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Max was woken up from a dead sleep when he heard his window slide up. He opened his eyes and grabbed the first thing he could get, which was his lamp he was about to hit the intruder when he heard Michael’s voice.
“Stop! It’s just me!”
“Jesus! Michael you scared that hell out of me!” Max said as he caught his breath,
He looked at clock on his bedside table. 3 am, when the realization hit him on why Michael was here, he calmed down a bit. Michael didn’t even have to say anything else. Max just crawled back into bed and plugged his lamp back in and turned it on.
Once he got a better look of him he was still wearing the clothes he left school in nearly 12 hours ago. Michael only ever comes to stay with Max if his foster father was too drunk. Normally Michael can avoid him but when he got like this he looks for Michael and hits him. From what Max could see he didn’t find him. But he knew he hasn’t been home since morning.
“How bad is it?” He asked, Michael shakes his head and takes his shoes and shirt off leaving him in his jeans and the white T-shirt he wore underneath. He got into the bed,
“Let’s just say breakfast was the worse time of my day.”
“Why didn’t come home with Izzy and I then? Did you eat?”
“I didn’t want to bother your parents. You know how they are when they’re around me.”
“Mich—,” Michael gives him a look, it was true, his parents always act awkward around him. Mainly because they felt guilty that they didn’t know about him until it was too late. Max noticed a mark on Michael’s arm and that’s when he got pissed,
“Did he do that to you!?” Michael looks down and pulls his sleeve down a little bit. Max tried to touch him but he flinched.
“Michael if you don’t tell me I will wake Isobel.”
The last thing Michael wants is to involve Isobel in this. She was worse than Max and she hated his foster father more than he did.
“No! Max it’s fine okay he just grabbed me a little to hard when I tried to leave. I’m fine. Listen it’s late and I’ve been walking around all night. Can we just go to sleep?”
Max wanted to convince Michael to do something about his foster father. If social services knew they surely would take Michael out of that place. But Michael would never talk because he’s afraid they’d might take him away from Roswell. But he and Isobel would never let that happen. But they also couldn’t argue with him with this.
Max sighed and laid down looking up at his ceiling. He sees the glowing stars that his parents put up when he was younger. He loved watching them and counting them. Michael’s breathing evened out after a few minutes sensing that he was asleep Max got up and went down the hall to Isobel’s room. Michael would wake up soon if he was gone too long but he had to get Isobel.
He knocked on her door, she’s a very light sleeper when it comes to him.
“What’s wrong?” She asked sitting up,
“Michael’s here. Come on.”
“What happened?” She asked getting up without hesitation.
“He’ll tell you in the morning. Come on.” Isobel followed Max back into his room, Michael was still asleep, Isobel crawled in in front of him and hugged him. Michael relaxes right away.
“You go back to bed. I have to do something.” Isobel turned a little bit to face him. She whispered so she wouldn’t wake their sleeping brother.
“Where are you going?”
“Don’t worry.” Max grabbed his jacket and got something from his closet. He was just going to make sure Michael’s father had a difficult time finding any of his booze for a few days. Maybe it’ll get him to sober up a bit. Though he knew that was high hopes. But it’d give Michael some peace of mind for a few days at least.
Before he left his room, he hears Isobel whisper something to Michael.
“You’ll always have a home here.”