reformingfury | For Maxxie

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maxxie oliver

For Maxxie

It's strange to be on the receiving end of flirtation after what he's done to Maxxie, but right now, Dave will take it. Even if he really does think he needs to pay the dancer back from the crap he pulled when he lost his memories. It might not have been his fault that the island made him forget the past three years, but it is his fault that, at any point in his life, Dave decided to stop being a decent person for the sake of popularity and normalcy.

He's just glad that Maxxie doesn't actually think that he deserves punishment beyond what he chooses to put on himself. Maybe. Dave isn't exactly a master at figuring out someone's intentions every time.

"So, what do you think retribution tastes like? Breakfast foods, pasta or stir fry?" he asks the other boy as he goes through what is available in the pantry. His cooking knowledge is still pretty limited, but at least he's improving with lessons. Before it was a pick between making a sandwich, frying eggs and praying they don't burn or microwave dinners.

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Maxxie lets go and leans back again with a wave of his hand.

"Now get back to making my pancakes," he commands in the snootiest voice he can manage. It carries no weight when paired with his smile.

Dave snorts and sifts the flour mix over the eggs.

"Yes sir, right away, sir!"

Maxxie lets him get back to work for a few seconds before his smile fades into something thoughtful. He chews his bottom lip and knocks his heel lightly against a cabinet.

"Dave, can I ask you a question? Sort of personal, or something."

"Is this you favor?" he asks without looking up from his work. He's rinsing off some blueberries and heating a pan on the stove now.

"Either way, go for it."

"Nah," he says. "So you don't have to answer. But, um.. why'd you kiss Kurt? I mean, aside from the obvious." Maxxie's not blind. He's wanted to kiss Kurt pretty much from the second he saw him, and did kiss him, once. But in the context of Dave and Kurt, that's not the same thing.

"I'm guessing you singled him out 'cause.. 'cause some of us can't hide how we are."

Dave laughs, thought not really much out of humor. "You want the full list or the short version?" He hovers his hand over the pan to see how hot it is and, deciding it needs to heat up more, turns back to face Maxxie.

"That was part of it, yeah. It kinda killed me, knowing that I'd get a whole world of shit from the team if I came out, but Kurt could be... well, Kurt. I mean, I know I wasn't the only one giving him shit, but he still was proud about it. I wasn't, not by a long shot."

He looks down, fighting a blush that's about equal parts bashfulness and shame at this point.

"But that's probably a contributor to why I've been attracted to him for a while. Aside from the obvious reasons."

Chewing softly on his lower lip, Maxxie listens and thinks. It's not exactly something he can get his mind around, for some reason.

"I never asked Deck why," he says. "It's so weird to me. I get seeing someone, thinking they're fit and wanting to shag them, without talking to them or anything. But if you really liked him, if you, like, admired him... wouldn't you find someone else to hassle? Wouldn't it just hurt more to hurt him than to hurt anybody else?"

Assuming it even hurt Dave to come at people he didn't know. Maxxie imagines it must.

He shrugs.

"Proof of how fucked up I am. I really liked him, but at the same time, I hated him, you know? Plus, back then, the attraction was much more... physically driven than anything."

"You're not fucked up." It's an automatic response, because if Maxxie stopped and thought about it for two seconds, he would see that yeah, that is fucked up. But he doesn't like seeing people rag on themselves, not if he can help it. He won't give false hope or completely ignore facts, but he thinks he knows Dave enough to say he's not completely fucked up and mean it.

"You just need to work on how you pick up guys," he says, coming up with an easy smirk.

"Yeah, I am. But at least I got my head out of my ass, now. Again." Dave smiles at him in thanks for saying otherwise.

He turns back to the stove and, finding the pan at the right temperature, starts to make the first pancake.

"Noted and trying. I actually asked this one guy back home for tips." He scrunches his nose at the memory. "He told me to stop waxing my eyebrow and to stay in the closet."

Maxxie frowns deeply, somehow offended on Dave's behalf. Or offended that someone could give such crap advice.

"Right," he says. "So... he's a wanker and you should ignore anything he said."

Dave laughs at that as he turns over the pancake.

"Yeah, I figured as much. A bit before that too, actually. But it seemed like a good idea at the time, since he apparently gets pretty much everyone he's dance with to go home with him." He remembers running into Kurt and Blaine at Scandals and warning the singer to keep an eye on Anderson.

"Well, almost everyone."

"That just means he's a slut," Maxxie says, casually dismissive. "Probably fit, too, but anybody our age that you meet at a club is bound to be looking for one thing. If you've got a reputation as a sure thing, you get more attention."

"Oh god, yeah he did. Even had to warn Kurt when I saw Anderson dancing with him, actually. But I was just asking for pointers since my confidence is kinda..." he trails off as he transfers the pancake to a plate as he starts to make another. "Anyhow, it was just to get pointers on getting with a guy. I would have just turned to my old man about keeping one."

Maxxie blinks and frowns, sure he heard that wrong.

"Wait, your dad has a boyfriend?"

"What? No!" Dave laughs at that and realizes his fuck up. "I mean, I figured that if I needed to, I could go to my dad for relationship advice. At the time, at least. I'd just... likely not tell him it was a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend. Don't know how he'd deal with it now that he knows I'm gay, but at least I can hope he'd try."

"Oh!" Maxxie laughs too, his confusion melting away.

"Well, I'm not an expert, but I can't imagine the advise would be much different," Maxxie says. "..How'd he take finding out?"

"Not as bad as it could have been. He just asked if that's what all the shit with Kurt was about and said he's glad I was able to be honest with him. Even if it was a bit late." He clearly pauses after flipping the new pancake. "My mom was the one I was worried about, actually. She cried and locked herself up, but... she said she'd try."

Maxxie winces and doesn't bother trying to hide it.

"Sorry, dude," he says gently. "At least she said she'd try though. That's.. more than some people would do."

He nods. "...Anderson showed up from stuff after I had arrived here. I can't shake that something bad happened and he's not talking. Kurt said it probably is just me, but I dunno."

He turns back to his cooking, finding this one a little burnt around the edges. Dave makes a mental note to take that one. "I appreciate mom for saying that she'd try, but I wonder if she managed to. She's all... super religious."

Maxxie stares at the skillet, the pancakes, Dave's hands, once again chewing on his lip before he speaks.

"My best friend, back home. He's Muslim. Not that it really mattered most of the time. He drank and he smoked and tried fucking desperately to get laid. If he wasn't passed out or had a bad hangover, he'd tried to get up for prayers." Maxxie pauses and turns his gaze to his hands in his lap.

"Then one day he decides it matters. Just the part about being gay, though. That it's sick..." Again, he pauses, shutting his eyes now and rubbing his forehead. Remembering Russia and everything that happened there is a big headache. The only reason he's telling Dave right now is because he thinks it matters, might matter, even if the religions are different. Because it's his mum and that's important.

"Anyway, we fell out for like... weeks. I didn't go to his birthday party, even though he wanted me to. I just sort of.. stood outside, waiting for him to apologize. His dad's like... legit Moslem, super religious. But he's always liked me and he came out while Anwar and I were talking. And I just blurt it out, you know? 'Cause I'm tired of Anwar backing out. And he just says, you know... there's things he doesn't get. Things in the world that he doesn't understand. But he just lets 'em be because he knows one day his God's going to explain them to him. So he didn't care. He still liked me. He still wanted me to be friends with Anwar. I can't imagine that's easy for him but... it's not impossible, you know?"

Dave listens to Maxxie's story and, selfishly, wonders if that would be him and Az if he ever came out in Lima. Wonders if he got that support after Anderson's story. He hopes it is, though he highly doubts it, and he envies Maxxie while being glad for him.

"You are so lucky in that. I take it you and Anwar patched things up after that? 'Cause if he didn't, he's totally missing out."

He flashes him a small smile, finding that he's liking more of Maxxie with how open they're being about their pasts. Bay is wonderful, but her story, while hard, will never run parallels to his experiences. And Kurt is too much of a linked history, he doesn't want to burden the boy. But Maxxie is opening up a lot here and he's beyond appreciative. If he could punch himself and make a point to the guy he used to be for the shit he pulled against the dancer for no good reason, Dave would do it in a heartbeat.

Maxxie catches sight of the smile and it warms him, relieves some of that tension that comes from retelling a difficult story. He smiles back, falling into his usual easy-going cheerfulness.

"'Course we did," he says, playing at a confidence he never, ever felt when fighting Anwar. "He's not stupid enough to miss out on this as a best mate."

He shakes his head. "We were even going to move in together. Me and James and Anwar, in London. How's that for a turnaround?"

He's glad for that and turns back to the little but of pancake batter left in the bowl, still listening to Maxxie as he finishes up.

"James?"

"Boyfriend," Maxxie supplies. He huffs out a dry laugh, not really amused but not really melancholy either.

"First one and I lost him in coming to this place."

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