Reaching for the Moon by ThePekingNoodle
A/N: Sorry I haven't written one of these in a while. That's cause I usually don't have much to say besides my story. A few notes: (1) Some of you have said you'd like longer chapters. I could do that but then I probably couldn't update daily. I figured you'd rather have some every day rather than long waits in between. (2) I hope this isn't dragging out too long – since this is an AU I've felt like I needed to set up some background so maybe there is not as much action as some would like. There will be action later I promise.
Anyway I'm happy people seem to like this. It's fun to write and I hope it's fun to read. I know these characters aren't exactly what they were in the real DA universe but they are what they might have been if things had gone a bit differently for them.
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Chapter Seven: Do You Want to Know a Secret?
In which Max tells Logan a secret…
After that first day, Logan made it a point to get up early and join Max each morning, watching her as she did her exercises. She invited him to participate but he laughed and refused, telling her that basketball and track were more in his line of athletic endeavors. She tried pouting and cajoling but unlike her parents, he resisted all of her blandishments. That was a new experience for Max and it only added to his intrigue for her.
When Max finished each morning, they would stroll to the kitchens laughing and talking companionably along the way. Cook had a delicious breakfast ready every morning and they enjoyed breakfast together before each went off to the rest of their day,
Logan suspected that Nathan knew about their early morning meetings, but since Nathan didn't bring it up, and he had promised Max his silence, he never mentioned them himself. His days were spent playing golf with Nathan and different friends and associates of his. Once or twice Logan had the feeling that Nathan was treating him almost as an heir apparent to his business interests, but since it was never openly brought up, he dismissed it as nothing. Much as he respected and admired Nathan, a career as a businessman was not in Logan's future plans and he preferred to avoid any awkward discussions with Nathan for as long as he possibly could.
Max joined her parents and Logan each night for dinner, each time wearing a different dress, each one beautiful and expensive and appropriate to her age and social position. She behaved flawlessly, exactly as a well brought up girl in her position would be expected to. Logan knew however, that underneath there was a different girl, one longing to break out of her restrictive mold.
Each morning after her exercise, they would talk as she rested and cooled down and Logan learned quite a bit about Max as much from what she didn't say, as well as from what she did say. Most of the conversations were Max interrogating him about what she called the "real world". Her parents' wealth and position had insulated her from the more unpleasant post-Pulse realities but she knew they existed, and she was intensely curious about what it was like to try to make one's way in the new world that was America post 2009. She made Logan tell her about how people lived and what they did to survive in the broken, often brutal world outside.
The day before Logan's last, he described to her what some sections of Seattle were now like, and how the people in them lived in old city buses and abandoned truck trailers. When he finished he looked at her with a smile. "You've spent the last five days making me tell you about things, without telling me much about yourself. My turn to ask questions."
Max closed her eyes, as she lay back and shrugged. "You see my life. When I'm not here I'm locked up in that convent my parents send me to back east."
Logan thought back to her odd tattoo and probed a bit. "You can't tell me you don't have some deep dark secrets that your parents don't know. I was a prep school boy myself, Max. Despite everything they tell the parents, no school manages to keep their students completely locked up."
Max sat up and looked at him thoughtfully. "Well…do you promise not to tell? My parents would kill me if they found out."
Logan drew a cross across his chest, "Cross my heart and hope to die." His face was completely serious as their eyes met. Max hesitated a moment, searching his eyes, while she decided what to do.
She took a breath, "My friend and I snuck out of school once and went shopping, in a real mall where real people go and I bought…" She stopped.
Logan looked at her, waiting for her to go on.
"A black leather jacket. And boots. And black jeans and a black T-shirt."
It wasn't what Logan had expected to hear, but she looked so proud of herself that he couldn't help but smile. "That sounds like an outfit for a biker chick, Max."
Max beamed. "I know. My friend's brother came to visit her once and he had a Harley. The headmistress let him take a few of us for rides around the campus."
Logan waited for her to continue.
"He thought I was cute or something," Max went on, oblivious to Logan's reaction to that understatement. "He showed me how to ride it and he let me drive it. If my parents ever found out they'd kill him. But I'm gonna have a bike one day and wear my leather and ride around on it." The last was said defiantly and Logan had no doubt that Max would someday do exactly as she said.
"You have to promise you'll give me a ride, Max. That's my price for keeping your secret," he teased her. Max grinned at the thought of driving a bike with Logan perched behind her, his strong arms wrapped around her as they sped through the night, and she felt her cheeks heating up. To cover her reaction she jumped up and started for the house. "I'm starving."
Logan uncurled himself from where he was sprawled out on the grass, and rose to his feet, following behind her. Despite himself, his thoughts strayed to thoughts of the girl in front of him arrayed in tight jeans and a black leather jacket, her long dark hair flying free in the breeze as she roared off on a motorcycle. He mentally reprimanded himself and thought that it was a damn good thing he was leaving in a day. It was getting harder and harder for him to remember her age. He needed to get back to Seattle and his current girlfriend, to get his mind back to where it needed to be and away from thoughts about a beautiful fifteen year old who would have her pick of young men her own age in another year or two.
* * * *
That evening at dinner Logan's plans to avoid Max as much as possible for the remainder of his visit suffered a serious set back. He arrived in the salon where the family met before dinner to find no Annette there and a Nathan who was obviously preoccupied.
"What is it my friend?" Logan asked.
"Logan, would you mind terribly if Annette and I left you tonight at dinner and afterward? Annette has received word that a close friend was in a serious auto accident and may not live out the night. She is waiting outside for me to escort her to the hospital."
"Of course you must go, Nathan. Don't worry about me." Logan assured him,
"I will ask Max to be sure you are entertained while we are out. Perhaps you might want to play some chess with her. Or you may prefer to watch some movies in the theatre – Max can find you whatever you would like."
Nathan was clearly distracted, and Logan reassured him as he guided him to the door. "Max and I will be fine here. Your daughter is as gracious a hostess as your lovely wife is. Go, Nathan."
"Max should be down at any minute. Please explain to her and let her know that she is to act in her mother's place tonight." Nathan was out the front door with those words, and Logan returned to the salon to pour himself a glass of wine as he waited for Max to arrive.
End of Chapter 7…TBC…
