Day 328, Friday, November 28th

[papalobo]

[It's weird, to end up at a home that's not home. He's spent more time there than anywhere else this year, but that says more about his transience than anything. If told five years ago he would live such a lifestyle, he'd have believed that, but not the part about most of those multiple places being not just six but seven, eight figure abodes.

And yet it's Jessica's home (still probably the nicest one he'd lived in as an adult, before Ash swept in) they're doing Thanksgiving in. Maybe it's a fear of being upstaged on her part if it's in such a house; such a naive thought is, while unvoiced, just more proof of Ash's suspicions, that Max's mind is on something, something Ash had likely been trying to put his mind on for months. Because with even half of his braincells to put to it, he'd suspect the worst sooner.

It's not until they're pulling up to the house and there are two other cars there that he remembers the hell of Thanksgiving is not only family, but family you don't normally have to see. And thanks to Michael, Jessica's family is still his family.


And their ride is a taxi. It's not like they can turn around. Though Michael coming out to greet them right away in a hurried excitement would've made it impossible in anything.]

...Maybe she decided to start investing in cars. But not especially good ones. To be more undercover. As a journalist.

Day 375, Friday, December 14th

Comments

[jadedlynx]

So I don't have to be involved.

[ Not that he really wants to be. It's not loss on his end. ]

If they know anything, it's Ash Golzine, and his image isn't the worst. They don't know Ash Lynx.

[papalobo]

Don't try to make me go to somethin' you're tryin' to weasel out of!

[jadedlynx]

Who's making you do anything?! I'm saying you can see them anyway!

[papalobo]

I'm asking why I gotta do it and you don't!

[jadedlynx]

And I'm saying you don't have to do it! You don't have to avoid it just because you're dating me!

[papalobo]

If I don't gotta do it, don't take away one of my excuses to get out of it!

[jadedlynx]

Have you told them that's the reason you're avoiding them?!

[ Max and Ash acknowledging his shortcomings, and Max flaunting it are two very different things. ]

[papalobo]

It's not the reason, but it's good to have any number of 'em on hand if I mess up avoiding them.

[jadedlynx]

[ Max has stopped yelling. Ash has not. Shame paints his cheeks a vibrant red color, a hue not often seen on his face. ]

Even if that's the very last reason, you don't say it!

[ Even Ash has limits to that kind of thing. ]

[papalobo]

[If Ash is going to yell, Max can find it in himself to do so as well.]

Why're you so into forcing me to go deal with my ex's parents?!

[jadedlynx]

Why would we be talking about her parents?!

[ Max has his own parents. Maybe that's why he seems so confused. ]

[papalobo]

That's even worse!

[jadedlynx]

Why the hell would we think about her family at all?!

[papalobo]

Why would you think about anyone who'd have some kinda shit with you?

[Already, he's too tired to be mad and yelling again.]

[jadedlynx]

He's your old man. Maybe he's not worth a place in your head, but if it's about dating me, it's easy enough to ignore that part when you're with him.

[papalobo]

[Max's eyes shift to Ash before letting out a sigh and starting to look for a place to pull over.]

[jadedlynx]

What are you doing?

[ Why do they need to pull over? Max is capable of speaking and driving at the same time. ]

[papalobo]

It's dangerous enough to fight you when I'm not directing a three ton steel and gas bomb seventy miles an hour down a roadway, and I'm about to hit you in your stupid-ass pretty face.

[jadedlynx]

Pull over. I don't want to crash because I knocked out a driver for trying to hit me in the face.

[papalobo]

I'm working on it.

[And he sincerely is. And finally does. The car is in park, it's time to shift the seat back a little. He can't get enough 'sweep' area on the right, so he starts rolling his left shoulder, preparing a fist.]

[jadedlynx]

[ Earlier, he was the first, and only, person who bragged about Max's achievements. Now, as he waits for the warm-up, Ash doesn't seem very impressed. ]

[papalobo]

[Though it's none of the day's bragging that stops him. Instead, it's a flashback, now that they're back in California, a stinging memory of those words: Eat better my ass. Not something you're thinking about now, huh? and then of a Christmas Eve choking. In the end his fist drops, defeated.

He really had planned on hitting him. He supposes he has to think of this as 'growth' or 'maturation' or something. It just feels like giving up. Blanca's face flashes too. It's enough flashbacks he almost expects a nice war scene or another Griff to round it out, but as he shifts the seat back into place, ready to drive again, there's just plain old dry reality, in which there's not really anything he can do but take whatever the hell Ash wants to go through.]

You win again.

[jadedlynx]

[ This was a stupid waste of five minutes. Why is there a winner or a loser when they're both in agreement? The confusion on Ash's face is so short-lived that it's easy to miss with an ill-time blink.

Sighing, he turns into his seat to face forward. ]

That was dumb.

[ Just so Max knows. ]

It's not like I was going to cry myself to sleep. What was all of that about?

[papalobo]

It doesn't matter what it was about.

[He's too tired to argue about it. He has driving to do.]

[jadedlynx]

[ It's a tone that's almost as familiar as Max's default voice, now.

Sighing, Ash uses his hand as a prop for his hand and looks out the window. ]

Don't be dense. I'll just say it one more time: if you don't want anything to do with them, I'm the last person who thinks you have to overlook everything because they're family, but if it's because you know how well I'd go over, don't let that hold back. I don't play like I'm the kind of person you take home to mom and dad.