Title: What lies beneath...
Rating: PG-13 (Just to be on the safe side. If you think I should change it, lemme know.)
Genre: General/Romance/A bit Angst
Pairing: M/L To all us ML'ers out there, we gotta keep strong in the struggle! Even though there's a flood of MA turning up on different Dark Angel site's, we all know what really happens. And if any MA'er is in denial, go buy the book " After the Dark", to see who Max really ends up with....
Disclaimer: I don't own Max, Logan or the whole concept of Dark Angel. I own the concept of this story however, but will never officionaly own it as it is inspiration; feelings clutched into symbols on a computer.
Summary: When Max drops by Logan's apartment, he's facing some inner demons. It's up to Max to find out what's troubling him in order to help him... (am aiming for a feel of Season 1)
Chapter 1
Rain. As always, rain. When does this city's water tap ever run out? Max thought to herself as she picked the lock to Logan's apartment. Even though he lived in a fancy apartment with locks to match it, they were no match for Max abilities. She had picked up a few things as a child, for both good and for bad- but she figured that picking locks was actually good.... at least in this situation, she smiled to herself.
Max walked inside the apartment, not bothering to call out his name. At this time of the hour he was most definetly either preparing food or tapping away at his keyboard- she was hoping for the first. As did her stomach, growling its approval.
But she didn't find him in the kitchen nor at his computers, instead she found him standing by his windows, peering out into the black of the wet night. The sun had since long fallen over the horizon, leaving the moon to greet them. And as Logan stood there, the moonlight illuminated his face, making his strong jaw line seem to mark out even more than usual, and Max couldn't help but thinking that he looked so incredibly.... handsome. Yeah, handsome was the word. And sexy.
She berated herself, running the math in her head of when shed last been in heat, but knew that it wasn't time for that hell to come on for another few weeks. But what was this... feeling inside of her, this rumble in her stomach? It wasn't just hunger, she knew it. At least not hunger for food....
" Hey. Whatcha doing?" She greeted him, sitting down in his sofa, watching him. He slowly turned his face towards her and she was surprised to see that it seemed like he was, or had been...crying? But no, Logan never cried. He was the self-coroned king of bottling up, never failing, even when he actually needed to. What was this?
" Nothing. Just thinking... There's some food in the fridge if ya want." Logan said, turning back to look outside of the window. Ok, Max thought to herself. Something's wrong. No hello, no how are you today? No Want me to whip up a fresh culinary miracle for you, no Want me to kiss you for a long time and then make love to you, no....
Max stopped herself again, turning back to the reality of the situation. She dismissed his invitation for her to rummage his fridge, and instead stepped up from the sofa, observing him for a few moments. She decided to cut the crap, he at least deserved honesty.
" Logan, what's wrong?" Logan looked at her sharply, trying to hide the surprise from his gaze. How could she know him so well, just sense that something was wrong? But he wasn't sure if he wanted to tell her, she shouldn't have to worry about his own family problems, she had enough of her own.
" Nothing, Max. I'm just tired." Max didn't believe a word of what he'd just said, still remaining at her spot. Usually she didn't like to push things with people, as she couldn't quite handle it herself, but this was Logan. She knew Logan.
" You and me both know that's not true... Tell me, what's the matter?" Logan just shook his head and shrugged, heading from the window down to the kitchen, grabbing some things from it. He didn't want to talk about this with her, perhaps making dinner would bring her on other thoughts...
" Nothing, just let it go." It came out sharper than he'd meant to, but Max didn't care for once. She knew something was terribly wrong to get Logan this upset, although he tried everything at his best to hide it from her. But she picked up the vibes from him, the vibes that told him that he was getting irritated. The realization of that perhaps she'd done something wrong hit her, she hadn't exactly been in her best mood the last days. She'd felt really punked, actually, like she was coming down with something. That wasn't likely though, she was revved up.
" Logan, have I done something wrong?" The question came out more intimate than she'd meant to, and it made her feel uneasy. She looked up at him as he raised his head and the vibes was now telling her that he wasn't happy at all.
" Damn it, Max, everything doesn't always have to be about you!" He practically screamed the combined statement and answer out, leaving Max standing there, chocked. Fine, she thought, if he wants to have it that way, so be it.
" Fine, have it your way." Max spat out to him, as she turned on her heel and left the kitchen, walking out of the apartment. She wasn't gonna take Logan talking to her like that, when she only wanted to help. Hell, she had even felt like she'd opened up, trying to get close to him... And he just threw her back, away from him!
Logan stood by the desk, vegetables laying in front of him. He looked at his hand, shocked at what he'd just said and done. He hadn't meant it, not at all, but he just couldn't take it anymore. The pain came back to him, flaming up from the inside as he took one of the vegetables and threw it onto on of his room divider, squashing it. He then kicked the desk with his feet, laying his arms down on it. The pain was too much for him to take, and Bling's statement " You gotta scream a little, or else your heads gonna explode" rang in his ears.
He laid his head down on his arms, and cried. He cried out his pain, what he was unable to say in words. He cried out pain that had been buried in him for years, but at one specific time of the year always came back...
Max, who had stopped before leaving the apartment hearing something hit on of the room dividers, saw the whole scene from where she hid behind one of the room dividers. Something was definitely mostly wrong with Logan, something terrible.
But she couldn't comfort him now, she wouldn't know what to say or do. So she just left him there, crying out his pain into the world as she disappeared into the night, on her way to find Bling...
Author's Note: Next chapter, Max runs into Bling that knows the reason for Logans despair...
Review, please, it helps more chapters get uploaded faster and it's always nice to know what you thought about the story.