Author's Note: Never done ecstasy, so my accounting may be incredibly off base. I did a bunch of googling of people's experiences and general studies of the drugs. So apologies if I got anything really off here.
Mike's fingers have turned white where he grips the steering wheel.
The second Mike had realized Paige had slipped him real ecstasy, he had immediately gone to work getting her out of that club. He knew they didn't have much time until the pill kicked in, and he had to get her home to a safe, controlled environment before both of them were under the influence of the drug.
He'd clean up the mess later of their hasty retreat from the scene. Most of the guys in he room were so high, they might not even remember. Right now his only goal was getting her somewhere safe. He had gotten her in the car, and made her sit in the backseat, hoping it would help keep her hands to herself. He had to draw firm boundary lines now while he was still thinking straight.
As the headlights in front of him begin to blur into brightly colored beams, he lets out a deep sigh of defeat through gritted teeth and pulls over to the side of the road. Turning off the engine, he sits back in his seat with a sigh.
"What's the matter?" Paige asks from the backseat where Mike has banished her.
"I can't drive." Mike hisses the words through gritted teeth, closing his eyes as he adjusts to the feeling of the drug taking hold of him. "The headlights of the other cars. They're starting to look like rainbows."
"So what are we going to do?" Paige asks.
"Wait until it passes." Mike says, adjusting his seat in preparation for what he's sure is going to be a long night. He doesn't know what else to do. Neither of them should drive while high, and calling anyone to come pick them up would involve admitting that they were rolling on illegal drugs they'd taken on the clock.
"That's your plan then?" Paige is all smiles in the backseat, staring at him with unmasked adoration.
"No, my plan was not to do drugs tonight." Mike says, settling back in his seat preparing himself for whatever he was about to go through. Other than alcohol he'd never done any sort of drug before and he wasn't sure what to expect.
He'd read all the drug manuals. He knew all the textbook effects of MDMA, but he'd never experienced it and he was preparing himself for any chemical alterations the drug might have on him. Preparing for the heightened senses, the fast heart beat, the dry mouth. He imagined it was probably like feeling drunk, which means it might lower his inhibitions. With Paige in the car that could be a problem. He wasn't sure emotionally what to prepare for. He knew that people reported feeling overly happy, energetic and confident while on Ex.
"Are you mad at me, Mikey?"
"I should be…" Mike sighs, but as the tendrils of the drug wrap around his brain he finds it hard to be mad about anything. Especially hard to be mad at someone as beautiful as Paige.
"What does it feel like?" Paige asks, leaning up between the seats. Mike squeezes his eyes shut even tighter. He can feel her breath tickling the skin of his neck and it nearly makes him come undone.
"The lights are blurring. I feel it in my legs… like a tingle. You know that feeling of butterflies in your stomach? It's like that, just in my legs. It's rising up. Like it's filling my whole body. My stomach feels a little naucious, but almost in a good way. It's good. I feel… good." Mike licks his tongue out between his dry lips.
"It's going to get even better." Paige's promise strokes his soul, and Mike knows somehow this is just the beginning. He's not anywhere near his peak yet. He does almost feel drunk, just completely different. A little more in control.
"What are you doing? Stay… Stay back there." Mike says as Paige reaches up like she's going to climb into the front seat. She looks over at him and grins, before pressing a kiss to his cheek. The simple touch of her lips feels like fire, silk and sparkles all at once. It leaves Mike breathless.
"Relax Mike. I'm just turning on the radio." She turns on the stereo and then returns to the backseat, and Mike nearly asks her to come back up to the front with him. A soft hum of music fills the car, and Mike can feel the beat of the bass massaging up his spine.
For a few minutes they both lay there silently. Him in the front seat. Her in the back. Both in their own little worlds letting the music caress their skin. After a few minutes, Mike can't hold it in anymore. He needs to talk to her. He wants to hear what she's thinking.
"I feel it now. I'm there." He says, with a smile. He knows he should be mad at her, but he feels too good to hold a grudge. For the first time in months, pretty much the first moment since the morning after he woke up beside her, Mike feels happy. He feels more than happy. He feels perfect.
"Really?" She grins looking over at him with a smile that Mike can't help but return. She's seemingly amused at the sight of Mike high.
"Yep." Mike sighs, releasing his seat so it reclines back. Looking up at her with a smile he admits, "Yeah… this feels amazing."
"Give me your hand." Paige instructs, and Mike automatically turns so he's reclining on his side and holds his hand out to her without question. Paige begins to trace patterns on his palm with her long fingernails and Mike's eyes flutter shut in bliss. For a moment he lays there and just becomes entrenched in the feeling of her nails on him. Opening his eyes he looks up and sees her eyes watching his face carefully and he's reminded of sitting in the house, both their fingers covered in soot as she taught him about cooking heroin.
"You're right. That feels awesome." Mike sighs, as he looks at her with new eyes. He's never felt more connected to someone. It's like all his walls are down and no one exists but her and him in their little car. She smiles down at him. and then relaxes in the back seat lying down as well. The two stare up at the moonroof as the rain begins to add a new beat to the music and their pulses.
The music seeps through their skin and the rain falls on the windshield being lit up by the lights from passing cars. The two just lie there. Their hands are intertwined over both their heads between them as their fingers twist and touch the others hand. Mike feels like he's left the world and all it's troubles behind and nothing exists outside Mike and Paige in this car.
"This is fun." Paige giggles, looking over at him with a soft smile she adds, "You're fun."
"You sound surprised." Mike says, his thumb rubbing against her palm.
"I'd forgotten."
"Yeah. I know what you mean." He brings their entwined fingers up to his lips and kisses the back of her hand. "When did we stop having fun?"
"I know, right?! We used to have so much fun!" Paige squeals and sits up on her knees in the backseat hovering over him, her face close in excitement.
"Yeah… we really did! What the hell happened?" Mike laughs, sitting up on his elbows to turn to look at her.
"I don't know. We were having fun, and then you left for DC and when you came back you were different."
"As I remember when I first came back we had too much fun…" Mike grins up at her, as memories of her naked beneath him flash through his mind.
"Not that kind of fun!" Paige slaps his arm playfully and even that feels incredible. "I mean that was fun, but not like before when we played football and did our chores together and could just hang out and drink beer."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Mike settles back down lying on his seat, crossing his arms behind his head and staring up through the skylight at the stars beyond. "You remember Hector's Taco's, all the beach bonfires, the Drop?"
"Oh my God, the Drop! I forgot about that place. Why did we stop going?" Paige asks.
"They have a small clientele, and we kept running into guys you'd hooked up with." Mike answers, though he doesn't feel the same push of jealousy he normally does. It feels impossible to feel anything negative about anything when he's here in this bubble with Paige.
"So I had the occasional awkward small talk. So what? The drinks were cheap. It doesn't bother me." Paige is now sitting up on her knees looking up through the moon roof like she might open it.
"Well it bothered me." Mike laughs, looking down at her with an adoring smile "God, I was so crazy about you."
"I know." Paige admits, looking down shyly, "You used to look at me like…"
Her voice trails off and she bites her lip as she remembers all the times she caught Mike just staring at her. He had a certain look that she'd never seen him give anyone else, and when he stared at her that way it would ignite a fire in her stomach. Just remembering it makes her feel warm again.
"Like…?" Mike prompts.
"Like I was all you ever wanted." Paige answers, the drugs making her inexplicably open and brave.
"You are." Mike answers simply. All the drama, all the pain and fighting is gone. Mike knows it's there, but at the moment he can't feel anything but an intense longing and love for the woman across from him.
"I was." Paige corrects him with a small smile.
"Paige…" Mike stares up at her, suddenly wanting to fix everything but not knowing how to begin.
They need to talk about this. All of it. And ok, maybe talking about everything while they're rolling off of E in a car isn't the best way to have that talk, but right now it feels like exactly what they should be doing because Mike wants to know her. To share everything with her. To completely bare his soul and talk about everything that's happened and everything he wants to happen in the future.
"Close your eyes." Paige says softly.
"What are you doing?" Mike asks, letting his eyes shut.
"Your hair is too perfect." Paige whispers with a grin, her fingers coming up to run through his hair and Mike lets out a shaky breath as the ecstasy enhances the sensation tenfold. He can physically feel the bliss coming out in waves from her fingers and traveling down his body.
He opens his eyes and sees her leaning over him from the backseat. Her fingers stroke through his hair and lightly over his face, and when he looks into her eyes he swears he can see her soul. Her hair hangs down around her face and Mike reaches up to touch it. It feels like silk flowing over his fingers.
His hand reaches higher until his fingers wrap around the back of her neck, and gently he pulls her down closer to him. Leaning over him, she kisses him softly. From the angle he's lying in his reclined seat at, she's actually kissing him upside down. It's like nothing he's experienced before. It completely changes the dynamic of the kiss, and for a moment Mike is completely breathless as he experiences her lips in a completely new light.
Their lips softly move against each others, the new angle freeing their noses from bumping, and allowing their tongues to press directly against the others.
Trying to sit up and turn around without his lips leaving hers is a challenge, but he manages to. Finally he's on all fours on his seat reaching in the back seat to kiss her. Paige responds to the kiss, her fingers still running through his hair as he leans back further into the backseat.
The invisible line Mike drew in the car is melting away with each brush of their lips. Soon it will barely be a memory...