Preface
Max loved Logan as a friend, she really did, but there were so many times he annoyed the hell out of her... which didn't help her sort out the mixed feelings that she had for him at all (mixed feelings that a Manticore soldier shouldn't have had), and she found herself wishing that he was one of her siblings, or something, so she'd at least know what to do with him.
And she must have said this out loud at dinner that night—after the two of them got into an argument about morality as they always did—because Logan flinched like he'd been slapped and then looked at Max rather coldly.
But he sobered up instantly when Max began trying to take it back, with a: "Look, Logan, I-", Logan cut Max off by smiling at her softly and saying, "I can be a sibling for you, Max, if that's what you want. I can... try to be less judgmental and try to be supportive—the way brothers are—and I can… tease you, too. Perhaps it'll warm this relationship of ours up and keep it less quid pro quo. I was probably wrong to ever even start it out like that. Deal?"
And Logan sounded so sure of himself—and was clearly trying to put his best foot forward here—that Max thought it made sense herself...
And so she tried to push down the feelings she sometimes had around him—the kind that made her feel safe in a way that she hadn't since Hannah: something that not even her fellow X-5s had ever made her feel.
Max reached across the table, took Logan's hand, and said "Deal."