A/N: A short, short snippet of a
fic about Alec, whom I love. Aww. It doesn`t really have much of a plot.
I don`t know, I might turn it into a fic an expand on the situations mentioned
in here if I get positive feedback for it.
It`s set a year after 'Designate
This'.
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A lone man sat on the rickety park
bench, a picturesque view of post-Pulse Seattle. To the average passer-by
he looked tired, worn down, but no more so than any other man that wandered
the streets.
I saw him for what he really was.
Silently, I slipped onto the bench
beside him. His breath came out in tiny puffs of mist but it didn`t seem
to bother him any, curled into the leather jacket that halfway camouflaged
the stark black barcode on the nape of his neck.
"Hello," I whispered quietly, watching
as my own breath exhaled in a cloud. Almost as an afterthought, I added:
"494."
With a start, he looked up, caught
off guard. I had disturbed his thoughts - he never did like that. Out of
habit, 494`s hand snaked up and rubbed over his neck. "Who are you?"
I shrugged lightly and sat back against
the bench, tearing my gaze from his hazel-green eyes to look across the
desolate, frostbitten landscape. "I`m everybody."
His mind was turning; I could tell.
Trying to place with me a time, a designation. Even though he was engineered
to recall, I didn`t think it would help him in that instant. I had underestimated
him.
"X6-314, damn!" He scooted closer,
peering at wind-chapped face. "Yeah, 314. Shit." The corner of my mouth
quirked up as I turned to him, taking in his surprised expression.
"The one and the only."
"The guards said you were dead,"
494 mumbled, reaching out to grasp my chin. Taking a rare liberty, he rotated
my face in disbelief. "God, it`s like - what`s that guy? - Lazarus." Shaking
his head, he released my chin. I sighed and unconsciously rubbed the still-tender
skin beneath my left breast.
"What can I say, 494? You can`t get
rid of me that easily."
"Alec," he said, after a brief paused.
I raised an eyebrow, flicked a strand of brown hair out of my eyes.
"Alec?"
"Smart aleck."
I laughed softly, drinking in his
face. He still was as beautiful as I remembered but now shaped by life
outside of the protected walls of Manticore. Shaped into a man. "It fits
you. Alec. I like it." I couldn`t help but wonder who gave it to him. "Lock.
I`m Lock."
Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow,
his arrogant and blond, and ask, "Lock? You found your life`s calling as
a locksmith? I`m disappointed - "
I flashed my teeth for a moment,
shook my head. "No, nothing that mundane. Hemlock - my poisons. Are you
losing your touch already, Alec? Too much time in the 'real world' making
you soft?"
A quiet sigh escaped from him. "Don`t
kid about that, three. I don`t know, I don`t know..." He rolled his shoulders,
a smooth ripple of muscle beneath his jacket. No, he certainly hadn`t gone
soft in the year since Manticore had self-destructed. If anything, he looked
more alive.
Quietly, my voice floated between
us. "Do you feel alive?"
Unhesitatingly, he answered, "Yes."
"Then you know, Alec." I touched
my fingers briefly to the back of his knuckles. "You know."
A rueful laugh met my ears. "You
did always know what to say."
"It ain`t no Common Verbal Usage,"
I quipped, glad to hear some of the tension drain out of his voice on a
chuckle. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him as he looked over the
bleak scenery. He had come a long way from the young man who began training
me in the ways of warfare on a whim from Lydecker. One-on-one training:
male to female, experience to youth. I think that he had intended for us
to be the first cross X-series breeding partners; to see how my canine
would react to his feline.
I still wonder how that would have
been between us.
Before I had a chance to discover,
he had been moved to Psyobs because of the rogue X5 who had been his twin.
I still hate 493 for taking that chance away from me. Away from us.
Instead of completing my training
with Alec, I had been moved to normal group training and was eventually
partnered with another X5. By the time my former teacher was released and
pronounced sane from Psyobs, I was already out on my first off-base missions.
And getting shot by terrorist spies.
"Lock?" Alec`s voice broke into my
thoughts, dragging me back to reality. I blinked, shook my head, and straightened
my shoulders.
"Sorry, just wandered off there for
a moment." I cast him a reassuring smile, one that covered up what I had
been feeling inside. It seemed almost fitting considering I occasionally
made my living from acting on a small, dark stage.
He smiled in return, the same quirky
lifting of lips that had grown on me so many years ago. With a sigh, I
hoisted myself up and turned toward him. "You wanna take a walk for a while?"
With a shrug, Alec stood and shoved
his cold-chaffed hands into his pockets.
"Sure, you lead the way."
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A/N: All thoughts and opinions welcome.
(: Please review and such...after all, an author can only improve if she
knows what she`s doing wrong...