Hi, everyone!

Here I am again, this time trying to prove myself worthy of the very popular A-Z Challenge. Yes, I'm aware the alphabet does not start at 'S'; so, no, I won't be posting them in order. Skrew the system and all that (?) Oh, and also, no, I still don't have a beta, so I'm so very sorry for the ocassional typos.

Excuse me the fluff if there's any (I believe there is), but my muse is apparently diggin' chick-flicks lately. Oh, well...

Disclaimer: I do not own any character, I just borrowed them for a little while. Promise, I'm not making any money with this. I'm harmless and poor.

Pairing: M/A, of course, as this challenge and the fangirl who lives inside me require.

Rating: T-ish, due to some language. Better to be safe than sorry.

Love to be publishing again! Hope y'all enjoy it and I expect to hear from you guys! See ya soon!

Sunday

"I told you this would happen."

Biggs' voice filtered through the stale air in the apartment all the way to his ears and he refused to retort. Alec's once second in command pushed himself from the wall he was leaning on as if he didn't have a single care in the world, watching Alec come and go while he futilely searched for a fresh tee. Biggs didn't take his long-time friend behaviour to offense, he knew Alec was coping with the subject as best as he could —which in this case would be denial— and being fair, it was a tricky situation. Still, he wasn't going to let by the chance to say 'I told you so' and 494's well known stubbornness could use a little shake up.

"You're so skrewed," he rambled on, smirking slightly to the hazel sharp stare his words caused. "You might as well admit it."

"Shut it," Alec quipped, acknowledging his friend's presence for the first time, taking a grey shirt up to his nose, finally deciding it should get the job done. He heard Biggs chuckle behind him and he could feel the flares of annoyance spreading through his body.

Today was Monday, and Alec really disliked Mondays, but if there was a day of the week which would earn his complete hatred, it would be Sundays. Sunday was the prelude to a work week, which in his case usually carried a lot of problems and situations to solve. Plus, a day of such description planted in the reality of the forever-grim, rainy Seattle was just too depressing for words.

Yesterday had been Sunday, but not a normal one.

Yesterday had been the worst Sunday ever.

"Who died and made you king?" was Biggs quick retort. For a soldier, the dark haired man sure had a total disregard for authority, no matter he was no longer his subordinate, Alec thought. "Oh, right. I did. My bad."

Biggs' words made him turn and look at him again because the last thing Alec needed right now was his almost brother reminding him of his own death. But it was too late. The images of that fateful night reached his consciousness allowing the pain and the loss invade him once more. He would never forget, he couldn't even though he'd tried. Oh, boy, had he tried... It relentlessly invaded his mind, the sight of Biggs' limp body hanging up side down while the enraged crowd cheered and hollered, the scenary framed by the flaming 'X' in the background; and just like that, he was back at that dark alley, watching helpless and from the shadows how the world crumbled to his feet, how his nightmares became true. He faintly remembered Max's hand over his shoulder, if trying to comfort him or hold him back, he never knew; but in the end, her presence had mattered.

"You were no fun back when you were alive and you sure aren't now," Alec snapped, his nerves up to the limit with this whole experience, not to mention, yesterday events. He was miserable enough without the imaginary ghost of his friend, thank you.

"I've always been loads of fun, you just never knew how to appreciate my humor." Alec had to roll his eyes to his friend's assertion, but Biggs pressed on. "'Sides, that's not why I'm here..." He paused for more effect, but seeing it didn't faze Alec, he continued. "Since now I appear to be the voice of your conscience, I have good news and bad news: the good news is that you actually have a conscience, hence my starring role, and the bad is you didn't listen back then, when my very much alive version of me warned you about this. So the question is 'what you gonna do now'?"

"Just shut it, dude-"

Alec was ready to rant his own invented Biggs away when he sensed the presence in the room and turned to the door, finding Max's big, slightly amused doe eyes staring at him in curiosity.

"You alright?" she doubtfully asked, raising an eyebrow. If she didn't know any better, she'd say he was blushing. Feeling particularly nice to him this morning, she decided to pull him from his misery and gave him an out. "C'mon, Mole's waiting for us in HQ."

He just nodded and grabbed his jacket, seeing she was already walking down the hall. He picked up his pace and reached her side, noticing her strange good mood. Don't get him wrong, it was an awesome opportunity to get some rest from the raging bitch she usually was, but then again, she'd blindsided him so many times he knew he should take this ocurrence with a grain of salt.

Especially, after yesterday.

But then she was smiling, though not any smile, instead one he'd only seen a few times. It was a conniving, scheming smile, as if she knew something he didn't and that made her even happier she already was; and though he supposed that should make him even more suspicious of her, it didn't. He could feel his own lips tugging up, leaving no choice for him than to follow her antics.

They reached Command and as soon as they step in, Mole was facing them.

"You think this is funny, don'tcha?"

Alec was forced to do a double take. Whereas a bit of a hot head and usually inclined to reach for his shotgun as a response to stupid questions, Mole'd never been openly hostile towards them. However, Alec realised the scaly man wasn't paying a single bit of attention to him, for the entire focus of his rage was Max. That's when he started to worry because instead of throwing a hissy fit, she remained impassive. Her previous smile was gone, but the mischievous glint of her eyes was still there.

"I want a re-match," Mole blurted, his tone of voice giving to understand he wouldn't take a 'no' for an answer.

Alec frowned. Re-match of what, he couldn't help to ask himself. Suddenly, he had this very disturbing mental picture of Max groping Mole while they sparred on a mat.

He heard Max sigh and somehow knew she was faking her sorrow for Mole. She placed a hand on the enraged transhuman shoulder.

"I really don't think it would be wise, you'd just lose again." She nodded to herself mostly while she patted his shoulder and started to make her way towards her office, leaving behind a very confused Mole as some people snickered in the background. "We'll discuss your new schedule after lunch," she said while throwing a glance to Mole, who was slowly realising she'd just made a fool of him.

Alec's curiosity spiked up and he followed her upstairs, wary of her undiminished good mood, not knowing what to do or what to expect of it. He watched her sit behind her desk and tie her hair into a pony tail. Biggs voice re-appeared in his mind, saying he looked stupid standing there, just staring at her, but he couldn't help it; and then, it occurred to him.

"Okay... The jig is up." She lifted her gaze to meet his and there was a hint of the real Max in her eyes, because he could see she was waiting for him to say something completely moronic. "Sam, why're you here and what did you do with Max?"

She snorted and shook her head in amusement. "I am Max, you idiot," she assured, but seeing his still narrow eyes, she ammended. "Check my barcode if you must, Pretty Boy."

He silently approached her, hearing Biggs' soft laughter in his head and running his thumb over the black lines on the back of her neck —without missing her sharp intake of breath—, he proved his own theory wrong.

"Happy?" she asked sarcastically.

He sat on the edge of her desk. "Not really," he pondered. "What's up with you today?"

Max looked at him, confussion marring her features. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe you can explain why Mole was so keen to give you a tombstone for your next birthday." And perhaps you can tell me why haven't you murdered me yet after yesterday. He saved that thought though, because as much as he needed to know, he didn't want to give her any ideas.

She laughed and the rich, lush sound seemed to fill the room, leaving very little space for them. He suddenly didn't know what to make of her, he felt inadequate, as if he couldn't read the girl, the woman in front of him. If anything, after all that had happened and the always opportune appearance of Logan, he'd expected to meet an evasive Max this morning, not her high-on-sugar twin.

She answered, apparently oblivious to his doubts. "He challenged me, thinking he had a sure win, but he was wrong," she smiled, remembering the moment Mole's face fell as she proclaimed herself victor. Alec watched her intently, paying attention to each gesture she made, still unable to connect the dots. "See, it seems people tends to forget just because I don't do guns, I was actually raised a soldier; so he dared me. He said I couldn't beat him in the fire range and I made him swallow his pride. Now, he has to do the night shifts for a month."

He was taken aback by her words. Desbelief welled up inside him and he wasn't capable to hold it. "You fired a gun? In here? What about the cops stationed outside the fence? Didn't occur to you they might storm their way in if they heard it?"

She held a hand up, interrupting his rant and looked at him as if he was way too dense for his own good. "You heard gunshots?" she asked calmly. When he shook his head, she continued. "That's because we didn't use guns... Thanks for the vote of confidence, Alec."

The way she said his name made him regret his words, but what was he supposed to think? The last twenty four hours had taken him to a new level of weirdness and the twilight zone never seemed to end. The irony in their role reversal wasn't lost on him though; today he was the one tearing her a new one for something she hadn't done. He sighed and apologized. Damn... He was spending too much time with her.

"So, if you didn't use guns, then what?" he inquired.

"Bows and arrows," she said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"How the hell did you get those?" He was sure his puzzlement couldn't grow anymore.

"Joshua made them," Max told him in a cassual voice.

"What?!"

"Oh, man... You're particularly slow today, huh..."

Alec stared at her, his ming going numb by the second, trying to asimilate everything she said. Was this some alternate universe or what?

Max shook her head at his silence and dumbfound expression. "Remember Josh asked if you could find some wood for him?" He simply nodded. "It was for that. I don't really know how or why, but he wanted to try his skills as a bow maker. Maybe if you paid him visits more often, you'd know about it."

Right there. There was the Max he knew, the one who'd chastise him everytime he skrewed up. That small hint of normalcy seemed to bring his foggy mind back on track and he sat on the other side of the desk, trying to find something useful to do, something to keep himself busy, instead of attempting to wrap his mind around all the insanity the world was today.

Nothing else was said during a good couple of hours, until the shrill of her phone interrupted the silence in the office and she grimaced before taking the call.

"Hi, Logan," she said, fidgeting with the pen in her hand.

Well, that's my cue. Alec stood up with haste and left the office without looking back. There was no way he'd stay there, listening to another woe-is-me conversation between the cyber journalist and Max. He'd had enough with yesterday.

Shit. Yesterday.

They'd done this kind of reunions thousands of times before, sometimes in his place, other times in hers; mostly because HQ wasn't a particularly quiet place to linger and it could get really distracting, especially if there were serious subjects to consider. There was always people coming and going, someone irrevocably ended up knocking the door of her office. It was just one interruption after another. So, when the need to discuss the preliminars of repairs for structural damage came up, he'd said his place, that night at seven. She'd taken dinner for both of them and after a quick meal, they'd started to consider options and courses of action. And the thing is, he wasn't really sure how they'd ended up talking about nonsense after a while, but the case was that at certain point he'd felt hyper aware of her body, how her shoulder was constantly grazing his as she couldn't seem to stop laughing. He'd turned to face her then and his hand found the way up to her neck, his fingers burying in the depths of her hair. Her eyes had detoured from his to look at his lips and the next thing he knew, they were kissing; and not just a simple contact, but desperately, passionately kissing. After what well could be hours —but probably had been mere minutes—, the sound of someone knocking the door tore them apart and, oh, what a surprise, it'd been Logan.

Max'd looked at him and then, at the man who was supposedly her boyfriend, and left the apartment without a word.

"What did you expect?" Biggs started while walking right beside him. Alec knew he was imagining his friend, but that fact didn't make it any easier. "I mean, really dude, she's been cured for six months now, a cure you provided... Did you think a kiss would make the world turn around?"

It certainly had turned his world around, Alec thought. Everytime he thought about it, more obsessed with it he became, and seeing her so cool and collected this morning as if nothing had happened, made the whole ordeal nearly unbearable.

He supposed she'd talked to her boyfriend —he grimaced at the title Logan still carried—, maybe that she even had told him about that insignificant kiss, how it'd been a mistake. He could almost see first, the hurt on Logan's bespectacled face and then, the endless forgiveness he always seemed to have for Max. The idea made him sick. If Max would be his, there was no way he'd share her.

"Of course you wouldn't. We're not wired like that." Biggs provided, proving he really was inside his mind.

"It's more than just instinct," Alec muttered. "I couldn't share someone I love."

He winced to his own stupidity, because admitting it would and will only make things worse. There was no escape now, he knew it.

"Finally, dude... I was beginning to think I'd have to harass you for weeks. Now, you have to tell her."

He stopped his tracks and it didn't matter he was in the middle of the —luckily desert— street. "Are you fucking kiddin' me, Biggs? Tell her?!"

Biggs rolled his eyes. "Yeah, 'cause keepin' your mouth shut is always the best choice," he said, sardonically.

"Damn straight it is!"

Biggs seemed dissapointed with his problem management and shook his head. "All this time outside... You really learnt nothin', huh?"

"Spare me the two bucks psicology lesson, I'm not interested," Alec retorted, his demeanor turning somber.

"Look, asshole. I'm dead. I'm thinking that if someone should be brooding, I got dibs. There was this chick I was gettin' to know before everything went to shit and I really liked her, but hey, I died. Can't do squat 'bout that. But you're alive and so is Max, so do me a favour and grow a pair."

With that, he dissapeared, leaving Alec feeling out of place, confused and as if he'd been bitch slapped by his own mind, which was fairly accurate.

Max was a wreck by the time she knocked on his door that evening. The day had been long, like most Mondays presented themselves. She knew her hair was a mess and probably, there were dark circles under her eyes, since last night she hadn't had her two-hours nap. Her need for a shower was dire, but all of that could wait. She needed to talk to him. Max'd meant to do it sooner, but everytime she'd tried to flee from Command someone hollered her name and she retreated to find out what exactly had gone wrong this time.

He opened the door, looking just as disheveled as she was and he let her pass without a word. She closed the door as he returned to his —she asumed— previous position on the far end of the couch. She sat on his wobbly coffee table, thanking when the old thing held her weight. After five minutes of thick silence and appointed avoidance from him, she retieved the remote from his hands, turned the TV off and kept staring at him. She could play this game all he wanted, she wasn't giving up this time. He finally looked at her and his hazel eyes seemed dull, listless. She frowned to his idle behaviour, because he wasn't like this, never. He was always doing, saying, gesturing, teasing, annoying her to death; and yeah, it worried her seeing her best friend so off from his normal self.

"How's Logan?" he asked in a hoarse voice while lowering his gaze.

She didn't really understand the point of the question, but she answered nonetheless. "He's fine. Better than I expected, considering..."

Alec felt a jolt of jealousy course through him and got up, suddenly needing to put space between their bodies. "I bet," he muttered angrily. "What did boyfriend extraordinaire had to say about last night's events?" He hadn't tried to sound mean, but it came out like that anyway.

Max frowned again, feeling they were having completely different conversations. "I don't-"

His bitter laugh cut her words short and he stared at her again, waiting for something; what, she didn't know. He soon scoffed, more to himself she suspected, and dissapeared into his bedroom.

Max followed him and stood at the door, watching him pace the place non stop. "You know, I just don't get you sometimes," she blurted. He was making her nervous because she didn't understand what could possibly be wrong for him to treat her like this.

"Ditto, sister," he said, raking his hands through his hair. She had guts to come here and play innocent, he had to give her that.

"I'm not your sister," she announced, pointing her index finger to his chest, her unyielding nature reaching the surface.

"Well, you're right about that," and with two strides towards the door, he stood in front of her and proceeded to meld his lips with hers.

Max quickly forgot about the strangeness of their agument and chose to focus in the amazing sensations he was provoking in her. His tongue grazed her lips and she gladly obliged, opening herself to him. Her hands found his hair and she remembered how many times she'd wanted to do that, just run her fingers through the dark blonde locks, finding it actually was better than she'd imagined. She moaned in his mouth as he crushed her body to his. It was, by far, the most intoxicating kiss she'd ever shared with anyone and she revelled on how his touch seemed to electrify every part of her skin.

But then, he pushed himself from her embrace, panting hard, just as she was. He covered his face with his hands for a moment to after look at her seriously.

"I can't do this," he confessed and he seemed pained by it. "I won't, not while you're with him."

If Max thought she'd been confused before, this certainly overweighed her previous statement. Bewildered, she stared at him trying to make sense of what he was saying. An idea came to mind and she spoke. "Who? Logan?" His eyes gave her the answer, because she saw the flicker of hurt pass through them. She then smiled, but before he could misread her reaction, she made herself clear. "Logan and I broke up two weeks ago."

Max thought she'd never seen anything so beautiful as the perplexity in his features became certainties and his hazel irises brightened with an intensity she hadn't witnessed before.

Alec came closer and closer, his smile morphing to a grin which had her breathing harder in seconds.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, burying his nose in the crook of her neck and she gasped, turning her head to the side for him.

"You were sulking about something, you didn't want to say what, and I figured it wasn't polite as a friend to burden you with that on top of your issues." Alec was spraying soft kisses up her neck, marking a tortuous path and she fought to mantain her focus. "'Sides, after last night, I thought you knew. It hasn't been a secret exactly..."

He lifted his head and lock his gaze on hers. "So everyone knew?" She shrugged and nodded after a moment of consideration. Those bastards, he thought. They had kept this information from him on purpose and he somehow suspected Mole was behind it. Payback was on the menu for the transhuman, but first, he had other concerns. "What about last night?"

Max quickly realised he wanted to know why was Logan searching for her on a Sunday night if they weren't together. She placed a hand on his cheek and looked him in the eyes, intending to clarify this once and for all. "I'm not gonna say it was easy for Logan and I to reach the decision, it took us a while, but it's final. We weren't working despite we love each other." He grimaced and she saw his gaze diverting to anywhere but her, so she took her other hand to his face. "I still love him and I'll always care for him, but I'm not in love with him anymore... I'd promised him I'd help with a gig for Asha and I completely forgot 'cause someone has kept me distracted." She smiled again as the words sank in and his eyes softened.

"An interesting someone, I hope," he said with a loopsided grin.

"Oh, you've no idea," she whispered and kissed him again.

And then, it occured to Alec as he was drifting into slumber with Max pressing on his side that Sundays weren't so bad after all.

More soon!