What Was There All Along
Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.
Three days later Max came back to reality, her heat over, to find herself in bed, extremely comfortable and content, pleasantly boneless and satisfied, a hard male body spooned around her, their legs tangled together, his arm slung over her waist, and her head buried in his shoulder, his breath tickling the sensitive skin of her neck. They were completely naked.
Well her heat encounters had never lasted this long before, though that had more to do with the fact that ordinary humans just couldn't keep up with her, sex with an X5 was definitely an improvement in terms of endurance, she realised guiltily, before giving herself a mental slap for even thinking it!
Suddenly her mind was assaulted with visions of the pas t three days, all of their heated love making, if you could call something so violent, so intense 'making love' and she was over come with intense shame, she had had sex, with Alec… You could say this was an improvement on her previous heats, at least she knew the guy's name this time, but this was Alec, her almost friend, the 'smart' Alec, her Manticore breeding partner…
"Oh shit!" she silently cursed, "and here we have another problem in Max's wonderful fucked up little life!" Protection, they hadn't used any, she had been in heat, and they hadn't used anything, could her life possibly get any worse? She certainly didn't think so.
She wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, but he wasn't awake yet, and she wanted to put off the inevitable confrontation for as long as possible. This wasn't like her previous heats, she couldn't use her usual trick of sneaking out before he woke up, Alec was X5, (something which he had definitely proved last night) and if she even tried to move he would wake up, they were programmed to, so she tried to keep her breathing normal, stay relaxed, hoping not to alert him to the fact that she was awake, that is if he hadn't noticed already. But also, though she would fervently deny it later, even to herself, right now she really didn't want to move from his arms, it felt nice, safe, a feeling she had never had before and wasn't quite ready to let go of, she knew that whatever came looking for them Alec could deal with, he could protect her, unlike virtually every other man she knew, including Logan…
"Crap Logan!" realised Max, "What the hell am I supposed to say to him?" she wondered, trying not to completely freak out, she had just cheated on the guy she loved with a guy who had stopped them from getting the cure to the virus, who had in fact tried to kill both of them, what the hell had she been thinking practically attacking him in Crash. In Crash…
"Oh God!" Max panicked, "what am I going to do!". She could vaguely remember that infamous night at Crash, and she knew that she had been seen draped all over Alec by practically everyone she knew, add to that disappearing for a 3 day sex fest, and she wasn't sure that she would ever be able to safely show her face in public ever again, her life was officially screwed, "Someone up there must really hate me!" she fumed, wanting to scream in frustration at the unfairness of it all, why did everything happen to her? This was all Alec's fault, what the hell did he think he was playing at using her like that! Surely he should have recognised that she was in heat and got the hell out of dodge, instead he had used her, for 3 days, 3 fucking days!
She was going to kill him when he woke up, the cocky arrogant asshole, what did he think he was playing at sleeping when he should have been awake so she could kick his ass! Never mind the fact that with all the exercise of the past 3 days he could probably use the rest, and that she now had a definitive answer for whether or not she could beat Alec in a fight, namely 'no', considering, in all the acrobatics of the last 3 days though she may have given as good as she got, she was no longer under any illusions of who was stronger, he had most definitely been in control for most of it, and most sickeningly of all, it brought a thrill of excitement to her just thinking about the fact, it was official, she definitely needed her head examining!
She didn't know what the hell she had been thinking during her heat, but lying there, waiting for Alec to wake up she was remembering everything in Technicolor, including… something so weird she'd rather just forget it, but, he bit her, a love bite, but before he did, he said, mine, as though she were his possession or something, and worst of all, she had agreed with him, said, yours, whatever that meant, "Whatever!" Max thought derisively, she was not about to dwell on any heat induced insanity, whatever the hell it was, she wasn't going to think about it, ever again, if she could help it.
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It was at this point that Alec then began to wake up, for a moment he didn't remember what had happened, but then he realised that he was wrapped around a deliciously warm body, feeling content and utterly satisfied, he knew that something was up, he never did the whole morning after awkwardness scene, so what exactly was going on, and why was he still here?
He cracked open an eye, wondering what exactly was going on, and came face to face with a head of shiny ebony hair, the owner of which was snuggled contentedly into his shoulder. MAX.
"Oh shit, heat!" Alec thought, trying to stem the panic as it all came flooding back, Max was going to kill him, somehow she was definitely gonna find a way to blame this on him, and he was really not looking forward to the inevitable explosion, she was gonna kick his ass, and though he could have easily stopped her from doing so, like the whipped little idiot he was he would probably just take it.
"So you're awake then?" Max's voice cut into Alec's frantic musings, she sounded pissed, not a good sign at all, and right now Alec was so tired that he really did not feel like getting into a fight with her, "Just perfect!" Alec thought, typical, 3 days of mind blowing sex later, and she had still failed to loosen up, it was official Max was a lost cause, and if he had any sense of self preservation he would start running now, before the bitch really started to lay into him. But strangely Max was still snuggled into his side and had made no move to go anywhere, yet, was this a good sign, or not? God he was so whipped, normally he could care less about the female psyche, but Max was different, and much as it pained him to admit it, he did care about her, even when she was being a self-righteous bitch.
"Yeah I'm awake," Alec answered, as noncommittally as possible, propping his head up on his elbow, and risking a look at her, she was certainly angry, but she didn't look as though she was about to take his head off anytime soon, " Maybe the mind blowing sex did do something for her, if only make her too tired to kill me!" Alec thought cockily, trying to stop a grin of pure masculine pride from bursting onto his face, she would most certainly not like that!
"Good then you can help me look for my clothes then." Max snapped angrily, starting on him, just as Alec had predicted she would, getting up to look for her clothes, which were indeed scattered all the way over the apartment, left exactly where they were thrown 3 days ago (taking the sheet with her in typical Max style, as if he hadn't seen everything there was to see before, surely it was a little late for modesty!), "And here we go!" thought Alec snarkily, wondering how long it would be before she got around to blaming him for everything.
"Have you seen my bra?" questioned Max, surprisingly not shouting at him, wordlessly Alec pointed to the top of the wardrobe, where said bra appeared to be hanging, why wasn't she killing him again?
"Thanks." smiled Max, moving to retrieve the garment, and surprisingly throwing his boxers at him, "Shouldn't you be getting dressed too?" she questioned, "I mean I know Normal loves you and all but if you miss 4 days of work in a row the guy might just grow a spine and fire ya."
In shock Alec slipped into the boxers, and joined Max in the surprisingly difficult hunt for clothes, they really had thrown them all over in their hurry to be rid of them, and there were several things, like gloves, wedged in unlikely places.
"Its 7:30," Max stated, surprisingly calmly, looking at her watch, "if we're gonna go to work today, which we'd better if we don't wanna get canned, we'd better get going now, I need to go back to my place to get a change of clothes and grab a shower, so I guess I'll see you later." finished Max, somewhat awkwardly, deliberately not looking him in the eye as she hurriedly pulled on her clothes.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Alec conceded, wondering what the hell was going on, and when exactly she was gonna turn around and start laying into him, and then it hit him, denial, typical Max, she didn't know what to say, so she was falling back to the old standby of saying nothing, well that wasn't gonna work!
"Max," Alec began seriously, "we do need to talk …"
"What's there to talk about," breezed Max, who's eyes were now flickering desperately to the door, clearly planning escape, well Alec wasn't about to let that happen, "I was in heat, and you…" she broke off clearly unsure what to say, and clearly thinking that he had somehow used her, as if he had had a choice in the matter!
"And I reacted to your pheromones." he explained, catching her look of shock and continuing, "You and your little rug rat brothers and sisters missed out on all the fun and games at Manticore when we reached adolescence. First time one of the females went into heat it was carnage, all the guys going crazy reacting to the pheromones she was pumping out, fighting over her, no one knew what had hit them, it was chaos." Catching her eye he continued, hoping to make her realise just how serious this was, "Your lucky you just ran into me at Crash, there are a lot of transgenics around thanks to you, and a lot of them wouldn't have been as nice to you…"
"Nice, you call that nice!" shouted Max clearly incredulous about his ascertations considering how they had just spent the last 3 days.
"Yeah I call that 'nice' Max, considering what another transgenic male could have done to you, whether you like it or not you're vulnerable in heat, you were just lucky it was me," at this Max snorted, "at least I care about you." He finished catching her eye, it appeared Max had nothing to say to that one, and Alec worried, that maybe he had said too much, after all, what was the point in telling her anything like that, when she was so hung up on Logan, and would probably laugh in his face for caring.
"I didn't think of that." admitted Max grudgingly, "I guess I should thank you then." she said snorting derisively at the very thought of doing so, stomping on Alec's heart in the process.
"Yeah you probably should Max, but I'm not about to hold my breath waiting for it." snapped Alec, hurt by what she had just said, as he began to roughly pull on some clean jeans and a grey T-shirt, suddenly needing some fresh air to clear his head, but he couldn't resist a parting shot, after all, what the hell, no one could ever say that he didn't give as good as he got, and old habits died hard, "But I'm just wondering Max, why the hell were you out like that, I mean surely you know better than to be wandering the streets in heat, or are you so deeply in denial that you don't even think of yourself as a transgenic anymore?"
At this Max actually flinched, and to Alec's consternation, he couldn't help but feel guilty as hell about it, he hadn't really meant to get her upset, it was just a knee jerk reaction, self preservation, to stop her from realising how much what she had said had hurt him, he almost wanted to reach over and hold her or something, but realised that she would probably hurt him if he even tried.
"I didn't realise." Max finally admitted in a tiny voice, looking at her feet.
"What?" Alec asked, completely thrown by her admission, how could she not have known, she should have been practically throwing herself at every passing guy, but she hadn't been, she had just been sitting, waiting, for him…? Nahh! Max was way too in denial for even her subconscious to have picked him as a mate, at least on its own, after last night though, there really was no question, they were officially mated, not that Max realised of course, now that could prove to be a problem, but he had claimed her, and she had agreed.
"I was feeling hot, but I hadn't been well...you know," she finally stuttered out, apparently too nervous to say it, ironic considering what they had spent the past few days doing, "I wasn't feeling anything at all 'til you walked in, then it was just bam! And everything went completely to hell!" she shook her head, sitting back on the bed, and dropping her head into her hands in apparent shame, well that was about all Alec could stand, as if this was her fault! It was perfectly natural, nothing to be ashamed of, though having lived half her life among ordinaries who could never understand it and probably thought she was nuts during heat had probably not helped matters. Feeling uncharacteristically tender Alec swept her into a loose hug, shocked to feel tears soaking into his T-shirt, Max never cried!
"Hey, don't cry," he soothed gently, "this isn't your fault," he explained, patiently wiping tears off her cheeks, before catching her eye, and giving her a sincere smile in an effort to cheer her up.
"Why are you not being a jackass?" Max sniffed, apparently confused by his actions.
"A jackass? Should I be Max?" questioned Alec gently.
"I don't know," admitted Max quietly, "You usually are."
"Gee thanks Max." laughed Alec, unsure as to whether to be insulted or not.
"I guess I'd better get going then, OC's probably been freaking out after I ran out like that." she pondered aloud, looking slightly concerned that her friend would have been worried about her and pulling out of Alec's arms to begin pacing the length of the room.
"I think she knows where you are Max." Alec mentioned, trying not to come off irritating but telling her what she needed to know.
"As did everyone else we know probably." Max sighed, looking now completely freaked by the prospect of facing them at work today.
"Look Max I'm…" Alec tried to apologise.
"I know, and as much as I hate to admit it, its really not your fault." Max interrupted, raking a hand through her mused hair, warming his heart more than she could possibly realise with those simple words
"Catch you at work then." she shot out as she moved to leave.
"Yeah," Alec agreed, "and Max," he continued, forcing her to turn back and hold his gaze for an uncomfortable moment, "we still need to talk.", at this she nodded in grudging agreement, probably realising that he wouldn't let her leave if she didn't agree to sort things out with him later, before finally turning to walk out of the bedroom, and off out of the apartment, back to her and OC's place to shower and prepare for the ordeal that would be work.
So here it is, the next instalment, so loved it, hated it, want me to crawl into a hole and never post again, well review and tell me! (Can't believe I'm actually doing a heat fic, but what the hell, you only live once!)
Thanks!
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