Disclaimer: I don't own anything Roswell, except for a few episodes that I've taped from TV. Please don't sue!

Summary: When Maria DeLuca and Michael Guerin find each other, will they hit it off? And will they be able to overcome the one thing that he can't change?

Includes: All Roswell characters are included in this story: Alex, Isabel, Max, Michael, Liz, and Maria. Maybe others too, but I'm not sure as of yet. It's mostly a M/M fiction, but it will contains others as well.

Authors Note: So here's the next chapter. Be patient with me. I know my writing is starting to suffer but I'm having a hard time writing this. I know where I want to take it, but it's still hard to write that. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up my momentum soon, but I'm not going to make any promises. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this and keep sending feedback. I love to hear what ya'll think.

Unbroken

Chapter 7

"Michael?" he stood at his locker, going through the books that rested in it when he heard her. Michael turned to see Maria standing only inches away from him. His features visibly softened when he was able to focus on her and he hated that she had that kind of affect on him so soon. It was going to be really hard staying away from her when every time he saw her, he forgot that he needed to. Nothing that they could share would have been good for either of them. Not when she didn't know who he actually was. Let me rephrase that. Not when she didn't know what he actually was.

Maria watched him as he turned to face her, her breath catching in her throat. She suddenly wondered why seeing his face had made her do that. Since their first meeting in the same halls that they now stood, she had always thought that Michael was good looking. She hadn't realized, though, that her feelings for him went deeper than that until now. "Mrs. Andrews wanted me to give this to you. You left before she could hand it back to you." Maria pulled herself from her thoughts, remembering just why she had approached him in the first place.

"What's this?" he asked, flipping the paper over to reveal an essay that he had written last week. Michael scanned over the contents slowly, his gaze finally landing on the grade when he turned to the last page. An F. How could he have gotten an F on a paper the he was so sure was great?

"It's your essay." he nodded as she told him. Maria watched as he observed his paper, unsure of what to do or say next. She didn't want to walk away from him because Liz had wanted her to reach out to Michael. It was obvious that her new friend was hoping for a love connection, but she couldn't really say that she was against the idea either. Michael was cute. And the whole bad boy thing was a major turn on. "So how'd you do?" she blurted out as he turned to walk away from her, picking up her pace to stay beside him.

"Not good." he handed the paper over to her, giving her unvoiced permission to view the grade herself. "I don't understand, though. My paper wasn't that bad. She must want me to fail as much as everyone else in this damn town does." She read over the paper as he spoke, choking down laughter. She couldn't believe that he had actually written some of the things that he had. Romeo and Juliet were much more than just butt buddies.

"Not everything is a personal attack against you, Michael. Maybe your writing just wasn't as good as you thought." Maria spoke truthfully. Part of her wondered if he had even tried to write the paper. Nobody's writing was this bad when they actually tried, right?

"So you're one of them? Figures." he glanced over at her. She had just moved here. How could they have gotten her to that quickly?

"One of them?" Maria laughed. "This grade isn't some conspiracy of the town. No one here thinks you are going to fail, Michael. Maybe if you would apply yourself a little more then you'd see that. You are capable of getting good grades. You have a lot of potential, Michael. Underneath all of those snide and sarcastic remarks is someone that is capable of writing a good essay of Romeo and Juliet."

"I would say you sounded like my mother, but I don't have one." his voice was dripping with sarcasm. Maria rolled her eyes. Michael was back. Throughout the conversation, she had managed to get normal dialogue from him without having to worry about a sarcastic remark as an answer. It disappointed her that the entire conversation couldn't have followed that path.

"You want some help with this?" she asked, ignoring his previous comment. Maria stopped abruptly when Michael did. He turned face her, obviously confused as he stared blankly into her eyes. It was then that she remembered that she had forgot to tell him. "Oh, Mrs. Andrews also said that she was going to give you a chance to make this up. She is going to allow you to rewrite this. If you do better on this essay she said she was going to put that grade in the grade book instead of the F. So what do you say? You want some help in writing it?"

Michael waited before answer her, his mind review the pros and cons of the situation. Maria helping him would mean that they would be spending alone time together and although it wasn't necessarily a good thing, it wasn't a bad thing either. He needed this second chance to pass, but then again he had vowed to stay away from Maria.

Pushing his vow to the back of his mind, Michael was going to agree to this. Maria was a smart girl. He could really use her help in writing this. He couldn't let some stupid vow determine whether he pass or fail. Besides. Maria was only going to help him with English. Nothing else would happen.

"Okay. Yeah, I could use some help in writing this. You'll do fine." Michael nodded, not really knowing if he was making the right decision. Would he be strong enough to push Maria away if the situation came to that?

When Michael returned her smile, Maria melted. She had dated many guys back in New York, but she could honestly say that none had affected her as much as Michael. She never really thought of herself as the type of person that could feel so strongly about someone when she had only met him a couple day ago. This type of thing had never happened to her before.

Maybe it was the fact that he was a complete mystery to her. She didn't know anything about him and it didn't seem like he would be confiding in her anytime soon. Maria knew absolutely nothing about this man and that intrigued her.

"Well, my mom has to go drop a few things tonight. You could come by around six. She won't be home so we'll have peace to work in. Does that sound okay?"

"Yeah," he stated. "So I'll see you around six?"

Michael waited until she nodded before turning to leave. What would happen tonight? Had he made a mistake by agreeing to this? It was just a harmless study date, right? Nothing would happen that he would regret. He and Maria couldn't get any closer than what he would allow, right?

Questions plagued him, but something deep inside of him told him that everything would be okay. Why would it be so wrong if he and Maria did get close anyway? The only thing that was stopping him from pursuing her was the fact he was completely different life form, but Max and Liz were okay. Isabel and Alex had been able to make it work as well. Was he willing to chance everything though? When Maria was with him, Michael was forced to fight the urge to tell her everything about him. He knew that telling her wasn't even a possibility. Max and Isabel would never go for that. But did she really even have to know?