There's a soft touch on his back. Careful pressure, shaking him back and forth. He groans and stirs, face pressed deep into the folds of his pillow. "No," he groans, swatting back at the hand pressing insistently between his shoulderblades. "Go away, Piper."
There's a soft laugh behind him, then a quiet, "Should I be offended that you think I'm your cat?"
His eyes snap open and he finally frees himself from the tangle of sheets and pillows, twisting around to look. Adam is leaning over him, a faintly amused look on his face. "Oh," he says stupidly. "Adam." Rubbing at his face, he yawns and stretches, squinting at the clock. "Holy shit, how long did I sleep?"
"Pretty long," Adam admits. "Seemed like you needed it." He fondly runs a hand through Max's messy curls. "I would've let you sleep longer, but uh. I..." He looks helplessly down at his ankle and Max curses, first mentally, then out loud.
"Shit, brochacho, I'm so fucking sorry." He scrambles off of the bed and reaches out for Adam. "What do you need? Meds? Food? A piss?"
Adam twists his lips, before exhaling slowly. "All of the above? Uh, starting with the bathroom?"
"Yeah, man, of course." Max helps him there, and back, then rushes to get his pain pills. "How long have you been suffering with this to let me sleep?" he grumbles, observing the pained squint of his eyes as he hands over a bottle of water.
Adam shrugs. "Not long," he says, but Max is pretty sure he's lying, Adam's eyes darting around as he downs half of the bottle of water.
Max decides, however, to let it go when Adam settles back down with a relieved smile, looking up at him with those infuriatingly sincere, blue eyes. "Ugh," he mumbles. "What do you want for breakfast?"
Adam mulls it over, then says, "It feels like a French toast kind of day, Max."
Max hums. "Coming right up," he says with a nod, moving to find his phone and a good place to order breakfast from. Once he's done ordering every possible breakfast food he can think of that sounds decent, he carefully settles back in next to Adam and loosely wraps an arm around him. "You feeling any better?" he murmurs, pressing a kiss to the side of Adam's head.
"Yeah, the meds are kicking in," Adam says, resting his head on Max's shoulder. "Thanks. Sorry I had to wake you up like that, it was really starting to nag."
"Dude, I don't want things to start nagging, you need something, you wake me up. That's what I'm here for," Max says, exasperated, his voice loud and biting.
Adam deflates a little. "I know," he says quietly. "I just... you wrestled a hell of a match against Kenny, and had a lot of crap to deal with on Wednesday, and I just-"
"Hey," Max's voice gentles as he reaches out and grips Adam's jaw, encouraging him to look up at him. "I can sleep any time, but if you need pain meds or food or- hell, even just to talk, I want you to wake me up. Ok? Promise me?"
Adam's eyes look suspiciously wet in the early morning sun as he nods. "Yeah, ok. I promise," he finally manages to say as Max quirks an eyebrow at him.
"Good, great-" Before anything else could be said, there's a knock at the front door and Max mutters under his breath, getting up to get the food. He piles plates full of food for them both and brings it in, gingerly balancing Adam's apple juice and some coffee for himself on a tray as he walks it into the bedroom. "Here we go," he says, some cheer back in his voice as he puts the tray carefully over Adam's lap. "Bonapetit," he says with a flourish, settling in next to him and immediately digging into the vast selection on his plate.
Adam coughs. "Max, I can't eat all of this," he says incredulously and Max peeks over at him, still chewing on some scrambled eggs.
"Don't worry about it, whatever we don't eat will make good leftovers. Probably." He shrugs. "Just... do your best, huh?"
Adam nods, almost overwhelmed by the pile of food set before him before he spears some of the French toast on his fork and smears it through some syrup leaking onto the plate. After the first bite, he realizes just how hungry he actually is and begins eating almost as quickly as Max which, considering how iffy his appetitte's been since the surgeries, surprises him. He pauses a couple slices in and sips some juice, giving himself a breather. "Hey, Max?"
"Mmm?"
"You know what tomorrow is, right?" he asks with a grin.
Max looks up from his plate and squints, trying to think. "Tuesday?"
Adam huffs a laugh, then shakes his head. "Well, yes, but- it's Halloween, dude!" He looks ecstatic, like a little kid on Christmas, and Max stares at him, lips frozen around his fork, which he slowly extracts and turns to fully face Adam's bright grin and shining eyes.
"Ok," he says slowly, drawing the word out. He almost regrets asking, not sure what exactly he's risking encouraging, but he knows he can't just ignore that look on Adam's face. "And?"
"Oh my god, Max," Adam laughs. "C'mon, man, trick or treaters!"
"Aren't you... a little old for that?" Max asks, brows furrowing even further.
Adam huffs, then punches him lightly. "I don't trick or treat, you goof, I mean passing out candy to the neighborhood kids!"
"Oh my god, you don't actually do that, do you?" Max's voice rises in volume, somehow both disgusted and confused all at once. "Why?"
Meanwhile,Adam's expression is somewhere between pity and horror like this is the biggest fright he's going to have all Halloween. "Why? Because it's fun, Max! You get to see all the kids and their costumes, and they're so happy when they see the candy you're about to give them! There's nothing like it." He has a contented smile on his face as he leans back against the pillows, eyes distant as he remembers years past.
Max gives it a minute, expecting him to fall back to earth at any time now, and absolutely being proven wrong. "Ok," he finally drawls all over again, just to get Adam's attention back on him. "And?"
Adam stares at him, eyes wide, lips slightly parted. "Max," he says slowly.
Max's brows lift even higher. "What?" he asks, once more biting on his fork. "No, no way, Adam. Look, I'd do anything for you, but not that-" He shuts up as Adam reaches out and rests a hand on his arm, face shining with hope and affection. "Adam-!"
"Max, please," he all but begs. "This can't be the first year since I've moved here that I don't pass out candy one way or another, but I can't do it myself for obvious reasons! Please do it for me! I promise, it's not that bad- scheduled hours are from 5 to 8, it won't be busy the whole time, you can just hang out in the living room and do whatever you want between knocks at the door! I swear, I'll make it up to you! Please?"
"There's no way in hell I would ever do something like that," Max huffs, crossing his arms over his chest and staring blankly ahead, not even wanting to give the idea air to breathe.
-x
"I can't believe I'm doing this," Max mumbles the next afternoon, arms still crossed over his chest as he peruses the candy bowl Adam had insisted he set up. It's a mess, personally, Max having just upended three bags of candy into the damn orange monstrosity before calling it sufficient, but he doubts Adam- or the neighborhood poors who will soon be pounding on the door- will care much. Hopefully, anyway. The only positivity is his costume, as cobbled together as it is- and missing his mask, regretfully. Asshole thieves. He smooths his hand down the sleek red robe that he'd found in one of his bags, put together with a rich red shirt and black slacks. Kind of a weak attempt at the devil, but it'll do, he guesses, fussing with his hair to make it stand just so.
The light is on, welcoming any candy-lusting child to his doorway, and Max turns his back on the whole thing, venturing back to the couch to just wait. "Hey, brochacho, you sure I have to go the full three hours with this shit?" he asks, already tired of the distance between them.
Adam's voice comes, tinny, from the speakers. "Yeah, Max. Don't worry, it always goes faster than you expect it to."
"If you say so," he says doubtfully, glancing at the clock. 5:03. Sure. Fast. "Well, come on, am I kicking your ass at this game or what?"
"Yes, Max, just loading in," Adam says with a huff of a laugh. Fall Guys is far from Max's favorite game but it makes Adam happy, and it's easy for him to focus on while he's loopy from painkillers, so Max allows it.
"That camera set up doing alright?" he asks after a moment.
"Yeah, Max," Adam murmurs. "It's perfect, thank you."
Max had ventured outside earlier in the morning, cursing- mostly under his breath- as he'd used his somewhat iffy tech abilities to set up a ring camera so Adam could see all of the trick or treaters and their costumes on his laptop. When he had explained what he'd done to Adam, Adam's face had lit up and he had pulled Max into him, kissing him deeply in thanks. "Glad you like it," he says awkwardly, still getting used to this... compassion thing.
They're a round in when Max hears shuffling at the door, and then a quiet knock. "Off to the gallows I go," he grouches, and Adam laughs at him.
"Be nice," is the last thing Max hears before he ventures to the door, snagging the bowl on the way past.
There's a princess, and a Spiderman- because of course there is, and Max grimaces at how small they look. "Trick or treat!" they both cry out at gentle prodding by their parents behind them.
Max exhales and nods, looking doubtfully into the bowl before glancing back at them, still not sure what to do exactly. "Pick two each," he finally decides on, kneeling down low enough that the kids can reach in. It becomes his go to line for the next couple of hours, because he has no earthly idea what some of these candies even are, much less what kids would want. Letting them choose feels like the better of two evils.
"I'm sorry," Adam says after about the sixth time of Max having to abandon Fall Guys to go to the door. "I probably should've picked a game we could pause or something so you'd stop getting eliminated every time a kid comes around."
"It's fine," Max says, not really caring about the game. He'd mostly gone along with it just to pass the time, and to have a way to talk to Adam even though they're only a couple of rooms apart currently. He's about halfway through Door Dash, holding his own, when he hears another soft knock at the actual door a few feet away. "Shit, be right back."
It's becoming muscle memory by now, grab the bowl, unlock the door, open the door, kneel down to whatever's height appropriate, and wait for candy to be picked, shut the door, go back in time to hear Adam laughing or cooing over the latest costume. But this time, Max is stopped short by the little boy standing in the doorway, gawking up at him. "You ok, kid?" he asks, waiting as patiently as he possibly can for the kid to get over this trick or treating stage fright or whatever the hell it is.
The kid stares at him for a few moments longer before turning sharply and yelling out, "Dad! It's MJF!"
Well, fuck. Max freezes with a twisted grimace on his face, then chuckles weakly. "Yeah, kid, that's me. Are you going to take some candy, or-?"
Before he can say anything else, a guy approaches them, a doubtful look on his face, apologies on his tongue, but his voice dies away as he realizes who he's staring at. "Holy shit, you are MJF."
Max exhales, standing up to his full height. "Yeah, you caught me." Before he can say anything else, he feels a slight tug on his robe, and looks back down at the kid who'd outed him to begin with.
"Mr. Max?" he asks, and oh shit, Max is glad Adam's camera doesn't have volume or he'd never hear the end of this.
"Yeah, kid?" he finally asks, kneeling back down with the bowl in reach. "What's up?"
He looks past Max for a second before meeting his eye once more. "Is Adam here?" Max freezes all over again, and the little boy tugs anxiously at the pants of his costume, which is just another in the parade of costumes that Max struggles to recognize, some bright monstrosity that he thinks might be a Pokemon but he's not sure. "I- uh. I know he's injured, I'm just- is he doing ok?"
Max's face softens and he nods. "Yeah, man, Adam's good, I'm making sure of that. Don't worry." The kid's bright and relieved grin in response to that twists something deep in Max's chest and he exhales, getting a sudden idea. "Hey, wait here a second, huh?"
The kid- and his father- look confused as Max ducks back through the door, immediately going to the closet and digging around in the luggage he'd dropped there after returning following Collision. "I know there's one in here, where the fu- Aha!" Successful, he tugs out a spare Better Than You BayBay shirt that he hadn't worn because it was a little too small for him, and Sharpie that had gotten tangled up in his things at the last autograph signing he had, then scrambles back to the door, relieved to find the kid still waiting. "Here, hang on a sec." He holds the shirt up in front of the kid and scrutinizes it. "Eh, you'll grow into it," he says, quickly scrawling his autograph on the shirt. "Here you go."
The kid gapes at the shirt, clinging to it. "Thanks, Mr. Max!" he exclaims, eyes widening even further when Max grabs a handful of candy and drops it into his bucket.
"Happy Halloween, kid," he says, exhaling slowly as the boy and his father thanks him again before taking their leave, the kid's excited babbling audible as Max leans against the door and relaxes, putting the bowl aside to return to the computer.
He finds the game had ended at some point while he'd been talking with that kid, Adam and his Fall Guys beans just standing there on their platforms, waiting patiently for the next game. "Hey, brochacho," he says. "Sorry, had a fan to deal with." There's silence on the other end and he frowns, mindlessly spinning his character around on the screen. "Adam?"
Still no answer, and he sets the laptop aside before venturing down the hall, peeking into the bedroom. Adam's leaning back against the pillows, eyes closed, hands lax against the controller, and Max exhales slowly, his lips twitching up into a smile before he wanders quietly over to the bed and turns the game off, easing the controller out of his grip and setting it aside. "I never thought I'd say this," he murmurs, leaning in to kiss Adam's forehead before adjusting the sheets around him. "But Halloween actually isn't that bad." He double checks the camera file to make sure it's set to automatically save in case Adam wants to look back at whatever costumes he misses out on, then takes his leave after turning the light off so Adam can sleep on unbothered.
He has a little less than an hour left, and as he hears another knock at the door, he finds himself almost sad that it's about done. "Damn, Adam," he mumbles, scooping up the bowl. "You always have to be right, don't you?" Chuckling to himself, he pulls the door open and greets the kids clustered there with the closest thing to a sincere smile he's ever given to someone who's not Adam.