Always Will Be - Chapter 4
Title: Always Will Be
Fandom: Roswell
Pairing: Michael/Maria
Rating: Adult
Summary: Maria returns to Roswell on her national tour, but will she have a reason to stay?
Disclaimer: They're not mine.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four - Where We Were
Maria quickly stripped out of her stage outfit and changed into some jeans and a shirt. She knew her friends would be there soon. She was looking forward to seeing them all again. She had missed her friends a lot. She had new friends in LA, but it just wasn’t the same as spending time with friends who had known you since childhood. Friends who had been your friends before you were famous. True friends. Well, she was looking forward to seeing most of them again. She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about seeing Michael again, especially considering what she had discovered about her feelings when she saw him in the audience tonight. Considering that she didn’t know if he still felt the same way. They hadn’t left things at a very good place. Part of her wished she could have overcome her pride all those years ago and called, the other part wasted no time with regrets. There was nothing she could do now to change the past. What was done was done.
Did she want to see him again? Could she take it if she found out for sure that he didn’t miss her? That he was over her in a way she could never be over him? Would it be better if she never had to speak to him? Or would it turn out the other way? What if he still loved her? If he regretted their relationship ending as much as she did? What would she do then? Her mind flip-flopped between her desires. One moment she was convinced that she wanted to see him again, the next she felt that seeing him again was the last thing she wanted to do. She was very confused, and she had yet to decide which of her wishes was foremost when she heard a soft knocking on her dressing room door. She hesitated before standing up, inspecting her appearance in the mirror and softly calling out to the eager clan outside the door.
“Come in!”
The door burst open and Liz rushed at Maria, grabbing her around the waist and hugging her tightly.
“It’s so good to see you again! I’ve missed you so much!” Liz squealed.
“Me too chica, I can’t believe how great it feels to see you again. It’s been too long.”
“Way way too long.” Maria pulled back to see the rest of the gang hovering in the doorway, including one very reluctant looking Michael Guerin.
“Well don’t just stand there. You’re making the nice hallway look messy. Come in and shut the door behind you. Honestly, you wouldn’t think you lot had been brought up at all.”
As soon as Liz released her, she felt herself being swung into another pair of arms. Alex picked her up and twirled her around.
“How’s my favourite best friend-cum-superstar?” Alex asked, a cheeky twinkle in his eye.
“Well, see, I don’t know…why don’t we find her and ask her?” Maria retorted, barely holding in a giggle as the rest of the group settled around the room.
Maria looked around expectantly as Alex took his place next to Isabel. There was silence for a second before they all started talking at once.
“So what’s it like being part of the ‘famous’ crowd?” Isabel asked excitedly, gripping her hands together in front of her. “Is it as cool as they make out in the movies?”
“I can’t believe we actually know someone who’s a chart topping singer! The whole of Roswell is soooo proud of you Maria!” Tess gushed.
“Your mom is gonna be so thrilled to see you again. She wanted to be here tonight but she didn’t want to leave Julie with my dad. I don’t think she trusts him not to drop her or something,” Kyle told her
“You were brilliant out there Maria. Everyone loved you.” Max said quietly.
“I always knew you were gonna be a star. It was just waiting to happen.” Alex had always been so confident in her.
“You have to tell us everything.”
Everyone stopped to agree with Liz.
“Yeah we want to know it all.”
Michael was conspicuously silent, as he sat staring at the floor, listening carefully to every word Maria said while trying to appear nonchalant. She seemed happy. She obviously didn’t need him anymore. Didn’t want him anymore. The thought killed.
“Everything huh? That’s gonna take a while…I have been away for five years you know…”
“It’s not like we have anything better to do.”
“Spending time with you is the best way I can think of to spend the next few hours…”
“Dish it up hon.”
“Well………”
The group of friends were still there hours later, swapping anecdotes, and reminiscing of times long past. Only Michael remained quiet. Maria noticed it and her heart sank. He didn’t care for her anymore, it was clear. His wall was built as high as it had been when she first knew him. She kept face, but inside, a small part of her started to weep.
* * * * *
Eventually, after hundreds of stories told, eyes started to droop, and they realised it was well into the night. After a long goodbye with lots of hugs and promises, Max, Liz, Kyle, Tess, Alex, Isabel and Michael headed back out into the parking lot.
“You were quiet tonight Michael,” Liz observed, looking slyly towards the others. “Didn’t you want to talk to Maria? You can’t have said more than two words to her the whole time. You were practically rude.”
Michael looked pained.
“You’re right.” He admitted. “It was wrong of me.” He looked around. Maybe he should talk to her. Alone though, not in front of the rest. Find out for certain if he had a chance or not. “I’m gonna go back and …umm…apologise. I’ll make my own way home. Good night.”
* * * * *
Maria was packing the last few items into her bag when she heard a soft tap on the door. Warily, she called out’
“Who is it?” There was a long pause, wherein she began to wonder if she’d imagined the sound. Then a gruff voice came through the door.
“It’s me……umm…Michael.”
To say Maria was surprised would be an immense understatement. He’d come back to see her? Why? So he could sit in the corner and look sullen again? Had she misread him? A small kernel of hope began to emerge in her heart.
“Well, come in, I guess.” The door opened and a slightly nervous looking Michael was discovered behind it. After pausing for a few moments, he slowly stepped into the room, softly closing the door behind him.
“Umm...look…ummm…well…ummm…I wasn’t very polite earlier. I mean…I practically ignored you…and…umm…that’s not right.” Michael stammered.
“Did Max chew you out about it? Is that why you’re back? Because Max and/or Liz sent you back to apologise? Well you might as well just…” Maria started to rant.
“No! Ok…so he wasn’t happy about how I was behaving, but I came back to apologise of my own free will!” Michael interrupted, his voice raising.
“Really?” Maria looked at Michael in stupefaction. Michael volunteering for an apology? Things had definitely changed while she’d been gone.
“Yeah really. I figured maybe we could talk some too. Since, well, we didn’t really chat earlier.” Maria’s shocked look grew more and more intense. “What? Quit looking at me like I grew a third eye or something.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just a bit weird hearing you actually suggest talking. The spaceboy I remember did just about anything to avoid said activity.”
“Yeah well maybe I’ve changed in the last five years. You’d probably know that if you hadn’t just stopped calling.”
“I stopped calling because you did!”
“I wasn’t the one fooling around with some hotshot I only just met!”
“I wasn’t fooling around! Ever! Ask anyone that I spent any time with back then and they could tell you that!”
Both voices were raised almost to a screech. They were now standing facing each other, arms waving dangerously about as tempers flared.
“Yeah right! Because you’d pay them to say that!”
“No because it’s true! I can’t believe you had so little trust in me!”
“What was I supposed to think?”
“I don’t know…how about the truth? That I was held up at a meeting with some record label people, talking about my demo tape? You know, I can’t believe I ever went out with you! I can’t believe I actually let myself fall in love with you! You’re just insufferable!”
“Oh yeah? Well the feeling’s mutual sweetie!”
Michael and Maria were edging closer to each other with every yelled word. They were practically nose to nose, angry eyes glaring at the other as they argued.
“That’s good to hear!”
“Yeah, and it’s good to say too!”
“Oh yeah?!?”
“Yeah!”
Both stopped, unsure of quite what to say next, and just stood there for a beat, bare millimetres separating their faces. The incensed glares began to fade, replaced by something much more deadly. Maria unconsciously moistened her suddenly dry lips with her tongue. Michael glance flickered to them just before he swooped down and captured them with his own.
Maria resisted a little at first, then moaned into his mouth, melting against him. Michael seized this opportunity to thrust his tongue into her mouth, relearning the crevices he had known so intimately years ago. He groaned as her tongue tangled recklessly with his, slipping and sliding in a fashion meant to drive him wild. Passion grew as their tongues fought for supremacy.
Maria’s fingers were aching to touch his skin. She reached around and slipped her hands under his shirt, running her hands across his stomach. Michael’s mouth left hers to trail a hot path down the side of her neck, nipping and sucking alternately. When he arrived at the collar of her shirt his large hands left her back where they had been tracing patterns through her shirt to unfasten the top few buttons. Maria pushed his shirt up so she could run her fingertips across his chest, making him shiver. Maria moaned softly as his palm cupped her breast through her bra, thumbing the pebbled nipple.
Suddenly a ray of reality burst through the hazy fog that was clouding Maria’s mind. She pulled away from Michael, breathing heavily as she looked into his confused eyes.
“No…We can’t do this. It’s not right. We haven’t even spoken for 5 years and we’re gonna jump into bed together or something? We aren’t doing ourselves any favours.”
Michael was stunned. His brain was so mushy he could barely form complete sentences.
“Huh?”
“We need to stop this before it goes any further. Maybe you should go.”
Maria stood up, refastening her shirt, and Michael followed suit.
“I’ll see you sometime, soon.”
Michael straightened his clothes and let Maria usher him out of the door.
* * * * *
Michael was still in a distracted daze as he unlocked the front door of his apartment and headed for his room. Tess and Kyle were snuggled together on the couch watching an old black and white movie as he passed through the living room.
“Hey Michael!” Tess called out, “How’d the screaming match go with Maria?”
Michael stopped in his tracks and headed back to the living room.
“How’d you know there was a screaming match? Maybe there wasn’t one. We are both perfectly capable of speaking to each other without yelling…” he started defensively.
“It’s you and Maria, it’s what you do.” Tess stated, turning on the couch to look at him as he stood in the doorway.
“Yeah man,” Kyle added, “All you two have ever done is fight. Your relationship just seemed to work that way.”
“It was like your way of showing each other that you cared…or something weird like that.” Tess finished.
Michael mused on this as he turned back towards his room. Were they right? Was their fighting a way to show their feelings? Was it still? Was it possible, was there even a teensy tiny chance that Maria still felt for him the way he felt for her? Did their relationship have another chance?
Chapter Five