Author: Lindsay
Category: Maria/Michael
Rating: TEEN
Disclaimer: The characters of Roswell belong to The WB, Melinda Metz, and UPN.
Summary: Candy companion piece to Black Magic Woman and Witchy Woman. One shot, Michael and Maria-style. Missing scene from season one, taking place shortly after Leaving Normal.
Devil Woman
I drank the potion she offered me
I found myself on the floor
Then I looked into those big green eyes
And I wondered what I’d come there for
She’s just a devil woman
With evil on her mind
Beware the devil woman
She’s gonna get you
“Oh, hell yeah baby!”
Maria made a face at the lame comment, brushing past a group of leering students from West Roswell High School as she made her way toward the back of the Crashdown Café. Her tail caught on one of the chairs and she spent a few seconds trying to tug it away while not ripping apart her flimsy costume.
Finally she came free, and released an irritated breath while straightening her horns. Pitchfork in hand, she stomped over to the table laden with drinks and party food. Pounding rock music filled the room, and she glared malevolently at the sight of her ex-boyfriend making out with a ditzy cheerleader in a dark corner of the restaurant.
The same ex-boyfriend she had been hoping to interest that night. Hence, the extremely over-the-top skimpy devil costume she’d ordered from one of her mother’s lingerie magazines. As if she’d ever wear something this wedgie-inducing on her own morals.
Discreetly yanking at the back of her one-piece corset, she blew out a frustrated breath and reached over to grab a glass of Coke. Turning toward the table, she froze as she found herself face-to-face with Michael Guerin, Max Evans’ creepy friend and fellow alien visitor.
“What are you doing here?” she bleated over the roar of the music, goggling at him as if he were indeed three-feet tall, green and slimy. The drink was forgotten in her hand as he trailed his gaze mockingly over her costume, finally meeting her eyes with a disgusting smirk.
“I thought you were supposed to come in costume?” he drawled, lifting one thick brow challengingly. “Doesn’t look like much of one to me. And for your information, I was invited.”
With that, he turned and began to walk away. She stared after him for a moment, mouth hanging open and sputtering. Then she was following him through the room, brushing past hordes of dancing teenagers as angry retorts burned on her tongue,
“By who?” she demanded, grabbing his arm as she finally caught up with him. She blinked as he turned smoky eyes on her, momentarily taken aback by their untold depths. Which was ludicrous. There was nothing mysterious or alluring about Michael Guerin…aside from the fact that he was kind of not from the planet Earth. He was easy to categorize: jerk.
“Why are you following me, DeLuca?” he asked in the same bored tone he’d always used on her, laced with annoyance. “Do you see me hanging around you, bugging you to death? Get out of my face.”
“You don’t scare me,” she blustered, straightening her shoulders and coming to her full height as he stared down at her. “Anymore,” she added in a mutter. Damn him for being so tall and yes, intimidating.
Even before she’d known him, she’d thought there was something just slightly…off about him. He was good-looking enough, she supposed, if you liked that brooding and temperamental type of guy who would just as soon snap at you as kiss you. She definitely did not prefer that type of guy. At all.
So what if there was veiled loneliness hidden in his eyes, emotion that he tried so hard to hide, but never quite managed to succeed doing. Briefly she wondered if she was the only one to realize that Michael was possibly the most vulnerable of the three outsiders. He truly had no one, expect Max and Isabel – who shared their own special bond.
Feeling herself soften toward him despite herself, she grumbled with less heat than before, “Fine. Whatever.”
She began to turn around when she heard him give a low growl. His rough palm landed on her arm, and she jerked at the jolt that shot through her at his touch. She snapped her eyes to his and found him working his jaw furiously.
He released her almost as soon as he’d touched her, then sneered, “Look. If you go off all in a tizzy or whatever, then you’ll open your mouth and tell Liz, and she’ll probably tell Max. Then I’ll have to listen to him talk about how I should be nice and treat you guys with respect and all that crap. I’d just as soon avoid that conversation, if you don’t mind.”
Her brows rose during this diatribe, reluctant amusement filling her when he spoke of respect as if it were a four-letter word. While he waited for her to answer, she decided to toy with him…just for fun. Not like there was anything else to do, seeing as how her plans for David had fallen through, and both Liz and Alex were M.I.A.
Letting out a little sigh, she nibbled her bottom lip and looked up at him from beneath her lashes. “I don’t know,” she made sure to sound wounded and wary. “First you insulted my costume, then you told me to get out of your face…I think you’ve really hurt my feelings, Michael.”
He swore, glaring down at her so hotly she wondered if she’d burst into flames. A sudden panic overcame her at the thought. Oh God, did he have the power to make people burst into flames? “Never mind, I’m over it,” she said quickly.
He narrowed his eyes at her rapid retraction. “What the hell’s wrong with you, anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, are you actually enjoying this?” His arms swept the expanse of the room, and Maria took in the Halloween celebration going on around them. Everywhere she looked, people were dressed in their scariest and laughing, dancing to the custom CD of horror movie theme songs and other goodies that Alex had made especially for the occasion.
She couldn’t figure out exactly what he meant, and turned back with a shrug. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?’
He ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand even more on end as a grim expression colored his features. “These people…what the hell is everyone so happy about, anyway? No one here really knows each other, or even cares to. It’s all about putting up this front and trying to be someone you’re not so that everyone will think you’re better than you really are. It’s dumb.”
“Wow,” Maria lifted her brows. “Cynical, much?”
His stormy gaze moved to her and he replied in a low voice, “If that’s what you want to call it. I’d prefer to call it realist.”
“Can’t you just hang loose and enjoy one evening without acting like your dog just died?” she snapped, growing tired of his defeatist attitude when it came to anything not dealing with him. “Just because you couldn’t get a girl to dance with you doesn’t mean you have to—”
“Excuse me?” he broke into a hearty laugh. “You really are a ditz. You think I care about dancing with any of these girls?”
“I think you’re too busy whining to dare to have fun,” she challenged. “Why did you show up tonight, Michael? It’s not like anyone forced you to. God.”
“Maybe I’d rather be here than back at my trailer listening to my foster father get drunk and watch skin flicks,” he snapped, every inch of him ripe with hostility. “Did you ever think of that, DeLuca? Life isn’t this never-ending party like you and the rest of them think. Life sucks.”
“Bravo,” she clapped sarcastically. “You’ve really got that ‘I’m a big, tough alien bad boy’ mojo working, don’t ya?”
He grabbed her and yanked her to the tips of her toes so quickly that she let out a mortifying squeak. “Are you out of your mind, saying something like that?” he hissed, nostrils flaring with fury.
“I-I’m sorry…” she began, gaping in horror at the sparks shooting out of his fingers. “Michael!”
He looked down to where they were connected, eyes widening at the evidence of his loss of control. He practically threw her away from him, shoving his hands in his pockets before anyone happened to look over. “I’m leaving,” he bit off. “You’re right…I have no business being here.”
“God, I didn’t say that,” she growled, following him again as he started across the room and out of the front door. “Slow down, you overbearing—oof!”
He’d stopped for some unknown reason, and she ran right into him. She was immediately assailed with the sense of solid strength. Her arms had come up to grasp around his waist to keep herself from falling over, and she tore them away as if she’d been burned.
He spun around. “Is Max here?”
She blinked at the rapid subject change. “Um…yeah, I think so. Or he was earlier.” He continued to stare at her, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “He came to see Liz,” she added.
He released an oath. “Figures,” he snapped. “Well, that’s why I’m here, Maria. To make sure he doesn’t go falling head over ass and do something stupid, like heal some teenage girl and draw the attention of every cop in the state to us.”
“Something stupid?” she echoed. “Like saving my best friend’s life? Screw you, Michael!”
“You have no idea how dangerous it is for us.”
“Oh…go to hell!” she snapped, ignoring the irony as she stabbed him with her pitchfork and stormed away. She could feel his troubled gaze on her, but refused to give into any of those strange feelings she’d felt toward him earlier. Her first impression of him had been right on the money.
Michael Guerin was a complete and total jerk. And there was nothing in the world that would ever make her reconsider that.
