Max wouldn't have it tonight, not after a huge blowout with Logan and just running away from him. She just couldn't take Alec prying his fingers where they obviously did not belong. But here he was, running after her at his full X5 speed while she had to use hers just to escape him. Max didn't get far before Alec had his grasp firmly on her arm. Damn him, she thought before turning to look in his hazel eyes.

"Damn it, Max!" He echoed out on the desolate city street. "You need to stop running away from all this."

"Leave it alone, Alec, none of this concerns you." Max spat back at him after she looked around making sure nobody was watching them.

"You are my friend, Max, whether you'd truly like to be." Alec held a vice grip as Max tried to pull away from him. "I'm sick of this evasive act. First, you drop the dude and break his heart, then you throw me in the crossfire and expect me to just stay out of it? No fucking way."

She hated it when he had a point, in fact, it was way too often how correct Alec was about many things. She wanted to strangle him for just budding in and hug him for caring as much as he did. Ugh, hugging Alec? She should have stopped after that fifth beer tonight. But she didn't.

After the blow out with Logan, she cruised over to the bar, Crash, to have a few drinks before heading home and ran into Alec. She started spilling her guts out to him about everything that was going on, and now she was out on the street arguing with him. The night seemed to only be getting worse for her.

"I may not know you very well, but I think it's safe to say running away from your problems have never solved them." Alec started, still looking around so that no one was watching them. It's hard to be private out on a street corner.

"Nothing will ever be solved, Alec!" She blubbered out her mouth. She felt like crying. Damn that alcohol times two!

"Not if you don't want it to be!" Alec was being so nice, why was he being so nice?

They both heard the soft hum of a hoverdrone approaching so Alec lead her into a tiny alley way via the tight grip on her arm. She followed him with no retract and merely let him hold her against the wall. He leaned in and she could smell his cologne or soap because it smelled light and fresh against his skin. He wanted to give the drone an illusion that they were fooling around in the alley not arguing as usual. It felt like there was a spike in her feline DNA because she felt like she could jump him then and there in the alley, but she knew better. It had to be all the alcohol getting to her head because she had no sexual interest in Alec. She had no regular interest in Alec.

"You need to move away from me. You smell awfully good." She whispered turning away from his face and closing her eyes wishing that scent would evaporate quickly.

"No problem." Alec let his grip fall and he stepped away surveying the tiny alley they were in. Always constantly looking out for signs of trouble, Manticore still hasn't rubbed off him Max thought to herself. No surprise, it took her years to get that place out of her mind, but it never really left. I kept trying to run, and I'm still trying to run. Max felt like her heart was going to rip into two pieces. It was never going to stop.

"Max, I should take you home." Alec stepped forward again. "You are three sheets to the wind and then some."

She just looked at his face looking at her. His concerned green eyes, the arch of his crinkled brow. The pout of his lips and the undying stoicism he carried with him all the time. He didn't know how she felt, Alec was just so lucky. He was this great looking guy, with a heart that she was shocked he even had. He laughed and treated everything as a good time the way she needed to. She just carried all the weight on her shoulders and it's not her weight to carry. And Alec, he was a bachelor! He slept with who he liked, he didn't get emotionally attached because he knew the baggage he carried was not for a human to deal with. Not like her and Logan. Logan just wanted to know everything, be in everything, and she didn't want him there. She didn't want him to see her pain, her desperation, and her cold heart.

"I know you don't want to hear this but you need to." Oh, another speech, her head was hurting. "What you have is real, and I know, okay? I know that you and Logan love each other, and it's hard right now. But you just have to know, when you love someone like that, that you will make it beyond the break."

There he is again, making a very true point, Max woefully thought. She hated him for that freedom he carried, perhaps the only thing she wished for but never came true.

"Come on." Alec grabbed onto her arm. "Let's get you home and a cup of joe in your hands."

She leaned forward and wrapped both her arms around his neck, squeezing him softly before dropping her arms to her sides.

"Thanks." She simply responded as he gazed at her, his eyes sympathetic but confused. He just smirked and pushed her toward the street back down to Crash.

"Wow, you must be really hammered." Alec quipped before getting smacked playfully in the head.