Disclaimer: I do not own dark angel, any of the characters, or actors... unfortunately.

A/N: so, I kinda forgot that I'd finished this chapter and hadn't posted it, woops! Here it is.

Chapter 2: 14 days ago

"Hey Max, what's up?" Max looked over at Alec, who was leaning against the pool table while Sketchy made his shot. She rolled her eyes, thinking, typical Alec, here at Crash, taking Sketchy's money. Ah well, if the poor boy doesn't realise he's never gonna beat him. Although, it would do Alec some good to lose once in a while, if there was anyone who could do it.

"Nothing, you?" she asked back as she paused to watch the game for a minute.

"Not much, just playing pool. You know, I don't think I've ever seen you play, but lots of people have told me you're good. Care for a game after I finish with Sketchy?" He asked, grinning his boyish grin. She was about to say no, when she remembered what she'd been thinking not a minute earlier. Well, I said it would do him some good to lose if there was anyone who could beat him. I could beat him, at the very least make him work for his victory. Huh, yeah, like he could beat me. So she nodded, and moved to lean against the wall to study his game, already picturing her victory, and she missed the look on Alec's face. The one that said he knew how good she was, and what was going through her head at this moment.

Less than five minutes later, Sketchy was sitting with OC at a nearby table, while Alec set up for the next game.

"So, you wanna break, or shall I do the honours?" Asked as he put the last ball in place. Max thought about it for a few seconds before she answered "You break."

"Ok" he said as he moved into position and took his shot. He managed to sink a coloured ball, and Max watched as he followed it with two more. She frowned slightly when he missed his next shot, a shot that for him should have been nothing. But she moved around the table, and set up for her first shot.

Alec watched as she positioned her cue. He'd made his shots very carefully, including the last one. He'd been moving the other balls around subtly, and he knew Max was now thinking she had the game in the bag. He watched as she took the shots he'd predicted she would, and he tried to hide his growing smirk as he watched her play herself into a corner.

She had three balls, plus the eight ball, left, and no clear shot, at least not without hitting the eight ball in prematurely, or one of Alec's balls. So she took the only option, and hit one of her balls, away from the hole it was near. She moved out of the way as Alec quickly moved in next to her, and she could only stare as he quickly sunk ball after ball.

Less than two minutes later, he only had the eight ball left, and she watched in horror as he lined up the shot. But she smiled when she saw that one of her balls blocked the path between him and the eight ball. He could try to go around it, but it would be risky. But her smile fell as she watched him hit the white ball, up and over her own ball, and down to knock the eight ball into the side pocket. She looked up from the pool table slowly, and the first thing she saw was the mischievous look in Alec's eyes, and his smirk. Realisation hit almost immediately, and her eyes narrowed into her patented glare.

"You!" She shrieked, not loudly enough for too many people to hear, but enough that everyone in three metre radius stopped to look at her.

"Me?" he questioned innocently as she made her way around the table.

"Don't try and pull that on me, mister. You knew what you were doing the whole time, didn't you? You missed that shot on purpose. You never miss a shot unless it's on purpose or you get distracted by something, which rarely happens when you're playing pool." She said, venom in her voice as she stopped right in front of him.

"Your point being?" He asked casually, as if they were having a nice, friendly chat.

"You missed the shot on purpose, so why'd you do it?" She accented the last four words with a poke.

"Well, honestly, I didn't want to win outright. I thought it was only fair to give you a chance, and the look on your face when you were sure you were going to win, and then realised you hadn't, well it was pretty priceless, Max." She gaped at him, disbelief covering her face. Alec had to resist the urge to laugh at the look on her face. Laughing now would only cause him pain. He took a discreet step back as the disbelief turned to anger.

"So you let me think I was winning, knowing that I wasn't going to? Can I ask why you thought it would be fun to challenge me to a game of pool, knowing that you weren't going to let me win, somehow, humiliate me like that?" she demanded, trying to keep her voice low as she knew people were listening.

"Ok, first let me point out it wasn't my intention to humiliate you, simply to beat you. There's a difference. And you could've won, if you hadn't been predictable in the shots you made..." he trailed off, realising his mistake.

"Predictable? If you've never seen me play, Alec, then how could you predict my moves?" She asked sweetly.

"Uh, well maybe I've seen you play once or twice, but you know, you've seen me play way more often, so it could've been just as easy for you to beat me. All I did was move try to position the balls so that when you made the shots I thought you would make, you would eventually block yourself from making any more shots. It's not like I forced you to make those shots or anything."

"Are you seriously using that as an excuse? Ugh, I can't believe I even played you, I should've known you'd cheat" She said, before she turned and walked off. Alec stared at her for a few seconds before he headed after her. She was outside the club when he caught up to her, grabbed her arm and swung her back around to face him.

"Just because I knew how you played, and used that knowledge to my advantage, does not make me a cheater. That'd be like saying I'm cheating every time I play Sketchy and he doesn't know I'm a transgenic, or..." He trailed off at the look in her eyes. "No, don't even try to tell me it's cheating to not tell Sketchy. It's either I blow my cover, and probably yours as well, or I stop playing him and everyone else, which I'm not gonna do. Tell me Max, how many people have you play pool against in the last ten years, huh? Probably more than you can count. And how many of them did you tell?" He asked, and his smile was cold and hard after she was silent for a minute. "See? Just because I beat you Max, doesn't give you the right to accuse me of being a cheater, or a liar. You know, your whole attitude towards me is just bullshit. Tell me you weren't like me when you first got out. Hell, you didn't have anyone around telling you to be careful, and you didn't have White after you. I mean, you had Deck, but seriously, he wasn't going to kill you if he didn't have to. So, once again, tell me that you weren't like me." It was the mocking tone that got to her, that had her back stiffening.

"I may have lied to people about where I came from, and I may have scammed people playing pool, or stolen things for money when I needed stuff..." She trailed off, as he looked down at her, slightly amused now.

"You, Max, Miss high-and-mighty-only-steals-from-the-bad-guys, used to steal things for cash? You, who still preaches to me about only stealing money from bad guys, and only for good causes. You stole money from defenceless people cause you needed 'stuff'? This is too good. And all this time you've been walking around acting like you're better than me."

"I am Alec, cause I learned. You still have to do that."

"I still have yet to learn, huh? When was the last time I stole from anybody, except when I was helping you or Logan? Who am I scamming? Sketchy's one of the only people I play pool with, and he goes into every game well aware of how much better than him I am. And I only lie to protect myself, just like you and every other transgenic out there. So tell me again that I haven't learnt anything." He said the last bit softly, and slightly bitterly, before he turned back towards Crash. He stopped and looked back when she said his name. "What now Max? What else? Wanna throw it in my face how I killed a fellow trannie, and skinned another to save my own neck? Or how I lost you and Logan your cure when you had to pay the doctor to remove the explosive from my neck? Or that I almost killed you. Funny thing though, cause you're still standing here, aren't you? What do you have to say to that Max? The fact that I had a tiny, very deadly bomb in my neck, but I couldn't kill you?"

"Would you just shut up for a minute!" She yelled at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, be my guest. Continue telling me what's wrong with me." He swept his arm out, as though giving her the floor, then he leaned against the brick wall and waited.

"You know, you are a such a conceited, arrogant jerk sometimes, you know that? You think you know me? You think you know what I'm gonna say, or how I'm gonna react? You don't know me at all. You're such a know-it-all, arrogant, son-of-a..." she was stopped mid-sentence as she suddenly fell. He had reached out and pulled on her arm, throwing her off balance, causing her to fall towards him. "What the he...?" this time she was cut off by his lips on hers. It took her only seconds to react, but instead of pushing him off her, as she would have assumed she would do, she took hold of his jacket and pulled him towards her. She took a step forward, closing the small gap still left between them, as one hand snaked up around his back to grip his hair, and bring his head closer.

But even as she moved to take the kiss deeper, he pulled away. She managed to stop her sound of protest from escaping, but she couldn't hide the look in her eyes that said she wanted more. But that look faded pretty quickly as Alec just stood there saying nothing.

He was still reeling from the fact that she had kissed him back when she started talking again. The first few words didn't register, until he heard the words pick up. He snapped back to reality and tuned in to what she was saying, or yelling, at him.

"Where the hell do you get off doing that? You can't just go around kissing people any old time Alec. Oh, I forgot, you do it all the time. Well, I'm sorry, but I'm not just another girl you can pick up in a bar, charm and lure back to your bed to become another notch in the belt." She saw the exact moment her words registered, as his eyes suddenly darkened and the muscle in his jaw clenched. Out of the corner of her eye, she though she saw his hand clench into a loose fist. But he didn't say anything, he just stared at her, and she almost instantly regretted her words, until she remembered that he'd kissed her when she'd been telling him off, and know he was angry with her. She lifted her chin, and stared straight back at him. Seconds after she did, he shook his head slightly, and then he turned and left without evening glancing back at her. She stared after him until he had disappeared around the corner. She didn't move until she heard voice coming out of Crash. She recognised OC's voice, and not wanting to talk to anybody, quickly headed for her bike, and then the Space Needle.

Alec slammed the door shut behind him as he entered his apartment. What the hell had he been thinking, kissing Max like that? He hadn't been thinking, obviously. He'd suffered a temporary spout of insanity, that was it. There was no other explanation for his sudden urge to kiss her, or to push her up against that wall and... Ok, no need to think about that. God! What the hell had he been thinking? He was lucky Max hadn't killed him on the spot. But she had been kissing him back, and she had made that cute little sound of protest... what the hell was he doing still thinking about this?

He groaned in frustration as he collapsed onto his couch. He needed to stop analysing what had happened. No, he needed to stop thinking about what had happened. Maybe if he just pretended it had never happened? That could work. Yeah. It just never happened. He didn't kiss Max, and he definitely didn't want to do it again.

Oh hell. He was in for long night.

Across town on the Space Needle, Max was having just as much trouble forgetting about the non-existent kiss. It didn't happen, I don't know why I'm spending so much time thinking about a kiss that didn't happen. It wasn't even that great a kiss. Damn it! What the hell is wrong with me? I'm just gonna go home and go to bed, and not think about the kiss, and in the morning I'll go to work, ignore Alec and not think about the kiss. Or I'll just go home, go to be, got to work and ignore Alec. Definitely ignore Alec, the stupid ass. Who the hell does he think he is, kissing me like that... all hard, and deep and... Bad Max, get your head outta the gutter girl! Ok, going home is not an option, OC'll know something's up and she'll give me the third degree. I'll go for a ride.

She stood up, brushed herself off and left the Space Needle. She took off on her Ninja, and rode as fast as she could.

That night two X5s finally fell into restless sleeps, both trying to forget the events of the night, and both failing miserably.

A/N: As always, let me know what you think!