Author: Darkchilde
Rating: PG-13 (just to be on the safe side)
Pairing: Alex/Tess
Improv: Fire: Shimmer: Reckless: Inspire
Disclaimer:  I don't own them, but if I did, Alex wouldn't be dead and Tess wouldn't be evil  (but, isn't that the case with everyone??) 
Spoilers:  None that I know of...


The light from the small fire danced across her hair, making it shimmer in the darkness of the night even as the flickering flames tossed shadows onto her face,
masking her features from his eyes.  As if mere shadows could block her from his sight. Her were features permanently etched into his mind, burned into his iris.  He was surprised when others looked into his eyes that they didn’t see her looking back at them, that they didn’t see the beautiful face that remained at the forefront of his mind all through the
day, waiting for the night to fall when he could look his fill. 

She caught him looking, and she smiled at him from across the dancing flames, wrapping her arms around herself as if she was cold.  He reacted immediately, standing from his half-crouch where he was tending tomthe fire and moved over near her, dropping easily next to her and wrapping one of his long arms around her slim shoulders. 

She leaned against him, reveling in his warmth, his strength, his scent, everything that made him *him*. The heat from his body invaded hers, driving the cold chill that had danced across her spine away, replacing it with the honest warmth that radiated from him,
filling her to the core.  Closing her eyes again, she just let it soak into her bones, and she sighed in delight, enticing a muffled chuckle from him. 

Twisting her neck to look back up at him, she smiled at his laughter, before lifting an inquiring eyebrow that she knew that he would see and understand.  It was nice to have someone that knew her so well, some one that could almost predicate her every thought and move, but stilled always seemed so surprised by her. 

At first she had been afraid, afraid of the way he knew her, afraid that he would some how use it against her.  But then she had slowly learned to accept it, and then to treasure it, because it was something that she had never had before.  No one had ever really
understood her—no one had ever tried too. But he had—he wanted to know her.  He wanted to.  No one else had ever wanted to before.   

“What?”  He asked, reaching out a long fingered hand to tuck a lock of her golden hair behind her ear.  She just shook her head, leaning back against him and soaked in the feeling of being next to him for a while longer.  She felt him shift beneath her, and then the press of his chin against the top of her head.  Again, she let her eyes slip shut, breathing when he breathed, feeling the steady beat of his heart against her cheek.

It had been too long since he had held her like this, since they had had a spare minute to slip away without being noticed.  Not like it was that difficult for either of them to get away, she noted with just a touch of bitterness.  No one noticed either of us
much, except when they need us to do something for one of them. 

“Hey…none of those thoughts.” He chided her gently, and she lifted her head from his chest and looked at him for a long second, meeting his blue eyes with her own, not at all surprised that he seemed to know what she was feeling, what she was thinking.  He lifted a hand to her face and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, and leaned forward, kissing her softly, full on the mouth.  Fire shot through her veins, making her feel reckless and wild, something she had never known before she meet him. 

If she could tell anyone else about it, they would laugh—reckless and wild were not words that immediately jumped to mind when they thought about him.  He was too cautious normally, to protective, to stable to get really wild, most people--even the people that knew him best--thought.      

She leaned into the kiss as his arms tightened around her back, holding her close to his chest.  Her hands twisted into his shirt, tugging at him, trying to get closer then close, wanting to be a part of him the way he was a part of her.  His tongue darted against her
lips and she opened her mouth for him, letting her tongue twine with his in the dance as old as time. 

When the need for air became a problem, the two pulled back and she smiled at him, leaning forward until her forehead rested against his.  He smiled back, reaching
up to tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering on her smooth skin for just a moment, sending little shots of joy racing through her
veins, yet again. 

“I missed you.”  She whispered to him, reaching up to stroke her fingers along his jaw bone, marveling at the smooth, soft skin against the pads of her fingertips.  He had shaved recently, and she smiled in appreciation—he knew how much she disliked having her face rubbed raw by stubble.

“I missed you, too. We should do this more often. How long has it been?  Almost a week?”  The young man whispered to her, and she sighed, shutting her eyes and then opening them again, looking him dead in the eye. 

“We could have done it more often, but somebody had band practice almost every night for the past couple of days.” She smiled, letting him know that she was just teasing, as a delicious since of freedom filled her. Free…they were free.  Free from the prying eyes
of those that wouldn’t understand, free from a world were they weren’t allowed to feel the way they felt about each other. 

“Is it my fault that you inspire me, Goldilocks?” 

Goldilocks.  Her heart fluttered at the nickname, even as she wrinkled her nose in mock disgust at its use. No one had ever given her a nickname before.  No one had ever cared enough, or noticed enough about her to even try to give her one. 

But, shortly before they had started whatever it was that this was, he had taken to calling her that whenever they were out of earshot the rest of the group, laughing at the way she would growl and complain about it, because he saw the way her eyes seemed to sparkle with laughter.  So, he continued to call her that, because he liked the way her eyes glittered.  He adored the way she pouted when he persisted in calling her that, and he loved the way she’d finally stomp her foot in frustration and walk off when she finally realized that he wasn’t going to stop. 

It was when she finally stopped stomping off that he realized that it wasn’t her reaction that he loved. 

It was her. 

He loved her. 

The feeling was a new one for him—for so long, he had hid from his feelings, masked them with fantasies and feelings that weren’t real, weren’t really there, just so he could keep himself from being hurt.  But somehow, she had managed to make her way behind his
walls, and he had knocked hers down, stating that it was only fair. 

He still remembered the way she had laughed when he dragged her out here the first time, telling her that he needed help with his astronomy homework, and she seemed to be the best candidate for that job.  But that wasn’t the real reason—the real reason was that
he just wanted to be alone with his precious Goldilocks for a few minutes, just a few minutes.

However, things hadn’t gone the way he had planned them.  He remembered the feeling of her close to him as they lay on the blanket, looking up at the night sky; the way she had pointed toward the “V” shape constellation with a look on her face that scared him
so badly, because he knew that those stars were what she wanted.  She couldn’t want anything here on Earth, not the way she wanted those five stars.

Weeks later, he had finally worked up the nerve and the stomach to take her hand in his, squeezing her fingers and telling her that he would help her get back to her stars. He knew that she would never know how much it had hurt him to say those words, to promise to help her leave his life, his world, for good. But that had been the nature of his love for
her, which was how he knew it was the real thing.  He wanted her happiness more then he wanted his next breath, and he knew that those stars were what she wanted.

That’s when he had witnessed his very first miracle.

She had looked at him in confusion, a slow smile that he knew she meant to be a thank you on her lips.  But he could see the tears twinkling in her eyes, for just a minute, before she had nodded.  He had reached for her hand again, and she had pulled it away, laying it
flat on her stomach.  He had sat up on one elbow, and watched her chin tremble with what he realized were unshed tears.  He had reached out toward her, letting his fingers dance across her cheek for just a minute

“What’s wrong?”  

“Do you really want me to go back to my stars?”

He sat all the way up then, and leaned over her, staring down at her eyes, those beautiful eyes gleaming with tears.  He had whispered her name, and she had lifted her lips into a quivering smile, lifting a hand toward his face. The tears in those eyes had disappeared when he didn’t pull back from her touch, and, indeed, leaned into her palm, reveling in
the feeling of her skin against his.    

And then he remembered the way his heart had pounded in his ears, and the feeling of flying when he realized that she was looking at  him with that expression, the same expression that she had use to save for those stars only.  His heart had soared, and
when he first kissed her, he thought that he was going to lose himself in her completely. 

It had been the best moment of his life. 

By now, the fire had dimmed, casting them both in the darkened shadows of the night, the moon and the stars the only light now.  The wind blew lazily across them, dancing her golden hair across her face, and filling his nose with the scent of her shampoo and the perfume she liked to wear. 

Then she was on her feet, her fingers laced tightly through his, and she was pulling him to his feet as well.  He caught the flash of her white teeth in the darkness, and knew she was smiling that smile that made his breath catch and his knees weak. 

And then she was pulling across the sand, still warm from the heat of the day, her laughter echoing back through his ears and filling him with the kind of crazy joy that just being with her could always instill in him.  

He lengthened his stride just a step, so that other then running behind her he was right on top of her. He dropped her fingers and wrapped both arms around her waist, capturing her and pulling her small body against his, and lifted her off her feet.  Spinning around in a circle, he laughed as her golden hair kicked out around them, blinding him to everything but yellow curls.  The sound of her laughter once again rang in his ears, and he just kept spinning her, spinning and spinning and spinning until the ground decided that it would like to meet the sky, and they fell to the soft sand in a tangle of arms and legs and golden curls. 

They lay next to one another on the ground, like they had that first night, but instead of the stars, it was only each other that they saw, each getting lost in a pair of blue eyes.  

“I love you.” She whispered to him.

“I love you.”  Was his answer. 

The perfect moment was suddenly shattered by the slamming of a car door, and then another and the sound of feet walking across the sand. 

“Alex!”  The young man heard his best friend, Maria DeLuca’s voice spilling out of the darkness. 

And, before either of the young lovers had a chance to react, to come up with a plausible story, or ever get up off the ground, a beam of light from Maria’s flashlight illuminated them. 

“Alex there you…”  As per usual for Maria, she had started talking before her brain had fully figured out what was going on.  “TESS?!  Alex, what are you and Tess doing out here?!” 

By this time, the two had managed to scramble to their feet, both with guilty looks on their face.  But they knew that this day was coming, that they weren’t going to be able to hide their feelings from everyone forever, no matter how much they would have liked to.


The two exchanged a look, and Alex allowed a small smile to touch his lips.  Tess smiled back, and took the hand that he offered to her, before turning back to face the confused pixie watching them.  Alex looked at his best friend for a moment and couldn’t stop the
smile that sprang to his unbidden to his lips. 

The pixie-blonde looked from her best friend’s broad grin to the shy smile that pulled at Tess’s lips. Maria blinked when she realized that it was the first truly happy smile that she had ever seen on the girl’s face. And, for that matter, she hadn’t seen Alex look that happy in a long while.  Something told her that the joy etched on both of their faces had nothing to do with her, so that must mean that it had something to do with each other. And hey, if one of her best friends could look that happy with one of the Czechs, more power to him.  She knew that kind of joy too.

“Maria did you find…”  At that moment, Liz Parker came onto the scene, and Alex noticed Tess flinch slightly. He squeezed her fingers, trying to send her reassurance that he was there.  With just the pressure of his fingers on hers, she felt all the doubt she had suddenly been feeling drain away, like water down a gutter.  “Tess?  Alex?  What’s…” 

At that moment, she noticed the way the two where intertwined and her eyebrows shot to her hairline, and she closed her mouth, before opening it again to demand what was Alex doing out here with Tess, and why, exactly, they were holding hands. 

It was at that moment that Michael Guerin and Max and Isabel Evans joined them.  Alex swallowed hard, and silently wished that Maria would stop shining the flashlight on them like this was some kind of police interrogation.  And even with the blinding light in
his eyes, he could still see the shocked look on Isabel’s face, and it tore at his heart just a little bit.  Even if he didn’t feel the same way about her anymore, she was still his friend, and he didn’t want his relationship with Tess to hurt her. 

And he really didn’t want Michael and Max to hurt him.


Michael was the fastest on his verbal feet right at that moment, looking from Alex to Tess, and then down at their hands.  “So, what are you two doing out here?” 

Before Alex could even form a response in his head, Tess beat him too it, flashing a smile up at him and then at the collective group.

“Dating.  If you’ll excuse us…”  With that, Tess pulled him away from the group, back into the desert. They both knew that they would have to give a better explanation to their friends tomorrow, that they owed that to them, but right at that moment, neither of
them cared. 

Right at that moment, all they wanted to do was get lost one more time in the world that they had created for themselves and the love they shared. 


=====
Darkchilde:)