I hope your test went well Griever!!!!!
I'd say I put off writing until after I knew you were safely at your test, but man it was soooo one of those weekends where I got guilted into things with other people that took DOUBLE the time they should have. :-( But hey, this technically worked into my original plan of posting AFTER your test in order to not stress your willpower.

AN: I am entirely too lazy to edit this. I'll do it later, hopefully. :-P

DST Challenge

Setting: Terminal City. Prequel to 'When Gray was Yellow' and 'Ponderings.'

Despite Terminal City's size, Max was always amazing at how loud it could be. Her kind, repressed for years, it was more than being taught to conform, it was never even realizing individuality got to exist…They had taken to freedom, to creativity, to boisterous behaviors, Max often found herself about to channel the many mothers she had known with the simple phrase 'Indoor voices.' So when the city grew silent, voices and activity near non-existent, it tended to result in an awed relief, just as she experienced this night.

Her eyes opened to the darkened room, taking a few seconds to fully adjust to her nighttime vision because after all, Manticore had been more of a crapshoot genetics adventure, as her brethren proved and basic physiological limits still existed. Rods took longer than cones.

Her senses took in the darkened room, the only sound being gentle breath, the musty odor being poorly concealed by the after effects of a pear candle, the soft blanket above her, the warm, hard body beneath her; the thin strip of mattress than her own body encompassed.

Her need for sleep satiated, after all it didn't take much, the person beneath deep into his sleep, the thought of that alone made her smile, she wasn't quite sure why, but it did.

She rolled away, onto the cold mattress her body rarely tended to touch and moved to sit. 1:58 the vcr read, a present from Logan after one too many boring nights, she was sure it cost him an arm and a leg, especially considering it was long before they had been able to venture out into the city, early on in the siege. Another thing that made her smile.

She blinked as her mind took in what she wasn't paying attention to, 1:59 to 1:00?

Daylight savings time already?

That wasn't possible.

It was November?

No, no she knew that. Halloween.

It was Sunday?

Huh, guess that made sense as well.

Her sense of time and season had really gone out the window with this siege. Probably because she was in places like this one, without any windows.

An extra hour.

Granted she'd just lose it again in a few months, but still. This November…November…When was Halloween again? Oh well, she'd look that up later, this first Sunday in November 2021, she got an extra hour. The 7th, it was the 7th. Just knowing that simple fact relieved her, made her feel like she wasn't so out of touch with the world she missed.

The overly sweetened coffees grabbed while they should have been busting their humps across the city. The comfortable warmth of Logan's apartment, always set at the exact right degree. Walking down a busy sidewalk without a care in the world, just getting to be normal, getting to blend in; being worried about only one set of bad guys spotting you instead of a dozen.

An hour…What to do with an hour?

Sandeman was a night owl, she could always go join him and his techies, see how much progress they were making with that whacked out virus threatening the world. She was really getting sick of whacked out viruses threatening people.

Find Lydecker see what new schematics he was going over. An assault, a break-in, a new line of defense. He was always studying something, always planning, he refused to let them get the one up on him and his 'kids' again.

Knock Zack out of his contemplative mode. Broody now only seemed to appear once everyone else went to sleep, during the day he kept himself busy enough to avoid thinking, but as Krit had warned her before Lydecker had sent him south on a mission, Zack just laid awake at night while everyone else slept. Her brother who had once adored sleep and used to glare at her and Jondy as they would keep him awake at night…She would be surprised if he wasn't sleeping less than her every night.

Find Joshua and get a chuckle or two out of watching him chase or run from something in his dream because once more Manticore had taken the crap shoot route with them and her brother didn't seem to have the same paralysis everyone else experienced while sleeping, at least he stayed horizontal though. Chasing after the big guy while he was sleepwalking would not be a good use of the extra hour.

Gem was sleeping through the night now that Rei was.

Alec was…Well trying to track down whose bed or broom closet Alec was in on any given night…

Try to sneak a snack in the Mess.

A quick sparring session in, down at their 'gym,' she hadn't gone up against anyone in almost three weeks, shouldn't let herself get rusty.

A nice mani/pedi she thought with a frown looking down at her nails.

Laundry would be a good idea, she thought with another frown as she glanced over at her pile…of suddenly folded laundry, yet she was pretty sure still dirty laundry. Her boyfriend: the scatterbrain or neat freak; she wondered when he even had the time to do that. Though at least this time, he hadn't stuffed it into a desk drawer, resulting in her spending ten minutes looking for it. They needed to have another discussion about the room they were sharing, more importantly where it was located. For some reason, she was pretty sure TC canceled out any need for neatness or order despite the fact that they had no common area to 'entertain.' His family had left his mind twisted in ways she hadn't even begun to imagine before this whole thing started.

1:05.

She should probably figure out what she was going to do with her extra hour before she used her entire hour.

She dropped her gaze down to the man flat on his back and oblivious to the world.

Her man.

Her scruff.

Her lock of hair across his forehead.

Her perfectly sloped nose…

Chin.

Cheeks.

Lips…

That could be a nice way to spend the 55 minutes. Or…

No, no, not longer, Logan still needed his sleep.

Just then the slight catch of his breath and the quick snore that accompanied it, resulting in another quick smile and silent chuckle from her. She should probably roll him.

Should…

Another look up at the clock, 1:07, and back down to Logan. 53 gifted minutes.

Her body down, a roll to the side, the blanket pulled up. The hard, warm, body, the serenade of breath, the glow of a green light. She couldn't think of a better way to spend it.