Abbie shoves her phone in the pocket of her heavy-looking skirt and smiles. Narhi looks like he's about to say something when Max's phone rings.

"The default ring?" Abbie says in a super judgy tone and Max holds the device with both hands like an amateur.

"I just got this thing…" He defends himself, hoping to anything he doesn't look as embarrassed as he feels. "H-hello?"

"Max!! I just heard what happened! Ugh, I feel like such an idiot letting you go to school like nothing would happen."

"Keelie, I'm fine. It was just a dream."

"A vision, Max! Ugh, I could kick myself. I wanted to ease you into this stuff, but I need to talk to you about your powers. And I didn't even think about Link Therapy!!"

Max covers the mic and looks at Narhi for help. "Keelie's ranting. Is… is that normal?"

Narhi shrugs and leans closer to listen. The chatter is unending and he scratches his head.

"Jeez, she's totally freaking."

The boys listen for a solid three more minutes before Keelie says, "I just need to file a few reports and I'm going straight home to talk about this."

The boys meet each other's equally wide eyes in realization and the line suddenly goes dead. Max stares at his screensaver, a picture of the Black Prince in his window, and then back at Narhi.

"We gotta beat her back," Narhi says. "Right?"

"Well, if I was a new parent and I found out my kid just got sent home because of an emergency and then went to the mall instead. I'd be kind of pissed off." Abbie doesn't even look at them. She's too busy putting a cute filter on the pic she just took. "Just saying."

Max and Narhi communicate wordlessly and are at the door in seconds, leaving the curtain flowing dramatically behind them. Their smoothies are completely forgotten. Wasteful. 

"Hashtag ship. Hashtag new bestie." Abbie talks through her post, blissfully uninvolved in her new friends' panic. "Hashtag... recycle."

When they pull up in front of the house, they're alone. There's a silent victory in the air until Narhi puts his hands down to listen.

"What?" Max asks nervously.

"There's a car coming up the road. It might be Keelie." Narhi is suddenly outside the passenger door and Max finds himself being pulled out of his seat.

"What-" Before he can make any kind of sentence Max is in Narhi familiar arms, thinking about how no one has put their hands on his thighs this much in his life while the wolf boy runs up to the side of the house toward Max's window. He thinks about protesting. He knows Narhi is about to scale the house and Max wasn't even mentally prepared to be dragged out of the car so this is much, but he can't make words fast enough. Narhi's already in the air, then on the roof, then through the window.

"Made it!" Narhi shouts, then immediately slips on an old Horticulture Monthly magazine. In the seconds before the fall is over, Narhi can only think about keeping Max's head from slamming against the hardwood floor, so he swings them both around and his back hits the floor hard instead.

Two harmonized groans of pain resonate in the empty space of Max's room and Narhi listens to the sound of a car passing the house and sighs deeply.

"Goddamn it." He growls. "It wasn't even her." Then he realizes that Max is laying on top of him and his whole body feels like it's going to burst. "Uh… um...uh…"

"Sorry…" Max sits up, rubbing his head. He looks jostled and clearly aware of how close they are by the way he’s fumbling to get off.

Before he can steady his leg Narhi tries to sit up too, but Max is still on his torso and they find their faces an inch apart at best which is infinitely worse than the previous position, especially when you consider that Max has slipped into Narhi's lap.

"I… uh… was in a hurry… this morning." Max near whispers.

Narhi takes a long time to respond and for some reason, neither of them can move. "W-what?" Oh, no, he stuttered. He silently hopes Max didn't notice.

"The magazine…" Max answers vaguely.

"Oh," Narhi responds, but he still doesn't quite know what Max is talking about. For a minute it seems like they're getting closer and Narhi's running on instinct. Without thinking, he flips Max onto his back, hovering over him like an apex predator about the have his first meal in a while. His eyes are bright and his fangs seem sharper than usual.

"N-narhi?" Max questions, rightfully cautious, and the wolf comes to his senses and jumps up onto his feet.

"Ohmygod." Narhi bolts to the window. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking, I just. The full moon is super close and. Well, you know. Or maybe you don’t." He makes a weirdly long and quiet, ‘aah’ sound and stares impatiently.

"Um… it's okay." Max picks himself up, blood rushing in his ears. "I… I don't… I don't mind.”

"O-oh…" Narhi runs a hand through his hair and leans against the window. If there is a god somewhere he’s hard at work keeping any boners from showing. Narhi clears his throat uncomfortably loud. Then Max realizes the implication of his words.

“I mean! What I meant to say was! It’s not that I! I, uh, i-it’s just! It’s fine! It’s fine that… what just happened. It was fine.” Max double facepalms for his life and prays a break in the space-time continuum stops this moment from moving any further than this.

“Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Chill, chillchillchillchillchill.” Narhi looks like he’s about to not know what to do with his hands when Keelie opens the door and he tries not to visibly jump out of his skin. “Keelie!!”

“Usko.” She looks suspiciously at him. Does he look suspicious? “You alright?”

“I’m so great.” He folds his arms in that weird way where your hands are on your sides and clears his throat again. “The best. I’m gonna take off.”

“Use the door!” Keelie calls out but Narhi is already out the window and starting his car. She sighs heavily and looks at Max who only partially still looks like he wants to die.

“Rough day, kiddo?”

Max doesn’t relax in the slightest. “Rough day.”