| ~Next Morning~ Maria groaned as sunlight hit her face from the window. She buried her face into her pillow not yet wanting to get up, not like she actually had anything to do. She jumped up, at least tried to, when her pillow moved. She slowly let her gaze drift up what she was leaning on, and who's arm was thrown around her waist, holding her tight to the body. She put a hand to her chest and sighed with relief as she saw Michael, and then everything came flooding back. The small argument at the Cafe, weird departure of Michael, then later him showing up at her window, them fooling around and she asking him to stay. She gazed down at his sleeping face, he looked peaceful and she didn't want to disturb him. She scooted up some, propped her head up on her hand and continued to look down at him. She hesitantly let her hand dart out to softly caress his face. He wasn't gone and that amazed her. She was sure that he would have slipped out once she had fallen asleep. Michael Guerin never seized to amaze and confuse her. She didn't know if sharing a few looks, kissing a couple of times and the sparks she felt every time he just looked at her counted for anything..or if they would ever have anything besides him sneaking into her house and them making out. But waking up in his arms seemed right..she wanted him, and not just the physical side, it was odd. Maria sighed as she let one of her curls fall into her face as she continued to gaze down at him and wait for him to awake. Michael opened his eyes slowly, feeling that something was out of place. Seconds later, he was jumping up from the bed, nearly dropping Maria on the floor. "Uh.. hi." he mumbled lamely. "Yeah, my same reaction, although I actually would have been able to get out of bed had you not been holding me down." Maria said as she looked up at him, "Did I wake you up?" She questioned with a frown, sticking to small things at a time just seemed to be the way to go. "I was wha-- Oh, yeah.. sorry about that." Michael stammered, glancing from Maria to the bed and back. He was starting to remember everything that had happened yesterday... the Crashdown, Hank, and then the two of them... him and Maria, here on her bed. Some things were better left alone, Michael thought grimly, as his body responded to the memories of their kisses. Taking another step back from the bed, he glanced down at her. "So I guess I should say good morning, heh?" "No need to be sorry..." Maria frowned at him as she looked down at her flowered comforter, "That's what normal people do...but then again, your not a normal person." She said looking back up at him with a small smirk. She knew he would be like this, they made out last night and he stayed the night and then in the morning he'd be all distant-y, not that she expected him to be wanting to just...jump into something right now. "Morning." She finally said as she got out of her bed, stretching lightly, not going to let him take away from her morning routines. She opened her bedroom door and quietly snuck out and down the hall, opening another door. She came back to her bedroom louder than she left, sighing, "She's still not home, god." She mumbled. Maria gave him a small smile, "Did I kick you anytime last night? Because I've been told that I' m a fighter while I sleep..so I'm apologizing now if I did. Sorry." Michael grinned at her... not sarcastic grin.. not a smirk.. just a simple, small Michael grin. "Yeah, well, you're a fighter when you're awake too..." He shifted awkwardly.. her casual stretching had done nothing to quiet his body. If this kept up, he was going to be in desperate need of a quick shower.. a quick COLD shower. "Your mom's not home, you mean?" he questioned, absently glancing over the assorted vials of oils and liquids on her desk. "Yeah, she's probably at Nick's, or Jeff's...or whoever her boyfriend is this week. She always does this. She leaves a note of the frig telling me not to wake up and that she's on a date and she doesn't come home until the next day...she's done it since I was like 12." Maria said with a sigh, not knowing why she was actually telling him anything. She fell back down on her bed, and watched as he stood across the room, shifting awkwardly, "I'm not going to bite you if you sit down, ya know." She said in a small teasing voice. Her playful smile slowly faded to a frown, "You not going to get in trouble with your parents for being here, not going last night are you?" "Nah, Hank doesn't care." Michael answered quickly. He stepped closer to the bed, still not sitting. "So you're mom leaves you alone a lot, huh?" he asked. "Where's your dad?" "What dad?" Maria asked with a small snort and roll of her eyes, "If your talking about the guy that got my mom knocked up at the age of 17, well then, he hasn't been around since I was 7." She told him, a touch of anger in her voice. "He just took.."She shook her head, "You don't want to here me ramble on about my father." She told him quietly, "Hanks your foster father then?" She questioned, "Tell me to stop asking questions if your uncomfortable and I will." "Then stop asking questions." Michael replied, only half-joking. "That sucks.. about your dad." He sat down gingerly on the side of the bed. Running both hands through his hair, he glanced quickly at her. Then he dropped his eyes, looking at the clock by her bedside. 7 AM.. "Uh, what's today?" he muttered. "Wednesday? Friday? Yeah, I think it Friday..." Looking up at her, her tank top revealing more skin than was good for him and her sleep-tousled hair, he asked, "Guess you need to get ready for class, right?" Maria looked at him with some surprise, with all this...stuff the two were doing she completely forgot that there was school, "I guess I should..but I don't have to, not really. I mean if you can skip like...half a semester, than I should be okay with just one day right?" She smirked at him, although it was softer than she would have liked to show. Her eyes stay trained of his for a moment as she revealed that she actually knew when he was and wasn't at school, "Not that I'm stalking you or anything, we just have a few classes together and your never there..." Michael started slightly, "I didn't think anyone would notice whether I was there or not." "Someone would have to be blind to not notice you around, or when your not around." Maria said quietly, she had never thought that she'd actually get him to talk to her...open up just a little. "It's impossible to miss you. I mean, you've got the whole...brooding, bad boy look going and..." She trailed off slightly. "Well the guys at school ignore you because they feel threatened by you, I mean your like number 2 on the top ten list of hot guys at the school..it's written all over the walls in the girls bathrooms so I know girls notice you...And quite frankly, you scare the hell out of a lot of people, teachers included..adults around town, I've heard talk. So you can never say people don't notice you." Michael laughed dryly. "Well, maybe I just never thought about it." Really, he had. He thought about it often. It seemed that no one, save Max and Isabel, ever noticed him for anything positive. And even those two seemed to notice him only when he was in trouble. Or causing it, Michael reflected. "Maybe we should try to meet up with the others some time today." he suggested. "See what conclusions the science dorks came up with yesterday..." Michael grinned slightly. Quite a shocking night, really. To find out that you had "sparkly purple" status, even if you had to share it, and then hear that you wear on "the list". THAT he hadn't seen coming.... Maria laughed quietly at his grin and his definition of Liz and Max, "I swear if I have to listen to Liz rant about how it's unfair that she's dating Kyle Valenti, but basically saw into someone else's soul, I'm going..I don't know, kill myself." She told him rolling her eyes, "And then listening to her tell me what 'soulful' eyes Max Evans's has...na-uh." "Okay, give me your honest answer. How sick are you listening to Max talk about Liz?" She questioned, "And don't deny it, I know he talks about her..like 24/7..." She sometimes got sick of listening to Liz talk about her life. I mean the girl was her bestfriend and all, but sometimes she just wanted to pound into her head that she had the life. She had both loving parents, around all the time, she had a boyfriend *AND* another guy pinning after her, and she was straight A student, without even having to try. Maria on the other hand, she had her mother who was hardly ever around and her father was gone, she didn't have a boyfriend, and the only guy that had showed interest in her in over two years is an alien. "Yeah, I guess he does talk about her a lot. Not 24/7, mind you. Even aliens have to sleep..." He paused, then looked directly at her. "So what do you think.. about the Liz/Max deal? He seems to think that they're fated or something... but then again he's liked her for years, so maybe it's the hormones talking." "I have no clue what to think..I mean she swears she doesn't like him, and that she just wants Kyle, but I've caught her just standing behind the counter at work, staring at that booth you three are always in." Maria told him with a shrug, "I mean, maybe she was supposed to get shot and Max save her for they could..end up together and you guys could finally have someone knowing your secret...but I don't know." She finished lamely. She looked at him as he looked directly back. She blushed lightly and looked away, lightly licking her lips as she remembered the kisses, "Is it even safe for us to..I mean for them to get together, if they ever did?" Michael snorted. "You know about as much about that as we do...."He stared at her, the slight blush creeping up her face was adorable. It made her eyes stand out even more, if that were possible. Jerking his eyes away from her, Michael stood up and stretched. He walked across the room, and leaned lightly against the wall, facing her. "We don't really know a lot about our powers. Or our, uh, biology?" "Oh.." Maria said simply as her eyes darted around the room, then landed back on him again, "Well, you know, last night you kinda offered to show me how your powers worked." She was quiet for a moment, not sure how to go about this, "Umm, do you wanna...skip some classes and show me...your powers. I mean we could take the Jetta and go out into the desert..unless you don't want to, and then I'd totally understand." She wasn't sure was possesed her to ask, and she wasn't so sure that he would actually agree, but she was going to try atleast. Michael's eyes met hers, startled. He had thought she dropped that particular conversation because she wasn't interested. 'Or maybe the kissing had something to do with that' he thought, grinning quietly. "Well," he said aloud, "if you want, that's cool with me." Maria slowly smiled, "Yeah, I, umm...really want to know about these powers." 'yeah keep telling yourself that' She thought to herself as she pushed off her bed, "I have to.." She looked down at her pj's. "I have to change first, so if you could just....maybe wait in here and I'll.." She looked towards her bathroom. She shuffled across the room to her closet and opened it, pulling out an outfit. It was weird that she wasn't that uncomfortable with him in the room as she got her things together and then went into the bathroom, leaving the door slightly cracked so she could still talk to him, "I can take you by your place for you to change, unless you like the whole day old clothes thing." She joked to him as she changed. A few minutes later she walked out in a pair of jeans a white t-shirt that hugged tightly to her body. She was brushing her hair out as she walked back to her closet again. She dropped the brush on her bed as she sat down with a pair of tennis shoes, and started putting them on. "Well, you get used to it after a while." Michael joked. After all, laundry was pretty much up to him. As was everything else, he thought grimly. Besides, he wouldn't want Maria spending any time near Hank, even if he could predict what mood he'd be in. "I'll be fine as is... ready to go?" Maria put her shoes on, then stood up, "Yeah..this time, we use the door." She told him in a light tone as she started down the hall and towards the kitchen, "I don't know if you...aliens need food, but seeing how your always at the crashdown, then I guess you do, so you want a poptart, eat while on the road?" She questioned as she opened a cabinet in the kitchen and looked in it, "We got strawberry and chocolate.." She told him, looking over her shoulder at him as she reached up, getting both boxes down. Michael's stomach grumbled loudly at the thought of food. "That'd be cool... one of each." He answered, looking around the kitchen, mostly to avoid staring at her butt and legs. Though, really, he wasn't doing a very good job.... "Do you have any hot sauce on hand... preferably Tabasco?" he asked, casually. Maria scrunched up her nose as he asked about some Tabasco, "Yeah, I think it's in the frig...What's up with that little quirk. I mean I've watched you, Max, and Isabel pour that stuff all over your food..and in your drink even..for years now and it's quite disgusting, yet fascinating at the same time." She commented as she she went to her frig, pulling out a bottle of tabasco, tossing it to him with a smirk. She held a couple of poptart packages and then pulled out two water bottles, "It doesn't really mix with poptarts..but it's healthy for you." She told him quickly, yet more like a question at the same time. "Could you get the jetta keys? They're hanging on the wall behind you." "Just weird taste buds, I guess." he answered, taking the pop-tarts and snagging the Tabasco mid-air. "Nothing really tastes "right" without the stuff." Michael shoved the strawberry pop-tart package in his pocket, intending to save them for later. He never really knew when he'd get something else. "Here.." he said, snagging the keys off the wall, and handing them out to her. "Thanks for breakfast." he grinned, taking the water. Maria laughed quietly as she took the keys from him, letting her hand lightly touch his, "No problem Spaceboy." She grinned at him as she grabbed her denim jacket that was drapped over the back of one of the chairs and her purse that was drapped over the jacket and started for the door. "Okay we have rules for the Jetta..we will not listen to anything on the radio that you can't understand what's being sang because it's too loud." She gave him a pointed look, "You wear enough black, so I'm assuming your a fan of those types of bands..." She couldn't wipe the stupid grin off her face as she walked out the door, knowing he was following and out to the car, unlocking the drivers door and getting in, then reaching across and unlocking the passenger door for him. "Who isn't?" Michael replied, climbing into the passenger seat. "And I don't always wear black.... " he protested, looking down at his outfit, black jeans topped by a black tee. "Okay, so today's not a good example." Looking back at her, he smirked. "So what's YOUR favorite color then?" "Purple.." Maria answered without hesitation as shestarted the car and backed out of her drive way andtowards the desert. "I mean..it's not too bright, but it's not black either..it's inbetween...although I like to mix my colors up." She said glancing at his black outfit, "I don't think you can say you don't always wear black...you don't vary in your clothes..I mean it's either black t-shirts and black jeans, or blue jeans and white shirts...that's like no color at all." "Well that's three colors at least... and white, uh, white is the combination of all colors, so that's kind of like wearing all colors at once, right?" Michael grinned at her white shirt pointedly. "Hope it doesn't rain today..." he smirked, thinking the opposite to himself. "So where are we headed?" Maria looked at him for a second, sticking her tongue out at him childishly, then turned her attention back to the road. "Well, there's this place out in the desert..I go out there occasionaly, it has a whole bunch of rocks, you can blow up and therefore..I see your powers in progress." She told him with a smile. Michael gaped at her. "Now, there's maturity in action." he accused, sticking his tongue out in response. "Rocks will be cool, I guess... at least no one will mind if those get busted up." He turned to stare at the desert. "It's an amazing place out here, really. I sometimes walk out here, or spend the night. It's.. cool." he trailed off, staring at the passing landscape. "We were, "hatched" I guess, out here...." he remarked casually. "I've never stayed the night out here before..I come out here when mom goes out of town, or I get majorly pissed." Maria told him with a small shrug, "It's nice..it's quiet..secluded." Maria looked at him, back at the road, at him again, then back to the road when he said that they were hatched., "You guys hatched? That is so..like unreal...really? Your not just pulling my chain here?" She questioned. Michael shifted in his seat, somewhat uncomforable. He had never discussed his.. identity.. with anyone but Max and Isabel. How would a human react to his story? Amused? Disgusted? Or flat-out disbelief? "No.. no joke." he answered hesitantly. "We weren't "born"... not the way you think of it, at least. All three of us have memories of silver pods that we came out of. They're still in our cave... a ways back out that way." he explained, gesturing out his window. "Weird, huh?" Maria nodded her head, "I just assumed you were just...dropped off by a space ship or something." She threw him a small girn, "Sorry if I think it's weird, it's nothing against you or the others...just a little unbelievable..but then again, we're talking aliens here so I shouldn't be surprised." She turned quiet as she turned off the main road and onto a small side road, then off that road and into the desert. After a few minutes the car came to a slow hault. Michael smiled, slightly. "In a way, we were. But we were already in human form when we came out of the pods... we don't even know what we really look like." he trailed off, as the two lapsed into a neutral silence. "So what's so special about this place?" he asked, as the car stopped. "My dad...well before he turned into this bastard and split, he would take me here sometimes. After he left, I kinda stayed clear of here for a while." Maria said with a small shrug as she turned the car off, "But now I just come here for some sort of peace and quiet, when I need to think." She grabbed a packet of poptarts, her waterbottle and got out of the car. She walked around the front and looked through the window at him with a raise eyebrow. She slid up on the hood of the car, waiting for him to get out. 'Oh.. bastard is the right word,' Michael thought grimly. A family was the one thing he had longed for all his life.. he couldn't begin to understand anyone who had a wife and child, and willingly left them. Climbing out of the Jetta, he walked around front. Michael propped himself against the hood next to her, and opened his poptarts. After adding a liberal dash of the Tabasco, he began eating quickly. Rather than looking at her, he stared off into the desert, noting a group of large boulders nearby. Those would work nicely, he decided. Finally glancing Maria's way, he swallowed and opened his water bottle. "Aren't you going to eat?" he asked, noticing her unopened package. Maria looked down at her packets, then back at him, shaking her head for a moment, "I'm not really hungry.." She told him as she opened her waterbottle and took a sip, "You know what I don't understand? How could it be so hot during the day out here, yet cold at night.." She trailed off, feeling incredibly stupid. She looked away from the scenery to look at him, noting that in the heat that both were starting to sweat. She tilted her head to the side, admiring his body as he looked around. Her head snapped back to look forward when he looked at her. "You gonna show me your Samantha Jeanie powers now?" She paused, a small grin spreading across her lips, "Or do I have to do something to see the show?" Michael grinned wickedly. "Well, I'll have to think about my demands for a minute... there's just so much to do out here." He pointedly glanced around the lone environment. Turning back to her, he cocked his head and made a futile attempt to wiggle his nose. "Nope, no Samantha Jeanie powers here." Michael smirked... "So you want me to show you what I'm good at, or actually try something new?" Maria laughed quietly, "Okay, when you grin that way,it scares me." She joked, for a moment wondering what she was doing out in the middle of no where with him. They weren't friends, they weren't dating, they weren't anything...just, together, for now. "Well..how about you do something new, then show me your usual routine for your...powers." She nodded her head, agreeing with herself. She raised her waterbottle to her lips, taking another sip, then holding the cool bottle up to her forehead. Stifling his grin, Michael said, "Scare ya, huh? Well... good! That means I'm doing my job." He turned his attention out to the desert. "See that rock over there?" he asked, gesturing to a large boulder about 20 yards from them. At Maria's nod, Michael raised his hand and stared at the boulder. After a few moments, his hand began to glow with a silvery tint. In the distance, the boulder exploded, shooting pieces of rock several feet into the air. "Not bad, heh?" he said, smiling slightly at her expression. "Wow...." Maria said quietly, staring at the bits and pieces of the left over boulder, then looked to Michael, "That's what you do..you make things..explode like that?" She questioned, but she knew that's what he did from the conversation last night. She slowly smiled at him, "That was so cool...you don't do anything else with those secret powers of yours?" She questioned as she looked back out into the desert, licking her dry lips. Michael smiled sardonically. "Yeah, well I'm good at destroying things.." he muttered.Turning to look at here, he continued, "I guess there are other things.. Max can heal people, of course. Isabel can dream walk.. Visit people in their dreams." he explained, seeing her confused expression. "I don't really do much else though... I practice sometimes. Like that rock there," he gestured to another rock. "Max could pick it up and move in.. without destroying it, I mean." he grinned. "Oh..Well maybe that's what your supposed to do...like maybe back..on your home planet." Maria grinned at that, but quickly continued, "Maybe you were like...some general or something and you had to make things explode.." She suggested with a small shrug. "Either way, I think it's pretty cool." Michael surprised her by laughing out loud. "Yeah, I'm the Executive in charge of Explosions and Combustion. I like that! Man, wait til I tell Max!" He leaned over and placed a quick kiss on her forehead. "You're a weird one, Deluca." Quickly turning from her, Michael took a few steps away from the car. "Wanna go for a walk?" he offered. "Yeah okay..just don't get us lost SpaceBoy." Maria said as she slid off the hood of her car and slowly came up to his side, "And I should take offense by that weird comment, but I won't..I guess I'm used to it by now." "Well yeah, if one is weird their entire life, they DO eventually get used to it." he smirked at her. "Your friends, on the other hand..." Michael grinned down at her calmly. Starting off in a random direction, he said, "Don't worry about getting lost, cheesehead. I happen to have an impeccable sense of direction." "Dorkbutt.." Maria muttered with a small smile, "What is it with you bringing up all these weird..nicknames from our childhood?" She questioned with a laugh, resisting the urge to hold his hand. Michael shrugged casually. "Nothing really.... they just seem to pop out whenever your around. Besides, it's more mature than you sticking your tongue out at me." As they walked, he stayed right beside, clutching his water bottle in one hand, the other dangling free. Occasionally, their inside hands would brush and Michael would step to the side with a mumbled, "sorry". After a few minutes of silent walking, he asked, "So uh, you remember all those fights are stuff we used to have? We were horrible to one another!" "Yeah, well when your kids, you tend to be mean to alot of people." Maria said with a smile, "But yeah..we were horrible to each other...ya know, some of the things you did were really..out there, so I'm guessing it had something to do with your powers." She grinned at him. She was quiet for a moment, "What's going on between us?" She questioned quietly as she looked up at him, then sighed, "I was telling myself that I wasn't going to ask, but I just...I don't know." Michael sighed, softly. Looking at Maria, he shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about." he denied. Maria grabbed his arm, stopping him when he began to walk past her, "You know damn well what I'm talking about. THat little thing in the cafe yesterday, then last night, you showed up at my window last night and then we..." She trailed off with a sigh, letting his arm go and starting to walk off, "There's something going on Michael, whether or not you want to admit it." 'Damn...' Michael thought, dismayed. He reached out and snagged Maria around the waist with one arm, bringing her to an abrupt stop. "What's the deal?" he demanded. "You tell me... exactly what do YOU think is going on?" "I don't know...but I'm not going to deny it." Maria said quietly, "I know that this isn't...that this isn't some look in your eyes soul mate thing..but it has sparks and...I like it, even when I know I shouldn't." Michael sighed, raking his hands through his already spikey hair. He didn't know what to say to her. True, he felt the same unexplainable emotions, the same sparks as she meant. But "unexplainable" was the key word... He didn't know what it meant, how it worked, or worse of all, when it would end. He just knew that his future, his sanity, his very "soul" as it were depended upon keeping her at a safe distance. "Look, Maria," he said softly, careful not to touch her, "nothing is "going on" as you put it, all right? Sparks? Come on, what does that mean? Just..." he trailed off, turning away from her. "Let's just head back to the Jetta, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, Michael turned and walked away. TBC |
| Part 3 |
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