Chapter 4

"Earth to Max."

He sat up, rubbing at his eyes, feeling drowsy and exhausted. He yawned, scratching the back of his head, eyes opening to see Link and Phoebe seated across him.

"You've been sleeping and mumbling for a while now."

"Did, I say anything weird?" he asked carefully. Link seemed neutral, as he usually was. Phoebe, whom he decisively chose not to look at, didn't make any moves to address him which he deduced to be a good thing.

"You were chanting the word shrimp, you were dreaming about shrimp, I think."

Max sighed in relief, relatively not feeling well either due to the fact he dreamt kissing his twin sister, not once, but twice. Only this time it felt real, uncomfortably too real that he could faintly feel the tell tails of her lips on his.

"What time is it?"

"Its four to six," Phoebe offered.

Link glanced at his watch. "In which my next shift starts, I have to get ready," he leaned over and kissed Phoebe.

"Can you please not do that in front of me?" Max invested, feigning disgust when he too made to stand up. "Come on sucky-face, I'm leaving, you coming?"

Link chuckled, as did Phoebe who stood up, hugging the former. It was a long bid off girly laughs as Max stared making a funny face.

"Okay, you're gonna need a new gender because I'm officially revoking your dude membership." Max jested.

Link shook his head, ignoring her girlfriend's twin bother in favour of bidding Phoebe with a last kiss.

Max was halfway through the door.

"You haven't eaten anything at SplatBurger." she pointed out,

"Keen observation."

She poked him in the ribs. Max decided a happy Phoebe always treaded friendly and friendly. "Want me to cook you up a little something?"

"I'll save you the trouble of concocting a new type of poison."

"Are you always such a jerk when someone wants to do something nice for you?"

"You've lived with me for the past seventeen years and you're only figuring that out now? Is the rock you lived under still warm?"

"Are you still grumpy about the party?"

"I'm not grumpy about the party Phoebe."

A frowning Phoebe watched him wordlessly hurry for his lair.

He removed the goggles from his face, blinking to readjust his vision.

Standing before him was a machine, relatively small in size similar to a generator only this one had cables protruding from the sides and a small screen on the top surface of it, a radar below it as well as a handwritten scale.

"Max!"

Phoebe stepped in, acknowledging the black lace gloves on his hands, stood up, prepping his legs in a quick warmup.

"What are you doing?"

"Proving that my intelligence isn't deterred even by sheer boredom." he responded simply. Nodding to himself, Max pressed a switch on his invention, the small screen flickering to life in a hue blue.

"What does that do?" she inquired, perturbed by the small object perched before him, equally interested as the trim lines on both gloves and shoes glowed an eerie blue, similar to the small screen on his weird object. "Okay, apart from the dorky look with all the black and blue, why don't you fill me in on the rest."

"Haven't you always had the desire to fly?"

Phoebe frowned.

Max pat the small box like invention. "This baby, diverts our powers to certain parts of our bodies. Through a sync with my gloves and shoes."

"Oh-kay, now you got me all lost."

"Our telekinesis for instance. We normally just use our fingers to pull objects into our grasp but when you think about it, our telekinesis is derived from our minds-"

"Skip the tedious lecture and get to the point Max."

"It would be easier if I just showed you." He pressed another button, the soles of his shoes taking on a darker blue. It only took a few seconds before his feet lifted from the ground.

Phoebe gaped at his hovering figure.

"Y-you're flying!"

Max nodded with a smug smirk, crossing his arms as his frame floated toward the small staircase and out of the door.

Phoebe rushed into the living room to see him flying about in a relaxed, carefree position with a cheek resting on a palm.

"How are you flying?!"

"I equally divided the trajectory of my telekinesis throughout my body, mainly my feet." he explained, standing upright in midair as he crossed his arms in a scrutinizing manner, looking down at her with perceived superiority. "Cool isn't it?"

She nodded, before clasping her hands together, trying to mummer up a cute expression up at him, which he immediately recognized as he floated towards his lair with a gesture of a hand.

"Come on, follow me."

"That's two points for me!"

"What! No way! That was a regular sized one! I didn't even feel-oof!"

"Ha! Do you feel it now?"

Max silently cursed, dropping to the floor to hide behind the kitchen island. He peered over the corner, to regret it when something hard and cold smashed into his face.

"Argh! Cheap shot!"

"You're just saying that because you're losing!"

He was losing because she was on the upper level, having advantage due to her radical aim which was much better and more precise. He figured that was the only position she could take given it gave her access to the bathroom water supply since he had already called dibs on the kitchen tap. Max thought hard, and collected six snowballs into his arms, using his telekinesis to silently open the backdoor, silently stepping through on his short venture to her bedroom window.

He used his telekinesis to open her window, cautiously floated inside, shaking his head due to having smelled the invasive girly scent in her room as his feet touched the floor. Reaching her open door, he poked his head into the hallway, squinting his eyes to notice her bent over at the end of the hallway with three snowballs hovering by her side.

"Heh, loser." he whispered, preparing a ball of ice as he cautiously stepped into the hallway. A thorough swipe of his hand, and the four snow balls were launched straight towards the unexpected bum of one Phoebe Thunderman.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"

"I-It hurts." she whimpered, looking down to see him still cackling and rolling on the floor in laughter. "Its not funny!"

He sat up, clutching his stomach, wiping away the tears. "Y-your butt still hurts?"

She grind her teeth and replied meekly. "Yes."

He opened his mouth in laughter, only for a snowball to precisely mark its direct hit on his mouth leaving him sputtering. Phoebe smiled at his coughing fit.

"Pft, still beats having pimples on your butt."

"Mm-mm. Fair retribution. Your taste buds drenched in toxic release opposed to my..butt pimples."

"Gross! I can still taste pee in my mouth!"

"That'll teach you to make fun of my butt pimples."

He stopped to look at her funny.

"If I had any! If had any!"

Max sighed, throwing off the last boot to the floor, sinking into the couch next to her, suddenly feeling frost hints of air seep into his body causing him to shiver momentarily. "T-today was not bad."

"You're right. I've never had this much fun before."

"Yes you did, we had a snowball fight in school last semester."

"But it pales in comparison to this." she retorted tiredly. "We flew, we actually flew."

"Say it, come on say it, you know you want to."

"Okay fine." she relented. "Max, you're such a genius."

"Heh, I know."

Phoebe sighed, she was tired from all the flying. As fun as it was, she wanted to lie down, preferably in the hot tub with warm water draping all over her shivering body to warm up.

"The house is all wet,"

"We can worry about that later."

The house was literally wet, water dripping from the stairs, formed pools on the kitchen floor. Phoebe felt Max shiver beside her, she too was cold, she could testify the wetness of her undergarments given the subtle movements of her legs in efforts to keep still and govern what little warmth she could.

"I'm hungry."

"I'm cold, tired and hungry."

"Sandwiches?"

"On it."

Phoebe stood up with a squishy sound as she slowly trudged towards the kitchen, feeling each of her limbs tremble as cold air swiveled into the lounge, slamming into her body, her teeth making their debut chatter.

She turned to notice Max still slumped on the couch, a swift glare from her compelled him to stand up. Two, three steps, and he slipped in an unceremonious forward descend as Phoebe cushioned his fall to a downward tumble. His arms were on both sides of her head, hers were struggling to keep his upper body from making contact with hers as the proximity between their faces infused.

Phoebe released a shaky breath, eyes widening by the second when she felt her arms slowly fail to maintain their hold, buckling under the pressure. His eyes momentarily flickered, face subtly tinting to an ominous light blue and before she could do anything, his eyes completely shut, her arms numbed and lost feeling, his face fell, lips precisely landing on hers.