He doesn't even have a voice."
"Metaphorically speaking." Charlie tried to help, a pointed look from Stiles suggested he was failing; making Charlie go back to eating his noodles intently.
"So, do you investigate murders?" Derek asked.
"Sometimes." Mr. McCall nodded, "When it's a federal crime."
"What about fires?" Derek pushed.
"Oh my God." Stiles exclaimed, mouth full, "I wonder where Scott is? Shouldn't Scott be here by now? We should call Scott." He said, taking his phone out.
"What kinda, uh, what kind of fires are you talking about?" Mr. McCall asked.
Stiles laughed nervously, scrolling through the small list of names in his contact list to find Scott's.
"Do you know anything about the Hale family?" Derek finally asked.
Oh, no. Charlie sighed internally.
<>
"Oomph! Okay, I didn't lie. I omitted certain truths. Vital truths now that I think about it." Stiles told Derek, his face flush against the wooden door in Scott's bedroom.
"Hurting him won't help you get anymore information." Charlie reasoned, "You- you hurt him, and Scott won't help you."
"I don't want to talk to you two." Derek said angrily, shoving away from Stiles, "I want to talk to the alpha, I'll talk to Scott." He nodded.
"Okay. I'm gonna go get him." Stiles nodded, opening Scott's door, "My phones downstairs. I'm gonna call him, real quick. Charlie's gonna stay up here with you, so don't move. Don't move."
The two boys watched Stiles leave the room quickly, waiting until he got back when suddenly they saw Stiles' body shoot back to the room.
"Don't-" Stiles stopped himself, rubbing under his nose, "I thought you..." He shook his head, stepping back to get his phone from downstairs.
Charlie got on his phone as he watched Derek sit on Scott's bed. Charlie sent a quick text to check on Malia while he kept Derek upstairs.
"Kate." Derek suddenly stated.
Charlie didn't look up, "Ask Scott. He can tell you every-ah!" He gasped at seeing Kate's alive figure sauntering from Scott's bathroom.
"Hey, handsome." Kate smirked, "Been a long time." She told Derek.
Charlie quickly fled to the door, "Stiles-" he grunted as Kate slammed her fist into his temple, sending the boy tumbling to the floor, unconscious, as she escaped with Derek.
<>
"Charlie? Hey, man, come on, wake up. Hey, you gotta wake up, Charlie." Stiles told his friends limp form, sending soft slaps to his face, "Come on, Charlie. Stop being dramatic."
Charlie groaned loudly, "My head-" he winced as he slowly regained consciousness.
Stiles nodded, "Yeah, you just got knocked out by a psychopathic were-jaguar. Congrats." He said, helping Charlie up, grabbing his phone for him, "It was literally a TKO."
"I need ice." Charlie told Stiles, his voice strained.
"Yeah, and we will get you some ice when we find Derek, okay? Scott told me something about the vault, you know? The Hale vault?" Stiles asked.
Charlie nodded, "I know, it's somewhere at the school, follow behind my car." A sudden burst of confidence overflowed Charlie.
"Whoa, should you even drive?" Stiles asked.
Charlie hummed, "Like you said, ice later, Derek now." He said softly, walking away from Stiles and out of the McCall house to his car.
"Lydia's meeting us at the school." Stiles called, "I'm right behind you!"
Charlie nodded, starting his car and pulling out of his parking space to go to the school.
Charlie shook his head as he tried to clear the fog that clouded his most recent memories. One second he was calling for Stile, and the next he was waking up to Stiles' face. Charlie concentrated on the road as he tried to pull more from what had happened, but all he got were memories he already knew about.
Charlie quickly arrived in the school's parking lot, and he parked his car, finding both Lydia and Stiles behind him as he got out of the drivers side.
"Do you know where it is exactly?" Charlie asked.
Stiles nodded, "Scott's text finally went through; its under the Beacon Hills High sign. Come on." He ran ahead of Lydia and Charlie, the two running after him.
The three came to a sudden stop under part of the school at the sound of a loud growl; leaves kicked upward wth the sudden rush of wind that blew everything violently.
Stiles dropped his hand that held the baseball bat, and Lydia sent Charlie an annoyed look at Stiles' choice of weapon, "You seriously need to find something better than a baseball bat." She told Stiles.
Stiles gave her a blank look as she took of running again, the two boys behind her as they arrived at the opening of the Hale vault.
"Why's there smoke coming from it?" Stiles asked.
Lydia shook her head, "No idea, but if Derek's down there, we need to know."
They heard distant mumbling as the three kids descended the stairs, finding an angry Peter on his knees with his back facing them.
"They took it. They took it while I was blinded." Peter mumbled angrily, his hands wavering in front of an unlocked safe.
"Took what?" Lydia asked.
Charlie took a cautious step back as Peter slowly stood to his feet, his back tensed, "Bonds." He said, turning around, "Bearer bonds and they took them all."
"Bearer bonds? Hold on." Stiles let an amused grin come to his lips, "Hold on. Are you saying you got robbed?" He asked in amusement.
"This was a heist." Peter snapped, "Somebody planned this."
"How much did they take?" Lydia rose an awaiting eyebrow.
"117.." Peter said vaguely.
"Thousand?" Stiles said incredulously.
Peter's head slowly turned from the three teens, "Million." He breathed.
Stiles and Charlie shared wide eyed looks at the sudden severity of the situation.
How'd they know there was money in the vault? Charlie wondered.
Charlie was snapped from his daze as his phone rang, and he quickly took steps back to get out of the Hale vault.
"Hello?" He answered, his head suddenly pounding, making him wince sharply.
"Charlie? Charlie, can you come pick me up?" Malia asked; surprising Charlie that she wasn't ordering him to do so for once.
Charlie nodded, realizing she couldn't see him, "Y-yeah, yeah, of course, Malia. Where are you?"
"I'm at the high school. Scott said its staircase A?"
Charlie's eyes widened and he quickly made his way to the stairs, "Wait, you were here with Scott?"
"I was helping him. I was doing the right thing." She told Charlie, "We talked about this, Charlie."
Charlie couldn't help the small laugh that escaped as Malia turned his words around on him, unbeknownst to her what she was doing. Charlie shook his head at her reply.
"I'm almost there." He told her.
"Bye." She said simply, hanging up.
Charlie stuffed his phone into his hoodie, rubbing his tender temple from where he was hit, the soft skin firm and knotted where a bruise was staining the skin.
Charlie's eyes found staircase A, and he let out a breath of relief when he saw Malia waiting for him. But his relief was pushed asides when he saw the rips in her paints stained with blood.
He rushed to her side, "What happened to you?"
"Do you know what a berserker is?" She winced.
"No."
"Good, because they're big, fast and deadly." She said, pausing, "How'd you get here so fast?"
Charlie cleared his throat, "Oh, u-um, I was already here."
"Where were you?" She asked.
"The Hale vault looking for Derek." He told her.
She glared at him, "Without me?"
"It wasn't exactly planned." Charlie told her, wrapping his long arm around her waist to support her tired frame.
"What's that smell?" Malia asked curiously, crinkling her nose.
"What smell?" Charlie asked in a panic, "I swear I put deodorant on today-"
"No, it smells like.. Blood, and nervousness." She said, her eyes narrowing at Charlie, "What happened."
"Nothing, okay? Kate punched me, that's all. I should've been paying more attention." Charlie sighed, "I always get in the way."
"Let me see." Malia said, turning him to look at her.
He sighed, gesturing to where he was punched, wincing as Malia's fingers grazed over the bruising skin. She furrowed her brows before leaning up to kiss the side of his head; all pain was now completely gone from Charlie's mind as Malia pulled away from his temple.
"Does it hurt a lot?" She asked.
Charlie shook his head, "I, uh, um, I can't even feel it right now."
Malia smiled softly, repositioning Charlie arms around her as they continued walking to Charlie's car.
"Where do you want to go?" Charlie asked her, still slightly giddy from her small kiss.
"Home." She sighed, her eyes dropping tiredly as she leaned her head on Charlie arm.
Charlie's heart fell to his stomach when he heard her reply, he'd be lying if he said he didn't want her coming to his house tonight. Charlie was growing closer to Malia, and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. What he did know was that the process felt amazing.
"Is your dad even home?" He asked her.
Malia opened her eyes as they got to Charlie's car, "No, that'd be weird if he was." She told him, giving Charlie and odd look.
What? Charlie thought.
"Why would it be weird?" Charlie laughed, "Your dad lives with you at home, Malia."
"That's not my home, Charlie." She shook her head, "I meant your home."
Charlie froze, blushing, "M-my home?"
She nodded, "That's the home I was talking about." She said, cuddling into the passenger seat that smelt like Charlie.
Charlie made sure Malia wasn't looking when he jumped in the air, doing an odd, happy dance before getting in his car to take the two of them home.
What Charlie didn't know, was that Malia had opened her eyes long enough to see him flailing happily; causing both confusion and happiness to flood through her after knowing that Charlie wanted her with him.
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It is just update central in this biotch. 😂
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