paranoid_alex все записи автора The first time Tony brought it up, Maxxie was sure he was kidding.

"Maxxie Oliver."

"Tony Stonem," Maxxie smiled in reply, his lap suddenly full of blue-eyed boy.

Tony stared right at him, his gaze flickering with mischief. "You should make out with me."

Maxxie just laughed, and stood up, leaving Tony to scramble for his balance.

"What? I'm serious," Tony said as Maxxie wandered away.

When he tried again the very next day, Maxxie humored him with more conversation. Tony made it more difficult for Maxxie to run away by sitting on his lap again, but facing him this time, thighs pressed snug together in tight denim, effectively pinning him to his chair.

"Why?" Maxxie grinned.

"Because it would be fun," Tony insisted, his eyes bright with excitement.

"Tony, you’re not gay."

Tony stared at him, perplexed, like Maxxie just spoke in Japanese or something. "I'm not saying I’m gay, I'm saying you should make out with me."

Maxxie wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Why don't you go make out with Michelle?"

Tony sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "Nips is a bit mad at me at the moment. So will you?" he leaned a bit closer, pressing his forefinger to the zipper tab of Maxxie's hoodie, lifting it. "Make out with me?"

"How about a hug?" Maxxie offered. "I'll give you a hug."

Tony's slender arms were wrapped tight around Maxxie's neck before he even finished speaking. Maxxie had to grin as he embraced Tony, squeezing his body gently, and Tony hummed softly into Maxxie's ear.

"You give good hugs, Max."

"And you're a total flatterer. Now move."


Maxxie's respite from Tony's advances lasted all of three days. Which was just long enough for Maxxie to begin to relax again, and perhaps to forget the unexpected comfort that came from Tony's presence on his lap, too.

He wandered onto the green after psychology, to find Tony sitting by himself. In his hands he held a huge white styrofoam cup, his lips firmly puckered around the top of the pale pink straw. Tony glanced up, suppressing a grin when he caught Maxxie staring at him.

"Is that..." Maxxie began, sinking onto the grass across from Tony. "Is that a milkshake?"

Tony paused, breaking the suction, and taking a much-needed breath. He nodded as the contents of the straw receded slowly.

"That's like, real too... not some McDonald's bullshit," Maxxie mused. "Where'd you get it?"

Tony gazed at Maxxie, his bottom lip brushing the top of the straw. "Abby got it for me."

Maxxie leaned closer as Tony twirled the straw, pinching it delicately in his fingertips, closing his lips around the end again as he looked up.

"Strawberry?" Maxxie asked curiously.

Tony swallowed. "Strawberry-banana."

"It looks really good," Maxxie muttered, and he knew he was being pathetic. "Is it good?"

Tony pulled the length of the straw from the cup, dripping thick and pale pink, and gave Maxxie a half-smile as he brought it toward his mouth. "Yep," Tony replied, running the straw between his lips, flicking his tongue around it, pink foam pooling in the corner of his grin.

"Can I have some?" Maxxie asked finally.

Tony dropped the straw back into the cup, giving it another stir. "Sure," he answered, and took another sip. "You can have the rest of it, actually."

Maxxie reached for the cup, but Tony kept a firm grip on it, his eyes meeting Maxxie's.

"If you make out with me," Tony added.

Maxxie hadn't thought about it much before, but he was pretty sure his affections were worth more than a half-finished strawberry-banana milkshake.

"You're a twat," Maxxie laughed, shaking his head and standing up.

*

After a rather incredible party at Chris’s, Maxxie fell asleep sitting on the window seat, neck squashed against the glass. He stirred as Tony brushed against him, crawling into his lap again.

Maxxie blinked at him, first with one eye and then both as Tony settled in; their breathing and the low hum of a truck outside the only sounds in the darkness.

"What?" Maxxie asked, his voice soft and sleep-scratchy.

Tony grinned at him slightly. "You don't even have to take your clothes off at all."

"Oh my god," Maxxie muttered, realization washing over him.

"One kiss, then."

"You don't give up, do you?" Maxxie asked incredulously, pushing at Tony's chest. It was no use; he wasn't going anywhere this time.

"Come on, Max. It's only one kiss." Tony deflected Maxxie's arm, fingers curling around his wrist.

"I hate you," Maxxie grinned.

"I gathered that," Tony grinned in return. "Come on," he repeated. "Just kiss me."

"I don't kiss..." Maxxie faltered, his gaze landing on Tony's mouth, "people with girlfriends.”

"Bullshit," Tony objected, his tongue darting out quickly, leaving his lips slick. "I'm so on to you."

Maxxie averted his gaze to the window, studying Tony's reflection, faint in the low light against the endless, whirring dark outside.

"Just do it, and I'll never ask you again," Tony said.

"One kiss, and you'll shut the fuck up about it finally?" Maxxie asked, meeting Tony's eyes.

"Yep."

"Forever?"

"And I'll buy you a milkshake. That's how nice I am." Tony shifted slightly, the muscles of his thighs flexing.

"All right, deal," Maxxie conceded.

He leaned a bit closer, and Tony's thumb grazed the inside of Maxxie's wrist. Maxxie laughed slightly, nervous, and cleared his throat, and waited. Tony tilted his head a fraction to the right, and gradually eliminated the distance between them, stopping just before their lips met, close enough that Maxxie could feel the soft feather of Tony's breath as it fanned across his face. Maxxie froze in anticipation, lingering there, his eyes locked with Tony's.

Tony's lips turned up at the corners, ever so slightly, and his eyes brightened. "Come on," he murmured, barely a whisper. "I'm not gonna do it for you."

Maxxie blinked and pushed his lips into Tony's lightning quick, immediately retreating.

"There."

Tony's eyes flew open. "Oh my god, that so doesn't count."

"That was your kiss," Maxxie argued.

"You can't be serious. You didn't even try."

"What do you want from me?" Maxxie laughed. "Seriously."

"I want you to kiss me," Tony said, all traces of banter disappearing from his tone. "And if one kiss is all I'm gonna get, you could at least make an effort."

Maxxie felt bad, like he'd misbehaved in school or something, the way Tony was looking at him. "All right, god," he said, and sighed, trying to unravel the knot in his stomach. This was beyond ridiculous.

Tony gazed at him intently, and Maxxie stared back, and leaned in again, taking a breath. Tony tilted his head toward Maxxie and their noses brushed, accidentally at first, the tickle of contact lulling Maxxie's eyes closed as his lips found Tony's. In the soft, gentle push that followed, Maxxie's pulse skipped, an event Maxxie attributed entirely to the late hour, his lack of sleep, and how long it had been since he'd kissed anyone at all. His mouth parted slightly in reclaimed memory, his body proceeding in spite of the rational part of his mind that so kindly informed him that hey, he could probably stop now.

But that inner discourse stood no chance of being heard once Tony's mouth parted in response, warm, wet pressure that hovered on some unspoken precipice. The tip of Tony's tongue swiped hesitantly at Maxxie's lower lip, like an invitation, and it was the easiest thing in the world for Maxxie to follow Tony's tongue with his own, right back into the soft cavern of Tony's mouth.

It should have been weird, but it wasn't, and it shouldn't have made any sense at all, but then it did, the seal of their lips and easy slide of their tongues together. Maxxie grew a little braver, or maybe just gave in, did what he wanted with Tony's lower lip, pinching at it with his teeth. Tony sighed gently, like he was relieved, his hands moving to Maxxie's face as they kept kissing. Maxxie brought his own hands to rest tentatively at Tony's hips, barely brushing the denim there, and then clenching as Tony began to suck on his tongue. Tony's hips rocked against Maxxie's thighs, stuttered friction, and Maxxie reeled in the warmth that followed, the way it traveled through him, landing with a dull ache in his abdomen.

Tony's hands dropped and he pulled away, leaning back as Maxxie stretched forward in confusion, his eyes flying open.

Tony touched his lips quick to the tip of Maxxie's nose, leaving a warm, wet dot.

"Thank you," Tony breathed, and then he was gone.


As it turned out, Tony was really good at keeping his promises. Maxxie resented this fact on a daily basis, when all he could think about was that kiss.

He did get a milkshake though, which he'd forgotten about in the negotiations, and Tony handed it over to him with a knowing grin. Maxxie smiled and stared at Tony's mouth and remembered how he'd sat there in the darkness after Tony had left, trying to find traces of Tony's taste that remained on his lips. In that context, the strawberry-banana milkshake was of little consolation.

Maxxie's lap stayed empty, no matter how much he sat and stared at Tony. Even pretending to sleep with his head against a window again got him nothing, save for a slightly sore neck.

"What?" Tony asked him finally, forming the question around the end of his finger, which was shoved unceremoniously in his mouth. It had been eight days.

"Huh?" Maxxie managed to mutter, surfacing from his reverie. The one he plunged into moments before, watching as Tony's tongue met the torn skin of his fingertip, swiping away the bright red droplet there.

Tony's finger slipped from his lips with a wet slurp, slick and shiny. "You're staring at me," he said, studying his injury with a worried expression.

"Oh." Maxxie felt his cheeks growing warmer.

"Like you want to tell me a secret," Tony added, glancing up, closing his lips around his fingertip again.

"No," Maxxie said softly, his mouth going dry.

Tony just grinned at him, still with the end of his finger in his mouth.


Tea was not an option that, until recently, Maxxie had ever seriously considered. But Jal was a fan, and she converted Maxxie late one night when they were both sleepless. Since then, Maxxie's first insomniated, hungover thought was always a craving for a cup of tea.

Max figured Sid wouldn’t mind if he borrowed some tea. They didn't have a kettle though, so he’d have to heat the water in the microwave. Making his way over the mess of cans, bottles, plates and trodden-on forgotten pills, he blearily searched the cupboards for tea and mugs. The microwave clock flashed 5: 06 at the corner of his vision.

The eye-level microwave in Sid’s kitchen chirped cheerfully and then whirred to life as Maxxie pushed the appropriate buttons. He leaned his forehead into the door and closed his eyes, hands resting on the counter, and waited. He concentrated on the hum of the microwave, and not the trip to Russia coming up, or the way he knew from experience that Tony liked to lounge around in only a bath towel.

"Radiation, much?"

Maxxie turned his head, his eyes opening slowly. Tony's face was right there, his expression amused. He shifted even closer.

"Seriously. You might as well crawl into the microwave."

Maxxie wished for a brief second that he could, but banished the thought with a small grin.

"Maxxie," Tony grinned back, like it was his favorite word.

"What?" Maxxie asked, his body thrumming with anticipation.

Tony's fingers brushed against Maxxie's on the countertop. "You know what," Tony replied.

Sid was about twenty seconds away from finally getting into this girls pants, a girl he’d been talking to for a good couple of hours, when his bedroom door swung open and Tony entered.

"Hi, leave please," Tony announced.

"Fuck off, I'm – "

Sid gasped as Tony pulled the girl off the bed and all but shoved her out the door.

"Tony!" Sid shouted, tossing his hat down violently. "What the fuck!"

"Please?" Tony reiterated calmly. "Maxxie and I have to talk."

Sid glanced back and forth between them, incredulous. Maxxie smiled at him sheepishly.

"You owe me so big, Tone," he muttered finally, pushing himself up off the bed, and brushing past Maxxie on his way out.

Tony pushed the door shut and turned the latch to lock it.

"So big!" Sid shouted from the other side.