A/N: This first chapter takes place right after Magic Closet Ride.

Chapter 1: Aftermath

Sunday September 20, 2015

It was seven o'clock in the morning when Cody Martin's alarm clock woke him up. For the second time. The first time he'd been aroused when it played Pearl Jam's oldie song, Alive, which was all well and good. But the second time, there was no song. Just the throbbing pain of the alarm clock falling down on his head. Apparently his boyfriend had been aroused too and wasn't exactly happy with that.

"Max Russo! Why did you do that for?"

"Why? Maybe because some stupid alarm woke me up at this unholy early hour. Why did you have to set it this early anyway?"

"Don't you remember? I promised Zack I'd be at his apartment around eleven. We were going to have a nice twin-day together," Cody explained to his annoyed partner, still lying next to him.

"Yeah, I know that," Max sighed. "But that's four hours from now. Why are you getting up now?"

"Um, I have to prepare myself?" Cody half-asked. It was quite obvious he himself didn't know why he had chosen 7 am to get up. He knew very well that he wouldn't need four whole hours to get ready.

"And you need four hours for that?" At this point Max was, sadly enough, clearly awake too. "I know you were a woman yesterday, but that still doesn't mean you have to take as much time for that as a girl would."

"You're right," Cody chuckled. "To be honest I think I kind of forgot to change the wake-up time from Friday when I had to get up early for Law School. I'm so sorry, Maxie. Maybe we can go back to sleep?"

"You know that's not gonna happen. Once up, I have a hard time getting back to sleep."

"I know, and I'm so sorry for that!" For a moment there Cody didn't know what to do. He was feeling really bad for taking away some of his boyfriend's night's rest. Cody knew Max liked to sleep long during the weekends. Especially when they just had long and hot sex like they had last night. "Why don't we stay in bed for a while, talk and cuddle a bit?"

Soon the two lovers were to be found in each other's arms, cuddling through the morning.

"You know, honey, I'm still so relieved we managed to get through yesterday unharmed," Max suddenly interrupted their cuddling.

"Oh yeah, me too!" Cody exclaimed. "But honestly, when Zack was hitting on me and recognized me I thought it was over."

"That must've been a very awkward moment for you, I guess?" Cody nodded. "By the way, I hope Zack is OK. His news about him and Bailey really shocked me."

"I know, I honestly thought Bailey was the one for him." He sighed, "If I know my brother well, he's probably really crushed by the break up. But he most likely won't show it; he'll just try to be his old self again by hitting on various other girls."

"Yeah, like Tyreesha," Max smirked.

Cody gave his wizard boyfriend an evil glare. That was the one memory he didn't want to recall, not ever again.

"Guess I'll find out soon enough what's really going on between my brother and Bailey." He remained silent for awhile, as if wanting to show he didn't exactly like to talk about his twin's problems without knowing what happened between them. "Although I have to say, the biggest surprise we got yesterday was that old professor of yours, Maxie."

"Yeah, I've known him for a long time, played pranks with him and even gave him a squishy pants to prank people. But I never thought he was into guys as well." Max paused for a moment to think about what happened yesterday. Remembering Professor Crumbs' tragic story clearly made his partner feel a bit sad.

Max took a breath and cleared his mouth. "I wish we could do something for Professor Crumbs; he's always been nice to me after all."

"You're right, sweetie. But is there anything we could do? It's not like we can get Ralph back for him," Cody said while his man put his arms around him.

"I know, but he looked so miserable when he left us yesterday."

He nodded and gave Max some small kisses. While being held by his guy, Cody suddenly remembered how the evening had ended before it had exploded into a night of the hottest sex they ever had. Before that his partner has showed him how inventive he was by coming up with a fictive story about Cody's death, a quality Cody liked a lot about him. Recalling those moments drew a smile onto his face.

"Why are you smiling like that, sweetie?" Max asked when he noticed his partner gazing at him.

"I was thinking of you—of how genius you were when you came up with that fake death-story."

"Thanks, but I rather not come up with such stories. To be honest it made me a bit down myself."

"Me too, but it had me thinking about something. You remember the bit about me volunteering at a centre for underprivileged children?" Cody asked.

"Um yes, where're you going with this?"

"Well, I was thinking of volunteering at a centre like that for real. You know I love kids and I'm smart, so I hope they could use someone like me there."

"You really want to do such a thing?"

"Yeah, I want to make myself useful. You know, using my knowledge to help children who don't get the chances in life we got. No, I really wanna do this, Maxie."

"Are you sure? Wouldn't that be too much with all your coursework?"

"Nah, I'm sure I can handle it. I mean, I'm top of the class, so I'm sure I'll be able to combine those two things. You know how well I'm doing in college," Cody said with a wink.

Max inhaled and looked his blond boyfriend in the eyes. "Okay, if you want to do this, then you should."

"Oh thank you, Maxie. I really do want this!" Cody exclaimed as he pulled his significant other in for a passionate hug.

Even though Cody didn't say anything at that moment, he could see that his wizard boyfriend was very proud of him for wanting to help underprivileged children. Cody knew he would be the perfect person for that. After all he always wanted to do nice things for others. That's the kind of person he was. While looking into Max's eyes he could read the exact same thing. Plus he noticed a look of pride.

"Hey, I could look around for you. You know, check where such centres are here in Boston, while you're out with Zack."

"You would? Oh honey, that's nice of you!" He exclaimed although he knew that they would probably end up seeking for those together. His boyfriend might be enthusiast about it but when it came to looking things like this up on the Internet he usually ended up being the one doing this. Nevertheless he loved it when his partner offered to help him anyway, like he did now.

"Eh, it's nothing. This way I can help you out. And maybe you can even visit one tomorrow if we find one in Boston," Max said enthusiastically.

Cody threw his man another loving gaze. Once again his partner's support reminded Cody Martin how lucky he was to have Max as his boyfriend.

"Anyway, I should go take a shower and take off for Zack's."

"Yeah, only two hours left. If you don't hurry up, you'll only be one hour too early at Zack's door," the young wizard said, shaking his head.

"Funny, Max… You know I want to be there on time."

Again, Max shook his head. Despite all of his attempts to get Cody to stop this nasty habit, he still hadn't succeeded. Sighing, Max deducted that he had no other choice than to get up too and join his boyfriend in the shower.

And yes, an hour later Cody was standing in front of Zack's apartment building, close to Fenway Park. Just like Max had predicted, Cody was about an hour too early. He knew his brother wouldn't appreciate it if he was there way too soon, so he decided to walk around the neighbourhood for a while. After all, this was the area where he had spent his teen years while living in the Boston Tipton Hotel.

To his surprise, his footsteps brought him to the very same park where he and his older brother used to play all the time. Cody couldn't suppress a little smile when he saw that he was standing in front of Liberty Park. Immediately he decided the best thing to do while waiting until it was time to go back to his twin's apartment was to go inside the park, sit on a bank, and enjoy the environment.

Sitting there brought back so many memories. The most vivid one was from about nine years ago: one where he and Zack, together with all their friends at the Tipton Hotel, had managed to save Liberty Park from being turned into a parking lot. It had been Zack who'd ultimately saved the day by finding out the historic significance of the park, but Cody had done his part too by softening City Hall with his strongly worded letter. Thanks to this, both their names had been immortalized on a gold-coloured plaque in the park as its saviours. Good memories indeed.

His trip through memory lane didn't last long though, because suddenly a soccer ball landed in his lap. Apparently there were some kids playing an exciting game of soccer in the park. But unfortunately for Cody, the last shot on the goal totally missed its target and ended up with him.

"Hey, mister, can we have our ball back, please?" a brown haired boy yelled while running in Cody's direction.

"Sure," Cody answered as he looked at the boy who was now standing right in front of him, waiting to receive the ball. He looked to be about 12 or 13 years old, as far as Cody could tell. "There you go… What's your name?"

"Liam, sir."

"Please don't call me sir. Cody is good enough." The blonde man still couldn't get used to being called sir. He wasn't a sir, he was just Cody Martin. "But shouldn't you go back to your friends? They're probably dying to go on with your game."

"Yeah…" Liam responded as he made way back to his friends. "Thanks again, si-…I mean, Cody."

When Cody saw Liam and his friends getting entangled in their game of soccer again, he actually sighed a bit. Seeing the boys playing has brought up something that has been bothering him for quite some time. It reminded him of his wish to have children of his own someday. To have a family, just like everyone else, just like his mom and dad.

His parents had been very young when Zack and he were born. In fact they had been almost the same age as he was now when they had started a family. It made him wonder if he'd ever have a family just like them.

But that wasn't possible for him; he couldn't have a conventional family like his mom and dad had. Well, at least not the family they'd had before his dad left, which was a mistake Cody was determined never to make. If he would ever have kids of his own, he would be there for them, unlike his dad who was never around.

But ever since he had fallen for Max, the ship of conventional families had sailed. No, every family he would ever have would be unconventional and wouldn't have biological children for him and Max. Even though he would never consider leaving Max for something like that, it still made him a bit sad.

He knew he shouldn't be sad about it. He loved Max and he wanted to have a family with him, even if it meant having an unconventional one. But he really wanted to adopt kids someday. Of course, this wouldn't happen right away. Max was still only 21 for crying out loud and 21 was most definitely not the right age to start with kids. Cody knew his boyfriend wasn't ready for that yet, as nobody at that age would be.

His only fear was that when the time came, Max might not be as open to having a family as he was, that maybe Max wouldn't want the same things in life as he wanted. Life together had been so easy when they were in high school. It had been all about loving each other and doing things together or for each other, but now it had become so much more. It was also about living together, and building up their adult lives together, which was probably the biggest challenge they'd ever faced. Sometimes when he thought about such things too much, Cody was afraid Max might not be up to the challenge.

All this thinking had made time pass by faster than he realized. It was almost eleven o'clock and time to go to Zack's and finally find out what happened between his brother and one of his best friends. Before leaving, he looked back at the playing kids and sighed as he saw Liam wave at him. How would he have loved to have a boy like Liam to be his son…

Returning to Zack's apartment building made him recall why he was here again: his twin's break-up. He was hoping their relationship wasn't too seriously damaged. Maybe, if it wasn't, Cody could team up with his brother and they could try to mend it. Yes, he was determined to help Zack get back together with Bailey. He was sure this was what Zack wanted too. The look on Zack's face when he informed them yesterday about his break-up had said it all: his twin brother was devastated and hadn't wanted this to happen.

Before Cody could ring the bell of the building, a tall man in a suit walked out the door. Cody quickly held onto the door and entered. So much easier than to ring and wait for his lazy brother to open it.

After going up a few floors, Cody finally reached the door of his twin's place. But to his surprise the door was left ajar. That was quite weird since Zack never did that. Especially not after all the lectures he got from Cody for living in such a dangerous neighbourhood.

'This can't be good. Why would Zack leave this open?' Cody said to himself as he pushed the door open. Only to meet an ever bigger surprise than a door left ajar.

Zack's place was a mess, but not the normal mess Zack used to make in their old suite in the Tipton Hotel. No, this was much worse. It looked like a tornado had flown through his apartment: clothes were all over the place, closets and drawers were opened, empty beer bottles were scattered everywhere. So far it looked like there had been a drinking party last night. There was nothing to worry about.

But Cody did worry. Because of what he saw next. Two of Zack's favourite things were broken, his TV and his PlayStation 5. Well, broken was perhaps not the right word. They looked more like they had been smashed with a baseball bat.

Cody's blood started to run cold.

What could have happened? What could have left behind a catastrophe like this? Burglars, maybe? Or vandals?

Terrified, Cody walked over to Zack's bed. And what he saw there shocked him to the point where his heart skipped a beat: Zack wasn't in his bed; he was nowhere to be found. Cody didn't know what to expect now and did the only thing he could think of: search the entire apartment.

"Zack!" He shouted, hoping against hope that his twin would answer him.

Author's Note: So we've reached the end of the first chapter of the sequel to Love To The Max & Magic Closet Ride (so technically it's not a sequel but oh well). And I think I managed to end with a nice cliffhanger, the kind I would hate myself actually. Oh well, I'm sure you'll love it!

Many thanks go out to Elianna22 who has inspired me a lot and betaread this chapter. Also many thanks to the-lovely-anomaly who kindly accepted to act as editor for this story (or at least this chapter).

Stay tuned for next chapter although I won't promise posting dates for that. As always a review would be highly appreciated.