Max scrunched his nose in distaste at the mention of Rio’s name. "What about him?"
"Do you think he ever loved you?" Alex whispered, and Max looked at him, frowning a little.
"What?" Max asked, clearing his throat. "What kind of question is that?"
"It's because of something I heard. But seriously, answer. Do you think he ever loved you?"
"Probably not," Max said, and it was the truth. "Rio probably whispered all those sweet lies. I should have known he wouldn't mean it. It was obvious. I should have believed the rumours and not gone ahead with it. But I did. And it hurt so much."
"He claims he did."
"What?" he whispered. He looked over at him, he was a little feverish and sweaty.
"Would you choose him or me?" he mumbled. Alec looked at him; Max swore he had tears in his eyes. "Because he said you would run back to him if given the chance. That you'd leave."
Where had Alec even seen Rio?
"Alec, I've been given the chance. You know that and I didn't go back. Okay, I like it here. With you. And Ani, Alice, Amber, Oliver, Matt and even Damian."
"But Rio said you would. No hesitation. And I wanted to say you wouldn't, but to be sure, I wouldn't even believe myself. So would you choose him or me?"
Max blinked a couple of times and sighed. "You, you i***t. Even if I had to choose between you two, I would choose you. I'd always choose you."
He smiled a little before he shut his eyes and drifted off to sleep again.
Max closed his eyes; he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep; he had just woken up, but he didn't mind as he made himself comfortable and, believe it or not, Max did drift off here and there.
He held his hand a lot; Alec wanted to hold it to ensure he was okay. And it wasn’t like Max had minded either. He liked holding his hand; it was larger than his and surprisingly rougher than his softer hand, and he didn’t mind.
Max was awake now, drawing on his old iPad, leaning against the back of the bed, and Alec was clinging to his waist, mumbling in his sleep. He had initially been drawing some of the characters, trying to get a feel for them for Oliver’s graphic novel idea, and Angelica was his first priority; she was a hired hitwoman on the run disguised as a nun, and Oliver had been particular about her appearance. But he got distracted.
"What are you drawing?" he asked gently. He must have woken up.
"You," Max replied. He showed him the sketch he had done of him sleeping. Alec grinned as he looked at him. Oh, he looked so ill. He looked so pale and tired, but he was still Alec.
He was close, and his lips were close.
Max looked down at them and then at him. He leaned in, and Alec saw him leaning in. Max smiled; he’d finally have his first kiss with him.
"Max! You drew Alec!" Max jumped five feet in the air, gasping a little.
"Yeah, I did!" Max said as he regained his composure. Alec glared at Ani, and Max laughed a little. Max looked up at Alec, and he looked down.
Max thought he would kiss him there.
"Can you draw us too?!" Amber yelled as she jumped up and down on the spot.
"Sure, I can draw you all."
She handed Max one of his sketchbooks, watercolour paints, and acrylics because he wanted to add some colour, and they posed for the remainder of the day. He went one by one and drew them all.
He even drew more minor things around their picture, of things he associated with them, and took some of their recommendations. While he would draw one person, the rest would talk, including Max, but they had to whisper because Alec was still sleeping beside Max. They'd wake him up and give him water, and Damian said he'd have to eat no matter how much he refused, so Ani made him soup.
When he was finished, Amber had, well, Amber and had a full moon with one smaller half-moon back to back on each side of the full moon. He scattered some crystals around, some black cats, mainly in shades of black, blue, and purple with watercolour. Her infinity sign comprised amethyst, rose quartz, obsidian, and citrine crystals.
Ani had more of a lighter pallet, so Max had used acrylics. She had sunflowers, some Polaroids that had the sky, one had a sunset, another had a sunrise, one had the sky at night with stars and the moon, and the final Polaroid had the aurora borealis. She had more of a flowery theme and roses scattered along with lavender. Her infinity sign was made up of flowers he had used, lotus, iris, hyacinths, and some ixora, all of which he used some good old references for.
Max gave Alice an Alice in Wonderland theme. He knew it was her favourite book, so he stuck with a white, red and gold theme and used acrylics. He drew some hats for the hatter, Cheshire's eyes, and a crown for the red queen; she wanted a knife, so he drew a fancy knife on the side, a stopwatch, and made a little keyhole with a little illusion inside it. Her infinity sign consisted of playing cards because he thought they fit nicely with the theme.
Oliver's was probably the hardest. Max gave him a more vintage look and stained his paper with coffee. He also used acrylics for his. He liked writing, so Max drew a typewriter. He was always drinking coffee, so he drew a nice cup with steam coming out of it. He scattered some stacked piles of books, as well as some small statues of some of his favourite Greek gods: Hades, Ares, Apollo, Dionysus, Athena and Aphrodite. Max had to use reference photos because he had no idea how they looked. His infinity sign was made using his favourite quote, 'You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never dared to commit.’ Max asked him to change it because of its length, but he was adamant and wanted it. So he had to double line his sign, and he had to plan it out because he wasn't about to f**k this up. Max found the right size and handwriting style, and in the end, it looked amazing.
And he continued.
~*~