Linger (M/L,MATURE) COMPLETE

[azure_horizon]

Title: Linger
Story Summary: Max and Liz are best friends – have been for a long time. Anyone who didn’t know them would be blinded by the chemistry between them. The only thing is – Max is gay and Liz, well, she’s not a guy.
Characters: Team Roswell, Serena Jack, John Beckett and Soren Alridge.
Pairings: Liz/Soren, Max/John, Michael/Maria, Liz-Max
Rating: Mature
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Roswell; they belong to Jason Katims etc. No infringement intended.

Notes: This was inspired by emz80m’s story, Straighten You Out.

Part One

Chapter Summary: Liz smiled; it was displays like that that kept the other guys – and girls – at bay.

The pounding beat reverberated through her chest. The flashing lights danced in and out of focus as she swayed her head from side to side. His body against hers was hard and solid; his hands on her hips and waist were firm and commanding. God, she was so warm; sweat trickled down her back and pooled at the waistband of her jeans and soaked through the material of her vest stop. When she looked up, his eyes were closed as he moved to the same rhythmic beat of the music that she was, his lips curved up in a slight smile. She laughed at his expression lightly as strands of his loner than normal hair stuck to his sweaty forehead but she didn’t move to push them aside.

She turned and pressed her back into his chest, his hands coming to rest automatically on her hips again, guiding her unnecessarily to the beat. She could feel his breath on her neck but she danced on, swinging from side to side, moving her hands around her body as his hands stroked over her skin. She felt him slide her hair across her back, twisting up into a roll atop her head and she was thankful for the momentary coolness on her neck as he danced around to her front.

They grinned at one another, laughing but didn’t stop as the song switched and the bass vibrated up her legs. Their quiet drink in the local bar had turned into a full scale clubbing night and her protests of being under dressed went unheard as Max, Michael, John, Soren, Maria, Serena and a few others herded her through the doors. She didn’t even have any make up on, she’d complained, to which Max had lightly tapped her nose and spun her towards the dance floor.

Almost an hour later, they were still there, not-quite grinding to the pumping mixture of music that floated over their heads.

“I need another drink,” Max roared into her ear as he shook his empty plastic cup in her face before twisting down to his haunches before sashaying up her body, grinning as he deposited the cup on the floor as he did so. She nodded and grabbed onto his waistband as they made their way through the crowd towards the even more crowded bar. “You’re not short of a few admirers,” he murmured in her ear as he tugged her around to the front of his body and used her to part the crowd in front of him.

As she looked around, she noted a few staring at her, their gazes lingering curiously on Max’s hands on her hips. She laughed lightly and twisted slightly in Max’s grip to smile lightly up at him.

“Neither are you,” she said coyly as she indicated with her head a group at the other end of the bar watching him, their gazes anything but subtle. She could feel his laugh vibrate in his chest and she rolled her eyes. “Michael and Maria are over there,” she said though she knew he couldn’t hear her so she pointed instead and he guided her through the crowd again towards them, protecting her with his body.

When they reached their friends’ side, Max pushed Liz playfully away from him trying to duck in front of her at the bar but she only rolled her eyes and flashed Maria a smile as she shook her own half empty glass at her. Liz nodded but indicated Max; he would get her drink – he always did. She could feel eyes on her again but she didn’t bother looking around. Instead she frowned in Maria’s direction and held her hands palm up and Maria pointed somewhere behind her, indicating where their friends were sitting.

When Max and Michael turned, three drinks cradled in each of their hands, Liz and Maria strode away from them, parting the crowds while the two followed quickly behind. At the overcrowded table, Liz turned to Max and took her drink from him and slid into the booth beside Soren as Max slid in next to her, clinking a shot glass together with Michael.

“You’re lucky I know you’re gay, Evans,” Soren said beside Liz and she couldn’t hold the smile back as Max turned to him and lifted his eyebrow playfully questioning.

“And why’s that?”

Soren tucked his arm around Liz and playfully pulled her into his side and Liz laughed.

“You’re a good dancer,” Soren replied instead, lifting his eyebrow and Liz bit her lip, laughing as Max simply shrugged before turning back to John who’d slid into the other side of the booth. Liz turned back to Soren and slid her hand onto his leg, high up his thigh and she smiled slightly when his eyes slid shut and his breath billowed out across her neck.

“Did watching Max and I turn you on?” She asked lightly, almost disinterestedly but when Soren opened his eyes, he could see the mischief lingering in the darkness.

He lowered his lips to her ear and nibbled her lobe causing Liz to moan lightly in the back of her throat.

“Watching one of you certainly did,” he replied as her hand ghosted over the hardness in his jeans. She smirked as she sipped her drink, looking over at Serena who was watching them with an amused smile playing on her lips.

“Should John be worried?” She asked glibly as she turned her head slightly to look up at Soren, his blue eyes meeting hers.

“John should only be worried if it turns out Max is bi.”

Liz laughed and through her head back, drawing questioning looks from the others around the table but she ignored their reaction, instead, turning back to Soren with a questioning smile on her face.

“And why’s that?”

“Cause I’d cut his dick off for the way he was touching you,” he replied deadpan.

She laughed again, though lower as his eyes darkened as he watched her.

“And that should worry John, how?”

But she already knew the answer – she enjoyed teasing him. In fact, it had been the reason she had chosen to dance with Max the way she had been. Granted, she would have, even if Soren hadn’t been there but both Max and Liz knew that their dancing turned on their respective partners. It was all fun and the fact that Liz was a girl made it all ‘okay’ in the eyes of the others.

“Cause then he wouldn’t be getting any.”

Liz pouted playfully over at John, pretending to be upset for him but the other man only frowned at her before rolling his eyes amused. She peaked the edge of her tongue over her lip at him and he lifted his eyebrow at her, his smirk widening suggestively. She could feel Soren’s arm tighten around her and she laughed again, tucking herself closer into his embrace.

She enjoyed making him predatory; they both knew her flirting was just fun, those she did flirt with all gay. Soren tugged her into his lap on let his lips fall onto hers, the kiss not far from unkind and almost drew blood.

She moaned.

When she slid back into her seat, she turned to Max when she noted John reach out to tap him on the back of the hand. When she did, she met Max’s bemused expression and she narrowed her eyes at him and playfully swatted him on the arm, causing him to laugh and turn away, muttering from the corner of his lip,

“You’ll get us thrown out with displays like that.”

She scoffed good naturedly and shoved him hard.

“I saw you two last time we were here; I’m surprised that didn’t get you two put in jail!”

Max had the decency to blush lightly while John simply smiled smugly, closing his hand discretely over Max’s.

“Come on, Liz,” Maria and Serena said as they shuffled out of the booth, reaching their hands out to her. She looked up at them questioningly. “Let’s get some of these fine ladies hot under the collar.”

Liz laughed as she stood and shuffled past Max, squaking loudly as he nipped the skin at the base of her spine with his teeth. She swatted his head and jumped from the booth before he could respond.

“Just don’t get these girls too worked up,” Michael called out to Maria as they retreated. “Wouldn’t want to have to save you like we did last time!”

Maria turned quickly and narrowed her eyes.

“Well if you guys took a leaf from Max’s book and weren’t afraid to dance in a gay bar, we wouldn’t need to dance with girls, in front of girls, for girls.”

Maria cocked her head and Michael copied her gesture, smirking up at her.

“But I like watching you dance with the girls, for the girls.”

Maria narrowed her eyes even as Liz and Serena dragged her out onto the dance floor, laughing.

It wasn’t long before Max and John joined them, grinding against each other as much as they did the girls and Liz laughed as Max spun her and dipped her back over his bent knee and nipped at her ear playfully as he tugged her back up.

Liz smiled; it was displays like that that kept the other guys – and girls – at bay.

[azure_horizon]

Notes: Thanks for the feedback folks. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

Part Two.

The sound of his voice, though usually not unwelcome, caused her to groan. She could hear him chuckle and she reached her hand out into the cool morning air and batted him away, tucking herself further into the soft pillow beneath her.

Usually Liz was a morning person but the night before she had thought it would be a good idea to sit up all night and have crazy phone sex with Soren while he visited his parents in Stockholm. Not only was she exhausted but her body ached in ways it hadn’t done in years.

“If you hadn’t stayed up all night panting into your phone about how good your hands felt on you, you wouldn’t be contemplating not going into work.” She swatted at him again before pausing, hand mid air, at his words. She pushed herself up onto her knees and the duvet slid around her body and glanced back at him over her shoulder. He wiggled his eyebrows and she rolled her eyes before stretching her arms to the headboard and arching her back slightly. She heard Max’s chuckle and she paused again, glancing back at him. “I’m sure this is how Soren imagined having you last night,” he said cheekily and she simply wiggled her butt in the air. She felt his hand connect with the soft flesh of her butt and she yelped, twisting onto her back to hit out at him. He was already gone.

She tugged a long tee shirt over her head to cover her bare chest before she padded out into the hallway, turning her head left and right wondering whether to head to the bathroom to freshen up or to head to the kitchen where the gentle aroma of morning coffee was wafting towards her.

In the kitchen, Max was leaning against her worktop, his own cup of coffee cradled between his two hands. He eyed her attire and shook his head slightly, moving past him to the coffee machine, using her petite frame to shuffle him out of the way.

“Working today?” She asked as she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, noting his casual wear.

He shook his head and Liz nodded, lowering her eyes. Max had graduated college with a degree in leisure and sports and had gone into teaching but spaces for his expertise were short and he had been working as a temp for the last year and a half. Usually, he always had work but it seemed that in the last few months he’d had to move to cities and towns hundreds of miles away just to get a job for one day.

“Are you?”

Liz shrugged and looked to the clock on the wall. Her deadline for the next chapter of her book wasn’t for another two weeks and she was already ahead of schedule. The labs didn’t need her much other than to sign off on a few of the experiments the graduate students wanted to carry out.

“I was planning on writing the rest of the chapter, hand it in early.” He pursed his lips and nodded at her over the top of his cup. She could read the sparkle in his eye and she narrowed her own in return. “Why?” He shrugged nonchalantly and took another sip of his coffee. She looked into the living room through the kitchen door and noted the sheet on the couch. “Did you sleep here last night?” She asked quickly and turned her head back to him as he nodded sheepishly. “How did you get in? I didn’t hear you.”

He smirked as he lowered his cup and Liz felt a blush rise up her cheeks.

“You were busy.”

She scrunched up her face as she looked at the ruffled cushions on her sofa and she narrowed her eyes at him as she pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the worktop.

“You know I don’t like you sleeping on the couch.”

He laughed as he moved towards her, sliding between her legs and placing his palms on either side of her hips.

“I was not being party to your late night rendezvous,” he muttered as his eyes glittered mischievously.

“Did John kick you out?” She asked lightly as she lifted her cup to her mouth again and sipped the brown liquid.

Max laughed and shook his head, stepping away from her to reach for his own cup before coming to rest between her legs again, dropping his head onto her shoulder.

“Nah,” he murmured quietly and she glanced down at him with a furrow in her brow at the tone of his voice. “I never made it there. I...” He took a sudden step back and Liz frowned at him as he turned his back to her, spilling some of his coffee as he banged the cup down onto the small breakfast bar. “There was this guy...”

Liz closed her eyes and sighed, shaking her head as she felt the familiar wave of disappointment at his actions.

“Max, you didn’t...?”

“No!” He said vehemently as he spun back around to look at her, the fire in his eyes startling her for a moment but she covered it quickly. She had known Max almost all of her life and the fact that he had come to her instead of going home to his boyfriend because of some guy was a big deal. She pressed her lips together and let him continue. “I... I wanted to.”

Liz sighed and reached out to him, pulling him into the space he had vacated, tilting his head up so his eyes met hers. To Liz, seeing Max like this, while certainly not uncommon in the first few months of his sexual exploration, hadn’t happened in a long while. He was comfortable with his sexuality and from what she knew, he loved John. They’d been together for almost three years and Liz remembered the first time John had been introduced to them at her twenty first birthday party. That was, quite possibly, the last time she had seen this side of Max. Since then, he’d been comfortable in his skin, in his sexuality, in his life.

“Did you?”

He shook his head and dropped his head against her shoulder again, grinding out a long sigh.

“But fuck, Liz...” He took a breath and pulled himself away from her again and leaned his back against the kitchen bar. “He just looked at me and I was hard.”

She quirked the corner of her lip up in a half smirk. At first, it had been weird to hear Max talk like that but she’d sucked it up and gotten used to it.

“Well, as long as you didn’t do anything...”

He squinted up at her and she closed her eyes, shaking her head slightly. Max had had a number of... altercations with other men; nothing that he construed as cheating but enough to make him feel as guilty as hell. Liz got it and she didn’t; if Soren told her he had done some of the things Max had done (with a girl), she would not be happy. But at the same time, she also understood the way Max worked.

“What did you do?” She sighed and plopped her feet onto the ground, moving to wash her now empty cup of coffee.

He shrugged and moved around her, taking the cup from her hands and turned it upside down on the drainer. She frowned up at him at that but he simply shrugged.

“The guy has a hot mouth, Liz,” he murmured into her ear and she paused before turning to look up at him, her hands finding their way to her hips. “Go get a shower, buttercup,” he said breezily as he flicked the end of her nose with his tongue and made his way into the living room. She was about to move when his head popped back across the threshold and he looked almost sheepish. “You may want to wash those sheets I used last night.”

She closed her eyes and sighed, counting back from five. He was her best friend; she couldn’t kill him.

But if he used her sheets to beat off to again, she just might.

--

Later that night, after Max had dragged Liz to the mall to buy the new silver brogues he’d seen the day before, Liz typed away at her laptop lazily, her mind and eyes wandering to the phone lying lifelessly on the bedside table. All she had to do was pick it up and dial his number, forget about the overseas charges, and let her hands roam over her body where he wanted her to put them. She ached for his touch so much that she actually squirmed at the thought of his voice, and drew her legs together.

This was not good.

The sounds of the television got louder as the door to her bedroom opened a crack and Max’s tousled head appeared in the tiny gap.

“Still writing?” He asked quietly as though his noise level would encourage or discourage her flow.

She looked over to him and smiled tiredly, flapping her hands idly at the screen.

“Not really.”

“Need some inspiration?” He asked as he slid through the crack and wandered slowly to her bed, sliding up beside her when he got there.

She looked down at him as he leant on his hand, his head level with her hips.

“And how are you going to inspire me, Evans?”

He laughed lowly, his breath washing over her hip and Liz felt the ache inside her intensify. God, she really needed Soren. Max’s breath was turning her on; it was ridiculous. He’d only been gone for four days; she still had another ten to go.

“I didn’t mean me,” he said as his hand reached out and tapped a few buttons on her laptop. He stilled when she glared playfully down at him and sheepishly withdrew his finger. She felt it on the only sliver of exposed flesh on her body and she sighed slightly, berating her body for needing someone so much. “I meant Soren.”

Liz laughed.

“I think you ruined the mood when you came in.”

He glanced up at her and she could see the surprise in his eyes, in the way his eyebrows disappeared into his shaggy bangs.

“You were going to call him?” he asked as he sat up slightly, getting ready to move but Liz put her hand on his shoulder and pushed him down.

“I was going to but I don’t want to.”

“Why not?” He queried as he settled back down beside her, reaching out to touch the buttons on her laptop but she batted his hand away with a laugh.

She shrugged in answer to his question and pressed a few buttons, powering down the laptop.

“He’s visiting his family,” she said as she settled down into the pillows, watching as the light from passing cars flittered across the ceiling. She shrugged again. “I don’t want to appear clingy.”

Max laughed and reached out to trace the silver smiley face of her pyjama top and she laughed at the tickling sensation of his finger.

“Makes a change,” he said lowly and Liz put her hand on his wrist, stopping his movements.

“What do you mean?”

He looked up at her, startled for a moment before he shook his head, laying his hand flat against her abdomen.

“Nothing.”

“You obviously meant something.”

He squinted up at her but Liz did not relent. He looked down to his hand over her body and hesitated. She felt his fingers twitch slightly and he looked back up to her.

“What do you think Soren would think if the next time you had phone sex, it was me touching you instead of you?”

Liz frowned at the question but didn’t move. She’d gotten used to the tangents of Max’s mind but this was a new one. His fingers began to move on her stomach again and she felt the muscles tense in preparation for the tickling sensation that never came. Instead, she felt Max’s fingers brush the underside of her breast before they both froze.

“I think,” Liz said as she covered Max’s hand with hers and slid it a little further up before removing it and tucking it around her waist, “neither of us would appreciate that.”

Max groaned and rolled onto his back, throwing an arm over his face.

“I’m just horny,” he said and Liz let out an airy laugh.

“And you solve that by trying to grope me?” She tried for indignant but even she could hear the humour in her voice. Max peered at her from under his elbow and studied her for a moment before he groaned and buried his head in her shoulder.

“I’m horny.”

Liz laughed again and ruffled the back of his hair as he threw an arm over her waist again.

“Have you called John?” He groaned again and shook his head. “Do you mind if I do?” She asked with a cheeky grin and Max propped himself up on his forearms to look down at her, his expression a mixture between amusement and confusion. “I’m horny too and he’s...” John Beckett was another one of the population that the women had lost out on. His six foot two inch frame towered over Liz and his hazel eyes were warm enough to melt the polar ice caps. His dark hair was untameable, marred by five or six cows’ licks that he somehow managed to pull off.

When she’d first met him, she’d seriously considered asking if he was bi.

“As beautiful as you are, Liz, you’ve got boobs.”

“He doesn’t go for that?”

Max shook his head in mock sympathy, his lips disappearing between his teeth.

“Nope.”

“What does he think of yours?” She said lightly as she flicked his nipple through his shirt.

“That was low, Parker, even for you,” he said through a grin but Liz simply smiled down at him. “I called Michael,” he said instead as he settled back down against her, after sliding her laptop to the floor. “I told him I was going to crash here for a couple of days.”

Liz turned to him and met his sleepy eyes.

“You did, did you?” He nodded and Liz couldn’t help but smile. “You better wash your sheets then.”

He popped one eye open and watched her for a moment before he buried his head further into the pillow.

“You don’t like me sleeping on the couch.” She sighed in faux resignation as she settled into his loose embrace, still lying on her back. “Good night, Liz,” he said as he pressed his lips lightly on her shoulder.

“You should call him, Max,” she said quietly, some minutes later.

She could feel his smile against her shoulder.

“You should call Soren,” he murmured as his hand ghosted over her breast and she felt her nipple harden beneath her top. She sighed and closed her eyes, and turned her back into Max’s chest and nestled her butt in his crotch. “That’s low, Liz. Really low.”

“You should turn the television off,” she said tiredly as the sound of the lounge television met her ears.

“The timer will get it,” he murmured into her hair and Liz sighed again, feeling sleep tug at her subconscious.

“I don’t have a timer, Max.”

She felt him shrug.

“Then we’ll get it in the morning.” She nodded and began to drift off. Max’s arm tightened around her waist and she settled further back into him. “What would Soren think of us lying here like this?”

She rolled her eyes good naturedly and wiggled her butt against his crotch, eliciting another growl from him.

“He wouldn’t think anything, do you know why?”

“Why?” he asked, even though he knew the answer. Liz smiled.

“Because you’re gay, Max.”

“Oh,” he murmured and Liz laughed. “I’m horny.”

Liz laughed again and shifted, drawing another groan from him.

“Me too, Max. Me too.”

[azure_horizon]

Part Three
Chapter Summary: She wished she could have said something - anything - other than that.

From the bed, he could hear them talking and as he was pulled further from sleep, he groaned. He’d heard the doorbell and had all but shoved Liz from the bed so she could answer it and had ducked his head back under the covers in hopes that sleep would return. Which it had.

For all of thirty seconds.

Screwing his eyes shut against the bright sunlight that scorched in the window, he groaned again and sat up, letting the sheets fall from his body. He knew it was only a matter of time before he came around but he still wasn’t quite sure what he was going to say. John didn’t understand that sometimes, Max just needed his space; but he couldn’t tell John this because the first (and only) time he ever had, John had stropped off and hadn’t spoken to him for weeks.

He sighed and dropped his feet to the floor, shivering slightly at the dip in temperature and he felt the skin on his legs goose pimple. When he’d awoken earlier in the morning, it had still been dark out and the evidence of how horny he was had been poking into Liz’s back; thankfully, she hadn’t awoken and Max had sat for ten minutes trying to tell himself to calm down. This time, the chill quickly took care of what Max had only half managed to do earlier.

“...not getting in the middle of whatever is going on with you two.”

Max froze as he walked down the hall, his eyes closing as Liz’s words reached his ears. Great, he thought, just what he needed; John was difficult and closed off at the best of times, never mind when he’d had the opportunity to go on the defensive.

When he rounded the corner, he could see John’s eyes shift from Liz and Max was momentarily startled by the coldness in his usually warm hazel eyes; it’s a look Max has seen, though only once and the thought that he put it there sent a jar through his chest.

He loves John, he really does.

But sometimes it was difficult to remember that they’re together.

“Max.” His voice was flat and Max winced but he kept his eyes on John even as Liz whirled around and stared at him open mouthed. He smiled tightly back at her and his eyes slid to her for a moment, taking in her rumpled form. “So you are here,” he said and turned his eyes to Liz, the tone in his voice condemning.

Liz simply sighed and walked away, pausing for a second to touch Max’s arm. He watched her leave – anything so he didn’t need to turn and face the conversation with John.

“What are you doing here, John?” Max asked as he turned back to his lover, his tone resigned. It was far too early and he was in no mood to fight.

John, for his part, looked as weary and as tired as Max felt and as he took a seat next to him on the sofa, he felt the first pangs of regret; he hated his need to be alone. He hated the way that John could make his emotions flip from one extreme to the other.

“What are you doing here, Max?” John replied, the usual bite in his tone missing. Max winced at that. “This isn’t your home.”

Max closed his eyes and leaned back on the sofa, avoiding the gaze of his lover. He knew that tone. He’d invented that tone. Back in the day when he was the jealous type, he’d used that tone a lot.

“I just needed somewhere to crash.”

“You can ‘crash’ at ours, Max. That’s what it’s there for.”

Max leant forward and turned his head to meet John’s eyes.

“That’s not what I meant.”

John sighed and fell back against the back of the sofa, his fingers digging into his eyes. Max felt bad, he really did.

“I know,” John said as he sighed. His eyes flickered around the room and Max could see his mind doing inventory of what he was seeing and, ridiculously, he held his breath. “You don’t sleep on the couch when you stay here?” Max shook his head and glanced away. “Even when Soren stays over?”

Max could hear the cheeky grin in John’s voice and he turned to him with a tight smile, knowing that the joviality was forced.

“I’m never here when Soren stays over.”

And it was true; he never was. The thought of hearing Liz and Soren going at it was enough to put him off sex for life never mind hearing it. Liz had been with Soren for almost as long as Max had been with John and in those first few months of Liz and Soren’s relationship Max had felt the tingling of his very own green eyed monster. Sure, Soren was devastatingly pretty – but that wasn’t what he had been jealous of. He’d been jealous that Soren could share Liz’s bed, Liz’s time, Liz’s laugh. Max couldn’t remember a time when he spent as little time in Liz’s company as in those first few months of Soren and Liz’s relationship.

It had sucked.

“God,” John said as he dragged his hand over his face, tugging his tanned skin along with his fingers. It showed Max just how tired his lover was and it was unnerving. He made to reach out to cover John’s hand with his own but John pulled back, almost subconsciously, and fisted his hands at his sides. “No wonder Soren is the way he is,” he murmured and let out an airy laugh and Max could visibly see his muscles relax as his own tightened.

“What the hell does that mean?” Max half yelled as he stood up from his perch, his blood pumping adrenaline through his veins.

John sighed and dug his fingers into his eyes again but Max was not soothed. His blood was boiling and he could feel the irrepressible urge to hit something rise within him. He took a deep breath, and another, closing his eyes as he did so.

“I didn’t come here to fight, Max,” John said quietly, apologetically and Max turned to him, dropping his shoulders from their tense spot around their ears. “I didn’t even come here to find you,” he continued and Max frowned. “I came to see if Liz wanted to go for breakfast before I did her hair.”

Max’s frown deepened and he retook his seat, dropping his head into his hands. He was tired; more tired than he remembered being in years.

“So how did...”

John quirked a half smile in Max’s direction and max felt the familiar tingling of attraction; it had been a long time since he’d felt those towards John.

“Before I could get a word out she proclaimed that you weren’t here.” Max frowned at that, wondering why she had lied. “She’s your best friend, Max,” John continued and Max looked to him, “she’s just trying to protect you.” Max frowned again and looked away, his breath coming in heavy sighs. He hated this; he hated these conflicting emotions. He jerked when he felt something on his skin and when he looked down, he saw John’s strong fingers weaving their way through his. He gave a gentle squeeze before withdrawing his hand, rubbing it through his tousled hair. He heard John sigh and he closed his eyes. “You don’t need protection from me, Max.”

Max licked his lips as he nodded but couldn’t bring himself to look at his lover – not yet.

“I know.”

Silence descended upon them, uncomfortable and thick and as Max shifted on the chair, John tried to reach out again. Max let him touch him, tried to tell himself not to pull away from the familiar touch.

“Whatever it is you’re going through,” John said quietly, desperately, and Max sucked in a breath, “I hope you get out of it soon.” He paused for a moment and Max let out his breath. “I miss you.”

Max laughed half heartedly at that and turned into John’s quick embrace.

“I’ve only been gone a day and a half.”

John touched his cheek and smiled forlornly, his expression unreadable.

“You know what I mean.” The annoying thing was that he did know what he meant. And he hated it. “Go get your girl,” John quipped after long minutes of strenuous silence and Max stood, nodding. He was halfway out the door when John called to him again. “Will you be home tonight?”

Max looked down to his toes and shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

John simply nodded his head.

--

”Max, hey!” Liz said as she turned from her computer monitor, noting that her best friend was hovering outside the window to her bedroom. Standing, she motioned him in and moved around the room to try and clear some of the mess. “What are you doing here?”

The question sounded harsher than she meant but considering she hadn’t seen or heard from him in the two weeks since he’d walked in on her changing, he couldn’t exactly expect anything else.

“I...” He said but trailed off, his hand rising to tug at his ear in a move so endearingly familiar to Liz that she felt her anger dissipate quickly. At eighteen years old, Max Evans had lost his boyish features and embraced manhood but while most of the other girls in their senior class threw themselves at him, Liz could still only see the boy she’d beat up in the sand pit of their kindergarten class. “I have to tell you something, Liz,” he said eventually as he moved around her room, fingering different objects, lingering in front of photos to laugh and shake his head.

She stepped in front of him when he continued his wanderings, arching her brow. She put a hand on his chest and pushed him back until he sat on the edge of her bed, his fingers entwined tightly between his knees. As she took a seat next to him, she reached out to brush the hair from his face; two months ago, Max had decided to ditch his short hair for a loner style as well as his loose fitted button downs and replaced them with fitted tees that hugged his body perfectly; it was a look that worked well for him, she noted as she took in his black Nirvana tee and his dark fitted jeans.

“What is it, Max?” She asked, concern lacing her voice as she reached between his legs for his hands to try and pry them apart. “What’s wrong?”

He laughed lightly, incredulously and ran a hand through his hair, causing it to stick out in places; she smiled at that.

“I can’t...” He took another breath to steady himself but Liz didn’t turn to him, didn’t try to pressure him. This was Max, he would tell her when he was ready. She waited for nearly five minutes, her fingers stroking over his palm in an effort to calm him down before he turned to her fully, taking both her hands in his, staring at her nose. “I’m gay.”

Liz hesitated for only a second before she smiled and let out an airy laugh, tugging her hands away from his.

“Yeah, right, Max,” she said as she rolled her eyes and turned away from him. “If you didn’t want to tell me you could have just –“

“No, Liz,” he interrupted her and held onto her shoulders, turning her to him. “I mean it.” He gulped and she could see his Adam’s apple rise and fall, the fear in his face, the uncertainty in his eyes.

“You’re serious?” She asked quietly, her voice dropping so low she was sure he wouldn’t have heard her. He nodded and her lips involuntarily formed an ‘O’ and she tried a few times for breath.

“Liz?” He said when the moment stretched on too long and she could see the pain flash across his face at the thought of her rejection, could feel his fingers loosening their hold on her and she fought against her disbelief to reach out to him, to reassure him but the words wouldn’t come.

Instead, she reached out with her arms and drew his shaking body to hers, enveloping him as much as she could into her arms.

“Are you sure?”

She instantly berated herself for the ridiculous question; of all the things she could have said, she chose that. Way to go Liz.

Instead of the annoyance she had feared, he simply laughed lightly into her neck and nodded, his arms around her tightening.

“Yep.”

She pulled back slightly and eyed him, pursing her lips as she perused his form.

“How do you know?” She asked and she cursed her scientific mind for overriding her heart’s desire to ask something – anything – other than that.

His smile reassured her that her question was welcome and she felt herself relax in his embrace slightly.

“I made out with a guy at a party.” He shrugged nonchalantly and Liz scrunched up her nose in mock distaste even as her fingers rubbed soothing circles in his bicep. “I liked it.” He shrugged again. “I also made out with a girl and I didn’t like it; haven’t for a very long time.” Liz sighed dramatically and flopped onto her bed, her hair fanning out around her as she did so. He laughed as he crawled up beside her, lying on his front as he looked down at her. “What is it?”

She turned to him and looked up at his face, noting the first signs of happiness she’d been missing for some time. She reached out with her hand and stroked his cheek, pursing her lips as she inspected his face, her thumb finding its way across his lips and she was sure she heard his faint gasp but brushed it aside.

“It’s such a shame,” she said eventually, candidly, as she withdrew her hand and closed her eyes before she could see his confused smile. “You were turning into quite the handsome young man.”

He laughed at that and the bed moved as he let his head fall beside hers and she wiggled closer to him as he slid his arm around her waist.

“You’re just going to have to come up with another way to fulfil your fantasies, Lizzie,” he said humorously as his fingers skimmed over her sides, eliciting a shriek of giggles from her. “Gay men don’t marry their best friends.”

Liz turned to him with her eyebrow raised and an indignant look on her face.

“And who said I wanted to marry you?” She asked lightly, pushing at his shoulder as he smirked down at her.

“Who wouldn’t?” She rolled her eyes and slid out from underneath him, pulling her tee shirt over her head as she went. “What are you doing?” She heard him ask and she turned back to him with an innocent smile pasted over her lips.

She shrugged as she unclipped her bra and tossed it onto the table beside the door.

“Going for a shower,” she said innocently as she flashed him a bit of skin. She could see his dumb struck expression and she laughed at it. “You’re gay, Max.” She shrugged and he conceded with a nod as she slid in behind her bathroom door. “Besides,” she said as she popped her head back around the door jamb, a crooked smile across her lips, “you’ve seen me naked before.”

As she shut the door behind her, she laughed as he yelled,

“Yeah, well I wasn’t gay then!”

Before she stepped under the shower, she could have sworn she heard him curse before the water drowned out any other sounds.

[azure_horizon]

Part Four
"I like to play the alpha male from time to time."

Liz wanted to kill Max. She really did. She really would have no qualms about stringing him up from the rafters and leaving him there overnight. It was not the first time he had put her in this position with John and although Max was her best friend, she’d grown close to John over the years too.

And as they sat at breakfast in a small cafe near John’s salon, she could feel those years of closeness slipping away. He barely spoke to her, didn’t look at her and didn’t offer to share his fry up breakfast with her, nor take bites of her pancakes and fruit salad. She knew he was mad, she could tell from the firm set of his jaw but she didn’t know what else to do.

Max was her best friend.

She sighed and dropped her fork to her plate and watched as John flicked his eyes up to her before looking away again, cutting up his sausage with a knife so blunt she was sure a spoon would do a better job. She reached for her glass of juice and took a sip, watching him over the rim of her glass, watched as he chewed and studiously avoided her eyes.

“John...” she said some long minutes later and she could see him flinch. “I’m sorry.”

John sighed and closed his eyes before leaning back in his chair, and pinning her with a stare. She tried not to wince at the glare. He watched her for a long moment, his eyes scouring her face and she tried not to look away.

Eventually he shrugged and picked up his fork, spinning it in his hands.

“You and Max have been friends for years,” he said and Liz nodded absently, knowing that he didn’t need her to speak. “You protect one another.” He looked up to Liz and she nodded, her eyes downcast but she glanced up when she felt his breath on her face. He reached out and covered her hand with his, his face almost pleading with her to understand. “You don’t have to protect him from me.”

Liz shrank back in her chair at his words; she knew she didn’t have to protect Max from John but it was almost instinctive to protect him from just about anything. She didn’t know if it was a good thing.

“I know,” she said to John, hoping her tone was lighter than she felt and she saw him lift a disbelieving eyebrow in her direction. She shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes, smiling self-consciously over at him. She met his eye and noted the serious stare there and she bit her lip, trying to keep the nervous bubble of laughter in. John hated it when she laughed at times like this but it was either that or jump up and down and tell them to sort it all out on their own. She had found, the hard way, that that didn’t necessarily work. She sighed and leaned back in the chair, letting her head drop back onto the tacky red vinyl. “I’m not protecting him from you, John,” she said lowly, her eyes not meeting his.

She could hear John’s sigh of annoyance but she didn’t flinch. She had nothing to add to the statement.

“Who are you protecting him from?”

Liz quirked half a smile and slowly pulled herself forward in her chair, leaning heavily on her elbows.

“Himself.”

John furrowed his brow at her as he mirrored her pose and she wondered for a moment if he was mocking her.

“Liz...”

“No,” she held up a hand to stave off his comments. “You either talk to him or give him space – just don’t put me in the middle of it.”

John let out an angry breath and pulled back from her, crossing his arms over his chest and glared at her.

“You put yourself in the middle of it when you let him stay at yours instead of sending him home.”

Liz scoffed.

“And what am I? His mother?” John continued to glare at her and she shook her head, pushing her plate away from her from lack of anything better to do. “I didn’t ask him to stay.”

John pursed his lips and unfolded his arms, brushing his palms across his jean clad thighs. Eventually, he sighed and dropped his head into his hands, scrubbing his fingers through his hair. When he looked up, his cow licks were sticking out on end and then some and Liz couldn’t help the endearing smile that stole across her lips.

John really was attractive.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, his hand covering hers again. “Forgive me?”

Liz debated for a moment, laughing lightly as he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles.

“I suppose so,” she said quietly as she watched his eyes. In the fluorescent light, his eyes almost looked green, the gold flecks completely obliterated by the brightness. She didn’t know which look she preferred. “But only because I’m putting my hair in your hands.”

He smiled wickedly and Liz grinned, flagging the waitress down as she did so.

“Oh, you are going to love what I’m going to do to you, Parker.”

Liz couldn’t help the thrilled shiver that run down her spine.

--

“What has he done to your hair?”

Liz spun quickly at the sound of friend’s voice and let herself be enveloped in the open arms of Maria DeLuca. While Max was her best friend, Maria came an incredibly close second. Liz had known Maria almost all of her life; Maria’s mother used to leave a six year old Maria in Jeff and Nancy Parker’s care when she went out of town to sell her alien paraphernalia to unsuspecting tourist traps and the two children had been friends ever since.

While Maria was eclectic and as much of a hippy as a person could be in the twenty first century, Liz never tired of her even when Liz was at her lowest point Maria was the one who could pick her back up with a quick rendition of her latest dealings with that week’s hapless male companion.

When she pulled back, Maria quickly pawed at Liz’s head, measuring up her new hair style as though it was one of the pieces of art hanging from the wall. John’s promise that she would love what he was going to do to her had not been unfulfilled and her only regret was that he hadn’t been able to accompany her home so he could help her coif it to the same level of perfection he had. The cut was shorter than she’d had it in many years, skimming her collar bone with a thick, long side fringe cut in. He’d insisted on a few highlights to bring out her natural colour and Liz had relented after much convincing.

She was very glad she had because when she looked in the mirror, she could hardly believe the head of hair was hers.

“Do you like it?” She asked Maria after long minutes had passed where her friend had simply stared at pawed and stared some more.

“Like it?” Maria said, her voice high-pitched. “It’s gorgeous!” Liz felt a blush creep up her neck at the compliment but she smiled through it even as she reached up to finger the short strands. “He never does anything this good to me.”

Liz quirked a smile at that.

“Maybe because you don’t let him?”

Maria eyed Liz at her comment, her eyes narrowing good naturedly and Liz laughed, lifting the glass of champagne to her lips.

“Maybe I will now... God Liz,” she murmured as she continued to touch Liz’s hair, “It really suits you.”

Liz smiled.

“Thanks.”

“And here he is, the man of the hour,” Maria said as Michael approached them.

Liz eyed him as he approached, smiling at the less-than-formal jeans and tee shirt combination that he wore with a suit jacket thrown over the top at an attempt to ‘dress it up’. As she felt that age old tingle, she conceded that it worked.

“I’m glad you guys could make it,” he said modestly as he took first Maria then Liz in his arms, adorning them both with kisses to the cheek. Liz remembered her high school crush on the ‘bad boy’ and how his lips on her cheek would have once made her swoon. Thankfully, she had gotten over it and had gained a life long friend in the process. “What do you think?”

Michael had only discovered his passion for art two years before they graduated high school and his grades in other classes had held him back from going to college to learn his trade. It hadn’t stopped him though and, seven years later, he’d finally been discovered on a large scale and the local gallery had bought almost all of his paintings and were selling them off.

“They’re great, Michael,” Liz said happily, handing her empty glass to a waiter as he passed, while Michael took three fresh glasses from another. “I’m really proud of you,” she said as she laid her hand on his arm.

He turned to her and met her eye and Liz saw something kindling in his eye, something warm and happy and she smiled up at him, not concealing the proud smile that stole across her lips.

“Have you sold any yet?” Maria asked and Michael glanced easily away from Liz to Maria and Liz took the opportunity to study the room. She could see a few journalists milling around, a few of her students and a couple of mutual friends she would need to say hi to later.

“A few and it’s still early.”

There was no denying the excitement in Michael’s tone and Liz was truly happy for him. He’d struggled for years since he left high school, working any jobs he could find while trying to fund his painting addiction. It hadn’t been easy but he’d made it and Liz was more than proud.

“Why would I buy one when I can get them for free?” Maria asked, scandalled but Michael simply shook his head and walked away, waving goodbye to them over his shoulder. “God,” she said quietly and Liz turned to her questioningly. “He’s so hot.” She fanned herself as she walked away and Liz was left, smiling bemusedly as her friend made her way to the bathroom.

He huffed; Michael and Maria.

Who ever would have guessed?

--

He spotted her from across the room and smiled. The tunic dress she wore was one Max had coerced her into buying and he was glad; the short length and the metallic studs were very ‘in’ right now and if she had looked great in it in the changing room, she looked stunning now in her platform courts.

The hair was pretty cool too, he admitted grudgingly as he made his way over to her through the crowd, stopping a few times to say hello to a few people he knew. He hated these things but Michael was like a brother to him and there was no way he could have gotten out of coming even if he’d wanted to.

As he approached Liz, he saw she was speaking to someone he’d seen her with a few times; the guy worked with her (or something) and if the way he was leaning into her arm was anything to go by, the guy was a jerk.

“Hey beautiful,” Max said to her as he slid his arm around her waist and drew her into his side. When she turned to him, her eyebrows raised, he pressed a chaste kiss to the corner of her lips and smiled as he pulled back.

“Max,” she said lightly, her hand coming to rest on his abdomen as she smiled falsely up at him. “This is Eli Weekley,” she motioned to her companion, “Eli, this is Max Evans.”

The man eyed Max from head to toe as Max did the same; the guy was cute Max admitted, with his Chad Michael Murray hair style and baby blue eyes.

He was no patch on Soren though and Max knew Liz could very well be substituting this almost-clone for the real thing.

“Nice to meet you,” Max said as he thrust his hand out and waited for the other man to shake it. “Liz, shouldn’t we be going to meet Kyle?” Liz frowned up at him and he raised his eyebrows in a not-so-subtle way and Liz nodded. “He’s over there,” he said as he pointed in the general direction of the bar – where Kyle was not. As Liz said her goodbyes and walked away, Max spun back to the man in front of him, gripping him by the elbow as he made to move away. “Were you trying to get in her pants?”

Eli, for his part, looked stunned at Max’s abruptness but his surprise quickly melted into indignation and he tried to pull his arm away from Max.

“What’s it to you?” Eli demanded and Max tightened his hold on the man, pulling him nearer.

“Don’t tempt me.”

“And what are you? Her keeper?”

Max released Eli’s elbow with a not-so-gentle shove and walked away. After three steps he paused and turned back, seeing Eli still standing there staring at Max’s retreating form;

“Yeah. I am.”

As he walked away, he could have sworn he heard Eli mutter a curse under his breath.

“Max what was that?” Liz asked as she sprung from the crowd and Max looked down at her startled. “You shouldn’t have done that, Max, we were just talking.”

Max shrugged and guided her to the bar with a hand at the small of her back.

“I know,” he said lightly, turning to her with a quick smile, “but I like to play the alpha male every now and again.”

Liz rolled her eyes and swatted his arm as he ordered them two vodka and orange. He’d been at the agency in the afternoon and had missed her return and when he’d got back, she’d already left. It was strange for him sometimes how little thought he put into sharing a house – a bed – with Liz. He remembered when he was fifteen and he’d hesitantly asked her if he could kiss her. He’d thought then he would spend the rest of his life with her.

And his thoughts hadn’t really changed – it was just her role in his life that was different. Instead of his wife and mother of his children, she was his best friend and his rock.

“You know,” she said from beside him and he blinked, focussing his thoughts back on the here and now, “I saw this card today.” Max lifted an eyebrow and sipped from his drink. “It said ‘What is a husband? He’s a man you love very much and also your best friend.’” She turned to him and he saw the familiar twinkle in her eye and he was laughing even before she said the words. “Does that make you my husband, Max?”

He lifted his fingers to her face and stroked her cheek, marvelling at the softness of her skin. He traced his thumb over her lip and revelled in the way her breath hitched on his skin at the contact.

“I’ll be your husband if you want, Liz,” he said lowly as he drew her head up to his, resting his nose against her cheek, “so long as you promise not to be my wife.”

She pulled away, laughing before dropping her head to his shoulder. His arms came around her automatically and he scanned the crowds as his fingers kneaded the muscles in her lower back.

“God Max,” she said, her own voice equally as low as his had been moments before. “I’m so horny.”

Max grinned and dipped his lips to her ear, breathing hot air over the sensitive skin at the back of her neck. She shivered and her grip in his arm tightened and he smiled.

“Since I’m your husband, Liz, I’m sure you’ll let me help you with that.”

She groaned and Max found his body tightening in response to vibrations. He shifted slightly but she nestled in against him and it was his turn to groan.

“Stop teasing me, Max, it’s not fair.”

He chuckled.

“Only if you stop teasing me.” Reluctantly, she pulled back and when he looked down at her, she was pouting. He laughed at that. “What?”

“I like teasing you.”

“I like teasing you too, Princess, but there’s only so much I can take before I pin you to the bar and do something to you I’m sure neither of us really want me to do.”

Liz scrunched up her face in distaste and Max simply raised a knowing eyebrow. He loved their teasing banter; he knew that many of their friends disapproved but it was the way him and Liz had always been and he didn’t see why they needed to change now that they were both in relationships; Soren knew Max was gay and to Max, that was the end of it. If the other guy couldn’t handle it, then he wasn’t right for Liz.

“Is John here?” Liz asked quietly, some time later and Max tensed at the mention of his boyfriend’s name. He’d stopped by the salon on his way to the agency but John hadn’t wanted to speak to him. Max shrugged at the thought much like he had at the time; if that’s how he wanted to play it, that’s what he’d get.

“No,” he said shortly, hoping Liz would drop it.

Liz sighed.

“So I’m relegated to no phone sex again tonight?”

Max turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

“And how is that?” She rolled her eyes and sipped from her drink. “I told you, Liz, I’ll be your hands if you want.”

He waggled his eyebrows but she simply stared at him, her expression blank for long moments before the smile cracked across her lips.

“You’re an ass.”

“I can be your ass.”

“Go get laid.”

“You go get laid.”

“That was pathetic,” she said archly, her eyebrow raised high on her forehead. “You’re incorrigible when you’re horny.”

“And you’re hot when you’re horny.”

Liz laughed and moved away from him to an empty bench in the middle of the gallery. When he sat beside her, she slid her hand onto his thigh dangerously close to his crotch and he closed his eyes at the warmth of her fingers through his suit trousers.

“And you said I was incorrigible.”

Liz simply laughed.

[azure_horizon]

Part Five

“I don’t think I want to be with John anymore.”

Liz looked up from her laptop and stopped typing, slipping the lid back on her pen. The words, though not entirely unexpected, still shocked her. She glanced away from his downturned eyes and saved her work, closing her laptop over. She took a breath before looking back up at him and patting the space on the bed beside her.

“Why not?” She asked when he sat, cross legged, beside her, his fingers fisted tightly into his palm. She watched as he shrugged, his head tilting away from her and she reached out to still his nervous fluttering. She wasn’t used to Max like this; she’d not dealt with this side of Max for years. “Tell me, Max.”

He sighed and slid up the bed, resting his head against the propped up pillows. He blew air through his cheeks, puffing them up slightly before blowing it out into the air around him.

“I just don’t feel it anymore.” Liz knew that the words, spoken so nonchalantly, hurt him to say. But she didn’t reach out again, didn’t turn to him as he fidgeted, as he stole a hand through his already ruffled hair, as he tugged on the sheet covering her mattress. “And I haven’t for a very long time.”

She turned to him then, her fingers ghosting over his shin and she saw his eyes flutter to hers for a moment before they concentrated on a spot just past her shoulder.

“Why haven’t you said to him already?”

Max shrugged and looked up at her with guilty eyes that had Liz narrowing her own in return.

“I’ve wanted to.” He looked away again. “But you know what John is like.” He shrugged and Liz found the gesture was beginning to grate on her nerves. “And besides, I wouldn’t have anywhere to live if I wasn’t with him.”

Liz narrowed her eyes at that, instantly feeling her anger dissipate. She reached out to touch his arm but he flinched from the contact. He tried to pretend it didn’t sting.

“That’s what you’re worried about?” He nodded and Liz narrowed her eyes at him. He trained his vision on the far wall, his hands ringing together in his lap. She felt a pang resonate across her heart and she wished she knew what to say. “That’s ridiculous,” she said, the words harsher than her tone.

He turned to her and stared, his eyes surprised and wide and she couldn’t stop the bubble of laughter that escaped her lips at his expression.

“This isn’t funny, Liz,” he said hotly, standing from the bed and Liz immediately sobered. She tried to reach out to him but he walked away from her, to the wall he’d been staring at and dropped his head against it. She watched as he breathed, his shoulders rising and falling. She wanted to go to him but she knew that he didn’t need that; that he just had to sort out in his mind what his heart was trying to tell him. “I mean how fucked up is that?” She winced at his words but didn’t reply. “I’m more worried about the money factor than breaking up with him.” He banged his head against the wall. “Fuck.”

Liz stood and moved towards him, her hands stretched out to touch his back. His shoulder was tense beneath her grasp. She stood at his arm, her fingers kneading the muscles at his neck and she felt his head loll to the side slightly. She looked up and met his eyes, lamenting the sadness she saw there.

“Max...” She didn’t know what to say. Instead, she slid her arm across his chest and pressed herself against his side. After a moment, she felt his arm slide around her waist, drawing her closer to him. She heard him sigh, the warmth of his breath heating her neck for a moment. “You know,” she said after long minutes. “Soren asked me to move in with him.”

Max pulled back from her slightly and she looked up to his querying face.

“You told me.” She nodded and glanced away, past his shoulder and bit the inside of her lip. “You also told me you said no.”

“I did.”

“Okay...?”

She looked back up to him but didn’t say anything for a few moments. She could see the question in his eyes and she wondered at the sanity of what she was thinking.

“I could move in with Soren and you could move in here.”

“Liz, no.”

“Yes, Max – it makes sense.”

“No, Liz it doesn’t.”

She pulled away from him and pushed an agitated hand through her hair. She moved back to the bed and sat down, worrying her nail with her teeth. Max knelt in front of her and she reached out and took his proffered hand.

“You told me you didn’t want to move in with Soren.” Liz nodded and looked away from the heavy stare. “I won’t let you move in with his so I can stay here.” He looked around the room and she laughed as she saw the thoughtful look on his face. “I couldn’t afford it anyway.”

Liz raised her eyebrow at that and conceded. While she wasn’t rich, she made more money than Max. Her apartment was a one bedroom studio and it still cost her an arm and a leg in monthly rent. Soren had told her it wasn’t worth it but it was her home and she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

She sighed and dropped her head to Max’s shoulder, welcoming him into her loose embrace.

“You could move in here.”

“And where would you sleep?” He asked lightly and she chuckled.

“You can’t stay with someone because of money, Max.” She felt him stiffen in her arms and she drew back slightly. “If you really think you can’t make it work, then you need to tell him. It’s not fair – he loves you.”

“I love him too.”

“But...?”

He shrugged.

“I don’t want to be with him.”

“Then you have to tell him that.” He made to protest but she held her fingers to his mouth. She felt his tongue tickle her skin but she narrowed her eyes at him and he heaved a sigh.

“You can stay here for a while until we figure something out.” He looked up at her, gratitude shining in his eyes and she felt her anger dissipating. “You have to tell him, Max.”

“I know.”

He made no move to get up and Liz stroked the hair at his temple before pulling him back with her onto the bed. He nestled into her embrace, his head on her breast and Liz felt his breath through her thin tee shirt.

“You’re beautiful, Liz, have I ever told you that?”

She looked down to him, startled but humbled. She could feel heat rise in her cheeks and she pressed her hand against his head, letting her lips drop to brush across his skin.

“Thank you.”

He leaned up and she met his eyes, the smile on his face and she returned it. He dropped his forehead to hers and brushed their noses together before pressing his lips chastely to hers.

“Thank you.”

--

Sitting in the CrashDown, Liz twirled strands of spaghetti around her fork as she stared out the window to the blazing desert heat beyond. Across from her, Maria DeLuca continued to talk, her incessant ramblings on Max’s ‘coming out’ filtering across Liz’s mind.

“Do you want to have kids, Liz?”

Startled, Liz turned back to Maria and smiled, confused.

“Eventually, yeah.”

Maria nodded and looked to her plate, thoughtful. Liz turned back to the window, to the people milling about on the street. She had biology homework to do, chemistry as well and she knew she would need to get started soon. Her English paper was due at the end of the week and she had to study for her finals.

She’d heard back from NYU and Harvard – had been accepted already by both but she didn’t want to fail her exams. She had a need for perfection, to attain and while her dream was within reach, she still didn’t want to disappoint herself, or her family.

“I always imagined you and Max getting married and having kids.”

Liz turned back to Maria and smiled, laying her fork on the side of her plate. She looked past Maria’s head, to Max sitting with Isabel and their parents at the bar and felt, for the first time since Max’s confession of his sexuality, a pang in her chest.

There were some dreams she would never attain.

She glanced back to her plate and smiled ruefully, not missing the confused stare of Maria.

“So did I, Maria. So did I.”

[azure_horizon]

Notes: Many apologies for the lateness. As it happened, I got my SG_rarepairing story finished sooner than I thought so here's YOUR update. I hope you can forgive the long wait

Notes2.0: Thanks for all your reviews and I apologise for not replying to them individually - I will this time!

Notes3.0: Those wondering who "John" is, http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Ga ... ioni-5.jpg. Soren is more Jensen Ackles... but taller... and more Swedish.

Part Six

The morning sunlight filtered through the half open blinds and Max groaned into the pillow. The lingering scent of stale sweat and regurgitated alcohol filled his nostrils as he breathed in and he scrunched his nose up in disdain. His hair was matted to his temples and forehead, the skin on his arms and chest sticky with spilled beer and God knows what else. He groaned again and rolled onto his back, his arms flailing on either side of him, impacting with empty air.

For a moment, he was startled.

Then his eyes focussed and he realised he was in Liz’s room, not the room of the stranger he’d met in the bar last night.

He turned onto his side and drew her pillow to him, pulling in the scent of her, even as his stomach rolled. He closed his eyes against the dizzying sensation of movement and licked his dry lips, knowing he needed a drink but knowing he couldn’t move to get it.

He called out, his voice hoarse in the empty room but there was no answer. He groaned again and called out once more but silence resonated. He rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, watching as a cobweb blew back and forth in a breeze he could not feel. Liz obviously hadn’t seen it or else she’d have been out with the vacuum, scooping up the spider and its home without so much as a moment’s hesitation.

He burped, the smell of half digested chicken pakora lingering in his mouth and he gagged, the scent turning his stomach more.

As he drew the covers back over his head, he swore that he was never drinking again.

--

“Max,” John said, his tone surprised as he held the door to their apartment open. “This is a surprise.”

Max shrugged slightly, huddling against the cool fall wind that wafted up the lobby from the open window. His hair was windswept and his eyes were stinging and he knew he looked a riot but he didn’t care; after his talk with Liz, he hadn’t been able to get John off his mind and he knew that he had to see him, just to know.

And now he knew.

“Can I...?” He asked as he motioned the apartment and John shook his head, snapping from his stupor and stepped back, allowing Max passage into their hall. Max couldn’t help but sniff at John’s scent, so familiar and welcoming. So suffocating. “Thanks,” he said as he sat on the worn brown leather sofa, his hands clasping and unclasping in his hands.

“It’s your apartment, too.” Max shrugged and drew a hand through his hair, pulling at the small tug the wind had caused. He couldn’t met John’s eyes because he knew that if he did, that would be it – that he’d be sucked back in and not do what he’d come here to do. “Max?”

Max made the mistake of looking up and he was struck by the way the sunlight cast half of John’s angular face in shadow, the other side glowing gold in the rays that licked it. His hair, normally flicked naturally in all directions, lay flat and matted to his head, his beard unshaven for days.

He’d never looked better.

“John...”

“Shit.” Max didn’t say anything, only stared up at him, trying not to see all the things that had attracted to him in the first place. “Shit,” John repeated, though weaker, as he threw himself onto the oversized armchair in the corner. Max watched as he drew his hand across his face, through his hair, to the nape of his neck before his slate grey eyes peered up at him. “I knew this was coming.”

“John...”

“Don’t,” John said as he held up his hand in protest, palm out towards him and Max winced at the nail marks there. “Just tell me the truth.”

“About what?”

“About why you’re leaving me.”

Max sighed and looked away, to the television in the corner, to the photos on the stand but in the things he knew he found no comfort. He saw only reminders of how much he’d failed, of all the things that John had bought for them, of all the things that he could have said and did before. John had tried to build them a home; Max had tried to quench a thirst.

“It’s not that I don’t love you-“

“Save the shit, Max.”

Max flinched, blanching slightly at the cruelty in John’s tone but he knew that it was just, that he deserved it.

It was more than he deserved.

“I do I’m just not... I’m just not here, in the same place – as you.” The line sounded bad, even to his own ears. He grimaced at it, chancing a glance to John who simply glared at him. “I’m not happy – you make me not happy. When I’m with you I want to be... I want to not be with you. When you try and touch me, I find a reason to move away. When I tell you I love you, I have to force myself to kiss you on the lips – and I shouldn’t be like that, not with someone I’m supposed to love.”

Max could see John’s jaw clench, could see the way his eyes had slid to darkness and he knew that he was irrevocably burning bridges with the only man he had loved. It hurt. It was also kind of liberating.

“I can’t say that I haven’t noticed. I wish I hadn’t – God I wish I hadn’t but how could I not?”

“I’m sorry,” Max said pathetically, looking to the floor.

“What for?” Max looked up, confused and after a moment he shrugged. “If you don’t know what you’re apologising for, how can you expect others to?” Max shrugged again, not knowing what to say. He wasn’t very good at this. “The thing is, I don’t even think you realise it.”

“Realise what?”

John scoffed and pointed a gestured towards him and Max frowned, feeling anger replace his guilt.

“You see?” Max shook his head and rose, John following suit, rushing around the coffee table to stand in front of him. Max looked up to him, John’s slight height advantage making Max feel inadequate in a way it never had before. “Did you ever love me Max?”

Max felt a rush of anger and he scoffed incredulously, using his bigger body mass to push past John, knocking John off balance.

“There’s someone else isn’t there?” John shouted down the hallway and Max stopped, pivoting on his heel and stared at John through the doorway and he felt the blood thunder through his veins.

“Of course there isn’t.”

“Where are you staying Max?”

Max was thrown by the swift change of subject and he took a step back towards the lounge.

“With Liz.” John smirked, quirking half his mouth and Max frowned, clenching his jaw. “What?”

“You could never love anyone the way you love her.”

Max reeled back, his fists rising from his side before he managed to control them. He didn’t say anything as John watched him, almost goading, staring one another down across the lounge.

“I’m going to get laid.”

He slammed the door as he left.--

Liz yawned as she drew some of the solution into the pipette, dribbling a few droplets onto the worktop. She sighed and closed her eyes, sliding the pipette back into the beaker of solution, wondering why she had chosen to take the call that morning.

Usually, she didn’t mind being hired out to the local high schools for the day but she’d had little to no sleep the night before with Max stampeding about her apartment, burning pizza topped with chicken pakora and then snoring like a freight train when he had eventually tumbled into bed.

She kind of wished he’d gone home with someone like he’d told her he would when he called.

Her tiredness didn’t make her mood any better; she was still horny as hell, her fingers delivering little to no pleasure to her the night before after her and Soren’s rendezvous over thousands of miles of static air and she found herself become increasingly frustrated.

When Max had interrupted her phone sex with his incessant ringing of her mobile, she’d let out a stream of expletives down the line to him, only to realise he wasn’t paying attention. She knew this because she could hear clearly the sound of him making out with someone in a very noisy, public place. When she’d hung up from Soren and called him back almost an hour later, he’d told her that he was going to fuck the hottest man ever to have bought him a drink – John? She’d asked – who wasn’t John. He’d told her that John was an asshole and wasn’t his problem anymore.

And when he’d stumbled, not-so-stealthily – his chatter to himself in an attempt to silence his blabbering mouth would have been endearing if it hadn’t been four thirty in the morning – down her hallway to the kitchen four hours later, before breaking down in tears, Liz had comforted him.

She may have also let him feel her up – just a little - to help make him feel better. Because it was, after all, her fault he hadn’t pulled. Because she’d called him and he couldn’t stop thinking about her. And he needed her. More than John. Always more than anyone else.

The words, spoken to her in a drunken slur as tears she was sure he was unaware of slid down his cheeks, warmed her heart and ached her stomach. If only he’d said those words to her years before, when he hadn’t been gay and she hadn’t stopped loving him like that, she knew that things would have turned out very differently.

She’d have had her heart broken, for sure, some years later when his true sexuality had eventually come out, for starters.

But then she’d have known what it was like to be with him. And she didn’t. In her head, she wasn’t sure she wanted to anymore. But when she’d let him fall asleep with his fingers grazing her backside, her body knew it did.

She hated that betrayal.

“Miss?”

Liz looked up, flushed, to the young girl in front of her and smiled.

“Yes, Briana?”

The girl looked quizzically to Liz for a moment before glancing quickly to the others in the group and looking back to Liz.

“We’re making vitamin C.” Liz nodded and looked to the group as they flicked gazes at one another. “You just added copper to the solution.”

Liz looked down to the chemicals in front of her, noting the Fe and her shoulders sagged. She closed her eyes and sighed.

Soren had to come home.

And soon.

[azure_horizon]

EDIT: Never mind, I wrote an update

Chapter Seven
“Things have changed... he’s changed.”

Over a cup of coffee, Liz watched Maria fidget with her phone. Maria’s nervous habits were something that, over the years, Liz had gotten used to. But sometimes, like now, when Liz wanted nothing more than to talk, Maria’s inane fidgeting grated on her nerves and she found herself losing her tether with her friend. She reached out quickly, grabbing onto the phone and almost slammed it into the hard surface.

“Oh-kay,” Maria said slowly, indignantly and Liz felt a little bad. “I’m going to pretend that you didn’t just slam my three hundred dollar cell phone into the table,” she continued with raised eyebrows. “I am, however, going to assume that something is bothering me and that your random act of violence was a symbol of this – yes?” Liz nodded after a moment, trying to hide the amused smile on her face. “Care to share?”

Liz looked away from her friend, to the images moving across the screen. At this time of night, the soap operas consumed network television and unless one was willing to have their brain melted by the ridiculousness of some of the shows, it was best to watch in mute if the need to watch at all occurred. Max had gone out somewhere before Liz had returned from work but she didn’t question it; he had his own life – he was simply living it out of her apartment now.

“Max moved in with me,” she said quickly, quietly into her coffee mug in hopes that Maria didn’t hear her.

“Excuse me, could you repeat that because it sounded an awful lot like you just said Max moved in with you.” Liz nodded mutely and turned to Maria slightly. “Are you insane?” Liz laughed, grateful for the humour. But then Maria shook her head, holding her hand up. “You have to be. Where is he going to sleep? What were you think- what about his apartment? What about John?”

Liz rolled her eyes.

“He sleeps on the couch, Maria – like he does every other time he stays. It’s only until he finds a place of his own.”

“He can’t afford a place of his own.”

“Exactly!” Liz retorted vehemently, her own arguments voiced through Maria’s mouth. “I’m not exactly going to let my best friend sleep on the streets, am I?”

Maria rolled her eyes at that, amused.

“And they say I’m the dramatic one.” Liz smiled, glad of the reprieve from the insane speech. She sipped her cooling coffee and prodded the slice of chocolate cake on the plate beside her, not hungry. She felt Maria’s hand on her knee and she turned to her friend, curious. “Liz... don’t take this the wrong way but...” she shook her head and looked away, struggling for the words, piquing Liz’s interest. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“What do you mean?”

Maria shrugged, her face contorting as she thought and Liz felt something in the pit of her stomach.

“Things with you and Max are...” Maria tapered off and Liz felt the familiar anger flare but she tried to quell it. “Different.”

“No they’re not, Maria.”

“Yes they are. It’s not... the things you say to one another-“

“It’s playful, Maria. It’s teasing, banter – you may have heard of it?”

“It’s not playful, Liz. It used to be but it’s not anymore and you know it. That’s why you’ve kept the fact that Max has been staying her for almost a week from me.” Liz’s eyes widened at that. Maria had known. “You know things are different and you told me because you either feel guilty for betraying Soren, or because you needed my opinion because you weren’t sure it’s a good idea which means that something has happened, or that you sense something could happen and you’re trying to decide whether you need to have a failsafe-“

“Maria-“

“No, Liz.” Maria held up her hand to stem Liz’s flow of words and Liz drew back slightly, startled. “We’ve sat back and watched this... this thing with Max and now this?” Maria shook her head. “Does Soren know?” Liz hesitated, neither affirming nor denying and when Maria’s eyebrow rose on her forehead, Liz knew she was busted. “Because you know he’d have a problem with it.” Liz nodded, though it wasn’t a question. “Does he have a reason to have a problem with it?”

Liz sighed, exasperated, setting her cup down on the side table. She scrubbed a hand through her hair, tugging at the roots but it did no good to ease her inner conflict. Maria was right, to some extent. She hadn’t told Soren. But not because she felt guilty (well, not really, anyway) – Soren had never approved of her relationship with Max; he’d always thought Max’s sexuality was just a cover so he could get close to Liz.

“If this was anyone else, then yes,” Liz reasoned allowed to Maria’s disbelieving ears. “But this is Max, we’ve been friends for... forever and... and he’s gay.” Maria chortled a laugh at that and Liz mimicked her smile, though her distress was thinly veiled. She sighed and dropped her head into her hands. “Do you think he has a reason to feel... I don’t know.”

Liz felt Maria’s hesitation and she looked up. Maria’s insights – though sometimes misconstrued – were generally always astute.

“Like you said, Liz,” she began, slowly, “Max’s sexuality does change a lot of factors but...” She sighed and scratched the bridge of her nose with a long, manicured nail (one concession hippy Maria let herself have).

“But...” Liz continued, urging, when Maria stalled.

“But... this is you and Max.” She shrugged, helpless and Liz looked away equally as helpless. “I’ve seen it all, Liz. I was your friend back then too.” Maria made a motion with her shoulder that was half way to a shrug. “I’ve seen... Things are different now.” She shrugged again, glancing to her fingers again. “He’s different.”

Liz wondered how she hadn’t known this.

--

Later, when Soren calls, she is subdued. His attempts to engage her in another bout of phone sex were useless and he hung up shortly after, her conversation less than stellar. He’d inquired as to her well being but she’d brushed him off – just a bad day at work, she’d said – and he’d accepted her answer. What else could he do, she wondered; he was half way around the world on the other end of a static phone line.

It’s dark outside, but the hour is relatively early. Despite this, Liz coories down in the quilt of her bed, relishing in the warmth, drifting somewhere beneath the warm cosiness, her head cocooned on a pillow as soft as cloud and lets her body relax. Her racing mind, that had refused to stop for days, finally ceases its incessant tumult and she found that her dreams were mere fragments of memories of years gone by, visions of a future she hadn’t thought of in years.

When Max slides into bed behind her, his cold feet resting on her calves, she opens her eyes for a moment, wondering if she’s still dreaming.

[azure_horizon]

Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello.
I come bearing a new chapter And what a chapter it is. In this, there is some definite kink - yes kink - and definite sexual situations.
I hope you enjoy

Chapter Eight
What is this fire?
Burning slowly. My one and only.
Desire

She stopped and took a step back. In the small room, their heavy breathing filled the air, their bodies crowded together around the furniture. His eyes, alight with a smouldering fire, caught hers before looking away again and she took another step back until her back was almost pressed against the wall. They’d been fighting for days – ever since he’d not gone to an interview because he was hung over – and, frankly, Liz was sick of it. She’d decided they’d needed a good night out and since it was Friday, they’d gone to Octo with Maria and Michael and some others. They’d managed one dance before they were at each other’s throats again.

She swept her hand through her hair and when she touched her chest above the neckline of her dress, her skin was slick with sweat and the beer she’d managed to spill over herself on the dance floor. She sighed and leaned against the wall in the private room, closing her eyes.

“What is wrong with us, Liz?” Max asked and she shook her head, not speaking. She didn’t know what to say because she didn’t know what was wrong. Ever since her conversation with Maria two weeks before, she’d felt something akin to guilt every time Max slid into bed behind her. Then Soren had called telling her his grandmother had finally (she cringed at the wording) and that he would be home ‘sometime soon’. She didn’t know when ‘soon’ would be but her guilt had only risen as she thought that ‘soon’ – whether it was a week or a month – was too ‘soon’. “Shit.”

She opened her eyes and found Max leaning against the other wall with his back to her, head resting on his arms as they leaned against the wall. The black shirt was drawn tight across his back and she could see the well defined muscles bunching beneath the material and felt something stir inside of her. It had been far too long since she’d had sex.

“Yeah,” she whispered, the sound barely heard over the pounding music that still managed to seep through the walls.

Max turned, leaning against the wall, to look at her. His hair was mussed and his eyes were dark and she had to glance away. Her eyes landed on his neck and she saw his carotid artery pushing against his skin in a rhythmic staccato and she closed her eyes again. She would admit, quietly to herself, that she’d been having those thoughts about Max again. She hadn’t had them for years but since she’d woken up with his morning erection pressed against her back, she’d been dreaming and day dreaming, consciously thinking of ways she might be able to slide him inside of her without ‘meaning’ to. She wasn’t sure if it was Max that she was thinking about because, in her fantasies, she could – with some thought – imagine it to be Soren instead but when she could smell Max and feel his legs wrapped around hers, it was him who consumed her thoughts.

“I can’t lose you, too, Liz.”

Liz looked to him again, stepping towards him. She reached out and her fingers brushed the hairs on the back of his arms and she smiled up to him, somewhat sadly.

“You’re not going to lose me, Max.”

He smiled down to her, his eyes widening slightly and she smiled mirthfully back up at him.

“Good,” he smirked and touched his hand to her hair, “wouldn’t want to sleep on the streets.” She narrowed her eyes at him and smacked him playfully on the arm. She would be forever thankful for their ability to switch from one extreme to the other. “So,” he began and his eyes roved over her body, assessing.

Liz took a step back and her hand rose to her hip and she raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

“Well, you’re wearing that dress with those shoes and we’re in this room with red lights; what do you say we – ah...”

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and Liz smirked, swaying on her stacked platform heels a moment before turning from him and heading to the door. There, she pressed a hand to the door and glanced back to him over her shoulder, smirking coyly.

“Me in this dress and these heels is too much for you to handle.”

She didn’t wait to hear his response before she practically flounced out of the door and back onto the dance floor.

Max wasn’t too far behind her.

--

She bit her lip as her hands slid down her body, cradling the telephone between her cheek and shoulder. The alcohol in her system had done wonders to rejuvenate her libido and her husky voice hadn’t taken long to coax Soren into some early, early morning phone sex. She’d stumbled from the taxi to her bedroom and grabbed her phone from the nightstand, letting it ring and ring until he answered.

Now, he was urging her hands lower, drawing from her gasps of pleasure, wisps of desire and her body was writhing on the sheets. Her nipples were exposed to the air, her breasts pulled free from her dress only minutes before – they were hard and stiff and when the soft flesh of the inside of her arm brushed against them, she hissed in pleasure and moaned softly as her fingers danced over her thighs. She was already wet – which she refused to accredit to the feel of Max’s thigh between her legs as they’d danced hours before – and wanting and she already knew her fingers were not going to be enough to satiate her lust.

Soren’s deep voice urged her on and she gasped, the blank canvas of her eyelids opening a world of fantasy to her that she had no desire to leave anytime soon. There, it was his hands on her skin alighting this fire within her, his breath on her skin that had her shivering with anticipation. She could hear his breathing from across the phone, laboured and harsh and she responded, biting the inside of her lip so as not to call out into the empty air of her apartment. Drunk or not, she still had some inhibitions left and she couldn’t handle Max teasing her about her noise in the morning.

She gasped, fighting for breath as she slid one, two fingers inside of her – her own warmth like silk against her lean fingers. She whimpered as Soren ordered her to still and in her head she could hear her own breathing, echoing around the room like a horn. On the phone, she could hear Soren’s ricocheting around her body and it was only when she was concentrating on being still that she heard someone else’s.

She snapped her eyes open, searching the room. On the sight of him, she was caught between a scream and a moan and her eyes connected with his. In them, she could see the same fire from their fight earlier but this time she knew she had caused it. She wanted to scream at him to leave, demand to know why he thought he had the right to watch her in this intimate act but another part – a larger part – of her was indescribably turned on by his voyeurism and instead of screaming or ranting, she moaned and writhed and watched as his hips rocked against the air as he stood on the threshold looking in at her.

Soren commanded her to pump her fingers and she did, though it was Max who watched and it was Max she watched reach for his cock in his pants. She could see the slight hesitation, the shudder in his movements and his eyes rose to hers seeking the permission she had already granted him the moment she didn’t shout at him. He groaned, the noise stifled only by her own and she moved with heated frenzy, her fingers – now a third – pumping in and out of her, crooking at the right point. In her ear, Soren commanded – he panted and she could imagine him doing what she was watching Max doing, their hands sliding over their cocks, aroused by the thought – and sight – of her bringing herself to climax.

Afterwards, when she was able to breathe and Soren had hung up the phone, Max was gone. She had thought him up, in her fantasy and the thought made her both smile and frown. He had seemed so real, standing there backlit by the light from the hallway. Shaking her head, she moved gasping at the sensation as she finally removed her fingers from herself.

She leaned up, contemplated cleaning herself up but conceded that she was now simply too tired and much more satiated than she had thought she would be. She leaned over to her nightstand and pulled out a wipe – usually for taking make up off – and moved to clean her still damp hands.

“Don’t.”

She turned to the doorway, to Max and froze. In his boxers, his cock was no longer hard but she could still see the faint hints of desire in his eyes as he moved towards her. She watched him, not breathing as he sat on the edge of the bed, his naked leg brushing hers slightly. Her skin tingled at the contact of skin and she closed her eyes for a moment when he reached for her wrist, plucked the wipe from her hand and lifted her fingers to his lips. She opened them when he paused, the question obvious in his eyes. She nodded once, almost imperceptible and she watched as his tongue snaked out, felt the warm moistness against her fingers and they both groaned at the contact. He pulled – or she pushed, neither knew – her fingers into his mouth and his tongue and lips made quick work of the evidence of her desire, eyes connected as he worked.

When he was done, he placed her hand back in her lap, his eyes darkened once more and she could feel warmth pool between her legs. They waited a moment then he reached for her dress, his fingers grazing her nipples – accidentally, she lied – as he reached for the hem of her dress, tugging it over her head. He slid his finger into her panties, righting them, and his knuckles nudged her clitoris, dragging a low groan from her. He pulled his own tee shirt over his head, leaving him naked except for his boxers and pushed her back onto the bed.

He slid in behind her, the only barrier between their skin his boxers and her thong. He slid his thigh between her legs, knee crooked, his hand splayed over her hip, the other under her neck. Within minutes, they were both asleep.

[azure_horizon]

A/N: Bad, Azure, bad. Bad. But here is an update. I know *gasp* It's not much but I hope you enjoy it. I'm going to work on the next part right about now

Part Nine.

When she answered the door, he wasn’t exactly the first person she had expected to see. So she wasn’t really surprised when he grinned cheekily at her and ran his hand over the back of his neck as she stood there, in her hot pants and pyjama top, gaping at him the glass of milk in her hand threatening to slip out of her grip.

“John,” she said, astounded, taking a step back from the door but he didn’t follow her in. She eyed him up and down, watching as he flinched under scrutiny and she wondered what the hell Max thought he was accomplishing by leaving the man standing before her; in his black jeans and casual black shirt with his jaw unshaven since, most likely, Max had left him, he looked delectable and Liz pondered how unfair it was that women had lost yet another one to the other side. “Hi,” she said dumbly and he smiled at her, lowering his arm to his side, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

“Hey.” He stood there, looking so very uncomfortable and Liz was both glad and annoyed that Max wasn’t there to speak to him. Ever since their encounter the other night, they’d made a point of steering clear of one another.

“Umm...” she began and looked behind her into the apartment, wondering if she should invite him in – if he would come in if she did. “Max isn’t here,” she said instead and watched as his face fell slightly and she winced. Awkward didn’t begin to cover it.

“I was hoping... It doesn’t matter.” She watched as he eyed her up and down, letting his eyes linger on the track tee shirt she wore, his eyes narrowing slightly, before he closed his eyes to hide the eye roll and shook his head. “Are you going to work today?” He asked instead and Liz dismissed his curious actions and nodded, motioning for him to follow her into the living room. He hesitated, she noted, but followed eventually.

“Yeah, I’ve got to be there for ten,” she said and glanced to the clock, noting the early hour. He’d probably hoped to catch Max before he headed out to his latest posting at a school an hour train ride away. “How are you?” She asked as she moved into the kitchen where the remainders of her breakfast were and picked up the triangle of toast, nibbling at the corner, suddenly not very hungry.

She’d been up since Max had tried to move stealthily around her apartment, picking up clothes from her closet and towels from the cupboard outside her bedroom door. When he’d dropped the hairdryer and swore at it for making noise, she gave up the ghost and slid out of bed, studiously avoiding looking at his naked chest as she’d wondered past him to make coffee. They’d said little as they’d shared a cup of too strong coffee and he’d hesitated as he’d made to leave before turning and dropping a quick, chaste kiss to her cheek.

It was strangely familiar, these reactions she was having to him now. She remembered in high school, when she’d been so ridiculously attracted to him, that her stomach did the same little flips when his eyes caught hers. Now she knew it was ridiculous, despite whatever the hell that was the other day. They hadn’t talked about it though she knew they both agreed that they would put it down to drunken desire if it ever arose – not that it ever would, ever.

Unfortunately.

“I’m okay, I guess,” he said as he hovered at the edge of the breakfast bar, his eyes lingering on the neatly folded blankets and pillow on the couch and she wondered if he was surprised that Max was sleeping there instead of in bed with her; it had been one of those things that many people knew and never questioned. His eyes flitted to the cup she and Max had shared earlier and she wished very much that she could read his mind because his expression looked so defeated that she would bend the planets just to get him to smile at her with the crooked smile she’d come to know and love over the years. “I was just...” He shook his head and laughed, looking up to her as he bit his bottom lip between his teeth. “I’m sorry; I know this must be awkward for you.”

She nodded but smiled and reached out to touch his arm.

“It’s okay, I miss you,” she said with feeling; and she did – they’d been good friends until Max... She shook her head. The boy was dense, she’d always known but when she looked at the sight of John before her she reconsidered how much intelligence she’d assumed he had.

“I know, I miss you too but it’s just...” He waved a hand around and she smiled knowingly, removing her fingers from his arm. He smiled to her, his eyes lingering reprovingly on her hair and she grinned sheepishly. “You need to come visit me soon,” he said as he ran his finger over the dark roots of her highlights then fingered the dry ends of her hair. She nodded and ducked her head; she used to take care of her hair but since Max had moved in, it seemed like she had two full time jobs instead of one and didn’t have the time for luxuries like hot oil hair masks or body buffing. Max hogged the shower much more than she did. “Listen,” he said eventually after a long moment of awkward silence, “I’m going to go, okay?”

She frowned, ready to protest but he held up a hand and silenced her.

“Okay,” she conceded, knowing that their strained conversation would not get any easier in the next minutes. “You sure you want me to visit you?” She said with a wry smile as she moved with him to the door again.

“Of course,” he said with a smile. He stopped just before the door and turned to her. “It’s just... I came here with this speech and now that he’s not here I just... I don’t know what to say.” She smiled, cringing internally for him, and hugged him back when his arms came around her shoulders stiffly. “Call me,” he insisted and she nodded. He opened the door himself and was half way out before he turned to her, looked over her shirt again, his eyes lingering just over her chest and pursed his lips. “Nice shirt.”

The door clicked closed and she frowned, looking down to where his eyes had lingered.

Etched into the soft, greying cotton Max’s surname stood out in perfect white thread.

“I can’t believe you just puked all over your top,” Max said in disgust as he held her hair back behind her head.

“It’s not like I meant it,” she grumbled into the toilet, batting his hands away as he tried to tie her hair back with a rubber band. “If you hadn’t tried to poison me with half cooked chicken this wouldn’t have happened.”

He snorted and she attempted a growl but he just laughed at her feeble attempt.

“Sure, blame me,” he grumbled as he disappeared.

Liz couldn’t remember the last time she had been physically sick and of course it would be the night before her first proper date with the guy she’d had her eye on for a few weeks. If only Soren could see her now, she mused, her head hanging over the toilet with spatters of vomit on her shirt. She cringed, disgusted at herself and closed her eyes as her stomach rolled again. She felt Max’s heat at her back, his hand rubbing what he thought was comforting circles on her back as she retched. After a few more retches, she reached up blindly to pull the plug.

“Here,” Max said and out of the corner of her eye she saw a glass filled with water and she reached out to take it, smiling at him as best she could through her green gills. “I brought you a clean shirt,” he said and she felt his hands at the hem of her shirt, lifting it carefully to avoid rubbing the spatters in her face. He unclipped her bra – without fumbling – and pulled the shirt over her head, laughing when he had to pick her arms up and put them through the sleeves. She was too exhausted to move; she’d been sick for almost three hours now. “There.” He stood up and Liz leaned forward again, resting her head on her arms. “What do you want me to do with this one?” He said, holding her spoiled shirt away from his body, his face contorted in disgust.

“Just toss it,” she replied in a whiny tone.

“You sure?” He said and she felt bad; he’d bought her the shirt for her birthday a couple of months before but she knew there was no hope of getting the stain out.

“Yeah,” she said and laughed slightly, groaning when her stomach complained. “You can just buy me a new one.”

He smiled and she returned it before moving to lean against the wall. He returned a few moments later, sliding down beside her, sliding his arm across her shoulders, drawing her into his side.

“I don’t know if this is a wise move, Max,” she complained as she closed her eyes against the dizziness that suddenly swam over her.

“You puke on me and I’ll toss you out the window,” he said lightly, and she felt his lips brush the top of her head.

“Thanks.”

It hadn’t been her idea to live on campus – but it had been her idea that if she did, they should live together. Her dad had been worried about her living alone – or with a stranger – and the fact that Max had agreed to live with her placated both Liz and her father’s fears. Now, after experiencing his less than perfect food experiments once too often, she was reconsidering the decision to ever let him cook again. She sighed and relaxed further into his familiar embrace, enjoying the feel of his fingers on her arms, ghosting lightly over her skin in a gentle caress.

She heard him slightly and she turned to look up at his face but he was looking at her arm and she turned to see him fingering the sleeve of the shirt he’d given her.

“Isn’t this the kind of thing a guy gives his girlfriend?” He said with a strange tone in his voice and Liz frowned her question up to him. “Giving her his track shirt, with his name on it. Seems kind of territorial, don’t you think?” He said as his eyes flittered to hers for a moment and she felt the annoying catch of her breath in the back of her throat at the look in his amber eyes.

She looked away and laughed slightly, feeling a little better. She looked down to the old high school shirt he’d given her, wondering why he hadn’t just went into her room and brought her one of her own shirts instead of one of his own. She laughed again when her eyes caught the ‘Evans’ stitched over her left breast.

“I don’t know about that but I do know a guy would appreciate his name being printed over his girlfriend’s boob,” she said lightly and she felt Max’s puff of air on her hair as he let out a soundless laugh.

“Oh to be straight,” he muttered and she could practically hear his eyes roll in his tone.

“Yeah.” She laughed quietly to herself. “I’ll need to stitch my name to a pair of my heels and give them to you.”

He bellowed out a laugh at that and she vibrated against his chest as he moved, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah, right,” he muttered, his lips close to her ear. “My feet are too big for your shoes, shorty.”

She yawned and smiled, leaning further into him.

“I’ll buy you a pair for yourself, then,” she smiled again, pressing her lips to his chest through his woollen pullover.

They were silent for long minutes and she could feel the world dull around her until his voice broke through her hazy mind.

“You want to sleep here tonight?”

She nodded.

“It’s probably safer.”

“Okay.”

She felt him shift slightly but his arms didn’t release her. After a few more seconds of jostling she felt him pull something over them – a large towel – and she smiled sleepily again, turning her head into his chest as he ran his fingers over her collarbone.

“Max?” She questioned and felt him tilt his head down to her in question. “Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

[azure_horizon]

Part Ten

When she woke there was an undeniable warm presence behind her that had been missing for the past week and she felt herself migrate towards it in her half sleep. The warmth grumbled and she felt a long, lean limb wrap around her waist drawing her further into the heat and she went willingly. She wriggled slightly to get comfortable in the tight embrace and she felt him grip her hip in a tight vice, holding her still and she sighed conceding and dropped her head back, feeling his chin settle above her head on the pillow and she sighed.

It turned into a sharp gasp that got caught in her throat when he shifted his hips and something hard pressed into her back. She groaned, loudly, and his hand automatically tightened on her waist, wrapping around her, splaying his fingers over her abdomen, pushing her butt into his very, very hard erection. She couldn’t help but wriggle as the warmth migrated to more southern regions where it belonged and she felt his breath hiss out over her shoulder and she automatically wondered if he was awake. A part of her hoped he wasn’t while another part hoped desperately that he was.

God, it had been so long and she really, really needed to have sex. The release her fingers brought her was good but it was far from satisfying especially when she could feel his hard cock rubbing against her butt dangerously close to the one place she wanted it. As she twitched in his grip, she knew it was wrong as thoughts of Soren waved to her on their way across her mind but this was Max and he was asleep – right? She reached behind her, sliding her hand into the waist band of his loose sweat pants and rubbed the back of her hand over his silken hardness. He moaned loudly and bit down on her shoulder and she shuddered as pleasure racked through her. His hand slid back to her waist, settling in the slight dip there and she wished he would move it just a little higher.

His breathing evened again quickly and she knew he was asleep. Strangely, that thought disappointed her and she let her hand linger over his throbbing member for a second longer before she withdrew her hand, tried to put some distance between them and tried to fall back into slumber, comforted by his presence in her bed again.

--

Groaning, Liz let the water cascade down her back and thought of what she had almost done in bed only hours before. Had she really actually honestly thought about giving Max a hand job in hopes that he’d reciprocate? God, she really, really needed Soren to hurry up and come back. She leaned her head on the tiles and the sensation of the hot water and cool tiles made her shiver, tightening her nipples and she reached up with her thumb and forefinger to rub them slightly, hissing as wet heat pooled between her legs. Did she really want to do this with Max lying in bed just through the door? She grunted a laugh at that, the sound strained as she fought the desire that surged through her; she’d did much worse to herself while he’d jerked himself off watching her.

Decided – not that she needed much deliberating – she ran her thumb over one nipple then the other, tugging at the hard nub with her fingers, wishing her wet finger was someone’s warm tongue and she whimpered at the thought, the coil in her gut tightening. Her other hand found its way down her body, stroking up a fiery need as it meandered to her core and she teased herself, imagining fingers thicker, longer, stronger on her rather than her own and she circled her clit with her thumb hissing at the contact. She slid a finger in slowly, biting her lip to stop the whimper that threatened before she added another, needing more, and began pumping, moaning and rolling her hips in time with her fingers.

“Liz are you-“ She snapped her eyes open and met Max’s as he stood just inside the bathroom door, his eyes wide as he watched her but she was too far gone; to stop now would be torture and she was definitely not a masochist. “Fuck,” he muttered and she screwed her eyes shut, rolling her hips faster, trying to find her voice to tell him to leave but the sound of the door closing alerted her to the fact that he’d obviously got the hint.

She almost screamed when another finger joined hers inside of her and she snapped her eyes open, panting and moaning as Max stood in front of her, his sleep sweats soaked already by the falling water from the shower and she watched as he dropped to his knees in front of her, his eyes watching what their fingers were doing and she really wanted to ask what the fuck he thought he was doing but when his other hand reached out and rubbed her clit all rational thought of arguing fled her mind and she let out a breathy moan instead. She heard his replying murmur of appreciation and she reached out with her free hand to grab his wrist when he went to withdraw his fingers and she opened her eyes to look down at him as he looked up to her. His eyes, usually amber and cool, were dark with lust and he bit his plump bottom lip and she rolled her eyes, dropping her back against the wall as he continued to pump his single finger in and out of her with her two slender fingers.

It was nowhere near enough.

Then he slid another finger inside of her and she let out a sound and bucked her hips faster, hoping he would pick up his pace but he kept his leisurely pace, his warm breaths driving her absolutely fucking crazy and she wanted nothing else in that moment than for him to –

“Oh,” she managed when his tongue reached and flicked her nub and her knees almost buckled. He noticed and pushed her hips against wall, urging her to lift her leg over his shoulder, then the other and she moaned when she realised she was pretty much straddling his face. Her hips bucked the thought and his tongue wavered slightly and he moaned, using his free hand to drag her fingers out of her and he replaced them with a third of his own pumping faster now, his tongue doing things that she didn’t know he knew how to do. Her hips had a mind of their own, bucking into his tongue and fingers, moaning and panting, her fingers digging into his shoulders as she sought for something to ground her. The coil, already tightly wound, exploded within minutes and she came crashing down around his fingers, moaning his name over and over again as he grabbed her butt with his free hand, pushing her further into him until her body was under control once again.

He sat back and helped her slide down against the wall and when she looked at him she saw the confused frown on his face that she knew would be mirrored in her own. He slid his fingers out of her and looked at them as water fell on them. He lifted them to his lips and tasted, closing his eyes against her taste and he watched him, her lip between her teeth until he opened his eyes and looked at her.

“What...” She began but didn’t know how to finish. He smiled his crooked grin and his eyes, so dark before with passion, were an easy amber that she knew so well.

“That’s what friends do, help each other out?”

She felt the skin around her eyes tighten but she nodded slightly, her eyes flickering to where she’d seen his hard on before he’d stepped into the shower.

“What about...”

She saw his cheeks flush and she smiled at her embarrassed and she opened her mouth in an ‘o’, ridiculously pleased by the fact she’d made him come without even so much as touching him.

“It was a new experience for me and I’ve been so...” His eyes raked over her naked body and she felt herself flush; she knew she should feel some kind of shame at what just happened but it didn’t appear and she was unwilling to conjure it up. His eyes lingered on her pale skin for a second longer before he groaned and dropped back onto his butt and slid up against the wall. “I am so fucking sorry,” he murmured even as his hand came out to rest on her thigh, his fingers splaying enough to nudge her still sensitive core. “I just... I just couldn’t help myself.”

She didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing and put her hand on his knee, laughing at how soaked his sweats were. She leaned her head on his shoulder and entwined their fingers on her thigh.

“That... was long overdue,” she said quietly and she felt him turn to her and she turned to meet his eye, smiling shyly up at him. “It’s just not the same when you do it yourself.”

He laughed and she felt his lips on her forehead.

“God, I know.” She felt his nose nudge her cheek before his lips brushed the skin there and she shuddered. “God, do I know.”

“Well, you know... next time...” She couldn’t finish the sentence – didn’t want to give voice to what she really wanted to do to him, what she wanted him to do to her but he laughed lightly and she knew he understood.

“Like you almost did last night, tease?” He murmured lightly and she felt herself flush, that shame rearing its ugly head and she tucked her head into his shoulder, unable to resist the temptation to press her lips to muscle there. “But thank you.”

She grinned against his shoulder and closed her eyes in sudden embarrassment.

“Anytime.”