Chapter Text
After Pink broke the love spell on Luis, Hazel grabbed the cookie from his locker. She remembered how, when they were chained together a few days ago, Max had stolen the key. She decided it was time to get her revenge.
She made her way over to Max’s locker and placed the cookie inside before hiding around the corner to watch the scene unfold.
As Max made his way over to his locker after class, he spotted the cookie inside. He picked it up and inspected it. It looked familiar, but he couldn’t recall why, so he shrugged as he took a bite from it.
After shutting his locker and turning around, his eyes landed on Luis Madrigal.
The next thing Max knew, he was clinging onto Luis’ arm.
Luis was confused when he felt someone unfamiliar grab onto his arm, turning around to find Max of all people. “Whoa! Max? Uh…”
“Your muscles are huge! Do people usually tell you that?” He said with a lovesick look in his eyes.
“Dude, what’s gotten into you?” He tried to pull away, but Max just grabbed on tighter. He could tell something was clearly not right.
“You’re really handsome, Madrigal. All I want is to grab you and kiss you.”
“HUH?!”
Max’s other hand reached for Luis’ cheek to cup his face as he tiptoed slightly to reach the taller boy’s lips.
Luis quickly put his hand over his mouth to block the kiss.
Hazel burst out laughing, which caught their attention.
“Oh! Oh! That’s too funny…” She wiped the tears from her eyes as she stifled her laugh and walked up to them.
“Hazel?? Did you do this?!” Luis gestured frantically towards Max.
“Yeah, I used Chessy’s cookie that was in your locker. Who knew he would fall for you though. I guess that’s also payback for you being in love with me.”
“Okay, joke’s over. Fix him.”
“I don’t have the antidote, so you’ll have to go to Pink again.” She let out another laugh.
Luis groaned before trying to pull away from Max again to go to Pink, but once again, he couldn’t get Max to let go of him. He sighed, accepting his fate. “Dios mío… Come on, Max…” He dragged him along as he made his way over to Pink, who was humming as she wrote in her diary.
“Pink.”
She jumped at the sudden mention of her name and fumbled with the diary, trying to hide it. “Luis! Hi! And… Max?”
She noticed his unusual behavior.
“Yeah… Hazel used the cookie on him. Please tell me you have some more of that milk again…”
“Heh… uhm…”
Luis knew from the look on her face that he wouldn’t like her answer.
“I just used the last bit on another student. It’s gonna take me some time to make more.”
“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding…” He placed his head into his free hand, visibly disappointed.
Max reached his hand into Luis’ hair, playing with his curls, which only made Luis sigh once more.
“How long until you can make it?”
“Let’s see… I need to get the ingredients from Wonderland, and I have a test next period that I need to go study for, so… about 3 hours?”
“3 hours???”
Pink had an apologetic look on her face. “Sorry, Luis…” She closed her locker and walked past him.
Luis looked over at Max, who was still smiling at him. “Guess we’re stuck like this for a while…”
“Are you upset?” Max slightly frowned, which made Luis feel guilty for wanting him gone.
“No, no, I’m not…”
Max’s smile returned before he leaned closer to Luis and kissed his cheek, catching him off guard.
“Okay! No more of that!”
Luis grew flustered by the kiss. This was all too weird. He and Max had been enemies up until a few days ago, but even now they weren’t that close. So for Max to act all clingy and kiss him?
Not to mention, Luis was straight, so this much affection from a guy felt weird. What was weirder was that he possibly even liked the kiss? There was something in the way Max’s soft lips pressed against his cheek that made him feel butterflies in his chest.
“Let’s go to my dorm. I don’t want people seeing us like this…” He didn’t want others to get the wrong idea. And he especially didn’t want Red finding out. He wouldn’t know how to explain it. He just hoped that Hazel would keep quiet about it until Pink made an antidote.
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Luis opened the door to his shared dorm with Robbie, which was currently empty cause he had class. “Welcome to my casita.”
Max was still holding onto Luis, but he slightly released his grip to glance around the room. He noticed that Luis had some dumbbells lying around his side of the room and photos of his family hung up.
Luis took the opportunity to move away from Max, who quickly took notice and turned his attention back to him, trying to grab him again.
“Give me a break, please.”
“One kiss and I’ll stop.”
“I am not kissing you, Max.”
“Then we cuddle.”
“Seriously dude, how are you so clingy?? I don’t think I was even like that with Hazel… How much of that cookie did you eat?”
“Do you not like me…?” Max hesitantly asked.
“No. I don’t.”
Max’s face got gloomy once again, and Luis froze. Jeez… Since when was Max Hatter of all people like this?
Luis couldn’t believe what he did next–he pulled Max into a hug, which was immediately reciprocated as Max nuzzled his face in his neck. “You smell good, Madrigal…”
Luis’ cheeks began heating up again. Gosh… why was he so close and acting all clingy and cute??
He broke the hug to put some distance between them. “Okay, how about we hang out instead of all… this.” He gestured to Max.
“Like get to know each other?”
“Exactly! Let’s sit and chat!”
They sat down on Luis' bed, facing each other. “What do you want to know about me, Madrigal?”
“Well, for starters, I’m surprised you’re still calling me that when you’re in love with me. I would think you’d use my first name.”
“Well, I love everything about you, so I love Madrigal just as much as Luis.”
“Gosh, that was so cheesy… You’d probably die if you knew what you were saying to me right now.” Luis chuckled to himself before an idea popped into his head.
He quickly brought out his phone and placed it on the bedside table, propping it up towards them to record.
“What are you doing?”
“I figured I should have some fun with this as well. You wouldn’t believe me if I didn’t have proof.” He said as he sat back in front of Max, who was still a little confused by what Luis meant.
“So back to what you were saying. You love me?” He asked cheekily, and Max nodded. “So just how much? Like what do you like about me?”
“I love everything about you. Like your smile, personality, and definitely those biceps of yours.”
“Uh huh, uh huh. And what were you saying earlier? I recall something about cuddles and kisses?”
“Does that mean you’ll let me??” Max’s face lit up.
“No.” Luis quickly shut down the idea, scared of what Max might do.
“Awh…” He whined disappointedly.
“Actually…” Another idea popped into his head.
He realized he could film Max kissing him again to tease him with it when he returns to normal, which led to his next choice of words. “You can kiss me.”
Max didn’t waste another second. He immediately jumped over Luis, pinning him to the bed as he hovered over him. He leaned down to his lips as he closed his eyes, ready to kiss him, but was quickly stopped by Luis’ hand.
“Whoa! Whoa! That’s- not what I meant! Definitely not what I meant!” He had his eyes shut, scared of what had almost happened again.
He slowly opened his eyes again when he felt Max retreating. “I meant on the cheek…” He let out a breath he was holding. His face was probably bright red by now.
Max leaned in once again, but this time to his cheek, placing a soft kiss there. Then he stopped hovering over him and laid down on his chest.
“Uh… Max..?” Luis didn’t know if he should push him away or what. If he was being honest, he enjoyed the feeling of Max against his chest.
“Just for a little bit…”
Luis stayed still, his body tensing up as Max laid there with his eyes closed, looking completely relaxed.
Suddenly, Luis’ phone rang, bringing him back to his senses. He carefully pushed Max away to sit upright and grab his phone, ending the video. He looked at the name calling and saw that it was Red.
“H-hey Red!”
“Hey, Pink told me what happened with Max. I made the antidote since she was busy, so where are you? I can’t find you two anywhere.”
“Oh! Uh… We’ll come to you! Just stay where you are!”
Luis quickly hung up the phone and got up. “Come on, she has the antidote. It’s about time we get you back to normal.”
They made their way over to Red’s locker, where she stood waiting for them. She noticed the way Max was staring at Luis, which made her chuckle.
“I didn’t want you to see this…”
“It’s not that bad. I think it’s somewhat wholesome seeing Max act all lovey dovey like that.” She smiled as she looked at Max, who quickly grabbed onto Luis and pouted, feeling jealous.
“Yeah, give me that antidote.” Luis grabbed it from Red and force-fed it to Max.
Max’s body shuddered as he drank the milk before realization hit him of what just happened. He couldn’t recall much, but he remembered enough to know that he had been clinging onto Luis for the past few minutes.
He quickly moved back, his eyes wide in horror.
“Was I just in love with Luis?!”
“Oh yes, you were, amigo. You were.” He replied with a smug look on his face, already preparing the video he recorded to tease Max.
“I’m gonna kill Hazel!”
“Oh Maxie-Max, wanna take a look at what I have here?” He held the phone out in his face.
Max snatched the phone and began watching the video. His face turned the color of Red’s hair. He quickly deleted the video and tossed the phone back at Luis before storming out to find Hazel.
Luis began laughing as he caught his phone. “I can just get it from my recently deleted.”
Red loomed over his shoulder. “I wanna see.”
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Max had been avoiding Luis ever since that day. To be exact, he’d been avoiding everyone, just some more than others.
Every time he saw Luis, his face would flush, and he’d quickly leave.
He couldn’t believe he said all those things about Luis. He definitely thought them, but saying them? That was different.
Not to mention how eager he was to kiss Luis. Gosh, if he actually had, he wouldn’t know what to do with himself.
He still couldn’t believe he kissed his cheek and cuddled with him. Every time he closed his eyes, he’d remember it. He even remembered the feeling of being pressed up against Luis’ chest and how soft his face was.
Max shook his head, trying to focus.
Luis was now standing behind Max as he cleared his throat, which made Max practically jump from where he stood.
“L-Luis!”
“Why are you avoiding me, Max?”
“A-avoiding y-you? Nooo. Why would I d-do that…?” He chuckled nervously, already planning his escape.
Luis pinned him against the locker with his hands before he could get away.
“Max. Stop running away from me. I mean, what are you so scared of? You were spelled. It’s not like any of that was real, right?”
As Max looked at him, he couldn’t tear his gaze away from his piercing brown eyes, getting lost in them. “U-uh…”
“Max.”
“N-No! Of course not! I-it’s just… embarrassing, that’s all…” He tried to regain his composure and play it off.
“If it makes you feel better, I told Red and Pink not to tell anyone about what happened, and only Red saw the video. No one else.” He removed his hands and backed up to give Max space.
“Really…?” Max was surprised to say the least. He figured Luis recorded that video to share it with the others and make fun of him.
“So can things go back to normal now? I don’t like you running away from me.”
“I suppose so… Sorry Madrigal…”
“Oh, and another thing. Call me Luis, yeah?” He flashed him a smile before walking away.
“Yeah… Luis…”