Reaching for the Moon by ThePekingNoodle
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Chapter Sixty-Nine: From the Depths to the Heights
In which our hero goes from the basement to the top of the world (almost)…
Five chess games later, Logan pushed back from the table. "You know Max, I've come to the conclusion that your education was sadly lacking in one area."
Max cocked her head and looked at him, "And what might that be?"
"I can't believe those fancy finishing schools you attended never taught you that it's not a good thing to completely demolish a man's ego. Five out of five?"
"You wanted me to deliberately lose a game?" Max challenged him. "Where's your sense of competition?"
"Somewhere down in the basement with my ego." Logan said ruefully. "You see before you a beaten and broken man."
Max rolled her eyes. "As if." When Logan sent her a pathetic look she laughed. "You have about the healthiest male ego I've ever run into. Probably from all those years of pink ladies pandering to it."
"I'm hurt that you could think so. No really, I am." Logan studied her for a moment. "Of course you could do something to make me feel better. Something to restore my sense of manliness."
"What?" Max said suspicion in her eyes.
"I was hoping you'd have some ideas." Logan challenged.
"Sorry, fresh out." Max teased him. "You'll have to figure something out on your own."
"In that case…" Logan suddenly lunged at her, taking her off guard. He pushed her back on the couch and pulled up her shirt exposing her belly. Before she could protest he began to tickle her.
Max burst into giggles. "Logan…don't…stop…ooh…stop…." It turned out that as well as having enhanced strength, Max was also unusually ticklish. Logan tickled her mercilessly, until she was laughing so hard that tears were running from her eyes. At that point he sat up and smiled in satisfaction as she tried to regain her composure.
"Logan…that wasn't…fair," she gasped.
"All's fair. Being a mere mortal and all, I need some kind of advantage." He declared.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah."
A devilish glint came into Max's eyes and it was her turn to lunge at Logan, bearing him back onto the couch. "Let's see how you like it, then." She was straddling his waist as she pulled his shirt up. Logan smiled and when she reached out to tickle him he grabbed her upper arms and yanked hard. Max was already leaning into him, so she overbalanced and ended up sprawled on his chest, their lips only millimeters apart.
Max could feel his breath on her face as they stared at each other. Then she felt his lips on hers and his hands in her hair gently pulling her to him. She sighed as Logan worked his familiar magic on her. His hands moved to her back, stroking up and down as he deepened their kiss. When Max pulled back for air he smiled at her.
"Now that's certainly one way to restore my male ego."
"You think?"
"I know. But you beat me in five games. I still need some more restoring to be back to normal. Think you're up for it?"
Max giggled, "Well I can see that you are."
Logan's hands tightened on her as he pulled her against him and their lips met once again…
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When Logan woke up the next morning Max was already gone from his bed. He glanced at the clock and sighed at the early hour. He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep but after fifteen minutes of restlessly tossing and turning he gave up. Getting a bit too used to having her next to you when you're sleeping. Don't know if that's a good thing or not.
He pulled on a pair of boxers and wandered out to his living room. Max was sitting perched on the back of the couch, staring out at the gray dawn.
Logan yawned as he walked over to sit down next to her. "You couldn't do this in our bedroom?" He leaned back against the couch and reached a hand over to idly stroke her leg.
She glanced back at him. " I didn't want to wake you." She stared back out of the window for a minute. "Logan have you ever been up to the top of that?" Her sudden question startled him.
"Top of what?"
"The Space Needle." Max was staring at the Needle, which was visible from Logan's window.
"When I was a kid. Before the Pulse. It's closed down now. You can't get up to the top."
"Wanna bet?" Max looked at him mischievously.
Logan looked at her curiously from his position on the couch. "Why do you want to go up there?"
"I don't know. It just looks interesting to me. Will you come with me?"
"How? I doubt the elevators even work anymore and as I recall there are 800 some steps to get to the top. Not to mention the fact that the site is fenced off."
"Come on Logan. You risked your life to protect the Save the Space Needle's money. Don't you think you should go see what you were doing it for?"
"I'll think about it."
Max smiled smugly. He'll go.
"Is that all you were thinking about?"
She looked at him. "I was thinking about the Colonel. You're going to do it aren't you?"
"I didn't say that yet." He hedged. She's getting to know you a bit too well.
"But you are." I know you too well now.
"It's the only thing that makes sense. If I'm on the inside I can deflect his search and protect you from him. Anyway wouldn't you like to meet some of the others who got out with you? Maybe I can find some of them."
A look of sadness crossed Max's face, "The others…" she said softly. "I used to dream about my brothers and sisters when I first got out. About what they were doing. About seeing them again. About being with someone like me."
Logan tugged on her hand and pulled her down next to him. He hugged her. "So then look at the positive side of things. Maybe I can make your dream come true."
"If you don't get yourself killed doing it."
"I won't. I promise." Logan gave her a confident grin. "So tell me how do you plan to get us up on top of the Needle?"
"You'll go?" Max's face lit up like a little child's.
"If it makes you that happy, I'll go."
"Let me work on it."
"I'm ready when you are."
"Right now I'm ready for some breakfast."
"Is that a hint?"
"You're a better cook than I am."
"That isn't saying much."
"Why you…" She lunged at him.
"Careful. Don't want to injure the cook…" Logan laughed and Max backed off.
He rose from the couch and held out a hand for her. "Come on. I'll make you some French Toast and you can pour the orange juice."
Max smiled as she took his hand and headed into the kitchen with him.
End of Chapter Sixty-Nine…TBC…
