Archive of Our Own ^beta

The first time Stiles shows up at her front door, Kira thinks he’s looking for Scott. Because, sure, she knows Stiles, and she did help fight the nogitsune and everything, but other than the one time Stiles had actually been over to her house – when he was pretty much dying – they’ve never really talked. And honestly, Kira thought he would have wanted to avoid the Yukimura household altogether, what with the nogitsune mess mostly being her mother’s fault and her mother trying to kill him on multiple occasions.

But she doesn’t get a chance to tell him that no, Scott isn’t at her house. Scott isn’t actually her boyfriend, no matter how many rides he gives her on his bike. She doesn’t get a chance to explain that Scott hasn’t really been to her house that many more times than Stiles himself has.

Apparently though, Stiles isn’t looking for Scott because the first thing out of his mouth when she opens the door is, “Hey, is your mom around?”

Kira stares at him, dumbstruck, and before she can even completely process what he’d just asked her, her mother is standing behind her in the doorway and inviting Stiles inside. He gives her mother a short bow of respect, looking a little sheepish, before stepping inside, removing his shoes and placing them next to the door. Her mother nods back at him and Kira just keeps staring because, how does Stiles know anything about Japanese etiquette? The only reason Kira knows anything about it at all is because her mother insists on it. She remembers something Scott mentioned to her once, about Stiles and Wikipedia and thinks maybe that’s how.

Kira’s still staring, even as her mother leads Stiles into the other room and they sit down to play a game of Go. They’re talking in hushed voices and she would stick around and eavesdrop because she’s really freaking curious as to why Stiles is voluntarily sitting in the same room as her mother. But when she tries, all she’s able to catch are snippets of Japanese.

–

After that, Stiles shows up every Thursday afternoon, like clockwork. The Go board is always ready and waiting, as is her mother. Kira doesn’t say anything about it, not to her parents, not to Stiles and especially not to her friends at school like Scott and Lydia because the entire situation is just so weird that she’s choosing to ignore it completely.

Even when Stiles starts staying over for dinner and eats sushi like it’s his favorite thing in the world, handling his chopsticks expertly, Kira keeps quiet and doesn’t ask. She gets used to his presence at the dinner table, which is a good thing because he starts coming by more often than just Thursdays (but only when his dad is working late). They do their homework together most days because Stiles is always there and he jokes with her and asks her how things are going with the Get-Scott-to-be-Her-Boyfriend Plan. She blushes and denies such a plan exists.

After school behavior soon becomes all day behavior and the joking and teasing never stops. Stiles smiles and winks when he passes her in the hallways on the way to class and steals her french fries during lunch. Kira pilfers food from him as well and doesn’t thank him for making sure Scott sits by her. (At least, not until they are well out of werewolf hearing range.) She really doesn’t thank him for all the awkward situations she keeps finding herself in that are obviously Stiles’ attempts at setting her up with Scott.

Only Lydia asks how Stiles and she became such good friends. Kira only shrugs and doesn’t explain that it actually started with Stiles and her mother somehow ending up friends. She doesn’t complain about that though because honestly, she’s glad for it, even though it’s kind of weird. She wouldn’t have it any other way because she likes having Stiles around. It’s kind of like having a sibling.

She can’t help but smile at that thought.

–

Kira does ask, however, when Stiles starts getting A’s on every single history assignment even though he never reads his textbook and hardly pays attention in class. She is doing everything she’s supposed to and barely scrapes out an A on maybe one out of three assignments because her dad loves making them hard and grading them even harder. She’s pretty sure that no one is getting a solid A in that class, except maybe Lydia Martin.

She questions her dad about it one evening after Stiles has headed home. He shakes his head and assures her that no, he isn’t fudging Stiles’ grade to be nice because they sort of tried to kill him. Stiles is really earning those grades and apparently has suddenly gained an intricate knowledge of everything that happened during World War II. Kira wonders if the war is what Stiles and her mother discuss over Go every day. It seems plausible.

She still hasn’t figured out how Stiles knows Japanese though.

–

Eventually, she stops finding anything weird about the situation at all. It’s natural to have Stiles around. So natural, in fact, that when she finally gets up the nerve to ask Scott over for dinner again – after making sure her dad really is making lasagna this time – she forgets to inform him that Stiles will most definitely be at dinner as well.

Stiles doesn’t seem to think they need to tell Scott anything either. He just gives her a high five and says, “Well, it’s about time.” And then they go home to finish their homework and so that Stiles can play his obligatory game of Go with her mother.

Stiles helps her father cook the lasagna, all while going on about how cottage cheese is actually an American thing to put in it, and then sets the table. When the doorbell rings, Kira answers it and leads Scott into the dining room where her family is already seated at the table waiting, Stiles telling her father how he ‘totally creamed Noshiko’ in their last match of Go and her mother making flippant excuses about luck.

Scott pauses in the doorway and Kira looks at him questioningly, wondering why he suddenly looks so very uncomfortable. When she asks if he’s okay, he shakes his head and tells her it’s nothing. He says it so convincingly that, if not for his reaction when he first entered, she might have believed him. But she’s a kitsune – a trickster by nature. She knows when someone is lying to her. So she asks again and he assures her that he’s fine and then slowly, quietly, and oh so carefully, he asks why Stiles is over too.

Oh.

She feels like slapping herself. Since when was she so stupid?

She smiles nervously at Scott and explains, placatingly, that Stiles is always over at her house and that she doesn’t really know why, assures him that it doesn’t mean anything. Scott nods, lets it go, but it’s obvious to Kira that he still feels slightly uncomfortable.

She leads him over to the table, where they sit down, side by side. Her father serves the lasagna and Scott tries to make polite small talk with her parents. From the way he avoids talking to her mother, it’s apparent that he’s trying to stay away from the whole “So you’re a nine hundred year old kitsune” thing. But he really doesn’t know what to talk about with her dad, so the conversation inevitably turns into Scott asking random questions about history. Kira feels slightly embarrassed because her dad is a huge nerd, but Scott actually seems fairly interested in the answers so she doesn’t attempt to intervene.

Eventually, Scott asks a question that her father doesn’t know the answer to – he can’t know everything, he’s just a history teacher – so the question is turned over to her mother – who can know everything, being nine hundred years old and all. Except that after her mother answers the question, Stiles gets a slightly confused look on his face and disagrees with her. Which, of course, sparks a debate and soon her mother and Stiles are arguing back and forth in rapid fire Japanese.

Apparently, Stiles knowing Japanese is just as big of a surprise to Scott as it had been to her.

And then, suddenly, she can’t take it anymore because this is the first time Stiles has spoken Japanese when she’s actually supposed to be around and not just attempting to eavesdrop. This is the first opportunity she’s had to really ask why he’s always hanging out at her house, why he started coming in the first place. (And she still wouldn’t have it any other way, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t dying to know.) Something inside of her just gives and she has a strange sense of definiteness. This moment was ultimately bound to happen.

Kira opens her mouth.

Scott beats her to it.

“Stiles, since when do you know Japanese?” His concern is heavy in his voice, weighing it down so that the question comes out mostly as a whisper, but nevertheless brings silence crashing down around them. It’s unmistakable that Scott is thinking that maybe, the nogitsune hadn’t left after all. Kira feels like she’s been submerged under water, the sudden tension in the room is so thick. She thinks that she might drown.

Stiles stares at Scott, aghast, before turning to look imploringly at Kira’s mother. He looks lost at how to answer, like he has a story to tell, but doesn’t know where to begin. She sympathizes with him because that’s exactly how she’d felt when she tried explaining to Scott the glowing fox that showed up every time she took a picture of herself.

Her mother shrugs at him and Kira is taken aback because that is so not one of her mother’s typical reactions to anything. The action is soon forgotten, however, because then her mother says the most bizarre thing she’s ever heard her say.

(With, probably, the exception of her mother’s Casablanca story because really, what could top that?)

“Don’t look at me for answers. I’m not the one who’s mentally a thousand years old. You’ve got a whole hundred years on me.”

Stiles eyes go wide. “Noshiko–”

But her mother interrupts, suddenly exponentially more serious than just ten seconds before. “You are going to have to tell them eventually. You might as well do it now.”

At that, Scott perks up, like the puppy dog he is, and his eyes narrow as he focuses on Stiles. Simultaneously, Kira’s mind has finally caught up with what her mother has just accidentally – or maybe not so accidentally, she can’t tell – divulged.

“Tell us what?” Scott asks.

“Mentally a thousand years old?” she repeats.

Their words jumble together as they speak over the top of each other and come out a garbled mess. Stiles looks at them confused, all meaning to their words evidently lost in translation. They glance at one another and then say jointly, “Explain.”

Stiles contemplates them a while longer and then sighs, resigned.

“The thing about open doors,” he begins tacitly, “is that they work both ways.”