21It was a normal Tuesday in Terminal City as far as Alec was concerned. Mole was grumpy, Joshua was gleeful and Dalton had already had one trip to the infirmary.
"ALEC!" Max screamed down the hallway of Command central.
Yup, definitely a normal Tuesday.
Alec swaggered into Max's office, conveniently across from his. He dropped into the chair in front of her desk and swung one leg over the other, grinning at her.
"Good morning Maxie." He smirked as she glared at him, already furious.
"I can't believe you did this! What the hell were you thinking? This is insane! How did you even do all this without me knowing?" she threw the pamphlet sitting on her desk against his chest and he looked down. When he realized what he was holding he started laughing.
"Come on Max, it's a great idea. Everybody gets to have a little bit of fun, blow of some steam and TC gets the profits."
She snatched the paper back and opened it. "A transgenic bachelor auction!" She reads. "Bid on the genetically enhanced bachelor of your choice and win him for a night of dinner and fun!" She continued, glaring at Alec. "Includes a good night kiss guaranteed! Proceeds go to the Terminal City rebuilding fund."
Alec smirked and leaned back into his chair. "I know, isn't it brilliant?"
She mumbled, "You're a moron." Max turned around and plopped back into her chair. "I can't believe you even pulled this off. Who took these pictures?" She unfolded the brochure which in turn displayed a profile of each of the bachelors up for auction along with a photo of them in provocative positions. Max's mouth dried a little as she looked at the pictures of her fellow transgenics, mostly shirtless and looking very sexy. She nearly laughed at the list of participants, though. Both her brothers Krit and Zane had signed up, as well as Rocket, Tony and Ethan, who all worked in command.
She raised her eyebrows, noting one significant lacking presence in the brochure.
"You're not participating?" She pointed out.
"No, I'm running the show Maxie. Dalton's going to be our auctioneer." His eyebrows wiggled a little, knowing how amusing the young transgenic would be as their master of ceremonies.
She was almost disappointed. Not that she'd ever admit it out loud, and she would especially never admit it with Alec in hearing distance.
She sighed. "And all of these guys volunteered willingly?"
He nodded, smiling as she caved.
"Okay, genius, what about how none of the women in TC have money to bid on you with?" Poverty wasn't a big deal in TC – because everybody was dirt poor. Max couldn't rub two nickels together herself. Food and supplies were being distributed regardless of how much money anybody had. A few transgenics had managed to bring a little bit of money with them from wherever they had been hiding, but most of them gave over their money to the rebuilding fund – which made her feel incredibly guilty.
"Totally taken care of." He assured her, smirk firmly in place.
"Taken in place how?"
His smirk grew. "We distributed the brochures all over Seattle yesterday."
Max's screaming could be heard from the next building over.
-x-
Max sighed in disbelief. Somehow, someway, Alec had pulled this off. The warehouse they had rented out was full of straight women, gay men and bisexuals of both genders. They had set up a bar for refreshments, and somehow constructed a large podium and a stage. Dalton was dressed to the nine's (probably by Gem, Max thought) and greeting a few people as they walked in. Each bachelor had a display of their picture and profile from the brochure displayed around the room to be passed by on one's way from the door to the stage.
She had to admit, she was really impressed. She was especially surprised by the numbers of Ordinary women who had shown up.
"They're just so damn attractive," she heard one woman gossiping to her friend, both staring at the photo of her brother Krit.
"And you have to wonder if genetically enhanced means everything's enhanced," the other suggested.
The first woman giggled. "You're so bad!" Max rolled her eyes, moved along and took her seat at the front, waiting for the show to start. Jondy and Syl sat down on either side of her, smiling devilishly but staying silent.
Dalton arrived at the podium and asked everyone to take their seats, each of which had a copy of the brochure and a paddle with which to assist the auction process. It was by no means a silent auction, but the paddles were just to avoid confusion.
Dalton quickly outlined the rules (raise your paddle to bid, duh), cash only, and after the auction the bachelor would escort the winning lady to a 'romantic' dinner and escort her back home with a goodnight kiss.
"And to start tonight off with a bang, we have here for your pleasure, Zane!"
Zane came out first, wearing a shy smile. He walked to the front of the catwalk and waited, hands in his pockets. His reserve nature went away around his siblings, but otherwise Zane was shy-city.
"This great guy likes Italian food, ice cream and classic literature. Zane can fix anything with an engine, and has a soft spot for dogs. He can bench press over twice his body weight and jogs eight clicks every morning. Let's start the bidding at twenty dollars."
"Twenty dollars!" a woman in the back shouted. Max smiled.
"Twenty to paddle 368! Thirty?" Dalton called out.
"Thirty!" another woman shouted.
Max looked over at Jondy. "You're not going to bid on him?"
Jondy grinned a smile that Max knew usual meant trouble. "Now why would I do that?"
"Maybe because I walked in on you and Zane trying to rip each other's clothes off in the supply closet last week?" Syl quipped. Jondy just shrugged.
And when the bidding was slowing down on Zane, at a respectable two hundred and thirty dollars to the ecstatic woman in the back row who looked like she would try and devour Zane as soon as she could, Jondy jumped up.
"Three hundred." She shouted at Dalton, who blinked. On stage, Zane grinned.
"Three fifty!" The woman in the back shouted, not wanting to be usurped.
"Three seventy-five!" Jondy responded, whirling around to glare at the Ordinary.
Dalton gulped. Jondy had a tendency to get really scary when she was mad. He knew from personal experience when he misplaced a pair of her shoes last week.
"Four hundred." The woman just kept a level gaze with Jondy. Zane snickered on stage – and Jondy spun on her heel to divert her glaze to him.
"Oh, now he's done it," Syl whispered and Max nodded. It was common knowledge that Jondy hated to do what people expected her to – her lover was no exception.
Jondy shrugged. "Okay," and sat down with a shrug. Zane's jaw dropped – obviously as shocked as Dalton that Jondy was letting this other woman win her mate.
"Gonna let her have him?" Max asked.
Jondy grinned. "Why pay for what I get for free? Besides, he seems like he needs to appreciate what he has a little more."
Syl sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Only Jondy could go from being damn determined to win to not giving a damn in half a second."
Jondy just smirked as Zane was led away by the ordinary woman, still looking shocked. The girls watched as Cap, one of the guys who helped out in housing and redevelopment, walked down the cat walk and smiled.
"Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all," she commented. Syl grinned.
"Don't let Alec hear you say that."
Max snorted. "We wouldn't want his ego to get any bigger."
Jondy grinned. "More like he'd run a bachelorette auction and get you up there shaking your thing, Max."
"Never happen." She answered.
The girls clapped politely as Tony took the stage, more outgoing then Krit and willing to walk up down the catwalk, modelling his self.
"Uh-huh. Cause you and Alec, that's totally platonic." Syl added.
"He's my co-commander. We'd never be like that."
"Never say never, Maxie," her older sister grinned.
Jondy laughed. "I don't get you, Max. You and Alec have enough sexual tension to launch an atomic bomb. Just jump him already."
"What?" Max cried. "We're not like that. We're partners and that's it." She shouted at her younger sister.
"That's it? So you haven't noticed that there's more passion between you two then there is between half the mated couples I know?" Syl jumped back in.
"Or that he always puts your needs before his?" Jondy shot back.
"How about how he's the one you feel most comfortable talking to about your real emotions?"
"And the fact that he is so damn gorgeous all you can think about is licking him?" Jondy quipped.
"Jondy!" Max's eyes flashed at her, laughing a little at her baby sister's forwardness – which she was, for the most part, used to, but not in context with Alec.
"Just saying." The X5 rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the show.
Ethan came out on stage, wearing tight leather pants and his leather jacket…and nothing else. Jondy's jaw dropped, Max's eyes nearly fell out of her head and Syl did both.
"Damn. Who knew?" Jondy asked.
"Fifty dollars!" was shouted out before Dalton could even ask.
Ethan took his time, stretching and running a hand through his hair, letting his skin show.
"Woah," Syl coughed. "Is it just me…"
"Nope, Ethan's hot. We just never noticed because of all the time he's spent with computers." Jondy answered.
Max, surprising even herself, had to agree.
The girls enjoyed the show, clapping, laughing and cheering as their fellow Xs stalked the runway – some shy, some outgoing. Some danced along to the music in the background (pre pulse, courtesy of Alec), and others flirted with the audience by winking and grinning.
Krit walked down the cat walk with a casual nod to his three sisters in the front row, and stood at the end of the stage, smiling.
"We'd like you to meet Krit. He's a fun loving guy who's lived all across the States. Krit speaks French, Spanish, Italian and Chinese, and says that his idea of the 'one' is a woman who loves to travel and try new things. Let's start the bidding at twenty dollars."
Paddles started flying – including one of the two women who Max had seen giggling over his photo earlier. Jondy snorted.
"Please. His idea of the 'one' is a short blonde who enjoys causing explosions," she answered and Max smiled. She nudged her older sister and Syl blinked.
"Come on guys, me and Krit aren't together," the blonde insisted.
"Note how she doesn't deny that she has feelings for him," Jondy winked at Max, who threw an arm around Syl.
"Syl, you've spent all this time waiting for Krit to make a move. Just do it for him – and bid!" Max said, grabbing Syl's panel and tugging her arm up.
"One hundred to Syl!" Dalton shouted. Syl looked horrified – but on stage, Krit's face broke out into a large grin.
"See?" Max answered.
"I miss the Max who was pissed off all the time. Jondy, you're a horrible influence," Syl glowered.
Jondy wiggled her eyebrows. "Damn straight," and Max laughed.
Another woman behind them outbid Syl and her eyebrows shot up.
Syl bid again, and quickly established a bidding war with three other women.
"Two hundred!"
"Two twenty-five!"
"Two fifty!"
Shouts from all around the room started firing off numbers, going higher each time. Krit, on stage, seemed to be in shock.
Jondy leaned over to Max and whispered in her ear. "And all you have to do is wake up Syl's competitive side and…magic."
Max bit her lip to keep from grinning as Syl managed to out last every other woman in the room and buy Krit for $500.
After picking up her slip from the front that said she had purchased Krit for the night, Syl returned to the seats.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming this evening. We realize that this portion of the program says is for our closing remarks, but we decided for a last minute change in the form of a surprise bachelor."
Murmurs of confusion sprang around the room; curious as to whom Dalton was talking about.
"Now, I kindly offered to auction off myself, but apparently this show would fall apart without me." Chuckles rippled through the audience, but everyone waited with bated breath to see who the mystery guy would be.
"So it's time to give up the money you've been saving, without further adieu, I give you our final bachelor!"
The curtains sprang apart as Alec waltzed on stage and half the audience members screamed. Bets started flying everywhere. Max gulped.
Alec was looking really gorgeous – she was willing to admit it. To herself. Silently. In her head. And then profusely deny it.
Dressed in a pressed black suit with a light blue dress shirt, he looked stunning. Jondy and Syl were silent beside her and Max was breathing a bit heavier then usual.
Casual smirk in place, Alec unbuttoned his jacket and pulled it off slowly, rolling his body in tune with the music – some old dance song about a sex bomb.
He tossed the jacket aside and nearly every woman in the audience cheered. Alec was actually a really good dancer – in perfect time with the music. He moved to the side of the stage and grabbed the hand of one woman, kissing her knuckles as she (and the rest of the female audience members) swooned.
He popped the first two buttons on his dress shirt and winked at Max specifically, slowly pulling on the rest of the buttons, until he slid the blue fabric down his shoulders and threw it out to the audience. He stood there grinning, left in only a white wife-beater undershirt that couldn't be described as anything other then tight, and his dress pants.
"Woah," Syl breathed.
"I think the entire audience just went into heat," Jondy chuckled. "What do you think, Max? Doesn't Alec look good?"
"Uh…huh.." Max was too distracted to pay attention. What are you doing!? Her brain screamed. It's heat. You've got to be in heat. You are not attracted to Alec. You are not going to buy him.
Alec spun around, facing his back to the audience as he slowly tugged his white shirt up and off, teasingly exposing the golden skin and perfect muscles of his back.
"Eight hundred!" A woman on the left side of the stage shouted as Alec twirled his shirt over his head like a rope and fired it off into the audience. Women lunged for the shirt, pushing each other out of the way to get to it. He chuckled and rolled his hips to the music, keeping the women riveted.
"Nine hundred!" A voice that the girls recognized as Gem's yelled. They were all surprised that the mild mannered transgenic was even here, let alone that she was betting. Gem was blushing furiously, but was clearly serious about her bid.
"Hurry up Maxie, before these women steal your man!" Jondy tugged on Max's arm.
"He's not my man!"
"Well then he's going to be someone else's soon!" Syl quipped.
Max glared. She wasn't jealous. She wasn't jealous. Oh, hell…she was jealous. She sighed, knowing her sisters would wear her down.
"I didn't bring any money," Max answered.
"We figured." Syl and Jondy answered. Jondy pulled out her purse and slung it onto their sister's lap. Max gasped at the bundles of cash inside the bag.
"Jondy! Where did you get this?" She glared at her younger sister.
"Does that matter? That woman's going to rip Alec's skin off if you don't bid, Maxie," Syl said. She smiled sadly at her sister. It had been commonly decided amongst the 09-er women (except Max) in TC that Max and Alec needed to get their act together and get busy. Of course, none of Max's brothers were informed, but the women were taking action.
Max bit her lip, hesitating. She didn't want Alec to think she had feelings for him – which of course, she didn't, she resolved to herself. She didn't. They were partners. Friends.
It appeared that the battle for Alec was now between an elderly woman and a middle aged woman who clearly had too much money to spend and not enough male company in their lives, both bidding over the thousand dollar line.
Alec shot Max a terrified look that screamed 'save me' and she sighed, knowing it was clearly her weekly call to protect Alec's ass.
She lifted her paddle and looked at Dalton. "Two thousand." She said. A collective intake of breath was taken in by the transgenic community. Alec smiled a grateful look at her she glared back.
One of the elderly women was persistent. "Twenty two hundred."
"Twenty two hundred to paddle 368," Dalton said into the microphone, enthusiastic and terrified of Max all at the same time.
"Twenty five hundred," Max answered.
"Twenty eight." She called.
"Three grand!" Max argued back.
"Three thousand two fifty!" The woman responded. Max grumbled and whirled around.
"Three thousand five hundred," she grumbled at Dalton. Max jumped up on top of her chair and glared directly at the woman, whose mouth was open to make another bid. "Lady, I swear to God if you don't sit down and stop bidding on my man I'm gonna get pissed and you will be seriously sorry."
The woman smiled nervously and sat down slowly, conceding the bid to Max.
"And Alec goes to Max for three thousand five hundred!"
Alec grinned and wiggled his finger for Max to come up on stage with him. She glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest, but Syl and Jondy shoved her up towards the stairs anyway. She stumbled, nearly falling, until Alec caught her arm and tugged her up on stage.
He grinned mischievously and wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Thanks Maxie," he whispered, before dipping her body back and pressing his lips to hers.
Max was too busy kissing him back to notice the cheering of nearly every transgenic in the room.
-x-
Max opened the door to their mutual apartment and walked in, tucking her keys back into her pocket. Alec followed slowly, carrying three large paper bags that he had carefully balanced. He shut the door behind him with his foot, and moved to set the bags on the counter.
"I thought buying a bachelor at an auction meant you had to take me out for a "romantic" dinner?" Max asked as she walked into her bedroom. She left the door open so her and Alec could talk. Behind her door, she pulled off her shirt and tugged on a black tank top.
"I figured we could have a better time here without all the fancy crap," Alec answered.
Moving out of her bedroom, she stretched her arms over her head and stopped in her tracks. Alec had laid out a blanket and spread out all the Chinese food over it, picnic-style. He was sitting on the blanket, an open box of chow mien and a pair of chopsticks in his hand. The sleeves of his button down shirt were rolled up to his elbows and he had taken his shoes off.
He looked up at her. "You gonna eat?" He asked. She blinked and nodded, moving over to the blanket and sitting.
She grabbed a container and opened it, inhaling the smell of fried rice. She grabbed one of the forks that Alec had laid out next to the chopsticks and began munching.
"So what'd you think?" He asked, opening a box and moving it near her. She looked in it for a minute and smiled – chicken balls, her favourite.
"I thought it was a pretty stupid idea. But…we turned a profit, so it wasn't that bad."
"Admit it Maxie, you had fun."
"Well…watching you try to dance was pretty funny." She quipped.
Alec shrugged. "The ladies loved it. You don't have to be jealous though, Maxie – I'm all yours."
"Only because I saved your sorry ass from that creepy old lady." She retorted, stuffing a chicken ball in her mouth.
Alec shuddered. "Thank God for that. Imagine if I had to kiss her? Ew."
"Speaking of…" Max put her food down and smacked Alec over the back of the head.
Alec choked on his food and glared at her. "What was that for?"
"For kissing me. What the hell were you thinking?"
He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. "Well I was hoping if you liked it you'd let me take all of your clothes off and – ow!" he cried as Max hit him again. "Yeesh, Max. You are way too tense. Get laid already- I'm more then willing to help." She glared again, and he sighed. "For show, Max, to make a scene. We were taking donations from people on the way out, so I wanted to up the ante a little."
She pouted a little then moved to lie on her stomach, grabbing another box and opening it, passing Alec the egg rolls when she found them.
"Well…okay, but don't do it again."
Alec smiled, biting off half of his egg roll. "What about Jondy, eh? I bet your brother's sleeping on the couch tonight," he commented, and Max laughed.