AN: Not quite the morning after yet…

Well technically time-wise I suppose it is, but you know what I mean. ;-)

Thanks for reading guys (and reviewing) and no BA you're good. I actually stocked up on enough for months, especially considering the fact that I don't normally drink wine. :-P

A Soft Landing

There was laughter in the bed.

Had there ever been laughter before? Maybe a slight stunned chuckle as she tossed someone onto the bed, a pleased laugh during the beginning, middle or end…Not like this though.

Not as her pants got trapped at her feet and there was a pause of stunned laughter as they realized it. Logan trailed down, tugging off her shoes and socks as he stepped on his own to remove them without wasting anymore time. The pants slid off and his hands slid up her legs as he returned to her. Tugging her at an angle up the bed as she walked/pushed her way up, speeding up their movements.

Things slowed down as much as they could at that point. Not much was said, a series of moans and sighs. Short clips of their names, Max finding out two syllables were sometimes beyond her, getting caught after "Lo," sometimes following up with the, "gan" after a second or leaving it off entirely.

A series of smiles passed her lips and her eyes, from sultry to pleased, to amazement after tasting the fine sheen that covered his already fragile body, so long unused to this, but unwilling to admit that, unwilling to give it up.

The weight of his body against hers as it was entirely spent. Her lips seeking out his jaw placing a series of random kisses as she continued to need the taste of him, the feel of him, regardless of how enmeshed they were. Ready to knock him off his forearms to complete the weight…the sensations of having him pressed fully skin-into-skin upon her.

A pleased sigh from him as he rolled them to their sides.

A few sweet and quick kisses before a finger slowly swept over her jaw, marveling at her beauty, his luck. It trailed down her lips, parting them and inviting his own.

His bone weariness started to be forgotten as he once more hungrily kissed her. As her leg draped over one of his, tugging their bodies in closer.

His body screamed at him that it was time to rest, but his mind ignored it as he was pushed onto his back and the story began again.

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"Mmm," slid from his throat as he sought to figure out what was wrong. Then there it was again, the slight figure trying to escape his arms. So warm and soft, he thought with a trailing hand.

"Later," the voice teased as his eyes remained shut.

It really was her, he thought as his eyes slid open. Max and she had said, 'Later' not, 'this was a mistake' or anything along those lines, but 'later.' Max finally extracted herself from his grasp and rolled out of the bed. Nearly non-existent dark waves after the beating they'd received. The long expanse of her back, sleek and graceful before his eyes settled on a part of her he'd never expected to see aside from that very brief flash after she'd gone chasing after an apple under his couch in a pair of very low-rise jeans, that hadn't truly prepared him for the sight before him now. "Haven't you ever heard that procrastination is a sin?" he asked reaching out to tug her back into bed with an arm around her waist.

"Reason why I'm getting up," she laughed as she ended up sitting back down, "we were in the middle of something last night."

"Hmmm?" his mind went searching. Were they going back to fighting?

She took the opportunity to once more break free of his arms to go grab the white tee-shirt she spied.

He frowned watching her cross the room as he also stopped to wonder when the light blanket had been pulled up over him. He remembered when it ended up bunched underneath them and had been kicked to the bottom on the bed, but not its return trip up.

"Want anything while I'm up?" she paused in the doorway.

"You coming back to bed an option?"

"In a minute," she smiled.

"Then I'm good."

She was barely gone long enough for him to begin to contemplate how lonely the bed was without her and wonder how exactly they ended up like this. The tubing in her arms immediately flashed him back to last night.

"Max-" he began as she started heading towards him.

"How about you don't complain and you just do this for me?" she said dropping it onto the bed.

"I'm fine though, really." Hadn't their previous activities proved everything was in working order?

"And I want you to stay that way," her eyes soft and needy.

He simply nodded pushing himself up as he remembered the tears that had repeatedly fallen the night before. He knew he had to be fine though as she started to set everything up and he watched those long bare legs moving around on the bed.

How the long slender leg had hooked around him. The silky feeling of her against the rough coarseness of his own leg as she sent the hairs moving.

There was no way the world could be cruel enough to give him a taste of that and then take it away. The way she felt around him, the way he felt inside her….

No, no way the world could possibly be so cruel.

"I said later," she said shaking her Max in typical Max fashion with rolling eyes as she finally settled in next to him.

What? He wondered briefly confused and then realized where her eyes had been directed…downwards at him. He briefly looked down before looking up with a sheepish smile.

Definitely no way the world could be that cruel.

"Go to sleep," he said watching her yawn awhile later. "I think we proved I'm up for a while," he joked.

She gave him a wary look as she looked at the lines connecting them, already flowing between them in an even more intimate act than their last. "Promise you won't unhook them early?"

"I promise," he nodded, "get some more sleep."

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The blood flow eventually stopped by a flick of his thumb. He eased the needle out of her vein as she continued to sleep, a piece of gauze immediately trapping the prickle of blood. A confused moment as he tried to secure the Band-Aid without disturbing the gauze or his patient.

His own went much quicker as he was infinitely grateful she'd been the one to find his vein when he tugged it out a little too hard and had to stifle a yelp before making a face and covering it with a bandage.

He thought about waking her for a moment as he pulled her into his arms trying, but failing to keep her weight off of his arm. Waking her and saying, 'It's later,' but as he looked down upon her restful features, he knew he couldn't do that. There would be time enough for that soon. Max asleep in his arms though…He didn't know when he'd get the opportunity for that again and as she nuzzled into him with a soft sound, he knew he made the right choice.

No the world couldn't possibly be so cruel.