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Part 15

Asha looked around at her surroundings feeling out of place. Everyone around seemed to be pissed off at her and from the dagger looks and flames sent her way they were ETREMELY pissed off with her. Scratching her arm awkwardly she remained seated on the couch waiting to be told when OC arrived.

******

"Now that is quite a sight," Apion said, his voice kind and caring, empty of any joke.

Jondy grinned leaning against the doorframe and nodded knowingly before twisting her head to look at Mole, "Looks like she didn't tell."

"Looks like he spilled the beans," the lizard replied in his gruff croak as he looked at Alec's peaceful features. He lay on the couch stretched out completely, Max on his chest breathing softly in a peaceful sleep with a crooked little smile on her face.

The group had come to check up on the soldier that now looked nothing more than a girl, for once not haunted by her past. Jondy smiled tenderly before turning and silently walking out knowing they'd follow her. The door closed with a quiet scrape and click, for once not struggling.

******

Max was barely awake. She was in that trance that people find themselves in when they're completely comfortable in their surroundings. The one of a Saturday morning despite the fact that it was Thursday afternoon, when they're free of worry or stress and they know they could lie there the whole day.

She hadn't experienced this feeling in a long time, so long that she couldn't remember when. She didn't want to remember. Remembering meant thinking and she was perfectly content to lie there on her warm soft pillow; the pillow that was rising and sinking.

Somewhere in the back of her brain she knew that pillows didn't move, but this one was. Her eyes slowly flickered open and came to rest on golden skin. It was an arm, and that arm was wrapped around her. Her eyes widened in surprise and panic as she tried to recall the reason why.

Thump

All Alec knew was that one second he'd had a nice soft body keeping him warm and the next it wasn't there anymore leaving behind a cold dent as the air hit the place where it had been.

A muffled curse snapped him into consciousness and he shot up letting his eyes fall to the ground and he desperately struggled to stop a grin from splitting his lips. Max lay there on her back looking up at him as stiff as a plank of wood. Her eyes were shocked and her hair was in disarray around her head forming a dark halo.

She relaxed as her brain woke up fully and everything flooded back. He lifted her back up onto the couch smiling as she studied him.

Her eyelashes were long and dark, curled and flapping lightly against her cheeks when she blinked. Swirling pools of coffee seemed darker than usual and her mocha skin was warm and pink from sleep. Still wearing the black shirt and black sweat pants, the only thing contrasting was the white sling still holding her arm in place.

She looked the part of an angel, the soft features and incredibly full lips and doe eyes; a dark angel, "How's your shoulder?" he asked quietly breaking the stare, "And your clavicle, and the hole in your side?"

She smiled a little and shrugged, "It's good. Creek is a talented patcher upper."

"Yeah he is," Alec stated more than anything, rubbing his thigh and wincing slightly. The pain was gone replaced by a dull pulse but it still ached if he moved it.

The silence that seemed to stretch was achingly long and Max in then end awkwardly looked away and Alec cleared his throat, "Well since I'm gonna be looking after you for a couple of days I might as well start by feeding us both."

"You can cook?" Max asked with a quirk of a smile

"Don't sound so surprised," Alec replied in a wounded puppy tone and she chuckled, "There are many things you don't know."

Shrugging she nodded, "Fair enough. I just figured you being the strapping young bachelor stud that you are you would go out and eat takeaways," she explained standing from the couch and gingerly walking to the kitchen bench where she dropped onto a stool.

"Strapping young stud?" Alec repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"You forgot bachelor. And stop playing parrot," shaking his head he began searching through the cupboards.

"I didn't use to know. As you said, I pretty much ate takeaways at every meal, and then I met Cindy and Kendra and Asha. And ganging up against me they all decided that it wasn't healthy and ran me through a cooking intensive course," he explained smiling at the memory.

"She cares about you, you know?" Max said softly not even knowing why she was saying it, "She really does."

Alec didn't speak right away as he mixed and stirred and added ingredients to his mixture, "Yeah . . . I know," he turned and smiled, breaking the somber tone of their conversation, "But at the moment I don't wanna think about me. You're gonna have to explain to me the graffiti central that is your apartment."

Max shook her head but a soft smile graced her lips, a genuine grin free of pain or memories, "Alright you cook and I'll explain and then if you're good I'll show you some."

Nodding in agreement with an impish beam he turned the flame on underneath the pan and while he waited for it to heat he leant back against the cupboards waiting for her to speak, "It's a release I guess," she began contemplatively, "Instead of working through it by venting it into violence on each other, me and Jondy do this. We write or draw how we feel and it's like it lets you release what you feel. It feels like it's not so hard to deal with it. And the older some things get or if they're sorted out they get partly covered by new designs and it makes it fade away."

Her eyes were squinted slightly in thought as she looked into space explaining and the other X5 couldn't help a quirk at the corners of his mouth, "Sounds like a good idea."

"It is," she agreed as he flipped the first pancake.

******

Original Cindy handed the steaming cup of coffee into the shaking hands of the still in shock blonde. Plumping down next to her OC wrapped an arm around her, "Tell Original Cindy how it is Asha."

She couldn't help but feel for the girl, but that didn't mean she wasn't gonna get a few things straightened out and bring home some truths, OC figured it'd be good for everyone to tell it how she saw it, might as well start with Asha.

*****

Awe struck he studied the colors, shapes and words and squiggles that carefully and hazardously tinted the wall in front of his nose. His eyes flicked left to right and diagonally in every direction trying to wrap his mind around the designs.

"You did this?" came his whispered admiration; he turned catching her nod, "Show me."

Max had been sitting on her bed in her room while he scrutinized the murals on her walls. At his words she stood slowly, the pain still present in her side and in her collarbone. The sling was getting annoying but she ignored it knowing it was better if it stayed put.

She came up beside him standing half in front of him as she took his hand in her own free one. Her fingers hovered over his brushing them as she moved their hands across the words and faces some of which familiar to him.

The warmth of her fingertips was sending jolts of electricity up his spine raising the hairs on the back of his neck and he couldn't help but feel like the sensation was going to short circuit him. Her touch was more definite now, her palm against the back of his hand running across dates and numbers he didn't understand.

Breathing in her scent mixed with his he felt as if someone had just yanked his lungs, emptied them of air and he couldn't breathe for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was no more than a second as a jolt of pain gripped his chest. It didn't bother him though; it sent his body into tingles and Alec's skin felt hypersensitive.

Alec didn't know what was controlling him but his whole body all of a sudden seemed to detach itself from his mind. His arms turned Max till she faced him and he felt the air rushing out of his lungs again when her eyes met his burning.

Her cheeks were flushed and she was just as out of breath as he was. His world diminished shrinking till it only involved the face in front of him. The eyes that watched him in curious passion and for once were unshielded. The lips slightly parted, the long arch of her eyebrows and the shadows cast by her lashes as her lids fluttered. The deep coffee bean pools slowly vanished as her eyes drew closed and she leant further into him breathing him in.

Max was completely lost in the moment, completely lost in the man in front of her, the hard chest and the arms that surrounded her body. She'd forgotten this sensation; it had been a long time since a man had held her like this, a long time since she'd lost herself.

Alec smelt like freedom, childlike security. A million scents mixed into one big jumble yet faint enough to leave the tangy mix of cat and man dominant. He smelt like bakery and pine trees, the damp warm trace left behind after a storm and Max noted with a hint of amusement that there was a distinct aroma of pork rinds.

He could feel himself spinning out of control faster and faster losing himself in the woman he held and for the life of him he couldn't care less. His face was mere inches from hers, their breath intermingling to become one.

The softness of her lips when they brushed his could have been enough to knock him back but the last thing he wanted was for this to end. Max couldn't stop the deep throaty hum that could have been a purr. His lips were far too smooth for a man, so tender and moist against hers.

Her body pushed completely against him and his arms went to her waist careful to mind her injuries as her mouth pushed decisively against his to his complete pleasure. Moving his lips gently with hers his tongue flicked out to barely brush her lips tasting pancakes and syrup and something completely female and Max.

"BRENDAN!"

His bruised and battered face entered her mind, the expression of pain and anguish yet still filled with love and concern for. It was too much for Max and she pulled away with a gasp as she panted for air breathless.

"I can't do this," she whispered barely with any sound and ran to the bathroom slamming the door behind her.

Max couldn't handle it, couldn't deal with those thoughts. She needed 452.