Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel or any characters featured in either of the seasons.

Fashion Stunt

Friendship, if you could call what they had, seemed to creep upon Alec and Max as they continued to stay in the hacienda together. Whether they were alone or doing a photo shoot, spending so much time started to have an effect on them both. What it was neither was sure, "So tell me about your family," Max asked as they walked through the water.

"My family?" Alec looked confused.

"Yeah, you know those people who are related to you. Mom, dad, brother, sister, that kind of thing."

"Uh, ok what do you want to know?" He refused to look at her face, which made her think something was touchy about the conversation.

"I don't know, anything. Like what are you parents like? Siblings?"

"My dad is a commander who knows nothing past military, mom is scientist who is obsessed with science."

"Siblings?"

"I have twin, Ben."

"Tell me about him."

"Not much to tell. He's a few minutes older, we look exactly alike and few times we switched on our parents and caused chaos. He loves to write stories." Alec looked out to the ocean as he talked about Ben.

"Sounds like a nice guy, are you guys close?"

"Yeah we are. What about you family life?"

"My parents died when I was young. My brother Krit raised my sister, Sam, and I. Krit and I are pretty close, Sam and I are complete opposites and aren't ever really on good terms." Max shrugged her shoulders thinking about her sister and brother.

"Are you the baby of the family?"

"No Krit's the oldest, and Sam and I are twins, I'm 2 minutes older."

"I didn't know you were a twin. Guess we have something in common that doesn't have to do with your 'people' setting us up for a publicity stunt."

"Who'd a thunk," Max replied smiling.

"Sam's a teacher, married with a kid, and Krit's a weapon specialist. What 'bout Ben, what does he do?"

"Nothing special, wanna go for a swim?" Max nodded and then took off into the water.

"No offense but this place is getting boring." Alec randomly commented as they hung out towards the ocean after their swim. Max looked over at him and nodded, "I think we need to break the rules of the deal on go and sudden trip. What do ya think?"

"And where would we go? See our families and friends?" Max joked as they walked in the shallow end of the water.

"Sure why not, I think it'd be interesting to meet you twin sister, two Maxies…hmm. OUCH!" Max punched his bare arm at the last comment.

"Her name is Sam and she's nothing like me."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," he mumbled rubbing his arm where she viciously attacked him. "Besides what's so bad about having a twin different than you? Ben's different than me, we're polar opposites but we're close."

"You've never really talked about him. What's he like?" Max asked moving her hair out of her face so she could see Alec.

"What do you want to know?"

"I don't know, tell me about your child hood, what he does for a living. Or is he your body double on photo shoots and no one knows it?" Alec laughed at that.

"No he's the more shy type, he likes to write stories, but hasn't really gone anywhere with it. So tell me about your brother?"

"I'm asking the questions here. So where do you parents live?"

"Texas."

"Really! That's where my brother lives! That's where we could go, Texas! Come on lets go see my brother and you parents. Come on we're going crazy here!"

"Why are you so into meeting my parents? They aren't human," Alec stopped walking and just stared at woman in front of him. She was a constant mystery.

"Because I think it'd be interesting to meet them, see why you're so messed up in the head," Max said sweetly, "Plus I wanna see my brother, I haven't seen him for a long time."

"I don't think this would be a fare trade. You meet the parents, I get to meet the brother."

"Huh?"

"Older brothers are scary!" Alec exclaimed comically, causing Max to laugh.

So it was agreed, they'd fly into Texas and visit her brother and his parents. Visiting his parents was not something he was looking forward to, nor was he looking forward to calling his parents. He hadn't talked to them in…years? "Fuck," he cursed as he stared intently at his phone. Max was in her room, packing probably, while he sat in the living room trying to find the guts to call his parents. "Fuck it, just get it over with," and he did. It was brisk, to the point, and emotionless phone call that lasted no more than 3 minutes, if even. When he was done he called someone who could call him down, or at least distract him.

Walking quietly into the living room, Max noticed that Alec was asleep sprawled out on the couch. In the low light, she could see the slight rise of his chest causing his muscles in move with each breath. Looking at his face, she noticed he almost looked like a little boy. Deciding to take advantage of seeing him with his guard down, Max walked closer to the couch, and saw something she hadn't noticed before. It was a tattoo across the upper part of his ribs, on his left side. Looking closer she saw an outline drawing of the Virgin Mary with a name scrawled underneath the picture in a simple script, 'Ben.' Cocking her head to the side, she contemplated his choice in the tattoo. She hadn't known he was religious.

Looking back up to his face, seeing he was asleep, she further explored, with her eyes, his body. Looking on the right side of his body, towards his waist, she saw another tattoo. Instead of a picture, it was just a simple word, but she couldn't make it out in the low light. What she could see going through the tattoo was scar that was considerably lighter than the rest of his tan body. But before she could think much more about it, she saw that he was starting to stir. Stepping back a few steps, Alec didn't see her when he first opened his eyes. When looking around the room, he saw her, but he thought she was just walking in.

"Hey," he greeted with a sleep-laced voice.

"Hey," she replied walking around the couch as he sat up. "Sleepy?"

"I guess so," he replied softly stretching. Because she sat on his left, she couldn't read the second tattoo, "what you been up to?"

"Relaxing, just got off the phone with Cindy," Max said crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the armrest.

"That's good," he replied while stretching his limbs out, "You call your brother?"

"Yeah, he's interested to meet you," she said smiling at Alec's dramatic worried expression, "You call your parents?"

"Yeah," he replied getting comfortable on the couch again, "My father said he expects us to arrive at a certain time, and not to be late!" He said imitating, what she guessed, his father's military tone. "Just to warn you, you'll be entering the military when we visit."