Author's Note: Here we go, the next chapter as promised. As I was writing this chapter, I realized that it's more filler than anything. Nothing much going on in this chapter. Also had a little trouble choosing the music for this one. I try and fit it with the theme going through the chapter, but all the music I was listening to in this chapter doesn't really line up. So, I just went through my I-pod and chose some at random.
Music Selections: 'Deeper into you' by Trust Company, 'Believe' by Staind, 'Cumbersome' by Seven Mary Three, 'Hum along' by Ludo.
Disclaimer: You know, eventually I'm not even going to bother with this. It's always the same old, same old. None of it is mine.
Chapter 3: Hum Along
Max was the first to wake up sometime around dawn. She awoke to the sound of a heartbeat thudding steadily beneath her head. It was the same one that had lulled her to sleep the night before. Who knew that Alec had such a soothing heartbeat?
Especially considering the fact that his incessant rambling never ceased to irritate her.
Snuggling into his chest one last time for reasons unknown to her, Max then looked up at the man that had once again rescued her from the depths of her own emotions. Okay, so perhaps that was kind of dramatic, but seriously, she wouldn't be surprised if he considered it a full-time job these days. Everything just seemed to be bubbling to the surface all at once, smothering her like a wet blanket. On most days, she was able to evade her problems completely. And then the most minuscule thing would happen and they would wrap around her in such a way that she couldn't shrug off.
He didn't make a sound as he slept. He didn't snore, not even softly. He didn't moan or talk in his sleep, either. In fact, she was sure he hadn't moved once because she would have felt it and woke up. It didn't take much to wake a transgenic. He wasn't faking either. He lived to taunt and tease her and if he were awake knowing she was as well, he wouldn't be in such a restful repose.
No, he was still asleep.
She brought both arms up and folded them underneath her chin as she gazed at his sleeping features. She wasn't about to go all cliché and say how peaceful he looked while asleep, but it was all rather nice. This waking up next to someone and watching him sleep was something new to her. And she liked it.
As if he could feel her eyes on him, Alec began to stir beneath her. His face scrunched up as he stretched out his arms and legs, pushing her up as well. She smiled at how...familiar it all seemed. Rubbing at his eyes with one hand, he surveyed his surroundings with some confusion before looking down and catching Max's amused expression.
"Hey," Alec mumbled around a yawn. "Feelin' better?"
She nodded slightly in the affirmative, although a shadow passed over her features and she looked down at his chest, picking at invisible lint on his shirt.
"OC warned me to keep it down." Alec said lightly in a way of changing the subject. "Guess she was expecting more of a blowup from you, in the kick-Alec's- ass format. Or perhaps she was alluding to my other talents..." Alec trailed off, musing towards the end while waggling his eyebrows suggestively when she looked back up. "It still isn't too late for the latter, you know. I'm always ready for those kind of games."
Max scoffed and smacked him lightly on the arm, fighting the urge to grin.
Alec ducked away from any other potential blow, laughing.
"Now there's the Max I know and love. I know you can't keep your hands off of me, but I much preferred our previous position." Alec teased as Max sat back on her knees, preparing to launch a second wave. Until she paused mid-action and just sat there with an unreadable expression on her face.
"So if you'd move over to your right just the slightest bit and crawl back up here, I think that'd be just about perfect." Alec directed as she continued to sit there, unmoving.
"Uh, Max? Hello?" Alec questioned, drawing out the last word at her vacant expression. He'd thought they were making progress, too. Had he said something wrong?
"It's you." Max murmured to herself thoughtfully. How could she have ever doubted Alec? She should have known from the get-go that while his intentions were always skewed, he did have people's best interests at heart. He never hurt anyone intentionally that didn't deserve it and he was always there for someone if it were at all possible. Hell, he always had her back, that much was for sure. How could anyone not see how much Alec cared for the well being of everyone he knew? And how could she not have realized how much that meant to her? How much he meant to her.
"Huh?" Alec responded, completely confused as he was unable to hear her thoughts. "What's me? I didn't do anything wrong, I swear." Alec continued, his tone saying otherwise.
Looking back up at him when she noticed the change in his voice, she started slightly. She'd gotten lost in her thoughts when she heard him utter those few words. He'd meant it in jest, but it turned her world off its axis.
"Alec," Max asked pensively, sidelining her own revelations. "What did you do?"
"Nothing." Alec replied, an 'I'm innocent, but not really' smirk on his face.
"I know you're lying, Alec. Now tell me." Max stated firmly, staring him down.
"It was before I really got to know you." Alec hedged, belaying the point as he pushed himself up to lean against the wall. "You might actually find it funny."
"I'm all ears." Max said flatly, crossing her arms over her chest.
Alec winced pre-beating at what he was about to tell her. He'd hoped it would have never came up. So much for luck being on his side.
"Now just remember, Max, that I wasn't a real big fan of yours back then. And that I needed to fit in as quickly as possible." Alec began defensively. He paused to let that sink in before continuing. "When I first got on at JP, I was dared to sneak into your bedroom and steal one pair of you panties and a bra." Alec said warily, putting as much distance between himself and the impending blow-up that was to ensue.
"What?" Max exploded, her face contorting into a fury Alec was almost sure he'd never seen before...on anybody.
"Now Max, calm down. They only saw them once. I didn't let them touch, either. And the picture proved only that it was your bedroom without giving everything away." Alec continued, attempting damage control. However, he almost smacked himself for letting that slip. He just had to dig the hole deeper, didn't he?
"You took pictures!" Max shrieked.
Alec hadn't thought Max was even capable of shrieking.
"I deleted them off my phone once I showed them it was your apartment." Alec explained, trying to draw out the conversation to avoid the beating that now had a high probability of occurring.
Max took a deep breath through her nose and closed her eyes for a few moments before asking her next question.
"Why me?" Max moaned out almost pitifully.
"Have you seen yourself, Max? Every guy that sees you is curious as to what goes on that body beneath all the clothes and bitchy attitude." Alec stated as if it were obvious. "Especially after that rumor of you flashing Normal got around. Did that really happen, by the way?" Alec finished curiously.
Max merely glowered without answering. Her eyes narrowed on Alec even further as she continued speaking. "They shoulda just kept their perverted minds wonderin' and you shoulda kept your hands out of my underwear drawer." Max paused again to collect herself as another thought occurred to her.
"What exactly did you take?" Max asked, frowning and turning her head slightly, dreading the answer.
Alec sucked in a nervous breath before he answered. "The black lace boyshorts and the matching push-up bra." Alec replied, preparing himself.
"Alec! That was my best set!" Max exclaimed, continuing to fume. "I searched high and low for weeks afterwards! I even searched my locker at JP on the off-chance that they might have ended up there. I can't believe you had the audacity...!"
"So that's why you had the entire contents of your locker spread out on the floor that one day." Alec quipped thoughtfully.
"Yeah." Max replied incredulously, drawing out the syllables of the word.
Max said nothing more, rather she sat there glaring at the bedspread just to the side of a place he'd rather she not look at in such a state. Frankly, it made Alec very uncomfortable. She could be thinking of the best way to kill him without raising suspicion. Starting with the aforementioned part he'd miss the most.
"Max?" Alec questioned slowly, afraid to let her sit and ponder for too long.
"You better be glad I like you." Max muttered flatly, looking up at him with barely concealed rage. "Otherwise you'd be in a lot of pain right now."
She looked beyond pissed, but at least she wasn't attacking him.
"Where are they?" Max continued, looking at him pointedly.
He found it would be wise not to lie or toy with her patience.
"My apartment." Alec replied. "In a box under my bed." Alec added when her face turned livid. Like he'd actually do something like put them on display. Well...not to Max, anyway. For some reason he couldn't explain, he didn't want another man anywhere near Max's undergarments, much less looking at and touching them.
"I want them back. Immediately." Max bit out sharply.
"What, right now?" Alec asked, confused. He already told her he didn't carry them around in his back pocket or anything similarly related.
Max rolled her eyes as she climbed off the bed, leaning down hard on his shin as she pushed herself up. Alec grunted in response.
"No, genius. After I get dressed and grab something to eat. I'm coming with." Max stated as she backed out of the bedroom. Once she finished talking, she turned and headed in the direction of the bathroom.
Breathing out slowly, Alec let his head bang against the wall a couple times before he swung his legs off the bed and onto the floor. Placing his head in his hands, he sat like that until he heard Max approaching.
All he could do was stare as she walked past him and to her closet. She didn't look the least bit bothered that she was strutting around in front of him in nothing but a towel that left little to the imagination. Hell, he hadn't even heard her taking the shower. He knew that he had no problem with the whole "no clothes" issue, but he felt, for sure, that Max was prudish to the extreme.
In that manner, he was glad that Logan had dumped her. He had a feeling Max wasn't really as extroverted before said event.
Max could feel Alec's eyes on her as she nonchalantly thumbed her way through her clothes, looking for something to wear. She was still upset over what he'd done, but she couldn't help but feel a little smug that she'd rendered him speechless without saying a word to him. Besides, turnabout was fair play, wasn't it?
She seemed to recall a temporary cure, a gossamer, and Alec wearing only a blue towel wrapped low around his hips.
Nope, that particular memory never seemed to get old.
Pulling out a dark blue tank top, a white one to wear underneath the first, and a pair of dark blue jeans, Max turned and began to walk back towards the bathroom as if Alec weren't even there, purposefully avoiding her dresser and her underwear drawer.
As predicted, Alec realized this.
"Max?" Alec called out, his voice a little deeper than usual. He continued when she turned to face him questioningly. "Aren't you forgetting something?"
Max frowned thoughtfully before answering. "Nope." Max answered brightly, shaking the clothes in her hand back and forth. "Got what I need right here."
Let him stew over the fact that she was going to be walking around without any underwear, she thought smugly as she turned and continued on towards the bathroom.
He couldn't believe it. Max had more or less just told him that she was going to be walking around commando in his presence. Was she trying to kill him? Sure, he might have deserved a little torture considering what he'd just admitted to, but seriously. This was definitely overkill.
Groaning softly to himself, he stood up and scrubbed his hands through his hair and down his face. Standing on his tip-toes, he then dropped to the floor. Landing on his arms extended, he then sped through 100 push-ups in an attempt to distract his thoughts from Max.
Standing up, he looked down to see that, thankfully, the most obvious indication of his straying thoughts had temporarily gone down. At this point, he didn't know if Max would like that or not. He'd never known her to be so...brazen around him. And if he didn't know any better, he'd say flirtatious. But for now he was just going to keep playing close to his chest. He wasn't going to try anything until he knew for sure what Max's intentions were.
"Alright." Max said, popping her head through the doorway. "Let's go."
ooooooosoo*ooonooo*oooaooo*ooouoooooo
I was trying to attempt a little humor along with the UST. Sometimes it works. I can only hope this is one of those times. So, until next time...
