Chapter 5
Their bags hit they dusty floor with an almost simultaneous thud. It was late. They had made decent time getting here from Logan's, but between the trannie-haters, the sector cops and their own security measures it had taken forever for them to actually get inside of Terminal City.
Too tired, and too uncaring to go looking for more comfortable accommodations, Max spread out a blanket on the floor and laid down. She rolled over on her side and faced the wall. She had no intention of sleeping, she just wanted some peace. It had been a rough couple of days and it looked like it was only getting worse.
Alec looked over at Max and stifled a sigh. He knew she wouldn't appreciate him acting like he felt sorry for her. There wasn't a transgenic alive who reacted well to people pitying them. She knew he was here. If she wanted anything she would ask. Well…actually, no she wouldn't, but she would lash out at him and he would translate that to mean that she needed him and he would let her beat on him like always. It was their system and it worked. It's not her fault, really. Manticore conditioned warm fuzzy moments out of them by the time they were toddlers. Any actual sharing of emotions was extremely uncomfortable and desperately avoided. The closest they could get to dealing with emotions was an akward silence or spirited sarcasm. So, without a word he headed out of the room and over to command to be debriefed about the night's events.
Max just stared at the wall wrapping her arms around herself. She could tell that there were two other people in the room with her. She knew Alec wasn't one of them. She had heard him leave. She wasn't sure which two had joined them in this room, and which three had gone off in search of greater comfort than this dusty, drafty room, but it didn't matter. She was safe and so was Cindy and that is all that mattered.
So, here she was, alone again. This time she hadn't even said good-bye to Logan. But what was there to say? He thought she had moved on, she had seen that he had moved on, they couldn't be together even if neither of them had moved on, so what was the point? She wasn't all heartbroken like she would have expected, it felt more like disappointment. Yeah, disappointment. One more thing that she worked at and failed at. The only relationship that she could sustain was her relationship with Original Cindy. She smiled. Cindy was like an angel in all of this. She was the one person who kept Max's head on straight. She was Max's motivation for coming here tonight. Just the thought that Cindy had been that close to being in the middle of this shit with White was all Max needed to force her to wake up and smell the biotoxins. Alec was right. They were a danger to them.
She sighed. Alec. Alec being right. GOD! She hated it when Alec was right.
She spent the next hour reliving the past few years in her head. She thought of her life here and how much she would miss it. She liked walking into Crash and knowing that everybody knew her. She liked having a steady job. She liked her normal, uneventful life. Actually, if she was honest with herself, she missed the life she had before she met Logan. Was that bad? To be thinking that maybe it would be better if she had never met him? Then she could have her life. But the rest of her people would still be locked up in Manticore and she would be alone. No siblings, nobody like her to make her feel included, to make her feel like a part of something. Without Logan, she would never have met Alec. Whoa, where did that come from? It was true, but why insert Alec into that thought? Why not Joshua or Gem or any of the others? Nevermind. I don't want to know. Not tonight
She was still lost in her thoughts when Alec came back. She knew it was him before he even made it inside the room. He always paused before he entered a room. Like he was preparing for something. She had thought about asking him why he did it, but she knew she probably wouldn't get a straight answer anyway, so she hadn't bothered.
Alec slowed as he came back to the room. He paused outside, fortifying himself before coming into contact with Max. He found that it helps to pause and collect himself before seeing her. He was so afraid that one of these days he was going to do something stupid like lean in and smell her hair, or push a stray strand back behind her ear, or say something he didn't intend to, and then she'd know. And if he ever let her know then he wanted it to be intentional. He didn't want it to be a slip-up. So he always prepared himself before entering a room he knew she was in. He had to. She was just to Goddamn beautiful. Would it have been too much to ask for Manticore to make them just average looking? Did they all have to be sooo perfect? How were they supposed to get anything done? Hey! Snap out of it soldier! You can't stand out here all night
He entered the room and took notice of Biggs and Axel asleep. One near Max's head, the other near her feet. He laid his blanket next to hers and stretched out. He was careful to make sure there were at least three feet between their bodies so there was no chance of him accidentally coming into contact with her in his sleep (a situation he was sure would cost him an appendage if he were to be so careless). Then he turned away from her and slept on his side. Not that it would matter. He would probably lay awake all night wondering what her hair really did smell like, what her skin tasted like…DAMMIT! Cut that shit out!! He forced his mind to go blank and eventually he slept.
Biggs was the first to wake up. He didn't know for sure, but he sometimes wondered if he had a little shark DNA in his cocktail. Not as much as Max, but enough that he was up every morning at 7 whether he needed to be or not. He was just about to get up when he looked around the room and changed his mind. He smiled to himself. This was going to be interesting he thought and with an anticipatory smile gracing his features, he pretended to be asleep.
Alec slowly started to come into wakefulness. He loved the mornings. Especially the mornings when he didn't wake up to an alarm. Not that he minded waking up, in fact, he was a morning person, he just found waking to a loud, intrusive noise was such a shitty way to start the day. He moved his arm to reach down and scratch his stomach and froze. There was a hand already there, and that hand did not belong to him. Without moving anything but his eyes, he looked down at the foreign body part. The skin of said hand was a perfect bronze and the accompanying fingernails were painted cherry red. OH SHIT! He thought it sucked to wake up to a loud alarm? That was going to be a cold cup of coffee compared to the ass kicking he was going to get from Max if she woke up to discover her spooning him! Wait! HER spooning HIM? This wasn't his fault! His back was still to her. She had crossed the distance and rolled onto him. This might be a good day afterall. He closed his eyes and waited like a kid on Christmas morning for her to wake up.
Max was warm. Warm and comfortable. Warm, comfortable and cuddled up with the greatest—what the hell was she cuddled up with?
Carefully, she opened one eye and found herself looking into a very firm, very muscular, very warm back. A bare back. A bare, male back. A bare, male back featuring a barcode peeking out from under the golden hair grazing his neck. A barcode that was—Alec's.
ohshitohshitohshit!!
OK. Calm down. Think soldier! Oh! Maybe he's not awake?I'll just remove my hand from his rock hard stomach? Oh GOD. Could this be any worse?
And then, all of the sudden it was….
Alec knew the minute she woke up. She hadn't moved a muscle, but she was holding her breath, as if he wouldn't feel her body wrapped around him like second skin as long as she wasn't breathing.
He smiled and bit his cheek to prevent the laughter that would certainly ruin all his fun.
Before Max could react, he pretended to stretch and trapped her arm in place by locking his bicep tight against his side. There was no way for her to get out of the hold without "waking him up".
Max tried not to panic. But this was horrible!! Not only was she going to have to rip herself out of Alec's grasp, but Biggs and Axel were going to witness her humiliation.
She took a deep breath and gently pulled her arm towards her OWN body. It didn't budge. She flexed her fingers and they brushed against Alec's abs. She felt his body jerk slightly. She moved her fingers again. And AGAIN his body jerked. OH GOD! Alec was not only ticklish, he was awake!
"You ASSHOLE!" she yelled. And she struggled to free herself.
Biggs, Alec and Axel all burst out laughing at the same time.
Alec was fighting for breath while trying to subdue Max's struggles. He knew that if he let her hands free that she would be beating him within a second.
When he couldn't hold her steady any longer, he let go and simultaneously rolled as far away from Max as he could.
The room was still filled with the laughter of the three males.
Max was beet red.
"I was COLD alright. COLD! It's a scientific fact that MEN and WARMER!" the laughter only increased. "You're all a bunch of jerks!" embarrassed, she stormed out of the room.
"Max if it was warmth you wanted, I have warmer places for you to put your hands than on my stomach!" Alec called after her.
"I would've kept you warm Max!" Biggs said between bursts of laughter.
Axel couldn't breathe enough to make a comment.
The laughter followed her out of the building.
It may be juvenile, but these boys hadn't really got to embrace their childhoods when they were children. So, any opportunity for immaturity that came their way, they grasped with both hands.