chapter four: Breakfast at Tiffany's
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The hot bath had swept away the last bits of tension. She felt deliciously boneless, but at the same time every cell of her body was purring with a new, quite unusual emotion.
She was happy.
In very Max's fashion, she had been too blind and too stubborn to realize it by herself. Her soul had been crashing under the onslaught of so many different and confused emotions that she had almost failed to recognize the only one that mattered.
That's when Alec comes handy. She thought with an annoyed, affectionate smile, finally getting out the tub. She slowly dried herself with a blue fluffy towel, while their conversation replayed in her mind.
With his blunt and almost insensitive words (but she knew better now) and his notorious smart-alecky remarks, he had efficiently blocked every attempt she made at over-analyzing one of the most significant event of her life in the rush of the moment.
And with an easiness that always both scared her to death and comforted her like nothing else, Alec had seen right thru her, baring a speck of happiness under thick layers of guilt, pain and anger. He had carefully and methodically peeled off each one of those layers, setting them aside for another time, till there was nothing left except for that single emotion.
Ben had come back to her. Not just physically, but psychologically as well.
Max had her brother back, she had her family again. And she had been waiting for this moment since that fateful night of the great escape.
She knew she had tons of problems to deal with. For instance, how to turn the still military-ish transgenic community into a bunch of aware and somewhat proud-to-be freaks ready to face the world and, how to make said world, that was just waiting for them to screw up and show the monsters inside, understand that really, what you see is what you get, and the fur, the scales and the super strength didn't hide ogres underneath.
And then she had her personal, unresolved issues to consider as well.
Ben.
Alec.
But for now, she chose to bask in happiness. And she'd be damned before letting anyone ruin that.
Max squared her shoulders and lifted her chin up. With a defiant smirk on her lips, and fire dancing in her eyes, she opened the bathroom door, and then strolled assertively into the kitchen, ready to face anything.
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Almost anything.
Huh...?
That was the more coherent thought that Max could muster, looking at the scene developing in the room. Or better, looking at the scene stilling in front of her.
Apparently, just a few moments before she left the bathroom the boys had waken up, and met in a totally unplanned and quite awkward rendezvous.
They were facing each other, hazel eyes locked in a silent communication.
This could have been funny. Max realized wryly, her gaze shifting from one to the other.
Almost the same rumpled clothes (no wonder here. Ben had borrowed Max's t-shirt and sweat pants... that Max had taken from Alec's drawer, a few weeks back), and almost the same bed hair. And it wasn't required the enhanced vision to see that they were just the same, from head to toe.
Even the emotions playing on the same chiselled face were matching: wariness, mild curiosity, a touch of hostility, resentment and... envy.
Envy? She wondered if she had just imagined that.
Strangely, the usual mask that Manticore's pupils naturally wore in stressful situation wasn't anywhere in sight.
Or, Max reasoned, it's just that I know them so well that I don't notice it anymore.
But the staring contest was getting on her nerves, and she sighed.
Bad move, Maxie.
Unable to budge, she stood still, watching with morbid fascination two pairs of hazel eyes suddenly breaking contact to set on her, questioningly. Expectantly. Like she was the answer they were looking for.
The twins shifted in sync, coming closer, in a perfect surrounding motion. Max watched almost in awe the lethal pair advancing on her, absent-mindedly wondering if the decision to join forces (at her expenses) was rational or if they had unconsciously adjusted to the new situation.
Two wolves, one deer... in the headlight.
Oh shit!
Well... that was way more coherent, wasn't it? Her instinct to run for survival had always been strong. And now, it had come back with a vengeance.
She backed away a few steps, and they immediately relaxed their stances. Ben and Alec shrugged slightly, while ruefully smiles tugged at their lips.
Okay, make those a sweet, lopsided grin and a cocky smirk...
But they were still effectively cornering her against the kitchen counter, and Max couldn't help feeling like a soon to be eaten canary.
Where's the rescue team when you need it? As on cue, the mobile rang. Alec picked it up from the table next to him, and Max used his momentary distraction to snatch it at a blurring speed, successfully escaping the siege.
"Max!" She almost squealed. Then, after listening for a minute, she added in a surprisingly sweet and concerned tone: "Of course, I'll come to help you, Mole. I perfectly understand you weren't trained for this. I'll be there in a sec".
Max hung up and walked towards the door. With her hand on the knob, and safety within reach, she turned to the twins, smiling.
"Sorry, guys. But I gotta jet. There's this big problem with some... uhmm... broken pipes, you know? HQ is in danger of... well, flooding. I can't let Mole alone in this. Really. You can have some breakfast and then... Alec can show you around. Can you Alec, please? Highlights of TC and such, right? Or you can rest a little more if you feel like it, Ben. We can catch up later. Yeah, later. Well... I'll go now. Bye".
A blur, and she was gone.
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Ben's eyes sparkled with amusement at his sister's antics. He looked at his twin, and predictably, he could detect the same emotion in Alec's.
This mirror thing was getting creepy.
"She's always been good at escape & evade".
Alec chuckled. He was leaning on the doorframe, quietly observing him with an irritating smirk. Max had told him that this was a kind of trademark look, and Ben felt strangely relieved that at least they could muster different facial expressions.
Having a twin was a quite normal occurrence. Of course, usually you know you've got a twin brother since the beginning. Ben had learnt it with a 20 year delay. And as Max had briefly told him about Alec's life since their escape, he knew too how he'd repeatedly screwed up his bro's existence without even knowing there was something to ruin in the first place.
Perfect. He just wanted a new beginning, but the extra baggage from his past grew bigger at every step. Ben had prepared himself to face Max, beg for her forgiveness and somehow win his sister back. Well, that went better than he had dared to hope. Their wounds needed time to heal, but the truth was, he had never lost her.
But Alec? He wasn't one of his siblings, but he shared with him more than with everyone else.
Did he owe him at least an apology for what Alec went through because he had an insane twin? Should he feel guilty for that?
Of course, Ben knew it was all Manticore's doing. Maybe he was faulty, but that was because they made him that way. He couldn't be blamed for that. But... the same was for Alec. They had made him sane, but it wasn't like he had a word on that.
He really shouldn't hold it against him. He really shouldn't be envious of him.
Even if when he looked at Alec, Ben could finally see that perfect, whole, self-assured being he had longed to glimpse every time he glanced at his reflection in a mirror.
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"What do you want?" Alec's question broke the silence. "Or should I just assume you'd want the same thing I want?"
Okay, that was way loaded with second meanings...
Ben looked slightly taken aback, and Alec suddenly realized that he had really meant that. He did want to know. Anyway, it was too soon, and Max would have killed him for less. Give the guy some time, right?
"For breakfast, you know", he clarified.
Ben wasn't fooled for a second. He had just met him, but clearly he knew his face enough to catch the determined look underneath the casual tone.
"Milk and cereals, if you've got any".
His twin had followed his lead and avoided the confrontation, leaving Alec both relieved and frustrated at the same time.
"Yeah... I should have gone with the assumption", he couldn't help adding, before turning around to prepare the breakfast.
Damnit Max!
Why did she have to chicken now? She had forgotten all that fearless leader crap in a minute, running away and leaving the two of them to deal on their own.
I could have been looking at you instead of at my too alive reflection!
Alec wondered if it was too late or inappropriate to propose Ben to eat in front of the boob tube. He did that all the time. Probably his twin liked it too.
At least I could eat without looking at myself, eating my cereals and wearing... my clothes.
He hadn't paid much attention to Ben's garments before, but now he distinctly remembered when he had seen Max wearing them. He had teased her, cuz she always run off clean clothes more often than he did. "See what happens running away before Home Economics 101?" he had mocked her, "our little Maxie will never become wife material". "Since you obviously liked those lessons, why don't you show me again how to make the laundry, darling?" she had snapped back, sticking out her pink tongue.
Max had given her bro his t-shirt and pants just for a matter of size, he knew that. But... looking at Ben in his clothes, unexpectedly implied something else.
It didn't mattered what Ben had done, how many had killed, what he had asked her to do. He just comes back, and he's got everything again, in 5 sec tops. Her heart. A place in her life.
It had taken him how long? and he hadn't even got that close!
Sometimes, a little voice in his head told him that Max kept him around cuz she couldn't have her brother back. Alec had argued with that voice, but he'd never been able to shut her up for good. And now she was back again, taunting him with her cruel words. Ben had always had her. It was Alec that never did.
He had been a replacement. Now he was just unnecessary.
TBC