A/N: Hey folks! I've been living in London with my first roommate since my freshman year at university. I originally thought I was going to hate returning to sharing a room, but I had forgotten how nice it is sometimes. And since I have had DA on my mind, I figured I would combine the two.

I have only planned this as a two-shot and I hope you guys enjoy!


She always thought that she would love living alone: having the whole place to herself, free to come and go as she pleased, no dishes randomly left out, no hairs that weren't hers clogging the drain, not needing to rush a bath…that would be the life.

…or at least she thought it would be before she moved into T.C. and they gave her her own place as a "privilege" of being in charge. Or maybe because no one else wanted to deal with her.

The realities of having her own apartment were that the long nights that she spent awake due to her shark DNA were as boring and lonely as ever and she missed having someone to just talk to whenever she wanted. Her place also seemed to have a permanent chill in it; no matter what she did, it was never really warm and certainly not inviting.

But, not wanting to seem ungrateful for the privacy when the housing situation in T.C. was damn difficult at best, she never brought it up to anyone.

And to be honest, what were her other options? She might be in charge, but that didn't mean that the majority of the Manticore alum were friendly with her. Gem was pretty nice, but she had her daughter to consider. Mole…well, that was never going to happen; he would probably kill her in her sleep. Joshua was sweet and would probably love to have her live with him, but he would probably cause the exact opposite problem than she was experiencing by being too…there.

The only other option was Alec, and that wasn't really an option because…it's was Alec.

It took another month of returning to her desolate flat and a raid gone wrong to force her hand.


It was supposed to be a simple food raid. A small group of X5s with a support team of X6s were going to steal a food delivery truck, take it to an old warehouse that Logan had acquired, and then unload it into carts that were waiting in the old sewer lines, delivering them underneath the gates of T.C. undetected.

The intel had been provided by Logan acting as a liaison for Eyes-Only, keeping his identity from the rest of T.C. a secret. Mole had seemed skeptical about the intel, still distrusting the Ordinary. Mole insisted that they could figure out a solution to their never-ending food shortage on their own, no need to involve civilians.

But, the bottom line was that they needed food and no other plans were being put on the table. Mole had remained steadfast in his criticisms until Alec had stepped in.

"Mole, enough!" Alec's tone was far from its usual jovial nature.

"It's enough when I say it is," Mole grumbled back. He tossed a glare at Logan who, he silently and begrudgingly admitted, managed to meet his eyes, "We don't where this intel came from, for all we know this could be a trap."

"If Logan says it's good, then it's good," Max argued. She was the one who had gone to him and asked him to look into a way to get a good haul of food. She knew that he would have done his research before he handed over the job; it was just the way he worked.

"It may be good enough for you, but we aren't sticking our necks out on the line because you're blinded by your puppy love," Mole snarked through an unlit cigar.

The entire command fell silent and motionless, not because Max's hands had clenched into fists and she had taken a step closer to the transhuman, not because Logan was ready to pacify Max in order to keep her from slamming her newly formed fist into Mole's face, but because Alec had stood up from relaxing against the edge of Dix's desk.

"Mole, enough," Alec repeated his earlier words, but this time there was so much more weight behind them. If asked, no one would be able to tell you why the same words had such a different meaning; it could have been the lower pitch, Alec's body language, or the slight growl that accompanied the order. All people could agree on was that the hairs on the backs of their necks rose in response to the very clear threat that was being issued.

"This doesn't involve you, Princess," Mole spat out.

"If Max says we do the raid, then we do it. If you have a problem with that, get the hell out of Command," Alec calmly informed him, his entire body tight with the possibility of a fight with the transhuman… not that he didn't think he would win, but it would probably hurt to do so.

The occupants in Command held their breath as Mole seemingly weighed Alec up. Either he was going to try to tear the X5 into pieces or…

"It's on your heads," he proclaimed as he stomped towards the doors.

Alec waited until the door had swung shut behind the angry transhuman and everyone had released their breath and gone back to work once they decided that the entertainment was over, before he turned towards Max.

Gone was the stone-cold man who beat Mole into submission with just his words and in his place was a slightly weary version of the Alec she was coming to know. "I hope you're right about this, Maxie."

"Of course I'm right," Max bit back.


Max was not right. She was not right in the slightest.

Somehow, Logan had missed the signs, missed that the whole thing had been a setup.

But, while everyone In Command had looked in disdain at the Ordinary, they saved their heated glares for their leader. Logan's information may have been wrong, he may not have seen the trap, but Max was the one who accepted the intel at face value, didn't bother to do any recon of her own.

As the team stumbled back, carrying the wounded and noticeably two members short, the med unit had descended on them, sorting out the serious from the scratches.

Max itched to go over and analyze them herself, but the guilt she refused to admit, that sat in the bottom of her stomach and made her want to throw up, kept her from descending the stairs. She knew it made her look more like a bitch, but she just couldn't do it.

That didn't stop her from observing though: looking down at everyone helping the wounded get to sick bay, watching the whispers that were spreading around, about how she failed, how she was too willing to listen to Logan.

"It's not your fault," the object of the latest whispers spoke up, his tone authoritative. "I was the one who found the job."

Max didn't bother to correct him; it was her fault because it was her decision to send a team out. Instead, she just continued to stare off of the platform.

Logan was speaking again, but Max had tuned him out in favor of watching Mole grab Alec's arm and shove him away from Dalton. It didn't matter what was being said, Max could read it on Mole's face…Alec had stood by Max, he'd backed the wrong horse and now he was paying for it.

Alec bristled when Mole shoved him, he wanted to check the kid out and make sure he was okay. He thought about ordering Mole to stand down; he was sort of Max's undeclared second and he was a CO back when Manticore was up and running, people usually fell in line when he started being soldier boy. But, he wasn't unaware of the politics that went with being in power, he had botched it, blindly stuck behind Max, didn't question, didn't confirm facts, and at the moment, he was no longer the golden boy in T.C.

The glares of the transgenics and transhumans surrounding him, the disappointed look in Dalton's eyes, caused him to raise his hands in a passive gesture. "I'm going."

With one final glance back at the group, Alec made a beeline out of Command, the large metal door slamming shut behind him.

"I mean, Alec backed your decision as well," Max heard as she tuned back into Logan. Logan just didn't get it! It was her fault, the whole damn thing. The two dead, the injured, the discourse now running through T.C., everyone turning on Alec, it was all her fault.

Logan was about to continue his quest to convince Max of her innocence when she looked away wearily, "I think you should go."

"I…what?" Logan asked in confusion at the sudden change in topic.

"I've got to take care of this, everyone's tense, you should go," Max said, her tone final.

"Okay," Logan said slowly, "I'll be around."


'That probably could've gone a bit better,' Max thought as she wandered through the streets of T.C. She had gone down to see what she could do to help and had been promptly shoved aside and ignored until she had pretended that she was making the decision to leave on her own.

The thought of returning to her apartment filled her with a sort of dread. The cold silence would not bring about any good thoughts tonight.

The biting winter chill had begun to seep into her bones when she found herself outside of Alec's building. She didn't hesitate as she entered the building and made her way up the four flights of stairs to the nondescript door that she knew was Alec's.

Her knock was soft, far from the demanding pounding that usually accompanied her visits to Alec's. And rather than the door flinging open with Alec's usual quippy comments, the door slowly swung open as Alec turned the handle and trudged back to his spot on the couch, letting himself fall back onto it to return to his staring at the peeling paint opposite him.

Max pushed the door until it clicked into place before following in Alec's footsteps and settling back onto the couch next to him, her hands folded in her lap.

The inch that separated them might as well have been the Grand Canyon. Neither of them really knew how to extend that hand of comfort, the little words that were supposed to make you feel better. Max had sealed herself off after she lost her family and there wasn't exactly a hand holding class back in Manticore. Instead, they took the little bit that they could get from just being near each other.

"Dalton?" Alec asked softly after a solid hour of silence.

Max had to clear her throat twice before she could respond, "Broken arm, cut on the head, nothing serious."

Alec nodded and then went back to being quiet.

One thing that can be said for transgenics, they could sit still for a very long time. Sunrise found Max easing her body off of Alec's couch and hesitating a moment before turning and leaving his place without a word.


The next two weeks were damage control for Max and Alec. They had a lot of bridges to mend and power to secure. Thankfully, despite his backing her, people still generally liked Alec and he was able to smooth things over. He even managed to get Dalton back to his pre-raid, Alec-worshipping level with a trip to visit him at Gem's.

Thankfully, he pulled her along on his forgiveness tour and managed to convince everyone give her another chance. It probably helped that many thought that Alec should be running T.C. and since he had thrown in his hat with Max, they should follow suit.

Neither of them had spoken about the night that Max had spent over at Alec's. It wasn't like there was anything to talk about, but they had come to a silent agreement to keep everything to themselves.

After two weeks, everything was back to normal, including the cage that her apartment had become. The creak of the floor as she paced all night, the tap of the water dripping from the leaky faucet, the sounds of conversations happening in the apartments surrounding her…it was all a plot to drive her insane.

Deciding that dealing with his smugness was worth it, Max didn't even bother to throw on her leather jacket before she stomped over Alec's.

Her knocking was decidedly less hesitant this time around, resulting in Alec hollering through the apartment, "Jesus, Max! I'm coming!"

"How'd you know it was me?" She asked as he yanked the door open.

"Just a guess," Alec replied with a tight smile, then turned his body as she pushed passed him. He sarcastically drawled, "Come on in, Max. I wasn't doing anything."

"Didn't figure," she quipped as she took in the unchanged state of his place. The typical alcohol bottles littering the counters, a couple bags of junk food spilling out of the trash….three boxes of Chinese food sitting on the counter.

"Where'd you get those?" Max asked him as she made a beeline towards the boxes. Non-mess hall grub was hard to come by. Hardly anyone in T.C. knew how to cook, and the argument could be made that the cooks in the mess didn't know how either, so it was rare that she got to eat something that she didn't have to choke down.

She also tried not to think about what she was missing out on by being stuck in T.C., but besides her friends, her bike, and the Space Needle, Chinese food ranked high on the list.

"They're just boxes," Alec explained almost desperately as he tried to cut off her advance. "They're really old."

Max pulled up short before she ran into Alec's body and made a face at him, "You're such a bad liar. I can smell it, you idiot."

Alec opened his mouth like he was going to try to convince her she was wrong, but at her steely gaze, he let his shoulders drop in defeat. "I have an extra set of chopsticks."

Half an hour later, an old horror movie playing in the background, Alec glared as Max used her chopsticks to hit his knuckles as he reached out to snag a piece of sweet and sour pork out of the container in her hands.

"You barge in here, you steal my food, and then you hit me. Wow, Max…I'm feeling the love," Alec remarked.

"That reminds me," Max said, gesturing to Alec with her chopsticks, "How did you manage to get this in here?"

Alec immediately focused his attention on the tv.

"Alec," Max prodded the leg Alec had propped up on his coffee table with her sock clad foot.

The resulting answer was mumbled so low and quick that even her transgenic hearing couldn't catch all of it.

"What was that?" She asked again, pinning him with a stare.

"I said, I got Asha to slip some inside the gate," Alec said almost as quickly, but this time Max was prepared for it.

"Asha!?" Max looked down at the take-out box with thinly veiled dislike.

"Is that a problem?" Alec drawled out in amusement, knowing that Max had issues with the tall blonde.

"No," Max was quick to assure, even though knowing how it got into T.C. tainted its flavor a bit…and just what was going on between Asha and Alec that she would deliver him food? "I'm just getting full."

"In that case," Alec quickly snatched the box out of Max's loose hand and began shoveling it into his mouth. "What?" He asked around a mouthful of food as she shot him a disgusted look. "You said you were full. Besides, we wouldn't want you packing on the…"

"Finish that sentence and I'll shove those chopsticks down your throat," Max threatened.


"The recent arrivals have been temporarily housed in the old YMCA. And there have been complaints that some of the younger series have been vandalizing some of the buildings near the perimeter."

Max looked up as Mole finished his report. "Mole, organize a crew to start work on building C. Try and get it ready ASAP. Alec, figure out what to do with the younger series."

"Lock them up until they are older?" Alec suggested, only half joking. What the hell was he supposed to do with a bunch of kids? Back at Manticore it was easy, they were let out of their cages….he meant rooms…and then they would run drills, go to class, run more drills, eat, rinse and repeat.

Max shot him a droll look, but everyone was surprised when she failed to rise to the bait he had obviously laid out there. "Put them on clean up, teach them something. I don't care, just keep them busy."

Alec sent her a mock salute in acknowledgment of her assignment.

"Anything else?" Max asked the table, ignoring the expressions of its occupants ranging from bemused to shocked that she hadn't yelled at Alec yet. No meeting had gone by that she hadn't snapped at him for something.

"No? Good. We'll meet again in three days for an update."

Alec threw his feet up onto her desk as everyone else filed out of her office. Well, what passed as an office.

Max ignored him as she straightened the stacks of paper that took up the majority of her desk. Pieces of paper that outlined the housing shortage, the food shortage, the medical supply shortage…the only thing they weren't short on were people.

She could ignore the feet on her desk, she could ignore the tapping of fingers on the arms of the chair, but when Alec started whistling, she had to look up. "Did you need something?"

"No," Alec informed her, meeting her eyes with a smirk.

"Then leave," Max ordered.

"What? You get to invade my space but I can't return the favor?" Alec questioned, a teasing glint in his eye.

"I don't invade your space," Max insisted, even as a shred of doubt entered her.

Over the past month, she had found herself at Alec's more and more often. When it came time to leave command, she was faced with a decision, return to her apartment or follow Alec to his. Perhaps he really was bothered by her presence and this was finally when he admitted it.

"Don't lie, Maxie. Your feet were so on my side of the couch last night," Alec revealed.

Max couldn't explain why there was a knot in her stomach and why it loosened when Alec made his thoughts clear, but she was glad for it.

"Whatever," Max griped, shoving his boot clad feet off of her desk and repeated, "Did you need something?"

Alec shook his head as he stood up, "Just checking to see if you were bringing the movie for tonight."

"I said I was going to, didn't I?" Max snapped, still uncomfortable talking about…whatever it was they were doing.

"Good, see ya later, Maxie," he let his tongue linger on her nickname before he turned with a quick smile and left her office humming.


Max didn't bother knocking when she got to Alec's, just let herself in with a shout, "You'd better have popcorn this time!"

Alec exited his kitchen with a triumphant grin and mimicked her earlier words, "I said I was going to, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but you say a lot of things, doesn't mean they're true," Max retorted, determined to pretend that she didn't see the smallest bit of hurt flash across his face before it resumed its normal, unaffected expression.

"Ouch, Maxie, you know right where to hit me," Alec mocked, his hand over his heart.

"Whatever," Max snapped, heading towards the living room, "Are we doing this or not?"

"A woman who takes control," Alec nearly cooed, "I may be in love."

"Will you shut up?" She asked as she playfully threw a couch pillow at him.

Alec brought up his knee to knock the pillow aside and plopped down next to her on the couch. "Always so violent…hey! Ow! You could ask nicely!"

Max tossed some of the popcorn into her mouth and didn't bother to shove Alec away when he let his shoulder rest against hers.


"Come on, how hard can it be?" Alec mumbled as he stared at the directions. "If an Ordinary can figure this out…" he trailed off as he tugged on the ends of his hair in frustration.

"Alec?" Max called out as she let herself in. She didn't need directions to him though, she only had to follow the smell of something burning and Alec cursing.

"Damn it!" He shouted as he burnt his fingers for the fifth time.

"You know," Alec whipped around from taking burnt bread out of the oven as Max's amused tone reached him. "They make these things called oven mitts."

Alec sent her a scathing glare, but Max couldn't help but laugh. "You uh…you've got…"

Finally she gave up, walked over and used her thumb to wipe away sauce that had somehow ended up on his cheek. She didn't think about the action until she was touching him and he froze.

Max could hear him swallow hard before he knocked her hand away from his face.

"Yeah yeah, make fun of the transgenic who can't even cook a simple pasta dish," Alec tried for lighthearted, but his statement came out a bit bitter instead.

Max stepped up to the stove as Alec busied himself with trashing the pasta.

"How'd you manage to burn pasta?" Max asked, trying her hardest not to laugh in his face again.

"I cooked it too long," Alec snapped. He had wanted to do something nice for Max. The past week had been hell, meetings with politicians, the broken water pipes in building C, Logan guilt tripping her for not being available for an Eyes-only mission.

For some reason, he got it into his head that cooking dinner was the way to go; probably because she was always complaining about the food in the mess. However, when he was getting the supplies, he forgot the most vital thing…he had absolutely no idea how to cook. There was a reason he was always eating prepared food or in the mess, Joshua knew how to cook better than he did.

Alec was about to dump the sauce out when Max stopped him. "Hold on, that might be okay."

Looking down at the red sauce, Alec shrugged and held it out to Max who grabbed a spoon off the counter and dunked it in. Ignoring Alec's stare as she tasted it, Max nodded her approval.

"Not bad," she begrudgingly complimented. Then teased, "How is it you can make spaghetti sauce, but you can't boil pasta?"

If she didn't know any better, she would say that Alec was starting to blush as he turned away from her to put the pot back on the stove. "There were directions."

"Directions?" She questioned, moving up next to him to put more water into the empty pot.

Alec gave the sauce a quick stir before leaning back against the counter, his hand going up to rub his bar-code in a gesture she recognized as Alec being sheepish or uncomfortable. "Gem may have written down the directions for the sauce, but then for the pasta, she just said to boil it," he admitted.

The corner of Max's lips quirked upwards. It made sense that he was able to make the sauce, for all his screw-ups, Alec really was good at following directions; it was what he was trained for after all. "And it never occurred to you to take the pasta off when you smelt it burning?"

"Okay, I get it, I screwed it up," Alec shook his head in slight annoyance, shifting over so Max could put the pot back on the stove.

"Eh, it's called learning," Max reasoned.

Alec looked at her almost in shock, "Wait, you're giving up the opportunity to inform me of my short comings?" He reach out his hand and put it on her forehead, "Are you feeling alright?"

"Shut up," Max slapped his hand away.


It wasn't until after Max had properly cooked the pasta and they both had plates full of food in front of them that she asked, "What's with the whole wine and dine anyways?"

"Oh, that reminds me," Alec stood up and walked over to the fridge, avoiding her question. How was he supposed to explain his reasons to her? 'Yeah, it's no big deal, just noticed you were having a bad week and wanted to cheer you up'? That would go over real well, he was sure. Sure, over the past couple of months they had grown to enjoy the friendship they had formed, liked that they could be comfortable just sitting in silence, that they still had the playful banter, that they could both pretend that they hadn't noticed the glances that lasted a bit too long or the secret smiles that were shot at each other.

But, that didn't mean they had admitted they enjoyed those things, or even that they happened. So, he was certainly not going to explain himself to Max.

"Reminds you of what? Don't tell me you have wine," Max asked him. Secretly, she hoped that he didn't. Despite what she told Logan, wine wasn't really her thing. He had tried to teach her about the different types, but it was all just wine to her.

Alec's expression as he returned made her feel silly for even asking.

"Who do you think I am?" Alec asked as if she was missing a few marbles. He set a beer down in front of her, "There's a no wine policy in my apartment."

Max clinked the neck of her bottle against Alec's in a mock toast and couldn't help but add, "Does that whine policy include you after an all-nighter?"

Alec sent her a droll look before he flung a piece of pasta at her.

"Hey, that's for eating! Unless you're gonna make more…oh, that's right, you don't know how."

Max grinned as she took a bite and groaned her appreciation. It was way better than the food down in the mess! Distracted by lifting a second bite to her lips, Max didn't see the triumphant smirk on Alec's face as he hooked his foot around the leg of her chair and gave a tug, causing her to fall over backwards.

As she looked up at the dirty ceiling, she realized that one thing was certain, pasta at Alec's was an entirely different experience than at Logan's.


"Where ya going?" Alec mumbled as he felt Max's weight shift on the couch.

Max froze, she was sure she would be able to get off of the couch without waking Alec, but she should have known that he would be aware of things around him, even while he slept.

"Home," Max whispered, trying to keep him from waking all the way up. She had given up any pretense that she wasn't going to end up at Alec's after she left command for the night and just started walking with him when their schedules matched up. However, they had never crossed the line of her sleeping over. No matter what the time, Max would pull herself off of the couch or the floor and return to her own apartment. Although, as their nights stretched later, it got more difficult for her to convince herself to leave.

They had been watching Terminator, one of Alec's favorite movies, when Alec had crashed. To be fair, it was almost two in the morning. Alec didn't have shark DNA, but he was usually able to stay up fairly late to keep her company. However, he had been working on putting the energy of the younger series to better use than vandalism and despite what he said, they were draining him.

She stayed for a while and alternated between staring at the television and at her now-declared SIC. It hadn't come to a surprise to anyone when she had appointed him; well it had been a surprise to him.

The movie was boring, they had watched this movie at least half a dozen times, but Alec…he was interesting. When he was awake, Alec always had a smile on his face, whether it was teasing, sarcastic, cruel, his was always expressing something. His eyes could even change his words from mean to flirty. But most of the time, if you looked closely enough, if you knew him well enough, you could see the chinks in his armor. Underneath all of it, any emotion he threw out there, he was lost. He struggled every day to fit into the world outside of Manticore. It had gotten better once they were in T.C., but there was a reason he didn't want to be in command, he worked better with orders, they gave him structure. Without them he had a tendency to fall apart.

Asleep though, he looked relaxed in a way he rarely did while awake. She couldn't help but appreciate the way his long eyelashes rested on his cheekbones, the way his now slightly shaggy hair would brush across his forehead, the way his shirt rode up just a bit when he shifted to reveal a slight glimpse of his...

Max's eyes would shoot forward every time she caught herself looking somewhere that would have earned her a cheeky comment and a smirk if he had been awake.

"Stay," Alec's sleepy mumble reached her ears and snapped her out of her thoughts.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she assured him, straightening her legs out and moving to stand up.

Her feet made it to the ground before Alec's hand shot out, his eyes still closed, and wrapped around her wrist. "Stay," he repeated, this time sounding a little more awake.

"Alec," Max started, knowing that if he pushed it, then she would probably would.

Alec gave a gentle tug, then when she resisted, he gave one sharp yank and pulled her back onto the couch next to him. "Go to sleep," he ordered, relaxing once again.

"Lemme go," Max tried to twist her way out of Alec's grip, but he simply tightened his hand slightly and cracked open an eye.

"It's gonna be morning soon, just go to sleep," Alec told her. He couldn't explain why he wanted her to stay, it wasn't like he was looking to get some, he just wanted her to be there.

Max huffed in frustration and nudged him with her free hand, "Well, scoot!" she demanded.

Alec shifted his legs so that there was more room on the couch and closed his eyes again.

"Uh…Alec?" Max waved her hand around to that he was aware of what she wanted. Her wrist was released a second later and she settled back against the couch, her legs curled up next to Alec's her head at the opposite end of the couch.

Once she was finally settled, which included some kicking and shoving on both their parts, Max took a deep breath and wondered what sort of line this was crossing. As she fell asleep, she heard a soft, "Night, Maxie," and realized that she was pretty comfortable crossing it.


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