A/N- First DA ficlet, I know its a "song"fic, and a one-shot at that but I have to start somewhere.

Setting- A year and a half-ish after Freak Nation

Pairing: MA- I don't read or write any other kind of pairing :)

Song that inspired me- Homecoming by Kanye West ft. Chris Martin

Yeah.
And you say Chi city,
Chi city, Chi city

The irony of the strands of words that were coming through the speaker were not lost on Alec. He was seated in a dark corner of a dive bar in the bitterly cold, windy city of Chicago. He smirked at the thought of the pre-pulse song having so much bearing on his life.

He vaguely remembered hearing this song a few times in his old haunt Crash; that was before he booked it out of Seattle. Before he left whatever semblance of life he had accumulated in the year after the siege at Terminal City. Before he left it all after it all became too much. Too much for even his strong resilient nature. His smirk left his face as quickly as it had appeared and his blank Manticore mask slipped into place once again as he brought his drink to his lips. The alcohol burned his throat and he was glad of some physical reminder that he could still feel something, anything. He felt as if the cold he felt riding his Bandit throughout the country had left him permanently numb. Or maybe it was just his heart that was numb. He really couldn't tell anymore. Not that it mattered.

I'm coming home again.
Do you think about me now and then?
Do you think about me now and then?
Cause I'm coming home again
Coming home again.

The words that she heard startled her out of the trance that she had fallen into. She sat with her back to the pool tables that held so many memories of times spent verbally sparring, laughing, and just being with Alec. The words she had just heard coming from the jukebox swirled around in her mind. When she was alone with her thoughts which always seemed to happen around 3 in the morning when the rest of Seattle seemed to be sleeping she had often wondered the same thing. Do you think about me now and then, Alec?

She had often regretted her razor sharp tongue, the tongue she had used to speak unthinkable atrocities to Alec the last time they had been together. But she had never felt more regret than after the fateful words that had slipped past her damn lips. "GO! JUST LEAVE! I WANT YOUR ABSENCE!" she had yelled after Alec had punched Logan into unconsciousness. Max had been so angry, angry at Logan, White, Alec, but most of all herself.

Logan had given them intel via the Informant Net that seemed legit. Alec and Mole hadn't had the opportunity to check the intel out before they had gone on the mission to rescue a few transgenics, as they had been overseeing and participating in heists the days leading up the spontaneous mission.

Alec had just been trying to feed and supply his brethren and she had flown off the handle.

It had been her and Logan's job to make sure everything was on the level and she had failed. She had somehow overlooked something and it had all gone sideways. It had been a trap. They had almost lost a few of their friends.

All because she had trusted Logan too much and herself not enough.

When they had returned after a deadly fight that led to Alec being shot and Max sporting cuts all over her body, Alec saw Logan and just snapped. He sent the older man flying through the air with one blow.

She had turned on him then and said the words she wished more than life itself she could take back.

I met this girl when I was three years old
And what I loved most she had so much soul
She said, "Excuse me little homie, I know you don't know me - but,
My name is Wendy and, I like to blow trees" and,
From that point I never blow her off,
Niggaz come from outta town I like to show her off,
They like to act tough, she like to tow 'em off,
And make em straighten up their act, cause she know they soft
And when I grew up she showed me how to go downtown
And at nighttime my face lit up so astounding
And I told her in my heart is where she always be
She never mess with entertainers cause they always leave
She said it felt like they walked and drove on me
Knew I was gang affiliated got on TV and told on me
I guess it's why last winter she got so cold on me
She said, Ye keep making that, keep making that platinum and gold for me

Alec had always loved that spark in Max. The one that set her above any other woman he had met in his life. The spark that dictated that she was a hellcat, a vixen, a soldier, a woman, a friend, a soul that was vulnerable but strong beyond belief. He saw her brown eyes sparkle with mischief, anger, passion, warmth, love and hate. He was often amazed at the amount of emotion one person could have but he wished that just once he could feel those emotions directed at him in the way he wanted.

He had longed to see her eyes blaze with passion, desire, and most of all unconditional love; he wanted to see that when she looked at him.

Instead she had seen anger and pain the last time her eyes had landed on him. She had ignored logic and went in for the kill.

She had killed the last bit of hope that he had clung to. The hope that she would one day feel for him even an ounce of what he felt for her.

It had withered and died that night. Alec was left with only the empty oblivion that was his heart.

Do you think about me now and then?
Do you think about me now and then?
Cause I'm coming home again
Coming home again
Do you think about me now and then?
Do you think about me now and then?
Oooh, now I'm coming home again

Maybe we can start again

Max hadn't been the same since that night. She knew it, as did the rest of her friends and the inhabitants of Terminal City. She had lost the fire she had hidden in the depths of her brown eyes. She had unwittingly become closer to the automaton that Manticore had always sought to create. She went through the motions just fine and she continued to lead Terminal City but the passion was gone.

She was prone to dark silences when she was not busy with the business of running the Transgenic Nation. She rarely smiled and could not for the life of her feel anything resembling happiness.

It had taken her less than 48 hours after Alec had left to realize she had been in love with him.

She had cried every night when she found herself alone for 3 months straight.

She had gone to Logan a week after Alec had departed with Luke and Dix. She ordered her computer techs to retrieve and and all data pertaining to the transgenic cause and delete it from Logan's hard drive. They had swept through his Eyes Only files and took everything.

She had told him that she no longer wanted to see him. She had told him that it was unequivocally over.

She had finally accepted that she would never in her life be normal, and she was now fully aware that she didn't want to be. Logan would never be able to love her for who she truly was. She knew it and she also knew that she would never be able to truly love anyone that was not Alec.

She had cried not only for the loss of her best friend but for the loss of the potential for a life she had been too stubborn to realize she had wanted desperately.

Are you coming home again? Alec? She wondered for the millionth time.

She couldn't do this anymore. She had to do something. She sprang up from her seat at the bar and ran out of the door. She hopped on her Ninja and sped off into the night. As she passed the city limits she flipped open the phone that Alec had given her so long ago and dialed.

"Hey Mole? It's Max. Listen..."

But if you really care for her, then you would n-never hit the airport,
To follow your dreams, sometimes I still talk to her, but when I talk to her
It always seems like she talking about me,
She said you left your kids and they just like you
They wanna rap and make show beats just like you,
But they just not you and I just got through
Talking bout what niggaz tryin to do just not new
Now everybody got the game figured out all wrong
I guess you never know what you got till it's gone

I guess this is why I'm here and I can't come back home
And guess when I heard that when I was back home
Every interview I'm representing you making you proud
Reach for the stars so if you fall you land on a cloud
Jump in the crowd, spark your lighters, wave em around,
And if you don't know by now, I'm talking about Chi town,

God. The truth was he had known what he had before he had gone.

He just hadn't known that he would feel like this after had gone. Like he was half a person. With every mile that he had put between himself and Max he had felt his soul rebel and scream to return.

He had thought about returning every day since he had left. Even just to quiet the war that raged inside of himself. He hadn't before contemplated what a mates must feel when they became separated until now. But he and Max had never mated. Hell, they hadn't even kissed. Yet, if it was possible to mate with someone without the actual physical ties he was sure he had somewhere along the line inadvertently mated himself to Max.

And that was precisely why he couldn't go back. He was scared beyond belief. He had given his heart to Max and she had told him to leave with such venom and finality that he could never bring himself to go back and feel her recriminations in full. He had barely survived leaving.

His heart couldn't take anymore.

Do you think about me now and then?
Do you think about me now and then?
Cause I'm coming home again
Maybe, do you remember when fireworks at lake Michigan
Oooh, now I'm coming home again
Coming home again
Maybe, do you remember when fireworks at lake Michigan
Oooh, now I'm coming home again
Maybe we can start again

Max didn't consciously have any idea where Alec was. Yet as she drove and lost herself in thoughts of Alec she found herself on a set path. She didn't question how her body seemed to know where to go. She only reveled in a strange feeling like with each passing mile her soul was healing.

Becoming whole once again. She continued on her journey feeling a joy she hadn't known in months. She was riding at break neck speeds but she couldn't slow down for the life of her. Her single mindedness was pulling her like a magnet to the person that would complete her.

And she'd be damned if she stopped now.

Loyee oyeee oh, loyee oyeee oh
Coming home again

Alec was confused. Had he finally succeeded in drinking to the point of finally not feeling the tear in his heart and soul? He didn't feel drunk. Yet, he had steadily felt his emotional scars healing.

He glanced down at his Scotch and wondered about its contents before he raised it to his lips again. That damn song that mocked him was still playing. But suddenly it didn't taunt or challenge him. It suddenly made him feel hopeful.

He began to feel a strange heat in his chest that slowly spread to his limbs. He began to wonder if he was hallucinating. Or maybe dying. Why else was he suddenly feeling like this? Yep, he had to be dying. Maybe there was a God , and before you die He makes you feel wonderful. Maybe His way of easing you away from the world?

The thoughts that swirled in his mid distracted him from a presence that was watching and moving towards him with a grace that was inhuman.

Eyes watched this lithe creature seemingly stalk its prey. They watched as she focused on the poor confused soul in the shadowy corner of the bar. They watched as her eyes seemed to be full of fire and dancing in apparent joy and determination. Her eyes never left her prey and the closer she got to the lone figure the more people stood back from her rapidly intimidating form. She exuded power and need.

Ordinaries could not understand needing anything as badly as she seemed to need something

Or someone.

Alec suddenly looked up and into the eyes of his hearts desire. His soul's mate.

His heart sputtered in his chest. He could not believe what he saw before him.

She stood directly in front of him now. He could see nothing but her eyes. They held him in a trance that he could not pull himself away from. He took in a shuddering breath silently cursing his lack of manliness as that breath made him sound like a virgin catholic school girl anticipating a first kiss.

What he saw in her eyes took his breath away all over again as it registered in his surprised mind.

Passion.

Desire.

Unconditional Love.

They were all there. Every emotion he had ever wanted to see in Max's eyes reflected at him were there. Finally.

He knew that his own eyes reflected the same thing. Alec didn't speak. He actually couldn't.

For the first time in her presence he had no words to give her. So he did the next best thing.

He leaned forward and captured her lips in his. It started out slow, soft and tender. All the things that he had felt thinking of her during the months of separation. She kissed him back with more emotion than she realized she was capable of.

Her soul cried out for more. The kiss began to blaze into a fire that would surely kill them both. Their passions ignited; the world seemed to melt away into oblivion. All that existed was Alec and Max and their lips, their love, their passion, their everything was in that kiss and it created a cocoon for them for the length of that kiss.

When the kiss ended they dragged shaky breaths into their lungs and stared at each other with wonderment and shining devotion. Max's eyes filled with tears suddenly. She blinked quickly and despite her best efforts a single tear slid down her cheek. Alec leaned forward and kissed its trail all the way down until he found her lips again.

Loyee oyeee oh, loyee oyeee oh
Coming home again
Maybe we can start again

"Don't cry Maxie. Please baby, don't cry. " Alec said quietly as he let go of her full lips.

" Alec, I'm sorry about what I said. I can never take it back and I can never give us back this time we've wasted being apart, but I don't want it to happen again. I can't lose you. I need you. I can't have my heart ripped open again. Will you come home?" Max's voice was choked with emotion as she gave her heartfelt plea.

Alec just stared at her in utter amazement. "Max, wherever you are, thats where home is. I will never leave you as long as you want me there. I need you. Maxie..." His voice faltered for a second before continuing on with strength and conviction. "I love you."

Max smiled a genuine happy smile. " I love you Alec. I will always love you. I think I always have."

"Then let's go home."

a/n- PLEASE REVIEW THIS FOR ME! CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS NECESSARY!!