Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel or any of the characters used. Sad but true.

A/N: Okay, I've never written a Dark Angel fic before but I just got this scenario in my head and couldn't get it out, it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to, had to change some things so it made more sense, and… stuff. It's supposed to be exactly 1000 words, because I wanted to try that, I succeeded so thumbs up for that! I also have to tell everyone that English is actually not my Native language, but I don't think there is anything that will be to out there in the language department. So hope you enjoy it and please leave a review at the end. Thank you!

Forever

He shouldn't keep doing this, shouldn't let it happen again and again. Let her happen. Let her do this to him; let him feel this way, let her get away with it.

He looked down at the small sleeping form beside him. He couldn't help the sad smile that appeared on his lips when he thought about their time together. How could he tell her 'No' when all he wanted was her. He should leave now. Before she wakes up and tells him to. He didn't want to hear the words 'What are you still doing here?', not tonight.

She belonged to another man. Sure, it was a man she couldn't touch, but they would find the cure… a small part of him wished for them not to.

It was all a secret, their secret, theirs' as well as the rest of the residence of Terminal City. She was afraid that everyone would find out, she had told him that. She didn't want him to find out. Yet she came back, came back to be with him, just one more time, the last time before she went back to her Not-like-that boyfriend, again. She pretended that everyone couldn't smell him on her, she pretended that she was normal, and normal people couldn't smell the scent of sex on her.

He shouldn't have gone over to her place that night after Mole said she had left in a hurry; he shouldn't have pried the door open when OC refused to let him in. He should have listened and gone back to TC, but something told him not to, that something was the lingering pheromones he could smell in the hallway to the apartment, the voice inside the apartment that said 'Is that Alec?', she had sounded so excited. She had told OC to let him in. He should have turned around and exited the building.

But he didn't, he couldn't. He had never been able to turn Max down.

He looked at her; she looked so peaceful in her sleep, curled up like a cat facing him. He really should leave. It was wrong. She loved Logan. She came to him because she couldn't be with the man she loved. He was only a substitute.

He lay down on his side, facing Max. He always did this; he always wanted what he couldn't have. But you do have her, a voice whispered in his head. A finger traced the outline of her body, from her shoulder down to the curve of her waist to her hips where he stopped. He really should leave.

He let his hand fall onto her waist as he pulled her closer. She didn't wake up, and she didn't snap at him or tell him to leave. She snuggled closer and took a deep breath, breathing in his scent.

Alec closed his eyes and did the same, memorizing it, leather, gas, vanilla… cat… Max.

She stirred and slowly opened her eyes. He prepared himself, he was ready to leave. It was what he had been doing all night, all four months when he had been her little secret. Lying and sneaking around, having their little trysts on the side when she was really going to meet up with Logan for their pasta filled evenings. He should have left hours ago; instead he had just lain there, watching her sleep, mesmerized.

"Alec" she said whispered softly and looked at him with hooded eyes. He closed his eyes and before looking at her again, there she was. Wrapped in the arms of a man she claimed to hate in the light of day, and yet when the darkness fell over the city she was in his arms, letting him do things with her body that made her blush whenever she thought about it, them… together.

"Max" he whispered back, almost daring her to kick him out. He would leave; she just had to say those words. He'd do anything for her, she knew that and it scared her to death. She buried her face in his chest and inhaled his scent. He smelled so good; she didn't want him to leave. She wanted him to stay. She was supposed to love Logan, she was supposed to want to find the cure and have candlelit pasta dinners with red wine. She was supposed to hate Alec's guts, supposed to want nothing to do with him.

She kissed his chest tenderly and looked up into his eyes, those beautiful golden-green eyes of his. They didn't need words, he knew that look in her eyes, almost pleading.

She closed her eyes as he kissed her, drew her closer. It had been fast, hard and sweaty earlier, like it always was. But not now, not after the look she'd given him.

She had thought she went to him to get away from reality, to try to forget everything she'd done, everything that was. She had pretended she didn't notice how everyone turned their head that first time she walked through TC with the smell of him all over her. She just pretended not to.

She had only wanted to forget, she hadn't wanted to realize what she was, what they were. He's your mate, a voice inside her head said. She didn't want to acknowledge that, they weren't animals, they where human. God she wanted so badly to be human. She came to him to forget, but instead she learned. Learned what it meant to be like them.

They made love this time; it was slow and sweet, yet hungry and demanding at the same time. She cried out in pleasure when she felt his teeth sink into her neck, marking her as they came together.

She knew what it meant now.

Afterwards they lay together in her bed, her head resting on his strong chest. His arm slung around her possessively. She reached up to touch the mark around her barcode; Alec's eyes followed her movement. It meant she was his. Forever.