Domesticating Max

Max vs. the Hangover

Dan checked his phone again to see if Max had replied yet, but his text of 'you ready?' remained unanswered. He waited a bit before giving him a call, but when he still received no answer, he headed upstairs to knock on Max's door. He assumed Max probably forgot to plug in his phone the night before and it had died overnight.

"Max!" Dan shouted and banged on the door. "Wake up!" He waited, and listened for signs of life on the other side of the door. Just as he was about to knock again, he heard a bump and shuffling footsteps toward the door.

"What." A scratchy voice called, and Dan laughed.

"It's just me, we're supposed to go cycling this morning, remember?"

The door opened a crack and Max winced at the light streaming in through the door. "Oh, yeah," he croaked and tried to clear his throat.

"Rough night?" Dan smiled sympathetically at Max's bloodshot eyes.

"What?" Max blinked into the seemingly blinding light in the hall. "Yeah, I just, uh...hold on." He rushed to the kitchen and Dan grimaced as he overheard what was most likely Max vomiting in the trash.

Dan waited a moment, and when Max didn't return to the door, he braced himself before entering the apartment. He went to the kitchen to grab Max a glass of water and found him laying on the floor with his face pressed against the cool tile.

"You've got to get some fluids in you, mate." He said and handed Max the glass, and checked the fridge for something with electrolytes. He found an unexpired bottle of Gatorade and handed it to Max too.

"So, what's up? You just not feeling well? I hope it's not contagious..." Dan took a step back.

"It's not." Max managed to mumble, barely audible with his mouth squished against the floor.

"Maybe, something you ate?" Max made a 'nuh-uh' sound that Dan took for a no. "Perhaps, something you drank, then?"

"Probably," Max replied, keeping his eyes shut tight.

Dan laughed and shook his head at his younger teammate's situation. "I've been there, for sure..those were the days. But we have a race this weekend, you should probably avoid getting shitfaced this close to the weekend. I'm sure you'll recover quickly enough, you're still young enough. But you'll feel it during free practice tomorrow, maybe even quali depending on how much you drank."

Answering Dan's unasked question, Max limply lifted a finger to point to the empty vodka bottle on the floor.

"Did you drink the whole thing?" Dan asked with wide eyes, picking it up to inspect.

"Almost."

Dan was astonished, that was a lot of alcohol for one person to drink, no wonder Max was unwell. "But...why?"

Max coughed, or hiccupped, Dan wasn't sure, but didn't reply.

Dan thought it was odd of Max to randomly drink nearly an entire bottle of alcohol in the middle of the week, especially a race week. Then again, Dan had been that age, it's something he's probably done. Like that one time he and his friends had partied way too hard after going to a football match, or the time his...

It suddenly hit him that Max wasn't oddly hiccuping, he was crying.

"Is, uh, everything alright?" Dan apprehensively asked, unsure if it was his place or not. They were teammates, not best friends."If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine." He fidgeted nervously and waited for a reply from Max. "I'll head out if you want."

"My girlfriend broke up with me."

Max did not seem the sentimental type, so Dan was a bit surprised. He totally understood it now, since he himself had been in that situation before and knew how painful it was. Even though Max had talked about her non-stop, Dan couldn't recall her name at the moment. They'd been together a while now, several months probably.

Dan recalled his first heartbreak and tried to remember what he'd done to get over it. He probably went out with his friends and got stupid drunk and hooked up with a random girl. That wouldn't be the best advice for Max right now.

"I'd offer to go out for a drink, but clearly you've been doing enough of that on your own." Dan joked with half a smile, and Max snorted what might have been a laugh.

"I can't remember, how long had you been dating?"

"Seven months," Max answered right away, "2 weeks, and 4 days."

"Not that anyone's counting," Dan teased, and Max made another sniffling sound. Not sure what to do, Dan comfortingly placed a hand on his shoulder. Max looked startled and glance up at him. "Why don't we get you into bed and you can sleep it off, okay?"

Max didn't say anything, but let Dan help him up and into bed, since he wasn't very stable on his feet. Dan grabbed the bottle of Gatorade and put it on the nightstand with a glass of water. "Do you need anything else?"

Max weakly lifted his hand and pointed to the trash can. "Just in case."

Dan obliged and place it next to the bed, should the need to vomit again arise. He found Max's dead phone on the floor and plugged it in to charge. "If you need anything else, just give me a call. Once you're feeling better, I can come up and we can play FIFA, or watch a movie, or, talk girls..."

Max shook his head and Dan laughed. "Good, I don't really want to talk girls. But if you want to talk, or whatever, just let me know, okay?"

Max nodded and Dan turned to leave. "Dan?"

He turned around and found Max's eyes open and actually looking at him. "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

A/N: I've enjoyed writing this, but this is probably the last one! Now that Dan and Max aren't teammates, I don't have the same inspiration to write them anymore. Thank you to whoever suggested I write about Dan helping Max through a heartbreak, and Dan helping Max while sick - I combined them into one (mostly).

Thank you for reading, commenting, and voting, I hope you've all enjoyed this story! :D

Header gif credit: tumblr user lewishamilton (I picked this gif because I recall Max gagging a bit after trying the weird spiky fruit, which seemed fitting).