Cause for Concern ✓

thirty

FRIDAY. 03. DECEMBER. 21. (unedited)

"THANKS for bringing him upstairs," Max murmured, closing his bedroom door behind Cole, who sat himself on the bed.

When Max sat down beside him, Cole shuffled over and they angled their bodies towards each other. "Don't worry about it," he shrugged, offering a small smile. "Kid's light as a feather."

Once they'd arrived back at Max's dad's, his step-mom had breezed out of the kitchen with a cookie in one hand and her phone in the other, greeting them warmly and prodding them both to make sure that they'd eaten enough. Immediately after she was satisfied with their answers, she gave Max a tight smile and asked if he would please be a darling and do her a favor; carry his brother upstairs and put him to bed since he'd fallen asleep on the couch.

With a melodramatic huff, Max had wandered into the living room, Cole following behind him, and crouched down besides the couch where Josh was asleep, gently muttering to him and shaking him awake.

When he was stretching his arms out and swinging himself to sit upwards, his little legs dangled over the edge of the couch and a red mark of sleep was stamped into his pale face. He yawned melodramatically and, as Max (who was standing by now) leaned down to pick him up, his step-mom called him back into the hall, urging him back to her before he could pick Josh up.

He trudged back into the hall where his mom was and when he turned around to head back into the living room, Cole was stood behind him, already holding Josh in his arms; small arms around his neck, small legs around his waist, a sleepy head resting against his chest.

Max could've sworn he almost fainted. Seeing Cole stood there, gently rocking Josh in his arms, looked so painfully natural. He couldn't help but think back to the night that they first kissed; the same night that Cole told him about how he dreamed of living in comfortable domesticity. He wondered if that daydream included kids, unable to take his eyes off of Cole as he climbed the stairs with Josh, purposely taking slow, careful steps.

All the way until Cole was placing Josh gently down in his bed, Max's heart had been pounding wildly in his chest, an overwhelming fondness flooding through him until he felt it everywhere; surfing through his veins, resting deep his bones, drying his throat, flushing his face. There was something heartbreaking tender about it and Max hadn't been able to stop thinking about kissing him.

He knew he shouldn't have been let his mind wander there under the circumstances. Cole had had a rough night and he didn't need Max swooning all over him right now. What he needed was to change into a pair of Max's sweats and go to bed— it was a lucky thing that Cole was only a few inches taller than him.

"Yeah, whatever," Max chuckled. "You're stronger than I am."

"You don't know that," Cole remarked.

"Pretty sure I do," he insisted, his eyes flickering down towards Cole's firmer chest and more toned arms.

Cole smiled shyly and turned his head away from Max. "Shut up," he muttered, shaking his head.

"Let me get you something comfier to throw on," Max yawned, standing from the bed and sauntering over to his dresser, pulling the drawer open and shifting through folded clothes until he found a slightly longer pair of grey flannel pajama pants.