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Max wasn't a jealous person.
A little...territorial maybe, here and there.
He had 16 siblings. Establishing what was yours in a household that big past a certain point was just basic self preservation. Wasn't his fault his older brother learned that the hard way (with the scar to prove it).
Max liked to establish what was his, that was all.
Under which, according to Max's brain, was what Sam happened to be categorised as.
Thankfully for him, Sam's brain seemed to be working on the same frequency. The dog was equally attached to Max in every which way that he was. It never failed to make Max feel warm inside.
It'd been especially prevalent when they were kids. Attached at the hip from day one, as Sam's Granny liked to remind them whenever she reminisced on their regular visits to her overly knick knacked house.
About how, one day out of the blue, Sam had come to the school gates clinging to grass-stained rabbit, declaring to her that this was Max, his best friend in the entire world.
Sam would always hold his hand when she told that story.
Max remembered that day very fondly.
Max had gotten those grass stains fighting some kid. Not an unusual activity for him at the time.
What was unusual was that he'd done it on someone else's behalf.
He'd come across a pup sitting under a tree looking miserable. If it were anyone else, he likely would've ignored him. Why should he care?
Except, he remembered this pup. This was the pup that always sat across from him at lunch. The same one who'd seen Max come in without lunch three days in a row.
He'd noticed the pup noticing his lack of lunch. It was hard not to with him with the pup's reaction. It was always the same one. A furrowed brown and a concerned stare as he looked at and around Max, searching for some sort of bag or lunchbox that didn't exist.
Max would just glare at the dog until he stopped staring. He'd thrown in a snarl on the third day for good measure.
On the fourth day, he'd came in without lunch he hadn't expected anything different. The same ol' stare and glare routine. Pup would stare, he'd glare, pup would look away and awkwardly resume his sandwich.
Except this time, that didn't happen.
It started the same, the furrowed brows, the staring. But before Max could even begin to form his replying glare, the dog was rummaging around in his backpack.
Next thing he knew, Max had a sandwich placed gingerly in front of him.
"It's PB & J. I had my Granny make an extra for you."
Max just stared between the dog and the sandwich.
The pup nodded, his work seemingly complete as he returned to his own sandwich.
Max stared a little longer at the sandwich.
He felt his stomach grumble.
He unwrapped the sandwich and ate it.
It was good.
Which is why, under any other criteria, Max would've quite happily skipped on his merry way. Likely to cause havoc or terrorise children in another part of the playground.
But it wasn't just anyone under the tree. It was the pup.
The pup looked up as Max sat down in front of him.
The pup's fur and clothes were disheveled, grass stains and mud in blotches all over him. A decently large bruise was forming on the dogs cheek.
"Uh...hi."
Max stared blankly at him.
The dog sniffed, wiping his eyes. He smoothed out his t-shirt, apparently trying to make himself more presentable.
Max pointed to the bruise on the Pup's cheek.
"Oh...that?"
Max nodded.
"It's fine. You don't have to worry about it."
Max scooted closer and pointed more forcefully at the bruise.
"It's...nothing honestly. I just...well..."
Max pointed even more forcefully, adding a glare into the mix.
"Alright, I'll tell you! It's nothing though, honest..."
Finally getting what he wanted, Max sat back, awaiting his well earned explanation.
"You know that big kid? The one with the ginger hair? He saw I had two lunches today."
Max blinked
"He saw I had 'em, and I was gonna run, but he grabbed my shirt and..."
Max's eyebrows furrowed.
"He said a kid as fat as me shouldn't be havin' two lunches, never mind one, so he took 'em. I tried to take em back but..." the dog looked sadly at the ground, tears welling up in his eyes.
Max stood up quickly.
The dog just looked up at him confusedly.
He looked down at him, then nodded. This wouldn't take more than a minute.
Max was wrong in his estimation. It took five minutes. After which he returned to Pup covered in grass stains and bruises.
And holding two lunch sacks.
He sat down again, placing both lunch sacks infront of the dog.
The dog looked at him, surprised.
"You...got them back?!"
Max nodded.
The dog beamed at him.
Max felt something odd rise in his chest.
It felt good.
The pup handed him one of the lunch sacks.
"Here. This was for you. I brought a second one for you. I asked Granny to make it."
Max held the lunch sack tightly in his hands.
"Um...I'm Sam by the way. What's your name?"
"Max"
The dog beamed at him again.
"Wanna be best friends?!"
Max nodded.
Sam's Granny didn't know all of that of course. All she knew was that at the end of the school day, Sam had come out of the gates bruised and practically carrying a white and green rabbit in his arms that was now, apparently, his best friend in the whole world.
Sam's granny always made sure to mentioned how the rabbit was holding Sam back just as tight.
Sam always squeezed his hand at that part.
From then on, the two had been inseparable. Maybe a little too much so, according to all their teachers who were often on the recieving end of either of their wrath if the two were split apart.
Sam had always been known to be a quiet and well behaved child. From that point on, Sam continued to be a quiet and well behaved child.
So long as he was allowed to have Max with him.
That always made Max happy inside. Even at the despair of their teachers
Sam was his. Only he got to sit by Sam and draw with Sam and go to Sam's house. The vice versa applied. Only Sam got to wrestle with Max or hug him or show him cool bugs.
It'd gotten more complicated as they'd gotten older of course, as things tended to do.
Max realised what he'd felt for Sam had never been and was never going to be platonic.
He'd also realised Sam was probably never going to see him that way, or so he'd thought at the time.
Seeing Sam date girls had been...tough at first. Old temptations had reared their head. Max was never one to take the high road. The low road was almost always the path he quite happily chose to march down. Plans for sabotaging dates and driving girls away naturally popped into Max's mind.
But...this was Sam.
Sammy didn't deserve that. Sam deserved to be happy.
Having Sam as his best friend was enough, he decided. More than enough. All he ever needed was for Sam to be around.
Not that any of that mattered in the end, considering the wedding band on his finger.
He fiddled with the band. The smooth metal felt warm under his hand.
It still felt like a dream sometimes.
Waking up next to the big oaf, cuddled against warm fur. Soft kisses on movie nights, sweet things whispered in his ear. His hand being held at a quiet moment.
Sam was all his, and he could hardly believe it.
And apparently, neither could the floozy who was currently flirting with Sam like it was an olympic sport.
Between the rain that'd been pouring down all day, the escape of their suspect and now this, Max was beginning to lose his patience with this particular case.
Max observed as Sam, being ever the gentleman (at least he usually was until his patience ran out) stood nodding along, notebook in hand as he tried to extract some useful testimony from the woman sitting at the bar in between shameless flirting and awful innuendos.
Max felt his blood boiling. Old habits died hard he supposed.
Max understood the reasoning. He was married to the handsome fella next to him for a reason.
But a key factor that this woman seemed to be missing was that Sam was 𝘩𝘪𝘴, thank you very much.
The woman continued on, leaning on the bar and batting her eyelashes at Sam.
Sam cleared his throat, adjusting his tie with his left hand, angling his hand very specifically as he did so.
Max was far from the most observant person, but even he could see the purposeful glint of gold in the dim light of the bar as Sam made a show of flashing his wedding band while adjusting his tie.
He glanced to the side at Max, giving him small smile as he did so.
Max suddenly felt a wave of affection overtaking the annoyance. Oh, the annoyance was still very much prevalent and fully directed at the blabbering woman. But Sam flashing his ring like that always made him a little weak in the knees, as Sam like to tease him about.
Despite the obvious ring display, the woman continued.
And Max had just about had it.
Max leapt up onto the barstool opposite the woman, grabbing Sam's arm as soon as he caught his balance.
"He's 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯, lady, get the hint would ya!" Max yelled, pulling Sam closer to him as he did so.
Sam would normally have lightly reprimanded him for yelling at a witness before continuing his questioning, however apparently even Sam had reached his limit.
Sam wrapped his arm around Max's waist.
"'Fraid he's right. I'm um..." Sam seemed to search for a polite word "...flattered. But I'm happily off the market."
The woman looked at Max, slightly miffed. Max gave her a smug stare, pressing into Sam.
"Now, if you didn't witness anything..."
Seemingly defeated, the woman finally gave them the info they'd been after; the last known location of their suspect.
Sam thanked her, scooping Max up from the barstool and holding him to his chest.
Max looked over Sam's shoulder as they left, sticking his tongue out at the woman at the bar.
Their suspect had last been seen, at least according to the woman, about ten minutes drive from their current locale. The two made their way to the quickly through the rain to the desoto's parking space in a small alley behind the bar. Well, Sam made his way. Max was quite happily hitching a ride in Sam's arms.
Sam opened the door, landing roughly in the driver's seat with Max still in his arms, slamming the door after him.
Despite their brief stint in the rain, the two were quite wet, though Sam more so. Sam shuffled of his jacket and hat, throwing them into the back where they landed with a wet thud.
It likely wasn't the time to be thinking about it, but dear lord did Sam look attractive without his jacket, fur all tousled from the rain.
That woman in the bar had certainly thought Sam was attractive.
A pang of something that was most certainly not jealousy went through Max as he curled up into Sam's chest, putting his head into the crook of Sam's neck. Sam smelled like coffee and typewriter ink.
Sam paused in his plans to move Max from his lap and start the desoto as Max curled into him, seemingly surprised but not upset.
"You okay lil' pal?"
Max gave an "mhm", curling up tighter and grabbing onto Sam's shirt.
"I'll let ya drive, just gimme five minutes like this, kay?"
Sam wrapped his arms around Max, resting his head on top of his.
"Everythin' alright little pal?"
"Yeah, don't worry 'bout it." Max said, pressing his face into the familiar fluff peaking through Sam's shirt collar.
"You sure, it's got nothin' to do with our insistent interviewee at the bar there?"
Despite trying not to, Max felt himself tense, his grip on Sam's shirt getting tighter.
Sam noticed. Sam always noticed.
"Wait, Max, were you actually... jealous?" He asked in a slightly amused tone.
Max felt his face heat up.
"...don't get jealous. I was 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭." Max mumbled, ears drooping slightly.
"Oh Max.."
Sam shifted, moving Max back on his knee and holding Max's face in his hands. Max avoided Sam's gaze.
"I wasn't jealous" he said with a pout, face turning fully red.
"Oh c'mere ya dope"
Before Max could fully respond, he was pulled into a swift kiss.
He made a small "mph!" of surprise, but was by no means unhappy at this development.
His arms found their natural resting place around Sam's neck has he leaned into the kiss, letting our a sigh.
Max became happily entangled as Sam's hands moved to rest on his back and hip, letting out a happy noise and twisting further into their kiss as Sam held him firmly.
Yep, this all still felt like a dream sometimes.
The adoration Sam was pouring into their kiss as his lips moved against his and the warm hands pulling him closer told him very much this was reality however. A very, very happy reality.
Sam shifted them both, carefully holding Max as he moved them to a more comfortable position. Max felt the cool metal of Sam's ring against his back as Sam manoeuvred them both. It brought a warm wave to Max's chest.
They ended up in an ever familiar position, Sam using one had to support himself as he leaned over max, the other resting on Max's cheek. Sam pushed into their kiss as Max felt the Desoto's seat pressing against his back.
Max wrapped his legs around Sam's waist as he gave 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 consideration to if the desoto was hidden enough that he could get away with some things he definetly shouldn't have been considering while they were on a case...
Sam pulled back beginning to pepper kisses on the underside of Max's jaw, moving down to his neck. Max didn't even try to restrain the purr rising in his chest.
"Now, I'm sure ya don't need to here this considering how not jealous you are..." Sam muttered between kisses. Max gave a small nip to Sam's cheek in retaliation
"But I'm gonna tell ya anyway."
"I love you darlin." Sam said against his throat.
Max felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest.
Sam pulled back, leaning over him, hand still on his cheek. Max leaned into the touch, eyes clouded with adoration as he stared up at Sam. He didn't know it was possible to love one person this much.
"Not anyone else, darlin'. You." He placed as much emphasis on the last word as he could.
"You're all I could ever want, Max."
Max pulled Sam into a kiss so harshly the hand supporting him nearly slipped. Max couldn't have cared less as he pulled Sam down, wrapping one arm around Sam's neck to keep him close while running a hand through the soft fur on the back of Sam's head.
Sam groaned happily, letting himself be pulled down easily.
"'I understand though..." He said finally as he broke the kiss, peppering kisses on the underside of Max's jaw again.
"Trust me, if anyone ever tried anything like that with my 𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥..." Max felt Sam let out a small growl against his neck.
Oh, they were most definitely going to be delayed.