Day seven: older.


Johnny got over beating up nerds a few years ago, but he's never quite left the habit of terrorizing innocents behind. Max, balancing on the handlebars of his boyfriend's parked bike, sighs as he watches him leer menacingly at two freshman.

"It's really not fair of you to be their first impression of high school," he comments when Johnny finally finishes up his conversation. "They're gonna have nightmares tonight, yanno."

"I was givin' them valuable advice 'n life guidance," Johnny retorts, shoving Max in the middle of his chest. He wobbles, but doesn't quite fall. "Also directions to the science lab."

"If that's even remotely true, you wouldn't have done that thing with your face." Johnny scowls at him, that crazy-eyed snarl only he can pull off. It's by far not the most frightening expression he can make, but it sure is disconcerting. "Yeah, that right there."

Johnny yanks him by the shirt this time, his brute strength overpowering Max's anyday. He tumbles down, but refuses to hit the ground, just latching on to Johnny's side and clinging. Undignified, maybe, but it gets Johnny to crack a smile for the first time all day, so hey.

"Get off me ya circus freak," Johnny laughs, and Max tightens his grip.

"No way, the floor's lava. Carry me to class, would you?"

"I'm gonna be lava 'f you don't let go," Johnny grumbles, but his body doesn't actually heat up and he starts to walk. They get a few weird looks on the way into the school building, but mostly only from the new students; this isn't the first time this has happened by a long shot.

Of course, there's a method to Max's madness – for all his complaining, Johnny clearly adores when Max clambers all over him. He loves physical contact a ridiculous amount, in general. He pretty much will crawl into everyone's lap during movie nights, he regularly greets people by hanging on them, he likes to high five and hug and hold hands and just, cuddle. With Max in particular, all of this is doubled if not tripled, with the bonus addition of his getting really embarrassed whenever he's called out on it. He's like, super into PDA, and also very scandalized by the thought of it when he actually realizes what he's doing. It's genuinely adorable.

And, sure enough, the clinging does the trick for at least the time being: Johnny's scowl melts away, replaced by that hilariously equal split of obnoxiously proud yet blushy he gets whenever Max does this in public. Max is well aware this is far from a permanent fix, but Johnny's been moody for several days now without explanation and it's getting to the point where he's legitimately bothered about it.

They don't share a homeroom this year, so Max is expecting Johnny to shake him off at some point, but instead he delivers Max all the way inside his room, drops him on top of his desk, and then kind of just hovers there for a second with his hands on Max's hips, watching him.

"Hey, you okay?" Max asks quietly. The smile he receives in response is truly angelic, in the way that only Johnny's fake ones ever are. Years of staring in fascination at his boyfriend's elastic face have given Max a very thorough comprehension of his expressions, and Johnny only ever smiles with his mouth closed when he doesn't mean it. When he's actually happy, he exposes his freaky medium sharkteeth in this huge manic grin that's just, really impossible not to smile back at.

"When'm I ever not," Johnny scoffs.

"Are you my teacher?" Max scoffs right back. "Don't test me."

Johnny's teeth peek out at one corner in a half-grin, and without warning he drops his forehead down to Max's. He closes his eyes and sighs.

Overcome by a wave of concerned fondness, Max kisses his nose.

"HYAGN," Johnny yelps, leaping a foot straight back and going bright red. He stage-whispers, "Stop this is school."

The rest of the class don't even bother looking their way.

"You're gonna have to tell me what's up sometime," Max threatens pleasantly. "I'm not above making out in the middle of lunch."

"I tolja I'm peachy!" Johnny snaps back, retreating fast in the face of such a prospect. In the doorway, he hesitates. "But uh unrelated I got somethin' to ask ya after school so consider yourself bookmarked."

"That's not h-" The door slams shut behind as Johnny bolts into the hallway. Sighing, Max slides down into his chair.

He's a little scared about what this could be.

-xxx-

It's not that he really thinks Johnny is going to break up with him. For all his numerous flaws, Johnny is marvelously talented at making people feel loved and appreciated when he wants to. Watching him interact with his gang was kind of the reason Max started to crush on him in the first place, and seeing his growing relationships with the Activity Club didn't help. He actually realized he was a goner because of Johnny giving him comic books he wanted Max to pass along to PJ – once Johnny actually really likes a person, he pretty much constantly goes out of his way to make them happy, and never even considers it as especially thoughtful or special.

So Max, who has been the recipient of Johnny's extremely intense if awkward devotion since seventh grade, pretty much never feels unwanted. It's really, really nice, to be so secure in the fact that your boyfriend loves you even if he's never actually said the words. Max is pretty sure he's tried to, a couple times, but knowing Johnny it'll be another three years before he hears them all said at once in the right order. He could probably speed up the process if he said them first, but he's not exactly all that much better at this, so he'd kind of rather just let Johnny tackle that hurdle first. It'd be way preferable to just casually say, 'yeah, me too' back when the time comes.

Anyway, the point is that he doesn't need the words to know… but, at the same time, somehow despite all of Johnny's extremely effective affection, Max manages to have doubts popping up on the regular. He doesn't actually believe any of them, when he stops to think, but sometimes it's hard to trust in the better thing. It kind of goes against his whole nature, really. Max is so used to being the cynical pessimist that just being happy feels like he's massively beating the odds, and whenever any hint of trouble on the horizon crops up he gets anxious.

He never talks about those nerves, mostly because Johnny would take them as a personal failure when it's really nothing to do with him. It's all Max's, and he knows it, and he tries not to let it sabotage him anymore. He already messed things up for like two years just by being oblivious and then doubting what was painfully clear to everyone else in the world until Johnny finally confronted him with a demand for a date that Max knew was a date. And yeah, that whole conversation was very romantic and all, and his fourteen year old self swooned for like a week straight over it (not that he'd admitted it), but he'd rather not have such grand gestures be necessary again, not when he apparently broke Johnny's tweenage heart a couple of times before he got so fed up. So he tries real hard not to spend all day thinking that Johnny wants to break up with him. He reminds himself of the many and varied ways Johnny has no chill about loving him, that Stephen at least would never have been able to keep something like that hidden from Max, refrains from making out in the middle of lunch but does lean a little heavier than usual into Johnny's side and enjoys the automatic way his boyfriend supports him and starts feeding Max his French fries without even pausing in his conversation with Stephen and Ed, doodles in his afternoon classes and thinks about Johnny's snaggly smile.

None of it quite does the trick, but Max's got himself pretty much under control all the way up until school lets out and Johnny meets him at his locker, looking genuinely nervous himself.

They gather up their stuff and head out, wandering off the road and into the woods about halfway home. Johnny knows his way around every inch of Mayview, maybe especially the wild parts, so getting lost isn't a concern. What is concerning is the way Johnny hasn't looked at him in fifteen minutes, his grip on Max's hand verging on painfully hot.

"You ready to fess up yet?" Max asks once all he can hear is their feet crunching through the leaves. There are a few owlish spirits in the branches above them, but otherwise he and Johnny are completely alone. "What's taking up all the space in that puny brain of yours?"

"I'm gonna punch you."

"Wow, real estate must really be lacking if that's all the thinking you can take."

Johnny lets go of his hand to punch Max in the arm. Max dodges. They hold hands again and keep walking.

"'S just… my uh, guidance counselor was askin' me about college plans," Johnny mumbles. "An', um, I wanna y'know tell you about it and stuff."

"Okay, so tell me," Max says.

"I… I wanna be a teacher," Johnny declares. Max turns to stare at him; he flushes, and rushes out, "like, little puny kids, like six or seven or eight or whatever. Y'know, when they're still a good size to just pick up and throw an' all, and… um… I don't have to know too much complicated stuff so I think I could prob'ly do it –"

"Oh god," Max says. "You're going to get them all worshipping you."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, I can see it." He really can; Johnny grinning terrifically behind twenty or so equally hyper kids, god probably at least half of them are gonna have dyed red hair and want to punch their way through all their problems, he can see it so well. "You're going to be terrifying."

"Issat. Uh, good?" Johnny asks in this very small voice, and Max is pretty sure his heart physically wrings itself out in his chest.

"Yes, you doofus," he laughs, "Johnny, you're so good with kids. That's perfect."

Weirdly, Johnny doesn't look very relieved. He doesn't stop walking when Max tries to either, just clinging onto his hand and tromping along through the leaves.

"Well, good," he sighs. "But Ollie's, y'know, going off to win the Nobel Prize and whatever, and I was thinkin' 'bout you."

"Me?"

"Leaving," Johnny says very bluntly. It takes a few seconds for Max's brain to even process the word, because. Because the idea of Johnny, confident down to his core Johnny having any doubt about Max is stunning, and impossible, and he feels incredibly guilty that he could've ever let it happen, and – what.

"I'm not leaving," Max says, uselessly. He feels like it's probably time to stop walking around aimlessly and continue this conversation face to face, so he turns to his boyfriend and grabs his other hand too. "I mean, I don't know what I'm gonna do, but I'm not–"

"Fixed the Ghost Train," Johnny says, head tucked down. "You can, 'f you want. That's fine."

"…Say what?"

"I, jus'." Johnny looks up finally, and, oh. That's… his face is bright red, and sure that happens fairly regularly, but this is a whole nother level, Max is pretty sure he can feel heat waves. He's pretty sure he could literally fry an egg off this blush. But still, Johnny's eyes are focused right on his, and his words are firm when he says, "Go wherever ya want. Just come back here."

"Johnny," Max says. He's been burned before, literally, so he doesn't touch his boyfriend's face even though he wants to, just grabs his hands a little tighter and leans in closer and, what the hell, they've just barely started senior year.

"I'm prob'ly gonna buy us a house," Johnny announces a second later. "Also."

Max is dying here.

"J-Johnny," he manages, after about two full minutes of strangled nonsense, "we're seventeen, what– "

"You're fine with it though right?" Johnny demands.

"I – I mean I guess, sure, that's. Yeah." Max's everything is on autopilot right now, he can't function at all, he really wants Johnny's face to cool down so he can smack it and also kiss it a lot. "Y-you realize you're basically proposing right now?"

"Don't hafta get married to live together," Johnny huffs, in a voice Max recognizes as 'quoting from Stephen' – "Marriage is a government scam an' tool of the patriarchy, anyway."

He hesitates.

"But I mean if yo-"

"STOP," Max shouts, flinging all caution to the wind as he slams both hands over Johnny's mouth, "oh my god don't say anything else, don't actually propose to me."

Johnny's brows knit together.

"'Mnoff," he denies. Max still doesn't feel like it's safe to let go.

His heart is beating so fast he can feel it bouncing off his ribs. He feels hypersensitive to everything: the slight breeze in the air, the far-off whisper of dry leaves sliding across the ground, the uncomfortable warmth of Johnny's mouth under his hands.

"You haven't even said 'I love you' yet, but you're planning to buy a house," Max wonders out loud. "Y-you're incredible."

"Thanks, love you too," Johnny snarks back, shoving Max's arm off his face and also shattering every last bit of composure left in him (and also, stealing his line).

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU JOHNNY," he shouts, grabbing him by the collar and just shaking him. It does disappointingly little good. "I don't even know what I want to do! I'm not legal for, like, anything right now! I can't be expected to be making major life decisions at this stage!"

"…'Kay," Johnny mumbles.

"T-that wasn't a no. I mean, sure, after my hypothetical out-of-town college life I'll move into your theoretical future house paid for with an elementary teacher's imaginary salary, but, Johnny, why?"

"Apartment wouldn't have enough room for m' true hearts foreverboys, and whoever. Plus I wanna cat and a dog." He says it in a combative kind of way, like the mere prospect of one person owning both is groundbreaking and more than a little scandalizing.

"Not what I meant, but, fair enough."

"I mean, I get it," Johnny scrubs a hand behind his head, shrugging. "Yeah, it's really early and stuff, but. I just wanted you to know I'm uh, I'm thinking about it."

This is more than Max can physically take.

"Well I am too now," he grumbles, reaching up and fanning Johnny's cheeks. It takes a second, but the heat starts to fade as he catches on, though they remain flushed. Max puts his hands on them, tilting in until their foreheads are touching. "And yeah, sounds good. I just can't believe you're planning something."

"Shaddup I'll punchya boi," Johnny says.

Max kisses him.

"You're a huge weirdo," he says, after breaking away. Then, self-recriminating: "I'm even worse for liking it."

"Heheh," Johnny snickers. "Thanks."

"That wasn't a compliment–"

"Kinda was."

"Stop," but Max knows he's grinning, wide and manic to match Johnny's stupid pointy smile, knows he doesn't actually want Johnny to ever stop really (even if in this moment, yes, he needs to quit), knows he's just as in love as Johnny is, knows now much to his surprise that at some point in the next five to seven years they will be living in a house together. RJ in their basement recording death metal, most likely, and a cat and dog with no doubt either a very combative or codependently close relationship, and Max will be doing [redacted] while Johnny is molding the minds of young Mayview children, lord help them.

How the hell is he gonna be the resident cynic now.


Jang future occupations: Ollie is a physicist, RJ makes hardcore deathmetal, Stephen is a National Geographic photographer with weirdly excellent luck on hyena photos, and Johnny is the most beloved elementary school teacher in all of Mayview. Spender claims this is due to his influence but Johnny specifically avoided middle school and older kids because of watching Spender so he's only right in the saddest of ways.

The Activity Club future occupations: ? I don't have a clue for any of them hahaha.

...anyway, this has been huge amounts of fun to write. Thanks to everyone for reading!

Oh, also, RED ALERT THERE IS ADORABLE FANART OF THIS CHAPTER. Find the link on my profile!