“You confronted a total stranger just because you thought they might have done something wrong. Instead of just letting it slide, you cared enough to hunt for the truth.” Leo clarified shyly, blushing.

Max gawked at him, startled.

“Are you forgetting I grabbed you... and kissed you this morning? Or that I accused you of being a thief…” just because your brother is one. Max growled, utterly confused why he was being so kind, so understanding.

Max watched in fascination as Leo blinked, his mouth dropped open as he changed colors. Max thought it was breathtaking that Leo didn’t blush like most people with just his ears and cheeks that went red, but his exposed neck and chest changed color too.

“No, I couldn’t… I mean, I didn’t forget that happened.” He glanced out the window, avoiding looking at Max.

Max got a heady look in his eyes. He had never seen that on anyone before. It was cute. Leo couldn’t try to hide his embarrassment right now, no matter how much he wanted to. Which in turn just made him even more embarrassed?

Max looked at the ground, ignoring his indecent desires and thoughts, and how much he desired to see where all that pink spread too.

He had just met him today. He really shouldn’t be thinking like this.

“Why did you take the key, Leo?” Max asked, changing the subject from his brain’s dirty hole it was digging. Max stepped back and leaned against the door for support. He felt like he was being assaulted, being so close to Leo.

“It got stuck to the bottom of my bag.”

“My friend Evan choked on his gum when we were talking and joking around, and it flew out. We couldn’t find it anywhere...”

“We would have picked it up. I swear! And I would never steal. I know what people think. I don’t blame you for it. Really, most people stare at me that way sometimes when they find out I am Caspian’s brother. I think it’s a conclusion most people can’t help but jump to, especially if you don’t know anything else about that person and their background. So what I am saying is, I understand where you care coming from. I just want to clarify though, I didn’t take it, because I didn’t even know it was there.”

“I accidentally pushed my bag on top of it, the key must have been underneath the gum and then I threw my bag on it while my friends and I were goofing off at the event, or my bag slid off the bleacher and fell onto it. Frankly, I am just guessing. I didn’t see it happen and I’m no detective, but they ended up stuck together, and I am not really observant, I guess.”

But I didn’t know anything until after I got back to my room. I swear I never took it intentionally.”

“I really have no clue how it got there otherwise. That’s all I could figure out myself. But I didn’t know any of this when you asked me. Honest!” He said, rushing the last part. He fiddled with his fingers nervously.

“I didn’t find it till I was back at my dorm room and punched my bag a few times. It fell off and only then did I find it. So now that I have it, and I came to see you...”

“To bring it back... ”

“But I didn’t know how to give it to you. Once I saw you... I kinda just froze remembering how…” Max stopped and thought for a second about what Leo was saying.

‘Jeez, I made him that uncomfortable bringing up his stupid brother. It must have taken so much courage for him to come here.’

“I was going to give it back to you after the race, once I got up the courage to admit to accidentally taking it, after I swore I uh, hadn’t.” Leo gulped awkwardly.

“Uhh, I’m sorry for causing the mess.” Leo scrunched his eyes and nose up and chewed his lip nervously.

Max stared at him, incredulous. ‘Wow, how much had he worried over something so stupid? God, he must have put the fear of God in him earlier.’ He knew now with how gentle and kind Leo was, that he was probably standing there practically melting from fretting so hard about it.

But Max couldn’t take anything seriously right now. Watching Leo squirm nervously in front of him, his honey eyes pleading for forgiveness, clearly worried he wouldn’t get it. ‘It made him want to make Leo even more uncomfortable. Wow, why am I being this bad?’

The situation now... ‘Well,’

‘It was funny. For now, anyway. He lied to himself, covering up the uncomfortable beating in his heart’ His anger had all but abated and the awkwardness hadn’t really processed yet. So he just smiled at Leo instead.

“You punched your bag? Why were you beating up your backpack?” Max asked, curiosity piqued over his interest. A smile crept across his bag as he pictured Leo all alone in his room, frustratedly hitting his bag.

“Ah, it was nothing.” Leo smiled, dismissing Max’s inquiry with only one small suspicious glance. Max smiled. He had a feeling whatever reason Leo was punching his bag had to do with him. ‘For whatever reason, don’t pretend you don’t know. You were a jerk, an utter one hundred percent jerk. If you were him, you would have punched something or someone too. You should have just asked him. Then he would be able to meet your eyes instead of looking sheepishly outside the shed’s tiny window and ignoring you.’

Max smiled back and leaned against the large blue mats that were behind him. But he really felt much better. ‘Leo hadn’t lied to him the first time they met. It was a misunderstanding.’

Honestly, he felt infinitely better.

Max really hated liars, his dad. His biological father had been a huge liar, and ever since he had learned about him abandoning his mom… and him. Max had promised, vowed he wouldn’t let lying scum like that back into his life ever.

Max was firm on it. ‘You can take me in and be my friend but not if you lie. If you lie.. there is nothing there for us.’ Max blinked, ‘Wait.’ The small ball of tension that had built up in the pit of his stomach earlier had released and he felt insanely relaxed. ‘Friends don’t lie to each other. No friends can’t lie and Leo didn’t lie. Does that mean… Wait, why am I treating him like we are friends?’ Max wondered.

‘Maybe because Leo would be a good friend?… Maybe he would like a new friend?' Leo as a friend to me. What would that mean, would I like that?’

He smirked that idea made his chest tighten with anticipation. ‘A fresh feeling.’

‘He could almost say he would enjoy that a lot.’

Max crossed the short distance and grabbed Leo’s shoulder, Leo looked up at him and gulped gently, his eyes blinked warmly in surprise.

“Sorry for troubling you, dragging you out here, making you miss a few races,” Max said cautiously. A ray of light beamed in through the little window and glinted off his tracksuit.

“It’s okay, I understand now why you would want to find it, I mean,”

“When I saw the key, I thought it was very pretty, fancy, definitely something special. It must be important.” Leo said gently stepping back a few small paces till his back was flush with the pile of mats behind him, and away from Max.

Max let his arm drop and smiled with excitement, anticipation growing inside him. He had gone closer to Leo and Leo had stepped away. Max ignored how that made his chest pinch a little.

“It’s okay, and yeah, I suppose it is special,” Max commented.

“It’s a gift from my mom. Like a, we trust you, coming of age, type thing. I guess I should have taken better care of it. Sorry, I am always losing things. Honestly, for a while I have wondered if it would be easier if I put it on a chain, so I bought one a little bit ago. But I keep forgetting to wear it.”

Max chuckled. “Besides, I looked pretty stupid the multiple times I choked myself just so I could use the key and open the door when my hands were full. I guess I didn’t think through putting it on a chain, and what could happen if I were busy. So I started carrying it in my pants pocket. Which is why when I was playing basketball and didn’t want everything flying out of my pockets I put it down carelessly...”

“It was my mistake too.”

Leo nodded slowly, passively.

Max stared at the key a moment longer and then grinned deviously to himself before looking back up and at Leo.

“Actually, why don’t you hold on to it for me?” Max said, getting an idea.

He stepped forward to close the distance between them again, knowing this time Leo had no place else to go.

‘Sorry for my rudeness. I feel kinda like your gaze is worth torturing. I want to bug you for just a little bit longer.’ Max thought wickedly.

He watched as Leo reached back to brace himself on the mats, his eyes darting around Max’s face. He kept gulping and his body twitched, but seemed to be calm. Almost jumpily, anticipating nervously what he was going to do next.

For a split-second, Max felt giddy, elated at Leo’s reaction to him. Max reached out and trailed two fingers gently across the side of Leo’s pants. The rough jeans tickled the tips of his fingers until they caught on the edge of Leo’s pocket. Leo gulped as Max very slowly pushed open the pocket. He felt the give and dimple of Leo’s flesh beneath the material as he pressed his hand into the pocket, then slid the key in. Dropping it, the weight of it pulled the pocket snug, taunt to Leo’s skin. Max gulped, and his heart picked up a beat or two, the growing throb moving from his fingertips and straight up to his ears.

Leo stared wide-eyed at Max.