Brittle - DA fic - PG13

[tigriswolf]

Title: Brittle

Fandom: “Dark Angel”

Disclaimer: none of ‘em are mine. I wrote this purely because I can.

Warnings: spoilers for everything

Pairings: nary a one

Rating: PG13

Wordcount: 460
Point of view: third:

 

            There’s something brittle in Alec’s laugh, something Max is scared she never noticed before. Sometimes she looks at him and swears she sees Ben peering back from those hazel eyes.

            Ben broke, somehow, shattered by the world and his own expectations, and now Alec’s laugh sounds like Ben’s, that final night atop the Needle.

 

            She knows she’s hard on him, harder than she’s ever been on anyone else. He just annoys her so easily, prickles her defenses, and she knows no other way to be. Other people bend beneath her fury, realize instinctively that she can destroy them, even if they don’t understand. But Alec—he just grins or smirks, and hits right back.

            He attacks with words, too, and distantly, a part of her knows when their fists fly that he’s holding back.

            Always holding back.

            And that scares her just as much as his brittle laugh.

 

            She remembers Ben as a boy, the storyteller, the one who took frightened children away from their pain and gave them hope.

            She remembers Ben as a man, tattered and shattered, begging anything for explanation and redemption, for relief from the crushing weight of despair.

            She remembers how it felt to grip his neck in her hands and the grief that shot through her when he let her twist.

 

            Max knows she needs to stop pushing. She knows on a deep, primal level—Alec’s been patient with her. Extremely patient. Anyone else would have lashed back by now.

            She’s watched him fight. She’s seen him kill. 

            Terminal City and all its citizens need them both alive and healthy to keep everyone safe. They can’t be picking fights with each other, not with White and his cult so close. Not with the humans waiting for them to fall.

She has to stop harping on him and sniping at him, before he finally decides it’s time to prove just how dangerous he is—

Because Alec is not Ben and will not let her kill him.

No matter how alike their laughter is.

 

He fights at her back, by her side, with her against all comers. She’s given up trying to figure out what the angle is, what he really wants. Maybe he is a good man, after all. Maybe he’s finally found a cause. 

Maybe he’s killing time, waiting for something, but she never ponders that route for long.

 

            Mole tells them about the next mission they have to go on. Logan berates Alec for letting a transgenic kill a human that got in the way. Max isn’t sure whose side to be on.

            When Alec smiles, it’s a hollow shell.

            When Alec laughs, it’s a brittle sound.

            Max meets his eyes and isn’t sure if it’s Alec or Ben or someone entirely new looking back.

 

 

Comments

[penandnotebook]

WOW! all the possibilities that spring from this. Good piece, very good piece. I always loved it when I got to see another layer of a character, and Alec was all about layers, and this one fits him so perfectly.
It reminds me of how untamable he is, how folded in himself, all of his quips, and jokes and cockiness, his strenght and goodness, but also all of his potential darkness. So undifined because there is no way of telling what that darkness means unless he acts on it, and then we can see it for what it is, but until then, Alec is a wild card.
And I'm ridiculously glad that Max is the one to tell. It wouldn't have had the same impact had it been Mole or somebody else seeing it. Because Alec really cares for what Max thinks of him, and that she is finally seeing him is ver rewarding for those of us who hoped for this to be cannon. But alas.

Thanks for sharing.
Also, mind if I friend you some?

[tigriswolf]

Feel free! And thank you for reading.