Melted: A MaxTul AU story

Chapter Forty: The Look

As Max started packing up his things after the interview, Tul thought that he now understood why people liked being interviewed by Max. Max asked not just the obvious things but questions he had never thought about. He wasn't sure about the point of some of them when he was first asked. There were questions and topics about which he hadn't given much thought.

Max made him think of himself with a broader view and with different possibilities than before. But none of these things made him think of himself as a different person. It was almost as if Max was asking him questions as if he were introducing Tul to himself or rather reintroducing Tul to himself.

Tul had been interviewed plenty of times before by men and women who were pleasant (and some not so pleasant), but no matter how nice they seemed to be, he always felt like he was just giving them evidence for a case they were already trying to make. With Max it was different. He felt as though Max wasn't just looking for answers to complete an already written story he already had in mind about Tul; Max seemed to be waiting for Tul to tell him his story.

To be fair, there had been times when he had been told to do an interview by his father and more often by his stepmother or Plustor. During these interviews, it wasn't just the reporters who clearly had agendas, especially if they thought they were getting a scoop, but he was told to give these interviews to promote a particular event that the company sponsored or to show a familial solidarity that was only there in his father's imagination.

He remembered a particularly painful press conference during what he now knew were the waning days of the scandal with Pimchanok. His stepmother had insisted that he tell "his side" of the story, and he had finally agreed, hoping to be able to help clear Pimchanok and change public opinion. However, the reporters had only used part of his words, making him look like a victim and her the villain.

He had been furious when he saw how the press conference had played out in the media, and to this day when he thinks of that press conference, he feels slightly sick to his stomach with the guilt. He had spoken to Pimchanok afterwards, and what had made it worse was that she hadn't been mad at him. She knew Tul very well and put together from what she had seen what Tul probably had said rather than the out of context comments the media had shown.

She had told him that she would always love him even if just as a friend and that he was a good person. She told him to take care of himself, and she had said goodbye. That was the last time they had spoken. After their conversation, Tul had went and gotten completely drunk, and it seemed he didn't stop drinking for nearly two years after that.

Max's interview had been the complete opposite. A combination of interview laced with professional coaching, leadership training, and a dash of therapy, the time they had spent together had reminded him somewhat of the conversations he had had with the therapist at the rehab house during the last month. It was like Max wanted people to envision themselves as better than they were in the moment.

He was glad that he had not asked Max to lunch. He needed a break to really digest everything he had been prodded to think about over the last ninety minutes (the longest interview he had ever given). He also found out that Max had an event to go to that afternoon with Itty and Kuhn Bagnet, so Max didn't have time anyway.

When Tul found out that Itty was actually coming to get Max, he immediately tried to think of ways that he could finagle a meeting. Since he and Max weren't a couple, he didn't feel like he could ask to meet his friend. And even though he admitted to himself that he was jealous of Max's friendship and former crush on Itty, he didn't want Max to know that.

Instead, what he did do was ask Max to go with him outside to the same place they had had their first argument. It was a beautiful day, and he asked Prin to take a picture of them to commemorate the interview. What he really wanted was a picture of him and Max together and to erase that almost devastating mistake.