Series
Title: Anything To Zipper
Story
Title: Rune
Author:
Restive Nature
Disclaimer:
I do not own Dark Angel. This show belongs to Fox and Cameron/ Eglee.
No infringement is intended and this fiction is for reading pleasure
only.
Rating:
PG-13
Genre:
Dark Angel
Type:
massive friendship
Pairing:
Max/ Alec
Summary:
When they say solidarity, they really mean it.
Spoilers/
Time line: Post "Freak Nation".
Feedback:
Always welcome.
Distribution:
Ask first, please.
A/N:
This one actually morphed only slightly from how I first envisioned
it. Sometimes the writing takes off in a direction all it's own, but
I like the way I have it. Hope you enjoy it too.
Rune
She
had no clue that it was going on. She only knew that she would be
looking for someone specific and sometimes the person was were where
they were supposed to be and sometimes not. At first Max figured it
for them taking a break or working on their assigned tasks. But when
she noticed Joshua hurriedly rolling his sleeve down from where an
interested Mole had been peering at his forearm, and then the
slightly guilty looks on their faces, did Max start paying a little
more attention.
When
she clapped Nate on the shoulder after he'd shown her the completed
med lists for supplies and the numbers were better than she had hoped
for, and he winced, she started to wonder at that too. When she
noticed Logan using an ancient photo copier and then hiding what he
was working on from her, before loudly trying to greet her and
redirect her attention away from herself, Max became truly
suspicious. But, knowing how most of the transgenics and transhumans
viewed her still, only really getting to know her in the last few
weeks, as she had them, since this siege had started, she knew that
they weren't just going to tell her what was going on.
When
she was finally able to sneak up enough on one small group, what she
heard disturbed and frightened her.
“...
it's weird, but not that bad, I don't know what she was complaining
about,'
she overheard Bubba, one of the X6's snorting.
“I
know what you mean,”
Tack had replied, one of the transhumans that looked like a wild cat
cross. “Have
you seen Alec's back lately?”
“No,
how far has it gotten?”
Bubba grinned. Max, wondering what on earth the kid was referring to,
had been able to use her Manticore given sight and focused in on
Bubba's forearm and the sight made her mind whirl. There on the
youth's arm, was a rune. Just like the ones that adorned her body,
warning them of... something.
She turned away then.
Questions rolled through her mind. They were all getting runes now?
She wasn't the only one? At once the thought relieved her and
dismayed her. She wasn't special now, being the only one and she
didn't know if it was a relief or if it took something away from her.
Logan had told her that she was the savior of the human race and she
had felt that separation further from the rest of mankind, humans
included in that, hearing that. She didn't want to be different. She
never had. But at the same time, she had thought that she had found a
place with her people. But now, knowing that they were hiding this
from her, that she wasn't so sure about that place after all.
She had roamed aimlessly,
ignoring everyone in her travels. She honestly wasn't sure how she
was going to deal with this. She ended up, tucking herself away in
one of the outer buildings to sit and think. She would return later.
Of course she would, but for the time being, she needed to figure out
how to handle whatever this new situation was going to be.
As she leaned her head
against the crumbling wall, ignoring the small bits of dust and
whatever else floating in the air, she tried to focus her thoughts.
But it always seemed to come back down to a very few short thoughts.
Namely, why hadn't Alec told her about this? How many runes had shown
up on him? What did they say? And what would it mean for them? The
questions rolled, like an assembly line, touched briefly before the
next came and once through the set, they started all over again.
She couldn't have said
how long she had sat there before she became aware of the buzzing
noise and the low drone of voices. Perturbed at having her reverie
disturbed, she clambered to her feet, intent on letting whomever it
was get an earful. That was her mode of operation it seemed. Get
frustrated about something that was out of her control and take it
out verbally on whomever was closest.
The conversation grew
louder, as did the buzzing sound, one that she vaguely thought she
might know, with a few more clues about what it was. The drone was
familiar to her senses. The conversation however, reached her first.
“... how Max is going
to react to this?” someone was asking.
“I don't know,” a
voice replied, one that she recognized. Alec! “But you've seen what
this does to her. Maybe it's not the greatest idea, but she's gotta
know we're behind her.”
“Yeah, but seriously
Alec, angel wings?” the other voice chuckled. Max frowned as she
crept closer to a small room in the back of the building.
“Well what the hell
else represents a savior better than an angel?” Alec snorted back.
“Give me another shot.”
“Here,” there was a
pause in the buzzing and she could hear a slosh of liquid. “You
know I'm almost done.”
“I know,” Alec
grunted. “Still stings though.”
“Well fuck,” the
other voice laughed. “I told you I was just an amateur at this
shit.”
“Uh huh,” Alec agreed
dryly. “Now, you're not making pornographic jokes back there are
you. 'Cause that'd really piss her off.”
“Everything pisses Max
off,” the other male voice snorted. Alec sighed. She had finally
gotten close enough to peer in to the room where the door was
slightly ajar. She could see Alec sitting backwards on a chair, his
arms hanging over the front, with a tumbler of some liquid, probably
alcoholic, clutched in one hand. His head was down and she could just
see someone else's gloved hand touching at the skin of his upper
back. And then, the very recognizable tattoo gun began to buzz again.
The hands reached for a wet wipe to rub at the spot that had just
been touched.
“So do you think this
ink will last longer?” Alec muttered. “Your last batch was kinda
iffy, huh?”
“I made some
improvements,” the voice replied and Max began to wonder if it
belonged to Kern, a friend of Joshua's. He looked mostly human, until
you reached his eyes. And that was when the little bit of monkey that
Manticore used became apparent. That and the tail was what really
gave him away. She turned her attention back to Alec and could see
that upon his shoulder blade closest to her, was a scrolling set of
what appeared to be the runes decorating his body, in an abstract
pattern. Recalling what the other, Kern? What he had said about it,
she could almost see the angel wings, as he had called it.
“So when are you guys
telling Max about this?” he asked of Alec and then smacked at the
X5 when he shrugged. “Don't move dumb ass!” She had to bite her
lip as someone other than she took the irascible male to task.
“We're still working on
that,” Alec winced. “You know how she is about surprises. Don't
want her thinking the wrong thing about this.”
“A bunch of you yahoos
stormed my apartment one night after getting drunk on Mole's rotgut,
demanding I give you tattoos of her runes to show your solidarity
under her leadership,” Kern laughed. “She's either gonna go
postal on your ass for doin' something stupid, or she's gonna get
totally weepy and blubber over the idea. Probably both.”
“How many times have
you met Max?” Alec demanded with a grunt. There was a pause and
then Kern was laughing again.
“Yeah, she's gonna get
postal,” he agreed. “Maybe if you all show her at the same time,
she'll be overwhelmed enough with the numbers.”
“Pfft,” Alec
raspberried into his glass. “She'll still blame me.”
“And is that why you
kept coming back?” Kern teased. “Hoping to make a drunken idea
into a grand enough gesture that she'd think twice about it.”
“Thus giving me enough
time to reach minimum safe distance,” Alec concluded, chuckling and
then grew quiet. “Nah, just, once I got the idea, it just seemed
like the right thing to do.”
“All right,” Kern
sighed. He was rubbing something over Alec's shoulders again. “That's
it.”
Max could see Alec
twisting, trying to peer over his shoulder. “Everything?” he
asked. “You got it all?”
“Every last rune Cale
provided me with and the wings are complete,” Kern affirmed. “The
ink's been holding and this last batch should be healed in a day or
two.”
“Awesome my man,”
Alec sighed as Kern attached some gauze to the area he had just been
working on. “Despite Mimi's complaining, you actually do good
work.”
“That little brat is a
wimp,” Kern snorted. “If it weren't for wanting to impress that X
six that she has her eye on, she'd never have done it.”
“Yeah, I talked to her
about that,” Alec sighed, his voice slightly muffled as he pulled
his t-shirt over his head.
“The tat or the six?”
Kern teased. They both laughed and Max felt a smile curve the corner
of her lips.
“Both actually,” Alec
admitted. His head popped free of the material and he moved to slide
his arms through the t-shirt. “Maven is all but ready to go after
Nikki, and he's getting a little annoyed with Mimi. So is Nikki. We
don't need crap like that going on, especially right now. So I had a
talk with her. She's on the right track now. Whether she likes it or
not.”
“About supporting Max?”
Kern wondered. And Max wondered the same thing herself.
“Nah, she always did,”
Alec waved one hand dismissively. “She was just using this as a
chance to impress Mave. But she believes in Max, just like the rest
of us.”
“Cool,” Kern agreed.
Max couldn't see him anymore, but it sounded like he was picking up,
maybe putting things away. She realized that if she wanted to let
them keep their little secret, she needed to go now. But... an idea
was forming in her mind. She slipped away, on silent feet, planning
how she would go about researching what she wanted. And she'd have to
move fast. If she was going to be ready for their little surprise...
*****
The day had finally come.
All of their tattoos had been healed up and were easily recognizable,
Alec realized. A few of those that had joined in his little cause had
been making hints that they wanted to do the big reveal. But as
usual, Max had been a whirlwind of activity. Having seemed to caught
a second wind, or whatever it was in the past few days, she had been
cheery with everyone and all bolstering spirits and making happy
little pep talky speeches. Whatever it was, Alec was relieved. Maybe
catching her in this mood would be better in the long run when they
finally revealed what she would most likely consider a stupid little
stunt. A time and resource waster. With a sigh, he allowed the litany
of possible complaints that she could come up with, to run through
his mind. Better to be ready for anything.
Unfortunately,
when he did catch a hold of her between runs to wherever she had
deemed it necessary that she needed to go to through out the day, she
wasn't in the mood to just go haring off with Alec. He would have
been disappointed, but she had asked so nicely if what he needed
could wait until that evening. Deciding quickly that it would give
him a chance to make sure that everyone was in place for the reveal,
he had agreed.
They
made plans to meet down at the mess hall so they could eat while they
“chatted”. That seemed good enough for Max and Alec figured, as
he headed back to let the others know the plan, that feeding the
savage beast might also help in the long run.
He
was starting to get nervous about this. And it was starting to show.
Because
it wasn't just a drunken idea. It was something that had been
fulminating in his brain for a while. He had seen how disconnected
Max was from everything. Not just the transgenics and their cause,
but from Logan, her friends, all the things she liked to do. There
wasn't a lot that anyone could do to remedy some of those things.
They were all in the same boat as she as far as this siege putting a
damper on their lives. But Alec had been thinking for a long time
that Max needed to remember what she was fighting for. And if she
believed that this cause didn't care for her too, because she was
just as much a part of the family as the rest of the transgenics and
transhumans.
Alec
had been simply planning to get a simple tattoo from Kern. It was
something Kern had found to keep himself busy. And his tattoos had
the added benefit that they were permanently removable. Unlike the
bar code tattoos that kept growing back, being a part of their
genetic encoding as they were. That had been the plan, until he had
stupidly blabbed his plan to a few others. And then they jumped on
the bandwagon and within a few days, had become a whole wagon train.
Logan
had heard and thought it was a nice gesture. He had even organized
the pictures of the runes and what each one meant, or the closest
approximation in the English language. In a smart move, he hadn't
gotten one himself, because as he rightly put it, it wasn't his
place. Alec secretly wondered if, with the accident that blew out
Logan's spinal cord, the man was wary of more pain.
So
he went about his day, alternately dreading Max's reaction and
imagining scenarios where she might just, if he was lucky, laugh it
off and tell them all to get their asses back to work.
They
met that evening, just outside of head quarters and Alec could feel
his nerves, tightly strung as they walked down to the mess hall where
everyone was gathered. He was barely paying any attention to Max,
until she smacked his bicep and he turned his head.
“Did
you hear what I said?” she demanded, her face scrunched up, ready
to launch into pissy miss.
“No,
not really,” he admitted readily, giving her as cheeky a grin as he
could muster. “Was thinking about dinner.”
“Don't
know why you would be,” she chuckled and he breathed a quiet sigh
of relief. “I really, really wish we'd been able to finish that
raid on the chain warehouse. I'm pretty sure that the spices were the
next aisle over.”
“And
like I said, it could have been spices, could have been cleaning
supplies,” Alec retorted. “wasn't gonna risk the team with
incoming unfriendlies just so the meals might possibly taste a step
above crap.”
“They're
not crap,” Max sighed. “Just... really bland. And it was the
right call. Of course it was. Wishful thinking I guess.”
“Yeah,”
Alec smiled. It wasn't the first time she had admitted that he had
tightened up his judgment calls, especially when deploying teams
through the city of Seattle for their various missions. But he still
liked hearing it. “I know all about that.”
“Oh
really?” Max asked, her smile almost blinding as she turned her
face up to him. “And what have you been wishing for? As if I
couldn't guess!”
“Nah,
no Max,” he smirked right back. “Whatever your little mind came
up with, you'd be miles off.”
“Oh
please, I could give you a laundry list of wishes and every single
one of them wold be dead on or damn close.”
“Like
what?” he demanded, loosening up quite a bit as their banter flowed
as easily as their walk.
“Soap,”
she groaned and shook her head as Alec chuckled. She wasn't wrong.
“Number one request. Because that lye stuff the resource crew came
up with is horrific.”
“Okay,
granted,” Alec agreed immediately, because he knew she was speaking
the truth. Both personally and because there had been a lot of
requests, through everyone that had anything to do with acquisitions,
which was a major part of his responsibilities that Max had assigned
him. “What else?”
“Oh
let's see,” Max mused. “That first one was kinda a gimme, wasn't
it?”
“Pretty
much,” he chuckled. And then waited, before teasing in a sing song
voice. “What could Alec possibly want?”
“Oh,
I know,” Max simpered back. “You're really,
really hoping that whatever it is that you're planning on surprising
me with tonight goes over well and that I won't end up tearing you a
new one,” she laughed. Alec had the feeling that it wasn't because
of the ridiculousness of the wish, but the automatic stunned look
that he was sure covered his face.
“All
right!” he growled, staring her down as she paused as well,
bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Who told?”
“You
just did,” she smirked, poking her forefinger into his chest.
“Seriously Alec, anyone could see it.”
“Ah
crap,” he sighed, rolling his head on his neck, feeling the
crackling in his spine from the tension he had been carrying over
this.
“And
I'm right, aren't I?” Max pressed, looking gleeful at having caught
him out. But at least, at this point, she wasn't taking him to task
for actually having planned to surprise her.
“Yeah,”
he admitted, a little reluctantly still. Just because she knew there
was a surprise, didn't guarantee that she wouldn't blow a gasket over
it.
“So
what is it?” she demanded, turning again to continue walking. “Did
you go back and get me my spices?”
“Yeesh,”
he grumbled. “What is it with you and those spices?”
“Well,
it would be nice,” she scoffed. “And everyone would be grateful.
But you didn't, huh?”
“No,
I did not organize a raid on a warehouse that we already stole from
just to get you some salt and pepper,” Alec grinned. He could see
her rolling her eyes.
“It's
more than salt and pepper,” she huffed. “I'm talking cinnamon,
seasoning salt, garlic, onion, lemon pepper, oregano, parsley,
rosemary-!”
“And
thyme, which we didn't have,” Alec punned, pointing at his wrist
where his watch resided. Max rolled her eyes and punched lightly at
his forearm.
“That
was bad,” she groaned.
“Okay
yeah,” Alec agreed even as he chuckled under his breath. “But
seriously, if you really want to, I'm sure we can find another place
to hit up.”
“Well,
don't you agree that everyone would enjoy that?” she demanded.
“Probably
not as much as some real hooch and not the rotgut Tim and his gang
are producing,” Alec nodded importantly. They both shuddered at the
thought of those concoctions.
“Okay,
so we know it's not spices,” Max continued her former guessing
game. “Are you just trying to butter me up before you ask me for
something huge?”
“If
I wanted to butter you up,” Alec grinned widely, “I'd have much
better ways than a crappy, bland, third rate meal at the same crappy,
bland mess hall we always go to.”
“Okay,
point taken.”
It
wasn't too much longer after that, as Max continued to tease Alec
with silly wishes, that they arrived at the mess hall. Alec was
relieved to see that the majority of people that had gotten involved
in his little scheme had gathered and that they were smart enough to
be seated randomly, rather than all clustered together. Joshua, whom
Max would have sat with, even if she had to wedge in, which she
regularly did with the big guy, wasn't present. Alec suspected that
he might be hiding back in the kitchen until the big reveal. Getting
a tattoo for Joshua had been quie the novelty. As the very first
trans anything created, he had no bar code such as the others did.
They were paid barely any attention as they entered the building, but
Max paused all the same. Alec watched as she hesitated just inside
the door way, knuckles brushing over her sternum before she pressed
her palm flat for just a second.
“Everything
okay?” he asked quietly. She seemed startled when he spoke, making
him frown. She lifted her chin and smiled benignly.
“Just
fine,” she nodded once and then turned to the line to gather their
trays and food. “Shall we?”
“Yeah,
let's,” he agreed with a tight smile. He could see now as they got
into the main hall properly that those idiots had made their
groupings seem random, but really, there was very little seating
left. About the only place that they could sit together was in the
very center of the room and Alec mentally rolled his eyes as he
followed their de facto leader. Of course, it would never creep into
their minds that Max could be utterly contrary to their intentions
and choose to sit by herself at one of the far tables.
But
to his relief and the muted delight of those awaiting her, she headed
straight to the center table which was pretty much empty, greeting
those she knew fairly well on the way. Once she had taken her seat on
the bench, Alec skirted the table so that he would be opposite of
her. But as she ordered her meal from the tray to the table, he heard
some not so sly grunts and coughs, letting him know that the rabble
didn't want to wait any longer.
“Hey
Max,” he began and then had to clear his throat. She didn't look up
like he was expecting. Instead she continued unrolling her cutlery
from the paper napkin.
“Yeah
Alec?” she responded, but seemed more interested in the food. Or
maybe just deciphering what exactly the offering was.
“Max,
uh, I need to talk to you about something,” he tried again. Again
she pretty much ignored looking at him.
“Go
ahead,” she offered.
Alec
sighed and wondered how to go about this. For all that it was an
idea... he still wasn't too sure what her reaction would be and
therefore didn't know what light to present this through. He heard
another grunt and when his eyes slid in that direction, he saw Kern
motioning with his hands. Alec just barely restrained his snort.
Yeah, just take his shirt off. That wouldn't go over well in any
situation and if he were to do that, Max would think he'd lost his
mind.
But
then, on the upside of that, she'd probably be too shocked at his
behavior to get pissy about something as inconsequential as a tattoo.
It was a mark of how nervous and unsure he was that Alec considered
it. But first...
“Actually,
I have something to show you,” he tried one more time. And this
time, she lifted her face from where she had been using her fork to
dig through the mound of casserole type offering on her dinner plate.
The smile she had for him calmed him. She was still in a good mood.
That was... ideal.
“You
do?” she grinned and then made a show of setting her fork down. She
gestured peaceably towards him and waited expectantly.
But
now that her eyes were on him, Alec felt a lump in his throat and the
nervousness was back. Deciding to just get it over with, he shed his
coat and laid it on the bench next to him.
Swiveling
around, throwing his leg over the bench, Alec reached for the hem of
his soft T-shirt. He heard Max's slight gasp, but ignored it,
concentrating instead on the nods of approval he was receiving from
the rest of the room at large. When the shirt was off, he continued
swinging around until his back was presented to her. Unable to look
over his shoulder to see her reaction, he instead relied on the faces
of those closest to him.
They
were grinning like fools.
He
heard a slight scrape and realized Max was pushing the bench seat
back. And then, the next moment, he felt her soft fingers brushing
over the healed art work decorating his back.
“Alec?”
she whispered out and he finally turned his head so that he could see
her. He was surprised to see her eyes glistening. “This is
beautiful.”
“You
like it?” he asked earnestly. Apparently unable to speak much
herself, she traced the wings of the angel he
had chosen, the feathery touch oddly appropriate.
“So
much,” she whispered once again and Alec wasn't sure if she was
commenting in response to his question or the sheer magnitude of the
amount of work. But then he felt her finger probe a little more. “Are
these... those are runes in the wings, aren't they?” she demanded,
though her voice was still gentle. Alec nodded, feeling relief that
he finally knew. “This is amazing Alec. But why couldn't you have
shown me before?”
Alec
didn't have to say a word as the rest of the gathered transgenics
responded to her question as the rolled up sleeves, pulled aside
necklines and as a whole, bared the tattoos that they had chosen. He
watched with pleasure as Max's eyes grew large as
she stared numbly around the room. There were a few choked sounds
from her as they all waited with partially bated breath for the rest
of her reaction. But as Alec stood to turn and see her fully, he
noted that she was pressing at her chest again.
“Max?”
he asked softly. Her head came up sharply and she smiled tremulously.
“There's
a new rune,” she murmured, as surprisingly, she began to unbutton
her blouse. Alec's eyes widened but she stopped after the third
button and spread the fabric apart. He could see now why she had been
rubbing at the spot. There, directly over her heart was a new symbol,
but strangely it didn't match up with anything Alec recognized. He
darted around the table to see more closely as the others pressed in
as well.
“Why
didn't you tell us?” he demanded, worriedly. They had all, Max
included, thought that this crap was done with her. The message had
been delivered.
“I
researched it,” she continued, as if he hadn't spoken, her voice
growing in volume. “It's not like the others. It's... the
concept... it's love. Not just romantic, but brotherly, pure,
fanatical, I don't know...”
“It's
the love we have for her and she for us,” Kern finally spoke up,
standing tall and beaming. Alec, hearing that, his mind began to
whirl with suspicions.
“The
love that's gonna sustain us through all this crap,” Max finished,
smiling up at him. “What do you think?” she asked.
Alec,
recognizing Kern's hand in this now, regarded her for the longest
moment and saw finally, the same hesitation, fear of other's
reactions that he had dealt with earlier. And just as she had
accepted his, probably because Kern, the little rat, had spilled the
beans, Alec had no trouble dealing with her little turnaround.
“It's
beautiful,” he announced. Pleasure suffused him when Max threw her
arms around his neck. His hands responded automatically, sliding
around her waist to pull her close.
“Thank
you for this Alec,” she whispered in his ear. “I don't know how
you knew, but I really needed this.”
He
smirked, just slightly, but had to ask. “Why're you so sure it was
me?”
“Because
it's always you Alec.”
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