The best kind of trophy - Yautja x Reader

Chapter 4: Another view

Max wasn't quite sure how much time had passed.

She recalled the Commander shouting something, something, insubordination at her sudden addressal of him by his first name, and she barked back something the likes of shoving that word up his ass.

Simultaneously, she was ushered out of the lab as the alien had managed to take a chunk out of one of the guards that, up until that point, had been relentlessly shocking him.

There was some frantic stitching up happening at the med bay before she found herself in the Commanders office with a second glass of Jack Daniels in her lap.

Everything in between was more of blur as her brain buzzed and swirled. Her mind was way too preoccupied with the fact that she had succeeded at invading the aliens personal space bubble without having her throat ripped out or being folded into a pretzel, and the memory of the guards horrid howl as he had been the recipient of the aliens well warranted wrath. The alcohol might have played part in that blur as well, but it also did a great deal to sooth her anxiety and horror.

"Christ, it's not even been a whole day and we're already back to-" started Matthew, but failed to find the right words and instead took a sip from his own glass of whisky.

"Old habits?" offered Max and downed whatever remained in her glass before reaching for the bottle and filling the glass once more.

"Yeah, something like that" muttered the man at the other side of the desk as he stared up at the ceiling.

Max figured that, after all this time and space apart, things would have settled between them, but considering their outbursts at the lab, that couldn't be further from the truth.

The two of them had a complicated relationship, to say the least. It wasn't like they hated each other or had any particular scores to settle, in fact, both of them had quite fond feelings for each other.

There was comradery and trust between them from the time they spend at the training camps and on missions, so much so that Max would still trust him with her life if it came to it.

He was a good man, a good partner, just not a good lover. It seemed that only when their relationship had morphed beyond a platonic one, that things became too entangled and incompatible.

Now they knew each other better than they'd like to and had a hard time separating what's appropriate between co-workers and friends, and what's appropriate between (former) lovebirds.

Max doubted that, had they not taken things to bed all those years ago, she would have been that uninhibited when speaking, no, scolding him. And she doubted that he would have let her get away with it if it weren't for the fact that they were too familiar with one another.

"You lost the moment you called me Max when I came into your office" quipped the blonde.

"Probably" he agreed.

"Still, don't call me by my first name in front of my staff again. It doesn't look good" he claimed "I'd rather not explain to my boss what happened between... you know. They'll take me off the case, or you ... or both of us."

"oh please, as if" said the blonde as she shifted in her chair and rolled her eyes. Whatever department was in charge of this whole mess was rather desperate, so they would hardly shoot their own leg and kick the only Animal Psychologist off the team. Besides, it was no secret that soldiers often bumped boots and took heated passions to the sheets... or showers... or locker rooms. And there also was that one time when they did it in-

Max shook her head to rid her mind of that nonsense and sighed deeply. That was hardly the time to be mulling over the past, not when the present was such a big, massive, grande, venti matter.