The Reset

Chapter Ten: Whatever I Am, Whatever We Are

"You're lying," Max said as he opened up his high school yearbook.

Kai leaned against the door frame of the room that Max and Lonnie had shared up until they were in high school. Lonnie had begged Kai to have the attic space renovated into her own room. Needless to say, it wasn't like Kai could say no. Neither could Bonnie. And the two of them used their magic to create the loft that she desired. Max didn't mind. He preferred his own room and in the space he was familiar with.

He grinned to Max as he set the yearbook down on his desk, shutting it with a quick snap. "What? It's true."

Even though Max was in his early thirties, he still looked like a young adult and was practically a mirror image of Kai as he was. Clean-shaven, gelled up hair in the front and the dimples in his cheeks when he laughed and smiled. But unlike Kai, his son's eyes were the same as his mother's. That luscious, deep malachite that always seemed to snatch a little bit of his soul each time.

"Dad? You really expect me to believe you named me Max after the character from Tiny Toons?"

Kai chuckled and shrugged, crossing the room and falling into Max's desk chair while his son fell onto his bed. "Hey, that show was amazing. I watched it semi-religiously."

Max scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Dad," he drawled. "I'm going to need you to stop messing with me."

"It's true!" He sucked in his lips immediately.

"Dad! I'm not stupid! I figured out the truth years ago!"

"Oh?" Kai raised his brows. "So what is this supposed truth you discovered years ago? Hm?"

He watched his son pull out his cell phone, scrolling through the screen and then he showed it to Kai. It was a Wikipedia page on Tiny Toons. Kai was fighting back the urge to laugh and, instead, pretended to go cross-eyed over having the phone so close to his face.

"The character in that show? His name is Montana Max! His nickname was 'Monty,' dammit."

Uh-oh, Kai thought, the battle to keep himself from laughing starting to become a losing one. "Uh-huh."

Max pulled his phone back and started scrolling through again. Kai slipped his hand over his mouth because he knew that he couldn't hide his smile from breaking out across his features anymore. But when Max stuck the phone in his face, Kai couldn't take it anymore. He rolled back in the chair as his son rose from the bed, arm still extended and holding out the phone in an accusatory manner.

"You named me Maximilian...after Max Goof, Dad!"

Kai burst into a fit of laughter that he had to immediately hold his sides as tears sprung up in the corners of his eyes. He peeked up at his son, shaking his head as Max's green eyes almost sparkled with anger. He stood up from the chair, attempting to gather himself as he rested his palms on Max's shoulders.

"W-Wait, don't be mad, Max," he said, winking at his son. "I promise, it's not a bad thing."

"Are you kidding me?!" Max turned his head away defiantly. "I never believed it when Lonnie told me. Never did. But as I got older, it all started to make sense and that lie you spouted when I was younger was what didn't make sense anymore."

Kai wrapped his arm around Max's shoulder, giving him a slight squeeze. "Hey, come on, Max was an awesome kid. I watched Goof Troop as much as Tiny Toons. He was that breezy, easy-going kid who never had anything to worry about except school and growing up." His expression softened when his son looked up at him. "It was the kind of life I wanted. The kind of relationship I wished I'd had with my father...before I was isolated from the rest of the family."