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Richie rushed to the locker room as soon as his routine was done, taking off the mascot head and searching through his backpack for his inhaler. He should've kept it on him inside the suit, but decided not to.
He slowed his —very limited— breathing, trying to spare it so he could get the torso of the costume off too so he could at least grab his inhaler once finding it.
Within a few seconds, he had the costume off and his inhaler in his hands. Almost as soon as he took the first puff, the room's door was opening. It didn't sound like a lot of people, maybe one or two. Richie didn't look back to check.
“I'm telling you, Jace, you shouldn't worry!”
Oh shit, that was Max.
“You're my friend, man! You've been wearing that for, what, nine hours?”
And, obviously, Jason.
“Eight and a half.”
“Same thing!”
“It's not.”
“You're sounding like a nerd.”
“No I'm not!”
“Whatever,” Richie heard a loud smack to the back of someone's head, and, judging by the scream, Max got hit.
“What the fuck, man!?”
“Someone's gotta beat the sense into you!”
Richie was vaguely curious for what would've gotten Jason so worried about Max. He said he was wearing something for 8 and a half hours, and Jason pretty obviously sounded concerned for Max.
“I have all my senses.”
“Then explain what is smart about wearing your binder during football.”
Oh.
Holy shit, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵?
“Because I'm in front of a crowd! A crowd depending on 𝘮𝘦!” Max retorted, to which Richie could slightly relate. Of course, nobody had depended on him before, but Brad Callahan had once outed him as gay in the… what was it, 8th grade?
“Who would seriously care about that?” Jason asked, and one of the two boys started pacing around the main part of the room. Richie had turned around by now, watching this go down from a safe distance.
“The coach!” Max was quickly interrupted by Jason.
“The coach has a bisexual adopted daughter and the other one has some weird freaky magic, I'm pretty sure you having boobs would be totally normal.”
Max groaned, punching a wall that made it hard to breathe — even from the back of the locker room his wheezing was loud as fuck.
“Okay, seriously dude, get that thing off.”
Richie watched as Jason walked over to Max, shoving the quarterback on one of the many benches in the room to start taking off his gear for him.
“Fine! Fine, I can do it myself, go meet up with Kyle.”
Jason did just that, and Max was alone. Or, well, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 alone, but more alone than he had been a few seconds ago.
Hesitating for a few seconds, Richie stuttered out some slightly coherent words. “Max. You, uh, ‘re trans?”
Max stared him down.
Richie gulped quietly. Oh god, this was gonna be the end of him.
Surprisingly, Max's voice came out soft— maybe to not make his lungs panic. “Don't tell anyone or you're dead meat, Shit-lips.”
“Wakatta..” Richie sighed, shaking his head. “I-, um, I won't tell anyone.”
Max stared at him for a few extra seconds before looking away. Richie did the same, assuming the boy was gonna take off his binder for now.
Honestly, Richie wasn't sure how nobody knew Max was trans. Or maybe everyone except him knew. That would make sense, he was a little dense when it came to things like that. Hell, he didn't even know Ruth was bisexual until about a week ago…
A few minutes passed in silence, other than the two's heavy breathing. Heard together, you'd think they just finished having sex.
…Richie wouldn't mind that, in all honesty.
Max broke the silence first: “Why the fuck're you in here?”
Richie pulled his inhaler off the ground, showing it to Max. “I-I have asthma.”
The jock looked confused for a moment, before seemingly remembering something. He made a small “𝘰𝘰𝘩𝘩” sound.
“And you're still up for being the mascot?” If Richie was high as fuck, he might believe that Max was impressed.
Instead of properly answering, Richie nodded once and stared at the ground. He had almost turned his head around before remembering that Max was most likely shirt-less and binder-less. It made little sense as to why Max even needed a binder- his dad makes tons of money, can't he buy Max top surgery? Unless.. well, unless Max's dad was transphobic..
If he was, then that made a bit more sense as to why Max so often bullied nerds. However, it doesn't justify taking out his rage on innocent people. It just explains it.
They lasted in silence for another few minutes, before Max spoke up like last time.
“You ever kissed a guy?”
What.
“I-i- um, w-well 𝘯𝘰?, b-but why are you even asking?”
Why did Max ask something like that? It made Richie feel warm inside, like maybe 𝘔𝘢𝘹 wanted to be the first guy he kissed. Richie quickly set that thought away from his brain.
“Dunno. I was just curious, I guess. Guys usually kiss more fiercely so I guess I was just wondering if something like that would set off your asthma.”
Oh.
Suddenly Richie didn't feel as warm.
“Um.. m-maybe. Like I said, I haven't tested it before..”
Max seemed to pause for a moment, and Richie suddenly felt warm fingers tap on his shoulder. Immediately, he tensed, but willed himself to relax.
“Wh-wha-?”
Before Richie could fully get the word out, surprisingly soft lips crashed against his. It felt.. good. Really good. Like, seriously, Richie wouldn't be able to get this moment out of his mind for months.
He looked into Max's eyes, seeming himself reflected in them.
His breathing was getting a bit heavier, but not dangerously slower.
After what seemed like a minute but may have only been a few solid seconds, they pulled apart— Richie doing so first.
As Richie caught his breath, Max looked at him expectantly.
“So.. did it affect anything?”
Oh. Right. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 why they were doing this. No other reason.
“Um.. n-no, not much atleast..”
Max looked almost as sad as Richie felt on the inside.
The jock was about to say something more, but their coach burst through the door, telling them to
“𝘎𝘦𝘵 [𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳] 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦.”
Richie stumbled out an apology, quickly getting his suit back on. Max pulled his shirt on— some time before they kissed Max apparently had put his binder back on.
“Bye, Rich.”
Richie was too stunned by the nickname to respond until after Max had already left.